Harper Lee: To Kill A Mockingbird

Scout Finch narrates the dramatic events of her childhood in Alabama in the 1930s, where her father, Atticus, defends a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman. This classic novel of the Depression challenges prejudices of many kinds and emphasizes children's instinct for justice.

Toni Morrison: The Bluest Eye

In the author's first novel, black eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove prays for her eyes to turn blue so that she will be as beautiful as all the blue-eyed children in America. The teenage MacTeer sisters tell the story of the year after the Breedlove family moves from the rural south to urban Lorain, helping readers to understand the poverty and misery leading up to Pecola's rape and the death of her baby.

Tim O'Brien: The Things They Carried

A collection of linked short stories about American soldiers in Vietnam, carrying malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated Bibles, each other. By retelling events from different points of view, O'Brien shows us what they carried inside. He says, "In many cases a true war story cannot be believed...Often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn't."

Luis Rodriguez: Always Running

By the age of 18, Luis Rodriguez was a veteran of gang warfare, police killings, drug overdoses, and suicides that claimed the lives of 25 of his friends and had driven him and so many others to despair in the 1960s and 70s. In part, Rodriguez survived the violence and desperation of his youth by writing down his experiences. While some want to ban this frighteningly vivid memoir from classrooms, others feel that the author offers a father's message of understanding and hope to his son and to thousands like him.

William Shakespeare: Othello

This is the story of the noble Moor who 'loved not wisely but too well,' his triumphs and his tragic downfall, his love for Desdemona, his fatal trust in the villainous Iago, and the obsessive jealousy that leads to murder and to suicide.

Sister Souljah: The Coldest Winter Ever

As the oldest daughter of a successful drug dealer, Winter lacks for nothing. But after her father moves the family from the projects to a mansion on Long Island, her beautiful mother is shot, her father is sent to prison, the family's possessions are seized, and Winter and her sisters become wards of the state. Finally, arrested and convicted of transporting drugs in a boyfriend's car, Winter receives a 15-year jail term. Written in rough and raunchy prose, this is a realistic coming-of-age story with a grave moral.

Tobias Wolff: This Boy's Life

A memoir of the young Toby Wolff that powerfully recreates the frustrations and cruelties of adolescence. Separated by divorce from his father and brother, and constantly on the move, Toby and his mother develop an almost telepathic relationship. Toby fights for identity and self-respect against his new stepfather's hostility, and his various schemes - running away to Alaska, forging checks, and stealing cars - lead to an act of outrageous self-invention.

Wild Card Book:

Many of you have other songs inspired by literature. We will be choosing one SIBL for a 'wild card book' slot. Feel free to enter yours! A $20 entry fee will apply.