Teen Books for Adults: Part 2

February 24, 2011

We all know the teen books adults loved reading - Harry Potter and the Twilight novels, to name the most recent. Or, maybe you remember A Tree Grows in Brooklyn or The Outsiders, but there are so many more that adults can pick up and enjoy. Teen books have come a long way since The Catcher in the Rye. There are interesting stories, compelling characters, fantasy, and real life themes that will keep you reading well into the night. Here's a list of a few we thought you may want to try:

The Westing Game
by Ellen Raskin
The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together an unlikely assortment of heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death before they can claim the inheritance.
 
Deadline
by Chris Crutcher
Given the medical diagnosis of one year to live, high school senior Ben Wolf decides to fulfill his greatest fantasies, ponders his life's purpose and legacy.
 
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
by Sherman Alexie
Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
 
Pox Party
by M.T. Anderson
Various diaries, letters, and other manuscripts chronicle the experiences of Octavian, a young African American, from birth to age sixteen, as he is brought up as part of a science experiment in the years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War.
 
The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak
Deeply moving story of the Holocaust with a  unique narrator and an eleven-year-old protagonist.

The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins
In a future North America, the rulers of Panem maintain control through and annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another in a fight to the death. This is currently in pre-production for a movie in 2012.

-Heidi C.
Weston Branch