Gloria Whelen’s Homeless Bird is a gripping novel that won the National Book Award for Young People’s Fiction in 2000. It centers around Koly, a 13-year old Indian girl who is about to enter an arranged marriage with a boy named Hari. Once the two marry, Hari dies from tuberculosis and Koly is left widowed … Continue reading Gloria Whelen’s Homeless Bird

Tom Angleberger’s The Strange Case of Origami Yoda is a novel released in 2010, and is the first in a series of origami themed Star Wars books with wonderful puns like “Darth Paper” and “ART2-D2.” The book centers around a group of students at McQuarrie Middle School. One day, a boy named Dwight, who is … Continue reading The Strange Case of Origami Yoda – Tom Angleberger

George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a classic novella popularly read for both leisure and in English classes around the nation. It tells the tale of Manor Farm in England, in which a negligent farmer named Mr. Jones overworks and mistreats his animals. Eventually, the animals get fed up, and Old Major, a boar, expresses how … Continue reading George Orwell’s Animal Farm

William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies centers around the challenges that a group of boys faces trying to survive and maintain order while stranded on a deserted island. After a plane crash during wartime, Ralph finds himself stranded on a Pacific island with a boy named Piggy. Ralph finds a conch shell and uses … Continue reading William Golding’s Lord of the Flies

Louis Sachar’s Holes is a classic young adult novel, published in 1998, that centers around Stanley Yelnats (whose last name is just Stanley backwards). Stanley is a boy who is wrongly accused of stealing a pair of shoes that belonged to a famous baseball player. He is sent to Camp Green Lake as a result, … Continue reading Louis Sachar’s Holes