Great Books to Read
19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East by Naomi Shihab Nye
This volume collects for the first time all of Nye's poems about the Middle East, peace, and being an Arab-American in the U.S.
47 by Walter Mosley
Number 47, a fourteen-year-old slave boy growing up under the watchful eye of a brutal master in 1832, meets the mysterious Tall John, who introduces him to a magical science and also teaches him the meaning of freedom.
A Bone From a Dry Sea by Peter Dickinson
In two parallel stories, a young female member of a prehistoric tribe becomes instrumental in advancing her people, and a present-day girl visits her paleontologist father on a dig in Africa where they discover important fossil remains.
A Jar of Dreams by Yoshiko Uchida
A young girl grows up in a closely-knit Japanese American family in California during the 1930's, a time of great prejudice.
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
In 1906, Mattie takes a job at an inn where she discovers the truth about the death of a guest.
A Stir of Bones by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
After discovering the secrets that lie in an abandoned house, fourteen-year-old Susan Backstrom, with the help of some new friends, has the ability to make a safe, new life for herself.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Young Francie Nolan experiences the problems of growing up in a Brooklyn, New York slum.
A Wreath for Emmett Till by Marilyn Nelson
Emmett Louis Till was a fourteen-year-old African American boy lynched for supposedly whistling at a white woman in Mississippi in 1955. This book is a poetic tribute to the boy who helped propel the Civil Rights Movement forward.
Andy Warhol: Prince of Popby Jan Greenberg
Andy Warhol, the Pittsburgh-bred son of Eastern European immigrants, is well known for his Pop Art masterpieces. But there is more to Warhol than that.
Animal Dreams by Kingsolver
"Animals dream about the things they do in the day time just like people do. If you want sweet dreams, you've got to live a sweet life." So says Loyd Peregrina, a handsome Apache trainman and latter-day philosopher. But when Codi Noline returns to her hometown, Loyd's advice is painfully out of her reach. Dreamless and at the end of her rope, Codi comes back to Grace, Arizona to confront her past and face her ailing, distant father.
Any of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. By J.R.R. Tolkien
Adventures of the underdog hobbits in the wider and more fantastic world of elves, dwarves, wizards and the evil ring wraiths.
Avalon High by Meg Cabot
Having moved to Annapolis, Maryland, with her medievalist parents, high school junior Ellie enrolls at Avalon High School where several students may or may not be reincarnations of King Arthur and his court.
Babylon Boyz by Jess Mowry
Inner-city teenagers find a suitcase full of cocaine and must decide whether to sell it and take the opportunities the money would provide or to destroy it to keep the drug from poisoning their community.
Bad Boy: A Memoir by Walter Dean Meyers
Author Walter Dean Myers describes his childhood in Harlem in the 1940s and 1950s, discussing his loving stepmother, his problems in school, his reasons for leaving home, and his beginnings as a writer.
Beyond the Burning Time by Kathryn Lasky
In this novel set in Salem, 1691, twelve-year-old Mary's mother is accused of being a witch
Big mouth & Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates
While horsing around in the high school cafeteria, Matt Donaghy makes some remarks that land him in a world of trouble. Only the resolutely individualistic, somewhat frightening Ursula Riggs, a girl he barely knows, is willing to speak up on Matt's behalf.
Blood Gold by Michael Cadnum
The rush to the gold fields of California is on in the lawless year of 1849. But Will Dwinelle is not in search of gold in California. He's out to find and bring home the man who betrayed the honor of a girl back home.
Blood Red Horse K. M. Grant
Two brothers are called by King Richard to fight in the Crusades. They are bound together by a special horse and a girl they both love.
Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes
While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they've written, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates.
Bucking the Sarge by Christopher Paul Curtis
Luther is one of the wealthiest 15 year olds in Flint, Michigan. He is in an enviable position…or is he. He runs the Happy Neighbor Group Home for Men, all the while dreaming of going to college, becoming a philosopher, and having to with his difficult mother.
Carrie by Stephan King
The unnerving story of an unpopular and repressed young girl who uses her supernatural powers of telekinesis to inflict revenge on her classmates
Carver, a Life in Poems by Marilyn Nelson
This collection of poems provides a lyrical account of the life of George Washington Carver, a man born into slavery who went on to head the agricultural department at the Tuskegee Institute.
Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah
Yen Mah is only an infant when her father remarries after her mother's death. As the youngest of her five siblings, Wu Mei suffers the worst at the hands of her stepmother Niang.
Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins
Teenagers in a small town in the 1960s experience new thoughts and feelings, question their identities, connect, and disconnect as they search for the meaning of life and love.
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
The story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, set in the troubled and changing South Africa of the 1940s.
Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue by Julius Lester
When gambling debts and greed enter into the Butler household, Pierce Butler decides to host the biggest slave auction in American history.
Dead Girls Don't Write Letters by Gail Giles
Fourteen-year-old Sunny is stunned when a total stranger shows up at her house posing as her older sister Jazz, who supposedly died out of town in a fire months earlier.
Dragon and Thief: A Dragonback Adventure by Timothy Zahn
When a spaceship crashes near Jack's hiding place, with one survivor, his life is changed forever.
Dragon's Gate by Laurence Yep
A fifteen-year-old Chinese boy is sent to America to join his father, an uncle, and other Chinese working to build a tunnel for the transcontinental railroad through the Sierra Nevada mountains in 1867.
East by Edith Paffou
A young woman journeys to a distant castle on the back of a great white bear who is the victim of a cruel enchantment.
Emako Blue by Brenda Woods
Emako is a beautiful, compassionate and perceptive fifteen-year-old destined to be a star. Although she has already been signed by record producers, her destiny will be tragically interrupted.
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Ender is the one chosen to save Earth from galactic invaders. Ender, who is the result of genetic experimentation, may be the military genius Earth needs in its war against an alien enemy.
Eragon by Christopher Paolini
The first installment in an epic fantasy trilogy about a 15-year-old farm boy who discovers his destiny as a Dragon Rider. In Aagaesia, a fifteen-year-old boy of unknown lineage called Eragon finds a mysterious stone that weaves his life into an intricate tapestry of destiny, magic, and power, peopled with dragons, elves, and monsters.
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Meyers
Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school, enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.
Fever 1793 by Laurie Raise Anderson
Fever 1793 is based on an actual epidemic of yellow fever in Philadelphia that wiped out 5,000 people--or 10 percent of the city's population--in three months.
Freedom's Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories by Ellen Levine
Southern blacks who were young and involved in the Civil Rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s describe their experiences.
Geeks : How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet out of Idahoby Jon Katz
Tells the true story of Jesse and Eric.. nineteen-year-old roommates in the small town of Caldwell, Idaho who changed their lives and built a new future for themselves with the power of the Internet.
George Washington, Spymaster by Thomas B. Allen
A biography of Revolutionary War general and first President of the United States, George Washington, focusing on his use of spies to gather intelligence that helped the colonies win the war.
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
An absorbing mystery as well as a morality tale, the story of Pip, a poor village lad, and his expectations of wealth is Dickens at his most deliciously readable. The cast of characters includes kindly Joe Gargery, the loyal convict Abel Magwitch and the haunting Miss Havisham. If you have heartstrings, count on them being tugged.
Habibi by Naomi Shihah Nye
When fourteen-year-old Liyanne Abboud, her younger brother, and her parents move from St. Louis to a new home between Jerusalem and the Palestinian village where her father was born, they face many changes and must deal with the tensions between Jews and Palestinians.
Hawksong by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
A marriage between two people-the avian and the serpiente- is proposed to stop an endless war. Will it work?
How I Spent My Last Night on Earth by Todd Strasser
When a rumor appears on the Internet that a giant asteroid is about to destroy Earth, Legs Hanover scrambles to meet the boy of her dreams, elusive Andros Bliss.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Poet Maya Angelou recounts a youth filled with disappointment, frustration, tragedy, and finally hard-won independence. Sent at a young age to live with her grandmother in Arkansas, Angelou learned a great deal from this exceptional woman and the tightly knit African-American community there.
Imani All Mine by Connie Rose Porter
Tasha, a fifteen-year-old mother, is proud of her baby and is determined to be a good parent to her child, but she must draw upon her newfound faith to go on when tragedy strikes.
In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle by Madeleine Blais
Chronicles one basketball season of a girls' high school team in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Inside Out by Terry Trueman
A sixteen-year-old with schizophrenia is caught up in the events surrounding an attempted robbery by two other teens who eventually hold him hostage.
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Chris McCandless abandons everything to experience life in the Alaskan wilderness.
Jack London: A Biography by Daniel Dyer
Biography of the colorful American writer who had been an oyster pirate, a seal hunter, a mill worker, a hobo, and a political activist before becoming a popular author at the age of twenty-nine.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Intelligent, passionate, not especially beautiful, Jane Eyre falls in love with a strange, moody, tormented young man. Jane refuses to succumb to the misfortunes in her life as she transcends the traditional role of an obedient and proper Victorian woman.
Lakota Woman by Mary Brave Bird
This is the powerful autobiography of Mary Brave Bird, who grew up in the misery of a South Dakota reservation. Rebelling against the violence and hopelessness of reservation life, she joined the tribal pride movement in an effort to bring about much-needed changes.
Like Sisters on the Homefront by Rita Garcia-Williams
Troubled fourteen-year-old Gayle is sent down South to live with her uncle and aunt, where her life begins to change as she experiences the healing power of the family.
Mable Riley: A Reliable Record of Humdrum, Peril, and Romance by Marthe Jocelyn
In 1901, fourteen-year-old Mable Riley dreams of being a writer and having adventures while stuck in Perth County, Ontario, assisting her sister in teaching school and secretly becoming friends with a neighbor who holds scandalous opinions on women's rights.
Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff
In order to earn money for college, fourteen-year-old LaVaughn baby sits for a teenage mother.
Mason -- In Country
In the summer of 1984, the war in Vietnam comes home to Sam Hughes, whose father was killed there before she was born.
Michelangelo Stephanie Di Cargno
A part of the excellent art book series featuring the work, lives, and cultural background of distinguished artists throughout history.
Monsoon Summer by Mitali Perkins
Jazz is secretly in love with her best friend Steve. Will she ever be able to tell him the truth?
My Heartbeat by Garret Freymann-Weyr
Ellen wonders about her older brother and his best friend.
My Name is Asher Lev by Potok Chaim
The making of a great contemporary painter from the first stirrings of a commanding talent to the triumphant exhibition that wins recognition for his art and marks his final, heartrending estrangement from the world in which he was born.
No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman
Eighth-grade football hero Wallace Wallace is sentenced to detention attending rehearsals of the school play where, in spite of himself, he becomes wrapped up in the production and begins to suggest changes that improve not only the play but his life as well.
Nothing to Lose by Alex Finn
A year after running away with a traveling carnival to escape his unbearable home life, sixteen-year-old Michael returns to Miami, Florida, to find that his mother is going on trial for the murder of his abusive stepfather.
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck