Oh, and forcing anyone to read Melville should be a crime. A very few people I know loved the experience, but I was unable to finish Billy Bud much less Moby Dick.
I vaguely recall not liking Billy Bud in high school although I read Moby Dick as an adult and was mostly glad I worked my way through but it did take an effort.
I don't think I hated Catcher in the Rye at the time. It just didn't make much of an impression one way or the other.
Also Britten's Billy Budd is one of the 2 operas I really love.
1966 BBC version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1lVBfqQyjs
The rest is history. I'm a voracious reader of "junky" fantasy books.
But Mencken was a real wordsmith -albeit a really, really cynical one.
> and, under it all, the simple sentimentality of a somewhat sclerotic fat woman.
There are exception like The Picture of Dorian Gray although that's very late 19th century--and, of course, Wilde is very accessible.
ADDED: In general, I don't think I read any, but both Fitzgerald and Hemingway seem pretty reasonable for a high school English class. Probably better choices than the like of Catcher in the Rye and A Separate Peace to be honest.