About

West Allegheny

Novels

Complete West Allegheny Reading List

It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading. Something that will stretch their imaginations—something that will help them make sense of their own lives and encourage them to reach out toward people whose

lives are quite different from their own. —Katherine Paterson, Newberry Award Winning Children’s Book

Author

West Allegheny School District A Tradition of Excellence . . . A Vision for Tomorrow

GRADE 6

A Long Walk to Water by

Linda Sue Park

Inside Out and Back Again

by Thanhha Lai

Roll of Thunder, Hear My

Cry by Mildred Taylor (GR)

Wonder* by Raquel

Palacio (ALA)

GRADE 7

The Outsiders by S.E.

Hinton (ALA, GR)

Unbroken by Laura

Hillenbrand (ALA)

The Adoration of Jenna

Fox by Mary Pearson

(ALA)

Fever 1793 by Laurie

Halse Anderson (ALA)

The Giver by Lois Lowry

(ALA, GR)

Fish in a Tree* by Mullaly

Hunt

GRADE 8

Drums, Girls, and

Dangerous Pie* by Jordan

Sonnenblick (ALA)

Endangered by Eliot

Schrefer (ALA)

Brown Girl Dreaming by

Jacqueline Woodson

Omnivore’s Dilemma by

Michael Pollan (ALA)

GRADE 9

Tuesdays with Morrie* by

Mitch Albom (ALA, GR)

The Odyssey by Homer

And Then There Were

None by Agatha Christie

(GR)

Romeo and Juliet by

William Shakespeare

(ALA, GR)

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray

Bradbury (GR)

Night by Elie Wiesel (GR)

To Kill a Mockingbird by

Harper Lee (GR)

The Glass Castle

(excerpts) by Jeannette

Walls (ALA)

Sleeping Freshmen Never

Lie by David Lubar (ALA)

Nothing But the Truth by

Avi

GRADE 10

Lord of the Flies* by

William Golding (GR)

A Long Way Gone by

Ishmail Beah (ALA)

Slaughterhouse Five by

Kurt Vonnegut (GR)

Macbeth by William

Shakespeare (ALA, GR)

The Joy Luck Club by Amy

Tan (GR)

Fences by August Wilson

Extremely Loud and

Incredibly Close by

Jonathon Safran Foer

GRADE 11

The Things They Carried*

by Tim O’Brien (GR)

One Flew Over the

Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken

Kesey (GR)

The Crucible by Arthur

Miller (GR)

The Immortal Life of

Henrietta Lacks by

Rebecca Skloot (ALA)

The Book Thief by Markus

Zusak (ALA, GR)

In the Time of Butterflies

by Julia Alvarez

Freakonomics: A Rogue

Economist Explores the

Hidden Side of Everything

by Stephen D. Levitt and

Stephen Dubmer (AP)

In Cold Blood by Truman

Capote (AP)

The Great Gatsby by F.

Scott Fitzgerald (AP) (GR)

GRADE 12

Catcher in the Rye* by J.D.

Salinger (GR)

The Kite Runner* by

Khaled Hosseini (AP) (ALA)

A Thousand Splendid Suns

by Khaled Hosseini

Devil in the White City

(excerpts) by Erik Larson

(ALA)

The Importance of Being

Earnest by Oscar Wilde

(GR)

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Hamlet by William

Shakespeare (GR)

Inferno by Dante Alighieri

(GR)

Frankenstein by Mary

Shelley (AP) (GR)

The Great Gatsby by F.

Scott Fitzgerald (AP) (GR)

The Awakening by Kate

Chopin (AP) (GR)

The Metamorphosis by

Franz Kafka (AP) (GR)

* Summer Reading

(ALA) American Library Association

Recommended Novels for High

School and Middle School

(GR) Good Reads 100 Most Read

Books in Middle School and High

School

A Long Walk to Water, Sue Park Jane Adams Book Award Winner; Recommended Reading, Junior Library Guild

Inside Out & Back Again, Thanhha Lai Newbery Medal Award; National Book Award for Young People’s Literature

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Mildred Taylor

Newbery Medal Award

Wonder, R.J. Palacio Booklist Editors’ Choice: Books for Youth The Outsiders, S. E. Hinton ALA Best Young Adult Book Award; New York Herald Tribune Best

Teenage Book List The Adoration of Jenna Fox, Mary Pearson

Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year; Andre Norton Award Finalist

Fever 1793, Laurie Halse Anderson ALA Best Book for Young Adults Award; Junior Library Guild Selection Award; Parent’s Guide to Media Award

The Giver, Lois Lowry Newbery Medal Award; ALA Best Book for Young Adults Award; School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence and Indies Choice Book Award; Dayton Literary Peace Prize

Fish in a Tree, Lynda Mullaly Hunt ALA Schneider Family Book Award Endangered, Eliot Schrefer National Book Award In Young People’s Literature Finalist; NPR Best

Books: 5 Young Adult Novels That You’ll Never Outgrow; ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults; ALA The Amelia Bloomer Book List

Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson

Newbery Medal Award; NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for Youth and Teens; Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner; National Book Award for Young People’s Literature

Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan James Beard Award; The New York Times Ten Best Books of 2006; YALSA Excellence in Non-fiction for Young Adults Award Nominee

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury National Book Award; American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature

Night, Elie Wiesel Author is recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee Pulitzer Prize Award, Fiction; The Brotherhood Award Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie, David Lubar ALA Best Books for Young Adults Award Nothing but the Truth, Avi Newbery Medal Award A Long Way Gone, Ishmail Beah ALA Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners;

Quill Award Nominee Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut Nebula Award and Hugo Award for Best Selection of Fiction Nominee Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan National Book Award Finalist; National Book Critics Circle Award Fences, August Wilson Pulitzer Prize, Best Drama The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist; Chicago

Tribune Heartland Prize; Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger Award In Cold Blood, Truman Capote Pulitzer Prize Nominee The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald Widely considered a literary classic and contender for “The Great

American Novel” The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot

Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize, Non-fiction; Welcome Trust Book Prize, The American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Young Adult Science Award; National Academies Best Book of the Year Award

The Book Thief, Markus Zusak Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Best Book; School Library Journal Best Book of the Year; National Jewish Book Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature; Daniel Elliott Peace Award; Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book of the Year

In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez National Book Critics Award Nominee Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger Modern Library of one of the 100 Best English Language Novels of the

20th Century The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini Alex Award, Young Adult Books The Devil in the White City,(excerpts) Erik Larson

Carl Sandberg Literary Award; National Book Foundation Award Final-ist; ALA Outstanding Book for the College Bound; Book Sense Book of the Year Honor Book; Edgar Award

The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath Author is recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai This story follows a young girl and her family who are forced to leave their home in Saigon and her dreams of a hopeful life in America.

Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor Set in the depression era, fraught with segregation and racial injustice, this novel de-tails how the Logan family triumphs to hold onto their land.

Unbroken (young adult adaptation) by Laura Hillenbrand This is the true story of Olympic runner Louis Zamperini’s odyssey during World War II and the courage and fortitude he found to endure and overcome.

Endangered by Eliot Schrefer A compelling tale of a girl who must save a group of Bonobo monkeys and herself from a coup in the Congo.

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson Jacqueline tells the story of her childhood as she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 70s living with the remnants of the Jim Crow era and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights Movement.

Night by Elie Wiesel This novel provides the author’s deeply poignant autobiographical account of his sur-vival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee The main character Atticus Finch maintains his moral fortitude in the face of prejudice and racism.

A Long Way Gone by Ishmail Beah The author gives an inside view of the war in Sierra Leone by describing his experienc-es after he was driven away from his home by the war.

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut This science fiction novel follows the summary of a chaplain’s assistant during his ex-periences in WWII with a focus on his unwavering will.

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien This novel offers different perspectives of the experience of the Vietnam War and examines how this impacted the lives of these soldiers.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot This non-fiction follows the life of Henrietta Lacks as her cancer cells were taken with-out her knowledge and became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine and cancer research.

The Devil in the White City (excerpts) by Erik Larson This book is a nonfiction account of two American men near the beginning of the 20th Century. It spans the years surrounding the building of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.

Award-winning West Allegheny Reading Selections Specifics about Select Novels

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