good essays to read for high school students

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by Michelle Boyd Waters, M.Ed.  

Essays Every High School Student Should Read

December 4, 2016 in  Pedagogy

One of the most important goals of any English class should be to help students learn how to express themselves to an audience — how to tell their own stories, how to provide much-needed information, and how to convince others to see things from a different perspective.

Below are some essays students can read, not only to help them see how such writing is done in the real world, but also to learn more about the world around them.

[bctt tweet=”Need a #mentortext for student essays? Check out these exemplars for personal narrative, argumentative, and expository essay writing.”]

Note : This is a living list. I will continue adding to it as I find important essays and articles, and as my readers make suggestions.

If You Think Racism Doesn’t Exist by Jordan Womack | Lesson Plan

A 17-year-old Oklahoma author details incidents of discrimination he has faced within his own community. Brief, yet impactful, the author’s authenticity strikes readers at their core and naturally leads the audience to consider other perspectives.

Facebook hack ‘worse than when my house burned down’ says teacher by Michelle Boyd Waters, M.Ed.

When a hacker destroyed my Facebook account and I couldn’t find a way to reach out to Facebook, I decided to use my story, voice, and platform to shed light on a situation faced by people around the world. This can serve as a mentor text for students writing personal narratives on shared experiences in the context of current events.

Letter from a Vietnamese to an Iraqi Refugee by Andrew Lam

Vietnamese lecturer, journalist, and author Andrew Lam offers advice in this letter to a young Iraqi refugee he sees in a photograph on the Internet.

Allowing Teenage Boys to Love Their Friends by Jan Hoffman

Learn why early and lifelong friendships are as vital for boys as they are for girls and what happens when those friendships are fractured.

Chris Cecil: Plagiarism Gets You Fired by Leonard Pitts Jr

The Miami Herald columnist and 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary winner castigates a Georgia newspaper editor for plagiarizing his work. This column would go great with this followup article from The Boston Globe: Ga. Editor is Fired for Lifting Columns .

Class Dismissed by Walter Kirn

The author of Lost in the Meritocracy postulates that getting rid of the high school senior year might be good for students.

Complaint Box | Packaging by Dylan Quinn

A high school junior complains about the impossible-to-open packaging faced by consumers of everything “from action figures to zip drives.”

Drowning in Dishes, but Finding a Home  by Danial Adkison

In this 2014 essay, a teenager learns important lessons from his boss at Pizza Hut.

How to Tame a Wild Tongue by Gloria Anzaldua

An American scholar of Chicana cultural theory discusses how she maintained her identity by refusing to submit to linguistic terrorism.

Humble Beast: Samaje Perine by John Rohde

The five-time Oklahoma Sportswriter of the Year features the University of Oklahoma’s running back.

In Praise of the F Word by Mary Sherry

An adult literacy program teacher argues that allowing students to fail will actually help them.

The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me by Sherman Alexie

A Native American novelist recounts his experience loving reading and finally writing in spite of a culture that expected him to fail in the “non-Indian world” in order to be accepted.

Lane’s Legacy: One Final Ride by Keith Ryan Cartwright

A heartbreaking look back at the hours before and the circumstances surrounding Lane Frost’s untimely death, followed by reflections on his rise to fame — before and after death.

Learning to Read by Malcolm X

The 1960s Civil Rights leader writes about how educating himself in prison opened his mind and lead him to become one of the leading spokesmen for black separatism.

Learning to Read and Write by Frederick Douglass

A former slave born in 1818 discusses how he learned to read in spite of laws against teaching slaves and how reading opened his eyes to his “wretched condition, without remedy.”

Learning From Animal Friendships by Erica Goode

Scientists consider studying the phenomenon of cross-species animal friendships like the ones you see on YouTube.

Losing Everything, Except What Really Matters by Dan Barry

After a 2011 tornado destroys a house, but spares the family, a reporter writes about what’s important.

The Marked Woman by David Grann

How an Osage Indian family in Oklahoma became the prime target of one of the most sinister crimes in American history.

Meet Mikey, 8: U.S. Has Him on Watch List by Lizette Alvarez

Read about what happens if you happen to share a name of a “suspicious person” on the U.S. No-Fly List.

Newly Homeless in Japan Re-Establish Order Amid Chaos by Michael Wines

After the tsunami that resulted in nuclear disaster in 2011, a reporter writes about the “quiet bravery in the face of tragedy” of the Japanese people.

No Ordinary Joe by Rick Reilly

Why in creation did American Football Conference’s 1981 best young running back Joe Delaney jump into that pit full of water that day, even though he couldn’t swim?

Politics and the English Language By George Orwell

Animal Farm and 1984 author, Orwell correlates the degradation of the English language into multi-syllabic drivel and the corruption of the American political process.

Serving in Florida by Barbara Ehrenreich

The Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America author tells about her experiences attempting to survive on income of low-paying jobs.

Starvation Under the Orange Trees by John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck, who later authored the fictionalized account of Okies in California, The Grapes of Wrath, first wrote this essay documenting the starvation of migrant workers in California during the Great Depression.

To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This by Mandy Len Catron

Is falling in love really a random event, or can two people “love smarter?”

We’ll Go Forward from this Moment by Leonard Pitts

The 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary winner pens a column chronicling the toughness of the American family’s spirit in the face of the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks. He wrote the column one day after the attacks.

What’s Wrong with Black English? by Rachel L. Jones

Jones, a student at Southern Illinois University in the 1980s, wrote this piece for Newsweek. In her essay, Jones adds her story and perspective to the debate over Black English.

Related topics: Mentor Texts , Teaching Writing

About the author 

Michelle Boyd Waters, M.Ed.

I am a secondary English Language Arts teacher, a University of Oklahoma student working on my doctorate in Instructional Leadership and Academic Curriculum with an concentration in English Education and co-Editor of the Oklahoma English Journal. I am constantly seeking ways to amplify students' voices and choices.

A wonderful list of essays! I have neglected to teach essays as literature (only as student writing samples before we began work on an essay, after a novel). I’m looking forward to using these!

Thank you very much! I’d love to hear (or read) your feedback on the selections. Your input can help other teachers decide which essays to teach their students.

This list looks really great. Unfortunately, the first two links I chose were not working. One took me to a professors homepage and the other never opened.

Thank you for letting us know. I checked the “If you think racism doesn’t exist” went to the WordPress.com site where the author wrote his article and “Letter from a Vietnamese to an Iraqi Refugee” went to the Huffington Post article. Is it possible that your school web filter is blocking WordPress and Huffington Post?

Thank you for this. I am teaching a summer class that prepares 8th graders for high school essay writing. Trying to find a way to make it more creative and interesting, even interactive. I like the essays. If you have ideas about specific ways to use them, beyond reading and discussion, I would love to hear them.

You’re welcome! I think additional activities would depend on who your students are, their interests, and which essay(s) you plan to use. Perhaps if you join our RTE Facebook group and tell us about your kids and the essay you want to use, we can devise some activities to help them engage. Check us out here .

Comments are closed.

25 Great Nonfiction Essays You Can Read Online for Free

Alison Doherty

Alison Doherty is a writing teacher and part time assistant professor living in Brooklyn, New York. She has an MFA from The New School in writing for children and teenagers. She loves writing about books on the Internet, listening to audiobooks on the subway, and reading anything with a twisty plot or a happily ever after.

View All posts by Alison Doherty

I love reading books of nonfiction essays and memoirs , but sometimes have a hard time committing to a whole book. This is especially true if I don’t know the author. But reading nonfiction essays online is a quick way to learn which authors you like. Also, reading nonfiction essays can help you learn more about different topics and experiences.

Besides essays on Book Riot,  I love looking for essays on The New Yorker , The Atlantic , The Rumpus , and Electric Literature . But there are great nonfiction essays available for free all over the Internet. From contemporary to classic writers and personal essays to researched ones—here are 25 of my favorite nonfiction essays you can read today.

“Beware of Feminist Lite” by  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The author of We Should All Be Feminists  writes a short essay explaining the danger of believing men and woman are equal only under certain conditions.

“It’s Silly to Be Frightened of Being Dead” by Diana Athill

A 96-year-old woman discusses her shifting attitude towards death from her childhood in the 1920s when death was a taboo subject, to World War 2 until the present day.

“Letter from a Region in my Mind” by James Baldwin

There are many moving and important essays by James Baldwin . This one uses the lens of religion to explore the Black American experience and sexuality. Baldwin describes his move from being a teenage preacher to not believing in god. Then he recounts his meeting with the prominent Nation of Islam member Elijah Muhammad.

“Relations” by Eula Biss

Biss uses the story of a white woman giving birth to a Black baby that was mistakenly implanted during a fertility treatment to explore racial identities and segregation in society as a whole and in her own interracial family.

“Friday Night Lights” by Buzz Bissinger

A comprehensive deep dive into the world of high school football in a small West Texas town.

“The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Coates examines the lingering and continuing affects of slavery on  American society and makes a compelling case for the descendants of slaves being offered reparations from the government.

“Why I Write” by Joan Didion

This is one of the most iconic nonfiction essays about writing. Didion describes the reasons she became a writer, her process, and her journey to doing what she loves professionally.

“Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by Roger Ebert

With knowledge of his own death, the famous film critic ponders questions of mortality while also giving readers a pep talk for how to embrace life fully.

“My Mother’s Tongue” by Zavi Kang Engles

In this personal essay, Engles celebrates the close relationship she had with her mother and laments losing her Korean fluency.

“My Life as an Heiress” by Nora Ephron

As she’s writing an important script, Ephron imagines her life as a newly wealthy woman when she finds out an uncle left her an inheritance. But she doesn’t know exactly what that inheritance is.

“My FatheR Spent 30 Years in Prison. Now He’s Out.” by Ashley C. Ford

Ford describes the experience of getting to know her father after he’s been in prison for almost all of her life. Bridging the distance in their knowledge of technology becomes a significant—and at times humorous—step in rebuilding their relationship.

“Bad Feminist” by Roxane Gay

There’s a reason Gay named her bestselling essay collection after this story. It’s a witty, sharp, and relatable look at what it means to call yourself a feminist.

“The Empathy Exams” by Leslie Jamison

Jamison discusses her job as a medical actor helping to train medical students to improve their empathy and uses this frame to tell the story of one winter in college when she had an abortion and heart surgery.

“What I Learned from a Fitting Room Disaster About Clothes and Life” by Scaachi Koul

One woman describes her history with difficult fitting room experiences culminating in one catastrophe that will change the way she hopes to identify herself through clothes.

“Breasts: the Odd Couple” by Una LaMarche

LaMarche examines her changing feelings about her own differently sized breasts.

“How I Broke, and Botched, the Brandon Teena Story” by Donna Minkowitz

A journalist looks back at her own biased reporting on a news story about the sexual assault and murder of a trans man in 1993. Minkowitz examines how ideas of gender and sexuality have changed since she reported the story, along with how her own lesbian identity influenced her opinions about the crime.

“Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell

In this famous essay, Orwell bemoans how politics have corrupted the English language by making it more vague, confusing, and boring.

“Letting Go” by David Sedaris

The famously funny personal essay author , writes about a distinctly unfunny topic of tobacco addiction and his own journey as a smoker. It is (predictably) hilarious.

“Joy” by Zadie Smith

Smith explores the difference between pleasure and joy by closely examining moments of both, including eating a delicious egg sandwich, taking drugs at a concert, and falling in love.

“Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan

Tan tells the story of how her mother’s way of speaking English as an immigrant from China changed the way people viewed her intelligence.

“Consider the Lobster” by David Foster Wallace

The prolific nonfiction essay and fiction writer  travels to the Maine Lobster Festival to write a piece for Gourmet Magazine. With his signature footnotes, Wallace turns this experience into a deep exploration on what constitutes consciousness.

“I Am Not Pocahontas” by Elissa Washuta

Washuta looks at her own contemporary Native American identity through the lens of stereotypical depictions from 1990s films.

“Once More to the Lake” by E.B. White

E.B. White didn’t just write books like Charlotte’s Web and The Elements of Style . He also was a brilliant essayist. This nature essay explores the theme of fatherhood against the backdrop of a lake within the forests of Maine.

“Pell-Mell” by Tom Wolfe

The inventor of “new journalism” writes about the creation of an American idea by telling the story of Thomas Jefferson snubbing a European Ambassador.

“The Death of the Moth” by Virginia Woolf

In this nonfiction essay, Wolf describes a moth dying on her window pane. She uses the story as a way to ruminate on the lager theme of the meaning of life and death.

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Homeschool Help and Curriculum

Articles and Essays to Read in High School

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We were asked to share essays to read in high school.

Reading different kinds of literature is important for high school students. Homeschool high schoolers need to read various genres to develop skills in:

• comprehension
• interpretation
• life skills
• as well as academic achievement

(For more on effectively teaching literature to teens – even those who don’t naturally love books – see my post series here .)

Teens often love reading novels and biographies. Therefore they thrive with curriculum such as 7Sisters:

• British Literature
• American Literature
• Great Christian Writers
• World Literature

These genres are excellent choices, but not the only types of reading material that teens need to experience. In fact, articles and essays are important but often-neglected sources of good reading material. These are good genres for reading because they are shorter types of writing.

Even though essays are articles are shorter in length, they are good for teens. This is because these genres help develop teens’ attention and critical thinking skills as well as the comprehension, inference and evaluation skills listed above. Some essays and articles even help build life skills!

With this in mind, here are suggestions to help you get started compiling a good list of articles and essays to read in high school with your homeschoolers.

Many of these can be found in their entirety on the internet.

• John Milton’s “Areopagitica”
• Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”
• Thomas DeQuincey’s “On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth”
• Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self-Reliance”
• Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience”
• William Hazlitt’s “On Going a Journey”
• George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant”
• E.B. White’s “A Weekend With the Angels”
• James Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time”
• Joan Didion’s “Goodbye To All That”
• There are many essays to consider from these authors:
• G.K. Chesterton (here’s a cool reading plan from the American Chesterton Society )
• Michel de Montaigne
• Francis Bacon
• Thomas Babington Macaulay (find some of Macaulay’s works on Project Gutenberg here )
• Virginia Woolf
• Robert Louis Stevenson ( Stevenson’s works here on Project Gutenberg )
• James Thurber

I have also enjoyed looking to acclaimed collections of articles on various subjects for another reading resource in homeschool.

Here are a couple that help engage even reluctant readers (if you pick a subject that interests them) when it’s time to choose articles to read in high school.

• The Best of American Science Writing – Ten Years of the Series (Jesse Cohen, Senior Editor) from Harper Collins publishers.
• The Best American Sports Writing 2000 (Dick Schaap) from Houghton Mifflin.

Sites like these provide a wealth of articles from which to choose:

• Recommended Read-Alouds from the N.Y. Times
• Recommended articles by topic at The Electric Typewriter

Don’t overlook shorter pieces of writing. Including a good selection of essays and articles in your high school reading is smart!

While we are at it, reading essays can be a good kick-off to an essay writing.

This is especially true for older homeschool high schoolers, who have some experience writing essays. With this in mind, perhaps start your junior- or senior-year teens’ essay unit with a few essays to read.

Then download an essay writing guide and get started. Here is our Advanced Essay Writing Guide :

How about introducing your students to Hymns and Creeds as literature. Check out our study guide.

Here’s an essay we wrote in answer to an attack on homeschooling by a Harvard professor .

Do you have favorites to recommend? Leave a comment!

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Sabrina Justison

Dear Sabrina:

I lost a reader that I read in h.s. it contained a compilation of essays. There was an essay in it about a college student who was a jester in a school play and his mother had sewn on bells on the costume which rang at the wrong times . It was so funny that it made me laugh out loud every time I read it. Do you happen to know it?

I graduated in 1967.

Thanks, Isabelle

Hi Isabelle, This is a new one to me, but I did a little research and think you are referring to R. L. Burdette’s Chimes from a Jester’s Bells published in 1897. If you Google his name and the title, you should be able to find places from which you can order a copy. I didn’t find a free text on the internet, but I didn’t dig very deeply, so it may exist somewhere in cyberspace. Hope that helps!

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• Our Mission

20 Indispensable High School Reads

We asked our community which works of literature were must-reads for high schoolers. Here are your top picks.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. The final cut of our list of indispensable high school reads—culled from reader comments—is dominated by perennials like George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye . The five most popular entries were all published within 15 years of each other, and none were published later than Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960. Only three of the works on the list could be considered recent, appearing within the last 20 years: Stephen Chbosky’s epistolary novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999); Marjane Satrapi’s graphic memoir Persepolis , about growing up during the Iranian Revolution (2000–03); and Cormac McCarthy’s brutal, dark novel The Road (2006).

The specter of World War II, with its themes of totalitarianism, social fragmentation, mass surveillance, and the decline of individual freedom, looms over many of the novels. Dystopian novels form a major category: Orwell’s Animal Farm , William Golding’s allegory The Lord of the Flies , Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World , Kurt Vonnegut’s absurdist comedy Slaughterhouse-Five , Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale , and McCarthy’s The Road join Nineteen Eighty-Four here. Thinking back on my days as a high school English teacher, it feels like I missed an opportunity to teach dystopia as a theme. There’s a wealth of material to draw from—and it’s both high quality and accessible to a broad range of high school readers.

A recurring pedagogical issue emerged as teachers joined the conversation: How should educators balance challenging books—works by Shakespeare, for example—with the students’ desire for choice? How can teachers ensure rich, shared learning opportunities without putting their students off reading forever? These aren’t idle concerns. If your goal is to nurture a lifelong love of reading, a dogmatic reliance on the classics appears to be catastrophic.

You can read some devastating student feedback about choice-less classrooms in the Edutopia post “ Start a Reading Revolution .” And as literacy educator Kelly Gallagher, the author of Readicide , recently tweeted : “For the 3rd year in a row, 90%+ of my seniors have admitted they have fake read their way to the 12th grade. Schools must change!” I asked a similar question of my freshmen English classes many years ago, and got the same dispiriting response. Almost none of my incoming freshmen had finished a book in the previous three years. For an approach to balancing student choice with curated texts, read Brian Sztabnik’s recent Edutopia post “ Igniting a Passion for Reading .”

The List of Indispensable Books

1. To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee’s seminal coming-of-age story set in the fictional southern town of Maycomb, Alabama. Primary themes of interest to high schoolers: racial injustice, moral and spiritual growth, courage and integrity, innocence and experience.

2. Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell’s vision of a totalitarian future, not long after the Atomic Wars have reduced the geopolitical map to three superstates: Eurasia, Oceania, and Eastasia. Primary themes of interest to high schoolers: totalitarianism and state power, surveillance, individual freedom, the nature of truth, the power of propaganda.

3. Lord of the Flies William Golding’s tale of child castaways who establish a violent social order on a deserted island. Primary themes of interest to high schoolers: civilization and governance, social and moral order, savagery and primitivism, cruelty, leadership, injustice.

4. Animal Farm George Orwell’s allegory tracing the formation of Soviet Russia. Primary themes of interest to high schoolers: totalitarianism and state power, individual freedom, the mutability of historical truth, the power of propaganda, the cult of personality.

5. Catcher in the Rye The reclusive J.D. Salinger’s most popular novel, told through the eyes of the notoriously irreverent teenager Holden Caulfield. Primary themes of interest to high schoolers: unreliable narrators, individuality and identity, social alienation and rebellion, social mores and rules.

6. The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck’s Depression-era classic, which follows the travels of impoverished Dust Bowl refugees as they flee westward to California. Primary themes of interest to high schoolers: wealth and poverty, injustice, social and political policy and governance, biblical themes such as judgment and redemption.

7. Invisible Man Ralph Ellison’s meditation on the effects of race, told from the perspective of an African American narrator rendered invisible by his skin color. Primary themes of interest to high schoolers: race and racial injustice, identity, ideology and belief systems.

8. The Alchemist Paulo Coelho’s tale of a Spanish shepherd who hopes to find his destiny on a journey to Egypt. Primary themes of interest to high schoolers: adventure and courage, hope, destiny.

9. Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut’s dark, absurdist comedy centered on the devastating firebombing of Dresden, Germany, during World War II. Primary themes of interest to high schoolers: nonlinear narratives, unreliable narrators, existentialism and absurdism, the true nature of warfare.

10. The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel depicting the rise, in the United States, of a theocratic government dedicated to the oppression of women. Primary themes of interest to high schoolers: totalitarianism, patriarchy and misogyny, surveillance, politics and governance, gender roles.

11. The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald’s lyrical, Jazz Age novel about the idealist James Gatsby—and the nature of the American Dream. Primary themes of interest to high schoolers: the Jazz Age, the American Dream, wealth and class, idealism.

12. The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison’s story of Pecola Breedlove, a young, often-abused African American girl who dreams of having blue eyes—a tangible sign of acceptance in a world dominated by white conceptions of beauty and belonging. Primary themes of interest to high schoolers: identity, race and racial injustice, the effects of abuse, beauty and ugliness, insanity.

13. Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck’s story of an unlikely—and tragically fated—friendship between two men of remarkably different intellectual abilities. Primary themes of interest to high schoolers: friendship and loyalty, character, cruelty and mercy.

14. Macbeth Shakespeare’s portrait of an ambitious Scottish warrior who wants to be king—and is goaded to murder to achieve his goal. Primary themes of interest to high schoolers: the nature of evil, power and ambition, insanity, chaos and disorder.

15. Brave New World Aldous Huxley’s slim novel envisioning a future “utopia” with perverse qualities—as the human race succumbs to overdoses of pleasure, amusement, and hedonism. Primary themes of interest to high schoolers: genetic manipulation, state power, drug use, individualism and society.

16. The Road Cormac McCarthy’s bleak novel about a boy and his father seeking safety in a post-apocalyptic world. Primary themes of interest to high schoolers: good and evil, death, apocalypse, cruelty, hope and hopelessness.

17. Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston’s heavily vernacular novel depicting the life of Janie Crawford, an African American woman in the Jim Crow South at the turn of the 20th century. Primary themes of interest to high schoolers: gender roles, race and racial injustice, the effects of abuse, the representation of American dialects, the nature of love.

18. The Perks of Being a Wallflower Stephen Chbosky’s epistolary, coming-of-age novel about an introverted, emotionally scarred high school freshman named Charlie. Primary themes of interest to high schoolers: introverts and extroverts, teen romance, alcohol and drug use, the effects of abuse.

19. Persepolis Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel, an autobiography that describes growing up in Tehran, Iran, during the era of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Primary themes of interest to high schoolers: graphic novels, Iranian culture, politics and religion, war.

20. Night Elie Wiesel’s spare memoir-novel based on his experiences in concentration camps during the Holocaust. Primary themes of interest to high schoolers: good and evil, the Holocaust, faith and faithlessness, the Jewish experience.

Please feel free to suggest more indispensable high school reads—we’d love to add to the list. After all, more choice can only assist teachers engaged in the essential, never-ending work of helping students master literacy. And let us know if we should start lists for elementary and middle school too . . . The author of this article is the chief content officer at Edutopia. You can follow him on Twitter @smerrill777 .

Engaging Nonfiction for High School Readers

Let’s face it….

Let’s face it: Nonfiction isn’t most readers’ favorite genre. Heck, I’ll admit it! I appreciate nonfiction as much as the next ELA teacher, but when it’s time to pick my next book to devour while I sip hot cocoa in a cozy blanket, I’m probably reaching for fiction. It’s not that I don’t like nonfiction; it’s just that fiction feels easier. Easier to find, easier to read, and easier to love. Sure, there are some incredible nonfiction texts out there, but there’s nothing like plunging head-first into a dystopian world and escaping reality. So it should come as no surprise that our high school students are hesistant to approach the nonfiction section of our classroom libraries.

These shelves don’t get nearly enough love because our students are even more intimidated by nonfiction. While that’s perfectly normal, it just means that we have a little bit of extra work to do to reel our high school readers in when it comes to nonfiction.

Just like I have to work a little harder to keep a healthy dose of nonfiction in my personal reading diet, I, too, have learned that I have to work a little harder to get my students hooked on nonfiction. It’s more work, but it’s worth it! Whether it’s through Book Trailer Tuesday , First Chapter Friday , our “Bookflix” display, my book recommendation brochures , or the titles I line up on my whiteboard, I’m always “advertising” nonfiction. If students aren’t going to approach the nonfiction shelves themselves, then I’m going to bring the shelves to them.

THE GOOD NEWS…

The good news is that there are plenty of incredible nonfiction texts to recommend to your students! And with the right high-interest texts and enough “advertising,” it’s easy to trick even the most reluctant of readers into finding a nonfiction book they love. To get you started, here are 10 of my favorite high school nonfiction books to recommend to your students (Pssst…if you’re looking for middle school recs, you can find them HERE .)

The Borden Murders by Sarah Miller

If you have true crime fans in your classroom, this book is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. The Borden Murders is the fascinating story of one of the most infamous murders in all of American history. Well-researched with lots of primary sources, it’s the book equivalent to a maddening unsolved mystery show/podcast that leaves you wondering “whodunnit.” This is another example of “clean” YA that can work for middle school, too. (Well, as clean as murder in cold blood can get, but still).

The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater

This masterfully written book explores one fateful bus ride that changed the lives of two teens forever. Through alternating perspectives, texts, letters, and other media, Slater tells the story of how 17-year-old Sasha’s skirt was set on fire as a reckless “prank”-turned hate crime in Oakland, CA in 2013. The book explores gender, poverty, racism, and more, making it a great text for powerful discussions in the classroom.

Call Me American (YA Adaptation) by Abdi Nor Iftin

This young adult adaptation of a story you may have first heard on This American Life , Call Me American is a moving memoir of a young Somalian refugee who grew up dreaming of America while war threatened his everyday survival. Fast-paced and accessible, Abdi Nor Iftin’s memoir is inspiring and informative for teen readers (even mature middle schoolers).

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei

This recommendation goes out to all of the graphic novel fans sitting in your classroom! This powerful graphic memoir gives readers a glimpse into Star Trek actor George Takei’s life growing up in WWII internment camps. They Called Us Enemy is incredibly eye-opening because it gives readers the chance to witness injustice from the eyes of a child. This is nonfiction your high school readers won’t forget!

The Far Away Brothers (YA Adaptation) by Lauren Markham

Similar to Enrique’s Journey (another fabulous nonfiction read), this is the incredible true story of two identical twins who fled for the US when their home of El Salvador became too dangerous for them to stay. The Flores twins’ story sheds new light on the reality of immigration and puts two human faces to the policies, stories, and debates your teen readers have likely seen in the news. This is one of those empathy-building books you need in your classroom library!

Every Falling Star by Sungju Lee & Susan Elizabeth McClelland

If you want to recommend nonfiction that feels like fiction straight from a dystopia, then this is your book. Every Falling Star is the unbelievable account of Sungju Lee’s life as a “street boy” in North Korea and his eventual escape from the country. Your high school readers will not be able to put this one down!

March series by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, & Nate Powell

March is another great option for graphic novel fans, reluctant readers, or anyone looking to learn more about Senator Lewis and the Civil Rights movement. Told in black and white illustrations across three books, this story brings history alive for readers in a powerful way! These graphic memoirs are a must-have for any classroom library, whether it’s middle or high school!

It’s Trevor Noah: Born A Crime (YA Adaptation) by Trevor Noah

For nonfiction with a healthy side of humor, I highly recommend Trevor Noah’s entertaining, informative, and powerful memoir of growing up during Apartheid in South Africa. The child of a black mother and a white father, he’s quite literally “born a crime.” Still, he manages to tell his story with a satisfying, sincere mix of painful scenes, hilarious moments, and earnest reflection. This book appeals to a wide range of readers, so you’ll find it on my middle school nonfiction list , too.

How Dare The Sun Rise by Sandra Uwiringiyimana & Abigail Pesta

This gripping, inspiring memoir is the incredible story of Sandra Uwiringiyimana, a  “war child” who survived a brutal refugee camp massacre in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In it, Sandra recounts not only her survival story, but reflects on the trauma, grief, and racism she faced after moving to the United States. But perhaps the best part is what she turned all of that into: resilience, hope, and activism. In addition to being a great addition to any high school classroom library, this book is a great option for mature middle school readers. 

Unbroken: An Olympian’s Journey from Airman to Castaway to Captive (YA Adaptation) by Laura Hillenbrand

Want something to recommend to the survival/war story-obsessed readers in your classroom? The inspiring survival story of Olympian runner and WWII airman Louie Zamperini is sure to captivate these readers. This biography is a bit longer than some of the other texts on this list, but its thrilling narratives, photos, and perfectly-paced chapters will keep readers engaged. Your readers will be happy to know that there’s a movie, too: the perfect incentive for finishing a good book!

I hope these high school nonfiction books help your students learn to love a healthy dose of nonfiction in their reading diet! These are just a few of my favorites, but there are plenty of other high-interest biographies, memoirs, and other nonfiction texts available for your readers. In fact, many of the middle school nonfiction recommendations listed HERE would work for high school, too. If I’ve missed one of you or your students’ favorites, let me know in the comments. I love discovering new books and adding more to my tried-and-true reading recommendation toolbox.

WANT MORE BOOK RECS?

If you like these recommendations, then you’ll love my book recommendation brochures. The high school bundle is currently in progress and will be available soon, but you can check out the middle school collection in the meantime. Each brochure includes an interactive reader personality quiz that automatically gives students personalized book recs based on their interests. In fact, all of the above books (and dozens more) are featured in the different genre brochures.

These high school book brochures are the perfect way to take your book advertising to the next level! You can check out the growing collection of different genre brochures HERE. It’s a magical, self-sustaining system that will help your students answer the question, “What do I read next?” With over 250 book recs within the brochures, your students will never run out of books to read!

WANT MORE IDEAS TO HELP YOUR STUDENTS FALL IN LOVE WITH READING?

Want more ideas to help your students fall in love with reading? Check out the following blog posts:

• Engaging Nonfiction Books for Middle School Readers
• 5 Ways to Help Your Students Fall in Love with Reading
• Book Trailer Tuesday: How to hook students on books in 3 minutes!
• Book Recommendation Brochures: FAQ
• 15 Ways to Use Book Recommendation Brochures
• 10 Reasons to Try First Chapter Friday
• First Chapter Friday: Frequently Asked Questions
• 15 Tips & Tricks for First Chapter Friday
• First Chapter Friday: Middle School Book List
• First Chapter Friday: Middle School Book List PART 2

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50 Engaging Narrative Essay Topics for High Schoolers

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What’s Covered:

Narrative essays vs. analytical essays, how to pick the right narrative essay topic, elements of a strong narrative essay, engaging narrative essay topics for high schoolers, where to get your narrative essay edited for free.

Narrative essays are an extensive form of writing that gives readers the opportunity to follow along as a person goes through a journey or sets of experiences. Rather than providing analytic insight, narrative essays simply share a story and offer a first-person account. These essays may seem easy to write at first, but it takes a certain finesse to write a narrative essay that is interesting, cohesive, and well-researched. Whether you’re looking for a unique topic to write about, or just want some new inspiration, CollegeVine is here to help! These 50 narrative essay topics are engaging, unique and will have you writing in no time.

A narrative essay is a great way to express your personal experiences and opinions, but it is important to remember that this type of essay is different from an analytical paper. In a narrative essay, you do not need to provide background information or explain your thoughts and feelings; instead, you simply tell a story. It’s important to avoid too much telling in your writing; instead, use creative details and vivid imagery to make readers feel as if they are actually right there with you.

Where You Will Encounter Narrative Essays

This type of essay is typically encountered in high school, where students may be required to write personal statements to prepare for their Common App essay . Narrative essays are also commonly seen in AP Language and Composition. Therefore, it’s important you are aware of the style because you are bound to have a narrative essay assignment.  

Of course, before you start writing, it is important to pick the right essay topic. There are many factors involved in the process of picking the perfect narrative essay topic for your story.

You should always choose a topic that you are passionate about, since writing on something you care about will make the process much easier. Not only will it be more interesting to create your paper around something that truly interests you, but it will also allow you to fully express yourself in your essay. You also want to be sure that the topic has enough material to work with. If your chosen topic is too short, you will not have enough content to write a complete paper. For example, if you are writing about your experience getting lost at the mall, make sure that you have enough information to work with to craft an engaging narrative. 

The best topic for an engaging narrative essay is one that focuses on showing versus telling, has a clear structure, and provides a dialogue. These elements come together to form an engaging narrative essay. Regardless of what subject you pick, any topic may be turned into a fascinating, A+ worthy narrative using the tips below.

Show, Don’t Tell

To write a good narrative essay, it’s important to show, not tell. Instead of simply informing your audience, show them what you mean. For example, instead of saying “I was nervous,” you could say “My heart began to race and my stomach filled with butterflies.” Also make sure to use sensory details, such as sights, sounds and tastes, and include a personal reflection at the end of your narrative. 

Begin with a Strong Opening Line

A good narrative essay will begin with an attention-grabbing opening line. But make sure to avoid common clichés, such as “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Instead, come up with something original and specific to you and your situation. For example: “My pre-calc teacher was obsessed with circles. I mean, he even used circular note cards.” Or, “It all started the day my mom brought home a guinea pig.”

Follows a Three-Act Structure

A strong narrative essay follows the same three-act structure as other essays. But in order to make it interesting, you’ll need to come up with a creative way to break things down into sections. For example, using the guinea pig example from above, you could write the following:

• Act 1 – Introduction: The day my mom brought home a guinea pig.
• Act 2 – Conflict: The day I had to say goodbye to my beloved pet.
• Act 3 – Conclusion: Looking back at how much I miss him now that he’s gone.

Conclude with Personal Reflection

To conclude your narrative essay, you’ll want to explain what this specific experience taught you or how you’ve changed. For example, upon realizing that her pre-calc teacher was obsessed with circles, the writer of the previous example begins to notice circular shapes everywhere. Another way to conclude your narrative essay is by touching on how this experience impacted you emotionally. For example, after losing his guinea pig, the writer explains how much he missed it.

Use Dialogue

Include a conversation in your essay to make it come alive. For example, instead of simply saying that you met a new friend, talk about how you introduced yourselves or what they were wearing when you met them.

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The following list of 50 narrative essay topics is divided into categories. This will make it easier to find a topic that fits your writing style.

1. What is a childhood song that still sticks with you today?

2. Your first day of Kindergarten

3. Talk about a time when you’re siblings looked up to you

4. Describe the best birthday party you’ve ever had

5. Talk about the best day you ever spent with a childhood friend

6. Explain your first childhood hobby

7. Describe your first halloween costume

8. A family vacation gone wrong

9. Your first family reunion

10. Describe a tradition that is unique to your family

11. Describe your family to a person who’s never met them before

12. What frustrates you most about your family

13. If you could only keep one memory of your family, what would it be and why?

14. Describe a time your family embarrassed you in public

15. The most beautiful place in the world

16. Your favorite season and why

17. If you were a part of nature, what element would you be? Why?

18. When you go outside, which of your senses are you most thankful to have?

19. Describe the first time you witnessed a tornado 

20. Write a poem about your favorite season

21. Describe yourself as one of the four seasons

22. Describe a time in which you felt connected with nature

23. Describe the first time you played an instrument and how you felt

24. What major event would be much worse if music was removed, and why?

25. If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?

26. What would a life without music look like?

27. If you could master one instrument, what would it be and why?

Relationships

28. What if you had never met your best friend?

29. Describe a time when you fixed a broken relationship

30. Talk about a movie that defined a relationship for you

31. Describe your first date

32. Describe the first time you made a friend

33. Describe your relationship with your parents

Self Reflection

34. Have you ever fooled someone? If so, describe what happened and how you felt about it

35. What is the worst thing you’ve done to someone else?

36. Write about the difference between how things seem and how they really are. 

37. Have you ever been embarrassed in some way? If so, describe the situation and how it affected you as well as those around you

38. Have you ever witnessed something really beautiful? Describe it

39. Is your glass half empty or half full?

Overcoming Adversity 

40. Have you ever been very afraid of something but tried your hardest to appear fearless? If so, describe that experience

41. When have you ever succeeded when you thought you might fail

42. What are your secret survival strategies?

43. Describe the last time you were stressed and why?

44. Describe a time when you were discriminated against

45. The most memorable class you’ve had and why

46. Your favorite study abroad memory

47. Describe your kindergarten classroom

48. Describe your first teacher

49. The first time you experienced detention

50. Your first field trip

Hopefully these topics will get you thinking about a personal experience that could make for a thoughtful and engaging narrative essay. Remember, a strong narrative essay must contain relatable details and a clear flow that keeps the reader entertained and engaged to read all the way to the end.

If you need some additional guidance on your narrative essay, use CollegeVine’s free peer review essay tool to get feedback for free!

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