The Best of the Best
Books that your Blue Valley children will not be asked to read
The following books are a few that have appeared on the American Library Association list of Outstanding Books for the College Bound at least four out of ten times, hence making them "the best of the best". None of the books shown below are on the "approved" reading list in the Blue Valley School System.
Click here for other lists of great books your children will not be asked to read in a Blue Valley Communication Arts class.
Click here to see The Harvard Classics including the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction. "The most comprehensive and well-researched anthology of all time comprises both the 50-volume “5-foot shelf of books” and the the 20-volume Shelf of Fiction. Together they cover every major literary figure, philosopher, religion, folklore and historical subject through the twentieth century."
| Title | Author | Type of Book |
|---|---|---|
| Act One | Hart, Moss | Play |
| Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl | Frank, Anne | Memoir, Autobiography |
| Christopher Columbus, Mariner | Morison, Samuel Elliott | Biography |
| David Copperfield | Dickens, Charles | Fiction |
| Elizabeth the Great | Jenkins, Elizabeth | Biography |
| Giants in the Earth | Rolvaag, Ole E. | Fiction |
| Gone with the Wind | Mitchell, Margaret | Fiction |
| Good Earth | Buck, Pearl | Fiction |
| Green Mansions | Hudson, W.H. | Fiction |
| How Green Was My Valley | Llewellyn, Richard | Fiction |
| Ivanhoe | Scott, Sir Walter | Fiction |
| Moby Dick | Melville, Herman | Fiction |
| Mutiny on the Bounty | Nordhoff and Hall | Fiction |
| Old Man and the Sea | Hemingway, Ernest | Fiction |
| One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich | Solzhenitsyn, Alexander | Fiction |
| Madame Curie: A Biography | Curie, Eve | Biography |
| Profiles in Courage | Kennedy, John F. | Profiles of 8 historical heroes |
| Story of My Life | Keller, Helen Adams | Memoir, Autobiography |
Missing Out
These books represent some of the best examples of traditional classics, American literature, British literature, contemporary literature, and titles from authors with different cultural backgrounds. Many of these books have also been referenced on English Advanced Placement exams. Others are suggested from a variety of recommended reading lists. These books are outstanding examples of high quality literature, are absent of gratuitous sex, violence, and profanity per Blue Valley's selection policy 4600, and have one other thing in common:
They are not on the "approved" reading list dated 9/2000 for Blue Valley Communication Arts (English) classes.
| Great Titles for high school | Author | Great Titles for younger students through any age | Author |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emma | Jane Austen | Little Women | Louisa M. Alcott |
| Lorna Doone | Blackmore | Daniel Boone | James Daugherty |
| A Man for all Seasons | Robert Bolt | The House of 60 Fathers | Meindert Dejong |
| Of Plymouth Plantation | William Bradford | Hans Brinker | Mary M. Dodge |
| The Great Escape | Paul Brickhill | Halfback Tough | Thomas Dygard |
| Pilgrim's Progress | John Bunyan | Kon Tiki | Thor Heyerdahl |
| Gifted Hands | Dr. Benjamin Carson | The Lion of the North | G.A. Henty |
| The Last of the Mohicans | James Fenimore Cooper | Rip van Winkle | Washington Irving |
| Madame Curie: A Biography | Eve Curie | Westward Ho! | Charles Kingsley |
| The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | Sir Arthur C. Doyle | Carry On, Mr. Bowditch | Jean Latham |
| The Conquest of Mexico | Bernal Diaz Del Castillo | The Call of the Wild | Jack London |
| Witness | Whitaker Chambers | Little Britches | Ralph Moody |
| The Crisis | Winston Churchill | Rascal | Sterling North |
| The Deerslayer | James Fenimore Cooper | Otto of the Silver Hand | Howard Pyle |
| Gilead | Marilynne Robinson | Robin Hood | Howard Pyle |
| The Prairie | James Fenimore Cooper | The Bronze Bow | Elizabeth George Speare |
| Robinson Crusoe | Daniel Defoe | The Pearl | John Steinbeck |
| David Copperfield | Charles Dickens | The Red Pony | John Steinbeck |
| The Count of Monte Cristo | Alexandre Dumas | Gulliver’s Travels | Jonathan Swift |
| The Three Musketeers | Alexandre Dumas | Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry | Mildred Taylor |
| Middlemarch | George Eliot | The Hobbit | J.R.R. Tolkien |
| Silas Marner | George Eliot | Around the World in 80 Days | Jules Verne |
| A Peculiar Treasure | Edna Ferber | Swiss Family Robinson | J. D. Wyss |
| So Big | Edna Ferber | ||
| Cheaper by the Dozen | Gilbreth and Carey | ||
| Pilgrim's Inn | Elizabeth Goudge | ||
| Green Dolphin Street | Elizabeth Goudge | ||
| The Heritage of the Desert | Zane Grey | ||
| Light of Western Stars | Zane Grey | ||
| The Return of the Native | Thomas Hardy | ||
| Bret Harte Short Stories | |||
| The Dark Frigate | Charles Boardman Hawes | ||
| Bugles in the Afternoon | Ernest Haycox | ||
| O. Henry Short Stories | |||
| In the Reign of Terror | G.A. Henty | In Freedom’s Cause | G.A. Henty |
| Captains Courageous | Rudyard Kipling | ||
| A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | James Joyce | ||
| My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr. | Coretta Scott King | ||
| The Screwtape Letters | C.S. Lewis | ||
| A Man Called Peter | Catherine Marshall | ||
| Christy | Catherine Marshall | ||
| Julie | Catherine Marshall | ||
| Bartelby the Scrivener | Herman Melville | ||
| Christopher Columbus, Mariner | Samuel Elliott Morison | ||
| Gone With the Wind | Margaret Mitchell | ||
| A Whale for the Killing | Farley Mowat | ||
| Master and Commander | Patrick O’Brien | ||
| The Scarlet Pimpernel | Baroness Orczy | ||
| The Adventures of Marco Polo | |||
| The Scottish Chiefs | Jane Porter | ||
| Giants in the Earth | O. Rolvaag | ||
| Killer Angels | Jeff Shaara | ||
| Shane | Jack Schaefer | ||
| Ivanhoe | Sir Walter Scott | ||
| One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich | Alexander Solzhenitsyn | ||
| How I Found Livingstone | Henry M. Stanley | ||
| The American Senator | Anthony Trollope | ||
| The Warden | Anthony Trollope | ||
| A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court | Mark Twain | ||
| Ben Hur | Lewis Wallace |
Yet More Great Books the Kids Do NOT Study at Blue Valley
| Title | Author | Type of Book |
|---|---|---|
| A Lantern in Her Hand | Aldrich, Bess Streeter | Fiction |
| Of Plymouth Plantation | Bradford, William | Fiction |
| Robinson Crusoe | Defoe, Daniel | Fiction |
| The Three Musketeers | Dumas, Alexandre | Fiction |
| The Count of Monte Cristo | Dumas, Alexandre | Fiction |
| Silas Marner | Eliot, George | Fiction |
| Middlemarch | Eliot, George | Fiction |
| So Big | Ferber, Edna | Fiction |
| A Peculiar Treasure | Ferber, Edna | Autobiography |
| Pilgrim's Inn | Goudge, Elizabeth | Fiction |
| Green Dolphin Street | Goudge, Elizabeth | Fiction |
| The Heritage of the Desert | Grey, Zane | Fiction |
| Light of Western Stars | Grey, Zane | Fiction |
| Bugles in the Afternoon | Haycox, Ernest | Fiction |
| The Hunchback of Notre Dame | Hugo, Victor | Fiction |
| A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | Fictionalized Memoir |
| The Screwtape Letters | Lewis, C.S. | Fiction |
| Christy | Marshall, Catherine | Fiction |
| Julie | Marshall, Catherine | Fiction |
| A Whale for the Killing | Mowat, Farley | Fiction |
| My Name is Asher Lev | Potok, Chaim | Fiction |
| The Yearling | Rawlings, Marjorie | Fiction |
| The Twenty-fourth of June | Richmond, Grace | Fiction |
| Foursquare | Richmond, Grace | Fiction |
| Scaramouche | Sabatini, Rafael | Fiction |
| The Romantic Prince | Sabatini, Rafael | Fiction |
| Quo Vadis | Sienkiewicz, Henrik | Fiction |
| Uncle Tom's Cabin | Stowe, Harriet Beecher | Fiction |
| Gulliver's Travels | Swift, Jonathan | Fiction |
| Democracy in America | Tocqueville, Alexis de | Political and Cultural Analysis |
| The Golden Journey | Turnbull, Agnes Sligh | Fiction |
| The Bishop's Mantle | Turnbull, Agnes Sligh | Fiction |
| A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court | Twain, Mark | Fiction |
| Banner in the Sky | Ullman, James Ramsey | Fiction |
| 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea | Verne, Jules | Fiction |
| Up from Slavery | Washington, Booker T. | Autobiography |
| The Calling of Dan Matthews | Wright, Harold Bell | Fiction |
| Shepherd of the Hills | Wright, Harold Bell | Fiction |
| That Printer of Udell's | Wright, Harold Bell | Fiction |
Click here to see The Harvard Classics including the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction. "The most comprehensive and well-researched anthology of all time comprises both the 50-volume “5-foot shelf of books” and the the 20-volume Shelf of Fiction. Together they cover every major literary figure, philosopher, religion, folklore and historical subject through the twentieth century."