French author Édouard Louis's autobiographical novel "Doing Away with Eddy Bellegueule" is included on a first reading list for upper secondary school. So is Ann-Helén Laestadius's "Thief".
The list of classics for upper secondary school includes Selma Lagerlöf's "The Emperor of Portugallia", Karin Boye's "Kallocain", Hjalmar Söderberg's "Doctor Glas" and Franz Kafka's "Metamorphosis".
The new reading lists are an ongoing project and are presented now in a interim report from the National Agency for Education and the Swedish Arts Council. The lists were commissioned by the government and are intended as a voluntary aid in teaching from preschool to upper secondary school.
So far, there are six titles for each group, which were chosen from around 500 proposals submitted by teachers themselves.
For preschool children, recommendations include Emma Adbåge's August Prize-winning "The Pit", Anna-Clara Tidholm's "Knock on the Door", but also Åke Löfgren and Egon Möller-Nielsen's much older picture book "The Story of Someone", from 1951.
It is the availability of these different books that is highlighted as a possible risk factor by the authors of the report.
Lower secondary school students are advised to read Åsa Lind's books about the Sandvargen and about the Almapristagaren Jacqueline Woodson's "The Day You Start". For middle school, Monika Zak's "Alex Dogboy" and Jakob Wegelius's "The Legend of Sally Jones" are recommended, and for upper secondary school, among others, Nora Khalil's "Yani" and "Starless Nights" by Arkan Assad.
Proposals will also be sought from an independent expert group and from school librarians.
The final reading lists will be presented on December 4.
