After five teenagers defaced a historic black schoolhouse in Virginia with racist and anti-Semitic graffiti last year, a judge handed down an unusual sentence. She endorsed a prosecutor’s order that they read one book each month for the next 12 months and write a report about it. 
 
 But not just any books: They must address some of history’s most divisive and tragic periods. The teenagers can read “Night,” by Elie Wiesel, to learn about the Holocaust. They can crack open Maya Angelou’s landmark 1969 book, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” for an unsparing account of the Jim Crow South. They can also dive into “The Kite Runner,” by Khaled Hosseini, a captivating tale about two boys from Afghanistan. 
 
 Those books were among the 35 works of literature that the judge, Avelina Jacob, ordered the unidentified teenagers, ages 16 and 17, in Loudoun County to choose from last week after they pleaded guilty to spray-painting the Ashburn Colored School, a dilapidated, one-room 19th-century schoolhouse that had been used by black children during segregation in Northern Virginia. 
 
 The teenagers’ sentence, known as a disposition in juvenile cases, also includes a mandatory visit to the Holocaust Museum in Washington and the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History’s exhibit on Japanese-American internment camps in the United States. 

 The juvenile defendants were sentenced to write monthly book reports as part of their punishment. 
 
 Five teenagers in Loudoun County, Va., have received an unusual sentence for vandalizing a historic building with swastikas and messages of white power. 
 
 They've been ordered to write book reports. 
 
 The sentence came after they entered guilty pleas for spray-painting graffiti on the historic black schoolhouse, which was once the Ashburn Colored School. 
 
 The teenagers must complete probation, in addition to a number of educational requirements, according to a release from the Loudon County Attorney's Office. 
 
 They have been ordered to visit the United States Holocaust Museum and the American History Museum's "The Day of Remembrance: The 75th Anniversary of Executive Order 9066" exhibit, which tells the story of Japanese internment camps in the United States. They must write a research paper addressing the history of vandalism to African-American schools and churches. And they all have to write one book report every month for the next 12 months, from an approved list of titles. 
 
 The titles, the release notes, "were chosen based on their literary significance and/or their subject matter content surrounding race, religion and discrimination." They range from Elie Wiesel's Holocaust memoir "Night" to the book club favorite "The Help," which itself has been accused of downplaying the harsh realities of Jim Crow. The book list has three books by Leon Uris alone, as well as titles from Hannah Arendt, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ernest Hemingway and Colson Whitehead. 
 
 In the release, Commonwealth Attorney Jim Plowman said the teenagers "did not fully appreciate the significance or the meaning of what they were drawing on the building." The graffiti included "white power," as well as "brown power," sexual images and dinosaurs. Of the five defendants, three are minorities. 
 
 "We are seizing the opportunity to treat this as an educational experience for these young men so they may better appreciate the significance of their actions and the impact this type of behavior has on communities and has had throughout history," Plowman said. 
 
 Approved books for the Loudon County book report sentence 
 
 1) "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker 
 
 2) "Native Son" by Richard Wright 
 
 3) "Exodus" by Leon Uris 
 
 4) "Mila 18" by Leon Uris 
 
 5) "Trinity" by Leon Uris 
 
 6) "My Name is Asher Lev" by Chaim Potok 
 
 7) "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok 
 
 8) "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway 
 
 9) "Night" by Elie Wiesel 
 
 10) "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller 
 
 11) "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini 
 
 12) "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini 
 
 13) "Things Falls Apart" by Chinua Achebe 
 
 14) "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood 
 
 15) "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee 
 
 16) "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou 
 
 17) "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot 
 
 18) "Caleb's Crossing" by Geraldine Brooks 
 
 19) "Tortilla Curtain" by T.C. Boyle 
 
 20) "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison 
 
 21) "A Hope in the Unseen" by Ron Suskind 
 
 22) "Down These Mean Streets" by Piri Thomas 
 
 23) "Black Boy" by Richard Wright 
 
 24) "The Beautiful Struggle" by Ta Nehisi Coats 
 
 25) "The Banality of Evil" by Hannah Arendt 
 
 26) "The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead 
 
 27) "Reading Lolita in Tehran" by Azar Nafisi 
 
 28) "The Rape of Nanking" by Iris Chang 
 
 29) "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali 
 
 30) "The Orphan Master's Son" by Adam Johnson 
 
 31) "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett 
 
 32) "Cry the Beloved Country" by Alan Patton 
 
 33) "Too Late the Phalarope" by Alan Patton 
 
 34) "A Dry White Season" by Andre Brink 
 
 35) "Ghost Soldiers" by Hampton Sides
– Some say don't judge a book by its cover, but a Virginia attorney's office will be judging the progress of a group of teenagers by their book reports. The five teens pleaded guilty to vandalizing the Ashburn Colored School, a historic black schoolhouse, by spray-painting it with swastikas and "white power" graffiti, and so the Loudon County Attorney's Office administered a punishment more educational than punitive: The kids have to write book reports and go on field trips, MPR News reports. And they can't read just any books, but those "chosen based on their literary significance and/or their subject matter content surrounding race, religion and discrimination," per an attorney's office release. Among those tomes (from which each student will have to write one report a month for the next year): Elie Wiesel's Holocaust memoir Night, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, and The Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt. The teens—whom the New York Times IDs as all being 16 or 17, with two of them being white and three being minorities—are also required to visit DC's Holocaust Museum and the Japanese-American internment camps exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History. They also have to write a paper on swastikas and white power messages and how these affect African-Americans. "It occurred to me that the way these kids are going to learn about this stuff is if they read about it," the attorney who came up with the idea tells the Times. Maybe, she adds, if they digest the material, "they will stand up for people who are being oppressed." (No Trump book reports, though.)