Breezey's Book Barbecue List

I've been working on this for years now. And every book I truly cannot stand is on it.... This is just the first edition, someday, when I figure out how I'll stick it in the sidebar but alas til then.
THIS IS MY TOP FIVE
1) Ellen Foster- read it for eleventh grade English with Mr. D, who was a great teacher by the way only the book well was terrible.
This is about a young girl who is severely abused by her father, then her grandmother and then the system. It's semi- autobiographical from what I remember from class. I felt sorry for the kid I really did. But then I wondered why we read that instead of something else. Every year my English teachers said we didn't read enough. Me? Most teachers said I read too much but...
I can't help but wonder what they expected, the things they made us read for class by no means made anyone want to read out side of school.
2) The Pearl- just one question... did he have to kill off the baby? He was the only character I liked (9th grade English, Miss Palmer, yet another example of a "contemporary classic")
3) sadly.... Harry Potters 5&6, okay I'll actually do posts on these later but.. Did she have to kill off his godfather? He was cool. And Snape (my favorite character 'cause I'm a little creepy) did Harry have to be right about him?
4) all Shakespeare tragedies, which is all you read in high school. I've read some of his comedies and I loved them. So why does the school system make us read the ones that, by definition, are horrifically bad?
5) Mercedes Lackey's Arrows Trilogy. I know it's sad. Normally, I really like her books but these weren't even on the level of the Dragon Jousters. Set in the same world as Take a Thief, in fact I think these were her first ever books. I guess it's not surprising they weren't her best. They're still on my list.