Author: Daniel Clowes

Summary: This graphic novel follows two female friends after graduating from high school. It depicts their lives in their small town, as they go about their days criticizing fellow townspeople and popular culture, while contemplating their futures. Tensions between the two build up, especially as they both develop interest in the same boy, and as one plans on leaving town for college. 

Explanation: This book shows two girls’ growth from childhood into adulthood, showing to intermediate students the types of struggles people encounter in such a transition. It also shows students that sometimes people just drift apart, and that’s OKAY. I think that intermediate students would be able to relate well to the main characters and some of the issues they face.

Author: Barbara Haworth-Attard

Summary: This book details a sixteen year-old named Dylan’s experiences on the streets after he is kicked out of his home by his mother, who wants to bring home a new man. He ends up making new temporary “homes” out of a shelter, a donut shop, and the library. One of his few prized possessions is a biography of Einstein he keeps in his backpack (hence the text’s title).  He unsuccessfully tries to get a job, and is faced with ethical dilemmas over what to do to make money.  He ends up meeting a sexually abused runaway, Jenna, and tries to help her redirect her life.  Dylan’s struggles on the streets will make any reader uncomfortable, and likely make them think differently about teen homelessness.

Explanation: This is a good young adult fiction text for an intermediate reader because, although Dylan is homeless, he serves as a good role model- he has to mature very quickly and shows strength and grit in the process. This also shows students another side of homelessness, through the eyes of someone who IS homeless and roughly their age. Perhaps it could inspire student social justice initiatives around homelessness.

Author: Uzma Jalaluddin

Summary: Set in multicultural Toronto, this book is about a Muslim girl in her 20s who dreams of becoming a poet. She’s lonely but not into getting an arranged marriage. When she meets Khalid, a man who she initially sees as quite opposite from her, she feels a mutual attraction, but soon through a series of mishaps, Khalid is engaged to her sister, Hafsa. With many twists and turns, the author closely examines controversial topics like forced marriages and addiction. 

Described as Pride and Prejudice but with a South Asian spin, I selected this book because it reflects cultural backgrounds of many of the students in my school board. It could help these students feel better represented in my classroom. For non-South Asian students, it can also serve as a window into cultural practices of some of their peers, which they may be unfamiliar with. 

Author: William Shakespeare

Summary: The Montagues and the Capulets are two feuding families, but yet somehow two youth from opposing sides find themselves in love. Despite feeling the pressures that come with this “forbidden love”, young Romeo and Juliet secretly marry. When Juliet’s family plan for her to marry another man, a plan is concocted in which Juliet is to appear dead for a short time, so that she can later run away with Romeo. However, Romeo does not receive notice of this plan, and upon seeing Juliet’s “dead” body, he kills himself. Upon waking and seeing Romeo dead, Juliet then kills herself, too. 

Explanation: This is a classic love tale that has been re-imagined countless times across numerous cultures around the world. As a foundational tragedy, it is also referenced often in pop culture. Exposing students to it at the intermediate level will help them understand such references. It also has several themes that students can relate to, like love and family. 

Author: Donna Tartt

Summary: The protagonist, Theo, has his life thrown a curveball when visiting an art museum with his mother at age 13. A bomb explodes, killing his mother, but Theo escapes from the wreckage, secretly taking a painting of a Goldfinch with him. He initially ends up living with a friend’s family until his good-for-nothing father comes to take him to live in Vegas. His father later dies after driving drunk, and Theo moves back to New York, eventually dealing antiques, but resorts to dealing fakes when his partner is close to bankruptcy. A childhood friend later reappears in Theo’s life, revealing that he stole the Goldfinch painting from him in Vegas and replaced it with a fake, but wants to help him get it back. After some international travel and tense situations with criminal world dealers, his friend is unsuccessful getting the painting back but informs on the criminals and makes hefty reward money, which he shares with Theo. Theo then uses his money to buy back the fake antiques he sold, in an attempt to make things right.

Explanation: This book is just great writing- it won the Pulitzer Prize in 2014. Students could  engage in a numberof great thought exercises with it, as it looks philosophically at fate, and critically examines issues of love, identity and loss.