*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, Nights of War.

*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.

Caine, Rachel. Glass Houses. FANTASY. Peer pressure sucks. So do vampires. In Morganville, Texas, a town where evil terrorizes the streets under the cover of darkness, Claire Danvers, who has had enough of her current dorm situation, moves off campus and discovers that her new roommates have some serious problems with vampires. First in Morganville Vampire Series, followed by The Dead Girls’ Dance. If you liked Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, give this a try.

*Caletti, Deb. Wild Roses. In Washington State, seventeen-year-old Cassie learns about the good and bad sides of both love and genius while living with her mother and brilliant-yet-disturbed, violinist stepfather and falling in love with a gifted young musician.

*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. Some profane and crude language.

*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.

*Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. SCIENCE FICTION. In this page-turner, in a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss’s skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister’s place. Followed in the series by Catching Fire.

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.

*Dessen, Sarah. Just Listen. Isolated from friends who believe the worst because she has not been truthful with them, sixteen-year-old Annabel finds an ally in classmate Owen, whose honesty and passion for music help her to face and share what really happened at the end-of-the-year party that changed her life.

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

*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.

Gaiman, Neil. Death, The High Cost of Living. GRAPHIC NOVEL. THIS TITLE IS NOT A CHOICE FOR STUDENTS TAKING AP OR HONORS ENGLISH. Death (in the guise of a hot Goth chick) arrives just in time to save a teenager contemplating suicide and they end up searching New York City to find a witch’s heart. Illustrated by Chris Bachalo & Mark Buckingham. Part of Gaiman’s Sandman series.

*Gallagher, Tim. Falcon Fever: A Falconer in the Twenty-first Century. NON-FICTION. The author shares his lifelong obsession with falcons, discusses the subculture of individuals involved in falconry, and explores the role of the sport in providing him with emotional solace in response to his turbulent childhood.

*Godbersen, Anna. The Luxe. HISTORICAL FICTION. In Manhattan in 1899, five teens of different social classes lead dangerously scandalous lives, despite the strict rules of society and the best-laid plans of parents and others. First in The Luxe series, followed by Rumors. For fans of the The Gossip Girls.

Golding, Julia. The Diamond of Drury Lane. HISTORICAL MYSTERY. Orphan Catherine “Cat” Royal, living at the Drury Lane Theater in 1790s London, tries to find the “diamond” supposedly hidden in the theater, which unmasks a treasonous political cartoonist and involves her in the street gangs of Covent Garden and the world of nobility. This debut is the first in the Cat Royal Quartet, followed by Cat Among the Pigeons.

*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. Book of a Thousand Days FANTASY.
Through a diary format, the reader learns about 15-year-old Dashti, sworn to obey her 16-year-old mistress, the Lady Saren, as she shares Saren’s years of punishment locked in a tower, then brings her safely to the lands of her true love, where both must hide who they are as they work as kitchen maids. Especially appealing to fans of Ella Enchanted.

*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. No Limit (also titled Stone Cold ).This is a gripping story about a sixteen-year-old card shark who ends up owning the world but losing his soul. Followed by All-In.

*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.

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 & Crocodile Tears.

Hughes, Dean. Soldier Boys HISTORICAL FICTION. Two boys, one German and one American, are eager to join their respective armies during World War II, and their paths cross at the Battle of the Bulge. This story is told through each boy’s different point of view.

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.

*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.

*Kreidler, Mark. Six Good Innings: How One Small Town became a Little League Giant. NON-FICTION. Describes the popularity of Little League Baseball in Toms River, NY, and the relationship the team has with the town.

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. Hard to Find or Buy.

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. Fanboy, a fifteen-year-old “geek,” keeps a list of the high school jocks and others who torment him and pours his energy into creating a great graphic novel. When he encounters Kyra, “Goth Girl,” she 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. Hard to Find or Buy.

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.

*Marr, Melissa. Wicked Lovely. FANTASY. Seventeen-year-old Aislinn, who has the rare ability to see faeries, is drawn against her will into a centuries-old battle between the Summer King and Winter Queen, and the survival of her life, her love, and summer all hang in the balance. If you liked Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, give this a try.

*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.

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.

Murdock, Catherine Gilbert. Dairy Queen. After spending her summer running the family farm and training the quarterback for her school’s rival football team, sixteen-year-old D.J. decides to go out for the sport herself, not anticipating the reactions of those around her.

*Myers, Walter Dean. Fallen Angels or *Sunrise Over Fallujah.
Fallen Angels. Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school, enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.
Sunrise Over Fallujah. Robin Perry, from Harlem, is sent to Iraq in 2003 as a member of the Civilian Affairs Battalion, and his time there profoundly changes 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 and preceding Brisingr.

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 of 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.

*Roberts, Selena. A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriquez. BIOGRAPHY. Documents the life and controversial career of the baseball star, including his childhood in NY and the Dominican Republic, his rise to stardom with the Seattle Mariners, his record-breaking contract, his marriage, his relationships with Madonna, and the revelation he used performance-enhancing drugs. Some profane and crude language.

*Russell, Bill, with Alan Steinberg. Red and Me: My Coach, My Lifelong Friend. NON-FICTION. The basketball legend presents a tribute of Boston Celtic coach Red Auerbach that describes how their collaborative efforts transcended race and cultural barriers to help establish the Celtic’s impressive record while also creating an enduring friendship.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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. Hard to Find or Buy.

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.

*Zimniuch, Fran. Crooked: A History of Cheating in Sports. NON-FICTION. The author provides an anecdotal survey of various types of dishonesty that have gone on in sports from the Olympics of ancient Greece to New England Patriots Spygate scandal in this well researched and timely book.

Categories: Book Buzz,Booklists,School Reading Lists,Young Adult Booklists