Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies by William Golding was the first book I was required to read within high school. It was a great way to start because I thought all the books we were going to read would be that good (ha.) Lord of the Flies is about a bunch of boys who randomly end up on an island. There are no adults and no one seems to want to talk about what happened previously in their lives. The older boys instantly begin to strive for power. As soon as that begins though, mayhem begins as well. Power struggles, weird coincidences, and actions that no normal person would believe children would do.

Definitely read Lord of the Flies. Golding describes things wonderful and I still shiver whenever I think of certain scenes. The symbolism is incredible and it will make you question human nature. I believe that the last page would make the entire book worthy of reading even if you hated all the rest. Which you might. It's a love-hate book. As I've said I loved it overall, but there were definitely pages or chapters where I would think "no way kids would do this!" or "Golding, I don't care what the ground sounds like, I would really like to know what's happening to so and so"

Contrary to what you might've heard, there is no cannibalism.

-jojo

The Princess Diaries series

Meg Cabot definitely keeps the reader captivated with her main character, Mia. In the first book Mia finds out she's a Princess and everything spirals down from there.

Mia is very real in most ways -- her thoughts, writing style, conversations, love interests, and friends, and yet she's frustratingly naive. Still, so far I've loved every book except the 3rd and 2nd to last in the series. I can't explain why because it would give away everything.

I think 8th graders and up could read these series. I say this because even though it's all very sweet and the writing isn't complex, Mia thinks a lot about boys.

-Jojo