Required reading for the Coming of Age English class
Click on the titles below to view books with similar themes/elements.
A Lesson Before Dying
Gaines, Ernest J.
Fiction G142L 1994
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Joyce, James
Fiction J85P
Girl in Landscape
Lethem, Jonathan
Black Swan Green
Mitchell, David
The Bell Jar
Plath, Sylvia
Fiction P696b
Housekeeping
Robinson, Marilynne
The Catcher in the Rye
Salinger, J.D.
Fiction Sa33c
Black Boy
Wright, Richard
B. W9522 W1
Books to pair with A Lesson Before Dying
Such Sweet Thunder
Carter, Vincent O.
South Royalton, VT: Steerforth Press c2003. 537 p.
Follows Amerigo Jones from his boyhood in Kansas City, Missouri, surrounded by
loving parents, a vibrant African American community, and big band jazz, through
his service in World War II and life as an expatriate, as he comes to terms with racism.
Similar elements: Racism, African-American men, self-discovery, historical fiction
Never Go Home Again
Holmes, Shannon
New York: Simon & Schuster 2005. 336 p.
Leaving home in his mid-teens after his father orders him to stay away from
the inner-city drug trade, Corey Dixon finds himself in prison, where he meets
well-meaning teacher Mr. Fisher, whose advice Corey has trouble understanding.
Similar elements: African-American boys, prison, mentors
Like Trees, Walking: a novel
Howard, Ravi
New York: Amistad 2007. 272 p.
Based on the true story of a 1981 lynching in Mobile, Alabama, the tale of brothers Paul
and Roy Deacon finds their lives changed by the hanging death of a childhood friend,
which forces them to reevaluate the traditions and values of their upbringing.
Similar elements: Racism, African-American men, the South (U.S.), injustice
Monster
Myers, Walter Dean
New York: Harper Collins c1999. 281 p.
Fiction M992mon 2001
While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon
records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film
script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken.
Similar elements: Murder trials, African-American men, self-discovery, prisoners
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Books to pair with A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Who is Jesse Flood?
Doyle, Malachy
New York: Bloomsbury Children's Books 2002. 172 p.
Striving to cope with the arguments of his parents and his feelings of not belonging,
fourteen-year-old Jesse Flood struggles to find his place in a small town in Northern Ireland.
Similar elements: Life in Ireland, emotional problems of teenage boys, identity
Love & SK8
Krulik, Nancy
New York: Simon Pulse 2004. 315 p.
Angie, an independent-minded high school senior interested in art school, meets Carter,
whose rich grandfather will stop at nothing to end their relationship.
Similar elements: Artists, nonconformity
Shizuko's Daughter
Mori, Kyoko
New York: H. Holt c1993. 227 p.
Fiction M824s 1994
After her mother's suicide when she is twelve years old, Yuki spends years living
with her distant father and his resentful new wife, cut off from her mother's family,
and relying on her own inner strength to cope with the tragedy.
Similar elements: Artists
Blankets: An Illustrated Novel
Thompson, Craig
Marietta, Ga.: Top Shelf c2003. 582 p.
GN T469bL
Loosely based on the author's life, chronicles Craig's journey from childhood to adulthood,
exploring the people, experiences, and beliefs that he encountered along the way.
Similar elements: Autobiographical, artists, religious upbringing
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Books to pair with Girl in Landscape
City of Ember
DuPrau, Jeanne
New York: Random House c2003. 270 p.
Fiction D928c
In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a
Messenger to run to new places in her decaying but beloved city, perhaps even
to glimpse Unknown Regions.
Similar elements: Dystopia, science fiction, pre-teen/teen girls
Variable Star
Heinlein, Robert and Spider Robinson
New York: Tor 2006. 320 p.
Two young lovers are forced apart by pride, power, and the immensity of interstellar
time and space, in an authorized version of an unfinished novel by Hugo Award-winning
late science fiction master Robert Heinlein.
Similar elements: Science fiction, space colonies, romantic relationships
The Dark Side of Nowhere: A Novel
Shusterman, Neal
Boston: Little, Brown c1997. 185 p.
Fourteen-year-old Jason faces an identity crisis after discovering that he is the son
of aliens who stayed on earth following a botched invasion mission.
Similar elements: Science fiction, aliens, families
Uglies
Westerfeld, Scott
New York: Simon Pulse 2005. 448 p.
Fiction W5233u
Just before their sixteenth birthdays, when they will will be transformed into
beauties whose only job is to have a great time, Tally's best friend runs away
and Tally must find her and turn her in, or never become pretty at all.
Similar elements: Dystopia, science fiction, teen girls
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Books to pair with Black Swan Green
This Is What I Did
Ellis, Ann Dee
New York: Little, Brown 2007. 176 p.
Bullied because of an incident in his past, eighth-grader Logan is unhappy at his
new school and has difficulty relating to others until he meets a quirky girl and a
counselor who believe in him.
Similar elements: Teen boys, bullies, friendship
Carry Me Down
Hyland, M.J.
Great Britain: Canongate 2006. 192 p.
A twelve-year-old boy in the body of a grown man with the voice of a giant, John Egan
is a misfit who diligently keeps track of the lies that are told to him by his family, friends,
and even news anchors, but when John's sanity reaches collapse, a frightening family
catastrophe threatens to destroy him.
Similar elements: Boys, teasing, family, first-person narrative
How I Live Now
Rosoff, Meg
New York: Wendy Lamb Books 2004. 208 p.
Fiction R733h
To get away from her pregnant stepmother in New York City, fifteen-year-old Daisy
goes to England to stay with her aunt and cousins, with whom she instantly bonds,
but soon war breaks out and rips apart the family while devastating the land.
Similar elements: England, teens, family
Swimming in the Monsoon Sea
Selvadurai, Shyam
Plattsburgh, NY: Tundra Books of Northern New York 2005. 224 p.
Although life for Amrith in 1980 Sri Lanka seems rather uneventful and orderly,
things change in a hurry when his male cousin arrives from Canada and Amrith
finds himself completely enamored with his new visitor...
Similar elements: Teen boys, family, 1980s
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Books to pair with The Bell Jar
The Emancipator's Wife
Hambly, Barbara
New York: Bantam Books 2005. 624 p.
In 1865, in the wake of her husband's assassination, Mary Todd Lincoln struggles
to cope amid the animosity and confusion that surrounds her, in a historical novel
that captures the saga of one of the most misunderstood women in American history.
Similar elements: Successful women, mental illness
Girl, Interrupted
Kaysen, Susanna
New York: Vintage 1994. 192 p.
616.890092 K184g 1994
In 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist she'd never seen before, eighteen-year-old
Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to McLean Hospital. She spent most of the next
two years on the ward for teenage girls in a psychiatric hospital as renowned for its famous
clientele--Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor, and Ray Charles--as for its progressive
methods of treating those who could afford its sanctuary.
Similar elements: Women writers, mental illness, autobiographical
Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath
Moses, Kate
New York: St. Martin's Press 2003. 292 p.
A fictional account of the last months of Sylvia Plath's life and the painful creation
of her Ariel poems finds her moving with her two children to London after divorcing
Ted Hughes, who works to remind her about happier times.
Similar elements: Sylvia Plath, mental illness, suicidal behavior
It's Kind of a Funny Story
Vizzini, Ned
New York: Miramax Books/Hyperion Books for Children 2006. 448 p.
A humorous account of a New York City teenager's battle with depression
and his time spent in a psychiatric hospital.
Similar elements: Depression, mental illness, suicidal behavior
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Books to pair with Housekeeping
Mistik Lake
Brooks, Martha
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2007. 206 p.
After Odella's mother leaves her, her sisters, and their father in Manitoba and moves to
Iceland with another man, she then dies there, and the family finally learns some of the
many secrets that have haunted them for two generations.
Similar themes: Teenage girls, mothers (death), family, grief
Stay with Me
Freymann-Weyr, Garret
Boston: Houghton Mifflin 2006. 320 p.
When her sister kills herself, sixteen-year-old Leila goes looking for a reason and,
instead, discovers great love, her family's true history, and what her own place in it is.
Similar themes: Teenage girls, suicide (family member), family
A Year and a Day
Pietrzyk, Leslie
New York: William Morrow c2004. 351 p.
Left in the care of a distracted great aunt after her mother commits suicide, fifteen-year-old
Alice begins hearing her mother's voice and, through subsequent "conversations," becomes
more aware of her mother's unconventional past.
Similar elements: Teenage girls, mothers (death), family, grief
Cures for Heartbreak
Rabb, Margo
New York: Delacorte Press 2007. 256 p.
As she navigates adolescence, ninth-grader Mia must deal with her mother' s recent death
and her father's illness while she searches for friendship and love in the world around her.
Similar elements: Teenage girls, mothers (death), family, grief
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Books to pair with The Catcher in the Rye
Looking for Alaska
Green, John
New York: Dutton Children's Books 2005. 237 p.
Fiction G8231
Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in
Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the
search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash.
Similar elements: Boarding schools, self-destructive behavior, unhappiness in teenagers
Brave New Girl
Luna, Louisa
New York: Pocket 2001. 208 p.
An outcast at school, misunderstood by her parents, and mourning the disappearance
of her older brother, fourteen-year-old Doreen seeks solace in her music until her sister's
boyfriend forces her to confront new feelings about the world around her.
Similar elements: First-person narrative, unhappiness in teenagers, sarcasm
King Dork
Portman, Frank
New York: Delacorte Press c2006. 352 p.
High school loser Tom Henderson discovers that The Catcher in the Rye may hold
the clues to the many mysteries in his life.
Similar elements: Catcher in the Rye references, identity, teenage boys
Prep: A Novel
Sittenfeld, Curtis
New York: Random House 2005. 416 p.
Fiction Si88p
During the late 1980s, fourteen-year-old Lee Fiora leaves behind her close-knit,
middle-class Indiana family to enroll in an elite co-ed boarding school in Massachusetts,
becoming a shrewd observer of, and eventually a participant in, their rituals and customs.
Similar elements: Boarding schools, alienation in teenagers, self-destructive behavior
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Books to pair with Black Boy
Fire from the Rock
Draper, Sharon M.
New York: Dutton Children's Books 2007.
In 1957, Sylvia Patterson's life--that of a normal African American teenager--is disrupted
by the impending integration of Little Rock's Central High when she is selected to be one
of the first black students to attend the previously all white school.
Similar elements: African-Americans, racism, the South (U.S.)
The Legend of Buddy Bush
Moses, Shelia P.
New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books c2004. 216 p.
In 1947, twelve-year-old Pattie Mae is sustained by her dreams of escaping Rich Square,
North Carolina, and moving to Harlem when her Uncle Buddy is arrest for attempted rape
of a white woman and her grandfather is diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor.
Similar elements: African-Americans, racism, the South (U.S.), longing for the North (U.S.)
The Land
Taylor, Mildred
New York: Phyllis Fogelman Books 2001. 375 p.
After the Civil War, Paul, the son of a white father and a black mother, finds himself
caught between the two worlds of colored folks and white folks as he pursues his
dream of owning land of his own.
Similar elements: African-Americans, racism, the South (U.S.)
Black Girl in Paris: A Novel
Youngblood, Shay
New York: Riverhead Books c2000. 238 p.
The narrator, a young Black woman, describes her experiences as a struggling
writer in Paris, hoping to meet James Baldwin.
Similar elements: African-Americans, racism, writers
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*Book descriptions and covers from Novelist, except for Girl, Interrupted which is from Non-Fiction Connection.
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