High School Reading List Suggestions?

[literallylovely]

I am currently compiling a new potential reading list for a highschool level Enlish Literature course. I would like any suggestions from a variety of genres that I could add to my list. I would like to stress that I will be reading all books on my list before they make it to the final required reading list and will make the final decisions based on appropriateness and relativity to the curriculum. But, I appreciate all suggestions and if you could include a genre and short summary of the book and possibly why you were moved to suggest it, I would be very grateful.

Thank you.

[guytwo]

I think teens would enjoy these books because they show "The Man" in a bad light and give them something to talk about with their parents and grandparents. These books also show that music censorship is nothing new and that censorship is ridiculous.

These books also give something of a history of American culture.

TabooTunes by Peter Blecha and Louie Louie by Dave Marsh.

[SamanthaKay]

I, being a high school student, prefer to read books that aren't true. (i always get fiction/non fiction mixed up). I have tried biography's, and other things like that, and i find it hard to get into these books. This may sound weird but a lot of the times i can relate to the characters in science fiction or 'fake' books. So i find myself getting into the books more. Hope that helps some

[kdmitchell]

I chose historical fiction because it's usually written to be entertaining and it often sparks the reader's interest to learn more about a subject/person. Of course, one might learn more facts from nonfiction, but some school kids may not be interested in a nonfiction book.

Kids need to be encourage to read whatever subject interests them. Reading is the key to knowledge and knowledge is power.

[readingaddict]

I finished High School about 15 months ago and I'm just looking at the books that I use to have on my shelf. They include
- Tomorrow When the War Began Series by John Marsden (fiction - about a group of teenagers who are caught in a hypothetical war in Australia, really strong on issues of friendship, loyalty, family, country and death. There are 7 books in the series and 3 that follow which explore the lives of some of the characters and how they cope after the war. The protagonist is female but boys will love it just as much.)
- Guitar Highway Rose by Brigid Lowry (again another Australian novel but focuses on a teenage girl and guy who run away to avoid the hassels of divorce, school and parents and struggle with the confusion of love.)
- Torn Thread by Anne Issacs (the true story of the authors mother-in-law and her fight to keep her and her older sister alive during WWII. The protagonist is about 14, very moving and a powerful way of introducing issues surrounding WWII without being too full-on)

As you can probably tell I'm Australian but these books are great for any teenagers anywhere in the world. If your looking for something a little more lighthearted try Paul Jennings and his Un- series. Almost definitely not High School standard but hilarious, I still re-read them!
Hope this helps! These are just some of the novels that I have on my shelf from my high school days but these are the ones that I always re-read and will never ever forget. Tomorrow When the War Began...I must have read the series at least 10 times I can almost memorize them word for word (and there is a movie coming out soon!)

[DaoJones]

Never read a novel that was particularly stimulating intellectually. Have read some books on business, science, self help and philosophy that were very much so, but not novels. Maybe it's just me.

[Lovely_Loreley]

Okay, I admit I'm commenting on this partially to bump it up in the forums

But I kind of had the same question as the OP and it seems pointless to start a new thread, so...yeah. I'm an English tutor online and occasionally (especially now that it is summer in the US) I get asked for age/grade appropriate reading recommendations for high schoolers. I always start off with some of the books I enjoyed from English classes in high school (Frankenstein, Dracula, Great Gatsby, that sort of thing) but the students have usually read most/all of my recommendations. So I need a fresh list!

My question is, were there any books that were really memorable/enjoyable for you in high school? Modern, classic, it doesn't matter. My particular experience was entirely focused on classics so any modern recommendations would be extremely helpful, whether you read them for class or just for fun. Thanks all!

[KNewton]

I have been out of high school for almost 10 years now (where does time go?!?!?!) and the following books I still remember and appreciate having read them. I'm not saying I enjoyed every book at the time but the discussions in class created around the books and lessons learned far out weighed not reading them. A Raisn In the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Candide by Voltaire, Native Son by Richard Wright, and A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift. The list could go on and on but those are just a few. I think The Help could be a newer book worth putting on the list especially since it is from multiple view points. We also read a lot of excerpts from philosophy books and I really enjoyed them as well.

[lehm14]

One I think high school student would enjoy would be Carpe Diem by Autumn Cornwell. It's definitely a book teenagers can relate to. Most teenagers enjoy a book with the main character being relatively close to their age. Not only is it a great book but it can make you appreciate things and see them in a new light. It is also a fairly new book that the kids won't groan about having to read.

[brancook]

This can be a great problem, as the books must be stimulating but not too stimulating. I know that the book that has made the deepest impression on me was "A Clockwork Orange," which I read when I was 14 and whose author I see as the biggest influence on my person as a writer. In a small group, ideally of teenagers, and with a very careful teacher, there is no better novel.

"A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," is the second masterpiece of Joyce's, and an ideal fit for a young audience. It is not a fusty, archaic, Victorian thing as some have avowed, but rather the ideal Bildungsroman: the conception of an artist's life as a work of art. I can think of only one other work that I would compare with "A Portrait of the Artist" and that is Nabokov's autobiography: "Speak, Memory," although I am suggesting a very imperfect fit between the two works.

If students think this old fashioned because, as some have stated, nothing happens--direct them to Joyce's "The Dead." Too much has already been said of "The Dead" by people much more intelligent than I, so I will say nothing more.

As for contemporary literature, David Mitchell is a favourite of mine. Have your students read "Black Swan Greene," an autobiographical work that made quite an impression on me when I read it in university. It is a good work if you are teaching any British history, and also a good work for showing the process of the creation of identity.

Another book that is quite distinct in my memory is "England, England" by the rollicking genius, Julian Barnes. This work is, at turns, hilarious, sobering, and profound, as is my favourite work by Barnes: "Flaubert's Parrot." Both of these works are highly suitable for a teenage as well as adult audience.

I have run past my limit, I fear, however I would suggest that you give your students access to some of the respected classics: classics that everyone knows, that none have read. I am thinking of Dickens and Hugo and Dumas, none of whom I read in high school, but who amount to some of my very favourite writers nowadays.

I wish you the very best of luck

[Lovely_Loreley]

Thank you so much for all of these suggestions! I'll definitely be looking into a lot of these

[Sarah Clay]

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (Classic)

At fifteen, I absolutely loved this book. Binge-read it, even. I know many of my classmates did not share the same view of it, however, they did not enjoy reading on a regular basis.

Great Expectations is about a poor orphan who receives a fortune from a unknown benefactor. This shiny ticket sends him to a new city life, where he learns how to be a gentleman and falls in love instantly with the cruel and beautiful Estella. However, upon unearthing the identity of his benefactor, trouble ensues, and Pip fears the consequences of his findings.

-- 05 Jul 2015, 16:44 --

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (Classic)

At fifteen, I absolutely loved this book. Binge-read it, even. I know many of my classmates did not share the same view of it, however, they did not enjoy reading on a regular basis.

Great Expectations is about a poor orphan who receives a fortune from a unknown benefactor. This shiny ticket sends him to a new city life, where he learns how to be a gentleman and falls in love instantly with the cruel and beautiful Estella. However, upon unearthing the identity of his benefactor, trouble ensues, and Pip fears the consequences of his findings.