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Harrison Bergeron

I remember a story about a dying woman who predicted that she would die when the last leaf of a plant outside her house falls. But the leaf actually did fall, and her friend put up a fake one there. The woman gets better but her friend dies because of pneumonia. This was from back when I was maybe 10-11yo and I remember it for some reason. I think the moral of the story is that willpower is strong, but idk about that ending.

Harrison Bergeron, in like 7th grade

I don’t remember the name of the short story, but I remember that it was about a town that abused someone they kept in a dungeon, and through their abuse they stayed unified. The teacher said it was a lesson in utilitarianism.

Snow Fox in second grade had the entire class sobbing.

gonna show my age here but the novel I am David by Anne Holm is still with me several decades after reading it for English Lit.

The one that sticks out for me is On The Sidewalk Bleeding. Wasn't even the most effed up thing we read in 9th grade, just had the most memorable name.

A retiring teacher at our school had his class read a story that lit a fire under a bunch of parents. It was The Star by Arthur C. Clarke

The one that stuck with me is The Cask of Amontillado.

I remember "To Build a Fire" and another one I can't name about a sniper duel during the Irish Civil War. The ending was wild.

Edit: Was literally called The Sniper feel kinda dumb about that.

The Veldt, by Ray Bradbury.

They didn't make everyone read it though, just us "gifted/advanced" kids. It was one of several short stories that were in a special program book that I had to read.

I still think those kids were brats.

Edit: just looked it up and this was supposed to be 9th grade English??? We fucking had to read that as 5th graders.

Edit 2: I need to stop thinking about this, they also made us read All Summer in a Day, Flowers for Algernon, and The Tell Tale Heart in that class

I’ve been trying to find this ridiculous sci-fi story I read in elementary school. I thought it was Ray Bradbury but then I recalled it was, I believe, from a collection edited by and/or with a foreword by Bradbury.

The scenario was that people in the future had become so dependent on mechanized transportation that their legs atrophied. Walking around normally was seen as very strange as everyone used these hovering personal transport devices. I think the story basically just described the protagonist walking around town and taking strolls at night and how odd everyone else thought it was.

Is no one going to say they don’t have this experience? I can’t remember a single short story I read in any English or literature class ever. I can barely remember any of the books I was forced to read. On the contrary I can remember numerous books I was not forced to read, like Hitchhikers guide.

Blood Music absolutely terrified me as a freshman in high school

I was behind in my literature class in like, 7th grade. The books were boring as hell and I couldn't make myself read the chapters at night.

Our teacher gave us a list of bonus titles to catch up for like, 1.5x the points of a normal book, so I jumped on the first one on the list.

I don't remember the title of the book unfortunately, but about one or two chapters or so, the either the main character or their neighbor or something...

Proceeded to put the book down and hand it back into the teacher and ask for a different one. I don't think she was aware of the content of the book

1984 for me. This was back in the early 80's so the book was a bit of a deal at the time. So very very glad I was introduced to this book at such a young age. Disturbing, but a good preparation for the world I was going to be living in as an adult.