High school required reading lists show signs of evolution

Precious summer minutes spent poring over Shakespeare or Nathaniel Hawthorne may seem less than appealing to teens, but some experts say there is a slowly growing trend to infuse more modern literature into required summer reading. As a result, the revered literary canon, which includes such classics as Hamlet, The Grapes of Wrath, and The Scarlet Letter, may be due for a shake-up. Glance at high school summer reading lists across the United States and you are likely to find more recent authors such as Alice Sebold, Walter Dean Myers, and even Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, alongside Dickens and the Brontë sisters. Read the article in The Christian Science Monitor that quotes Alleen Pace Nilsen, the International Reading Association’s 2005 winner of the Arbuthnot Award, which honors an outstanding college or university teacher of children’s and young adults’ literature.