Authors hope their messages got across

Since the Ashburn case, the reading sentence has been applied to another case, one involving a 14-year-old who threatened a black student with a noose, Ms. Rueda said.

She gathered a list of 36 books with input from librarians who emphasized that the most enlightening could be “A Wreath for Emmett Till,” a poetry book about a black youth of the same age who was murdered in Mississippi in 1955.

Marilyn Nelson, the author, said she was concerned it might have the opposite effect to what was intended. “I can’t say I’m pleased to know that my work is being inflicted as a punishment,” she said. “Will kids punished by being made to read poetry ever read poetry again?”

Other authors expressed hope that the underlying message in their works was not lost.

Mr. Boyle, whose “The Tortilla Curtain” is told from four points of view, said he hoped the teenager “will be able to live inside the skin of someone unfamiliar to him, whether that be the Mexican immigrant couple or the Anglo couple living in a gated community, and that the experience will enrich his social perspective.”

Mr. Hosseini, who wrote “The Kite Runner,” a story of Afghan boys struggling against cruelty, said he hoped the teenager was inspired to overcome an “us against them” mind-set.

“Engaging with characters that differ from us in race, religion or culture, helps us feel our immutable connections as a species,” Mr. Hosseini said. “Books allow us to see ourselves in another. They transform us. I hope reading ‘The Kite Runner’ was a small step along that transformation for this young man.”

How the community reacted

After the graffiti episode in September 2016, the Ashburn schoolhouse underwent a renovation organized by students from the Loudoun School for the Gifted, a private high school that owns it. Money was raised, work teams were drawn from community volunteers, and the little schoolhouse eventually opened as a museum.