While many students love reading about faraway worlds or historical events, others may prefer more relatable stories when it comes to their reading choices. That's why we're highlighting ten incredible works that feature a high school setting. In this list, you'll find everything from drama and dystopia to memoirs and nonfiction.
J. D. Salinger's classic novel features a troubled but relatable teenager named Holden Caulfield. The novel follows Holden through his adventures and tribulations as he gets expelled from boarding school, tries to understand the world he inhabits, and attempts to return home. The Catcher in the Rye is considered one of the most incisive novels of the 20th century.
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Teaching this moving novel promises a window into important discussions about bullying in school, mental health, and sexual crime/consent. Plus, the intimate, natural narration of the protagonist will grip even the most reluctant of readers.
Order Speak
This book shows a different type of school conflict. Jerry, the protagonist, takes a stand against his high school's cruel secret gang using "Do I dare to disturb the universe?" to question the way things are. Students will be amazed as he attempts to enact change while surviving the hostile social environment.
Order The Chocolate War
Looking to teach a school-themed work of nonfiction? Introduce students to H. G. Bissinger's account of Permian High School's football team in Odessa, Texas. The book explores the inner workings of this town's football-crazed culture.
Order Friday Night Lights
Sherman Alexie's semi-autobiographical novel shares the story of Arnold, a bullied teenager who decides to leave his life on an Indian Reservation behind and attend a wealthy white school twenty miles away. His journey is funny, insightful, and, most of all, brutally honest.
Order The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
John Knowles's coming-of-age novel is perfect to pair with a lesson about World War II; its narrator, Gene, is a man who returns to his former prep school and reflects on a dark period of his adolescence—the summer of 1942 to that of 1943, during which he and his friend Finny experience a loss of innocence that mirrors the War.
Order A Separate Peace
The Freedom Writers Diary was written by a group of students from Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, CA, and their idealistic teacher Erin Gruwell. Gruwell confiscates a racist drawing from one of her students, which leads the class to a life-changing journey against intolerance. She introduces these students to topics such as racism and the Holocaust through The Diary of Anne Frank and Zlata's Diary.
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In 1957, teenaged Melba Patillo Beals and eight other African American teenagers became the first black students to be integrated into an all-white school in Little Rock, AR. Beals's powerful memoir relays her experiences attending Little Rock High School—her fears, struggles, and resilience in the face of hate.
Order Warriors Don't Cry
This dystopian novel takes places in an alternate late-1990s England in which citizens' lives are prolonged through a cloning process. The author slowly reveals the details—and consequences—of this process to the reader. The novel revolves around boarding school students Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth and their complex friendship and experiences at the isolated learning institution, Hailsham.
Order Never Let Me Go
Charlie, a quiet high school freshman, prefers to observe the world around him rather than engage with it. But after he meets Patrick and Sam, two quirky seniors, Charlie learns to open up and actively enjoy life rather than watch it pass by. As the epistolary novel unfolds, your students will find Charlie's accounts of adolescent issues, including social pressures, abuse, dating, and identity, all too relatable.
Order The Perks of Being a Wallflower
You can find all these titles and more at Prestwick House! When you order from us, you'll always save at least 25% on any paperback. If the retail value of your order is at least $500, you'll save 30%. And if the retail value of your order is at least $2,500, you'll save 35% on all your paperbacks!
Have a book in mind but don't see it in stock? Send an email to info@prestwickhouse.com. We can special order almost any book for you!