CLASSICS FOR GUYS
These are the classic reads written by guys, for guys... and about guys. Everything from the oh-so-manly Treasure Island to the more contemporary Graveyard Book. There's something here for every man.
by Armstrong Sperry
The Macmillan Company, 1940.
Newbery, 95 pp.
"Based on a Polynesian legend, this is the story of a youth who overcomes his fear of the sea and proves his courage to himself and his tribe."
by Jules Verne
Sterling Pub., 2007 (1864).
Fiction, 244 pp.
"Jules Verne takes young readers on one of the most incredible journeys ever imagined, from Iceland’s frozen tundra far down into fantastic underground prehistoric worlds and back up again through the fires of an erupting volcano."
by Jack Gantos
Farrar Straus Giroux, 2011.
Newbery, 341 pp.
"In the historic town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Jack Gantos spends the summer of 1962 grounded for various offenses until he is assigned to help an elderly neighbor with a most unusual chore involving the newly dead, molten wax, twisted promises, Girl Scout cookies, underage driving, lessons from history, typewriting, and countless bloody noses."
by Harold Keith
Crowell, 1957.
Newbery, 332 pp.
A sprawling civil war narrative--but for kids. Jeff Busey leaves home at 16 to participate in the glory of battle, only to realize there's no such thing.
by Christopher Paul Curtis
Delacorte Press, 1999.
Newbery, 245 pp.
"Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids."
by Charles Boardman Hawes
Little, Brown and Company, 1996 (1924).
Newbery, 246 pp.
"Wherein is told the story of Philip Marsham who lived in the time of King Charles and was bred a sailor but came home to England after many hazards by sea and land and fought for the King at Newbury and lost a great inheritance and departed for Barbados in the same ship, by curious chance, in which he had long before adventured with the pirates."
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2012 (1911).
Fiction, 273 pp.
"While going through the possessions of a deceased guest who owed them money, the mistress of the inn and her son find a treasure map that leads to a pirate fortune as well as great danger."
by Mark Twain
Books of Wonder : Morrow, 1989 (1876).
Fiction, 261 pp.
"The adventures and pranks of a mischievous boy growing up in a Mississippi River town on the early nineteenth century."
Wilson Rawls
Bantam, 1992 (1976).
Fiction, 283 pp.
"In rural Oklahoma at the turn of the century, fourteen-year-old Jay Berry Lee discovers a tree full of monkeys, a discovery that leads to a summer that teaches him about life."
by Neil Gaiman
HarperCollins, 2008.
Newbery, 312 pp.
"Nobody Owens is a normal boy, except that he has been raised by ghosts and other denizens of the graveyard."
by Vince Vawter
Delacorte Press, 2013.
Fiction, 224 pp.
"When an eleven-year-old boy takes over a friend's newspaper route in July, 1959, in Memphis, his debilitating stutter makes for a memorable month."
by Ralph Moody
University of Nebraska Press, 1991.
Biography, 260 pp.
AT 8-yrs-old, Ralph's family moves to Colorado to take up ranching. Experience the wonders of country life at the turn of the 20th century through the eyes of a boy that considers himself a man.
by Gary D. Schmidt
Clarion Books, 2007.
Fiction, 264 pp.
"During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker's classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns much of value about the world he lives in."
by Sid Fleischman
Little, Brown and Company, 2013.
Fiction, 206 pp.
"A gentleman's gentleman from Boston flees to the wilds of California during the Gold Rush and becomes a hero."
by Roald Dahl
Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1984.
Biography, 160 pp.
"Presents humorous anecdotes from the author's childhood which includes summer vacations in Norway and an English boarding school."
by William Pène du Bois
Viking Press, 1947.
Newbery, 179 pp.
"Professor William Waterman Sherman intends to fly across the Pacific Ocean. But through a twist of fate, he lands on Krakatoa, and discovers a world of unimaginable wealth, eccentric inhabitants, and incredible balloon inventions."
by Joseph Krumgold
HarperTrophy, 1953.
Newbery, 245 pp.
"Every summer the men of the Chavez family go on a long and difficult sheep drive to the mountains. All the men, that is, except for Miguel. All year long, twelve-year-old Miguel tries to prove that he, too, is up to the challenge'that he, too, is up to the challenge'that he, too is ready to take the sheep into his beloved Sangre de Cristo Mountains. When his deeds go unnoticed, he prays to San Ysidro, the saint for farmers everywhere. And his prayer is answered . . . but with devastating consequences."
by Jerry Spinelli
Little, Brown, 1990.
Newbery, 184 pp.
"After his parents die, Jeffrey Lionel Magee's life becomes legendary, as he accomplishes athletic and other feats which awe his contemporaries."
by Fred Gipson
HarperTrophy, 2004.
Fiction, 181 pp.
"A stray dog is befriended by a family of poor farmers in 1869 Texas."
by Walter D. Edmonds
Putnam's, 1941.
Newbery, 50 pp.
"In 1756, during the French and Indian War in upper New York state, ten-year-old Edward is determined to protect his home and family with the ancient, and much too heavy, Spanish gun that his father had given him before leaving home to fight the enemy."
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