To Kill a Mockingbird question

Figh Club by Chuck Palahniuk

I thought Craig Silvie's Jasper Jones was basically a modern Australian To Kill a Mockingbird. Same themes - even a Boo Radley type character. Not sure if it'd stand the test of time though.

I love the book "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers, Vietnam War, but still relevant. And I will always support "The Book Thief".

First of all, WHY WHY WHY would they take TKaMB off the list??!

Second (once I mentally get passed hurdle #1), I think it would be nice to substitue something a bit more modern. Crank By Ellen Hopkins, Monster by W.D. Myers or Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

No modern book can replace this classic. Times have changed so much in the last 60 years that its very hard to call books a classic anymore....

I should add - I have not read The Help yet - next up! I've heard it is fantastic...I just can't say for sure yet :-)

The Book Thief is the only one that I think comes close for its beautiful writing and stirring content. The Secret Life of Bees was a good book that explores similar themes - just not on the same level as TKAM or TBT.

The Help would be an excellent replacement, if it needed to be replaced. Personally I loved To Kill A Mockingbird - it was interesting to study, a great read, and one of the easier books that year. :)

I don't think it should be taken off, but I think there should be more interesting non-fiction presented to high school students, like Outliers and Freakonomics.

To Kill A Mockingbird is a fantastic novel that should be read by everyone when they're young and re-read by everyone when they're old; however, if I were to add to the reading list of young adults I would include the following: The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak; The Road by Cormac McCarthy; and, Middlesex by Jeffrey Euginides. The contrasting writing styles and difficult subject matter, in my mind, are perfect discussion starters, mind openers and, challenges for young adults. Let's encourage young adults to think and feel deeply with their hearts and their minds.

The Help! No doubt about it!

I don't think that anyone would replace this book with another classic, and I don't think the original post was asking for other classics, but I may be mistaken. I do agree that The Secret Life of Bees would probably be as close to a modern take on the topic as we've gotten in a long while. Otherwise, why take a book out of schools and replace it with another book by 'an old dead guy'? Trust me, I love classics, but I can see why kids drag their feet on them. Replacing this book with Huck Finn would be pointless--kids would have the same reaction.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying either The Secret Life of Bees or The Lords of Discipline are on par with To Kill A Mockingbird. I'm merely suggesting "good reads" by more contemporary authors that address similar themes and may be useful to teachers.

Jasper Jones is a good Australian take. Whilst it was written recently, it is set about 50 years ago. But does tackle the same concepts - prejudice in the judicial system, overt and covert racism & youth.

C.J.,
The question James posed was whether any current books are as good as To Kill a Mockingbird.

Huckleberry Finn would be a good choice if you HAD to replace To Kill a Mockingbird.

A classic to take the place of "To Kill A Mockingbird" would have to be "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo. I have read both these classics and believe both teach the Youth great lessons about life. While entertaining their curiosity and there adventurous appetites.
Sorry, but not everyone is "IN" with all the vampire stuff.

Well, a similar book in theme is Maniac Magee, but that's really more of children's book. Maybe for a younger classroom?

Why would you think of taking it off the list? DON'T!

I first read it as a junior in high school and it instantly became one of my favorite books - got a 98% on the test, thankyouverymuch!

It's a beautiful classic and paints a picture of a time and place that doesn't exist anymore, but is part of American history. Make 'em read it. They'll thank you.

Although To Kill a Mockingbird is a true representation of classical literature, if it were to be replaced with something more modern, I would go with John Grisham's A Time to Kill. A Lesson before Dying would also be a great choice.

I don't think books should be banned from reading lists. However I do think that Grisham's A Time To Kill would be a great substitute for To Kill a Mockingbird. Similiar underlying themes but A Time to Kill is in a more modern writing still which may hold a teens attention a little more.

There is no substitute. Anything that you tried to replace it with in a reading list would be so different, either watered down or not meeting the content's sensitive nature and that slice of history and geography in which it's set, and especially the point of view. There's just no comparison. Why would you want to do this?

I've always thought that Grisham's A Time to Kill is a modern day To Kill a Mockingbird. The Help certainly would be a good addition. Personally, I think that flogging should be involved in dealing with whoever might dare to take Mockingbird off of school lists.

James wrote: "I'm a high school teacher. This is a fabulous book and most of my students enjoy it (after a little coaxing). But reading lists change frequently. Are there any current books that could stand the t..."

It shouldn't be replaced.

This is my favorite book of all time, and while there are so many excellent books out there, I've never been so touched as I was when I first read this. This is a book I read over and over and I think it's irreplaceable.

Night by Elie Wiesel
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill (called Someone Knows My Name in the United States)

BUT I still think To Kill a Mockingbird is a keeper!

This is a far, far better book than some that are required school reading, such as Lord of the Flies or Catcher in the Rye.
Another book that teaches a valuable life lesson is Alas, Babylon.

Besides being excellently written, I think part of the appeal of To Kill a Mockingbird is the social commentary that it provides of those times. I wouldn't want to replace To Kill a Mockingbird, but "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'brien is a modern book that does a similar thing for the Vietnam War. There is also "Monster" by Walter Dean Myers.

To Kill a Mockingbird holds up, even today. It was one of my favorite books in high school. I have reread it every so often and I find that it is still a compelling read. Challenge the students. They need to expand their experiences beyond Twilight and Harry Potter. To Kill a Mockingbird is irreplaceable. Period.

I think I might have to read 'To Kill a Mockingbird' again. It has been so long since I read it I really don't remember a whole lot about it. The same would hold true of 'Catcher in the Rye' since I read them both when I was in Jr High.
While I enjoyed reading "The Help' I am not sure it would hold up as a modern classic. How many men do you think have read 'The Help'? or 'The Secret Life of Bees'. To be a classic I would think it would have to appeal to both sexes over many years.
I do agree that 'The Book Thief' is an excellent thought provoking book. This one along with 'The Reader' may,IMO,be classics.

What about The Help?? It takes an inside look about how African-American maids were treated in the 60's.

A Thousand Splendid Suns offers a read with life-changing messages and an insight to life in Afghanistan.

It's theme is generally different than To Kill a Mockingbird, but it is still rich in moral values. And it's certainly better than most modern books because A Thousand Splendid Sun is not JUST about a love story between a girl and a guy. Rather, it's about the fight for life.

Anyway, this is a very good modern book and the book certainly did help me realize that I need to be more grateful about my life and help me see things through other people's perspective.

I don't think any books should be banned. We should be able to choose which books we want to read, not the government/school boards/etc.

1984, Brave New World, Huckleberry Finn, Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird or wait. Umm, I think there are about a bajillion classic books out there, and all of them have something to add to society.

I think we could add the entire Twilight series.

Little kids, barely out of their nappies would be fed a diet of dashingly handsome vampires, and distressed half-bloods and existentialist heroines, and they would be let free to roll around in the wonderfully shallow prose of Ms. Meyer. They would have to memorize whole episodes of the Vampiriad, and learn to place quotes. They should know the text backwards and upwards. That way we can have an army of angry teenagers in their teens, who would be able to spot mediocrity and triteness a fang-breath away.

Joking aside, I think we must place a limpid copy of Lolita or Slaughterhouse-5 or Louis-Rey or The Rosy Crucifixon in the innocent translucent hands of our budding rosy generation. Let the little fuckers read something worthwhile.

I would not really consider this a replacement for Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird since it addresses a considerably different set of values, but a book that I do think could be equally widely read is Nadine Gordimer's The Pickup . It juxtapositions an affluent American young woman and an ambitious third world young man, posing dramatic life choices and tests of values. I consider it one of the best and most memorable novels I have read and I passed my copy along to a college freshman.

I am curious. To what extent do high school teachers tend to touch upon the lingering controversies about the authorship of TKMB? Or are the high school level discussions mostly confined to the content of the book itself?

I just read this for my english class last semester and I have to admit that It was an alright book. It's an easy read because the characters are so young but it also manages to convey a lot of life values and life lessons. The language is mostly easy to understand and even though the main character isn't knowledgeable or can't understand about a lot of what's being said or what's going on, as a reader you can still understand mostly everything (of course there's things you just can't pick up on since it's from a young girls point of view) that's going on.
Saying this I think that this book cannot be replaced on the reading lists, but maybe more books can be added to it? I think everyone should at least read this book once in their lives.

I think The Kite Runner was an excellent book, as well as Never Let Me Go. The Memory Keeper's Daughter would also be an excellent addition to a curriculum.

I agree with everyone who said The Help. There are many great books out there, how about Lord of the Flies? It's great for in-class discussions!