As many highschoolers are required to take English and read the required books, I have decided to provide a detailed assessment of all the books one will read as a sophomore English II Honors student.
First of all, there is Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre is about an orphan girl growing up in her aunt and late uncle’s house. The story takes place in Victorian England and follows Jane’s life watching her grow as a person and eventually find love. Jane Eyre scored significantly higher among the females who participated in the polling versus the boys that participated, but had a combined average of 4.7 on a scale of 1-10.
The second work read by the sophomores was the play Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar is primarily about the conspiracies and plots taking place against Caesar during his reign. It is written by none other than William Shakespeare, so many found it difficult to read but still enjoyable once they were able to divulge the meaning of the passages. Julius Caesar is opposite from Jane Eyre in the fact that Julius Caesar scored far better amongst the gentlemen than it did with the ladies who participated in the polls. Julius Caesar had an overall average score of 4.2.
The third book we read was called A Separate Peace. This is the story of two boys going to boarding school during the second World War. It follows along throughout the boys’ school year and the trials they face in their complicated friendship. This booked was generally well liked by all of the students and didn’t receive a rating under 3. The combined score for A Separate Peace was 6 out of 10.
The second to last book the sophomore class read was Fahrenheit 451. This book’s scoring was very diverse ranging from great scores of 7 and 8, then dipping as low as 1 ½. The book touches on the presiding issues of censorship in the world around us using a fictional dystopian society to portray censorship through the firemen. This book scored highest on the rating scale with a towering 6.65.
At the end of the day, high schoolers are required to read for school curriculum, but as you can see none of the books were disliked greatly by the majority. For the most part, the scores were all fairly close to medium and while none were anyone’s absolute favorite, they were generally well liked. At the end of it all, high school sophomores are going to have to read these books and as you can see, they really aren’t that bad.
