Anderson, Laurie; Speak! A traumatic event near the
end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year
in high school.
Averill, Thomas Fox; Secrets of the Tsil Cafe. A
bittersweet and often funny coming-of-age story set in a
cross-cultural and extended family that lives between two kitchens-one
traditional, the other New World. Good book, includes great recipes!
Fitch, Janet; White Oleander. An only child of a
single mother and talented poet, Astrid watches her mother intimidate
and manipulate men with her beauty. Astrid loves her mother and the
world they share full of ritual and mystery, but this life is
shattered when Astrid's mother, upset with her lover, kills him and is
sentenced to life in prison.
Brooks, Martha; True Confessions of a Heartless Girl.
A confused seventeen-year-old girl, a single mother and her young son,
two elderly women, and a sad and lonely man, with their own individual
tragedies to bear, come together in a small Manitoba town and find a
way to a better future.
Crutcher, Chris; Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes. A
confused seventeen-year-old girl, a single mother and her young son,
two elderly women, and a sad and lonely man, with their own individual
tragedies to bear, come together in a small Manitoba town and find a
way to a better future.
Dessen, Sarah; Dreamland. After her older sister runs
away, sixteen-year-old Caitlin decides that she needs to make a major
change in her own life and begins an abusive relationship with a boy
who is mysterious, brilliant, and dangerous.
Draper, Sharon; Forged by Fire. Gerald and Angel,
brother and sister, grow up together as each other’s only hope,
through abuse, fire and unforgivable secrets.
Flake, Sharon; The Skin I’m In. Maleeka is teased
and bullied about what she wears and how she looks, but wins through
with the help of a teacher facing demons of her own.
Fleischman, Paul; Whirligig. While traveling to each
corner of the country to build a whirligig (merry-go-round) in memory
of the girl whose death he causes, sixteen-year-old Brian finds
forgiveness and atonement.
Fleischman, Paul; Seedfolks. One by one, a number of
people of varying ages and backgrounds transform a trash-filled
inner-city lot into a productive and beautiful garden, and in doing
so, the gardeners are themselves transformed.
Flinn, Alexandria; Breathing Underwater. Sent to
counseling for hitting his girlfriend, Caitlin, and ordered to keep a
journal, sixteen-year-old Nick recounts his relationship with Caitlin,
examines his controlling behavior and anger, and describes living with
his abusive father.
Grimes, Nikki; Jazmin’s Notebook. Jazmin shares her
thoughts and views of the world from the front stoop of her 1960’s
Harlem apartment building, a place shared by numbers runners, an
alcoholic mother and all the potential happiness possible in the mind
of a fourteen-year-old girl.
Going, K.L.; Fat Kid Rules the World.
Seventeen-year-old Troy, depressed, suicidal, and weighing nearly 300
pounds, gets a new perspective on life when a homeless teenager who is
a genius on guitar wants Troy to be the drummer in his rock band. ,
Henkes, Kevin; Olive's Ocean. On a summer visit to
her grandmother's cottage by the ocean, twelve-year-old Martha gains
perspective on the death of a classmate, on her relationship with her
grandmother, on her feelings for an older boy, and on her plans to be
a writer.
Hewett, Lorri; Lives of Our Own. When Shawna moves
from Denver to a small town in Georgia, she is unprepared for the
casual segregation existing within the school. Rather than accept it,
she challenges it and becomes a target.
Hewett, Lorri; Soulfire. What are your choices and
what do others have the right to expect from you? Todd Williams lives
in the projects and sees clearly, in his friends and family, what
choices he has.
Johnson, Angela; First Part Last. Bobby's carefree
teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care
for his adored baby daughter.
Johnson, Angela; Heaven. Fourteen-year-old Marley
suddenly discovers that the parents and brother she’s known all her
life are not what she thought, but that love makes a place for
everyone in her life.
Mackler, Carolyn; The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round
Things. Feeling like she does not fit in with the other
members of her family, who are all thin, brilliant, and good-looking,
fifteen-year-old Virginia tries to deal with her self-image, her first
physical relationship, and her disillusionment with some of the people
closest to her.
Mowry, Jess; Babylon Boyz. Three friends, including
one who requires an expensive heart operation, try to choose between
temptation and truth when they find money which appears to be missing
from a neighborhood drug dealer’s profits.
Myers, Walter Dean; Monster. While on trial as an
accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his
experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film
script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has
taken.
Mikaelsen, Ben; Petey. Petey's mind works just fine,
but cerebral palsy prevents anyone from knowing it and he is sent to a
mental institution. No one takes time to know him, until he is an old
man and meets Trevor.
Quarles, Heather; A Door Near Here.
Fifteen-year-old Katherine tries to keep her brothers and sisters
together, and the rest of the world from interfering, in the face of
her mother's alcoholism.
Randle, Kristen; The Only Alien on the Planet. Ginny
is new in town and finds she can fit in by focusing on the Alien, a
smart kid in her class who hasn't spoken since a mysterious accident
years before.
Rennison, Louise; Angus, Thongs,and Full-Frontal Snogging.
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.
Rodowsky, Colby; Remembering Mog. It's time for
Annie to graduate but she can't get past the memory of her sister
Mog's death two years ago, on the eve of her own high school
graduation.
Rubio, Gwyn Hyman. Icy Sparks: A Novel. This sad,
yet funny tale revolves around young girl named Icy Sparks. Set in
the mountains of Eastern Kentucky during the 1950's, the story is
about a curious child orphaned as a baby but raised by adoring
grandparents. She begins to have strange experiences. Try as she
might, her "secrets"—verbal croaks, groans, and physical spasms—keep
afflicting her.
Shihab, Naomi Nye; Habibi. When
fourteen-year-old Liyanne Abboud, her younger brother, and her parents
move from St. Louis to a new home between Jerusalem and the
Palestinian village where her father was born, they face many changes
and must deal with the tensions between Jews and Palestinians.
Soto, Gary; Buried Onions. After the death of his
cousin, Eddie's aunt is pushing him to find and punish the people who
did it. Life expectancy isn't high in his neighborhood and all Eddie
really wants is a future.
Southgate, Martha; Another Way to Dance. Delacorte.
Vicki Harris is seeing her dream come true: a summer’s training at the
New York School of American Ballet. But the different in her vision
and the reality of being the "other chip in the cookie" quickly change
her perceptions of what she should strive to be.
Spinelli, Jerry; Stargirl. In this story about the
perils of popularity, the courage of nonconformity, and the thrill of
first love, an eccentric student named Stargirl changes Mica High
School forever.
Staples, Suzanne Fisher; Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind.
When eleven-year old Shabanu, the daughter of a nomad in the
Cholistan Desert of present-day Pakistan, is pledged in marriage to an
older man whose money will bring prestige to the family, she must
either accept the decision, as is the custom, or risk the consequences
of defying her father's wishes.
Staples, Suzanne Fisher; Haveli. Having relented to
the ways of her people in Pakistan and married the rich older man to
whom she was pledged against her will, Shabanu is now the victim of
his family's blood feud and the malice of his other wives. Sequel to "Shabanu,
Daughter of the Wind."
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.
Wittlinger, Ellen; Hard Love. As she starts middle
school, Bess volunteers to work on the school musical in hopes of
fitting in, but when she and a friend get to know an elderly homeless
woman, Bess changes her mind about what is really important.
Woodson, Jacqueline; From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun.
In a world where acceptance is never easy, Melanin Sun must find a way
to forgive and accept his mother when she shares some long-held
secrets.
Woodson, Jacqueline; If You Come Softly. Love comes
unexpectedly, gently, and tragically, to teens Elisha and Jeremiah.
Wolff, Virginia Euwer; Make Lemonade. In small town,
post-World War Oregon, twenty-one 6th grade girls recount the story of
an annual softball game, during which one girl's bigotry comes to the
surface.
Bauer, Joan Rules of the Road. Jenna Boller’s new
Illinois driver’s license might help her get away from family
troubles, but she never thought it would mean a crazy road trip with
the Gladstone Shoe Company president and a chance to team up with the
world’s greatest shoe salesman to save an old lady’s company.
Creech, Sharon; Bloomability. Thirteen-year-old
Dinnie’s life becomes an eye-opening wonder when she moves to Lugano,
Switzerland, where she goes to an international school run by her
Uncle Max and Aunt Sandy.
Keller, Beverly; Amazon Papers. Fifteen-year-old Iris
finds first love and broken toes when her mother goes away for
vacation.
Koertge, Ron; Confess-O-Rama. Four weddings
and four funerals later, Tony and his mom are rebuilding their lives.
Again.
Korman, Gorman; Losing Joe's Place. Jason and his
two friends move into Jason's brother's apartment and manage to wreak
havoc in it during one funny and memorable summer.
Krisher, Trudy. Kinship. Pert Wilson wished hard for
her daddy to come back to Happy Trails, the trailer park where she
lives with her mom and brother. He appears, with presents and pocket
money, but all the neighbors are after him and it looks as though they
might be right.
Lynch, Chris; Slot Machine. Christian Brothers
Academy Retreat Center offers no summer break for Elvin Bishop, as he
finds himself ‘slotted’ into one sport after another in a futile (if
funny) attempt to fit in.
Lynch, Chris; Extreme Elvin. Elvin is at it again as
he moves into ninth grade and discovers first love, hemorrhoids and
the horrors of clothes shopping at Big & Tall.
Pevsner, Stella; Would My Fortune Cookie Lie?.
Alexis is having a tough year: her parents are separating; a stranger
seems to be following her friend Suzy; and there is talk of moving
from their cozy Chicago condo to a suburb somewhere.
Pinkwater, Daniel. The Education of Robert Nifkin.
Robert Nifkin’s college admissions essay spares no hilarious
detail of his adventures at Chicago’s Riverview High, where biology
teachers spend classes quaking in coat closets and a math teacher may
remind you of Boris Karloff.
Powell, Randy; Whistling Toilets. Stan’s best friend
tennis star Ginny is experiencing a slump and Stan is hired to get her
ready for an upcoming tournament. Frankly, Stan’s not feeling that
confident himself.
Smith, Roland; Sasquatch. Dylan’s father is always
getting over-involved in strange schemes, but this one involving a
millennium cult throws them both into a close relationship with a very
hairy stranger.
Thomas, Rob; Rats Saw God. Steve York commits
his four years of high school to paper; complete with his father (The
Famous Astronaut), the best and worst of love (Dear Dub), and a chance
to make the perfect statement.
Thomas, Rob; Satellite Down. Patrick Sheridan
never paid much attention to his good looks. When he gets a chance to
leave Doggert to work for a teen television news show in LA, he
discovers that his writing abilities had nothing to do with getting
the job and that news is the least of the show’s concerns.
Thompson, Julian; Philo Fortune’s Awesome Journey to His
Comfort Zone. After finishing high school, Philo
Fortune just hasn’t found the job that’s going to net him a cool
$500,000 a year. He takes to the road to see America and find the
answer to his fortune.
Trembath, Don; Tuesday Cafe. A judge orders
Harper Winslow to write a 2,000 word composition about turning his
life around, never thinking that the resulting writing practice will
put his life right back into jeopardy from a town bully who has been
lampooned in Harper’s high school newspaper column.
Adventure, Sports, Mysteries,
Supernatural, Horror
Adventure
Bunting, Eve; Jumping the Nail. When teenagers in a
California coastal community challenge each other to "Jump the
Nail"--leap from dangerous cliffs into the ocean--group pressure and
manipulative relationships quickly drive the game out of control.
Conney, Caroline E.; Flight #116 is Down. A teenage
girl in her isolated home and a struggling firefighter find their own
inner heroes when a plane crashes into the girl's backyard.
Cormier, Robert; Heros. A psychological thriller
told from the points of view of a teenage serial killer and the
runaway girl who falls in love with him.
Gordon, Donald R.; The Rock Candy Bandits. Moustapha
and his bandit band members kidnap Sergeant Patricia of the Royal
Prosperian Flying Desert Corps and their camel Sobersides and threaten
to turn Sobersides into camel stew for a feast if a ransom of rock
candies is not paid. Corps members hurry to Fort Mischief, the bandit
headquarters, on a rescue mission.
Hesse, Karen; Stowaway. A fictionalized journal
relates the experiences of a young stowaway from 1768 to 1771 aboard
the Endeavor which sailed around the world under Captain James Cook.
Horowitz, Alex; Scorpia. After being told that his
father was an assassin for a criminal organization, fourteen-year-old
Alex Rider goes to Italy to find out more and becomes involved in a
plan to kill thousands of English schoolchildren (Alex Rider adventure
series).
Horowitz, Alex; Eagle Strike. After a chance
encounter with assassin Yassen Gregorovich in the South of France,
teenage spy Alex Rider investigates international pop star and
philanthropist Damian Cray whose new video game venture hides sinister
motives involving Air Force One, nuclear missiles, and the
international drug trade. (Alex Rider adventure series).
Lawrence, Iain; The Wreckers. Shipwrecked after a
vicious storm, fourteen-year-old John Spencer attempts to save his
father and himself while also dealing with an evil secret about the
English coastal town where they are stranded.
Lloyd, Alexander. The Illyrian Adventure. On a visit
to a remote European kingdom in 1872, a fearless sixteen-year-old
orphan and her guardian research an ancient legend and become enmeshed
in a dangerous rebellion.
Myers, Walter Dean; The Nicholas Factor. College
freshman Gerald McQuillen is recruited by a government agent to
infiltrate an elitist international student society suspected of
right-wing extremist tendencies.
Sports
Crutcher, Chris; Whale Talk. Despite his
obvious talent for football and basketball, an athletic teenager
chooses to form school misfits into a swim team.
Dygard, Thomas J.; Tournament Upstart. Under
the leadership of their new young coach, a Class B high school
basketball team from the Ozark foothills challenges big-city schools
for the state championship. : Writes sports fiction. Popular with boys
Dygard, Thomas J.; Second Stringer. When Kevin
replaces the quarterback and football hero who suffers a knee injury,
the second stringer needs to prove that he can do the job and is not
just a substitute.
Lipsyte, Robert; The Contender. After a
successful start in a boxing career, a Harlem high school dropout
decides that competing in the ring isn't enough of life and resolves
to aim for different goals.
Lipsyte, Robert; Warrior Angel. Native
American boxer of the Moscondaga Nation, Sonny Bear must fight to
retain his heavyweight championship title.
Myers, Walter Dean; Slam. A coming-of-age story of
seventeen-year-old "Slam," aka Greg Harris, who looks upon his
basketball talent as a way to get out of Harlem.
Wallace, Rich; Wrestling Sturbridge. Stuck in a small
town where no one ever leaves and relegated by his wrestling coach to
sit on the bench while his best friend becomes state champion, Ben
decides he can't let his last high school wrestling season slip by
without challenging his friend and the future.
Wallace, Rich; Technical Foul. Jared, a high-scoring
member of the Hudson City Middle School basketball team, gets angry
when the point guard accuses him of being responsible for their string
of losses, but finally realizes they can win only if he becomes a team
player.
Mystery
Bennett, Jay; The Skeleton Man. When
his Uncle Ed commits suicide, after giving him $30,000 for his
eighteenth birthday, Ray receives mysterious death threats and becomes
involved in a dangerous sequence of events.
Bethancourt, T. Ernesto; Doris Fein, Legacy of Terror.
Having inherited fifteen million dollars, Doris goes to
Chicago to meet with a man who claims to be the real heir to the
fortune, only to be kidnapped and involved with the most sinister
members of organized crime.
Cormier, Robert; Tenderness. A psychological
thriller told from the points of view of a teenage serial killer and
the runaway girl who falls in love with him.
Giberga, Jane Sughrue; Friends to Die For.
Sixteen-year-old Cristina is forced to evaluate her sophisticated
world of elegant New York apartments, private schools, and rich
friends when a girl she knows is murdered after a party they both
attended.
MacGregor, Rob; Prophecy Rock. High school senior
Will Lansa plans on spending a quiet summer on the Hopi reservation
with his police chief father. A murder and a few questions later, Will
finds himself a possible victim. Sequel: Hawk Moon.
Nixon, Joan Lower; Who are You? Delacorte,
Wealthy recluse Douglas Merson is dead and the police come to see high
school student Kristi Evans and her family because Merson had a thick
file on Kristi. What, if anything, did she have to do with his
schemes?
Plum-Ucci, Carol; 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.
Qualey, Marsha; Close to a Killer. Seventeen-year-old
Barrie finds herself involved in a string of murders that are somehow
connected to her mother's hair salon.
Qualey, Marsha; Thin Ice. Seventeen-year-old Arden
is suddenly an orphan when the police notify her that her brother’s
snowmobile has been found at the bottom of the river. Arden doesn’t
think he’s really dead at all.
St. George; Judith; Do You See What I See? A
seventeen-year-old, unhappy over his family's move to Cape Cod and
irritated by his classmates' attitude towards protecting the
environment, becomes convinced that a neighbor has murdered his wife.
Strasser, Todd; The Accident. After four of his
friends leave a beer party and suffer a fatal accident,
eighteen-year-old Matt senses something peculiar about the police
investigation and suspects a cover-up to hide the identity of who was
really responsible for the accident.
Vande-Velde, Vivian; Never Trust A Dead Man. Wrongly
convicted of murder and punished by being sealed in the tomb with the
dead man, seventeen-year-old Selwyn enlists the help of a witch and
the resurrected victim to find the true killer.
Werlin, Nancy; 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.
Supernatural & Horror
Anderson, M.T.; Thirsty. 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.
Atwater-Rhodes, Amelia; Demon in my View.
Seventeen-year-old Jessica Allodola discovers that the vampire world
of her fiction is real when she develops relationships with an
alluring vampire named Aubrey and the teenage witch who is trying to
save Jessica from his clutches.
Bradbury, Ray; Something Wicked This Way Comes. It
all begins when a lightning rod salesman appears one evening and
insists that Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade take one of his
contraptions covered with mystical protection symbols. Later, the boys
look on as an eerie carnival rolls into town, and mysterious and
sinister events take place. But what they witness on the carousel is
enough to send them running.
Bruchac, Joseph; The Dark Pond. A mysterious force
pulls Armie toward a dark, shadowy pond deep in the woods. Native
American tales offer clues about the monster lurking beneath the
surface.
Fleischman, Paul; A Fate Totally Worse Than Death.
In this horror novel parody, three self-centered members of Cliffside
High School's ruling clique, who are beginning to age rapidly, become
convinced that the beautiful new exchange student is the ghost of the
girl whose death they caused the year before.
Gaimon, Niel; Coraline. Looking for excitement,
Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is
similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must
challenge a gruesome entity in order to save herself, her parents, and
the souls of three others.
Hahn, Mary Downing; Look for Me by Moonlight. Lonely
and unsure of her place in her father's new family, Cynda is
responsive to the attentiveness of the mysterious and sophisticated
Vincent Morthanos, who turns out to be a vampire.
Jackson, Shirley; The Haunting. The four visitors at
Hill House - some there for knowledge, others for adventure - are
unaware that the old mansion will soon choose one of them to make its
own.
Klause, Annette Curtis; Blood and Chocolate. Having
fallen for a human boy, a beautiful teenage werewolf must battle both
her packmates and the fear of the townspeople to decide where she
belongs and with whom.
Smith, L.J.; Soulmate. Hannah's life is just fine
until she starts receiving notes threatening her, written in her own
handwriting. Thierry, Lord of the Night World, is hunting Hannah
because he believes she is his soulmate.
Sleater, William; The Boy Who Couldn't Die. When his
best friend dies in a plane crash, sixteen-year-old Ken has a ritual
performed that will make him invulnerable, but soon learns that he had
good reason to be suspicious of the woman he paid to lock his soul
away.
Sweeney, Joyce; Shadow. Despite her family's
disbelief, Sarah knows she senses and sees Shadow, her dead cat. Sarah
soon learns that she is right, and that she can see the future but can
not change it. Now she must watch her nightmares come true.
Wallace, Rich; Restless: A Ghost's Story. Frank, a
teenaged ghost who has not been able to move on to a higher realm in
the afterlife, tries to connect with his younger brother Herbie, a
high school senior who was eight years old when Frank died.
Westall, Robert; The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral.
Soon after steeplejack Joe Clarke begins work on one of the spires of
Muncaster's medieval cathedral, terrible things start to happen and
Joe realizes that there is a malevolent force connected to the spire's
gargoyle.
Windsor, Patricia; Blooding. While spending the
summer working as an au pair girl for a couple in England, Maris
discovers that the husband is a werewolf intent on blooding her and
making her one too.
Zindel, Paul; Reef of Death. In Australia, P.C.
McPhee and his uncle are in a fight for their lives against a sinister
geologist. All are trying to find buried treasure guarded by a vicious
reef monster. Winners take all, and the losers may die.
Fantasy
Almond, David; Skellig. Unhappy about his baby
sister's illness and the chaos of moving into a dilapidated old house,
Michael retreats to the garage and finds a mysterious stranger who is
something like a bird and something like an angel.
Bull, Emma; War for the Oaks. A fantasy classic in
which rock guitarist Edie McCandry is recruited to inject a bit of
humanity into the ancient war between the Fairie courts.
Duane, Diane; So You Want to be a Wizard.
Thirteen-year-old Nita, tormented by a gang of bullies because she
won't fight back, finds the help she needs in a library book on
wizardry which guides her into another dimension.
Ferris, Jean; Once Upon a Marigold. A young man with
a mysterious past and a penchant for inventing things leaves the troll
who raised him, meets an unhappy princess he has loved from afar, and
discovers a plot against her and her father.
Le Guin, Ursula K; A Wizard of Earthsea. The young
boy Sparrowhawk becomes apprentice to a Master Wizard and comes to
realize that his fate may be far more important than he ever dreamed
possible. Sequels: Tehanu and others.
Nix, Garth; Mister Monday. Arthur Penhaligon is
supposed to die at a young age, but is saved by a key that is shaped
like the minute hand of a clock. The key causes bizarre creatures to
come from another realm, bringing with them a plague. A man named
Mister Monday will stop at nothing to get the key back. Arthur goes to
a mysterious house that only he can see, so that he can learn the
truth about himself and the key.
Prachett, Terry; Guards! Guards! Long believed
extinct, a superb specimen of draco nobilis (noble dragon) has
appeared in Discworld's greatest city. Not only does this unwelcome
visitor have a nasty habit of charbroiling everything in its path, in
rather short order it is crowned King. Sequels: Moving
Pictures, The Truth: A Novel of Discworld and others.
Pullman, Philip; The Golden Compass. Accompanied by
her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and
other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome
experiments in the Far North.
Wrede, Patricia; Dealing with Dragons. Bored with
traditional palace life, a princess goes off to live with a group of
dragons and soon becomes involved with fighting against some
disreputable wizards who want to steal away the dragons' kingdom.
Yep, Laurence; Dragon War and Dragon of the Lost Seas.
Shimmer, a renegade dragon princess, tries to redeem herself by
capturing a witch with the help of a human boy.
Science Fiction
Anderson, M.T.; Feed. In a future where most people
have computer implants in their heads to control their environment, a
boy meets an unusual girl who is in serious trouble.
Bell, Hilari; A Matter of Profit. Sick of the
horrors of conquering beings on other planets, Ahvrem will end his
service as a soldier and save his sister from an unhappy marriage if
he can discover who is behind a rumored plot to assassinate the
Emperor.
Card, Orson Scott; Ender’s Game. Child-hero
Ender Wiggin must fight a desperate battle against a deadly alien race
if mankind is to survive.
Christopher, John; When the Tripods Came.
Fourteen-year-old Laurie and his family attempt to flee England when
the Tripods descend from outer space and begin brainwashing everyone
with their hypnotic Caps.
Colfer, Eoin; Armetis Fowl. When a twelve-year-old
evil genius tries to restore his family fortune by capturing a fairy
and demanding a ransom in gold, the fairies fight back with magic,
technology, and a particularly nasty troll. Sequels:
Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident, Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code,
and Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception.
Dickerson, Peter; Eva. A girl who wakes up from a
car accident to discover her brain has been transferred into a chimp's
body in order to keep her alive
Farmer, Nancy; The House of the Scorpion.
In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as
the young clone of El Patrón, the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt
drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson; Running Out of Time. When
a diphtheria epidemic hits her 1840 village, thirteen-year-old Jessie
discovers it is actually a 1995 tourist site under unseen observation
by heartless scientists, and it's up to Jessie to escape the village
and save the lives of the dying children.
Hautman, Peter; Mr. Was. After his dying grandfather
tries to strangle him, Jack Lund discovers a door that leads him fifty
years into the past and involves him in events that determine his own
future.
Lubar, David: Hidden Talents. Edgeview
Alternative School is the end of the line for kids who can't cut it in
regular schools because of behavioral problems. Martin Anderson has an
uncanny knack for irritating everyone he comes in contact with until
he hooks up with the misfits in a boarding school full of misfits.
They all have hidden talents.
Paulsen, Gary; The Time Hackers. When someone uses
futuristic technology to play pranks on twelve-year-old Dorso Clayman,
he and his best friend set off on a supposedly impossible journey
through space and time trying to stop the gamesters who are
endangering the universe.
Philbrick, W.R.; The Last Book In the Universe.
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.
Sleater, William; Parasite Pig. Sixteen-year-old
Barney, infected by an alien parasite, and his friend Katie are taken
to the planet J'koot by extraterrestrials intent on playing the
dangerous game known as Interstellar Pig.
Weaver, Will; Memory Boy: A Novel. Sixteen-year-old
Miles and his family must flee their Minneapolis home and begin a new
life in the wilderness after a chain of cataclysmic volcanic
explosions creates dangerous conditions in their city.
Alvarez, Julia; Before We Were Free. In the early
1960s in the Dominican Republic, twelve-year-old Anita learns that her
family is involved in the underground movement to end the bloody rule
of the dictator, General Trujillo.
Anderson, Laurie Halse; Fever 1793. In 1793
Philadelphia, sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook, separated from her sick
mother, learns about perseverance and self-reliance when she is forced
to cope with the horrors of a yellow fever epidemic.
Bunting, Eve; S.O.S. Titanic. 15-year-old Barry
O’Neill is traveling from Ireland to New York to meet his parents,
unfortunately, he is traveling on the Titanic. Through Barry we see
the injustice of the class system that ultimately doomed most of the
steerage passengers.
Burks, Brian; Walks Alone. After a surprise attack
leaves many of her people dead, fifteen-year-old Walks Alone, an
Apache girl wounded in the massacre, struggles to survive and rejoin
the refugee band.
Calvert, Patricia; Bigger. When his father disappears
near the Mexican border at the end of the Civil War, twelve-year-old
Tyler decides to go after him and bring him home, acquiring on the
journey a strange dog which he names Bigger.
Crowe, Chris; Mississippi Trial. In Mississippi in
1955, a sixteen-year-old finds himself at odds with his grandfather
over issues surrounding the kidnapping and murder of a
fourteen-year-old African American from Chicago.
Cushman, Karen: Rodzina. A twelve-year-old Polish
American girl is boarded onto an orphan train in Chicago with fears
about traveling to the West and a life of unpaid slavery.
Kerr, M.E.; Slap Your Sides: A Novel. 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.
Lasky, Kathryn; True North. Because of the strong
influence which her grandfather, an abolitionist, has in her life,
fourteen-year-old Lucy assists a fugitive slave girl in her escape.
Levitin, Sonia; The Cure. This book represents a
hybrid between historical fiction and science fiction. An interesting
and intriguing book. A sixteen-year-old boy living in 2407 collides
with the past when he finds himself in Strasbourg in 1348 confronting
the anti-Semitism that sweeps through Europe during the Black Plague.
Meyer, Carolyn; Where the Broken Heart Still Beats.
Having been taken as a child and raised by Comanche Indians,
thirty-four-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker is forcibly returned to her
white relatives, where she longs for her Indian life and her only
friend is her twelve-year-old cousin Lucy. This is a very emotional
book.
Myers, Walter Dean; 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.
Patterson, Katherine; Lyddie.
Impoverished Vermont farm girl Lyddie
Worthen is determined to gain her independence by becoming a factory
worker in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1840s
Peck, Richard; The River Between Us. 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.
Pennebaker, Ruth; Don't Think Twice. Pregnant
eighteen-year-old Anne finds a different world when she comes to stay
at a home for unwed mothers in 1960's Texas.
Rall, Ted; To Afghanistan and Back: A Graphic Travelogue.
A politically liberal cartoonist/columnist creatively combines
narrative and graphics to detail his dangerous 2001 trip to
Afghanistan.
Rinaldi, Ann; Hang A Thousand Trees with Ribbons.
Keziah is pulled from her homeland and becomes a slave for the
Wheatley family in America. She is educated and encouraged to write
her poetry. Although she will die a free woman in a pauper’s grave at
age 30, she will also become America’s first published Black poet.
Taylor, Mildred; The Land.
After the Civil War Paul, the son of a
white father and a black mother, finds himself caught between the two
worlds of colored folks and white folks as he pursues his dream of
owning land of his own.
Taylor, Mildred; Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. A
black family living in the South during the 1930's are faced with
prejudice and discrimination which their children don't understand.
Westall, Robert; Blitzcat. During World War II, a
black cat journeys all across war-ravaged England in an effort to
track down her beloved master.
Alexander, Caroline; The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary
Antarctic Expedition. In the summer of 1914, explorer Ernest
Shackleton and a crew of 27 left England for the South Pole. An
unbelievable story of survival, they lost their ship, spent a winter
on the ice, and had to eat their dogs. They sailed hundreds of miles
of the most hostile seas on earth in small, open boats. All survived.
The Endurance uses the words and images of the expedition members
themselves to re-create the 22 months the men spent stranded in
Antarctica.
Allen, Thomas B.; George Washington, Spymaster: How the
Americans Outspied the British and Won the Revolutionary War.
Did you know that George Washington was the James Bond of his day? A
biography of Revolutionary War general and first President of the
United States, George Washington, focusing on his use of spies to
gather intelligence that helped the colonies win the war.
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell; Black Potatoes: The Story of the
Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850. In 1845, a mysterious blight
attacked Ireland's potato crops, turning the potatoes black and
destroying the only real food of nearly six million people. Black
Potatoes is the story of men, women, and children who defied landlords
and found ways to survive. It’s also the story of the heroes among
the Irish people and how they held on to hope.
Bausum, Ann; With Courage and Cloth: Winning the Fight for a
Woman's Right to Vote. The struggle for a woman's right to
vote is explained from the movement's roots to its outcomes, including
the movements it lead to.
Beals, Melba Pattillo. Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir
of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High. This
book tells the real-life stories of the high school students who
integrated Little Rock High School.
Bodanis, David; The Secret Family: Twenty-four Hours inside
the Mysterious Worlds of Our Minds and Bodies. The book
reveals the tiny, invisible components within us and our surroundings
that make us tick. By following the activities of a family through a
typical day, Bodanis shows us how our daily lives are full of
mysterious and fascinating science adventure.
Bradley, James; Flags of Our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima.
The famous scene of six men raising the flag on Iwo Jima during
World War II included Bradley's father. He presents the results of
his research into this even and the men that made it happen.
Bragg, Rick; All Over but the Shoutin'. A common
condition of being poor white trash," explains New York Times
correspondent Bragg on learning he won a Pulitzer Prize last year, is
that "you are always afraid that the good things in your life are
temporary, that someone can take them away." Having won that prize for
stories about others, he tells his own here in a mixture of moving
anecdotes and almost masochistic self-analysis.
Breashears, David; High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for
Everest and Unforgiving Places. Breashears, David;
High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Unforgiving Places.
Capuzzo, Michael; Close to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks
of 1916. In 1916, mass hysteria grips the Jersey coast when a
shark terrorizes the shoreline in this account of one of the first
documented shark attacks.
Hart, Elva Trevino. Barefoot Heart: Stories of a Migrant Child.
This is the straight-forward story of growing up one of six children
in a migrant family that seasonally moved from Texas to Minnesota each
year. Hart writes about her family, her strict but caring father, and
about breaking away only to return home and the struggles of the
immigrant population.
Here is a short list of some of our favorite authors.
It only scratches the surface, there are many good writers out there.
DID WE FORGET YOUR FAVORITE?
Please contact us at
webmaster@clubtnt.org if you would like to add an author and
some of the books you enjoy to our list -- Thanks!
She is the founder and trustee of The Kids Fund, a
charitable and educational foundation. She serves on the boards of the
Author's Guild; the Society of Children's Book Writers and
Illustrators, where she sponsors an award for contemporary fiction;
and the National Coalition Against Censorship, working to protect
intellectual freedom. Judy lives on islands up and down the East Coast
with her husband George Cooper, who writes nonfiction. They have three
grown children and one incredible grandchild (www.judyblume.com).
