Top 10 Recommended Reading List for Secondary One

Jonathan Livingston Seagull, written by Richard Bach and illustrated by Russell Munson, is a fable in novella form about a seagull who is trying to learn about life and flight, and a homily about self-perfection. Bach wrote it as a series of short stories that were published in Flying magazine in the late 1960s.  

In The Village by The Sea, Desai describes the poverty, hardships and sorrow faced by a small rural, community in India. Thul, a tiny fishing village not far from Bombay, continues to follow those rhythms of the seasons that have always been handed down. Hari and Lila were born and raised in the village, but now their family is falling into despair: the father to alcohol while the mother is seriously ill. As for money, that there is not even enough to meet their most basic needs. 

The Diary of Anne Frank, is a book of the writings from the Dutch language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. When this boisterous girl is suddenly cooped up in a set of small rooms with blacked out windows, which she has to share with another family who are virtual strangers to her, the effect on her “personal growth” is obvious.  

When the unconventional Durrell family can no longer endure the damp, gray English climate, they do what any sensible family would do: sell their house and relocate to the sunny Greek isle of Corfu. My Family and Other Animals, was intended to embrace the natural history of the island but ended up as a delightful account of Durrell’s family’s experiences, from the many eccentric hangers-on to the ceaseless procession of puppies, toads, scorpions, bats, geckoes, ladybugs, glowworms, octopuses, and butterflies, into their home. 

What happens when there is no one to turn to? Meet Mamo and Dani, each from different sides of the track. Each running away from something. There is a bullying father, sick mother, absent parents and child trafficking. As their separate stories are told they find each other when they are most lost. Each has something to give and share as their friendship grows on the uncertain streets of Addis Ababa. Elizabeth Laird’s heart wrenching teen fiction book is infused with hope.  

A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned –a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible. Not to forget, this is an allegory of the Russian Revolution during Stalin’s era. 

{N.B.. also Hunger Games and Divergent series} 

Jonas’s world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the Community. When Jonas turns twelve, he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now, it is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.  

Moral allegory and spiritual autobiography, The Little Prince is the most translated book in the French language. With a timeless charm it tells the story of a little boy who leaves the safety of his own tiny planet to travel the universe. From the many planets he visits, including earth, he learns  the vagaries of adult behaviour through a series of extraordinary encounters. His personal odyssey culminates in a voyage to Earth and further adventures which get readers to explore the themes of loneliness, friendship, love, and loss. 

On a little street in Singapore, the Ugly One’s body was dragged out of the Singapore River, and on another little street in Singapore, the children ate the offerings that were supposed to be for their deceased sister. A cab driver happy to make money off sex workers while looking down on them is told in ‘The Taximan’s Story’. Such are the stories recounted by the “doyenne of Singapore writers”, Catherine Lim who depicts Singapore society growing more cosmopolitan, yet we see Singaporeans losing touch with their roots.  

A one-woman play (monodrama) by Stella Kon, first performed in 1984, follows Singapore Nonya Emily Gan in the bittersweet reflection of her life, going back and forth in time in the 50’s and 60’s in various roles as a society hostess, interfering matriarch, scheming daughter-in-law, possessive wife and grieving mother. Emily first arrived in the grand Emerald Hill mansion as a young bride in 1929, but as the drama ends, she is depicted as a lonely elderly widow with modern Singapore coming up around her.