Classics for Teens

Classic literature appropriate for a teenaged audience, while also enjoyable for adult readers.
Updated January 16, 2023
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain
Paper Book
Fresh off of his escapades with Tom Sawyer and with six thousand dollars in the bank, Huck Finn faces a new challenge: his father, Pap, who wants Huck's fortune and will stop at nothing to get his hands on it. Escaping from Pap, Huck meets Miss Watson's slave, Jim, who has run away after learning...
The Call of the Wild
Jack London
Paper Book
Buck, a powerful St Bernard dog is stolen from his comfortable Californian life in Santa Clara Vally and sold to a pair of French Canadians, who think Buck is one in a thousand. They take him to Alaska and train him as a sled dog where he quickly learns how to survive the cold winter nights and the...
The Catcher in the Rye
J. D. Salinger
Paper Book
J. D. Salinger wrote one of the most famous books ever written, The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger wrote many stories and, in 1941, after several rejections, Salinger finally cracked The New Yorker, with a story, "Slight Rebellion Off Madison," that was an early sketch of what became a scene in "The...
The Diary of a Young Girl
Anne Frank
Paper Book
Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl is an inspiring and tragic account of an ordinary life lived in extraordinary circumstances that has enthralled readers for generations. This Penguin Classics edition is edited by Otto H. Frank and Mirjam Pressler, translated by Susan Massotty, and...
The Color Purple
Alice Walker
Paper Book
ONE OF THE BBC'S 100 NOVELS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE AND THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD In rural Georgia, sisters Celie and Nettie share the pain and struggle of growing up as African American women. Forced into an abusive marriage, at least Celie can...
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Paper Book
Everybody who is anybody is seen at Jay Gatsby's glittering Long Island parties. Yet Gatsby himself is reserved, unknowable. He seems always to be watching and waiting, though no one knows what for. When he finally draws the beautiful Daisy Buchanan back into his orbit, he sets in motion a series of...
The House on Mango Street
Sandra Cisneros
Lord of the Flies
William Golding
Paper Book
From A to Z, the Penguin Drop Caps series collects 26 unique hardcovers--featuring cover art by Jessica Hische It all begins with a letter. Fall in love with Penguin Drop Caps, a new series of twenty-six collectible and hardcover editions, each with a type cover showcasing a...
Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck
Paper Book
A superb story of power and beauty, critically acclaimed across the world and now available in an accessible, super-readable format with dyslexia-friendly features, for all readers. Savvy George and gentle giant Lennie are drifters, hustling for a living in a string of dead-end jobs....
1984
George Orwell
Paper Book
Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith skilfully rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. Yet he inwardly rebels against the totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him through the all-seeing telescreens...
On the Road
Jack Kerouac
Paper Book
On the Road swings to the rhythms of 1950s underground America, jazz, sex, generosity, chill dawns and drugs, with Sal Paradise and his hero Dean Moriarty, traveller and mystic, the living epitome of Beat. Now recognized as a modern classic, its American Dream is nearer that of Walt Whitman...
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee
Paper Book
'Shoot all the Bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a Mockingbird.' Atticus Finch gives this advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of this classic novel - a black man charged with attacking a white girl. Through the...
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston
Paper Book
ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL NOVELS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 'This novel is a packet of surprises as we have no idea what's going to happen next' GUARDIAN 'One of the greatest writers of our time' TONI MORRISON 'Devilishly funny...
Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury
Paper Book
Nearly seventy years after its original publication, Ray Bradbury's internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevant than ever before. Guy Montag is a fireman....

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.