8.9/17 1984 ­ Orwell, George. Published in 1949 as a warning about the menaces of totalitarianism, this novel is set in an imaginary future world that is dominated by three perpetually warring totalitarian police states. The book's hero, Winston Smith, is a minor party functionary in one of these states. His longing for truth and decency leads him to secretly rebel against the government.

10.0/28 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ­ Verne, Jules. This is the story of the submarine that was Captain Nemo's masterpiece, and the marvelous adventures it encountered. The reader is taken through dangers, surprises, and the unsurpassed majesty of the marine world.

8.3/12 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ­ Twain, Mark. In this novel the reader is introduced to Huckleberry Finn, a young free spirited boy. Tired of the endless constraints of so called "Civilised Society", Huck "lights out" on a raft with his escaped slave friend Jim. What follows is a series of adventures with a few twists and turns in the plot which are all deftly handled by Mr. Twain.

8.3/12 Adventures of Tom Sawyer ­ Twain, Mark. From playing pirates on a deserted island to attending his own "funeral," from exploring a bat-filled underground cave to digging for treasure in a haunted house, Tom Sawyer is a genius at getting himself and his friends into and out of sometimes dangerous adventures. When he and his pal Huck Finn stumble on a midnight murder, Tom almost meets his match in evil Injun Joe. Joe has hidden a golden, ill-gotten treasure that Tom means to find. . .if Joe doesn't get him first!

7.3/5 Animal Farm ­ Orwell, George. A farm is taken over by its mistreated animals. They set out to create a paradise, but end up creating a totalitarian society instead.

8.0/7 Call of the Wild ­ London, Jack. An unusual dog, part St. Bernard, part Scotch shepherd, is forcibly taken to the Klondike gold fields where he eventually becomes leader of a wolf pack.

8.8/34 Count of Monte Cristo ­ Dumas, Alexandre. Edmond Dantes is betrayed by his enemies and thrown into a secret dungeon in the Chateau d'If - doomed to spend his life in a dank prison cell. The story of his long, intolerable years in captivity, his miraculous escape, and his carefully wrought revenge creates a dramatic tale of mystery and intrigue.

12.4/17 Frankenstein ­ Shelley, Mary. A timeless, terrifying tale of one man's obsession to create life -- and the monster that became his legacy.

7.3/8 Great Gatsby ­ Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan in West Egg, Long Island.

13.5/17 Gulliver's Travels ­ Swift, Jonathan. Shipwrecked castaway Lemuel Gulliver's encounters with the petty, diminutive Lilliputians, the crude giants of Brobdingnag, the abstracted scientists of Laputa, the philosophical Houyhnhnms, and the brutish Yahoos give him new, bitter insights into human behavior.

8.2/16 Heidi ­ Spyri, Johanna. A Swiss orphan is heartbroken when she must leave her beloved grandfather and their happy home in the mountains to go to school and to care for an invalid girl in the city.

7.9/33 Jane Eyre ­ Bronte, Charlotte. Jane is about to marry the man she loves, but she is worried about him. He is strangely moody and melancholy. Maybe the secret to his unhappy character lies in the unearthly sounds that she hears coming from the mansion's attic late at night. What terrible phantom remains locked behind those walls?

9.9/17 Journey to the Center of the Earth ­ Verne, Jules. Three men discover the secrets of past civilizations during a fantastic expedition beneath the earth's surface.

7.9/33 Little Women ­ Alcott, Louisa May. The four March girls share everything--their joys and pain, their loves and secrets. But they couldn't be more different: Meg is sensible, Jo is funny and mischievous, Beth is shy and dreamy, and Amy is pretty and artistic. Follow the March girls as they grow into wonderful young women.

5.0/9 Lord of the Flies ­ Golding, William. Shipwrecked schoolboys set up their own civilization.

9.5/12 Lost Horison ­ Hilton, James. Welcome to Shangri-La. . .high in the distant reaches of the Tibetan mountains where a group of worldly men and women have stumbled upon a land of mystery and matchless beauty, whre life is lived in tranquil wonder, beyond the grasp of a doomed world. And a great secret is kept hidden.

4.8/4 Night ­ Wiesel, Elie. A terrifying account of the Nazi death camp horror that turns a young Jewish boy into an agonized witness to the death of his family...the death of his innocence...and the death of his God. Penetrating and powerful, NIGHT awakens the shocking memory of evil at its absolute and carries with it the unforgettable message that this horror must never be allowed to happen again.

5.1/4 Old Man and the Sea ­ Hemingway, Ernest. An old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, catches a giant marlin, only to have sharks strip it to the bone. It is the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss.

11.3/33 Oliver Twist ­ Dickens, Charles. This is the tale of an orphan who is reared in a workhouse, runs away to London where he is captured by thieves and finally escapes.

12.0/27 Pride and Prejudice ­ Austen, Jane. Scatterbrained Mrs. Bennet makes one demand of her five daughters: Marry RICH. But sweet Jane is hopelessly in love with Mr. Bingley, who doesn't seem to notice. Flighty Lydia wants a man--any man--preferably one in uniform. Kitty just wants to have fun. Shy Mary has her nose in a book. And Elizabeth--brilliant, stubborn, independent Lizzy--refuses the advances of the most "marriageable" man in town--wealthy Mr. Darcy. Will any of the Bennet girls find true love and fortune?

8.0/8 Red Badge of Courage ­ Crane, Stephen. A dramatic and moving story of a young man's experiences in war. Should he stay and face the terrors of war, or run away and admit he's a coward?

12.5/10 Romeo and Juliet ­ Shakespeare. This is one of the most famous plays about a doomed love affair in the written language. It centers on two people, each from feuding families, who could only find one way to be together.

8.0/15 Scarlet Pimpernel ­ Orczy. The Scarlet Pimpernel threatened the power of the rulers of the French Revolution. But no one knew who he was. Everyone thought they knew, but no one was sure. His symbol was the blood-red flower known as the Scarlet Pimpernel.

6.3/13 Secret Garden ­ Burnett, Frances Hodgson. Ten-year-old Mary comes to live in a lonely house on the Yorkshire moors and discovers an invalid cousin and the mysteries of a locked garden.

9.5/5 Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ­ Stevenson, Robert Louis. A well-respected doctor, Dr. Jekyll, invents a poison that can change a person into their alter ego. He drinks this poison, and becomes a character we know as Mr. Hyde. Hyde is the evil everyone fears and Jekyll is the man every one wants to be.

9.7/23 Swiss Family Robinson ­ Wyss, Johann. The main charactera are a Swiss pastor who seems to know everything, and his wife and three boys. When their boat is terribly shipwrecked, they build rafts and set their course for a nearby island. The story is about their adventures on the island.

9.7/27 Tale of Two Cities ­ Dickens, Charles. London and Paris during the French Revolution form the setting for Dicken's classic romance.

7.4/6 Time Machine ­ Wells. H.G. A world divided in to ELOI (gentle, helpless surface dwellers who live to nibble sweet fruits and play silly games) and MORLOCKS (gruesome monsters who only leave their vast underground machines to terrorize the night. The Traveller first believes the Eloi rule the Morlocks, then he suspects the Morlocks command; until an awful discovery leads to the hideous truth: The man from the past is the only human on Earth ­ and the real horror of the far future is just beginning.

5.6/15 To Kill a Mockingbird ­ Lee, Harper. This is the unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it. It takes readers to the roots of human behavior-to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos.

4.9/11 Where the Red Fern Grows ­ Rawls, Wilson. Billy, Old Dan, and Little Ann ranged the hills and river bottoms of Cherokee country. Old Dan had the brawn, Little Ann had the brains-and Billy had the will to train them to be the finest hunting team in the valley. Glory and victory were coming to them, but sadness waited too.

8.4/19 White Fang ­ London, Jack. White Fang is part dog, part wolf. In his lonely world he learns to follow the harsh law of the North ­ kill or be killed. But nothing in White Fang's life can prepare him for the cruel owner who buys him and turns him into a vicious killer ­ a pit dog forced to fight for money.

11.3/23 Wuthering Heights ­ Bronte, Emily. A brooding Yorkshire tale of a love that is stronger than death, it is also a fierce vision of metaphysical passion in which heaven and hell, nature and society, and dynamic and passive forces are powerfully juxtaposed.