I love The Scarlet Letter and basically everything else written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, but I read his books either in college or on my own. Not in high school. Not middle school. And
especially
not elementary, which is when my sister was forced to read it. This is one of those books that you really need to read as an adult, and it's a disservice to both the book
and
to the students that schools make kids read it when they're way too young.
One that I
was
forced to read in high school, and that I hated, was Moby-Dick. This was one of my most-hated novels for years -- until I reread it in my 20s, and then I fell in love with it. Now it's one of my all-time favorites. I've reread it like 8 times.
Never much cared for To Kill a Mockingbird, though. Didn't like Death of a Salesman either.
The owls are not what they seem.