Cool Books

Banned Books

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Angelou, Maya B Angelou
This book is an autobiographical account of growing up in Arkansas and the many hardships and challenges Angelou faced.

The Face on the Milk Carton Cooney, Caroline YA F Cooney
Janie discovers one day that the picture of the missing girl on the milk carton is herself.

The Chocolate War Cormier, Robert YA F Cormier
Jerry refuses to sell chocolate in his school’s annual chocolate sale as a way of defying the bullies at the school.

Athletic Shorts Crutcher, Chris YA C
This collection of short stories all involve sports and the difficulties of growing up.

Killing Mr. Griffin Duncan, Lois YA D
A group of high school students kidnap their teacher as a prank, but the prank turns horribly wrong.

Julie of the Wolves George, Jean Craighead J F George
Julie runs away from home and gets lost in the Alaskan tundra where she becomes part of a community of wolves.

Lord of the Flies Golding, William YA F Golding
After their plane crashes, a group of adolescent boys struggle to survive on a deserted island, but their efforts at organization lead to savagery.

The Outsiders Hinton, S.E. YA F Hinton
Two boys from the rough side of town kill a boy from their rival gang and ultimately realize that all people have the same emotions.

Brave New World Huxley, Aldous YA F Huxley
Imagine yourself in a futuristic society where feelings, creativity and passion are removed in favor of control and stability.

Cujo King, Stephen F King
A huge St. Bernard dog vitimizes an unsuspecting town in Maine. Be very afraid!

To Kill A Mockingbird Lee Harper YA F Lee
One man fights against the prejudice of his town in the deep South in the 1930’s.

The Giver Lowry, Lois YA F Lowry
In a seemingly perfect world, Jonas is chosen to be the receiver of all memories, a job which makes him realize the flaws in his society.

Bridge to Terabithia Paterson, Katherine YA F Paterson
Jess and Leslie share a beautiful friendship one summer as they spend time in their special hideaway, Terabithia.

A Day No Pigs Would Die Peck, Robert Newton J F Peck
Robert realizes the responsibilities of life and loss when his pet pig must be slaughtered on the farm.

Harry Potter (Series) Rowling, J.K. J F Rowling
Orphaned and living with mean relatives, Harry is notified of his acceptance in to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The Catcher in the Rye Salinger, J.D. YA F Salinger
Experience a few days in the life of Holden Caulfield, who thinks the world is full of phonies, after just being expelled from school.

Scary Stories Schwartz, Alvin YA 398.2 SCH
Perfect for campfires and sleepovers, read a few of these aloud to your friends and watch them jump!

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Twain, Mark YA F Twain
A teenaged trouble-maker encounters funny and poignant episodes as he helps a slave escape down the Mississippi River.

Slaughterhouse-Five Vonnegut, Kurt YA F Vonnegut
This anti-war book traces Billy Pilgrim’s journey through time to find the meaning of life.

The Color Purple Walker, Alice YA F Walker
Celie survives horrific abuse and abandonment on her journey to womanhood and independence.

The Pigman Zindel, Paul YA Z
Two high school students strike up an unlikely friendship with Mr. Pignati, a lonely old man, and learn about his sad and quirky life.

For more information about banned books and Banned Books Week, visit the American Library Association’s website at:

http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlists/TOP_100_in_2000_2007.pdf

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Books That Went Hollywood

(See the movies AND read the books!)

Watership Down Adams, Richard F Adams

Little Women Alcott, Louisa May YA F Alcott

Sense and Sensibility & Emma Austen, Jane F Austen
(the movie Clueless is an adaptation of Emma)

Lilies of the Field Barrett, William F Barrett

Fahrenheit 451 Bradbury, Ray YA F Bradbury

Jane Eyre Bronte, Charlotte YA F Bronte

The Great Santini Conroy, Pat YA F Conroy

The Last of the Mohicans Cooper, James Fenimore YA F Cooper

The Chocolate War & I Am the Cheese Cormier, Robert YA F Cormier

Jurassic Park Crichton, Michael F Crichton

The Commitments Doyle, Roddy YA F Doyle

Rebecca Du Maurier, Daphne F Du Maurier

I Know What You Did Last Summer Duncan, Lois J F Duncan

The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald, F.Scott YA F Fitzgerald

Fried Green Tomatoes Flagg, Fannie YA F Flagg

Lord of the Flies Golding, William YA F Golding

The Princess Bride Goldman, William F Goldman

The Firm Grisham, John F Grisham

The Old Man and the Sea Hemingway, Ernest YA F Hemingway

Rocket Boys: A Memoir Hickam, Homer YA B Hickam
(movie title: October Sky)

The Outsiders Hinton, S.E. YA F Hinton

High Fidelity Hornby, Nick YA F Hornby

The Perfect Storm Junger, Sebastian YA 974.4 JUN

Girl, Interrupted Kaysen, Susanna YA B Kaysen

The Green Mile & many others King, Steven F King

Shoeless Joe Kinsella, W.P. F Kinsella

(movie title: Field of Dreams)

To Kill A Mockingbird Lee, Harper YA F Lee

White Fang London, Jack YA F London

The Autobiography of Malcolm X X, Malcolm B Malcolm

(movie title: Malcolm X)

Beloved Morrison, Toni YA F Morrison

Animal Farm Orwell, George YA F Orwell

The Chosen Potok, Chaim YA F Potok

Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, & Romeo and Juliet

Shakespeare, William 822.33 Shakespeare

Frankenstein Shelley, Mary YA F Shelley

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Smith, Betty YA F Smith

Of Mice and Men Steinbeck, John YA F Steinbeck

The Joy Luck Club Tan, Amy YA F Tan

The Color Purple Walker, Alice YA F Walker

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood Wells, Rebecca YA F Wells

The Time Machine Wells, H. G. F Wells

Native Son Wright, Richard YA F Wright

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Not Your Typical Teens

Feed Anderson, M.T. YA F Anderson
Imagine being born with an Internet feed implanted in your brain. Sure, you can IM your friends when you want to, but you can’t always control your own thoughts.

Weetzie Bat Block, Francesca Lia YA F Block
Life in L.A. (la la land) for Weetzie and her gay housemate, Dirk, is full of glitz, action and love.

Martyn Pig Brooks, Kevin YA F Brooks
A mystery wherein Martyn accidentally kills his father and tries to cover it up.

Lady: My Life as a Bitch Burgess, Melvin YA F Burgess
A bad-girl teen lives life as a dog after being magically changed into man’s best friend.

Tenderness Cormier, Robert YA C
See what happens when Lori falls in love with a teenage serial killer.

Hole in my Life Gantos, Jack YA B Gantos
This is the true story of this popular author’s time spent in jail for drug trafficking.

Shattering Glass Giles, Gail YA F Giles
A high school clique’s plans to turn a geek into a cool kid turn tragic. An intense read!

Rocket Boys: A Memoir Hickam, Homer YA B Hickam
The true story of a boy who grew up in a small coal mining town and went on to achieve a distinguished career at NASA.

Stormbreaker Horowitz, Anthony YA F Horowitz
Alex turns spy after his uncle’s death to help find the killer and finish the unfinished mission.

Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet out of Idaho Katz, Jon 338.7 Katz
Think twice before picking on a geek—they may end up running your world.

Thumbsucker Kirn, Walter YA F Kirn
Justin never really did get over his childhood thumbsucking habit, but now as a teen he finds other ways of entertaining his mouth.

Stoner & Spaz Koertge, Ronald YA F Koertge
An unlikely love story between the school druggie and the boy with cerebral palsy.

Straydog Koja, Kathe YA F Koja
Outcast Rachel finds a challenge at a local animal shelter trying to tame a wild collie.

Son of the Mob Korman, Gordon YA F Korman
Vince just wants to live a normal life away from the “family business.”

Into the Wild Krakauer, Jon YA B McCandless
Would you give up all you own, a comfortable life, a college career and your future to become a hermit in an abandoned bus in Alaska? Christopher McCandless did.

Monster Myers, Walter Dean YA F Myers
On trial as an accomplice to a murder, Steve writes his thoughts in the form of a movie script in prison and in the courtroom.

Sorceress Rees, Celia YA F Rees
Agnes tries to track down information about her ancestor, a witch. (Sequel to Witch Child)

Lucy the Giant Smith, Sherri YA F Smith
Taller than your average teenage girl, Lucy leaves her home in Alaska and poses as an adult to work on a crabbing boat.

Stargirl Spinelli, Jerry YA F Spinelli
Free-spirit Stargirl is on the scene. Will the kids at her high school accept her funky clothes, pet rat and ukulele serenades?

Jinx Wild, Margaret YA F Wild
Jen’s last two boyfriends ended up dead, earning her the nickname Jinx.

Razzle Wittlinger, Ellen YA F Wittlinger
Ken’s family moves to Cape Cod where he meets eccentric Razzle, a girl who works at the town dump.

Miracle’s Boys Woodson, Jacqueline YA F Woodson
After the deaths of both of their parents, three brothers must raise themselves against very great odds.

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Nutmeg Books for Teens

Out of the Closet: GLBTQ Fact & Fiction

Am I Blue? by Marion Dane Bauer YA F Bauer
This book is a collection of short stories written by several well-known authors on the subject of homosexuality.

Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block YA B
Meet Weetzie and her friends Dirk, Duck and My-Secret-Agent-Lover-Man as they experience wild times in La La Land.

Baby Be-Bop by Francesca Lia Block YA B
Another of the books in the Weetzie Bat series, this time Dirk comes to terms with being gay.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky YA F Chbosky
Charlie charts his life in high school through a series of letters chronicling sexuality, drugs, first dates, friendship and family drama.

Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden YA G
A groundbreaking novel about two teen girls who fall in love.

The Year They Burned Books by Nancy Garden YA F Garden
While trying to come to terms with her own sexuality, Jamie finds herself in a battle with the town over the school health curriculum.

Geography Club by Brent Hartinger YA F Hartinger
A group of high schools students tries to create a gay/straight alliance club at school. They name it the Geography Club.

GLBTQ* The Survival Guide for Queer and Questioning Teens by Kelly Huegel YA 306.76 HUE
Describes challenges, real-life experiences, offers advice and resources for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning teens.

Deliver Us from Evie by M.E. Kerr YA K
Family life on the farm becomes difficult in a closed-minded town when it is discovered that Evie is a lesbian.

Hello, I Lied by M.E. Kerr YA F Kerr
Rock stars, crushes and one teen’s story of how he tells his friends he is gay.

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan YA F Levithan
In this high school/community that openly embraces same-sex relationships, a group of teens struggle through their various romances.

The Shared Heart by Adam Mastoon YA 305.235 MAS
This book is a collection of portraits and stories celebrating lesbian, gay and bisexual young people.

Empress of the World by Sara Ryan YA R
While attending a summer school, Nic falls in love with another girl and finds the relationship confusing and difficult.

Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez YA F Sanchez
Three high school seniors in varying stages of discovering their homosexuality, struggle with issues & conflicting feelings about each other.

Rainbow High by Alex Sanchez YA F Sanchez
The continuing stories of Nelson, Kyle and Jason in the sequel to “Rainbow Boys.”

The Blue Lawn by William Taylor YA T
A 15 year old boy feels attracted to a fellow rugby teammate and begins to break away from the preconceived notions his family and others have of him.

November Ever After by Laura Torres YA F Torres
What would you do if you discovered your best girlfriend was involved romantically with another girl?

My Heartbeat by Garrett Weyr YA F Weyr
Ellen tries to figure out the relationship between her brother and his best friend and finds her relationship with both of them changing.

Pedro and Me by Judd Winick YA B Zamora
Written by one of the cast of Mtv’s “The Real World”, this graphic novel describes the friendship between two roommates, Judd and Pedro, and Pedro’s death due to AIDS.

The House You Pass on the Way by Jacqueline Woodson YA F Woodson
When a racially-mixed teen spends the summer with her cousin, she begins to question her sexuality and glimpse her future self.

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Outstanding Books for the College Bound

The Awakening Chopin, Kate YA F Chopin
Edna Pontellier, an unhappy wife and mother, discovers new qualities in herself when she visits Grand Isle, a resort for the Creole elite of New Orleans.

Crime and Punishment Dostoyevsky, Fyodor YA F DOSTOYEVSKY
A sensitive intellectual is driven by poverty to believe himself exempt from moral law.

Invisible Man Ellison, Ralph YA F ELLISON
A young African American seeking identity during his high school and college days, and later in New York’s Harlem, relates his terrifying experiences.

Catch-22 Heller, Joseph YA F HELLER
In this satirical novel, Captain Yossarian confronts the hypocrisy of war and bureaucracy as he frantically attempts to survive.

Siddhartha Hesse, Hermann YA F HESSE
Emerging from a kaleidoscope of experiences and tasted pleasures, Siddhartha transcends to a state of peace and mystic holiness in this strangely simple story.

Brave New World Huxley, Aldous YA F HUXLEY
In a chilling vision of the future, babies are produced in bottles and exist in a mechanized world without soul.

Schindler’s List Keneally, Thomas F KENEALLY
Oskar Schindler, a rich factory owner, risks his life and spends his personal fortune to save Jews listed as his workers during World War II.

To Kill a Mockingbird Lee, Harper YA F LEE
A young girl tells of life in a small Alabama town in the 1930s and her father’s defense in the court of an African American accused of raping a white woman.

Beauty McKinley, Robin YA 398.2 MCK
Love is the only key to unlocking a curse and transforming the Beast into a man.

The Fixer Malamud, Bernard F MALAMUD
Victim of a vicious anti-Semitic conspiracy, Yakov Bok is in a Russian prison with only his indomitable will to sustain him.

Beloved Morrison, Toni YA F MORRISON
Preferring death over slavery for her children, Sethe murders her infant daughter who later mysteriously returns and almost destroys the lives of her mother and sister.

The Chosen Potok, Chaim YA F POTOK
A baseball injury brings together two Jewish boys, one Hasidic, the other Orthodox, first in hostility but finally in friendship.

The Grapes of Wrath Steinbeck, John YA F STEINBECK
An Oklahoma farmer and his family leave the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression to go to the promised land of California.

Native Son Wright, Richard F WRIGHT
For Bigger Thomas, an African American man accused of a crime in the white man’s world, there could be no extenuating circumstances, no explanations and only death.

For additional reading suggestions visit the American Library Association www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists/.

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Teen Faith

The Garden Elsie Aidinoff YA F Aidinoff
Learn the story of the Garden of Eden…from Eve’s point of view.

The Book of Fred Abby Bardi YA F Bardi
Mary Fred is removed from her family’s life on a Fundamentalist commune after the deaths of her siblings, and she must adjust to a new life outside her religious sect.

Chicken Soup for the Christian Teenage Soul Jack Canfield YA 158.1 CAN
Stories of faith, love, inspiration and hope to warm the soul.

Fire in the Heart: A Spiritual Guide for Teens Deepak Chopra YA 204 CHO
By recalling his own experiences, this noted Hindu author provides a blueprint for teens seeking their own spiritual paths.

Mary’s Rescue Amanda Christie YA C
This novel, and others in the series, follow the faith-based television show, 7^th Heaven.

The Calling Cathryn Clinton YA F Clinton
Esta is called into religious belief, but she begins to question her calling when brought on a religious crusade by her family.

I Believe In-- Pearl Gaskins YA 200 GAS
Christian, Jewish and Muslim teens share the struggles and joys of belonging to a certain faith.

Leaving Fishers Margaret Peterson Haddix YA F Haddix
After joining a religious group with her friends, Dorry must find a way to get herself out of the cult.

The Shakeress Kimberley Heuston YA F Heuston
A teenage girl joins a Shaker community during the1850’s and learns about a new religion called Mormonism.

The Vanishings Jerry Jenkins/Tim LaHaye YA J
Book #1 of the “Left Behind:The Kids” series, chronicles life for 4 teenagers after all Christians disappear from Earth.

Uncommon Faith Trudy Krisher YA F Krisher
Tells of Christian life and issues of the day in 1837 in Millbrook, Massachusetts.

Angel of Mercy Lurlene McDaniel YA F McDaniel
Eighteen year old Heather performs missionary work in Africa and hopes to act as God’s hands on Earth.

Buddha in Your Backpack Franz Metcalf YA 294.3 MET
This book is a guide to everyday Buddhism for teens.

The Rules: Ten to Live By Mark Nicholas YA 241.5 NIC
Taking into account issues that teens are faced with on a daily basis, Nicholas shows the relevance of the Ten Commandments to modern life.

When We Were Saints Han Nolan YA F Nolan
Guided by a girl who believes they are saints, 14 year old Archie embarks on a spiritual journey.

The Last Safe Place on Earth Richard Peck YA F Peck
Todd’s world changes when his sister is brainwashed by a religious sect.

God Went to Beauty School Cynthia Rylant YA F Rylant
A novel in poems that reveal God’s discovery of the wonder and pain in the world He created.

Teens Talkin’ Faith Michelle Trujillo YA 248.8 TRU
Teen writers share their stories of how God has given them strength to deal with difficult situations in life.

Pray Hard Pamela Walker YA F Walker
While dealing with her father’s death, Amelia’s life is turned upside down when a newly religious ex-con moves in with her and her mother.

Conversations With God for Teens Neale Donald Walsch YA 133.93 WAL
Everything you always wanted to know about life but were afraid to ask God.

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Last Modified: 4/16/2009 2:52:05 PM