Tween/Teen Reading List

 

Tween/Teen Reading List

Of all the emails I get asking for homeschool book recommendations, my largest single request falls within the preteen  category which would be books for ages 9 to 12.  Somewhere around this age, readers get choosier about their reading or parents get frustrated when all their kids want to read is Captain Underpants or the “Twilight” series.  There is nothing inherently wrong with the popular reads.  It’s nice to have one of your children read one of these titles and announce that it is “lame” and offers nothing of interest to them!
Allowing your kids to read these lightweight and popular books is no problem as long as their reading diet includes other works of weightier content.  As the parent, we often want to offer some other titles to lead them into a direction that offers some substance.
There are many choices out there.  Some are great reads and some…some don’t quite reach the bar.  As a heavy reader myself I have found that you sometimes have to read quite a few books by frogs before you fine a true king or queen or writers.  Along these lines, I began putting together a list of tween/teen books that I can highly recommend.  Each of the following books I have read personally and many I have used with my book clubs to the delight of the readers in them!  I have purposefully NOT included “classics” as you can find these lists everywhere!

Here is my list and I welcome YOUR recommendations too!

Poetry collections are real treasures.
Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass
Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass
The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
The 39 Clues by various authors
ENDURANCE: SHACKLETON’S INCREDIBLE VOYAGE by Alfred Lansing
HATCHET by Gary Paulsen
HOLES by Louis Sachar
ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS by Scott O’Dell
JULIE OF THE WOLVES by Jean Craighead George
LIFE OF PI by Yann Martel
MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN by Jean Craighead George
THE PERFECT STORM: A TRUE STORY OF MEN AGAINST THE SEA by Sebastian Junger
TREASURE ISLAND by Robert Louis Stevenson
THE TRUE CONFESSIONS OF CHARLOTTE DOYLE by Avi
I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS by Maya Angelou
ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY by David Sedaris
NIGHT by Elie Wiesel
OCTOBER SKY by Homer Hickman
EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE by Jonathan Safran Foer
LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
THE OUTSIDERS by S. E. Hinton
ERAGON: INHERITANCE by Christopher Paolini
HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE by J. K. Rowling
THE HOBBIT by J.R.R. Tolkien
THE LOST YEARS OF MERLIN by T. A. Barron
REDWALL by Brian Jacques
THE THIEF LORD by Cornelia Funke
AL CAPONE DOES MY SHIRTS by Gennifer Choldenko
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING by Tracy Chevalier
JOHNNY TREMAIN by Esther Forbes
THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES by Sue Monk Kidd
SUMMER OF MY GERMAN SOLDIER by Bette Greene
FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley
WITCH CHILD by Celia Rees
BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE by Dee Brown
FAST FOOD NATION: THE DARK SIDE OF THE ALL-AMERICAN MEAL by Eric Schlosser
THE GREATEST SCIENTIFIC PROBLEM OF HIS TIME by Dava Sobel
Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel
PROFILES IN COURAGE by John F. Kennedy
WASHINGTON’S CROSSING by David Hackett Fischer
THE JOY LUCK CLUB by Amy Tan
THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD by Zora Neale Hurston
THE WHALE RIDER by Witi Ihimaera
THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME by Mark Haddon
THE DA VINCI CODE by Dan Brown
THE LOVELY BONES by Alice Sebold
ROMEO AND JULIET and WEST SIDE STORY by William Shakespeare, Arthur Laurents, & Stephen Sondheim
THE KITE RUNNER by Khaled Hosseini
THE POISONWOOD BIBLE by Barbara Kingsolver
THE PRINCE by Niccolo Machiavelli
BEL CANTO by Ann Patchett
MY SISTER’S KEEPER by Judi Picoult
PLAINSONG by Kent Haruf
BEE SEASON by Myla Goldberg
THE BRONZE BOW by Elizabeth George Speare
THE CHOSEN by Chaim Potok
THE MISTS OF AVALON by Marion Zimmer Bradley
NOT THE END OF THE WORLD by Geraldine McCaughrean
PEACE LIKE A RIVER by Leif Enger
A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY by John Irving
THE RED TENT by Anita Diamant
THE CITY OF EMBER by Jeanne DuPrau
ENDER’S GAME by Orson Scott Card
THE GIVER by Lois Lowry
I, ROBOT by Isaac Asimov
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH by Jules Verne
JURASSIC PARK by Michael Crichton
STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND by Robert A. Heinlein
Avi, The Crispin: Cross of Lead
Avi, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
Blue Balliett, Chasing Vermeer
Brandon Mull, The Candy Shop Wars
Brian Selznick, The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Jon Scieszka, Time Warp Trio Series
Christopher Peter Grey, Leonardo’s Shadow: Or, My Astonishing Life as Leonardo da Vinci’s Servant
Cordelia Funke, The Thief Lord
D.J. MacHale, Pendragon Series
Edward Ormondroyd, David and the Phoenix
Eva Ibbotson, Island of the Aunts
Gary Paulsen, Hatchett
Gordon Kormon, Schooled
Alan Gratz, The Brooklyn Nine
Hester Velmans, Isabel of the Whales
Jean Craighead George, My Side of the Mountain
Joseph Bruchac, The Code Talkers: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War II
Wm. Shakespeare, “Twelfth Night”
Justin F. Denzel, Boy of the Painted Cave
Lois Lowry, Gossamer
Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series
Trenton Lee Stewart, The Mysterious Benedict Society