An exciting world of adventure for teens

Writer Judy Blume celebrated her birthday on February 12. So, in keeping with the Addie’s commitment to encouraging the youth to read, here is a list of young adult books suggested by Goodreads.com readers for teenagers aged 13 to 16. Many of these are the first book in a series which will keep your teen entertained for volumes to come.

The Great Gatsby

By F. Scott Fitzgerald

This exemplary novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession,” it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.

 

The Catcher in the Rye

By J.D. Salinger

The hero-narrator is a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield (16). 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. He 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.

 

Animal Farm

By George Orwell

“All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others.” On an English farm, Major the boar recounts his vision of a utopia where his fellow creatures own the land along with the means of production and are no longer the slaves of humans. Before long his dream comes true, and for a short while all animals really are equal. But the clever pigs educate themselves and soon learn how to extend their own power, inevitably at the expense of the rest of the community.

 

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

By Maya Angelou

Series: Maya Angelou’s Autobiography #1.

Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.

 

Lord of the Flies

By William Golding

When a plane crashes on a remote island, a small group of schoolboys are the sole survivors. From the prophetic Simon and virtuous Ralph to the lovable Piggy and brutish Jack, each of the boys attempts to establish control as the reality – and brutal savagery – of their situation sets in. The boys’ struggle to find a way of existing in a community with no fixed boundaries invites readers to evaluate the concepts involved in social and political constructs and moral frameworks.

 

Frankenstein

By Mary Shelley

At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering the cause of generation and life and bestowing animation upon lifeless matter, Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts, but upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature’s hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein.

 

Divergent

by Veronica Roth

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue. On an appointed day of every year, all 16-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is -she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

 

Conjured

By Sarah Beth Durst

Eve has a new home, a new face, and a new name – but no memories of her past. She’s been told that she’s in a witness protection programme. She believes she escaped a dangerous magic-wielding serial killer who still hunts her. The only thing she knows for sure is that there is something horrifying in her memories the people hiding her want to access – and there is nothing they won’t say – or do – to her to get her to remember.

Enchanted Ivy

By Sarah Beth Durst

What Lily Carter wants most in the world is to attend Princeton University just like her grandfather. When she finally visits the campus, Grandpa surprises her: she has been selected to take the top-secret Legacy Test. Passing means automatic acceptance to Princeton. She must find the Ivy Key. But what is she looking for? Where does she start? As she searches, Lily is joined by Tye, a cute college boy who says he’s her guard. That’s weird. But things get seriously strange when a gargoyle talks to her.

 

Reawakened

By Colleen Houck

When Lilliana Young (17) enters the Metropolitan Museum of Art one morning during Spring Break, the last thing she expects to find is a live Egyptian prince with godlike powers, who has been reawakened after a thousand years of mummification. And she really can’t imagine being chosen to aid him in an epic quest that will lead them across the globe to find his brothers and complete a grand ceremony that will save mankind.

 

Forgotten

by Cat Patrick

Each night at precisely 4.33am, while London Lane (16) is asleep, her memory of that day is erased. In the morning, all she can “remember” are events from her future. London is used to relying on reminder notes and a trusted friend to get through the day, but things get complicated when a new boy at school enters the picture. Luke Henry is not someone you’d easily forget, yet try as she might, London can’t find him in her memories of things to come.

 

The Hunger Games

By Suzanne Collins

The nation of Panem, formed from a post-apocalyptic North America, is a country that consists of a wealthy Capitol region surrounded by 12 poorer districts. As a reminder of the power and grace of the Capitol, each district must yield one boy and one girl between 12 and 18, through a lottery system, to participate in the televised Hunger Games. The ‘tributes’ are chosen during the annual Reaping and are forced to fight to the death, leaving only one survivor to claim victory.

 

Ender’s Game

By Orson Scott Card

Andrew “Ender” Wiggin thinks he is playing computer-simulated war games. He is, in fact, engaged in something far more desperate. The result of genetic experimentation, Ender may be the military genius Earth desperately needs in a war against an alien enemy seeking to destroy all human life. The only way to find out is to throw Ender into ever harsher training, to chip away and find the diamond inside, or destroy him utterly. Ender Wiggin is six years old when it begins. He will grow up fast.

 

The Maze Runner

By James Dashner

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers – boys whose memories are also gone. Nice to meet ya, shank. Welcome to the Glade. Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out – and no one’s ever made it through alive. Everything is going to change. Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying.

 

Deenie

By Judy Blume

When Deenie finds out that she has scoliosis, she’s scared. When she sees the brace for the first time, she wants to scream. But the words won’t come out. And Deenie, beautiful Deenie, who everyone says should be a model, is stuck wearing a brace from her neck to her hips. For four years – or longer. She never worried about how she looked before – how will she ever face the hard times ahead?

 

The Lord of the Rings

By J.R.R. Tolkien

Through the urgings of the enigmatic wizard Gandalf, young hobbit Frodo Baggins embarks on an urgent, incredibly treacherous journey to destroy the One Ring. This ring – created and then lost by the Dark Lord Sauron centuries earlier – is a weapon of evil, one that Sauron desperately wants returned to him. The only way to prevent this horrible fate from becoming reality is to return the Ring to Mordor, the only place it can be destroyed. Unfortunately for our heroes, Mordor is also Sauron’s lair.

 

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

By Douglas Adams

Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last 15 years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor. Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker’s Guide (“A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have”) and a galaxy-full of fellow travellers.

 

Eragon

By Christopher Paolini

One boy. One dragon. A world of adventure. When Eragon finds a polished blue stone in the forest, he thinks it is the lucky discovery of a poor farm boy. Perhaps it will buy his family meat for the winter. But when the stone brings a dragon hatchling, Eragon realises he has stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself. Overnight his simple life is shattered, and he is thrust into a perilous new world of destiny, magic, and power.

 

City of Bones

By Cassandra Clare

When Clary Fray (15) heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder, much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It’s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing – not even a smear of blood – to show that a boy has died. This is Clary’s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons.

 

Twilight

By Stephenie Meyer

High school student Bella Swan, always a bit of a misfit, doesn’t expect life to change much when she moves from sunny Arizona to rainy Washington state. Then she meets Edward Cullen, a handsome but mysterious teen whose eyes seem to peer directly into her soul. The pair of star-crossed lovers pursue a forbidden relationship which ripens against the backdrop of small-town suspicion and a mysterious coven of vampires. This is a love story with bite.