What are some profound Children/Teen books?

Question

I am currently writing a syllabus for a course for adults called "Contemporary Children's Literature." So far, I've got the latest Harry Potter book, but can you recommend any other titles?

Thank you.

Answer 1

As your course is called "Contemporary Children's Literature" I think you need to stick to contemporary titles, so the Chronicles of Narnia, Charlotte's Web, Secret Garden, Wind in the Willows and Catcher in the Rye won't do, as they range between 55 and 98 years old! Stick to 21st century. It might also, for balance, be an idea to diversify in terms of the authors' nationalities.
I'd recommend taking a look at the following modern teen classics by American, British, Irish, Scottish, Australian and German authors:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Artemis-Fowl-Eoin-Colfer/dp/0141312122/ref=pd_sxp_grid_i_0_0/203-9915083-6090310
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Northern-Lights-Philip-Pullman/dp/0590660543/ref=cm_lm_fullview_prod_1/203-9915083-6090310
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bad-Beginning-Unfortunate-Events/dp/1405208678/ref=cm_lm_fullview_prod_3/203-9915083-6090310
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mortal-Engines-Philip-Reeve/dp/0439979439/ref=cm_lm_fullview_prod_5/203-9915083-6090310
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Justin-Thyme-Tartan-Panama-Oxridge/dp/0955357004/ref=cm_lm_fullview_prodimg_21/203-9915083-6090310
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inkheart-Cornelia-Funke/dp/1904442218/ref=cm_lm_fullview_prod_13/203-9915083-6090310
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chasing-Vermeer-Blue-Balliett/dp/190444282X/sr=1-1/qid=1164249552/ref=sr_1_1/203-9915083-6090310?ie=UTF8&s=books
http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Live-Now-Meg-Rosoff/dp/0141318015/sr=8-1/qid=1164314652/ref=sr_1_1/203-9915083-6090310?ie=UTF8&s=books

I'm not sure how "profound" these are; that depends on your analysis I guess ... and, as essential as the Harry Potter books are, I doubt even JK Rowling herself would describe them as profound. They are a contemporary classic - and, like the above mentioned books, feature 21st century teen characters.

Answer 2

Kathryn Lasky's "Prank," "Pageant," "Blood Secret," "Memoirs of a Bookbat"
Lois Lowry's "The Giver," Gathering Blue," Messenger"
Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series, starting with "The Book of Three"
E. B. White, such as "Charlotte's Web"
Roald Dahl, such as "Matilda"
Frances Hodgson Burnett's "The Secret Garden"
Norton Juster's "The Phantom Tollbooth"
Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book"
Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass"
L. Frank Baum's "Wizard of Oz"

Answer 3

You can't include Harry Potter without touching on Narnia and that series. Its one of the most popular children's series and, like Harry Potter, it has a deeper meaning that adults can relate to as well. Although they were written a bit ago, it might still apply to your course since the movies are coming out and its back in the media.
Other than that, try the Eragon books (about the dragon) and the books "A Series of Unfortunate Events" was based off of. Those seems to be the most popular.

Answer 4

Margaret Haddix Peterson's Among the Hidden and its sequels are quite profound. Another great, but controversial teen read is is Walter Dean Myer's Monster.
I use these websites to locate the latest in Teen Literature:
http://www.webrary.org/kids/jbibmenu.html
Booklist.
http://www.booklistonline.com/
Children's Book Council.
http://www.cbcbooks.org/readinglists/
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.
http://www.carnegielibrary.org/
Jen Robinsons Book Reviews,
http://www.growingbookworms.com/index.shtml

Answer 5

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Looking for Alaska by John Green
Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer
King Dork by Frank Portman
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
The Schwa Was Here by Neal Shusterman
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
So B. It by Sarah Weeks
Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen

Answer 6

The Children's bible is profound and has pictures and parables and stories of Jesus in it and teaches important values for children.

Charlottes Web is profound and being made into a movie and has a morale to the story. The pig and spider become friends and it is so moving.
Catcher in the Rye still a classic and very relevant today.

Answer 7

Uglies, Pretties, and Specials, a triology by Scott Westerfeld about a future society in which everyone recieves an operation on their 16th birthday to make them completely beautiful. Anyone normal is ugly. Tally can't wait until her birthday! But her friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. And when the authorities give Tally an impossible choice "find your runaway friend or never turn pretty" her choice will change the world...

A Great And Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. It is the Victorian times, and Gemma sees her mother die in a vision. She is shipped off to a bording school where she meets Ann, Felicity, and Pippa, and the four girls are bound together with a delicate web of secrets. The story of a girl who didn't want to be a rich mans' wife. The story of a girl who saw another way.

Abarat by Clive Barker. Candy lives in boring chickentown. But what happens when she is transported to another world where anything can happen? Welcome to Abarat.

Burned by Ellen Hopkins. It all started with a dream, nothing exceptional, the kind of dream most teen girls experince, but Pattyn Von Stratten isn't most teen girls. Raised in a religious, but abusive family, a simple dream isn't exactly a sin, but it could be the first step towards hell. It is the first step for Pattyn, But to hell or a better life? For the first time, Pattyn starts asking questions. About God, a women's role, sex, love-mostly love. What is it? Where is it? Is she deserving of it? Will she eve expierence it? It's with a real boy that Pattyn gets in trouble. After Pattyn's father catches her in a comprimising position, she is shipped off to live with an aunt she doesn't know. She is supposed to find salvation and redemption, but instead she finds love and acceptance. And for the first time, she feels worthy of both. But her old demons won't let her go. Pattyn begins a life towards hell, maybe not the hell talked about in sacrament meetings, but a hell all the same. (Written entirely in poetry)

Twilight by stephenie meyer. An all round great fantasty love story. Absolutely engrossing! My favorite book.

Answer 8

anything by Sarah Dessen. they are more for teenagers and are typically dealing with summer flings - but she is one of the most popular authors for teen fiction. there is something about her books that you cant put down

Gossip Girls is also interesting to analyze because they are beach reads yet - its just such a guilty pleasure. not to mention that this basically started the whole rich girl lit like A-list and South Beach

Speak by Laurie (?) Anderson is also amazing too. one of the better teen books

and yes, you cant mention contemporary without touching on Harry Potter.

Ronald Dahl would be interesting too :]

Answer 9

i've got examine a brilliant sort of books and maximum of them have had a spiritual consequence on me. conflict & Peace (needless to say), all of Thoreau's artwork, any e book that fees artists consisting of biographies of Picasso or Delacroix, The Tibetian e book of living & dying replaced my existence, or maybe the Bible had an enduring consequence on me. for many of my grownup existence Robert M. Pirsig's "Zen & the artwork of motorbike maintenance" saved me tuned in to the main appropriate frequency..yet, strangely sufficient a e book that extremely moved me spiritually isn't something greater desirable than a different by a brilliant author named Cormack Mcarthy. The e book is titled: "the line." i visit pass away a quote right here yet you have have been given to ascertain the full element. "They crossed the river by an previous concrete bridge and a few miles on they chanced on a roadside gas station. They stood contained in the line and studied it. i think of we would desire to constantly verify it out, the guy suggested. take a seem. The weeds they forded fell to dirt approximately them. They crossed the broken asphalt apron and located the tank for the pumps. The cap became into long previous and the guy dropped to his elbows to sniff the pipe however the scent of gas became into basically a rumor, faint and off. He stood and looked over the development. The pumps status with their hoses oddly nevertheless in place. The living house windows intact. The door to the provider bay became into open and he went in. a status steel toolbox against one wall. He went contained in the time of the drawers yet there became into no longer something there that he might desire to apply. stable 0.5-inchchronic sockets. A ratchet. He stood looking around the storage. A steel barrel crammed with trash. He went into the workplace. dirt and ash everywhere. The boy stood contained in the door. A steel table, a cashregister. some previous vehicle manuals, swollen and sodden. The linoleum became into stained and curling from the leaking roof. He crossed to the table and stood there. Then he picked up the telephone and dialed the kind of his father's living house in that some time past. The boy watched him. What are you doing? he suggested."

Answer 10

I know!! His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman!! It's amazing!!

Includes The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spgylass..Must read from first to last book. (children's/young adult)

Also, The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd. (better suited for young adults ages 14 and up)