School Book List Titles

Vanity Fair is a serialized novel by William Makepeace Thackeray, published from 1847-1848. The novel was subtitled Pen and Pencil Sketches of English Society, then changed to A Novel without a Hero in 1848. The novel’s characters generally lack positive qualities and are obsessed with social climbing and the acquisition of wealth. Vanity Fair has been adapted for film, television, and theatre. This guide uses the 2001 Penguin Classics edition. Content Warning: The source material... Read Vanity Fair Summary

... Read Video Blues Summary

... Read Vietnamerica Summary

... Read Vile Bodies Summary

Villette, published in 1853, is the last novel by Charlotte Brontë and the first published under her real name, her previous novels having been published under the name Currer Bell to conceal her identity as a female. Tracking one woman’s journey towards self-discovery against the burden of Victorian ideals, Brontë presents her most progressive and biographical work in the story of Lucy Snowe. Like Lucy, Brontë endured intense personal tragedy, having lost all her adored... Read Villette Summary

War and Peace is a historical fiction novel by Russian author Leo Tolstoy that was first published between 1865 and 1869. The story charts the alliances and wars between Russia and France at the beginning of the 19th century, following the lives of characters swept along by historical events and examining key themes like Living a Meaningful Life, The Purpose of Suffering, and History and Free Will. Heralded as one of the most important novels... Read War and Peace Summary

War Horse is a children’s historical fiction novel by Michael Morpurgo. The book was first published in Great Britain in 1982 by Kaye & Ward and was a runner-up for the Whitbread Book Award in the same year. The book is told from the point of view of a young horse named Joey and chronicles his journey and the relationships he builds with his various owners during World War I. The beloved novel is a... Read War Horse Summary

Originally published in 1994, Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals primarily focuses on the 1957-58 school year at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, during which Beals was a member of the Little Rock Nine—the first group of Black students to attend the formerly all-white high school of 2,000 white students. Beals’s book, written for young-adult readers, speaks of her early life and her many adult accomplishments. Encouraged by school administrators and local... Read Warriors Don't Cry Summary

... Read War with the Newts Summary

Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since, first published anonymously in 1814, was Scott’s first novel. Often comical and with aspects of a picaresque novel, Waverley depicts the travels of the English soldier Edward Waverley during the Jacobite uprising of 1745. Scott was a celebrated poet and writer of works such as Ivanhoe and The Lady of the Lake. He is best known for his nuanced depictions of Scottish life. Waverley was wildly... Read Waverley Summary

... Read Ways to Make Sunshine Summary

... Read We Are Not Free Summary

... Read We Are Not from Here Summary

... Read Weasel Summary

... Read We Dream of Space Summary

... Read We Hunt the Flame Summary

... Read We Lived Happily During the War Summary

... Read We're Not from Here Summary

“We Wear the Mask” is one of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s most influential works. Appearing in 1895 in his second poetry volume Majors and Minors, the poem reflects an unspecified collective, a “we” hiding behind a “mask,” which is used throughout the poem as an extended metaphor for survival tactics against oppression. “We Wear the Mask” stands as a poem about racism and oppression and the marginalized.Dunbar’s voice as a major American writer is varied and... Read We Wear the Mask Summary

... Read What I Carry Summary