I decided to read the books the kids have been assigned so I could answer their questions, if they had any. I'd read some of these before, while others were new to me.

19. Lord of the Flies, by William Golding

A group of English schoolboys survive a plane crash on a deserted island. They try to form a civilized society, but it soon deteriorates into savagery. Like a lot of classic novels of the mid-20th century, it's pretty bleak.

20. 1984, by George Orwell

A futuristic dystopian novel about a society in which everyone is watched all the time by "Big Brother." There is no hope, there is no freedom, and everything you think you know and remember is suspect because every bit of history is being constantly rewritten to suit the politics of the moment. It's a satire of Stalinism turned up to 11, but some of the ideas put forth are still relevant -- like every bit of your data being available to look at by authorities (it's notable that sales of this book suddenly went up last summer after Edward Snowden publicized some information about the NSA). I'd read this one before, and I still maintain my opinion that this is one of the most unpleasant books I've read (and I'm pretty sure that's the point).

21. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I read this one in high school, but had long since forgotten most of the details. Next to the other books the students are reading, this one is downright lighthearted. A con artist of sorts, Jay Gatsby, goes to great lengths to win the heart of the woman he loves. She responds, or seems to, though it's doubtful she cares about him as much as he cares about her, and he idealizes her so much that if he did win her heart he'd be in for a rude awakening, since nobody's that perfect.

22. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

Another dystopian novel, though not nearly so unpleasant as 1984. Babies are made in labs and each person is designed to do a certain task and occupy a certain social stratum (natural reproduction is forbidden, and words like 'father' and 'mother' are obscenities). Everyone takes a drug called soma to make them content. Persons who don't fit in are cast out.

With these literary selections, it seems like it's a depress-the-kids semester. Fortunately, for every depressing novel, there are a hundred thousand funny YouTube videos for the kids to watch on their Chromebooks.

"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”

- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland