Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Great Books for and about Adolescent Boys

RE-PRINT from Mazenglish blog - 2012

As the school year winds down, and I take a break from to the task of teaching and molding teenagers - especially boys - I am thinking about books that are great reads for and about teenage boys.  Teaching honors English for freshman, I always begin the year with John Knowles A Separate Peace, followed immediately by William Golding's Lord of the Flies.  These classics always generate engaging discussions - if not always stimulating teen boys for reading.  The adolescent boy is a fascinating creature, and they are always worthy of research and study.  And, from all we know, it's amazing the human race has survived considering all the great men of the world had to be adolescent boys at some point.

The following is a list of great books about the adolescent male - the "teenage boy." They are not always preferred by teen boys, but they are great reflections of that creature and subculture.

Contemporary Fiction

Carter Finally Gets It - Brent Crawford

Paper Towns - John Green

Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green (OK really anything by JG)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

Spanking Shakespeare - Jake Wizner

King Dork - Frank Portman

Like We Care - Tom Matthews

Twisted - Laurie Halse Anderson

Stotan - Cris Crutcher (and anything else by Crutcher)

Vision Quest - Terry Davis

Swim the Fly - Don Calame

The Last Algonquin - Theodore Kazimeroff

Education of Little Tree - Forrest Carter


Classic Literature

A Separate Peace - John Knowles

The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger

Lord of the Flies - William Golding

Johnny Got His Gun - Dalton Trumbo

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain





1 comment:

Mike Thiac said...

Suggestion, non-fiction, but good for young men. Carnegie, "How to win friends and influence people," and "How to stop worrying and start living."