“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it” – Atticus Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird

Winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, this novelist has long been recognized for her incredible contribution to the discussion around racial inequality. In honor of Harper Lee’s birthday, I’d like to highlight her famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird which we feature on this platform! Her first and only publication until 2015, To Kill a Mockingbird won a Pulitzer Prize and continues to captivate its readers with its insight and warmth. Set in the American South, the story is told from the perspective of six-year-old girl ‘Scout’. When Tim Robinson, an African American resident, is falsely accused of raping a white woman, Scout’s father Atticus agrees to defend Mr Robison in court – but the community turns against him and his client. Most definitely still relevant 60 years post-publication, this thought-provoking novel is a must-read for teachers and students alike!

Sarah

“You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise. […] Up from a past that’s rooted in pain I rise I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.” – Maya Angelou, Still I Rise (1978)

These empowering lines originate from the pen of award-winning author, poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou. Born on April 4, 1928, Marguerite Annie Johnson experienced sexual assault as a child and became involved in the sex industry as a young woman. Angelou suffered from racial injustices of the Jim Crow Laws in the American South and fought together with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X in the Civil Rights Movement. Her autobiographies and poems have been internationally recognised and been used for educational purposes ever since. On Lit4School we feature four of her poems: “Still I Rise“, “Caged Bird“, “Phenomenal Woman“ and “Amazing Peace“ as well as her inspiring autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969). Her works often feature encouraging speakers and passages demanding for protest and resistance against injustice, racial or gender stereotyping and discrimination, while also exploring female identity, family and loss. Angelou’s inspiring writing is suitable for interdisciplinary teaching projects on racism and segregation and should also be related to current cases of police violence against people of colour in the US or the Black Lives Matter protest movement.

Happy Easter, kind regards and stay safe everyone!

Simon

“The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
          Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
          For promis’d joy!” – Robert Burns

Steinberg’s tragical novel Of Mice and Men (1937) features two unequal friends during the Great Depression – the hardship of farm labourers in the face of unattainable dreams. The author of this powerful piece of literature, was born in 1902 and today, we celebrate his 118. birthday. John Steinbeck himself came to know hard work and later shaped that harsh reality of the depression into words which earned him a Nobel Prize for Literature. The title of the novel is an intertextual reference and was most probably taken from the line of Burns poem “To a Mouse” (1785) – which you find on top of this blogpost.

Even a text this old can trigger an experienced group of language learners to question how the individual can thrive in our world: How do we want our work to be – painful, anonymous or fruitful? How can there be a place for misfits in our hunt for wealth? And eventually, what is the value of a single life? If you dare a direct glance at the ugliness some people are enduring, Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men has just the right looking glass for you and your students.

Enjoy this timeless classic and stay safe everyone!

Rico

“Make me immortal with a kiss.” – Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus

First things first: It is not Christopher Marlowe‘s birthday today but he was christened on February 26th 1564 – his exact date of birth remains unknown. Marlow, also known as “Kit”, was an Elizabethan author, playwright and translator. His most famous work is Doctor Faustus about whom Johann Wolfgang von Goethe later also wrote two popular plays. It’s based on the historical Johann Georg Faust, a German alchemist, astrologer and magician who became a figure of folk legend.

Legends and myth however surround Marlow’s life and oeuvre: Some scholars believe he faked his death and, henceforth, wrote under different pseudonyms, most famously William Shakespeare. Although the Marlowe-Theory has not been verified, it adds to the popularity of both playwrights.

Lastly, Christopher Marlowe is worth a read – also an interesting figure in regard to discussing authorship in the realm of Shakespeare with your pupils.

Kind regards and stay safe,

Sarah-Sophia

“Books are a form of political action. Books are knowledge. Books are reflection. Books change your mind.” – Toni Morrison

Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison, aka Toni Morrison, was a well-established American essayist, novelist, book editor, and college professor. In the late 1960s, she became the first black female book editor at Random House in New York. She was also the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature and is best known for her unique critical views and accounts on slavery, race and racism in the US. In total, she was given 40 awards amongst which a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988 for her much-celebrated novel Beloved, historical fiction with supernatural elements inspired by the life of Margaret Garner, an escaped slave and mother from Kentucky. Her short story Sweetness also concerns itself with the difficulties of motherhood in a world where ethnic differences matter.

Let’s clink our glasses to Toni Morrison – Happy Birthday!

Sarah-Sophia

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” – Alice Walker 

We would like to wish a happy birthday to Alice Walker today! Not only has she shaped the world with her literary accomplishments, but her social activism as well. Winner of the National Literary Award and the Pulitzer Prize, her novel The Color Purple tells a story of abuse, oppression, and love. Teenager Celie is raped and abused by her father but finds love through the women in her life. She manages to find happiness, moving out with her girlfriend and starting a tailoring business. And while this character regains power and control over her life, many cannot say the same. Alice Walker has dedicated her voice to multiple causes throughout her life, including the Women’s Rights and Civil Right’s Movement. Thank you and Happy Birthday!

Stay safe (and warm)!

Sarah

“Let America be America again, let it be the dream it used to be.” – Langston Hughes

These first lines taken from Hughes’ poem “Let America be America again” (1935) seem now more topical than ever: In 2020 police violence, institutional racism and discrimination remained a current issue in the United States and beyond. Never has the ‘pursuit of happiness‘ seemed so far off. Recently, the land ‘where every man is free‘ has witnessed a change in government and the hope to overcome the inequalities – also expressed by the poem’s speaker – and to make this dream the reality of tomorrow, remains a vision and task for the Biden-Harris administration.

Today, we celebrate Hughes’ poetics and his 120th birthday, which marks the beginning of the ‘Black History Month’ – an annual observance for African-diasporan- and African-American history and heritage all around the world. As an award-winning poet, novelist, playwright, political activist and leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes reflected the joys, needs and frustration of black working-class life and brought African-American identity, racial inequalities and stereotyping on the literary agenda. His works offer colourful insights into African-American life in the 1920s and herald the recognition of black literature and arts.

On Lit4School, we feature the illustrated version That Is My Dream (2017) of Hughes’ “Dream Variations”, which is suitable for younger learners of English, and two works for intermediate learners – the short story Early Autumn and the poem mentioned earlier.

Kind regards and stay safe,

Simon

“Reading is my favourite occupation, when I have leisure for it and books to read.” – Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey (1847)

Anne Brontë was born as the youngest of six children. Her health was fragile, so she was mostly schooled at home. Her siblings and she started writing at a young age inventing the fantasy worlds of Gondal and Angria – the former being the creation of Emily and Anne. No prose has survived about Gondal, but 23 of Anne’s poems are set there and a few diary entries as well. Anne published a collection of poems with her two sisters and also wrote two novels: Agnes Grey (1847) and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), that sold quite well, however not as well as her sisters’ novels Jane Eyre (1847) and Wuthering Heights (1847. Anne worked as a governess for two families and had issues with controlling the children at her first employment, which she processed in Agnes Grey where the governess life is described very detailedly. Anne Brontë’s second novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall can be seen as one of the first feministic writings to be published. Her protagonist is a woman who leaves her abusive man and goes into hiding with her son making her living. Since women didn’t have the right to leave their husbands and taking their children with them was considered kidnapping, the book was heavily criticised but remains an Ode to freedom and women rights. Although Anne is probably the least well-known writer of the three sisters, her books and poems are beautifully written and it’s worth taking a look.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANNE!

Saran-Sophia

American writer Jerome David Salinger’s 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye was a great success and certainly his best-known work that also made him so famous. Probably a result of the book being immediately so intensely controversial as it talks about casual sex and prostitution and includes a debatable high amount of coarse language (for instance, you may count the expression “goddam” 237 times). But the novel was so popular that a “Catcher Cult” developed around it, celebrated by the many adolescent readers who could sympathise with protagonist Holden Caulfield. So it was banned in some countries and American schools even leading to several teachers discussing The Catcher in the Rye being fired. However, it still remained one of the most taught books in high schools despite being so frequently censored. And it still is very widely read all over the world with more than 10 million books have sold worldwide. Salinger wrote all his life and published several collections of short stories and novellas like Nine Stories including A Perfect Day for Bananafish and Teddy, and Franny and Zooey, two stories about two sisters and the perception of society.

Today, Salinger would be 122 years old and we celebrate this most celebrated author’s birthday – and wish you all a Happy New Year!

CHEERS!

Sarah-Sophia

Jane Austen is certainly one of the best known and most popular female writers of all time. Her works have always been in print even when not as celebrated as they are today. Her realistic narrations didn’t go along with the ideas of Romanticism and Victorianism so well but, her satirical critique of the popular sensational novels of the Romantic period are beloved again and often adapted especially by movies. It is, however, not only the social criticism in Austen’s novels (especially regarding women); but also, and maybe even more so, the beautiful love stories which make her narrations, up and foremost Pride and Prejudice of course, so exceptionally popular. Surely, Lovers of Romance all over the world root for enchanting Miss Elizabeth Bennet and aloof Mr Darcy. Not surprising, I must admit, declarations of love like “You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” have great power and I imagine many readers (or other audiences) melt away with sighs of longing. Apart from stirring up feelings, Austen’s works are also quite useful in an educational context for exploring the historical background of the times, especially regarding the social status of women who were depending on their husbands and therefore, of course, on marrying first. Thus, she criticises opportunistic relationships and also the prejudices accompanying class relations and social backgrounds.

So now here we are, happily celebrating her 245th birthday – Cheers!

Sarah-Sophia

“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” – Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, seemed to have found his purpose of birth in writing some of the most famous works of all time. In one way or the other, everyone probably heard of Tom Sawyer’s and Huckleberry Finn‘s (ad)ventures at and on Mississippi River. The crude language was subject of endless discussions back then and still is, it even led to the stories being banned in the US at first. Being the son of slave owners, Twain’s storytelling might often come across as racist, his anti-slavery views, however, are very obvious as well. His accounts on Jim and Huck demand for friendships across artificial boundaries, racist stereotypes and segregation. Twain was influenced by the dreadful realities of the time. As a boy, he spent several weeks each summer at his uncle’s farm where an elderly slave told him stories. Ron Powers, a biographer of Twain wrote: “race was always a factor in his consciousness partly because black people and black voices were the norm for him before he understood there were differences. They were the first voices of his youth and the most powerful, the most metaphorical, the most vivid storytelling voices of his childhood.”

Twain also engaged in critical writings on patriotism, religion and motivations for war: The War Prayer is a controversial poem emphasising that wishing for the victory of the own troops always goes hand in hand with wishing for the suffering of the enemies. Twain commented on the question if he would publish the poem anyway: “No, I have told the whole truth in that, and only dead men can tell the truth in this world. It can be published after I am dead.”

Having talked about those serious topics, I certainly don’t want to withhold a more amusing work of Mark Twain: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court tells the story of Yankee engineer from Connecticut who is hit on the head several times and finds himself at King Arthur’s court when he finally regains consciousness. With his superior knowledge of the future, he claims to be a magician, calls himself Sir Boss and turns the Middle Ages upside down. All in all, his narrations provide historical access and a unique contemporary view on slavery, religion and society in 19th Century America that is worth reading.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Mark Twain!

Sarah-Sophia

Who doesn’t know The Handmaid’s Tale? Most people probably have the TV series in mind which caused quite the stir when it came out in 2017 because of its incredible imagery and unique and repulsive dystopian, or ustopian how she would call it, concept. A ustopia is a world that combines utopia and dystopia. Atwood defines the utopian elements in The Handmaid’s Tale as the past, the time before everything went pear-shaped, and the future, the time when this totalitarian tyrannical episode would be part of history. Although it only recently conquered the screens, the novel was already written in 1984 and published a year later. She began writing it in Western Berlin and, thus, also got an insight of life in the GDR, Czechoslovakia and Poland and their regimes. 15 years later, the reality seemed to have changed completely and The Handmaid’s Tale far less likely.

“It looked as if, in the race between Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World – control by terror versus control through conditioning and consumption – the latter had won”, she writes 2011 in the Guardian article Margaret Atwood: the road to Ustopia which I find to be a very powerful statement. At present, the topic seems to be more relevant again, the future is a vulnerable little thing full of possibilities and uncertainties.

Margaret Atwood creates some possibilities in her works, addressing different current issues. Oryx and Crake circles around bio-engineering and to a certain extent the downsides of pharma lobbyism and, going hand in hand with that, also the aftermath of a viral pandemic that destroys human civilisation. In The Heart Goes Last, she explores a near future, a thought experiment about social security in exchange for freedom. A couple is offered a nice home and carefree life if they agree to be imprisoned every second month, then they alternate with another couple. Being imprisoned despite not being guilty, doing unethical work like euthanising people…how far is one willing to go for own advantages? How much can principles and morals be bent?

Margaret Atwood wrote 18 novels, ten short fiction collections and 21 poetry collections were published and it doesn’t end there. In any case, she provides a vast load of material to think about and discuss, that even encourages a differentiated discourse. I don’t want to miss this opportunity to mention a brilliant invention Atwood made: The LongPen. It is, especially in times of social distancing, an incredibly useful device that makes signing books possible from anywhere in the world. The act of signing is done with a tablet, laptop ect. at the one end and is received by a robot hand holding a pen at the other end. If our current situation holds on much longer, the LongPen might definitely come in ‘handy’, I’d say!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Margaret!

Sarah-Sophia

We celebrate Lit4School’s first birthday: One year ago, we launched the new Lit4School website, which was indeed not a Gunpowder plot but an attempt to provide teachers of English and German with authentic literature and media for their classes.

Up to the present day, we feature a great variety of more than 300 texts for all school types and grades. Our selection includes silenced voices, offers intercultural perspectives, promotes democratic and political education and provides transparency by outlining our arguments in favour. Lit4School offers an effective, timesaving and topic-based research on literature and media that meets the requirements of the curricula. As a non-profit database, we do and will not charge any fees.

Thanks, everyone, for making this possible! To help us grow further, share your suggestions for literature and media with us.

Kind regards and stay safe,

The editors

“Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them.” – Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

This recognisable quote from Mark Haddon’s mystery novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time shows the mind and thoughts of young Christopher Boone, a boy on the Asperger’s spectrum. On his quest to find out who killed the neighbour’s dog by the name Wellington, Christopher uncovers the truth about his parents’ break-up. The diarylike text offers unique perspectives into the teenage life of a boy with special needs and how he faces his challenges in everyday life. Amazingly, Haddon created a heart-warming story for both, children and adults that brought to us how it is to be different from everyone else.

The award-winning author is also known for his Agent Z series and wrote many works of fiction for children and young adults. But it is for his Curious Incident, the fantastic approach of the adventures of a special boy who solves a murder mystery, that we celebrate him today.

Happy Birthday, Mark!

Sarah-Sophia and Simon

Who doesn’t know Vermeer’s mysteriously beautiful Girl with a Pearl Earring? The painting that creates so many questions: Who is the girl? Why does she look so solemnly? Where might she be, where come from? And what on earth is up with that very prominent accessory of her’s?

Tracy Chevalier is the women who told the painting’s story. She designed answers to many of the questions and gave the face a background, a “how it could have been”. Her novel Girl with a Pearl Earring (1999) is available in 38 languages and has sold over 5 million copies in 15 years. Additionally, a film starring Scarlett Johansson was produced, so all in all a major success.

She also wrote other historical novels inspired by characters, events or circumstances of the past like Burning Bright which follows painter-poet William Blake or Reader, I Married Him featuring short stories inspired by Jane Eyre. With New Boy she gave Othello a completely new setting making the story relatable and appealing to a wider readership. It shows that Shakespeare’s original still has relevance today.

It is delightful that the past still inspires adventurers and narrators in the present. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Tracy!

Sarah-Sophia

“For there is one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” – Oscar Wilde

And here we are, still talking about the wild(e) Oscar and his incredible works. In mind, we have an extravagant dandy with a colourful character, an iconic figure of style much like those he describes in his works. 1854 he was born in Dublin to a wealthy family who appreciated the Arts, 166 years later we celebrate his art and his birthday. Thanks to him, we always have our ill cousin Bunbury to visit if we need to escape society for a bit. We also owe the beautifully gruesome tragedy of Dorian’s moral decay to him, a novel that I personally just couldn’t put down. And let’s not forget his splendidly horrific fairytales that create a peculiar kind of melancholic joy. His elegant brilliance with words forged many extraordinary and sometimes slightly controversial quotes which often helped me find a start for cards and letters; If you don’t know how to begin, begin with Wilde – success guaranteed.

“I have nothing to declare, except my genius” – Oscar Wilde

To this genius, I raise my glass: Let’s have a Wilde one – Happy Birthday Oscar Wilde!

Sarah-Sophia

“The air was motionless, but when you opened your mouth there was just a faint chill, like a chill from a glass of iced water before you sip, and now again a leaf came drifting – from nowhere, from the sky.” – Katherine Mansfield, Miss Brill

Now that the days are getting shorter and colder, it’s time to cuddle up inside with a good short story! In honour of Katherine Mansfield‘s birthday, we’d like to share some of our favourites of hers. The modernist author’s short stories are packed with emotions subtly hidden in interactions. In Miss Brill, we get to know a character filled with loneliness, alienated from the world. And although Miss Brill finds moments of happiness, these too are crushed by a smug comment on her appearance. From one lonely soul stuck in her own world to another, The Garden Party tells a story of inner conflict and class consciousness. Laura, the protagonist, is ripped from her bubble of wealth and comfort when a neighbour dies on the same day her family is planning to host a party.

Mansfield’s short stories make the reader aware of the superficiality of social conventions and confront us with the complex and often darker spheres of human nature. If you are looking for a comprehensive introduction to her short stories – here is an article from the British Library.

Happy reading! Do you have any short stories you absolutely love? Share them with us!

Sarah and Simon

We would like to wish a happy birthday to John Green today! The 43 year-old award-winning author is known for his contemporary, realistic teen fiction. His ability to tell love stories full of beauty and pain is remarkable, and we hope there are many more such novels to come. Take a look at our entries on The Fault in Our Stars or Looking for Alaska for an introduction to some of his works.

Also, check out John Green’s podcasts Dear Hank and John and The Anthropocene Reviewed for some humurous advice and insights on the ins and outs of life. A great listen when you’re on the go or just looking for some heartfelt fun!

Have fun exploring!

Sarah