Fiction for
Grades 11 & 12
(ONLY for 11A, 11AP, & 12A students)
ONLY need to choose ONE book from either FICTION, NON-FICTION, or GRAPHIC NOVELS
"Receiving a horrific essay from a GED student with a traumatic past, high-school English teacher Jake Epping is enlisted by a friend to travel back in time to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy, a mission for which he must befriend troubled loner Lee Harvey Oswald."
Subjects: Assassination, Presidents (Government), Time travel, United States history, History, Suspense, Consequences, High school teachers
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After the FuneralTitle also known as Funerals are Fatal and/or Murder at the Gallop
"Richard Abernethie's unscrupulous relatives, interested only in their respective shares of the rich man's estate, become suspects in Hercule Poirot's search for a killer."
Subjects: Mystery fiction, Detective fiction, Heirs and heiresses, Murder investigation, Murder suspects, Private investigators
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by Brian Katcher
"With his mother working long hours and in pain from a romantic break-up, eighteen-year-old Logan feels alone and unloved until a zany new student arrives at his small-town Missouri high school, keeping a big secret."
Subjects: Sexuality, LGBTQ+, Dating (Social customs), High schools, Identity, Friendship, Single-parent families, Small towns
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"In this book, author Khaled Hosseini examines the relationships that exist within a multicultural, multigenerational family. The story begins in Afghanistan, where a traditional family begins to branch out not only from its culture but also from its home nation to experience new customs and philosophies. The author follows members of this family as they journey from the capital city of Kabul to Paris, France; Greece; and San Francisco, California. Along the way, family members argue, bond, and care for and hate one another but ultimately come together in an example of familial love and understanding."
Subjects: Family, Intergenerational relations, Parent-child relations, Brothers and sisters, Middle East, Muslims, Betrayal Community life, Immigrants, Loss (Psychology)
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by Jenny Hubbard
"Sent to an Amherst, Massachusetts, boarding school after her ex-boyfriend shoots himself, seventeen-year-old Emily expresses herself through poetry as she relives their relationship, copes with her guilt, and begins to heal."
Subjects: Suicide, Adolescence, Adolescent interpersonal relations, Abortion, Boarding schools, Friendship, Poetry, Ghosts, Grief
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The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God & Other Storiesby Etgar Keret
"In this collection of antic tales, Israeli writer Keret chronicles the bitter ironies that determine his characters' daily lives. Set in contemporary Israel, Keret's brief stories—most are three to five pages long—juxtapose a casual realism with regular flashes of unabashed absurdity, portraying characters on the brink of adulthood forced to confront life's chaotic forces—death, justice, love, betrayal—for the first time. Keret attempts to render often sad or tragic events with a light touch, and his plots lend a fantastical, whimsical air to simple, everyday reality."
Subjects: Israel, Magical Realism, Humorous stories, Short stories, Translations
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Christine FallsQuirke series #1
"Returning to the morgue where he works after an office party, Dublin pathologist Quirke stumbles across a body that should not have been there, as well as his brother-in-law, pediatrician Malachy Griffin, altering a file to cover up the corpse's cause of death."
Subjects: Child custody, Family relations, Missing persons, Murder, Mystery fiction, Detective fiction, Catholics, Classism, Conspiracies
Family secrets, Irish Americans, Organized crime, Pathologists |
Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poeor a very similar edition: Complete Tales And Poems Of Edgar Allan Poe
"A complete collection of the writings of Poe, including his mysteries, fantasies, satires, and poems."
Subjects: Poetry, Short stories, Murder, Mystery, Classics, Gothic fiction, Horror
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"Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother."
Subjects: Dogs, Family relations, Mystery fiction, Detective fiction, Neighborhoods, Autism, Family secrets, Savant syndrome, Social phobia
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Dark Placesby Gillian Flynn
"Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in "The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas". She escaped and survived to later testify that her 15-year-old brother Ben was the killer. Twenty-five years later she is contacted by "The Kill Club" and pumped for information they hope to use to free Ben. Libby hatches a plan to profit from her tragic past but ends up being chased by a killer."
Subjects: Murder, Family, Suspense, Brothers and sisters, Children of murder victims, Crimes against family, Deception, Satanism, Secret societies, Survival, Teenage murderers, Witnesses
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by Ray Bradbury
"A totalitarian regime has ordered all books to be destroyed, but one of the book burners suddenly realizes their merit."
Subjects: Books, Censorship, Dystopias, Fires, Freedom, Reading, Science fiction, Resistance movements, Banned books, Mass media, Near future, Political persecution, Totalitarianism
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Girl Singer
"1938: eighteen-year-old Avery, aspiring singer, is heard by Lester "Pres" Young, Count Basie's tenor saxophonist. Pres recommends her to Basie, and Avery is whisked into the jazz life. Years later, with several hit records to her credit, Avery settles in Greenwich Village. But her life takes a sharp turn when she meets Karl, a Jewish refugee from Hitler's Germany."
Subjects: African American women, Basie, Count, 1904-1984, Holocaust survivors, Interracial romance, Jazz music, Jewish men, Race relations, Racism, Voyages and travels, Women singers
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"After a family tragedy orphans her, Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I., moves into her grandmother's mostly black community in the 1980s, where she must swallow her grief and confront her identity as a biracial woman in a world that wants to see her as either black or white."
Subjects: Multiracial children, Identity, Intergenerational relations, Grandparents, Orphans, Adolescence, Race relations, Racism, Coming of age, Death, Survival
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Graceling Realm series #1
by Kristin Cashore
"In a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace, and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king."
Subjects: Fantasy, Good and evil, Magic, Murder, Psychics, Girl warriors, Kidnapping, Political corruption, Princes, Rescues, Rulers, Teenage romance
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"Austin Szerba narrates the end of humanity as he and his best friend Robby accidentally unleash an army of giant, unstoppable bugs and uncover the secrets of a decades-old experiment gone terribly wrong."
Subjects: Science fiction, End of the world, Insects, Adolescence, LGBTQ+, Friendship, Monsters, Humor, Sexuality, Best friends, Bisexuality, Dating (Social customs), Families, Friendship, Genetic engineering, Love triangles, Survival
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The Illustrated Manby Ray Bradbury
"The Illustrated Man is Ray Bradbury's classic collection of science-fiction short stories. The book is bound together by the mysterious Illustrated Man, his body a series of tattoos, each of which holds a story that come alive. Most of the stories convey a dark fate for the human race. Using stories about space travel, alien infiltration, and virtual reality, Bradbury weaves together a book of horror and fantasy, where our worst fears come to life."
Subjects: Extraterrestrial life (Aliens), Horror, Science fiction, Space flight, Children, Husband and wife, Magic, Prejudice, Space colonies, Storytelling, Tattooing, Technology and civilization, Virtual reality
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The Kitchen HouseKitchen House series #1
"In The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grisson, a harrowing 1790 sea voyage from Ireland to America claims the life of a woman and leaves her seven-year-old daughter an orphan. When the ship lands, young Lavinia is sent to work on a tobacco plantation. Living with the slaves, the white girl learns the laws of plantation life from the servant girl who was fathered by the master. When Lavinia is moved from the kitchen house, she discovers that the rules in the big house are very different. As she deals with the opium-addicted lady of the house, Lavinia becomes privy to a potentially devastating secret."
Subjects: American South, Indentured servants, Multiracial persons, Plantation life, Race relations, Slavery
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Magicians series #1
"Harboring secret preoccupations with a magical land he read about in a childhood fantasy series, Quentin Coldwater is unexpectedly admitted into an exclusive college of magic and rigorously educated in modern sorcery."
Subjects: College environment, Magic, Adventure, Alternative worlds, Fantasy, Good and evil, Imaginary wars and battles, Magic Schools, Teenage wizards
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"In a tale spanning twenty-five years, a doctor delivers his newborn twins during a snowstorm and, rashly deciding to protect his wife from their baby daughter's affliction with Down Syndrome, turns her over to a nurse, who secretly raises the child."
Subjects: Brothers and sisters, Down syndrome, Family relations, Marriage, Parent-child relations, Interpersonal relations, Twins, Abandoned children, Child custody, Deception, Family secrets, Loss (Psychology), Separation (Psychology)
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The Museum of Extraordinary Things
"The daughter of a Coney Island boardwalk curiosities museum's front man pursues an impassioned love affair with a Russian immigrant photographer who after fleeing his Lower East Side Orthodox community has captured poignant images of the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire."
Subjects: History, Romances (Fiction), Mystery, Love, Museums, Immigrants, Missing persons, Photography, Fathers and daughters, Freak shows, Missing women
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"A fierce competition is underway, a contest between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood to compete in "a game," in which each must use their powers of illusion to best the other. Unbeknownst to them, this game is a duel to the death, and thecircus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will."
Subjects: Magicians, Circuses, Games, Fantasy, Romances (Fiction), Circus performers, Competition, Games, Good and evil, Magicians' apprentices
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"Reunited when the elder's husband is sent to fight in World War II, French sisters Vianne and Isabelle find their bond as well as their respective beliefs tested by a world that changes in horrific ways."
Subjects: Romances (Fiction), Sisters, Family life, French (European people), Resistance movements, Families of military personnel, French Resistance (World War II), Loss (Psychology), Secrets, War and society, World War II
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"In this book, Gaiman turns his attention to the mythology that has inspired some of his work, creating his own versions of traditional Norse myths. Gaiman's retellings introduce the central characters of Norse mythology, which include the high god Odin, his powerful son Thor, and the trickster god Loki. The stories describe the nine worlds that comprise the Norse realm, as well as the gods, giants, and other fantastic beings who inhabit it."
Subjects: Mythology, Folklore, Legends, Norse
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"The family of a fierce evangelical Baptist missionary--Nathan Price, his wife, and his four daughters--begins to unravel after they embark on a 1959 mission to the Belgian Congo, where they find their lives forever transformed over the course of three decades by the political and social upheaval of Africa."
Subjects: Christian life, Christianity, Colonialism, Cultural conflict, Family life, Race relations, Religion, Sisters, Americans in Africa
Americans in Congo (Democratic Republic), Baptists, Missionaries, Emotionally abusive men, Religious fanatics |
Player Piano
"Kurt Vonnegut's first novel spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a supercomputer and run completely by machines. Paul's rebellion is vintage Vonnegut: wildly funny, deadly serious, and terrifyingly close to reality."
Subjects: Science fiction, Automation, Conformity, Dystopias, Engineers, Far future, Machines and labor, Rebels
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by John Irving
"Owen Meany hits a foul ball while playing baseball in the summer of 1953 that kills his best friend's mother, an accident that Owen is sure is the result of divine intervention."
Subjects: Adolescence, Allegories, Coming of age, Friendship, Religion, Christians, Male friendship, Messiahs, Misfits (Persons), Precognition
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Pride and Prejudiceby Jane Austen
"Human foibles and early nineteenth-century manners are satirized in this romantic tale of English country family life as Elizabeth Bennet and her four sisters are encouraged to marry well in order to keep the Bennet estate in their family."
Subjects: Love, Interpersonal relations, Romances (Fiction), Social history, British history, 1714-1815, Aristocracy, Class, Courtship, Families, Marriage, Sisters, Young women
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The Sirens of Titan
"America's wealthiest man gives up his lush lifestyle to board a private spaceship in pursuit of the Sirens of Titan."
Subjects: Questing, Science fiction, Space exploration, Space flight, Ethics, Fate and fatalism, Human nature, Life on other planets, Martians, Personal conduct, Purpose in life, Mars, Space warfare
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"An actor playing King Lear dies onstage just before a cataclysmic event changes the future of everyone on Earth. What will be valued and what will be discarded? Will art have a place in a world that has lost so much? What will make life worth living? These are just some of the issues explored in this beautifully written dystopian novel."
Subjects: Actors, Prophecy, Apocalypse/Post-apocalypse, Death, Diseases, Dystopias, Civilization, Death, End of the world, Epidemics, Fame, Family relationships, Interpersonal relations, Traveling theater, Viruses
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by Kat Spears
"Jesse Alderman, also known as Sway, avoids emotional connection at all costs, but he's ultimately forced to open his heart when he meets the girl of his dreams."
Subjects: Brothers and sisters, Friendship, High school seniors, High school students, Life change events, Teenage romance, Transformations, Personal
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"In her first novel Audrey Niffenegger tells the story of two people whose love for each other transcends time. Henry DeTamble is a dashing and adventurous librarian in Chicago's Newberry Library. He also has the extraordinary ability to travel involuntarily through time. Never knowing where he will end up, Henry often goes back in time to visit the childhood and teenage versions of his artist wife, Clare. This ability naturally lends itself to exciting and ironic circumstances as the story is told from both Henry's and Clare's point of view."
Subjects: Childhood, Love, Marriage, Romances (Fiction), Time travel, Eccentrics and eccentricities, Fate and fatalism, Loss (Psychology)
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"Ninety-something-year-old Jacob Jankowski remembers his time in the circus as a young man during the Great Depression, and his friendship with Marlena, the star of the equestrian act, and Rosie, the elephant, who gave them hope."
Subjects: Circuses, Elephants, Memory, Interpersonal relations, Depressions, Human/animal relationships, Love triangles, Parents, Reminiscing in old age
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Woman with a Blue Pencil
"With his wife's murder basically ignored by the LAPD, Sam Sumida, a Japanese-American academic, on the eve of Pearl Harbor, launches his own investigation and comes to discover that his life has been erased by the woman with the blue pencil who has written him into existence."
Subjects: Amateur detectives, Authors, Grief in men, Identity (Psychology), Japanese Americans, Loss (Psychology), Murder investigation, War and society, Women editors, Young men
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