A topic that many teens talk about is what books are being required to read in school. Pretty much all of the books are classics. There are many high schoolers who despise reading, so they have a smaller chance of being successful in school. If a few young-adult novels were introduced to school reading lists, teens may show more interest in books.

As teenagers, it is easier for us to relate more to a young-adult novel than a classic. Classics may teach us lessons about life but books for young-adult readers teach us things that we can apply to everyday life now. It may teach us how to stand up to a bully, how to deal with a classmate having mental issues or something similar to those examples. In classic novels, we learn lessons that we will not need until adulthood and we may forget them by that point. We should be reading young-adult novels while we are still young adults.

Kids today have much busier schedules than those in the past. Between sports, community service, extracurricular activities and rigorous academic expectations, teens barely have time to eat or sleep. When they get free time, they do something that interests them. Reading is not a very popular activity so students may not read their book required for school when they have leisure time. However, if classes read popular teen fiction novels, high schoolers may be more motivated to read their school books than watch television or stare at their phone all day.

Technology has become an important concept of this generation of teenagers and they are interested in anything associated with technology. E-books are becoming more and more popular because people are slowly finding out that most e-books are cheaper than the physical copies of books. Lately, there has been an increase in the amount of sales on young-adult e-books. Some of these electronic teen books can be found at prices as low as 99 cents! If a class requires students to read a teen fiction novel, they could pay a few dollars and get the book and the ability to annotate it, all in one app on their phone or tablet.

I really do understand the importance of why we need to read classic novels. They need to be read and understood by the majority of today’s population. However, the literature classes here at North Forsyth High School are overwhelming their students with so many classics. Sometimes, change does not hurt and I believe this is one of those scenarios.