I want to complain about school book choices!

I was a straight A 15 year old when I read it for the first time - I grew up in the Netherlands but was completely bilingual, so my English curriculum at secondary was flexible. I'm sure I got more out of it rereading it when I was older, but my 15 year old self absolutely recognised what was going on with the two main characters and the parents.

It was wasted on 15 year olds, even ones who got straight A*s! Perhaps I should try it again.

I thought it was excellent, a really well constructed description of psychological dissolution in a failed blended family. It's unpleasant and none of the characters come off as particularly symmpathetic, which makes it challenging, but it's very clear what the author is trying to do and she does it well.

The topic choices in Geography put me off for life. Living in a small town in the UK i do not and never have given any shits about hill sheep farming in Western Australia.

Luckily I could quit after Y9. Can’t do that with English…

Both excellent books that I enjoy. No matter what text choices I make I will never have a whole class love one particular text. Some of my out going year 11s hated Frankenstein others think it’s the best thing they’ve ever read and get passionate in defence of it.
A former student once sat there and randomly announced ‘Shakespeare, miss, he’s just so…good.’ Others thought he was mad.
We won’t please everyone ever. Very few people complain about topic choices in Geography, but more feel they can in English.

The books we did for English at school were awful - depressing, violent, bleak social commentary- I don't remember any discussion of the 'issues', only hating the books and I have avoided serious literature ever since. How does reading about a 19th century character dying slowly of a what's now a treatable cancer help me understand literature?

This one! It was dreadful. Apparently she's generally a good writer but I've never been able to bring myself to try anything else by her again. I assume it was some sort of arty literature attempt that backfired or is so high brow that you can't get the joke without a phd in literature

Probably I'm the King of the Castle.

The Woman in Black? That has been turned into a great theatre production

We had to study an awful dated book book by Sussn Hill for GCSE where the kid drowns himself at the end. I read something that said she'd deliberately made the characters 2D (goodness knows why) It was so bad I've forgotten the name. If it's that one, it's on the list because it used to be a GCSE text and put a generation off reading

If she is 14/15 then surely she is choosing her own reading material and you won’t know the content of every book she reads?

OMG, it would cause massive disruption! I mean, not bad behaviour, but loud hilarity, repetition of the word, mucking around. Would definitely derail the lesson for a bit in all but top set classes, and even there, there would be a bit of a snigger.

The thing in UK schools is that they are SO pinned down, that any chance for a bit of light relief is taken. A wasp in the classroom, or a sneaky fart for example.

I started writing stories about suicide aged 13, as a very depressed and hormonal teenager. Such a book would have been dangerous to someone like me.

YANBU. I'm an English teacher, btw, and wish parents would complain about two of the books on our syllabus! I think they're wildly inappropriate and one is very racist without any real recognition of or discussion of the racism.

There's been wide discussion of limiting the details given in the news of suicides, in the last few years, to avoid young people copying methods. It's widely recognised that it's a problem, so I think your feelings about the book are reasonable.

Romeo and Juliet does have fairly graphic descriptions/images, but it seems unlikely that anyone is going to find a 16th century poison and a dagger is a pretty messy and difficult choice. Also, it very clearly has literary merit.

It’s a good book.

The Virgin Suicides is what came to my mind. My daughter loved it and she’s younger than the OP’s!

OP, you can’t wrap her in cotton wool forever 🙂

She’s getting flak as without the books in question we cannot say whether she is being unreasonable or not.

Parents often complain about more contemporary texts when exactly the same issues are addressed in classic texts that never get complained about.

And as for language choices in texts. I’ve never had an issue with swearing in texts. However every year Year 8 collapse into giggles every time Conan Doyle uses the verb ‘ejaculated’ to describe someone talking. And I swear Arthur Miller hated English teachers and that’s why he called a character Willy!

She’s getting the flak for not giving the titles - which, instead of suggesting she wants a genuine discussion involving critical thinking, suggests she wants us merely to validate her opinion that all books which explore these themes are by default ‘bad books’.

I don't know why you are getting so much flack OP.

I find the books given to this age group in school are pretty shit overall, although I think in the UK they are typically better than where I live.

There is a huge emphasis on very new books directed to "youth" based on whatever trendy the topics are, often quite depressing. Usually they read a couple of dystopian novels which seem to be about half the youth section.

There seems to be an assumption the kids can only relate to these kinds of novels that focus on difficult social issues.

The Virgin Suicides?

Now I think of it, that had teen suicide and sexual abuse in it, though not detailed live in the action.

Not sure how this would go with UK students, at least how they appear on MN threads at present, but it was absolutely fine with my Aussie ones. It was funny being aware of the surreptitious glances and nudges as "cunt" approached in my reading aloud. I read it with emphasis, as the text required. and they were plainly impressed that I didn't back off and gave it its full value. It was the frankly shit massively overrated "Jasper Jones" if I remember rightly.

I defy anyone not to struggle with words like cunt, or even innocuous words (in context) such as knob in a room with 32 fifteen year olds. They cause mayhem.

Your child will have absolutely no resilience if you continue to behave like this.

@tinytemper66 OP is refusing to say. Apparently it doesn’t matter to the discussion. It clearly does.
I mean it could be The Bell Jar or Thirteen Reasons Why or Hamlet. Who knows?