Road Trip Wednesday is a “Blog Carnival,” where YA Highway‘s contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This week’s topic:

In high school, teens are made to read the classics – Shakespeare, Hawthorne, Bronte, Dickens – but there are a lot of books out there never taught in schools. So if you had the power to change school curriculums, which books would you be sure high school students were required to read?

First, I need to tell you I’m Brazilian. Hence, I went to high school in Brazil and read Brazilian classics.

However, I went to college in the US and took two literature classes where I was required to read only a few American classics, like Hemingway and Hawthorne and Harper Lee.

Thinking of what I would love for my daughter to read (if she was a teenager today), here is my list of teen-required-reads:

• Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (thoughts on Dystopian world)
• Looking for Alaska by John Green (teen issues)
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan (nice way of introducing Greek mythology)
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling (this is a classic all on its own)
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (sorry, had to add a Brazilian book. But it’s a quick, awesome, reflective reading about going after your dreams, not giving up and the meaning of life).
• Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler (to start discussions about topics like anorexia and other disorders).

I want to add Eragon by Christopher Paolini to that list (to introduce high fantasy with a delightful reading), but it’s a large book and I think kids would dislike it before even starting because of the length.

By the way, I would ADD these books to the required-reading-list, and I wouldn’t take out all classics. After all, classics are a part of our history and should be appreciated and respected.

Do you agree with my list? Which books you would take out or add to this list?

Cheers,