As the first semester at King’s Way comes to an end, English classes are wrapping up their first class books, and it’s time to decide which one is best. Coming straight from the upperclassmen and teachers, people from around the school ranked class books, so we can see which one is the school-wide favorite out of the reading list. 

In addition to multiple free-reading books that students get to choose, each year reads two different books as a class which allows for deep discussion and creative assignments. The books read in the first semester include: Animal Farm for freshmen, Death of a Salesman for sophomores, The Crucible for juniors, and finally Frankenstein for the seniors. 

In an interview with Mr Miller and Mrs. Holden, when asked how these books are chosen, they both said that they come together before the school year starts to discuss the English curriculum. While doing this, they get to pick what their focus is for the year and together, plan the class books to read throughout the year. 

When asked which books they would like to add to the reading list, interestingly, they both chose Of Mice and Men. Mr. Miller had previously chosen this book to teach, but said he changed it because students didn’t walk away liking it. He’d like to give it another chance, however. He says that if had more time to discuss it, he thinks he could get more people to thoroughly enjoy it. Mrs. Holden said that if it wasn’t already taken, she would like teaching The Great Gatsby; however, since Mr. Miller uses it later in the year, she’s just glad it’s being taught. Other options for Mr. Miller were Cry of the Beloved Country and Lord of the Flies, in which would preferably lead to a mock debate. 

Before Mr. Miller and Mrs. Holden got to know the student results, they were asked which they thought the students’ opinions were going to be. Mr. Miller thought that Animal Farm is pretty hit or miss with students, either being a quick favorite or soon becoming students’ least liked. Mrs. Holden said that The Crucible might be her classes’ favorite, because plays get people involved and there’s an accompanying movie, but she also noted that Frankenstein gets students into long discussions, relating the topic to real-life situations. 

Lastly from teachers, when it comes to their favorites, Mrs. Holden said that even though she didn’t enjoy it when she read it as a student, The Crucible is probably her favorite to teach. Both teachers emphasized that plays are really interesting to teach because it boosts student involvement and makes it interactive. Mr. Miller said that Death of a Salesman is compelling for that same reason, as well as having very interesting themes that are interesting to bring up in class. 

Finally, what do students think about all of this? In a survey with all upperclassmen, they all ranked these books out of one to five. Let’s start with Animal Farm. Similarly to what Mr. Miller thought, students’ votes on this were pretty scattered, but definitely trended to the negative. Next is Death of a Salesman. The highest vote for this play was a three, right in the middle. The Crucible’s results were the clearest to see, with 75% voted this at a four or higher. Finally for Frankenstein, this was also voted pretty much in the middle, with 60% of votes rated between two and four. 

The final question for the survey to students was “Which was your overall favorite?” The results are in… And the winner is unquestionably The Crucible. 60% of upperclassmen voted it as their favorite. Next is Animal Farm with 15%, followed by Death of a Salesman and Frankenstein, tied at around 12.5%. 

As the next semester begins, that means a whole different round of class books. If you read anything other than The Crucible, just know that there’s room for improvement and hopefully you’ll like the next book better!