I’m starting an Award-Winning Books Only shelf. (Okay, maybe award winning authors, too.)

Since I am teaching only advanced classes, and since I am allowing students choice in pretty much anything of length they read, I want to be able to challenge students to take a step up the ladder to more complex texts than the YA literature they so readily pick up. Not than any student, advanced or otherwise, shouldn’t be challenged; not that YA is not great reading for all students. But, you know, I am supposed to provide the rigor for an AP class as required by the College Board.

I want Pulitzer Prize Winners and National Book Award Finalists and Man Book Prize Winners.

I want students to take on the challenge and the feeling of accomplishment of reading a Prize Winner.

My list of award winners is long, and it will take me even longer to purchase all the books I want. But I’ve started, and The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri, a Pulitzer Prize Winning author, is the fifth on my shelf.

See the author talk about this Man Booker shortlisted title here: 

Tagged: AP English, authors as heroes, reel reading, world literature