New to High School? (YA)

In Year 9 and stuck for something to read? Here are 31 of our favourite books or series to get you started. Don’t forget to talk to your school librarian as well — they’re experts on all things bookishly good!

Updated June 19, 2024
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Wellington City Libraries Youth team at Wellington City Libraries
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New to High School? (YA)

In Year 9 and stuck for something to read? Here are 31 of our favourite books or series to get you started. Don’t forget to talk to your school librarian as well — they’re experts on all things bookishly good!

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Pride and prejudice
Austen, Jane
Paper Book
The Penguin English Library Edition of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 'No sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she had hardly a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of...
The hunger games
Collins, Suzanne
Paper Book
The maze runner
Dashner, James
Ebook
To all the boys I've loved before
Han, Jenny
Ebook
  The book that started it all! All three books in the To All The Boys I've Loved Beforeseries have been made into feature length films for NETFLIX. A Times Best YA Book of All Time(2021) Lara Jean keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. One for...
Howl's moving castle
Jones, Diana Wynne
Audiobook
'One of the greatest ever writers for children' - Garth Nix 'A true original' - Katherine Rundell 'Truly magical ... Guaranteed to leave you gasping' The Bookseller 'She is the best writer of magical fantasy for children' Evening Standard In the land of Ingary, where...
Skulduggery Pleasant
Landy, Derek
Paper Book
Meet the great Skulduggery Pleasant: wise-cracking detective, powerful magician, master of dirty tricks and burglary (in the name of the greater good, of course). Oh yeah. And dead. Then there's his sidekick, Stephanie. She's... well, she's a twelve-year-old girl. With a pair like...
Anne of Green Gables
Montgomery, L. M.
Audiobook
The recruit
Muchamore, Robert.
Paper Book
A young foster child gets inducted into an elite group of underage spies in this gripping first book in the young adult CHERUB series perfect for graduates of City Spies and Spy School. Following the death of his mother, eleven-year-old James Choke gets separated from his half...
Northern lights
Pullman, Philip
Paper Book
Lyra Belacqua and her animal daemon live half-wild and carefree among scholars of Jordan College, Oxford. The destiny that awaits her will take her to the frozen lands of the Arctic, where witch-clans reign and ice-bears fight. Her extraordinary journey will have immeasurable consequences far beyond...
The lightning thief
Riordan, Rick
Ebook
Coming soon to Disney+! Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief is the first bestselling book in Rick Riordan's phenomenally successful Percy Jackson series. Half boy. Half God. ALL Hero. Look, I didn't want to be a...
Holes
Sachar, Louis
Paper Book
The Hobbit : or There and back again
Tolkien, J. R. R.
Ebook
This is the story of how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected... 'A flawless masterpiece' The Times Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely travelling further than the pantry...
The book thief
Zusak, Markus
Paper Book
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