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top ten books for highschoolers?

I think high school students should and do read mostly regular adult books. As far as children's books at my high school Harry Potter is of course popular, as are some other children's series (redwall, golden compass, series of unfortunate events). Most high schoolers prefer more mature books though, like Stephen King and the Lord of the Rings series.

One young adult book I would be sure to put on the list is The Giver by Lois Lowry.
 
there's literature/books/plays I would have found very useful and moving as a YA.

Knowledge of Angels By Jill Paton Walsh

The Alchemist By Paolo Coelho

Macbeth

Paradise Lost

Women By Bukowski

American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis

there are many many others, but a few I ejoyed /would have enjoyed during my HS years
 
Being of the highschool age myself I'd say... Anything! :D

Seriously, age shouldn't be a factor in choosing what books you want to read. If something appeals to you, go for it.
 
Best Stephen King book...

The best Stephen King book for kids (or, in my opinion, for anyone) is The Eyes of the Dragon.

A real departure for him, a great old-fashioned medieval-style fantasy set in the kingdom of Delain. A prince is accused of poisoning the king his father and is imprisoned in an impregnable tower for the rest of his life... while 300 feet below, the evil magician Flagg manipulates the prince's younger brother towards the kingdom's ultimate doom.

I can't recommend it highly enough - I wore out the paperback copy I had. If you think you know what suspense is, read The Eyes of the Dragon and reconsider... :)
 
Best Books For Teens

I believe some of the best books for teens are those that teach them how to deal with struggles and have a strong main character, preferably one they can relate to.

One book that is this way is The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.. I'm currently reading a novel by a new author that I came across and I really like it so far. It's a little edgy but reflective of how you feel about things when you are going through your teen and early adult years. You may want to take a look at it to for a more unconventional read. It's called The One by Jeff Kozlowski.
 
Tomorrow, When the War Began series by John Marsden (starting with Tomorrow, When the War Began)
His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman (starting with The Golden Compass aka Northern Lights)
Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling
Watership Down by Richard Adams
The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkein
Earth's Children series by Jean M Auel (starting with Clan of the Cave Bear)
 
I always liked:

His Dark Materials
Lord of the Rings
The House of Scorpion
The Catcher in the Rye
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Giver
 
try the curious incident of the dog in the night,
i must suggest thatyou cna read anything. we are of course young adults, so start early! read novels, childrens, fantasy, everything.

when im old, i will still read the childrens classics!

try old books too. old classics, they can give you a very interesting look at different styles.

read forign books too, like translations or other languages, again different cultures,


but don't go all serious, read the funs ones too! Nick hornby is excelent!

*edit. try how many miles to babylon, its based in two differnt countrys but mostly ireland, and focass on friendship between two different classes in the early 1900's with war as a theam. :>
 
did oyu enjoy it then?
i liked it because it really did make me feel guilty. i have never had any experiance with anyone who had any sort of disiability, and i felt like i was the cop who just thought he was a weirdo, ya know.

the crime in the neighbour hood - i loved that too.
 
Bosco said:
did oyu enjoy it then?
i liked it because it really did make me feel guilty. i have never had any experiance with anyone who had any sort of disiability, and i felt like i was the cop who just thought he was a weirdo, ya know.

the crime in the neighbour hood - i loved that too.
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I did like it! I found it very insightful. Actually, I have a neighbor who is autistic. I never really understood him. I don't mean to say I thought he was weird or anything, I certainly was sympathetic, but I didn't realize how difficult things were for him. Sometimes he would so something that would seem...odd...and I wouldn't know what to make of it. This book taught me a lot about people who share this disability. They are just normal people who want to be loved and appreciated, like everyone else.

steffee said:
It's not exactly educational or anything though, is it?
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I'm not sure what you mean by this, steffee. It's not educational in the way a textbook is educational, but you can learn from it nevertheless.
 
I mean, you don't really learn anything by reading it. It's just a boy who has normal parents who have a few problems. The boy suffers from Aspergers syndrome, but what does the novel teach to schoolchildren? You can learn about autism, Asperger's or otherwise, from a video, discussion, or yes, even a textbook, that's all I meant.

I don't agree with Catcher in the Rye for kids either. I thought that was vastly over-rated.

Books such as Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird, Frankenstein, The Secret Garden... Dickens, Shakespeare, James Joyce, George Eliot, Vladimir Nabokov, Aphra Benn, Henrik Ibsen, even Margaret Atwood, all offer much more to a child's literary growth.
 
steffee said:
I mean, you don't really learn anything by reading it. It's just a boy who has normal parents who have a few problems. The boy suffers from Aspergers syndrome, but what does the novel teach to schoolchildren? You can learn about autism, Asperger's or otherwise, from a video, discussion, or yes, even a textbook, that's all I meant.
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You can't learn about a person's thoughts and emotions from a textbooks. Textbooks can do nothing more than generalize. They don't give insight into the individual. They can say: "People who are autistic suffer from lack of communication skills." But they can't tell you how these people deal with their problems. They can't tell what people experience, or how they feel about their disabilities. You may get more out of a discussion, but even a discussion isn't as personal as a novel. A (good) novel shares experiences and emotions, many more than in a discussion. There are some things that are difficult to discuss that through a novel can just be put out there. I personally am a person who finds it easier to communicate through writing than through speech. Many writers are like that.
* none of this applies specifically to the context of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.

steffee said:
I don't agree with Catcher in the Rye for kids either. I thought that was vastly over-rated.
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The Catcher in the Rye is one of those books that you either get or you don't. The powerful surge of emotion that went through me while reading it, and the effect it has on many teenagers, is impossible to put into the words of a simple language like English. I personally loved The Catcher in the Rye because I was able to sympathize with and understand Holden. Others may view him as a rich, spoiled brat who doesn't give a damn about the rest of the world and is too self-obsessed. People fail to realize that he had a neurological disorder. Anyway, you need to have a certain way of thinking and believing to see beyond Holden's surface and to fully appreciate the novel for the masterpiece it is.

steffee said:
Books such as Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird, Frankenstein, The Secret Garden... Dickens, Shakespeare, James Joyce, George Eliot, Vladimir Nabokov, Aphra Benn, Henrik Ibsen, even Margaret Atwood, all offer much more to a child's literary growth.
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I hated Lord of the Flies for reasons I cannot even begin to explain. What a sad view of society! The Secret Garden is more of an elementary school level, and very sweet and syrupy. It had very little to do with the grit of real life, although it was well enough satifying when I was in the third grade. I agree that To Kill a Mockingbird is an excellent book, and Shakespeare is also brilliant. I think that the majority of high-schoolers are not quite ready for Nabokov or Joyce, however. But that's just as far as my experience. Dickens is also overrated (at least, by what I've read by him).

Steinbeck, Twain, and books such as Fahrenheit 451 and Catch-22 are also good. But literary growth is about more than reading classic literature. Whatever books you learn to love, appreciate, and understand the best are what are essential to your literary growth. I learned a lot from The Catcher and the Rye, and I like to think it has helped to shape me into the person I have become. This is why I like it so much, and I recommend it in the hope that it will have an emotional effect on others as well. I hope that doesn't sound too corny to believe.

Ta-ta!
P.S. Sorry for the long post. It turned out to be much longer than I has intended :eek:.
 
veggiedog said:
You can't learn about a person's thoughts and emotions from a textbooks.
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You can. Not all textbooks, but from some, you can. As a psychology student, I have most definitely learnt about thoughts and emotions from both the biological and cognitive schools of thought. Also, you only learn about one person's thoughts and emotions in The Curious Incident, which is atypical of autistic children anyway. Few autistic children would react to stimuli in the way that Christopher did.

Textbooks can do nothing more than generalize. They don't give insight into the individual. They can say: "People who are autistic suffer from lack of communication skills." But they can't tell you how these people deal with their problems. They can't tell what people experience, or how they feel about their disabilities.
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I completely agree there are disadvantages to textbooks. However, as stated above, The Curious Incident is based on a (fictional) account of one boy only.

You may get more out of a discussion, but even a discussion isn't as personal as a novel. A (good) novel shares experiences and emotions, many more than in a discussion. There are some things that are difficult to discuss that through a novel can just be put out there. I personally am a person who finds it easier to communicate through writing than through speech. Many writers are like that.
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Again, I agree. A good novel can offer much insight into the hearts and minds of ordinary or extraordinary people. There are many many novels that do this, and The Curious Incident isn't one of them. That's not to say I didn't like the book; I did, but it's surely not worthy of being placed in a top ten listing of anything. For similar subjects, authors such as Nabokov and Dostoevsky tackle these issues in a much more educational and less patronising way.

* none of this applies specifically to the context of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.
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Ok.

The Catcher in the Rye is one of those books that you either get or you don't. The powerful surge of emotion that went through me while reading it, and the effect it has on many teenagers, is impossible to put into the words of a simple language like English. I personally loved The Catcher in the Rye because I was able to sympathize with and understand Holden. Others may view him as a rich, spoiled brat who doesn't give a damn about the rest of the world and is too self-obsessed. People fail to realize that he had a neurological disorder. Anyway, you need to have a certain way of thinking and believing to see beyond Holden's surface and to fully appreciate the novel for the masterpiece it is.
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I did realise he had a psychological illness. But that doesn't mean I "get" it. I probably don't, because I thought it was a paltry attempt at illustrating teenage depression / paranoia or whatever. Therefore, because I know many others felt that way, I think it's over-rated. A good book, in my opinion, should be understood and "got" by the majority of those reading it, not a particular few who can then say how insightful they thought it was.


I hated Lord of the Flies for reasons I cannot even begin to explain. What a sad view of society!
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I loved it for that reason. Society is sad, the world is sad, people are sad. Why must we always romanticise the word? Of course, uplifting books can be inspirational, too; but true-to-life novels appeal to a lot of people, and I can see why.

I agree that To Kill a Mockingbird is an excellent book, and Shakespeare is also brilliant. I think that the majority of high-schoolers are not quite ready for Nabokov or Joyce, however. But that's just as far as my experience. Dickens is also overrated (at least, by what I've read by him).
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I disagree and think 14-16 year olds are capable of understanding Nabokov and Joyce. Dubliners, by James Joyce, is very easily comprehended, even if the students were to read only one or two of the fifteen stories contained within it. Some of Nabokov's works, Lolita, or Pnin for example, aren't difficult either. Considering I read works such as War and Peace, Anna Karenina and Les Miserables at that age, the examples of Joyce and Nabokov should be a walk in the park. I dislike Dickens, too. I think he is tedious (also, from what I've read), but many of his books offer a great deal of understanding of the times in which it was written. A Tale of Two Cities, for example.

Steinbeck, Twain, and books such as Fahrenheit 451 and Catch-22 are also good. But literary growth is about more than reading classic literature. Whatever books you learn to love, appreciate, and understand the best are what are essential to your literary growth. I learned a lot from The Catcher and the Rye, and I like to think it has helped to shape me into the person I have become. This is why I like it so much, and I recommend it in the hope that it will have an emotional effect on others as well. I hope that doesn't sound too corny to believe.
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I have only read Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck, and Huckleberry Finn by Twain, and haven't read the others, but would agree.

It does sound corny (;) ) but I understand what you mean, and you're very right.

Sorry for the length of my post. ;)
 
Wow, just getting out of highschool, I can tell you I never read much of the mandatory lit books, lazy student, I guess you could say. But the few I did like were the usual:

To Kill a Mockingbird
The Invisable Man
Sir Gaiwan and The Green Night
The Great Gasby
And we had this one in pace setter was for a extra credit: Go ask Alice, I highly reccommend it :)
And ahhh some plays:

Romeo and Juliet
Othello
Hamlet
A Midsummers Night Dream

Can't think of any more high school Lit that I actually liked
I never liked lord of the flies, it was tedious and a little sadistic to me, but I got the point, I was relieved when it was over.
 
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