High School Recommended Reads

Fiction

  • Auseon, Andrew. Freak Magnet. 2010. (realistic)

    This novel about freaks, geeks, crushes and friends shows how sometimes one person can be all of these things at once.

  • Bachorz, Pam. Drought. 2010. (science fiction)

    Ruby and the Congregation have been enslaved, but Ruby can't run because the Congregation would die without her: only her blood can give the water they are forced to harvest its healing properties.

  • Bacigalupi, Paolo. Ship Breaker. 2010. (adventure, science fiction)

    When a rich girl and her gleaming ship run ashore in a storm, Nailer must decide whether to strip the ship or rescue her.

  • Beam, Chris. I am J. 2011. (realistic, GLBTQ)

    J always felt different and was certain everyone would eventually understand who he was: a boy mistakenly born as a girl.

  • Benway, Robin. The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, and June. 2010. (realistic)

    Three sisters must learn to control unusual childhood abilities that resurface with the stress of dealing with their parents' divorce, a move and a new school: April can foresee the future, May can become invisible and June can read minds.

  • Clare, Cassandra. Clockwork Angel. 2010. (paranormal)

    Sisteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother and learns that something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural beings stalk the gaslit streets.

  • Cohn, Rachel and Levithan, David. Dash and Lily's Book of Dares. 2010. (realistic)

    Two 16-year-olds carry on a wintry scavenger hunt in New York, neither knowing quite what—or who—they will find.

  • Condie, Ally. Matched. 2010. (fantasy)

    Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her, so when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows he is her ideal mate...until she sees Ky's face for an instant before the screen fades.

  • Donnelly, Jennifer. Revolution. 2010. (historical fiction)

    An angry, grieving 17-year-old musician travels to Paris and uncovers a diary written during the French revolution by a young actress attempting to help an imprisoned little boy: Louis Charles, the lost king of France.

  • Eulberg, Elizabeth. Prom and Prejudice. 2011. (realistic, adaption)

    This contemporary retelling of Jane Austen's still popular Pride and Prejudice takes place in a Connecticut school for the socially elite, and casts Lizzie Bennett as a scholarship student and musical prodigy.

  • Giles, Gail. Dark Song. 2010. (realistic)

    When Ames' world falls apart, she seeks solace in the arms of Marc, the seemingly perfect "boy."

  • Lore, Pittacus. I am Number Four. 2011. (science fiction)

    In rural Ohio, friendships and a beautiful girl prove distracting to a 15-year-old who has hidden on Earth for 10 years waiting to develop the Legacies, or powers, he will need to fight those who destroyed his planet.

  • Marchetta, Melina. Finnikin of the Rock. 2010. (fantasy)

    Finnikin has been in exile for a decade, after the violent takeover of his birthplace, Lumatere. When Finnikin learns that his friend Balthazar, heir to the throne, is alive, events are set in motion that lead Finnikin to confront his destiny.

  • Matson, Morgan. Amy and Roger's Epic Detour. 2010. (realistic fiction)

    Told in traditional narrative as well as scraps from the road—diner napkins, motel receipts, postcards—this is the story of one girl's journey to find herself as she drives cross-country from the home she's always known toward her new life.

  • McBride, Lish. Hold Me Closer, Necromancer. 2010. (paranormal)

    A prank brings Sam to the attention of Douglas, a creepy guy with an intense violent streak. Turns out Douglas is a necromancer who raises the dead for cash and sees potential in Sam. Then Sam discovers he's a necromancer, too.

  • Moore, Peter. Red Moon Rising. 2010. (paranormal)

    In a world where vampires dominate and werewolves are despised, a teenage half-vampire discovers his recessive werewolf genes are developing with the approaching full moon.

  • Nelson, Jandy. The Sky Is Everywhere. 2010. (realistic fiction)

    Lennie Walker, a 17-year-old bookworm and band geek, spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey suddenly dies, Lennie is catapulted to center stage of her own life.

  • Neumeier, Rachel. The Floating Islands. 2011. (fantasy)

    When Trei loses his family, he finds his way to the home of his cousin Araen. The two become tentative friends and pursue individual paths, but when Trei's adopted homeland is threatened by his land of birth, their adventures converge.

  • Oliver, Lauren. Delirium. 2011. (dystopia)

    Lena looks forward to receiving the government-mandated cure that prevents the delirium of love and leads to a safe, predictable and happy life, until 95 days before her 18th birthday and her treatment, when she falls in love.

  • Perkins, Stephanie. Anna and the French Kiss. 2010. (realistic fiction)

    Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris—until she meets Etienne St. Claire, who is perfect, Parisian and totally taken.

  • Reinhardt, Dana. The Things a Brother Knows. 2010. (realistic fiction)

    Boaz, the hometown hero, has returned safely from the war, but isn't the same. Can his brother help him truly come home?

  • Revis, Beth. Across the Universe. 2011. (science fiction)

    Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents aboard a vast spaceship and expects to awaken on a new planet in 300 years. Never could she have known that she would be thrust into the world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

  • Rex, Adam. Fat Vampire: a never-coming-of-age story. 2010. (vampires)

    Doug is undead by accident—attacked by a desperate vampire, he finds himself cursed with being fat and 15 forever. When he falls for the new exchange student, yeah, he wants to bite her, but he also wants to prove himself to her.

  • Sachar, Louis. The Cardturner. 2010. (realistic fiction)

    During his summer job—turning cards at bridge games for his blind great-uncle—Alton learns more than how to play bridge.

  • Sepetys, Ruta. Between Shades of Gray. 2011. (historical)

    In 1941, 15-year-old Lina, her mother and brother are pulled from their Lithuanian home by Soviet guards and sent to Siberia. While she fights for her life, Lina vows to honor her family by burying her story in a jar on Lithuanian soil.

  • Sheinmel, Alyssa. The Beautiful Between. 2010. (realistic fiction)

    If high school were a fairy-tale kingdom, Connelly Sternin would be Rapunzel, locked not in a tower by a wicked witch but in a high-rise apartment building by the SATs and college applications—and by the secrets she keeps.

  • Smith, Andrew. The Marbury Lens. 2010. (horror)

    After 16-year-old Jack is kidnapped and narrowly escapes, he goes to London with his best friend Connor. When they arrive, a stranger hands Jack a pair of glasses through which he sees Marbury, an alternate universe where war is raging.

  • Standiford, Natalie. Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters. 2010. (realistic)

    Someone in the Sullivan family has deeply offended rich and imperious Grandmother Sullivan, so much so that she's cut the entire family out of her will. She will reinstate the family if that person comes forward. And so the confessions begin.

  • Van Cleave, Ryan G. Unlocked. 2011. (realistic, verse)

    While trying to impress a classmate, Andy discovers that a fellow social outcast may be planning an act of school violence.

  • Whitney, Daisy. Mockingbirds. 2010. (realistic fiction)

    When Alex is date raped during her junior year, she has two options: stay silent and hope someone helps her, or enlist the Mockingbirds—a secret society of Themis Academy students dedicated to righting the wrongs of their fellow peers.

Series

revised April 2011