Novels are an escape from reality where one can learn, experience in leisure time, and incorporate newfound ideas. Unfortunately when students do not get a chance to pick their novels they are forced to experience events in the book that they cannot connect with. Students are limited to the novels they read by their english curriculum in their schools.

Students are expected to answer questions, take exams, and complete various projects on the novels they read. How do you expect someone to understand and interpret a novel, when they cannot connect with what they are reading? There is no motivation to complete these tasks given by the teacher. When students’ fail to grasp the novel its because they cannot connect with it.

“All the King’s Men” is a novel that most 11th grade students will be reading. Some of these students found it hard to connect with the 1930’s theme of political disputes. “Reading a book you don’t like can make it hard to focus on the book, said junior Camille Dulic.

By having five different books teachers can give students a chance to find the right genre or topic that would interest them. This method not only helps the students, but the teachers as well. Teachers constantly struggle to push students to read a chapter each night. Teachers are then forced to make the students read through quizzes and notes taken on the chapters. The hassle and stress that comes with struggling to finish a book will decrease.

In these days and time with new technology and the internet, students tend to stay away from reading. Their english classes are the only way to read books. By limiting books for students the school system is not only making them not connect with the book, but they are also discouraging them from reading at all.

Some public schools have even gone as far as banning books that are taught in the english curriculum. Books such as, Harper Lee's “To Kill a Mockingbird” and J. D. Salinger's “The Catcher in the Rye” are some of the most controversial books given to students. These novels are said to be a mixture of profanity and violence.

According to www.ericdigests.org, “In 1982 the United States Supreme Court handed down…a case in which students and parents challenged a school board's removal of certain books from a school library. Parents should not have to go as far as suing a school district to have their child read.

Students are not limited to the tests they take or the homework they are given, but they are limited to the books they want to read. The reason students attend school each and everyday is to learn. By banning and limiting the information they receive, students cannot grow as an individual.