Senior Library Books
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The Old Man and the Sea
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Call Number: F HEMPublication Date: 1952 (Original story's publication date)
The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway's most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal -- a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.
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ADVENTURE - MAN VS BEAST - COURAGE
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Moby- Dick
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Call Number: F HERPublication Date: 1851 (Original story's publication date)Herman Melville's thrilling nautical adventure-a timeless allegory and an epic saga of heroic determination and conflict. At the heart of Moby-Dickis the powerful, unknowable sea-and Captain Ahab, a brooding, one-legged fanatic who has sworn vengeance on the mammoth white whale that crippled him.
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SAILING SAGA - REVENGE - MAN VS BEAST
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Lord of the Flies
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Call Number: F GOLPublication Date: 1954 (Original story's publication date)When a group of schoolboys are stranded on a desert island, what could go wrong? A plane crashes on a desert island. The only survivors are a group of schoolboys. By day, they discover fantastic wildlife and dazzling beaches, learning to survive; at night, they are haunted by nightmares of a primitive beast.
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VIOLENCE - SURVIVAL - HORROR
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Call of the Wild by Jack London Original publication date: 1903 |
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The Call of the Wild by Jack London is a classic adventure novel that tells the story of Buck, a domestic dog who is kidnapped and sold into sled dog service in the Yukon. It portrays the harsh life of a dog in the wild and explores themes of survival and primal instincts. |
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ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINISM - NATURE - DOGS
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The Count of Monte Cristo
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Call Number: F DUMPublication Date: 1846 (Original story's publication date)A brilliant story of intrigue, retribution, revenge and redemption. Imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, Edmond Dantès spends fourteen bitter years in a dungeon. When his daring escape plan works, he uses all he has learnt during his incarceration to mastermind an elaborate plan of revenge that will bring punishment to those he holds responsible for his fate. No longer the naïve sailor who disappeared into the dark fortress all those years ago, he reinvents himself as the charming, mysterious and powerful Count of Monte Cristo... -
All Quiet on the Western Front
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Call Number: F REMPublication Date: 1928 (Original story's publication date)One by one the boys begin to fall… In 1914 a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the 'glorious war'. With the fire and patriotism of youth they sign up. What follows is the moving story of a young 'unknown soldier' experiencing the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches.
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Beowulf a New Verse Translation Bilingual Edition
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Call Number: 829. 3 HEAPublication Date: 2001Composed toward the end of the first millennium, Beowulf is the elegiac narrative of the adventures of Beowulf, a Scandinavian hero who saves the Danes from the seemingly invincible monster Grendel and, later, from Grendel's mother. He then returns to his own country and dies in old age in a vivid fight against a dragon. The poem is about encountering the monstrous, defeating it, and then having to live on in the exhausted aftermath. -
Dragonflight
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Call Number: F MCCPublication Date: 1970The men who rode the dragons were a breed apart. Chosen when the dragons were first hatched, they became soulmates for life with the huge, magnificent beasts they controlled - the green, blue, brown and bronzes - beautiful - terrible - the only creatures who could defend the planet Pern from the blood-red star. But without the Queen, the dragons would become extinct. Only the gigantic, golden Queen could breed the new flights. And the Queen was fading . . . dying . . . leaving behind one last, huge, golden egg. -
Animal farm : the graphic novel
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Call Number: F ORWPublication Date: 2019When the downtrodden animals of Manor Farm overthrow their master Mr Jones and take over the farm themselves, they imagine it is the beginning of a life of freedom and equality. But gradually a cunning, ruthless elite, masterminded by the pigs Napoleon and Snowball, starts to take control. Soon the other animals find themselves hopelessly ensnared as one form of tyranny is replaced with another. -
The fellowship of the ring : being the first part of The lord of the rings
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Call Number: F TOLPublication Date: 1954 (Original story's publication date)Sauron, the Dark Lord, has gathered to him all the Rings of Power - the means by which he intends to rule Middle-earth. All he lacks in his plans for dominion is the One Ring - the ring that rules them all - which has fallen into the hands of the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.
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The Hobbit
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Call Number: F TOLPublication Date: 1937 (Original story's publication date)Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, finds himself caught up in a plot to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the Magnificent, a very dangerous, large dragon.
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Dracula (Graphic novel)
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Call Number: F STOPublication Date: 1897 (Original story's publication date)On a trip to Transylvania, Jonathan Harker stays at an eerie castle owned by Count Dracula. When strange things start to happen, and the count escapes to London, Harker realizes that he and his friends are in grave danger.
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ANCIENT MYTHS - BLOOD LUST - CHILLS
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I Am Legend
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Call Number: F MATPublication Date: 1954 (Original story's publication date)The New York Times bestselling classic tale of the last man on Earth, I Am Legend by Richard Matheson--one of genre literature's most honored storytellers. Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth...but he is not alone. Every other man, woman, and child on Earth has become a vampire, and they are all hungry for Neville's blood. By day, he is the hunter, stalking the sleeping undead through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for dawn. How long can one man survive in a world of vampires? -
Frankenstein
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Call Number: F SHEPublication Date: 1818 (Original story's publication date)Although on one level this book is a story in the Gothic horror tradition, it is also a philosophic novel influenced by the ideas of Godwin and Shelley and the rationalist Enlightenment.
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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll Original publication date: 1886 |
| Dr. Jekyll is a kind, well-respected and intelligent scientist who meddles with the darker side of science, as he wants to bring out his 'second' nature. He does this through transforming himself into Mr. Hyde - his evil alter ego who doesn't repent or accept responsibility for his evil crimes and ways. | |
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ALTER EGO - HUMAN NATURE - VIOLENCE
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The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
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Call Number: F ADAPublication Date: 1979 (Original story's publication date)One Thursday lunchtime the Earth gets demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass. It's the final straw for Arthur Dent, who has already had his house bulldozed that morning. But for Arthur, this is only the beginning - in the seconds before global obliteration, Arthur is plucked from the planet by his friend Ford Prefect - and together the pair venture out across the galaxy on the craziest road trip of all time. -
Foundation
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Call Number: F ASIPublication Date: 1991For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. But only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future-to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save humankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire-both scientists and scholars-and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for future generations. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation. -
Fahrenheit 451
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Call Number: F BRAPublication Date: 1953 (Original story's publication date)Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books. -
Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (Graphic novel)
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Call Number: F BRAPublication Date: 2009A Graphic Adaptation. For Guy Montag, a career fireman for whom kerosene is perfume, this is not just an official slogan. It is a mantra, a duty, a way of life in a tightly monitored world where thinking is dangerous and books are forbidden. -
The Man in the High Castle
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Call Number: F DICPublication Date: 1962 (Original story's publication date)Philip K. Dick's acclaimed cult novel gives us a horrifying glimpse of an alternative world - one where the Allies have lost the Second World War. In this nightmare dystopia the Nazis have taken over New York, the Japanese control California and the African continent is virtually wiped out. In a neutral buffer zone that divides the rival superpowers in America lives the author of an underground bestseller. His book offers a new vision of reality, giving hope to the disenchanted. Can other, better worlds really exist? -
1984
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Call Number: F ORWPublication Date: 1949 (Original story's publication date)Winston Smith is a low-rung member of the Party, the ruling government of Oceania. He works in the Ministry of Truth, the Party's propoganda arm, where he is in charge of revising history. He is but a small brick in the pyramid that is the Party, at the head of which stands Big Brother. Big Brother the infallible. Big Brother the all-powerful. In a totalitarian society, where individuality is suppressed and freedom of thought has its antithesis in the Thought Police, Winston finds respite in the company of Julia. Originality of thought awakens, love bloosoms and hope is rekindled. But what they don't know is that Big Brother is always watching... -
Dune
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Call Number: F HERPublication Date: 1965 (Original story's publication date)Set in the far future amidst a sprawling feudal interstellar empire where planetary dynasties are controlled by noble houses that owe an allegiance to the imperial House Corrino, Dune tells the story of young Paul Atreides (the heir apparent to Duke Leto Atreides and heir of House Atreides) as he and his family accept control of the desert planet Arrakis, the only source of the 'spice' melange, the most important and valuable substance in the cosmos. The story explores the complex, multi-layered interactions of politics, religion, ecology, technology, and human emotion as the forces of the empire confront each other for control of Arrakis. -
DUNE: the Graphic Novel, Book 1: Dune
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Call Number: F HERPublication Date: 2020The first book in the definitive graphic novel adaptation of Dune, the groundbreaking science-fiction classic by Frank Herbert. A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism, and politics, Dune is a powerful, fantastical tale that takes an unprecedented look into our universe, and is transformed by the graphic novel format. Frank Herbert's epic science-fiction masterpiece set in the far future amidst a sprawling feudal interstellar society, Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides as he and his family accept control of the desert planet Arrakis. In the first volume of a three-book trilogy encompassing the original novel, New York Times bestselling authors Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's adaptation retains the story's integrity, and Raúl Allén and Patricia Martín's magnificent illustrations, along with cover art by award winner Bill Sienkiewicz, bring the book to life for a new generation of readers. "A much-needed addition to the series started by Frank Herbert decades ago." --The Nerd Daily -
George Orwell's 1984 (Graphic novel)
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Call Number: F ORWPublication Date: 2022"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." Winston Smith is a low-ranking member of the ruling Party in the nation of Oceania. Everywhere Winston goes, even his own home, the Party watches him through telescreens; everywhere he looks he sees the face of the Party's seemingly omniscient leader, Big Brother. The Party controls everything in Oceania, even the people's history and language. Now, the Party is forcing the use of an invented language called Newspeak which will prevent political insurgency by eliminating all words related to it. Even thinking rebellious thoughts is illegal. Such thoughtcrime is, in fact, the worst of all crimes. But a seed of dissent grows in Winston - one that will bring him into direct conflict with the Party, and with devastating consequences. -
Brave New World
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Call Number: F HUXPublication Date: 1932 (Original story's publication date)The novel examines a futuristic society, called the World State, that revolves around science and efficiency. In this society, emotions and individuality are conditioned out of children at a young age, and there are no lasting relationships because “every one belongs to every one else” -
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea
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Call Number: F VERPublication Date: 1870 (Original story's publication date)An adventure classic of deep-sea volcanoes, giant squid and the renegade scientist Captain Nemo. Professor Aronnax embarks on an expedition to hunt down and destroy a menacing sea monster. However, he discovers that the beast is metal - it is a giant submarine called the Nautilus built by the renegade scientist Captain Nemo. So begins an underwater adventure that takes them from the South Pole to the submerged lost city of Atlantis. -
The Day of the Triffids
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Call Number: F WYNPublication Date: 1951 (Original story's publication date)A spectacular meteor shower blinds most of Earth's population. To survive in this post-apocalyptic world, one must survive the triffids, strange plants that years before began appearing all over the world. The triffids can grow to over seven feet tall, pull their roots from the ground to walk, and kill a man with one quick lash of their poisonous stingers. With society in shambles, they are now posed to prey on humankind.
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The Chrysalids
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Call Number: F WYNPublication Date: 1955 (Original story's publication date)Nuclear war has devastated the world, bringing with it a host of genetic mutations. In the bleak, primitive society that has emerged from its ruins, any sign of deviation, no matter how small, is ruthlessly rooted out and destroyed. David lives in fear of discovery, for he is part of a secret group of children who are able to communicate with each other by transferring thought-shapes into each other's minds. As they grow older, they feel increasingly isolated. Then one of them marries a 'norm', with terrifying consequences.
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FUNDAMENTALISM - MUTATIONS - EUGENICS
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The War of the Worlds
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Call Number: F WELPublication Date: 1898 (Orginal story's publication date)The night after a shooting star is seen streaking through the sky from Mars, a cylinder is discovered on Horsell Common in London. At first, naive locals approach the cylinder armed just with a white flag - only to be quickly killed by an all-destroying heat-ray, as terrifying tentacled invaders emerge. Soon the whole of human civilisation is under threat, as powerful Martians build gigantic killing machines, destroy all in their path with black gas and burning rays, and feast on the warm blood of trapped, still-living human prey. The forces of the Earth, however, may prove harder to beat than they at first appear. -
The War of the Worlds (Graphic novel)
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Call Number: F WELPublication Date: 2014In the late 19th century, a cylinder crashes down near London. When George investigates, a Martian activates an evil machine and begins destroying everything in its path! George must find a way to survive a War of the Worlds. These reader-favorite tiles are now updated for enhanced Common Core State Standards support, including discussion and writing prompts developed by a Common Core expert, an expanded introduction, bolded glossary words and dynamic new covers.
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HUMANITY - ALIEN INVASION - COLONIZATION
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The Tell-Tale Heart (Graphic novel)
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Call Number: F POEPublication Date: 1843 (Original story's publication date)In this graphic novel adaptation, Edgar Allan Poe's classic short story is transformed into a heart-pounding, visual experience portraying one man's journey into the dizzying depths of madness.
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INSANITY - MURDER - UNRELIABLE NARRATOR
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The Pit and the Pendulum (Graphic novel)
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Call Number: F POEPublication Date: 1842 (Original story's publication date)This graphic novel adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's classic tale of terror visually explores the dizzying highs and horrifying lows of a prisoner sentenced to death by the Inquisition.
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FEAR - DEATH - THE WILL TO LIVE
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The Monkey's Paw by W. W. Jacobs Original publication date: 1902 |
| The family in this story is gifted a wish-granting talisman (the monkey's paw) and warned not to use it. Ignoring this warning, and without consideration for the consequences, they begin to use their wishes. A creepy twist at the end will keep you thinking. | |
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DEATH - CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR - FATE
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The Open Boat by Stephen Crane Original publication date: 1897 |
| This is the story of four men, a wounded captain, an oiler, a correspondent and a cook who spent three days in icy waters in a 3 metre tall dinghy after escaping from their sinking ship. The short story was based on Crane's actual experience of surviving a shipwreck off the coast of Florida earlier that year while traveling to Cuba to work as a newspaper correspondent. | |
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NATURE'S INDIFFERENCE TO MAN - COURAGE
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To Build a Fire by Jack London Original publication date: 1902 |
| An unnamed man, a chechaquo (newcomer to the Yukon), sets out to hike through the forests bordering the Yukon River on a winter day where the temperature has fallen to −59° C. Having ignored warnings against traveling alone in such conditions, he is accompanied only by a large husky dog. The animal's instincts warn it about the dangers of the extreme cold, but the dog reluctantly follows the man. They both battle against nature but only one wins. | |
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LOYALTY - RESILIENCE - INDEPENDENCE
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The Lottery by Shirley Jackson Original publication date: 1948 |
| A small American rural town where murder appears an acceptable crowd-pleaser. Like the peaceful setting, the villagers' casual attitude as they make small talk—some even cracking jokes—belies the violence to come. | |
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DARK TRADITIONS - VIOLENCE - SAVAGERY
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Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury Original publication date: 1952 |
| A single mistake in the past, by a time travel company in the future, has devastating and unforeseen consequences. In this story, a man joins a hunting expedition to the past. In his quest to kill a dinosaur for sport, Eckels steps on a butterfly, altering the future dramatically. It is about how small actions can have massive consequences and about the dangers of the misuse of technology. | |
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TIME TRAVEL - BUTTERFLY EFFECT - THE HUNT
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The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell Original publication date: 1924 |
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Shipwrecked on a remote island, a seasoned hunter finds himself the prey in a deadly game of survival. His host, the enigmatic General Zaroff, offers no escape—only the thrill of the ultimate hunt. In this twisted contest, the line between man and beast begins to blur. |
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HUNTER - PREY - SURVIVAL
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