Back To School Book List For Teens
(Parents may help their younger kids with this!)
As your summer break is winding down, you’re probably getting ready for school. So why do you need a back to school book list now? Two reasons: one, you might be in a rush to find a good book to read for your summer reading assignment (procrastination is common!) and two, reading during the school year is a great way to build your study skills, and depending on the book, have some fun too (learn why reading helps here).
So without further ado, here are two teacher-curated lists of books for high-school readers (and advanced middle-schoolers too).
Books marked with a ‘*’ are best for advanced readers due to content and/or reading level. Please check the description, and if necessary, with your school and parents, to ensure it is an appropriate choice for you.
Selections for Academic Reading
Coming of Age
Sandra Cisneros,The House on Mango Street
Franciso Jimenez,The Circuit
Lensey Namioka,Ties That Bind, Ties That Break
John Knowles, A Separate Peace
*Barbara Kingsolver, The Bean Trees
Multicultural
Rudolfo Anaya,Bless Me, Ultima–
Julia Alvarez,How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
*Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake
*Chinua Achebe,Things Fall Apart
*Khaled Hosseini,The Kite Runner
American Literature
Ernest Gaines,A Lesson Before Dying
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
*Tim O’Brien,The Things They Carried
*Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
*John Steinbeck,The Grapes of Wrath
British Literature
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
Charles Dickens,Great Expectations
Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles
**Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
**Virginia Woolf,Mrs. Dalloway
Biography/Autobiography
Helen Keller, The Story of My Life
Racquel J. Palacio,Wonder
Jacqueline Woodson, Brown Girl Dreaming
Mark Mathabane, Kaffir Boy
Frederick Douglass,The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Fresh and Uncommon Reads
Non-Fiction
James Hirsch, Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Reuben Carter
Martin Pistoris,Ghost Boy
Steve Sheinkin, Lincoln’s Grave Robbers
Deborah Heligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith
Maya Van Wagenen,Popular
Agnieszka Biskup & Tammy Enz, Batman Science: The Real-World Science Behind Batman’s Gear
Graphic Novels
Alexander Lagos, Sons of Liberty (10+)
Doug, TenNapel, Ghostopolis (10+)
Raina Telgemeir, Smile (14+)
Gene Luen Yi, Level Up (14+)
Emily Carroll, Through the Woods(14+)
Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis (16+)
Middle Level Reading
Kelly Fiore, Just Like the Movies
Megan Shull, The Swap
Lauren Morrill, Being Sloane Jacobs
Firoozeh Dumas, It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel
Jason Reynolds, As Brave as You
Kwame Alexander, The Crossover
Up All Night Reads
Frances Hardinge, The Lie Tree
Alex London, Proxy
T.L. Costa, Playing Tyler
Michael Grant, Gone
E.L. Lockhart, We Were Liars
Oh, What a World
M.T. Anderson, Feed
Joelle Charbonneau, The Testing
Sally Gardner, Maggot Moon
Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go
Mark Frost, The Paladin Prophecy
Ernest Cline, Ready Player One
Exploring the Unusual
Robin Sloane, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Mistress of Spices
Cath Crowley, Graffiti Moon
Kate Hattemer, The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy
Leslye Walton, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
Max Barry, Lexicon
Reading is good for us in so many ways, but we hope that some of these books help you realize that reading is fun and something pleasurable you can do all your life. Save this list, and as social reading is even more fun, share it with friends!
We enjoyed putting this list together and would love to make it better. If you have books you’d like to add to the lists, leave us a reply – Happy Reading!