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Maddie Caballero
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Call Me by Your Name: A Novel
André Aciman
Maddie Caballero
Aciman’s writing is unparalleled - his style gives the story a depth that another writer could only hope to accomplish.
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Dune
Frank Herbert
Inspired by a visit to the famed sand dunes of Oregon, Herbert delved into research on environmental science and related matters as he began to chart the long, complex backstory of his epic, which ultimately came to span some twenty-one thousand years of future history. Through canny and judicious t...show more
A Wrinkle in Time
Madeleine L'Engle
Troubled, feisty, and, as we shall discover, remarkably resourceful, thirteen-year-old Meg is one of the most unforgettable heroines in twentieth-century young adult fiction. Her family is rather memorable, too. There are her sympathetic parents, both of whom are scientists and one of whom, her fath...show more
The Lord of the Rings
J. R. R. Tolkien
Appearing in three separate volumes between July 1954 and October 1955, The Lord of the Rings constitutes a single linear narrative that was segmented for publishing convenience rather than by authorial intent. Tolkien’s hero, Frodo, is the adoptive heir of Bilbo Baggins, protagonist of The Hobbit. ...show more
The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins
As story and as media phenomenon, Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games is at the top of the pile of wildly popular dystopian teen fiction that has dominated twenty-first-century bestseller lists (in no small part by appealing to readers well beyond their teen years). In the nation of Panem, power and ...show more
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
C. S. Lewis
Sent away from London during Second World War, the four Pevensie children are taken in by a professor who lives in a very large house in the country. On the first day of exploring their new abode, little Lucy discovers a mirror-fronted wardrobe in an otherwise bare room; creeping into it, she crosse...show more
There There: A Novel
Tommy Orange
At Denver Public Library's third Battle, in January of 2023, Rory Padeken talked about this remarkable debut novel by Tommy Orange. There There is an honest and compelling story about twelve urban indigenous Americans, all making their way to the Big Oakland Powwow in Oakland, CA, where freeways hav...show more
The Westing Game
Ellen Raskin
What happens when sixteen heirs named in paper magnate Sam Westing’s will are installed in apartments in the same building, organized into unlikely pairs, and tasked with solving the mystery of Westing’s murder? They—and we—learn a lot about love, companionship, loyalty, and the real source of happi...show more
The Outsiders
S. E. Hinton
Kathy Baxley first read The Outsiders when she was in seventh grade. It instantly became her favorite book, and she’s been singing its praises ever since.The Outsiders is a story narrated by a teenage boy living in a culture in which all the people in his orbit are defined —and divided—by class ster...show more
The Nickel Boys
Colson Whitehead
Elizabeth Allen was our runner-up in Byrd’s Books Battle IV on October 21, 2020 with her eloquent argument for Colson Whitehead’s latest book, The Nickel Boys. The story of two boys unjustly sentenced to do time at a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida, this book tells of the struggle to n...show more
Small Great Things: A Novel
Jodi Picoult
This book was the winner of our virtual Battle of the Books with Plainview-Old Bethpage Public Library on July 21, 2020. Barbara Mars told viewers why she thinks Small Great Things is a book everyone should read before they die. "Some critics," she said, "have pigeonholed Jodi Picoult's novels as 'c...show more
The Fault in Our Stars
John Green
Dave Griffith, who is head of the Reading Department at Ridgefield High School, argued that The Fault in Our Stars in particular—and more young adult fiction in general—belong on the list of books to read before you die.
Normal People: A Novel
Sally Rooney
Gorgeously written portrayal of a modern intimate relationship that manages to be a page-turner.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Sherman Alexie
Drawing on Sherman Alexie’s personal experience growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a young adult novel that has more to say about big virtues like tolerance than a whole shelf of earnest adult tomes could ever manage. The book’s unflinchi...show more
The Old Man and the Sea
Ernest Hemingway
Published in 1952, this novella was greeted with wide popular acclaim; it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and was the catalyst for the Swedish Academy’s bestowal of the Nobel Prize on Hemingway a year later. For all its knowing description of the tools and techniques of fishing, The Old Man and the S...show more
Lord of the Flies
William Golding
Assigned at least once to nearly every student in the English-speaking world, Golding’s chilling depiction of the descent into savagery of schoolboys stranded on a deserted island stirs to menacing life as we turn the pages; terror coils behind the words like a patient predator stalking its prey. Wr...show more
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
James Hilton
James Hilton’s touching story of an English schoolmaster is simple, sweet, and unforgettable. Arthur Chipping—nicknamed Mr. Chips—has taught for most of his long life at a boarding school called Brookfield, ripening, as we learn in gently unfolding flashbacks, from an uncertain and undistinguished y...show more