Booklist gems #2

If you're still teaching Holes (or some other 80s/90s/00s equivalent), here are some contemporary alternatives to consider.

Last month I was asked to present at a Victorian Association for the Teaching of English (VATE) conference about novels that are overused in the classroom. The full title of my presentation was Spring Clean Your Booklists: Contemporary Alternatives for Tired Set Texts. I may have previously mentioned how enthusiastic I am about making sure I never see certain books on booklists, so as you can imagine, I was genuinely thrilled to be asked to talk on this topic.

Today, I thought I’d share a small part of that presentation dedicated to a particular book I hope to never see on another booklist. If you happened to attend the VATE conference, but not my concurrent session, you can also access the full recording and slides, which include alternatives for many other outdated texts still taught in schools.

So, let’s turn to one of my biggest booklist bugbears…

If you’re still teaching Holes (or other 80s/90s/00s equivalents) at Year 7-8, try these instead: