The Classics for Older Readers

By Michelle Tucker
©2010 Michelle Tucker

     Did you know that the average farmer in the American Colonies had read the Federalist Papers?  (The Federalist Papers were written by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison to encourage public support for the Constitution).  How many youth do you think read them today?  Last Friday was Constitution Day.  How many of our young people have read our country's Constitution?  There are classic books, papers and documents that every youth should read.
     Yesterday, I addressed children's literature in my blog.  Today's focus centers on youth, both Middle School and High School students, who should read certain classic literature and text.
Here is my short list (later I give Resources that include other writer's lists):

• The Constitution of the United States
• The Federalist Papers
• The Bible
• Animal Farm by George Orwell
• The Gettysburg Address
• William Shakespeare
• The Declaration of Independence
• The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer
• The Republic by Plato
• Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
• Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• Poems by Robert Frost
• The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

     These books, documents and text can be found in many places:  search the public libraries, the school library, used book stores, thrift stores, bookstores, on-line bookstores, and www.paperbackswap.com (please put my nickname - HomeschoolMomof2, as a referral).
     Here are easy to click on resources: