Recommended Reading List for Freshmen

Adams, Douglas. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Humorous sci-fi novel of Arthur Dent's odyssey through space, aided by a "hitchhiker's guide" book.

Adams, Richard. Watership Down. 1972. Fleeing the intrusion of man and the certain destruction of their ancestral home, a band of rabbits encounters harrowing trials posed by predators and hostile warrens - driven only by their vision to create a perfect society in a mysterious promised land known to them as Watership Down.

Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women. In 19th-century New England, Jo, Beth, Meg, and Amy March struggle in the face of genteel poverty, keeping their spirits up and their unusually affectionate household going.

Bissinger, H. G. Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream. HarperCollins, 1991. The author penetrates the culture of high school football as it is lived in Odessa, Texas. (some profanity)

Burns, Olive Ann. Cold, Sassy Tree. Author's fictionalized account of her own father's boyhood in rural Georgia, early 1900s

Card, Orson Scott. Ender's Game. 1985. In a world decimated by alien attacks, the government trains young geniuses like Ender Wiggin in military strategy with increasingly complex computer games.

Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. The story of Esperanza Cordero, a young girl growing up in the Hispanic quarter of Chicago.

Cormier, Robert. The Chocolate War. Jerry Renault challenges the power structure of his school when he refuses to sell chocolates for the annual fundraiser.

Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. Classic tale of orphan Oliver Twist, his experience with a gang of pickpockets, and his struggle to better his life

DuMaurier, Daphne. Rebecca The famous Gothic novel of an aristocrat's ingenuous second wife struggling against the malevolent influence of her dead predecessor

Frank, Anne. The Diary of a Young Girl. The story of a Jewish family forced by encroaching Nazis to live in hiding.

Giaman, Neil. Neverwhere. Avon, 1997 . Richard Mayhew helps an injured girl and finds his life changed when he leaves the reality of present-day London and enters the city's underground world of sewers and abandoned subway stations.

Homer. The Iliad 9th Century BC. Epic masterpiece chronicles last days of the Trojan War-quarrel of Achilles and Agamemnon, the battle for Helen of Troy, Greek siege of the city, Trojan counterattack, stratagem of the Trojan Horse, many other incidents and events.

Irving, John. A Prayer for Owen Meany. In the summer of 1953, during a Little League baseball game, 11-year-old Owen Meany hits a foul ball that kills his best friend's mother. What happens to him after that fateful day makes A Prayer for Owen Meany extraordinary, terrifying, and unforgettable.

Keller, Helen. The Story of My Life. The story of Helen Keller, who was both blind and deaf, and her relationship with her devoted teacher Anne Sullivan.

Kingsolver, Barbara. The Bean Trees. Young woman's witty, engaging tale of traveling west to find a new life and finding herself the mother of a mysterious, abandoned Native American child

Lewis, C.S. The Chronicles of Narnia. Enter C.S. Lewis's magical world of Narnia where enchanted creatures live and fierce battles are fought between good and evil.

McMurtry, Larry. Lonesome Dove. Winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize in fiction, Lonesome Dove is an adventurous story of a cattle drive from Texas to Montana, set in the late 19th century.

Sacher, Louis. Holes. Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center  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 boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something.

William Shakespeare. Complete Works.

Smith, Betty. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. American classic about a young girl's coming of age at the turn of the century.

Steinbeck, John. The Pearl. 1947. For the diver Kino, finding a magnificent pearl means the promise of a better life for his impoverished family. His dreams blind him to the greed that the pearl arouses in him and his neighbors. Baring the fallacy of the American dream--that wealth erases all problems--Steinbeck's classic illustrates our fall from innocence.

Stevenson, Robert Louis. Treasure Island. A secret treasure map becomes the key to heart-pounding thrills, danger and swashbuckling action as Jim Hawkins faces the high seas and the grandest pirate of all in the adventure of a life time, Long John Silver.

Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. After her mother's death, a young Chinese-American woman learns of her mother's tragic early life in China.

Weisel, Elie. Night. A searing account of the Holocaust as experienced by a 15-year-old boy.

Wells, H.G. The Time Machine. A scientist invents a machine that transports him into the future.

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