All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is a beautifully woven narrative set during World War II. It follows the lives of two protagonists: Marie-Laure, a blind French girl forced to flee Paris with her father, carrying with her a priceless jewel from the Museum of Natural History, and Werner, a German orphan with an extraordinary talent for radio technology who becomes a soldier in the Nazi army. Their paths eventually converge in the occupied French town of Saint-Malo.
I Am Number Four is a young adult science fiction novel by Pittacus Lore, which follows the story of a teenage alien named John Smith, one of nine surviving members of an extraterrestrial race known as the Lorien. They are hunted by the ruthless Mogadorians who seek to eliminate them all. John, along with his guardian Henri, constantly moves to evade detection.
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan is the gripping tale of Percy Jackson, a twelve-year-old boy who discovers he's a demigod, the son of Poseidon, and embarks on a quest to prevent a war among the Greek gods after being accused of stealing Zeus's lightning bolt. Alongside his friends Annabeth and Grover, Percy traverses the United States, encountering mythical creatures and overcoming formidable challenges, all while learning about his unique abilities and the responsibilities of being a hero.
The Lightning Thief from the Percy Jackson series follows the story of a boy in New York who realizes he's half-blooded, his father is a Greek god. The story follows him as he tries to figure out who his godly parent is. Percy and his new group of half-blooded friends must go on a mission to return a lightning bolt to Zeus from an evil titan. On the way, Percy learns where he can fit in and where he belongs. The book has themes of identity and living up to one's full potential based on the opinions of others.
The Prince is a political treatise written by Niccolo Machiavelli during his time imprisoned, following the wars in Italy in the 1500s. He wrote this book as a gift to his captors: the de’ Medici family. The main purpose of the book is to inform rulers how to gain power and, most importantly, maintain power at any cost. The book covers how to conquer foreign lands, how to maintain control of your lands, how to deal with your army or traitors, how to behave with people of different social statuses, etc.
The Little Prince is a juvenile fiction novel following the story of a young boy dealing with loneliness and struggles with understanding how to grow up, as well as what it truly means to be a child. The unnamed little boy leaves his tiny planet whose only other inhabitant is a singular rose whom he had befriended. He leaves in search of finding out what it means to love.
The Scarlet Letter is a novel that takes place in the 1600s in Boston, Massachusetts. It follows the story of a young woman named Hester Prynne who is being shunned and condemned by the community for committing adultery and has gotten pregnant. An onlooker who had just arrived named Roger Chillingworth asks who Hester is and why she's being publicly shamed, we later learn that it was her husband disguised. The book has much suspense as it follows Hester and how she deals with these hardships with her daughter Pearl.
1984 is a dystopian novel that follows a man named Winston Smith. Winston navigates and eventually attempts to overthrow the "utopia". People aren't allowed to fall in love, they aren't allowed to read, among a variety of other things. The book warns against the dangers of totalitarianism. The government watches people and personifies them as "Big Brother". The police monitor people's thoughts to see if they seem disloyal.
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder follows a girl named Pip as she tries to uncover the murder of a girl named Andie Bell for a school project with a boy named Ravi, the brother of the boy suspected of killing Andie. Pip isn't convinced that Ravis's older brother killed Andie, and neither is Ravi. They can't ask him because he was soon dead after her, a “suicide”. Pip and Ravi work hard to find out who did this.
Rich Dad Poor Dad is a financial book that teaches the reader how to be financially independent. It follows the narrative of the narrator showing the financial choices of his poor dad (his real dad), and his rich dad (his best friend's father). It talks about different topics on how to build wealth and gives simplified ways to understand how making money works.
