Jason Gomes, an English teacher at Coventry High School, hands out the summer reading list to his freshmen English students on Monday. The required book is 8 Plus 1 by Robert Cormier, a collection of short stories. There are other suggested books on the list.

The Providence Journal / Mary Murphy

Alas, poor Shakespeare.

In the struggle to make this year’s summer reading lists more student-friendly, high school teachers in some school districts have booted the bard to make room for more recent authors.

Also gone from some lists: Alice and the Cheshire Cat and gangly George Gibbs, the innocent young man in Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town.

New authors include Neil Gaiman, the popular fantasy writer who also works for DC Comics, the publisher of Superman, and bestselling author Jodi Picoult, who details a high school shooting in her 14th novel, Nineteen Minutes.

Teachers hope the new round of current and young adult titles –– thrillers, fantasies, memoirs and even graphic novels –– will prompt students to open a book rather than just watch TV, play Guitar Hero or hang out at the beach.

It’s a brave new world where world-class cyclist Lance Armstrong takes on tough-guy author Ernest Hemingway.

“We’re just trying to get them to read,” says Julie Boyle, English curriculum coordinator at Coventry High School. “There’s more competition for their attention in the summer. They’re busy working, playing video games or on their cell phones. They’re twittering and texting.”

In Coventry, teachers have reduced the number of books students must read over the summer from two to one.

New on the list of choices there is Khaled Hosseini’s popular novel, The Kite Runner, about a decades-long friendship amid the political turmoil in Afghanistan, and The Last Lecture, a nonfiction account of the life of computer science Prof. Randy Pausch, who died last year of cancer.

Much the same is happening in other school districts across the state. Teachers are replacing “difficult” books with easier ones and “overwhelming” lists with shorter ones.

In Woonsocket, teachers are drawing from this year’s Teen Book Award nominees.

In South Kingstown, juniors can bypass the 1922 spiritual journey of Siddhartha and instead read Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi’s 2004 comic book-style story about a girl’s childhood in Iran.

“It’s a matter of some controversy,” says Michael Alper, chairman of South Kingstown’s English Language Arts Department. Some parents say the assignments can ruin family vacations and make it hard for students to relax, he says. “We’ve tried over the past few years to make it more user-friendly for students who are not that academically inclined.”

But no one is abandoning the classics, he stressed.

College-bound seniors must devote part of their summers to Candide, The Grapes of Wrath or Moby-Dick. (Of course students prefer Voltaire’s 144-page satire to Melville’s 704-page sea tale.)

“We’re trying to strike a balance,” says Alper. “We don’t want to throw literature off the list, but we’re hoping to appeal to students who are not avid readers.”

IT’S EASIER to teach more demanding books during the school year, when teachers can offer guidance, says Monalina Boscia, chairwoman of the English department at Cranston High School West. Classics tackled alone, she says, “can be dry.”

In Cranston and elsewhere, summer titles are often tied to heady topics that will be explored in the fall –– self-discovery, American identity, the human condition.

For bookstores, the lists are crucial. “It’s a big part of our summer business,” says Jennifer Doucette, the manager of Books on the Square, in Providence. Doucette keeps an 80-page binder with titles from more than 50 public and private schools.

Reading lists started in the private schools and spread outward, says Mary Ann Snider, director of instruction, assessment and accountability at the state Department of Education. But summer reading is not a state requirement. “That’s a school or district call,” says spokesman Elliot Krieger.

North Kingstown High School did away with its list five years ago, after a decade-long program.

“It didn’t really encourage kids to read,” says Matthew Blaser, chairman of the English Department.

Instead, students watched movie versions of classic titles or relied on Internet study guides like SparkNotes to get by. The Barnes & Noble site provides themes and plot summaries for hundreds of literary works.

“If they didn’t read The Great Gatsby and bombed on the test –– what a terrible way to start the school year,” says Blaser.

North Kingstown High students can still get credit for summer reading, but it isn’t required.

TECHNOLOGY, TOO, is changing the way students understand books.

This year, Narragansett High School teacher Stephen Costello asked his 10th-grade students to read Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities.

The students didn’t appreciate the book until they read it aloud, he says.

“They expected to read it like a text message. But once they heard the rhythm and the power of the words, they said, ‘Oh, wow.’ ”

Teachers, meanwhile, say they will continue to look for the perfect mix of “the canonical and the cutting edge,” says Alper.

“You look for a book that’s accessible to kids, but also a book that gives them an enriching experience,” says Jean Nardone, chairwoman of the Narragansett High School English Department.

“We’re struggling. We’re fighting the tide. But I still believe the world belongs to readers and writers.”

At Coventry High School, teacher Kristen Capwell passes out a hot-pink paper describing this summer’s senior pick, The Last Lecture.

“I started reading it last night,” says Capwell. “Even in the first few pages I started to cry. It’s a good book. It’s inspirational, it’s heartfelt, and it’s true.”

Moved by Capwell’s description, some students fidget in their seats.

“Can we read it now?” asks junior Kerri Drapcho. “It sounds really good.”

pdavis@projo.com