Recommended Reading – for Adolescents and Young Adults | The Fireside Post Recommended Reading – for Adolescents and Young Adults | The Fireside Post
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Ohg Rea Tone is all or nothing. He is educated and opinionated, more clever than smart, sarcastic and forthright. He writes intuitively - often disregarding rules of composition. Comment on his posts - he will likely respond with characteristic humor or genuine empathy. He is the real-deal.

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Recommended Reading – for Adolescents and Young Adults

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High School Literature Teachers are really fascinating people.  This past year I participated in a School District as an occasional Substitute Teacher.  The most memorable and pleasant days were invested in High School Literature classes, where I substituted about ten days.  These were memorable days because in every one of the classrooms there were perhaps a thousand books of good to great literature.

I read the summary of every one of these books, and I wrote a list.  This is a list of books I have not previously read, hope to read, and hope to pass on to my grandchildren.  Some of my grandchildren are reluctant readers.  One even told me directly, “Uh Grandpa, I am not a book dude.”  I told his mother that if we expected him to read we should take some responsibility in finding something interesting for him – that was a part of my motivation.

Anyway – the following list is a result of the compilation of books from a variety of High School classrooms.  I would not ask my children or grandchildren to read something that I have not read – as a result I have read about a third of these books and continue to work my way through.  After I read a book I give it to a grandchild – so here is the list – in order of discovery:

Author:                                                                                    Book Title:

  • Maya Angelou                                                                       I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
  • Lisa Jackson                                                                           Whispers
  • Alice Sebold                                                                            The Lonely Bones
  • David Stahler Jr.                                                                   Truesight (A Trilogy)
  • Winifred MOrris                                                                     Liar
  • Robert Cormier                                                                      The Chocolate War
  • Forrest Carter                                                                         The Education of Little Tree
  • Ernest J. Gaines                                                                      A Lesson Before Dying
  • Joyce Carol Oates                                                                  After the Wreck
  • Margaret Atwood                                                                  The Handmaid’s Tale
  • Ray Bradbury                                                                          Zen And The Art of Writing
  • Diane Ackerman                                                                     The Zookeepers Wife
  • Daniel Tammet                                                                        Born on a Blue Day
  • Chris Crutcher                                                                         Whale Talk
  • Carl Deuker                                                                               On the Devil’s Court
  • Caroline B. Cooney                                                                The Face on the Mild Carton
  • Robert Cromer                                                                        I am the Cheese
  • Nathaniel Hawthorn                                                              The Marble Fawn
  • Larry McMurtry                                                                      By Sorrow’s River
  • Jodi Picoult                                                                               The Pact
  • Ian McEwan                                                                               Atonement
  • Irene Hunt                                                                                  The Lottery Rose
  • Cormack McCarthy                                                                 The Road
  • Pearl Buck                                                                                   The Good Earth
  • Leo Tolstoy                                                                                 Anna Karenina
  • Capote                                                                                           In Cold Blood
  • Toni Morrison                                                                            The Bluest Eye
  • Arthur Golden                                                                            Memories of a Geisha
  • Barbara W. Tuchman                                                               The Guns of August
  • Jane Austen                                                                                 Pride and Prejudice
  • Jane Austen                                                                                 Persuasion
  • Jane Austen                                                                                 Sense and Sensibility
  • Sue Monk Kidd                                                                            The Secret Life of Bees
  • John Steinbeck                                                                            The Pearl
  • Ernest Hemmingway                                                                 The Old Man and the Sea
  • Erik Larson                                                                                    The Devil in the White City
  • Tim O’Brien                                                                                    The Things They Carried
  • Carl Dueker                                                                                    Night Hoops
  • Susan Kuklin                                                                                 No Choir Boy
  • Michael Dorso                                                                             Eagle Blue
  • Herman Hesse                                                                             Siddhartha
  • Merman Melville                                                                        Billy Bud
  • Aldous Huxley                                                                             Brave New World

Some of these are for mature audiences – adolescents can certainly qualify – but some of these should be read at the discretion of the parent.

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