<i>It’s one thing when you read these books on your own but the thing is - being GRADED on books that scar you for life - at that age - is a lot like a Rorschach test being conducted using human blood to a classroom of fresh faced 12 year olds who so far have cakewalked through life and don’t have a care in the world.</i><p>The problem with English classes in a nutshell. You ruin a beautiful thing when you assign it a grade, no (or exceedingly few) exceptions.<p>That one comment aside: This is not only listspam, it is not at all Hacker News, it doesn't stimulate me in any way, and it's <i>wrong</i>. Bridge to Terabitha is about enjoying life in the face of that threat of its cessation; The Giver says that we should not accept our assigned place in society and that it's possible to be different; The Diary of Anne Frank illustrates the beauty in a single human life and reminds us that everybody is amazing (a lesson that many of us online tend to forget); and I wrote about Catcher in the Rye a few days ago, but it's not a bad thing to address alienation at a young age, because it's certainly there before most of us turn ten.
For terribly depressing books aimed at kids even younger than grade school, check out the Thomas the Tank Engine series.<p>The basic lesson is that any deviation from the rules will be punished severely. One of the trains likes flowers so he leaves the tracks to smell them. Punishment: the entire village jumps out of the field to scare him. Another train gets vain about his new paint job. Punishment: he is bricked into a tunnel for a year, until he rusts. Oddly, little kids eat this stuff up.<p>I don't know if it's blind allegiance to trains, or if they really like the moral world portrayed.
There was that book about the two friends, where the one friend pokes a beehive with a stick and the bees swarm him and it turns out he was allergic to bees and then he dies and I think his mom brings the other kid a pie or maybe it's the other way around.<p>Either way, we read that in 4th grade. We never had to read Terebithia, although my son likes that story. I won't let him read the bee book.
The only problem I found was Lord of The Flies and To Kill a Mockingbird in 6th grade because we were in an advanced english class, not really the best books for a younger audience.<p>On the other hand I read the Rye in 9th grade and found it to be a very interesting and relatable book and even though it is not the best book for a young audience there is not much of a difference when you have reached high school.
"The Giver" was pretty cool. It had a thought provoking premise and a good buildup, despite the homoerotic undertone.<p>I must admit that I didn't get "The Catcher in the Rye". Sure, I get that he's frustrated with everyone, but it annoyed me that there were only about three scenes playing on repeat.