The ToK, or Theory of Knowledge, is a mandatory component of the IB DP Core. The ToK essay is a 1600-word essay that students prepare in their own time, before the set deadline. This tends to easily be one of the most dreaded topics for an IBDP student, we know. Especially when the deadline is nearing, the pressure to score well is ever on the rise. But, once you’ve understood the basic concepts and how to approach the topic, the IB ToK Essay is not as difficult as you perceive it to be. In this blog post, we’ll talk about some key tips for the IB DP ToK Essay.
How important is the ToK?
The IB Core Component consists of ToK, EE (Extended Essay), and CAS (Creativity, Activity and Service). Failing either one of these fails you in your Diploma Programme even if you’ve earned the rest of the 42 credits in total, so one cannot take it lightly at all. Not only are these components crucial to your score but also add immense value to your college application, if you score a 3 in total (ToK + EE) you’ve earned yourself 45 credits and that plays a vital role during university admission.
What is the Theory of Knowledge?
Scientifically known as ‘epistemology’, ToK (and not TikTok) is the answer to how we know what we know. Epistemology by definition is “the theory of knowledge, especially about its methods, validity, and scope, and the distinction between justified belief and opinion”. It explores the main question of ToK – ‘How do we know what we know?’, ‘How do we discover what we know?’ and any other theories or questions about knowledge.
Now, without further ado, let’s jump onto the tips and tricks of scoring better in an IB ToK Essay:
Plan, Plan, Plan.
We said it 3 times because it’s THAT important. Like any other answer method that we teach at Young Scholarz, you need to plan your ToK essay. Read the title carefully, annotate the keywords, think of 2 real-life examples, and then plan.
If you have signed up at Young Scholarz for solo sessions with the best teacher onboard, you’ll know how to carefully plan out a ToK essay, making it a tad bit easier to fill in the information and structure your response more neatly. You can also refer to this website to help outline your essay. (But our recommendation would be to consult an expert who can tailor your ToK.)
Understand the AoKs and WoKs of the essay
We say keep them enemies closer than your friends. Tricky as they may sound, the Areas of Knowledge (AoK) and Ways of Knowledge (WoK) are integral to building a logical and well-defined essay. Understanding them well helps you pinpoint the knowledge claim in your chosen question. You should have at least 2 to 3 WoKs and AoKs* in your essay, making sure to draw up relevant connections and appropriate claims and counter-claims.
Display your knowledge on the topic
Come up with a few interesting and unique things to write about your ToK title to show that you know the title well. Read up well on the ToK concepts and include them in your essay. Begin your essay with these ideas to hold the examiner’s attention and form an impression in the beginning. Enhancing your vocabulary and incorporating ToK-specific jargon can also help you score higher levels.
Challenge your own opinion
You heard it right. Although in real-life situations a conflict in your mind is often discouraged as you come off as indecisive, for ToK that’s exactly what we need. Challenging your initial opinions and thesis will help you come up with the right claims and counter-claims for a well-researched IB ToK Presentation.
Expanding your research base
ToK being a vast and vague topic, there’s no beginning nor end to acquiring knowledge in this field. To make every word of yours count, it’s essential to read up on different topics, collect material from different resources, and understand a range of perspectives by involving others in your essay – talking to classmates, teachers, friends, and family, and using various other sources can help you construct arguments effectively on both sides of your thesis, also providing examples to support your claims and counterclaims.
Study exemplar ToK essays
How do you find your voice when your knowledge is dependent on external resources? Read past ToK essays with great scores written by previous students. This provides a platform for a multitude of ideas, displaying different ways of thinking and unique ways of approaching a topic. Reading past essays will also help you overcome any challenges that you’ve faced while writing, at the same time providing opportunities for you to choose which approach works best for you.
Deconstruct past ToK essays for an outline
You’ve got all the material in front of you. It’s a lot of information to take in. How do you incorporate these to form your original piece of work? After reading past ToK essays, you need to deconstruct them and form an outline of their essay. This will help you study how the others have structured their answers, and also give you an idea of how you can incorporate examples, evidence, and supporting ideas to explore and develop your claims and counterclaims.
Conclusion
And there you have it: 7 effective tips in scoring for your ToK Essay. Planning, researching, and organizing are crucial for any essay, but you should know where and how to build an effective one. You don’t? There’s no need to worry. You can sign up here, or browse our course page if you want personal guidance and feedback for your ToK Essay!
Notes:
*Ways of Knowing are what they suggest – the tools or methods of gaining knowledge. These include language, emotion, perception, reason, imagination, etc.
The Areas of Knowledge are the IB ToK Topics that help you focus on a particular ToK title: ethics, history, natural sciences, mathematics, language, religion…the list is long.
Main idea. Check. Intro. Check. Purpose of Essay. Check. Effective Conclusion. Umm…
Now let’s imagine this. You just had the best meal of your life. Scrumptious, juicy, and flavourful. And then came the dessert – a mousse that was chalky and grainy in texture. That perfect meal isn’t so perfect anymore.
This is similar to a perfectly ruined essay. From our years of teaching experience, we have found that students lose important marks because they don’t end their answers well. Be it an IGCSE exam, an IB exam, or a University Essay, every component of your essay needs to be done properly. Some students begin very well, but then lose their flow in the middle, or even towards the end. By the time they’ve reached their conclusion, they’re in the middle of an ocean with no shore to swim to.
This blog post should help give some insight into writing an effective conclusion that also functions as an appropriate ending or a close.
But first, why is the conclusion so important?
It is an appropriate close to a thesis statement or an argument. Where the thesis answers the ‘what’ or ‘why’, the conclusion answers the ‘so what now’. It leaves a lasting effect on the reader with a thought process to carry forward.
Writing An Effective Conclusion for your essay
PLAN
Our students know this. We teach them from the very beginning to plan their answers before they begin. This not only organizes your ideas in a logical sequence but you’re also equipped with points to include in your conclusion.
A good body structure is the basis for a good conclusion.
BE CONSISTENT
While writing your conclusion, make sure that your tone and style are consistent with the rest of your thesis argument. A contradictory tone will confuse the endpoint and hamper your main ideas explained throughout.
Your conclusion must reinstate the same points that you’ve touched upon, but try not to use them verbatim, and summarise your points in a brief manner.
AVOID NEW SENTENCES OR IDEAS
Avoid bringing in new ideas in your conclusion. This is another thing that we notice in students’ answers. Bringing in new ideas does not do justice to them, and they also have no scope for exploration, nor do they add value as they’re left incomplete. Instead, shift these new points from your conclusion to your body paragraphs, giving them more scope for exploration.
FORM A CONNECTION
The point of your conclusion is to bring an appropriate end to your answer or essay. And, that means that you need to connect your closing statement with your opening statement. That makes the end of your answer look more structured, systematic, and cohesive.
This displays your focus on organizing your ideas and sets a neat impression on the examiner or the admissions officer.
Apart from these, here are other pointers to help you write a strong conclusion for your next writing project:
Plan your conclusion just like you’d plan the rest of your essay to ensure a great flow of ideas.
Maintain a consistent tone throughout your conclusion.
End on a positive note.
Rephrase and summarize your main points.
Communicate the importance of your argument.
Write with the intention of providing closure to the reader.
Avoid beginning your conclusion with the words ‘in conclusion, to conclude, in summary, to recap’, etc.
Here’s a brief outline to help you plan your conclusion paragraph:
Topic sentence – This would be a repetition of your thesis statement or overarching idea. You must make sure not to repeat the exact words and yet retain the essence of the thesis.
Supporting sentences – These should include all your important points that support your thesis statement, and express the importance of your ideas as well.
Concluding sentence – Being the final word on the subject, the closing statement should connect back to an image or an anecdote that was initiated in the introductory paragraph.
Remember, if you’re an IB or IGCSE student needing help with your essays, our experienced, dedicated teachers are there to guide you. Contact us!
The most necessary task to do for an increase in productivity during exams is to revise the topics learned so far. The key is to not forget what you have learned and retain it for a long time. Memory is formed by revision that depends on consistency, frequency, and regularity. However, if it’s not planned properly, the process can become tedious. The IB Chinese with the course code CHIN 1002, is rather an easy-to-score paper if planned and revised properly. Here are a few tips which could be used to make revising less daunting.
Read and Highlight
Reading is a skill that can be nurtured and developed. Consistent reading practice will make you better at it day by day. While reading through a new text, it is also important to highlight the words that are unfamiliar to you. This will help improve your vocabulary and will also enable you to understand the text better.
Since you are learning a new language, content mastery is also important.
Write
Documenting all the new words learned might help you navigate through the syllabus better. It can be beneficial if you are able to consolidate all the content you have been exposed to, into one place. Try to add at least 20 words every day to the list. This will broaden your vocabulary so that you are able to articulate concepts accurately and more effectively to others.
Thus apart from learning your subject material, this will also increase your ability to communicate. Writing also helps in improving your spelling.
Practice
As the famous proverb goes, “Practice maketh a man perfect”, it is important to continuously practice especially while learning a new language. It is advisable to write down each of the new words three times along with the English words so that you can comprehend them in a better way.
Practicing 10 -20 new words every day and repeating the process when you read through another new lesson will help you in the long run.
Stick to a study plan
With multiple distractions coupled with the intense rigor of the IB syllabus, students might find it hard to focus on studying, especially for their SL subjects such as IB Chinese. Hence, it is necessary for students to craft a study plan and stick to it. It is important to create a study plan that is feasible and realistic. Taking breaks in between your study hours is advisable.
Every day, take 15-20 minutes to read a book that is not a part of your IB Chinese syllabus. When you learn any new words and phrases, find some friends speaking the language and practice what you have learned with them.
Learn with a Chinese Expert
For those who come from non-Chinese speaking backgrounds and are not exposed to Chinese on a regular basis, the language will be challenging. They may need to spend extra time and effort learning the language and find themselves discouraged easily whenever they do not see large improvements. For this reason, it is beneficial to get extra help.
At Young Scholarz, students will have an allocated amount of time every week for targeted, personalized help in Chinese. You can register for 1:1 or group classes with us and learn from our expert Chinese teacher. Check out our IB Mandarin ab initio and IB Mandarin Language B at both SL and HL.
“Mrs Sunita, I have 93% A* in English First Language”
“Dear Sunita, thank you for your patience and guidance for the past two years. My son scored A* for both English Language and English Literature.”
“Thank you so so much for all your help, advice, love, and support all these years. You genuinely helped me build my confidence in English and I loved learning from you.”
Reading has multiple benefits! To name a few it can help boost your mental health, it’s the ultimate relaxation, helps you understand history, develops your imagination and creativity, and opens up new avenues of learning. The benefits of reading help you give direction and help you become successful in life. And the best part? You get all these benefits while enjoying it! We know it can be daunting to decide what to read. We’re happy to help! We have made a list of the top 10 Summer 2024 reads suitable for grade 12 students who are ready to jump into intensive reading.
Download the checklist at the end to track your reading list.
Once you’ve finished our top picks? Fret not! We have an extensive list of books at the bottom for you bibliophiles.
Your Top 10 must-reads for grade 12
1. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
“Every book that has been written about artificial intelligence since Frankenstein owes something to Mary Shelley. I found the relationship between monster and creator compelling and fascinating”
The Guardian, dated August 6, 2014
2. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
“Someone who likes suspense and adventure books would enjoy this. It also helps to have a good sense of humor.”
The Guardian, dated March 4, 2012
3. Petals of Blood by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
“A compelling novel about the tragedy of corrupting power, set in post-independence Kenya…Ngugi writes with passion about every form, shape, and color which power can take.”
Sunday Times
4. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams
“Tennessee Williams’s 1955 masterpiece shows you a Mississippi world awash with whisky and lies. Brick – former college football star and impotent husband of Maggie the Cat – would rather numb himself to oblivion with booze than own up to the real nature of his relationship with his dead friend Skipper.”
Review on independent.co
5. The Trials of Brother Jero and Jero’s Metamorphosis by Wole Soyinka
“(The play is) a broad spoof of a religious humbug, a con man of prophecy who lives by mulcting his worshipers, or ‘customers,’ as he calls them in moments of absent-minded lucidity.”
Review in Time magazine
6. The Changeling by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley
“This punchy cocktail of modern parenting and ancient magic taps into contemporary unease and age-old fears. It follows Apollo Kagwa and Emma Valentine, who fall in love in a New York library and have a child. Parenthood’s feverish early days end in an act of brutal violence, and suddenly the anxieties of fatherhood, race, and money are dwarfed by otherworldly peril.”
The Guardian, dated September 1, 2018
7. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
“Crime and Punishment” is about many things—the psychology of crime, the destiny of families, the vanity and anguish of single men adrift. But, midway through the book, Dostoyevsky’s writerly exuberance allayed my worries. He’s an inspired entertainer, with his hectic style of comedy. His characters show up reciting their troubles and lineages, their lives “hanging out on their tongues,” as the critic V. S. Pritchett put it.”
Review in The New Yorker
8. Beloved by Toni Morrison
“Beloved” is one of the few American novels that take every natural element of the novel form and exploit it thoroughly, but in balance with all the other elements. The result is that it is dense but not long, dramatic but not melodramatic, particular and universal, shocking but reassuring, new but at the same time closely connected to the tradition of the novel, and likely to mould or change a reader’s sense of the world.”
The Guardian, dated July 8, 2006
9. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
“What makes Midnight’s Children so extraordinarily important, and (for literary importance isn’t always matched by a fetching readability), what makes it so vertiginously exciting a reading experience, is the way it takes in not just the whole apple cart of India and the problem of being a novel about India but also, and this with the unflagging zest of a Tristram Shandy, the business of being a novel at all.”
Review published in TLT on 8 March 1981 after book’s release
10. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
“If you don’t like someone’s story,” Chinua Achebe told The Paris Review in 1994, “write your own.”
In his first novel and masterpiece, “Things Fall Apart” (1958), Mr. Achebe…did exactly that. In calm and exacting prose, he examined a tribal society fracturing under the abuses of colonialism…In many respects “Things Fall Apart” is the “To Kill A Mockingbird” of African literature: accessible but stinging, its layers peeling throughout multiple readings. “
From the New York Times
We’ve also designed a printable version of our Top 10 reading list to help you track your progress and reflect on the book(s) as you read.
You can download it using the button below. Feel free to print and share with your friends too.
Summer books for teens offer abundant benefits. Research consistently links active reading to improved grades, but the advantages extend beyond the classroom. Delving into the world of summer books exposes you to multiple perspectives, broadens your horizons, and significantly enhances your vocabulary.
Well, what about life after High School? Reading’s got that covered too. The more you read, the more your reading, writing, and comprehension skills get developed, thus preparing you for any competitive exam you need to take – the SAT, ACT, GMAT – you name it.
This Summer, whether you’re reading for a hobby or to build your skills, we’re here to support you. Having vast experience with the IB syllabus and popular reads, here is our recommended list of top 10 books. If you’re game to read more, we’ve got a longer list for you at the end of this article – they even have PDF links!
We hope you can read, enjoy, and benefit from many of these brilliant summer books over the summer. Here is Our Top 10 Reading list, with reviews from acclaimed critics:
Human Acts – Han Kang
Out of many summer books, our first recommendation is Human Acts by Han King. By focusing on the logistics of cataloging the bodies, Han lulls us into the horror, and before we know it, we are there, inside the gymnasium, awe-struck by the amount of pain humans can inflict on one another and, in the obverse, the dignity with which the volunteers wash and care for the dead. In essence, we witness the impossibly large spectrum of humanity and wonder how it is that one end could be so different from the other.
Nami Mun's reveiw of the novel in the New York Times, dated January 10, 2017.
Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Fiercely political and bleak, yet witty and wise, the novel won the inaugural Arthur C Clarke award in 1987, but Atwood has always maintained that the novel is not classifiable science fiction. Nothing practiced in the Republic of Gilead is genuinely futuristic. She is right, and this novel seems ever more vital in the present day, where women in many parts of the world live similar lives, dictated by biological determinism and misogyny.
Charlotte Newman’s review of the novel on its 25th Anniversary; The Guardian, September 26, 2016
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Gatsby’s magic emanates not only from its powerhouse poetic style — in which ordinary American language becomes unearthly — but from the authority with which it nails who we want to be as Americans. Not who we are; who we want to be. It’s that wanting that runs through every page of Gatsby, making it our Greatest American Novel. But it’s also our easiest Great American Novel to underrate: too short; too tempting to misread as just a love story gone wrong; too mired in the Roaring Twenties and all that jazz.”
Maureen Corrigan, in his book, ‘So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why it Endures'
Klara and the Sun – Kazuo Ishiguro
“ The narrative of Klara and the Sun is energized by the friction between two different types of love: one that is selfish, overprotective, and anxious, and one that is generous, open, and benevolent. It feels like a message for all of us as we go about our drearily circumscribed days. What’s beyond doubt is that Ishiguro has written another masterpiece, a work that makes us feel afresh the beauty and fragility of our humanity. “
The Guardian, dated March 1, 2021
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“The novel was a literary as well as a political bombshell; it received an enthusiastic reception on the part of liberal writers, a cautious one from the fence sitters, and it infuriated the die-hards.”
Leopold Labedz
The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy
“There is no single tragedy at the heart of Arundhati Roy’s devastating first novel. Although ”The God of Small Things” opens with memories of a family grieving around a drowned child’s coffin, there are plenty of other intimate horrors still to come, and they compete for the reader’s sympathy with the furious energy of cats in a sack. Yet the quality of Ms. Roy’s narration is so extraordinary — at once so morally strenuous and so imaginatively supple — that the reader remains enthralled all the way through to its agonizing finish.”
Review in the New York Times
Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
“Not until the work of Flaubert did prose lose the stigma of aesthetic inferiority. Ever since Madame Bovary, the art of the novel has been considered equal to the art of poetry.”
Milan Kundera in the preface of his novel, The Joke
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
“ Brave New World is a scary depiction of what could soon be our future. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this well-written and thought-provoking novel.”.”
Review in The Guardian dated March 29, 2012
Maus: A Survivor’s Tale – Art Spiegelman (Graphic Novel)
“This was in equal parts outrageous, disturbing, subversive, witty — and yet somehow comforting,”
Jeff Smith, director of Cartoon Crossroads Columbus Festival, Ohio
Persepolis – Marjane Satrapi (Graphic Novel)
“…Sometimes funny and sometimes sad but always sincere and revealing.”
Andrew Arnold of TIME, which included Persepolis in its "Best Novels of 2003" list
We’ve designed a printable version of our Top 10 reading list to help you track your progress and reflect on the book(s) as you read. You can download it using the button below. We also have a complete IB Reading list with links to the books! Feel free to print and share with your friends too.
The Summer Break is coming up! We know you’re looking to make the most out of it before the fraught of grade 10 kicks in. We have made the perfect reading list to accompany and suit your every mood. Do you want to get lost in another world? Have a comfortable read? Go on an adventure? Or perhaps delve into a heart-touching story? We have got you covered. These top 10 Summer 2024 reads will not only quench your thirst for reading and learning but will also give you a headstart for grade 10!
Get started with our carefully curated top ten with the help of our printable checklist at the bottom!
We also have an extensive list of books if you check this list off!
Here is Our Top 10 Reading list, with reviews from acclaimed critics
1. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
“(And yes, this is certainly a novel that explores the concepts of cultural identity, rootlessness, tradition, and familial expectation – as well as the way that names subtly (and not so subtly) alter our perceptions of ourselves – but it’s very much to its credit that it never succumbs to the clichés those themes so often entail. Instead, Lahiri turns it into something both larger and simpler: the story of a man and his family, his life and hopes, loves and sorrows.”
The Guardian, dated January 17, 2004
2. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“It is extremely engaging and not only is it a good laugh, but you get to travel along the journey of life with Kambili”
The Observer, dated October 27, 2015
3. Rebecca byDaphne du Maurier
“Rebecca blends elements of psychological thriller, romance, and gothic horror. In many ways it is a retelling of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, but with stranger and more fascinating twists. So rarely do ‘classics’ qualify as page-turners, but Du Maurier’s novel fits the bill. It’s compelling and compulsively readable.”
Review by Tristen Brudy on readings.com
4. Washington Square by Henry James
“We read James not for his stories or his characters but for the one thing that can’t be adapted: his mind. We know it, in its arguments with itself, it’s endlessly refining discernment, its flickering shifts and glints of wisdom.”
Review by Mona Simpson in The New Yorker
5. Yerma by Federico García Lorca
“Lorca’s drama has a folkloric quality that can be summed up by a familiar children’s rhyme: the farmer wants a wife, the wife wants a child. Yet what happens after several barren summers when the wife is still trying, but the farmer is not trying nearly hard enough? Most interpretations focus on the anguish of Yerma’s continued failure to conceive in an oppressively Catholic, overtly superstitious society, which places faith in dubious fertility rites and regards childless women to be cursed.”
The Guardian, dated October 28, 2011
6. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
“I thought ‘A Separate Peace’ was a marvelous book. It was beyond anything he ever did later and anyone else had done of that sort”
Gore Vidal on John Knowles’ book “A Separate Peace”
7. A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney
“a work of complete, exhilarating originality’ which provides a real escape from the middlebrow, middle-class vacuum of the West End”
Lindsay Anderson, prominent critic, of ‘The Taste of Honey’
8. Death and the King’s Horseman by Wole Soyinka
“A magnificent play, Death and the King’s Horseman transcends categorization with moments of comedy, poetry, music, philosophy, and drama. Soyinka speaks beautifully on death, life, and human nature in the play, and Mary Moody Northen Theatre and ProArts give us the full range in their vibrant, captivating, and true production.”
Review on theaustinchronical.com
9. Crumbs from the Table of Joy by Lynn Nottage
“The 17-year-old protagonist in Lynn Nottage’s “Crumbs From the Table of Joy” is free to indulge in Hollywood-fueled fantasies, but she also must confront the less glamorous reality of life in a troubled African-American family in Brooklyn in 1950.”
Review on variety.com
10. A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
“All I can say is that Mr. Williams has written a strong, wholly believable play that, starting in a low key, mounts slowly and inexorably to its shocking climax.”
Review in The Theatre by Wolcott Gibbs in 1947
We’ve designed a printable version of our Top 10 reading list to help you track your progress and reflect on the book(s) as you read.
You can download it using the button below. Feel free to print and share with your friends too.
Grade 9 is the start of an exciting phase of learning with new IGCSE subjects to delve into. Yet, it can also be daunting too – with the pressure of Grade 10 looming ahead and the urgency to “improve your grades before it’s too late”. We’ve found the perfect way for you to both enjoy your vacation and use it productively. Here’s introducing you to the world of books!
Reading widely not only supports written subjects such as English, History, Geography, Drama, Economics and Global Citizenship, but also gives you an awareness of the world around you. Giving you new perspectives through the experiences of others, it lays rich foundations for your future IB studies, thus enabling you to learn without even knowing it.
To get you started we have carefully hand picked a full list of valuable prose and drama texts from the IGCSE Literature curriculums as well as personal recommendations. The full list can be accessed at the bottom of this page. We hope you are able to read as many of these brilliant works from over the summer.
Here is Our Top 10 Reading list, with reviews from acclaimed critics:
Hard Times by Charles Dickens (Prose)
“(A) passionate revolt against the whole industrial order of the modern world”
George Bernard Shaw’s review
Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Prose)
“A fabulous romp through an imagination by turns ecstatic, cunning, despairing and resilient, this novel is an impressive achievement—”a story that will make you believe in God,” as one character says.”
Review by Publishersweekly.com
The Whale Rider byWiti Ihimaera (Drama)
“The genius of the movie (Play) is the way it sidesteps all of the obvious cliches of the underlying story and makes itself fresh, observant, tough and genuinely moving.”
Roger Ebert’s review of the movie based on the bestselling Play.
Journey’s End by R C Sherriff (Drama)
“At the end of the evening, in common with the rest of the audience, I went out into the street ennobled and simplified by a superb experience … For ten years we have demanded the truth about the War…Here in this play, “Journey’s End,” it is at last recovered.”
Hugh Walpole’s review in The Morning Post in 1929
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay(Prose)
“In the seemingly limitless pantheon of gone-girl literature, “Picnic at Hanging Rock” might take the prize for best setting.”
Jia Tolentino’s review on Newyorker.com
The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan(Prose)
“The secret of Amy Tan’s enormous popularity is her ability to give a western audience nicely finessed representations of the exotic while convincing them of the universality of her themes. Here, as previously, her subject is the tension between a first-generation Chinese-American woman and her awkwardly semi-assimilated mother. Tan is at once standing on the inside – the purveyor of secret histories and forgotten traditions – and shaking her head in bewilderment from without.”
The Guardian, dated March 24, 2001
Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert L Stevenson(Prose)
“I don’t believe that there was ever such a literary feat before as the writing of Dr Jekyll. I remember the first reading as though it were yesterday. Louis came downstairs in a fever; read nearly half the book aloud; and then, while we were still gasping, he was away again, and busy writing. I doubt if the first draft took “so long as three days.”
Lloyd Osborne, Stevenson’s stepson, talking about the novel and Stevenson’s writing experience
Of Mice and men by John Steinbeck (Prose)
“The book is great, not only because of the great use of description, but the characters, because Steinbeck shows how children are, in some cases, better people than adults in the way that they do not judge people because they do not see people or things from that point of view.”
Children’s Review, The Guardian, dated, 21 December 2013
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (Drama)
“In some ways …Miss Williams’s (a character in the play) flinty, intelligent underplaying keeps sentimentality at bay to give us a woman of commanding strength and pride. In her triumphant final moment – in which she takes a last look at her tenement home before leaving it forever – we can almost feel Lorraine Hansberry herself looking ahead to the future that she helped make but, tragically, never knew.”
Frank Rich, writing for the 25th Anniversary of the play, in The New York Times, dated Oct. 5, 1983
An Inspector Calls by JB Priestley (Drama)
“An Inspector Calls is scathing in its criticism of middle-class hypocrisy. The play gives voice to Priestley’s strong socialist principles, and carries a clear moral message, stressing the importance of social responsibility: ‘We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other”
The British Library
We’ve designed a printable version of our Top 10 reading list to help you track your progress and reflect on the book(s) as you read.
You can download it using the button below. Feel free to print and share with your friends too.
