Forbushhigh School Reading Lists

ForbushHigh School Reading Lists

The suggested books in this list represent writings for a wide variety of interests. We encourage students and their parents to select books which are appropriate for each individual student.

Abelove, Joan. - Go And Come Back {IL YA}, 176p.

Alicia, a young tribeswoman living in a village in the Amazonian jungle of Peru, tells about the two American women anthropologists who arrive to study her people's way of life.
Lexile: 620

Allende, Isabel. - The House Of The Spirits {IL AD}, 433p. The epic story of the passionate Trueba family begins at the turn of the century in South America.
Lexile: 1280

Alther,Lisa. - Kinfolks : Falling Off The Family Tree : The Search For My Melungeon Ancestors. The author chronicles her quest to discover the truth about the Melungeons, a group of six-fingered men and women who hid in cliff caves outside of town in the years following the Civil War, who were linked to Alther's own family history.

Alvarez, Julia. - How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents {IL YA}, 290p.

The story of the Garcia families’ adjustment to life in the United States.
Lexile: 950

Alvarez, Julia. - In The Time Of The Butterflies {IL AD}, 325p.

Gives a fictionalized account of four sisters in the Dominican Republic under the dictatorship of General Trujillo.
Lexile: 910

Alvarez, Julia. - In the Time of the Butterflies.

Armstrong, Jennifer. - Shipwreck At The Bottom Of The World : The Extraordinary True Story Of Shackleton And The Endurance {IL 5-8}, 134p.

Describes the events of the 1914 Shackleton Antarctic expedition when, after being trapped in a frozen sea for nine months, their ship, Endurance, was finally crushed, forcing Shackleton and his men to make a very long and perilous journey to reach inhabited land.
Lexile: 1090

Atkins, P. W. – The Periodic Kingdom. Uses the periodic table of chemical elements to present principles in chemistry and a review of discoveries in chemistry that have influenced the world.

Avi. - Crispin : The Cross Of Lead. Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century England flees his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret.

Babbitt, Natalie. - Tuck Everlasting.The Tuck family is confronted with an agonizing situation when they discover that a ten-year-old girl and a malicious stranger now share their secret about a spring whose water prevents one from ever growing any older.

Barrett, William Edmund. - Lilies of the Field. A young African-American man driving through the Southwest helps a group of German refugee nuns build a church.

Beaumarchais, Pierre Augustin Caron de. - The Barber Of Seville {IL YA}, 81p.
Presents the text of the comic opera about a town barber and his efforts to unite a pair of young lovers.

Beckett, Samuel, 1906- - Waiting For Godot : Tragicomedy In 2 Acts {IL YA}, 111p
Two old tramps wait on a bare stretch of road near a tree for Godot.

Bourdain, Anthony. - Typhoid Mary : An Urban Historical.A sympathetic historical examination of early-twentieth-century Irish-American cook Mary Mallon, who was immortalized as "Typhoid Mary" after a sanitary engineer traced a 1904 typhoid fever outbreak back to her Long Island kitchen.

Brashares, Ann. - The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Carmen decides to discard an old pair of jeans, but Tibby, Lena, and Bridget think they are great and decide that whoever the pants fit best will get them. When the jeans fit everyone perfectly, a sisterhood and a memorable summer begin.

Brown, Dan. - Deception Point. White House intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton is thrust into a life-or-death situation when she travels to the Arctic to investigate the discovery of a rare meteorite that might prove the existence of extraterrestrial life, and finds instead evidence of scientific trickery.

Buck, Pearl S. - The Good Earth {IL YA}, 418p

The story of a Chinese peasant and his passionate, dogged accumulation of land during famine, drought, and revolution.
Lexile: 1530

Burns,Olive. - Cold Sassy Tree. Grandpa Blakeslee marries a young milliner just three weeks after Granny Blakeslee has gone to her reward. Young Will is boggled by this act but becomes the newlyweds' conspirator and confidant; meanwhile he does some growing up on his own.

Camus, Albert. - The Stranger {IL YA}, 123p
Caught in the grip of forces he does not understand, a quiet, ordinary clerk in Algiers commits a murder.
Lexile: 880

Caney, Steven. - Steven Caney's UltimateBuilding Book. Examines the history and construction of various types of structures, including bridges, skyscrapers, and domes; and provides instructions for related projects.

Carson, Benjamin. - Gifted Hands. Captures the physician's fight to beat the odds, the secret behind his outstanding accomplishments, and what drives him to take risks.

Cather, Willa. - Death Comes For The Archbishop {IL AD}, 297p.
The literal and spiritual journey of two French priests who come to the American Southwest as missionaries in the mid-1800s.
Lexile: 1150

Cather, Willa. - My Antonia {IL AD}, 244p.
A New York lawyer remembers his boyhood in Nebraska and his friendship with a simple Bohemian girl.
Lexile: 1010

Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de, 1547-1616. - Don Quixote, 548p.
The epic tale of an eccentric country gentleman and his companion who set out as a knight and squire of old to right wrongs and punish evil in sixteenth-century Spain.
Lexile: 1500

Chambers, Aidan. - Postcards from No Mans Land. Alternates between two stories--contemporarily, seventeen-year-old Jacob visits a daunting Amsterdam at the request of his English grandmother--and historically, nineteen-year-old Geertrui relates her experience of British soldiers' attempts to liberate Holland from its German occupation.

Cisneros, Sandra. - The House On Mango Street {IL AD}, 110p.
A young girl living in a Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago ponders the advantages and disadvantages of her environment and evaluates her relationships with family and friends.
Lexile: 870

Cisneros, Sandra. - House on Mango Street. A young girl living in a Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago ponders the advantages and disadvantages of her environment and evaluates her relationships with family and friends.

Clark, Mary Higgins. - Remember Me{IL AD}, 338p.
After the death of their two-year-old son, Menley and her husband, a high profile criminal defense attorney, are determined to rebuild a life around their new infant daughter--unaware that someone has a different agenda for them.
Lexile: 790

Cook, Robin. – Coma.When more than a dozen minor-surgery patients die inexplicably on the operating table, a medical student determines to find the reason.

Cooney, Caroline. - Driver's Ed. Three teenagers' lives are changed forever when they thoughtlessly steal a stop sign from a dangerous intersection and a young mother is killed in an automobile accident there.

Cormier, Robert. - Frenchtown Summer {IL YA}, 113p.
A series of vignettes in free verse in which the writer reminisces about his life as a twelve-year-old boy living in a small town during the hot summer of 1938.
Lexile: 1380

Cormier, Robert. - The Chocolate War. A high school freshman discovers the devastating consequences of refusing to join in the school's annual fund raising drive and arousing the wrath of the school bullies.

Cormier, Robert. - Tunes for Bears to Dance to. Eleven-year-old Henry escapes his family's problems by watching the woodcarving of Mr. Levine, an elderly Holocaust survivor, but when Henry is manipulated into betraying his friend he comes to know true evil.

Corneille, Pierre. - The Cid ; Cinna ; The Theatrical Illusion. {IL AD}, 281p

Crutcher, Chris. - Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes {IL YA}, 295p
The daily class discussions about the nature of man, the existence of God, abortion, organized religion, suicide and other contemporary issues serve as a backdrop for a high-school senior's attempt to answer a friend's dramatic cry for help.
Lexile: 920

Cushman, Karen. - Catherine, Called Birdy {IL YA, -Fic-}, 1995, c1994., RL 5.9, 212p
The daughter of an English country knight keeps a journal in which she records the events of her life, particularly her longing for adventures beyond the usual role of women and her efforts to avoid being married off.
Lexile: 1170

Cushman, Karen. - Matilda Bone. Fourteen-year-old Matilda, an apprentice bonesetter and practitioner of medicine in a village in medieval England, tries to reconcile the various aspects of her life, both spiritual and practical.

Dessen, Sarah. - Someone Like You {IL YA}, 281p
Halley's junior year of high school includes the death of her best friend Scarlett's boyfriend, the discovery that Scarlett is pregnant, and Halley's own first serious relationship.
Lexile: 820

Devoto, Pat Cunningham. - My Last Days as Roy Rogers. Tabitha is looking forward to a long summer playing with her friends, going to movies, and swimming at the local pool, but when polio sweeps through the town, Tabitha realizes that her life will never be the same after that summer.

Doyle, Arthur Conan. - Lost World (JurassicPark 2). Professor Challenger leads an expedition to explore an isolated plateau rising above the Amazon jungles where they discover dinosaurs, primitive ape-men, and prehistoric monsters.

Dumas, Alexandre, 1802-1870. - The Man In The Iron Mask {IL YA}, 497p
In their final adventure, the four Musketeers plot to replace King Louis XIV of France with the mysterious, masked prisoner in the Bastille believed to be Louis' falsely imprisoned twin brother and the true king.

Dumas, Alexandre, 1802-1870. - The Three Musketeers {IL AD}, 598p.
During the reign of France's King Louis XIV, D'Artagnan and three musketeers unite to defend the honor of Anne of Austria against the plots of Cardinal Richeliu.
Lexile: 960

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Dumas, Alexandre, 1802-1870. - Twenty Years After {IL AD}, 845p.
An annotated edition of nineteenth-century French novelist Alexander Dumas's sequel to "The Three Musketeers," which takes place two decades after that adventure and brings the four heroes into conflict with the son of Milady, their old foe. Also includes an introduction, a selected bibliography, a Dumas chronology, and a map.
Lexile: 1060

Dumas, Alexandre. - Man in the Iron Mask. In their final adventure, the four Musketeers plot to replace King Louis XIV of France with the mysterious, masked prisoner in the Bastille believed to be Louis' falsely imprisoned twin brother and the true king.

Duncan, Lois, 1934- - The Twisted Window {IL YA}, 183p
Tracy, a high school junior, becomes embroiled in the problems of a strange boy, who asks her assistance in "snatching" his half-sister from her father who has allegedly kidnapped her.
Lexile: 950

Duncan, Lois, 1934- - Who Killed My Daughter? {IL AD}, 354p
Story of popular young adult author Lois Duncan's search for the truth behind her eighteen year old daughter's brutal death while driving alone in her car.
Lexile: 1070

Dunant, Sarah, - The Birth of Venus. Alessandra Cecchi becomes enchanted with a young painter her father has brought back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family's Florentine palazzo, but their relationship is interrupted when Alessandra's parents arrange her marriage to a wealthy older man.

Farmer, Nancy. - House of Scorpions. In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patron, the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.

Ferguson, Alane. - The Christopher Killer : A Forensic Mystery. On the payroll as an assistant to her coroner father, seventeen-year-old Cameryn Mahoney uses her knowledge of forensic medicine to catch the killer of a friend while putting herself in terrible danger.

Finney, Jack. - Time And Again {IL YA}, 399p
Illustrator Si Morley steps out of his twentieth-century New York apartment one night--right into the winter of 1882.
Lexile: 1020

Flannery, Sarah. - In Code : A Mathematical Journey.Irish teenager Sarah Flannery describes her lifelong study of cryptography, which led to her success as an internationally recognized mathematician.

Galarza, Ernesto. - Barrio Boy {IL YA}, 275p
A personal account of the author's journey as a boy from his Mexican mountain village to Sacramento and of his acculturation through education and experience in the United States.
Lexile: 1140

Garner, Eleanor Ramrath. - Eleanor's Story : An American Girl In Hitler's Germany {IL YA}, 268p
During the Great Depression, Eleanor's family moves from America to Germany, but the war breaks out as her family is crossing the Atlantic, and for years Eleanor struggles to keep her American identity despite the turbulence and upheaval around her.
Lexile: 940

Grisham, John. - A Painted House : A Novel {IL AD}, 388p
Seven-year-old Arkansas farm boy Luke Chandler loses his innocence over the course of a contentious and strenuous cotton harvest in 1952, during which time Luke's family hires several Mexicans and an Ozark family and Luke begins keeping dangerous secrets.
Lexile: 780

Hamilton, Virginia - Anthony Burns : The Defeat And Triumph Of A Fugitive Slave {IL 5-8}, 193p
A biography of the slave who escaped to Boston in 1854, was arrested at the instigation of his owner, and whose trial caused a furor between abolitionists and those determined to enforce the Fugitive Slave Acts.
Lexile: 860

Hansberry, Lorraine - A Raisin In The Sun {IL AD}, 135p
A three-act play concerned with the tensions in a middle- class African American family living on Chicago's Southside in the 1950s.

Harris, Joanne - Chocolat : A Novel {IL AD}, 306p

Beautiful, mysterious Vianne Rocher and her young daughter arrive in Lansquenet-sous-Tannes at the start of the Lenten season where she proceeds to set up a chocolate shop, much to the chagrin of the local priest.

Harrison, Lisi. - Revenge Of The Wannabes : A Clique Novel.Friendships are tested when Alicia, a seventh grader at OctavianCountryDay School, decides to break away from the exclusive clique led by her best friend to start her own group.

Hawking, Stephen. - A Brief History of Time. Provides an introduction to today's scientific ideas about the cosmos and reviews past theories. Also covers black holes, quarks, antimatter, and other mysteries of physics.

Hemingway, Ernest- For Whom The Bell Tolls {IL YA}, 495p
The story of an American, Robert Jordan, who fought during the Civil War in Spain with the anti-fascist guerrillas in the mountains of Spain.
Lexile: 840

Hesse, Herman. – Siddhartha. A moral allegory, set in ancient India, about one soul's quest for the ultimate answer to the enigma of man's role in this world. The hero, Siddhartha, undergoes a series of experiences to emerge in a state of peace and wisdom.

Hiaasen, Carl. – Hoot. Roy, 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.

Hinton, Lynne. - Friendship Cake.Five different women come together to create a church cookbook and wind up finding solace, laughter, and solid friendships.

Hillerman, Tony. - The Blessing Way {IL YA}, 294p
Lt. Joe Leaphorn of the Navajo Tribal Police and anthropologist Bergen McKee follow the horrifying trail of murder left by the Wolf-Witch.
Lexile: 920

Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki. - Farewell To Manzanar : A True Story Of Japanese American Experience During And After The World War II Internment {IL YA}, 188p
Biography of Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston relating her experiences of living at the Manzanar internment camp during World War II and how it has influenced her life.
Lexile: 1040

Hugo, Victor. - Hunchback of Notre Dame. The classic story of Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame, and his love of the beautiful gypsy Esmeralda

Hugo, Victor. - Les Miserables. French novel about Jean Valjean, a peasant who is released from prison, where he spent nineteen years for stealing a loaf of bread for his starving family, only to find himself threatened by people and events from his past.

Jewel - A Night Without Armor : Poems {IL YA}, 138p
A first collection of poetry by popular recording artist Jewel.

Jimenez, Francisco- The Circuit : Stories From The Life Of A Migrant Child {IL 5-8}, 116p
Explores a migrant family's experiences moving through labor camps, facing poverty and impermanence, and discusses how they endure through faith, hope, and back-breaking work.
Lexile: 880

Johnson, Angela- Toning The Sweep {IL 5-8}, 103p
On a visit to her grandmother Ola, who is dying of cancer in her house in the desert, fourteen-year-old Emmie hears many stories about the past and her family history.
Lexile: 760

Kafka, Franz- The Metamorphosis {IL AD}, 201p
A young man wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a giant beetle-like insect. He becomes an object of disgrace to his family and an alienated man.
Lexile: 1320

Kerr, M. E. - Deliver Us From Evie {IL YA}, 177p
Sixteen-year-old Parr Burrman and his family face some difficult times when word spreads through their rural Missouri town that his older sister is a lesbian, and she leaves the family farm to live with the daughter of the town's banker.
Lexile: 690

Keyes, Daniel. - Flowers For Algernon {IL YA}, 286p
After being mentally retarded for all of his thirty-two years, Charlie Gordon undergoes an operation designed to change his life.
Lexile: 910