Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books That You Wish Were Taught In Schools

A meme from the Broke and the Bookish.

Today’s topic: Top 10 Contemporary Books That Would Be Great Paired With A Required Reading Book (like Perks of Being A Wallflower with Catcher in the Rye) OR Top Ten Books That You Wish Were Taught In Schools

1. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson – This one stresses me out but it is very good at its topic and we can’t afford to not talk about such things.

2. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang – This graphic novel has a bit more fun while still dealing with important topics.

3. Anno’s Journey by Mitsumasa Anno – I credit Anno with my creativity, my love of historic settings and what child could harm from this.

4. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman – It is a Newbery, it is Gaiman. It is creepy but well written. We should expose students to well written things they will like. Not everything is Goosebumps.

5. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott – Love this book about writing and it gives a pretty good coverage on living life too. I would recommend a life skills book if I knew of one.

6. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick – Old movies, history, beautiful illustrations but also reading. Talk about things we should expose students to and hey, it is a Caldecott.

7. Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher – Do I really need to say anything other than I cried during a book classified as Sports-Fiction.

8. The First Part Last by Angela Johnson – Another I had to read for grad school that I think every teenager should read. It makes you think.

9. The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley – I think McKinley should be taught in schools. You see the Damar books but they aren’t required. I picked this as the most likely to actually get taught in schools.

10. 19 Varieties of Gazelle by Naomi Shihab Nye – We read so much dry western poetry in schools, we should mix it up a little.