Summer reading for older students.

As a high school teacher in Frederick County, Maryland, I am often asked by parents to recommend summer reading for older students. Instead of a list of classics or the latest young adult novels, I like to offer a mix of the old and new. Here is what I'm suggesting this year.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

By Mark Twain (1884)

This classic, banned from public libraries during its time and one of the most frequently challenged books during ours, might be one of the finest works of fiction ever written. Even if you read it in 10th grade, take another look at this coming-of-age story, set along the Mississippi River. This novel is so rich you'll have a new experience every time you read it, especially as you mature. Also try Twain's The Mysterious Stranger for a very dark, twisted view of life.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The Color Purple

By Alice Walker (1982)

* PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION

* NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

In 1930s Georgia, Celie, a poor African American teenager, is forced to marry an abusive widower. Her romantic relationship with her husband's mistress and her search for independence are "adult" themes, but the novel--simultaneously violent and beautiful--is must reading. Like Huckleberry Finn, it is a frequently challenged and censored book.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Cat's Cradle

By Kurt Vonnegut (1963)

Scientists, federal agents, and other assorted characters chase each other around in search of a dangerous new substance that freezes at room temperature. Vonnegut said that this novel, a satire on the nuclear arms race, was his favorite of the books he wrote. It's mine as well.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The Lovely Bones

By Alice Sebold (2002)

This coming-of-age novel is narrated by a murdered girl who watches from heaven as her friends and family try to explain her disappearance--and her killer tries to avoid detection.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

(***** Nov/Dec 2002)

Cat's Eye

By Margaret Atwood (1988)

Think Mean Girls (the movie), only much more complex and relevant to students and adults alike. While attending a retrospective show of her work in her hometown of Toronto, a painter has flashbacks to her childhood. Her painful memories center on her long "friendship" with a cruel girl, which affected her life as a woman and an artist.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Girl with a Pearl Earring

By Tracy Chevalier (1999)

This story of the model for 17th-century Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer's famous painting is beautifully written. Historical fiction at its finest, the novel reimagines the life and times of a teenage maid and her relationship to the artist.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Never Let Me Go

By Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)

Whatever you think this novel will be about, you'll probably be mistaken. It's part thriller, part mystery, and part science fiction as it explores the lives of a group of unusual students at a boarding school in the English countryside.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

(**** SELECTION July/Aug 2005)

The Chosen

By Chaim Potok (1967)

Set in Brooklyn at the end of World War II, Potok's novel explores the relationships between two orthodox Jewish fathers--one a Hasidic rabbi, the other a more modern scholar--and their very different teenage sons. It is an intensely emotional and eye-opening novel--with politics, religion, and psychology all thrown in.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

By Mark Haddon (2003)

* WHITBREAD AWARD

* COMMONWEALTH WRITERS' PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST BOOK

Christopher John Francis Boone, an autistic teen in England, is brilliant in many ways--just not when it comes to understanding human behavior. In chapters that reflect his mathematic prowess and foreign inner life, he narrates his attempt to solve the mystery of his neighbor's dog's death. (**** Sept/Oct 2003)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The Shining

By Stephen King (1977)

Not many horror novels come close to literature, but this one does. Smart and suspenseful, it deals not only with a haunted hotel and telepathy but also with alcohol addiction and child-parent relationships.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The Kite Runner

By Khaled Hosseini (2003)

A man who came to America as a teen looks back on his childhood in war-torn Afghanistan and the boyhood friendships that changed his life. Although the novel depicts brutality, it speaks of redemption as well, particularly when the narrator returns to Afghanistan to keep a promise.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

(**** Sept/Oct 2003)

Sophie's Choice

By William Styron (1979)

Sophie, a Polish concentration camp survivor, lives in New York shortly after the end of World War II. You think her "choice" is between two men, one of whom is the narrator, but you find out it's something quite different--and tragic.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Nineteen Minutes

By Jodi Picoult (2007)

This novel, told from many perspectives, features a (fictional) school shooting in New Hampshire and its terrible aftermath. If you like it, I also highly recommend Picoult's The Tenth Circle and My Sister's Keeper. Picoult is my favorite popular author: her novels often deal with controversial issues and contain some great twists.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

(**** SELECTION May/June 2007)

The Secret History

By Donna Tartt (1992)

Five brilliant students at an elite New England college are involved in two murders, one supposedly accidental and the other deliberate. The many allusions, both literary and historical, make Tartt's novel a challenging but worthwhile read.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The Secret Life of Bees

By Sue Monk Kidd (2003)

In South Carolina in 1964, a teenage girl and her African American servant flee their abusive situations. When the girl befriends a group of black beekeeping sisters, jumbled and repressed memories start to emerge about the death of her mother ten years earlier.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Stranger in a Strange Land

By Robert Heinlein (1961)

* HUGO AWARD

Valentine Michael Smith, a human raised by Martians and returned to Earth, examines our society through a very different lens. A science fiction classic, this novel raises provoking questions about Earth's human culture, and is especially interesting to read after Brave New World.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Stuck in Neutral

By Terry Trueman (2000)

* MICHAEL L. PRINTZ HONOR BOOK

In this very short, very intense book, a teenage boy with cerebral palsy thinks his father, who is obsessed with euthanasia, is planning to kill him. As he narrates his plight, he brings us into his troubled--and very brilliant--mind. Few novels so aptly capture the father-son dynamic.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Water for Elephants

By Sara Gruen (2006)

A man in a nursing home looks back on his life as a young veterinarian in a circus during the Great Depression. A love triangle soon develops, but the ending is perfect; make sure you don't read ahead. (**** Sept/Oct 2006)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

By Pearl Cleage (1997)

* OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB SELECTION

Would you believe that a novel about suicide, sudden infant death syndrome, drunk driving, crack addiction, unwed motherhood, and domestic violence could really be enjoyable? This one is optimistic and sweet, even funny--and has wonderful characters.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The World According to Garp

By John Irving (1978)

The nature of art, the consequences of lust, the fear of death, and the politics of sex are all topics, among many others, that this book address in its exploration of T.S. Garp and his mother, a nurse-turned-feminist icon.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]