Top Ten Books I Believe Teens Should be Required to Read

Top Ten Books I Believe Teens Should be Required to Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

  

Here is my top ten list of books I think every teen should read. This list is obviously going to reflect my favorites. The beauty of this is we all have different essentials. This list was very hard to compile! Obviously, it is now Wednesday afternoon and I am posting my Top Ten Tuesday list.

When I say teens should be required to read these I mean they should read them before they are adults. I had several teachers who clearly did not like the books they were required to teach us in school. I truly believe this taints the reading experience tremendously! I was lucky to have a few teachers passionate about the books we had to read. I hope I can carry that passion for some of my favorites and pass it along to my child and reading friends! Here Goes!

(In No Particular Order)

1. The Giver by Lois Lowry (1993)– This is a great dystopian novel often dismissed as a children’s book. I think everyone should read this book.

2. Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins (2009 – 2010) – I wish more emphasis would be put on reading what you love! I loved this series and am happy that many teens were able to read my copies of this series because they wanted to! Yea for reading!

3. Night by Elie Wiesel (1982) - Some one gave me this book in high school and I mistook this thin book as an easy read. This book is about Elie Wiesel’s life in a Nazi Concentration camp. This is one of the most powerful books I have ever read! It personalized the holocaust, one period in history we never want to repeat!

4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960) – I had to read this in school. I loved this book! The characters are amazing. Atticus Finch is one incredible man, I wish there were more Atticus’s in the real world than just on the pages of a book.

5. Paper Towns by John Green (2008) – I have enjoyed every book I have read by John Green and I have more on my TBR pile. There is language/situations in this book so I would suggest this for older teens. It was easy to root for Q on his quest to find Margo and ultimately himself.

6. The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe (1845) – Frankly anything by Poe and more poetry. Lots and lots of poetry!

7. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813) – Because before Edward there was Mr. Darcy

8. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (1939) – Any one who knows me knows I could not make this list without Dame Agatha!

9. Short Stories – I love short stories! They are gems of words! You can read a short story… well very shortly! But often times the story sticks with you for a long time after.

Some of my favorites… The Monkeys Paw by WW Jacobs, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, The Gift of the Magi by O Henry, Rikki Tikki Tavi by Rudyard Kipling, and anything by Edgar Allan Poe, Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Saki, Mark Twain, HG Wells, HP Lovecraft.

10. Something funny! Everyone needs to laugh out loud.

Some of my favorites… A Whole Nother Story by Dr. Cuthbert Soup, Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison, Here Lies the Librarian and the Teachers Funeral by Richard Peck. The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis and A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban