Books like

Books like Where the Wild Things Are

12 books with a reading profile close to Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. Inward-looking, contemplative and thought-provoking; an easy read.

1

Everyone's a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too

by Jomny Sun

Also inward-looking · narrative, accessible

Jomny Sun tells the story of an alien researcher, Jomny, who visits Earth to study its inhabitants but struggles with loneliness and self-doubt.
2

American Born Chinese

by Gene Luen Yang

Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · narrative, accessible

Gene Luen Yang weaves together three distinct narrative threads to examine the internal conflicts of cultural assimilation.
3

Three Days in June

by Anne Tyler

Also inward-looking · narrative, accessible

Set against the humid backdrop of Baltimore, seventeen-year-old June navigates seventy-two hours of familial tension and burgeoning romantic attraction.
4

Bridge to Terabithia

by Katherine Paterson

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, accessible

Jess Aarons, a fifth-grader living in rural Virginia, spends his summer training to be the fastest runner in his school.
5

Liar & Spy

by Rebecca Stead

Also inward-looking · narrative, accessible

Seventh-grader Georges moves into a Brooklyn apartment building after his father loses his job and his mother begins working double shifts at the hospital.
6

Elsewhere

by Gabrielle Zevin

Also inward-looking · narrative, accessible

Fifteen-year-old Liz Hall dies in a hit-and-run accident and wakes up on a ship heading to Elsewhere, a land where the dead age backward toward infancy.
7

Pizza Girl

by Jean Kyoung Frazier

Also inward-looking · narrative, accessible

Eighteen-year-old Jane is pregnant, grieving her alcoholic father’s recent death, and working as a pizza delivery driver in suburban Los Angeles.
8

Ask Again, Yes

by Mary Beth Keane

Also inward-looking · narrative, accessible

Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope are rookie NYPD officers who buy neighboring houses in a quiet New York suburb.
9

Infinite Country

by Patricia Engel

Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · narrative, accessible

The narrative follows Elena and Mauro, a Colombian couple who overstay their visas in the United States, and the three children they raise across two nations.
10

Love Letters to the Dead

by Ava Dellaira

Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · narrative, accessible

When Laurel’s English teacher assigns a letter to a deceased person, the high school freshman begins a secret journal addressed to figures like Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, and Amy Winehouse.
11

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

by E. Lockhart

Also inward-looking · narrative, accessible

At Alabaster Preparatory Academy, sophomore Frankie Landau-Banks discovers that her boyfriend belongs to the Loyal Order of the Basset Hound, an all-male secret society with deep historical roots.
12

The Beekeeper of Aleppo

by Christy Lefteri

Also inward-looking and contemplative · narrative, accessible

Nuri is a beekeeper who tends to hives in the Syrian city of Aleppo alongside his wife, Afra, an artist who loses her sight after a bomb kills their young son.

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