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Dec. 20, 2002
Best and worst assigned novel
As of noon December 20, the results of the Silver Chips "Best and Worst Assigned Novel" contest are as follows: the best book assigned in Blair is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and the voted worst book assigned in Blair is a tie between Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Lord of the Flies is the most controversial of the books listed, as five students wrote it was their favorite and six wrote it was their least favorite.
More comments were posted concerning students' favorite books rather than their least favorite and preferences varied widely,. However, several books appeared often as either favorite or least favorite books. Besides Ender's Game, six other novels received significant numbers of votes as students' favorite assigned book: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (9 votes), Catcher in the Rye by Jerome David Salinger (7 votes), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (5 votes), The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (5 votes), Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (5 votes) and Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (5 votes).
Lord of the Flies and Great Expectations were Blazers' two least favorite books. Other disliked novels included Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (4 votes), Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn (4 votes), Fairwell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (3 votes), House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (3 votes) and House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende (3 votes). Three other students, however, voted House of the Spirits as their favorite assigned book.
One of the most essential aspects of education in our school system is reading. Below is the list of novels available for Blair teachers. Each year, teachers have extensive meetings to discuss which books their students will read each year. A novel's selection is based on a particular year's curriculum and the teachers' perceptions of how well the novel can teach students.
Now, it is the students turn to vote for their favorite novel read during English class and their least favorite novel. For comment and vote to be posted, students must list their favorite and least favorite novel.
Votes will be recounted and the final results for the perceived best and worst assigned novels at Blair will be posted at the end of the first semester.
Grade 9
Antigone
April Morning
Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
Bless The Beasts
Children of the River
Cry, The Beloved Country
Currents in Fiction
Cyrano DeBergerac
Dances With Wolves
Day No Pigs Would Die
Ender’s Game
Farewell to Arms
Farewell to Manzabar
Flowers for Algeron
Great Expectations
House on Mango Street
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Inherit the Wind
Jubilee
Les Miserables
Martian Chronicles
Miracle Worker
Moves Make the Man
My Antonia
Night Theoreau Spend in Jail
Of Mice and Men
Old Man and the Sea
Raisin in the Sun
Red Badge of Courage
Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry
Romeo and Juliet
Separate Peace
Shabanu
Sound of Waves
Spoon River Anthology
Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor
Tale of Two Cities
Three Plays by Thorton Wilder
To Kill a Mockinbird
Walden & Civil Disobedience
Grade 10
All Quiet on the Western Front
Animal Farm
Black Boy
Bless Me, Ultima
Bridge of San Luis Rey
Catcher in the Rye
Dandelion Wine
Darkness at Noon
Enemy of the People
Ethan Frome
Fahrenheit 451
Flex Text
Frankenstein
Franny and Zooey
Glass Menagerie
Grapes of Wrath
Heart of Darkness
Hiroshima
Joy Luck Club
Julius Caesar
Lord of the Flies
Main Street
Medea
Night
Nineteen Eight-Four
Odyssey, The
Picture of Dorian Gray
Princess Bride
Street Car Named Desire
Taming of the Shrew
Things Fall Apart
Zoo Story & American Dream
Grade 11
A Lesson Before Dying
Adventures of Huck Finn
All the King’s Men
As I Lay Dying
Autobiography of Malcolm X
Bluest Eye
Brave New World
Cat’s Cradle
Civil Disobedience
Coming of Age in Mississippi
Crucible
Death of a Salesman
Fences
Great Gatsby
Heart of a Woman
Hemingway Short Stories
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
I, Tituba
Invisible Man
Macbeth
Native Son
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Ordinary People
Scarlet Letter, The
Siddharta
So Long a Letter
Typical American
Woman Warrior
Wuthering Heights
Grade 12
Beloved
Beowulf
Brothers Karamazov
Candide
Canterbury Tales
Chekhov: Four Major Plays
Crime and Punishment
Dubliners
Emma
Gulliver’s Travels
Hamlet
Hedda Gabler
House of the Spirits
Ibsen: Four Great Plays
J.B.
Jane Eyre
Jude the Obscure
King Lear
Later Plays of Eugene O’Neill
Light in August
Long Day’s Journey into Night
Lord Jim
Luther
Madame Bovary
Man for All Seasons
Metamorphosis
Murder in the Cathedral
Oedipus
Othello
Plague
Portrait of the Artist
Pride and Prejudice
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Sartoris
Skin of Our Teeth
Song of Solomon
Sons and Lovers
Sound and the Fury
Stranger
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Three by Flannery O’Conner
Three Plays about Crime and Criminals
Trial, The
Waiting for Godot
Yellow Raft in Blue Water
More comments were posted concerning students' favorite books rather than their least favorite and preferences varied widely,. However, several books appeared often as either favorite or least favorite books. Besides Ender's Game, six other novels received significant numbers of votes as students' favorite assigned book: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (9 votes), Catcher in the Rye by Jerome David Salinger (7 votes), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (5 votes), The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (5 votes), Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (5 votes) and Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (5 votes).
Lord of the Flies and Great Expectations were Blazers' two least favorite books. Other disliked novels included Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (4 votes), Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn (4 votes), Fairwell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (3 votes), House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (3 votes) and House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende (3 votes). Three other students, however, voted House of the Spirits as their favorite assigned book.
One of the most essential aspects of education in our school system is reading. Below is the list of novels available for Blair teachers. Each year, teachers have extensive meetings to discuss which books their students will read each year. A novel's selection is based on a particular year's curriculum and the teachers' perceptions of how well the novel can teach students.
Now, it is the students turn to vote for their favorite novel read during English class and their least favorite novel. For comment and vote to be posted, students must list their favorite and least favorite novel.
Votes will be recounted and the final results for the perceived best and worst assigned novels at Blair will be posted at the end of the first semester.
Grade 9
Antigone
April Morning
Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
Bless The Beasts
Children of the River
Cry, The Beloved Country
Currents in Fiction
Cyrano DeBergerac
Dances With Wolves
Day No Pigs Would Die
Ender’s Game
Farewell to Arms
Farewell to Manzabar
Flowers for Algeron
Great Expectations
House on Mango Street
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Inherit the Wind
Jubilee
Les Miserables
Martian Chronicles
Miracle Worker
Moves Make the Man
My Antonia
Night Theoreau Spend in Jail
Of Mice and Men
Old Man and the Sea
Raisin in the Sun
Red Badge of Courage
Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry
Romeo and Juliet
Separate Peace
Shabanu
Sound of Waves
Spoon River Anthology
Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor
Tale of Two Cities
Three Plays by Thorton Wilder
To Kill a Mockinbird
Walden & Civil Disobedience
Grade 10
All Quiet on the Western Front
Animal Farm
Black Boy
Bless Me, Ultima
Bridge of San Luis Rey
Catcher in the Rye
Dandelion Wine
Darkness at Noon
Enemy of the People
Ethan Frome
Fahrenheit 451
Flex Text
Frankenstein
Franny and Zooey
Glass Menagerie
Grapes of Wrath
Heart of Darkness
Hiroshima
Joy Luck Club
Julius Caesar
Lord of the Flies
Main Street
Medea
Night
Nineteen Eight-Four
Odyssey, The
Picture of Dorian Gray
Princess Bride
Street Car Named Desire
Taming of the Shrew
Things Fall Apart
Zoo Story & American Dream
Grade 11
A Lesson Before Dying
Adventures of Huck Finn
All the King’s Men
As I Lay Dying
Autobiography of Malcolm X
Bluest Eye
Brave New World
Cat’s Cradle
Civil Disobedience
Coming of Age in Mississippi
Crucible
Death of a Salesman
Fences
Great Gatsby
Heart of a Woman
Hemingway Short Stories
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
I, Tituba
Invisible Man
Macbeth
Native Son
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Ordinary People
Scarlet Letter, The
Siddharta
So Long a Letter
Typical American
Woman Warrior
Wuthering Heights
Grade 12
Beloved
Beowulf
Brothers Karamazov
Candide
Canterbury Tales
Chekhov: Four Major Plays
Crime and Punishment
Dubliners
Emma
Gulliver’s Travels
Hamlet
Hedda Gabler
House of the Spirits
Ibsen: Four Great Plays
J.B.
Jane Eyre
Jude the Obscure
King Lear
Later Plays of Eugene O’Neill
Light in August
Long Day’s Journey into Night
Lord Jim
Luther
Madame Bovary
Man for All Seasons
Metamorphosis
Murder in the Cathedral
Oedipus
Othello
Plague
Portrait of the Artist
Pride and Prejudice
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Sartoris
Skin of Our Teeth
Song of Solomon
Sons and Lovers
Sound and the Fury
Stranger
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Three by Flannery O’Conner
Three Plays about Crime and Criminals
Trial, The
Waiting for Godot
Yellow Raft in Blue Water
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Discuss this Article
Worst: Bridge of San Luis Rey
Worst: Great Expectations
Confusing but great: Sound and the Fury
Best that I didn't read for school: Ender's Game
Favorite: The Human Comedy (not listed)
Least: Antigone
10th
Favorite: Grapes of Wrath
Least: Nineteen Eighty-Four
11th
Favorite: The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Least: The Bridge of San Luis Rey (not listed)
12th
Favorite: Yellow Raft in Blue Water
Least: The House of the Spirits
Least Favorite: Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens
Best: To Kill a Mockingbird
Worst: Farewell to Arms
10th Grade:
So far at least, I've enjoyed greatly both Night and the Joy Luck Club, although I expect to dislike The Odyssey when we begin to read it.
worst-April morning
10th-best- Balck boy
worst- things fall apart
11th-best- Animal dreams(not listed), Macbeth
worst-brave new world
12th-so far House of the sprits, song of solomon, and sonw falling on cedars have all been really good.
Worst: Tie b/w Great Expectations and Grapes of Wrath
worst: my antonia
worst: song of solomon
Worst: To Kill A Mockingbird
10: Best: Julius Caesar
Worst: Lord of the Flies
11: Best: Crucible
Worst: As I Lay Dying
10th- Farenheit 51
11th- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
12th- so far, none..
House on Mango Street - weird
10th: Lord of the Flies, Darkness at Noon -good
11th: Great Gadsby, Macbeth - good
Crucible, Scarlet Letter - not so good
12th: Snow Falling on Cedars - good
best - To Kill a Mockingbird
worst - House on Mango Street
10th:
best - The Grapes of Wrath
worst - Lord of the Flies
11th:
best - Death of a Salesman (with Native Son a close second)
worst - The Great Gatsby
12th:
best - Metamorphosis
worst - Crime & Punishment (but I've only read 3 books so far)
worst--Tale of Two Cities
10thbest--Princess Bride(all-time)
worst--Things Fall Apart
11thbest--The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn(all-time)
worst-- (none)
12thbest--Song of Solomon
worst--House of The Spirits
Best- Grapes of Wrath
Favorite- Of MIce and Men
10.)Least favorite- Black Boy
Favorite-All Quiet on the Western Front
11.)Least favorite- A lesson before dying
favorite- Adentures of HUckleberry FInn
12.)Least favorite- SOng of SOlomon
Favorite- SNow Falling on Cedar
farewell to arms-not much can be said about this book except i thought Old Man and the Sea was better.
It helps to have read the above books if you go to UnivMaryland and take american lit 1856-present.
10)Best:TIED! Julius Ceasar and Black Boy
Worst:Dandilion Wine (EWWWWWW)
11)Best: Great Gatsby (With Dr. Porter Teaching)
Worst: Scarlet Letter
12) Best: TIED The Kitchen God's Wife and The Sound and the Fury (With Ms. Adamson Teaching!)
Worst: Their Eyes Were Watching God (Second worst book ever next to Old Yeller!)
Favorite-A Raisin In The Sun
10)Least Favorite-Animal Farm
Favoite- T he Odyssey
11)Least Favorite-Death of A Salesman
Favorite-A Lesson Before Dying
12)?
Best - Ender's Game *Best of the Best*
10.) Worst - Joy Luck Club
Best - Fahrenheit 451
11.) Worst - A Lesson Before Dying
Best - Cat's Cradle
12.) Worst - not sure
Best - Snow Falling on Ceders
Best - Ender's Game *Best of the Best*
10.) Worst - Joy Luck Club
Best - Fahrenheit 451
11.) Worst - A Lesson Before Dying
Best - Cat's Cradle
12.) Worst - not sure
Best - Snow Falling on Ceders
10th: Princess Bride - best
11th: The Crucible - best
12th: coming soon
Best Book- House of Spirits
Best: Ender's Game, followed by To Kill A Mockingbird
Worst: Romeo and Juliet and House on Mango Street
10th grade-
Best: I'll get back to this one when we actually read a somewhat entertaining book
Worst: The Odyssey and Lord of the Flies
Best: Ender's Game and To Kill a Mockingbird were good.
Worst: House on Mango Street.
Interesting but long and tiresome: Les Mis.
Worst: Farewell to Manzabar
10) Best: The Catcher in the Rye
Worst: The Grapes of Wrath (too long and sentimental)
11) Best: Huckleberry Finn
Worst: The Crucible
12) Best: Hamlet (awesome, especially after watching the Kenneth Branaugh movie)
Worst: Metamorphosis
I also enjoyed Camus' "The Stranger" which I read in French class.
10th Grade: So far, my least favorite book was The Grapes of Wrath...it's soo long!! My fave was Lord of the Flies!!
Worst: Great Expectations
10) Best: Catcher in the Rye (would be 1984 if we had read it)
Worst: Black Boy
11) Best: Cat's Cradle
Worst: Death of a Salesman
12) (so far...)
Best: Yellow Raft in Blue Water
Worst: House of Spirits (which isn't actually that bad...)
Worst:Catcher in the Rye...I know, it's not on the ninth grade list, but cappies read it...and I can tell you, it sucked
10)Best:The Odyssey, Princess Bride (and All Quiet on the Western Front, though I didn't read it for school)
Worst:Lord of the Flies, Catcher in the Rye
11)Best:so far...I really liked The Crucible
Worst:Brave New World (though I actually read it a long time ago....also, The Scarlet Letter wasn't so great)
Worst: My Antonia
10th) Best:Darkness at Noon/Nineteen Eight-Four
Worst:Bridge of San Luis Rey
11th) Best:Adventures of Huck Finn/MacBeth
Worst: The Scarlet Letter
12th) Best: Crime and Punishment/Hamlet/Jane Eyre
Worst: Metamorphosis
BEST: Cry, Beloved Country and To Kill a Mockingbird
WORST: Tale of Two Cities and Of Mice and Men
10th grade:
BEST: Black Boy
WORST: Grapes of Wrath and Lord of the Flies
11th grade:
BEST: A Lesson Before Dying and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
WORST: The Awakening and Brave New World (two of the CLEAR worst, i think.)
12th grade:
BEST: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
WORST: The Metamorphosis
Worst-Ender's Game
10) Best (of all 3 years)-Lord of the Flies
Worst (of all 3 years)-Joy Luck Club
11) Best-Brave New World
Worst-Into the Wild
9th grade: the best would be Les Miserables
10th grade:the best was julius ceaser and the odyssey
11th grade: best is the crucible
12th grade: best is King Lear
worst- The international house of spirits and pancakes
VERY GOOD:
Ender’s Game
Animal Farm
Fahrenheit 451
THE WORST:
Great Expectations and many misc. plays such as "Antigone," "Raisin in the Sun," etc.
-Pure Garbage, doesnt have a moral or anything. Zora Neale Hurston pretty much through her career away in this novel. Blair dont bother teaching it!
Worst book (9th): Jubilee
Best book (10th): Picture of Dorian Gray, 1984
Worst book (10th): Ethan Frome
Best Book (11th): Macbeth, the Crucible
Worst Book (11th): Wuthering Heights (the most evil and boring book in history!)
Book-a-minute has this summary of the book: "Narrator: I met a man named Ethan Frome. His life sucked."
Also: Crime and Punishment and House of the Spirits.
Don't have a wrost book, because i appreciate the hard work and effort that writers put into their work.
Best-Of Mice and Men
Worst-To Kill A Mocking Bird
10th Grade
Best-Night
Worst-The Odyssey
11th Grade
Best-Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Worst-they were all pretty good...
12 Grade(so far)
Best-Metamorphisis
Worst-didnt like Their Eyes Were Watching God too much
Best: Great Gatsby & To Kill A Mockingbird
Worst: Maggie A Girl of the Streets
10th Grade
Best: so far none, prob Black Boy
Worst: Lord of the Flies
And
The best is: Enders Game
It might be OK if I didn't have to get up at six every morning.
Today in college it still sends shivers down my spine.
Worst: Woman Warrior, The Illiad, Julius Ceasar, and Lord of the Flies
Farewell to Arms is another classic.
p.s. in case you can't tell, the worst book is Tale of Two Cities
Tale of Two Cities......let's just say I used sparknotes to get through that book. Charles Dickens is the greates writer my [butt]. He sucks, so do his books.
VERY VERY BAD DUE TO LACK OF ANY SEMBLANCE OF PLOT: The Joy Luck Club
hey truth, learn some grammer and learn the difference between through and threw. Your just embarrassing yourself.
"grammer" should be "grammar"
"your" should be "you're"
I think you're the one embarrassing yourself.
If I had to choose I'd say To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye, The Bluest Eye (I've never heard of any teachers assigning that) & Jane Eyre are A FEW of the great books...the worst?-The Scarlet Letter and Hedda Gabler. I think Henrik Ibsen's work is loaded with meaning but very uneventful and boring to read.
The worst book I've read this year had to have been Ethan Frome. It is so horribly boring. It is sad if that Climax of a story is the breaking of a pickle bowl. It is also sad that Ethan and Mattie didn't just die and end the horror... but no, instead they have to live in misery. How irony because misery was put upon anyone who reads that book.
The best books I have read are, Brave New World (Aldous Huxley is great and very random) "Hoity-toity." Another good book is Fahrenheit 451, very cool book (the movie is pretty hillarious how horribly made it is). And the last is Animal Farm. It's a great book if you like reading about dysutopian societies.
Any book my Zora Neale Hurston is horrible (ex. Their Eyes Were Watching God). Feministic writers are no fun. Objectivists are pretty bad too. Ayn Rand is crazy.
To Kill a Mockingbird is just a really funny book, and so is the movie. The funniest part (of the movie) is how the kids are all hicks and atticus throws in a slightly british accent. "I cain't go without muh pants!" "SPIT OWN IT!!!"
best- life of Pi
worst- to kill a mockingbird
10th
best- Absolutely LOVED A Tale of Two Cities
worst- cry, the beloved country and Fahrenheit 451
11th
best-Night Theoreau Spend in Jail
worst- the crucible