Outstanding Books for the College Bound

I remember finding a printed copy of this list, as a teenager, at the library where I work now.  That pamphlet was fate as it exposed me to works that I was not finding on my own or in the youth section.  I read my fair share of high school romances but I was destined to read books with more substance.  I remember reading "Jane Eyre" and thinking that libraries held such a wealth of human experience and, once I read a book of this caliber, there was not turning back.

I just helped a customer who has a ten year old who is reading at a grade twelve level.  This young reader is reading far beyond her peers and we need to nurture that curiosity and capacity rather than advise that we don't really have anything for her.

I turned again to the American Library Association's YALSA list of Outstanding Books for the College Bound.  The books selected for these lists often have young people featured in the stories or are situations that young people can understand or relate to.  The writing is top-notch and these are the books that form the "education" before the formal education of a college or university experience.