Top Ten Books We Wish Were Taught in School

This is this week's Top Ten Tuesday, which is hosted by The Broke & the Bookish.

This week's topic: Top Ten Books We Wish Were Taught in School

This week we had two choices of the Top Ten and we chose what books we wish were taught in school.  Rachel's books generally have a little more depth to them, so I had to seek her help with this list.  I read to escape and enjoy, so if I were a Language Arts teacher I think I would just be happy with kids reading, as long as they enjoy it.  More kids needs to love reading.  It breaks my heart that none of my four kids will willingly pick up a book and start to read.  They need to be bribed or forced.  Which I don't think helps the situation at all, so if anyone has any ideas please let me know.  Anyways, back to our top ten.  Rachel and I both agree that teenagers are in a tough place.  They think they are invincible, know everything, and yet they sometimes struggle with who they are and how they fit in.  Part of becoming an adult is that you have to go through a process to find your identity, it just sucks to have to do it alone most of the time.  If these books were taught in school, then maybe our teenagers wouldn't feel like they were alone.  Hope you enjoy!  I know a couple of these are now on my To-Read list thanks to Rachel.

1.  The Book Thief by Markus Zusak- The Nazi Germany story beyond your Diary of Anne Frank or Number the Stars.  This story is narrated by Death himself from a perspective like nothing else I've read. 

2. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins or Divergent by Veronica Roth.  These are our dystopian favorites and it just has to be on our list.

3. Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden.   A lesbian coming of age story about two girls who fall in love.  This book has actually been banned from many school libraries and, sadly, publicly burned in Kansas City.

4. Kissing Doorknobs by Terry Spencer and A.J. Allen.  A young girl who is dealing with OCD.

5. Ishmael: An adventure of the Mind and Spirit by Daniel Quinn.  This book will open your mind to how people are destroying the environment.

6. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid.  This book explores the relationship between the US and the Middle East.  Your interpretation of the ending gives you an insight of how you view the world.

7. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.  This book follows a girl who won't speak after the event that changed her life - her rape.

8. Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda.  To learn about the two India's and another country's culture.

9. Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan.  How fun would it have been to read these stories first before getting into Greek Mythology?

10. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.  Only because I feel that sometimes we need to open our minds because a lot of the time things aren't exactly what you think they are.

How about you?  What would you like to have read in school or what would you want to teach?