Speaking volumes

Zara walks into the bookshop and looks around. There are books in the window; books on tables; books on shelves - and so many categories! Classic fiction, YAYoung Adult fiction, graphic novels, travel books, poetry books, histories, biographies - she stares until she feels dizzy. How can anyone possibly choose?

It helps to have recommendations you can rely on. Over the past couple of years #BookTok has become an important source, with accounts such as @kateslibrary attracting thousands of views.

On the other hand, another strong trend has been the banning of books. Pressure groups in the US have forced the removal of titles they disapprove of from public libraries - for example, the Heartstopper series about a romance between two teenage boys.

But they should be glad people are reading books at all: 57% of Americans never do.¹

Here are eight books every teenager should read this year:

Captivating creatures: Katherine Rundell's The Golden Mole looks at 22 extraordinary animal species facing extinction. It evokes the wonderful weirdness of the natural world and explores the threats to it.

Weathering war: Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is set in the 1960s, during Biafra's war of secession against Nigeria. The story follows the fortunes of five people trying to find safety when their world is set upside down.  

Helter-skelter satire: Evelyn Waugh's hilarious Vile Bodies focuses on the party-loving Bright Young Things of the 1920s. Would-be novelist Adam Symes pursues a tangled love affair in a world full of strange characters whose behaviour is totally unpredictable.

Dark dystopia: Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale imagines the US as a totalitarianWhen a political system or leader requires complete subservience to the state. In a totalitarian system, people are not allowed to express their own opinions. state in which women have been stripped of their rights. The narrator, Offred, is one of the few able to have children, but cannot choose who fathers them, and tries desperately to escape.

Delightful diary: Cassandra Mortmain, the teenage narrator of Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle, records the eccentricity of life in a run-down castle bought by her cash-strapped parents. The arrival of rich Americans as neighbours stirs intrigue and romance.

Environmental enchantment: Set in 1880s Ireland, Lord Dunsany's The Curse of the Wise Woman is a compelling eco-thriller. When his father disappears, Charles Peridore finds solace in exploring a neighbouring bog, only to find that it is in danger of industrial exploitation.

Rhapsodic romance: So beautifully written that it is almost a prose poem, F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby scrutinises 1920s American high society. Obsessed by the idea that the past can be recaptured, mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby sets out to win back a woman he loved in his youth.

Imagining marvels: John Wyndham's futuristic parable The Chrysalids is set in a world devastated by nuclear war whose inhabitants live in horror of mutations. When David Strorm and several other children discover they are telepathicAble to read the thoughts of another person. , they are forced to leave their families and flee.

Is reading the deepest intellectual experience? 

Yes: As Johann Hari writes on Literary Hub: "You dedicate many hours of your life, coolly, calmly, to one topic, and allow it to marinate in your mind." This has led to many of humanity's deepest advances.

No: When you read you are simply taking in the author's ideas. The deepest intellectual experience is debating with someone else, which forces both of you to develop your thoughts and consider others'.

Or... It is also the most enjoyable experience that life offers. There is nothing better than picking up a book which draws you so deep into another world that you forget what is happening around you.