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Revised
May 30, 2018
Classics
Jane Eyre
1847
Orphaned governess Jane falls in love with her employer, a brooding man with a terrible secret.
Lexile level
890
My Antonia
1918
A young man reminisces about his boyhood in Nebraska, in particular his friendship with a young girl named Antonia, and their experiences together.
Lexile level
990
The Red Badge of Courage
1895
During the American Civil War, a young private named Henry Fleming flees the field of battle.
Lexile level
890
One Hundred Years of Solitude
1970
The rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo is told through the history of the Buendia family.
Lexile level
1410
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1962
McMurphy, a criminal who feigns insanity, is admitted to a mental hospital where he challenges the autocratic authority of the head nurse.
Lexile level
1110
Beloved
1987
An escaped slave living in post-Civil War Ohio is haunted by memories of the farm that enslaved her, and by the ghost of her dead baby girl, whom she sacrificed.
Lexile level
870
1984
1949
In the future, a totalitarian government watches over all citizens and directs all activities.
Lexile level
1090
Cry, the Beloved Country
1948
A novel depicting the racial ferment in the beautiful country of South Africa in 1948.
Lexile level
860
The Bell Jar
1963
Esther Greenwood, a talented and successful writer, finally succumbs to madness when the world around her begins to falter.
Lexile level
1140
East of Eden
1952
The biblical account of Cain and Abel is echoed in the history of two generations of the Trask family in California.
Lexile level
700
Slaughterhouse-Five
1969
A fourth-generation German-American is tortured by his memories of the firebombing of Dresden in 1944, which he witnessed while a prisoner of war.
Lexile level
850
The War of the Worlds
1898
An English astronomer, in company with an artilleryman, a country curate and others, struggle to survive the Martian invasion of Earth in 1894.
Lexile level
1040
The Age of Innocence
1920
Newland Archer begins to question high society values in Victorian New York when he finds himself torn between two very different women - his proper young fiancee and her exotic cousin.
Lexile level
1170
The Once and Future King
1958
This masterful retelling of the saga of King Arthur takes Arthur from the glorious lyrical phase of his youth, through the disillusioning early years of his reign, to maturity when his vision of the Round Table develops into the search for the Holy Grail and, finally, to his weary old age.
To the Lighthouse
1927
At their second home on the Isle of Skye, the Ramsay family surrounds itself with friends and colleagues. They contend with World War I, family deaths and hardships both spoken and unspoken.
Lexile level
1030
Alex Award winners
A Hope More Powerful than the Sea
2017
956.9104 FLE
This is the story of a young Syrian refugee's attempt to reach Sweden, focusing on her ordeal in icy waters after the dilapidated fishing vessel in which she is traveling - along with 500 others - sinks.
Bones & All
2015
Sixteen-year-old Maren literally eats the ones who love her, bones and all. When her mother abandons her, Maren sets out to find the father she has never met, hoping he can help her understand why she is a monster.
All Involved
2015
A look inside the 1992 LA riots as told through 17 interconnected first-person narratives.
Humans of New York: Stories
2015
974.71 STA
In pictures and interviews that captivate, puzzle and reveal, photojournalist Stanton collects an immeasurable range of human emotions and perspectives.
Girl at War
2015
When her happy life in 1991 Croatia is shattered by civil war, 10-year-old Ana is embroiled in a world of guerrilla warfare and child soldiers before making a daring escape to America, where years later, she struggles to hide her past.
All Systems Red
2017
A team of scientists and their security android, who unbeknownst to the scientists refers to itself (though never out loud) as "Murderbot," must investigate a neighboring mission that has gone dark.
Stefanie S loved this! Find out why »
National Book Award winners
Far from the Tree
2017
Feeling incomplete as an adopted child after placing her own baby up for adoption, teen Grace tracks down her biological siblings and finds herself struggling with the dynamics of being a middle child between an embittered older brother and an outspoken younger sister.
Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War
1999
967.7305 BOW
The rationales behind a disastrous 1993 raid, that resulted in the deaths of 18 Americans and more than 500 Somalis, in Mogadishu, are examined.
Between the World and Me
2015
305.8009 COA
In a series of essays, written as letters to his son, Coates confronts the notion of race in America and how it has shaped American history.
Lexile level
1090
March: Book Three
2016
328.73 LEW
Written by one of the civil rights movement's leading figures, this conclusion to the March graphic novel trilogy brings the lessons of history to vivid life for a new generation.
The Underground Railroad
2016
Cora is a slave on a Georgia cotton plantation. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape.
Lexile level
890
Sing, Unburied, Sing
2017
Living with his grandparents and sister on a Gulf Coast farm, Jojo navigates the challenges of his mother's addictions and his grandmother's cancer before the release of his father from prison prompts a road trip of danger and hope.
Alison R loved this! Find out why »
Printz Award winners
The House of the Scorpion
2002
In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patron, the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.
Lexile level
660
We are Okay
2017
After leaving her life behind to go to college in New York, Marin must face the truth about the tragedy that happened in the final weeks of summer when her friend Mabel comes to visit.
Kate F loved this! Find out why »
I'll Give You the Sun
2014
A story of first love, family, loss and betrayal told from different points in time, and in separate voices, by artists Jude and her twin brother Noah.
Lexile level
740
Bone Gap
2015
Eighteen-year-old Finn, an outsider in his quiet, Midwestern town, is the only witness to Roza's abduction, but his inability to distinguish between faces makes it difficult for him to help with the investigation, and subjects him to even more ridicule and bullying.
Lexile level
810
The Hate U Give
2017
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends.
Lexile level
590
Meredith R loved this! Find out why »
Pulitzer Prize winners
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
2000
In 1939 New York City, Joe Kavalier, a refugee from Hitler's Prague, joins forces with his Brooklyn-born cousin, Sammy Clay, to create comic-book superheroes inspired by their own fantasies, fears and dreams.
Lexile level
1170
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
2007
Living with an old-world mother and rebellious sister, an urban New Jersey misfit dreams of becoming the next J.R.R. Tolkien, and believes a long-standing family curse is thwarting his efforts to find love and happiness.
Lexile level
1010
All the Light We Cannot See
880
The paths of a blind French girl and German boy collide in occupied France as they both try to survive the devastation of World War II.
Lexile level
880
A Visit from the Goon Squad
2010
Working side-by-side for a record label, former punk rocker Bennie Salazar and the passionate Sasha hide illicit secrets from one another while interacting with a motley assortment of equally troubled people from 1970s San Francisco to the post-war future.
Middlesex
2002
Calliope's friendship with a classmate and her sense of identity are compromised by the adolescent discovery that she is a hermaphrodite, a situation with roots in her grandparent's desperate struggle for survival in the 1920s.
Interpreter of Maladies
1999
Nine stories, imbued with the vibrant details of Indian culture, explore the emotional journeys of characters seeking love beyond the barriers of nations and generations.
Lexile level
1050
The Goldfinch
2013
A young boy in New York City miraculously survives an accident that kills his mother. Alone and abandoned by his father, Theo is taken in by a friend's family and struggles to make sense of his new life.
YA picks
The Hazel Wood
2018
Having spent most of her life on the run from uncanny bad luck, 17-year-old Alice ventures into a mysterious, supernatural world to save her mother, who has been stolen away by a figure claiming to be a character from Alice's late grandmother's cult-classic book of dark fairy tales.
Carol V loved this! Find out why »
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
2015
Sixteen-year-old, not-so-openly-gay Simon Spier is blackmailed into playing wingman for his classmate or else his sexual identity-- and that of his pen pal-- will be revealed.
Lexile level
640
Solo
2017
This novel in verse tells the story of 17-year-old Blade Morrison, who endeavors to resolve painful issues from his past to navigate the challenges of his former rock-star father's addictions, scathing tabloid rumors and a protected secret that threatens his own identity.
Lexile level
640
The Cruel Prince
2018
A decade after her parents are murdered by the fey who have kidnapped her and her sisters, Jude harbors a seething hatred for a wicked faerie prince and becomes embroiled in court politics as part of her plan to exact revenge.
Stefanie S loved this! Find out why »
The Librarian of Auschwitz
2017
This story, based on true events, follows the experiences of Dita Kraus, a teen prisoner at Auschwitz concentration camp, who risks her life to keep the magic of books alive during the Holocaust.
Ann P loved this! Find out why »
Long Way Down
2017
Driven by the secrets and vengeance that mark his street culture, 15-year-old Will contemplates over the course of 60 psychologically suspenseful seconds whether or not he is going to murder the person who killed his brother.
Ann P loved this! Find out why »
Salt to the Sea
2016
Frantically racing to freedom with thousands of other refugees as Russian forces close in on their homes in East Prussia, Joana, Emilia and Florian are forced to trust each other in order to survive the doomed voyage of the Wilhelm Gustloff.
Scythe
2016
In a distant future, in which humanity has practically conquered death, the population is controlled by Scythes, the only beings capable of causing death.
Lexile level
830
Ann P loved this! Find out why »
Strange the Dreamer
2017
In the aftermath of a war between gods and men, a hero, a librarian and a girl must battle the fantastical elements of a mysterious city stripped of its name.
Laela T loved this! Find out why »
Contemporary works
The Boy on the Bridge
2017
Once upon a time, in a land blighted by terror, there was a very clever boy. People thought the boy could save them, so they opened their gates and sent him out into the world-- to where the monsters lived.
Did You Ever Have a Family
2015
On the eve of her daughter's wedding, a shocking disaster takes the lives of June Reid's entire family. Alone and directionless, June drives across the country, away from her small Connecticut town.
Dark Matter
2016
"Are you happy with your life?" These are the last words Jason Dessen hears before he gets knocked unconscious. When he wakes up, he finds himself in a world where his wife is not his wife and his son was never born.
Jane Steele: A Confession
2016
A sensitive orphan, Jane Steele suffers first at the hands of her spiteful aunt and predatory cousin, then at a grim school until she escapes to London, leaving the corpses of her tormentors behind her.
The Girl on the Train
2015
Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day, she rattles down the tracks imagining the lives of the people she passes when suddenly she sees something shocking.
The Book of Unknown Americans
2014
Moving from Mexico to the United States when their daughter suffers a near-fatal accident, the Riveras confront cultural barriers, their daughter's difficult recovery and her developing relationship with a Panamanian boy.
The Queen of the Tearling
2014
On her 19th birthday, Princess Kelsea Raleigh Glynn, raised in exile, sets out on a perilous journey to ascend her rightful throne.
Lexile level
860
Jeff R loved this! Find out why »
Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance
2017
Raised by wolves after being orphaned in childhood, Weylyn Grey, a man with astonishing powers, is evaluated by the people who care or wonder about him, including a woman who falls in love with him after he saves her from an angry wolf.
Kristin M loved this! Find out why »
Reincarnation Blues
2017
A man who has been reincarnated nearly 10,000 times, living lives in regions from ancient India and Renaissance Italy to outer space and the modern world, searches for the secret to immortality so he can be with his beloved, the incarnation of Death.
Coleman M loved this! Find out why »
The Flight of the Silvers
2014
When the world comes to an end, Hannah and Amanda Given are saved by mysterious strangers. Shielded from the devastation by bracelets the strangers gave them, the Givens find themselves in a new world with other survivors.
Disgruntled
2015
Kenya Curtis is only eight years old, but she knows she's different, even if she can't put her finger on how or why. It's not that she's black, maybe it's the fact that her family celebrates Kwanzaa, or because she's forbidden from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance?
Swing Time
2016
Two brown girls dream of being dancers - but only one has talent. The other has ideas: about rhythm and time, about black bodies and black music. It's a close but complicated friendship that ends abruptly in their early 20s, never to be revisited, but never quite forgotten either.
Another Brooklyn
2016
Running into a long-ago friend sets memories from the 1970s in motion for August, transporting her to a time and a place where friendship was everything - until it wasn't.
Science
Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?
2016
591.91 WAA
De Waal reviews the rise and fall of the mechanistic view of animals, and opens our minds to the idea that animal minds are far more intricate and complex than we have assumed.
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth
2013
629.45 HAD
Hadfield developed an unconventional philosophy at NASA: prepare for the worst - and enjoy every moment of it. He takes readers into his years of training and space exploration to show how to make the impossible possible.
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
2017
523.01 TYS
With sparkling wit and in tasty chapters, Tyson reveals just what you need to be fluent and ready for the next cosmic headlines: from the Big Bang to black holes, from quarks to quantum mechanics and from the search for planets to the search for life in the universe.
Annie C loved this! Find out why »
Being Mortal
2014
362.175 GAW
A prominent surgeon argues against modern medical practices that extend life at the expense of quality of life while isolating the dying, outlining suggestions for freer, more fulfilling approaches to death that enable more dignified and comfortable choices.
Brilliant Blunders
2013
500 LIV
Drawing on the lives of five great scientists, Livio shows how science turned major mistakes into breakthroughs.
Hidden Figures
2016
510.92 LEE
Before John Glenn orbited the earth or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of female mathematicians - talented African American women among them - used pencils and slide rules to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets and astronauts into space.
Lab Girl
2016
970.92 JAH
Plant scientist Hope Jahren studies trees, flowers, seeds and soil. She shares her inspiring life story in a book about work, about love, and about the mountains that can be moved when these two things come together.
Lisa F loved this! Find out why »
The Man who Touched his Own Heart
2015
612.17 DUN
Tells the raucous, gory, mesmerizing story of the heart, from the first "explorers" who dug up cadavers and plumbed their hearts' chambers, through the first surgeries and transplants, to the latest medical efforts to prolong our hearts' lives.
The Sixth Extinction
2014
576.84 KOL
This moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day.
Social studies
Alexander Hamilton, Revolutionary
2017
B HAMILTON ALEXANDER
This richly illustrated portrait of the life, career and accomplishments of Alexander Hamilton starts with his humble early life in the West Indies and continues through his position of power in colonial America as a Founding Father.
Lexile level
1000
Amusing Ourselves to Death
2006
302.234 POS
Originally published in 1985, Postman's groundbreaking polemic about the corrosive effects of television on our politics and public discourse has been hailed as a 21st-century book published in the 20th century.
#NotYourPrincess
2017
970.004 NOT
Whether looking back to a troubled past or welcoming a hopeful future, the powerful voices of indigenous women across North America resound in this book.
Lexile level
910
Samurai Rising: The Epic Life of Minamoto Yoshitsune
2016
952 TUR
This epic warrior tale reads like a novel, but tells the true story of the greatest samurai in Japanese history.
Lexile level
960
Miscellaneous
For Everyone
2018
J 811.6 REY
An inspirational poem written to the dreamers of the world, which was originally performed at the Kennedy Center for the unveiling of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, and later as a tribute to Walter Dean Myers.
Mary's Monster
2018
B SHELLEY MARY
Pairing free verse with over 300 pages of black-and-white, watercolor illustrations, Mary’s Monster is a unique and stunning biography of Mary Shelley, the pregnant, teenage runaway who became one of the greatest authors of all time.
Morgan H loved this! Find out why »
Undefeated
2017
J 796.332 SHE
America's favorite sport and Native American history collide in this true story of the Carlisle Indians football team and their rise-- led by legends Jim Thorpe and Pop Warner-- from underdogs to champions.
Lexile level
980L
Ann P loved this! Find out why »
Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers
2017
B Van Gogh
The deep and enduring friendship between Vincent and Theo Van Gogh shaped both brothers' lives. Confidant, champion, sympathizer, friend - Theo supported Vincent as he struggled to find his path in life.
Lexile level
900L
Ann P loved this! Find out why »
Recommended for
Ann P
I am a youth services librarian at Northwest Library and have been a teen librarian for over 15 years. I have had the pleasure of serving on a variety of national teen book award committees, including the Michael Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature. When I am not reading all things teen literature, I am hanging out with my crazy kitties, Callie and Ricky Bobby, and rooting for the Oklahoma Sooners (OK-born and bred).
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