I personally think the entire question is moronic because the parent ought to make the final decision (Christian school or not) on what the child reads. If a parent called me up and said "Is this list approved?" I would say, "I don't know...have you approved it?" I mean, Corin's wife just suggested...it's up to the parent to approve. I think the parent had the right to ask because this is a business transaction, but parents like that just get on my last good nerve.
I should've read through all the posts before responding the first time. That's exactly how she has approached it. She told the parent that, if there's a problem with a particular work, they should be the one to say to the child "I don't want you to read that." But she also was pretty strong in saying that they should have a reason.
Here's the list:
Fiction
Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest Gaines
Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Testament by John Grisham
The Glass Lake by Maeve Binchy
Enemies: A Love Story by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Tar Baby or The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Chosen by Chiam Potok
White Fang by Jack London
My Antonia by Willa Cather A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg
Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Night by Elie Wiesel
Summer of my German Soldier by Bette Greene
The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Mysteries
The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare by Lillian Jackson Braun
The Runaway Jury by John Grisham
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
“A” Is for Alibi by Sue Grafton
Vertical Run by Joseph Garber
I’ll Be Seeing You by Mary Higgins Clark
Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner
Science Fiction / Fantasy
The Martian Chronicles or Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Jurassic Park or The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
Perelandra by C.S. Lewis
2001: A Space Odyssey or Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
Non-Fiction
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
Shakespeare of London by Marchette Chute
Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey
Champions: Stories of Ten Remarkable Athletes by Bill Littlefield
Autobiography of Mark Twain by Samuel Clemens
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery by Russell Freedman
An American Childhood by Annie Dillard
Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landin
Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years by Sarah L. and A. Elizabeth Delany
Into Thin Air by John Krakauer
Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the World Series in 1919 by Eliot Asinof
In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle by Madeleine Blais
She Said Yes: the Unlikely Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall by Misty Bernall
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I think that's a pretty balanced list. She did get one complaint about Angela's Ashes because there is a (teenage?) sexual encounter. But again, if we say it's not happening, we're just avoiding reality. I think it far better to say it's happening and deal with why it's wrong.