Pinetree Secondary Best Books for Grade 11 & 12 Students
Author
Adams, Douglas
Call
Number
ADA
Summary
Title
The Hitch hiker's guide
to the galaxy (1980)
180 p.
Albom, Mitch
ALB
The five people you
meet in heaven (2003)
342 p.
Anderson, Laurie
Halse
AND
Anderson, M.T.
AND
Anderson, M. T.
Speak (2002)
197 p.
AND
The hilarious journey of Arthur Dent and his
friend Ford Prefect, a space hitchhiker, who
escape from earth seconds before it is
demolished. They travel to a variety of
galactic civilizations while gathering
information for a hitchhiker’s guidebook.
Killed in a tragic accident, Eddie, an elderly
man who believes that he had an uninspired
life, awakens in the afterlife, where he
discovers that heaven consists of having five
people explain the meaning of one's life.
A traumatic event near the end of the summer
has a devastating effect on Melinda's
freshman year in high school.
259 p.
In the future where most people have
computer implants in their heads to control
their environment, a boy meets an unusual girl
who is in serious trouble.
The astonishing life of
Octavian Nothing,
traitor to the nation: the
pox party (2006) 368 p.
Various diaries, letters, and other manuscripts
chronicle the experiences of Octavian, a young
African American, from birth to age sixteen, as
he is brought up as part of a science
experiment in the years leading up to and
during the Revolutionary War.
Feed (2002)
Page 2
A novel of the future explores a world that has
been devastated by ecological and scientific
disasters.
Atwood,
Margaret
ATW
Bachman,
Richard
BAC
Black, Holly
BLA
Tithe: a modern faerie
tale (2002)
310 p.
Sixteen-year-old Kaye, who has been visited
by faeries since childhood, discovers that she
herself is a magical faerie creature with a
special destiny.
Bray, Libby
BRA
Going bovine (2009)
Cameron Smith, a disaffected sixteen yearold who, after being diagnosed with
Creutzfeld Jakob's (aka mad cow) disease,
sets off on a road trip with a death-obsessed
video gaming dwarf he meets in the hospital
in an attempt to find a cure.
Bray, Libby
BRA
A great and terrible
beauty (2004)
After the suspicious death of her mother in
1895, sixteen-year-old Gemma returns to
England, after many years in India, to attend a
finishing school where she becomes aware of
her magical powers and ability to see into the
spirit world.
Oryx and Crake (2003)
432p.
Long walk (1996)
370 p.
416 p.
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Of the 100 boys who begin a grueling
marathon walk, 99 will die and one will have
his every wish granted. Or will he?
Page 3
Card, Orson Scott
CAR
Ender’s game (1985)
349 p.
Andrew “Ender” Wiggin, a young genius in
Battle school, where he is training to fight the
alien Buggers, has to put his skills to the
ultimate test much sooner than he expected.
Chbosky,
Stephen
CHE
Perks of being a
wallflower (1999) 213 p.
A series of letters to an unknown
correspondent reveals the coming-of-age trials
of a high-schooler named Charlie.
Chevalier, Tracy
CHE
Girl with a pearl earring
(1999)
A poor seventeenth-century servant girl knows
her place in the household of the painter
Johannes Vermeer, but when he begins to
paint her, nasty whispers and rumors circulate
throughout the town
233 p.
Choy, Wayson
CHO
The Jade Peony (1995)
238 p.
Coupland,
Douglas
COU
Girlfriend in a coma
(1998)
284 p.
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Now adults, members of a tight-knit Canadian
Chinese family recall their childhood days in
Vancouver, B.C. during the 1930s and 1940s.
A candid, yet affectionate portrait is drawn of
family life and the collective Chinese
community. Themes of tenderness and
brutality, racism and loyalty, humour and
heartbreak are woven into their experiences of
that time and place.
When Karen Ann MacNeil awakens after being
in a coma for eighteen years, the world
suddenly encounters disturbing, terrifying, and
radical changes altering reality, and Karen and
her friend must try to stop the madness and
restore order to the world.
Page 4
Davies,
Robertson
DAV
Deuker, Carl
DEU
Fifth business (1970)
308 p.
On the devil's court
(1988)
252 p.
Dick, Philip K.
DIC
Do androids dream of
electric sheep? (1996)
244 p.
Doctorow, Cory
DOC
Little Brother (2008)
384 p.
Draper, Sharon
DRA
Tears of a tiger (1994)
180 p.
Farmer, Nancy
FAR
The House of the
Scorpion (2002)
380 p.
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A retiring Canadian history professor reveals
the true nature of his eerie, mystical influence
on those around him. The first in a trilogy.
Struggling with his feelings of inadequacy and
his failure to make the basketball team at his
new school, seventeen-year-old Joe Faust
finds himself willing to trade his soul for one
perfect season of basketball.
In January 2021, years after World War
Terminus has destroyed the planet, bounty
hunter Rick Deckard remains on the Earth
pursuing his vocation of hunting down and
killing rogue androids.
After being interrogated for days by the
Department of Homeland Security in the
aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San
Francisco, California, seventeen-year-old
Marcus, released into what is now a police
state, decides to use his expertise in computer
hacking to set things right.
High-school senior Andy Jackson is overcome
by guilt after his best friend dies in an
automobile accident that happened when Any
was driving drunk.
In a future where humans despise clones, Matt
enjoys special status as the young clone of El
Patron, the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt
drug empire nestled between Mexico and the
United States.
Page 5
Fleischman, Paul
FLE
Whirligig (1998)
133 p.
Friesen, Gayle
FRI
Janey’s girl (1998)
224 p.
While travelling to each corner of the country
to build a whirligig in memory of the girl whose
death he causes, sixteen-year-old Brian finds
forgiveness and atonement.
When fourteen-year-old Claire and her mother,
Jane, return to her mother's hometown for a
visit, Claire watches her mother become more
and more anxious. This trip, and Jane's
agitation, enable Claire to learn the answer to
some family secrets and meet a half brother
she didn't know she had.
Garden, Nancy
GAR
Annie on my mind
(1982)
233 p.
Liza puts aside her feelings for Annie after the
disaster at school, but eventually she allows
love to triumph over the ignorance of people.
Gibson, William
GIB
Mona Lisa Overdrive
(1988)
Living in the vast computer landscape of
cyberspace, young Mona taps into the mind of
world-famous Sense/Net star Angie Mitchell
who deciphers cyberspace plans, including
those devised by Japanese underworld.
260 p.
Golding, Willian
GOL
Lord of the flies (1954)
243 p.
Green, John
GRE
Looking for Alaska
(2005)
237 p.
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The classic study of human nature which
depicts the degeneration of a group of
schoolboys marooned on a desert island.
Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver
Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes
good friends and great pranks, but is defined
by the search for answers about life and death
after a fatal car crash.
Page 6
Haddon, Mark
HAD
The curious incident of
the dog in the nighttime (2004)
226 p.
Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting
with people, Christopher, a mathematicallygifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to
investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and
uncovers secret information about his mother.
Hill, Lawrence
HIL
The book of negroes
(2007)
486 p.
Spans the life of Aminata Diallo, born in Bayo,
West Africa, in 1745, and follows her journey
from slave to being free.
Far North (1996)
Stranded in the Canadian wilderness, two
boys endure a brutal sub arctic winter of bear,
wolf and moose attacks while they repeatedly
struggle to escape.
Hobbs, Will
HOB
216 p.
Hosseini,
Khaled
HOS
The kite-runner (2003)
368 p.
Hrdlitschka,
Shelley
HRD
Dancing Naked (2001)
249 p.
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Traces the unlikely friendship of a wealthy
Afghan youth and a servant's son, in a tale
that spans the final days of Afghanistan's
monarchy through the atrocities of the present
day.
After Kia discovers that she is pregnant and
that the father wants her to have an abortion,
she must make some difficult decisions, aided
by her youth counselor Justin and Grace, a
woman she met while volunteering at a
senior's home.
Page 7
Hurwin, Davida
HUR
A time for dancing
(1997)
257 p.
Jones, David
JON
Mr. Pip (2007)
256 p.
Juby, Susan
JUB
Alice, I think (2003)
290 p.
Kay, Guy Gavriel
KAY
Ysabel: a novel (2007)
432 p.
Kidd, Sue Monk
KID
Secret life of bees
(2002)
301 p.
Kingsolver,
Barbara
KIN
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The Bean Trees (1988)
232p.
Seventeen-year-old best friends Samantha
and Juliana, who share a passion for dance,
for life, and for each other, tell their stories in
alternating chapters after Juliana is diagnosed
with cancer.
On a copper-rich tropical island shattered by
war, on which survival is a daily struggle,
eccentric Mr. Watts, the only white man left
after the other teachers flee, spends his day
reading to the local children from Charles
Dickens's classic "Great Expectations.".
Fifteen-year-old Alice keeps a diary as she
struggles to cope with the embarrassments
and trials of family, dating, school, work, small
town life, and a serious case of "outcastitis.".
While his famed photographer father works to
record Saint-Saveur Cathedral of Aix-enProvence, Ned Marriner wanders the halls and
rooms of the ancient structure, uncovering
some of the many secrets of the monument
and discovering that it is not as empty as it
appears.By the author of The Last Light of the
Sun. 35,000 first printing.
After her "stand-in mother," a bold black
woman named Rosaleen, insults the three
biggest racists in town, Lily Owens joins
Rosaleen on a journey to Tiburon, South
Carolina, where they are taken in by three
black, bee-keeping sisters.
Taylor Greer hits the road wanting only to get
as far away from Kentucky as possible, ending
up in Arizona with a 3-year-old Cherokee girl
she has inherited from a woman in a bar.
Page 8
Lansens, Lori
LAN
The girls: a novel (2005)
416 p.
Marchetta, Melina
MAR
Looking for Alibrandi
(1999)
250 p.
Marsden, John
MAR
Tomorrow when the
war began (1995)
286 p.
Martel, Yan
MAR
Life of Pi (2001)
319 p.
McCarthy,
Cormac
MCC
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The Road (2006)
One of the world's oldest living craniopagus
conjoined twins at the approach of her thirtieth
birthday, bookish Rose Darlen attempts to pen
her autobiography while remembering the joys
and challenges of her life with sister Ruby.
During her senior year in a Catholic school in
Sydney, Australia, seventeen-year-old Josie
meets and must contend with the father she
has never known.
When they return from a wilderness camping
trip, Ellie and her friends are shocked to
discover Australia has been invaded and soon
find fighting and surviving have become their
way of life.
Possessing encyclopedia-like intelligence,
unusual zookeeper's son Pi Patel sets sail for
America, but when the ship sinks, he escapes
on a life boat and is lost at sea with a
dwindling number of animals until only he and
a hungry Bengal tiger remain.
In a novel set in an indefinite, futuristic,
post-apocalyptic world, a father and his
young son make their way through the ruins
of a devastated American landscape,
struggling to survive and preserve the last
remnants of their own humanity.
Page 9
Morpurgo,
Michael
MOR
Private Peaceful (2003)
202 p.
Myers, Walter
Dean
MYE
Fallen Angels (1988)
309 p.
Myers, Walter
Dean
MYE
Slam! (1996)
266 p.
Nix, Garth
NIX
Sabriel (1995)
491 p.
Oates, Joyce
Carol
OAT
Big mouth & ugly girl
(2002)
266 p.
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When Thomas Peaceful's older brother is
forced to join the British Army, Thomas
decides to sign up as well, although he is only
fourteen years old, to prove himself.
Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry's stint in
Vietnam brings home to him the agony and
futility of war as he learns to kill and watches
his comrades die.
Sixteen-year-old "Slam" Harris is counting on
his noteworthy basketball talents to get him out
of the inner city and give him a chance to
succeed in life, but his coach sees things
differently.
Sabriel makes a desperate quest though the
Gates of Death to free her necromancer father
from the strengthening powers of the spirits of
the dead.
When sixteen-year-old Matt is falsely accused
of threatening to blow up his high school and
his friends turn against him, an unlikely
classmate comes to his aid.
Page 10
Orr, Wendy
ORR
Peeling the onion
(1996)
166 p.
Following an automobile accident in which her
neck is broken, a teenage karate champion
begins a long and painful recovery with the
help of her family.
Picoult, Jodi
PIC
Nineteen minutes
(2007)
464 p.
Bullied Peter finally snaps after years of abuse
at school, and commits an act of violence that
forever changes his life and those around him.
A thought-provoking novel.
Pullman, Phillip
PUL
The golden compass
(1995)
399 p.
With the aid of friends, witches, and armored
polar bears, 12-year-old Lyra fights the evil
that is stealing children and conducting
horrible experiments on them.
Sebold, Alice
SEB
The lovely bones (2002)
Looking down from heaven, 14-year-old Susie
Salmon recounts her rape and murder and
watches her family as they cope with their grief
and "the lovely bones" growing around her
absence.
288 p.
Stewart, Mary
STE
The crystal cave (1984)
494 p.
Towes, Miriam
TOW
A complicated
kindness (2004)
256 p.
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Merlin, the base-born son of royalty in 5thcentury Britain, use magic to outwit his
enemies until he sets the stage for the birth of
Arthur, the future king.
Doomed to work at the Happy Family Farm, a
chicken slaughterhouse in a town run by a
Mennonite community, sixteen-year-old Nomi
Nickel nevertheless manages to bear witness
to the dissolution of her family with a dark, sly
wit.
Page 11
Tullson, Diane
TUL
The red sea (2005)
176 p.
Weyr, Garret
Freymann
WEY
My heartbeat (2002)
154 p.
White, Robb
WHI
Deathwatch (1972)
220 p.
Whyte, Jack
WHY
The Skystone (1996)
352 p.
Wolff, Virginia
Euwer
WOL
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Make lemonade (1993)
200 p.
When modern day pirates attack their boat,
killing her stepfather, seriously injuring her
mother, and taking most of their supplies,
fourteen-year-old Libby has to nurse her
mother, get the crippled boat running, and find
the right course to safety.
Fourteen-year-old Ellen, totally in love with her
adored big brother Link's longtime best friend
James, sets off a disturbing chain of events
when it is suggested to her that Link and
James might be a couple.
Needing money for school, a college boy
accepts a job as a guide on desert hunting trip
and nearly loses his life.
Caius Britannicus becomes friends with Gaius
Publius Varrus, the man who saved him in
Africa, and as he tries to begin a new
community, Varrus, now an ironsmith, hunts
for the strong iron from which his grandfather
made an exquisite sword later to become
Excalibur. (Series: Camulod Chronicles, 1).
High-school student La Vaughn, determined to
earn money for college, baby-sits for Jolly, an
unwed teenage mother of two, and matures in
the process.
Page 12
Ye, Ting-Xing
YE
Throwaway daughter
(2003)
227 p.
Zusac, Markus
ZUS
I am the messenger
(2005)
368 p.
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Adopted as a baby and raised in Canada by
loving parents, Grace rejects her Chinese
heritage until the day she learns of the
Tiananmen Massacre which ignites a desire to
explore her culture and leads her on a search
for her birth parents in China.
After capturing a bank robber, nineteen-yearold cab driver Ed Kennedy begins receiving
mysterious messages that direct him to
addresses where people need help, and he
begins getting over his lifelong feeling of
worthlessness.