Books I'm glad my teachers made me read

During our years of grade school from elementary school through high school and then onto college, we read a plethora of books spanning a genres and topics. Some of these books we will tune out and only push through because we are being graded, while others will truly resonate with us. I sat down and narrowed my list down to 5 books that I am really glad my teachers made me read and that I highly recommend. (I may do a second part because I have more!) 

1. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - this is an amazing book that allows you to read about a different culture. I did a full review here.

2. You Don't Know Me by David Klass. This is a really amazing book I read in 9th grade from the perspective of a boy in high school named John who is struggling with life, love, feeling like no one truly knows him, and an abusive step father. It is a really emotional book but I loved the whole thing.

3. Night by Elie Weisel. Night is an autobiographical story from Elie's experience surviving through a Nazi concentration camp with his father. This book does not hold anything back, and I cried through it. It isn't a very long novel but if you are a history buff it is a must read.

4. Number the Stars by Luis Lowry. Another book based during the holocaust but this time from the view of a 10 year old girl, Annamarie Johansen, at the start of the German occupation of Denmark who's family courageously help Annamarie's best friend Ellen's jewish family escape into Switzerland. I don't know how many times I have read this book but I love it so much!

5. Always Running by Luis J. Rodríguez. I read this book in my senior year it is a "memoir about a young Chicano gang member surviving the dangerous streets of East Los Angeles." This book is a very raw and honest tale of what it is like to be a gang member in Los Angeles and everything that comes along with it.

What assigned reading books from school did you love?

Hope you enjoyed my picks!