Top 10 Tuesday--Favourite Books Read in School

A weekly meme hosted @ The Broke and the Bookish.

I haven't participated this in so long, I needed to update the mem button :D  But I couldn't resist this week's topic:

It's a freebie--use this week to write a top ten list about ANYTHING in literature.

Nice!  I've decided to recall my top 10 favourite books read in school, whether by my own choice or as assigned by the teacher, and how they have stuck with me all this time.  I'm going to split the 10 books between elementary, high school, and university.  Here goes...

1)  Curious George Goes to the Hospital- Margret and H.A. Rey (Kindergarten)
Whenever we visited the school library, I made a beeline for the small bookshelf with the row of yellow CG books and plunked myself there for the entire time.  My favourite CG book was the hospital visit.  The vocabulary words were a bit more challenging with the doctor's equipment and I loved the picture of George's X-ray with the tiny puzzle piece in his stomach :)

2)  From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler- E.L. Konigsburg (5th grade)
My teacher did a unit on museums, touching on the Museum of Natural History and exhibits on Egypt and Italian Renaissance.  For science, we built security alarm systems (very creative endeavour!).  It was an imaginative book and the way my teacher connected all the subjects to the novel but not relying too much on it or going overboard was just right.

3)  This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall- Gordon Korman (6th grade)
My teacher read this aloud to us every day for the first week of school to get us settled back into school mode from summer vacation.  It was a great icebreaker and very funny with all the mishaps that occur at Bruno & Boots' school.

4)  The Pigman- Paul Zindel (7th grade)
In 7th grade, I finally got to read the novel that my dad had been teaching 7th and 8th graders for years.  It was a modern fable, kind of like a domesticated King Kong morality tale, with two teenagers befriending an old-fashioned neighbour, eventually taking advantage of his possessions to the point of breaking him.  It was the first really serious jolt I ever got from a book about how we need to value friendship and people that we care about.

5)  Twelfth Night- William Shakespeare (9th grade)
This was my first foray into Shakespeare and bless my teacher for making the transition smooth and easy for me.  I could actually understand the language, themes, and story as we worked on translating it to modern language.  Anyone scared to read Shakespeare ought to start with this play.

6)  Lord of the Flies- William Golding (10th grade)
Another jolting reading experience, this time touching on leadership, bullying, and survival.  It was dark, disturbing, and unforgettable.  Perfect timing for a teenager to read it.

7)  To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee (11th grade)
Just when you think you've learned enough about civil rights and racism (a huge topic in 8th grade curriculum), this book slaps you upside the head.  My god, is it ever brilliant.

8)  Death of a Salesman- Arthur Miller (12th grade)
This brought back memories of The Pigman (see #4).  Another tale of a disgraced man who had every intention of being great and how things gradually fall apart.

9)  The Diviners- Margaret Laurence (3rd year English major)
A Canadian epic and coming-of-age story that I couldn't put down.  Incredible prose and quirky, loveable characters.

10)  Flaubert's Parrot- Julian Barnes (4th year English major)
One of the most unique writing styles I've ever come across.  It breaks barriers of what literature ought to be and doesn't fail to fascinate, even if you have no idea who Flaubert is ;)