Top Dozen Books and Series

Since I was very young, I have always enjoyed a good book or story. I have found over the years that my love for fantasy has been the deciding factor in many situations where I needed to choose a book. Some of my top 12 books may be expected to be on a list from a teenage girl, and others may be a bit more surprising.

12. Go Ask Alice Written By: Anonymous: This was a book that gave me a good glimpse of potential middle/high school realities. I used to think that drugs and alcohol were just bad influences, but I never thought lives like Alice’s could be taken so suddenly by the use of drugs. The story is in the form of a teenage girl’s diary, which is her sanctuary for all her feelings and struggles. The diary contains every secret of Alice’s life and it gave me an even better look inside Alice’s decisions. It broke my heart and brought tears to my eyes, but it made me more aware of the consequences that drugs can have on a teenage girl.

11. The Killing Sea Written By: Richard Lewis: This was a tough book for me to stomach. The tsunami of 2004 was awful to hear about and even worse to read about. The Killing Sea was a novel that showed how devastating Mother Nature can be in all parts of the world. Ruslan (an Indian) and Sarah (an American) were brought together by the destruction of the tsunami. Both of them are searching for family that they had been separated from during the tsunami. This book gave me a better understanding of the struggles and the uncontrolled disasters that hurt people though no fault of their own.

10. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Written By: Betty Smith: I know it was a summer reading book that most people didn’t enjoy, but I found it to be an interesting book with a well-thought-out message. I connected to the message of this book because it reminded me of the struggles that every girl faces as she comes of age. Francie Nolan taught me that life will throw obstacles in your path. It’s the way your overcome the obstacle, that will help you to grow as an individual.

9. Speak Written By: Laurie Halse Anderson: We often take for granted our freedom of speech, although there are times when people don’t utilize it. In this book, a young high school girl is afraid to speak up about an atrocity that happened to her. She succumbed to the pressure of her peers and kept it within herself. This book is difficult for me to connect to, but what I took from it was that all girls need to gather the courage to use their voice.

8. No Small Thing Written By: Natale Ghent: Many people keep little things that mean a lot to them or remind them of a special memory. I have never been a horse girl or understood why some people are so attached to them. After reading No Small Thing my feelings toward horse lovers turned around and I began to understand that having a strong love for something, such as horses, is no small thing.

7. Tiger, Tiger Written By: Lynne Reid Banks: In school, history is such a boring class, where all you hear from the teacher is blah, blah, blah. If suddenly you add two tigers in to Ancient Rome, during the time of Caesar and the Colosseum, that time period in history doesn’t seem so dull. Reading Tiger, Tiger led me to appreciate the time period that I live in, where emperors don’t feed people to tigers in an arena for all to watch.

6. Harry Potter Series Written By: J. K. Rowling: The first one of these books came out around the time that I was in first grade. The books started at 309 pages and continuously became longer and richer with information. These characters will stick with the reader forever. Harry Potter was always in trouble with somebody whether it was with Voldemort or the Ministry. Ron was persistently making stupid mistakes. Hermione was constantly using her brains to get the others out of trouble; and my favorite characters, Fred and George Weasley. They took life like a party and made the best of it. I fully believe that if someone only saw the movies (they didn’t do the books justice), then they haven’t received the full impact of Harry Potter’s magical world.

5. Uglies Series Written By: Scott Westerfeld: I don’t think this series could possibly be duplicated by any means. The idea of an advanced civilization in the distant future is a clever setting for the books. The author mixes adventure, mystery and romance into the plot line, which created very memorable books. The best of the series was Uglies and Pretties, as Specials and Extras began steer away from the plot line presented in the first two books.

4. The Golden Compass Written By: Philip Pullman: The movie that came out last year based on this book wouldn’t make the list of my top 12 movies. The book presents so much more mystery and determination than what viewers see in the film. It would be extremely cool if we could have animal daemons in our lives. Imagine having a snow leopard that follows you around, or a hawk that soars up in the sky overhead that’s in your control and your best friend. Nobody would ever feel alone or abandoned in our vast world.

3. Inheritance Cycle Written By: Christopher Paolini: Out of all the fantasy books included in my list, this series is the best of them all. Similar to the Lord of the Rings, Paolini mixes elves, dwarves, dragons, sorcerers, and epic battles into a series of breathtaking books. The author originally started with writing only Eragon, and then decided to write a trilogy adding Eldest and Brisigr. He finally decided to write a fourth book, and all together, call the books the Inheritance Cycle. I guess his ideas continued to grow out of control. The fourth book has yet to come out, but I am anxious to read it once it does.

2. Twilight Series Written By: Stephanie Meyer: I loved these books!! No list of top 12 books is complete without this series. The books were New York Times Bestsellers and the Twilight movie attracted millions of teens to its opening day worldwide. Vampires and werewolves, combined with forbidden love and confused feelings make these books remarkable and unforgettable.

1. The Truth about Forever Written By: Sarah Dessen: Honestly, I picked this book up when I needed something to read for English class. This book isn’t fantasy or fiction, which is why it holds a special place in my heart. The characters in this book are so believable, as they make the same stupid mistakes any normal teenager would. The plot line includes real family struggles, crucial friendships, and the heartache of falling in love for the first time and having it leave you broken hearted. It’s as if a teenager wrote their actual story down on paper, with all of her flaws and struggles included, and gave it to the world to read. The story connects to readers on a totally different level that no other book can match.