High School Books
Best Books, Best Books For Every Year Of School, Education, Kids

The Best Books To Read In High School

“What are the best books to read in High School?” We looked at 371 of the top books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!

The top 28 books, all appearing on 4 or more, “Best High School” book lists, are ranked below by how many times they appear. The books include images, descriptions, and links. The remaining 225+ books, as well as the lists we used, are in alphabetical order on the bottom of the page.

For more Best School Year book lists, check below!

The Best Books To Read In Kindergarten
The Best Books To Read In 1st Grade
The Best Books To Read In 2nd Grade
The Best Books To Read In 3rd Grade
The Best Books To Read In 4th Grade
The Best Books To Read In 5th Grade
The Best Books To Read In 6th Grade
The Best Books To Read In 7th Grade
The Best Books To Read In 8th Grade
The Best Books To Read As A Freshman In High School
The Best Books To Read In High School
The Best Books To Read After High School Or Before College
The Best Books To Read In College

Happy Scrolling!



Top High School Book List



28 .) Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Lists It Appears On:

  • Canal Winchester Schools
  • Tes
  • College Xpress
  • Deseret News

“Fifty years after its original publication, Catch-22 remains a cornerstone of American literature and one of the funniest—and most celebrated—books of all time. In recent years it has been named to “best novels” lists by Time, Newsweek, the Modern Library, and the London Observer.

Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy—it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved. “

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27 .) Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Lists It Appears On:

  • Canal Winchester Schools
  • Prep Scholar
  • Tes
  • Lexington Public Library

Mary Shelley’s groundbreaking classic—begun as a ghost story for friends—is a potent blend of science fiction and horror that has inspired countless movie and other adaptations. Nothing, however, equals the depth and beauty of Shelley’s original, which emains as relevant as ever. In his arrogance, Dr. Victor Frankenstein dreams of discovering the very secret of life…and he succeeds, bringing a new creature into existence. But should man ever play God—and if he does, what does he owe his creation?

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26 .) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Lists It Appears On:

  • Canal Winchester Schools
  • Modern Mrs Darcy
  • Prep Scholar
  • Tes

Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations charts the course of orphan Pip Pirrip’s life as it is transformed by a vast, mysterious inheritance. A terrifying encounter with the escaped convict Abel Magwitch in a graveyard on the wild Kent marshes; a summons to meet the bitter, decrepit Miss Havisham and her beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella at Satis House; the sudden generosity of a mysterious benefactor – these form a series of events that change the orphaned Pip’s life forever, and he eagerly abandons his humble station as an apprentice to blacksmith Joe Gargery, beginning a new life as a gentleman. Charles Dickens’s haunting late novel depicts Pip’s education and development through adversity as he discovers the true nature of his identity, and his ‘great expectations’. This definitive version uses the text from the first published edition of 1861. It includes a map of Kent in the early nineteenth century, and appendices on Dickens’s original ending and his working notes, giving readers an illuminating glimpse into the mind of a great novelist at work.

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25 .) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Lists It Appears On:

  • Canal Winchester Schools
  • Modern Mrs Darcy
  • Tes
  • Goodreads

A novel of intense power and intrigue, Jane Eyre has dazzled generations of readers with its depiction of a woman’s quest for freedom. Having grown up an orphan in the home of her cruel aunt and at a harsh charity school, Jane Eyre becomes an independent and spirited survivor-qualities that serve her well as governess at Thornfield Hall. But when she finds love with her sardonic employer, Rochester, the discovery of his terrible secret forces her to make a choice. Should she stay with him whatever the consequences or follow her convictions, even if it means leaving her beloved? This updated Penguin Classics edition features a new introduction by Brontë scholar and award-winning novelist Stevie Davies, as well as comprehensive notes, a chronology, further reading, and an appendix.

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24 .) One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

Lists It Appears On:

  • Goodreads
  • Canal Winchester Schools
  • Prep Scholar
  • Tes

In this classic novel, Ken Kesey’s hero is Randle Patrick McMurphy, a boisterous, brawling, fun-loving rebel who swaggers into the world of a mental hospital and takes over. A lusty, life-affirming fighter, McMurphy rallies the other patients around him by challenging the dictatorship of Nurse Ratched. He promotes gambling in the ward, smuggles in wine and women, and openly defies the rules at every turn. But this defiance, which starts as a sport, soon develops into a grim struggle, an all-out war between two relentless opponents: Nurse Ratched, backed by the full power of authority, and McMurphy, who has only his own indomitable will. What happens when Nurse Ratched uses her ultimate weapon against McMurphy provides the story’s shocking climax.

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23 .) Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Lists It Appears On:

  • Canal Winchester Schools
  • Edutopia
  • Lexington Public Library
  • Goodreads

“Persepolis is the story of Satrapi’s unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming–both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up.

Edgy, searingly observant, and candid, often heartbreaking but threaded throughout with raw humor and hard-earned wisdom–Persepolis is a stunning work from one of the most highly regarded, singularly talented graphic artists at work today.”

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22 .) The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien

Lists It Appears On:

  • Goodreads
  • Lexington Public Library
  • Prep Scholar
  • Tes

“One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell by chance into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins.

From Sauron’s fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor, his power spread far and wide. Sauron gathered all the Great Rings to him, but always he searched for the One Ring that would complete his dominion.

When Bilbo reached his eleventy-first birthday he disappeared, bequeathing to his young cousin Frodo the Ruling Ring and a perilous quest: to journey across Middle-earth, deep into the shadow of the Dark Lord, and destroy the Ring by casting it into the Cracks of Doom.”

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21 .) The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Lists It Appears On:

  • Betches
  • Fab Fit Fun
  • Goodreads
  • Deseret News

“First published in 1850, The Scarlet Letter is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s masterpiece and one of the greatest American novels. Its themes of sin, guilt, and redemption, woven through a story of adultery in the early days of the Massachusetts Colony, are revealed with remarkable psychological penetration and understanding of the human heart.
Hester Prynne is the adulteress, forced by the Puritan community to wear a scarlet letter A on the breast of her gown. Arthur Dimmesdale, the minister and the secret father of her child, Pearl, struggles with the agony of conscience and his own weakness. Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband, revenges himself on Dimmesdale by calculating assaults on the frail mental state of the conscience-stricken cleric. The result is an American tragedy of stark power and emotional depth that has mesmerized critics and readers for nearly a century and a half.”

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20 .) Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Lists It Appears On:

  • eSchool News
  • Goodreads
  • Prep Scholar
  • Tes

Things Fall Apart is the first of three novels in Chinua Achebe’s critically acclaimed African Trilogy. It is a classic narrative about Africa’s cataclysmic encounter with Europe as it establishes a colonial presence on the continent. Told through the fictional experiences of Okonkwo, a wealthy and fearless Igbo warrior of Umuofia in the late 1800s, Things Fall Apart explores one man’s futile resistance to the devaluing of his Igbo traditions by British political andreligious forces and his despair as his community capitulates to the powerful new order.

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19 .) Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Lists It Appears On:

  • Fab Fit Fun
  • Goodreads
  • Lexington Public Library
  • Plexuss
  • Prep Scholar

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families.

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18 .) Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Lists It Appears On:

  • Canal Winchester Schools
  • Prep Scholar
  • Goodreads
  • Deseret News
  • Edutopia

Slaughterhous-Five is one of the world’s great anti-war books. Centering on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim’s odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know.

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17 .) Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Lists It Appears On:

  • Bustle
  • BuzzFeed
  • Canal Winchester Schools
  • Goodreads
  • Lexington Public Library

“The first ten lies they tell you in high school.

“”Speak up for yourself–we want to know what you have to say.”” From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. Only her art class offers any solace, and it is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party: she was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter with him. But this time Melinda fights back, refuses to be silent, and thereby achieves a measure of vindication. In Laurie Halse Anderson’s powerful novel, an utterly believable heroine with a bitterly ironic voice delivers a blow to the hypocritical world of high school. She speaks for many a disenfranchised teenager while demonstrating the importance of speaking up for oneself.”

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16 .) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Lists It Appears On:

  • Goodreads
  • Tes
  • BuzzFeed
  • College Xpress
  • Lexington Public Library

“It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.

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15 .) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Lists It Appears On:

  • Bustle
  • BuzzFeed
  • Fab Fit Fun
  • Edutopia
  • Lexington Public Library

The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky, Perks follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.

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14 .) Animal Farm by George Orwell

Lists It Appears On:

  • Canal Winchester Schools
  • Deseret News
  • Edutopia
  • Goodreads
  • Plexuss
  • Tes

George Orwell’s famous satire of the Soviet Union, in which “all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.

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13 .) Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Lists It Appears On:

  • Fab Fit Fun
  • Goodreads
  • Tes
  • Deseret News
  • Edutopia
  • Plexuss

“They are an unlikely pair: George is “”small and quick and dark of face””; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a “”family,”” clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation.

Laborers in California’s dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. For George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own. When they land jobs on a ranch in the Salinas Valley, the fulfillment of their dream seems to be within their grasp. But even George cannot guard Lennie from the provocations of a flirtatious woman, nor predict the consequences of Lennie’s unswerving obedience to the things George taught him.”

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12 .) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Lists It Appears On:

  • Canal Winchester Schools
  • Goodreads
  • Modern Mrs Darcy
  • Prep Scholar
  • Tes
  • Lexington Public Library

Few have failed to be charmed by the witty and independent spirit of Elizabeth Bennet in Austen’s beloved classic Pride and Prejudice. When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited; he is indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane, she is determined to dislike him more than ever. In the sparkling comedy of manners that follows, Jane Austen shows us the folly of judging by first impressions and superbly evokes the friendships, gossip and snobberies of provincial middle-class life.

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11 .) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Lists It Appears On:

  • Canal Winchester Schools
  • Betches
  • Deseret News
  • Goodreads
  • Prep Scholar
  • Tes

The novel’s preeminence derives from its wonderfully imaginative re-creation of boyhood adventures along the Mississippi River, its inspired characterization, the author’s remarkable ear for dialogue, and the book’s understated development of serious underlying themes: “natural” man versus “civilized” society, the evils of slavery, the innate value and dignity of human beings, and other topics. Most of all, Huckleberry Finn is a wonderful story, filled with high adventure and unforgettable characters.

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10 .) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Lists It Appears On:

  • BuzzFeed
  • eSchool News
  • Goodreads
  • Lexington Public Library
  • Spring Share
  • Tes

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, “The Hunger Games,” a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed.

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9 .) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Lists It Appears On:

  • Canal Winchester Schools
  • Goodreads
  • Prep Scholar
  • Tes
  • Deseret News
  • Lexington Public Library
  • Plexuss

“Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 is a masterwork of twentieth-century literature set in a bleak, dystopian future.

Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.

Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television.

When Mildred attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known. He starts hiding books in his home, and when his pilfering is discovered, the fireman has to run for his life.”

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8 .) The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Lists It Appears On:

  • Canal Winchester Schools
  • Edutopia
  • Goodreads
  • Lexington Public Library
  • Prep Scholar
  • Tes
  • Thought Co.

First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. At once a naturalistic epic, captivity narrative, road novel, and transcendental gospel, Steinbeck’s powerful landmark novel is perhaps the most American of American Classics.

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7 .) Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Lists It Appears On:

  • Flavorwire
  • Goodreads
  • Prep Scholar
  • Thought Co.
  • Deseret News
  • Edutopia
  • Plexuss

One of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century, Their Eyes Were Watching God brings to life a Southern love story with the wit and pathos found only in the writing of Zora Neale Hurston. Out of print for almost thirty years—due largely to initial audiences’ rejection of its strong black female protagonist—Hurston’s classic has since its 1978 reissue become perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature.

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6 .) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Lists It Appears On:

  • Canal Winchester Schools
  • Deseret News
  • Edutopia
  • Goodreads
  • Plexuss
  • Prep Scholar
  • Tes
  • Thought Co.

Aldous Huxley’s profoundly important classic of world literature, Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order–all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls.

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5 .) Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Lists It Appears On:

  • Betches
  • Canal Winchester Schools
  • Deseret News
  • Edutopia
  • Goodreads
  • Lexington Public Library
  • Plexuss
  • Prep Scholar
  • Tes

As provocative today as when it was first published in 1954, Lord of the Flies continues to ignite passionate debate with its startling, brutal portrait of human nature. William Golding’s compelling story about a group of very ordinary boys marooned on a coral island has been labeled a parable, an allegory, a myth, a morality tale, a parody, a political treatise, and even a vision of the apocalypse. But above all, it has earned its place as one of the indisputable classics of the twentieth century for readers of any age.

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4 .) The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Lists It Appears On:

  • Canal Winchester Schools
  • College Xpress
  • Deseret News
  • Fab Fit Fun
  • Goodreads
  • Lexington Public Library
  • Plexuss
  • Prep Scholar
  • Tes

“The hero-narrator of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days.

The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it.

There are many voices in this novel: children’s voices, adult voices, underground voices–but Holden’s voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his own vernacular, yet remaining marvelously faithful to it, he issues a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain and pleasure. However, like most lovers and clowns and poets of the higher orders, he keeps most of the pain to, and for, himself. The pleasure he gives away, or sets aside, with all his heart. It is there for the reader who can handle it to keep.”

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3 .) 1984 by George Orwell

Lists It Appears On:

  • Canal Winchester Schools
  • Deseret News
  • Edutopia
  • Goodreads
  • Huffpost
  • Lexington Public Library
  • Plexuss
  • Prep Scholar
  • Tes
  • Thought Co.

“Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thoughtcrimes. But as he starts to think for himself, Winston can’t escape the fact that Big Brother is always watching…

A startling and haunting vision of the world, 1984 is so powerful that it is completely convincing from start to finish. No one can deny the influence of this novel, its hold on the imaginations of multiple generations of readers, or the resiliency of its admonitions—a legacy that seems only to grow with the passage of time.”

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2 .) The Great Gatbsy by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Lists It Appears On:

  • Betches
  • Canal Winchester Schools
  • College Xpress
  • Deseret News
  • Edutopia
  • Fab Fit Fun
  • Goodreads
  • Modern Mrs Darcy
  • Plexuss
  • Prep Scholar
  • Tes
  • Thought Co.

In planning his novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “I want to write something new – something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned.” Working with anxiety and saw he feeling that it was the supreme test, he committed all his imaginative resources to the project. He eagerly awaited the reception of his masterpiece. T. S. Eliot immediately saw The Great Gatsby for what it was “the first step that American fiction has taken since Henry James,” however, the reviewers and public were not enthusiastic. Only in the subsequent years, after Fitzgerald’s death, has The Great Gatsby come be seen as perhaps the great 20th century American novel, and its protagonist, Jay Gatsby, as one of the truly mythological creations in American culture.

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1 .) To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Lists It Appears On:

  • Betches
  • Canal Winchester Schools
  • College Xpress
  • Deseret News
  • Edutopia
  • Goodreads
  • Lexington Public Library
  • Modern Mrs Darcy
  • Plexuss
  • Prep Scholar
  • Tes
  • Thought Co.

One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.

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The 200+ Additional Best Books For High School



 

#BooksAuthorsLists
(Titles Appear On 3 Lists Each)
29A Clockwork OrangeAnthony Burgess
Canal Winchester Schools
Goodreads
Tes
30Death Of A SalesmanBetches
Deseret News
Plexuss
31DraculaBram StokerGoodreads
Tes
Thought Co.
32Ender’s GameOrson Scott Card
Lexington Public Library
eSchool News
Fab Fit Fun
33Extremely Loud and Incredib…Jonathan Safran FoerFab Fit Fun
Goodreads
BuzzFeed
34Heart of DarknessJoseph ConradFlavorwire
Goodreads
Deseret News
35Looking for AlaskaJohn GreenBuzzFeed
Spring Share
Lexington Public Library
36MacbethWilliam ShakespeareGoodreads
Deseret News
Edutopia
37MonsterWalter Dean Myers
Canal Winchester Schools
Spring Share
Lexington Public Library
38The Bell JarSylvia Plath
Prep Scholar
Lexington Public Library
Canal Winchester Schools
39The CrucibleArthur MillerGoodreads
Prep Scholar
Deseret News
40The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-TimeMark HaddonBuzzFeed
Tes
Goodreads
41The Diary of a Young GirlAnne Frank
Canal Winchester Schools
Goodreads
Prep Scholar
42The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the GalaxyDouglas Adams
Lexington Public Library
Penny Kittle
College Xpress
43The HobbitJ.R.R. Tolkien
Canal Winchester Schools
Goodreads
Tes
44The Kite RunnerKhaled Hosseini
Canal Winchester Schools
Tes
BuzzFeed
45The Old Man and the SeaErnest Hemingway
Canal Winchester Schools
Goodreads
Tes
46The Secret Life of BeesSue Monk KiddBuzzFeed
Goodreads
Lexington Public Library
47Thirteen Reasons WhyJay AsherBuzzFeed
Goodreads
Lexington Public Library
(Titles Appear On 2 Lists Each)
48A Christmas CarolCharles DickensGoodreads
Tes
49A Farewell to ArmsErnest HemingwayFlavorwire
Deseret News
50A Prayer for Owen MeanyJohn IrvingBuzzFeed
Thought Co.
51A Tale of Two CitiesCharles Dickens
Canal Winchester Schools
Goodreads
52A Thousand Splendid SunsKhaled Hosseini
Canal Winchester Schools
Penny Kittle
53All Quiet on the Western FrontErich Maria Remarque
Canal Winchester Schools
Goodreads
54Black Like MeJohn Howard Griffin
Canal Winchester Schools
Lexington Public Library
55Bury My Heart at Wounded KneeAlexander Dee Brown
Canal Winchester Schools
Prep Scholar
56Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?Philip K. DickGoodreads
eSchool News
57DuneFrank HerbertGoodreads
College Xpress
58East of EdenJohn Steinbeck
Modern Mrs Darcy
Plexuss
59Fast Food Nation : The Dark Side Of The All-American MealEric Schlosser
Lexington Public Library
Goodreads
60Flowers for AlgernonDaniel Keyes
Prep Scholar
Lexington Public Library
61For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is EnufNtozake Shange
Prep Scholar
Lexington Public Library
62Go Ask AliceBeatrice SparksGoodreads
Lexington Public Library
63Gone With The WindMargaret MitchellGoodreads
Lexington Public Library
64Gulliver’s TravelsJonathan SwiftTes
Canal Winchester Schools
65HamletWilliam ShakespeareGoodreads
Deseret News
66I Know Why The Caged Bird SingsMaya AngelouGoodreads
Lexington Public Library
67Life of PiYann MartelPenny Kittle
Tes
68Little BrotherCory DoctorowGoodreads
Lexington Public Library
69Maus I : A Survivor’s Tale : My Father Bleeds HistoryArt Spiegelman
Lexington Public Library
Goodreads
70Mrs. DallowayVirginia WoolfFlavorwire
Modern Mrs Darcy
71Native SonRichard A. Wright
Canal Winchester Schools
Lexington Public Library
72NightElie WieselGoodreads
Edutopia
73Oedipus RexSophoclesGoodreads
Prep Scholar
74Oliver TwistCharles Dickens
Canal Winchester Schools
Tes
75SiddharthaHermann Hesse
Canal Winchester Schools
Goodreads
76The AlchemistPaulo CoelhoGoodreads
Edutopia
77The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and HopeWilliam KamkwambaPenny Kittle
Canal Winchester Schools
78The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar WaoJunot DíazPenny Kittle
BuzzFeed
79The Handmaid’s TaleMargaret AtwoodBuzzFeed
Edutopia
80The Martian ChroniclesRay BradburyGoodreads
Penny Kittle
81The OdysseyHomer
Prep Scholar
Deseret News
82The OutsidersS.E. HintonGoodreads
Lexington Public Library
83The Picture of Dorian GrayOscar WildeBetches
Goodreads
84The Poisonwood BibleBarbara KingsolverBuzzFeed
Goodreads
85The Princess BrideWilliam Goldman; Michael Manomivibul (Illustrator)
Spring Share
Lexington Public Library
86The StrangerAlbert CamusBetches
Goodreads
87The Things They CarriedTim O’Brien
Thought Co.
Goodreads
88Treasure IslandRobert Louis Stevenson
Canal Winchester Schools
Tes
89Water for ElephantsSara GruenBuzzFeed
Canal Winchester Schools
90Wuthering HeightsEmily BronteTes
Goodreads
(Titles Appear On 1 Lists Each)
9119 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle EastNaomi Shihab Nye
Canal Winchester Schools
9290 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Life and DeathDon Piper & Cecil Murphy
Canal Winchester Schools
93A Bottle in the Gaza SeaValerie ZenattiPenny Kittle
94
A Child Called “It” : One Child’s Courage To Survive
Lexington Public Library
95A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s CourtMark Twain
Canal Winchester Schools
96A Gracious PlentySheri Reynolds
Canal Winchester Schools
97A Hand Full of StarsRafik Schami translatedPenny Kittle
98A Kestrel for a KnaveBarry HinesTes
99A Lesson Before DyingErnest J. GainesGoodreads
100A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy SoldierIshmael Beah
Canal Winchester Schools
101A Midsummer Night’s DreamWilliam ShakespeareGoodreads
102A Modest ProposalJonathan SwiftTes
103A Monster CallsPatrick NessTes
104A Passage to IndiaEM ForsterTes
105A People’s History of the U…Howard ZinnGoodreads
106A River Runs Through ItNorman Maclean
Canal Winchester Schools
107A Rose that Grew from ConcreteTupac Shakur
Canal Winchester Schools
108A Song of Ice and Fire seriesGeorge RR MartinTes
109
A Streetcar Named Desire
Lexington Public Library
110A Time to DanceBernard MacLavertyTes
111A Tree Grows in BrooklynBetty SmithGoodreads
112A Wrinkle In Time
Lexington Public Library
113AcceptanceSusan CollBustle
114AfterAmy Efaw
Canal Winchester Schools
115Alexander Hamilton
College Xpress
116Alice in WonderlandLewis Carroll
Canal Winchester Schools
117All the Truth That’s in MeJulie BerryPenny Kittle
118Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to DreamTanya Lee StonePenny Kittle
119American Born Chinese
Lexington Public Library
120And Harry PotterJ.K. RowlingBuzzFeed
121Angels and DemonsDan Brown
Canal Winchester Schools
122Anita and MeMeera SyalTes
123
Anne Frank : The Diary Of A Young Girl
Lexington Public Library
124Ape House : A NovelSara Gruen
Canal Winchester Schools
125Around the World in Eighty DaysJules VerneTes
126As I Lay DyingWilliam Faulkner
Modern Mrs Darcy
127As You Like ItWilliam ShakespeareGoodreads
128Atlas ShruggedAyn Rand
Canal Winchester Schools
129AtonementIan McEwanTes
130AwkwardSvetlana Chmakova
Spring Share
131BartleHerman MelvilleGoodreads
132Bastard out of CarolinaDorothy Allison
Canal Winchester Schools
133Beautiful Music for Ugly ChildrenKirstin Cronn-MillsPenny Kittle
134Before Life HappenedIsabel CurtisGoodreads
135Being JazzJazz Jennings (Read by)
Spring Share
136BelovedToni Morrison
Canal Winchester Schools
137Beneath a Meth MoonJacqueline WoodsonBustle
138Beneath My Mother’s FeetAmjed QamarPenny Kittle
139BirdAnne LamottGoodreads
140BirdsongSebastian FaulksTes
141Black Paratroopers writtenTanya Lee Stone, publishedPenny Kittle
142Black RainMasuji Ibuse
Prep Scholar
143Bless Me, UltimaRudolfo Anaya
Prep Scholar
144Blue GoldElizabeth StewartPenny Kittle
145BluefishPat Schmatz
eSchool News
146Bonfire of the VanitiesTom WolfeFlavorwire
147BossypantsTina FeyBuzzFeed
148Bradbury Stories: 100 of Hi…Ray BradburyGoodreads
149Brighton RockGraham GreeneTes
150BrotherhoodA.B. WestrickPenny Kittle
151CarameloSandra Cisneros
Canal Winchester Schools
152CarrieStephen KingBustle
153Carry the SkyKate GrayBustle
154Catcher in the RyeEdutopia
155Charlie & the Chocolate FactoryRoald Dahl
Canal Winchester Schools
156Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted DaughterAdeline Mah
Canal Winchester Schools
157ChupacabraRoland SmithPenny Kittle
158Cider with RosieLaurie LeeTes
159Convicted in the WombCarl UpchurchPenny Kittle
160Courage Has No ColorTanya Lee StonePenny Kittle
161Cradle to Cradle: Remaking …William McDonoughGoodreads
162Crank
Lexington Public Library
163Crime and PunishmentFyodor DostoyevskyGoodreads
164Criminals : A NovelMargot Livesey
Canal Winchester Schools
165Crush It!Huffpost
166Danny, Champion of the WorldRoald DahlTes
167Dare MeMegan AbbottBustle
168DeadlineChris Crutcher
Canal Winchester Schools
169Destined to Witness: Growing up Black in Nazi GermanyHans J. MassaquoiPenny Kittle
170Does My Head Look Big in This?Randa Abdel-FattahBuzzFeed
171DragonsongAnne McCaffrey (Book One of Harper Hall Trilogy)Penny Kittle
172DublinersJames JoyceTes
173Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The …Lynne TrussGoodreads
174Eleanor & ParkRainbow RowellBuzzFeed
175EmmaJane AustenTes
176FaceBenjamin ZephaniahTes
177FeedM.T. Anderson
Canal Winchester Schools
178Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights and Other IdentitiesAnna Deveare Smith
Canal Winchester Schools
179First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia RemembersLoung Ung
Canal Winchester Schools
180ForeverJudy BlumeTes
181Forgotten FireAdam Bagdasarian
Canal Winchester Schools
182Freakonomics: A Rogue Econo…Steven D. LevittGoodreads
183FreedomJonathan FranzenFab Fit Fun
184From the Barrio to the Board Room, or Mi BarrioRobert Renteria
eSchool News
185
Funny How Things Change
Lexington Public Library
186Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic DesignChip Kidd, published byPenny Kittle
187Golden BoyTara SullivanPenny Kittle
188Half BrotherKenneth Oppel
Canal Winchester Schools
189Half of a Yellow SunChimamanda Ngozi AdichieBuzzFeed
190Have a Little FaithMitch Albom.
Canal Winchester Schools
191High FidelityNick Hornby
Canal Winchester Schools
192HiroshimaPlexuss
193His Dark MaterialsPhilip PullmanTes
194HolesLouis SacharTes
195House RulesJodi Picoult
eSchool News
196How to Read Literature Like…Thomas C. FosterGoodreads
197
How To Win Friends and Influence People
Huffpost
198I am FourPittacus LorePenny Kittle
199I Am MalalaChristina Lamb and Malala YousafzaiBuzzFeed
200I Am the Darker Brother: An Anthology of Modern PoemsAfrican Americans
Canal Winchester Schools
201I Was Jane Austen’s Best FriendCora Harrison
Canal Winchester Schools
202Imprisoned: The Betrayal of Japanese Americans During WW11Martin SandlerPenny Kittle
203In Cold BloodPlexuss
204In the Time of ButterfliesJulia Alvarez
Canal Winchester Schools
205In the Unlikely EventJudy Blume
Spring Share
206Inside OutMaria Snyder (Inside Out Series)Penny Kittle
207Invisible ManEdutopia
208iSucceedHuffpost
209James L. Swanson, publishedScholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.Penny Kittle
210Jasper JonesCraig SilveyBuzzFeed
211Jesus LandJulia ScheeresPenny Kittle
212John AdamsDavid McCullough
Canal Winchester Schools
213
Journey to the Center of the Earth
College Xpress
214Julius CaesarWilliam ShakespeareGoodreads
215Jumping off SwingsJohanna Knowles
Canal Winchester Schools
216Just Listen : A Novel
Lexington Public Library
217Leaves of GrassWalt WhitmanGoodreads
218Les MiserablesVictor Hugo
Thought Co.
219Liberal MediaJohn Stossel.
Canal Winchester Schools
220Life is FunnyE.R. Frank
Canal Winchester Schools
221LindberghScott A. Berg
Canal Winchester Schools
222Little WomenLouisa May Alcott
Canal Winchester Schools
223LolitaVladimir Nabokov
Canal Winchester Schools
224Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’sJohn Elder Robison.
Canal Winchester Schools
225Lord of the RingsJ.R.R. Tolkien
Canal Winchester Schools
226LuckyAlice Sebold
Canal Winchester Schools
227MaddAddamMargaret AtwoodPenny Kittle
228Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale:…Art SpiegelmanGoodreads
229Med School Confidential: A Complete Guide to the Medical School Experience,Students, for Students
Canal Winchester Schools
230
Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus
Huffpost
231Mere ChristianityC.S. LewisGoodreads
232Midnight’s ChildrenSalaman Rushdie
Canal Winchester Schools
233Moby DickHerman Melville
Canal Winchester Schools
234Moonhead and the Music MachineAndrew RaeBustle
235Most Notorious NaziNeal Bascomb, publishedPenny Kittle
236My Family and Other AnimalsGerald DurrellTes
237Never Let Me GoKazuo IshiguroTes
238
Nick And Norah’s Infinite Playlist
Lexington Public Library
239Nineteen MinutesJodi PicoultGoodreads
240Ninjas Have IssuesGreg Stones
Spring Share
241Notorious NaziNeal BascombPenny Kittle
242On the RoadJack Kerouac
Canal Winchester Schools
243On Writing: A Memoir of the…Stephen KingGoodreads
244Oryx and CrakeMargaret AtwoodBuzzFeed
245Palace WalkNaguib MahfouzPenny Kittle
246Parrot in the Oven: Mi VidaVictor MartinezPenny Kittle
247Percy Jackson’s Greek HeroesRick Riordan; John Rocco (Illustrator)
Spring Share
248Postcards from No Man’s LandAidan Chambers
Canal Winchester Schools
249PrepCurtis SittenfeldBustle
250Private PeacefulMichael MorpurgoTes
251ProxyAlex LondonPenny Kittle
252PushJacqueline Woodson
Canal Winchester Schools
253Raising Stony MayhallDaryl Gregory
eSchool News
254Reading Between the LinesThomas Foster
Canal Winchester Schools
255Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United StatesLoriPenny Kittle
256Refugee BoyBenjamin ZephaniahTes
257Rich Dad, Poor DadHuffpost
258Robinson CrusoeDaniel Defoe
Canal Winchester Schools
259Room : A NovelEmily Donohue
Canal Winchester Schools
260RootsAlex Haley
Canal Winchester Schools
261Rose Under FireElizabeth WeinPenny Kittle
262Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are DeadTom Stoppard
Modern Mrs Darcy
263ScanSarah Fine and Walter JuryPenny Kittle
264Sea of PoppiesAmitav GhoshPenny Kittle
265ShakenEric WaltersPenny Kittle
266She’s Come UndoneWally LambBuzzFeed
267Shizuko’s DaughterKyoko MoriPenny Kittle
268Sing You HomeJodi Picoult
Canal Winchester Schools
269SkelligDavid AlmondTes
270Smoke and Ashes: The Story of the HolocaustBarbara Rogasky
Canal Winchester Schools
271Sold
Lexington Public Library
272Special Topics in Calamity PhysicsMarisha PesslBustle
273Speed of DarkElizabeth MoonPenny Kittle
274Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different, a biographyKaren BlumenthalPenny Kittle
275Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr HydeRobert Louis StevensonTes
276Students on StrikeJohn A. Stokes; Lois Wolfe (As told to); Herman J. Viola; Herman Viola
Spring Share
277Tears Of A Tiger
Lexington Public Library
278Tess of the d’UrbervillesThomas HardyTes
279The 1963 Birmingham Children’s MarchCynthia LevinsonPenny Kittle
280
The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian
College Xpress
281The Artemis Fowl seriesEoin ColferTes
282The Autobiography of Malcolm XMalcolm XGoodreads
283The AwakeningKate Chopin
Prep Scholar
284The Bald SopranoEugène IonescoFlavorwire
285The Bean TreesBarbara Kingsolver
Canal Winchester Schools
286The Bluest EyeEdutopia
287The Book Of Three
Lexington Public Library
288The Boy in the Striped PyjamasJohn BoyneTes
289The Brothers KaramazovFyodor Dostoevsky
Canal Winchester Schools
290The Color PurpleAlice Walker
eSchool News
291The Compound EffectHuffpost
292The Crazy Makers: How the Fook Industry is Destroying our Brains and Harming our ChildrenCarol
Canal Winchester Schools
293The DaVinci CodeDan Brown
Canal Winchester Schools
294The Difference MakerHuffpost
295The Discworld seriesTerry PratchettTes
296The Ecological RiftJohn Bellamy FosterGoodreads
297The Farming of BonesEdwidge Danticat
Canal Winchester Schools
298The Fault In Our StarsJohn GreenTes
299The Fifth WaveRick YanceyPenny Kittle
300The First Part Last
Lexington Public Library
301The GiverLois LowryGoodreads
302The Glass CastleJeannette WallsBuzzFeed
303The Good BraiderTerry FarishPenny Kittle
304The Great DivorceC.S. LewisGoodreads
305The Harry Potter SeriesJK RowlingTes
306The HelpKathryn Stockett
Canal Winchester Schools
307The House of the ScorpionNancy FarmerGoodreads
308The House on Mango StreetSandra CisnerosPenny Kittle
309The IliadHomerGoodreads
310The Inventor’s Secret (The Inventor’s Secret #1)Andrea CremerPenny Kittle
311The Iron BreedAndre NortonPenny Kittle
312The Joy Luck ClubAmy Tan
Prep Scholar
313The Lessons of HistoryHuffpost
314The Lightning ThiefRick RiordanGoodreads
315The Lion, the Witch and the…C.S. LewisGoodreads
316The Lives of TaoWesley ChuPenny Kittle
317The Long EarthTerry Pratchett, Stephen BaxterPenny Kittle
318
The Magic of Thinking Big
Huffpost
319The Mayor of CasterbridgeThomas HardyTes
320The Merchant of VeniceWilliam ShakespeareGoodreads
321The MetamorphosisKafka
Canal Winchester Schools
322The New KidsBrooke Hauser
Spring Share
323
The Norton Anthology Series
Flavorwire
324The Noughts and Crosses trilogyMalorie BlackmanTes
325The Ocean at the End of the LaneNeil Gaiman
Spring Share
326
The Once and Future King
College Xpress
327The Prisoner’s Wifeasha bandelePenny Kittle
328The Queen of WaterLaura ResauPenny Kittle
329The Raven and Other PoemsEdgar Allan PoeGoodreads
330The Return of the KingJ.R.R. TolkienGoodreads
331The RoadEdutopia
332
The Sandman. Volume 1, Preludes & Nocturnes
Lexington Public Library
333The Sherlock Holmes seriesArthur Conan DoyleTes
334The Testing (The Testing Trilogy Series #1)Joelle CharbonneauPenny Kittle
335The Two TowersJ.R.R. TolkienGoodreads
336The Ugly AmericanEugene Burdick and William Lederer
Prep Scholar
337The Ultimate GiftHuffpost
338The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A NovelMilan Kundera
Canal Winchester Schools
339The Virgin SuicidesJeffrey EugenidesBustle
340The War Within These WallsAline SaxPenny Kittle
341The Wolves of CurrumpawWilliam Grill (Illustrator)
Spring Share
342The YearlingMarjorie Kinnans Rawlings
Canal Winchester Schools
343This Changes Everything: Ca…Naomi KleinGoodreads
344This I Believe: The Persona…Jay AllisonGoodreads
345Through My EyesRuby BridgesPenny Kittle
346Timebound (The Chronos Files, Book 1)Rysa WalkerPenny Kittle
347Titanic: Voices from the DisasterDeborah HopkinsonPenny Kittle
348To the LighthouseVirginia Woolf
Canal Winchester Schools
349TraffikNorman Jean Roy and Mariane PearlPenny Kittle
350True Letters from a Fictional LifeKenneth Logan
Spring Share
351Tuesdays with MorrieMitch AlbomGoodreads
352Twilight
Lexington Public Library
353UgliesScott WesterfeldBuzzFeed
354WaitingHa JinPenny Kittle
355Walden and Other WritingsHenry David ThoreauGoodreads
356War HorseMichael MorpurgoTes
357WatchmenAlan MooreGoodreads
358Whale Talk
Lexington Public Library
359What If?Randall Munroe
Spring Share
360When Hitler Stole Pink RabbitJudith KerrTes
361White TeethZadie SmithTes
362Will Grayson, Will GraysonJohn GreenGoodreads
363Wise BloodFlannery O’Connor
Canal Winchester Schools
364Witch Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch TrialsMarc Aronson
Canal Winchester Schools
365WitchesRosalyn Schanzer
Spring Share
366WonderRJ PalacioTes
367World War Z : An Oral History of the Zombie WarMax Brooks
Canal Winchester Schools
368Writing Down the Bones: Fre…Natalie GoldbergGoodreads
369You Killed Wesley PayneSean Beaudoin
Canal Winchester Schools
370Your Path Ahead: Don’t Dig …Jeff SmithGoodreads
371Zen in the Art of WritingRay BradburyGoodreads


20 Best High School Book Sources/Lists



SourceArticle
Betches A RANKING OF THE BOOKS WE READ IN HIGH SCHOOL
Bustle 11 High School Books That Will Take You Back to Your Days in the Schoolyard
BuzzFeed 26 Contemporary Books That Should Be Taught In High School
Canal Winchester Schools Books You Should Read Before Graduating from High School
College Xpress Great Books to Read This Summer if You’re in High School
Deseret News Dust off one of these 21 classic books that you probably read in high school for National Read A Book Day
Edutopia 20 Indispensable High School Reads
eSchool News 10 books for high school summer reading
Fab Fit Fun All the Best Books You Read in High School
Flavorwire The Best Books We Were Assigned in High School
Goodreads Best Books to Teach in high school
Huffpost 11 Books Every High School Student Should Read
Lexington Public Library 50 Books to Read in High School
Modern Mrs Darcy 9 books you should have read in high school that are totally worth reading now.
Penny Kittle Non-fiction Social Justice books for High School
Plexuss 15 Books Every High School Student Should Read
Prep Scholar The 31 Best Books to Read in High School
Spring Share Best Books for Freshman High School Students
Tes 100 fiction books all children should read before leaving secondary school – according to teachers
Thought Co. Great Books from High School Summer Reading Lists