All throughout high school and middle school, my love for books has continuously grown. Over the years I've collected a number of books that soon I'll need yet another bookshelf. Those that I don't collect, I add to a list of books I'd someday want to purchase.
Of these books are a few that I have never met another person who has also read them. Many include classics but I don't necessarily want to include them in my list of underrated books.
Below is a collection of books, three of which are considered classics, that I put together that I think everyone who loves to read should absolutely check out.
I am a children's lit minor so a few may seem like they are for young readers, but if you actually give them a shot, you'll find them to be thoroughly enjoying for all ages!
If you only take away one series from this list, make it the first on the list, I need someone to fangirl with!
1. "The Door Within Trilogy" by Wayne Thomas Batson
I have never met another person who has read these books, but they are so good! Please read them so I have someone to fangirl with!
The main character, quiet and imaginative Aidan Thomas, is struggling with attending a new school and fitting in when his family moves into his ailing grandfather's house to better care for him. Aiden begins to have nightmares and strange events start occurring in the neighborhood, and soon finds himself drawn to his grandfather's basement. It's here he discovers three ancient scrolls and a mysterious invitation to another world.
Aidan embarks on an adventure where he discovers a realm of knights, mysterious creatures, and a long-fought war between good and evil. He faces Paragory, an evil being unfathomable power. Will Aidan be willing to risk everything and trust the unseen hand of the one true King?
2. "The Power of Two" by Lori Sawicki
This I read for a class and oh my goodness is it good! I met the author and she is amazingly sweet and even signed my book!
This book is about a sixth grader, Jamie who decides to try something new to break out of the cool girl, Sadie's routine. When her plan backfires and she is kicked out of the 'cool group,' she befriends Pru Wheeler, the smallest sixth grader. They connect almost immediately and form a tight friendship. They decide to start a lacrosse team, that's open to all students, not just those from Sadie's clique. When things seem to be going great, tragedy strikes and Jamie is forced to make some tough decisions.
Warning: If you are an emotional being, don't read this around other people because you will ugly cry.
3. "The Hero's Guide Trilogy" by Christopher Healy
The Hero's Guide books, are great for people into adventure and spins on the classic fairy tales. In this series Prince Charming isn't just one man, there are actually four of them, know to readers of this series as Liam, Frederick, Duncan, and Gustav.
They go through personal challenges as they try to live up to the impossible standard of perfect knights in shining armor. Joined by recognizable princesses such as Ella, Snow White, Briar Rose, Rapunzel, and Lila, who are a little different from their Disneyfied selves, go on adventures that they can only pray they can survive.
4. "Daughters of the Moon" by Lynne Ewing
This is a bit longer of a series, only four of thirteen shown above. Despite the length of the series, they're fast reads and great for anyone who loves magic and adventure stories.
It is about four girls, later five, who are mortal goddesses, each with different powers, destinies, and dark sides. Together they fight an ancient evil called The Atrox at only 16. But, the Atrox isn't the only thing they struggle to overcome, they also must make a hard choice by the time they turn 17.
Either they become something more powerful or live as mortals who have forgotten their lives and consequently, their powers.
5. "The Space Trilogy" or "Cosmic Trilogy" by C. S. Lewis
"Out of the Silent Planet" is the first book in this trilogy, starting readers on an adventure with Dr. Ransom, who is abducted by aliens and taken by spaceship to another planet, Malacandra (Mars).
In the second book, "Perelandra," Dr. Ransom battles evil in a new world, Perelandra (Venus), when it is invaded by the "Devil's agent."
The third book, "That Hideous Strength," is the final part of the adventures of Dr. Ransom. It takes place in a world where superior alien beings and scientific experiments run amok, (fun word! amok, amok, amok!) as he struggles with questions of ethics and morality in his quest for truth.
6. "Running Out of Time" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
The main character, Jessie, lives with her family in the frontier village of Clifton, Indiana, in 1840. But when diphtheria strikes the village, taking the lives of several children in Clifton, Jessie's mother reveals a shocking secret. Jessie's mother sends her on a dangerous mission to find help. But beyond the walls of Clifton, Jessie discovers a world even more alien and threatening than she could have imagined, and soon she finds her own life in jeopardy.
You'll find yourself on the edge of your seat, questioning if she will manage to get help for the children of Clifton, or will Jessie herself, run out of time.
7. "The Screwtape Letters" by C.S. Lewis
This one is a classic. It's considered a "masterpiece of religious satire" that keeps the reader's attention with a sly and ironic portrayal of human life and weakness from the point of view of, Screwtape, an assistant to "Our Father Below" aka the devil.
It is wildly comic, deadly serious, and notably original all at once. It is the most engaging account of temptation and human's triumph over it ever written.
8. "The Magic Tree House Series" by Mary Pope Osborne
I grew up with these books and I'm not embarrassed to say I read them into highschool. Theres a total of 54 in this series, each taking only about an hour to read. Theres a little bit of something for everyone in these books from history and zoology to magic and time-travel, making this a great series for all ages.
9. "The Scarlet Pimpernel" by Emma Orczy
Set in the year 1792, when the French Revolution has turned into a reign of terror. Daily, tumbrels bearing new victims to the guillotine roll over the cobbled streets of Paris
The mysterious figure known as the Scarlet Pimpernel, sworn to rescue helpless men, women, and children from their doom; his implacable foe, the French agent Chauvelin, relentlessly hunting him down; and lovely Marguerite Blakeney, a beautiful French exile married to an English lord and caught in a terrible conflict of loyalties—all play their parts in a suspenseful tale that ranges from the squalid slums of Paris to the aristocratic salons of London, from intrigue on a great English country estate to the final denouement on the cliffs of the French coast.
10. "The Spiderwick Chronicles" by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black
This series is great for all ages as well, and not very time consuming to read either!
After discovering a mysterious, handmade field guide in the attic an old mansion the Grace children, Jared, Simon, and Mallory, just moved into, they soon find that there's a magical and maybe dangerous parallel world existing next to our own. The world of the faeries. Jared, Simon, and Mallory want to share their story with everyone, but the faeries will do everything possible to stop them and keep their world a secret.
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