Books for Young Adults:

Tangerine
by Edward Bloor
This is Junior’s (the main character in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian) favorite book, and we can see why: sports, bullies, and mysterious incidents keep you rooting for Paul and wondering what will happen next in Tangerine, FL.
Teen
  

If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period
by Gennifer Choldenko
Kirsten’s best friend left her to join the popular crowd and Walk is one of the few black students at school. Finding each other might make life more bearable for these two outsiders.
Teen
  

The Year My Sister Got Lucky
by Amy Friedman
Katie and Michaela Wilder relocate from NYC to rural Fir Lake. While Katie struggles with culture shock, Michaela transforms into a small-town belle.
Teen
  

An Abundance of Katherines
by John Green
Colin considers himself a failure—he’s been dumped 19 times by girls named Katherine. Colin’s best friend, Hassan, decides a road trip is the best means of therapy.
Teen
  

The Outsiders
by S.E. Hinton
According to Ponyboy, there are two kinds of people in the world: a greaser and a Soc. When his friend kills a Soc in self defense, Ponyboy realizes maybe the world isn’t so simple.
Teen
  

The Misfits
by James Howe
Four misfits create a third party for the student council elections to represent all students who have ever been called names.
Teen
  

Diary of a Wimpy Kid
by Jeff Kinney
Middle school is not for wimps, and Greg Heffley is determined to not only survive it, but to move out of his lowly place on the popularity list.
Child
  

Schooled
by Gordon Korman
Capricorn Anderson spent his whole life on a farm commune with his hippie grandmother, doing anything but preparing him for the world of middle school.
Child
  

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things
by Carolyn Mackler
Victoria feels like the family failure. Everyone else in the family is thin and smart, but things aren’t always what they seem and maybe it’s time Victoria threw her “Fat Girl Code of Conduct” out the window.
Teen
  

Dairy Queen
by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
D.J. spends her summer working on the family farm and training the quarterback for the rival school’s football team, then decides to go out for the sport herself—and shocks everyone.
Teen
  

First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover
by Mitali Perkins
Sameera was adopted as a small child from Pakistan. Now her dad is running for president and his staffers think that she needs to try to be more “American.”
Teen
  

The Wednesday Wars
by Gary D. Schmidt
Rats, cream puffs, yellow tights…as if that isn’t enough, Holling Hoodhood is convinced his teacher hates him, knows he’ll never live up to his dad’s expectations, and worries about the Vietnam War.
Teen
  

Zen and the Art of Faking It
by Jordan Sonnenblick
San Lee moves to a new school and plans to be totally different. When he answers too many questions in World History on Zen, he has his answer: He’s a Zen Master!
Teen
  

Sherman's Picks:

Beloved
by Toni Morrison
Seth, an escaped slave in post-Civil War Ohio fights to escape the apparition Beloved who threatens to take retribution for the past.
  

Black Swan Green
by David Mitchell
Follow Jason Taylor through a year in his life as he grows from boyhood to adulthood in Worcestershire, England.
  

Ceremony
by Leslie Silko
A young Navajo returns to the reservation after being held captive of the Japanese during World War II and attempts to become whole again.
  

Going After Cacciato
by Tim O’Brien
A patrol is in pursuit of a young AWOL soldier of the Vietnam War after he lays down his rifle and decides to embark on a journey out of the jungle and into the streets of Paris.
  

Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
This epic of the Great Depression recounts the horrors of the Dust Bowl and ensuing migration west to the promised-land of California.
  

Invisible Man
by Ralph Ellison
Follow the experiences of a young trusting black man through racism, violence and finally disillusionment.
  

Love Medicine
by Louise Erdrich
This is a novel chronicling the Native American experience of two Chippewa families from 1934 to present.
  

One Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
For five generations the Buendia family has repeated the same disasters, thwarted ambitions and unrequited love as those before them, and their end like their beginning is the result of an original sin.
  

Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston
Janie Crawford, an African American woman in the 1930s searches for identity as she experiences three marriages.
  

Winter in the Blood
by James Welch
A young Native American man lives a self-destructive life searching for something that will tie him to the lands of his ancestors.
  

Books by Native American authors:

Antelope Wife
by Louise Erdrich
The descendants of a white soldier and an Ojibwa woman are intertwined through several generations of tragedy and mysticism.
  

Fools Crow
by James Welch
Fools Crow, a young Indian warrior sees the end of the Indian way of life through the ravages of battle and decimating illness during the annual Dance Ceremony.
  

Grass Dancer
by Susan Power
The descendants of Ghost Horse and Red Dress are haunted by mysterious visions and dreams that interfere with their lives.
  

Ghost Dancing
by Anna Linzer
Follow the lives of Jimmy One Rock and his wife Mary through a series of short stories highlighting changes on their Pacific Northwest reservation at different stages of their lives.
  

House Made of Dawn
by N. Scott Momaday
When Abel returns home from a foreign war he is faced with reconciling his Native American culture with industrialized America.
  

Perma Red
by Debra Earling
Louise White Elk, a mixed blood Indian and restless spirit is loved and admired by a number of men, none of whom are good for her.
  

Truth and Bright Water
by Thomas King
Tecumseh and his cousin and best friend, Lum, embark on an adventurous summer full of mystery and intrigue.
  

A Yellow Raft in Blue Water
by Michael Dorris
This is a story about the lives of three generations of Native American women and how they’re entwined by hardships and secrets.