It feels like it's been a long, long, long time since I've sat in a high school English class. I remember them really well, though. 

I remember those classes turning me on to reading because I was forced to read long lists of "Classics": the canonical classics, like those authored by Homer and Shakespeare, but also more contemporary classics, written by the likes of Harper Lee, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and James Baldwin. I am under the impression that most highschoolers of my time read similar things. The sort of popular YA (young adult) literature that appears on many of today's high school English reading lists was not part of the curriculum and, to be honest, I don't remember ever seeing any literature written specifically for teens when I was a teen (which, honestly, wasn't that long ago). 

That isn't to say that the books my fellow students and I read were lofty classics that required serious literary analysis. Even the books that we read, it seemed, were chosen because they were applicable to the issues that are dealt with at any time, historically. Like Romeo and Juliet and Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, the books we read were supposed to be of interest to teens.

Nowadays, however, English reading lists are speaking directly to teens, in both content and context. This year's Recommended Reading List for High School Students from NYC DOE includes a plethora of contemporary classics . Historical fiction, ​like Toni Morrison's Beloved and Markus Zusak's The Book Thief are great blends of subjects and can teach us about historical matters while allowing us to see through the eyes of people who lived before we did. Adventurous titles, like Hatchet and The King of Attolia, allow readers to explore worlds and situations that they will probably never find themselves in. As for the non-fiction, prepare to have your mind blown! Graphic novels (Persepolis), historical autobiographies (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass), voyages into the Alaskan wilderness (Blue Bear)? I'd sign up for that English class in a flash!

It seems like the days of purely "Classics" reading lists are long gone, and replacing them are lists of wider-ranging books, allowing for a variety of readers of different backgrounds and  reading levels to enjoy the stories and participate in the learning process. 

It looks to me like high school English class is getting better and better as the years go by.

What sorts of books were on your high school English class reading lists?