9-12 Grade Books
9th Grade
Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. Laia is a Scholar living under the iron-fisted rule of the Martial Empire. When her brother is arrested for treason, Laia goes undercover as a slave at the empire's greatest military academy in exchange for assistance from rebel Scholars who claim that they will help to save her brother from execution. Fiction. Series.
The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen. When a school bus accident leaves sixteen-year-old Jessica an amputee, she returns to school with a prosthetic limb and her track team finds a wonderful way to help rekindle her dream of running again. Fiction.
The Crossover by Kwame Alexander. Fourteen-year-old twin basketball stars Josh and Jordan wrestle with highs and lows on and off the court as their father ignores his declining health. Novel in Verse. Series.
Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D. Schmidt. Jack, 12, tells the gripping story of Joseph, 14, who joins his family as a foster child. Damaged in prison, Joseph wants nothing more than to find his baby daughter, Jupiter, whom he has never seen. When Joseph has begun to believe he'll have a future, he is confronted by demons from his past that force a tragic sacrifice. Fiction.
10th Grade
Disappeared by Francisco X. Stork. As a reporter in Juárez, Mexico, Sara tirelessly writes about girls who suddenly vanish from their homes. Meanwhile, her younger brother, Emiliano, is hard at work earning what he can to support Sara and their mother. When an opportunity arises to increase his family’s finances, he jumps at the chance, only to find out that his dreams of a better life lay in the town’s most lucrative industry—the drug trade. Fiction.
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction--if they don't kill each other first. Fiction. Series.
Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older. When the murals painted on the walls of her Brooklyn neighborhood start to change and fade in front of her, Sierra Santiago realizes that something strange is going on--then she discovers her Puerto Rican family are shadowshapers and finds herself in a battle with an evil anthropologist for the lives of her family and friends. Fiction.
Lifel1k3 by Jay Kristoff. Eve's discovery of a handsome android named Ezekiel--called a "Lifelike" because they resemble humans--will bring her world crashing down & make her question whether her entire life is a lie. With her best friend Lemon Fresh and her robotic sidekick Cricket in tow, Eve will trek across deserts of glass, battle unkillable bots, & infiltrate towering megacities to save the ones she loves...and learn the truth about the bloody secrets of her past. Fiction. Series.
11th Grade
Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge by Lisa Jensen. Lucie can't believe the handsome master of the estate, Jean-Loup, is a monster and the estate cursed. When Lucie discovers how cruel Jean-Loup is, she has him transformed into the monstrous Beast. But the Beast is different: he's patient, writes poetry, and shows remorse. When an innocent beauty with the power to break the spell arrives, Lucie must decide which monster remains, the kind Beast or the cruel master. Fiction.
Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover. The story of a girl raised in a reclusive Mormon family in Idaho who went on to become a great scholar. The author worked her way above poverty and abuse. Nonfiction.
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black. Jude, seventeen and mortal, gets tangled in palace intrigues while trying to win a place in the treacherous High Court of Faerie, where she and her sisters have lived for a decade. Fiction. Series.
Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner. Where are you guys? Text me back. That's the last message Carver Briggs will ever send his three best friends, Mars, Eli, and Blake. He never thought that it would lead to their death. Fiction.
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez. Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents' house after high school graduation. Perfect Mexican daughters never abandon their family. But Julia is not your perfect Mexican daughter. That was Olga's role. Then a tragic accident on the busiest street in Chicago leaves Olga dead and Julia left behind to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family. Fiction.
12th Grade
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We are Wrong About the World and Why Things are Better than You Think by Hans Rosling. Contrary to what we are fed in the nightly newscast, the world is a better place today than it has ever been in history. For at least the last 200 years, the human condition has been on a clear upward path. Bill Gates thought the book so important that he made an online version of this text available to every college graduate in the United States. Nonfiction.
Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham. When Rowan finds a skeleton on her family's property, investigating the brutal, century-old murder leads to painful discoveries about the past. Alternating chapters tell the story of William, another teen grappling with the racial firestorm leading up to the 1921 Tulsa race riot, providing some clues to the mystery. Fiction.
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland. Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania--derailing the War Between the States and changing the nation forever. In this new America, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Education Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead. Fiction.
Far From the Tree by Robin Benway. Being the middle child has its ups and downs. But for Grace, an only child who was adopted at birth, discovering that she is a middle child is a different ride altogether. After putting her own baby up for adoption, she goes looking for her biological family, including Maya, her loudmouthed younger bio sister, who has a lot to say about their newfound family ties. Fiction.
Dumplin' by Julie Murphy. Sixteen-year-old Willowdean wants to prove to everyone in her small Texas town that she is more than just a fat girl, so, while grappling with her feelings for a co-worker who is clearly attracted to her, Will and some other misfits prepare to compete in the beauty pageant her mother runs. Fiction.