NCEA Independent Reading (YA)

If you’re studying English at high school, there may be times when your teacher optimistically expects you to magically find a whole bunch of books (or other media) to write personal or critical responses to. You may even have to read them independently. And then demonstrate you had thoughts about them. We know, it seems inhumane.

Thankfully, the library is here to help! Our librarians have passionately argued their cases* and come up with this list of books — some classic and some new — that would be a fantastic starting point for any NCEA student looking for great texts to include in their Independent Reading assignments. They are arranged in approximate order of complexity, with texts more suited to Level 1 English at the top of the list, and texts more suited to Level 2 at the bottom.

*The impassioned debate would have continued for many more hours, were it not for the summary defenestration of one librarian for daring to suggest that The Hunger Games was ‘too mainstream’ to include on this list.

Updated June 19, 2024
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Wellington City LibrariesYouth team at Wellington City Libraries
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Lord of the flies
Golding, William
Paper Book
The classic novel by William Golding With a new Introduction by Stephen King "To me Lord of the Flies has always represented what novels are for, what makes them indispensable." -Stephen King Golding's classic, startling, and perennially bestselling...
The giver
Lowry, Lois.
Paper Book
The Giver, the 1994 Newbery Medal winner, has become one of the most influential novels of our time. The haunting story centers on twelve-year-old Jonas, who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Not until he is given his life assignment as the...
The day of the Triffids
Wyndham, John
Paper Book
When Bill Masen wakes up blindfolded in hospital there is a bitter irony in his situation. Carefully removing his bandages, he realizes that he is the only person who can see: everyone else, doctors and patients alike, have been blinded by a meteor shower. Now, with civilization in chaos, the...
Dreadnought
Daniels, April (Young adult author)
Paper Book
An action-packed series-starter perfect for fans of The Heroine Complex and Not Your Sidekick. "I didn't know how much I needed this brave, thrilling book until it rocked my world. Dreadnought is the superhero adventure we all need right now."--Charlie Jane...
Jurassic Park
Crichton, Michael
Paper Book
Discover the gripping science fiction cult classic that inspired a global film franchise. PLUS, OUT NOW: ERUPTION, THE BRAND NEW THRILLER FOR 2024 FROM MICHAEL CRICHTON AND JAMES PATTERSON 'Crichton's most compulsive novel' Sunday Telegraph
The Hunger Games
Collins, Suzanne.
Paper Book
The first novel in the worldwide bestselling series by Suzanne Collins!Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The Hunger Games have begun. . . . In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying...
Othello
Shakespeare, William
Paper Book
Edited, Introduced and Annotated by Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of English, University of Sussex. The Wordsworth Classics' Shakespeare Series, with Henry V and The Merchant of Venice as its inaugral volumes, presents a newly-edited sequence of William...
A thousand splendid suns
Hosseini, Khaled
Paper Book
Mariam is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry Rasheed. Nearly two decades later, a friendship grows between Mariam and a local teenager, Laila, as strong as the ties between mother and daughter. When the Taliban take over, life becomes a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality...
The war of the worlds
Wells, H. G.
Paper Book
One summer night, a falling star crosses the sky, describing a line of flame high in the atmosphere and leaving a glowing greenish streak in its wake. Early next morning, a huge cylinder is found half-buried on Horsell Common, hot from its journey through space. Under the eyes of a curious crowd,...
Looking for Alaska : a novel
Green, John
Paper Book
The award-winning, genre-defining debut from John Green, the #1 bestselling author of The Anthropocene Reviewed and The Fault in Our StarsWinner of the Michael L. Printz Award * A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist * A New York Times...
30 queer lives : conversations with LGBTQIA+ New Zealanders
McEvoy, Matt
Paper Book
IDENTITY, UNDERSTANDING AND CELEBRATION THROUGH THE STORIES OF 30 REMARKABLE NEW ZEALANDERS 30 Queer Lives explores the lives, struggles and successes of LGBTQIA+ New Zealanders. The author, Matt McEvoy, notes that as a young gay Kiwi kid growing up, books about All Blacks and Sir Edmund Hillary...
Protest! : shaping Aotearoa
Hager, Mandy
Paper Book
A selected history of the protests in New Zealand that shape modern day Aotearoa, starting with the early 1800s, through to anti-nuclear and land rights. Mandy Hager looks at the background, the structure of the protest and how it affected attitudes. Includes a brief look at the Pacific Islands...
From here to eternity : traveling the world to find the good death
Doughty, Caitlin
Paper Book
A New York Times and Los Angeles Times Bestseller The best-selling author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes expands our sense of what it means to treat the dead with "dignity." Fascinated by our pervasive fear of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty set...
The crossing
Hager, Mandy.
Paper Book
The first book in the stunning Blood of the Lamb trilogy, full of action, suspense and drama. The Crossing is the first book in a stunning trilogy that follows the fate of Maryam and her unlikely companions - Joseph, Ruth and Lazarus. This is fast, suspenseful drama...
The 57 bus
Slater, Dashka
Paper Book
The riveting New York Times bestseller and Stonewall Book Award winner that will make you rethink all you know about race, class, gender, crime, and punishment. Artfully, compassionately, and expertly told, Dashka Slater's The 57 Bus is a must-read nonfiction book for...
The knife of never letting go
Ness, Patrick
Paper Book
Imagine you can hear everything the town of men say about you. And they can hear everything you think. Imagine you don't fit into their plans. Todd Hewitt is just one month away from the birthday that will make him a man. But his town has been keeping secrets from him. Secrets that are going to...
Thief of time : a Discworld novel
Pratchett, Terry
Paper Book
Time isn't a toy to be played with. It's bigger than all of us. It exists outside the artificial and arbitrary divisions into which humankind has presumptuously shoehorned it. It needs to elastic. To understand truly, you have to see time as the most important resource we have. You mess...
Am I black enough for you? : 10 years on
Heiss, Anita
Paper Book
I'm Aboriginal. I'm just not the Aboriginal person a lot of people want or expect me to be. What does it mean to be Aboriginal? Why is Australia so obsessed with notions of identity? Anita Heiss, successful author and passionate advocate for Aboriginal literacy, rights and...
Storm-wake
Christopher, Lucy
Paper Book
Moss has lived with her pa on a remote island for as long as she remembers. The Old World has disappeared beneath the waves - only Pa's magic, harnessing the wondrous stormflowers on the island, can save the sunken continents. But a storm is brewing, promising cataclysmic changes. Soon, two strange...
Purple Hibiscus : a novel
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi
Paper Book
"One of the most vital and original novelists of her generation." --Larissa MacFarquhar, The New Yorker From the bestselling author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists Fifteen-year-old Kambili and her...
The kite runner
Hosseini, Khaled
Paper Book
The #1 New York Times bestselling novel beloved by millions of readers the world over. "A vivid and engaging story that reminds us how long his people [of Afghanistan] have been struggling to triumph over the forces of violence--forces that continue to threaten them even today...
Frankenstein, or, The modern Prometheus
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft
Paper Book
  No-one in the grip of Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN, with its mythic-minded hero and its highly sympathetic monster who reads Goethe and longs to be at peace with himself, can fail to notice how much more excellent the original is than all the adaptations, imitations and outright...
American gods : a novel : author's preferred text
Gaiman, Neil
Paper Book
Now a STARZ® Original Series produced by FremantleMedia North America starring Ricky Whittle, Ian McShane, Emily Browning, and Pablo Schreiber. Locked behind bars for three years, Shadow did his time, quietly waiting for the day when he could return to Eagle Point, Indiana. A man no longer...
Catch-22
Heller, Joseph.
Paper Book
This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller's masterpiece with a new introduction; critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos; and much more. Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels...
The catcher in the rye
Salinger, J. D.
Paper Book
The "brilliant, funny, meaningful novel" (The New Yorker) that established J. D. Salinger as a leading voice in American literature--and that has instilled in millions of readers around the world a lifelong love of books. "If you really...
Once were warriors
Duff, Alan
Paper Book
A New Zealand classic, this novel is a raw and powerful portrayal of Maori in New Zealand society. Alan Duff's groundbreaking first novel is one of the most talked-about books ever published in New Zealand and is the basis of a major New Zealand film and won the Hubert Church PEN...
The song of Achilles
Miller, Madeline
Paper Book
**OVER 3 MILLION COPIES SOLD** WINNER OF THE ORANGE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION THE INTERNATIONAL SENSATION A SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'Captivating' DONNA TARTT 'I loved it' J K ROWLING
The handmaid's tale
Atwood, Margaret
Paper Book
** THE SUNDAY TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER ** Go back to where it all began with the dystopian novel behind the award-winning TV series. 'The Handmaid's Tale changed me profoundly, hopefully for the better' Lee Child, Guardian
The left hand of darkness
Le Guin, Ursula K.
Paper Book
50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION--WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY DAVID MITCHELL AND A NEW AFTERWORD BY CHARLIE JANE ANDERS Ursula K. Le Guin's groundbreaking work of science fiction--winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards. A lone human ambassador is sent to the icebound planet of...
Not that bad : dispatches from rape culture
Gay, Roxane
Paper Book

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