By Cheyenne Boyce
I say use books to inspire you. Don’t be afraid to read. There are books that I just don’t like, but don’t be afraid to explore and see what
you like and don’t like. Every book expands your knowledge. Even with books I’m reading this summer, there are words I’m learning. Everything I read in high school, I have been able to pull from in college. You’ll have something to talk about when you get to college.
I use books as inspiration. Any book that talks about overcoming a problem, I know if the [characters in the book] can overcome them, I can. Reaching your full potential is knowing that you always want to learn. That’s why I love reading. I learn and it passes time. Reading books changes your perspective on things instead of sitting around being bored or watching TV. Students should find what they like and go with it. Find your interest and own it. Reading is great. Everybody should do it. I just absolutely enjoy doing it. When I run into students who don’t like reading, I as, ‘Why wouldn’t you enjoy doing it?’ Sometimes people don’t like reading because what they read when they were younger that they didn’t like it.
In the summertime, I read about a book a week. Part of the reason I love to read is that my mom reads. She reads way more than I do. She has a fulltime job, but reads all the time. We joke that nothing gets done around the house because we’re both at the kitchen table reading.
Here are some of the books I recommend high school students should read:
The “classics”
Beloved, by Toni Morrison (or any of her books)
Their Eyes are Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
Black Boy, by Richard Wright
Black Like Me, by John Howard Griffin
Go Tell It on the Mountain, by James Baldwin
Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe
Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (and any of her works)
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
1984, by George Orwell
A Midsummer’s Night Dream, by Shakespeare (and any of his works)
Interesting reads
“Digital Fortress”, by Dan Brown
Freakonomics and Super Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Cheynne Boyce, a native of Detroit, Mich., is a Tom Joyner Foundation Full Ride Scholar. She’s entering junior year at Spelman where she is an International Studies major/Japanese Studies minor. She’s spending her junior year at Tsuda College in Tokyo as an exchange student.