Best Series
Reading Levels 5-12, Interest Levels 6-12
Table of Contents
Best Nonfiction Introductory
- Where Is Cyberspace? by Claire Benedikt
- Another April by Jesse Stuart
- How to Improve Your Vocabulary by Tony Randall
- Houston, We've Had a Problem Excerpt from Apollo
13
- Space Emergency by
Michael D. Cole
- I Got Myself a Start by Giving Myself a Start Excerpt
from Madam
C.J. Walker by A'Lelia Perry Bundles
- A Child's Life in Sarajevo Excerpt from Zlata's Diary by
Zlata Filipovic
- River Creatures by Huynh Quang Nhuong
Best Nonfiction Middle
- The Icing of the Cream by Becky Rupp
- Jan Matzeliger and "The Real McCoy" by Jim Haskins
- Pompeii: A Snapshot in Time by Robert Silverberg
- The Soul Selects Her Own Society Excerpt from I'm Nobody! Who
Are You? The Story of Emily Dickinson by Edna Barth
- Friendship Excerpt from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by
Maya Angelou
- Sin Papeles Introduction to The Uncertain Journey Stories
of Illegal Aliens in El Norte by Margaret Poynterby
- A Good Deed Goes Wrong by Patrick F. McManus
Best Nonfiction Advanced
- Blue Winds by Thomas S. Whitecloud
- Mount Rainier: Washington's Tranquil Threat by Jon Krakauer
- Remember Who You Are by Cathy Guisewite
- Sojourners Who Came to Stay by Donald Dale Jackson
- Mark Twain: The Early Years from The Importance of Mark Twain by
Skip Press
- Adventures of a Young Printer from Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin
- Letters from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Best Plays Introductory
- A Young Lady of Property by Horton Foote
- Back There by Rod Serling
- When the Rattlesnake Sounds by Alice Childress
- I Remember Mama by John van Druten, adapted from Mama's Bank Account by
Kathryn Forbes
- The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs, adapted by Harriet Dexter
- Let Me Hear You Whisper by Paul Zindel
- Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving, adapted by Adele Thane
Best Plays Middle
- Charley's Aunt by Brandon Thomas
- Trifles by Susan Glaspell
- Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry
- The Devil and Daniel Webster by Stephen Vincent Benét
- A Marriage Proposal by Anton Chekhov, translated by Joachim
Neugroschel
- Sorry, Wrong Number by Lucille Fletcher
- The Trouble with Tribbles by David Gerrold
Best Plays Advanced
- From A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
- The Romancers by Edmund Rostand, translated by Barrett H. Clark
- Our Town, Act 1 by Thornton Wilder
- Our Town, Acts 2 and 3 by Thornton Wilder
- Sure Thing by David Ives
- The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, abridged by
Lewy Olfson
From Arthur by Steve Gordon
- A Sunny Morning by Serafín and Joaquín Quintero, translated
by Lucretia Xavier Floyd
Best Short Stories Introductory
- The Professor of Smells by Laurence Yep
- Tuesday of the Other June by Norma Fox Mazer
- Almost a Whole Trickster by Gerald Vizenor
- President Cleveland, Where Are You? by Robert Cormier
- The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
- Catch the Moon by Judith Ortiz Cofer
- Many Moons by James Thurber
- The Richer, the Poorer by Dorothy West
- The Long Rain by Ray Bradbury
- Lob’s Girl by Joan Aiken
Best Short Stories Middle
- First Confession by Frank O'Connor
- Raymond's Run by Toni Cade Bambara
- To Build a Fire by Jack London
- Marigolds by Eugenia Collier
- The Treasure of Lemon Brown by Walter Dean Myers
- The Moustache by Robert Cormier
- Sucker by Carson McCullers
- Naftali and the Storyteller and His Horse, Sus by Isaac Bashevis
Singer
- A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury
- A Cap for Steve by Morley Callaghan
Best Short Stories Advanced
- The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield
- A Worn Path by Eudora Welty
- A Summer's Reading by Bernard Malamud
- My Oedipus Complex by Frank O'Connor
- Everyday Use by Alice Walker
- The Lagoon by Joseph Conrad
- The Guest by Albert Camus
- A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote
- The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe
- A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner
- The Kugelmass Episode by Woody Allen
- Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin
- Revelation by Francis O'Connor
Best-Selling Chapters Introductory
- The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
- Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
- The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
- Ghosts's I Have Been by Richard Peck
- Shane by Jack Schaefer
- I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Treviño
- Message to Hadrian by Geoffrey Trease
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Best-Selling Chapters Middle
- Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
- A Separate Peace by John Knowles
- Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
Best-Selling Chapters Advanced
- Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
- Roots by Alex Haley
- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
- The Chosen by Chaim Potok
- An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
- Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
- The Heart Is a Lovely Hunter by Carson McCullers
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Best Poems Introductory
Unit 1, What is a Poem?
- Summons by Robert Francis
- An Announcement by Mary Long
- Look at Me by Peg Hoddinott
- Western Wagons by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benét
- Legacies by Nikki Giovanni
- Pure Poetry by Gerard Malanga
- Write About a Radish by Karla Kuskin
- Your World by Georgia Douglas Johnson
- Your Poem, Man... by Edward Lueders
Unit 2, Voices
in Poetry
- The Windmill by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- The Builders by Sara Henderson Hay
- To Satch by Samuel Allen
- Oranges by Gary Soto
- Oranges by Jean Little
- Argument by Eve Merriam
- There Is No Word for Goodbye by Mary TallMountain
- The Glove and the Lions by Leigh Hunt
- Dorlan's Home-Walk by Arthur Guiterman
- The Stone by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
Unit 3, Sensory Images and Concrete Language
- My Mother Pieced Quilts by Teresa Palomo Acosta
- That Was Summer by Marci Ridlon
- Daybreak in Alabama by Langston Hughes
- Vacant House by Jeanne DeLamarter Bonnette
- In Winter by Robert Wallace
- The Tom-Cat by Don Marquis
- Girl with 'Cello by May Sarton
Unit 4, Sounds in Poetry
- Indians by Ophelia Rivas
- Crossing by Philip Booth
- Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe
- Bears by Alfred Guiterman
- The Shark by John Ciardi
- Wilbur Wright and Orville Wright by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benét
- We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks
- The Flower-Fed Buffaloes by Vachel Lindsay
- Sea Fever by John Masefield
- A Legend of Paul Bunyan by Arthur S. Bourinot
Unit 5, Figurative Language
- Primer Lesson by Carl Sandburg
- Like Bookends by Eve Merriam
- Words by Pauli Murray
- sun by Valerie Worth
- Cumulus Clouds by Sheryl L. Nelms
- In the Waiting Room by Charles Reznikoff
- Song for a Surf-Rider by Sara Van Alstyne Allen
- Whirlwind Is a Ghost Dancing a Dakota Poem retold by Natalia Belting
- Sunset by Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali
Unit 6, Form in Poetry
- When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer by Walt Whitman
- The Skater of Ghost Lake by William Rose Benét
- While I Slept by Robert Francis
- The Months by Christina Rossetti
- Moon by Myra Cohn Livingston
- Two Haiku by Soseki, by Kyorai
- Limericks by Anonymous
Unit 7, Author's Purpose
- Hands by Robinson Jeffers
- Ancestors by Dudley Randall
- And They Lived Happily Ever After for a While by John Ciardi
- Almost Perfect by Shel Silverstein
- To My Dear and Loving Husband by Anne Bradstreet
- I Ask My Mother to Sing by Li-Young Lee
- The Right Kind of People by Edwin Markham
- The Giveaway by Phyllis McGinley
Best Poems Middle
Unit 1, What is a Poem?
- African Sunrise by Gertrude May Lutz
- Pigeons by Richard Kell
- Central Park Tourney by Mildred Weston
- whom do you visualize as your reader? by Linda Pastan
- A Noiseless Patient Spider by Walt Whitman
- Running It Backward by John N. Morris
- Where You Are by Jack Anderson
- Childhood by Maura Stanton
Unit 2, Speakers in Poetry
- Grass by Carl Sandburg
- Bee! I'm Expecting You! by Emily Dickinson
- Miniver Cheevy by Edwin Arlington Robinson
- The Runaway by Robert Frost
- On a Night of Snow by Elizabeth Coatsworth
- I'm Nobody! Who are you? by Emily Dickinson
- My Father is a Simple Man by Luis Omar Salinas
- The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes
- Molly Means by Margaret Walker
Unit 3, Sensory Images and Concrete Language
- Petals by Pat Mora
- Cleaning the Well by Paul Ruffin
- It's Hot in the City by Peter West
- Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden
- Living by Denise Levertov
- Oregon Winter by Jeanne McGahey
- Sleeping in the Forest by Mary Oliver
Unit 4, Rhythm, Rhyme, and Repetition
- How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix by Robert Browning
- The Yarn of the Nancy Bell by Sir William Schwenck Gilbert
- The Sprinters by Lillian Morrison
- A Time to Talk by Robert Frost
- Jenny Kissed Me by Leigh Hunt
- The Kiss by Sara Teasdale
- Song by Katherine Phillips
- Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost
- Fireworks by Babette Deutsch
- Full Fathom Five by William Shakespeare
Unit 5, Figurative Language
- Identity by Julio Noboa Polanco
- Mama Is a Sunrise by Evelyn Tooley Hunt
- First Snow by Ted Kooser
- Check by James Stephens
- Hockey by Scott Blaine
- Hide and Seek by Sara Teasdale
- the mississippi river empties into the gulf by Lucille Clifton
Unit 6, Form in Poetry
- An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog by Oliver Goldsmith
- The Eagle That Is Forgotten by Vachel Lindsay
- When, in Disgrace with Fortune and Men's Eyes by William Shakespeare
- Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 by William Wordsworth
- Two Haiku by Matsuo-Basho, translated by Harry Behn
- Unconscious Came a Beauty by May Swenson
- Medicine by Alice Walker
- Miracles by Walt Whitman
Unit 7, Author's Purpose
- Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Legal Alien by Pat Mora
- One Perfect Rose by Dorothy Parker
- The Lesson of the Moth by Don Marquis
- George Gray by Edgar Lee Masters
- The Man from Washington by James Welch
- The Listeners by Walter de la Mare
- Water Picture by May Swenson
Best Poems Advanced
Unit 1, What is a Poem?
- Flying Fish by Carl Sandburg
- Self Portrait by Samantha Abeel
- The Argument of His Book by Robert Herrick
- April by Marcia Masters
- .05 by Ishmael Reed
- old age sticks by e.e. cummings
- Birches by Robert Frost
- I Am Singing Now by Luci Tapahonso
Unit 2, Speakers in Poetry
- The Corn by Daniel David Moses
- To Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos, translated by Maria Arrillaga
- I Heard a Fly Buzz by Emily Dickinson
- Two Friends by David Ignatow
- Girls Can We Educate We Dads? by James Berry
- Rice and Rose Bowl Blues by Diane Mei Lin Mark
- My Last Duchess by Robert Browning
- Flannan Isle by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson
- The Deacon's Masterpiece; or, The Wonderful "One-Hoss Shay" by
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Unit 3, Imagery, Concrete Language, and Mood
- Abandoned Farmhouse by Ted Kooser
- The Morning My Father Died, April 7, 1963 by James Masao Mitsui
- In an Iridescent Time by Ruth Stone
- I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud by William Wordsworth
- The Proletariat Speaks by Alice Ruth Moore Dunbar-Nelson
- Poem to Be Read at 3 A.M. by Donald Justice
- The Breathing by Denise Levertov
Unit 4, Sounds in Poetry
- Cool Tombs by Carl Sandburg
- Spring and Fall by Gerard Manley Hopkins
- truth by Gwendolyn Brooks
- The Burning by N. Scott Momaday
- Idaho by Kaye Starbird
- A narrow Fellow in the Grass by Emily Dickinson
- The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
- Cargoes by John Masefield
- The Tyger by William Blake
- Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day? by William Shakespeare
Unit 5, Figurative Language
- The Waning Moon by Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Metaphor by Eve Merriam
- Song of the Sky Loom Tewa Indian prayer, translated by Herbert J. Spinden
- When I Hear Your Name by Gloria Fuertes, translated by Ada Long and Philip
Levine
- Death, Be Not Proud by John Donne
- March 1st by Kathleen Spivack
- Birthday by M.T. Buckley
- Tiburón by Martín Espada
- Fall, leaves, fall by Emily Brontë
Unit 6, Form in Poetry
- Oh Mistress Mine by William Shakespeare
- Stanzas (When a Man Hath No Freedom to Fight for at Home) by George Gordon
Byron, 6th Baron Byron
- Keeping Things Whole by Mark Strand
- She Walks in Beauty by George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron
- The Eagle by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- Villanelle VI by Judith Barrington
- Two Hokku Poems by Richard Wright
- If Thou Must Love Me, Let It Be for Naught by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- Swan and Shadow by John Hollander
Unit 7, Author's Purpose
- If We Must Die by Claude McKay
- Old Ironsides by Oliver Wendell Holmes
- The Flying Cat by Naomi Shihab Nye
- The Solitary by Sara Teasdale
- Woman with Flower by Naomi Long Madgett
- A Work of Artifice by Marge Piercy
- Cinderella by Anne Sexton
- Ulysses by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- Break, Break, Break by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- Caged Bird by Maya Angelou
