1. Abramson, Neil. Unsaid. Center Street. 978-1-59995-410-3. Veterinarian Helena Colden has died from cancer, but is still able to see her beloved husband, rescue animals, and close circle of friends. All our struggling without her. This tear jerker of a novel explores the relationship between humans and the unconditional love of their animal friends. Highly recommended for animal lovers as well as an adult book club selection.
2. Ahern, Cecilia. The Book of Tomorrow. HarperCollins. 978-0-06-170630-1. Tamara Goodwin is a rude, spoiled, obnoxious brat who thinks her “boring” life is a train wreck. Her life quickly changes as her once wealthy father dies, leaving Tamara and her mother bankrupt. Her mother is lost in her grief, unable to deal with the moody Tamara, and moves them to a distant countryside village of Ireland to live with her brother and his wife. With nothing to entertain her, Tamara begins to explore and finds a diary—written in her own handwriting and covering the next day. When Tamara finds that each day unfolds just as the diary predicted, she tries to change fate—only to find that interference can be deadly. Language. Fantasy.
3. Alan, Douglas. Circle of Lies. Tom Doherty Associates. 978-0-7653-2246-3. Former NYPD detective and lawyer John Delaney now serves as a university law professor when he is asked to act as the lawyer for a childhood friend, wrongly accused of embezzling from his law firm, murdering his own law partner, and setting a fire to wipe out the evidence. More bodies pile up as the lies grow in this international conspiracy to produce an unreliable drug in the United States. Mystery thriller.
4. Aronson, Marc & Charles R. Smith, Jr., editors. Pick-up Game: A Full Day of Full Court. Candlewick Press. 978-0-7636-4562-5. Whether it’s the backyard, a school gym, or an outdoor park, a pickup game of basketball can be found anywhere any time in America. This game takes place in the Cage, an outdoor court on West 4th Street in New York City, where players, wannabes, girlfriends, fans, and camera men come to life for one full day. Composed of alternating chapters of free verse and short vignettes told by different authors, this is an easy read for basketball junkies. Authors include, but are not limited to, Walter Dean Myers, Sharon G. Flake, Rita Williams-Garcia, Joseph Bruchac, and Robert Lipsyte. High Interest/Low Reading Level.
5. Baldacci, David. One Summer. Grand Central Publishing. 978-0-446-58314-5. Although Baldacci is well known for his thrillers, his latest novel is more like a Nicholas Sparks’ story that tugs at the human heart. With a rare form of cancer, Jack Armstrong is given only a few weeks to live and is hoping to make it to Christmas. He makes his wife promise that she will take their three kids and return to her home town for one last summer at the ocean. Tragedy strikes, leaving three devastated children.
6. Blackstock, Terri. Vicious Cycle. Zondervan. 978-0-310-25067-8. (Number 3 of the Intervention series). Fifteen year old meth addict, Jordan Rhodes, is pregnant and about to deliver her baby when her brother and mother force her to leave rehab. Their plan is to sell the baby to black marketers for money to buy more meth. Former classmate, Lance Covington, helped her get admitted to the same rehab facility as his sister Emily and now tries to help her get free of her family. An action packed thriller of religious fiction.
7. Bragg, Georgia. How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous. Walker Books for Young Readers. 978-0-8027-9817-6. Did you know that Napoleon had long-term hiccups? As a cure the “doctors used chemical warfare. . . which triggered vomiting (and pooping) on a massive scale.” Did you know that Marie Antoinette’s three-foot-tall hairdo was called a pouf? Poufs also “provided havens for spiders, mice, and bugs.” How They Croaked is filled with fun facts and information. In an easy to read format with short chapters and illustrations to break up the print, this will be a favorite for non-readers, and especially for boys. Reading scale is grades 4-9, but the Yuck Factor will appeal to readers of all ages. Nonfiction.
8. Bullen, Alexandra. Wishful Thinking. Alloy Entertainment. 978-0-545-13907-6. Three dresses. Three wishes. The phrase “Best Wishes” takes on a whole new meaning when 18 year old foster child Hazel Snow realizes that three special dresses give her three free wishes. Hoping to find her long-lost mother ends in frustration when she locates the woman she thinks is her mother only to find that the woman had recently died. Hazel had used her first wish to travel back in time to find her biological mother where she falls in love with Luke. She must decide to live in the past or forge a new future with her third wish. Expect a sequel as the first special dress is waiting for the next special girl. Fantasy.
9. Caletti, Deb. Stay. Simon Pulse. 978-1-4424-0375-8. Seventeen year old Clara Oates falls crazy in love when she finds her soul mate in Christian Nilsson, who lives in a neighboring school district. Although Christian is beautiful and charismatic, he is also moody, insecure, and temperamental. In an effort to keep Christian from worrying about losing her, Clara becomes adept at lying about everything from her past experiences to the patrons in the bookstore where she works. She soon begins to realize that no matter what she does, it won’t be right and that the emotional roller coaster ride will always continue. “Crazy in love” begins to take on a whole different connotation. Language.
10. Chiaverini, Jennifer. The Union Quilters. Dutton. 978-0-525-95203-9. A teacher, a German citizen, a doctor, and a free black man all become active in different ways in the Union’s war efforts. Fatigue, hunger, lack of water, poor health conditions, supply shortages, and despondency reported by their men motivate the women they love to organize their sewing club into a community drive to help relieve the dire conditions. The characters struggle to survive everything from the horrific conditions of a prison camp to the sexism displayed by the town’s male council to aiding the runaway slaves to the invasion of Southern troops into their homes. Interspersed with letters from the war front as well as descriptions of activities on the home front, this piece of historical fiction brings the Civil War to life in an easy-to-read format. Historical fiction.
11. Clark, Marcia. Guilt by Association. Little, Brown, and Company. 978-0-316-12951-0. Cynical, wise-cracking District Attorney Rachel Knight finds herself overwhelmed by the recent murder of her office colleague and friend, Jake. Rachel and her friends soon begin a side investigation while trying to maintain their workload, hoping to find that Jake was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They find that they didn’t know Jake as well as they thought they did. Debut mystery thriller; expect a series.
12. Collins, Yvonne & Sandy Rideout. Love, Inc. Hyperion. 978-1-4231-3115-1. Rico, Rick, Eric. Three different names, three different personalities, and three different girlfriends. By accident, the three girlfriends, Syd, Kali, and Zahra, meet in a group therapy session. Unfortunately for Eric (aka Rico and Rick), they find out that their special boyfriend isn’t really their boyfriend at all, but is juggling the three girls at once. Instead of staying miserable and trying to get even, the three girls decide to get back at Eric as well as help others in their relationships. While working on paying Eric back and trying to balance their own unstable family lives, they organize a relationship business called Love, Inc., and along the way bond with each other. Language.
13. Crocker, Gareth. Finding Jack. St. Martin’s. 978-0-312-62172-8. Carson Fletcher is one of the few survivors of a horrific airplane crash that claims the lives of his wife and daughter. As a way to avoid suicide, he volunteers for Viet Nam where he saves a yellow Labrador retriever named Jack. When the war ends, Jack, along with the other 4,000 military dogs, is considered “surplus military equipment” and must be left behind. Fletcher refuses. Instead, Fletcher embarks on a 350 mile trip through the jungles of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand in an attempt to save Jack again. Historical fiction. Language.
14. Dagg, Carole Estby. The Year We Were Famous. Clarion. 0-978-0-618-99983-5. In 1896, seventeen year old Clara Estby and her mother decide to walk from their home in Mica Creek, Washington, to New York City to raise money to save the family farm. Blisters, swollen feet, and sprained ankles were the least of their problems. They encounter wild creatures, horrible weather, Indians, ruffians, and robbers, but most importantly, they encounter many kind and caring people along the way. Written by an Estby ancestor. Historical fiction.
15. Davis, Bryan. Starlighter. Zondervan. 978-0-310-71836-9. Although Jason Masters has always trained to slay dragons, he has never seen a dragon and never really believed the stories of a portal ruled by dragons until both of his brothers go missing in the battle against the dragons. On the hand, Koren, a slave in the Starglighter or dragon portal, never believed of a portal ruled by humans until she meets Jason Masters. Using her powerful story-telling ability to entrance the dragons, Koren works with Jason to battle the dragons, rescue the Lost Ones (humans who have been captured and enslaved by the dragons) and free their portals. (First in a four part series.) Fantasy.
16. Dessen, Sarah. What Happened to Goodbye. Viking. 978-0-670-01294-7. After her parents’ very public and messy split, Mclean escapes town with her father and assumes a new identity with every move for her father’s job. As Liz, Eliza, Beth, and even Lizbet, but never just plain old Mclean Elizabeth Sweet, she becomes the perky leader, star athlete, dramatic actor, or organizational joiner in each new school in order to leave her old life behind her. Mclean must come to terms with the fact that she cannot return to what she once thought of as the average American family.
17. Deutermann, P. T. Pacific Glory. St. Martin’s Press. 978-0-312-59944-7. The lives of three Naval Academy roommates, Marshall Vincent, Mick McCarty, and Tommy Lewis, and Tommy’s girlfriend, Glory, are intertwined forever as World War II affects the nation. Surviving crashes, torpedoes, sharks, bombings, amputations, love, hate, and even Spam is nothing compared to the personal tragedies and triumphs experienced by the group of friends. Marsh is the shy and homely executive officer who loses an arm and a leg in a major sea battle; Mick is the egotistical and heavy drinking dive bomber, while the effervescent Tommy goes down with the Arizona at Pearl Harbor. Glory binds them together for eternity. Language. Historical Fiction.
18. Ephron, Hallie. Come and Find Me. William Morrow. 978-0-06-185752-2. Diana is emotionally crushed when she and Dylan’s best friend, Jake, witness Daniel dying in a climbing accident in Switzerland. In the year following Daniel’s death, she becomes a hermit except for working on the computer business that Daniel, Jake, and she had run. Even then, she has an avatar (Nadia) as her visual replacement so that she never has to leave her house. When Diana is confronted with the fact that Daniel is alive and well, his betrayal is even worse than his death. Will appeal to techno geeks.
19. Evans, Richard Paul. Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25. Simon Pulse. 978-1-4516-5650-3. Freshman Michael Vey not only has Tourette’s syndrome, but gets detention for being bullied and stuffed in his own locker. Life is miserable as a nerd until he connects with classmate Taylor, who has special electric powers just like Michael. In comparing notes, they find that they were both born in the same hospital where only seventeen of the babies born in an eleven day period survived. They are both “recruited” (i.e. kidnapped) by the highly selective Elgen Academy where they meet the other fifteen special children. And then the nightmare begins. (Forthcoming second book in series: Michael Vey: Rise of the Electroclan.)
20. Fleming, Candace. Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart. Schwartz & Wade Books. 978-0-375-94598-4. Did you know that there was a second pilot on board Amelia Earhart’s famous round-the-world flight? . . . that the military spent 4.9 million tax dollars (about $58 million in today’s money) searching for their lost plane? . . . that Amelia studied pre-med at Columbia? . . . that Amelia took her good friend Eleanor Roosevelt on a flight with her? . . . that Amelia taught at Purdue and doubled their female student population because of her influence and belief that women could be anything they wanted? . . . that Amelia’s husband and biggest supporter got air sickness? Biography.
21. Freeman, Brian. The Bone House. Minotaur Books. 978-0-312-56283-0. After being wrongly accused of having a relationship with a female student, teacher Mark Bradley loses his teaching job, only to be accused of stalking and murdering the student’s sister in another state. Ostracized by their small community, he and his wife, Hillary, are determined to find the killer, but turn up even more secrets that the community doesn’t want exposed. Mystery thriller.
22. Gardner, Lisa. Love You More. Bantam Books. 978-0-553-80725-7. Tessa Leoni, state trooper and wife of Brian Darby, has been charged with her husband’s murder, but the evidence doesn’t corroborate her story or give the location of her missing six year old daughter. While the homicide detectives sort through the family’s secrets and answer the question “What would you do for the ones you love?”, Tessa escapes police custody to do whatever it takes to find her daughter.
23. Golding, Julia. The Glass Swallow. Marshall Cavendish. 978-0-7614-5979-8. Rain Glassmaker is raised in a society where the art of glass design is forbidden to women. Even though for years she has been designing the art for her father’s glass making business, they would both be banned from the guild if the truth were known. When her father is pressured to design windows for the rulers of a foreign country in an attempt to strengthen their countries’ alliance, Rain and her father decide to send Rain along with her cousin as a cover. Unfortunately, bandits overtake their caravan with only Rain escaping, leaving her alone in a foreign country---until she meets the Falconers, the lowest members of society. Riots erupt in the country shortly after Rain’s arrival, but her glass designs prove to be the basis for a new society. Eco-fantasy.
24. Gordon, Howard. Gideon’s War. Simon & Schuster. 978-1-4391-7581-1. Gideon Davis has developed himself into a world-wide peacemaker—until his only brother, Tillman along with his band of ruthless terrorists, sabotage an oil rig. Although they have been estranged for years and with no other help in sight, Gideon is hoping to convince his brother into releasing the hostages and to drop his demands against the U.S. government. Howard Gordon is the writer and producer of the award-winning TV show “24” so expect lots of Jack Bauer-type action --- and maybe even a movie. Language.
25. Grant, Michael. Plague. Katherine Tegen Books. 978-0-06-144913-0. The fourth book in the ever popular Gone series. Perdido Beach is quiet—too quiet. War, hunger, lack of water, and power struggles continue to haunt the new world. Sam, Astrid, Diana, and Caine fight a highly contagious and fast moving disease spread through a mutated insect. Science fiction.
26. Grant, Vicki. B Negative. Orca. 978-1-5549-841-7. Paddy Armstrong’s father has supported him every day of his 18 years of life. Even after his divorce from Paddy’s mother, John has attended all of Paddy’s ball games, seen all the band’s gigs, and visited him every weekend. Now when Paddy makes the brash statement that he is going to join the Army to ward off his annoying stepfather, his father supports his choice. A simple blood test throws his world into chaos as he tests B negative when both his parents have A positive. Reluctant readers.
27. Greenwood, Diana. Insight. Zondervan. 978-0-310-72314-1. Elvira Witsil feels invisible in her own family, yet crowded at the same time. Everything in her world seems to revolve around her younger sister Jessie, born after their father left and was killed at sea in World War II. Elvira must come to grips with the haunting memory that she gave her father the idea to leave and thus caused his death. Living in poverty with a grieving mother, a grumpy grandmother, and a sister who sees into the future, Elvira doesn’t think that life can get much worse.
28. Gudenkauf, Heather. These Things Happen. Mira. 978-0-7783-2879-7. Only Allison Glenn’s sister Brynn knew about her pregnancy. At 16, she has been able to hide her pregnancy until the twin babies arrive. While living in a halfway house after spending five years in prison for the death of the baby girl, Allison finds a job in a local bookstore---only to also find her son, Josh, and his adoptive parents. Both Allison and Brynn are haunted by what happened the night the twins were born---but for very different reasons. Psychological thriller.
29. Han, Jenny. We’ll Always Have Summer. Simon & Schuster. 978-1-4169-9558-6. Although Belly (Isabel) has always loved Conrad, Con always seems to let her down while younger brother Jeremiah has always been there when she needed him. As the relationship between Belly and Jeremiah deepens, it also runs into more pitfalls. In an attempt to reconcile while undergraduates at the same college, they decide to marry, against their parents’ wishes and more importantly, despite Con’s continued feelings for Belly. The question then arises whether Jeremiah really loves Belly or he just wants to keep her away from Con.
30. Hand, Cynthia. Unearthly. HarperTeen. 978-0-06199616-0. Each angel-blood has a different but important purpose—to guard, to comfort, to witness, to rescue, or even to deliver special messages. Sixteen year old Clara is just beginning to see visions of her purpose that involve the handsome and popular Christian, but she is torn between her interest in Tucker and her duty to Christian. First part of a fantasy trilogy. Would appeal to reluctant readers.
31. Hannah, Kristin. Night Road. St. Martin’s Press. 978-0-312-36442-7. Jude and Miles Farraday along with their twins Zach and Mia, seem to have the perfect life in small town America. Jude is involved in all the kids’ school activities, chaperoning events and leading the charge against underage drinking. Zach is an all-round athlete, good student, and leader with a mob of friends, while Mia is shy and awkward until Lexi Baill, also a freshman and a foster child, moves into town and becomes Mia’s best friend. For four years, Mia and Lexi share everything and even becomes part of the family until Zach and Lexi fall in love.
32. Harvey, Alyxandra. Haunting Violet. Walker Books for Young Readers. 978-0-8027-9839-8. The daughter of a famous but fake spiritualist, Violet Willoughby meets Rowena, the ghost of a girl her own age. She must decipher what Rowena is telling her while trying to keep her ghost-talking ability secrety from her ever-scheming mother. Set in Victorian England, this novel will appeal to readers who like the combination of the supernatural and romance.
33. Helwig, Terry. Moonlight on Linoleum: A Daughter’s Memoir. Howard Books. 978-1-4516-2847-0. Terry attends twelve schools in eleven years as she is hauled from job site to job site. While her father is often working out of town, her impetuous mother is looking for the next good time. As a young child, Terry is forced to be the adult protector of her five sisters. This is a haunting memoir of distorted love, dysfunctional family members, and willful neglect as her mother’s lifestyle becomes more and more desperate. Reminiscent of The Glass Castle. Memoir.
34. Henry, Sara J. Learning to Swim. Crown Publishers. 978-0-307-71838-9. An all-round athlete and author, Troy Chance lives in Lake Placid where she plugs along in her independent existence with no real attachments. On the Lake Champlain ferry, she happens to see a bundle fall from another ferry and jumps into the frigid water. She is shocked to find a young boy with an adult sweatshirt wrapped around him in an attempt to drown him. As Troy protects her new friend and begins to track down his parents, she comes under the eyes of people who will do anything for their self-indulgence, including murdering a child. This mystery is for upper level readers.
35. Houck, Colleen. Tiger’s Curse. Splinter. 978-1-4027-8403-3. Ancient mythology says that the powerful tiger’s body contains special healing properties. It is even believed that tigers and men are brothers. Seventeen year old Kelsey Hayes takes on a temporary summer job to work at the local circus. She is then hired to accompany Ren, a white tiger, to an Indian wildlife reserve, only to find out that Ren is actually Dhiren, a prince turned into a tiger by an ancient curse, and she is the only person special enough to break the curse. (Second in series: Tiger’s Quest; soon to be released third book in series: Tiger’s Voyage). Multicultural fantasy.
36. Karr, Jesse. Those That Wake. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 978-0-547-55311-5. Mal and Lauren live on opposite sides of society in New York City, until forced to face a conspiracy that will threaten their very existence. Technology has somehow wiped their very existence from the memories of their loved ones.
37. Kerrigan, Kate. Ellis Island. Harper Collins. 978-0-06-207153-8. The poverty and hardship of Ireland in the early 1920’s force Ellie to leave for America where she can earn enough money to pay for the surgery on her husband’s leg, wounded in an IRA battle. One year turns into two; two years turn into three as America’s luxuries such as electricity, cars, gum, soft white bread, and expensive perfumes become part of her daily routine. Ellie wants her husband to come to America but he refuses to leave the country whose freedom he fought for. Historical fiction.
38. Krivek, Andrew. The Sojourn. Bellevue Literary Press. 978-1-934137-34-5. Although Jozep Pinich was born in a Colorado mining town, he and his father return to Austria Hungary when his mother dies from a tragic train accident. Back in the homeland, he and his father subsist as poor shepherds ostracized by the town’s people who refuse to believe that the Austrian emperor could possibly be wrong. Sixteen year old Jozef and his 18 year old adopted brother, Zlee Pes, volunteer for the Austrian Army in March of 1916 in an attempt to flee their small home town. Although they are accustomed to hard labor and isolation as poor shepherds, they are shocked at the harsh and brutal conditions of life in World War I as soulless snipers where months seem like years. Jozef’s sojourn moves him from a motherless child to the victim of his stepbrothers’ bullying to a survivor of the horrors of trench warfare only to become a prisoner of war. Haunted by the faces of the men he has killed or lost, Jozef fights for peace of mind. For a mature reader who will understand not only the physical journey but the emotional journey in the starkness of life on the front lines of WWI. Historical fiction.
39. Kurlansky, Mark. Battle Fatigue. Walker & Co. 978-0-8027-2264-5. As a young boy, Joel Bloom plays war games with his friends using their fathers’ WWII gear. Woven around his love of Dodger baseball, the young Joel grows more and more adverse to the violence of war and assassinations that permeate the 60s. Joel attends college and participates in the anti-war rallies, but knows that he soon will be forced to make a decision on whether to accept his low draft number or flee to Canada. Language. Historical fiction.
40. Lim, Rebecca. Mercy. Hyperion. 1-4231-4517-8 Not knowing who she really is or where she is from, she calls herself Mercy. A fallen angel with no past and no future, Mercy is constantly reborn in a new girl’s body and is searching for her boyfriend Luc. Mercy meets Ryan, who lost his twin sister two years ago to a kidnapper. While trying to keep her identity a secret and helping Ryan rescue his sister, Mercy is kidnapped and in danger of losing her life. Teen readers will be intrigued by the evil and mysterious Eight who are searching for Mercy. Paranormal romance. (Second in the series by Australian author Rebecca Lim will be Exile with third entitled Muse.)
41. Littman, Sarah Darer. Want To Go Private? Scholastic Press. 978-0-545-15146-7. While her best friend, Faith, loves their freshman year in high school and even her middle school sister, Lily, loves school, Abby feels even more alone than ever. Dreading each day, she spends more and more time online in a teen chat room where she meets Luke, who calls her his best girl. Even though she has been warned about online predators, she doesn’t believe it could ever happen with Luke because he is so sweet and really loves her. In a few short months, she is seduced, kidnapped, raped, and yet still she believes that Luke would never do anything to hurt her. When she’s rescued and told that Luke’s profile is all a lie with a fake name and age, and has also posted naked pictures as well as her rape on a child porn site, she refuses to believe the nightmare. And then she must return to school where between the newspaper coverage and the rumors, her life is now front stage. Language.
42. Malley, Gemma. The Legacy. Bloomsbury. 978-1-59990-459-7. It’s the year 2142 and humans are living forever, thanks to a fantastic new drug called Longevity. Because of the need for rationing resources as the population never changes, having children has been outlawed. Illness is an archaic term. Unfortunately, nature has other plans. The quest for eternal life has squashed man’s natural immune system and a virus is attacking humans. Sheila, Peter, Anna, and their friends in the Underground must find a way to save mankind. Science fiction.
43. Martin, Alexa. Girl Wonder. Hyperion. 978—4231-2135-0. Senior Charlotte Locke feels like a loser when her family moves from Florida to Washington, where she enrolls in the local public school and her genius brother attends a private school. Pressure builds as her parents push her to score better on the SAT so that she can attend a big-name college. With no friends, just average grades, and her parents on the verge of a divorce, Charlotte somehow falls in with the elite group, only to find that’s not really where she wants to be. Edgy. Language.
44. Mayhew, Anna Jean. The Dry Grass of August. Kensington Books. 978-0-7582-5409-2. In August of 1954, thirteen year old June Watts, aka Jubie, and her family leave Charlotte, North Carolina and head to Florida for vacation. Jubie longs for the time when all seemed perfect in the world and where adults solved any problems, but what should be a simple vacation turns into a confusing mix of racial hatred, the devastating effects of her father’s alcoholism and his own racial hatred, and her parents’ impending divorce. She is shocked to the very core of her being when Jubie, her older sister, and their black maid, Mary Luther, are walking on the street and are assaulted by a carload of whites. Historical fiction.
45. McCall, Guadalupe Garcia. Under the Mesquite. Lee & Low Books. 978-1-60060-429-4. Written in free verse, this is a story of a Mexican American family trying to stay together without their mother. As her Mami fights cancer, Lupita must fight the bog of depression, the struggles of high school, and keeping the family together. In an attempt to maintain some sanity in the chaos surrounding her, Lupita escapes by writing under the mesquite tree. Multicultural.
46. McKenzie, C. Lee. The Princess of Las Pulgas. Westside Books. 978-1-934813-44-7. Sixteen year old Carlie Edmund and her brother Keith are forced to move to an apartment in a tough urban neighborhood after the death of their father changes their financial situation. Carlie has trouble dealing with her grief and is nicknamed the Princess because of her aloof attitude while Keith is so angry that he wants to drop out of school. As Carlie deals with her grief, she learns that first impressions aren’t always the correct ones. Multicultural fiction.
47. Michaud, Jon. When Tito Loved Clara. Algonquin Books. 978-1-56512-949-8. Clara Lugo, a librarian who is married to a librarian, has struggled her entire life to escape the confines of her immigrant Dominican family, but is constantly required to be the strong one and fix all the problems. Abuse, teenage pregnancy, and dysfunctional adults all affect the family dynamics and what we do for love. (The author, Jon Michaud, is the head librarian at the New Yorker.) Multicultural.
48. Ray, Michelle. Falling for Hamlet. Hatchette Book Group. 978-0-316-13062-2. All the Shakespearean elements--ghosts, royalty, mistaken identities, treason, comical sidekicks, revenge, redemption, dysfunctional families—are told in a modern day version of Hamlet. Ophelia is in love with Prince Hamlet, voted Denmark’s Sexiest Bachelor of the Year, in a world of cell phones, lacrosse, computers, texting, and paparazzi.
49. Monroe, Mary Alice. The Butterfly’s Daughter. Gallery Books. 978-1-4391-7061-8. Luz’s mother died when she was 5, so the only mother she has known is her beloved grandmother who raises the beautiful but fragile Monarch butterflies who make the perilous migration to Mexico. Luz also must make the perilous journey into adulthood without her beloved grandmother who dies before their trip to Mexico. Luz decides to take her ashes from Milwaukee to Abuela’s hometown in Mexico. Along the way in her beat-up VW Bug, she meets a number of unique individuals, including a pregnant Ofelia who is trying to escape her abusive boyfriend and Margaret, a spoiled debutante, who is trying to find her center. The biggest surprise of all is that her mother isn’t dead after all. Multicultural.
50. Myers, Walter Dean and Ross Workman. Kick. Harper Teen. 978-0-06-200490-1. A collaborative effort between the prolific author Walter Dean Myers and a student fan results in a story told in alternating chapters by alternating characters. The decision by thirteen year old Kevin Johnson to help his friend, Christy, results in an arrest and juvenile court for Kevin. A good student and son of a former police officer, Kevin is a leader on the school’s state-bound soccer team, but refuses to break his silence about the facts of that night. Sergeant Jerry Brown is assigned as Kevin’s mentor and must figure out Kevin before it’s too late.
51. Myracle, Lauren. Shine. Abrams. 978-0-8109-8417-2. Black Creek, North Carolina, population 743, has no Jews, blacks, or Italians to discriminate against---only seventeen year old Patrick Truman. Patrick was severely beaten with a baseball bat, hooked up to a gasoline hose, and left to die for being gay. Cat Robinson, once his best friend, decides that the local redneck police aren’t doing enough and stirs up a hornet’s nest in her attempt to solve the crime. She finds out more than she wanted to know about the town’s people, but also finds herself. LGBT. Language.
52. Northrop, Michael. Trapped. Scholastic Press. 978-0-545-21012-6. Sophomore Scotty Weems and six other students are trapped inside the local high school by a week-long blizzard. Pete, Jason, Les, Elijah, Krista, and Julie must find a way to survive as the power fails, the roof begins to bow under the weight of the snow, their health declines, and emotions erupt. At first there are seven students fighting for survival; then there are six. Mystery thriller. Reluctant readers.
53. Orlean, Susan. Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend. Simon & Schuster. 978-1-4391-9013-5. Who doesn’t love Rin Tin Tin, the most famous dog of all? Surprisingly, the original Rin Tin Tin was actually born in September of 1918 in France. This book covers not only the continuous legacy of eleven generations of Rin Tin Tin, nicknamed Rinty, but describes how dogs have been used on the battlefield and in the movie industry to describe the changing role of the American family. This book would appeal to a really big dog lover.
54. Piccoult, Jodi. Sing You Home. Atria. 978-1-4391-0272-5. As a music therapist, Zoe applies the scientific theory that links music to events in our lives and produces a pleasant or unpleasant memory in the future. Zoe’s nine year obsession with trying to have a baby suffocates all her friendships and finally ends her marriage with her husband Max. A raging court battle ensues over the three remaining embryos and brings to light the volatile mix of Max’s alcoholism and his feelings of inadequacy, Zoe’s relations with her new partner, Vanessa, past mistakes, family issues, and societal expectations. The book includes a CD of the songs tied to each chapter.
55. Quick, Matthew. Boy 21. Little, Brown & Co. 978-0-316-18619-3. Finley doesn’t have much going for him except basketball. As the only white kid on the team, he’s known as the “White Rabbit” who wears number 21 until the new kid moves into town. Russ comes from a wealthy family, compared to Finley who lives in a neighborhood filled with drugs and mob violence. In an attempt to block out the world, Russ refuses to answer to anything except Boy21, talks constantly about outer space, and wants jersey number 21.
56. Restrepo, Bettina. Illegal. Katherine Tegen Books (division of Harper Collins). 978-0-06-195342-2. In an attempt to find work, Nora’s father leaves Mexico for Houston, Texas. When communications from him stop and with no other options to escape their poverty, fourteen year old Nora and her mother are determined to find him, but must leave everything that is familiar and learn to survive in an entirely different world. Multicultural.
57. Revis, Beth. Across the Universe. Razorbill. (Penguin). 978-1-59514-397-6. One hundred candidates are chosen to start a new world 300 years from now. Sixteen year old Amy’s parents are necessary components for the new society and are cryogenically frozen while traveling to the new world. Even though Amy herself has no necessary skills for the new world, she receives special dispensation to join her parents. Fifty years before their scheduled landing, seemingly random cryogenic chambers are being deliberately opened so the people inside die. When Amy’s chamber is mistakenly opened, Elder, the teenage heir to the ruler, is able to save her, but must fight the tyrannical leaders of the ship to survive. Science fiction.
58. Scott, Elizabeth. Between Here and Forever. Simon Pulse. 978-1-4169-9484-8. Twenty-year-old Tess is tall, blonde, and perfect while Abby is . . . well, Abby is Tess’s sister and now Tess, the perfect sister, is in a coma following a car accident. Tess has always tried to be the girl everyone wants her to be, rather than being her own person. Abby learns that no one is as perfect as she thinks, that her image of Tess is just a mirage, and that Tess hated herself most of all. LGBT. Language.
59. Schmidt, Gary D. Okay For Now. Clarion. 978-0-547-15260-8. Nicknamed the Skinny Thug, Doug Swieteck hates his new town even before he starts school. Doug seems to have all the odds stacked against him with his inability to read, a horribly abusive father, a middle brother who is the town bully, and an older brother who returns from Vietnam with no legs, no sight, and even deeper scars inside. He soon finds allies in fellow student Lil Spicer, the town’s librarian Mr. Powell, and the ever prickly Mrs. Windermere. Filled with gut-wrenching reality, this book will appeal to more mature readers who can read between the lines.
60. Sloan, Holly Goldberg. I’ll Be There. Little, Brown & Co. no CIP available at this time. Connections. Life is all about connections. Sam & Riddle Border have been kidnapped by their father, Clarence, and hauled around the country for ten years, leaving just ahead of the local police. Clarence lives in his fully packed car in anticipation of leaving at a moment’s notice. Neither 17 year old Sam nor 12 year old Riddle has attended school in those ten years. Sam and Riddle scavenge dumpsters to survive and live in fear of their father----until they unexpectedly find a home.
61. Stracher, Cameron. The Water Wars. Sourcebooks Fire. 978-1-4022-4369-1. The world’s ecosystem has collapsed and the world has become a wasteland. There are no wetlands or forests. Canada has dammed all the rivers. Niagara Falls is dry. The Midwest has become the Republic of Illinowa with rationed goods and mandated public service. Vera and her brother Will have never known a world without drought, synthetic food, rampaging viruses, Water Authority Board, and water pirates. Science fiction.
62. Suma, Nova Ren. Imaginary Girls. Penguin. 978-0-525-42338-6. Chloe’s indomitable sister Ruby has always told scary stories of the small town of Olive, one of nine towns flooded a hundred years ago with a reservoir. The people in the other eight towns took the money, packed up, and left—but not the people of Olive. What actually happened to the people of Olive? Do they still lurk in the water’s depths? The local kids are warned to stay away from the eerie reservoir because it’s rumored that when the reservoir people want someone, they don’t want just anyone. And this time, they want Chloe---and no one else will do.
63. Tan, Shaun. Lost & Found. Arthur Levine Books.978-0-545-22924-1. These three stories “The Red Tree,” “The Lost Thing,” and “The Rabbits” demonstrate how we might lose something but in reality find what is most important along the way. Seemingly simple yet complex images tell the different tales of a sad young girl, a teenage boy, and a group of peace-loving creatures who all experience loss and hope in different ways. Graphic novel.
64. Taylor, Greg. The Girl Whom Became A Beatle. Feiwel and Friends (an imprint of Macmillan). 978-0-312-65259-3. What if you made a wish—and it actually came true?! Junior Regina Bloomsbury idolizes the Beatles. Unfortunately, the band she has formed can’t get enough gigs to break through or even to remain solvent like the Beatles. With a growing list of problems including the breakup of her band, Regina wishes that she could be as famous as her idols. The next morning she wakes up to realize that she has wiped out the Beatles and has exactly one week to decide to continue in her fantasy world of being more famous than the Beatles—or to return to her former life.
65. Tracy, Kristen. Sharks & Boys. Hyperion. 978-1-4231-4354-3. Four sets of twins live in the same town and take part of a twins study, bonding over the years. Each has annoying quirks and loveable traits that become even more evident when they are stranded in the middle of the ocean fighting each other, sun, sharks, dehydration, lack of food and water, and most importantly, the ability to trust each other. Enid, especially, must learn to overcome her angst that not everyone is like her dad who has left her mom.
66. Van Draanen, Wendelin. The Running Dream. 978-0-375-86667-8. Taking the dog for a run; putting a foot in her mouth; running the last leg of the relay race; wearing high heels; running errands; getting back on her feet. All statements that take on new meaning for Jessica. A bus accident killed a teammate and turned Jessica into a BK, an amputee with a below the knee amputation. She feels as if she is hitting Rigor Mortis Bend, the last few meters before the finish line of a race where it’s down to grit and guts to finish the race, in her entire life. Jessica believes that being a cripple is worse than being dead until she meets a special classmate.
67. Volponi, Paul. Crossing Lines. Viking. 978-0-670-01214-5. Once again author Paul Volponi tackles a difficult subject. This time it revolves around Adonis who must learn to deal with peer pressure and discover who he really wants to be when confronted with a classmate who has different ideas. A school petition, pressure from his homophobic teammates, and an organized attack on Alan/Alana make Adonis re-evaluate himself. Language.
68. Wealer, Sara Bennett. Rival. Harper Teen. 978-0-06-182762-4. Kathryn and Brooke were best friends until they are suddenly and ruthlessly driven apart by social peer pressure and become overnight enemies. Brooke becomes the Queen B, but is still plagued by never getting what she really wants, including John, the Prom King, while Kathryn would willingly trade her lifestyle for Brooke’s. The competition becomes even fiercer when both girls vie for the grand prize of music, the $25,000 scholarship from the Blackmore Young Artists’ Festival.
69. Wilson, Daniel H. Robopocalypse. Doubleday. 978-0385533850. Artificial intelligence has become a commonplace occurrence in man’s daily life, but when the mechanical robots are re-programmed to destroy mankind, it’s a man versus machine nightmare. Compiled from interviews and security footage and blended into easy-to-read chapters, this science fiction thriller is being made into a movie by Steven Spielberg and released in 2013. Language.
70. Woodbridge, John & Maurice Possley. Hitler in the Crosshairs: A GI’s Story of Courage and Faith. Zondervan. 978-0-310-32587-1. Ira Palm, known as Teen for his teeny size at birth in 1913, was a well-known saxophone player as a young man who was drafted into the U.S. Army. A well-respected officer through multiple campaigns, Teen ended up with the Allied troops in the 45th Division tracking Hitler in Germany. Teen and a small group of men actually entered Hitler’s favorite residence, a nine room apartment in Munich, where Teen found the golden pistol, one of Hitler’s 50th birthday presents, engraved with his initials. After the war, the pistol traveled with Teen to America as he rebuilds his life. NONFICTION.
71. Yang, Dori Jones. Daughter of Xanadu. Delacorte Press. 978-0-385-90778-1. The greatest desire of sixteen year old Princess Emmajin, heir to the Great Khan Khubilai, is to be a brave and famous Mongol warrior. Although she is athletically accomplished, females are banned from warfare and she is instead given the secret mission by the Khan to befriend a Western visitor by the name of Marco Polo. As they travel across China, Emmajin is granted her greatest wish, but realizes that the cost of being a valiant warrior is too high. Historical fiction.
72. Yocum, Robin. Favorite Sons. Arcade Publishing. 978-1-61145-004-0. How long can one keep a secret before it festers and explodes? Four teenage friends find out that after 33 years, the secret is even more dangerous than it was originally. Written by an Ohio native and a former crime and investigative reporter for the Columbus Dispatch, this story takes place in a small industrial town in Ohio. Children were warned early in life to stay away from Petey Sanchez, an emotionally disturbed boy, who makes life miserable for the town’s kids. When Petey attacks their friend but is accidentally killed, the four friends take a vow of silence. When the local child molester who was imprisoned for Petey’s death is paroled thirty years later, the nightmare erupts.
73. Zafon, Carlos Ruiz. The Midnight Palace. Hatchette Book Group. 978-0-316-04473-8. Newborn twins Ben and his sister Sheere born in Calcutta are separated at birth to protect their very lives. Ben is sent to an orphanage under the patronage of Thomas Carter while Sheere is sent to live with their grandmother, but the frightening creature who killed their parents is still looking for them and won’t be satisfied until he finds them both. With the help of their friends from the orphanage, Ben & Sheere hope to outwit the evil threatening all of them. Multicultural.
Are your teen readers interested in further exploring a specific genre? Check out these websites:
• Teen Reads = http://www.teenreads.com = Lists ultimate reading list for teens.
• Shelfari = http://www.shelfari.com
• Guys Read = http://www.guysread.com
• Reading Rockets = http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interview = interviews with authors.
• Kobo Books = http://www.kobobooks.com includes free ebooks.
• Library of Congress’s Read.gov = htt://read.gov/teens includes online access to free books and podcasts.
• www.Netgalley.com = sign up for digital galleys of new books.
• Krista’s blog at http://kristaspicks.blogspot.com = designed for busy high school librarians who would like to read more but can’t find the time to read every piece of young adult literature to hit the presses.
Questions: email Krista at ktaracuk@columbus.rr.com
