NHS Book Challenge
2020 - 2021
The Challenge! Read a minimum of 10 books by May 31, 2021
Book Challenge Tracker Log: complete an entry for each book you complete.
Find more details about the 2020-21 Book Challenge program here!
Internment by Samira Ahmed
A terrifying, futuristic United Sates where Muslim-Americans are forced into internment camps, and seventeen-year-old Layla Amin must lead a revolution against complicit silence.
Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli & Aisha Saeed
A cross-cultural teen romance blooms when Jamie and Maya volunteer for a potential state senator's campaign.
Finding Chika by Mitch Albom
Looks at how Mitch Albom and his wife take Haitian orphan Chika Jeune home with them in order to seek medical help for a condition she has.
The Burning by Laura Bates
After starting fresh with her mother in a Scottish fishing village, Anna learns that rumors of the "incident" have followed her, and she finds herself drawn to Maggie, a girl burned for witchcraft centuries before. (Grade 11 Summer Reading)
The Mamba Mentality by Kobe Bryant
Basketball player Kobe Bryant looks back at his career with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Know My Name: a Memoir by Chanel Miller
Looks at the life of Chanel Miller who was raped after a party on the Stanford University campus on January 18, 2015.
Emergency Contact by Mary H. K. Choi
After a chance encounter, Penny and Sam become each other's emergency contacts and find themselves falling in love digitally, without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other.
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
A murder on a cruise ship on the Nile baffles everyone except ace detective Hercule Poirot.
Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare
Cordelia Carstairs, a Shadowhunter trained to battle demons, travels with her brother to London where they reconnect with childhood friends but soon must face devastating demon attacks in the quarantined city.
The Boy From the Woods by Harlan Coben
Wilde was found as a boy living feral in the woods, with no memory of his past. Thirty years later, he still doesn't know anything, and another child is missing. Wilde can't ignore an outcast in trouble. In order to venture back into his past community, he must uncover secrets that could destroy the lives of millions.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
Untitled Panem Novel will revisit the world of Panem sixty-four years before the events of The Hunger Games , starting on the morning of the reaping of the Tenth Hunger Games.
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
Tells of the ordeal of a Mexican woman who had to leave behind her life and escape as an undocumented immigrant to the United States with her son.
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
The tale of the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter, who enters the home of her mysterious and enigmatic new husband and learns the story of the house's first mistress, to whom the sinister housekeeper is unnaturally devoted. (Grade 10 Summer Reading)
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
In a near-future society that claims to have gotten rid of all monstrous people, a creature emerges from a painting seventeen-year-old Jam's mother created, a hunter from another world seeking a real-life monster.
The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel
The true story of a man who lived alone in the woods of Maine for 27 years. (Grade 11 Summer Reading)
The Woman in the WIndow by A. J. Finn
Anna Fox lives alone, a recluse in her New York City home, drinking too much wine, watching old movies and spying on her neighbors. Then the Russells move next door: a father, a mother, their teenaged son. The perfect family. But when Anna sees something she shouldn't, her world begins to crumble and its shocking secrets are laid bare. What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control?
The River by Peter Heller
Wynn and Jack have been best friends since freshman orientation, bonded by their shared love of mountains, books, and fishing. Wynn is a gentle giant, a Vermont kid never happier than when his feet are in the water. Jack is more rugged, raised on a ranch in Colorado where sleeping under the stars and cooking on a fire came as naturally to him as breathing. When they decide to canoe the Maskwa River in northern Canada, they anticipate long days of leisurely paddles and picking blueberries and nights of stargazing and reading paperback Westerns. But a wildfire making its way across the forest adds unexpected urgency to the journey. When they hear a man and woman arguing on the fog-shrouded riverbank and decide to warn them about the fire, their search for the pair turns up nothing and no one. But: The next day a man appears on the river, paddling alone. Is this the man they heard? And, if he is, where is the woman? (Grade 12 Summer Reading)
They Went Left by Monica Hesse
Zofia, a teenage Holocaust survivor, travels across post-war Europe as she searches for her younger brother and seeks to rebuild her shattered life.
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
As her senior capstone project, Pippa Fitz-Amobi is determined to find the real killer in a closed, local murder case, but not everyone wants her meddling in the past.
Dig by A. S. King
Portrays the tangled secrets of an upper-middle-class white family in suburban Pennsylvania and the terrible cost the family’s children pay to maintain the family name.
If It Bleeds by Stephen King
Four novellas: "Mr. Harrigan's Phone, " The Life of Chuck," "Rat" and "If It Bleeds." (Grade 11 Summer Reading)
The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee
1890, Atlanta. By day, seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady's maid for the cruel Caroline Payne, the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta. But by night, Jo moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for 'the genteel Southern lady. (Grade 9 Summer Reading)
Bird Box by Josh Malerman
In an apocalyptic near-future world, a mother and her two small children are followed by something as they make their way down a river, blindfolded, in order to avoid seeing a terrifying entity that will drive them to deadly violence.
The Bad Seed by William March
A reprint of a 1954 thriller that tells the story of little Rhoda Penmark, a child serial killer.
America Royals by Katharine McGee
In an alternate America, princesses Beatrice and Samantha Washington and the two girls wooing their brother, Prince Jefferson, become embroiled in high drama in the most glorious court in the world.
One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus
When the creator of a high school gossip app mysteriously dies in front of four high-profile students all four become suspects. It's up to them to solve the case.
One of Us is Next by Karen M. McManus
A year after the Bayview four were cleared of Simon Kelleher's death, a new mystery has cropped up--a game with dangerous consequences that's targeting students at Bayview again. And if the creator isn't found soon, dangerous could prove deadly.
Gather the Daughters by Jenie Melamed
An insular community on an island at the end of the world is disrupted when a group of girls begin to question the rules that bind them.
Game by Walter Dean Myers
Drew Lawson, counting on basketball to get him into college and out of Harlem, struggles to keep his cool when the coach brings in two white players and puts them in positions that clearly threaten Drew's game.
Circe by Madeline Miller
Follows Circe, the banished witch daughter of Helios, as she hones her powers and interacts with famous mythological beings before a conflict with one of the most vengeful Olympians forces her to choose between the worlds of the gods and mortals. (Grade 10 Summer Reading)
Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris
Cilka is just sixteen years old when she is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, where the commandant immediately notices how beautiful she is. Forcibly separated from the other women prisoners, Cilka quickly learns that power, even unwillingly taken, equals survival. When the war is over and the camp is liberated, freedom is not granted to Cilka. She is charged as a collaborator for sleeping with the enemy and sent to a Siberian prison camp. In Siberia, Cilka faces challenges both new and horribly familiar, including the unwanted attention of the guards. But when she meets a kind female doctor, Cilka is taken under her wing and begins to tend to the ill in the camp, struggling to care for them under brutal conditions.
The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
Set in Depression-era America, the story of five Horseback Librarians of Kentucy.
Invasion by Walter Dean Myers
Josiah Wedgewood and Marcus Perry were friends in Virginia, but now that they are both involved in the Normandy invasion, the differences in their positions is uncomfortable, for Josiah is a white infantryman and Marcus is a black transport driver, the only role the segregated army will allow him. (Grade 9 Summer Reading)
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
When a custody battle divides her placid town, straitlaced family woman Elena Richardson finds herself pitted against her enigmatic tenant and becomes obsessed with exposing her past, only to trigger devastating consequences for both families.
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Trevor Noah's unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth.
The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz
The author, a former international banker, relates her experiences trying to understand global poverty and working with the poor, and suggests ways in which the situation should be addressed. (Grade 12 Summer Reading)
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
The story of a young black woman who is wrongly accused of kidnapping while babysitting a child, and the events that follow it.
Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds
When Jack and Kate meet at a party, bonding until sunrise over their mutual love of Froot Loops and their favorite flicks, Jack knows he's falling--hard. Soon she's meeting his best friends, Jillian and Franny, and Kate wins them over as easily as she did Jack. But then Kate dies. And their story should end there. Yet Kate's death sends Jack back to the beginning, the moment they first meet, and Kate's there again. Healthy, happy, and charming as ever. Jack isn't sure if he's losing his mind. Still, if he has a chance to prevent Kate's death, he'll take it. Even if that means believing in time travel.
Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
A history of racist and antiracist ideas in America, from their roots in Europe until today, adapted from the National Book Award winner Stamped from the Beginning.
Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who's ever been chosen. That's what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he's probably right. Half the time, Simon can't even make his wand work, and the other half, he starts something on fire. His mentor's avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there's a magic-eating monster running around, wearing Simon's face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here -- it's their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon's infuriating nemesis didn't even bother to show up.
Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell
The story is supposed to be over. Simon Snow did everything he was supposed to do. He beat the villain. He won the war. He even fell in love. Now comes the good part, right? Now comes the happily ever after... So why can't Simon Snow get off the couch? What he needs, according to his best friend, is a change of scenery. He just needs to see himself in a new light... That's how Simon and Penny and Baz end up in a vintage convertible, tearing across the American West. They find trouble, of course. (Dragons, vampires, skunk-headed things with shotguns.) And they get lost.
Ashes in the Snow by Ruta Sepetys
In 1941, fifteen-year-old Lina, her mother, and brother are pulled from their Lithuanian home by Soviet guards and sent to Siberia, where her father is sentenced to death in a prison camp while she fights for her life, vowing to honor her family and the thousands like hers by burying her story in a jar on Lithuanian soil.
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
A . . . love story following an ambitious lawyer who experiences an astonishing vision that could change her life forever.
The Port Chicago 50 by Steve Sheinkin
Describes the fifty black sailors who refused to work in unsafe and unfair conditions after an explosion in Port Chicago killed 320 servicemen, and how the incident influenced civil rights. (Grade 10 Summer Reading)
The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James
In 1920s England the life of Sarah Piper, a young woman of limited means and even less experience, is changed when she is sent to assist a ghost hunter, Alistair Gellis--rich, handsome, scarred by World War I, and obsessed by ghosts--who has been summoned to investigate the spirit of nineteen-year-old maid Maddy Clare, who is said to haunt the barn where she committed suicide.
The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper
When his volatile father is picked to become an astronaut for NASA's mission to Mars, seventeen-year-old Cal, an aspiring journalist, reluctantly moves from Brooklyn to Houston, Texas, and looks for a story to report, finding an ally (and crush) in Leon, the son of another astronaut.
The Enigma Game by Elizabeth Wein
Told in multiple voices, fifteen-year-old Jamaican Louisa Adair uncovers an Enigma machine in the small Scottish village where she cares for an elderly German woman, and helps solve a puzzle that could turn the tide of World War II. (Nov. 2020 publication)
The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White
The events of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein unfold from the perspective of Elizabeth Lavenza, who is adopted as a child by the Frankenstein's as a companion for their volatile son Victor.
The Glass Ocean by Beatriz Williams, et. al.
As the Lusitania steams toward its fate, three women work against time to unravel a plot that will change the course of their own lives and history itself.
White Rose by Kip WIlson
Tells the story of Sophie Scholl, a young German college student who challenges the Nazi regime during World War II as part of the White Rose, a non-violent resistance group.
The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate
Tells the dramatic story of three young women on a journey in search of family amidst the destruction of the post-Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who rediscovers their story and its vital connection to her own students' lives.
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
An unexpected teenage pregnancy pulls together two families from different social classes, and exposes the private hopes, disappointments, and longings that can bind or divide us from each other.
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
Natasha is a girl who believes in science and facts. Daniel has always been a good son and good student. But when he sees Natasha he forgets all that and believes there is something extraordinary in store for both of them.
The Dog Went over the Mountain by Peter Zheutlin
On the cusp of turning 65, a man and his beloved rescue dog of similar vintage take a poignant, often bemusing, and keenly observed journey across America and discover a big-hearted, welcoming country filled with memorable characters, a new-found appreciation for the life they temporarily left behind, and a determination to live more fully in the moment as old age looms. Inspired by John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley, Zheutlin, hits the road for a 9,000-mile odyssey with Albie to experience all that American is and means today. Similar in approach and tone to Bill Bryson's best-selling travel classics, but with an endearing canine sidekick, The Dog Went Over the Mountain will delight dog lovers, baby boomers and anyone who seeks to experience life on the open road with a four-legged companion.
Parachutes by Kelly Yang
They're called parachutes: teenagers dropped off to live in private homes and study in the United States while their wealthy parents remain in Asia. Claire Wang never thought she'd be one of them, until her parents pluck her from her privileged life in Shanghai and enroll her at a high school in California. Suddenly she finds herself living in a stranger's house, with no one to tell her what to do for the first time in her life. She soon embraces her newfound freedom, especially when the hottest and most eligible parachute, Jay, asks her out. Dani De La Cruz, Claire's new host sister, couldn't be less thrilled that her mom rented out a room to Claire. An academic and debate team star, Dani is determined to earn her way into Yale, even if it means competing with privileged kids who are buying their way to the top. But Dani's game plan veers unexpectedly off course when her debate coach starts working with her privately. As they steer their own distinct paths, Dani and Claire keep crashing into one another, setting a course that will change their lives forever.
The Dark Matter of Mona Starr by Laura Lee Gulledge
Mona lives with crippling depression and anxiety. Because the dark emotions that fill her chest feel elemental and expansive, she names them her 'Matter,' which can manifest as a black hole or fog or take on a ghostlike form. But no matter what she calls it, her mental illness keeps her from fully engaging with the world around her. Therapy helps and, through various techniques like meditation, recognizing behavior patterns, and drawing, Mona slowly begins to reconnect with her friends, family, and the art she loves so much. She even breaks out of her shell and tentatively expands her social circle. (a graphic novel)
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy
A modern, illustrated fable for readers of all ages that explores life's universal lessons from beloved British illustrator Charlie Mackesy. (a graphic novel)