Textbook Adoption 2012 ELA Publishers and Content

T Literature-Comprehensive Grade 9 - 12: Presented by Holt McDougal

Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound & Sense; 11th Edition

ISBN - 13: 978-1-111-35151-9

ISBN -10: 1 - 111-35151-1

Wadsworth: Cengage Learning

67: The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell: a man hunts humans for fun

76: "The weak of the world were put here to give the strong pleasure. I am strong....I hunt the scum of the earth, lascars, blacks, Chinese, whites, mongrels...... "

76: "But they are men."

76: "Precisely," said the general. "That is why I use them. It gives me pleasure....."

(A general on a deserted island tells a stranded man how he plays his dangerous game by turning people into the hunted. If they refuse to be hunted, then he allows another man to fight and kill him. If one should escape he turns his dogs loose to kill the man.)

112: The Destructors by Graham Greene: a gang of boys destroy a man's house just for fun

115: "We'll destroy it." (speaking of a 200 year old house)

(The story shows how the boys plot to burn the house from the inside out and then burn it. )

125: (A conversation ensues in the last paragraph with the owner of the house where someone else begins to laugh at the destruction and replies, "There's nothing personal, but you got to admit it's funny.")

373: Rape Fantasies by Margaret Atwood (comical in nature, but could be offensive to anyone who had actually been raped. There is no sexual content.)

446: A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor: criminals murder a family

460: Good Country People by Flannery O'Connor: (a Bible salesman seduces a 17 year old girl who has a wooden leg the salesman steals as a "trophy".)

466: "Mrs. Hopewell could not say, "My daughter is an atheist and won't let me keep the Bible in the parlor." 466-467: (The Bible salesman spends time trying to convince the homeowner to buy a Bible. He proceeds to also spend time with her daughter who has a wooden leg.)

471: "During the night she had imagined that she seduced him."

473: (The salesman admires the fact that the girl does not believe in God.)

476: "He put the blue box in her hand. THIS PRODUCT TO BE USED ONLY FOR THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE, she read, and dropped it." (The man proceeds to drink from a flask and shows her a deck of cards with obscene pictures on the back of each card. The girl begins to scream at him to give her the wooden leg that he talked her into taking off. She accuses him of being like all Christians that say one thing and do another. He replies, "I hope you don't think I believe in that crap!...... "

477: (He grabs her wooden leg and his belongings and leaves. Before he is out of sight he tells the girl that he has gotten many interesting things in the past, one being a glass eye. There is no need for her to try and find him. He changes his name wherever he goes.)

Questions for the reader: (read the questions from the book)

4. Why does Joy/Hulga take an interest in the Bible salesman? What does she hope to gain by interacting with him? (sex)

6. What is the symbolic meaning of Joy/Hulga wooden leg?

507: Life After High School by Joyce Carol Oates: (story of a homosexual boy named Zachary who supposedly falls in love with a girl named Sunny and then commits suicide with Christianity being a key element)

508: "Most of the students were in fact practicing Christians, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist stock."

510: ....."Sunny would examine her beliefs, and question the faith into which she'd been born; she had not done so by the age of seventeen and a half. She was a virgin, and virginal in all, or most, of her thoughts. ...behind her back Sunny was laughed at...."

514: "Sunny knelt by her bed, hid her face in her hands, prayed. .... Have mercy on us both O God."

516: (a description of Zachary trying to talk Sunny into accepting an engagement ring and her refusal) (a description of Zachary taking his life and leaving behind a suicide note)

517: (a conclusion is drawn by the town that Zachary committed suicide because Sunny had rejected him and he was mentally unbalanced) (Sunny changes her name to Barbara when she enters college) 519: (a former high school classmate wants to meet with Barbara) "Tobias Shanks handed the much-folded letter across the table to Barbara...... "He wrote this? Zachary? To you?" ...... "And you--Did you--?"

520: (description of one boy's love for another boy) "I couldn't have loved Zachary Graff as he claimed he loved me because--I couldn't."

Barbara: "I wish you'd come to me and told me, back then. After -- it happened." Tobias: "I was too cowardly. I was terrified of being exposed.....Suicide is so very attractive to adolescents."..."After Zachary went to you, he came to me."

Questions:

3. What do you infer about the relationship between Zachary and Tobias? Cite evidence from the text for your opinion.

597: The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. LeGuin: (A town is full of pleasure, drugs, orgies; total "freedom" at the expense of a child) (a child is placed in total seclusion for the benefit of all)

601: (her condition is explained to children ages eight to twelve) "The terms (of her condition) are strict and absolute; there may not even be a kind word spoken to the child."

602: (in the last paragraph people leaving the town one by one is described as they walk into the darkness and do not come back)

1057: Tape by Jose Rivera (a play using curse words including the F word)

Questions:

4. What political overtones are suggested b the emphasis on lying and by the secret taping of everyone's lies?

1076: Time Flies by David Ives: (told from the point of view of mayflies' life cycle using the F word with a concentration on matting: 1079)

1083: "...Hot to copulate." "Talk about a quickie." "..vast sexual experience?" "multiple orgasms" "...hone one's erotic technique"

1084: (F word)

1085: "From your buggy eyes to the thick raspy hair on your legs to the intoxicating scent of your secretions."

1210: Los Vendidos by Luis Valdez (Mexicans portrayed as machines to be bought and sold)

1565: Fences by August Wilson (double standard given by use of the N-word and curse words) The reviewer's opinion of this book is that there is much better literature available. The examples provided in this publication are not quality examples that promote college level, formal English writing.

There are numerous uses of curse words, inappropriate terms, and by words found on the following pages.

87, 89, 138, 371, 375, 87, 192, 522, 1073, 1219, 1509, 1532, 1538, 1545, 1546

The F-word was found on 1057, 1064, 1213, 1084