The only book on your list that I’ve read is Secret Life of Bees. I read it because my older daughter loved it and sent it to me, and I loved it, too. There is a huge emphasis in the book on the adoration of the “Black Madonna.” As a Catholic, I really liked this.
The story was about a young girl who runs away from a bad situation and stays with a black woman who keeps bees and is involved in the adoration of the Black Madonna. I don’t remember too much more of the plot, but it was a good story that took me about three hours to read, and it was one of those books that I had a hard time putting down for tasks like my job, sleeping, eating, etc.
My only problem with it for high school is that it is definitely a woman’s book, what we would call a “beach read.” and I think many of the boys won’t “get it.” You’re a man–do you “get it” when your wife buys nubby “textured” pillows, asks if the plaster can be stripped in the upstairs bedrooms because there might be “shiplap” underneath, and spends three hours making biscuits from scratch instead of breaking open the Pillsbury Crescent rolls, all the while quoting someone named Joanna Gaines?
OTOH, perhaps your son might find himself better understanding “girls” and “women” by reading this “chick book.” I don’t think it’s a distortion of what a young teenaged girl goes through when she’s growing up. It’s a little unusual compared to what most of us went through! But at the time I was growing up, I thought I was the only one experiencing all those emotions and insecurities and longings! So maybe it wasn’t so unusual after all.
I and my daughter have read other Sue Monk Kidd books and didn’t like them at all. But I don’t think the message in “Bees” is a harmful feminist indoctrination or will be harmful to your son or any of the others in the class. I think it’s a well-written “coming of age” story written for women, but useful for men.
I personally would rather the class read "The Member of the Wedding,’ which is also a wonderful coming of age story about a young girl and an older black woman. But that’s just me, and I’m not the teacher. I also happen to love Julie Harris and Ethel Waters, who starred in the Broadway production of this play.
Sorry I can’t help you with the other books. My husband is a huge fan of Lord of the Flies, which he had to read in Junior High. I agree with others that this is a classic that has been taught to teenagers for decades. I missed it though, but I think in my class that we had to read Call of the Wild, which I really hated and I told the teacher why I hated it, and got an A on my report. In my opinion, this would be a better “boys” coming of age story, but there’s a lot of blood in it. Icky.
I think it’s a good education for children and teens to be required to read books that they don’t like and more importantly, to be taught to articulate in writing and speech WHY they don’t like the book. A lot of people nowadays would profit immensely if they had those skills–perhaps all the Trump haters would actually be worth listening to if they could say something other than, “He’s such a idiot.”
