TGIF #6 ~Required Reading~

I decided to join a weekly meme called TGIF.  I kept seeing the button on top of so many sites, so I wanted to join in too.
This feature is for Fridays to re-cap the week's posts and to answer the proposed question from Ginger at GReads.  Check her out and join in the fun!

This Friday's Question

Required Reading: Which book from your school days do you remember reading & enjoying? Is there a book published now that you'd like to see in today's curriculum for kids?

My Answer

From my school days...decades ago, I loved reading As You Like It by William Shakespeare.  My 7th grade English teacher Mr. Hill was a total Shakespeare buff and he made me one too.  As You Like It is a funny play involving two men in love with two women and how they plot to get close to them.  Men are funny!

I also loved I Know Why The Cage Bird Sings by Maya Angelo.  This book changed a lot of my reading habits.  It was what I considered my first grown up book.  Before this book I read a ton of Judy Blume, Sweet Valley High and VC Andrews.  Maya Angelo brought me into reading about Black people and my history without making it over the top.  I was in junior high and I completely understood and empathized with the characters in the book.  I remember right after reading this book, I began to read tons on James Baldwin and Richard Wright.  My reading went from characters I wished I was like to characters like me.  As the only Black student in an all White school, neighborhood and girl scout troop, I was finally learning and seeing me in a book!  Life changing!

 The book that should be added to the High School reading list is none other than The Help.  This book would have the same effect on students that Maya Angelo had on me.  It's a real true history lesson, with humor and heart ache.  It will give the students empathy and understanding from cover to cover.