EDITED: Suggested titles for English classes (Starred* titles are especially recommended), compiled by Phyllis Tashlik
Appropriate children’s book, young adult books, and easy adult books:

Speak by Anderson*

Go Ask Alice (anonymous)*

Perks of Being a Wallflower by Chbosky*

White Oleander by Fitch
 The Skin I’m In by Flake*

A Lesson Before Dying by Gaines*

Carrie by Stephen King

The Talisman by Stephen King

The Contender by Lipsyte*

Books by S.E. Hinton: The Outsiders, That Was Then This Is Now, Rumble Fish,
Tex*
 A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle*

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by Lewis

The Call of the Wild by London

Flowers for Algernon by Keyes*

The Secret Life of Bees by Kidd*

Daddy Was a Number Runner by Meriwether*

Books by Nicholasa Mohr: El Bronx Remembered, Nilda, En Nueva York*

Devil in a Blue Dress by Mosley*

Monster by Myers*

Interview With a Vampire by Rice

Harry Potter series by Rowling*

Holes by Sachar

Coffee Will Make You Black by Sinclair*

Coldest Winter by Sister Souljah*

Life is Funny by E. R. Frank*

Bang—Flake

Boy—R. Dahl

Always Running: Gang Days in LA—Rodriguez

Finding Fish—Antwone Fisher

Blankets (graphic novel)—Craig Thompson

Feed—M.T. Anderson

Twilight – Stephanie Myers

The Autobiography of a Part-time Indian—Sherman Alexie

The Alchemist—Paul Coelho

Jon Krakauer—Into the Wild

Walter Mosley—always outnumbered, always outgunned

The Road—Cormack McCarthy

Uglies


The House of the Scorpion

The Last Book in the Universe -- Rodman Philbrick
 easier to read than Fahrenheit 451

Rites of Passage (Richard Wright)

Tangerine (Edward Bloor)

Bad Boy (Myers)

Slam! (Walter Myers)

Tyrell (Coe Booth)

Gossip Girls series

Tears Of A Tiger by Sharon M. Draper

Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen

Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman

47 by Walter Mosley

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

Bodega Dreams—Ernesto Quinonez (based on The Great Gatsby)

Black Boy by Richard Wright

Tuck Everlasting by Babbit

The Education of Little Tree by Carter*

The Facts Speak for Themselves by Cole

Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King

Teacup Full of Roses by Mathis

The Diary of Latoya Hunter by Hunter

Black Folktales by Julius Lester

The Giver by Lowry

Lisa Bright and Dark by Neufeld

Choke by Palahniuk*

The Learning Tree by Parks

The Wanderers by Price*

Bodega Dreams by Quinonez*

Interview with a Vampire by Rice

Boy without a Flag by Rodriguez*

Hispanic, Female and Young by Tashlik

Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck

The Pigman by Zindel

Hole in My Life—Gantos

Going Solo—R. Dahl

Living Up the Street—Gary Soto (chapter “Being Mean”)
 Mama’s Girl—Chambers
Drama

Anna Deavere Smith: Fires in the Mirror

More Challenging:

Bastard Out of Carolina by Allison

Rule of the Bone by Banks

Like Water for Chocolate by Esquivel

Ellen Foster by Gibbons

The Miracle Worker by Gibson

A Place Where the Sea Remembers by Benitez

Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury

House on Mango Street by Cisneros
 Childhood’s End by Clarke

Spidertown—Rodriguez
Science Fiction
 Childhood’s End by Clarke

I Robot

I Am Legend—James Matheson

The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien

The Unseen (4-book series)
 Cat’s Cradle
Adult books That Usually Work

Life of Pi—Yann Martel

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time—Mark Haddon

The Assistant—Bernard Malamud

The House of the Spirits—Isabel Allende

Macbeth—Wm. Shakespeare

Lord of the Flies—William Golding

Antigone—Sophocles

Catch-22—Joseph Heller
 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest—Ken Kesey

A Clockwork Orange—Anthony Burgess\

The Fixer—Bernard Malamud

The Bluest Eye—Toni Morrison
Might be Useful in Social Studies:

Freedom Road by Howard Fast (historical fiction of post Civil War—the
Reconstruction period in the South)

Waiting for the Rain by Sheila Gordon (apartheid in South Africa)
 Freedom’s Children by Levine (US—Civil Rights movement 60s)

To Be A Slave by Julius Lester
 The Things They Carried by O’Brien (fictional account of Vietnam war)

Animal Farm by Geo. Orwell
Mystery


Agatha Christie—Then There Were None (or Ten Little Indians)
Horror

Cirque Du Freak (series)
Anthologies

Writing New York: A Literary Anthology by Phillip Lopate

145 th
Street by Walter B. Myers

A Walk in My World: International Stories About Youth by Anne Mazer
Non-Fiction

Letters to a Young Brother: MANifest Your Destiny by Hill Harper

When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago

Child Called It, Dave Pelzer*

The Lost Boy, Dave Pelzer

Basketball Diaries, Jim Carroll

The Laramie Project, Moises Kaufman

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

Dreams From My Father—Barak Obama

Random Family
History

Sundiata (13 th
c. Mali)