When some bookstore friends asked for Young Adult novel suggestions, members of MiddleWeb's reading/writing project listserv pitched in and offered these student favorites. They included a few non-fiction, anthology and poetry selections as well.

Favorite Young Adult Books



NOVELS

A Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket series
A Wrinkle in Time and Many Waters, Madeleine L'Engle
Among the Hidden/Among the Imposters by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging (Georgia Nicolson series) by Louise Rennison
Annie's Baby and Go Ask Alice by Anonymous (edited by Beatrice Sparks)
Athletic Shorts, Compilation by Chris Crutcher (mature students)
Because of Winn Dixie by Kate Dicamillo
The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
Cages, and Danger at the Fair, by Peg Kehret
California Blue by David Klass
"The Cat Who..." Mysteries By Lilian Jackson Braun
The Cay by Theodore Taylor
Celia, A Slave by Melton A. Mclaurin
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare (the entire series) by Darren Shan
The Contender by Robert Lipsyte
Cut by Patricia McCormick
Dealing With Dragons (series) by Patricia C. Wrede
DeathWatch by Robb White
Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey by Margaret Haddix
Drive-By by Lynn Ewing
Ella Enchanted, Gail Carson Levine
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz
The Everest Series- Gordon Korman
The Face on the Milk Carton series (3) by Caroline B. Cooney
Far North by Will Hobbs
Flight to Freedom, Ana Veciana-Suarez
Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen
Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun, Jacqueline Woodson
Gary Paulson books (fiction and non-fiction, any title!)
The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts
The Giver and Gathering Blue, Lois Lowry
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (and others in Dark Materials trilogy)
Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Holes by Louis Sacher (hopefully before the kids see the movie!)
Hoot by Carl Hiassen
Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
Into Thin Air and Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Last Book in the Universe by Rodman Philbrick
Lemony Snicket novels
Lirael (and others) by Garth Nix
Lord of the Rings/Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Loser by Jerry Spinelli
The Lottery Rose by Irene Hunt
Love Among The Walnuts by Jean Ferris
Love That Dog by Sharon Creech
Lyddie by Katherine Paterson
Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman
Nothing But the Truth by Avi
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Numbering All the Bones by Ann Rinaldi
The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Parvana's Journey by Deborah Ellis
Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky ( advanced 8th graders)
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
The Princess Diaries series by Meg Cabot
Push by Sapphire
R.L. Stine books (Especially ones with dead cheerleaders!)
Sabriel by Garth Nix
Scorpions by Walter Dean Myers
Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind by Suzanne Fisher Staples
Shade's Children by Garth Nix
Silent to the Bone by E.L. Konigsburg
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
Skeleton Man by Joseph Bruchac
The Skin I'm In by Sharon G. Flake
Soldier's Heart By Gary Paulsen
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher
Stones by William Bell (Canadian)
Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman
Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements
The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo
Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
The Wanderer by Sharon Creech
The Watsons Go to Birmingham -1963, Christopher Paul Curtis
Weasel by Cynthia DeFelice
Whale Song by Jennifer Hopson
What Happened to Lani Garver by Carol Plum-Ucci
What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones
When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt
Who Put That Hair in My Toothbrush by Jerry Spinelli
Willo Davis Roberts (any and everything)
Witch Child by Celia Rees
Witness by Karen Hesse
Zach's Lie by Roland Smith


NON-FICTION

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, et. al.
A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer (also The Lost Boy)
Freedom's Children, Ellen Levine
Guts: The True Stories Behind Hatchet and the Brian Books by Gary Paulsen
I Have Lived a Thousand Years: Growing Up in the Holocaust by Livia Bitton-Jackson
Selma, Lord, Selma


ANTHOLOGIES

And the People Could Fly. also by Virginia Hamilton
Baseball in April and Other Stories by Gary Soto
Cut from the Same Cloth: American Women of Myth, Legend, and Tall Tale, Robert D. SanSouci
Every Living Thing by Cynthia Rylant
Her Stories. Told by Virginia Hamilton.
Not One Damsel in Distress, collected by Jane Yolen
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros


POETRY

The Dreamkeeper and Other Poems by Langston Hughes
Going Over to Your Place by Paul Janeczko
Honey I Love, and Other Love Poems by Eloise Greenfield
I Feel a Little Jumpy Around You by Naomi Shihab Nye
Making Friends with Frankenstein by Colin McNaughton
Poetry Matters (This one will help them write too!)
Poetspeak by Paul Janeczko
Pterodactyls and Pizza edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins
Quilting the Black Eyed-Pea, Nikki Giovanni
Sky Scrape, City Scape: Poems of City Life by Jane Yolen
Spectacular Science: A Book of Poems edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins
Sweetcorn by James Stevenson
This Same Sky, poems selected by Naomi Shihab Nye


Yahooligans Book Club


Also see these lists:

Great Middle School Books

Great Read-Aloud Books

Back to the Reader Workshop Index Page