The top 20 books every student should read before leaving secondary school

The best novels for pupils to read, according to teachers

Daisy Wyatt
Tuesday 04 August 2015 12:01 BST
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Books, including JD Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, are said to be banned in the string of schools
Books, including JD Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, are said to be banned in the string of schools

Which books should every teenager have read before they leave secondary school?

The Times Educational Supplement has compiled a list of novels for students to read before leaving school, voted for by teachers.

The majority of the top 20 will sound all too familiar for anyone who has done GCSE English Literature in the past 20 years, but how many of them have you read?

The Top 20 books you should have read by the time you finish school

1. 1984 by George Orwell

2. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

3. Animal Farm by George Orwell

4. Lord of the Flies by William Golding

5. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

6. The Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling

7. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

8. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

9. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

10. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

11. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

12. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne

13. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

14. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

15. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

16. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

17. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

18. A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines

19. The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien

20. Danny, Champion of the World by Roald Dahl

Click here to see the full list of the top 100 books to read before you leave school.

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