2. LORD OF THE FLIES BY WILLIAM GOLDING
William Golding's classic novel of primitive
savagery and survival is one of the most vividly
realized and riveting works in modern fiction. The
tale begins after a plane wreck deposits a group of
English school boys, aged six to twelve on an
isolated tropical island. Their struggle to survive
and impose order quickly evolves from a battle
against nature into a battle against their own
primitive instincts. Golding's portrayal of the
collapse of social order into chaos draws the fine
line between innocence and savagery.
~Amazon.com Product Description
3. SPEAK BY LAURIE HALSE ANDERSON
Speak is about a girl who was raped at
a party that her classmates attended,
and becomes a social outcast because
she called the police which broke up
that party. Her classmates, not
knowing why, deem her as anti-social
and weird. The issue of peer pressure
is especially relevant to her falling
with her best friend prior to the party.
Her friend, who has become a popular
girl, takes the side of the rest of her
peers in Melinda’s social stigma and
lets go of their friendship.
4. 13: A NOVEL BY JASON ROBERT BROWN
13 Things to Know About 13
1. This book is about a guy named Evan.
2. Three months before his 13th birthday, he has to move
from New York City 3. to Appleton, Indiana,
4. where nobody knows him.
5. He's not very happy about it.
6. His mom is kind of nuts.
7. His dad is kind of nuts too.
8. Evan's not nuts, but he keeps ending up in nutty
situations.
9. One of them involves a movie called The Bloodmaster.
10. Another involves a girl named Patrice.
11. But the nuttiest situation of all is his bar mitzvah—
12. which it's possible no one will come to.
13. Unless Evan can make some new friends really fast.
~Amazon Product Description
5. THE ARRIVAL BY SHAUN TAN (ESOL RECOMMENDED)
A man gives his wife and daughter a
last kiss and boards a steamship to
build a better future for his family.
Arriving in a strange, foreign land, he
struggles to understand the language
and customs, and learn the stories of
other immigrants . In this extraordinary
wordless graphic novel, Shaun Tan
captures the experience of the outsider
learning to belong, through clear,
mesmerizing images.
~New York Times
6. THE SKIN I’M IN BY SHARON FLAKE (ESOL RECOMMENDED)
The Skin I'm In follows the Maleeka
Maddison who is constantly bullied by a
classmate, Charleese for various reasons.
The book explores Maleeka’s internal
struggles with the loss of her father, the color
of her skin, the clothes she has to wear,
growing up in poverty, and having to support
her mother emotionally. Bullying is one of
the most destructive outcomes of peer
pressure and this book does a good job
shining a light on how damaging it really is.
7. BLUBBER BY JUDY BLUME
Blubber is about a 5th grade girl, Jill, whose friends
decide to start calling a girl in their class,
"Blubber." When the teasing continues, the naming
and harassment become big deal to Jill. When she
decides to stand up for the girl being bullied, her
friend Wendy redirects her attention to bullying
Jill. At its core, Blubber is a story about how
standing up to peer pressure in order to do the right
thing does not always result in the most desirable
consequences, but the good that supporting one
another does is worth it in the end. At the end, Jill
realizes that Wendy is not the type of person who
she wants to be around.
8. GODLESS BY PETE HAUTMAN
Godless addresses peer pressure through
the protagonist’s rebel against it, and
also as that rebellion becomes a source
of peer pressure. Jason, fed up with his
own religion, decides to invent his own
by appointing his town’s water tower as
a god, calling it “The Ten-Legged One.”
He invites some of his friends and a few
other people to join him. Gradually, the
light-hearted rebellion turns into a
serious matter when the meetings get out
of hand and begin to cause some of the
followers to consider taking their own
lives.
9. BEAUTIFUL BY AMY REED
The main character, Cassie, decides
to reinvent herself when she is
forced to leave a tiny town and move
to Seattle. Her once good girl image
dissipates as she gets introduced by
the wrong crowd to a world that
involves sex, drugs and violence.
She quickly finds herself in a
downward spiral of self destruction.
