Books That Should Be Considered New Classics
These days, English classrooms are surrounded by American and European authors who are, most of the time, white males. This never-ending cycle of having to read books by the same kinds of authors has always disappointed me as an Indian teenager living in the United States. The so-called classics are just books by Shakespeare, Hemingway, Salinger, Dickens, Wilde (and more white male authors). Where is the diversity? How are students around the world, especially in Western society, supposed to learn about different people and cultures when they are only exposed to these “classics”? Humans are sponges - we absorb what we are surrounded by - so if people read diversely, they will learn a lot more about different people, cultures, races, and ethnicities.
This is why I believe reading diversely is vital, but what is the purpose of this entire article? Through this article, I hope that you all, as readers, can discover new books written by all sorts of authors who share the stories of different types of people from across the world. These books show what it’s like to be married off like a pig sold at a fair, the hard lives of immigrants, how illness impacts everything around a person, going through physical pain to protect your right to an education, and more. They teach you hope and lessons which you can relate to much more than rereading Romeo and Juliet for your English class.
Without further ado...here are the books I believe should be considered classics in a new, golden age of literature!
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Photo Credit: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, Bloomsbury (2008)
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
This book is one that makes you doubt every materialistic thing you own and realise the suffering experienced throughout the world. It’ll make you appreciate the life you have and is a work of fiction that brings every emotion out of you by observing the lengths people go to for love and a brighter future.
SUMMARY
Following classic, The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns is set against Afghanistan’s last thirty years, from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding. It puts the violence, fear and hope of a country in intimate, human terms. And is a tale of two generations brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives are inextricable from the history playing out around them.
It is a striking, heart-wrenching novel of an unforgiving time, unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love.
Photo Credit: A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman, Penguin Putnam Inc. (2003)
A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman
A Time to Dance shares how physical losses can’t affect or takeaway who you are as a person. It is a book written in true prose which shows the importance of people finding themselves, their confidence, and their strength.
SUMMARY
Padma Venkatraman’s inspiring story of a young girl’s struggle to regain her passion is told lyrically through verse that captures the beauty and mystery of India and the ancient bharatanatyam dance form. This is a stunning novel about spiritual awakening, art, and the human spirit.
An accident leaves Veda, a classical, Indian dance prodigy, a below-knee amputee. For someone used to receiving applause for her dance prowess and flexibility, adjusting to a prosthetic leg is painful and humbling. But Veda’s disability doesn’t rob her of her dreams. She begins again, taking beginner classes with the youngest dancers. Then Veda meets Govinda, a young man who approaches dance spiritually. As their relationship deepens, Veda reconnects with the world around her, and discovers who she is and what dance truly means to her.
Photo Credit: Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, Thorndike Press (2018)
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
This book is a lyrical memoir that shows what happens when the questions of curious, young children are unanswered. The story of the protagonist demonstrates the difficulties that can arise as a person of colour in a white world and how family is the one thing you can always depend on.
SUMMARY
Jacqueline Woodson, one of today’s finest writers, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerising verse.
Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, every line giving us a glimpse into the child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become.
Photo Credit: The Evolution fo Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly, Square Fish (2011)
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
For readers of adventure and science, this book is the perfect historical piece. I read this tens of times when I was younger due to the main character’s inquisitive nature which I related to.
SUMMARY
Calpurnia Virginia Tate is eleven years old in 1899 when she wonders why the yellow grasshoppers in her Texas backyard are so much bigger than the green ones. With a little help from her grandfather, an avid naturalist, she figures out that the green grasshoppers are easier to see against the yellow grass, so they are eaten before they can get larger.
As Callie explores the natural world around her, she develops a close relationship with her grandfather, navigates the dangers of living with six brothers, and comes up against what it means to be a girl at the turn of the century.
Debut author Jacqueline Kelly deftly brings Callie and her family to life, capturing a year of growing up with unique sensitivity and a wry wit.
Photo Credit: Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai, HarperCollins (2013)
Inside Out & Back Again by Thannha Lai
Inside Out & Back Again shares the story of an immigrant and her family as they are forced to leave their home country to enter America, a foreign place they have only heard about. It’s a story of hard work and having the will to keep living your life no matter the difficult situations you face.
SUMMARY
For all ten years of her life, Hà has only known Saigon. But, as the Vietnam War reaches her home and Saigon falls, Hà and her family are forced to flee and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, Hà discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food and the strength of her family.
Photo Credit: I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai, W&N (2014)
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
This book is the memoir of Malala Yousafzai, the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Malala was shot in the head trying to protect her country, her people, and the one thing she cared about more than anything: her right to a proper education.
SUMMARY
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education.
On October 9th, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive.
Instead, Malala’s miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest. I Am Malala is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by terrorism. It discusses the fight for girls’ education, a father who championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and brave parents who fiercely love their daughter in a society that prizes sons.
Photo Credit: Taking Flight by Michaela DePrince, Ember (2016)
Taking Flight by Michaela DePrince
Taking Flight shares the harsh conditions and story of Michaela DePrince who lived in an orphanage for years of her young life since she lost her entire family. It shares how she was adopted but her troubles continued as, due to the colour of her skin, she was seen as an outsider.
SUMMARY
The extraordinary memoir of Michaela DePrince, a young dancer who escaped war-torn Sierra Leone for American ballet. DePrince was known as girl Number 27 at the orphanage, where she was abandoned and tormented as a “devil child” for a skin condition that makes her skin appear spotted. It was at the orphanage that Michaela would find a picture of a beautiful ballerina en pointe and the course of her life would be changed.
Aged four, Michaela was adopted by an American family, who encouraged her love of dancing and enrolled her in classes. She studied at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at the American Ballet Theatre and is currently a member of the Dutch National Ballet’s junior company. She has appeared in the ballet documentary, First Position, as well as on Dancing with the Stars, Good Morning America, and Nightline. In this engaging, moving, and unforgettable memoir, Michaela shares her dramatic journey from an orphan in West Africa to one of ballet’s most exciting rising stars.
Photo Credit: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, HarperCollins (2017)
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
This book needs no introduction given how many headlines it has made. It shares the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement and the heritage and history you carry with the colour of your skin alone.
SUMMARY
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between the poor neighbourhood she lives in and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.
Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. With some calling him a thug or a drug dealer, protesters take to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. But, what everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.
But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community and endanger her life.
Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl’s struggle for justice.
Photo Credit: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, Penguin (2013)
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Another book that needs no introduction, The Fault in Our Stars perfectly encapsulates the strength you must carry to get through your illnesses and difficulties. It teaches readers the power and beauty of love at all times and ages.
SUMMARY
Despite a tumor-shrinking medical miracle buying her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal. But her life changes when Augustus Waters appears at her Cancer Kid Support Group.
Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green’s most ambitious and heartbreaking work, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.
by Manasa Boppudi
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