INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE: Setting, Mood and Tone
Dark and Stormy -- Charles M. Schulz and Snoopy (World Famous Author)
A Talking Raven -- Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven
Starry Night -- Don McLean, Vincent

CHAPTER TWO: Identity
Woman Powered -- Taylor Swift, Blank Space - Billie Eilish/Finneas O'Connell, What Was I Made For? - Olivia Rodrigo, Jealousy, Jealousy - Maya Angelou, Phenomenal Woman
What's In a Name, or Not -- Herman Melville, Moby-Dick Or, The Whale -
Have a Chocolate -- Eric Roth, Forrest Gump (film) - Winston Groom, Forrest Gump (novel)
Can You See Me? -- Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
Nobody is Somebody -- Emily Dickinson, I'm Nobody! Who are You?

CHAPTER THREE: The Human Condition
Why Shakespeare?
Hamlet's Dilemma -- William Shakespeare, Hamlet
Songs of Social Change -- Marvin Gaye, What's Going On - Jay-Z, Some How, Some Way
Warning Signs -- Theodore Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss), The Butter Battle Book
Mob Mentality -- Shirley Jackson, The Lottery
You Can Do It Too -- Ordinary people making great literature
A Need to Communicate -- Anne Frank, Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl
The Plight of Addiction -- Pink, Sober - Selena Odom, My Master - Amy Winehouse, Rehab - Neil Young, The Needle and the Damage Done

CHAPTER FOUR: Self-Determination
Making Your Own Way -- Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton
Change by Example -- Michael Jackson/Glen Ballard/Siedah Garrett, Man in the Mirror - Michael Jackson/Lionel Richie We are the World
From Behind Bars -- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail
The Trap of Hatred -- Wendell Berry, Enemies
Double-Standard -- Gwen Stefani/Tom Dumont, I'm Just a Girl - Beyoncé, If I Were a Boy

CHAPTER FIVE: Time and Space
To Boldly Go -- Gene Roddenberry/William Shatner, Star Trek (intro)
From Science Fiction to Reality -- Neil Armstrong, One Small Step for Man
May the Force Be with You -- George Lucas, Star Wars
Space Parody -- Mel Brooks, Spaceballs
AI Gone Wrong -- Arthur C. Clarke/Stanley Kubrick, 2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
Hitch-Hiking -- Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Better Read, Or Else -- Damon Knight, To Serve Man
Warring Worlds -- H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds (novel)
Public Panic -- H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds (fake radio broadcast)

CHAPTER SIX: The Road, Streets and Other Travels
Nothing to Hide -- John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
The Boss Voices Tom -- Bruce Springsteen, The Ghost of Tom Joad
Nobody Street -- Octavio Paz, The Street
You Decide -- Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken
Changing Course -- Adele/ Greg Kurstin, I Drink Wine
They're Your Footsteps -- Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road
On the Wind You Say? -- Bob Dylan, Blowin' In the Wind

CHAPTER SEVEN: Sports
Attention Getting -- Jim McKay, Wide World of Sports (intro)
LaPoem James -- Sean Thomas Dougherty, Biography of LeBron as Ohio (poem)
Remember When? -- John Updike, Ex-Basketball Player
Surf's Up -- Susan Orlean, Life's Swell
Wide Shoulders -- Earnest Lawrence Thayer, Casey at the Bat
A Price to Pay -- Eva Holland, Why We Play
Fighter, defender, Advocate -- Muhammad Ali, I Am America (poem and other verse)
Right Field is for Heroes -- Noel Paul Stookey, Right Field
No-Nonsense Conscience -- Sherman Alexie, Victory

PIT STOP #1: Reflecting on what we've seen and what's to come, plus potential projects

CHAPTER EIGHT: Freedom and Captivity, Supers and Sleuths
Freedom and Captivity
A Jury of Your Peers? -- Reginald Rose, Twelve Angry Men (play)
Chains of the Mind -- Bob Marley, Redemption Song
Broken and Transformed -- Franz Kafka, In the Penal Colony
Bug-Off -- Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis
Separate and Unequal -- Maya Angelou, Caged Bird
Life on the Inside -- Stephen King, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption (novella) and Frank Darabont, The Shawshank redemption (film)
Proper Manners and Penance -- Langston Hughes, Thank You, Ma'am
Supers and Sleuths
Revised Steel -- Jerome Siegel/Joel Shuster, Super-Man.
A Dark Crusader -- Bill Finger/Bob Kane, Batman
Opening the Door Wider -- Dr. William Moulton Marston, Wonder Woman
Web Slinger -- Stan Lee/Steve Ditko, Spider-Man
Hey, Sherlock -- Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four
Encyclopedia B. -- Donald Sobel, Encyclopedia Brown Gets His Man
Teen Sleuths -- Edward Stratemeyer, The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew

CHAPTER NINE: True Love and Heartbreak
Feuding Families -- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
Streetlight Serenade -- Mark Knopfler, Romeo and Juliet (song)
Fairytale Romance -- Taylor Swift, I Knew You Were Trouble
Did He or Didn't He? -- Shakespeare/Once upon a Time
Love without Obligation -- John Hartford, Gentle on my Mind
Love and Marriage? -- Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Can You Hear Me? -- Donika Ross Kelly, Love Poem: Mermaid
Hold Nothing Back -- Janis Ian, At Seventeen
Constantly Parodied -- Elizabeth Barrett Browning, How Do I Love Thee and Karen McCullah/Kristen Smith, Ten Things I Hate About You (film)

CHAPTER TEN: Orators and Famous Speeches
Galvanizing Words -- Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
Liberty or Death -- Patrick Henry, Speech at Second Virginia Convention
A Declaration -- Thomas Jefferson et al., Declaration of Independence
The Voice of Youth -- Malala Yousafzai, Speech at United Nations Youth Assembly
I Have a Dream -- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I Have a Dream (speech)
No More, Forever -- Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, Surrender Speech
Heating Things Up -- Greta Thunberg, Speech at United Nations Climate Action Summit
Heartfelt Farewell -- Lou Gehrig, Retirement Speech at Yankee Stadium

CHAPTER ELEVEN: Perspective
Just Imagine -- John Lennon/Yoko Ono, Imagine
Scrambled Eggs? -- Paul McCartney/John Lennon, Yesterday
The Best and Worst -- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
A More Personal Perspective -- Billy Joel, Summer Highland Falls
Two for One, Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Scrub a Word? -- Removing original language from books
Blind Faith -- Amari Baraka, Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note
Parallel Play -- Stephen Schwartz, What is this Feeling? (from Wicked)
Slipper Trivia -- Dorothy's changing shoe colors
Measure of a Year -- Jonathan Larson, Seasons of Love (from Rent)

CHAPTER TWELVE: Young Adults
Un-fortunately Intriguing -- Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket), A Series of Unfortunate Events
Almost Never -- J. B. Barrie, Peter and Wendy
Missing Parents -- Orphans in literature
Angst Personified -- J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
The Anti-Holden (Save Ferris!) -- John Hughes, Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Modeled Upon -- Dan Pikey, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie
Harry Is Still Harry -- J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Not So Wimpy -- Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Always On-line -- T. M. Anderson, Feed

PIT STOP #2: Reflecting on what we've seen and what's to come, and more potential projects
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: The Senses/Unity and Discord
The Senses
Like Alphabet Soup? -- Mark Strand, Eating Poetry
Speaking Up -- Paul Simon, The Sound of Silence
Deep Breaths -- William Carlos Williams, Smell!
Beyond Us -- Judith Wright, Five Senses
You Fill Up My Senses -- John Denver, Annie's Song
Unity and Discord
Love Light -- Hafiz, Even After All This Time
The Price and Reward -- Rose Marie Juan-austin, Poetry is a Solitary Art
Sharing the Load -- Bill Withers, Lean on Me
Island or Continent? -- John Donne, No Man is an Island
Closing The Circle -- Seinfeld and the second button, again

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Fantasy
Sneak Peak -- Stephenie Meyer, Twilight
Toll Taker -- Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth
Storm on the Horizon -- Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians)
Rabbit Hole -- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Allusions to Alice -- Grace Slick, White Rabbit
Buttercup and Westley -- William Goldman, The Princess Bride (film) and The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure, The “Good Parts” Version (novel)
Hobbits and Rings -- J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: The Natural (Unnatural) World/Life and Death
Genesis -- Bible (In the Beginning)
The Lamb and Tyger -- William Blake, Little Lamb Who Made Thee? and Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bright
The Creature -- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; Or the Modern Prometheus
Digging Deep -- Ada Limon, Notes on the Below
Never-ending Summer -- William Shakespeare, Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?
Murdering Sleep -- William Shakespeare, Macbeth
Middle of the Night -- Dana Gioia, Insomnia
Clinging to Light -- Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night
Revisiting Emily -- Emily Dickinson, I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died
Graveyard Ballard -- Tom T. Hall, Ballard of Forty Dollars
Debating an Ending -- Robert Frost, Fire and Ice

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Society and Its Influences
Three the Easy Way/Hard Way -- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby -- Lorde, Royals -- Frederick Douglass, The Narrative life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
Privilege, a Plus or Handicap -- Jimmy Page/Robert Plant, Stairway to Heaven -- Langston Hughes, Mother to Son
The Burden of Fame? -- Elton John/Bernie Taupin, Candle in the Wind -- Eminem, Stan
That Book is Fire! -- Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: War
Heavy Jacket -- Gustav Hasford/Michael Herr/Stanley Kubrick, Full Metal Jacket
War and Laughs? -- Larry Gelbart, M*A*S*H (TV show)
Anti-War Anthem -- Norman Whitfield/Barrett Strong, War
Different Paths, Same Destination -- Denise Levertov, Making Peace -- Brian Turner, Hurt Locker
Deserving Better -- John Prine, Sam Stone
War Hawk -- Francis Ford Coppola/Edmund North, Patton

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Dystopian Landscapes
Women and Unwomen -- Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale
Feed the Hungry, But Just Some of Them -- Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games
A Second Chance -- James Cameron/William Wisher, Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Opposite Land -- George Orwell, 1984
Your True Calling -- Veronica Roth, Divergent

Conclusion: Hooray, Success!: Concluding thoughts, forward thinking, new literary friendships and ideas for fun.
Further Reading
Bibliography
About the Author