Three Gripping Summer Reads For Teens

By Susi Jensen | June 19, 2019 |

Three Awesome Novels

The List…Quick and Clean.

FEED, by MT Anderson. This is still one of my favorite YA books. Anderson writes what I think is one of the best first lines in YA literature. We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck. Click here to read my review of the novel. It might be a book worth reading with your teens if you are a parent or teacher. (It’s not a long novel). If you are a teen reading my website…read this book, hand it to a friend and have a discussion afterward. The story raises great questions around how connection to our devices might be more problematic than we comprehend. Read this if you want to have that discussion.
HOUSE OF THE SCORPION, by Nancy Farmer. For my no spoiler review, read here. Superb story and if you and/or your kids like this book, there is a sequel in the same world called, the OPIUM KING. This book raises interesting questions about cloning. I have written about that here. This book is not exactly scifi, but deals with futuristic ideas about science. It falls under the speculative fiction category.
BINTI, by Nnedi Okorafor. This book is a novella, the first of a trilogy of novellas, so if you or your teen are reticent to tackle a thick novel, take this in hand. It’s an easy read in one sitting and flows as a story. The protagonist is also dark-skinned and female. (The above two books feature great female characters, but the protagonists are male) To read my review of BINTI click here. I have only read the first book and deem it PG-13. Okorafor indicates that she did not intend the novellas to be for the YA audience, but I found the first to be a compelling tale for teens…a coming of age story. I cannot yet speak for the final two.