Books For High School

By Author: Kathleen
Total Articles: 56
Comment this article

One of the best books I've read in some time, Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why (Razorbill, 2007) can show readers the effects that seemingly innocuous behaviors can have on others. Clay Jenkins receives a box of audiotapes from Hannah Baker, a classmate who had committed suicide Omega Speedmaster Replica two weeks earlier. The tapes reveal how different people treated Hannah over the years and how she came to believe that she had to end her life.

Bullying, and the horrific effects it can have, is presented from varying perspectives in Quad by Carrie Gordon Watson (Razorbill, 2007). After shots begin to ring out in the halls of Muir High, six students barricade themselves inside the school store and try to figure out who the shooter could be. The six students all come from different social cliques within the school, so their interpretations of events and people are colored in different ways As the book progresses, the group comes closer to identifying the shooter, and readers see how cruelty can have long-lasting effects.

Nancy ...
... Garden's Endgame (Harcourt, 2006) takes readers inside the mind of a student who, after prolonged and humiliating bullying, turns to violence. As Gray's story unfolds as he talks to his lawyer following the shooting, readers will be astounded by how blind some authority figures—at school and at home—can be to signs of bullying and warning signals of progressively worse behavior.

The pursuit of popularity lies at the heart of J. M. Steele's The Market (Hyperion, 2008). When Kate discovers that all of the girls in her senior class have been ranked on the Milbank Social Stock Market (MSSM), she is determined to increase her "junk bond" value of 71. Markets fluctuate, and the social market is no different; as she changes her looks and mannerisms, Kate realizes the relative value of popularity and friendship.

Bullying behaviors can also appear in seemingly friendly relationships. Jo Knowles explores complex secrecies and contradictions between girls in Lessons from a Dead Girl (Candlewick, 2007). Laine and Leah have been friends since the fifth grade, but they drifted apart as they went through high school. Secrets that had been held between them start to emerge after Leah dies in a car crash. As Laine revisits their relationship after Leah's death, she comes to realize that their childhood "games" have had powerful affects on her. This is an excellent book about the power friends can have over one another, and Knowles does a skillful job of showing how both Leah and Laine are damaged and tragic.

Prejudice against the undead is the focus of Generation Dead by Daniel Waters (Hyperion, 2008). Across the country, some teenagers who died are coming back, although they are not technically alive and are slower to speak and move than they were in life. These "differently biotic" teens, as they come to be Cartier Replica Watches known, go to school alongside the living, and this can cause serious disruptions to the social order at school. At Oakvale High, Phoebe and her friends interact with the differently biotic daily, and she falls for Tommy, who is a leader among the dead students. Their relationship causes disruption among Phoebe's friends and becomes more complicated when a living boy falls for Phoebe. This is a smart and funny book about how differences manifest themselves at school and in the community at large.