I believe the other books in the list are Water for Elephants, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and some graphic novel called Stitches.
I admit I find Elephants a bit odd, but why is the rest of it strange?
It's just a very wide array. The YA course offered at my university focused almost exclusively on contemporary YA, the likes of John Green and Rainbow Rowell. There weren't any fantasy novels listed in the course curriculum, as I recall. So that struck me as strange--in a good way--to begin with. I'd also be interested to see how the professor chooses to link them all together, beyond the obvious fact that they all have teenage protagonists.