EDITED: Suggested titles for English classes (Starred* titles are especially recommended), compiled by Phyllis Tashlik

Appropriate children’s book, young adult books, and easy adult books:

  • Speak by Anderson*
  • Go Ask Alice (anonymous)*
  • Perks of Being a Wallflower by Chbosky*
  • White Oleander by Fitch
  • The Skin I’m In by Flake*
  • A Lesson Before Dying by Gaines*
  • Carrie by Stephen King
  • The Talisman by Stephen King
  • The Contender by Lipsyte*
  • Books by S.E. Hinton: The Outsiders, That Was Then This Is Now, Rumble Fish, Tex*
  • A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle*
  • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by Lewis
  • The Call of the Wild by London
  • Flowers for Algernon by Keyes*
  • The Secret Life of Bees by Kidd*
  • Daddy Was a Number Runner by Meriwether*
  • Books by Nicholasa Mohr: El Bronx Remembered, Nilda, En Nueva York*
  • Devil in a Blue Dress by Mosley*
  • Monster by Myers*
  • Interview With a Vampire by Rice
  • Harry Potter series by Rowling*
  • Holes by Sachar
  • Coffee Will Make You Black by Sinclair*
  • Coldest Winter by Sister Souljah*
  • Life is Funny by E. R. Frank*
  • Bang—Flake
  • Boy—R. Dahl
  • Always Running: Gang Days in LA—Rodriguez
  • Finding Fish—Antwone Fisher
  • Blankets (graphic novel)—Craig Thompson
  • Feed—M.T. Anderson
  • Twilight – Stephanie Myers
  • The Autobiography of a Part-time Indian—Sherman Alexie
  • The Alchemist—Paul Coelho
  • Jon Krakauer—Into the Wild
  • Walter Mosley—always outnumbered, always outgunned
  • The Road—Cormack McCarthy
  • Uglies
  • The House of the Scorpion
  • The Last Book in the Universe -- Rodman Philbrick
  • easier to read than Fahrenheit 451
  • Rites of Passage (Richard Wright)
  • Tangerine (Edward Bloor)
  • Bad Boy (Myers)
  • Slam! (Walter Myers)
  • Tyrell (Coe Booth)
  • Gossip Girls series
  • Tears Of A Tiger by Sharon M. Draper
  • Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen
  • Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman
  • 47 by Walter Mosley
  • The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
  • The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
  • If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
  • Bodega Dreams—Ernesto Quinonez (based on The Great Gatsby)
  • Black Boy by Richard Wright
  • Tuck Everlasting by Babbit
  • The Education of Little Tree by Carter*
  • The Facts Speak for Themselves by Cole
  • Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King
  • Teacup Full of Roses by Mathis
  • The Diary of Latoya Hunter by Hunter
  • Black Folktales by Julius Lester
  • The Giver by Lowry
  • Lisa Bright and Dark by Neufeld
  • Choke by Palahniuk*
  • The Learning Tree by Parks
  • The Wanderers by Price*
  • Bodega Dreams by Quinonez*
  • Interview with a Vampire by Rice
  • Boy without a Flag by Rodriguez*
  • Hispanic, Female and Young by Tashlik
  • Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck
  • The Pigman by Zindel
  • Hole in My Life—Gantos
  • Going Solo—R. Dahl
  • Living Up the Street—Gary Soto (chapter “Being Mean”)
  • Mama’s Girl—Chambers

Drama

  • Anna Deavere Smith: Fires in the Mirror

More Challenging:

  • Bastard Out of Carolina by Allison
  • Rule of the Bone by Banks
  • Like Water for Chocolate by Esquivel
  • Ellen Foster by Gibbons
  • The Miracle Worker by Gibson
  • A Place Where the Sea Remembers by Benitez
  • Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury
  • House on Mango Street by Cisneros
  • Childhood’s End by Clarke
  • Spidertown—Rodriguez

Science Fiction

  • Childhood’s End by Clarke
  • I Robot
  • I Am Legend—James Matheson
  • The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien
  • The Unseen (4-book series)
  • Cat’s Cradle

Adult books That Usually Work

  • Life of Pi—Yann Martel
  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time—Mark Haddon
  • The Assistant—Bernard Malamud
  • The House of the Spirits—Isabel Allende
  • Macbeth—Wm. Shakespeare
  • Lord of the Flies—William Golding
  • Antigone—Sophocles
  • Catch-22—Joseph Heller
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest—Ken Kesey
  • A Clockwork Orange—Anthony Burgess\
  • The Fixer—Bernard Malamud
  • The Bluest Eye—Toni Morrison

Might be Useful in Social Studies:

  • Freedom Road by Howard Fast (historical fiction of post Civil War—the Reconstruction period in the South)
  • Waiting for the Rain by Sheila Gordon (apartheid in South Africa)
  • Freedom’s Children by Levine (US—Civil Rights movement 60s)
  • To Be A Slave by Julius Lester
  • The Things They Carried by O’Brien (fictional account of Vietnam war)
  • Animal Farm by Geo. Orwell

Mystery

  • Agatha Christie—Then There Were None (or Ten Little Indians)

Horror

  • Cirque Du Freak (series)

Anthologies

  • Writing New York: A Literary Anthology by Phillip Lopate
  • 145th Street by Walter B. Myers
  • A Walk in My World: International Stories About Youth by Anne Mazer

Non-Fiction

  • Letters to a Young Brother: MANifest Your Destiny by Hill Harper
  • When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago
  • Child Called It, Dave Pelzer*
  • The Lost Boy, Dave Pelzer
  • Basketball Diaries, Jim Carroll
  • The Laramie Project, Moises Kaufman
  • A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
  • Dreams From My Father—Barak Obama
  • Random Family

History

  • Sundiata (13th c. Mali)