This approach cheapens the book in a lot of ways.
Agreed.
Which is why-- based on what I know my DD's 8th grade literature course did-- I strongly suspect that Dad, there, was not being entirely forthright on the subject. I suspect that the student was being asked to "review" reading and pull out the quotes. On a second read-through, not so outrageous.
On the other hand, as I noted in my first post, I have some concerns with either of the books mentioned being used for students in this age/grade cohort in the first place, as they are VERY adult in theme and content, and really I doubt very much if they can be appreciated as works of literature by adolescents who are only picking up the narrative surface, and not the deeper aspects of both. Alexie's work is often deeply disturbing-- both of those novels are about what it means to grow up as a deeply disenfranchised and impoverished youngster who has an inner core of... something... that won't allow them to be pulled under no matter how strong the undertow. Both feature alcoholism and fairly unflinching portraits of family dysfunction. Both raise questions about reliable/unreliable narration, and whether or not there is intentionality present in unreliably narrated memoir as a genre. Like I said-- my concerns there are that neither book is probably very well suited to analysis by students of this age, because they lack the maturity for a nuanced look at either one that goes past the shocking, wry, and titillating content. Can they be read at a surface level? Of course. I just think that cheapens them.
