Reading is one of the finest pleasures in life. Unfortunately, students are often rebuked for reading fiction. Parents and teachers often shift the focus to academic reading. In actuality, both academic and leisurely reading and pivotal for a student’s skill development and creative growth.
At Cambridge Home School Online, we strongly encourage students to read critically acclaimed novels. This helps pupils develop strong reading and writing skills, fine-tune their imagination, and earn a sweet escape every now and then.
Books transport students to a different world. We believe this serves as an excellent break that refreshes the mind and maintains good mental health. This article will take a closer look at five must-read books for teenage students. What makes these novels so spectacular? Let’s find out!
1. Looking for Alaska by John Green
Age Group: IGCSE & A Level Students
A powerful coming-of-age novel, Looking for Alaska explores universal questions of love, hope, grief, friendship, trust, heartbreak, and everything in between.
As Miles Halter gets tired of his safe and boring life at home, he seeks something different and impactful before he dies. He finds the utterly funny, fascinating, temperamental, impulsive, clever, and mystifying Alaska. They explore a vibrant cocktail of emotions together as she pulls him into her world.
John Green touches upon a wide range of thought-provoking topics in great detail, ensuring readers understand the depth of the message woven into each paragraph. An open and telling book, Looking for Alaska tells a story that unfolds beautifully, with each page as exciting as the one before.
2. Take Me with You When You Go by David Levithan and Jennifer Niven
Age Group: Lower School, IGCSE & A Level Students
A powerful novel that takes us on a beautiful journey, Take Me with You When You Go is a story of family, siblinghood, hope, and finding comfort in people who mean the most.
As Ezra Ahern’s older sister Bea disappears without a trace, he grapples to understand what has just happened. There’s no note or sign. All he finds is an email address hidden somewhere only he would look.
Left alone with his dismissive mother and abusive father, Ezra struggles to navigate life without his confidante. Bea, on the other hand, finds herself alone in a new city without a game plan or any structure in her life.
As the two siblings try their best to acclimatise to their new lives, will they find their way back to each other? An eye-opening story that touches upon love and trust, Take Me with You When You Go teaches us lessons that matter most.
3. All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
Age Group: IGCSE & A Level Students
All the Bright Places is one of those books that sticks with you. Reverberating with emotions and hopes, it tells the story of Theodore Finch and Violet Markey. Both Theodore and Violet have a unique set of struggles. Finch’s world is too loud for him, and Violet’s is too small.
As their worlds collide, they make some important discoveries along the way. However, the ride isn’t as smooth as they thought. Both Theodore and Violet carry their baggage everywhere they go until it becomes evident that one has to lighten their load.
All the Bright Places touches the reader’s heart and shows how fickle life really is. It’s a powerful read that navigates a frail relationship without romanticising it one bit. It’s real, not embellished. This book’s authenticity makes it a winner in our eyes.
4. One of the Good Ones by Maika and Maritza Moulite
Age Group: Lower School, IGCSE & A Level Students
Sister-writer duo Maika and Maritza Moulite’s powerful exploration of sisterhood and prejudice is a must-read. One of the Good Ones tackles important questions around allyship. As racial tensions grow around the world, this book teaches us the importance of acceptance, inclusion, equity, and healing.
When history aficionado and teen social activist Kezi Smith is killed at a social justice rally, her family struggles to come to terms with the reality. Kezi’s sister, Happi, is particularly devastated. Happi and her sister Genni find their own way to celebrate their sister’s legacy and keep her memory alive.
As they do so, Kezi’s story takes an unexpected turn that changes the trajectory of their plans. One of the Good Ones tackles many important questions that we generally sweep under the rug. A real, raw, and emotive declaration of love, sisterhood, and the truth, this novel sticks with readers and changes their perception of the world in a very important way. This novel is a must-read for young students.
5. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Age Group: A Level Students
The Handmaid’s Tale is a powerful dystopian novel that explores a wide range of topics like gender, patriarchal hegemony, reproductive rights, power, religious politics, female agency, internalised misogyny, and racism.
Set in near-future England, the book tells the story of Offred, a handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. Gilead strips women of their reproductive rights and enforces totalitarian rule. As the handmaids fight for their rights, we’re reminded of the gender division and loss of reproductive control in modern society.
The Handmaid’s Tale offers a closer look at realities that are still common today, albeit on a smaller scale. It’s a brilliant read for feminists and allies who strongly believe in women’s rights and want to listen to female perspectives.
About the Author
The author is an A Level English Literature teacher at Cambridge Home School Online. The institution offers four competitive homeschooling programs: Primary Prep/Key Stage 2 (ages 7 to 10), Lower School/Key Stage 3 (ages 11 to 13), Upper School/IGCSEs (ages 14 to 16), and Sixth Form/AS & A-Levels (ages 17 to 19).
As one of the most prestigious online British international schools, CHS Online teaches the Cambridge homeschool curriculum to students living in the UK, Europe (including Western Russia), Central Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa
