School: Years 9–10 (Realschule)
List of entries
This Oscar-winning short film examines prejudice, stereotyping, racial profiling and police violence. Trapped in a time loop, the black graphic designer Carter James has to go through his worst nightmare over and over again. Every morning, when James wakes up and puts a step in the streets of New York City, he is confronted by […]
Named after happiness itself, Felix hasn’t found his happily ever after yet… let alone been in love. How come everyone else makes it look so effortless? He worries that being a black transgender young man could keep him from finding love and make him a target. This fear is confirmed when he receives transphobic messages […]
Mad Libs is a game that shows how a simple concept can lead to endless possibilities. Each page of a Mad Libs booklet offers a new story in the shape of a “fill in the blanks” text. Behind each gap, you’re told what kind of a word is supposed to fill it: an adverb, a […]
Making its debut in 1997, Zits comics narrate the everyday life of 15-year-old Jeremy; a teenager living in Ohio. But suburban life and high school come with their own set of problems, including but not limited to parents, school and girls. Whether it be about the embarrassment that parents are to teens or the other […]
Calvin may seem like a normal 6-year-old living in suburban America with his family and stuffed tiger “Hobbes”. To Calvin though, Hobbes is very much alive and his best friend and companion. Named after two philosophers, the pair is regularly immersed in deep conversations, often humorously lacking in the childlike expressions you would expect. But, […]
“You can have anything,” she said. “Once you admit you deserve it.” No one likes to be the new kid. All Amanda wants is to blend in and find friends. That plan fades away when she meets Grant and falls for him immediately. As they spend more time together, she feels herself opening up to […]
This novel narrates an unlikely friendship between two outsiders and what a difference standing up for one another can make. David longs to be a girl, but is labelled by others as gay or a freak. Leo just wants to be invisible at school, but defends David against bullies in a fight. They stick together, […]
This Shakespearean sonnet from Renaissance belongs to the Fair Youth sequence focussing on love, passion, beauty and seperation. The persona misses the beloved one and describes the beauty of spring that is not enjoyable because they were apart. This is an easily accessible example of a Shakespearean sonnet that can be used well for comparison […]
The Canterbury Tales are a medieval collection of 24 different short stories written in verse and prose. Frame action is a storytelling contest between a couple of pilgrims on their way from London to Canterbury. The characters such as the Knight, the Nun, the Cook, the Pardoner and the Wife of Bath represent different estates […]
“Article 5: Children are considered valid citizens when conceived by a married man and wife. All other children are to be removed from the home and subjected to rehabilitative procedures.“ In this dystopian world, the Bill of Rights has been replaced by the Moral Statutes after a war rampaged through the United States. Children out […]
Ben has finally gathered the courage to come out to their parents as nonbinary. But what should be the people who love them most in the world, refuse to accept Ben’s identity. They’re quick to kick Ben out, leaving them lost and alone. They have no choice but to call their estranged sister Hannah and […]
This dystopian novel details the journey of a father and his son through the post-apocalyptic remains of the United States. Their sole goal being survival, the two travel across the barren terrain with nothing but a gun, two small backpacks and a shopping cart. On their journey, they encounter individuals who are immediately treated as […]
This coming-of-age autobiography by award-winning author Maya Angelou features a memoir of racism, trauma, identity and hope. The title refers to the first line of the third stanza of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem “Sympathy” (1899), which reflected the perspective of a caged bird’s longing for freedom and its wish to escape its prison. As Dunbar’s […]
Here, four of Shakespeare’s most famous plays are rewritten for a younger audience: Twelfth Night, Macbeth, The Tempest, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. They are shorter and told from the perspective of the side characters Malvolio, Banquo, Caliban, and Peaseblossom. I, Shakespeare might be useful if you want to avoid reading the longer originals but […]
These two one-act plays by award-winning author Drew Hayden Taylor on belonging, identity, hope, tradition and modern life examine the past, present and the future of the Canadian First Nations from a teenage perspective. Toronto at Dreamer’s Rock follows teenage boy Rusty to the spiritual place of his ancestors. While sipping his beer at Dreamer’s Rock, he […]
This award-winning play offers five perspectives on alienation, forced assimilation and removal, hope and the struggle to find one’s identity. It explores the stories of five Aboriginal children that were taken away from their parents by the Australian government. As part of the Stolen Generation, Sandy, Ruby, Jimmy, Anne, and Shirley have lived very different […]
This story is the kick-off novel to the Flavia de Luce Mystery Series set in 1950, England. Flavia is an 11-year-old with an odd knack for chemistry. Life at a country manor can be boring, but her older sisters teasing her gives Flavia the perfect opportunity to plot her revenge. This plan is derailed however, […]
This award-winning young adult fantasy novel about murder, coming of age, friendship and belonging follows baby-boy ‘Nobody’ who, after his family is murdered, is adopted by the supernatural inhabitants of a nearby graveyard. ‘Nobody’ also called ‘Bod’ grows up with ghosts, ghouls, vampires, witches and werewolves, who become family and friends to him. In and […]