Anita Silvey’s 500 Great Books for Teens
Houghton Mifflin, 2006

M.T. Anderson’s Burger Wuss (1999) 12-14
Joan Bauer’s Rules of the Road (1998) 12-14
Joan Bauer’s Squashed (1992) 12-14 *
Ann Brashares’ The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2001) 12-14

Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods (1998) 14-18 *
Meg Cabot’s The Princess Diaries (2000) 12-14
Andrew Clements’ Frindle (1996) 12-14
Paula Danziger’s Remember Me to Harold Square (1987) 12-14
Ann Fine’s Flour Babies (1992) 12-14

Paul Fleischman’s A Fate Totally Worse than Death (1995) 12-14
Jack Gantos’ Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key (1998) 12-14
Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey’s Cheaper by the Dozen (1948) 12-18 *
KL Going’s Fat Kid Rules the World (2003) 14-18

Steve Kluger’s Last Days of Summer (1998) 12-14
Gordon Korman’s No More Dead Dogs (2000) 12-14
Carolyn Mackler’s The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things (2003) 12-14
Hilary McKay’s Indigo’s Star (2004) 12-14

Jackyn Moriarty’s The Year of Secret Assignments (2004) 12-14
Gary Paulsen’s Harris and Me: A Summer Remembered (1993) 12-14
Richard Peck’s The Teacher’s Funeral (2004) 12-14
Daniel Pinkwater’s Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars; Slaves of Spiegel; The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death; The Last Guru 12-14

Jill Pinkwater’s Buffalo Brenda (1989) 12-14
Terry Pratchett’s The Wee Free Men (2003) 12-14
Louise Rennison’s Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging (2000) 12-14 *
Tom Robbins‘ Skinny Legs and All (1990) 14-18

Dyan Sheldon’s Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (1999) 12-14
Neal Shusteman’s The Schwa Was Here (2004) 12-14
William Sleator’s Oddballs: Stories (1993) 12-14
Stephanie S. Tolan’s Surviving the Applewhites (2002) 12-14

John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces (1980) 14-18 *
Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 (1986) 14-18 *

I’ve starred the ones that I’ve read (which aren’t numerous, presumably because I lean towards serious and depressing and drama-soaked stories, often in which the world ends or may as well).

The first of these that I read was Sue Townsend’s, when I was just a couple of years older than Adrian: I thought they were funny then, and I still get a giggle out of them when I look through. The most recent that I read was Joan Bauer’s Squashed, which I chose as a seasonal read because it was recommended in another favourite book-about-lists-of-books.

Which ones here have you read? Do you have favourites here?