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Favourite book you had to read at school


Ernegirl

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Did you end up loving any of the set texts you had to read at school?


I still cherish my copies of A Town Like Alice, To kill a Mockingbird, Jude the Obsecure and The Great Gatsby.


I also loved The Splendid Journey, it was based on the true story of siblings whose parents died while they were migrating on the Oregon Trail. The reference to the Little House books on the 'what are you reading ' thread just reminded me about it.


I have vague memories of other stories when I was a younger student. You often felt the book was going to be boring but you'd always be sucked into the story :-)

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Bridge to Terabitha, loved it, cry every time I read it. Plus Brother In the Land, gave me nightmares for months but it stuck with me.

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Seayork2002

There lots of books I did not like as I kept on being told, on giving my opinion, that I was wrong 'no the author was not saying that but this' so I gave up.


the one that stands out was To kill a mocking bird


I am thankful in a way I never did Shakespeare as I don't think I would have got what I was meant to on that


I know why schools have to teach a certain way when it comes to books so not saying they were wrong it is just I did not interpret the books the way I was meant too which means I did not like them

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Like [mention]Jolly_F[/mention] I loved Playing Beatie Bow.


Also Tom Stoppard's Arcadia.


Hated Heart of Darkness with a passion. Wasn't overly keen on To Kill a Mocking Bird.

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The three that stand out in my memory are:


Fortress by Gabrielle Lord. Read it in one night, couldn't put it down.

MacBeth I don't know if love is the right word but I appreciated it.

The Lord of the Flies

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Seayork2002

The three that stand out in my memory are:


Fortress by Gabrielle Lord. Read it in one night, couldn't put it down.

MacBeth I don't know if love is the right word but I appreciated it.

The Lord of the Flies

 

Yes that one also, I went to a talk with the author thanks to loving that one

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Kiwi Bicycle

The Cay by Theodore Taylor. It was the first book I had really " dissected" in class. It was a lovely warm tale with a sad ending but with hope. I am glad I read that book first before being subjected to Lord of the Flies 2 years later. ( similar story of a boy/ boys stranded on a deserted island).

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Playing Beatie Bow - it’s one of my favourite books!

 

LOVE LOVE LOVE!


Absolutely devastated that my book-loving DD (who otherwise is always on the same page as me with book interests) was very "meh" about Playing Beatie Bow. Meh? How? Seriously, how?!

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Hills Mum Bec

Being forced to read a book usually meant I ended up hating it no matter how good the book was. There were a few that I really enjoyed - Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt (I read all the following books in the series because I loved it so much) & When The City Stopped by Joan Phipson, I think this was my introduction to my love of dystopian fiction.

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The one that had the most impact on me was The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson.


It was a real eye-opener as a 14yo and I couldn't put it down. I should read it again as an adult. I'm sure it wouldn't have the same impact.

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I loved Goodnight Mr Yom and Homecoming too. I had to reread an old favorite for a library assignment at Uni and it was such a disappointment. For me, Goognight Mr Tom didn't stand the test of time. I have other books from my teens which I still reread and enjoy. I think the emotion of GMT was greatly reduced because the situation wasn't shocking for me.

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I loved Playing Beattie Bow as well but never formally did it for school. It was featured in primary school library class, so I borrowed it.


The one I studied in school which changed the way I thought about the world was Ursula Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea and thus began a major intellectual crush. She is one of those rare writers who is both a knife and a torch. A torch to shine a light in the dark corners we don't look at and a knife to cut to the heart of the matter. I became a lifelong fan and a bright star went out of the sky when she passed, for sure.


The other author I discovered via school was a local author Thea Astley. We did an anthology of her short stories called Hunting The Wild Pineapple which were all themed around people, prejudice and the way the landscape and history impacts people in an endless feedback loop.. A Kindness Cup and The Multiple Effects of Rainshadow by her are also a great read. She is emotionally challenging though and very good at holding up a mirror to our ugliest truths so not the best escapist author.

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Two of my favourites that I read over and over again as a teen are:


Playing Beatie Bow. I fell in love with the name Abigail after reading the book but exh would never agree to using it as a baby name.


One more River - a Canadian Jewish girl's family move to Israel to live in a Kibbutz. The live on the border with Jordan???? And she falls in love with? Makes friends with a boy who lives over the border - they are separated by a river - must have been quite narrow.

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Lots listed above that I loved but didn’t have to read at school.


Probably the only ones I loved were To Kill a Mockingbird and Macbeth. My school was terrible at picking the most middle of the road books possible.


Also didn’t like Playing Beatie Bow...

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ClaudiaCosette

Oh, I did Looking for Alibrandi at school. I'd forgotten that (it's still on my bookshelf now).


The Harp in the South and its sequel, Poor Man's Orange, stand out for me. And To Kill a Mockingbird.

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