Teaching The Alchemist

[Heather]

Hello,
I am a high school teacher in Austin, Texas. I teach a Special Education Reading Improvement class for 9th-12th graders. As reading is incredibly difficult and painstaking for most of my students, I base my book choices off their interests and what interests me. I have taught The Alchemist twice and although the reading level is very high for them and they may or may not get all of the religious or spiritual references, most of my students love this book. They become enthralled in Santiago's journey. I am looking right now at their culminating projects on the board in which they created a map of all the important places, people and realizations he encountered on his way and the "Emeral Tablet" we created in which they etched what insight they thought it held. I have given this book as a gift to a few of my seniors as they embark on their journey. I have seen reluctant readers become engaged and not want to put the book down (a reading teacher's dream realized.) I wanted to say thank you for myself and for my students who hold your book as the first they ever read and liked, a feeling that is sacred.

My question is, what of your books do you feel would be a good follow up or companion to The Alchemist that a teenager might find interesting?

With pleasure,
Heather

[Paulo]

Dear heather,

you don't how happy I am to read what you have written. it's magical and humbling for me.
It's difficult for me to say which books could be complementary to The Alchemist, but I would say that my book has echoes to The Prophet (Khalil Gibran) and Siddharta (Herman Hesse).

Love
Paulo