[meme] Books You Read In School (Part 2)
Here is Part 2 of the long list of book I remember reading for class in school.
My own meme.
Mieko and the Fifth Treasure (3rd grade, 1999/2000): Goin' way back now. This was in third grade so we didn't really read this as a class so much as the teacher read it and then we did work on it. I don't really remember the plot, I just remember it being about a girl named Mieko who had injured her hand in a bombing (probably Hiroshima or Nagasaki, now that I think about it) and was relearning to write calligraphy, or something to that effect. I remember liking it and I plan to reread it. This book also inspired my very first fanfiction, since one of the homework assignments was to write a story using the characters from the book.
Freckle Juice (3rd grade, 1999/2000): This one is insanely short, the only reason I know this is because I own it now, not because it's a memory. I don't remember what I thought of this one, probably that it was weird. I get flashbacks to my elementary school days when I read this one, so there must've been something that went on when I was a kid that I can't remember. Weird.
Bunnicula (3rd grade, 1999/2000): This one is awesome. I can really remember my teacher reading this to us in a very expressive voice. A very simple and entertaining story. What I remember the most was, of course, the vampire bunny Bunnicula. I bought the book when I was older and read it a few times. Still great. I don't remember reading any of the sequels though.
Opération beurre de pinotte (elementary school, 1996-2003): This one is just plain weird. I remember the teacher reading the book to us in class, but I don't remember anything about it except for the main plot where this boy loses all his hair and then gets a secret formula that makes it never stop growing. It was entertaining, I remember watching the movie and liking it. There's an English version of the movie called The Peanut Butter Solution that I watched recently, it was entertaining. I'll probably never read it again, though.
La nuit du vampire (elementary school, 1996-2003): I think this one might've been during grade 6. I don't remember much about this one, but I do remember not really liking it. I think it was about a vampire who had taken over a school where a sleepover was taking place. The most I remember about it was that the main character's parents' names were Hugo and Prune. I don't really like vampires anyway. Come to think of it, this book might be why.
Tapis de Grand-Pré (elementary school, 1996-2003): I need to read this one again. This is actually a picture book, from what I can remember, and is the story of a magical hooked rug (from Grand-Pré). For whatever reason, the rug is missing some threads, so there's a little girl who has to go around all these different places to find the missing threads and bring them back to Grand-Pré to complete the rug. I forget what happens at the end though. It's a historical/fantasy/folklore/Christmas story, and I remember liking it the first time around.
The Cay (7th grade, 2003/2004): For some reason, I think this is a banned/challenged book... hmm. Anyway, even though I'm not a huge fan of shipwreck stories that aren't written by Gordon Korman, I like this one. I re-read this one last summer. What I originally remember about it is the project I did on it, I had to make a shoebox diorama of one of the scenes.
Oliver's Wars (8th grade, 2004/2005): I remember next to nothing about this one. I must not have liked it because it didn't leave a very big impression on me. I think I can remember something about the Oliver character listening to the radio (I believe this took place sometime during the early 1900s), and something to do with a bully, but that's it.
Le don (9th grade, 2005/2006): I barely read any of this book. The only parts I actually read were the ones we read in class. Wasn't a huge fan of this one and I missed almost everything that happened in it. All I remember about it is that it involves a girl who somehow gains possession of a magic journal that lets her travel in time to whatever date and time she writes inside it. I think she ended up using it at one point to find out answers to her final exams so that she could cheat, or something.
Un homme et son péché (10th grade, 2006/2007): Oh, this one was fun. I neither really liked it, or hated it, but I did enjoy this one. The main character of this book has to be one of the biggest assholes ever. He was a cheap bastard too. It takes place in 1800s Quebec and is about Séraphin, who is a cheap, cheap asshole. I really don't remember too much about what happened, just that it was fun to read (and the movie lent itself to a few jokes in-class). I do remember the part about his wife, Donalda, who dies at some point and he broke her legs to fit her in her coffin because it was too small and he was too cheap to buy a new one. What a douche. I think the movie is available in English under the title Heart of Stone, I've never seen it, though.
Une chanson pour Gabriella (11th grade, 2007/2008): This one bored me to tears. It's about a boy who meets a girl named Gabriella (natch) singing in the subway, or something, and falls in love with her and ends up writing a song for her. There were some other things in there, such as Gabriella and her mother escaping from some war-torn country where her father was killed, but I don't really remember much of it. I just remember being bored. Luckily it was a short book.
Animal Farm (12th grade, 2008/2009): This one's like a Disney story for adults. A bunch of talking animals take over a farm and it's supposed to represent the Russian Revolution, or something. I remember the creepy cartoon movie more than I remember the book. And poor Boxer. Poor, poor Boxer.
The Giver (high school, 2006-2009): I wanna say that I read this in grade 9, but most of my high school years seem to blend together sometimes. I believe that this is a banned or challenged book. I can see why someone would want it banned, that's for sure. I say it shouldn't be banned because it is so very awesome. This is probably the first dystopian novel I've ever read. I remember it scaring me a bit the first time I read it. I've read it several times since then and it still kinda gives me the creeps. What I remember most about reading it in school was that I didn't really like the vague ending.
Beowulf (high school, 2006-2009): That link probably isn't right, oh well. I didn't really like this one, mostly because I'm not a huge fan of epics written in prose, or poem form, or however it was written. It was alright, I guess. I remember watching the movie outside of school with a friend of mine and cracking jokes over the censoring for when Beowolf was naked while fighting in the mead hall. Good times.
The Old Man and the Sea (high school, 2006-2009): I didn't really like this book. It was a chore to read. I know it's supposed to be great classic literature, or whatever, but I just didn't care. Most of the book centered around an old man trying to bring in a fish that he caught. There were sharks at one point. I thought it was pretty boring over all.
Les misérables (high school, 2006-2009): I forget which year we read this in. Probably grade 11. We read the abridged version of this, which was broken up into three separate books. I liked this one, so did the rest of the class I'm pretty sure. What I remember most about it, though, is when we watched the movie adaptation. It was actually a mini-series from 2000, I think, (or whichever one had John Malkovich in it) and was about six hours long. My teacher was surprised that we were actually willing to watch the whole thing, and that we behaved while we did (we didn't watch all six hours at once, mind you).
So there are all the books I can remember reading for class in school. The list is longer than I thought it would be.
What books do you all remember reading in school, and what do you remember about them?
My own meme.
Mieko and the Fifth Treasure (3rd grade, 1999/2000): Goin' way back now. This was in third grade so we didn't really read this as a class so much as the teacher read it and then we did work on it. I don't really remember the plot, I just remember it being about a girl named Mieko who had injured her hand in a bombing (probably Hiroshima or Nagasaki, now that I think about it) and was relearning to write calligraphy, or something to that effect. I remember liking it and I plan to reread it. This book also inspired my very first fanfiction, since one of the homework assignments was to write a story using the characters from the book.
Freckle Juice (3rd grade, 1999/2000): This one is insanely short, the only reason I know this is because I own it now, not because it's a memory. I don't remember what I thought of this one, probably that it was weird. I get flashbacks to my elementary school days when I read this one, so there must've been something that went on when I was a kid that I can't remember. Weird.
Bunnicula (3rd grade, 1999/2000): This one is awesome. I can really remember my teacher reading this to us in a very expressive voice. A very simple and entertaining story. What I remember the most was, of course, the vampire bunny Bunnicula. I bought the book when I was older and read it a few times. Still great. I don't remember reading any of the sequels though.
Opération beurre de pinotte (elementary school, 1996-2003): This one is just plain weird. I remember the teacher reading the book to us in class, but I don't remember anything about it except for the main plot where this boy loses all his hair and then gets a secret formula that makes it never stop growing. It was entertaining, I remember watching the movie and liking it. There's an English version of the movie called The Peanut Butter Solution that I watched recently, it was entertaining. I'll probably never read it again, though.
La nuit du vampire (elementary school, 1996-2003): I think this one might've been during grade 6. I don't remember much about this one, but I do remember not really liking it. I think it was about a vampire who had taken over a school where a sleepover was taking place. The most I remember about it was that the main character's parents' names were Hugo and Prune. I don't really like vampires anyway. Come to think of it, this book might be why.
Tapis de Grand-Pré (elementary school, 1996-2003): I need to read this one again. This is actually a picture book, from what I can remember, and is the story of a magical hooked rug (from Grand-Pré). For whatever reason, the rug is missing some threads, so there's a little girl who has to go around all these different places to find the missing threads and bring them back to Grand-Pré to complete the rug. I forget what happens at the end though. It's a historical/fantasy/folklore/Christmas story, and I remember liking it the first time around.
The Cay (7th grade, 2003/2004): For some reason, I think this is a banned/challenged book... hmm. Anyway, even though I'm not a huge fan of shipwreck stories that aren't written by Gordon Korman, I like this one. I re-read this one last summer. What I originally remember about it is the project I did on it, I had to make a shoebox diorama of one of the scenes.
Oliver's Wars (8th grade, 2004/2005): I remember next to nothing about this one. I must not have liked it because it didn't leave a very big impression on me. I think I can remember something about the Oliver character listening to the radio (I believe this took place sometime during the early 1900s), and something to do with a bully, but that's it.
Le don (9th grade, 2005/2006): I barely read any of this book. The only parts I actually read were the ones we read in class. Wasn't a huge fan of this one and I missed almost everything that happened in it. All I remember about it is that it involves a girl who somehow gains possession of a magic journal that lets her travel in time to whatever date and time she writes inside it. I think she ended up using it at one point to find out answers to her final exams so that she could cheat, or something.
Un homme et son péché (10th grade, 2006/2007): Oh, this one was fun. I neither really liked it, or hated it, but I did enjoy this one. The main character of this book has to be one of the biggest assholes ever. He was a cheap bastard too. It takes place in 1800s Quebec and is about Séraphin, who is a cheap, cheap asshole. I really don't remember too much about what happened, just that it was fun to read (and the movie lent itself to a few jokes in-class). I do remember the part about his wife, Donalda, who dies at some point and he broke her legs to fit her in her coffin because it was too small and he was too cheap to buy a new one. What a douche. I think the movie is available in English under the title Heart of Stone, I've never seen it, though.
Une chanson pour Gabriella (11th grade, 2007/2008): This one bored me to tears. It's about a boy who meets a girl named Gabriella (natch) singing in the subway, or something, and falls in love with her and ends up writing a song for her. There were some other things in there, such as Gabriella and her mother escaping from some war-torn country where her father was killed, but I don't really remember much of it. I just remember being bored. Luckily it was a short book.
Animal Farm (12th grade, 2008/2009): This one's like a Disney story for adults. A bunch of talking animals take over a farm and it's supposed to represent the Russian Revolution, or something. I remember the creepy cartoon movie more than I remember the book. And poor Boxer. Poor, poor Boxer.
The Giver (high school, 2006-2009): I wanna say that I read this in grade 9, but most of my high school years seem to blend together sometimes. I believe that this is a banned or challenged book. I can see why someone would want it banned, that's for sure. I say it shouldn't be banned because it is so very awesome. This is probably the first dystopian novel I've ever read. I remember it scaring me a bit the first time I read it. I've read it several times since then and it still kinda gives me the creeps. What I remember most about reading it in school was that I didn't really like the vague ending.
Beowulf (high school, 2006-2009): That link probably isn't right, oh well. I didn't really like this one, mostly because I'm not a huge fan of epics written in prose, or poem form, or however it was written. It was alright, I guess. I remember watching the movie outside of school with a friend of mine and cracking jokes over the censoring for when Beowolf was naked while fighting in the mead hall. Good times.
The Old Man and the Sea (high school, 2006-2009): I didn't really like this book. It was a chore to read. I know it's supposed to be great classic literature, or whatever, but I just didn't care. Most of the book centered around an old man trying to bring in a fish that he caught. There were sharks at one point. I thought it was pretty boring over all.
Les misérables (high school, 2006-2009): I forget which year we read this in. Probably grade 11. We read the abridged version of this, which was broken up into three separate books. I liked this one, so did the rest of the class I'm pretty sure. What I remember most about it, though, is when we watched the movie adaptation. It was actually a mini-series from 2000, I think, (or whichever one had John Malkovich in it) and was about six hours long. My teacher was surprised that we were actually willing to watch the whole thing, and that we behaved while we did (we didn't watch all six hours at once, mind you).
So there are all the books I can remember reading for class in school. The list is longer than I thought it would be.
What books do you all remember reading in school, and what do you remember about them?