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Original poster

Anyone else's child got a summer reading list? [grin]

30 replies

seeker · 05/07/2012 22:20

dd has a list of books she has to read over the summer before starting A level English. Given that she is an incredibly down to earth and practical person, who thinks Juliet was a twit, Marianne was incredibly annoying and who couldn't even finish Jane Eyre because "I just want to slap them all", how do you think she's going to get on with Mrs Dalloway, The Great Gatsby, The Picture of Dorian Grey, Emily Dickinson and Yeats? I think she'll be OK with The Turn of the Screw and Frankenstein.....

OP posts:
luckylavender · 06/07/2012 10:22

Jane Austen

mummytime · 06/07/2012 09:53

She should read them, and if she's still annoyed she needs to grow up. Sorry but Jane Austin is not being serious most of the time, and if she can't see that there is more to literature than the surface story she may struggle with English Lit.
Get her to read some literary criticism alongside and see if she can see more in the books than a surface reading. Try to get her to empathise. Maybe read "The Feminine Mystique" along with Mrs Dalloway? Some American History of the 20s with "The Great Gatsby" (and at least use a map, it does help to have a picture of the area in your head).

CecilyP · 06/07/2012 09:28

Dorian Gray is a very quick read that she should have no problem with and the poetry should be OK. A senior librarian, probably the most avid reader that I have ever met, started Mrs Dalloway as a result of reading 'the Hours' in book group and just could not get into it at all.

didofido · 06/07/2012 07:34

My DD would know exactly where she was coming from! Hero (from Much Ado) and Tess (of the Durbervilles) both 'needed a good slap', 'too wet for words'. She loved Chaucer and Atonement, but the suffering ladies between the 14th and 21st centuries got no sympathy. Perhaps we should be pleased when our daughters don't see themselves as victims?

bruffin · 05/07/2012 22:43

DS has loads of maths to do and history to read. As he is not even sure what 6th form he is going to yet or even if he is taking history, he could end up with twice the homework for the summer. He has another induction day next week

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