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Find out moreClassics are books that are as relevant and popular now as in their own era. Have a glance through history when you scroll through our selection of time-tested Classics. You might re-discover a forgotten gem!
In a Nutshell: Teen rebellion * Class conflict * Gangs gone wrong A heartrending coming-of-age classic that blazed the trail for young-adult-oriented fiction long before YA was even a twinkle in publishers’ eyes. With his parents dead, Ponyboy Curtis is looked after by his big brothers; Sodapop, who “understands everything, almost”, and Darry, who treats Ponyboy “as if I was six instead of fourteen”. The way Ponyboy sees it, there are two sorts of people. There are greasers who “steal things and drive souped-up old cars and hold up gas stations and have a gang fight once in a while”. And then there are Socs, who live on the rich side of the tracks, “jump greasers…and get editorials in the paper for being a public disgrace one day and an asset to society the next”. Ponyboy knows which side he’s been born into and is desperate to prove himself to his older greaser peers, so much so that he and his friend Johnny get embroiled in a “rumble” that sets a succession of tragic events in motion.Published when the author was only eighteen, and now newly re-published as part of a series that showcases pioneering books for young adults, this is a truly seminal work that transcends the era in which it was written. The themes of class conflict and gang bravado are pertinent, and Ponyboy poignantly encapsulates that bolt-from-the-blue moment when the world is seen through adult eyes for the very first time. While their struggles and losses are deeply harrowing, the novel ends with a spark of hope that Ponyboy and his brothers will make it through, and make a future for themselves. ~ Joanne Owen It is one of The Originals from Penguin - iconic, outspoken, first. The Originals are the pioneers of fiction for young adults. From political awakening, war and unrequited love to addiction, teenage pregnancy and nuclear holocaust, The Originals confront big issues and articulate difficult truths. The collection includes: The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton, I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith, Postcards from No Man's Land - Aidan Chambers, After the First Death - Robert Cormier, Dear Nobody - Berlie Doherty, The Endless Steppe - Esther Hautzig, Buddy - Nigel Hinton, Across the Barricades - Joan Lingard, The Twelfth Day of July - Joan Lingard, No Turning Back - Beverley Naidoo, Z for Zachariah - Richard C. O'Brien, The Wave - Morton Rhue, The Red Pony - John Steinbeck, The Pearl - John Steinbeck, Stone Cold - Robert Swindells.
In a nutshell: Iconic | Outspoken | Big Issues | Difficult Truths A story about writing, this is also a wonderfully romantic story told by a young narrator trying to capture the unusual behaviour of her family and the life they lead in an unusual ruined castle as well as describing her own emotional turmoil. Cassandra is determined not to be pretentious as she tells the stories of her family and the story of her own desperate entanglement with the man who loves her sister. The result is a book that is delightfully entertaining and humorous. ~ Julia Eccleshare It is one of The Originals from Penguin - iconic, outspoken, first. The Originals are the pioneers of fiction for young adults. From political awakening, war and unrequited love to addiction, teenage pregnancy and nuclear holocaust, The Originals confront big issues and articulate difficult truths. The collection includes: The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton, I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith, Postcards from No Man's Land - Aidan Chambers, After the First Death - Robert Cormier, Dear Nobody - Berlie Doherty, The Endless Steppe - Esther Hautzig, Buddy - Nigel Hinton, Across the Barricades - Joan Lingard, The Twelfth Day of July - Joan Lingard, No Turning Back - Beverley Naidoo, Z for Zachariah - Richard C. O'Brien, The Wave - Morton Rhue, The Red Pony - John Steinbeck, The Pearl - John Steinbeck, Stone Cold - Robert Swindells.
In a Nutshell: Psycho-political thriller * Terrorist hijacking * Extremes of patriotism Unreservedly uncompromising, this gripping, thought-provoking novel raises pertinent questions about trust, sacrifice and the extremes people will go as a result of absolute devotion to a cause, and makes for a relentlessly intense reading experience. The novel opens as teenager Ben awaits the first visit of his US General father since he was used as a pawn - by his father - in a terrorist negotiation that left him dreaming of “screaming children”. These screams belong to the preschoolers who were bound for day camp when their bus was hijacked, trapping teenage driver Kate in a battle between violent terrorists (“No one is free from war until our homeland is free”, they state) and a secret government defence agency known as Inner Delta, for which Ben’s father works. One of the hijackers, Miro, is himself only sixteen, but “he was not a child anymore”; “inflicting death did not bother him”. As the ordeal goes on and negotiations get underway, Kate begins to wonder: “what had made him a monster? This world, his works. Who was guilty, then: the monster or the world that created it?” But, whatever the cause, the terrorists’ actions are monstrous. As the deadline for meeting their demands draws closer, “eager to serve” Ben, with his “air of innocence”, is sent to deliver proof that the terrorists’ leader has been captured, and chaos erupts.While the terrorists are prepared to murder to realise their aims, Ben’s father is so consummately committed to defending his nation that he’s prepared to use his own son as a go-between, and herein lies the moral crux of this complex novel: how far will an individual go in the name of their cause? And, in addition, how might any of us act in such extreme circumstances? Kate, too, finds herself “amazed at her ability to lie, to improvise, to plot and scheme.” While the themes are big, bold and masterfully presented, the impeccably precise writing also makes this a perfect – if harrowing - page-turner. ~ Joanne Owen It is one of The Originals from Penguin - iconic, outspoken, first. The Originals are the pioneers of fiction for young adults. From political awakening, war and unrequited love to addiction, teenage pregnancy and nuclear holocaust, The Originals confront big issues and articulate difficult truths. The collection includes: The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton, I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith, Postcards from No Man's Land - Aidan Chambers, After the First Death - Robert Cormier, Dear Nobody - Berlie Doherty, The Endless Steppe - Esther Hautzig, Buddy - Nigel Hinton, Across the Barricades - Joan Lingard, The Twelfth Day of July - Joan Lingard, No Turning Back - Beverley Naidoo, Z for Zachariah - Richard C. O'Brien, The Wave - Morton Rhue, The Red Pony - John Steinbeck, The Pearl - John Steinbeck, Stone Cold - Robert Swindells.
Buddy has a hopeless father who is an ageing rocker, interested only in Elvis and bikes, and living on the fringes of the under-world. The two manage to strike up some kind of relationship when Buddy's mum walks out - until Buddy realises that his dad is involved in something more serious than he suspected.
Dear Nobody by Berlie Doherty, winner of the Carnegie Medal, is a compelling story told from two points of view, evoking the feelings of both Helen, in a series of letters to the unborn baby, and of Chris as he reads the letters and relives the events of their relationship while Helen is in labour.
Esther Rudomin was ten years old when, in 1941, she and her family were arrested by the Russians for being 'capitalists' and transported to Siberia. The next five years spent were spent in exile where they went barefoot and hungry until the end of the Second World War. Despite the hardships endured, Esther's story radiates optimism and is a beautiful example of the resilience of the human spirit.
NO TURNING BACK by Carnegie-medal winning author Beverley Naidoo is the powerful and moving story of Sipho and his struggle to survive on the city streets of Johannesburg in the 1990s. South African society is on the brink of a huge change as apartheid comes to an end, but will it make any difference to the tough life of Sipho and the other street kids?
Kino is a desperately poor Mexican pearl diver. But when he finds 'The Pearl of the World' he believes that his life will be magically transformed. Obsessed by his dreams, Kino is blind to the greed, fear and even violence the pearl arouses in his neighbours - and himself.
Aidan Chambers' Carnegie-medal winning novel is about love, discovery and betrayal. Jacob, aged 17, is abroad on his own for the time, visiting his grandfather's grave at the commemoration of the Second World War Battle of Arnhem in Holland. Jacob's life-changing experiences are interwoven with the extraordinary wartime story of passion and treachery that he learns from Geertrui, whose family is linked to Jacob's in a way he never suspected.
Young Jody Tiflin lives on his father's California ranch. He is thrilled when his father gives him a red pony, and later promises him the colt of a bay mare. Both these gifts bring joy to Jodi's life - but tragedy soon follows. As Jodi begins to learn the harsh lessons of life and death, he starts to understand what growing-up and becoming an adult really means.
Link, aged 17, is distrustful of people until he pairs up with Deb, another homeless youngster. But what Deb doesn't tell him is that she's an ambitious young journalist on a self-imposed assignment to track down the killer and she's prepared to use herself as bait ...
One of fiction's greatest chancers - the story of Denry Machin and his unceasing, ingenious efforts to become a great man. Set in the raw, Victorian world of the 'Five Towns', The Card tells the extremely funny and tangled story of Denry Machin's rise from mediocrity to fame through a series of ludicrous and yet perversely successful schemes. He dances, pleads, cheats and inspires his way through life in a series of set-pieces which wonderfully evoke a now long-gone world of civic balls, seaside excursions, newspaper boys and patent chocolate remedies. As everybody said after one of his most stylish coups, Denry 'was not simply a card; he was the card.'
From Aristotle to Aphra Benn to Jane Austen, and Socrates to Stendhal to Upton Sinclair our classics genre will point you in the direction of all the great classics from the beginnings of literature right up to the essential 20th-century classics such as Animal Farm.
The privileged classes (Henry James) and life on the poverty line (Zola)... History (Robert Graves) and prophesy (George Orwell)... Romance (Emily Bronte) and ribaldry (Henry Fielding)... Generations lost (Ernest Hemingway) and encapsulated (F. Scott Fitzgerald)... Writers ahead of their time (James Joyce) and right on the pulse of it (Jack Kerouac)...
There’s so much out there to discover, but it can be daunting without guidance.