What was the best book that you were forced to read in High School?

Kate says: 

Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat

There are a few contenders for the best book that I was forced to read in my high school English class. I loved (and still love) F. Scott Fitzgerald's legendary novel The Great Gatsby. I had read it on my own and fell in love with Mr. Carraway and his collection of eccentric neighbors! BUT then I had to read it for class and being forced to answer a series of short and somewhat irrelevant chapter questions made me resent Fitzgerald's (alleged) use of symbolism. For this reason, The Great Gatsby has been eclipsed in my adolescent memory by Farley Mowat's autobiographical tale Never Cry Wolf.

What makes Never Cry Wolf one of my all time favourites is simply that I never thought that I would love a book about a man traveling to the Arctic to study the habits of wolves. It seemed like a terrible premise for a book (to me anyway). WRONG! The thing that made me fall in love with the story, with Mowat himself, and with the wolves he studied, was the author's never failing ability to depict a situation with clarity and humor. Never Cry Wolf is the only book I was ever assigned that made me laugh and so, it goes down in my personal history books as the best book I was ever forced to read in high school.

Mel says: 

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Well, I read The Great Gatsby too, but didn't really like it all that much. Mostly because we over-analyzed the symbolism of every little thing, to the point where I never wanted to talk about that stupid green light again! Although I did love the descriptions of Gatsby's jazz age parties.

But I’m going to go with To Kill A Mockingbird, a novel required for my grade 10 English class. There are other books that stand out in my mind, but this is one of the few that I’ve reread and enjoyed since high school. It isn’t the type of story that I’d typically pick out myself, and I remember thinking that there was no way I was going to like it. I mean, a novel published in 1960 dealing with the impact of racism in the south during the Depression? I expected something outdated, preachy and boring. Instead, I found myself drawn to the vivid descriptions of a hot summer in a small town, the fantastic characters of Atticus and Scout, the mystery of Boo Radley, and a story full of adult concerns told from a child’s point of view. And if you really don’t want to read the book, the movie is good too!

Sara says: 

The Power Of One by Bryce Courtenay

In grade nine, our English teacher read us this book aloud, and while for the sake of time (and probably due to subject matter) he skipped small parts, this book has stayed with me as one of the most influential books I read/was read in high school. I can't think of any book I feel as passionately about reading it now as I did when I first encountered it as a teenager. It's probably not the kind of book I would have chosen for myself when I was fourteen ("English boy in South Africa who becomes a boxer and fights racism? Why aren't there any dragons in it?"), which is why I love it all the more - the characters and story are engaging, it's well written, beautifully paced, and just overall a wonderful coming-of-age story. "First with the head, then with the heart."


(Also, it's a huge cliche, but 1984 by George Orwell is a book I had to read in HS English class and love more than is probably healthy. Yes, it's a depressing dystopian fiction wherein everyone is miserable and afraid all the time, but it's also about learning to appreciate the beauty of small, ordinary things, and that it is possible to find happiness in unexpected places and situations.)