Wild Swans Jung Chang

Last year, I worked with a student's special skills in application of Hunter College High School (it is mounted, by the way). She was only 11 years, but she had quite a level of adult reading comprehension and desire to tackle interesting, sophisticated and difficult material. At the same time, it was still a child and books written about the experiences of some adult emotions and simply held no interest for her. Working with this girl I started thinking about books that might interest a child or young person while being difficult, even for advanced students.

It is a crime to think of literature in terms of excellent exam preparation. And yet, as guardian, I find myself reading in the development of these terms. Instead here, let me say a literary reading at this level makes the reading comprehension on a test like the SAT, SHSAT or even seem like a breeze. It is also probably the only way for a child to have a real chance at a school like Hunter College High School or the Anderson School.

My basic criterion for the selection of these books is that they should be interesting for me, contains a rich vocabulary and complex thoughts, and not be sexually explicit or deliberately violated. In addition, they must have something in them that I think it would be interesting to many young people, for example, many of these books feature young protagonists. To join this particular list, the book should be non-fiction at a later date, I'll write a similar list of fiction books recommended for advanced readers. Obviously, this list is very special and far from exhaustive. The books range from moderately to extremely difficult.

Non-Fiction

Wild Swans by Jung Chang

Wild swans, the author tells the story of modern China through the story of his own family, especially her grandmother, her mother and herself. This book is emotionally difficult and technical difficulties: it is long and complex, and it addresses some of the darker sides of human nature. On the other hand, it is richly informative and exciting. It also shows some people being the best that man can be.

It seems that many classic novels that are often read in middle school and high school (1984, Lord of the Flies, Deliverance) are popular at least partly because they encourage an exploration of society gone wrong. In my opinion, a failure of many of these books (and all those I just mentioned), it is too easy to dismiss the mistakes of the characters because they are not real, and finally not wholly convincing. Wild Swans, on the other hand, the portraits of people who deeply evil and exceptionally heroic things that are much harder to dismiss because they are indeed real and that the author is able to do the motivations of characters understandable.

Uncle Tungsten: Tales of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver Sacks

In this book, the author recounts his love affair with the childhood of chemistry. It takes place in England at the time of the Second World War, perhaps the most immediately striking is the story of how the children were much freer in those days. His parents are clearly responsible and loving, but he nevertheless made a wide variety of chemistry experiments hair on the head that would never be allowed today. Indeed, most of the materials he has purchased so casually as a boy are now almost impossible for an individual of any age to legally acquire.

The writing of this book is quite difficult, but most of the content should be easy for young people to identify themselves. As Oliver Sacks has undoubtedly been a special boy, his enthusiasm when he discovered something new to him or when he causes an explosion is particularly contagious. Similarly, negative emotions around.