Top Ten Books for Young Adults and Adults that Promote Peace

This list ends the series on Top Books for Young Readers that Promote Peace. All of these books are still readily available for purchase in bookstores and/or you should be able to find them in your local library.

Ender's Game
by Orson Scott Card
Tor
1992

Young Ender Wiggin may prove to be the military genius Earth needs to fight a desperate battle against a deadly alien race that will determine the future of the human race.

Fallen Angels
by Walter Dean Myers
Scholastic
originally published in 1988

Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school, enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.

I Had Seen Castles
by Cynthia Rylant
Harcourt
2004

Now an old man, John is haunted by memories of enlisting to fight in World War Ii, a decision which forced him to face the horrors of war and changed his life forever.

Lord of the Flies
by William Golding
Originally published in 1959

After a plane crash strands them on a tropical island while the rest of the world is ravaged by war, a group of British schoolboys attempts to form a civilized society but descends into brutal anarchy.

The Red Badge of Courage
by Stephen Crane

During his service in the Civil War a young Union soldier matures to manhood and finds peace of mind as he comes to grips with his conflicting emotions about war.


Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life In Sarajevo
by Zlata Filip
Penguin
1995

The diary of a thirteen-year-old girl living in Sarajevo, begun just before her eleventh birthday when there was still peace in her homeland.


Books Written for Adults (appropriate for grades 9 up):

All Quiet on the Western Front
by Erich Maria Remarque
Fawcett

Depicts the experiences of a group of young German soldiers fighting and suffering during the last days of World War I.


 
Catch-22
by Joseph Heller
Scribner

A bombardier, based in Italy during World War Ii, repeatedly tries to avoid flying bombing missions while his colonel tries to get him killed by demanding that he fly more and more missions.

Cat's Cradle
by Kurt Vonnegut
Dell

In the year 2000, a young man discovers ice-nine, which can set off a chain reaction more deadly than a nuclear bomb, and a new prophet whose teachings sweep the world.



(Annotations courtesy of BWI unless otherwise noted.)

For further reading:
Top Ten Picture Books that Promote Peace
Top Ten Books for Early Readers that Promote Peace
Top Ten Books for Middle Grades that Promote Peace

If you counted my entries, I posted only NINE. Can you think of another, to round out the list?