SCOTLAND'S qualifications body has updated it's reading list for the first time in eight years with the hope to "reflect a modern Scotland".
Secondary school pupils will be given a more diverse range of books, plays and poems to study by the SQA in an updated reading list for English.
The list, published ahead of St Andrew's Day, includes Gaelic language play Sequamur, and works by author Jenni Fagan, as well as poets Imtiaz Dharkar, Kathleen Jamie and Norman McCaig.
Anne Donovan, Ian Crichton Smith, George Mackay Brown, Edwin Morgan, Jackie Kay, Kirsty Logan and Robert Louis Stevenson also feature.
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Duck Feet by Ely Percy, a book written in Scots for young readers, also features on the new list.
Percy said: “I thought winning a Saltire book prize was the biggest thing that would ever happened to me.
“How can you beat that? But now kids in schools are going to be reading my work. It’s amazing.
“The book covers everything from bullying, drug addiction, alcoholism to sitting your exams and sexuality.
“I had publishers who came to me and said this is written in slang, it has spelling mistakes and if you change the style, then we would be interested. I told them absolutely not. This is the way I speak, the way that school kids speak. I wanted it to be authentic. It just couldn’t be written any other way.”
“I think its been great for the learner voice to be part of this process.”
Dr Ronnie Young, senior lecturer in Scottish literature and associate director of the Centre for Robert Burns Studies at University of Glasgow said: “By opening up the curriculum to a wider range of writers, voices, and experiences, SQA recognises the continued relevance of Scottish literature to the literary curriculum and its potential to speak to a diverse audience of students.”
The full list of Scottish texts for National 5
- Yellow Moon by David Greig
- Sailmaker by Alan Spence
- Tally’s Blood by Ann Marie di Mambro
- Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Duck Feet (*Part Wan First Year) by Ely Percy
- Short Stories by Anne Donovan: All that Glisters, Hieroglyphics, Me and the Babbie, Loast
- A Voice Spoke to me at Night by Helen McClory
- Things My Wife and I Found Hidden in Our House by Kirsty Logan
- Andrina by George Mackay Brown
- Death In A Nut as told by Duncan Williamson
- Carol Ann Duffy: Originally, Mrs Midas, In Mrs Tilscher’s Class, Medusa, Havisham, Before You Were Mine
- Norman MacCaig: Aunt Julia, Hotel room, 12th floor, Basking shark, On Lachie’s Croft, Landscape and I, Old Highland Woman
- Jackie Kay: Gap Year, Keeping Orchids, Whilst Leila Sleeps, Grandpa’s Soup, Darling, Maw Broon Visits a Therapist
- Edwin Morgan: In the Snack-bar, Trio, Glasgow Sonnet I, Strawberries, Love, Death on Duke Street
- The Bonnie Earl o’ Moray (traditional ballad)
- The Twa Corbies (traditional ballad)
- A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns
- Lochinvar by Sir Walter Scott
- Auntie by Nadine Aisha Jassat
- Little Girls by Len Pennie
The full list of Scottish texts for Higher English
- Sequamur by Donald S Murray
- Men Should Weep by Ena Lamont Stewart
- The Slab Boys by John Byrne
- Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
- The Sunlight Pilgrims by Jenni Fagan
- Short stories by Iain Crichton Smith: The Red Door, Mother and Son, The Painter, The Existence of the Hermit
- A Voice Spoke to me at Night by Helen McClory
- Things My Wife and I Found Hidden in Our House by Kirsty Logan
- Andrina by George Mackay Brown
- Death In A Nut as told by Duncan Williamson
- Carol Ann Duffy: Originally, Mrs Midas, In Mrs Tilscher’s Class, Medusa, Havisham, Before You Were Mine
- Norman MacCaig: Aunt Julia, Hotel room, 12th floor, Basking shark, On Lachie’s Croft, Landscape and I, Old Highland Woman
- Liz Lochhead: My Rival’s House, Last Supper, Box Room, For My Grandmother Knitting, The Spaces Between, Sorting Through
- Don Paterson :Waking with Russell, 11:00: Baldovan, The Circle, The Thread, The Swing, Why Do You Stay Up So Late?
- Imtiaz Dharker: Bairn, Bloom, Letters to Glasgow, Send This, Stitch, The Knot
- Kathleen Jamie: Crossing the Loch, Mr and Mrs Scotland are Dead, Ospreys, Song of Sunday, The Morrow-bird, What the Clyde said, after COP26
- Thomas the Rhymer (traditional ballad)
- Composed In August by Robert Burns
- The Bonnie Broukit Bairn by Hugh MacDiarmid
- Summit of Corrie Etchachan by Nan Shepherd
- Da Clearance by Rhoda Bulter
- 33 by MacGillivray
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