25 Essential High School Reads From the Last Decade

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

Edutopia, 25 Books

This list, curated by Edutopia and authored by Paige Tutt, presents '25 Essential High School Reads From the Last Decade,' aiming to highlight recent literature that high school students might find engaging and relevant. The selection was based on a community-driven process where members were asked to nominate novels published within the last ten years that they wished they had read during their high school years. The list contrasts with a previous list from 2016, which was heavily dominated by classic literature. In this updated version, hundreds of nominations were received, emphasizing a diverse array of themes, genres, and author identities, including works featuring protagonists of various ethnicities, sexual orientations, and backgrounds. This reflects an educational shift towards a more inclusive and representative curriculum, aligning with movements like #DisruptTexts.

This list was originally published in 2022 and was added to this site over 1 year ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
3281 The Hate U Give Angie Thomas 2017 American English
2415 Educated Tara Westover 2018 American English
9803 Dear Martin Nic Stone 2017 American English
9309 The Poet X Elizabeth Acevedo 2018 American English
9803 Long Way Down Jason Reynolds 2017 American English
17152 Refugee Alan Gratz 2017 American English
2503 Homegoing Yaa Gyasi 2016 Ghanaian English
10599 Firekeeper's Daughter Angeline Boulley 2021 American English
1413 All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr 2014 American English
6376 Beartown Fredrik Backman 2016 Swedish Swedish
10941 I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter Erika L. Sánchez 2017 American English
3589 Just Mercy Bryan Stevenson 2014 American English
17152 Patron Saints Of Nothing Randy Ribay 2019 American English
17152 The Invention Of Wings Sue Monk Kidd 2014 American English
7837 The Midnight Library Matt Haig 2020 British English
4589 The Nickel Boys Colson Whitehead 2019 American English
17152 The Sun Does Shine Anthony Ray Hinton 2018 American English
6697 The Tattooist Of Auschwitz Heather Morris 2018 Australian English
6531 Born A Crime Trevor Noah 2016 South African English
13560 I Am Malala Malala Yousafzai 2013 Pakistani English
10941 The Marrow Thieves Cherie Dimaline 2017 Canadian English
4144 Aristotle And Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe Benjamin Alire Sáenz 2012 American English
1650 Sing, Unburied, Sing Jesmyn Ward 2017 American English
10941 The 57 Bus Dashka Slater 2017 American English
11353 The Anthropocene Reviewed John Green 2021 American English