Questions on Great Books, history, and literature studies for 9th grade

[LanaTron]

Right now, my 8th grade ds is working through Lightning Lit 7 with his 7th grade sister. It's going really well, and I think he's enjoying learning about the different literary elements.

If we do a Great Books study in high school, what about the type of thing taught in Lightning Lit? For example, in LL7 they read Tom Sawyer, and learned about the parts of a plotline. Is there any of that in a Great Books study, specifically something like TWEM? Or are Great Books studies geared more towards the meaning and nuances of the literature?

Would it be too much to do the following for English and History in 9th?

History:
History of the Ancient World (Bauer)
A few Great Books (3-4, with guides or using TWEM)

English:
Lightning Lit 8 (W/ sister)
Some writing program (I'm looking at Great Source 9 or maybe Wordsmith)
Grammar

He really hasn't done a lot of writing in years past, but I'm getting him closer to where he should be. He is a slow reader, but has excellent comprehension and retention, and has willingly tackled some challenging material in the past.

I was all set to use History Odyssey Level 2 Ancients and LL8 with him next year (very simple for me!), but he'll miss out on reading some things like The Iliad and The Odyssey that way.

Thanks for your help.

[Chris in VA]

Looking at the level of what he's going to get in LL8, I think it would be ok, but I'd probably bump him up to the high school level of LL instead. Can you pair his sister with her other brother instead? Or just have her do LL8 instead of pairing them at all?
To Kill a Mockingbird is high school level, and The Hobbit can be. But not much else on the list would qualify--with those choices, I'd probably add more.
Ymmv, of course.

ETA:-- Oh, duh--I see you are also reading in history. Nevermind. Sounds fine.

[Nan in Mass]

We did some of those things before high school with Writing Strands. A list of literary terms appears in Reading Strands (recommended in TWTM for those who don't remember how to discuss literature with their children, or at least in the old WTM). And TWEM covers some of it.
-Nan