Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Grades 9-12
Set in an Ibo village in Nigeria, the novel recreates pre-Christian tribal life and shows how the coming of the white man led to the breaking up of the old ways.
Allende, Isabel. The House of the Spirits. Grades 10-12
Presents a novel set in an unnamed Latin American country and describes the struggles, passions, and secrets of the Trueba family that spans three generations.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Grades 9-12
In early nineteenth-century England, a spirited young woman copes with the courtship of a snobbish gentleman as well as the romantic entanglements of her four sisters..
Baldwin, James. Go Tell It on the Mountain. Grades 10-12
Describes a day in the life of several members of a Harlem fundamentalist church. The saga of three generations of people is related through flashbacks.
Bauer, Joan. Rules of the Road. High School
This book describes a summer road trip with Jenna Boller, a funny and insightful high school student, and her employer, the president of Gladstone Shoes. Jenna’s job is to chauffeur Mrs. Gladstone from Chicago to a stockholder’s meeting in Texas. Jenna soon learns that the rules for driving Mrs. Gladstone are very different from those that she learned in order to get her new license!
Brashares, Ann. Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood. High School
The fourth book of this series has the girls going in opposite directions. Bridget flies off to Turkey for an archaeological dig, but the others stay in the States to pursue their summer plans. Lena follows her love of painting to take a summer course in Providence, and Carmen ventures to Vermont for theater work, while Tibby stays in NY for a film course. The girls experience the normal love and friendship complications, but the story ends on a high note. If you are a fan of the Sisterhood, you will want to read the final book of this series.
Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. Grades 9-12
This landmark book gave birth to the environmental movement through an examination of the way chemicals have been used without regard for their potential harm to wildlife, water, soil, and humans.
Cather, Willa. My Antonia. Grades 10-12
A successful lawyer remembers his boyhood in Nebraska and his friendship with an immigrant Bohemian girl named Antonia.
Chang, Pang-Mei. Bound Feet & Western Dress. Grades 9-12.
Tells the story of the author's great-aunt Chang Yu-i, a woman who challenged Chinese tradition by refusing to have her feet bound, marrying and divorcing preeminent poet Hsu Chih-mo, and running the Shanghai Women's Savings Bank during the 1930s.
Choldenko, Jennifer. Al Capone Does My Shirts. High School
It’s 1935, and 12 year old, Moose, lives on Alcatraz– no not as a prisoner- but as the son of one of the Alcatraz guards. Families of prison workers live on the island! Read about the complications of living with criminals, like Machine Gun Kelly and Al Capone, and about the crazy capers of the children of the guards!
Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. Grades 9-12.
A young girl living in a Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago ponders the advantages and disadvantages of her environment and evaluates her relationships with family and friends.
Crutcher, Chris. Whale Talk. Grades 7-10.
Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial, adopted teenager, shuns organized sports and the gung-ho athletes at his high school until he agrees to form a swimming team and recruits some of the school's less popular students.
Deuker, Carl. Runner. Grades 7-10.
"My dad never hit me; never yelled at me. He was just a drunk." High-school senior Chance is a "ghost-walker" at school--barely talking, just passing, finding escape only in long, solitary, after-school runs. His hard-drinking father can't keep a job, and Chance worries how they will pay the mooring fees for their dilapidated, 30-foot sailboat home in Pugent Sound. When a marina worker offers him a job picking up secret packages, Chance can't turn down the lucrative opportunity, even though he's sure it's illegal. But as a friendship with smart student Melissa grows, so does Chance's concern about his job and its possible links to local smuggling rings.
Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Grades 9-12A young orphan, Pip, receives a fortune from a mysterious benefactor and travels to London in order to become “a gentleman.”
D’0rso, Michael. Eagle Blue: A Team, A Tribe & A High School Basketball Team.
Grades 7-12.
Eight miles above the Arctic Circle, there's a village with no roads leading to it, but a high school basketball tradition that lights up winter's darkness and a team of native Alaskan boys who know "no quit."
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Notes From The Underground. Grades 9-12.
A translation of the Russian novel in which a nameless hero, alienated from society, searches for the true and good in a corrupt world.
Edwards, Kim. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter. Grades 11-12
Dr. David Henry, forced to deliver his own twins during a snowstorm in 1964 with only a nurse to help him, makes a decision that has far-reaching effects on his life, and the lives of his wife and son, when his infant daughter is born with Down Syndrome, and in a vain attempt to protect his wife, he orders the nurse to take the baby to an institution.
Fleischman, Sid. Escape! The Story of the Great Houdini. Grades 6-9
A biography of the magician, ghost chaser, aviator, and king of escape artists whose amazing feats are remembered long after his death in 1926.
Frost. Helen. The Braid. Grades 7-10
Two Scottish sisters, living on the western island of Barra in the 1850s, relate, in alternate voices and linked narrative poems, their experiences after their family is forcibly evicted and separated with one sister accompanying their parents and younger siblings to Cape Breton, Canada, and the other staying behind with other family on the small island of Mingulay.
Golden, Arthur. Memoirs of a Geisha. Grades 10-12
Nitta Sayuri, a young Japanese woman who was taken from her home at the age of nine and sold into slavery as a geisha, discovers a rare opportunity for freedom when the outbreak of World War II forces an end to the only life she has ever known.
Grogan, John. Marley & Me: Life With the Worlds Worst Dog. Grades 9-12.
Labrador retrievers are generally considered even-tempered, calm and reliable;and then there's Marley, the subject of this delightful tribute to one Lab who doesn't fit the mold. Grogan, a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and his wife, Jenny, were newly married and living in West Palm Beach when they decided that owning a dog would give them a foretaste of the parenthood they anticipated. Marley was a sweet, affectionate puppy who grew into a lovably naughty, hyperactive dog.
Hesse, Herman. Siddhartha. Grades 9-12
Translated from the German. A moral allegory, set in ancient India, about one soul's quest for the ultimate answer to the enigma of man's role in this world. The hero, Siddhartha, undergoes a series of experiences to emerge in a state of peace and wisdom.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. Grades 9-12
A satirical novel about the utopia of the future, a world in which babies are decanted from bottles and the great Ford is worshipped.
Kantor, Melissa. If I have a Wicked Stepmother Where’s My Prince. High School
A bit of a Cinderella tale, starring Lucy Norton, who has lost her mother and now must live with her father, his new wife and her daughters. Losing a parent, moving cross country, and starting a new high school is hard enough on a teenager, but when a teen is, also, expected to care for two younger and unruly stepsisters, it can make a girl long for some fairy godmother magic.
Kidd, Sue M. The Secret Life of Bees. Grades 9-12.
Fourteen-year-old Lily and her companion, Rosaleen, an African-American woman who has cared from Lily since her mother's death ten years earlier, flee their home after Rosaleen is victimized by racist police officers, and find a safe haven in Tiburon, South Carolina at the home of three beekeeping sisters, May, June, and August.
Livio, Mario. The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, the World’s Most Astonishing Number. Grades 9-12
Tells the story of phi, the never ending, never repeating number known as the Golden Ratio, written as 1.6180339887..., looking at how it has been used, and claims about its use, throughout the history of mathematics.
Maguire, Gregory. Son of a Witch. High School
Maguire has written this follow-up to the incredibly popular novel and Broadway production of Wicked. This is the story of Liir, (possibly) Elphaba’s son, as he matures and becomes strong enough to honor the principles that drove Elphaba to her demise.
Martinez. Parrot in the Oven. Grades 7-12.
Manny relates his coming of age experiences as a member of a poor Mexican American family in which the alcoholic father only adds to everyone's struggle.
McCormick, Patricia. Sold. Grade 9-12.
Lakshmi, 13, knows nothing about the world beyond her village shack in the Himalayas of Nepal, and when her family loses the little it has in a monsoon, she grabs a chance to work as a maid in the city so she can send money back home. What she doesn't know is that her stepfather has sold her into prostitution. She ends up in a brothel far across the border in the slums of Calcutta, locked up, beaten, starved, drugged, raped, "torn and bleeding," until she submits.
Murdock, Catherine. Dairy Queen: A Novel. Grades 7-12.
D.J. Schwenk, while not really happy, never complains or questions her life on the family's small dairy farm in Wisconsin. After her father injures himself, the 15-year-old girl must do the farm work almost single-handedly, including milking the cows. She never really noticed the similarities between her life and the lives of the cows. D.J. is a jock, so on top of all her farm chores, she takes on training Brian, the quarterback on a rival school's football team.
Myers, Walter Dean. Street Love. Grades 9-12
This story told in free verse is set against a background of street gangs and poverty in Harlem in which seventeen-year-old African American Damien takes a bold step to ensure that he and his new love will not be separated.
Napoli, Donna Jo. Bound. High School
Set in ancient China, a widow, her daughter and her stepdaughter enact the Cinderella tale, Napoli blends bits of ancient Chinese culture to the traditional components of the myth.
Oates, Joyce Carol. Freaky Green Eyes. High School
Franky Pierson a.k.a. Freaky Green Eyes is a member of what appears to be the perfect family. But, as we know, appearances can be deceiving. Find out how Franky goes from perfect daughter to the Freaky one!
Peck, Richard. Here Lies the Librarian. Grades 7-9
Fourteen-year-old Eleanor "Peewee" McGrath, a tomboy and automobile enthusiast, discovers new possibilities for her future after the 1914 arrival in her small Indiana town of four young librarians.
Pelzer, Dave. Child Called It. Grades 7-12.
David Pelzer, victim of one of the worst child abuse cases in the history of California, tells the story of how he survived his mother's brutality and triumphed over his past.
Picoult, Jodi . Plain Truth. Grades 10-12
Philadelphia defense attorney Ellie Hathaway, unsatisfied with the course of her career and personal life, leaves her job for an open-ended stay at her great-aunt's home in Paradise, Pennsylvania, arriving just in time to become embroiled in the case of a young, unmarried Amish woman accused of killing her newborn baby.
Sanborn, Mark. Fred Factor. High School
Read about the four principles of the Fred Factor. See how a relatively unknown postman has been recognized for the positive difference he has made in his community. Can you use the ideas in this little book to help you to work better, to be a better teammate, classmate, or student?
Steinbeck, John. East of Eden. Grades 10-12
The saga of good and evil in three generations of the Trask and Hamilton families in the early 1900s in Northern California.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse-Five. Grades 9-12.
A fourth-generation German-American time travels while tortured by his memories of the firebombing of Dresden in 1944.
Westerfeld, Scott. Peeps. High School
Evolution, parasites, disease and possibly vampires have starring roles in this fantasy novel!
Wilder, Thornton. Our Town: A Play in Three Acts. Grades 9-12
Portrays life in Grover's Corner, New Hampshire, in the early 1900's through the routine daily events and the major moments in the lives of George Gibbs, Emily Webb, and their families; and how their lives, although mundane, are touched by the universal forces of love, despair, apathy, nature, and death.
Wright, Richard. Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth. Grades 10-12
An autobiography describing the author's struggles against the dehumanizing southern social environment of the Jim Crow South.
Zusak , Markus. The Book Thief Grades 10-12
Liesel Meminger, a foster child living outside Munich during World War II, scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist--books--in this unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.
Zusak, Markus. I am the Messenger. High School
This novel, stars an unlikely hero, Ed Kennedy, his faithful dog, Doorman, and some very quirky friends, with whom Ed spends much of his free time. The friends enjoy lively card games. Although, Ed soon finds himself in an unusual and mysterious game, involving the four aces of the deck, and some downtrodden individuals--leading Ed on a bit of a hero’s journey.
Some annotations are taken from Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication entries.
Set in an Ibo village in Nigeria, the novel recreates pre-Christian tribal life and shows how the coming of the white man led to the breaking up of the old ways.
Allende, Isabel. The House of the Spirits. Grades 10-12
Presents a novel set in an unnamed Latin American country and describes the struggles, passions, and secrets of the Trueba family that spans three generations.
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Grades 9-12
In early nineteenth-century England, a spirited young woman copes with the courtship of a snobbish gentleman as well as the romantic entanglements of her four sisters..
Baldwin, James. Go Tell It on the Mountain. Grades 10-12
Describes a day in the life of several members of a Harlem fundamentalist church. The saga of three generations of people is related through flashbacks.
Bauer, Joan. Rules of the Road. High School
This book describes a summer road trip with Jenna Boller, a funny and insightful high school student, and her employer, the president of Gladstone Shoes. Jenna’s job is to chauffeur Mrs. Gladstone from Chicago to a stockholder’s meeting in Texas. Jenna soon learns that the rules for driving Mrs. Gladstone are very different from those that she learned in order to get her new license!
Brashares, Ann. Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood. High School
The fourth book of this series has the girls going in opposite directions. Bridget flies off to Turkey for an archaeological dig, but the others stay in the States to pursue their summer plans. Lena follows her love of painting to take a summer course in Providence, and Carmen ventures to Vermont for theater work, while Tibby stays in NY for a film course. The girls experience the normal love and friendship complications, but the story ends on a high note. If you are a fan of the Sisterhood, you will want to read the final book of this series.
Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. Grades 9-12
This landmark book gave birth to the environmental movement through an examination of the way chemicals have been used without regard for their potential harm to wildlife, water, soil, and humans.
Cather, Willa. My Antonia. Grades 10-12
A successful lawyer remembers his boyhood in Nebraska and his friendship with an immigrant Bohemian girl named Antonia.
Chang, Pang-Mei. Bound Feet & Western Dress. Grades 9-12.
Tells the story of the author's great-aunt Chang Yu-i, a woman who challenged Chinese tradition by refusing to have her feet bound, marrying and divorcing preeminent poet Hsu Chih-mo, and running the Shanghai Women's Savings Bank during the 1930s.
Choldenko, Jennifer. Al Capone Does My Shirts. High School
It’s 1935, and 12 year old, Moose, lives on Alcatraz– no not as a prisoner- but as the son of one of the Alcatraz guards. Families of prison workers live on the island! Read about the complications of living with criminals, like Machine Gun Kelly and Al Capone, and about the crazy capers of the children of the guards!
Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. Grades 9-12.
A young girl living in a Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago ponders the advantages and disadvantages of her environment and evaluates her relationships with family and friends.
Crutcher, Chris. Whale Talk. Grades 7-10.
Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial, adopted teenager, shuns organized sports and the gung-ho athletes at his high school until he agrees to form a swimming team and recruits some of the school's less popular students.
Deuker, Carl. Runner. Grades 7-10.
"My dad never hit me; never yelled at me. He was just a drunk." High-school senior Chance is a "ghost-walker" at school--barely talking, just passing, finding escape only in long, solitary, after-school runs. His hard-drinking father can't keep a job, and Chance worries how they will pay the mooring fees for their dilapidated, 30-foot sailboat home in Pugent Sound. When a marina worker offers him a job picking up secret packages, Chance can't turn down the lucrative opportunity, even though he's sure it's illegal. But as a friendship with smart student Melissa grows, so does Chance's concern about his job and its possible links to local smuggling rings.
Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Grades 9-12A young orphan, Pip, receives a fortune from a mysterious benefactor and travels to London in order to become “a gentleman.”
D’0rso, Michael. Eagle Blue: A Team, A Tribe & A High School Basketball Team.
Grades 7-12.
Eight miles above the Arctic Circle, there's a village with no roads leading to it, but a high school basketball tradition that lights up winter's darkness and a team of native Alaskan boys who know "no quit."
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Notes From The Underground. Grades 9-12.
A translation of the Russian novel in which a nameless hero, alienated from society, searches for the true and good in a corrupt world.
Edwards, Kim. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter. Grades 11-12
Dr. David Henry, forced to deliver his own twins during a snowstorm in 1964 with only a nurse to help him, makes a decision that has far-reaching effects on his life, and the lives of his wife and son, when his infant daughter is born with Down Syndrome, and in a vain attempt to protect his wife, he orders the nurse to take the baby to an institution.
Fleischman, Sid. Escape! The Story of the Great Houdini. Grades 6-9
A biography of the magician, ghost chaser, aviator, and king of escape artists whose amazing feats are remembered long after his death in 1926.
Frost. Helen. The Braid. Grades 7-10
Two Scottish sisters, living on the western island of Barra in the 1850s, relate, in alternate voices and linked narrative poems, their experiences after their family is forcibly evicted and separated with one sister accompanying their parents and younger siblings to Cape Breton, Canada, and the other staying behind with other family on the small island of Mingulay.
Golden, Arthur. Memoirs of a Geisha. Grades 10-12
Nitta Sayuri, a young Japanese woman who was taken from her home at the age of nine and sold into slavery as a geisha, discovers a rare opportunity for freedom when the outbreak of World War II forces an end to the only life she has ever known.
Grogan, John. Marley & Me: Life With the Worlds Worst Dog. Grades 9-12.
Labrador retrievers are generally considered even-tempered, calm and reliable;and then there's Marley, the subject of this delightful tribute to one Lab who doesn't fit the mold. Grogan, a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and his wife, Jenny, were newly married and living in West Palm Beach when they decided that owning a dog would give them a foretaste of the parenthood they anticipated. Marley was a sweet, affectionate puppy who grew into a lovably naughty, hyperactive dog.
Hesse, Herman. Siddhartha. Grades 9-12
Translated from the German. A moral allegory, set in ancient India, about one soul's quest for the ultimate answer to the enigma of man's role in this world. The hero, Siddhartha, undergoes a series of experiences to emerge in a state of peace and wisdom.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. Grades 9-12
A satirical novel about the utopia of the future, a world in which babies are decanted from bottles and the great Ford is worshipped.
Kantor, Melissa. If I have a Wicked Stepmother Where’s My Prince. High School
A bit of a Cinderella tale, starring Lucy Norton, who has lost her mother and now must live with her father, his new wife and her daughters. Losing a parent, moving cross country, and starting a new high school is hard enough on a teenager, but when a teen is, also, expected to care for two younger and unruly stepsisters, it can make a girl long for some fairy godmother magic.
Kidd, Sue M. The Secret Life of Bees. Grades 9-12.
Fourteen-year-old Lily and her companion, Rosaleen, an African-American woman who has cared from Lily since her mother's death ten years earlier, flee their home after Rosaleen is victimized by racist police officers, and find a safe haven in Tiburon, South Carolina at the home of three beekeeping sisters, May, June, and August.
Livio, Mario. The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, the World’s Most Astonishing Number. Grades 9-12
Tells the story of phi, the never ending, never repeating number known as the Golden Ratio, written as 1.6180339887..., looking at how it has been used, and claims about its use, throughout the history of mathematics.
Maguire, Gregory. Son of a Witch. High School
Maguire has written this follow-up to the incredibly popular novel and Broadway production of Wicked. This is the story of Liir, (possibly) Elphaba’s son, as he matures and becomes strong enough to honor the principles that drove Elphaba to her demise.
Martinez. Parrot in the Oven. Grades 7-12.
Manny relates his coming of age experiences as a member of a poor Mexican American family in which the alcoholic father only adds to everyone's struggle.
McCormick, Patricia. Sold. Grade 9-12.
Lakshmi, 13, knows nothing about the world beyond her village shack in the Himalayas of Nepal, and when her family loses the little it has in a monsoon, she grabs a chance to work as a maid in the city so she can send money back home. What she doesn't know is that her stepfather has sold her into prostitution. She ends up in a brothel far across the border in the slums of Calcutta, locked up, beaten, starved, drugged, raped, "torn and bleeding," until she submits.
Murdock, Catherine. Dairy Queen: A Novel. Grades 7-12.
D.J. Schwenk, while not really happy, never complains or questions her life on the family's small dairy farm in Wisconsin. After her father injures himself, the 15-year-old girl must do the farm work almost single-handedly, including milking the cows. She never really noticed the similarities between her life and the lives of the cows. D.J. is a jock, so on top of all her farm chores, she takes on training Brian, the quarterback on a rival school's football team.
Myers, Walter Dean. Street Love. Grades 9-12
This story told in free verse is set against a background of street gangs and poverty in Harlem in which seventeen-year-old African American Damien takes a bold step to ensure that he and his new love will not be separated.
Napoli, Donna Jo. Bound. High School
Set in ancient China, a widow, her daughter and her stepdaughter enact the Cinderella tale, Napoli blends bits of ancient Chinese culture to the traditional components of the myth.
Oates, Joyce Carol. Freaky Green Eyes. High School
Franky Pierson a.k.a. Freaky Green Eyes is a member of what appears to be the perfect family. But, as we know, appearances can be deceiving. Find out how Franky goes from perfect daughter to the Freaky one!
Peck, Richard. Here Lies the Librarian. Grades 7-9
Fourteen-year-old Eleanor "Peewee" McGrath, a tomboy and automobile enthusiast, discovers new possibilities for her future after the 1914 arrival in her small Indiana town of four young librarians.
Pelzer, Dave. Child Called It. Grades 7-12.
David Pelzer, victim of one of the worst child abuse cases in the history of California, tells the story of how he survived his mother's brutality and triumphed over his past.
Picoult, Jodi . Plain Truth. Grades 10-12
Philadelphia defense attorney Ellie Hathaway, unsatisfied with the course of her career and personal life, leaves her job for an open-ended stay at her great-aunt's home in Paradise, Pennsylvania, arriving just in time to become embroiled in the case of a young, unmarried Amish woman accused of killing her newborn baby.
Sanborn, Mark. Fred Factor. High School
Read about the four principles of the Fred Factor. See how a relatively unknown postman has been recognized for the positive difference he has made in his community. Can you use the ideas in this little book to help you to work better, to be a better teammate, classmate, or student?
Steinbeck, John. East of Eden. Grades 10-12
The saga of good and evil in three generations of the Trask and Hamilton families in the early 1900s in Northern California.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse-Five. Grades 9-12.
A fourth-generation German-American time travels while tortured by his memories of the firebombing of Dresden in 1944.
Westerfeld, Scott. Peeps. High School
Evolution, parasites, disease and possibly vampires have starring roles in this fantasy novel!
Wilder, Thornton. Our Town: A Play in Three Acts. Grades 9-12
Portrays life in Grover's Corner, New Hampshire, in the early 1900's through the routine daily events and the major moments in the lives of George Gibbs, Emily Webb, and their families; and how their lives, although mundane, are touched by the universal forces of love, despair, apathy, nature, and death.
Wright, Richard. Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth. Grades 10-12
An autobiography describing the author's struggles against the dehumanizing southern social environment of the Jim Crow South.
Zusak , Markus. The Book Thief Grades 10-12
Liesel Meminger, a foster child living outside Munich during World War II, scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist--books--in this unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.
Zusak, Markus. I am the Messenger. High School
This novel, stars an unlikely hero, Ed Kennedy, his faithful dog, Doorman, and some very quirky friends, with whom Ed spends much of his free time. The friends enjoy lively card games. Although, Ed soon finds himself in an unusual and mysterious game, involving the four aces of the deck, and some downtrodden individuals--leading Ed on a bit of a hero’s journey.
Some annotations are taken from Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication entries.
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