A Curated Bookshelf

Recommended Reading

Books worth your time, organized by reader age.

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— Section —

Picture Books & Chapter Books

Early readers and read-aloud
3.
Cover of Deltora Quest
Deltora Quest

Deltora Quest— series

Emily Rodda

A boy, a girl, and a former palace guard hunt seven magical gems to free their kingdom.

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5.
Cover of Magic Tree House
Magic Tree House

Magic Tree House— series

Mary Pope Osborne

A brother and sister find a tree house full of books that take them anywhere in history.

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6.
Cover of Matilda
Matilda

Matilda

Roald Dahl

A brilliant, neglected girl discovers she has powers — and the worst headmistress in literary history.

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— Section —

Middle Grade Fiction

Ages 8 – 14
8.
Cover of Alex Rider
Alex Rider

Alex Rider— series

Anthony Horowitz

A 14-year-old reluctantly becomes MI6's youngest spy. James Bond for the middle grade set.

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9.
Cover of Artemis Fowl
Artemis Fowl

Artemis Fowl— series

Eoin Colfer

A 12-year-old criminal mastermind kidnaps a fairy. The fairies aren't what he expected. Neither is he.

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12.
Cover of Fablehaven
Fablehaven

Fablehaven— series

Brandon Mull

A secret preserve for magical creatures, run by a brother and sister who keep breaking the rules that keep everyone alive.

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13.
Cover of The Giver
The Giver

The Giver

Lois Lowry

In a perfect, colorless society, one boy is chosen to carry humanity's real memories — and decide what to do with them.

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14.
Cover of Gregor the Overlander
Gregor the Overlander

Gregor the Overlander— series

Suzanne Collins

An ordinary kid falls through a laundry vent into a hidden underground world of giant bats, rats, and prophecy.

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15.
Cover of Harry Potter
Harry Potter

Harry Potter— series

J.K. Rowling

The boy who lived discovers he's a wizard — and the wizarding world's last hope. You already know.

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16.
Cover of Hatchet
Hatchet

Hatchet

Gary Paulsen

A 13-year-old crash-lands in the Canadian wilderness with one tool: a hatchet. Survival fiction at its leanest and best.

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17.
Cover of The Heroes of Olympus
The Heroes of Olympus

The Heroes of Olympus— series

Rick Riordan

Seven demigods, two pantheons, one prophecy. Percy Jackson's epic continuation — bigger, deeper, better.

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18.
Cover of Holes
Holes

Holes

Louis Sachar

A boy unjustly sentenced to a brutal desert camp digs holes — and uncovers a generations-old curse.

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19.
Cover of Impossible Creatures
Impossible Creatures

Impossible Creatures— series

Katherine Rundell

A boy and a girl chase a mystery across an archipelago of impossible, magical creatures. Modern, gorgeous, instantly classic.

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20.
Cover of Inkheart
Inkheart

Inkheart

Cornelia Funke

A girl's father can read fictional characters out of books. Some of them won't go back.

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22.
Cover of The Merchant of Death
The Merchant of Death

The Merchant of Death— Pendragon, Book 1

D.J. MacHale

Fourteen-year-old Bobby Pendragon is pulled into an adventure across time and space, tasked with stopping a powerful villain from destroying entire territories of existence.

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23.
Cover of Nevermoor
Nevermoor

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow— series

Jessica Townsend

A cursed girl is whisked away to a magical city, where she must compete to win the right to stay.

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24.
Cover of Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Percy Jackson

Percy Jackson & the Olympians— series

Rick Riordan

A dyslexic kid finds out he's the son of a Greek god, and pretty much every monster in mythology wants him dead.

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26.
Cover of The Royal Ranger
The Royal Ranger

The Royal Ranger— series

John Flanagan

Will Treaty takes on an unexpected apprentice — a princess determined to prove herself — in this action-packed return to the Ranger's Apprentice world.

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28.
Story Thieves
Story Thieves

Story Thieves— series

James Riley

A boy discovers that fictional characters are real and that a girl from his class has been leaping into books — and wants to take him along.

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29.
Cover of Treasure Island
Treasure Island

Treasure Island

Robert Louis Stevenson

A young boy finds a treasure map, sets sail for a remote island, and discovers that pirates are far more dangerous than any story let on.

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30.
Cover of Warriors
Warriors

Warriors— series

Erin Hunter

Wild cats live in clans, fight for territory, and follow a warrior code in the forests beyond the human world.

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32.
Cover of The Wingfeather Saga
The Wingfeather Saga

The Wingfeather Saga— series

Andrew Peterson

Three siblings in a strange, dangerous world figure out who they really are. Funny, beautiful, devastating in the best way.

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33.
Cover of Wings of Fire
Wings of Fire

Wings of Fire— series

Tui T. Sutherland

Five dragonets are raised in secret to fulfill a prophecy and end a war. They have other plans.

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34.
Cover of A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time

A Wrinkle in Time

Madeleine L'Engle

A girl, her brother, and a friend travel through time and space to rescue her father from a cosmic shadow.

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— Section —

Young Adult Fiction

Ages 15 – 18
35.
Cover of The Book Thief
The Book Thief

The Book Thief

Markus Zusak

Narrated by Death, the story of a girl, her foster family, and the books she steals in Nazi Germany.

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36.
Cover of Ender's Game
Ender's Game

Ender's Game

Orson Scott Card

A child genius is trained at a brutal military school to lead Earth's fleet against an alien threat.

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37.
Cover of Eragon
Eragon

Eragon— series

Christopher Paolini

A farm boy finds a dragon egg. An evil Empire wants both of them dead.

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38.
Cover of The Hobbit
The Hobbit

The Hobbit

J.R.R. Tolkien

An ordinary hobbit gets dragged on a dragon-slaying quest by thirteen dwarves and a wizard.

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41.
Cover of Mistborn: The Final Empire
Mistborn

Mistborn: The Final Empire— series

Brandon Sanderson

A street thief discovers she can fuel magic by burning metals. Her crew is planning to overthrow a god-emperor.

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42.
Cover of Divergent
Divergent

Divergent— series

Veronica Roth

In a future Chicago, society is divided into five factions based on virtue. When sixteen-year-old Beatrice makes her choice, she discovers a secret that could unravel her world.

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44.
Cover of The Warrior Heir
The Warrior Heir

The Warrior Heir— series

Cinda Williams Chima

A small-town teen discovers he's a pawn in a centuries-old war between magical houses.

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— Section —

Adult Fiction

Ages 18+
46.
Cover of Dune
Dune

Dune— series

Frank Herbert

A noble heir, a desert planet, and the spice that controls the universe.

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47.
Cover of Gates of Fire
Gates of Fire

Gates of Fire

Steven Pressfield

The 300 Spartans at Thermopylae, told from the perspective of the lone Greek survivor.

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48.
Cover of The Martian
The Martian

The Martian

Andy Weir

An astronaut is accidentally left for dead on Mars. He decides he's not dying there.

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50.
Cover of The Stormlight Archive
The Stormlight Archive

The Stormlight Archive— series

Brandon Sanderson

Broken people learn to wield magical weapons on a storm-wracked world. Sanderson's massive, ongoing epic.

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