Mrs. Susan Richman recently wrote an article for evaluators in the summer 2013 edition of Excelsior Magazine. She makes the point that teens often react very differently to the literature assigned for their reading in high school English courses. “Why the difference? Seems to me,” she writes, “that a main one is … some of the teens are guys, and some are girls. They often just don’t care for the same types of...

Howard Richman’s PHAA diploma program requires that students read 25 books each year, three of which need to be “classics,” which often leads to a discussion with parents about just exactly what is a classic? Does it have to be Shakespeare? There is no master list or consensus definition of what is a classic, and some books on one person’s list may be considered inappropriate reading for teens by someone else. A list...