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Set in 1975, Thanhha Lai's Inside Out & Back Again is a novel written in verse that follows ten-year-old protagonist Kim Hà and her family as they flee Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War and adapt to life as refugees in Alabama.

Published in...

William Wordsworth’s “Lucy Poems” consist of five verses composed between 1798 and 1801. They include “Strange fits of passion have I known,” “She dwelt among the untrodden ways,” “I travelled among unknown men,” “Three years she grew in sun and...

John Milton’s “On The Morning of Christ's Nativity,” also known as the "Nativity Ode," is a poem about the birth of Christ, and also a poem about the birth of a poet. When Milton wrote the poem in 1629, he was 21 and had not yet published a...

Of Jonson's works, the satires are some of his most well-known. Every Man in His Humour was written in 1598 and was the first of his many "humour plays." Following Every Man in His Humour was a sequel, Every Man Out of His Humour. Though the first...

William Wordsworth, along with Robert Southey and Samuel Coleridge, is one of the "Lakeland Poets," a group that is widely credited with beginning the English Romantic Movement. The movement was characterized by a rejection of the Enlightenment,...

Shelley’s poetry covers a variety of themes, but a reader of his poetry will almost always perceive some hint of radicalism, a challenge to one institutional tyranny or another: monarchy, government, church, or court. Thus, when analyzing Shelley’...

"The Nose" is a satirical, absurdist short story written by Nikolai Gogol between 1832 and 1833.

In "The Nose," Gogol seeks to show the image of an empty and bombastic man, Kovalev, who loves appearances, high social status, and favor from his...

One of Us is Lying is a fictional mystery book published in 2017. The book follows four narrators—Bronwyn Rojas, Nate Macauley, Addy Prentiss, and Cooper Clay—in the two months after their classmates Simon Kelleher’s death by peanut allergy.

After...

Based on the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan, Disney's 1998 animated film Mulan takes place during the Chinese Han dynasty and follows the titular Fa Mulan as she impersonates a man in order to take the place of her ailing father and fight against the...

Katherine Applegate's The One and Only Ivan is a 2012 children's novel written in the voice of Ivan, an artistic gorilla who lives in a mall as a customer attraction. After Stella the elephant dies from neglect, Ivan comes to terms with his...

Salt to the Sea is a young-adult historical fiction novel published on February 2, 2016. It is Ruta Sepetys’s third novel. Like Sepetys’s other three novels, Salt to the Sea explores the lost and forgotten stories of history. In particular, it...

12 Years a Slave is a 2013 film directed by Steve McQueen, with a screenplay by John Ridley. It is based on the memoir of the same name, written in 1853 by Solomon Northup, and tells the story of a black man from the northern U.S. who was abducted...

Peter Abrahams's 1946 novel Mine Boy follows a young farm boy from the northern part of South Africa named Xuma as he moves to Johannesburg to work in a gold mine. As Xuma's heart is broken by a black woman who wishes to be white, and he is...

Written during 1861—the first year of what is considered one of her most creative periods—“I felt a Funeral, in my Brain…” is both one of Emily Dickinson’s more well-known poems, and reflective of the themes of death, pain, and psychic...

Beloved is Toni Morrison's fifth novel. Published in 1987 as Morrison was enjoying increasing popularity and success, Beloved became a best seller and received the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Its reception by critics was overwhelming, and the...

The Smell of Apples is a semi-autobiographical novel by Mark Behr set in South Africa in the 1970s. The story is narrated by eleven-year-old Marnus Erasmus. Marnus is the son of a well-respected military hero who is regarded as a future member of...

Saved is a play written by the British playwright Edward Bond, which had its premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, a well-established London theatre, in 1965. Featuring what is still one of the most shocking scenes in the history of British theatre...

Published in 2011 by the American novelist and screenwriter Ernest Cline, Ready Player One is a science fiction and dystopian novel. Drawing heavily from American culture in the 1980s, Ready Player One presents a near-future dystopia where an...

"Zlateh the Goat" is a short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer. The story was included in his collection of short stories, Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories (1966). "Zlateh the Goat," like most of Singer's stories, was written in Yiddish and...

George Herbert, born in 1593, was a busy man: he served two terms as a member of Parliament, held the post of public orator at Trinity College, was ordained as a deacon, and as canon of the Lincoln Cathedral, he worked to become a pious servant of...

Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight was released in 2008 to critical and financial acclaim, grossing over a billion dollars at the box office. Written by Christopher and his brother Jonathan, the film tells the story of the corruption of Gotham...

The Lorax is a 1971 children’s fiction book written by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel). Though it was first published in 1971 by Random House, several newer versions have been edited and re-published, including the most sold 1999 edition. The original...

Bryan Stevenson's memoir Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption covers the author's career as a public interest lawyer in the Deep South, focusing primarily on Walter McMillian's wrongful conviction and sentencing to death row. Though...

William Wordsworth’s “The Thorn” was written in 1789. Wordsworth's inspiration for the setting of the poem, a mountain, came from his own experience of seeing a hawthorn tree on Quantock Hill in Somersetshire. The poem was included in the first...