Incoming Freshmen 2008

*Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. A rape near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda’s freshman year in high school.

Anderson, M.T. Thirsty. FANTASY. From the moment he knows that he is destined to be a vampire, Chris thirsts for the blood of people around him while also struggling to remain human.

*Arrington, Frances. Prairie Whispers. HISTORICAL FICTION. Only twelve-year-old Colleen knows that her baby sister died just after she was born and that Colleen put another baby in her place, until the baby’s father shows up and makes trouble for her and her family on the South Dakota prairie in the 1860s.

*Asimov, Isaac. Foundation. SCIENCE FICTION. In this first book of the classic Foundation series, a band of psychologists plant a colony to encourage art, science, and technology in the declining Galactic Empire and to preserve the accumulated knowledge of humankind.

*Barker, Clive. Abarat. FANTASY. Candy Quackenbush of Chickentown, Minnesota, one day finds herself on the edge of a foreign world that is populated by strange creatures, and her life is forever changed. 1st of a quartet, followed by Days of Magic, lights of War.

Bennett, Jay. Sing Me a Death Song. MYSTERY. Jason risks his life to find evidence that his mother, a convicted murderer facing execution, was framed.

*Berg, Elizabeth. Durable Goods or True to Form or Joy School.
Durable Goods. Following her mother’s death, Katie, a young girl living on an army base in the 1960s, waits for her Prince Charming to fall in love with her and struggles to understand her distant, violent father.
True to Form. This novel tracks 13-year-old Katie as she becomes a babysitter, a Girl Scout, and deals with adolescence.
Joy School. Young Katie’s first experience of intense romantic love–with a much older man–becomes a rite of passage and an exploration of love in its many guises.

*Blais, Madeleine. In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle. NON-FICTION. This is the story of the Amherst Lady Hurricanes High School basketball team during their championship season.

*Bloor, Edward. Story Time. FANTASY. George and Kate are promised the best education but instead face obsessed administrators, endless tests, and evil spirits when they are transferred to haunted Whittaker Magnet School.

Blos, Joan. A Gathering of Days: A New England Journal, 1830-32. HISTORICAL FICTION. The journal of a fourteen-year-old girl, kept the last year she lived on the family farm, records daily events in her small New Hampshire town, her father’s remarriage, and the death of her best friend.

*Bray, Libba. A Great and Terrible Beauty. FANTASY. After the suspicious death of her mother in 1895, sixteen-year-old Gemma returns to England, after many years in India, to attend a finishing school where she becomes aware of her magical powers and ability to see into the spirit world. Followed by Rebel Angels.

*Brooks, Bruce. The Moves Make the Man. A thirteen-year-old black boy and an emotionally troubled white boy in North Carolina form a precarious friendship on the basketball court.

*Brooks, Kevin. The Road of the Dead or Kissing the Rain.
The Road of the Dead. SUSPENSE. Two brothers, sons of an incarcerated gypsy, leave London and travel to an isolated and desolate village, in search of the brutal killer of their sister.
Kissing the Rain. Fifteen-year-old Moo Nelson, shy, overweight, and bullied by his classmates, finds his life spinning out of control after he witnesses a car chase and a fight that results in a murder.

*Carmi, Daniella. Samir and Yonatan. Samir, a Palestinian boy, is sent for surgery to an Israeli hospital where he has two otherworldly experiences, making friends with an Israeli boy, Yonatan, and traveling with him to Mars, where Samir finds peace about his brother’s death in the war.

Chbosky, Stephen. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie is navigating through the strange worlds of love, drugs, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and dealing with the loss of a good friend and his favorite aunt. Written in diary format.

*Clarke, Susanna. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. FANTASY. If magic intrigues you, this fantastic comedy of manners, complete with elaborate false footnotes, occasional period spellings, and a dense, lively mythology may speak to you. In nineteenth-century England, all is going well for rich, reclusive Mr. Norell, who has regained some of the power of England’s magicians from the past, until a rival magician, Jonathan Strange, appears and becomes Mr. Norrell’s pupil.

Coman, Carolyn. What Jamie Saw. Having fled to a family friend’s hillside trailer after his mother’s boyfriend tried to throw his baby sister against a wall, nine-year-old Jamie finds himself living an existence full of uncertainty and fear.

*Cormier, Robert. In the Middle of the Night. Sixteen-year-old Denny lives in the shadow of deadly accident with which his father was connected when he was Denny’s age, a disaster for which some of the survivors still blame his father and prevents Denny from having the normal life of a teenager.

Dash, Joan. World at Her Fingertips: The Story of Helen Keller. BIOGRAPHY. Helen Keller’s earlier life with teacher Annie Sullivan may be well known, but Dash examines an older Helen, one who struggled through high school, attended and graduated from college. Dash paints a very human Helen, very different from the woman on the pedestal that others have portrayed.

Draper, Sharon. Double Dutch. Eighth-grader Delia becomes a double Dutch champion, even as she hides her illiteracy and her friend struggles with his own secret.

*Drvenkar, Zoran. Tell Me What You See. FANTASY. Told from the point of view of each person, this story tells how Alissa finds an odd plant that gives her strange powers, how Simon stalks Alissa because he can’t get over their break-up, and how Evelyn tries to help Alissa with everything.

Duncan, Lois. Gallows Hill. When seventeen-year-old Sarah works in the fortune-telling booth at a school carnival, she finds that sometimes she can really see the future in the crystal ball, a talent that disturbs some of the other students and makes them suspect her of being a witch.

*Erickson, Carolly. Alexandra: the Last Tsarina or Her Little Majesty. BIOGRAPHIES.
Alexandra: The Last Tsarina. The author depicts Alexandra as rejected from the start by the Russian court and oblivious to the political situation in her adopted country, with a strong desire for a “normal,” loving family life. This book covers Alexandra’s childhood, her marriage to Nicholas, her increasing eccentricities and psychological anguish, and her focus and dependence on a series of occult mentors, including Rasputin.
Her Little Majesty, The Life of Queen Victoria. A multilayered portrait of Queen Victoria describes the life and reign of a monarch who ruled for sixty-four years.

*Fischer, Jackie Moyer. An Egg on Three Sticks. In this unforgettable debut, thirteen-year-old Abby recounts her mother’s heartbreaking descent into mental illness.

*Fisher, Catherine. The Oracle Betrayed. FANTASY. Shy Mirany must navigate a web of treachery and deceit in a thirsty land that is a fantastical melding of ancient Grecian and Egyptian cultures in the first of the Oracle Prophecies. Followed by The Sphere of Secrets.

*Funke, Cornelia. Inkheart or Inkspell. FANTASY.
Inkheart. Twelve-year-old Meggie learns that her father, who repairs and binds books for a living, can “read” fictional characters to life when one of those characters abducts them and tries to force him into service.
Inkspell. Now thirteen, Meggie “reads” herself into Inkworld, where she, her family, and the characters in the book face chaos and danger as the original creator of the world frantically tries to redirect the story.

*Grealy, Lucy. Autobiography of a Face. BIOGRAPHY. Grealy’s hard-hitting personal narrative about life as a teen with a face disfigured by cancer covers so much–from the definition of beauty to loneliness to acceptance. The author tells a moving and heroic story of her struggle for dignity.

Hale, Shannon. Goose Girl. On her way to marry a prince she’s never met, Princess Anidori is betrayed by her guards and her lady-in-waiting and must become a goose girl to survive until she can reveal her true identity and reclaim the crown that is rightfully hers. This is more realistic (more Grimm) than Kindl’s Goose Chase on this list. If you like re-imagined fairy tales, try reading both books to compare them.

*Hamilton, Bethany. Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board. MEMOIR. Teen surfer Hamilton lost her arm in a brutal shark attack, but she found support in her strong Christian faith, her family, and in the sport that she loves.

Hautman, Pete. Stone Cold. This is a gripping story about a sixteen-year-old card shark who ends up owning the world but losing his soul.

*Hayslip, Le Ly. When Heaven & Earth Changed Places: A Vietnamese Woman’s Journey From War to Peace. NON-FICTION. A Vietnamese woman describes her journey from war-torn central Vietnam to the U.S., recounting how she endured imprisonment, torture, rape, near-starvation, and the deaths of members of her family.

*Hesse, Karen. Witness. HISTORICAL FICTION. In this novel based on actual events, a young African-American girl and the six-year-old daughter of a Jewish shoe salesman become targets of the Ku Klux Klan when they move into a sleepy Vermont town in 1924.

Hesser, Terry Spencer. Kissing Doorknobs. Fourteen-year-old Tara describes how her increasingly strange compulsions begin to take over her life and affect her relationships with her family and friends.

*Hoffman, Nina. A Stir of Bones. SUSPENSE. After discovering the secrets that lie in an abandoned house, fourteen-year-old Susan, with the help of some new friends, has the ability to make a safe, new life for herself.

Hoobler, Dorothy & Thomas. The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn. HISTORICAL FICTION. A fourteen-year-old boy in Shogun Japan who has always dreamed of being a samurai witnesses a theft and becomes involved in a wild plot that teaches him about the world of the samurais, blending history seamlessly with intrigue and swordplay. Followed by The Demon in the Teahouse.

Horowitz, Anthony. Point Blank: An Alexander Rider Mystery. SUSPENSE. In Rider’s second adventure following StormBreaker, this reluctant British spy sees plenty of action, hi-tech gadgets, and mysterious disappearances investigating an exclusive school for boys in the French Alps. Followed by Skeleton Key, Eagle Strike, Scorpia, Ark Angel & Snakehead.

*Hotze, Sollace. A Circle Unbroken. HISTORICAL FICTION. Captured by a roving band of Sioux Indians and brought up as the chief’s daughter, Rachel is recaptured by her white family and finds it difficult to adjust, as she longs to return to the tribe.

Johnson, Maureen. 13 Little Blue Envelopes. When seventeen-year-old Ginny receives a packet of mysterious envelopes from her favorite aunt, she leaves New Jersey to criss-cross Europe on a sort of scavenger hunt that transforms her life.

Kerr, M.E. Slap Your Sides. HISTORICAL FICTION. Life in their Pennsylvania hometown changes for Jubal Shoemaker and his family when his older brother witnesses to his Quaker beliefs by becoming a conscientious objector during World War II.

Kindl, Patrice. Goose Chase. FANTASY. Rather than marry a cruel king or a seemingly dim-witted prince, an enchanted goose girl endures imprisonment, capture by several ogresses, and other dangers, before learning exactly who she is. If you like re-imagined fairy tales, try reading this with Hale’s Goose Girl on this list.

*King, Stephen. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. When a nine-year-old girl becomes lost on a hike on the Appalachian Trail, she relies on her courage and faith, as she imagines her hero, baseball pitcher Tom Gordon, is with her.

*Korman, Gordon. Son of the Mob: Hollywood Hustle. Vince Luca, from Son of the Mob (2002), returns, and this time he tries to get away from his family and “The Life” by moving to Santa Monica to start college as a film major.

Larsen, Kristine. Stephen Hawking: A Biography. BIOGRAPHY. Presents the life and accomplishments of the English scientist, who, despite suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease, has become a renowned cosmologist whose theory of black holes has had a profound influence on the modern study of the universe.

Lerangis, Peter. Smiler’s Bones. HISTORICAL. This first novel provides the story of an Eskimo boy who, after being brought from his home in Greenland to New York City by explorer Robert Peary, was forced to deal with the death of his father, and the loss of everything familiar to him. The novel asks the question: Do explorers have a responsibility to avoid cultural exploitation?

*Levitin, Sonia. The Cure. SCIENCE FICTION. Lois Lowry fans take notice of this book with the same themes as The Giver. Branded a deviant–and therefore a threat–to the utopian society that exists in the year 2407, Gemm 16884 is given the choice between being recycled or undergoing a painful and mysterious cure. Gemm chooses the cure, and suddenly finds himself living the life of Johannes, a sixteen-year-old Jewish musician in Strasbourg, Germany, in 1348, at the onset of the Black Death.

Lipsyte, Robert. One Fat Summer. Overweight Bobby Marks hates the summertime because he can’t hide under heavy clothing. Then he gets a job grooming the grounds of Dr. Kahn’s estate, and it isn’t long before he finds out how terrifying and exhilarating, how dangerous and wonderful, one fat summer can be. Good companion to Marino’s Dough Boy on this list.

Lowry, Lois. Gathering Blue. SCIENCE FICTION. Revisiting many of the same themes as her award-winning The Giver, the author introduces lame and suddenly orphaned Kira, who is mysteriously removed from her squalid village to live in the palatial Council Edifice, where she is expected to use her gifts as a weaver to do the bidding of the all-powerful Guardians. Good companion to Levitin’s The Cure on this list.

Lubar, David. Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie. While navigating his first year of high school and awaiting the birth of his new baby brother, Scott loses old friends and gains some unlikely new ones as he hones his skills as a writer.

Lupica, Mike. Miracle on 49th Street or Travel Team.
Miracle on 49th Street. After her mother’s death, twelve-year-old Molly learns that her father is a basketball star for the Boston Celtics.
Travel Team. After he is cut from his travel basketball team–the very same team that his father once led to national prominence–twelve-year-old Danny Walker forms his own team of cast-offs that might have a shot at victory.

*Lyga, Barry. The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Gothgirl. A fifteen-year-old “geek” who keeps a list of the high school jocks and others who torment him, and pours his energy into creating a great graphic novel, encounters Kyra, Goth Girl, who helps change his outlook on almost everything, including himself.

*Lynch, Jim. The Highest Tide. Miles O’Malley, a boy with a fascination for the sea, copes with the trials of growing up, his infatuation with the girl next door, bickering parents, and his fear that his life and his beloved Puget Sound are slipping away.

*Mahy, Margaret. Alchemy. MYSTERY/FANTASY. Seventeen-year-old Roland discovers that an unpopular girl in his school is studying alchemy and finds that their destiny is linked with that of a power-hungry magician.

Marino, Peter. Dough Boy. Fifteen-year-old Tristan has always been fat. This has never particularly bothered him because his Mom isn’t upset about it, and because his best friend’s popularity has always shielded him from bullies. All that changes, however, when his mother’s boyfriend’s attractive, weight-conscious daughter, Kelly, moves in. In his disarming debut, Marino explores not only bullying and body issues but also blended families and the lengths to which people will go to make their mergers successful. Good companion to Lipsyte’s One Fat Summer on this list.

*McCaughrean, Geraldine. The Kite Rider. HISTORICAL FICTION. In 1281, just after China has come under Mongol rule, twelve-year-old Haoyou tries to rescue his newly widowed mother from a terrifying marriage by becoming a ship’s “wind tester.” His scheme and the resulting exploits make for a spellbinding story that is immersed in ancient Chinese culture.

*McCormick, Patricia. Cut. While confined to a mental hospital, thirteen-year-old Callie slowly comes to understand some of the reasons behind her self-mutilation, and gradually starts to get better.

*McKinley, Robin. Sunshine. FANTASY. In a not-so-distant future where werewolves, demons, and other creatures take over the world, teen Sunshine unearths her magical legacy and saves a vampire and herself from death.

McNamee, Graham. Acceleration. SUSPENSE. Stuck working in the Lost and Found of the Toronto Transit Authority for the summer, seventeen-year-old Duncan finds the diary of a serial killer and sets out to stop him. Well-placed comic relief and solid characters add to
the thrilling ride.

*McNaughton, Janet. An Earthly Knight. FANTASY/ROMANCE. In 1162 in Scotland, sixteen-year-old Jenny Avenel falls in love with the mysterious Tam Lin while being courted by the king’s brother and must navigate the tides of tradition and the power of ancient magic to define her own destiny.

*Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight or New Moon. FANTASY.
Twilight. When Bella moves to rain-soaked Forks, Washington, she is instantly attracted to Edward, an alluring, tormented, teenage vampire.
New Moon. In the second in this series, when the Cullens, including her beloved Edward, leave Forks rather than risk revealing that they are vampires, it is almost too much for eighteen-year-old Bella to bear, but she finds solace in her friend Jacob until he is drawn into a “cult” and changes in terrible ways. Eclipse and Breaking Dawn follows in the series.

Mikealsen, Ben. Touching Spirit Bear. After his anger erupts into violence, Cole, in order to avoid going to prison, agrees to participate in a sentencing alternative based on the Native American Circle Justice, and he is sent to a remote Alaskan island where an encounter with a huge Spirit Bear changes his life.

*Moriarty, Jaclyn. Year of Secret Assignments. Three female students from Ashbury High write to three male students from rival Brookfield High as part of a pen pal program told through journal entries, letters, e-mails, and notes chronicling a year filled with romance, humiliation, revenge plots, and war between the schools.

Mowat, Farley. The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be. BIOGRAPHY. An entertaining story of Mowat’s boyhood and his marvelous Mutt who shared that time with him.

Myracle, Lauren. TTYL. First in the Internet Girl series chronicles, in “instant message” format, the day-to-day experiences, feelings, and plans of three friends, Zoe, Maddie, and Angela, as they begin tenth grade. TTFN and L8r G8r follow in the series.

*Oppel, Kenneth. Airborn. FANTASY. Matt, a young cabin boy aboard an airship, and Kate, a wealthy young girl traveling with her chaperone, team up to search for the existence of mysterious winged creatures reportedly living hundreds of feet above the Earth’s surface. Followed by its sequel, Sykbreaker.

*Paolini, Christopher. Eldest. FANTASY. After successfully evading an Urgals ambush, Eragon is adopted into the Ingeitum clan and sent to finish his training so he can further help the Varden in their struggle against the Empire in this second book in the Inheritance Quartet, following Eragon.

Paterson, Katherine. Jip, His Story. HISTORICAL FICTION. When an aged lunatic named Putnam arrives at a poorhouse farm in rural Vermont in 1855, he is treated as little more than a beast by everyone except the orphan Jip, who himself arrived at the charity orphanage/asylum after being found abandoned by the roadside.

*Pattou, Edith. East. FANTASY. A young woman journeys to a distant castle on the back of a great white bear who is the victim of a cruel enchantment, based on the tale: “East O’ the Sun and West O’ the Moon.”

Paulsen, Gary. Canyons. Finding a skull on a camping trip in the canyons outside El Paso, Texas, Brennan becomes involved with the fate of a young Apache Indian who lived in the late 1800s.

Paulsen, Gary. Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod. NON-FICTION. The author presents an unforgettable account of his participation in the 1,100 mile-long dogsled race called the “Iditarod.” For seventeen days, Paulsen and his team of dogs endured blinding wind, snowstorms, moose attacks, and more–yet relentlessly pushed on to the end.

Peck, Richard. The River Between Us. HISTORICAL FICTION. During the early days of the Civil War, the Pruitt family takes in two mysterious young ladies who have fled New Orleans to come north to Illinois.

Philbrick, W.R. The Last Book in the Universe Is About to Be Destroyed. SCIENCE FICTION. After an earthquake has destroyed much of the planet, an epileptic teenager nicknamed Spaz begins the heroic fight to bring human intelligence back to the Earth of a distant future.

*Plum-Ucci, Carol. The Body or Christopher Creed or The She. SUSPENSE.
The Body of Christopher Creed. Torey Adams, a high school junior with a seemingly perfect life, struggles with doubts and questions surrounding the mysterious disappearance of the class outcast.
The She. Was a shrieking “sea monster” responsible for the disappearance of Evan’s parents long ago? After his parents are lost at sea, Evan Barrett and his older brother leave their seaside home in West Hook to escape bad memories, but years later even worse questions emerge when Evan is asked to help a fellow student deal with another sea-related tragedy.

Powell, Randy. Tribute to Another Dead Rock Star. Grady has been living with his grandmother for the past three years since the overdose of his rock star mother. Now that his grandmother is getting married and he can no longer stay with her, he has to decide if he should study abroad or move in with the family of his mentally retarded half brother Louie. But that poses a problem: Louie’s adoptive mother, Vickie, and Grady are about as compatible as Mozart and heavy metal.

*Ray, Jeanne. Julie and Romeo. Romeo Cacciamani and Julie Roseman are rival florists in Boston, whose families have hated each other for as long as anyone can remember. When these two vital, lonely people see each other across a crowded lobby at a small business owners’ seminar, an intense attraction blooms that neither tries to squelch.

*Rees, Celia. Witch Child. HISTORICAL FICTION. In 1659, fourteen-year-old Mary Newbury keeps a journal of her voyage from England to the New World and her experiences living as a witch in a community of Puritans near Salem, Massachusetts.

Rennison, Louise. Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson. This novel presents the humorous journal of a year in the life of a fourteen-year-old British girl who tries to reduce the size of her nose, stop her mad cat from terrorizing the neighborhood animals, and win the love of handsome hunk Robbie. Many Georgia Nicolson sequels follow.

*Rice, Anne. The Mummy: or, Ramses the Damned. HORROR. In the early 1900′s when an archaeologist discovers a perfectly preserved mummy in a tomb in Cairo, little does he know that the mummy, one Ramses the Great, has consumed an extraordinary potion that makes him immortal; only the powerful rays of the sun are needed to bring him to life. Ramses the Great lives, but having drunk the elixir of life, he is now Ramses the Damned, doomed forever to wander the earth, desperate to quell hungers that can never be satisfied–for food, for wine, for women.

*Rushdie, Salman. Haroun and the Sea of Stories. This is the story of Haroun, a twelve-year-old boy whose father Rashid is the greatest storyteller in a city so sad that it has forgotten its name. When the gift of gab suddenly deserts Rashid, Haroun sets out on an adventure to
rescue his sea of stories.

Salisbury, Graham. Lord of the Deep. Working for his stepfather on a charter fishing boat in Hawaii teaches thirteen-year-old Mikey about fishing, and about taking risks, making sacrifices, and facing some of life’s difficult choices.

Scott, Kieran. I Was a Non-Blonde Cheerleader. As a brunette on the all-blonde cheerleading squad at her new Florida high school, sophomore Annisa Gobrowski tries to fit in with her popular teammates without losing the friendship of Bethany, the only other non-blonde at the school. Followed in the series by Brunettes Strike Back.

*Shaughnessy, Dan. The Curse of the Bambino. NON-FICTION. Written in 1990, this book traces the history of the Boston Red Sox, linking the 1920 trade of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees to a curse that haunted Boston and kept the team from winning any world championships until October 2004.

Slade, Arthur G. Dust or *Tribes.
Dust. MYSTERY. Eleven-year-old Robert is the only one who can help when a mysterious stranger arrives, performing tricks and promising to bring rain, at the same time children begin to disappear from a dust bowl farm town in 1930s Saskatchewan.
*Tribes. Percy and his friend Elissa are fascinated by the ritualistic world called Grade Twelve—including the Jock tribe, the Cool and Detached tribe, and the Lipstick/Hairspray tribe. For Percy, the loss of his father and the suicide of his best friend build to a head during the last week before high school graduation.

Sones, Sonya. Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy. POETRY. A younger sister has a difficult time adjusting to life after her older sister has a mental breakdown.

Springer, Nancy. I Am Mordred. or I am Morgan le Fay: Tales from Camelot. FANTASY.
I Am Mordred When Mordred learns the identity of his father, he struggles with feelings of hatred, but also fights the fate which determines that he kill the good and gracious king.
I Am Morgan le Fay. In a war-torn England where her half-brother Arthur will eventually become king, the young Morgan le Fay comes to realize that she has magic powers and links to the faerie world.

Taylor, Theodore. Lord of the Kill. MYSTERY/SUSPENSE. With his parents in India, sixteen-year-old Ben Jepson is in charge of Los Coyotes Preserve, a refuge for big cats near Los Angeles, when two powerful groups try to shut it down by intimidation, murder, and kidnapping the largest tiger in captivity.

Tingle, Rebecca. Edge on the Sword. HISTORICAL FICTION. In ninth-century Britain, fifteen-year-old Aethelflaed, daughter of King Alfred of West Saxony, finds she must assume new responsibilities much sooner than expected when she is betrothed to Ethelred of Mercia in order to strengthen a strategic alliance against the Danes.

Trueman, Terry. Stuck in Neutral. Fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel, who suffers from severe cerebral palsy and cannot function, relates his perceptions of his life, his family, and his condition, especially as he believes his father is planning to kill him.

Van Draanen, Wendelin. Flipped. In alternating chapters, two teenagers describe how their feelings about themselves, each other, and their families have changed over the years.

Warren, Andrea. Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps. NON-FICTION. Experience the horrors of Blechhammer concentration camp through the eyes of twelve-year-old Jack Mandelbaum, who was separated from the rest of his family in 1939.

*Weis, Margaret. Dragons of Autumn Twilight. FANTASY. An unlikely band of heroes must battle terrifying dragons in order to restore balance to their lives and to their world. Book one of The Dragonlance Chronicles.

Werlin, Nancy. Black Mirror or The Killer’s Cousin. SUSPENSE.
Black Mirror. Convinced her brother’s death was murder rather than suicide, sixteen-year-old Frances begins her own investigation into suspicious student activities.
The Killer’s Cousin. After being acquitted of murder, seventeen-year-old David goes to stay with relatives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he finds himself forced to face his past as he learns more about his strange young cousin Lily.

*Westerfeld, Jack. Peeps or Uglies. FANTASY.
Peeps. Cal Thompson is a carrier of a parasite that causes vampirism, and must hunt down all of the girlfriends he has unknowingly infected.
Uglies. Just before their sixteenth birthdays, when they will be transformed into beauties whose only job is to have a great time, Tally’s best friend runs away and Tally must find her and turn her in, or never become pretty at all. Issues of betrayal, honesty, free will, and Western ideas of beauty are explored in this dystopian adventure. 1st in Uglies Trilogy.

Whitney, Kim Ablon. See You Down the Road. Sixteen-year-old Bridget, member of an Irish Traveller community in the United States, questions the traditions of her family’s nomadic and criminal way of life and begins to wonder if she wants to continue living it. This novel looks at ethics from a whole different angle.

Williams-Garcia, Rita. Fast Talk on a Slow Track. Fast-talking and quick-thinking, city kid Denzel Watson finds his street smarts put to the test when he spends the summer at Princeton University before his school year there and wonders if he has what it takes.

*Wooding, Chris. Poison. FANTASY. When Poison leaves her home in the marshes of Gull to retrieve the infant sister who was snatched by the fairies, she and a group of unusual friends survive encounters with the inhabitants of various Realms, and Poison herself confronts a surprising destiny.

*Yolen, Jane. Armageddon Summer or Briar Rose.
Armageddon Summer. Fourteen-year-old Marina and sixteen-year-old Jed accompany their parents’ religious cult, the Believers, to await the end of the world atop a remote mountain, where they try to decide what they themselves believe. Written with Bruce Coville.
Briar Rose. A powerful and moving retelling of the story of Sleeping Beauty as a Holocaust memoir.