Literature: Term 2 Super Pack

Purchase a discounted term (16 weeks) of classes! This includes:
The Giver - Lois Lowry (4 weeks)
This novel allows the reader to gain insight into the mind of an innocent child, versus the mind of a questioning adult, and how each of them recognizes the values of morals in every situation. The reader accompanies the narrator through his journey into adulthood. This novel allows the reader to see what truths about life and society are missed when seen through the lens of innocence. The students will be able to take a glance into a society that is free of crime and sadness. They will find out the cost of such a society and if it is worth that cost. This book also gives students the rare opportunity to decide for themselves how the book ends and why it is important.

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury (4 weeks)
In this novel, students will gain insight into a dystopian world, where all freedom is limited because the government limits the education of its citizens. Students will be able to see a glimpse of a world that is void of the ability to learn and research the information we are given.
 
As with all dystopian fiction, the novel amplifies troubling features of the world around us and imagines the consequences of taking them to an extreme. Bradbury can take a pulp fiction book and transform it into a parable of a society gone completely awry. A society in which firemen burn books and the state suppresses learning.

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley (4 weeks)
Mary Shelley's timeless gothic novel presents the epic battle between man and monster at its greatest literary pitch. In trying to create life, the young student Victor Frankenstein unleashes forces beyond his control, setting into motion a long and tragic chain of events that brings Victor to the very brink of madness. How he tries to destroy his creation, as it destroys everything Victor loves, is a powerful story of love, friendship, scientific hubris, and horror.

To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee (4 weeks)
In today's cultural climate learning about racism is particularly important. In To Kill A Mockingbird, students will explore themes of racial prejudice and injustice. It teaches us all about bravery, injustice, inequality, poverty, racism, corruption, hatred, and oppression. It exhibits how we should judge people by their character and not allow their appearance or culture to affect our judgment. This novel allows students to witness the injustice that others can experience.
 
Day and Time: Wednesdays, 12:45 - 1:45 PM ET
Bundle Duration: 16 Weeks
Dates: February 5 - May 28, 2025
No class April 16 (Spring Break)
Recommended for: Ages 13+ / Grades 8-9
Teacher: TTK Faculty
Required Materials:* 
The Giver, by Lois Lowry
Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
 
See more literature classes: thethinkingkid.org/literature
See more classes for ages 13+ / grades 8-9: thethinkingkid.org/grades-8-9
 
The Giver, by Lois Lowry
Life in the community where Jonas lives is idyllic. Designated birthmothers produce newchildren, who are assigned to appropriate family units. Citizens are assigned their partners and their jobs. No one thinks to ask questions. Everyone obeys. Everyone is the same. Except Jonas.
 
Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community. Gradually Jonas learns that power lies in feelings. But when his own power is put to the test—when he must try to save someone he loves—he may not be ready. Is it too soon? Or too late?
 
Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.
 
Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley's timeless gothic novel presents the epic battle between man and monster at its greatest literary pitch. In trying to create life, the young student Victor Frankenstein unleashes forces beyond his control, setting into motion a long and tragic chain of events that brings Victor to the very brink of madness. How he tries to destroy his creation, as it destroys everything Victor loves, is a powerful story of love, friendship, scientific hubris, and horror.
 
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
One of the most cherished stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.
 
*Students must have the books to participate in the course.