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Revised
May 7, 2019
Classics
The House on Mango Street
1994
This is the remarkable story of Esperanza Cordero, a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become.
Lexile level
870
The Red Badge of Courage
1895
Brutally disillusioned, a young Civil War recruit who had once dreamed of the thrill and glory of war, flees the horror of battle. Shame over his cowardice drives him to seek to redeem himself by being wounded-- earning what he calls the “red badge of courage.”
Lexile level
890
One Hundred Years of Solitude
1967
The evolution and eventual decadence of a small South American town is mirrored in the family history of the Buendias.
Lexile level
1410
The Outsiders
1967
Ponyboy can count on his brothers and on his friends, but not on much else besides trouble with the Socs, a vicious gang of rich kids whose idea of a good time is beating up on "greasers" like Ponyboy. At least he knows what to expect-- until the night someone takes things too far.
Lexile level
790
Their Eyes Were Watching God
1978
When independent Janie Crawford returns home, her small African-American community begins to buzz with gossip about the outcome of her affair with a younger man, in a novel set in the 1930s South.
Lexile level
1080
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1962
Randle Patrick McMurphy, a criminal who feigns insanity, is admitted to a mental hospital where he turns the place upside-down and challenges the autocratic authority of the head nurse.
Lexile level
1110
To Kill a Mockingbird
1960
The explosion of racial hate and violence in a small Alabama town is viewed by a little girl whose father defends a black man accused of rape.
Lexile level
790
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
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
Award winners
Alex Award
How Long 'til Black Future Month?
2018
This collection of short fiction includes stories of destruction, rebirth and redemption. In one, dragons and spirits haunt the flooded streets of New Orleans in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath. In a parallel universe, a utopian society watches our world, trying to learn from our mistakes.
Circe
2018
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child, not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother.
Carol V loved this! Find out why »
Spinning Silver
2018
Deciding to collect on the outstanding debts owed her family of moneylenders, a young woman is overheard boasting about being able to turn silver into gold by the creatures who haunt the wood, in a reimagining of the Rumpelstiltskin story.
Jess P loved this! Find out why »
The Book of Essie
2018
The secret pregnancy of an evangelical preacher's 17-year-old daughter, star of the family’s hit reality show, threatens to blow their world apart.
Educated: A Memoir
2018
B WESTOVER TARA
Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, the author recounts her childhood and her resolve to educate herself well enough to earn acceptance into a prestigious university and the unfamiliar world beyond.
The Girl who Smiled Beads
2018
967.571 WAM
A young child during the Rwanda massacres and displacements, the author was separated her from her parents and forced, with her older sister, to endure six years as refugees in seven countries before she was granted asylum in the United States.
Award winners
National Book Award
The Poet X
2018
When Xiomara Batista, who pours all her frustrations and passion into poetry, is invited to join the school slam poetry club, she struggles with her mother's expectations and her need to be heard.
Lexile level
800
Desi T loved this! Find out why »
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.
The Friend
2018
Becoming the guardian of her late best friend's enormous Great Dane, a grieving woman is evicted from her no-pets apartment and forges a deep bond with the equally distraught animal in ways that initially disturb her friends.
The Emissary
2018
In a post-disaster Japan cut off from the rest of the world, in which children are so weak as to barely be able to walk and only the elderly have any energy, young Mumei and his great-grandfather, Yoshiro, carry on their day-to-day routine.
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 »
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
Award winners
Printz Award
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 »
A Step from Heaven
2002
A young Korean girl and her family find it difficult to learn English and adjust to life in America.
Lexile level
670
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 »
Award winners
Pulitzer Prize
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 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
YA picks
Children of Blood and Bone
2018
Coming of age in a land where her magi mother was killed by the zealous king's guards along with other former wielders of magic, Zelie embarks on a journey alongside her brother and a fugitive princess to restore her people's magical abilities.
Lexile level
670
Desi T loved this! Find out why »
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 »
Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All
2018
Evocative first-person accounts by such award-winning and best-selling authors as M.T. Anderson, Linda Sue Park and Jennifer Donnelly reimagine the tragic lives of Henry VIII and his six wives.
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 »
Dread Nation
2018
Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg-- derailing the War Between the States and changing the nation forever. In this new America, laws require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead.
Lexile level
870
Darius the Great Is Not Okay
2018
A Persian-American youth who prefers pop culture to the traditions of his mixed family struggles with clinical depression and the misunderstandings of older relatives while bonding with a boy who helps him embrace his Iranian heritage.
The Astonishing Color of After
2018
A teen grieving the loss of her mother travels to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents for the first time and search for her mother's spirit, while also uncovering tragic family secrets and struggling to reconcile the truth about how her mother's life really ended.
Lexile level
670
Ann P loved this! Find out why »
Sadie
2018
Resolving to bring her sister's killer to justice, an orphaned teen goes missing while investigating meager clues, before a radio personality learns her story and becomes obsessed with finding her before it's too late.
Lexile level
750
Ann P loved this! Find out why »
The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein
2018
This dark reimagining of Shelley's classic is told from the perspective of Elizabeth Lavenza, Victor Frankenstein's adopted sister.
Contemporary works
A Land of Permanent Goodbyes
2018
When the city where he lives with his large, loving family is destroyed by Daesh fighters who bomb buildings and publicly execute anyone who resists, a heartbroken Tareq embarks on the perilous life of a refugee traveling a dangerous route from Syria through Turkey and Greece.
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.
Illegal
2018
Setting out to join his brother and sister in Europe, Ebo leaves Ghana, traveling through the Sahara Desert and dangerous streets of Tripoli before braving the merciless sea.
Lexile level
490
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 »
Grand Theft Horse
2018
The powerful story of Gail Ruffu, who stole a racehorse in order to save it, and ended up taking on the whole racing industry to fight for the humane treatment of animals.
All You Can Ever Know
2018
362.734 CHU
A Korean adoptee, who grew up with a white family in Oregon, discusses her journey to find her identity as an Asian American woman and a writer after becoming curious about her true origins.
Americanized: Rebel without a Green Card
2018
TEEN 305.8915 SAE
Learning as a teenager that her Iranian family is undocumented, 13-year-old, straight-A student Sara Saedi juggles the challenges of trying to obtain a green card with the stressful realities of being an everyday American teen.
Lexile level
1030
Be Everything at Once: Tales of a Cartoonist Lady Person
2018
741.5973 LEE
Cartoonist Dami Lee's hilarious, four-panel comic collection illustrates her experience navigating identity, relationships, pop culture and misunderstandings about basic human interactions, from growing up as a South Korean immigrant kid in Texas to finding her home as a professional cartoonist in c
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.
Hey, Kiddo
2018
362.2913 KRO
The powerful, unforgettable graphic memoir from Jarrett Krosoczka, about growing up with a drug-addicted mother, a missing father and two unforgettably opinionated grandparents.
Morgan H loved this! Find out why »
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 »
Shout: A Poetry Memoir
2019
TEEN 811.54 AND
A memoir in verse shares the author's life, covering her rape at 13, her difficult early childhood and her experiences surrounding her publication of Speak.
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 »
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.
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.
Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey through His Son's Addiction
2008
362.299 SHE
The story of one teenager's descent into methamphetamine addiction is told from his father's point-of-view, describing how a varsity athlete and honor student became addicted to the dangerous drug, its impact on his family, the attempts at rehab and the journey past addiction.
Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam
2018
TEEN 959.7043 PAR
Explore the Vietnam War from many different perspectives, including an American soldier, a nurse and a Vietnamese refugee.
Lexile level
960
Living and Dying in Brick City
2013
610.92 DAV
This narrative exploration of the healthcare crisis in inner-city communities is drawn from the author's experiences as an emergency room resident in the Newark community where he grew up. His account illuminates the complicated human realities behind the statistics.
Parkland Speaks
2019
371.58 PAR
A collection of art and writing from the survivors of the Parkland, Florida school shooting reflects how the students dealt with grief, anger, determination and hope in the wake of tragedy.
Lexile level
940
Recommended for
Desi T
I am the teen librarian at Old Worthington Library. I love reading in general, but my favorite genre is realistic fiction. I'm a gardening, cooking, knitting, fitness and nutrition enthusiast. I like armchair traveling and traveling by plane, bus, train or car equally.
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