Using Free Kindle Books for High School Literature Classics

Dear friends,

I am learning to love Kindle for high school literature.  So far my son and I have read parts of the Iliad and more than half of Frankenstein.

No, I don't own a Kindle, but we do have a desktop computer, laptops, and two iPods.  You can get the Kindle apps free for any of these, as well as many other devices.  I don't know if you can do the same thing with a Nook or other e-reader.

My Top 10 Reasons for Reading High School Lit with Kindle

1. You can get a huge selection of classic literature absolutely free.  Others are very inexpensive -- just a dollar or two.
2. You can read wherever you go if you have a small enough device.  All of these books in one place!
3. You don't need a bookcase for these books.
4. Parent and student can read together on different devices.  As long as both devices use the same Kindle account, it should be easily available to both.  And if you paid for it once, you can read it off of multiple devices using the same account.
5. You can adjust the font size, style, columns, color and background color to make it easy on your eyes.
6. The device keeps track of where you left off.  Or you can hit the bookmark button to mark you spot.
7. You can easily do a search on words that you need.  This is great if you have an assignment on a particular person or topic in the book!
8. If you don't understand a word or phrase, you can highlight it and a definition will appear.  Or click on the More button and Google it.
9. You can highlight good quotes that you want to remember.  Later, you can view all of your highlighted areas in one spot.
10. If you will be answering literature questions or writing an essay based on the material, you can highlight areas that pertain to them, and then come back to them easily later on.  This cuts down on having to write things down as you go.  You can also take notes right in Kindle that will be linked to the relevant spot in the book.

I know there are other benefits to doing literature with Kindle, but for now I will leave you with a list of links free Kindle classics.  Please double check the free-ness of them before you order, just in case they decided to start charging for a certain title!  I'm sorry if any of these are in the wrong categories or if anything looks weird.  I don't have time to twiddle too much at the moment!

Please note that I have not read all of these books.  Use at your own discretion.  Some may have material that is unsuitable for your family.

If you find other free titles, please add them in the comment section!

British Literature

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Illustrated) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Wuthering Heights by Charlotte Bronte

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

Gulliver's Travels (Timeless Classics) Jonathan Swift

Robinson Crusoe (Illustrated) Daniel Defoe

The War of the Worlds H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

World Literature

Beowulf

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

The Iliad by Homer

American Literature

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer's Comrade by Mark Twain 

Moby Dick: or, the White Whale by Herman Melville

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Other related blog posts:

Web Sites for Free High School and College Level On-Line Learning

Quotes on Books

High School Literature

Have fun, folks!

Virginia Knowles

www.FinishWellHomeSchool.blogspot.com

"Christ Climbed Down" poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti -- and a High School Poetry Critique and Analysis Essay

“Christ Climbed Down” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti


Note on the poet: Lawrence Ferlinghetti was born on 24 March 1919, in Yonkers, NY, the youngest of five sons of Charles S. (an auctioneer) and Clemence. His father, an Italian immigrant, had shortened the family name upon arrival in America. Lawrence restored the family name in 1954. He served in the U.S. Naval Reserve and was a commanding officer during the Normandy invasion in World War II. Known for his novels, short stories, plays, screenplays and poetry, Ferlinghetti won numerous awards for his writing, and there is a street in San Francisco named in his honor.


CHRIST climbed down
from His bare Tree this year
and ran away to where
there were no rootless Christmas trees
hung with candycanes and breakable stars

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree this year
and ran away to where
there were no gilded Christmas trees
and no tinsel Christmas trees
and no tinfoil Christmas trees
and no pink plastic Christmas trees
and no gold Christmas trees
and no black Christmas trees
and no powderblue Christmas trees
hung with electric candles
and encircled by tin electric trains
and clever cornball relatives

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree this year
and ran away to where
no intrepid Bible salesmen
covered the territory
in two-tone cadillacs
and where no Sears Roebuck creches
complete with plastic babe in manger
arrived by parcel post
the babe by special delivery
and where no televised Wise Men
praised the Lord Calvert Whiskey

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree this year
and ran away to where
no fat handshaking stranger
in a red flannel suit
and a fake white beard
went around passing himself off
as some sort of North Pole saint
crossing the desert to Bethlehem
Pennsylvania
in a Volkswagen sled
drawn by rollicking Adirondack reindeer
with German names
and bearing sacks of Humble Gifts
from Saks Fifth Avenue
for everybody's imagined Christ child

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree this year
and ran away to where
no Bing Crosby carollers
groaned of a tight Christmas
and where no Radio City angels
iceskated wingless
thru a winter wonderland
into a jinglebell heaven
daily at 8:30
with Midnight Mass matinees

Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree this year
and softly stole away into
some anonymous Mary's womb again
where in the darkest night
of everybody's anonymous soul
He awaits again
an unimaginable and impossibly
Immaculate Reconception
the very craziest
of Second Comings


Critique and Analysis of “Christ Climbed Down”
By Virginia Quarrier for a 1979 High School English Assignment


The underlying theme of Ferlinghetti’s “Christ Climbed Down” is that the modern Christmas is too secular for Christ, and that he disdains it. Each verse delves into what Christmas has become with Santa Claus, artificial Christmas trees, plastic crèches (nativity scenes), plastic Bible salesmen, Bing Crosby carolers and Radio City angels. Christmas has become a commercial season instead of the worship of a newborn savior. In fact, the first official Christmas was only a substitute for Saturnalia, only now it had a Christian name because Emperor Constantine had declared Christianity the state religion. People still lived it up and got soused.


The day that Christ was born was much different from even that. He was born n a smelly old stable. The magi brought him gold, incense, and myrrh. Christ is calling believers today to bring their gold (symbolizing their lives), their incense (symbolizing Christ revealing himself through us), and myrrh (a balm symbolizing that we are to be a healing ointment to the broken people of the world).


In each verse, Ferlinghetti says that: “Christ climbed down from his bare tree this year and ran away (or softly stole away)…” The Bible clearly shows that Christ does not run away from the problems of the world. He faced our sins on the cross, and surely he can face a commercial Christmas. It must break his heart, though. Instead of running away, he calls believers to spread the good news of what Christmas really is – and that’s not just a good spirit, helping each other, and giving. Christ calls his believers to worship him and focus on him, and not to take so much thought about material gifts, but to concentrate on the greatest gift: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). The cross is inseparable from the manger.

In the last verse, Ferlinghetti says, “Christ climbed down from His bare tree this year and softly sole away into some anonymous Mary’s womb again…” Again, I disagree. Christ did not steal softly away. He rose in glory, and ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father in glory. He is awaiting the time appointed for him to come again and take up his believers. Signs show that this time is coming soon.


Ferlinghetti goes on to say: “where in the darkest night of everybody’s anonymous soul…” Christ does not await his coming in everybody’s anonymous soul, but only in those who have asked him into their hearts as told in Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him…” And if the believer is obeying the Word of God, his soul will not be anonymous. “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations…” commands Matthew 28:19. “For we are ambassadors for Christ…” declares 2 Corinthians 5:20. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to everyone that believeth…” announces Romans 1:16.


I do agree with Ferlinghetti when he says that Christ’s second coming will be “the very craziest of second comings.” How many people come again through the clouds with trumpets, clothed in glory? Who else comes so unexpectedly, “like a thief in the night”?

Ancient World History and Literature

Not long ago I was asked how I designed classes for our high school young adults. We have taken several approaches to formulating classes based on the strengths, interests, and future plans of the individual. Our oldest son had a great interest and gift for history. This was, by my understanding, his favorite subject in high school. He read constantly, checking out books of interest at the library.

With his interest in history, we divided American History into Early American (to 1850) and Modern (from 1850 to present), and World History into Ancient (to the Reformation) and Modern (from the Reformation) so that we could allow time for him to dig deeper into his interest. His self-motivation led to a much more comprehensive course.

For readers who are interested in more detail as to what we constituted Ancient Word History, here is our reading list for the course, for that student. Remember, he was a self-motivated reader and we simply allowed him to use a textbook as a framework and then dig deeper into areas of interest. By the end of the school year, he did less textbook reading and more primary source or living history reading.

*Please do not use this as a comparison for what your student should or should not be doing. Comparing ourselves or our children to others leads to discouragement and discontent. It is in no way valuable. These examples are only intended as an encouragement, encouragement to think outside the textbook when designing courses for your student. My student might be a reader, but your student may have an opportunity to intern with a local businessman. Use what God has provided and pray about how He would be preparing your young adult for the plans He has, not the ones we best intention.


Our textbook was World History and Cultures, George Thompson and Jerry Combee, Abeka Books. God provided an opportunity for this student to tour many sites in Rome, including a day inside the ancient city wall. Though I could be discouraged that my other children may not have the same opportunity, I await the provision He has for each of them as they walk through their lives.

• The Epic of Gilgamesh
• Oedipus Rex, Sophocles
• Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles
• Antigone, Sophocles
• Mysteries of Ancient China, Rawson
• Daily Life in Ancient Egypt, Sameh
• Mythology, Hamilton
• The Roman Way, Hamilton
• The Greek Way, Hamilton
• The Death of Socrates, Plato
• For the Temple, Henty
• The Riddle of the Rosetta Stone, Giblin
• The Great Wall, Fisher
• In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great, Wood
• The Republic, Plato
• The Young Carthaginian, Henty
• The Eagle of the Ninth, Sutcliff
• Anna of Byzantium, Barrett
• City of God, Augustine
• I, Claudius, Graves
• Claudius the God, Graves
• Don Quixote, Cervantes
• Julius Caesar, Shakespeare