Recommended Books for Teens

A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich by Alice Childress

The life of a thirteen-year-old Harlem youth on his way to becoming a confirmed heroin addict is seen from his viewpoint and from that of several people around him.
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A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Knowles' classic story of two friends at boarding school during World War II has been a consistent seller for more than 20 years.
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Bee and Jacky by Carolyn Coman

A moving story told with grace and courage of one family's deep wounds, the consuming impact of incest, and the ability to heal. A National Book Award finalist.
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Belle Prater's Boy by Ruth White

Gypsy and her cousin Woodrow become close friends after Woodrow's mother disappears. White's words artfully describe the coal mining region of Virginia and the emotional journey her characters must take.
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Bless the Beasts & the Children by Glendon Swarthout

The neglected attendees of the Box Canyon Boys Camp find their lives turned around by Cotton, who, in a hot-wired pickup, challenges them to join efforts to save a herd of buffalo and rediscover themselves in the process.
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California Blue by David Klass

John must choose between an important cause and his own townspeople when he learns that a blue butterfly is unique in all the world and that the local mill must be closed in order to save it.
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Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul : 101 Stories of Life, Love and Learning (Chicken Soup for the Soul Series) by Jack Canfield (Editor), Kimberly Kirberger, Mark V. Hansen (Editor)

A batch of short stories that guides teenagers through one of the most difficult periods in life. Contains important lessons on friendship and love, the importance of belief in the future, the value of respect for oneself and others, and more.
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Dangerous Angels : The Weetzie Bat Books by Francesca Lia Block

The many wild adventures of Weetzie and friends have finally been compiled into one delicious volume.
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Go Ask Alice by Anonymous, Beatrice M. Sparks (Editor)

The pain of adolescence has is clearly dipicted in this classic diary by an anonymous, addicted teen. Lonely, awkward, and under extreme pressure from her "perfect" parents, she finally succumbs to drug use as a terrifying escape.
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I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg

Chronicles the three-year battle of a mentally ill, but perceptive, teenage girl against a world of her own creation, emphasizing her relationship with the doctor who gave her the ammunition of self-understanding with which to help herself.
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Missing May by Cynthia Rylant

This simple and sweet story, which won the Newbery Medal in 1993, is injected with just the right touches of humor and mysticism.
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Lisa, Bright and Dark by John Neufeld

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Lord of the Flies by William Gerald Golding

The classic tale of a group of English school boys who are left stranded on an unpopulated island, and who must confront not only the defects of their society but the defects of their own natures.
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Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck

An itinerant farmhand's loving protection of a slow-witted comrad has profound implications for both characters, in Steinbeck's classic tale.
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Out of the Dust (Newbery Medal Book) by Karen Hesse

In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.
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Smack by Melvin Burgess

This searing account of two young runaways' descent into heroin addiction and their faltering climb back out. Won England's Carnegie Medal and Guardian Prize for Fiction.
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Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene

A poignant, tragic story of a mistreated Jewish girl who befriends an escaped German prisoner of war because he is kind to her.
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The Chosen by Chaim Potok

In 1940s Brooklyn, an accident throws Reuven Malther and Danny Saunders together. Despite their differences the young men form a deep, if unlikely, friendship.
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The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney

A photograph of a missing girl on a milk carton leads Janie Johnson on a search for her real identity.
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The Giver by Lois Lowry

Twelve-year-old Jonas lives in a seemingly ideal world. But when he is given his life assignment as the Receiver, he begins to understand the dark secrets behind this fragile community.
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The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

A children's story at heart (originally written for Tolkien's own kids), the book rightly holds its own as a classic, the sweet if simple predecessor to the most-loved epic in all of fantasy.
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The Island on Bird Street by Uri Orlev, Hillel Halkin (Translator)

During World War II a Jewish boy is left on his own for months in a ruined house in the Warsaw Ghetto, where he must learn all the tricks of survival under constantly life-threatening conditions.
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The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman

A homeless medieval waif who names herself Alyce is taken in by the village midwife, befriends a cat, learns about delivering babies, and confronts failure when an infant dies.
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The Night of the Twisters by Ivy Ruckman

A fictional account of the night freakish and devastating tornadoes hit Grand Island, Nebraska, as experienced by a twelve-year-old, his family, and friends.
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Where the Lilies Bloom by Vera Cleaver, Bill Cleaver

Set in the Appalachian hills, the story, narrated by 14-year-old Mary Call, tells of her efforts to keep her family together and independent after their sharecropper father dies. School Library Journal Best of the Best (1969); ALA Notable Children's Book; New York Times Outstanding Children's Book of 1969.
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