High School Reading Recommendations: Summer 2012

Our official High School Summer Reading List is here! Get a jumpstart on your reading now by downloading the pdf or by checking out the list below.

2012 High School Reading Recommendations
 

Ashfall
by Mike Mullin
466 pgs.
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A teen struggles to survive after a supervolcano causes mass destruction and anarchy.

The Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons From Extraordinary Lives
collected by Katie Couric
262 pgs.
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Leaders share insights about success and fulfillment.

Big Girl Small
by Rachel DeWoskin
294 pgs.
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A 4’ tall 16-yr-old wows everybody with her singing voice, but soon finds herself immersed in a controversy.

Blink & Caution
by Tim Wynne-Jones
342 pgs.
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In this mystery novel, two street kids become involved in a complicated criminal plot.

Blood Red Road
by Moira Young
459 pgs.
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Set in a future dried-up wasteland, a girl must become a cage fighter in order to save her family.

Boy21
by Matthew Quick
250 pgs.
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An African American student from a private school begins playing basketball in a blue collar Irish town.

The Buddha in the Attic
by Julie Otsuka
129 pgs.
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Follows the stories of six Japanese mail-order brides at the turn of the century.

Chime
by Franny Billingsley
361 pgs.
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17-yr-old Briony, a secret witch, can see the spirits that haunt the marshes surrounding her town.

Daughter of Smoke & Bone
by Laini Taylor
418 pgs.
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An art student in Prague carries a sketchbook full of hideous monsters who may or may not be real.

The Fault in Our Stars
by John Green
318 pgs.
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Two sarcastic cancer patients bond over their shared love of an author .

The Future of Us
by Jay Asher and Carolyn Macker
368 pgs.
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In the 90’s, two students stumble upon their future Facebook pages. Can they change their destiny?

How to Save a Life
by Sara Zarr
341 pgs.
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When Jill’s mother agrees to adopt the baby of 19-yr-old Mandy, nothing turns out as anticipated.

I Hunt Killers
by Barry Lyga
359 pgs.
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When a murderer sends police into a panic, they enlist the help of the son of a serial killer.

The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media
by Brooke Gladstone
graphic novel, 170 pgs.
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NPR’s Gladstone dissects today’s modern media.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
by Ransom Riggs
352 pgs.
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After growing up hearing tales of a mysterious orphanage and monsters, a teenager sets out to find the truth.

My Friend Dahmer
by Derf Backderf
graphic novel, 221 pgs.
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A former classmate of the serial killer paints a portrait of Jeffrey Dahmer’s adolescent years.

The New Kids: Big Dreams and Brave Journies at a High School for Immigrant Teens
by Brook Hauser
308 pgs.
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Tracks the staff & students at a school in Brooklyn.

The Night Circus
by Erin Morgenstern
387 pgs.
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Two magicians, in competition with each other since childhood, use their magic to control a mystical circus.

Paper Covers Rock
by Jenny Hubbard
183 pgs.
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After the accidental drowning of a student at a boarding school, friends become involved in a cover-up.

Pure
by Julianna Baggott
434 pgs.
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After the Apocalypse, Pures live inside a dome, untouched by the atrocities outside, while others struggle to survive.

Robopocalypse
by Daniel H. Wilson
347 pgs.
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A computer goes rogue, causing all the machines on earth to rebel against their human controllers.

Salvage the Bones
by Jesmyn Ward
261 pgs.
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Four siblings, one a pregnant teen, struggle to prepare their home and family for Hurricane Katrina

The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt: a Novel in Pictures
by Caroline Preston
228 pgs.
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A story as a scrapbook about a Vassar student in the 20s.

Shine
by Lauren Myracle
359 pgs.
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When Cat’s best friend is put in the hospital, she sets out to find the perpetrator and determine if it was a hate crime.

Stay
by Deb Caletti
313 pgs.
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Clara spends a summer in a remote corner of Washington to escape her obsessive boyfriend.

Strings Attached
by Judy Blundell
310 pgs.
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While Kit struggles to make it on Broadway, she accepts help from a family friend, who has connections to the Mob.

Talk Funny Girl
by Roland Merullo
304 pgs.
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Marjorie is abused by parents who follow a strict cult-leader, and who have created their own family dialect.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
by Michelle Hodkin
456 pgs.
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Mara cannot recall the night that three of her friends died, but begins to suspect that she could be responsible.

The Watch that Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic
by Allan Wolf
466 pgs.
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The disaster through the eyes of multiple characters.

Where Things Come Back
by John Corey Whaley
228 pgs.
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While his town is excited about a thought-to-be-extinct woodpecker coming back, Cullen’s brother goes missing.

Why We Broke Up
by Daniel Handler, art by Maira Kalman
354 pgs.
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A fully illustrated book centered around a break-up letter.

Zahra's Paradise
by Amir & Khalil
graphic novel, 255 pgs.
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Follows the search for a young protester who goes missing after the fraudulent 2009 Iranian elections. 

 

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