Friendship and Companionship
The books featured on this page provide students with invaluable insights into the behaviors that make relationships caring and supportive. The books cover inspiring stories of individuals who supported their friends through hardships and gained a better understanding of themselves and the world through these friendships.
A Lesson Before Dying
Two young black men, one condemned to death for murder and the other a teacher, form a bond in a small Cajun Louisiana community in the late 1940s.
A Raisin in the Sun
This play tells the story of the Younger family; and touches on issues they face in their lives: generational clashes, the civil rights, and the women’s movement.
Any Small Goodness: A Novel of the Barrio
This story is about a Mexican-American family in East L.A. where random acts of generosity and goodwill improves the lives of the community.
Bread Givers
This masterwork of American immigrant literature is set in the 1920s on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and tells the story of Sara Smolinsky, the youngest daughter of an Orthodox rabbi, who rebels against her father's rigid conception of Jewish womanhood. Sarah's struggle towards independence and self-fulfillment resonates with a passion all can share.
Bridge to Terabithia
Jess and Leslie become special friends as they create a magical secret world that they call Terabithia.
Cannery Row
The adventures and misadventures of cannery workers living in the run-down waterfront section of Monterey, California, are recounted and exposed.
Fahrenheit 451
Guy Montage is a career fireman who lives in a world where thinking is dangerous and books are forbidden.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
The exciting experiences of Harry Potter are described as he goes from being an ordinary boy to being an unusual student at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Joey Pigza Loses Control
When Joey Pigza meets his dad, Carter, for the first time in years, he meets a grown-up version of his old hyperactive self.
Lisa, Bright and Dark
Lisa is smart, attractive, and seemingly successful, so her parents and teachers are unwilling to admit that she is struggling with a mental illness.
Masterminds
A group of kids living in a Pleasantville-type town connect to some of the greatest criminal masterminds of their time after discovering a dark secret.
Of Mice and Men
George and Lenny are migrant workers in the Salinas Valley of California during the Great Depression, they dream of a time when they will have enough money to buy their own farm.
Our Town
Through simple dialogue and nostalgic touches, the play magically conveys a profound love story between George Gibbs and Emily Webb set against a rich study of citizens of a small town.
Paper Towns
Quentin has spent a lifetime loving adventurous Margo from afar. When she cracks open a window and climbs into his life-he follows.
Shadow Spinner
In this story, Jimmy learns about his father and about himself, finding out that while things can’t always be fixed, sometimes they can be understood, and maybe even forgiven.
Song of Solomon
Follow Milkman from his rustbelt city to the place of his family's origins. You will be introduced to a cast of strivers and seeresses, liars and assassins, the inhabitants of a fully realized black world.
Stuck in Neutral
A fourteen-year-old boy with cerebral palsy is unable to communicate and longs to make contact with others. Through his words, the reader learns that Shawn is bright, funny, occasionally sarcastic, and astonishingly optimistic.
Surviving the Applewhites
A troubled teen is sent to live with an eccentric family in this funny, contemporary story.
The Maze
Rick Walker is a troubled teen who breaks out of Blue Canyon Youth Detention Center and becomes a stowaway in a pickup truck headed into Utah's canyons.
The Pigman
When sophomores John and Lorraine played a practical joke a few months ago on a stranger named Angelo Pignati they had no idea that they were starting. Virtually overnight, almost against their will, the two befriended the lonely old man.