These books come highly recommended for high school from the American Library Association and the Young Adult Literature Association.

Literature is where I go to explore the highest and lowest places in human society and in the human spirit, where I hope to find not absolute truth but the truth of the tale, of the imagination and of the heart.

—Salman Rushdie

The Color Purple                                                                       Alice Walker

Novel by Alice Walker, published in 1982. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 1983. A feminist novel about an abused and uneducated black woman's struggle for empowerment, the novel was praised for the depth of its female characters and for its eloquent use of black English vernacular. The Color Purple is one of the strongest statements of how love transforms and cruelty disfigures the human spirit that this reviewer has ever read. Alice Walker gives us Celie, 14 years old when the book opens, who has been raped, abused, degraded and twice impregnated by her father. After he takes her children away from her without a so much as a word, he marries her off like a piece of chattel to her husband, who is so cold, distant and inhuman to her that she can only refer to him as Mr; and this person deprives her of her sister Nettie, the only one who ever loved her. AR 4.0 MATURE CONTENT.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings                                            Maya Angelou

In this first of five volumes of autobiography, poet Maya Angelou recounts a youth filled with disappointment, frustration, tragedy, and finally hard-won independence. Sent at a young age to live with her grandmother in Arkansas, Angelou learned a great deal from this exceptional woman and the tightly knit black community there. These very lessons carried her throughout the hardships she endured later in life, including a tragic occurrence while visiting her mother in St. Louis and her formative years spent in California--where an unwanted pregnancy changed her life forever. Marvelously told, with Angelou's "gift for language and observation," this "remarkable autobiography by an equally remarkable black woman from Arkansas captures, indelibly, a world of which most Americans are shamefully ignorant." AR 6.7

The Color of Water                                                                James McBride

McBride, an accomplished journalist and musician, has viewed the yawning chasm of racial division from both sides and, despite carving out a successful life, has been scarred.  The Color of Water tells the remarkable story of Ruth McBride Jordan, the two good men she married, and the 12 good children she raised. Jordan, born Rachel Shilsky, a Polish Jew, immigrated to America soon after birth; as an adult she moved to New York City, leaving her family and faith behind in Virginia. Jordan met and married a black man, making her isolation even more profound. The book is a success story, a testament to one woman's true heart, solid values, and indomitable will. Ruth Jordan battled not only racism but also poverty to raise her children and, despite being sorely tested, never wavered. In telling her story--along with her son's--The Color of Water addresses racial identity with compassion, insight, and realism. It is, in a word, inspiring, and you will finish it with unalloyed admiration for a flawed but remarkable individual. And, perhaps, a little more faith in us all. AR 6.1

Their Eyes Were Watching God                                        Zora Neale Hurston

Of Hurston's fiction, Their Eyes Were Watching God is arguably the best-known and perhaps the most controversial. The novel follows the fortunes of Janie Crawford, a woman living in the black town of Eaton, Florida. Hurston sets up her characters and her locale in the first chapter, which, along with the last, acts as a framing device for the story of Janie's life. Hurston's use of dialect enraged other African American writers such as Wright, who accused her of pandering to white readers by giving them the black stereotypes they expected. Decades later, however, outrage has been replaced by admiration for her depictions of black life, and especially the lives of black women

 AR 5.6

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent                               Julia Alvarez

This sensitive story of four sisters who must adjust to life in America after having to flee from the Dominican Republic is told through a series of episodes beginning in adulthood, when their lives have been shaped by U. S. mores, and moving backwards to their wealthy childhood on the island. Adapting to American life is difficult and causes embarrassment when friends meet their parents, anger as they are bullied and called "spics," and identity confusion following summer trips to the family compound in the Dominican Republic. These interconnected vignettes of family life, resilience, and love are skillfully intertwined and offer young adults a perspective on immigration and families as well as a look at America through Hispanic eyes. This unique coming-of-age tale is a feast of stories that will enchant and captivate readers. AR 6.2 MATURE CONTENT.

The Kite Runner                                                                    Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini's debut novel The Kite Runner follows a young boy, Amir, as he faces the challenges that confront him on the path to manhood — testing friendships, finding love, cheating death, accepting faults, and gaining understanding. Living in Afghanistan in the 1960s, Amir enjoys a life of privilege that is shaped by his brotherly friendship with Hassan, his servant's son. Amir lives in constant want of his father's attention, feeling that he is a failure in his father's eyes. Hassan, on the other hand, seems to be able to do no wrong. Their friendship is a complex tapestry of love, loss, privilege, and shame.

 AR 5.2

Wuthering Heights                                                       Emily Bronte                                                                    

Perhaps the most haunting and tragic love story ever written, Wuthering Heights is the tale of Heathcliff, a brooding, troubled orphan, and his doomed love for Catherine Earnshaw. His desire for her leads him to madness, however, when Catherine is made to marry a wealthy lord, sending Heathcliff on a life-long quest to avenge himself upon those who stole his only love and his life. In this gripping chronicle of the never-ending conflict between the heart and the mind -- and the pain and passion of true romance -- Emily Brontë created an unforgettable classic saga of love, desperation, vengeance, and forgiveness. Published just one year before Brontë 's death in 1848 at the age of thirty, Wuthering Heights endures as one of the world's greatest love stories and a classic of English literature. AR 11.3 E-BOOK

For Whom the Bell Tolls                                                   Ernest Hemingway

For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway, is set during the Spanish Civil War and is based upon Hemingway's own experiences therein.  The main character, Robert Jordan, is an American demolitions expert who takes part in the war, fighting against the fascist forces of Fransisco Franco.  While on a mission to destroy a bridge, Jordan meets the young and beautiful Maria, with whom he falls in love. The novel exhibits Hemingway's minimalist style and depicts the brutality of war.  AR 5.8

1984                                                                                      George Orwell

1984, by George Orwell, is a dystopian novel set in a future earth divided into three constantly warring superstates.  The main character, Winston Smith, works for the government of Oceania rewriting history and newspapers to reflect positively on government.  He meets Julia, a young woman in the Junior Anti-Sex League and after initial rage and hatred at her purity, finds out she's not quite so pure.  The two fall in love and begin an intellectual rebellion against the government, embodied by "the Party" and eventually get caught, facing torture and re-education.  Language and elements from 1984, such as the concept of Big Brother, have been appropriated into our jargon and the novel serves as a warning against an overreaching government.

AR 8.9