Must-reads for Young Audiences (AND Older Audiences)!
Discover must-read books for young audiences and older readers alike! Explore our curated list of captivating reads that inspire, entertain, and delight all ages.
Book
Whale Talk
by Chris Crutcher
A high-school bus provides surprising sanctuary for seven unlikely swim teammates who are, in the words of their coach, "A perennial road team. Mermen without a pond." These invisible kids resonate because of how the author sees them, believes in them, and lets them speak.
Book
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
by Chris Crutcher
The daily class discussions about contemporary issues serve as a backdrop for a high-school senior's attempt to answer a friend's dramatic cry for help.
Book
The Sledding Hill
by Chris Crutcher
Eddie hasn't had an easy year First his father dies. Then his best friend Billy accidentally kicks a stack of Sheetrock over on himself, breaking his neck and effectively hitting tilt on his Earthgame. Eddie and Billy were inseparable. Still are. Billy isn't going to let a little thing like death stop him from hanging in there with his friend. And when Eddie faces an epic struggle with the powers that be, Billy will remain right there beside him.
Book
Just Listen
by Sarah Dessen
From the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Once and for All To find the truth you’ve got to be willing to hear it. When she’s modeling, Annabel is the picture of perfection. But her real life is far from perfect. Fortunately, she’s got Owen. He’s intense, music-obsessed, and dedicated to always telling the truth. And most of all, he’s determined to make Annabel happy. . . “This is young adult fiction at its best.” —School Library Journal Sarah Dessen is the winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her contributions to YA literature, as well as the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award. Books by Sarah Dessen: That Summer Someone Like You Keeping the Moon Dreamland This Lullaby The Truth About Forever Just Listen Lock and Key Along for the Ride What Happened to Goodbye The Moon and More Saint Anything Once and for All
Book
Crippled Dreams & Love and Madness
by David Rehak
Crippled dreams: Rose is pregnant and alone. She gives birth to a boy, Alexandre. But he is born with crippled legs. His healthy younger brother Gustave grows up to be everything that Alex wants to be but cannot. They hate each other. Alex falls madly in love with his brother's lover, but will she return his feelings? -- Love and madness: Karl falls for Bertha, but is it true and lasting love or just a passing infatuation? Love and madness reign in this unusual tale of sexual lust, greed, mental illness.
Book
Watership Down
by Richard Adams
WINNER of the Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Animated Program Now a Netflix animated miniseries starring James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, and Oscar and Grammy award-winner Sir Ben Kingsley. A worldwide bestseller for more than forty years, Watership Down is the compelling tale of a band of wild rabbits struggling to hold onto their place in the world—“a classic yarn of discovery and struggle” (The New York Times). Richard Adams’s Watership Down is a timeless classic and one of the most beloved novels of all time. Set in the Hampshire Downs in Southern England, an idyllic rural landscape, this stirring tale of “suspense, hot pursuit, and derring-do” (Chicago Tribune) follows a band of rabbits in flight from the incursion of man and the destruction of their home. Led by a stouthearted pair of brothers, they travel forth from their native Sandleford warren through harrowing trials to a mysterious promised land and a more perfect society. “A marvelous story of rebellion, exile, and survival” (Sunday Telegraph) this is an unforgettable literary classic for all ages.
Item Not Found
ID: 0571221246
(Type: books)
Book
The Sea of Trolls
by Nancy Farmer
Jack was eleven when the berserkers loomed out of the fog and nabbed him. "It seems that things are stirring across the water," the Bard had warned. "Ships are being built, swords are being forged." "Is that bad?" Jack had asked, for his Saxon village had never before seen berserkers. "Of course. People don't make ships and swords unless they intend to use them." The year is A.D. 793. In the next months, Jack and his little sister, Lucy, are enslaved by Olaf One-Brow and his fierce young shipmate, Thorgil. With a crow named Bold Heart for mysterious company, they are swept up into an adventure-quest in the spirit of The Lord of the Rings. Award-winner Nancy Farmer has never told a richer, funnier tale, nor offered more timeless encouragement to young seekers than "Just say no to pillaging."
Item Not Found
ID: 1416949755
(Type: books)
Book
The Clique #7: It's Not Easy Being Mean
by Lisi Harrison
Massie Block: Getting back into Octavian Country Day was a piece of sugar-free cake, compared to Massie's next goal-finding the key that unlocks an ah-mazing legendary secret room at OCD! Alpha eighth grader Skye Hamilton and her clique have stashed the key in the bedroom of one mystery Briarwood boy, but who? Whoever finds the key gets access to the secret room for an entire year and the prestige that comes along with it. But what happens when LBR Layne seems to be getting closer? This is way more than a matter of life or death, it's a matter of in or out! Kristen Gregory: Always been a star on the soccer field, but her style gets majorly cramped when her friends are forced to join the team. They better start kicking those soccer balls or Kristen's going to start kicking some . . . ! Alicia Rivera: Uses her skills as a gossip reporter to scheme her way into the rooms of all the Briarwood hotties! Dylan Marvil: Heard depression makes people lose weight. Is hoping for some sad news soon because she's popping donut holes the way some people pop Tic-Tacs. Claire Lyons: Being famous isn't all it's cracked up to be! Her agent confiscates her gummies, and forces her to do some very bad things to make her more "edgy." Worst of all, her constant meetings with lawyers and movie execs are eating into her time with the P.C. and with Cam! Is being a Hollywood starlet worth the Gucci-high price tag?
Book
The Clique #2: Best Friends for Never
by Lisi Harrison
A bet about wardrobes between the wealthy Massie and middle-class Claire results in a testing of old friendships, a forging of new ones, and a change for the student body at Octavian Country Day School.
Book
His dark materials
by Philip Pullman
Lyra Belacqua tries to prevent kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments, helps Will Parry search for his father, and finds that she and Will are caught in a battle between the forces of the Authority and those gathered by her uncle, Lord Asriel.
Book
The Chronicles of Narnia (adult)
by C. S. Lewis
Journeys to the end of the world, fantastic creatures, and epic battles between good and evil -- what more could any reader ask for in one book? The book that has it all is the lion, the witch and the wardrobe, written in 1949 by C. S. Lewis. But Lewis did not stop there. Six more books followed, and together they became known as The Chronicles of Narnia. For the past fifty years, The Chronicles of Narnia have transcended the fantasy genre to become part of the canon of classic literature. Each of the seven books is a masterpiece, drawing the reader into a world where magic meets reality, and the result is a fictional world whose scope has fascinated generations. This edition presents all seven books -- unabridged -- in one impressive volume. The books are presented here according to Lewis's preferred order, each chapter graced with an illustration by the original artist, Pauline Baynes. This edition also contains C. S. Lewis's essay "On Three Ways of Writing for Children," in which he explains precisely how the magic of Narnia and the realm of fantasy appeal not only to children but to discerning readers of all ages. Deceptively simple and direct, The Chronicles of Narnia continue to captivate fans with adventures, characters, and truths that speak to all readers, even fifty years after the books were first published.
Item Not Found
ID: 0142405701
(Type: books)
Book
The House on Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A coming-of-age classic, acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught in schools and universities alike, and translated around the world—from the winner of the 2019 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature. The House on Mango Street is the remarkable story of Esperanza Cordero, a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become. Told in a series of vignettes-sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous-Sandra Cisneros' masterpiece is a classic story of childhood and self-discovery. Few other books in our time have touched so many readers. “Cisneros draws on her rich [Latino] heritage ... and seduces with precise, spare prose, creat[ing] unforgettable characters we want to lift off the page. She is not only a gifted writer, but an absolutely essential one.” —The New York Times Book Review
Item Not Found
ID: B001U3YE5I
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 0671038540
(Type: books)
Item Not Found
ID: 068485970X
(Type: books)