Boy, THAT’S going to be gone soon. At least in the South, for sure. And the Midwest. And.....

Lord Of The Flies - I think we ended up watching the 1990 film in high school instead of reading the book. That’s hilarious. (The scene in the 1990 film when the boulder lands on Piggy and kills him is a howler.) Making kids watch the 1963 film would be an even bigger howler.

To Kill A Mockingbird - This book does a decent job of evoking childhood but I found the preciousness of the whole thing a little cringey in high school and I’m guessing if I were to read it NOW I’d find the plot miserably contrived. I really liked when I finally found out Ebert reviewed the movie and was lukewarm on it too.

The Great Gatsby - Kids are going to be concentrating on the moral of the whole thing, the commentary on the American Dream, and not the prose. The prose is wonderful, putting you right there in the 1920s. That’s what you end up reading as an adult. It’s gonna be lost on kids unless they’re fascinated by the 1920s which they probably won’t be.

The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton’s work struck me as probably ONLY readable by high schoolers. I can’t picture adults getting into it.

1984 - Hope kids keep reading this, though with the sad realization that both sides of the political spectrum think that it’s their book.

I didn’t actually answer your question. I hope they’re not reading junk like Hunger Games. The library around here has fucking PILES of Young Adult stuff, PILES of it, all with attractive book covers and the like meant to suck kids in. I wonder if it’s working. There sure does seem to be a glut of this sort of thing.