Staff Picks

Books you should have read in school. Classics that aren't a waste of your time.

Dee

1. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
2. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
3. Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Michelyn

Here are a few fantastic works of fiction that I think everyone should have read- NOT because they are on your Accelerated Reader list but because they are actually enjoyable, not to mention well written.

1. A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith
2. 1984 by George Orwell
3. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
4. The Giver by Lois Lowry
5. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
6. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
7. On the Beach by Nevil Shute

 

Amber

I have chosen ten classics, each of which I feel represents a time, place and culture in American life that every citizen should familiarize themselves with. Our country has produced so many great stories - some with even greater social ramifications - that it was hard to choose just ten.
 
1. Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) - Harriet Beecher Stowe
2. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)  - Mark Twain
3. The Call of the Wild (1903) - Jack London
4. My Antonia (1918) - Willa Cather
5. The Great Gatsby (1925) - F. Scott Fitzgerald
6. A Farewell to Arms (1929) - Ernest Hemingway
7. The Grapes of Wrath (1939) - John Steinbeck
8. The Catcher in the Rye (1951) - J.D. Salinger
9. Invisible Man (1952) - Ralph Ellison
10. To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) - Harper Lee

Judy

Each of the books I have chosen to entertain, inspire and comfort me.

1. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
2. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska Orczy
3. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
4. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
5. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
6. A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
7. On the Beach by Neville Shute
8. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
9. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
10. The Counte of Monte Christo by Alexandre Dumas

Lori

These books may not be classics in the strictest sense of the word, but I think these works have something to offer that appeals to a wide range of ages. 
1. A Ring of Endless Light - L'Engle, Madeline   (This book is one my all time favorites from my school days.  It left a couple of profound thoughts in my head that I still think about after all this time.)
2.  Fallen Angels - Meyers, Walter Dean (This is a powerful look at the front lines of Vietnam from the eyes of a teenager from Harlem.)
3.  The Book Thief - Zusak, Markus (Death narrates the story of Liesel, a book thief, in World War II Germany. This book is incredibly powerful and thought provoking).
4.  To Kill a Mockingbird - Lee, Harper  (I'm cheating - I actually read this one in school, but if for some reason your school didn't include this on the reading list...check it out!)
5.  Tarzan of the Apes -  Burroughs, Edgar Rice (This one may not make a lot of sense at first glance, but it is considered classic literature.  I think this is a fun book to read and might encourage reluctant readers to revisit older great works.)
6.  Wuthering Heights - Bronte, Emily (I'm cheating again! I read this one in school and it's one of my favorites of all time!)

 

Cecelia

Where the Red Fern Grows. Wilson Rawls.
The Witch of Blackbird Pond. Elizabeth G. Speare.
Tuck Everlasting. Natalie Babbitt.
Little Women. Louisa May Alcott.
The Jungle Book. Rudyard Kipling.
The Wind in the Willows. Kenneth Grahame.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
The Secret Garden. Frances Hodgson .
Johnny Tremain. Esther Forbes.