Reading List

The Book Thief Markus Zusak

Its just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some
fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusaks groundbreaking new novel is the story of
Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence
for herself by stealing when she encounters something she cant resistbooks. With the help of
her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her
neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he
is marched to Dachau.

This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett

When orphaned Mary Lennox comes to live at her uncle's great house on the Yorkshire Moors,
she finds it full of secrets. The mansion has nearly one hundred rooms, and her uncle keeps
himself locked up. And at night, she hears the sound of crying down one of the long corridors.

The gardens surrounding the large property are Mary's only escape. Then, Mary discovers a
secret garden, surrounded by walls and locked with a missing key. One day, with the help of two
unexpected companions, she discovers a way in. Is everything in the garden dead, or can Mary
bring it back to life?

Skulduggery Pleasant (Skulduggery Pleasant #1) Derek Landy

Meet Skulduggery Pleasant:

Ace Detective
Snappy Dresser
Razortongued Wit
Crackerjack Sorcerer
and
Walking, Talking,
Fire-throwing Skeleton

as well as ally, protector, and mentor of Stephanie Edgley, a very unusual and darkly talented
twelve-year-old.

These two alone must defeat an all-consuming ancient evil.

The end of the world?

Over his dead body.

Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1) Sarah J. Maas

After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old
assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her
freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal
assassin.

Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each
sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of
eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena
finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating.
But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to
show interest in her... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena
figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her
search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices #1) Cassandra Clare

In a time when Shadowhunters are barely winning the fight against the forces of darkness, one
battle will change the course of history forever. Welcome to the Infernal Devices trilogy, a
stunning and dangerous prequel to the New York Times bestselling Mortal Instruments series.

The year is 1878. Tessa Gray descends into Londons dark supernatural underworld in search of
her missing brother. She soon discovers that her only allies are the demon-slaying
Shadowhuntersincluding Will and Jem, the mysterious boys she is attracted to. Soon they find
themselves up against the Pandemonium Club, a secret organization of vampires, demons,
warlocks, and humans. Equipped with a magical army of unstoppable clockwork creatures, the
Club is out to rule the British Empire, and only Tessa and her allies can stop them...

City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1) Cassandra Clare

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she
hardly expects to witness a murder much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered
with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's
hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is
nothingnot even a smear of bloodto show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of
demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel
and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a
vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why
would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did
Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know...

Exotic and gritty, exhilarating and utterly gripping, Cassandra Clare's ferociously entertaining
fantasy takes readers on a wild ride that they will never want to end.

Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1) Marissa Meyer

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the
population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one
knows that Earths fate hinges on one girl.

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. Shes a second-class citizen with a mysterious past,
reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsisters illness. But when her life becomes
intertwined with the handsome Prince Kais, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an
intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and
betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her worlds future.

Graceling (Graceling Realm #1) Kristin Cashore

Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight - she's a Graceling, one
of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able
to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king's
thug.

When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is
about to change.

She never expects to become Po's friend.

She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace - or about a terrible secret that lies
hidden far away...

To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee

The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience
that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success
when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later
made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.

Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbirdtakes readers to the roots of
human behaviorto innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and
pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this
regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always
considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American
literature.

Animal Farm George Orwell

Tired of their servitude to man, a group of farm animals revolt and establish their own society,
only to be betrayed into worse servitude by their leaders, the pigs, whose slogan becomes: "All
animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." This 1945 satire addresses the
socialist/communist philosophy of Stalin in the Soviet Union.

Life As We Knew It Susan Beth Pfeffer

Mirandas disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the moon closer to the
earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the
coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun? As summer turns to
Arctic winter, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of
their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-
burning stove.

Told in journal entries, this is the heart-pounding story of Mirandas struggle to hold on to the
most important resource of all--hope--in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world.

The Girl with Borrowed Wings Rinsai Rossetti

A stunningly written tale of an isolated girl and the shape-shifting boy who shows her what
freedom could be--if only she has the courage to take it

Controlled by her father and bound by desert, Frenenqer Pajes life is tediously the same, until a
small act of rebellion explodes her world and she meets a boy, but not just a boy--a Free person,
a winged person, a shape-shifter. He has everything Frenenqer doesnt. No family, no
attachments, no rules. At night, he flies them to the far-flung places of their childhoods to retrace
their pasts. But when the delicate balance of their friendship threatens to rupture into something
more, Frenenqer must confront her isolation, her father, and her very sense of identity, breaking
all the rules of her life to become free.

Princess Academy Shannon Hale

Miri lives on a mountain where, for generations, her ancestors have quarried stone and lived a
simple life. Then word comes that the king's priests have divined her small village the home of
the future princess. In a year's time, the prince himself will come and choose his bride from
among the girls of the village. The king's ministers set up an academy on the mountain, and
every teenage girl must attend and learn how to become a princess.

Miri soon finds herself confronted with a harsh academy mistress, bitter competition among the
girls, and her own conflicting desires to be chosen and win the heart of her childhood best friend.
But when bandits seek out the academy to kidnap the future princess, Miri must rally the girls
together and use a power unique to the mountain dwellers to save herself and her classmates.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas John Boyne

Berlin, 1942: When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings
are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move to a
new house far, far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence
stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people in the distance.

But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place
than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and
circumstances are very different from his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has
devastating consequences.

Between Shades of Gray Ruta Sepetys

Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets
crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family
from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and
dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the
Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under
Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.

Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously--and at great risk--documenting events by drawing,
hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are
still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is
through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of
Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.

When You Reach Me Rebecca Stead

Four mysterious letters change Mirandas world forever.

By sixth grade, Miranda and her best friend, Sal, know how to navigate their New York City
neighborhood. They know where its safe to go, like the local grocery store, and they know
whom to avoid, like the crazy guy on the corner.

But things start to unravel. Sal gets punched by a new kid for what seems like no reason, and he
shuts Miranda out of his life. The apartment key that Mirandas mom keeps hidden for
emergencies is stolen. And then Miranda finds a mysterious note scrawled on a tiny slip of
paper:

I am coming to save your friends life, and my own.

I must ask two favors. First, you must write me a letter.

The notes keep coming, and Miranda slowly realizes that whoever is leaving them knows all
about her, including things that have not even happened yet. Each message brings her closer to
believing that only she can prevent a tragic death. Until the final note makes her think shes too
late.

The Giver Lois Lowry

Jonas's world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no
choices. Every person is assigned a role in the Community. When Jonas turns twelve, he is
singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of
the true pain and pleasure of life. Now, it is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no
turning back.

Uglies (Uglies #1) Paul Westerfield

Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that?

Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license - for turning pretty. In Tally's
world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a
stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to
have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there.
But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside.
When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world and it isn't very
pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her
in, or never turn pretty at all.

The choice Tally makes changes her world forever...

Holes (Holes #1) Louis Sachar

This winner of the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award features Stanley Yelnats, a kid
who is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-
grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to
a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the warden makes the boys "build character"
by spending all day, every day, digging holes five feet wide and five feet deep. It doesn't take
long for Stanley to realize there's more than character improvement going on at Camp Green
Lake: the warden is looking for something. Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and
darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment and redemption.