Personal Literary Canon Books
Kayla Pollock
The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins
The Hunger Games is based in a dystopic world where there is an annual hunger games. There are twelve girls and twelve boys chosen from each of the twelve districts. The guy from district twelve is Peeta, and the girl from district twelve is Katniss’ sister, but Katniss volunteers for her. Peeta and Katniss fall in love and both survive the Hunger Games together. This book was one of the first popular novels that I really got into and I think it is a very good read for any young adult. It helps the reader see that things will not always be perfect, you will have good times and bad times. I think it is important for younger children to have strong role models like Katniss to look up to.
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
This book is much like The Hunger Games in that it is set in a dystopian society. A group of boys get put into a maze, their memories are completely gone. They have a civilized life planned out inside the walls of the maze, but outside of the maze it is complete madness, especially at night. One day a girl shows up and breaks every routine that has been established in their society. After this, everything starts changing. This book is much like Lord of the Flies. I think it is important to wonder what would happen if we were put in a situation like this, and having deviants like the main character, Thomas, gives everyone who reads it a sense of being able to do anything that they can dream of.
Every Day by David Levithan
This book is about a person that switches bodies every day. Sometimes they wake up male, sometimes female, sometimes different races. They go by the name of “A”. A has gotten used to this and everything is bearable until he falls in love with a girl named Rhiannon after being in the body of her boyfriend. The book follows their journey in trying to love each other. This is a very, very important book for younger people. Younger people tend to be caught up in looks alone. This book really questions what it means to be human. Not only is it a great love story, it gets a message across that everyone needs to hear.
Paper Towns by John Green
This book is also a love story but with a twist. Our main character Quentin falls in love with a girl named Margo and basically in his head he thinks she is royalty. They were childhood friends but haven't talked in a really long time. As children, they found the body of a guy who committed suicide. Now they're in high school. Margo comes to Quentin for help one night and they go on an adventure full of shenanigans. Later, Margo leaves town and Quentin thinks she is leaving clues for him to find her. So, he gets his friends to skip prom and go to look for her. Eventually they find her, but basically she says we cannot be together. So Quentin has to face up to reality, sometimes you really don't know someone, and sometimes you love someone and you have to let them go. This was a very meaningful book to me because sometimes things are not meant to be, and you just have to let it go.