“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it,” JK Rowling once said. If you think about it, it is, in fact, from our books that we form our vision and ideologies. Needless to say, books play an integral part in our personal journeys and growth. With a thorough recognition of this fact, World Book Day is celebrated to provide every child as well as young individuals with a book that they can cherish and learn from. To create awareness about world book day share world book day quotes with your friends and knowns.
A registered charity, World Book Day is constantly striving to encourage reading as it goes about celebrating the magic of books and their creators. Celebrating books for over two decades now, the charity works closely with publishers, National Book Tokens Ltd and booksellers to send millions of book tokens like novels in english to children and young individuals across the globe. These tokens can be later sent by the recipients to one book from a set of ten exclusive, new and completely free options.
Additionally, World Book Day is celebrated across the world on April 23 and is also known as World Book and Copyright Day. Organised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation UNESCO, the day urges kids to explore the joys of books by providing them with the chance to have their own book. The biggest celebration of its kind, this day is all about authors, illustrators, books and readers. In order to mark the World Book And Copyright Day and to celebrate the joy of reading, we have compiled a list of critically acclaimed books for teenagers that are sure to enrich their lives.
Inspiring Books For Teens
There exist books which have literally changed lives by igniting a certain spark in people. There are books that come from great lives and achievers who persevered despite the odds and showed the world how it’s done. Here’s a list of inspiring books that are sure to leave you remarkably impressed:
I Am Malala
Instead of succumbing to the scary repressive reality of her world, Malala rose and took charge after a near fatal attack. This book tells you about courage, perseverance and there is just too much to learn from the brave, unyielding Malala.
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
What it’s like to belong to a world where everything is so desolate that your own feed on you? But more importantly, how do you rise from all that? Pecola Breedlove, a11-year-old black girl and the protagonist of the novel, believes that she is ugly and getting blue eyes would somehow make her beautiful. Sensitive and soft, she constantly suffers the abuse of her neighbours, classmates, and family. The story follows her journey as she gradually soaks in all the ugliness that is thrown at her. A path breaking contribution to the black Lives’ Movements, this book is sure to teach you a lot and one of the best books to read for teenagers.
Also Read: Best Fantasy Books
The Art Spirit by Robert Henri
“Art when really understood is the province of every human being.” This is a book about the collective words, wisdom, and teachings of innovative creator and realist painter Robert Henri. There is so much to learn about the nature of creativity from this masterpiece.
Wings of Fire by APJ Abdul Kalam
This book changes everything that you have ever thought about great people and their lives. A touching but inspiring take into the life of the missile man of India, this one is a must read for every teenager.
Live Fearless: A Call to Power, Passion, and Purpose by Sadie Robertson, Beth Clark
This one comes with a very important message: you don’t have to be deterred by fear, anxiety, or loneliness anymore. In this book, Sadie takes you on a personal journey of power, purpose and passion as you learn to live at the center of who God created you to be!
Funny Books For Teens
While we continue to undervalue funny, light-hearted, comedy books, this is actually the kind of literature that comforts you when nothing else can. If you disagree then chances are that you have never picked a good funny one. Well, here are five funny books for teens that’ll keep you covered:
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
A graphic novel, American Born Chinese is the perfect book for those who like some visual stimulation to follow the magic of words. The novel follows three distinct storylines that intersect in the end. Each of them revolves around a character who constantly feels judged. The story covers many Chinese stereotypes and insults in America while keeping the subject matter light.
Anya’s Ghost By Vera Brosgol
Teenage years are hard especially when you are embarrassed by your family when you’re body-conscious, and a total misfit at school. But is that motivation enough to become friends with someone who has been your age for over a century? Go on a sporadic journey with Anya as she friends a girl who has been dead for 90 years.
Winger by Andrew Smith
Revolving around the life of 14-year-old, Ryan Dean West who goes to a rich kids’ school and lives in Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troublemakers. Also, he is roommates with the biggest bully on the rugby team in addition to being madly in love with his best friend who thinks of him as nothing more than a little boy. Well, this is just the recipe for a romantic comedy, however, it is more com and less rom but a definite fun read.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
The last master of high school espionage, Greg Gaines possesses the ability to disappear at his will into any social environment. He and his only friend Earl spend most of their time making incomprehensible, weird movies. A twist comes in the tale when Greg is forced to rekindle his childhood friendship with Rachel, who has been diagnosed with leukemia. No point for guessing, that the two decide to make a movie on her as well and create what’s called the Worst Film Ever Made. Funny and touching both, this makes for a great leisurely read.
My Lady Jane by Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, and Jodi Meadows
The 16-year-old, Lady Jane Grey, is about to get married to a total stranger, getting caught up in a plot to rob her cousin, King Edward, of his throne. But, nah that’s not her biggest problem. She’s about to become the Queen of England, a plan that involves all the ingredients to turn into a disaster. Don’t be embarrassed if your parents catch you giggling while reading this one.
Romantic Books For Teens
You are truly missing out on a lot if you have never picked up a spirited romance in your life. Well, chances of which we hope are low because for so many of us the idea of books boils down to passionate romances during our teen years. Well, here’s our selection of five romantic novels for teens that’ll never miss the mark:
The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
Narrated by Hazel Grace Lancaster, a 16-year-old girl suffering from thyroid cancer who suddenly chances upon love, this book introduces you to the deeper meaning of love and how it’s the souls that connect sometimes unknowingly, sometimes when they don’t intend to at all.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
More than a century and half since its publication, the words of Cathy, Wuthering Heights’ heroine, keep echoing through the history of literature as the confession of a wild, all-consuming love.“Nelly, I am Heathcliffe,” she says. Read this one for the love of classics.
Opposite Of Always by Justin A. Reynolds
There is something ever so haunting about stories of unrequited love, even more about those when the love is reciprocated and yet unfinished. Jack loses Kate soon after falling heads over heels in love but their story doesn’t just end there. It somehow sends him back to the beginning, and as he questions to lose his mind he is also presented with the choice of saving her at a price of course. Read this to find out what happens next.
If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan
How tolling is to be in love when your spirit is constantly revolting with what the world considers right? Seventeen-year-old Nasrin and Sahar have been in love ever since they were 26 but Iran is a dangerous place for lesbian love. Imprisoned in spirit and ever hampered, will there love see its day?
Love From A to Z by S.K. Ali
When two North American Muslim teens end up finding romance on Qatar trip, what follows is an unforgettable love story that explores controversial issues like Islamophobia, classroom the morality of drone warfare. Besides being a beautiful love story, this one also calls out the folly of human prejudices.
Mystery Books For Teens
If there is one thing that we can never have enough of as teenagers, then it has to be that adrenaline rush! Here are five mystery books for the teens that’ll take care of the same:
The Art Of Secret by James Klise
In this novel, a suspicious hate crime destroys Saba Khan and her family’s possessions and the apartment. The family has to rely on their neighbors for a few days till two of Saba’s friends chance upon a mysterious painting in an attempt to hold an auction and help the family.
Girl In The Blue Coat By Monica Hesse
Set against the troubled backdrop of occupied Amsterdam during World War 2, this book follows the story of Hanneke who makes a living through black market deliveries as she tries to forget the painful memories of her dead lover. She is soon drawn into a web of mysteries after one of the customers asks her to find Missing Jewish girl. What follows is a gripping tale that keeps you hooked.
One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus
Think of this as an amalgamation of The Breakfast Club with Pretty Little Liars and a pretty interesting one for that matter. This is a tale about what happens when five strangers meet during detention but only four walk out of it alive. Everyone is a possible suspect, and everyone is hiding something.
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Follow the journey of Scout Finch who tells you about her father Atticus Finch, who is an attorney and who hopelessly trying to prove a black man’s innocence who has been wrongly accused of rape. The plot consists of Boo Radley, a mysterious neighbor who saves both Scout and her brother Jem from being dying. This is a classic and gives you a great insight into injustice and the flawed legal system.
There’s Someone Inside Your House by Stephanie Perkins
Just when Makani Young gets assured that she has successfully left her dark past behind her in Hawaii and begins to settle in landlocked Nebraska, her past rears its ugly head back into her life. Soon enough, Makani is made to confront her dark past as one by one, the students at her school begin to die in a series of revolting murders.
Fantasy Books For Teens
While there might be all kinds of books that each of us falls for at different stages in life, it is really the fantasy narratives that fire our imagination especially during the growing up years. Somehow the magic embedded in these books becomes a part of us and how we look at the world around us. Thus, to help you experience a little of that magic, here are five fantasy books for the teens that will keep their imaginations running:
Alice In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Ever been curious enough to follow a strangely dressed rabbit to the rabbit hole? An all time classic this is a book for all ages as it beautifully teaches us to fall for our own crazy selves among many things else.
Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone JK Rowling
While nothing beats Rowling when it comes to the fantasy genre, there’s something about the first book from the Harry Potter series that makes it the best.
The Hunger Games #1
Centered around 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen as the book unfolds in an apocalyptic world, there’s something really moving about the vision as Everdeen struggles to survive in a dystopia. This a world where young boys and girls are offered as a tribute and will consume you too as you get lost in the compelling narrative.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
A dystopian classic, this one revolves around the is set in a futuristic world and explores what happens when a combination of science and pleasure form a rather feudalistic society in the future. Oh, by the way, this is the book that gave us the concept of alpha, beta, and gamma respectively. Interesting right?
A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine
A classic sci-fi fiction, A Wrinkle In Time follows the journey of Charles Wallace Murry who ends up on an evil planet when he goes searching for his lost father through a ‘wrinkle in time.’ On this planet, all life is slave through a huge pulsating brain called ‘It.’ Read this one for word pictures so intense they’ll stay with you for a while.
Self-Help Books For Teens
Here are five self-help books for teens that will help you get through difficult times and give you a push whenever you seek it:
The Alchemist
No matter how you might think of yourself in a given time, your spirit is way bigger than that, way bigger than you can ever fathom. All that you need to do to evoke it? Believe in yourself and pursue your dreams with all that you have. This one is a book for a lifetime!
The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck:
Written for a generation that is almost done with the exaggerated positivity of self-help books, this one is all about being comfortable in your skin, to let go of the unimportant things in life, and to hold dearly to all that matters.
No Body’s Perfect by Kimberly Kirberger
Hailed rightly as the “chicken soup for the teenage soul,” this book is a wonder house of stories dealing with every single teenage issue possible. Right from a broken heart to eating disorders, this book beautifully addresses identity issues faced by adolescents and the right way of dealing with them.
Who Moved My Cheese Spencer Johnson
A light-hearted parable about change, this book follows the physical and emotional journeys of four characters as they chase, find, lose and must rediscover something that is extremely dear to them. This book teaches you about change like nothing else in the world and thus remains a great learning experience for all age groups.
The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
A really calming and rather interesting read, this is a book about the biggest secret of life embedded in the smallest of the logic. There is just one law that governs everything, is always at your disposal, and how well you use it decides how far you actually make it in life.
This World Book Day, get a book for yourself or give it to a teen around you and spread the joy of reading. Remember, the spirit of the World Book Day nestles in the spirit of encouraging the practice of reading. Do your bit and let the joy of reading take over this world.
Featured Image: Goodreads
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