We need to read about race; we don't need to read Jodi Picoult

Lit circle books.  That delightful middle ground between teacher selected and student choice text.  The space where we tell students:  We've picked these books, but we picked them because we think you'll like them and because they might be easier for you to read.  We also implicitly say: We picked these titles because we think there is something in them worth reading and thinking about.

A little circle book is still a teacher selected text.  As such, we as teachers have a responsibility to pick texts that are well written and which inspire connections, analysis, and discussion.

Which is why we cannot pick pop fiction, even when it is sold as "the most important novel [the author] has ever written" and an attempt to "expand our cultural conversation about race and prejudice" (from The Washington Post, posted on jodipicoult.com).  That leads us to Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult, my most recent audiobook and a book recommended as a lit circle choice for senior students.  The book is about racism in America today, a topic we absolutely should be exploring -- just not with this book.

Small Great Things flattens out this complex, uncomfortable topic into a straight line narrative with stereotyped characters, preachy dialogue, and an unrealistic, ridiculous conclusion.  So many other recent books -- Just Mercy, The Hate U Give, American Boys, The New Jim Crow, Americanah, X, and Between the World and Me -- handle the topic of American racism in all of its messy complexity in more mature, thoughtful, and unique ways than Small Great Things does.  Any of those texts would make an excellent lit circle choice and would elicit the kind of reading we want and need students to do.

Of course we could also infuse classics like Beloved, The Color Purple, Native Son, and Narrative in the Life of Frederick Douglass into our lit circle repertoire.  Too often, however, these books are dismissed because teachers assume students find them "boring" or "hard" or "not engaging," so we don't even try them with students.  I wonder, though, if we shouldn't be using these texts more often. Are "kids these days" really not willing to read these books, or are we assuming the worst, shrinking our expectations, and shortchanging students in the process?

No doubt the books listed above can be a struggle to read and the ideas in them are hard to tackle, but I would propose that is exactly the kind of book we should be handing to kids with the teacher stamp of approval.  We need to say explicitly:  Read this, kiddo.  It's good for you, like broccoli and going to bed early, and you will be a better person for it.  The challenge and frustrations are worth it in the end.  Handing students challenging text says to them:  We know you can handle this.  We have actual high expectations, and, together, we are going to meet those expectations.

Kids might pick up Small Great Things as a choice book, and that's awesome.  We cannot, however, hand it to them, even as a lit circle choice, as an endorsement of quality literature.  Let kids choose pop fiction on their own.  It's our responsibility as ELA educators to use the precious little time we have with teacher selected books, including lit circle choices, to put quality, challenging texts in their hands.

We get to pick some of the texts students read, so we must choose carefully.