A good book will lead its reader to the roots of life.
BYU professor Jamie Lewis Holt told the Deseret News how she believes books can influence and change a person. She explained, “I believe fiction impacts readers according to their maturity and desires.”
“While the genre may initially draw us into a fantasy series or historical fiction piece, I believe it is ultimately the connection with characters and their struggles that we identify commonalities with our own lives and continue to read fiction,” she said.
Holt added, “Ultimately I believe we read fiction to learn more about ourselves and that is a beautiful adventure worth taking.”
Here are 10 impactful works of fiction:
‘The Giver’
Author: Lois Lowry.
Publication date: 1993.
At 12 years old, Jonas is chosen to be his seemingly perfect utopia’s “Memory Keeper.” As he learns about the past that has been kept from everyone else, he realizes the necessity of pain for joy.
The Guardian describes this novel as a depiction of “the path of growing up; at first we are scared to accept that there are new responsibilities, but as we slowly get used to it we want to move more and more away from childhood.”
Notable quotation: “... now he saw the familiar wide river beside the path differently. He saw all of the light and color and history it contained and carried in its slow-moving water; and he knew that there was an Elsewhere from which it came, and an Elsewhere to which it was going.”
‘Bridge to Terabithia’
Author: Katherine Paterson.
Publication date: 1977.
Jess feels like an outcast at school until Leslie moves in. They create the imaginary world of Terabithia together in the woods, but when Leslie suddenly dies in an accident, he is left to navigate his grief and learn how to move forward.
After the death of her son’s childhood best friend, Paterson explained, “I wrote the book to try to make sense out of a tragedy that seemed senseless.”
Notable quotation: “She had tricked him. She had made him leave his old self behind and come into her world, and then before he was really at home in it but too late to go back, she had left him stranded there — like an astronaut wandering about on the moon. Alone.”
‘Stargirl’
Author: Jerry Spinelli.
Publication date: 2000.
“Leo Borlock follows the unspoken rule at Mica Area High School: don’t stand out — under any circumstances,” Goodreads describes. “Then Stargirl arrives at Mica High and everything changes — for Leo and for the entire school.”
Notable quotation: “She taught me to revel. She taught me to wonder. She taught me to laugh.
“My sense of humor had always measured up to everyone else’s; but timid introverted me, I showed it sparingly: I was a smiler. In her presence I threw back my head and laughed out loud for the first time in my life.”
‘The City of Ember’
Author: Jeanne DuPrau.
Publication date: 2003.
Lina and Doon live in an underground city where living supplies have been running out for generations. They find a journal from one of the original Builders of their city, and they realize it could hold the clue to finding their way out.
Notable quotation: “The trouble with anger is, it gets hold of you. And then you aren’t the master of yourself anymore. Anger is. And when anger is the boss, you get unintended consequences.”
‘Little Women’
Author: Louisa May Alcott.
Publication date: 1868.
As the Digital Public Library of America describes, this book “tells the story of the four March girls as they make the transition to womanhood and struggle to conform to society’s strict ideals of femininity in the midst of poverty.”
“Little Women” has been adapted multiple times, most recently in 2019 by Greta Gerwig.
Notable quotation: “I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.”
‘Every Day’
Author: David Levithan.
Publication date: 2012.
This story is written from the perspective of a person named “A,” who wakes up in a different body every morning. After feeling invisible for a lifetime, everything changes when A meets Rhiannon.
Notable quotation: “There will always be more questions. Every answer leads to more questions. The only way to survive is to let some of them go.”
‘Salt to the Sea’
Author: Ruta Sepetys.
Publication date: 2016.
This historical fiction novel follows four characters aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff as it sinks. The novel displays “a shockingly little-known casualty of a gruesome war, and proves that humanity can prevail, even in the darkest hours,” per Sepetys’ website.
Notable quotation: “I wept because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.”
‘Hatchet’
Author: Gary Paulsen.
Publication date: 1986.
Brian is just a teenager when he finds himself the sole survivor of a plane crash, “but that is just the beginning,” Bookrags describes. “Brian must find a way to survive the wilds of the Canadian forest if he ever hopes to be rescued.”
Notable quotation: “He learned the most important rule of survival, which was that feeling sorry for yourself didn’t work. It wasn’t just that it was wrong to do, or that it was considered incorrect. It was more than that — it didn’t work.”
‘Jacob Have I Loved’
Author: Katherine Paterson.
Publication date: 1980.
Sarah Louise has always felt inadequate compared to her twin Caroline. This novel is “about a child trying to figure out how to move out of the shadows and into her own sunlight,” according to Story Warren.
Notable quotation: “I was not happy in any way that would make sense to most people, but I was, for the first time in my life, deeply content with what life was giving me.”
‘The Hobbit’
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien.
Publication date: 1937.
Medium describes “The Hobbit” as “the single best fantasy book written so far,” claiming that the simplicity of the story, Tolkien’s use of language, the tone of the narration and its nuanced social commentary make it “a great story.”
Notable quotation: “So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings.”