In my gifted class, the senior summer reading list was one out of a list like Remembrance of Things Past, The Faery Queen, Ulysses (James Joyce)--not really thoughts that stick with you. More helpful were relatable stories like The Catcher in the Rye and Lord of the Flies (10th grade). If religion is allowed, The Screwtape Letters. Everyone knows LOTR, they could read the backstory, The Silmarillion. Great for an example of how hard it is to invent a whole cosmology. In sci-fi, The Ringworld is quite an epic.
In my gifted class, the senior summer reading list was one out of a list like Remembrance of Things Past, The Faery Queen, Ulysses (James Joyce)--not really thoughts that stick with you. More helpful were relatable stories like The Catcher in the Rye and Lord of the Flies (10th grade). If religion is allowed, The Screwtape Letters. Everyone knows LOTR, they could read the backstory, The Silmarillion. Great for an example of how hard it is to invent a whole cosmology. In sci-fi, The Ringworld is quite an epic.