I have a lot of friends who just don’t listen to me or follow rules well at all. When I invited people to my 50th birthday party, I specified no gifts, or gifts of books for the kids at Treehouse, a great organization that provides the little extras, as well as counseling and mentors to foster children in Western Washington.
Some of them, however, gave me gift cards to a monolithic e-marketplace that is currently attempting to crush Hachette Book Group, probably as a warning shot to other publishers. I’m not going to use those cards to cut into my 150-odd long books I want list. I’m going to buy books for Treehouse. I got hundreds of books at my birthday party, but most of them were for younger readers. So I’m going to focus on young adult books with this money.
Everyone knows that The Hunger Games and The Fault in Our Stars are big hits with this crowd, but I don’t want to leave out classics. So I’m asking you to chime in. Tell me what your favorite book was in high school. I figure I have enough money to get about 20 books. I have about a dozen loyal readers. Let’s see if you all can share this and cajole enough friends and relatives to participate so that we get 20 different titles in the comments. I’ll buy them all and present them to Treehouse the week after Independence Day, when I’m scheduled to take in a Prius-full of books to the Wearhouse.
So go forth and share. But only after you tell me: what was your favorite young adult read?
Saint-Exupery’s “The Little Prince”, first explored in Sally Galbraith’s French class, then devoured the English translation. Richard Bach’s “Illusions” was another. And “A Fine and Private Place” by Peter Beagle. Yeah, I know, I was kind of a weird kid … like to think I still am.
Are you There, God? It’s Me, Margaret. Loved that book!
What about something for kids a little older? I’m guessing that book skews to junior high in the world we live in today. I, too, though, loved that book. I must have read it a dozen times. And I’m pretty sure my brother took it from my room and read it too. He knew too many lines (we must, we must, we must increase our bust!).
Crime and Punishment
This makes me very sad, partly because I did not like that book at all. It’s not what you’d call uplifting literature, Rebecca! Didn’t you have something happy-making? Or something you loved that wasn’t assigned in a class?
Sadly, I was a big VC Andrews fan in high school.
I love how you’re celebrating your birthday!
Some of these are for 10-11 year olds, some for tweens.: Harriet The Spy, Wrinkle In Time, Henry Huggins, Half Magic, Magic By the Lake, To Kill A Mockingbird, Phantom Tollbooth, All of a Kind Family, Jane Eyre, etc.
I remember reading and really enjoying Les Miserables by Victor Hugo in high school. I read it on my own after seeing the TV movie starring Anthony Perkins as Javert.
I went to an all girls Catholic high school. I loved reading The Catcher in the Rye. The really memorable part was when we were having a discussion about the book and Sister Something-0r-Other started freely dropping the f-bomb in discussing Holden and his adventures!
Great way to celebrate your birthday!
Alice
The teachings of Don Juan, a Yaqui way of knowledge.