Books, Books, Books! Classics for Teens

Adams, Douglas- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Arthur Dent, a refugee from the late planet Earth and his pal from the planet Betelgeuse, Ford Prefect, thumb their way thru comic misadventures throughout the Universe.

Alcott, Louisa May- Little Women

Chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters as they grow into young ladies in nineteenth-century New England.

Austen,, Jane- Emma

The story of a rich, clever, and beautiful young woman who can't resist orchestrating other peoples love lives.

Austen, Jane- Sense and Sensibility

The Dashwood sisters, sensible Eleanor and passionate Marianne, find their chances at marriage seemingly doomed by their family's sudden loss of fortune.

Austen, Jane- Pride and Prejudice

The story of lively and rebellious Elizabeth Bennett, one of five unmarried daughters living in the countryside of 19th century England, in a world where an advantageous marriage is a woman's sole occupation. Elizabeth's early determination to dislike Mr. Darcy is a misjudgment only matched in folly by Darcy's arrogant pride.

Bradbury, Ray- Fahrenheit 451

Guy Montag, a fire fighter and book-burner for the State, discovers that in order to remain human he must preserve the books that attest to his humanity in this classic science fiction novel.

Bronte, Charlotte- Jane Eyre

The harshly treated orphan girl, Jane Eyre, becomes a governess in a mysterious Yorkshire mansion and falls in love with the master of the house.

Bronte, Emily- Wuthering Heights

The story of two generations of the Earnshaw and Linton families, as their lives and fortunes intertwine in a complex web dominated by the passionate relationship between doomed lovers Heathcliff and Cathy.

Burnett, Frances Hodgson- The Secret Garden

The story of the ten-year-old orphan who goes to live in a lonely house on the Yorkshire moors, where she discovers an invalid cousin and the mysteries of a locked garden.

Burnett, Frances Hodgson- A Little Princess

Sara Crewe, a pupil at Miss Minchin's London school, is left in poverty when her father dies but is later rescued by a mysterious benefactor.

Burnford, Shelia- The Incredible Journey

A Siamese cat, an old bull terrier, and a young Labrador retriever travel together 250 miles through the Canadian wilderness to find their family.

Carroll, Lewis- Alice in Wonderland

By falling down a rabbit hole and stepping through a mirror, Alice experiences unusual adventures with a variety of nonsensical characters.

Cather, Willa- My Antonia

In the late nineteenth century, Ántonia, a fourteen-year-old immigrant girl from Bohemia, and Jim Burden, a ten-year-old orphan boy, arrive in Black Hawk, Nebraska, and in teaching each other form a friendship that will last a lifetime.

Cooper, James- The Last of the Mohicans

In 1757, the third year of the French and Indian War, Hawkeye, a colonial scout, and his friends, Chingachkook, a chief of the Mohicans, and his son Uncas risk their lives to guide two English sisters through hostile territory and evade the evil Huron, Magua, who is determined to destroy them.

Crane, Stephen- Red Badge of Courage

During his service in the Civil War a young Union soldier matures to manhood and finds peace of mind as he comes to grips with his conflicting emotions about war.

Defoe, Daniel- The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

The diary of an Englishman shipwrecked for almost thirty years on a small isolated island where, using wit and industry, he manages to build life anew.

Dickens, Charles- A Christmas Carol

Cold-hearted Ebenezer Scrooge, the meanest miser in London, discovers the true holiday spirit after he is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.

Dickens, Charles- Oliver Twist

An orphan in 19th-century London finds himself in the company of thieves and pickpockets.

Dickens, Charles- Tale of Two Cities

Set before and during the French Revolution in Paris and London, this is the story of a doctor who is wrongly imprisoned by the French for 18 years. He is finally rescued and reunited with his beautiful young daughter who is loved by two men. She marries one of them, and the other saves her husband's life.

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

A collection of Sherlock Holmes mystery adventures

Dumas, Alexander- Count of Monte Cristo

An innocent man, Edmond Dantes, is imprisoned for years on a godforsaken island while the friend who betrayed him takes Dantes' ravishing fiancé for himself. Dantes eventually escapes, recovers a fortune in buried pirate treasure, transforms himself into the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo, and methodically goes about exacting his revenge.

Dumas, Alexander- Man in the Iron Mask

In the Musketeers' final adventure, D'Artagnan remains in the service of the corrupt King Louis XIV after the Three Musketeers have retired and gone their separate ways. Meanwhile, a mysterious prisoner in an iron mask wastes away deep inside the Bastille. When the destinies of king and prisoner converge, the Three Musketeers and D'Artagnan find themselves caught between conflicting loyalties.

Dumas, Alexander- The Three Musketeers

In seventeenth-century France, young D'Artagnan initially quarrels with, then befriends, three musketeers and joins them in trying to outwit the enemies of the king and queen.

Farley, Walter- The Black Stallion

Young Alec Ramsay is shipwrecked on a desert island with a horse destined to play an important part in his life. Following their rescue, their adventure continues in America.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott- The Great Gatsby

About a mysterious American millionaire whose efforts to recapture the sweetheart of his youth results in tragedy.

Forbes, Ester- Johnny Tremain

In 1773 in Boston, Johnny Tremain is fourteen and apprenticed to a silversmith. He is cheerful and clever and lords over the other apprentices until the tragic day when a crucible of molten silver breaks and Johnny's right hand is so burned as to be useless. After a period of despair and humiliation, Johnny becomes a dispatch rider for the Committee of Public Safety, a job that brings him in touch with Otis, Hancock, John and Samuel Adams, and other Boston patriots, and with all the exciting currents and undercurrents that were to lead to the Boston Tea Party.

Gipson, Fred- Old Yeller

The story of a boy and his dog in the Texas hill country of the 1860s.

Golding, William- The Lord of the Flies

A plane wreck deposits a group of boys, aged six to twelve, on an isolated tropical island. Their struggle to survive and impose order on their existence quickly evolves from a battle against nature into a battle against their own primitive instincts.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel- The Scarlet Letter

Hester Prynne, an independent-minded woman, stands alone against society. Having given birth to a child after an illicit affair she refuses to name the father and is forced to wear the letter A for adulteress embroidered on her dress.

Heller, Joseph- Catch-22

The story of a handful of the wildest flyboys of World War II, their tight little Mediterranean island, and their loose Italian women, Catch-22 is a novel of war and peace, of beauty and the beast within all men. The Catch-22: soldiers who won't fly a plane into combat must be crazy, but if they ask not to fly on the grounds that they are crazy, they must be sane.

Hemingway, Ernest- The Sun Also Rises

A story of expatriate Americans and British living in Paris after the First World War.

Hemingway, Ernest- The Old Man and the Sea

An aging Cuban fisherman, alone in a small skiff, catches a magnificent marlin and must defy the sea, marauding sharks, and his own flagging strength to bring his great catch home

Hugo, Victor- Hunchback of Notre Dame

The story of the grotesque hunchback, Quasimodo, and his devotion to the gypsy girl, Esmeralda, in 15th century France.

Irving, Washington- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

A superstitious schoolmaster, in love with a wealthy farmer's daughter, has a terrifying encounter with a headless horseman.

Kesey, Ken- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

The story of a man whose rebelliousness pits him against the head nurse of a mental ward and the full spectrum of institutional repression.

Keyes, Daniel- Flowers for Algernon

Mentally retarded Charlie Gordon participates in an experiment that turns him into a genius but only temporarily.

Kipling, Rudyard- The Jungle Book

Presents the adventures of Mowgli, a boy raised by wolves and other animals of the Indian jungle.

Knowles, John- A Separate Peace

Against the backdrop of World War II, the rivalry of two roommates at a boys' school turns into a private war.

Lee, Harper- To Kill a Mocking Bird

Two children in a small southern town are thrust into an adult world of racial bigotry and hatred when their lawyer father chooses to defend a black man unjustly accused of raping a white girl.

Lewis, C.S.- The Chronicles of Narnia

Narnia is the land of enchantment, glory, and nobility--home to the magnificent Aslan, cruel Jadis (the White Queen), heroic Reepicheep, and kind Mr. Tumnus.  The Narnia books are: The Magician's Nephew, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, The Horse and His Boy, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and The Last Battle.

London, Jack- Call of the Wild

The adventures of an unusual dog, part St. Bernard, part Scotch shepherd, forcibly taken to the Klondike gold fields where he eventually becomes the leader of a wolf pack.

London, Jack- White Fang

Part wolf and part dog, orphaned White Fang relies on his instincts as well as his inborn strength and courage to survive in the Yukon wilderness despite both animal and human predators but eventually comes to make his peace with man.

Melvile, Herman- Moby Dick

Retells the story of the ill-fated voyage of a whaling ship led by the fanatical Captain Ahab in search of the white whale that had crippled him.

Mitchell, Margaret- Gone With the Wind

Focuses on the life and loves of the beautiful and selfish Scarlett O'Hara. The story begins on the O'Haras' Georgia plantation of Tara in antebellum days and moves through the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Montgomery, L.M.- Anne of Green Gables series

            Anne of Green Gables

            Anne of Avonlea

            Anne of the Island

            Anne of Windy Poplars

            Anne's House of Dreams

            Anne of Ingleside

            Rainbow Valley

            Rilla of Ingleside

Anne, an eleven-year-old orphan, is sent by mistake to live with a lonely, middle-aged brother and sister on a Prince Edward Island farm and proceeds to make an indelible impression on everyone around her.

Orwell, George- 1984

In a grim city and a terrifying country, where Big Brother is always Watching You and the Thought Police can practically read your mind, Winston is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. He knows the Party's official image of the world is a fluid fiction. He knows the Party controls the people by feeding them lies and narrowing their imagination. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party.

Orwell, George- Animal Farm

When the downtrodden beasts of Manor Farm oust their drunken human master and take over management of the land, all are awash in collectivist zeal. Everyone willingly works overtime, productivity soars, and for one brief, glorious season, every belly is full. The animals' Seven Commandment credo is painted in big white letters on the barn. All animals are equal. No animal shall drink alcohol, wear clothes, sleep in a bed, or kill a fellow four-footed creature. Those that go upon four legs or wings are friends and the two-legged are, by definition, the enemy. Too soon, however, the pigs who have styled themselves leaders by virtue of their intelligence, succumb to the temptations of privilege and power.

Rawlings, Marjorie- The Yearling

A young boy living in the Florida backwoods is forced to decide the fate of a fawn he has lovingly raised as a pet.

de Saint-Exupery, Antoine- The Little Prince

An aviator whose plane is forced down in the Sahara Desert encounters a little prince from a small planet who relates his adventures in seeking the secret of what is important in life.

Salinger, J.D.- The Catcher in the Rye

Holden Caulfield narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists.

Sewell, Anna- Black Beauty

A horse in nineteenth-century England recounts his experiences with both good and bad masters

Shelley, Mary- Frankenstein

A monster assembled by a scientist from parts of dead bodies develops a mind of his own as he learns to loathe himself and hate his creator.

Steinbeck, John- Of Mice and Men

In depression-era California, two migrant workers dream of better days on a spread of their own until an act of unintentional violence leads to tragic consequences.

Steinbeck, John- The Grapes of Wrath

The novel about the plight of American farmers who were forced off their farms by drought and foreclosure during the 1930s. It follows the migration of the Joad family to California from their dust-bowl farm in Oklahoma during the Great Depression

Stevenson, Robert L.- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

A kind and well-respected doctor is transformed into a murderous madman by taking a secret drug of his own creation

Stevenson, Robert L.- Kidnapped

A sixteen-year-old orphan is kidnapped by his villainous uncle, but later escapes and becomes involved in the struggle of the Scottish highlanders against English rule

Stevenson, Robert L.- Treasure Island

An innkeeper's son finds a treasure map that leads him to a pirate's fortune.

Stoker, Bram- Dracula

After discovering the double identity of the wealthy Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula, a small group of people vow to rid the world of the evil vampire.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher- Uncle Tom's Cabin

Although the American anti-slavery movement had existed at least as long as the nation itself, Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) galvanized public opinion as nothing had before. Its vivid dramatization of slavery's cruelties so aroused readers that it is said Abraham Lincoln told Stowe her work had been a catalyst for the Civil War.

Swift, Jonathan- Gulliver's Travels

Bizarre tale of an 18th-century Englishman who travels to strange lands that are strangely like home. It chronicles Gulliver's travels in Lilliput and Brobdingnag, and brings to life the Laputans, Struldbruggs, and Houynhnhms.

Tolkien, J.R.R- The Hobbit

Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to take part in an adventure from which he may never return.

Tolkien, J.R.R.- The Lord of the Rings trilogy

            The Fellowship of the Ring

            The Two Towers

            Return of the King

During his eleventy-fifth birthday celebration, Bilbo Baggins reluctantly agrees to give up the powerful but corrupt Ring of Power he found years before in The Hobbit. But getting rid of the ring turns out to be no easy task. Bilbo's nephew, Frodo, and his friends take center stage to help dispose of the ring before some truly unsavory characters can obtain it.

Twain, Mark- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The adventures of a mischievous young boy and his friends growing up in a Mississippi River town in the nineteenth century

Twain, Mark- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The adventures of a boy and a runaway slave as they float down the Mississippi River on a raft.

 Twain, Mark- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

The hit on the head that sent protagonist Hank Morgan back through 13 centuries did not affect his natural resourcefulness. Using his knowledge of an upcoming eclipse, Hank escapes a death sentence, and secures an important position at court. Gradually, he introduces 19th century technology so the clever Morgan soon has an easy life.

Verne, Jules- Around the World in 80 Days

In 1872, English gentleman Phileas Fogg has many adventures as he tries to win a bet that he can travel around the world in eighty days.

Verne, Jules- Journey to the Center of the Earth

A team of explorers makes an expedition into a crater in Iceland which leads to the center of the earth and to incredible and horrifying discoveries.

Verne, Jules- 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

Retells the adventures of a French professor and his two companions as they sail above and below the world's oceans as prisoners on the fabulous electric submarine of the deranged Captain Nemo.

Vonnegut, Kurt- The Slaughterhouse-Five

Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. Billy travels in time and space, stopping here and there throughout his life.

Wells, H.G.- The Time Machine

When a Victorian scientist propels himself into the year AD 802,701, he is initially delighted to find that suffering has been replaced by beauty, contentment, and peace. Entranced at first by the Eloi, an elfin species descended from man, he soon realizes that these beautiful people are simply remnants of a once-great culture--now weak and childishly afraid of the dark. They have every reason to be afraid: in deep tunnels beneath their paradise lurks another race descended from humanity--the sinister Morlocks. And when the scientist's time machine vanishes, it becomes clear he must search these tunnels if he is ever to return to his own era.

Wells, H.G. -War of the Worlds

Ten massive, super-intelligent aliens from Mars touch down in Victorian England and threaten to reduce the civilized world to cinder in short order, as humanity's vaunted knowledge proves to be of little use in such an emergency

Wharton, Edith- Ethan Frome

Set against the bleak winters of New England, Ethan Frome is story of a farmer and his obsession with his wife’s cousin.

White, T.H.- The Sword in the Stone

Growing up in a colorful world peopled by knights in armor and fair damsels, foul monsters and evil witches, young Arthur slowly learns the code of being a gentleman.  Under the wise guidance of Merlin, the all-powerful magician for whom life progresses backwards, the king-to-be is trained in the gusty pursuits of falconry, jousting, hunting and sword play.  He is even transformed by his remarkable old tutor into various animals, so that he may experience life from all points of view.  In every conceivable and exciting way he is readied for the day when he, and he alone of all Englishmen, is destined to draw forth the marvelous sword from the magic stone and become the rightful King of' England.

Wilde, Oscar- The Canterville Ghost

A celebrated and feared English ghost is outraged when the new American owners of his haunting place refuse to take him seriously and actually fight back against him.

Wyss, Johann David- Swiss Family Robinson

A Swiss family with four boys becomes shipwrecked on a deserted island where they spend ten years imaginatively altering their "New Switzerland" into a home.