Classic English Literature For Teens

It's the summer of 1993. After the death of their parents at the hands of a drunk driver, city-dwelling teenage brothers Christopher and James Janes are sent to live with their widowed grandfather in the remote Ozarks of Missouri. There, the brothers must learn to cope with the drastic turn their lives have taken and the unfamiliarity of their surroundings, as well as their grief. By some stroke of fate, there is one other person their age in the area: a girl named Kylie.

When Cat overhears a conversation about a diamond hidden somewhere in the theatre, she's determined to find the treasure. Ably assisted by Pedro, a musician in the company orchestra, she is thrust into a world of drama and intrigue, where she encounters Covent Garden street gangs, boxing matches, theatre riots and spectacular stage productions. En route, she learns a lot about who she is, and who her real friends are.

Living in St. Jude, a 110-year-old dying city on the edge of the Mississippi, is tough. But when a letter informs 14-year-old Cinque Williams of the passing of the father he never met, he is faced with an incomplete past and an uncertain future. A curse meant for his father condemns Cinque to a slow death even as it opens his eyes to the strange otherworld around him. With help from the ghost Willy T, an enigmatic White Woman named Iku, an African Loa, and a devious shape-shifter, Cinque gathers the tools to confront the ghost of his dead father. But he will learn that sometimes too much knowledge can be dangerous.

When 16-year-old Anya learns that her aunt, Queen of the Faerie Kingdom of Chrior, will soon die, her grief is equaled only by her despair for the future of the kingdom. Her young cousin, Illumina, is unfit to rule, and Anya is determined not to take up the queen's mantle herself. Convinced that the only solution is to find Prince Zabriel, who long ago disappeared into the human realm of Warckum, and persuade him to take up his rightful crown, Anya journeys into the Warckum Territory to bring him home. But her journey is doomed to be more harrowing than she ever could have imagined...

Translated from the first edition, experience the tale of Hansel and Gretel in its original form, as brother and sister are abandoned in a great forest by their parents, only to discover that someone far more sinister than wild animals awaits them.

Willa Cather is considered to be one of the best chroniclers of pioneer life in the 20th century. She had a long and distinguished career writing essays, poems, short stories, and novels. This story is a powerful example of a frequent theme: the haunting, sometimes painful, contrast between city and country life.

Kipling was a British author and poet, born in India. He is best known for the many children's tales, his Indian spy novel Kim (1901), a number of poems, and many short stories. This gentle supernatural story is one of his best.

Written in 1867, The Magic Fishbone is one of Charles Dickens' best loved fairy tales for children. It tells the story of an impoverished King who can barely manage to keep his nineteen children, and it is a long time until pay day. One day he meets a Fairy Godmother who tells him to give his eldest daughter, Princess Alicia, a piece of salmon, and after she has eaten everything but the bone, she is to dry and polish the bone carefully because it has magic powers.

George MacDonald once declared, “I do not write for children, but for the childlike, whether of five, or 50, or 75.” The Day Boy and the Night Girl is a splendid example of such writing. With words of wonder, beauty, and adventure, and with acute spiritual insight and sensitivity, MacDonald spins an enchanting tale of two children, a boy and a girl, who grow up from infancy in the castle of a witch. Unaware of each other’s presence in the castle, the children are victims of an unnatural design upon them.

Mysteries don't come any better than the stories of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Hound of the Baskervilles is perhaps their most famous adventure. Now, Jim Weiss transports us to their world of suspense, shocking surprises, friendship, intellect, and courage. In this iconic story, Holmes and Watson must unravel more than one mystery before time runs out as they confront a cunning foe who will stop at nothing to accomplish a dreadful goal. But is that foe human or the result of a centuries-old curse?

Hannah killed those who destroyed her family, but the man who ordered their deaths is still alive - and in power. It's time someone worked to end Adrien's evil rule. But to find justice, Hannah needs to increase her skills. She and Sal head to the Heights for a little one-on-one training with a handsome young mystic while Ezekiel heads north to right a 40-year-old wrong. Meanwhile, Parker is stuck dealing with the mess left behind after Hannah's ass-kicking.

Returning to his home city of Bastul, Kael finds the Southern Territory of the Orudan Empire under invasion. As he races to unravel the secrecy of the enemy's identity, he becomes entangled in a brutal conspiracy to gain control of the government. After years of collaboration with the Resistance, Maeryn coordinates the covert exodus of the entire slave population of Bastul.

Gerbert was a farmer's son in an obscure town in France, but his gifts of mind and intellect were so remarkable that even in the feudal world of the tenth century, he could rise far above his station. Princes and prelates courted him; emperors called him friend and teacher. He brought the lost art of mathematics back into Europe; he was an astronomer, a musician, a builder of strange and wonderful devices. In the end he reached the pinnacle of the world, a seat so lofty and an authority so great that he answered only to God Himself. But Gerbert was more than a simple professor of the mathematical arts, or even a prince of the Church.

Seventeen-year-old Vivienne lives in a world of knights and ladies, corsets and absinthe, outlaw magic and alchemical machines. By day, she is lady-in-waiting to the future queen of Camelot - Guinevere. By night, she secretly toils away in the clock tower as apprentice to Merlin, the infamous recovering magic addict. Then she meets Marcus, below her in class, destined to become a knight, and just as forbidden as her apprenticeship with Merlin.

Danger lurks around every corner for the seemingly ordinary teen who is anything but. Many teenagers struggle to find their identity, but for Taliesin Weaver, that struggle has become life or death - and not just for him. Tal, as he prefers to be called, believes in reincarnation, and with good reason. When he turned 12, his mind was nearly shattered by a flood of memories, memories of his past lives, hundreds of them.

Having a surfeit of super powers is great for battling bad guys and saving the world, as Jim (aka Kid Sensation) is finding out, but less useful in dealing with day-to-day situations - like bonding with his superhero father, adjusting to a team environment, and coping with what might be perceived as a growing rivalry between himself and another teen super. On top of all that, despite having a serious girlfriend, he finds himself inexplicably drawn to a new female super he's just met.

Continuing the adventure begun in The Broken Circle, Secrets of the Lost Caves starts just as the Circle of 12 is complete, but it is soon broken again and the desperate race to find the Lost Caves and unlock the Secrets of the Crystal Caverns begins. Who will discover it first? The Dark Queen and her Kindred Spirit? The party of six plus one with addled Lavender Mae as their guide? Or Aubergine, the Potluck Queen with the help of Second Sight Sierra and Trader turned Teal?

Having saved the planet and earned a place with the world's premiere superhero team, Jim (aka Kid Sensation) is preparing to attend the prestigious Academy, where teen supers from every corner of the globe learn to master their abilities. At the same time, however, he is approached by a mysterious government organization that wants Jim to work for them - and they won't take "No" for an answer. Moreover, at the Academy itself, an insidious and highly contagious virus is running amok.

When 17-year-old Daniel Nickers gains superhuman abilities, he believes his dream of becoming a superhero will finally come true. But life isn't like the comic books and the job's harder than he expected. He's constantly in mortal danger as crime in his city soars. He can't control his powers, and he's faced with criminals who act instead of giving speeches about their plans. If that weren't enough, a new supervillain named Crusher is gathering all the city's criminals together into one organization. Their first order of business is to eliminate the pesky superhero.

Richie Preston is 27 years old and still lives in his parents' house, still works at a dead end job, lost his great love, still hasn't really begun his life. One day the fates smile on him and give him the opportunity to start over, to go back to being 17 and about to start his senior year of high school, only this time with all the memories of what he did wrong the first time. All he has to do is not interfere with anyone else's life. It sounds like a great deal, but living up to his end of the bargain turns out to be harder than Richie ever imagined.