There’s a call for an edited collection, titled Putting the Imaginative on the Map: Teaching Science Fiction and Fantasy in the EFL Classroom. EFL is teacher-speak for learning ‘English as a Foreign Language’. The deadline for proposals for papers is: 15th September 2018.

“teachers at all levels, from primary school to university, still seem to be reluctant to make use of science fiction and fantasy texts in the EFL classroom [despite the obvious potential]. All contributions should have a clear didactic focus, carving out the pedagogical potential of the genre[s]”.

One might carefully lay out the case that Lovecraft is suitable for young people, contrary to the widespread modern misapprehension that he’s too wordy and convoluted and uses an incomprehensible vocabulary and there’s no real action scenes, etc etc. I mean… a great many lovers of Lovecraft first read him when they were only 11-13 years old. We did fine. Therefore he certainly works for a niche of intelligent young people, though he’s obviously likely to stump the dullards in a mixed-ability class. But they would likely be stumped by most advanced literature.

One might start the paper by looking at the selection made by educationalists, such as Margaret Ronan in her 1971 ‘schools’ paperback of Lovecraft. That was The Shadow over Innsmouth and Other Stories of Horror, published by Scholastic Book Services of New York in December 1971.