Books Every Teen Should KnowLike this list

45 items

• The Poet X

  Acevedo, Elizabeth

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  Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.

• Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

  Albertalli, Becky

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  Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight.

• Fahrenheit 451

  Bradbury, Ray, 1920-2012

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  A totalitarian regime has ordered all books to be destroyed, but one of the book burners, Guy Montag, suddenly realizes their merit.

• Binti

  Okorafor, Nnedi

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  Binti is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• All American Boys

  Reynolds, Jason

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  When sixteen-year-old Rashad is mistakenly accused of stealing, classmate Quinn witnesses his brutal beating at the hands of a police officer. Told through Rashad and Quinn's alternating viewpoints.

• It's Kind of a Funny Story

  Vizzini, Ned, 1981-2013

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  A humorous account of a New York City teenager's battle with depression and his time spent in a psychiatric hospital.

• American Born Chinese

  Yang, Gene Luen

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  Alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese Americans trying to participate in the popular culture.

• This Book Is Anti-racist

  Jewell, Tiffany

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  Who are you? What is racism? Where does it come from? Why does it exist? What can you do to disrupt it? Learn about social identities, the history of racism and resistance against it, and how you can use your anti-racist lens and voice to…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Night

  Wiesel, Elie, 1928-2016

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  A terrifying account of the Nazi death camp horror that turns a young Jewish boy into an agonized witness to the death of his family.

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

  Adams, Douglas, 1952-2001

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  Chronicles the off-beat and occasionally extraterrestrial journeys, notions, and acquaintances of galactic traveler Arthur Dent.

• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian

  Alexie, Sherman, 1966-

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  Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

• Speak

  Anderson, Laurie Halse

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  A traumatic event in the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year of high school.

• The Handmaid's Tale

  Atwood, Margaret, 1939-

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  Offred, a Handmaid, describes life in what was once the United States, now the Republic of Gilead, a shockingly repressive and intolerant monotheocracy, in a satirical tour de force set in the near future.

• Far From the Tree

  Benway, Robin

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  Feeling incomplete as an adopted child after placing her own baby up for adoption, teen Grace tracks down her biological siblings and finds herself struggling with the dynamics of being a middle child between an embittered older brother…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Ender's Game

  Card, Orson Scott

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  Six-year-old Ender Wiggin and his fellow students at Battle School are being tested and trained to determine whether they possess the abilities to remake the world -- if the world survives an all-out war with an alien enemy.

• The Perks of Being a Wallflower

  Chbosky, Stephen

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  Charlie is shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his years yet socially awkward; he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it.

• The Princess Bride

  S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure

  Goldman, William, 1931-2018

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  A classic swashbuckling romance retells the tale of a drunken swordsman and a gentle giant who come to the aid of Westley, a handsome farm boy, and Buttercup, a princess in dire need of rescue from the evil schemers surrounding her.

• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

  Haddon, Mark, 1962-

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  Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother.

• The Outsiders

  Hinton, S. E.

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  Three brothers struggle to stay together after their parents' death, as they search for an identity among the conflicting values of their adolescent society in which they find themselves "outsiders."

• Brave New World

  Huxley, Aldous, 1894-1963

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  A searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order—all at the cost of our freedom…Read moreRead more of this annotation