“Isn’t there anything I can read?” I’ll bet I repeated that question at least a thousand times while I was in junior and senior high school. Usually I nagged my mom about books (in my very most “I’m bored” voice), but l also trekked to the public library every week or so. Sure, I spent hours in the library, but most of that time I simply stared at the shelves and shelves of books. I knew that somewhere in that maze of grayish bindings there had to be a book so enthralling that I could even forget posture and pimples for a while. I was not often that lucky! I wanted a good book desperately but knew that my random guessing usually produced stories so poorly written that not even I could finish them, or stories so filled with immorality that I was embarrassed to finish them. Sometimes I gathered all of my faltering courage and asked the librarian for help. She’d heard my question before and usually nodded her head and pointed “over there,” where I faced a bewildering college reading list filled with book titles that I couldn’t even pronounce.
Through the years since then I have compiled a list of books that I and my own teenage children have especially enjoyed. There are many, many more books worth reading, including Church books, and some of your favorites may not be found on this list. But at least these books are acceptable to an English teacher, and to a mother, and they are good reading. Use them as a place to start.
Adams, Richard Watership Down
Alcott, Louisa May Little Women
Aldrich, Bess Streeter Lantern in Her Hand
Alexander, Lloyd Book of Three *
Armstrong, William H. Sounder Sour Land
Annixter, Paul Swiftwater
Austen, Jane Pride and Prejudice
Bagnold, Enid National Velvet
Bickham, Jack Baker’s Hawk
Blos, Joan A Gathering of Days
Brontë, Charlotte Jane Eyre
Brontë, Emily Wuthering Heights
Buck, Pearl The Good Earth
Burch, Robert Queenie Peavy
Burnford, Sheila The Incredible Journey
Byars, Betsy Summer of the Swans House of Wings Trouble River
Cather, Willa My Antonia
Clark, Ann N. Secret of the Andes
Cleaver, Vera and Bill Where the Lillies Bloom
Collins, Larry and Lapierre, Dominique Freedom at Midnight
Cooper, James Fenimore Last of the Mohicans
Cooper, Susan The Dark Is Rising *
Conrad, Joseph The Secret Sharer
Crane, Stephen The Red Badge of Courage
Craven, Margaret I Heard the Owl Call My Name
Daly, Maureen Seventeenth Summer
Defoe, Daniel Robinson Crusoe
deTrevino, Elizabeth I, Juan de Pareja
Dickens, Charles David Copperfield Great Expectations Oliver Twist
du Maurier, Daphne Rebecca
Edmunds, Walter Drums Along the Mohawk
Eckert, Allan Incident at Hawks Hill
Engdahl, Sylvia Enchantress from the Stars
Farley, Walter Black Stallion
Fast, Howard April Morning
Fitzgerald, John D. The Great Brain *
Forbes, Esther Johnny Tremain
Fox, Paula The Slave Dancer
Frank, Anne Diary of a Young Girl
Fraser, Antonia Mary, Queen of Scots
Freedman, Benedict and Nancy Mrs. Mike
Gallico, Paul The Snow Goose
Gipson, Fred Old Yeller
George, Jean My Side of the Mountain
Greene, Bette Summer of My German Soldier
Hamilton, Virginia M. C. Higgens, the Great Planet of Junior Brown
Hautzig, Esther The Endless Steppe
Hemingway, Ernest M. The Old Man and the Sea
Herriot, James All Creatures Great and Small
Hersey, John Hiroshima
Heyerdahl, Thor Kon Tiki
Hunt, Irene Across Five Aprils Up a Road Slowly
Keller, Helen The Story of My Life
Key, Alexander Escape to Witch Mountain The Forgotten Door
Kieth, Harold Rifles for Watie
Kipling, Rudyard Captains Courageous Kim
Kjelgaard, James Big Red
Knight, Eric Lassie Come Home
Knowles, John A Separate Peace
Konigsburg, Ellen L. From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler Jennifer Hecate Macbeth William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth
Kroeber, Theodora Ishi, Last of His Tribe
Krumgold, Joseph … And Now Miguel
Lawson, Robert Ben and Me
Lee, Harper To Kill a Mockingbird
L’Engle, Madeline Wrinkle in Time * Meet the Austins
LeGuin, Ursula Very Far from Anywhere Else Wizard of Earthsea *
Lewis, C.S. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe *
London, Jack The Call of the Wild
McCaffrey, Ann Dragonsong *
McCloskey, Robert Homer Price
Meigs, Cornelia L. Invincible Louisa
North, Sterling Rascal
O’Brian, Robert Z for Zachariah Mrs. Frisbee and the Rats of Nimh
O’Dell, Scott Island of the Blue Dolphins Zia Sing Down the Moon
O’Hara, Mary Green Grass of Wyoming My Friend Flicka
Orwell, George Animal Farm
Paterson, Katherine Bridge to Terabithia
Pease, Howard The Tattooed Man
Peck, Robert Newton A Day No Pigs Would Die
Rabe, Berniece The Orphans The Girl That Had No Name Rass Naomi
Raskin, Ellen The Westing Game
Rawles, Lou Where the Red Fern Grows Summer of the Monkeys
Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan The Yearling
Richter, Conrad Light in the Forest
Robinson, Barbara The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Rockwood, Joyce Long Man’s Song To Spoil the Sun
Rogers, Mary Freaky Friday
Sandburg, Carl Abe Lincoln Grows Up
Schaefer, Jack Warner Shane
Sewell, Anna Black Beauty
Silverstein, Shel Where the Sidewalk Ends
Speare, Elizabeth George Witch of Blackbird Pond The Bronze Bow Calico Captive
Sperry, Armstrong Call It Courage
Steinbeck, John The Pearl
Stevenson, Robert Louis Kidnapped Treasure Island
Street, James Goodbye My Lady
Swift, Jonathan Gulliver’s Travels
Taylor, Theodore The Cay
Ten Boom, Corrie The Hiding Place
Tolkein, J.R.R. The Hobbit Lord of the Rings *
Twain, Mark Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Ullman, James Ramsey Banner in the Sky
Verne, Jules Around the World in 80 Days Journey to the Center of the Earth 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Washington, Booker T. Up From Slavery
Wells, H.G. The Time Machine
West, Jessamyn Cress Delahanty
White, Robb Firestorm Deathwatch
Wilder, Laura Ingalls Little House on the Prairie *
Wojcechowska, Mara The Shadow of a Bull
Wolfe, Thomas Look Homeward Angel
Wyss, Johann David Swiss Family Robinson
Yates, Elizabeth Amos Fortune, Free Man
Zweig, Stefan Mary, Queen of Scotts
[photo] Photo by Eldon Linschoten
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