Kristin Cashore, highly acclaimed young adult novelist, spoke to our ninth grade academies yesterday. Ms. Cashore discussed her newly published books, Fire and Graceling. She also shared some insight about her own writing process with examples from her notebooks. Ms. Cashore credits her parents for some of her success because they encouraged her to pursue the things she loved. Writing was clearly on her list.

Explore some of the books that have been challenged or banned elsewhere, but are available in the Nathan Hale High School Library!

Classics List-
1. A Room With A View, E.M. Forester
2. The Old Man and the Seat, Ernest Hemingway
3. The World According to Garp, John Irving
4. Beloved, Toni Morrison
5. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
6. Ulysses, James Joyce
7. Animal Farm, George Orwell  
8. The Call of the Wild, Jack London
9. Orlando, Virginia Woolf
10. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

Contemporary List -

1. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
2. Gossip Girl, Cecily Von Zeigesar
3. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
4. The Chocolate War, Robert Cormier
5. Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling
6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
7. The Blues Eye, Toni Morrison
8. Athletic Shorts, Chris Crutcher
9. TTYL, Lauren Myracle
10. Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya

The Fortunes of Indigo Skye (2008) by Deb Caletti

Eighteen-year-old Indigo is looking forward to becoming a full-time waitress after high school graduation, but her life is turned upside down by a large check given to her by a customer who appreciates that she cares enough to scold him about smoking.


Paper Towns (2008) by John Green

One month before graduating from his Central Florida high school, Quentin “Q” Jacobsen basks in the predictable boringness of his life until the beautiful and exciting Margo Roth Spiegelman, Q’s neighbor and classmate, takes him on a midnight adventure and then mysteriously disappears.


Touching Snow (2007) by M. Sindy Felin

Karina’s stepfather is arrested for child abuse but she keeps silent about his actions and even takes the blame for her sister’s injuries. Can she share her secret with anyone?


Unwind (2007) by Neal Shusterman

Three teens embark upon a cross-country journey in order to escape from a society that salvages body parts from children ages thirteen to eighteen.


Skim (2008) Words by Mariko Tamaki ; drawings by Jillian Tamaki.

Wiccan goth teen Kimberly Keiko Cameron sinks into a growing depression after her classmate’s ex-boyfriend kills himself, sparking a school revolution that forces all the students to redefine themselves.