Study Skill 14.7 Classic Books for Current Bookshelves

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At Mizzou Academy, we strive to teach a multiplicity of lived experience stories. This includes stories taught across cultures, geography, and time. Recently a teacher education student challenged us to compile a list of recommended classics that were over 100 years old.

This question led us down a fascinating literary rabbit hole.

What makes a book a classic?
What about books and stories that are well over a hundred years old?
What about classic books that are less than fifty years old?
What contemporary texts should we pair with these older texts?
When teaching these titles, what considerations do we need to remember about representation and culturally responsive reading*?

*Learn more about culturally responsive reading in this article by Dr. Fishman-Weaver here.

The book list grew. The sub-categories grew. Even the historical period from the original challenge shifted…. As is so often the case, one story connected to another and another and so forth. Teaching from one context compels us to consider another context.

As educators, we have the responsibility to teach and celebrate a multiplicity of stories. To do so, we must consider whose stories get told, studied, and celebrated, as well as which stories are missing. As an educator, I want all of us to cultivate the practice of reading outside of our cultural comfort zones. We read to learn, connect, and understand, and I often encourage students to choose texts that teach them about the lived experiences they haven’t lived” (FIshman-Weaver, 2021).

What follows is a book list compiled by five educators and lovers of literature. These classic texts include stories that have challenged and inspired us, stories we return to again and again, and stories that we love to teach and share with young people.

Thank you to Jill Clingan, Brain Stuhlman, Lou Jobst, Dr. Sherry Denney, and Dr. Kathryn Fishman-Weaver for contributing to this project.

Ancient Texts for Modern Readers

The Ramayana

The Bible

The Koran

The Tao Te Ching Lao Tzu (6th C. BC)

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Beowulf

The Art of War Sun Tzu (5th C. BC)

Aesop's Fables Aesop

The Aeneid Vergil

The Iliad and The Odyssey Homer

The Brothers Grimm Hans Christian Andersen

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare William Shakespeare (~1600)

Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes (1605)

Classic books published between 1800-1930

Little Women Louisa May Alcott (1868-1869)

Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen (1813)

Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen (1811)

Emma Jane Austen (1847)

Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte

The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll (1865)

Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad (1899)

A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens (1859)

A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens (1843)

Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevski (1866)

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (1845)

The Hound of the Baskervilles Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1902)

The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)

The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1892)

The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway (1926)

The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka (1915)

The Gift of the Magi O. Henry (1905)

Les Misérables Victor Hugo (1862)

White Fang Jack London (1892)

The Call of the Wild Jack London (1903)

Anne of Green Gables L.M. Montgomery (1908)

Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw (1913)

Frankenstein Mary Shelley (1823)

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson (1886)

Gulliver’s Travels Jonathan Swift (1726)

Ain't I A Woman Sojourner Truth (Delivered 1851)

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain (1884)

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain (1876)

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne (1870)

The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde (1890)

Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman (1855)

The Time Machine H.G. Wells (1895)

Classic books published between 1930-1970

Go Tell it On the Mountain James Baldwin (1953)

The Stranger Albert Camus (1942)

And Then There Were None Agatha Christie (1939)

Invisible Man Ralph Ellison (1952)

Catch 22 Joseph Heller (1961)

Siddhartha Herman Hesse (1951)

A Raisin in the Sun Lorraine Hansberry (1959)

Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neal Hurston (1937)

To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee (1960)

One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1967)

1984 George Orwell (1949)

Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger (1951)

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939)

The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1943)

The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank (1947)

A Wrinkle in Time Madeleine L'Engle (1962)

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou (1969)

The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath (1963)

Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys (1966)