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TitleAuthorQuick InformationTeacher DirectedOther Information

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1984Orwell, George1949/Future Dystopiasophomore theme

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 Crying of Lot 49Pynchon, ThomasAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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33 SnowfishRapp, AdamFour kids on the run--a boy who killed his parents and hopes to sell his baby brother, a child prostitute and a runaway from a foster "owner." For intelligent, mature readers. (English Journal)Teen IssuesEnglish Journal Recommended read-alike to "Monster."

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Acceptable RiskCook, RobinSalem Witch Trials to Prozac/drug researchHistorical Element/ Curricular Connection

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Adventures of Augie March, TheBellow, SaulAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, TheTwain, MarkAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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After the RainMazer, Norma FoxCaring for a difficult grandfather before his deathTeen Issues, Family Issues

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Ahab’s WifeNaslund, Sena Jeter
Old-fashioned adventure/romance with many 19th century literary referencesHistorical Element

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Alchemist, TheCoehloAbout an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. What starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treasures found within. (Follow your heart, live your dream.)AP Recommended

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All Quiet on the Western FrontRemarque, Erich MariaAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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All the Pretty HorsesMcCarthy, Cormac
Boys venture to Mexico on horseback/danger, romance, prison, etc.Historical Element, late 1940s

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Always Running: La Vida LocaRodriguez, Luis J.
Biographical look at gang life and going straightBiography, Multicultural

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American Tragedy, AnDreiser, TheodoreTheodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy (1925) is a novel about the harsh realities of American life. Based on an actual murder case, the story concerns a young man, Clyde Griffiths, who is born into a religious family. His life changes when he takes work as a bellboy in a hotel in Kansas City and is exposed to the world of alcohol and prostitution. Griffiths's affair with a girl, Roberta, results in pregnancy, and she expects to marry him. But by now Clyde loves another woman.AP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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AmistadMyers, Walter DeanTraces the 1839 revolt of Africans against their Spanish captors aboard the slave ship Amistad, their landing in the United States and arrest for piracy and murder, and trials which ended in their acquittal by the Supreme Court.Multicultural, non-fiction

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Anderson, Laurie HalseSpeakA traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year in high school.Teen Issues

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Angela’s AshesMcCourt, Frank
Biography/poverty/IrelandMulticultural

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Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal SnoggingRennison, Louise Also read the sequels—On the Bright Side, I’m Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God and Knocked Out by My Nunga-Nungas/HumorTeen Issues

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Animal DreamsKingsolver, BarbaraEcology, caring for sick parent, coming to terms with past heartacheFiction

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Animal FarmOrwell, GeorgeAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Animal FarmOrwell, GeorgeThe most famous by far of all twentieth-century political allegories, Animal Farm is an account of a group of barnyard animals who revolt against their vicious human master, only to submit to a tyranny erected by their own kind,sophomore theme

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Annie JohnKincaid, Jamaica West Indies girlhood/parent-child rivalryMulticultural

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Annie on My MindGarden, Nancy Liza and Annie precipitate an ugly scandal at their school when they fall in love.Teen Issues

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AnthemRand, AynRand was a Russian born American author who pioneered the philosophy of "objectivism". Anthem is a futuristic science fiction novella. Man is in a dark age, because of earlier socialistic values. Technology is carefully planned and rarely allowed to advance. Individualism has almost ceased to exist.sophomore theme

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AntigoneSophoclesAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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As I Lay DyingFaulkner, WilliamAs I Lay Dying was originally published in 1930. The story revolves around a grim yet darkly humorous pilgrimage, as Addie Bundren's family sets out to fulfill her last wish: to be buried in her native Jefferson, Mississippi, far from the miserable backwater surroundings of her married life. Told through multiple voices.AP recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Atlantis FoundCussler, Clive Superhero Dirk Pitt/adventure, teenage James Bond-typeAdventure

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Autobiography of Malcolm XHaley, Alex First appearing in 1965, The Autobiography of Malcolm X has proved an enduring and much-discussed publication for its frank portrait of the rise of one of America's most important black activists. It was transcribed and constructed by then-unknown journalist Alex Haley from thousands of hours of conversations he had with Malcolm X in the early 1960s.Multicultural

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Autobiography of Miss Jane PittmanGaines, Ernest Racism, 100-yr.-old African American (fiction, not bio)Multicultural

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Awakening, TheChopin, KateAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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BabbittLewis, SinclairAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Baby HelpReynolds, Marilyn Teenage partner abuse, teen motherhoodTeen Issues

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Bartleby the ScrivenerMelville, HermanAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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BearstoneHobbs, Will Coming to terms with his Indian heritage, Cloyd learns to accept himself in a battle for survival in the mountains of Colorado.Multicultural, Easy

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Before We Were FreeAlvarez, JuliaIn the early 1960s in the Dominican Republic, twelve-year-old Anita learns that her family is involved in the underground movement to end the bloody rule of the dictator, General Trujillo. Many awards.Multicultural

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Begging for ChangeFlake, SharonSequel to Money Hungry. Raspberry's mom is attacked by teen neighbor and drug-addicted dad returns.Teen Issues

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Bell Jar, ThePlath, Sylvia Teen attempts suicide, fights mental illnessTeen IssuesAP recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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BelovedMorrison, Toni Set in post-Civil War Ohio, it is the story of Sethe, an escaped slave who has risked her life in order to wrench herself from a living death; who has lost a husband and buried a child; who has borne the unthinkable and not gone mad. Sethe, who now lives in a small house on the edge of town with her daughter, Denver, her mother-in-law, Baby Suggs, and a disturbing, mesmerizing apparition who calls herself Beloved. Sethe works at 'beating back the past, ' but it makes itself heard and felt incessantlyMulticulturalAP recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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BeowulfAnonymousA ninth-century epic poem, considered the first great work of English literature. Grendel's black blood runs thick as Beowulf defeats the monster and his hideous mother. Speeches filled with courage and sadness, lightning-paced contests of muscle and will, and funeral boats burning on the fjords are all rendered in glorious and gruesome detail. AP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Black and BlueQuindlen, AnnaFran Benedetto tells a spellbinding story: how at nineteen she fell in love with Bobby Benedetto, how their passionate marriage became a nightmare, why she stayed, and what happened on the night she finally decided to run away with her ten-year-old son and start a new life under a new name.

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Black Like MeGriffinA groundbreaking and controversial novel about the author’s experiences as a white man who transforms himself with the aid of medication and dye in order to experience firsthand the life of a black man living in the Deep South in the late 1950s.AP Recommended

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Blood and ChocolateKlause, Annette C.Teen girl is a werewolf exploring her wild nature

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Bluest Eye, TheMorrison, ToniAfrican Americans/abuse issues/esteem issuesMulticultural

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Bluford High Seriesvariouseasy reads, contemporary African-Americans, high school life

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Book of Dead Birds, TheBrandeis, GayleAva Sing Lo, a Korean-African-American girl, has been accidentally killing her mother's birds since she was a little girl. Now in her twenties, she goes to the Salton Sea to volunteer to help environmentalists save thousands of birds poisoned by agricultural runoff.Multicultural, Environmental Issues

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Born BlueNolan, HanAbused girl born to drug-addicted mom

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Born on a Blue DayTammet, DanielInside the extraordinary mind of an autistic savant Biography/Memoir

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BoyDahl, Roald Childhood of the man who wrote ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,’ etc. (Fun—a real brat!)/Humor

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Boy Next Door, TheSmith, SinclairBoy convinces girl to try dangerous things--but does he really exist?Horror Element, easy

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Brave New WorldHuxley, AldousAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Brave New World, AHuxley, AldousCloning, feel-good drugs, anti-aging programs, and total social control through politics, programming and media--has Aldous Huxley accurately predicted our future? He weaves these ethical controversies in a compelling narrative that dawns in the year 632 A. F. (After Ford, the deity). When Lenina and Bernard visit a savage reservation, we experience how Utopia can destroy humanity.sophomore theme

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Brave, TheLipstye, RobertNative American/boxing/ self-esteem issuesMulticultural

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BreadwinnerEllis, DeborahAfghan girl under Taliban ruleMulticultural, easy

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Breathing UnderwaterFlinn, Alex Anger management and teen partner abuseTeen Issues

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Burning TimesKalogridis, JeanneMedieval France (1357) and the InquisitionHistorical Element, Fiction

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Burning UpCooney, Caroline B.A local history project turns the attention of 15-year-old Macey Clare toward a mysterious town fire, and the townspeople flare up in opposition. Macey and her friends soldier on and find out that local and personal problems are sometimes deep and hurtful. Burying a dark secret of racism, the town has collaborated tacitly for years to bury the information that Macey now strives to dig up. (School Library Journal)

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California BlueKlauss, David Environmental vs. economic issues

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Call It SleepRoth, HenryAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Call of the Wild, TheLondon, JackAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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CandideVoltaireAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Cane RiverTamedy, LalitaThe unique and deeply moving epic of four generations of African-American women based on one family's ancestral past.Multicultural

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Canterbury TalesChaucer, GeoffreyAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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CanyonsPaulsen, Gary Mystical quest/native American boy executed in 1864/modernMulticultural, easy

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CatalystAnderson, Laurie HalseEighteen-year-old Kate, who sometimes chafes at being a preacher's daughter, finds herself losing control in her senior year as she faces difficult neighbors, the possibility that she may not be accepted by the college of her choice, and an unexpected deathTeen Issues

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Catch-22Heller, JosephThe novel is set in the closing months of World War II, in an American bomber squadron on a small island off Italy. Its hero is a bombardier named Yossarian, who is frantic and furious because thousands of people he hasn't even met keep trying to kill him.AP recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Catcher in the RyeSalinger, J. D.AP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Catcher in the Rye, TheSalinger, J.D. The story of three days and nights spent in New York City by Holden Caulfield, a sensitive, intelligent 16-year-old, who confronts the ``phony'' values of the adult world.

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CeremonySilko, Leslie MarmonAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Cherry Orchard, TheChekhov, AntonAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Children of the RiverCrew, Linda Sundara fled Cambodia with her aunt's family to escape the Khmer Rouge army when she was thirteen, leaving behind her parents, her brother and sister, and the boy she had loved since she was a child. Now, four years later, she struggles to fit in at her Oregon high school and to be "a good Cambodian girl" at home.Multicultural

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Chill WindMcDonald, JanetTeen mom Alisha feigns mental illness to stay on welfare, then accepts a position as a subway patrol person wjhre she is discovered for commercials. (English Journal)Teen IssuesEnglish Journal recommended read-alike to "Make Lemonade."

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Chocolate War, TheCormier, Robert An uncompromising portrait of conformity and corruption, a bestselling-and provocative-classic for young adults.Teen IssuesProject X is recommended by The English Journal as a newer, bolder read-alike.

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Chrysalids, The Wyndam, JohnThe Chyrsalids is set in the future after a devastating global nuclear war. David, the young hero of the novel, lives in a tight-knit community of religious and genetic fundamentalists, always on the alert for any deviation from the norm of Gods creation. Abnormal plants are publicly burned. Abnormal humans are also condemned to destruction unless they succeed in fleeing to the Fringes, that Wild Country where, as the authorities say, nothing is reliable and the devil does his work.sophomore theme

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Cold MountainFrazier, CharlesA masterpiece that is at once an enthralling adventure, a stirring love story, and a luminous evocation of a vanished land, a place where savagery coexists with splendor and human beings contend with the inhuman solitude of the wilderness. Sorely wounded and fatally disillusioned in the fighting at Petersburg, Inman, a Confederate soldier, decides to walk back to his home in the Blue Ridge mountains and to Ada, the woman he loved there years before.Historical Element

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Coldy Sassy TreeBurns, Olive AnnIn the small town of Cold Sassy, Georgia, on July 5, 1906, things take a scandalous turn. On that day, fourteen-year-old Will Tweedy's adventures begin and an unimpeachably pious, deliciously irreverent town comes to life.Historical Element

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Collected StoriesWelty, EudoraAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Collins, B. R.Traitor GameFifteen-year-old Michael and his friend Francis both feel betrayed when someone at their private school learns of Evgard, a secret fantasy world they created together, but when a sadistic bully becomes involved in Michael's plan for revenge, the boys and Evgard itself face grave danger.Fantasy, easy

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Color of WaterMcBride, JamesNo fiction could be more unique and uplifting than this real-life biography of Rachel Deborah Shilsky, the daughter of an angry Orthodox Jewish rabbi in the South who runs off to Harlem, marries a black man, becomes a Baptist, and founds an all-black church. And puts 12 children through college! James McBride recalls his confusion as a black child of a white mother, the hardships of his childhood, and his own flirtation with drugs and violence, in the struggle to make peace with his own identity.MulticulturalAP Recommended

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Color Purple, TheWalker, AliceCelie is a poor black woman whose letters tell the story of 20 years of her life, beginning at age 14 when she is being abused and raped by her father and attempting to protect her sister from the same fate, and continuing over the course of her marriage to "Mister," a brutal man who terrorizes her.MulticulturalAP recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Confessions of a Teenage Drama QueenSheldonTeen aspiring actress—high school power dynamicsTeen Issues

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CrashSpinelli, Jerry Jock, bully meets a Quaker boyMulticultural, easy

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Crazy Horse Electric GameCrutcher, Chris Athlete handicapped after accidentTeen Issues

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Creed for the Third MilleniumMcCullough, ColleenTomorrow's America is a cold and ravaged place, a nation devastated by despair and enduring winter. In a small New England city, senior government official Dr. Judith Carriol finds the man she has been seeking: a deliverer of hope in a hopeless time who can revive the dreams of a shattered people.sophomore theme

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Crime and PunishmentDostoyevsky, FyodorExplores human psychology in the troubled political, social and spiritual context of 19th-century Russian society.AP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Crossing, ThePaulsen, Gary Mexican boy, poverty, illegal immigrationMulticultural, easy

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Crucible, TheMiller, ArthurAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Cry the Beloved CountryPaton, AlanAn elderly Black Anglican priest reveals racial tensions in South Africa when his son is accused of murdering a white man.AP Recommended

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Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, TheHaddon, Mark Autistic teen boy solves mystery of the murder of a neighbor’s dog (sounds weird—you have to read it! It’s great!)

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CutMcCormick, Patricia Self-mutilation, therapyTeen Issues

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Cyano de BergeracRostand, EdmondAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Death Comes for the ArchbishopCather, WillaAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Death in the Family, AAgee, JamesJay Follet is healthy, robust & in the prime of life when he sets out from home one hot summer night to tend to his sick father. He leaves behind a wife & two small children, promising to return the next evening if at all possible. A story of the complex ways that people deal with life, love & lossAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Define “Normal”Peters, Julie Ann Peer counseling of a pierced, tattooed punk—looking beneath the surface for the real person, true friendshipTeen Issues

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Deliver Us from EvieKerr, M. E.Rural family dealing with daughter’s coming out

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Devil’s Arithmetic, TheYolen, JaneJewish girl transported back to the HolocaustHolocaust

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Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya SisterhoodWells, Rebecca Southern lifelong female friendships

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Doctor ZhivagoPasternak, BorisAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Doll's House, AIbsen, HenrikAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Don QuixoteCervantes, MiguelAlonso Quixano, a retired country gentleman in his forties, lives in an unnamed section of La Mancha with his niece and a housekeeper. He has become obsessed with books of chivalry, and believes their every word to be true, despite the fact that many of the events in them are clearly impossible. Quixano eventually appears to other people to have lost his mind from little sleep and food and because of so much reading.AP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Don’t Look Behind YouDuncan, LoisMystery/family in the Federal Witness Protection Program

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DragonsingerMcCaffrey, AnneMenolly becomes an apprentice at Harper Hall in Pern.Fantasy

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Driver’s EdCooney, Caroline B. Death ensues from teen funTeen Issues

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Earley, TonyJim the BoyJim the Boy brilliantly captures the pleasures and fears of youth at a time when America itself was young and struggling to come into its own.Historical Fiction, easy

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Elijah of BuxtonCurtis, Christopher PaulIn 1859, eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman, the first free-born child in Buxton, Canada, which is a haven for slaves fleeing the American south, uses his wits and skills to try to bring to justice the lying preacher who has stolen money that was to be used to buy a family's freedom. EasyHistorical Element, Multicultural

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Ender’s gameCard, Orson Scott In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers.Science Fiction

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Esperanza RisingRyan, Pam MunozA sudden tragedy shatters her world and forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California, where they settle in a camp for Mexican farm workers. Great Depression.Multicultural, easy

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Face on the Milk Carton, TheCooney, Caroline B.Kidnapped child/series—Whatever happened to Janie, Voice on the Radio

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Fahrenheit 451Bradbury, RayBooks were for burning, along with the houses in which they were hidden. Guy Montag was a fireman whose job it was to start fires, and he enjoyed the pleasure of the midnight runs. He never questioned anything, until he met a seventeen-year-old girl who told him of a past when people were not afraid, and a professor who told him of a future in which people could think.sophomore theme

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Fallen AngelsMyers, Walter DeanAfrican American soldier in VietnamHistorical Element, Multicultural

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Falling LeavesMah, Adeline YenMemoir, unwanted Chinese daughterMulticultural

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Farewell to Arms, AHemingway, ErnestAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Father FigurePeck, Richard Seventeen-year-old Jim Atwater has played father to his kid brother Byron since their parents divorced eight years before. But Jim and Byron's world falls apart when their mother dies and their father--who is a virtual stranger to the boys--shows up, wanting to be part of their lives.Teen Issues

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Fathers and SonsTurgenev, IvanAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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FaustGoethe, Johann Wolfgang vonAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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FeedAnderson, M.T.Titus's ability to read, write, and even think for himself has been almost completely obliterated by his "feed," a transmitter implanted directly into his brain. Feeds are a crucial part of life for Titus and his friends. After all, how else would they know where to party on the moon, how to get bargains at Weatherbee & Crotch, or how to accessorize the mysterious lesions everyone's been getting?sophomore theme

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FencesWilson, Augustdrama, African-Americanm family in the 1960sMulticultural

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Fever, 1793Anderson, Laurie HalseIn 1793 Philadelphia, sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook, separated from her sick mother, learns about perseverance and self-reliance when she is forced to cope with the horrors of a yellow fever epidemic.Historical Element

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FrankensteinShelley, MaryAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Fresh GirlPlacide, JairaAfter having been sent, at a very young age, from New York to live with her grandmother in Haiti, fourteen-year-old Mardi returns to join her parents and try to shape a new life in BrooklynMulticultural

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Fried Green Tomatoes. . . Flagg, Fannie1930s and 1980s/ South/ race/friendship/ageHistorical Element

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Gap CreekMorgan, Robert19th century rural family, disasters, hardshipsHistorical Element

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Gathering of Old Men, AGaines, ErnestSet on a Louisiana sugar cane plantation in the 1970s, "A Gathering of Old Men" is a powerful depiction of racial tensions arising over the death of a Cajun farmer at the hands of a black man.Multicultural

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Girl From Playa BlancaLachtman, O. D.A gothic romance in which a Mexican teenager & her young brother travel to Los Angeles in search of their father. (Best Books for Young Teen Readers)Multicultural, easy

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Girl Named Disaster, AFarmer, NancyAfrican girl running from arranged marriage/survivalMulticultural

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Girls, TheKoss, Amy GoldmanMaya’s middle school friends decide to exclude her—social status and peer pressure themes.Teen Issues

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Giver, TheLowry, Loisfuture distopiaeasyProject X is recommended by The English Journal as a newer, bolder read-alike.

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Glass CastleWalls, JeannettePoverty, negligent parents, alcoholic father, dysfunctional familyBiography/Memoir

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Glass Castle, TheWalls, JeannetteGrowing up with negligent parents.Biography/Memoir

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Glass Menagerie, TheWilliams, TennesseeAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Glory FieldMyers, Walter DeanFollows a family's two hundred forty-one year history, from the capture of an African boy in the 1750s through the lives of his descendants, as their dreams and circumstances lead them away from and back to the small plot of land in South Carolina that they call the Glory Field.Multicultural, Historical Element

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Go Tell It on the MountainBaldwin, James"Go Tell It On The Mountain, first published in 1953, is Baldwin's first major work. Baldwin chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy's discovery of the terms of his identity as the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935. Baldwin's rendering of his protagonist's spiritual, sexual, and moral struggle of self-invention opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understand themselves.AP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Gone with the WindMitchell, MargaretCivil War-Reconstruction/SouthHistorical Element

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Good Man is Hard to Find, AO'Connor, FlanneryAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Good Soldier, TheFord, Ford MaddoxAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Goodnight, Mr. TomMcGowanEngland/WW IIHistorical Element

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Grapes of Wrath, TheSteinbeck, JohnAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Great Gatsby, TheFitzgerald, F. ScottAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Great Gatsby, TheFitzgerald, F. ScottJazz age/the carelessness of the richHistorical Element

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GrendelGardner, JohnViewpoint of monster from BeowulfLiterary References

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Gulliver's TravelsSwift, JonathanAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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HamletShakespeare, WilliamAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Handmaid’s Tale, TheAtwood, MargaretFuture society—U.S. as a theocracy where women have no rightssophomore theme

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HatchetPaulsen, GaryAfter a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in the Canadian wilderness, learning to survive with only the aid of a hatchet given him by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents' divorce.Adventure, Teen IssuesEnglish Journal recommends "Red Midnight" as a newer, bolder read-alike.

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Heart of DarknessConrad, JosephAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Heart of DarknessConrad, Joseph1902/NovellaHistorical Element

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Hero Ain’t Nothin' but a Sandwich, AChildress, AliceBenjie, a 13-year-old in Harlem, cannot face the reality of his drug addiction or the realization that someone cares for him.Multicultural, easy

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Hitchhiker’s Guide to the GalaxyAdams, DouglasFantasy, science fiction

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Hole in My LifeGantos, JackMemoir, Author became drug smuggler, spent time in prison, reformedMulticultural

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Hole in the World, AHite, SidPaul moves and resembles a local who committed suicide the year before (quietly told story)Teen Issues

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HolesSachar, LouisBoy sent to work camp uncovers family mystery

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HoopsMyers, Walter DeanTeen basketball/ point shavingMulticultural

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HootHiaasen, CarlRoy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy's attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site. (Finding purpose and beating the system)Environmental Elements, easyEnglish Journal recommended read-alike to "Holes."

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Hot Zone, ThePreston, RichardPossibility of worldwide outbreak of biologically ‘hot’ viruses such as ebolaPopular Science

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House of Mirth, TheWharton, EdithAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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How I Live NowRosoff, MegFifteen-year-old Daisy goes to England to stay with her aunt and cousins, with whom she instantly bonds, but soon war breaks out and rips apart the family while devastating the land. Futuristic

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Hunchback of Notre Dame, TheHugo, VictorAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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I Am Not EstherBeale, FleurAfter her mother unexpectedly leaves her with her uncle's family, members of a fanatical Christian cult, Kirby tries to learn what has become of her mother and struggles to cope with the repressiveness of her new surroundings and to maintain her own identity.Relious Issues, Teen IssuesEnglish Journal recommends this as a read-alike for "The Giver."

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I am Scout: The Biography of Harper LeeShields, Charles J.Biography/Memoir

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I Know Why the Caged Bird SingsAngelou, MayaMemoir/ African-American activist, poetMulticultural

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I Never Promised You a Rose GardenGreenberg, JoanneMental illness (teenage)Teen Issue

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If Beale Street Could TalkBaldwin, JamesFonny, a young artist, finds himself unjustly arrested and locked in New York's Tombs while his girlfriend, Tish, is determined to free him and have his baby.Multicultural

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If I Should Die Before I WakeNolan, HanNeo-Nazis/WWII--HolocaustHolocaust

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Iliad, TheHomerAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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In Cold BloodCapote, TrumanNonfiction/murder account

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In My HandsOpdyke, Irene Gut Memories of a Holocaust RescuerHolocaust

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In the Middle of the NightCormier, Robert Boy wants to know why his father receives calls saying he’s a murdererTeen Issues, easy

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InfernoDanteAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Inheritance of Loss, TheDesai, KiranSet in Kalimpong, a Himalayan town bordering Nepal, during the mid-1980s. Residual effects of British (and Western) rule over India. Multicultural

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Innocent DarknessSheehan, EdwardAdrian Northwood is a painter and a very rich young man - his family contributes millions to the Vatican - whose wife and son have just died horribly. Suddenly rootless, the dazed and remorseful Northwood drives aimlessly through the United States, stopping finally at the U.S.-Mexican border where he finds meaning in helping the impoverished.AP Recommended

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Interpreter of MaladiesLahiri, JhumpaStories about Indians in India and America. The story, A Temporary Matter, is on mixed marriage, Mrs. Sen's is on the adaptation of an immigrant to the U.S., and in the title story an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors.Multicultural, Short Stories

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Into the WildKrakauer, JonathanAdventures and death in the Alaskan wildernessAdventure, Memoir or Biography, Non-fiction, Environmental Issues

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Into Thin AirKrakauer, JonathanNonfiction/Adventure/Death on Mt. EverestAdventure, Non-fiction, Environmental Issues

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Invisible ManEllison, RalphThe African American narrator becomes involved in an amazing series of adventures, in which he is sometimes befriended but more often deceived and betrayed--as much by himself and his own illusions as by the duplicity of the blindness of others.MulticulturalAP Recommended

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Invisible ManEllison, RalphAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Invisible ThreadUchida, YoshikoDescribes growing up second generation Japanese American in Berkely, Ca, and internment in a Nevada WWII Concentartion camp.Multicultural

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IronmanCrutcher, ChrisBoy connects with his anger management classmates and races in a triathlonTeen Issues

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Isaac Newton: Giants of ScienceKrull, KathleenBiography/Memoir

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Island, TheHuxley, AldousHuxley transports us to a Pacific island where, for 120 years, an ideal society has flourished. Inevitably, this island of bliss attracts the envy and enmity of the surrounding world. A conspiracy is underway to take over Pala and events begin to move when an agent of the conspirators, a newspaperman named Faranby, is shipwrecked there.sophomore theme

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Izzy, Willy-NillyVoight, CynthiaFifteen-year-old Izzy has it all -- a loving family, terrific friends, a place on the cheerleading squad. But her comfortable world crumbles when a date with a senior ends in a car crash and she loses her right leg.Teen Issues

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Jacob Have I LovedPatterson, KatherineAn intense, moving portrayal of a twin who has always felt overshadowed by her delicate, talented sister; not until she reaches adulthood does she find her place as midwife in Appalachia.Teen Issues

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Jane EyreBronte, CharlotteAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Joy Luck Club, TheTan, Amy1989/Chinese Americans coming to terms with the pastMulticultural

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Kaffir BoyMathabane, MarkMark Mathbane's biography reveals the extraordinary memoir of growing up in a world under apartheid in South Africa.Multicultural

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Killer AngelsShaaraHistorical Fiction/Civil WarHistorical Element

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Killing Mr. GriffinDuncan, LoisPrank on teacher goes wrongTeen Issues, easy

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Kit’s WildernessAlmond, DavidPlaying a game called Death in an abandoned mineshaft, Kit connects with prehistoric ghostseasy

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Kite RunnerHosseini, Khaled1970s/1980s growing up in Afganistan, fictionMulticultural, Historical Element

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Knights of the Hill CountryTharp, TimHigh school footballTeen Issues

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Known World, TheJones, Edward P.Salvery, African-American slave owners, race relations, prejudice, escapeHistorical Element, Multicultural

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Last Book in the UniversePhilbrick, Rodmaneasy read, future distopia with gangs and literate populationScience-Fiction

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Last of the Mohicans, TheCooper, James FenimoreAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Leaves of GrassWhitman, WaltAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Legend of Buddy BushMoses, Shelia P.1947, North Carolina, racial strife, loss, forgivenessMulticultural, Historical Element

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Lesson Before DyingGaines, ErnestA young man who returns to 1940s Cajun country to teach visits a black youth on death row for a crime he didn't commit. Together they come to understand the heroism of resisting.MulticulturalAP Recommended

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Life in the Fat LaneBennett, CheriePageant queen Lara has a rare disease that makes her gain 100 pounds.Teen Issues

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Life of PiMartel, YannBoy stuck on a life raft with a tiger (sounds weird, but you have to read it—it’s great!)

.

Lighning Thief, TheRiordan, RickTwelve-year-old Percy Jackson learns he is a demigod, the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the sea. His mother sends him to a summer camp for demigods where he and his new friends set out on a quest to prevent a war between the gods. Book 1 in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.Fantasy, easy, Mythology Element

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Lily’s CrossingGiff, Patricia ReillyTeen girl learns the deep of tragedy of WWIIMulticultural

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Living to TellNelsonWinston Mabie comes home after spending five years in prison for killing his grandmother in a drunk-driving accidentTeen Issues

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Long Day's Journey into NightO'Neill, EugeneAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Long Way Gone, ABeah, IshmaelSierra Leone, 1990s: This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them. What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop?Biography/Memoir

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Lord of the FliesGolding, WilliamAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Love and SexCart, Michael While this collection of short stories shares a common theme with markedly frank, contemporary narrative, the perspectives differ, moving in a continuum from conservative to unconventional. Teen Issues

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Love MedicineErdrich, LouiseThe first book in Louise Erdrich's highly acclaimed "Native American" trilogy that includes "The Beet Queen," "Tracks," and "The Bingo Palace." AP Recommended

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Lovely Bones, TheSebold, Alice14-year-old is brutally murdered and tells her story from heaven.

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Lovina's SongRudolph, MarianBased on 12 year-old's experience in Donner Party (1846-47)Historical Element

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Lupita MananaBetty, PatriciaAfter her father dies in a fishing boat accident in the seas near their small Mexican village, Lupita's family is left in poverty. Lupita and her big brother, Salvador, must smuggle themselves into the United States to earn money to support their mother and young siblings.Multicultural

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MacbethShakespeare, WilliamAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Madame BovaryFlaubert, GustaveAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Magic Mountain, TheMann, ThomasAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Make LemonadeWolff, Virginia Euwer In order to earn money for college, fourteen-year-old LaVaughn babysits for a teenage mother, endangering her own prospects for the future when she gets involved.Multicultural

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Maniac MageeSpinelli, JerryThis humorous yet poignant tall tale concerns a super-athletic teenager who bridges his town's racial gap.

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ManzanarArmor, JohnA description of the internment camp used to house Japanese Americans during World War II illustrated with touching photographs by Ansel Adams.Multicultural

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Mao's Last DancerCunxin, LiBiography/Memoir

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Map of the WorldHamiliton, JaneAfter her neighbor's child dies while in her care, Alice must fight to find forgiveness not only from her friend but from within herself.

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Marked by FireThomas, Joyce Carol National Book Award-winning novel that spans 20 years. Abyssinia Jackson grows up in a tightly knit African-American community in Oklahoma, and comes of age with uncommon dignity and determination.Multicultural

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Martyn PigBrooks, KevinGrim life of MP, 15 years old/gut-wrenching thriller

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Matilda BoneCushman, KarenHomeless girl in the middle ages becomes a medical apprenticeHistorical Element, Easy

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Metamorphosis, TheKafka, FranzAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Midnight in the Garden of Good and EvilBerendt, JohnTrue story of murder and the eccentric residents of Savannah, Georgia

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Midsummer's Night Day, AShakespeare, WilliamAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Mill on the Floss, TheEliot, GeorgeAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Missing Since MondayMartin, Ann M.Step-mother blames Maggie when her little half-sister disappears.

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Moby-DickMelville, HermanAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Money HungryFlake, SharonGirl obsessed with money after father becomes drug addict and she and mother live on streetsTeen Issues

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MonsterMyers, Walter DeanWhile on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken.Multicultural

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Montana 1948Watson, Larry Abuse, family loyalties

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Moonlight ManFox, PaulaTeen vacations wither alcoholic fatherTeen Issues

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Mountains Beyond MountainsKidder, TracyThe story of Dr. Paul Farmer, who brought medical services to the Central Plateau of Haiti, servingthe poorest of thepoor.Biography/Memoir, Inspirational

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Moves Make the Man, TheBrooks, Bruce The novel has a basketball theme and plenty of action, but sport is merely the vehicle for delivering a serious story of friendship and madness.Multicultural

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Namesake, TheLahiri, JhumpaThe immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, the conflicts of assimilation, and the tangled ties between generations. The Ganguli family leaves their tradition-bound life in India to live in the Unites States.Multicultural

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Narrative of the Life of Frederick DouglassDouglass, FrederickVividly explains the horror of American slavery and the emotional impetus behind the antislavery movement--the extraordinary life and achievement of a man who escaped from slavery to become a leading abolitionist and one of our most important writers. AP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Narrative of the Life of Frederick DouglassDouglass, Frederick Powerful account of life in bondageMulticultural

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Native SonWright, Richard Native Son tells the story of a young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic. Set in Chicago in the 1930s,MulticulturalAP recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Night I Disappeared, TheBeale, FleurSomething scary is happening to seventeen-year-old Jamie Tessman. Ever since she and her mother arrived in Chicago, she's been plagued by freaky mind-slips and vivid daydreams about her sort-of-boyfriend, Webb. When Jamie's inner world starts taking her hostage and keeping her imprisoned for longer periods of time, she becomes terrified that she is slowly losing her mind.Teen IssuesEnglish Journal recommends as a read-alike for "Speak."

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Night KitesKerr, M. E. Teen relationships/AIDSTeen Issues, Fiction

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NildaMohr, NicholasaA realistic novel of a low-income Puerto Rican girl's life in New York.Multicultural

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Number the StarLowry, Lois Holocaust/Denmark, 1943/Family hides Jewish girlHolocaust

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Odyssey, TheHomerAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Oedipus RexSophoclesAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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One BirdMori, Kyoto Japanese teenager develops friendship with feminist, learns of her own strengthMulticultural

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One Day in the Life of Ivan DeisovichSolzhenitshynOne of the most significant works ever to emerge from Soviet Russia, this novel is both a graphic picture of World War II work camp life and a testimony to the human spirit.AP recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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One Hundred Years of SolitudeMarquez, Gabriel GarciaAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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One-Eyed CatFox, Paula Ned fired the forbidden rifle just once, at a flickering shadow in the autumn moonlight. But someone -- a face, fleetingly seen staring at him from an attic window -- was watching. And when a one-eyed cat turns up at an elderly neighbor's woodshed, Ned is caught in a web of guilt, fear, and shame that he cannot escape.

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Only Alien on the Planet, TheRandle, Kristen D. Ginny meets Smitty who was in a near-fatal accident at two. Themes of psychological abuse.

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Ordinary PeopleGuest, Judith Seventeen-year-old Conrad returns home from a mental institution, where he was sent after his brother's accidental death and his own ensuing suicide attempt, to begin a new life in which he must learn to accept himself and those close to him.Teen Issues

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Ordinary WolvesKantner, Sethgrowing up in Alaskan wilderness, contrasts living in the wild with American consumer culture, fictionMulticultural Inuit

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Outsiders, TheHinton, S. E.The struggle of three brothers to stay together after their parents' death and their quest for identity among the conflicting values of their adolescent society.Teen issuesEnglish Journal recommends "Prep" as a newer, bolder read-alike.

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Parrot in the Oven: Mi VidaMartinez, VictorManny deals with poverty and a violent, alcoholic father.Multicultural

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Party GirlEwing, LynneFemale LA gang members’ lives unravelMulticultural

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Past ForgivingMiklowitz, Gloria D.Teen partner abuseTeen Issues

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Paterson, KatherineJip His StoryAfter tumbling off back of a wagon, Jip was brought to live at the town poor farm. He has been content to do chores and tend animals -- until the day the lunatic arrives. Put seems terrifying and less than human, but as the weeks pass. Jip sees the man he truly is. So, when a menacing stranger comes to town, claiming to have been sent by Jip's grieving father, Jip turns to his new friend to make sense of his past.Historical Fiction, easy

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Picture of Dorian Gray, TheWilde, OscarAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Please Stop Laughing at MeBlanco, JodeeThis powerful memoir chronicles how one child was shunned--and sometimes physically abused--by her classmates from elementary school through high school. It is an unflinching look at what it means to be the outcast, and how bullying has been mishandled by the mental health community.sophomore theme, biography/memoir

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Poet Slave of Ciba: A Biography of Juan Francisco ManzanoEngle, MargaritaBiography/Memoir

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Poisonwood BibleKingsolver , BarbaraA story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it--from garden seeds to Scripture--is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa. Multicultural

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PopcoThomas, Scarlettoff-beat fiction, "revenge of the geeks"," 'cyberpunk science-fiction,' satire of 'branding' Teen Issues, Science-fiction (sort of!)

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Portrait of a Lady, TheJames, HenryAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, AJoyce, JamesOne of the most significant literary works of the twentieth century, and one of the most innovative, it originality shocked contemporary readers on its publication in 1916. Was it art or was it filth? The novel charts the intellectual, moral, and sexual development of Stephen Dedalus. Growing up in a Catholic family in Dublin in the final years of the nineteenth century, Stephen's consciousness is forged by Irish history and politics, by Catholicism and culture, language and art. AP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Prayer for Owen MeanyIrving, JohnVietnam era. Owen Meany, the only child of a New Hampshire granite quarrier, believes he is Gods instrument. He is.Historical Element

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PrepCoburn, JakeOne-time tag-artist, Nick tries to come to terms with the death of a friend, to protect the brother of his would-be girlfriend, to escape the violence of wealthy New York City prep school hoods, and to figure out who he really is.Teen IssuesEnglish Journal recommends as a read-alike for "The Outsiders."

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Pride and PrejudiceAusten, JaneThe best-loved of Austen’s novels. The story of the novel's two protagonists, Elizabeth and Darcy, the ill-matched Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, Charles Bingley and his sisters, and the fatuous Mr. Collins, whose proposal to Elizabeth Bennet is one of the finest comic passages in English literature. And while she entertains us, Jane Austen teaches us the wisdom of balance, the folly of 'pride' and 'prejudice'.AP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Prince, TheMachiavelliThis book was intended as practical advice for how to unify Italy with force. Machiavelli begins with the assumption that the end justifies the means. His work has served for centuries as a handbook for would-be dictators and conquerors.AP Recommended

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Project XShepard, JimTwo high school students live in a world devoid of connections with anyone and go to tragic lengths to feel something. With school violence and profanity--a book for parents, teachers and mature teens. (English Journal)Teen IssuesEnglish Journal recommends as a read-alike to "The Chocolate War."

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PygmalionShaw, George BernardAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Queen of EverythingCaletti, DebJordan's almost perfect father has been dating his married neighbor, whose husband disappears. (English Journal)Teen IssuesEnglish Journal Recommended read-alike to "Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes."

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Raging Quiet, TheJordan, SherrylDeafness/romance/set in the Middle AgesHistorical Element

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Rain of GoldVillasenor, VictorMexican American/Memoir of three generationsMulticultural

.

Real Benedict ArnoldMurphy, JimBiography/Memoir

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Red Badge of Courage, TheCrane, StephenAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Red MidnightMikaelson, BenTo escape brutal soldiers, twelve-year-old Santiago takes his four-year-old sister from Guatemala across the Gulf of mexico into Florida. (English Journal)AdventureEnglish Journal recommends as a read-alike for "Hatchet."

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Red TentDiamant, AnitaFictional account of the biblical story of Jacob, his four wives and his only daughter, Dinah/female viewpointHistorical Element

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Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent GirlsPipher, Mary BrayNonfiction account of the psychology of girls that causes them to ‘crash and burn’ in early adolescence.Teen Issues

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Road, TheMcCarthy, Cormac
Apolcalyptic vision of a post-nuclear-war worldFuturistic

.

Robinson CrusoeDefoe, DanielRobinson Crusoe runs away from home to join the navy. After a series of adventures at sea, he is shipwrecked in a devastating storm, and finds himself alone on a remote desert island. He remains there many years, building a life for himself in solitude, until the day he discovers another mans footprint in the sand . . .AP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Roll of Thunder, Hear My CryTaylor, Mildred DGreat Depression/African-American family/racism/Why is the land so important to Cassie's family? It takes the events of one turbulent year--the year of the night riders and the burnings, the year a white girl humiliates Cassie in public simply because she is black--to show Cassie that having a place of their own is the Logan family's lifeblood.Historical, Multicultural, easy

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Romeo and JulietShakespeare, WilliamAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Sacred HungerUnsworth, Barry Graphic depiction of 18th century slave trade/In this Booker Prize-winning work set in colonial America, Unsworth follows the failing fortunes of William Kemp, a merchant pinning his last chance to a slave ship; his son, who needs his father's fortune; and his nephew, who sails on the ill-fated ship.Historical, Multicultural

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Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim CrowSturm, JamesBiography/Memoir

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Scarlet Letter, TheHawthorne, NathanielIn early colonial Massachusetts, a young woman endures the consequences of her sin of adultery and spends the rest of her life in atonement.AP recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Sea of Monsters, TheRiordan, RickDemi-god Percy Jackson and his friends must journey into the Sea of Monsters to save their camp. But first Percy will discover a secret that makes him wonder whether being claimed as Poseidon's son is an honor or a cruel joke. Book 2 in the Percy jackson and the Olympians seriesFantasy, easy, Mythology Element

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Secret, Silent ScreamsNixon, Joan LowryThe coroner has ruled Barry Logan's death as the latest in a string of teen-age suicides. Marti Lewis, Barry's best friend, knows that he was murdered. She just can't get anyone to believe her Scary story

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Selected EssaysEmerson, Ralph WaldoAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

.

Selected TalesPoe, Edgar AllanAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

.

Shabanu: Daughter of the WindStaples, Suzanne FisherWhen eleven-year old Shabanu, the daughter of a nomad in the Cholistan Desert of present-day Pakistan, is pledged in marriage to an older man whose money will bring prestige to the family, she must either accept the decision, as is the custom, or risk the consequences of defying her father's wishes.Multicultural

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Shadow of the DragonGarland, Sherry Vietnamese kids in U.S./prejudice/gangsMulticultural

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She said “Yes”Bernall, MistyTeenager killed in Columbine High massacreTeen Issue

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Shizuko’s DaughterMori, Kyoto Japanese girl is adrift after her mother commits suicide.Multicultural

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SiddharthaHesse, HermanThis allegorical novel, set in sixth-century India around the time of the Buddha, follows a young man on his search for enlightenment. sophomore theme

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Sigmund Freud: Giants of ScienceKrull, KathleenBiography/Memoir

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Silver Kiss, TheKlause, Annette C.Teen vampire/romance

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Sisters=HermanasPaulsen, GaryIn both English and Spanish. The lives of a fourteen-year-old Mexican prostitute, living in the United States illegally, and a wealthy American girl intersect in a dramatic way.Multicultural, Teen Issue, very easy

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Skeleton ManBruchac, JosephMolly’s parents vanished; stranger claims to be great-uncle; dreams of the skeleton-monster in her father’s Mohawk storiesScary story, easy

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Skin I’m In, TheFlake, Sharon ‘Darkest, worst-dressed’ girl in school is teased mercilessly; teacher with birthmark helps.Multicultural, easy

.

Slaughter-House FiveVonnegut, KurtAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Slave dancerFox, Paula Jessie is kidnapped and taken aboard a slave ship to play his flute and ‘exercise’ the slaves. Witnesses the brutality of slavery.Multicultural, easy

.

Smith, RolandPeakA fourteen-year-old boy attempts to be the youngest person to reach the top of Mount Everest.Teen Issues, Survival

.

Snow Falling on CedarsGuterson, DavidHistorical Fiction/Prejudice against Japanese Americans, WWII and afterMulticultural

.

Someone to LoveLantz, FrancessSara, age 15, runs away with girl whose unborn child Sara plans to adopt.Teen Issues

.

Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and RadiumMcClaffertyBiography/Memoir

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Sound and the Fury, TheFaulkner, WilliamAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

.

SounderArmstrong, WilliamAn African-American boy learns the pain of humiliation and anger when his father is given an unjust jail sentence for stealing a ham from a white man. Learning to read and to discover that things do not die but become part of other things brings new hope.Multicultural, easy

.

SpeakAnderson, Laurie HalseA traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year in high school.Teen Issues

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Spitting ImagesCrum, Shutta1967, VISTA worker comes to impoverished Kentucky town—moonshining, snake handling and racial discordMulticultural

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Starnger, The Camus, AlbertAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

.

Staying Fat for Sarah ByrnesCrutcher, Chris Sarah Byrnes and Eric have been friends for years. When they were children, his fat and her terrible scars made them both outcasts. Later, although swimming slimmed Eric, she stayed his closest friend. Now Sarah Byrnes -- the smartest, toughest person Eric has ever known -- sits silent in a hospital. Eric must uncover the terrible secret she's hiding, before its dark currents pull them both under.Teen Issues

.

Step from Heaven, ANa, AnTeenage immigrant from Korea needs to report abusive fatherMulticultural, teen issue

.

Stones from the RiverHelgi, UrsulaTrudi Montag, a dwarf born in Germany during World War I, narrates her life story from her earliest memories through post-World War II. Being different sometimes renders Trudi almost invisible to those around her, allowing her to eavesdrop on the daily dramas of her neighbors' adultery, cowardice, heroism, insanity, and Jewish persecution. The emergence of Nazi Germany on an intimate canvas of a small town and its humanly flawed population.Multicultural, Holocaust

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StormbreakerHorowitz, Anthony14-yr.-old James Bond type/They said his uncle Ian died in a car accident. Alex Rider knows that's a lie, and the bullet holes in his uncle's car confirm the truth. But nothing can prepare him for the news that the uncle he always thought he knew was really a spy for Britain's top-secret intelligence agency. Enlisted to find his uncle's killers and complete Ian's final mission, Alex suddenly finds himself caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse, with no way out.

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Sudden Silence, ABunting, EveHe remembers screaming to his brother to get out of the way. But his brother was deaf and couldn't hear Jesse shout. The driver killed his brother and sped away. Now Jesse is filled with grief and guilt. And he and Bry's girlfriend Chloe, are determined to find the hit-and-run driver

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Summer of My German SoldierGreene, BetteYoung, abused Jewish girl helps a German soldier POW in Arkansas, 1940s.Multicultural, teen issue

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Sun Also Rises, TheHemingway, Ernest1926/a group of American and English expatriates in Paris on an excursion to Pamplona. Featuring Left Bank Paris in the 1920s and brutally realistic descriptions of bullfighting in Spain, the story is about the flamboyant Lady Brett Ashley and the hapless Jake Barnes. In an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unrealized love, and vanishing illusions, this is the Lost Generation.

.

Swann's WayProust, MarcelAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Tale of Two Cities, ADickens, CharlesLucie Manette has been separated from her father for eighteen years while he languished in Paris’ most feared prison, the Bastille. Finally reunited, the Manettes’ fortunes become inextricably intertwined with those of two men, the heroic aristocrat Darnay and the dissolute lawyer Carton. Their story, which encompasses violence, revenge, love and redemption, is grippingly played out against the backdrop of the terrifying brutality of the French Revolution. AP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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TellingReynolds, MarilynGirl molested by man who she baby-sits for.Teen Issues

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Tess of the d'UbervillesHardy, ThomasAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

.

That NightMcDermott, AliceIn a moving adult novel with a non-stereotypical view of the suburbs in the 1960s, an adult narrator remembers herself as a child watching the love affair between teenage Sheryl and handsome hood Rick, and the violence that followed their separation.

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The Great Adventure: Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of Modern AmericaMarrin, AlbertBiography/Memoir

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Their Eyes Were Watching GodHurston, Zora Neale 1937/African Americans—independence, love, Southern life during the Depression/Fair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person -- no mean feat for a black woman in the '30s. Janie's quest for identity takes her through three marriages and into a journey back to her roots. Multicultural, Historical ElementAP recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

.

There Will be WolvesBradford, KarleenPeople’s Crusade 1096/girl accused of witchcraft, apothecaryHistorical Element

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Things Fall ApartAchebe, ChinuaA tragic novel of pre-colonial Igbo society. AP recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Things They Carried, TheO’Brien, TimHistorical Fiction/Vietnam from soldier's viewpoint/depicts the men of Alpha Company. They battle the enemy (or maybe more the idea of the enemy), and occasionally each other. In their relationships we see their isolation and loneliness, their rage and fear.Historical Element

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ThirstyAnderson, M. T.Boy becomes vampire/tongue-in-cheek/All Chris really wants is to be a normal kid. Unfortunately, Chris appears to be turning into a vampire. So while his hometown performs an ancient ritual that keeps Tch'muchgar, the Vampire Lord, locked in another world, Chris desperately tries to save himself from his own vampiric fate.

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This LullabyDessen, SarahModern-day romance with cynical heroine whose mom has married five times.

.

Thoreau at WaldenPorcellino, JohnBiography/Memoir

.

Thousand Splendid Suns, AHousseini, KhaledLife in Afganistan before and during the Taliban rule.Multicultural

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Three Little Words: A MemoirRhodes-CourterBiography/Memoir

.

Three Musketeers, TheDumas, AlexanderAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

.

Tiger EyesBlume, JudyAfter Davey's father is killed in a hold-up, she and her mother and younger brother visit relatives in New Mexico. Here Davey is befriended by a young man who helps her find the strength to carry on and conquer her fears.Teen Issue

.

Titan's Curse, TheRiordan, RickWhen the goddess Artemis disappears while hunting a rare, ancient monster, a group of her followers join Percy and his friends in an attempt to find and rescue her before the winter solstice, when her influence is needed to sway the Olympian Council regarding the war with the Titans.Fantasy, easy, Mythology Element

.

To Kill a MockingbirdLee, HarperAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

.

To the LighthouseWoolf, VirginiaAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

.

Tom JonesFielding, HenryAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

.

TracksErdrich, LouiseSet in the early 1900s, Tracks follows a North Dakota Indian tribe and its struggle to keep their land out of the hands of an encroaching white society. AP Recommended

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Treasure IslandStevenson, Robert LouisAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

.

Trial, TheKafka, FranzA darkly humorous narrative recounts a man's detainment, conviction, and execution on an undisclosed charge.sophomore theme

.

True Confessions of Charlotte DoyleAvi1842/Girl as only passenger on ship with mutinous crew/murderHistorical Element, easy

.

Turn of the Screw, TheJames, HenryAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

.

TurnaboutHaddix, Margaret PetersonIn the future 100-year-olds are given drugs to reverse the aging process.Science-fiction

.

Uglies (trilogy)Westerfield, ScottIn Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there.But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world -- and it isn't very pretty.sophomore theme

.

Uncle Tom's CabinStowe, Harriet BeecherAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

.

Under the Blood-Red SunSalisbury, GrahamJapanese in Hawaii during WWIIMulticultural, Historical Element, easy

.

UnlessShields, CarolTeen girl suffers bout of mental illness and lives on the street while parents watch helplessly, fictionFeminism, Teen Issue

.

Up Close: Bill GatesAronson, MarcBiography/Memoir

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Up Close: Frank Lloyd WrightAdkins, JanBiography/Memoir

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Up Close: Ronald ReaganSutherland, JamesBiography/Memoir

.

User Unfriendly Velde, Vivian VandeIt’s the most advanced computer role-playing game ever: When you play you're really therein a dark dream teeming with evil creatures, danger-filled fortresses, and malevolent sorceries. The game plugs directly into your brain.

.

UtopiaMoore, ThomasPresents the English statesman's classic denunciations of sixteenth-century tyranny and corruption and vision of an ideal society.sohomore theme

.

Vanity FairThackeray, WilliamAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

.

vv

.

Waiting for GodotBeckett, SamuelAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

.

WaldenThoreau, Henry DavidAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

.

Wandering GirlWard, Glenyse This is the true story of how a girl in Australia was taken from her parents and educated in a Catholic mission. In 1965, she was forced to become a domestic on a wealthy estate, where she woke before dawn every day and slaved for fifteen hours. She ate off a tin plate and slept on a shabby cot above a garage. All because of the color of her skin.Multicultural, Biography/Memoir

.

War and PeaceTolstoy, LeoAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

.

War Between the Classes, TheMiklowitz, Gloria D.Game of social classes in school—Japanese American girl and her white boyfriendMulticultural

.

Water for ElephantsGruen, SaraA novel of star-crossed lovers, set in the circus world circa 1932. When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, grifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town. A veterinary student who almost earned his degree, Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there that he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her.--From publisher description.Historical Element, Fiction

.

Watsons Go to BirminghamCurtis, Christopher PaulAfrican American family, bombing of Birmingham churchMulticultural, Historical Element, easy

.

WeZamyatin, YevgenyInside its glass dome the One State is a place of mathematical precision, a community where everythingnbsp;belongs tonbsp;everyone, and integrity, clarity, and unerring loyalty reign over all.sophomore theme

.

We All Fall DownCormier, RobertTeen home invasion/They entered the house at 9:02 P.M. and trashed their way through the Cape Cod cottage. At 9:46 P.M. Karen Jerome made the mistake of arriving home early. Thrown down the basement stairs, Karen slips into a coma. The trashers slip away. But The Avenger has seen it all.

.

Weetzie BatBlock, Francesca Lia Wacky! Hollywood fantasy comes to life.

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Welcome to the ArkTolan, Stephanie S.Kids connect with dreams and telepathy

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Weyn, SuzanneBar Code Tattoon the near future, Kayla finds herself running for her life when she refuses to get the mandatory bar code tattoo on her seventeenth birthday--a decision that renders her a social outcast and places her family in grave danger.Science-Fiction, easy

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Whale TalkCrutcher, ChrisSwim team without a pool/A group of misfits brought together by T. J. Jones to find their places in a school that has no place for them. T. J. is convinced that earning the varsity letter jacket--unattainable for most, exclusive, revered, the symbol of all that is screwed up at Cutter High--will prove that they have found their niche. He's right. He's also wrong.Teen Issues

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What Girls LearnCook, KarinTeen rivalry, mother’s death from breast cancerTeen Issues

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What Would I be Without Him?Flake, SharonShort Stories About Girls and the Boys in Their LivesTeen Issues

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When She Was GoodMazer, Norma Fox Girl tormented by mentally ill older sisterTeen Issues

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When Zachary Beaver Came to TownHolt, Kimberly Willis “Fattest boy in the world” comes to town and protagonist gets to know him

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Where the Heart IsLetts, BillyPregnant teen abandoned by boyfriend lives in a Wal-MartTeen Issues

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White OleanderFitch, JanetTeenager suffers abuse after mother arrested for killing her boyfriendTeen Issues

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Wild Man IslandHobbs, Will14-yr.-old stranded on island

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Woman Warrior, TheKingston, Maxine HongAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Women of Brewster Place, TheNaylor, GloriaAfrican-American women in povertyMulticultural

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Woods, BrendaEmako BlueMonterey, Savannah, Jamal, and Eddie have never had much to do with each other until Emako Blue shows up at chorus practice, but just as the lives of the five Los Angeles high school students become intertwined, tragedy tears them apart.Teen Issues, Multicultural, easy

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WoodsongPaulsen, GaryFor a rugged outdoor man and his family, life in northern Minnesota is a wild experience involving wolves, deer, and the sled dogs that make their way of life possible. Includes an account of the author's first Iditarod, a dogsled race across Alaska.Memoir

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Wuthering HeightsBronte, EmilyAP Recommended, College Board 101 Great Books

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Year Without Michael, ThePfeffer, Susan BethNarrator’s brother disappears on his way to school/effect on the familyTeen Issues

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Yellow Raft in Blue Water, ADorris, MichaelAmerican Indian women 3 generationsMulticultural

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Z for ZachariahO'Brien, Robert C. The world as Ann once knew it is gone, ravaged by a nuclear war that has taken everyone. For the past year, she has lived in a remote valley with no evidence of any other survivors. But the smoke from a distant campfire shatters Ann's solitude. Someone else is still alive and making his way toward the valley. Who is this man? What does he want? Can he be trusted?

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