What books shaped you in high school? Here's what you said

Maansi Srivastava/NPR

This summer, we asked you to tell us about the books you read in high school that profoundly affected you. It turns out you had a lot to share. More than 1,100 of you wrote back to tell us about the formative texts you were assigned as teens.

You told us about books that broadened your perspectives and stuck with you as you got older. These dog-eared volumes got packed and unpacked every time you moved homes. They led you to become English majors, librarians, writers, teachers and editors. They inspired tattoos, pet names and baby names. Many of you shouted out the English teachers who, decades ago, pressed these texts into your hands, your heads and your hearts.

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We're sharing your thoughts here. This list reflects a time when fewer female authors and writers of color were being published and assigned in high schools — and many of you expressed hope that today's syllabuses are more varied and diverse.

So, at the start of a new school year, with gratitude to English teachers past, present and future, here's what you told us about the books that shaped you.

Readers' responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Two books came up far more often than any of the others:

Harper Perennial Modern Classics

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Reading about racism from the perspective of a child — 6-year-old narrator Scout Finch in Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1960 novel — was an eye-opening experience for many who responded. Steve Kennebeck, 65, of Ranchos de Taos, N.M., was in seventh grade when his family moved from San Diego to Memphis, Tenn. "Not long after I arrived, my English teacher, sensing I was having difficulty adjusting, asked how I was doing. … I told her I didn't like the humidity and that I didn't understand why all the Black kids seemed so angry. She reached for the bookshelf and handed me a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird and said: 'Read this — it will help you understand.'" Christopher Anderson, 60, of Gloucester, Mass., felt such a connection to Scout's lawyer father that he named his first child Atticus. Nathaniel Hardman, 41, of Midvale, Utah, acknowledges: "I know some object to the 'white savior' narrative. That's fine. Let that be part of the discussion."

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Signet Classics

1984 by George Orwell

Whitney Todaro, 44, of Louisville, Colo., remembers being so upset by the ending of 1984 that she threw the book across the room. Many of you told us that George Orwell's dystopian novel encouraged you to think critically, question authority and be wary of state surveillance. There was a strong consensus that high schoolers should still be reading the book today. "More important than ever — but retitle it to 2025," writes Thom Haynes, 65, of Apex, N.C. Rayson Lorrey, 73, of Rochester, Minn., says, "Teens live in a world partly Orwellian — fish need to understand all they can about water.

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Then there were the books in the middle of the pack:

Little, Brown and Company

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Holden Caulfield gave voice to the angst and alienation many readers felt in their teen years. His disdain for "phonies" resonated with Jennifer Morrison, 56, of Buffalo, N.Y., and she admired the way Holden described his calling — catching kids at the edge of a rye field, just before a cliff.