A total of 1,194 voters picked the most essential reading required for students. Using data from Goodreads released in January 2023, Stacker compiled a list of 50 timeless books, plays, and epic poems commonly found on high school reading lists. Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” and Ashley Hope Pérez’s “Out of Darkness.”Ĭertain books deserve a first, second, or maybe even a third read. The top three most frequently banned books were Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” George M. These bans affected 138 school districts in 32 states, impacting the books an estimated 4 million students were allowed to read.

According to Pen America, 1,648 different books were banned in schools across the United States between July 2021 and June 2022. The result of the push and pull between these groups then shapes the reading lists of millions across the country.

The novel was first published under the pseudonym ‘Currer Bell', but there was so much speculation about who could have written such a powerful and unusual novel that Brontë was forced to reveal her true identity.ĭenounced by some contemporary reviewers for Jane's ‘unchristian' rebellion against her lowly status, Jane Eyre has been seen since as an archetypal love story, a key text in the feminist canon, and a classic example of Victorian Gothic.While books are ostensibly for anyone with a yearning to learn, sometimes parents, teachers, and school board officials disagree on what kids should or shouldn’t read. Jane Eyre draws heavily on her attempts to make her way in life as the daughter of a Yorkshire parson, and Jane's miserable childhood years at Lowood have their roots in Brontë's experiences at the Clergy Daughters' School in Cowan Bridge, where poor living conditions led to the deaths of her older sisters Maria and Elizabeth. 'Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! – I have as much soul as you, and full as much heart!'īrontë had her own deeply personal reasons for making this plea. It is also a passionate expression of the rights of women who lacked the money and social connections to make their voices heard: It tells the story of an orphan girl turned governess who overcomes hardships and setbacks to marry her beloved employer, Mr Rochester.

Jane Eyre (1847) secured Charlotte Brontë's status as one of the greatest Victorian novelists.

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