Recommended Reading
Abraham Lincoln High School Book Award 2009-2010
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
Having been recently dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine, recent high school graduate and former child prodigy Colin sets off on a road trip with his best friend to try to find some new direction in life while also trying to create a mathematical formula to explain his relationships. www.sparksflyup.com
Aftershock by Kelly Easton
Witnessing his parents' death in a car crash in Idaho, seventeen-year-old Adam's mind is sent spinning as he begins to walk his way back home to Rhode Island in an attempt to deal with the tragedy he knows will forever alter the only life he has ever known. www.kellyeaston.com
Avalon High by Meg Cabot
Having moved to Annapolis, Maryland with her medievalist parents, high school junior Ellie enrolls at Avalon High School, where several students may or may not be reincarnations of King Arthur and his court. www.megcabot.com
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors. www.randomhouse.com/features/markuszusak
The Christopher Killer: A Forensic Mystery by Alane Ferguson
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. www.alaneferguson.com
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Suddenly able to see demons and the Darkhunters who are dedicated to returning them to their own dimension, fifteen-year-old Clary Fray is drawn into this bizarre world when her mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a monster. www.cassandraclare.com
Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah
Year Eleven at an exclusive prep school in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, would be tough enough, but it is further complicated for Amal when she decides to wear the hijab, the Muslim head scarf, full-time as a badge of her faith--without losing her identity or sense of style. www2.scholastic.com
The Good Guy by Dean Koontz
Chatting with a nervous stranger sitting at a local bar, Timothy Carrier soon realizes that he has been mistaken for a killer-for-hire and has been given an envelope full of cash and a contract on a pretty young woman whose photograph and address accompany the money. www.deankoontz.com
Gym Candy by Carl Deuker
Groomed by his father to be a star player, football is the only thing that has ever really mattered to Mick Johnson, who works hard for a spot on the varsity team his freshman year, then tries to hold onto his edge by using steroids, despite the consequences to his health and social life. http://members.authorsguild.net/carldeuker/
The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray by Chris Wooding
In a world similar to Victorian London, Thaniel, a seventeen-year-old hunter of deadly, demonic creatures called the wych-kin, takes in an lost, possessed girl, and becomes embroiled in a plot to unleash evil on the world. www.chriswooding.com
I’a a a d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter
As a sophomore at a secret spy school and the daughter of a former CIA operative, Cammie is sheltered from "normal teenage life" until she meets a local boy while on a class surveillance mission.
Inexcusable by Chris Lynch
High school senior and football player Keir sets out to enjoy himself on graduation night, but when he attempts to comfort a friend whose date has left her stranded, things go terribly wrong. www.harpercollins.com/authors/12419/Chris_Lnch/index.aspx
Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles
In alternating chapters, seventeen-year-olds Caleb and Maggie relate the difficulties of readjusting to school, and changing relationships with family, friends, and one another, a year after a drunk driving accident sent her to the hospital with a crippling leg injury and him to prison. www.simoneelkeles.net
Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Through journal entries sixteen-year-old Miranda describes her family's struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. http://susanbethpfeffer.blogspot.com
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
In a heart-wrenching, candid autobiography, a human rights activist offers a firsthand account of war from the perspective of a former child soldier, detailing the violent civil war that wracked his native Sierra Leone and the government forces that transformed a gentle young boy into a killer as
a member of the army. www.alongwaygone.com
Look Me in the Eye: My Life With Asperger’s by John Elder Robison
In an entertaining and inspirational memoir of living with Asperger's Syndrome, the author describes life growing up different in an unusual family, his unusual talents, his struggle to live a "normal" life, his diagnosis at the age of forty with Asperger's, and the dramatic changes that have
occurred since that diagnosis. www.johnrobison.com
The Luxe by Anna Godbersen
In Manhattan in 1899, five teens of different social classes lead dangerously scandalous lives, despite the strict rules of society and the best-laid plans of parents and others. www.myspace.com/AnnaGodbersen
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
The people of Sterling, New Hampshire, are forever changed after a shooting at the high school leaves ten people dead, and the judge presiding over the trial tries to remain unbiased, even though her daughter witnessed the events and was friends with the assailant.
www.jodipicoult.com
Pride of Baghdad by Brian Vaughan
A pride of lions escapes from the Baghdad Zoo during the Iraq War and question the meaning of freedom. Graphic novel format. www.myspace.com/briankvaughan
Rooftop by Paul Volponi
Still reeling from seeing police shoot his unarmed cousin to death on the roof of a New York City housing project, seventeen-year-old Clay is dragged into the whirlwind of political manipulation that follows. www.paulvolponibooks.com
Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin
Seventeen-year-old Matthew recounts his attempts, starting at a young age, to free himself and his sisters from the grip of their emotionally and physically abusive mother. www.nancywerlin.com
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
Seventeen-year-old Aislinn, who has the rare ability to see faeries, is drawn against her will into a centuries-old battle between the Summer King and the Winter Queen, and the survival of her life, her love, and summer all hang in the balance. www.melissa-marr.com
Read for a Lifetime List 2009-2010
Briar
Rose
Jane Yolen
In
this retelling of "Sleeping Beauty," a young woman learns that her grandmother had a secret past
tied to the Holocaust.
Chains
Laurie Halse Anderson
After
being sold to a cruel couple in New York City, a slave named Isabel spies for the rebels during the
Revolutionary War.
Bridge
to Terabithia
Katherine Paterson
The
life of a ten-year-old boy in rural Virginia expands when he becomes friends with a newcomer who
subsequently meets an untimely death trying to reach their hideaway, Terabithia, during a
storm.
Coraline
Neil Gaiman
Looking for excitement, Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is
similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must challenge a gruesome entity in
order to save herself, her parents, and the souls of three others.
Dairy
Queen
Katherine Murdock
After
spending her summer running the family farm and training the quarterback for her school's rival
football team, sixteen-year-old D.J. decides to go out for the sport herself, not anticipating the
reactions of those around her.
Deadline
Chris Crutcher
Given
the medical diagnosis of one year to live, high school senior Ben Wolf decides to fulfill his
greatest fantasies, ponders his life's purpose and legacy, and converses through dreams with a
spiritual guide known as "Hey-Soos."
Disreputable
History of Frankie Landau-Banks
E. Lockhart
Sophomore Frankie starts dating senior Matthew Livingston, but when he refuses to talk about
the all-male secret society that he and his friends belong to, Frankie infiltrates the society in
order to enliven their mediocre pranks.
The
Graveyard Book
Neil Gaiman
An
orphaned boy is raised by ghosts and other denizens of the graveyard.
Hoops
Of Steel
John Foley
Passionate
about basketball, troubled teenager Jackson O'Connell chronicles the ways the game colors the
events of his senior year in high school.
How
to Build a House
Dana
Reinhardt
Seventeen-year-old
Harper Evans hopes to escape the effects of her father's divorce on her family and
friendships by volunteering her summer to build a house in a small Tennessee town devastated
by a tornado.
The
Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins
In
a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised
survival
competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another,
sixteen-year-old Katniss's
skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.
I
Am Scout: The Biography Of Harper Lee
Charles
J. Shields
An
exploration of the life and achievements of Harper Lee that discusses her Southern upbringing,
education,
family, writing of "To Kill a Mockingbird," association with Truman Capote, and
personality.
Jellicoe
Road
Melina Marchetta
Abandoned
by her drug-addicted mother at the age of eleven, high school student Taylor Markham struggles
with her identity and family history at a boarding school in Australia.
The
Last Lecture
Randy
Pausch
Computer
science professor Randy Pausch, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, discusses how to
overcome obstacles in one's life and achieve one's dreams.
The
Life of Pi
Yann Martel
Pi
Patel, having spent an idyllic childhood in Pondicherry, India, as the son of a zookeeper, sets off
with
his family
at the age of sixteen to start a new in Canada, but his life takes a marvelous turn when
their ship sinks in the Pacific,
leaving him adrift on a raft with a 450-pound Bengal tiger for company.
The
Lord of the Rings
J.R.R Tolkien
For
over fifty years, J.R.R. Tolkien's peerless fantasy has accumulated worldwide acclaim as the
greatest adventure tale ever written. No other writer has created a world as distinct as
Middle-earth, complete with its own geography, history, languages, and legends. And no one has
created characters as endearing as Tolkien's large-hearted, hairy-footed hobbits. You may read any
of the series except the Hobbit.
Marley
and Me
John Grogan
The
author presents a tender story of his family's love for their yellow Labrador retriever, Marley,
and recalls how he grew from a mischievous puppy into a nearly impossible adult that no amount of
obedience school training could correct, and of the love they felt for him.
The
Memory Keeper's Daughter
Kim Edwards
Dr.
David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son is perfectly healthy, but his
daughter has Down's syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect his wife, he asks his nurse to
take the baby away to an institution. Instead, the nurse disappears into another city to raise the
child herself.
Perfect
Chemistry
Simone Elkeles
When
wealthy, seemingly perfect Brittany and Alex Fuentes, a gang member from the other side of town,
develop a relationship after Alex discovers that Brittany is not exactly who she seems to be, they
must face the disapproval of their schoolmates--and others.
Playing
for Pizza
John Grisham
Cut
from the Cleveland Browns after the worst performance in the history of the NFL, third-stringer
Rick Dockery, desperate to play football, is hired by the Panthers of Parma, Italy, to be their
starting quarterback and finds himself confronted by the confusing diversity of Italian culture,
language, and romance.
Rose
That Grew from Concrete
Tupac Shakur
A
collection of poems written by rap artist and actor Tupac Shakur at the age of nineteen.
Tamar:
A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal
Mal Peet
In
England in 1995, fifteen-year-old Tamar, grief-stricken by the puzzling death of her beloved
grandfather, slowly begins to uncover the secrets of his life in the Dutch resistance during the
last year of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, and the climactic events that forever cast a
shadow on his life and that of his family.
Their
Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston
An
African-American woman searches for a fulfilling relationship through two loveless marriages and
finally finds it in the person of Tea Cake, an itinerant laborer and gambler.
Thirteen
Reasons Why
Jay Asher
When
high school student Clay Jenkins receives a box in the mail containing thirteen cassette tapes
recorded by his classmate Hannah, who committed suicide, he spends a bewildering and heartbreaking
night crisscrossing their town, listening to Hannah's voice recounting the events leading up to her
death.
Tough
Boy Sonatas
Curtis Crisler
A
collection of nearly forty poems that explores the struggles and joys of poor African-American boys
in Gary, Indiana, reflecting the difficult circumstances they face.