Inspired by the BBC Panel who put together a list of
100 novels that shaped our world we have created a display to show just how
many titles we have here in the Library. We are proud to say that the answer is
87!
The BBC panel is made up of: Juno
Dawson, author of YA fiction such as Meat
Market, Clean and Margot and Me. Kit de Waal, author of My
Name is Leon and Becoming Dinah. Alexander McCall Smith, author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Series. Mariela Frostrup, broadcaster and
journalist. Syima Aslam, Director of
The Bradford Literary Festival and Stig
Abel, Editor for the Times Literary
Supplement.
This encouragingly varied group of British influencers
on the modern literary world have come up with a list that suits both Young
Adult and mature readers alike. Apart from the odd provocation like Gilly
Cooper’s Riders and the Game of Thrones series we found this list to be
school library friendly with recommendations for holiday reads and reading for
pleasure aplenty, deftly mixed in with the most pertinent and astute ideas of
the last two centuries.
The subcategories used were: "Identity", "Rule Breakers", "Class and Society", "Conflict and Crime", "Adventure", "Life, Death and Other Worlds", "Family and Friendship", "Politics, Power and Protest" and "Love and Romance". The panel's use of categorisation is the most
interesting thing about this project as it shifts away from the strict genre definitions that are often used to
recommend these books: 
Frankenstein,
once merely Gothic is now described as the appealingly named “Life, Death
and Other Worlds”. The Children of Men,
once Dystopia is now “Conflict and Crime”, so much more suggestive! Giovanni’s Room, not just
an example of 1950s, African-American, LGBTQ literature but simply “Love and
Romance”, about time! “Family and Friendship” is so disparate as to house both The Witches and Middlemarch in one category: genius! Of course, as with any attempt to narrow down the vast breadth of literature to a list of 100, it falls short by its very nature. But it has been intriguing to see that the student response has not been to discuss what they would replace the entries with but rather under which categories they would prefer to see them, suggesting that they are books that offer more than what they at first seem to. 
I confess, I have only read 28 of them myself, a hefty portion being from the "Identity" and "Rule Breakers" categories. So, if this list has done one thing for me to shout about it has been to shame me into a new endeavour: to change the record, branch out and away from my comfort zone! I will be reading as many of these as I can. I hope our display can do the same for our students if they are stuck in a rut or just don’t know what to read next.
Here is the link to the full list: https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2019/100-novels.If you are looking for a new book and know what you like, or don’t…we recommend taking a look at this list, or better yet, come and judge a book by its cover by perusing our display in the Library!
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Ms Johns