"It's not that these aren't great books — but there have been great books written since then. Researchers say many classic novels like 1984 have universal themes of power and oppression that are timeless. The project equips teachers with classroom sets of contemporary novels, many written from the perspectives of marginalized communities. (TIFF)The team introduced Indigenous author Richard Wagamese's novel Indian Horse to a class of secondary school students, which Johnston says enriched their understanding of the atrocities endured by First Nations during the residential school era. Ray Guraliuk, English teacher and department head at Vancouver's Gladstone Secondary School, says over the years, his school has been able to amass classroom sets of a variety of contemporary novels written by Canadian authors.

Source: CBC News September 25, 2017 00:56 UTC