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 April 29, 2024
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Wellington City Libraries
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The giver
Lowry, Lois.
In a perfect world, Jonas begins to see the flaws... THE GIVER is the classic award-winning novel that inspired the dystopian genre and a major motion picture adaptation starring Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Katie Holmes and Taylor Swift. It is the future. There is no war, no hunger,...
The Hunger Games
Collins, Suzanne
Set in a dark vision of the near future, a terrifying reality TV show is taking place. Twelve boys and twelve girls are forced to appear in a live event called 'The Hunger Games'. There is only one rule: kill or be killed. When sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen steps forward to take her younger...
The day of the triffids
Wyndham, John
The most famous catastrophe novel of the twentieth century, John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids, published as a Penguin Essential for the first time. 'When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously...
Othello
Shakespeare, William
A thousand splendid suns
Hosseini, Khaled.
This is the story of an unusual and lifelong friendship between two Afghan women, spanning from the idyllic mid 1950s to post-September 11 Kabul. Bound by tragedy and fate, by political circumstance and custom, the two women live through the Soviet war, the harrowing days of the Afghan civil war and...
The war of the worlds
Wells, H. G.
The classic and terrifying HG Wells novel of alien invasion is now a landmark series for the BBC from the makers of Poldark, Victoria and And Then There Were None. One night a shooting star is seen over the skies of Surrey. The next day, it's discovered to...
Looking for Alaska
Green, John
The unmissable and genre-defining first novel from John Green, the international number one bestselling and award-winning author of THE FAULT IN OUR STARS and TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN. Includes a brand-new Readers Guide featuring a Q&A with the author. ...
Thief of Time
Pratchett, Terry
Storm-wake
Christopher, Lucy
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...
American gods
Gaiman, Neil
AMERICAN GODS, the extraordinary, highly acclaimed epic novel from storytelling genius and international bestseller Neil Gaiman, comes vividly to life in a major new TV series on Amazon Prime Video starring Ricky Whittle, Ian McShane, Emily Browning and Gillian Anderson.'Gaiman is a...
Catcher in the rye
Salinger, J. D.
The handmaid's tale
Atwood, Margaret
** THE SUNDAY TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER ** **A BBC BETWEEN COVERS BIG JUBILEE READ** Go back to where it all began with the dystopian novel behind the award-winning TV series. 'As relevant today as it was when Atwood wrote it'...
The left hand of darkness
Le Guin, Ursula K.
Genly Ai is an ethnologist observing the people of the planet Gethen, a world perpetually in winter. The people there are androgynous, normally neuter, but they can become male ot female at the peak of their sexual cycle. They seem to Genly Ai alien, unsophisticated and confusing. But he is drawn...

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