A recent New Yorker featured The Lottery, a short story, first published in 1948, by Shirley Jackson. Soon after DotE read the piece and recommended it to me, SotE said she had just read it in her seventh grade language class. Without giving too much away, I will say that “The Lottery” is about a small American town that observes an annual ritual in which a community member is selected by chance. What the lottery entails isn’t revealed until the end.
I cannot say more, but I would recommend this piece for both adults and children. The main theme is particularly pertinent today.