Compiled by Jackie Lawson, Gaither High; Kelly Peretz, Wharton High; Ellie Rodriguez, Hillsborough High; Lara Herzog, Robinson High; Charis Lee, Hillsborough High.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” That line from A Tale of Two Cities describes the experience of many students — and teachers — in English lit class.

Michail Reid, Gaither English teacher: “Anything Shakespeare is hard to teach students, especially Hamlet. Kids have trouble reading old English. It’s literally a foreign language to them.”

Tatiana Olivier, Gaither High senior: “I disliked How to Read Literature Like a Professor because I did not find it very interesting. It wasn’t as informative as I hoped, and ended up being a waste of time. Required reading books rarely appeal to me.”

Terry Sollazzo, Wharton English teacher: Book hated teaching: “I had a dislike for teaching Animal Farm. We never were allotted enough time to allow students to research the historical context so the story would’ve been more meaningful.” Book hated reading: “Great Expectations. My teacher would read parts out loud, and he had the most monotone voice ever and he just sapped the life out of it for me.”

Alexis Boback, Hillsborough High junior: “I definitely despised Homer’s The Odyssey, because there were so many characters with crazy long Greek names that sounded too much alike making it really tough to remember and differentiate between characters.”

Valera Reynolds, Hillsborough IB English teacher: “I remember when I first started teaching IB English at Hillsborough and I had to teach Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, and I hated it because the book was very wordy, very much not my cup of tea.”

Zach Nimmons, Hillsborough High sophomore: “Honestly, I did not like reading Life of Pi. It was too boring and strange for me to relate to. My ideal book would be about something I can thoroughly enjoy and could relate to my personal life. If I see some characteristics of me in a character, then I become more interested in the book. Something with a little action could be nice. Ender’s Game was a good book."

Isha Sharma, Robinson High junior: “The House on Mango Street. It didn’t have a coherent plot line.”