Children & Teens
Book & Media Lists
Looking for suggestions for good reading?
Try these titles from the Randolph schools, lists of award winners, and other sources. Click on a subject heading to reveal the related lists and web sites.
Randolph Elementary School Suggested Summer Reading
| Grade One | |
|---|---|
| Easy readers are the best books for children at this level, since they combine repeated words and a controlled vocabulary with an interesting or funny story. Picture books also attract readers at this level, with their interest in pictures being supplemented by their newfound interest in words. | |
| David A. Adler Harry Allard Jim Aylesworth Peg Ballard The Berenstains Marc Brown Margaret Wise Brown Eve Bunting Eric Carle Natalie Savage Carlson P.D. Eastman Don Freeman Jack Gantos Lillian Hoban Syd Hoff Pat Hutchins Ezra Jack Keats Steven Kellogg Jack Kent Leonard Kessler Eric A. Kimmel Stephen Krensky |
Helen Lester Leo Lionni Arnold Lobel James Marshall Bill Martin Pat McKissack David McPhail Else Holmelund Minarik Peggy Parish Bill Peet H.A. Rey Anne Rockwell Cynthia Rylant Maurice Sendak Dr. Seuss Marjorie Weinman Sharmat James Stevenson Jean Van Leeuwen Bernard Waber Rosemary Wells Audrey Wood Harriet Ziefert |
| Grade Two | |
|---|---|
| Many authors of books for kindergarten and first grade students also write books for older readers. Visiting familiar friends can be positive reinforcement for second graders stretching their wings into beginning novels. They may revisit the above authors or discover new authors in the list below. | |
| Betty Baker Nathanael Benchly Crosby Bonsall Franklyn M. Branley Laurene Kransy Brown Nancy Carlson Matt Christopher Eleanor Coerr Joanna Cole Doug Cushman Patricia Reilly Giff |
Lillian Hoban Syd Hoff James Howe Suzy Kline Elizabeth Levy Edward Marshall James Marshall Jean Marzollo Paul Showers Jane Yolen |
| Grade Three | |
|---|---|
| As children develop independent skills, the novel often becomes the focus of their leisure reading. Many authors already mentioned write exceptional novels and should be examined. Students and parents should explore authors for suitable, high-interest reading. | |
| Judith Caseley Mary Blount Christian Beverly Cleary Eth Clifford Ellen Conford Shelia Greenwald Johanna Hurwitz Dick King-Smith Robert Lawson Betty MacDonald |
Mary Pope Osborne Daniel Pinkwater Robert Quackenbush Louis Sachar Jon Scieszka Susan Shreve Alfred Slote Gertrude Chandler Warner E.B. White Gina Willner-Pardo |
| Grades Four and Five | |
|---|---|
| By the time students reach fourth and fifth grade, reading abilities and interests vary widely. Many students will be comfortable with novels from previous lists; many will be ready for more challenging works that might suit a seventh grader. Students should be encouraged to read a variety of fiction and nonfiction and to pursue individual interests and different writing styles. | |
| C.S. Adler Joan Aiken Lloyd Alexander Isaac Asimov Avi Natalie Babbit Lynn Reid Banks Patricia Beatty John Bellairs Judy Blume Shelia Burnford Betsy Byars Eleanor Cameron John Christopher Barbara Cohen Vera & Bill Clever James Lincoln Collier Ellen Conford Scott Corbett Susan Cooper Bruce Coville Sharon Creech Helen Cresswell Roald Dahl Paula Danziger Elizabeth Enright Walter Farley John D. Fitzgerald Louise Fitzhugh Beatrice Gormley Constance Green Dan Gutman Virginia Hamilton Lynn Hall Marguerite Henry E.W. Hildick Dianna Wynne Jones E.L. Konigsburg |
Gordon Korman Kathryn Lasky Madeleine L’Engle C.S. Lewis Penelope Lively Hugh Lofting Lois Lowry Stephen Manes Christine McDonnell Patricia MacLachlan Margaret Mahy Claudia Mills Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Joan Lowery Nixon Mary Norton Robert C. O’Brien Scott O’Dell Katherine Paterson Gary Paulsen Richard Peck Robert Newton Peck Lila Perl Tamora Pierce Ellen Raskin Willo Davis Roberts Barbara Robinson Nancy K. Robinson Thomas Rockwell Marilyn Sachs George Selden William Sleator Robert Kimmel Smith Donald Sobol Barbara Brooks Wallace Bill Wallace Sylvia Waugh Laura Ingalls Wilder Laurence Yep |
Randolph Middle School Summer Reading Lists 2008
| Grade Six | |
|---|---|
| Anderson, Laurie Halse | Fever, 1793 |
| Brashares, Ann | Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants |
| Cabot, Meg | All-American Girl |
| Cooney, Caroline B. | The Face on the Milk Carton |
| Creech, Sharon | Walk Two Moons |
| Dixon, Franklin W. | Hardy Boys series |
| Enzensberger, Hans | The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure |
| Funke, Cornelia | Inkheart |
| George, Jean Craighead | Julie of the Wolves |
| Giff, Patricia Reilly | Pictures of Hollis Woods |
| Hesse, Karen | Out of the Dust |
| Hiaasen, Carl | Hoot |
| Horowitz, Anthony | Stormbreaker |
| Jacques, Brian | Redwall |
| Keene, Carolyn | Nancy Drew series |
| Konigsburg, E.L. | A View from Saturday |
| Levine, Gail Carson | Ella Enchanted |
| Lewis, C. S. | The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe from The Chronicles of Narnia |
| Lewis, C. S. | The Magician’s Nephew from The Chronicles of Narnia |
| Lewis, C. S. | Prince Caspian from The Chronicles of Narnia |
| Lubar, David | Flip |
| Martin, Ann M. | Missing Since Monday |
| Paolini, Christopher | Eragon |
| Paulsen, Gary | Guts |
| Paulsen, Gary | Woodsong |
| Raskin, Ellen | The Westing Game |
| Rawls, Wilson | Where the Red Fern Grows |
| Riordan, Rick | The Lightning Thief |
| Sachar, Louis | Holes |
| Shusterman, Neal | Full Tilt |
| Snicket, Lemony | The Bad Beginning: book 1 from A Series of Unfortunate Events |
| Snicket, Lemony | The Reptile Room: book 2 from A Series of Unfortunate Events |
| Spinelli, Jerry | Stargirl |
| Uchida, Yoshiko | Journey to Topaz |
| Grade Seven | Fiction |
|---|---|
| Adams, Richard | Watership Down |
| Anderson, Laurie Halse | Fever, 1793 |
| Avi | Crispin: The Cross of Lead |
| Christopher, Matt | The Hockey Machine |
| Cleary, Beverly | Dear Mr. Henshaw |
| Cummings, Priscilla | The Red Kayak |
| Danzinger, Paula | This Place Has No Atmosphere |
| Denenberg, Barry | So Far From Home (Dear America series) |
| DuPrau, Jeanne | City of Ember |
| Gutman, Dan | Jackie & Me: A Baseball Card Adventure |
| Gutman, Dan | The Million Dollar Strike |
| Haddix, Margaret Peterson | Among the Hidden |
| Hiaasen, Carl | Hoot |
| Hobbs, Will | Far North |
| Horowitz, Anthony | Stormbreaker |
| Lupica, Mike | Travel Team |
| Mass, Wendy | A Mango-Shaped Space |
| Mikaelsen, Ben | Stranded |
| Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds | Shiloh |
| North, Sterling | Rascal |
| Paulsen, Gary | Soldier’s Heart |
| Raskin, Ellen | The Westing Game |
| Shusterman, Neal | The Dark Side of Nowhere |
| Spinelli, Jerry | There’s a Girl in My Hammerlock |
| Taylor, Theodore | The Cay |
| Ullman, James Ramsey | Banner in the Sky |
| Van Draanen, Wendelin | Flipped |
| Zindel, Paul | The Gadget |
| Nonfiction | |
| Freedman, Russell | Immigrant Kids |
| Jiang, Ji Li | Red Scarf Girl |
| Murphy, Jim | An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 |
| Yates, Elizabeth | Amos Fortune, Free Man |
| Grade Eight | Fiction |
|---|---|
| Cheripko, Jan | Rat |
| Deucker, Carl | Heart of a Champion |
| Haddix, Margaret | Don’t You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey |
| Howe, James | Misfits |
| Mikaelsen, Ben | Touching Spirit Bear |
| Myers, Walter Dean | Monster |
| Paolini, Christopher | Eragon |
| Sachar, Louis | Small Steps |
| Shusterman, Neal | Downsiders |
| Spinelli, Jerry | Milkweed |
| Spinelli, Jerry | Stargirl |
| Stephens, J.B. | The Big Empty |
| Yolen, Jane and Bruce Coville | Armageddon Summer |
| Nonfiction | |
| Burch, Jennings Michael | They Cage the Animals at Night |
| Filipovic, Zlata | Zlata’s Diary |
Randolph High School Summer Reading Lists 2008
| Grade Nine | Short Story Collections |
|---|---|
| Bester, Alfred | Virtual Unrealities |
| Vonnegut, Kurt | Welcome to the Monkey House |
| Fiction | |
| Almond, David | Skellig |
| Anderson, Laurie Halse | Speak |
| Anderson, Laurie Halse | Catalyst |
| Bradbury, Ray | Something Wicked This Way Comes |
| Brashares, Ann | Second Summer of the Sisterhood |
| Brashares, Ann | Girls in Pants |
| Burnett, Frances Hodgson | The Little Princess |
| Carroll, Jonathan | Bones of the Moon |
| Chbosky, Stephen | Perks of Being a Wallflower |
| Clarke, Arthur C. | Childhood’s End |
| Foer, Johnathan Safran | Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close |
| Gibbons, Kaye | Ellen Foster |
| Goldman, William | The Princess Bride |
| Gunther, John | Death Be Not Proud |
| Hayes, Daniel | The Trouble with Lemons |
| Keyes, Daniel | Flowers for Algernon |
| Lasky, Kathryn | Memoirs of a Bookbat |
| Maguire, Gregory | Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West |
| Montgomery, Lucy Maud | Anne of Green Gables |
| O’Leary, Patrick | The Gift |
| Pike, Christopher | Bury Me Deep |
| Pullman, Philip | The Golden Compass |
| Reiken, Frederick | The Lost Legends of New Jersey |
| Renault, Mary | The King Must Die |
| Tolkien, J. R. R. | The Hobbitt |
| Watson, Larry | Montana, 1948 |
| Yolen, Jane | Briar Rose |
| Nonfiction | |
| Herrigel, Eugen | Zen in the Art of Archery |
| Katz, Jon | Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho |
| Klosterman, Chuck | Killing Yourself to Live |
| Krakauer, John | Into Thin Air |
| Santiago, Esmeralda | When I Was Puerto Rican |
| Shaughnessy, Dan | The Curse of the Bambino |
| Warren, Andrea | Surviving Hitler |
| Grade Nine Honors | |
|---|---|
| Delany, Sarah L. and A. Elizabeth | Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years |
| Grade Ten | Drama |
|---|---|
| Miller, Arthur | A View From the Bridge |
| Williams, Tennessee | A Streetcar Named Desire |
| Wilson, August | Fences |
| Fiction | |
| Anderson, Sherwood | Winesburg, Ohio |
| Dickinson, Emily | Selected Poems |
| Faulkner, William | The Reivers |
| Frost, Robert | A Boy’s Will |
| Frost, Robert | North of Boston |
| Gaines, Ernest | A Lesson Before Dying |
| Green, John | Looking for Alaska |
| Hemingway, Ernest | The Sun Also Rises |
| Irving, John | A Prayer for Owen Meany |
| Kidd, Sue Monk | The Secret Life of Bees |
| McCammon, Robert | Boy’s Life |
| Plath, Sylvia | The Bell Jar |
| Ward, Candace | Great Short Stories by American Women |
| Wells, Rebecca | Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood |
| Nonfiction | |
| Brown, Dee Alexander | Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee |
| Covey, Sean | The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens |
| Grogan, John | Marley & Me |
| Hill, Laban Carrick | Harlem Stomp! |
| Jacobs, Harriet | Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl |
| Steinbeck, John | Travels with Charley |
| Thomas, Lewis | The Lives of a Cell |
| Twain, Mark | Following the Equator |
| Wolfe, Tom | The Right Stuff |
| Grade Eleven | Drama |
|---|---|
| Bolt, Robert | A Man for all Seasons |
| Fiction | |
| Adams, Douglas | The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy |
| Adams, Richard | Watership Down |
| Alvarez, Julia | How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents |
| Atwood, Margaret | The Handmaid’s Tale |
| Brown, Dan | Angels and Demons |
| Chabon, Michael | The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay |
| Dean, Zoey | A-List series |
| Dunn, Mark | Ella Minnow Pea |
| Foer, Jonathan Safran | Everything Is Illuminated |
| Foer, Jonathan Safran | Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close |
| Gibbons, Stella | Cold Comfort Farm |
| Haddon, Mark | Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time |
| Hornby, Nick | About a Boy |
| Hornby, Nick | High Fidelity |
| Hornby, Nick | A Long Way Down |
| Kinsella, Sophie | Shopaholic series |
| Maguire, Gregory | Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister |
| Mukherjee, Bharati | Jasmine |
| O’Brian, Patrick | Aubrey Maturin series (any except Master and Commander) |
| Picoult, Jodi | My Sister’s Keeper |
| Picoult, Jodi | The Tenth Circle |
| Pullman, Philip | The Golden Compass |
| Proulx, E. Annie | The Shipping News |
| Rowling, J. K. | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows |
| Rowling, J. K. | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince |
| Stoker, Bram | Dracula |
| Smith, Dodie | I Capture the Castle |
| Von Ziegesar, Cecily | Gossip Girls series |
| Zusak, Markus | The Book Thief |
| Nonfiction | |
| Albom, Mitch | Tuesdays with Morrie |
| Ball, Edward | Slaves in the Family |
| Bryson, Bill | I’m a Stranger Here Myself |
| Bryson, Bill | Notes from a Small Island |
| Burroughs, Augusten | Running with Scissors |
| Corwin, Miles | And Still We Rise |
| Dahl, Roald | Boy |
| Eggers, Dave | A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius |
| Ehrenreich, Barbara | Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America |
| Bstan-’dzin-rgya-mtsho, Dalai Lama XIV | Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama |
| Goodall, Jane | My Life with Chimpanzees |
| Herriott, James | All Creatures Great and Small |
| Klein, Gerda Weissman | All But My Life |
| McCourt, Frank | Angela’s Ashes |
| McCourt, Frank | ’Tis |
| Petroski, Harry | The Evolution of Useful Things |
| Sedaris, David | Me Talk Pretty One Day |
| Grade Twelve | Drama |
|---|---|
| Durrenmatt, Friedrich | The Visit |
| Sartre, Jean-Paul | No Exit |
| Fiction | |
| Alvarez, Julia | In the Time of Butterflies |
| Chevalier, Tracy | Girl with a Pearl Earring |
| Coelho, Paolo | The Alchemist |
| Fforde, Jasper | The Eyre Affair |
| Grisham, John | A Painted House |
| Guterson, David | Snow Falling on Cedars |
| Hosseini, Khaled | The Kite Runner |
| Kinsella, William | The Iowa Baseball Confederacy |
| Kowaga, Joy | Obasan |
| Martel, Yann | Life of Pi |
| McCall Smith, Alexander | The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (and sequels) |
| Sebold, Alice | The Lovely Bones |
| See, Lisa | Snow Flower and the Secret Fan |
| Tsukiyama, Gail | Women of the Silk |
| Nonfiction | |
| Almond, Steve | Candyfreak |
| Armstrong, Lance | It’s Not About the Bike |
| Bryson, Bill | A Walk in the Woods |
| Krakauer, Jon | Into Thin Air |
| Nguyen, Kien | The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood |
| Ripken, Cal | The Only Way I Know |
| Schloesser, Eric | Fast Food Nation |
| Strege, John | Tiger: A Biography of Tiger Woods |
| Woods, Donald | Biko |
Recommendations for Children and Teens
- Reading Rainbow
- Newbery Medal Winners
- Caldecott Medal Winners
- Coretta Scott King Book Award Winners and Honor Books
- Garden State Book Awards—Children’s
- Garden State Book Awards—Teen
- BookLetters Award Lists for Teens and for Kids—Linked to our catalog
- Books for the Teen Age
- BookHive Find a Book
- GuysRead—Guy-friendly book site
Reviews of Books, Audiobooks and Movies
- Magazines and Newspapers
Search for reviews of books, audiobooks and movies in magazines and newspapers through the reference databases provided by our membership in M.A.I.N. - M.A.I.N. Library Catalog
Reviews and summaries of newer books and audiobooks owned by M.A.I.N. libraries may be available along with the cover image. - NoveList K-8 Plus
NoveList describes and reviews fiction for all age groups and includes book discussion guides and subject lists. Author read-alike lists discuss why people enjoy an author and suggest other authors who write just like the one you enjoy. - No Flying, No Tights
Reviews of graphic novels (also known as book-length comics) with separate sections for kids, teens and adults. - Teen Book Picks
Reviews by Randolph teens and others of Young Adult fiction.