The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists

The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists

100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for

Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Teens

Nancy J. Keane

Westport, Connecticut • London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Keane, Nancy J.
The big book of teen reading lists : 100 great, ready-to-use book lists for educators, librarians, parents,
and teens / by Nancy J. Keane.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-59158-333-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Teenagers—Books and reading—United States. 2. Young adults’ libraries—Book lists. 3. High
school libraries—Book lists. 4. Young adult literature—Bibliography. I. Title.
Z1037.K295 2006
028.5’5—dc22 2006017627
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher. An exception
is made for reproducibles, which may be copied for
library educational and classroom use only.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2006017627
ISBN: 1-59158-333-0
First published in 2006
Libraries Unlimited, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
A Member of the Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.lu.com
Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this book complies with the

Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Dedicated to my children, Aureta and Alex,
and my grandchildren, Aiden and Jordan
 Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Part 1: Genres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Narrative Nonfiction for Young Adults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Action Fantasy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Adult Fiction Titles for Young Adults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Adult Nonfiction Titles for Young Adults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Based on a True Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Clean Romance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
E-mails and Blogs and IMs, Oh My! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Fairy Tale Variations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Fairy Tale Variations Arranged by Individual Tales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Fractured Fairy Tales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Hip Hop Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Horror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Humor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Hybrid Literature, Parallel Novels: A Different Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Jazz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Keeping ’Em on Their Toes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Novels in Verse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Short and Sweet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Tearjerkers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
True Adventure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Wordless . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Part 2: Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Adventure with Female Protagonists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
African American Girls: Positive Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Author Memoirs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Biracial Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Boy Bonding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Chick Lit with Minority Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Female Quest Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Freshman Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Girls in Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transsexual, and Questioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Kindness of Strangers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Mental Illness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Physically Handicapped . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Politically Active . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Royally Good Reads. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Fantasy Sheroes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Teen Romance with African American Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

vii
 Contents

Part 3: Books About Self . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Aftereffects of Violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Anger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Beating the Odds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Child Abuse: Emotional, Physical, and Sexual Abuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Coming of Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Cutting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Drug Abuse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Gangs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Life in the Fat Lane: Books About Food Issues for Teens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Making Choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Meaning of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Overcoming Poverty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Perfectionism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Road Trip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Runaways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Search for Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Self-Mutilation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Surviving Peer Pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Part 4: Setting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Ancient Civilizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Civil War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Dust Bowl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Ellis Island . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Frontier and Pioneer Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Holocaust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Life on the Home Front During World War II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Middle Ages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
South Asia and the South Asian Diaspora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Vietnamese Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Women’s Labor Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
World War I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
World War II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Part 5: Subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Almost Famous. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Big Brother Is Watching. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Community Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Community Service as Punishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Criminally Minded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Dating Abuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Ecowarriors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Extreme Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Faeries and Faraway Realms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Genocide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Materialism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Medical Thrillers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

viii
 Contents

Peace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Picture Books About War. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Pirates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Questionable Medical Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Tattooing and Body Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Vampires. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
What’s Real? Books That Question Our Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Winter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
World Literature; Global Fiction for Teens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Part 6: Audience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Books That Changed the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Father-Son Book Club . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
(Books That Appeal to) Goths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Nonfiction for Reluctant Readers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Read-Alouds for High School Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Read-Alouds for Middle School Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Reluctant Boy Readers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Reluctant Girl Readers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Romance for Boy Readers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Bookmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

ix
 Introduction
One good read leads to another, and a good book often leaves readers hungry for more. Whether you
and your school use common texts, leveled reading, or a literature-based program, you are probably often
called upon to extend the reading beyond the current materials. But how do you find those supplemental
materials easily? How do you lead young adults to the next book? This guide provides reading lists that
support extended reading demands.
Every day librarians work with teens and recommend literature. They may have some books in
mind, or maybe not. It is time consuming to search for books that support the specific themes of a lesson.
This book provides valuable reading lists to support public and school librarians in their work with teens.
An infinite number of reading lists could be created to assist professionals in their work. The 100
lists in this book have been chosen in consultation with working secondary teachers and public librarians,
and through discussions on professional e-mail lists. They are based on some of the most common needs
of educators and librarians who work with young adults. The book is divided into sections on Genre,
Character, Books about Self, Setting, Common Themes, and Audience. Additional contributors to the
book include Pooja Makhijani, Cathy Belben, Cindi Carey, Patti Cook, Eileen Culkin, Beth Gallaway,
Joanna Nigrelli, Ed Nizalowski, and Melissa Rabey.
You’ll find fiction and nonfiction on these lists. All were in print as of August 2005. Although the
emphasis is on books published within the last ten years, older titles are included if they are still in print
and are too good to miss. Information included for each title includes the author, title, publisher, date of
publication, and number of pages. A brief annotation describes the plot or premise of the book. Nonfic-
tion books are designated by the code (NF) following the bibliographic information. Books are grouped
by age level: “Books for Ages 12–15” can be used with children of all ages and are not necessarily re-
stricted to use with younger children, and books that have appeal for ages 14 and up are labeled “Books
for older teens”. Again, the latter are not restricted to these ages but are suggested for high school stu-
dents. Books published for adults but suitable for teens are designated (adult). You are strongly advised to
review the materials before using them with young adults. It is important to look beyond recommended
interest level when suggesting books to students.
These lists can be used in a variety of ways. They can be photocopied and handed out to teachers as
suggested reading; enlarged and posted in the library, put on the library Web site, or published in the li-
brary’s newsletter; or used to create book displays. There is room at the top of each page to allow for per-
sonalization—add your school or library logo, or even some copyright free clip art. Have fun. Be creative.
Be resourceful.
However you use the lists, it is hoped that you will find them to be valuable resources and aids for
suggesting reading materials.

xi
Part 1
Genres
 Genres

Narrative Nonfiction for Young Adults

Books for Ages 12–15
Appelt, Kathi. Down Cut Shin Creek: The Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky. HarperCollins, c2001.
58pp. (NF)
Describes the job of the packhorse librarians, who were responsible for taking books to people in ru-
ral Kentucky in the 1930s on horseback.
Bausum, Ann. With Courage and Cloth: Winning the Fight for a Woman’s Right to Vote. National
Geographic, c2004. 111pp. (NF)
Chronicles the long history of the fight for women’s voting rights in the United States, beginning in
1848, with a focus on the years between 1913 and 1920 when the Nineteenth Amendment was
passed, and includes profiles of notable women involved in the struggle.
Colman, Penny. Where the Action Was: Women War Correspondents in World War II. Crown, c2002.
118pp. (NF)
Describes the work of women war correspondents who covered all theaters of World War II, from its
beginnings in the 1930s to the surrender of Germany and Japan in 1945.
Cooper, Michael L. Dust to Eat: Drought and Depression in the 1930s. Clarion Books, c2004. 81pp.
(NF)
Presents a photographic chronicle of the 1930s, focusing on the Great Depression and the dust
storms that crippled the Great Plains, and looks at the effects of the twin disasters on U.S. society and
domestic policy.
Fleischman, John. Phineas Gage: A Gruesome But True Story About Brain Science. Houghton
Mifflin, c2002. 86pp. (NF)
The true story of Phineas Gage, whose brain had been pierced by an iron rod in 1848, and who sur-
vived and became a case study in how the brain functions.
Freedman, Russell. The Life and Death of Crazy Horse. Holiday House, c1996. 166pp. (NF)
A biography of the Oglala leader who relentlessly resisted the white man’s attempts to take over In-
dian lands.
Freedman, Russell. The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for
Equal Rights. Clarion Books, c2004. 114pp. (NF)
Tells the life story of singer Marian Anderson, describing her famous performance at the Lincoln
Memorial in 1939 and explaining how she helped end segregation in the American arts after being
refused the right to perform at Washington’s Constitution Hall because of the color of her skin.
Hampton, Wilborn. Meltdown: A Race Against Nuclear Disaster at Three Mile Island: A Reporter’s
Story. Candlewick Press, c2001. 104pp. (NF)
An account of the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster by a reporter who was an eyewitness.
Harris, Robie H. It’s Perfectly Normal: A Book About Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sex-
ual Health. Candlewick Press, c2004. 89pp. (NF)
Provides answers to nearly every conceivable question teens may have about sexuality, from con-
ception and puberty to birth control and AIDS.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

3
 Genres

Narrative Nonfiction for Young Adults

Hoose, Phillip M. The Race to Save the Lord God Bird. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2004. 196pp. (NF)
Tells the story of the extinction of the ivory-billed woodpecker in the United States, describing the
encounters between this species and humans, and discussing what these encounters have taught us
about preserving endangered creatures.
Kiyosaki, Robert T. Rich Dad Poor Dad for Teens: The Secrets About Money—That You Don’t Learn
in School! Warner Books, c2004. 132pp. (NF)
A practical guide about money and investing and how to make the right choices that lead to financial
freedom, including advice on managing assets and debts.
Krull, Kathleen. The Book of Rock Stars: 24 Musical Icons That Shine Through History. Hyperion
Books for Children, c2003. 44pp. (NF)
An illustrated collection of twenty mini-biographies of such rock music legends as Jimi Hendrix,
Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, and Carlos Santana.
Krull, Kathleen. Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers, Rebels (and What the Neighbors Thought).
Harcourt, c2000. 95pp. (NF)
Profiles twenty historically significant women, highlighting their great accomplishments and unique
quirks; also includes color caricatures.
Krull, Kathleen. Lives of the Artists: Masterpieces, Messes (and What the Neighbors Thought). Har-
court Brace, c1995. 96pp. (NF)
A collection of short biographical sketches of famous artists emphasizing their unique personalities
and the impressions they made on the people who knew them.
Krull, Kathleen. Lives of the Athletes: Thrills, Spills (and What the Neighbors Thought). Harcourt
Brace, c1997. 96pp. (NF)
Presents biographical sketches of twenty famous athletes, emphasizing their unique personalities
and the impressions they made on the people who knew them.
Krull, Kathleen. Lives of the Musicians: Good Times, Bad Times (and What the Neighbors Thought).
Harcourt Brace, c1993, 96pp. (NF)
The lives of twenty composers and musicians, ranging from Vivaldi, Mozart, and Bach to Gershwin,
Gilbert & Sullivan, and Woody Guthrie, are profiled in this eclectic, humorous, and informative col-
lection.
Krull, Kathleen. Lives of the Presidents: Fame, Shame, and What the Neighbors Thought. Harcourt
Brace, c1998. 96pp. (NF)
Focuses on the lives of presidents as parents, husbands, pet owners, and neighbors while also includ-
ing humorous anecdotes about hairstyles, attitudes, diets, fears, and sleep patterns.
Krull, Kathleen. Lives of the Writers: Comedies, Tragedies (and What the Neighbors Thought). Har-
court Brace, c1994. 96pp. (NF)
The lives of twenty writers, ranging from Dickens, the Brontës, and Poe to Twain, Sandburg, and
Langston Hughes, are profiled in this eclectic, humorous, and informative collection.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

4
 Genres

Narrative Nonfiction for Young Adults

Murphy, Jim. An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of
1793. Clarion Books, c2003. 165pp. (NF)
Provides an account of the yellow fever epidemic that swept through Philadelphia in 1793, discuss-
ing the chaos that erupted when people began evacuating in droves, leaving the city without govern-
ment, goods, or services, and examining efforts by physicians, the Free African Society, and others
to cure and care for the sick.
Murphy, Jim. The Great Fire. Scholastic, c1995. 144pp. (NF)
Photographs and text, along with personal accounts of actual survivors, tell the story of the great fire
of 1871 in Chicago.
Murphy, Jim. Pick & Shovel Poet: The Journeys of Pascal D’Angelo. Clarion Books, c2000. 162pp.
(NF)
A biography of an Italian peasant who immigrated to America in the early twentieth century and en-
dured poverty and the difficult life of an unskilled laborer, determined to become a published poet.
Nelson, Marilyn. Carver, a Life in Poems. Front Street, c2001. 103pp. (NF)
A collection of poems that combine to provide a portrait of the life of nineteenth-century African
American botanist and inventor George Washington Carver.
Nelson, Peter. Left for Dead: A Young Man’s Search for Justice for the USS Indianapolis. Delacorte
Press, c2002. 201pp. (NF)
Recalls the sinking of the USS Indianapolis at the end of World War II, the Navy cover-up and the
unfair court martial of the ship’s captain, and how a young boy helped the survivors set the record
straight fifty-five years later.
Schroeder, Andreas. Scams!: Ten Stories That Explore Some of the Most Outrageous Swindlers and
Tricksters of All Time. Annick Press (distributed in the United States by Firefly Books), c2004. 154pp.
(NF)
A collection of true accounts of some of the most outrageous scams in history.

Books for Older Teens

Aronson, Marc. Witch-Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials. Atheneum Books for Young Read-
ers, c2003. 272pp. (NF)
Presents information for young people on what really happened in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692
when a group of girls and young women accused certain people in the village of witchcraft, leading
to the executions of innocent men and women.
Estrich, Susan. Getting Away with Murder: How Politics Is Destroying the Criminal Justice System.
Harvard University Press, c1998. 161pp. (NF)
Explores how the U.S. criminal justice system is failing American society by focusing more on polit-
ical interests and high-profile figures than on protecting the victims of crime, abuse, and violence,
and offers practical suggestions for fixing many of the system’s flaws.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

5
 Genres

Narrative Nonfiction for Young Adults

Gantos, Jack. Hole in My Life. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2002. 199pp. (NF)
The author relates how, as a young adult, he became a drug user and smuggler, was arrested, did time
in prison, and eventually got out and went to college, all the while hoping to become a writer.
Genge, Ngaire. The Forensic Casebook: The Science of Crime Scene Investigation. Ballantine Books,
2002. 319pp. (NF)
Contains accounts based on extensive interviews with police personnel and forensic scientists of
criminal cases that have been solved using a variety of forensic techniques.
Junger, Sebastian. The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea. W. W. Norton, c1997.
227pp. (adult) (NF)
Uses interviews, memoirs, radio conversations, and technical research to re-create the last days of
the crew of the Andrea Gail, a fishing boat that was lost in a storm off the coast of Nova Scotia in Oc-
tober 1991.
Krakauer, Jon. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster. Villard, c1997.
293pp. (adult) (NF)
The author relates his experience climbing Mount Everest during its deadliest season and examines
what it is about the mountain that makes people willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship,
and expense.
Preston, Richard. The Hot Zone. Anchor Books, c1995. 422pp. (adult) (NF)
Tells the dramatic story of U.S. Army scientists and soldiers who worked to stop the outbreak of a
deadly and extremely contagious virus in 1989.
Runyon, Brent. The Burn Journals. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c2004. 374pp. (NF)
Presents the true story of Brent Runyon, who at fourteen years of age set himself on fire and sus-
tained burns over 80 percent of his body, and describes the months of physical and mental rehabilita-
tion that followed as he attempted to pull his life together.
Silverstein, Ken. The Radioactive Boy Scout: The True Story of a Boy and His Backyard Nuclear Re-
actor. Random House, c2004. 209pp. (NF)
Tells the story of David Hahn, the Michigan teenager who built a nuclear breeder reactor in his back-
yard in 1994, endangering the residents of his Michigan hometown and raising the ire of the federal
government.
Trope, Zoe. Please Don’t Kill the Freshman: A Memoir. HarperTempest, c2003. 295pp. (NF)
A memoir of the then-fifteen-year-old author’s high school experiences, in which diary entries re-
flect her struggles, angst, and rebellion.
Vizzini, Ned. Teen Angst? Naaah—: A Quasi-Autobiography. Free Spirit Publications, c2000. 232pp.
(NF)
A collection of essays written by the author between fifteen and seventeen years of age, in which he
shares impressions of school, sports, cool people, boring people, friends, family, money, music, and
obsessions.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

6
 Genres

Action Fantasy
Books for Ages 12–15
Clement-Davies, David. Fire Bringer. Firebird, 2002. c1999. 498pp.
Rannoch, born with a fawn mark the shape of an oak leaf on his forehead, is destined to lead the deer
out of the Lord of the Herd’s tyranny, but he must first complete a journey through the Great Land.
Colfer, Eoin. Artemis Fowl. Hyperion Books for Children, c2001. 277pp. (and sequels)
When a twelve-year-old evil genius tries to restore his family fortune by capturing a fairy and de-
manding a ransom in gold, the fairies fight back with magic, technology, and a particularly nasty
troll.
Jacques, Brian. Redwall. Philomel Books, c1986. 351pp. (and sequels)
When the peaceful life of ancient Redwall Abbey is shattered by the arrival of the evil rat Cluny and
his villainous hordes, Matthias, a young mouse, determines to find the legendary sword of Martin
the Warrior, which he is convinced will help Redwall’s inhabitants destroy the enemy.
Lasky, Kathryn. Star Split. Hyperion Paperbacks for Children, c2001. c1999. 203pp.
In 3038, thirteen-year-old Darci uncovers an underground movement to save the human race from
genetic enhancement technology.
Nicholson, William. The Wind Singer: An Adventure. Hyperion Books for Children, c2000. 358pp.
After Kestrel Hath rebels against the stifling rules of Amaranth society and is forced to flee, she,
along with her twin brother and a tagalong classmate, follow an ancient map on a quest for the leg-
endary silver voice of the wind singer, in an attempt to heal Amaranth and its people.
Nix, Garth. Lirael: Daughter of the Clayr. HarperCollins, c2001. 487pp.
When a dangerous necromancer threatens to unleash a long-buried evil, Lirael and Prince Sameth
are drawn into a battle to save the Old Kingdom and reveal their true destinies.
Philbrick, W. Rodman. The Last Book in the Universe. Blue Sky Press, c2000. 223pp.
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.
Pullman, Philip. The Amber Spyglass. Knopf, c2000. 518pp.
Lyra and Will find themselves at the center of a battle between the forces of the Authority and those
gathered by Lyra’s father, Lord Asriel.
Pullman, Philip. The Golden Compass. Knopf, c1995. 399pp.
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.
Pullman, Philip. The Subtle Knife. Knopf, c1997. 326pp.
As the boundaries between worlds begin to dissolve, Lyra and her daemon help Will Parry in his
search for his father and for a powerful, magical knife.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

7
 Genres

Action Fantasy
Books for Older Teens
Marsden, John. Tomorrow, When the War Began. Houghton Mifflin, c1995. 286pp.
Seven Australian teenagers return from a camping trip in the bush to discover that their country has
been invaded and they must hide to stay alive.
Nix, Garth. Shade’s Children. HarperCollins, c1997. 310pp.
In a savage future world, four young fugitives attempt to overthrow the bloodthirsty rule of the Over-
lords with the help of Shade, their mysterious mentor.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

8
 Genres

Adult Fiction Titles for Young Adults

Written for adults, these novels explore challenging themes of interest to mature high school readers.

Books for Older Teens

Compiled by Cindi Carey, Lacey Timberland Library, Lacey, Washington.
Bardi, Abby. The Book of Fred. Washington Square Press, c2001. 292pp. (adult)
Raised in an isolated fundamentalist sect, Mary Fred Anderson experiences upheaval in her life
when circumstances leave her in a foster home that opens her eyes to an alien world, and a violent act
occurs that changes everyone involved.
Barry, Max. Jennifer Government. Doubleday, c2003. 321pp. (adult)
Hoping for a promotion from his dead-end job in the not-too-distant future, Hack Nike takes an assign-
ment from Nike executives:—gun down teenagers to promote a tough urban image for Nike’s new line
of shoes. Jennifer Government takes the case to find the killers and expose the Nike conspiracy.
Basu, Jay. The Stars Can Wait. H. Holt, c2002. 177pp. (adult)
In occupied Poland during World War II, fifteen-year-old Gracian Sofka breaks curfew to pursue his
pastime of stargazing, and as unrest grows in the region, he makes a discovery about his older
brother’s mysterious life.
Berg, Elizabeth. True to Form. Atria Books, c2002. 214pp. (adult)
Living with her stern, unapproachable father and his new wife after the death of her mother, four-
teen-year-old Katie finds herself lonely and forges an alliance with Cynthia, a fellow misfit.
Bird, Sarah. Yokota Officers Club. Ballantine Books, c2002. 367pp. (adult)
Eighteen-year-old Bernie returns to her family in Okinawa after her first year in college. Thinking
that the disappearance ten years ago of their Japanese maid may be the cause of her parent’s deterio-
rating marriage, Bernie decides to search for answers.
Box, C. J. Open Season. Putnam, c2001. 293pp. (adult)
As Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett races against time to save an endangered species, he finds
himself plunged into a deadly mystery that soon threatens his family and the life he loves.
Brown, Dan. The Da Vinci Code. Doubleday, c2003. 454pp. (adult)
Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon and French cryptologist Sophie Neveu work to solve the mur-
der of an elderly curator of the Louvre, a case that leads to clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci and
a centuries-old secret society.
Cabot, Meg. The Boy Next Door. Avon Books, c2002. 374pp. (adult)
Mel is bored with her life until the elderly woman next door is nearly murdered. She sets out to find
out who is responsible by investigating her neighbors, including the handsome but mysterious man
who has come to dog sit for his comatose aunt.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

9
 Genres

Adult Fiction Titles for Young Adults

Carter, Stephen. The Emperor of Ocean Park. Knopf, c2002. 657pp. (adult)
Talcott Garland is a successful African American law professor, devoted father, and the husband of a
beautiful and ambitious woman, whose desires may threaten the family he holds so dear. When
Talcott’s father, a disgraced former Supreme Court nominee, is found dead under suspicious circum-
stances, Talcott wonders if he may have been murdered.
Coben, Harlan. Gone for Good. Delacorte Press, c2002. 340pp. (adult)
Investigating his girlfriend’s mysterious disappearance, Will Klein learns that she is somehow tied
to his brother’s death, and he becomes increasingly disturbed when he realizes that everyone he
loves is harboring dark secrets.
Egan, Jennifer. Look at Me. Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, c2001. 415pp. (adult)
Stripped of her image and identity after a devastating car accident and the resulting reconstructive
surgery, Charlotte Swenson, a jaded model, struggles to rebuild her life in a culture obsessed with
surface appearances.
Fforde, Jasper. The Eyre Affair. Viking Press, c2002. 374pp. (adult)
In a world where one can literally get lost in literature, Thursday Next, a Special Operative in literary
detection, tries to stop the world’s Third Most Wanted criminal from kidnapping characters, includ-
ing Jane Eyre, from works of literature.
Gilstrap, John. At All Costs. Warner Books, c1998. 452pp. (adult)
Jack and Carolyn Donovan stand accused of massacring sixteen people and setting off one of the
country’s worst environmental catastrophes, but they are innocent. With their young son Travis,
they have eluded capture for thirteen years, remaining at the top of the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List.
Now they are driven from their last hiding place and are forced to fight back.
Godfrey, Rebecca. Torn Skirt. Perennial, c2002. 199pp. (adult)
As a teen in the mid-1980s in British Columbia, Sara Shaw has two lives. At home she is the respon-
sible daughter, while at school she hangs out with a group of stoned delinquents. When her father
suddenly abandons her, she leaves home for the back alleys of Victoria where she is swept into the
world of runaways, pimps, prostitutes, and addicts.
Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Doubleday, c2002. 226pp. (adult)
Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically gifted, au-
tistic fifteen-year-old, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor’s dog and uncovers secret in-
formation about his mother.
Hamilton, Jane. Disobedience. Doubleday, c2000. 275pp. (adult)
When seventeen-year-old Henry stumbles into his mother’s e-mail account and epistolary evidence
of her affair with a Ukrainian violinist, he becomes consumed with this glimpse into her life as a
woman, not simply a mother.
Haruf, Kent. Plainsong.. Knopf, c1999. 301pp. (adult)
This is a story of family and romance, tribulation and tenacity, set in an eastern Colorado town, in
which a teacher gets several damaged families to interact with and care for one another.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

10
 Genres

Adult Fiction Titles for Young Adults

Hearn, Lian. Across the Nightingale Floor. Riverhead Books, c2002. 287pp. (adult)
This first book in an epic trilogy begins with the legend of a nightingale floor in a black-walled
fortress—a floor that sings in alarm at the step of an assassin. It will take true courage and all the
skills of an ancient tribe for one orphaned youth to discover the magical destiny that awaits him . . .
across the nightingale floor.
Hegland, Jean. Into the Forest. Dial Press, c2005. 241pp. (adult)
Set in the near future, this story focuses on the relationship between two teenage sisters living alone
in their northern California home in the woods, more than thirty miles from the nearest town. Nell
and Eva struggle to survive as technology collapses and society begins to decay around them.
Inclan, Jessica Barksdale. Her Daughter’s Eyes. New American Library, c2001. 218pp. (adult)
In an upper-middle-class neighborhood, on a street like Wildwood Drive, things like this are not sup-
posed to happen.. Sixteen-year-old Kate is going to have a baby. She’s done everything to prepare
for the new child’s birth, except to tell anyone other than her younger sister.
Kidd, Sue Monk. The Secret Life of Bees. Viking Press, c2002. 301pp. (adult)
After her “stand-in mother,” a bold black woman named Rosaleen, insults the three biggest racists in
town, Lily Owens joins Rosaleen on a journey to Tiburon, South Carolina, where they are taken in
by three black, beekeeping sisters.
King, Laurie. Keeping Watch. Bantam Books, c2003. 383pp. (adult)
Near retirement after years of rescuing children, Alan Carmichael embarks on one last mission—to
rescue a teenager from an abusive parent—but after the boy is safely hidden away, Alan begins to
doubt his decision to intervene.
Kingsolver, Barbara. The Poisonwood Bible. HarperFlamingo, c1998. 546pp. (adult)
This dense and intricate family chronicle follows a Baptist missionary family into the Congo, circa
1959, where their faith in Jesus, democracy, and what we call civilization is severely challenged.
McDonell, Nick. Twelve. Grove Press, c2002. 244pp. (adult)
White Mike, a seventeen-year-old prep school dropout and drug dealer, and his privileged peers
spend their time partying with sex, drugs, and escalating violence in the pursuit of ever more exotic
and dangerous thrills.
McLaughlin, Emma. The Nanny Diaries. St. Martin’s Press, c2002. 305pp. (adult)
Struggling to graduate from New York University, Nanny takes a position caring for the only son of
the wealthy X family. She rapidly learns the insane amount of juggling involved to ensure that a Park
Avenue wife who doesn’t work, cook, clean, or raise her own child has a smooth day.
Packer, Ann. The Dive from Clausen’s Pier. Knopf, c2002. 369pp. (adult)
When her fiancé is left paralyzed following a tragic accident, Carrie Bell begins to question her fa-
miliar world, from her everyday life in Wisconsin to her relationships, as she sets out to rediscover
her own identity.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

11
 Genres

Adult Fiction Titles for Young Adults

Pedersen, Laura. Beginner’s Luck. Ballantine Books, c2003. 336pp. (adult)
Sixteen-year-old Hallie Palmer is bored with school and alienated from her family. She spends her
spare time at the racetrack or crashing the secret, weekly poker game in the church basement. When
she drops out of school, loses her savings at the track, runs away from home, and is accused of rob-
bery, it seems things have nowhere to go but up.
Rosenfeld, Stephanie. Massachusetts, California, Timbuktu. Ballantine Books, c2003. 388pp. (adult)
Justine Hanley, an amazingly resourceful twelve-year-old, battles to make an ordinary life for her-
self, her depressive mother, and her cranky five-year-old sister.
Senna, Danzy. Caucasia. Riverhead Books, c1998. 353pp. (adult)
Birdie and Cole are the daughters of a black father and a white mother, intellectuals and activists in
the civil rights movement in Boston in the 1970s. The sisters are so close that they have created a pri-
vate language, yet to the outside world they can’t be sisters: while Cole looks black, Birdie appears
to be white. For Birdie, Cole is the mirror in which she can see her own blackness.
Tan, Amy. The Bonesetter’s Daughter. Putnam, c2001. 353pp. (adult)
Set in contemporary San Francisco and in a Chinese village where Peking Man is unearthed, this is
the story of LuLing Young, who searches for the name of her mother, the daughter of the famous
Bonesetter from the Mouth of the Mountain.
Vijayaraghavan, Vineeta. Motherland. Soho, c2001. 231pp. (adult)
When fifteen-year-old Maya travels from the United States to spend the summer with her grand-
mother in India, she discovers a family secret that changes the way she sees her mother and, ulti-
mately, herself.
Vreeland, Susan. The Passion of Artemisia. Viking Press, c2002. 288pp. (adult)
In sixteenth-century Italy, eighteen-year-old painter Artemisia Gentileschi’s painting teacher rapes
her. When the papal court in which she brings charges against him humiliates her, she leaves Rome
for Florence, and ultimately becomes the first woman elected to the Accademia dell’ Arte. Based on
a true story.
Willis, Connie. To Say Nothing of the Dog. Bantam Books, c1997. 434pp. (adult)
In this time travel novel, it is 1888, and Ned Henry is shuttling between the 1940s and modern day,
researching Coventry Cathedral for a patron who wants to rebuild it. When the time continuum is
disrupted, Ned must scramble to set things right.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

12
 Genres

Adult Nonfiction Titles for Young Adults

Written for adults, these books portray complex issues, events, and life stories of interest to mature high school readers.
Compiled by Cindi Carey. Lacey Timberland Library, Lacey, Washington.
Alexander, Caroline. The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition. Knopf, c1998.
211pp. (adult) (NF)
In August 1914, the renowned explorer Ernest Shackleton and a crew of twenty-seven set sail for the
South Atlantic in pursuit of the last unclaimed prize in the history of exploration: the first crossing on
foot of the Antarctic continent.
Armstrong, Lance. It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life. Putnam, c2000. 275pp. (adult)
(NF)
A number 1 New York Times best seller from the cancer survivor who became a five-time Tour de
France champion.
Bissinger, H. G. Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream. Da Capo Press, c2000. 371pp.
(adult) (NF)
Bissinger chronicles a season in the life of the Permian Panthers of Odessa—the winningest high
school football team in Texas history—and shows how single-minded devotion to the team shapes
the community and inspires—and sometimes shatters—the teenagers who wear the Panthers uni-
form.
Bradley, James. Flags of Our Fathers. Bantam Books, c2000. 376pp. (adult) (NF)
James Bradley retraces the lives of his father and the men of his Company, following their path to
Iwo Jima, the heroic battle for the Pacific’s most crucial island—an island riddled with Japanese tun-
nels and 22,000 fanatic defenders who would fight to the last man.
Bryson, Bill. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail. Broadway
Books, c1998. 276pp. (adult) (NF)
Back in America after twenty years in Britain, Bill Bryson decided to reacquaint himself with his na-
tive country by walking the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine.
An adventure, a comedy, and a celebration.
Capuzzo, Michael. Close to Shore: A True Story of Terror in an Age of Innocence. Broadway Books,
c2001. 317pp. (adult) (NF)
Combining historical detail and a pulse-pounding narrative, Capuzzo re-creates the summer of 1916,
when a rogue great white shark attacked swimmers along the New Jersey shore, triggering mass hys-
teria and launching the most extensive shark hunt in history.
Codell, Esme Raji. Educating Esme: Diary of a Teacher’s First Year. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill,
c1999. 204pp. (adult) (NF)
This is the uncensored diary of an unconventional teacher, in which Codell records her frustrations,
achievements, and struggles to maintain her individuality in the face of bureaucracy, and she reveals
what it takes to be a “genuine” teacher.
Colton, Larry. Counting Coup. Warner Books, c2000. 420pp. (adult) (NF)
Profiles a Montana high school girls’ basketball team—made up of Crow Indian and white girls
from a rural town—that carries on its shoulders the dreams and hopes of a Native American tribe
during their winning season.
From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

13
 Genres

Adult Nonfiction Titles for Young Adults

Conroy, Pat. My Losing Season. Nan A. Talese, c2002. 402pp. (adult) (NF)
Moving between the action of the Citadel’s 1967 basketball season and flashbacks into his child-
hood, Conroy relates his love of basketball and how crucial the role of athlete is to young men who
are struggling to find their own identity and their place in the world.
Dominick, Andie. Needles. Scribner, c1998. 220pp. (adult) (NF)
In an intensely moving story of sisterhood, illness, and loss, this memoir tells of a girl whose older
sister dies from complications of diabetes.
Dragonwagon, Crescent. Passionate Vegetarian. Workman, c2002. 1110pp. (adult) (NF)
An assortment of more than 1,000 vegetarian recipes that includes a variety of both American and
international specialties along with helpful tips and techniques of meatless cooking and advice on
ingredients.
Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America. Metropolitan Books, c2001.
221pp. (adult) (NF)
Reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity—a land of Big
Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate strategies for survival.
Fuller, Alexandra. Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood. Random House,
c2001. 301pp. (adult) (NF)
The author describes her childhood in Africa during the Rhodesian civil war, 1971–1979, relating
her life on farms in southern Rhodesia, Milawi, and Zambia with an alcoholic mother and frequently
absent father.
Gottlieb, Lori. Stick Figure: A Diary of My Former Self. Simon & Schuster, c2000. 222pp. (adult) (NF)
When Lori Gottlieb was eleven years old, she did something girls that age often do: She started a di-
ary. And like far too many other eleven-year-old girls, she also began starving herself.
Greenlaw, Linda. The Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain’s Journey. Hyperion, c1999. 265pp.
(adult) (NF)
One of few women involved in the commercial fishing industry, Linda Greenlaw works the waters
east of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. She tells the story of a thirty-day swordfishing voyage
aboard one of the best-outfitted boats on the East Coast, complete with danger, humor, and colorful
characters.
Hart, Elva Trevino. Barefoot Heart: Stories of a Migrant Child. Bilingual Press, c1999. 236pp. (adult)
(NF)
An autobiographical account of the life of a child growing up in a family of migrant farm workers,
eventually leaving that world to earn a master’s degree in computer science/engineering.
Krakauer, Jon. Into Thin Air. Anchor Books, c1998. 378pp. (adult) (NF)
An account of the deadliest season in the history of Everest. Taking the reader step-by-step from
Katmandu to the mountain’s deadly pinnacle, Krakauer provides a picture of the people and events
he witnessed.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

14
 Genres

Adult Nonfiction Titles for Young Adults

Maraniss, David. They Marched into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967.
Simon & Schuster, c2003. 572pp. (adult) (NF)
Here is the story of Vietnam and the sixties told through the events of a few tumultuous days in Octo-
ber 1967.
McCullough, David. John Adams. Simon & Schuster, c2001. 751pp. (adult) (NF)
Chronicles the life of America’s second president, including his youth, his career as a Massachusetts
farmer and lawyer, his marriage to Abigail, his rivalry with Thomas Jefferson, and his influence on
the birth of the United States.
Nuland, Sherwin B. Leonardo da Vinci. Viking Press, c2000. 170pp. (adult) (NF)
A distinguished chronicler of the human body and spirit interprets a Renaissance genius. Part of the
Penguin Lives biography series.
Owen, David. Hidden Secrets: Complete History of Espionage and the Technology Used to Support It.
Firefly Books, c2002. 224pp. (adult) (NF)
A compelling look at the real world of the spy. With case studies and hundreds of photographs, this
is an intriguing look at surveillance techniques, spy technology, and the spies themselves.
Patchett, Ann. Truth and Beauty: A Friendship. HarperCollins, c2004. 257pp. (adult) (NF)
Ann Patchett and Lucy Grealy, two successful writers, met in college in 1981 and began a friendship
that would define both of their lives as much as their work did. Through love, fame, drugs, and de-
spair, this book shows what it means to be part of two lives that are intertwined.
Peterson, Kathy. Sew Simple Squares: More Than 25 Fearless Sewing Projects for Your Home. Wat-
son-Guptill, c2003. 112pp. (adult) (NF)
Here is a book filled with ideas for cushion covers, tablemats, curtains, and many other decorating
projects. Clear steps, fabric suggestions, and full-color photographs are included.
Philbrick, Nathaniel. In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. Viking Press,
c2000. 302pp. (adult) (NF)
After an eighty-ton sperm whale splintered the Essex in 1820, her crew tried to reach South America
in three small boats.
Santiago, Esmeralda. Almost a Woman. Vintage, c1999. 314pp. (adult) (NF)
In her new memoir, the acclaimed author of When I Was Puerto Rican continues the chronicle of her
emergence from the barrios of Brooklyn to the theaters of Manhattan.
Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Houghton Mifflin, c2001.
356pp. (adult) (NF)
Schlosser unearths changes the fast food industry has wrought in food production, popular culture,
and even real estate.
Sides, Hampton. Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II’s Most Dramatic Mission.
Anchor Books, c2002. 344pp. (adult) (NF)
On January 28, 1945, 121 hand-selected U.S. soldiers slipped behind enemy lines in the Philippines.
Their mission: March thirty rugged miles to rescue 513 POWs, among them the last survivors of the
infamous Bataan Death March.
From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

15
 Genres

Adult Nonfiction Titles for Young Adults

Shields, Carol. Jane Austen. Viking Press, c2001. 185pp. (adult) (NF)
A Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist celebrates the life of one of the most renowned and beloved fe-
male novelists of all time. Part of the Penguin Lives biography series.
Stanton, Doug. In Harm’s Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of
Its Survivors. Bantam Books, c2001. 333pp. (adult) (NF)
A Japanese submarine sank a WWII cruiser a few days before the war ended; the Navy took four
days to respond.
Steinberg, Jacques. The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College. Viking
Press, c2002. 292pp. (adult) (NF)
Follows an admissions officer and his eight counterparts through the daunting task of recruiting stu-
dents nationwide, reading through each of their applications, and meeting to finalize the incoming
class. He also recounts the personal experiences of a half dozen high school seniors of various ethnic
and economic backgrounds as they struggle through the selection process.
Tademy, Lalita. Veiled Courage: Inside the Afghan Women’s Resistance. Broadway Books, c2002.
293pp. (adult) (NF)
Tademy reveals the bravery and spirit of the women of the Revolutionary Association of the Women
of Afghanistan (RAWA), whose daring, clandestine activities defied the forces of the Taliban and
earned the world’s fierce admiration.
Ung, Loung, First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers. HarperCollins,
c2000. 240pp. (adult) (NF)
From a childhood survivor of Cambodia’s brutal Pol Pot regime comes an unforgettable narrative of
war crimes and desperate actions, the unnerving strength of a small girl and her family, and the tri-
umph of their spirit.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

16
 Genres

Based on a True Story

Books for Ages 12–15
Avi. Nothing But the Truth: A Documentary Novel. Orchard Books, c2003. c1991, 177pp.
A ninth-grader’s suspension for singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” during homeroom becomes a
national news story, and leads to him and his teacher both leaving the school.
Beatty, Patricia. Jayhawker. Beech Tree Books, c1995. 214pp.
In the early years of the Civil War, teenage Kansas farm boy Lije Tulley becomes a Jayhawker, an
abolitionist raider freeing slaves from the neighboring state of Missouri, and then goes undercover
there as a spy.
Brink, Carol Ryrie. Caddie Woodlawn. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c1973, 275pp.
The adventures of an eleven-year-old tomboy growing up on the Wisconsin frontier in the mid-nine-
teenth century.
Bruchac, Joseph. The Winter People. Dial Press, c2002. 168pp.
Fourteen-year-old Saxso, a member of the Abenaki tribe in Canada, embarks on a dangerous rescue
mission when his mother and two younger sisters are taken hostage during an attack by the British on
their unprotected village in 1759.
Curtis, Christopher Paul. The Watsons Go To Birmingham—1963: A Novel. Delacorte Press, c1995.
210pp.
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living
in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer
of 1963.
Eckert, Allan W. Incident at Hawk’s Hill. Little, Brown, c1971. 207pp.
A shy, lonely six-year-old wanders into the Canadian prairie and spends a summer under the protec-
tion of a badger.
Houston, Gloria. Bright Freedom’s Song: A Story of the Underground Railroad. Silver Whistle,
c1998. 145pp.
In the years before the Civil War, Bright discovers that her parents are providing a safe house for the
Underground Railroad and helps to save a runaway slave named Marcus.
Konigsburg, E. L. Silent to the Bone. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2000. 261pp.
Thirteen-year-old Branwell loses his power of speech after being wrongly accused of gravely injur-
ing his baby half-sister, and only his friend Connor is able to reach him and uncover the truth about
what happened.
Lyons, Mary E. Dear Ellen Bee: A Civil War Scrapbook of Two Union Spies. Atheneum Books for
Young Readers, c2000. 161pp.
A scrapbook kept by a young black girl details her experiences and those of the older white woman,
“Miss Bet,” who had freed her and her family, sent her north from Richmond to get an education, and
then worked to bring an end to slavery. Based on the life of Elizabeth Van Lew.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

17
 Genres

Based on a True Story

Lyons, Mary E. Letters from a Slave Girl: The Story of Harriet Jacobs. Aladdin Paperbacks, c1996.
175pp.
A fictionalized version of the life of Harriet Jacobs, told in the form of letters that she might have
written during her slavery in North Carolina and as she prepared for escape to the North in 1842.
Lyons, Mary E. The Poison Place: A Novel. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c1997. 165pp.
A former slave named Moses reminisces about his famous owner, Charles Willson Peale, and the in-
trigue surrounding Peale’s son’s suspicious death.
Meyer, Carolyn. Drummers of Jericho. Gulliver/Harcourt Brace, c1995. 308pp.
A fourteen-year-old Jewish girl goes to live with her father and stepmother in a small town and soon
finds herself the center of a civil rights battle when she objects to the high school band marching in
the formation of a cross.
Meyer, Carolyn. Where the Broken Heart Still Beats: The Story of Cynthia Ann Parker. Harcourt
Brace, c1992, 197pp.
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.
Miklowitz, Gloria D. Masada: The Last Fortress. Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, c1998. 188pp.
As the Roman army marches inexorably across the Judean desert toward the fortress of Masada, Si-
mon and his family and friends prepare, along with the rest of the Jewish Zealots, to fight and never
surrender.
Roth, Arthur J. The Iceberg Hermit. Scholastic, c1974, 219pp.
Shipwrecked in 1757 on an iceberg in the Arctic seas with only an orphaned polar cub for compan-
ionship, seventeen-year-old Allan begins a seemingly hopeless struggle for survival.
Ryan, Pam Muñoz. Esperanza Rising. Scholastic, c2000. 262pp.
Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work
in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing
Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression.
Strasser, Todd. Give a Boy a Gun. Simon Pulse, 2002, c2000. 208pp.
Events leading up to a night of terror at a high school dance are told from the points of view of vari-
ous people involved.
Wisler, G. Clifton. Red Cap. Puffin Books, 1994. c1991, 160pp.
A young Yankee drummer boy displays great courage when he is captured and sent to Andersonville
Prison.
Wulffson, Don L. Soldier X. Viking Press, c2001. 226pp.
In 1943, sixteen-year-old Erik experiences the horrors of war when he is drafted into the German
army and sent to fight on the Russian front.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

18
 Genres

Based on a True Story

Books for Older Teens
Based on a list compiled by Ed Nizalowski, SMS, Newark Valley High School, Newark Valley, New York.
Atkins, Catherine. When Jeff Comes Home. Puffin, c2001. c1999. 231pp.
Sixteen-year-old Jeff, returning home after having been kidnapped and held prisoner for three years,
must face his family, friends, and school and the widespread assumption that he engaged in sexual
activity with his kidnapper.
Paulsen, Gary. The Beet Fields: Memories of a Sixteenth Summer. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2002, c2000.
160pp.
In the summer of 1955, a sixteen-year-old boy runs away from his troubled home and learns about
people, friendship, love, and lust while working as a migrant farmer and a carny.
Paulsen, Gary. Soldier’s Heart: Being the Story of the Enlistment and Due Service of the Boy Charley
Goddard in the First Minnesota Volunteers: A Novel of the Civil War. Delacorte Press, c1998. 106pp.
Eager to enlist, fifteen-year-old Charley has a change of heart after experiencing both the physical
horrors and mental anguish of Civil War combat.
Rees, Celia. Witch Child. Candlewick Press, 2001, c2000. 261pp.
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.
Salisbury, Graham. Eyes of the Emperor. Wendy Lamb Books, c2005. 229pp.
Following orders from the U.S. Army, several young Japanese American men train K-9 units to hunt
Asians during World War II.
Shusterman, Neal. What Daddy Did: A Novel. HarperCollins, c1993. 230pp.
A twelve-year-old living with his grandparents learns his father is to be released from prison after
killing his mother and feels apprehensive about renewing their relationship. Based on true events.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

19
 Genres

Clean Romance
Books for Ages 12–15
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. The Modern Library, c1995. 281pp.
In early nineteenth-century England, a spirited young woman copes with the courtship of a snobbish
gentleman as well as the romantic entanglements of her four sisters.
Bauer, Joan. Hope Was Here. Putnam, c2000. 186pp.
When sixteen-year-old Hope and the aunt who has raised her move from Brooklyn to Mulhoney,
Wisconsin, to work as waitress and cook in the Welcome Stairways diner, they become involved
with the diner owner’s political campaign to oust the town’s corrupt mayor.
Bauer, Joan. Squashed. Putnam, 2001, c1992. 194pp.
As sixteen-year-old Ellie pursues her two goals—growing the biggest pumpkin in Iowa and losing
twenty pounds herself—she strengthens her relationship with her father and meets a young man with
interests similar to her own.
Cabot, Meg. Nicola and the Viscount. Avon Books, 2005, c2002. 254pp.
During London’s social season, Nicola Sparks falls in love with a viscount, but one of his enemies
tries to undermine her opinion of his character.
Cabot, Meg. Victoria and the Rogue. Avon Books, 2005, c2003. 241pp.
On board a ship to London to meet her fiancé, Lord Malfrey, the ship’s captain falls in love with Vic-
toria and interferes with her engagement.
Cleary, Beverly. Fifteen. Avon, 1996, c1956. 203pp.
Jane is fifteen and dreaming of a new boyfriend. When she meets Stan, he seems to be the answer to
her dreams.
Cleary, Beverly. Jean and Johnny. Avon Books, c1959 (1996 printing). 219pp.
Fifteen-year-old Jean tries very hard to make a good impression on Johnny, who seems to be every-
thing she wants in a boyfriend.
Cleary, Beverly. The Luckiest Girl. Avon, 1996, c1958. 268pp.
A sixteen-year-old girl gains confidence and perspective in her life by leaving her family in Oregon
to live with friends in California for a year.
Cleary, Beverly. Sister of the Bride. Avon, 1996, c1963. 268pp.
Barbara helps her eighteen-year-old sister plan her wedding.
Cooney, Caroline B. Both Sides of Time. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1997,
c1995. 210pp.
The summer after senior year, Annie, wishing she could have lived a hundred years ago in a more ro-
mantic time, finds herself in the 1890s, and it is indeed romantic—and very painful.
Cooney, Caroline B. The Girl Who Invented Romance. Delacorte Press, 2005, c1988. 182pp.
While waiting for her first big romance and observing the sometimes rocky love affairs of her par-
ents and brother, sixteen-year-old Kelly develops a board game called Romance.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

20
 Genres

Clean Romance
Daly, Maureen. Seventeenth Summer. Simon Pulse, 2002, c1942. 291pp.
The summer after high school graduation, seventeen-year-old Angie finds herself in love for the first
time.
Danziger, Paula. Remember Me to Harold Square. Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers, c1999.
139pp.
When Frank spends the summer with Kendra and her family in their New York City apartment, a
friendship develops as the two teenagers set off on a scavenger hunt exploring the city’s museums,
restaurants, and other landmarks.
Dessen, Sarah. This Lullaby: A Novel. Viking Press, c2002. 345pp.
Remy, a master at getting rid of boyfriends before any emotional attachments form, finds herself
strangely unwilling to free herself from Dexter, a messy, disorganized, impulsive musician whom
she suspects she has come to love.
Eberhardt, Thom. Rat Boys: A Dating Experiment. Hyperion, c2001. 154pp.
Fourteen-year-olds Marci and Summer use a magic ring to turn two rats into cute boys so that they
can have dates for the Spring Fling.
Heath, Lorraine. Amelia and the Outlaw. Avon Books, c2003. 245pp.
In Texas in 1881, nineteen-year-old former bank robber Jesse Lawton arrives at Judge Harper’s
ranch to work off the remainder of his sentence and promptly falls in love with the judge’s daughter.
Heath, Lorraine. Samantha and the Cowboy. Avon Books, c2002. 250pp.
Fresh from the Civil War, soldier Matthew Hart wants only to return to his simple life as a cowboy,
but matters become complicated when he discovers that Sam, the new boy on the cattle drive, is re-
ally Samantha—and she’s beautiful.
Kerr, M. E. I Stay Near You: 1 Story in 3. Harcourt Brace, 1997, c1985. 203pp.
Three generations suffer the consequences of an ill-fated romance between a young girl from the
wrong side of the tracks and the son of the richest family in a small upstate New York town.
Lubar, David. Dunk. Clarion Books, c2002. 249pp.
Chad, hoping to work out his frustrations and his anger by taking a summer job as a dunk tank Bozo
on the boardwalk at the New Jersey shore, comes to a better understanding of himself and the uses of
humor as he undergoes training in the fine art of insults.
McDaniel, Lurlene. One Last Wish. Bantam Books, c1998. 136pp.
Presents three tales of teenagers facing death.
Plummer, Louise. The Unlikely Romance of Kate Bjorkman. Laurel-Leaf, 1997, c1995. 183pp.
Seventeen-year-old Kate hopes for romance when her older brother’s friend Richard comes to stay at
their house during Christmas vacation.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

21
 Genres

Clean Romance
Rinaldi, Ann. The Coffin Quilt: The Feud Between the Hatfields and the McCoys. Harcourt Brace,
c1999. 228pp.
In the 1880s, young Fanny McCoy witnesses the growth of a terrible and violent feud between her
Kentucky family and the West Virginia Hatfields, complicated by her older sister Roseanna’s ro-
mance with a Hatfield.
Spinelli, Jerry. Stargirl. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c2000. 186pp.
Stargirl, a teen who animates quiet Mica High with her colorful personality, suddenly finds herself
shunned for her refusal to conform.
Van Draanen, Wendelin. Flipped. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c2001. 212pp.
In alternating chapters, two teenagers describe how their feelings about themselves, each other, and
their families have changed over the years.
Woodson, Jacqueline. If You Come Softly. Putnam, c1998. 181pp.
After meeting at their private school in New York, fifteen-year-old Jeremiah, who is black and
whose parents are separated, and Ellie, who is white and whose mother has twice abandoned her, fall
in love and then try to cope with people’s reactions.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

22
 Genres

E-mails and Blogs and IMs, Oh My!

Books for Ages 12–15
Danziger, Paula. Snail Mail No More. Scholastic Signature, c2000. 307pp.
Now that they live in different cities, thirteen-year-olds Tara and Elizabeth use e-mail to “talk” about
everything that is occurring in their lives and to try to maintain their closeness as they face big
changes.
Ehrenhaft, Daniel. Tell It to Naomi. Delacorte Press, c2004. 200pp.
In a harebrained scheme, concocted by his neurotic older sister, to forge a romantic relationship with
the girl of his dreams, fifteen-year-old Dave Rosen pretends to be a female advice columnist for his
school newspaper.
Goldschmidt, Judy. The Secret Blog of Raisin Rodriguez: A Novel. Razorbill, c2005. 202pp.
In a weblog she sends to her best friends back in Berkeley, seventh-grader Raisin Rodriguez chroni-
cles her successes and her more frequent humiliating failures as she attempts to make friends at her
new Philadelphia school.
Hooper, Mary. Amy. Bloomsbury (distributed by Holtzbrinck), 2004, c2002. 170pp.
Feeling lonely after being dumped by her two best friends, Amy hopes for a romance with Zed,
whom she met in an Internet chat room, but the day they spend together in his seaside village near
London is not what she expected.
Moriarty, Jaclyn. The Year of Secret Assignments. Arthur A. Levine Books, c2004. 340pp.
Three female students from Ashbury High write to three male students from rival Brookfield High as
part of a pen pal program, leading to romance, humiliation, revenge plots, and war between the
schools.
Myracle, Lauren. Ttyl. Amulet Books, c2004. 209pp.
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.
Rosen, Michael J. Chaser Sic: A Novel in E-Mails. Candlewick Press, c2002. 152pp.
When his parents decide to move to an old house in the country, Chase uses e-mails to his friends
back in Columbus, Ohio, and to his sister in college to help him deal with cicadas, deer hunters, and
other changes in his life.
Sones, Sonya. One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies. Simon & Schuster Books for
Young Readers, c2004. 268pp.
Fifteen-year-old Ruby Milliken leaves her best friend, her boyfriend, her aunt, and her mother’s
grave in Boston and reluctantly flies to Los Angeles to live with her father, a famous movie star who
divorced her mother before Ruby was born.
Vega, Denise. Click Here: (To Find Out How I Survived Seventh Grade): A Novel. Little, Brown,
c2005. 211pp.
Seventh-grader Erin Swift writes about her friends and classmates in her private blog. When it acci-
dentally gets posted on the school intranet site, she learns some important lessons about friendship.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

23
 Genres

E-mails and Blogs and IMs, Oh My!

Books for Older Teens
Cabot, Meg. Boy Meets Girl. Avon Trade, c2004. 387pp.
Kate Mackenzie thinks life can’t get any worse, until her tyrannical boss makes her fire the most
popular employee in the department, leading to a lawsuit for wrongful termination, and a close en-
counter with a Manhattan lawyer who embodies everything Kate detests.
Clair Day, Robynn. Confessions of a Boyfriend Stealer: a Blog. Delacorte Press, c2005. 228pp.
Genesis Bell’s blog tells the true story of the unbelievable events that caused the breakup of her
friendship with her two best friends.
Hafer, Todd. In The Chat Room with God. River Oak, c2002. 248pp.
Five teens meet in an Internet chat room for some laughs, but when a mysterious visitor claiming to
be God enters the chat, they find their lives, faith, and beliefs tested.
Maxwell, Katie. The Year My Life Went Down the Loo. Dorchester Publishing, c2003. 221pp.
A novel in e-mail form, in which sixteen-year-old Emily Williams, an American living in England,
struggles to adapt to the unfamiliar culture and squash the voices in her head urging her to jump on
the first available flight home to Seattle.
Petersen, P. J. Rob&sara.com. Delacorte Press, c2004. 210pp.
Rob, who lives at a school for troubled teenagers, and Sara, the sixteen-year-old daughter of an army
colonel, meet in a poetry chat-room and develop a close relationship via e-mail.
Stine, Catherine. Refugees. Delacorte Press, c2005. 277pp.
Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Dawn, a sixteen-year-old runaway from San
Francisco, connects by phone and e-mail with Johar, a gentle, fifteen-year-old Afghani who assists
Dawn’s foster mother, a doctor, at a Red Cross refugee camp in Peshawar.
Teller, Astro. Exegesis. Vintage Contemporaries, c1997. 223pp.
A near-future novel presented in the form of e-mail messages between graduate student Alice Lu and
EDGAR, an artificial intelligence project she created to browse and summarize information from the
World Wide Web, which somehow became conscious and then came to the attention of the govern-
ment when it started digesting top secret military files.
Wittlinger, Ellen. Heart on My Sleeve. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2004. 219pp.
From the end of high school to the beginning of college, Chloe and Julian deal with major changes in
their families and friendships and explore their feelings for each other through e-mails, letters, and a
visit.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Genres

Fairy Tale Variations

Books for Ages 12–15
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Just Ella. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c1999. 185pp.
In this continuation of the Cinderella story, fifteen-year-old Ella finds that accepting Prince Charm-
ing’s proposal ensnares her in a suffocating tangle of palace rules and royal etiquette, so she plots to
escape.
Kindl, Patrice. Goose Chase. Houghton Mifflin, c2001. 214pp.
Rather than marry a cruel king or a seemingly dim-witted prince, an enchanted goose girl endures
imprisonment, capture by several ogresses, and other dangers, before learning exactly who she is.
Levine, Gail Carson. Cinderellis and the Glass Hill. HarperCollins, c2000. 104pp.
In this humorous retelling of a Perrault tale, a lonely young farm lad uses his unusual inventive abil-
ity to pass a nearly impossible test and win the hand of the neighboring princess.
Levine, Gail Carson. Ella Enchanted. HarperCollins, c1997. 232pp.
In this novel based on the story of Cinderella, Ella struggles against the childhood curse that forces
her to obey any order given to her.
Levine, Gail Carson. Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep. HarperCollins, c1999. 107pp.
In this retelling of the fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty,” Princess Sonora, who is ten times smarter than
anyone else, vows to choose for herself the best time to be pricked by the spindle.
Maguire, Gregory. Leaping Beauty: And Other Animal Fairy Tales. HarperCollins, c2004. 197pp.
Retells eight beloved fairy tales, giving them animal protagonists; includes such stories as “Cin-
der-Elephant,” “Hamster and Gerbil,” and “Leaping Beauty.”
McKinley, Robin. Rose Daughter. Ace Books, 1998, c1997. 292pp.
A novelized retelling of “Beauty and the Beast” in which Beauty grows to love the Beast at whose cas-
tle she is compelled to stay and is forced to follow her heart to make the best choice for their futures.
McKinley, Robin. Spindle’s End. Putnam, c2000. 422pp.
The infant princess Briar Rose is cursed on her name day by Pernicia, an evil fairy, and then whisked
away by a young fairy to be raised in a remote part of a magical country, unaware of her real identity
and hidden from Pernicia’s vengeful powers.
Napoli, Donna Jo. Beast. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2000. 260pp.
Elaborates on “Beauty and the Beast,” told from the point of view of the beast and set in Persia.
Napoli, Donna Jo. Bound. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2004. 186pp.
In a novel based on Chinese Cinderella tales, fourteen-year-old stepchild Xing-Xing endures a life of
neglect and servitude, as her stepmother cruelly mutilates her own child’s feet so that she alone
might marry well.
Napoli, Donna Jo. Spinners. Puffin Books, 2001, c1999. 197pp.
Elaborates on the events recounted in “Rumpelstiltskin,” in which a strange little man helps a
miller’s daughter spin straw into gold for the king on the condition that she will give him her
first-born child.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

25
 Genres

Fairy Tale Variations

Napoli, Donna Jo. Zel. Puffin Books, 1998, c1996. 227pp.
Adapted from “Rapunzel,” the story is told in alternating chapters from the point of view of Zel, her
mother, and the prince, as Zel falls in love with a young prince, and her mother tries everything she
can to prevent Zel from leaving her.
Schmidt, Gary D. Straw into Gold. Clarion Books, c2001. 172pp.
Pursued by greedy villains, two boys on a quest to save innocent lives meet the banished queen
whose son was stolen by Rumpelstiltskin eleven years earlier, and she provides much more than the
answer they seek.
Vande Velde, Vivian. The Rumpelstiltskin Problem. Houghton Mifflin, c2000. 116pp.
A collection of variations on the familiar story of a boastful miller and the daughter he claims can
spin straw into gold.
Vande Velde, Vivian. Tales from the Brothers Grimm and the Sisters Weird. Harcourt Brace, c1995.
128pp.
Presents thirteen twisted versions of such familiar fairy tales as “Red Riding Hood,” “Jack and the
Beanstalk,” “Hansel and Gretel,” and “The Three Billy Goats Gruff.”

Books for Older Teens

Card, Orson Scott. Enchantment. Del Rey/Ballantine, 2000, c1999. 419pp.
American graduate student Ivan Smetski, haunted by the vision of a sleeping princess he believes he
saw as a ten-year-old boy while exploring the Carpathian forest, returns to his native land to investi-
gate and, with one kiss, is drawn into a world that vanished a thousand years earlier.
Maguire, Gregory. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. ReganBooks, c1999. 368pp.
Retells the story of Cinderella from her stepsister’s point of view.
Maguire, Gregory. Mirror Mirror. Regan Books, c2003. 280pp. (adult)
Presents a retelling of “Snow White,” set in early sixteenth-century Italy, in which the life of inno-
cent young Bianca de Nevada is disrupted when her beloved father is sent on an errand by Cesare
Borgia, leaving her in the care of Borgia’s sister Lucrezia, a decadent woman who orders the child
killed.
Napoli, Donna Jo. Breath. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2003. 260pp.
Elaborates on “The Pied Piper,” told from the point of view of a boy who is too ill to keep up when a
piper spirits away the healthy children of a plague-ridden town after being cheated out of full pay-
ment for ridding Hameln of rats.
Yolen, Jane. Briar Rose. Starscape, 2002, c1992. 241pp.
In this retelling of “Sleeping Beauty,” a young woman learns that her grandmother had a secret past
tied to the Holocaust.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

26
 Genres

Fairy Tale Variations Arranged by Individual Tales

Donkeyskin
McKinley, Robin. Deerskin. Ace, c1994. 309pp. (ages 12–15)
A beautiful princess flees from her father’s wrath and unlocks a door onto a world of magic, where
she finds the key to her own survival.

The Goose Girl

Hale, Shannon. The Goose Girl. Bloomsbury (distributed by Holtzbrinck), c2003. 383pp. (ages 12–15)
Princess Anidori, on her way to marry a prince she has never met, is betrayed by her guards and her
lady-in-waiting and must become a goose girl to survive, until she can reveal her true identity and re-
claim the crown that is rightfully hers.

East of the Sun and West of the Moon

Pattou, Edith. East. Harcourt, c2003. 498pp. (ages 12–15)
A young woman journeys to a distant castle on the back of a great white bear who is the victim of a
cruel enchantment.

Hansel and Gretel

Napoli, Donna Jo. The Magic Circle. Puffin Books, c1995. 118pp. (ages 12–15)
After learning sorcery to become a healer, a good-hearted woman is turned into a witch by evil spir-
its. She fights their power until her encounter with Hansel and Gretel years later.

Jack and the Beanstalk

Napoli, Donna Jo. Crazy Jack. Delacorte Press, c1999. 134pp. (ages 12–15)
In this version of the traditional tale of the young boy who climbs a beanstalk, Jack searches for his
father, falls in love with Flora, and learns the value of real treasure.

Little Red Riding Hood

Cross, Gillian. Wolf. Holiday House, c1991. 140pp. (ages 12–15)
Cassy is forced to stay with her mother in a squatter’s settlement of artists, where she joins the group
in producing an educational program about wolves and inadvertently learns that her missing father is
a notorious terrorist.

The Pied Piper

Napoli, Donna Jo. Breath. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2003. 260pp. (ages 12–15)
Elaborates on “The Pied Piper,” told from the point of view of a boy who is too ill to keep up when a
piper spirits away the healthy children of a plague-ridden town after being cheated out of full pay-
ment for ridding Hameln of rats.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

27
 Genres

Fairy Tale Variations Arranged by Individual Tales

Rapunzel
Napoli, Donna Jo. Zel. Puffin Books, c1998. 227pp. (ages 12–15)
Based on “Rapunzel,” the story is told in alternating chapters from the point of view of Zel, her
mother, and the prince, and delves into the psychological motivations of the characters.

Rumplestiltskin
Napoli, Donna Jo. Spinners. Puffin Books, c2001. 197pp. (ages 12–15)
American graduate student Ivan Smetski, haunted by the vision of a sleeping princess he believes he
saw as a ten-year-old boy while exploring the Carpathian forest, returns to his native land to investi-
gate and, with one kiss, is drawn into a world that vanished a thousand years earlier.
Schmidt, Gary D. Straw into Gold. Clarion Books, c2001. 172pp. (ages 12–15)
Pursued by greedy villains, two boys on a quest to save innocent lives meet the banished queen
whose son was stolen by Rumpelstiltskin eleven years earlier, and she provides much more than the
answer they seek.
Vande Velde, Vivian. The Rumpelstiltskin Problem. Houghton Mifflin, c2000. 116pp. (ages 12–15)
A collection of variations on the familiar story of a boastful miller and the daughter he claims can
spin straw into gold.

Sleeping Beauty
Geras, Adele. Watching the Roses. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, c1992. 152pp. (older teens)
After being raped at her eighteenth birthday party, an English girl, whose life resembles a modern
version of “Sleeping Beauty,” withdraws into silent thoughts of her unusual family and the events
that led to her trauma.
Yolen, Jane. Briar Rose. Starscape, c2002. 241pp. (ages 12–15)
In this retelling of “Sleeping Beauty,” a young woman learns that her grandmother had a secret past
tied to the Holocaust.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

28
 Genres

Fractured Fairy Tales

Books for All Ages
Ada, Alma Flor. Dear Peter Rabbit. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c1994. 32pp.
Presents letters between such fairy tale characters as Goldilocks, Baby Bear, Peter Rabbit, and the
Three Pigs.
Ada, Alma Flor. With Love, Little Red Hen. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2001. 34pp.
A series of letters describe the actions of Goldilocks, Peter Rabbit, the Three Pigs, the Little Red
Hen, and other storybook characters when Little Red Hen and her chicks become the target of the un-
savory Wolf and his cousin, Fer O’Cious.
Ada, Alma Flor. Yours Truly, Goldilocks. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c1998. 32pp.
Presents the correspondence of Goldilocks, the Three Pigs, Baby Bear, Peter Rabbit, and Little Red
Riding Hood as they plan to attend a housewarming party for the pigs and avoid the evil wolves in
the forest.
Calmenson, Stephanie. The Principal’s New Clothes. Scholastic, c1989. 40pp.
In this version of the Andersen tale, the vain principal of P.S. 88 is persuaded by two tailors that they
will make him an amazing, one-of-a-kind suit that will be visible only to intelligent people who are
good at their jobs.
Cole, Babette. Prince Cinders. Putnam, 1997, c1987, 32pp.
A fairy grants a small, skinny prince a change in appearance and the chance to go to the Palace Disco.
Edwards, Pamela Duncan. Dinorella: A Prehistoric Fairy Tale. Hyperion Books for Children, c1997.
32pp.
In this story, loosely based on that of Cinderella but featuring dinosaurs, the Duke falls in love with
Dinorella when she rescues him from the dreaded deinonychus at the Dinosaur Dance.
Ernst, Lisa Campbell. Goldilocks Returns. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2000. 34pp.
Thirty years after Goldilocks first met the three bears, she returns to fix up their cottage and soothe
her guilty conscience.
Goode, Diane. Dinosaur’s New Clothes. Scholastic, c1999. 33pp.
In this retelling of the familiar story about two rascals who sell a vain emperor an invisible suit of
clothes, the characters are presented as dinosaurs.
Granowsky, Alvin. That Awful Cinderella. Steck-Vaughn, c1993. 25pp.
Contains the classic fairy tale of Cinderella, entitled “Cinderella—A Classic Tale,” along with a re-
telling, entitled “That Awful Cinderella,” which is written from the point of view of Cinderella’s
stepsister.
Granowsky, Alvin. The Unfairest of Them All. Steck-Vaughn, c1999. 25pp.
Presents the classic story of Snow White, a young woman whose beauty drives her stepmother to at-
tempt to kill her; includes an additional tale in which the stepmother gets to tell her side of the story.
Harris, Jim. The Three Little Dinosaurs. Pelican, c1999. 30pp.
In this variation on the “The Three Little Pigs,” three young dinosaurs set out on their own, only to be
hassled by a Tyrannosaurus rex who gets a big surprise at the end.
From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

29
 Genres

Fractured Fairy Tales

Jackson, Ellen B. Cinder Edna. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, c1994. 32pp.
Cinderella and Cinder Edna, who live next door to each other, each with a cruel stepmother and step-
sisters, have different approaches to life. Although both end up with the princes of their dreams, one
is a great deal happier than the other.
Johnston, Tony. The Cowboy and the Black-Eyed Pea. Putnam & Grosset, c1996. 32pp.
In this adaptation of “The Princess and the Pea,” the wealthy daughter of a Texas rancher devises a
plan to find a real cowboy among her many suitors.
Ketteman, Helen. Bubba the Cowboy Prince: A Fractured Texas Tale. Scholastic, c1997. 32pp.
Loosely based on “Cinderella,” this story is set in Texas. The fairy godmother is a cow, and the hero,
named Bubba, is the stepson of a wicked rancher.
Lasky, Kathryn. The Emperor’s Old Clothes. Harcourt, 2002, c1999. 32pp.
A continuation of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” in which a simple farmer finds the emperor’s old
clothes on his way home from the market and decides to put them on.
Meddaugh, Susan. Cinderella’s Rat. Houghton Mifflin, c1997. 32pp.
One of the rats that was turned into a coachman by Cinderella’s fairy godmother tells his story.
Minters, Frances. Cinder-Elly. Puffin Books, 1997, c1994. 32pp.
In this rap version of the traditional fairy tale, the overworked younger sister gets to go to a basket-
ball game and meets a star player, Prince Charming.
Osborne, Mary Pope. Kate and the Beanstalk. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2000. 35pp.
In this version of the classic tale, a girl climbs to the top of a giant beanstalk, where she uses her
quick wits to outsmart a giant and make her and her mother’s fortune.
Palatini, Margie. Piggie Pie! Clarion Books, c1995. 32pp.
Gritch the witch flies to Old MacDonald’s farm for some pigs to make a piggie pie, but when she ar-
rives she can’t find a single porker.
Palatini, Margie. Zoom Broom. Hyperion Paperbacks for Children, c2000. 32pp.
When her broom breaks down, Gritch the Witch visits a foxy salesman in search of a new Zoom
Broom, but ends up with something unexpected.
Perlman, Janet. Cinderella Penguin, or, the Little Glass Flipper. Puffin Books, 1995, c1992. 32pp.
A retelling of the classic Cinderella story, with penguins as the characters.
Pratchett, Terry. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. HarperCollins, c2001. 241pp.
A talking cat, intelligent rats, and a strange boy cooperate in a Pied Piper scam until they try to con
the wrong town and are confronted by a deadly evil rat king.
Pullman, Philip. I Was a Rat! Knopf (distributed by Random House), 2000. c1999. 164pp.
A little boy turns life in London upside down when he appears at the house of a lonely old couple and
insists he was a rat.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

30
 Genres

Fractured Fairy Tales

Scieszka, Jon. The Frog Prince, Continued. Viking Press, c1991. 32pp.
After the frog turns into a prince, he and the Princess do not live happily ever after, and the Prince de-
cides to look for a witch to help him remedy the situation.
Scieszka, Jon. The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. Viking Press, 1992. 51pp.
Madcap revisions of familiar fairy tales.
Stanley, Diane. Rumpelstiltskin’s Daughter. Morrow Junior Books, c1997. 32pp.
Rumpelstiltskin’s daughter may not be able to spin straw into gold, but she is more than a match for a
monarch whose greed has blighted an entire kingdom.
Trivizas, Eugenios. The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig. Margaret K. McElderry Books,
c1993. 32pp.
An altered retelling of the traditional tale about the conflict between pig and wolf—with a surprise
ending.
Vande Velde, Vivian. The Rumpelstiltskin Problem. Houghton Mifflin, c2000. 116pp.
A collection of variations on the familiar story of a boastful miller and the daughter he claims can
spin straw into gold.
Vande Velde, Vivian. Tales from the Brothers Grimm and the Sisters Weird. Harcourt Brace, c1995.
128pp.
Presents thirteen twisted versions of such familiar fairy tales as “Red Riding Hood,” “Jack and the
Beanstalk,” “Hansel and Gretel,” and “The Three Billy Goats Gruff.”

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

31
 Genres

Hip Hop Literature

Books for Ages 12–15
Greenfield, Eloise. Nathaniel Talking. Black Butterfly Children’s Books, c1988, 32pp.
Poems by Nathaniel, a spirited nine-year-old poet who raps and rhymes about what it’s like to be
nine, his education, and his family life. Includes instructions for children on how to create a
twelve-bar blues poem.
Igus, Toyomi. I See the Rhythm. Children’s Book Press (distributed by Publishers Group West), c1998.
32pp. (NF)
Chronicles and captures poetically the history, mood, and movement of African American music.
Myers, Walter Dean. Harlem: A Poem. Scholastic Press, c1997. 32pp.
A poem celebrating the people, sights, and sounds of Harlem.

Books for Older Teens

Anglesey, Zoe, ed. Listen Up!: Spoken Word Poetry. One World, 1999. 197pp.
A collection of spoken word poetry by young authors.
George, Nelson. Hip Hop America. Penguin, 2005, c1998. 238pp. (adult)
Examines the growth of hip hop during the last three decades of the twentieth century, discussing its
impact on American society and looking at how advertisers, magazines, fashion companies, MTV, and
others are using hip hop as a way to reach not only African American youth, but all young people.
Ptah, Heru. A Hip-Hop Story. MTV Books/Pocket Books, 2003, c2002. 404pp. (NF)
Rappers Flawless and Hannibal are reaching for the same dream: to be the best hip-hop artist in their
generation, but along they way, the must battle industry honchos, crazy fans, and each other.
Tramble, Nichelle D. The Dying Ground: A Hip-Hop Noir Novel. Vallard Books, c2001. 322pp. (adult)
As Maceo Redfield tries to learn the truth behind his childhood friend’s death, he finds himself
drawn deeper into Oakland’s drug underworld.
Vibe Magazine, eds. Hip-Hop Divas. Three Rivers Press, c2001. 211pp. (adult) (NF)
A collection of essays and photographs profiling the most influential female hip-hop artists.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

32
 Genres

Horror
Books for Ages 12–15
Atwater-Rhodes, Amelia. Demon in My View. Delacorte Press, c2000 176pp.
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.
Bruchac, Joseph. Skeleton Man. HarperCollins, c2001. 114pp.
After her parents disappear and she is turned over to the care of a strange “great-uncle,” Molly must
rely on her dreams about an old Mohawk story for her safety, and maybe even for her life.
Duncan, Lois. Don’t Look Behind You. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1990,
c1989. 179pp.
Seventeen-year-old April finds her comfortable life changed forever when death threats to her fa-
ther, a witness in a federal case, force her family to go into hiding under assumed names and flee
from a hired killer.
Duncan, Lois. Down a Dark Hall. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1990, c1974. 181pp.
Suspicious and uneasy about the atmosphere at her new boarding school, fourteen-year-old Kit
slowly realizes why she and the other three students at the school were selected to attend.
Duncan, Lois. Stranger with My Face. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1990, c1981. 235pp.
A seventeen-year-old senses she is being spied on and probably impersonated, but when she discov-
ers what actually is occurring, it is even more unbelievable.
Duncan, Lois. Summer of Fear. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1990, c1976. 219pp.
Soon after the arrival of cousin Julia, insidious occurrences convince Rachel Julia is a witch, who
must be stopped before her monstrous plan can be effected.
Gaiman, Neil. Coraline. HarperCollins, c2002. 162pp.
Looking for excitement, Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar to,
yet disturbingly different from, her own, where she must challenge a gruesome entity to save herself,
her parents, and the souls of three others.
Hahn, Mary Downing. Look for Me by Moonlight. Clarion Books, c1995. 198pp.
While staying at the remote and reputedly haunted Maine inn run by her father and pregnant step-
mother, sixteen-year-old Cynda feels increasingly isolated from her father’s new family and finds
solace in the attentions of a charming but mysterious guest.
Hahn, Mary Downing. Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story. Clarion, c1986. 184pp.
Molly and Michael dislike their spooky new stepsister Heather but realize that they must try to save
her when she seems ready to follow a ghost child to her doom.
Halam, Ann. Dr. Franklin’s Island. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2003, c2002. 245pp.
When their plane crashes over the Pacific Ocean, three science students are left stranded on a tropical
island and then imprisoned by a doctor who is performing horrifying experiments on humans involv-
ing the transfer of animal genes.
Klause, Annette Curtis. The Silver Kiss. Dell, 1992, c1990. 198pp.
A mysterious teenage boy harboring a dark secret helps Zoe come to terms with her mother’s termi-
nal illness.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

33
 Genres

Horror
Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Jade Green: A Ghost Story. Atheneum, c1999. 168pp.
While living with her uncle in a house haunted by the ghost of a young woman, recently orphaned
Judith Sparrow wonders if her one small transgression causes mysterious happenings.
Shan, Darren. Cirque du Freak. Little, Brown, c2001. 266pp.
Two boys who are best friends visit an illegal freak show, where an encounter with a vampire and a
deadly spider forces them to make life-changing choices.
Vande Velde, Vivian. Companions of the Night. Harcourt Brace, c1995. 212pp.
When sixteen-year-old Kerry Nowicki helps a young man escape from a group of men who claim he
is a vampire, she finds herself faced with some bizarre and dangerous choices.
Zindel, Paul. The Doom Stone. Hyperion Paperbacks for Children, 2004, c1995. 173pp.
Jackson and his new friend Alma investigate the mysterious attacks upon a young man and Jack-
son’s Aunt Sarah at Stonehenge in England.
Zindel, Paul. Night of the Bat. Hyperion, c2001. 129pp.
Teenage Jake joins his father on an expedition to study bats in the Brazilian rain forest and finds the
project menaced by a giant brain-eating bat.
Zindel, Paul. Raptor. Hyperion Paperbacks for Children, 1999, c1998. 170pp.
Zack and his Native American friend Uta embark on a dangerous investigation when they find a di-
nosaur egg that hatches into a baby raptor, and set out to explore the mine shafts and tunnels of Silver
Mountain in search of the raptor herd.
Zindel, Paul. Rats. Hyperion Paperbacks, 2000, c1999. 204pp.
When mutant rats threaten to take over Staten Island, which has become a huge landfill, four-
teen-year-old Sarah and her younger brother Mike try to figure out how to stop them.

Books for Older Teens

Anderson, M. T. Thirsty. Candlewick Press, 2003, c1997. 249pp.
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. In the Forests of the Night. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2000, c1999. 147pp.
Risika, a teenage vampire, wanders back in time to the year 1684 when, as a human, she died and was
transformed against her will.
King, Stephen. Christine. Signet, c1983. 503pp.
Arnie Cunningham, a bookish and bullied high school senior, becomes obsessed with a 1958 Plym-
outh he is restoring, named Christine.
Matheson, Richard. I Am Legend. ORB, c1997. 317pp.
Presents the complete novel, I Am Legend, about Robert Neville, the last living man on an Earth in which
every other man, woman, and child has become a vampire; includes ten additional short horror stories.
Preston, Douglas J. The Relic. Forge, c1996. 468pp.
When visitors are killed at the New York Museum of Natural History before the opening of the Su-
perstition exhibition, graduate student Margo Green discovers a link between the killings, a tragic
archaeological trip to the Amazon Basin, and a figurine from the exhibit.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

34
 Genres

Humor
Books for Ages 12–15
Allen, M. E. Gotta Get Some Bish Bash Bosh. Katherine Tegen Books, c2005. 198pp.
After being dumped by his girlfriend, a fourteen-year-old English boy attempts to change his image.
Allison, Jennifer. Gilda Joyce, Psychic Investigator. Sleuth/Dutton, c2005. 321pp.
During the summer before ninth grade, intrepid Gilda Joyce invites herself to the San Francisco
mansion of distant cousin Lester Splinter and his thirteen-year-old daughter, where she uses her pur-
ported psychic abilities and detective skills to solve the mystery of the mansion’s boarded-up tower.
Anderson, M. T. Whales on Stilts. Harcourt, c2005. 188pp.
Racing against the clock, shy middle-school student Lily and her best friends, Katie and Jasper, must
foil the plot of her father’s conniving boss to conquer the world using an army of whales.
Avi. Never Mind!: A Twin Novel. HarperCollins, c2004. 200pp.
Twelve-year-old New York City twins Meg and Edward have nothing in common, so they are just as
shocked as everyone else when Meg’s hopes for popularity and Edward’s mischievous schemes co-
incidentally collide in a hilarious showdown.
Birdseye, Tom. Attack of the Mutant Underwear. Holiday House, c2003. 199pp.
Fifth-grader Cody Carson keeps a journal of his hopes for a fresh start in a town where nobody
knows about his humiliating mistakes of the past, but before school even begins, so does his embar-
rassment.
Cabot, Meg. All-American Girl. HarperCollins, c2002. 247pp.
Sophomore Samantha Madison stops a presidential assassination attempt, is appointed teen ambas-
sador to the United Nations, and catches the eye of the very cute First Son.
Cabot, Meg. The Princess Diaries. HarperCollins, c2000. 238pp.
Fourteen-year-old Mia, who is trying to lead a normal life as a teenage girl in New York City, is
shocked to learn that her father is the Prince of Genovia, a small European principality, and that she
is a princess and the heir to the throne.
Dodd, Quentin. Beatnik Rutabagas from Beyond the Stars. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2001. 215pp.
Whisked away on spaceships to serve as generals of opposing armies, best friends and sci-fi movie
fans Walter Nutria and Yselle Meridian soon convince the aliens they must work together against the
real menaces, Space Mice from Galaxy Four and their leader, The Boss.
Eberhardt, Thom. Rat Boys: A Dating Experiment. Hyperion, c2001. 154pp.
Fourteen-year-olds Marci and Summer use a magic ring to turn two rats into cute boys so that they
can have dates for the Spring Fling.
Gantos, Jack. Jack on the Tracks: Four Seasons of Fifth Grade. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c1999.
182pp.
Moving with his unbearable sister to Miami, Florida, Jack tries to break some of his bad habits but
finds himself irresistibly drawn to things disgusting, gross, and weird.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

35
 Genres

Humor
Goldschmidt, Judy. The Secret Blog of Raisin Rodriguez: A Novel. Razorbill, c2005. 202pp.
In a weblog she sends to her best friends back in Berkeley, seventh-grader Raisin Rodriguez chroni-
cles her successes and her more frequent humiliating failures as she attempts to make friends at her
new school in Philadelphia.
LaRochelle, David. Absolutely, Positively Not. Arthur A. Levine Books, c2005. 219pp.
Chronicles a teenage boy’s humorous attempts to fit in at his Minnesota high school by becoming a
macho, girl-loving, “Playboy” pinup-displaying heterosexual.
Limb, Sue. Girl, 15, Charming But Insane. Delacorte Press, c2004. 214pp.
Fifteen-year-old Jess, living with her mum, separated from her father in Cornwall, and with a best
friend who seems to do everything perfectly, finds her own assets through humor.
Mlynowski, Sarah. Bras & Broomsticks. Delacorte Press, c2005. 311pp.
Living in New York City with her mother and her younger sister, Miri, fourteen-year-old Rachel
tries to persuade Miri, who has recently become a witch, to help her become popular at school and to
try to stop their divorced father’s wedding.
Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Bernie Magruder & The Bats in the Belfry. Atheneum Books for Young
Readers, c2003. 130pp.
Many residents of Middleburg, Indiana, are already going crazy from the ever-ringing church bells
and now, after a bat is spotted in the hotel run by Bernie’s family, they worry that the dangerous Indi-
ana Aztec bat has finally arrived.
O’Connell, Tyne. Pulling Princes. Bloomsbury Publishing (distributed by Holtzbrinck), c2004. 224pp.
Calypso Kelly, a California teenager attending an upscale boarding school in England, sets out to be-
come popular by claiming that her mother’s gay assistant is her boyfriend and finds herself in a royal
mess when she gets a chance at a real relationship with a prince.
Peck, Richard. Fair Weather. Puffin Books, 2003, c2001. 146pp.
Thirteen-year-old Rosie and members of her family travel from their Illinois farm to Chicago in
1893 to visit Aunt Euterpe and attend the World’s Columbian Exposition, which, along with an en-
counter with Buffalo Bill and Lillian Russell, turns out to be a life-changing experience for every-
one.
Peck, Richard. The Teacher’s Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts. Dial Books, c2004. 190pp.
In rural Indiana in 1904, fifteen-year-old Russell’s dreams of quitting school and joining a
wheat-threshing crew are disrupted when his older sister takes over the teaching at his one-room
schoolhouse after mean old Myrt Arbuckle “hauls off and dies.”
Rennison, Louise. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson.
HarperCollins, c2000. 247pp.
Presents the humorous journal of a year in the life of a fourteen-year-old British girl who tries to re-
duce the size of her nose, stop her mad cat from terrorizing the neighborhood animals, and win the
love of handsome hunk Robbie.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

36
 Genres

Humor
Singer, Marilyn. The Circus Lunicus. H. Holt, c2000. 168pp.
Solly’s stepmother forbids him to go the Circus Lunicus, but gives him an inflatable lizard that turns
into his fairy godmother and teaches him how to turn into a space lizard as well.
Snicket, Lemony. The Bad Beginning. HarperCollins, c1999. 162pp. (and sequels)
After the sudden death of their parents, the three Baudelaire children—Violet, fourteen, Klans, twelve,
and baby Sunny—must depend on each other and their wits when it turns out that the distant relative
who is appointed their guardian is determined to use any means necessary to get their fortune.
Weeks, Sarah. Guy Time. HarperTrophy, 2001, c2000. 165pp.
A humorous account of thirteen-year-old Guy’s dealing with the separation, and possible divorce, of
his eccentric parents and with his own newfound interest in girls.
Whytock, Cherry. My Scrumptious Scottish Dumplings: The Life of Angelica Cookson Potts. Simon
& Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2004. 169pp.
The further adventures of fourteen-year-old Angel Cookson Potts, food-loving cooking enthusiast
and worried weight watcher, as she enlists her friends to help her Scottish father, prove that Lon-
don’s famous department store, Harrods, is unknowingly selling inferior haggis. Includes recipes.
Yourgrau, Barry. Nastybook. HarperCollins, c2005. 183pp.
Forty-three stories feature such characters as guardian angels who run away from their charges,
witches who use the Internet to stalk their victims, and pandas who work as assassins.

Books for Older Teens

Anderson, M. T. Burger Wuss. Candlewick, 2001, c1999. 192pp.
Hoping to lose his loser image, Anthony plans revenge on a bully, which results in a war between
two competing fast food restaurants, Burger Queen and O’Dermott’s.
Bradley, Alex. 24 Girls in 7 Days. Dutton Books, c2005. 265pp.
Unlucky in love, teenager Jack Grammar cannot get a date for the prom until his friends play a prac-
tical joke and place a personal ad in the school online newspaper on his behalf. Now Jack has
twenty-four dates and just seven days until the prom to figure out what to do.
Brian, Kate. Lucky T. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2005. 291pp.
Carrie Fitzgerald has always been the luckiest girl in school, but what no one realizes is that she is
also the most superstitious, attributing all her good luck to a T-shirt, so when Carrie’s mom acciden-
tally donates her lucky shirt to charity, Carrie’s luck starts to run out, forcing her to travel halfway
around the world to get it back.
Juby, Susan. Alice Macleod, Realist at Last. HarperTempest, c2005. 312pp.
After her boyfriend goes to Scotland, her mother is jailed for environmental activism, and her de-
pressed father cannot get a job, sixteen-year-old Alice uses her screenwriting aspirations to help her
get through a challenging period in her life.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

37
 Genres

Hybrid Literature, Parallel Novels:

A Different Perspective
The following entries pair up a contemporary book with a related classic.
Compiled by Eileen Culkin, Librarian, Inter-Lakes Jr. Sr. High School, Meredith, New Hampshire.
I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Conde. Ballantine Books, c1994.
Fictional account of the true story of the West Indian slave, Tituba, who was accused of witchcraft in
Salem, Massachusetts in 1692.
For The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Penguin Books, c2003.
A vengeful teenager in Salem in 1692 accuses her former lover and his wife of witchcraft. In-
cludes an introduction.
Jane Fairfax by Joan Aiken. St. Martin’s Press, c1991.
Sequel to Emma by Jane Austen.
For Emma by Jane Austen. Penguin Books, c2003.
Emma, a self-assured young lady in Regency England, is determined to arrange her life and the
lives of those around her in a pattern dictated by her romantic fancy.
Mansfield Revisited by Joan Aiken. Doubleday, c1985.
Sequel to Mansfield Park by Jane Austen.
For Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. Penguin Books, c2003.
Fanny Price, a teenage girl of low social rank brought up on her wealthy relatives’ country es-
tate, feels the sharp sting of rejection when her cousin Edmund, the only person who treats her
as an equal, is won over by a flirtatious, exciting—and unprincipled—girl from London.
Mr. Darcy’s Daughters by Elizabeth Aston. Touchstone, c2003.
A sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Imagines the adventures of Elizabeth and Darcy’s
five daughters alone in London twenty years after the close of Jane Austen’s novel.
For Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Penguin Books, c2003.
The fervent attempts of a gentlewoman to find husbands for her five daughters, which lead to
the questionable pairing of the prejudiced Elizabeth with the proud Mr. Darcy.
Wide Saragasso Sea by Jean Rhys. Buccaneer, c1966.
Story of a young woman in the Caribbean whose family’s past will be used against her by her
cold-hearted and prideful husband, Rochester.
For Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. Knopf, c1991.
When a penniless governess falls in love with the brooding master of Thornfield, she is un-
aware of the tragic events that will follow.
Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Ballantine Books, c2000.
A re-creation of the Arthurian legend following the clash between Christianity and paganism that led
to the demise of Camelot.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

38
 Genres

Hybrid Literature, Parallel Novels:

A Different Perspective
For Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory. Modern Library, c1994.
The standard account of King Arthur and his knights, the story of the dream of the Round Table,
knightly honor, and a just earthly government, all lost through human frailty.
Othello: A Novel by Julius Lester. Scholastic, c1995.
A prose retelling of Shakespeare’s play in which a jealous general is duped into thinking that his wife
has been unfaithful, with tragic consequences.
For Othello by William Shakespeare. Oxford University Press, c2002.
About the damage caused by deceit and jealousy.
Julie and Romeo: A Novel by Jeanne Ray. Harmony Books, c2000.
Romeo Cacciamani and Julie Roseman, rival florists whose families have hated each other for gener-
ations, become attracted to one another after meeting at a small business seminar and embark on an
exploration of their newly found love despite the interference of Julie’s ex-husband, Romeo’s
mother, and a cast of grown children.
For Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Modern Library, c2001.
In medieval Verona, two teens from opposite sides of feuding families fall in love and secretly
marry, which sets in motion tragic events.
Romiette and Julio by Sharon Draper. Atheneum Books, c1999.
Romiette, an African American girl, and Julio, a Hispanic boy, discover that they attend the same
high school after falling in love on the Internet, but are harassed by a gang whose members object to
their interracial dating.
For Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Modern Library, c2001.
In medieval Verona, two teens from opposite sides of feuding families fall in love and secretly
marry, which sets in motion tragic events.
Gertrude and Claudius by John Updike. Knopf, c2000.
A fictional re-creation of the lives of Claudius and Gertrude, King and Queen of Denmark, in the
years before the action of Shakespeare’s Hamlet begins.
For Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Yale University Press, c2003.
Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, struggles with the decision of whether or not to avenge his fa-
ther’s murder.
Dating Hamlet: Ophelia’s Story by Lisa Fielder. H. Holt, c2002.
In a story based on the Shakespeare play, Ophelia describes her relationship with Hamlet, learns the truth
about her own father, and recounts the complicated events following the murder of Hamlet’s father.
For Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Yale University Press, c2003.
Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, struggles with the decision of whether or not to avenge his fa-
ther’s murder.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

39
 Genres

Hybrid Literature, Parallel Novels:

A Different Perspective
Blue Avenger Cracks the Code by Norma Howe. H. Holt, c2000.
In his new identity as Blue Avenger, sixteen-year-old David visits Venice, Italy, and continues to pur-
sue various crusades, including trying to solve the mystery of who really wrote Shakespeare’s works.
For The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. Cambridge University Press, c2002.
Dark comedy about young lovers and a Jewish money lender who demands a pound of flesh in
payment for a debt.
Third Witch by Rebecca Reisert. Washington Square Press, c2001.
Gilly has spent her life hiding in the shadows of Birnam Woods, hoping to avoid persecution from
the witch hunters who want to kill her and the two wise-women who took her in when she was a
baby, but Gilly longs to learn the truth about the past that haunts her and the disturbing memories that
she can’t escape.
For Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Cambridge University Press, c1997.
A drama about a man who kills the King of Scotland in order to claim the throne for himself.
Zeena by Elizabeth Cooke. St. Martin’s Press, c1996.
Retelling of Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, focusing on the story of Zenobia Frome, depicting her as
a young girl, then as a young woman who knows a brief moment of happiness before it is snatched
from her by a tragic accident.
For Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. Cambridge University Press, c1999.
The story of Ethan Frome, a New England farmer who is married to a hypochondriac, but in
love with his wife’s lively cousin, Mattie.
Wicked by Gregory Maguire. ReganBooks, c1995.
Elphaba, born with emerald green skin, comes of age in the land of Oz, rooming with debutante
Glinda at the university, and following a path in life that earns her the label Wicked.
For The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. H. Holt, c2000.
After being transported by a cyclone to the land of Oz, Dorothy and her dog are befriended by a
scarecrow, a tin man, and a cowardly lion, who accompany her to the Emerald City to look for a
wizard who can help Dorothy return home to Kansas.
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire. ReganBooks, c1999.
Retells the story of Cinderella from one of her stepsisters’ point of view.
For Cinderella by Charles Perrault. Atheneum Books, c1954.
In her haste to flee the palace before the fairy godmother’s magic loses effect, Cinderella leaves
behind a glass slipper.
Ahab’s Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund. Morrow, c1999.
Una Spenser tells the story of her life and discusses her loving marriage to Captain Ahab before the
white whale took his leg and drove him to madness.
For Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Knopf, c1991.
Captain Ahab’s determination to find and kill the great white whale becomes an obsession driv-
ing him to disaster.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

40
 Genres

Hybrid Literature, Parallel Novels:

A Different Perspective
Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton. Ballantine Books, c1992.
Ibn Fadlan sets out in A.D. 922 as an ambassador from Baghdad to the King of Saqaliba, but before he
arrives, he meets Viking chieftain Buliwyf and joins him on a mission to Scandinavia, where they
must battle the monsters threatening the land.
For Grendel by John Gardner. Vintage Books, c1989.
Grendel, the monster, tells his side of the Beowulf story and compares his values with the chief
values of human beings.
Grendel by John Gardner. Vintage Books, c1989.
Grendel, the monster, tells his side of the Beowulf story, and compares his values with the chief val-
ues of human beings.
For Beowulf. Penguin Books, c1995.
Tells the story of the hero Beowulf, slayer of the monster Grendel.
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Doubleday, c1938.
For months after her death, the memory of Rebecca de Winter continues to dominate everyone at her
former home, Manderley, one of the most famous English country houses.
For The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe. Signet, c1998.
After a long journey, Philip arrives at the Usher mansion seeking his loved one, Madeline, only
to find that she has become afflicted with a mysterious illness.
Troy by Adele Geras. Harcourt, c2001.
The last weeks of the Trojan War find the women sick of tending the wounded, men tired of fighting,
and bored gods and goddesses trying to find ways to stir things up.
For The Illiad by Homer. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004.
Epic of the Trojan War and the struggle between Achilles and Hector that saved the Greeks and
destroyed the Trojans.
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. Starscape, c2002.
Ender, who is the product of genetic experimentation, may be the military genius Earth needs in its
war against an alien enemy.
Also Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card. Tom Doherty, c1999.
Bean must overcome his past and prove to the recruiters at the Battle School that he can help
save the planet from an alien invasion.
Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin. Vintage Books, c2001.
Mary, employed by Dr. Jekyll, finds herself the keeper of her master’s house, the guardian of his san-
ity, and the only one in possession of the dark knowledge that might save his life.
For Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Signet Classic, c2003.
A respected London doctor invents a formula that turns him into an evil and ugly person who
stalks the streets at night killing people, and by the time his friends discover his secret, it is too
late.
From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

41
 Genres

Hybrid Literature, Parallel Novels:

A Different Perspective
The Young Man and the Sea by Rodman Philbrick. Blue Sky Press, c2004.
After his mother’s death, twelve-year-old Skiff Beaman decides that it is up to him to earn money to
take care of himself and his father, so he undertakes a dangerous trip alone on the ocean off the coast
of Maine to try to catch a huge bluefin tuna.
For The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway. Scribner, c1996.
An old fisherman battles the sea and sharks to bring home the giant marlin he caught.
The Wind Done Gone by Alice Randall. Houghton Mifflin, c2001.
A parody of Gone with the Wind, retelling the Civil War story from the perspective of Cynara, the
daughter born from the union of the master of Tara and the slave, Mammy.
For Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. Scribner, c1964.
After the Civil War sweeps away the genteel life to which she has been accustomed, Scarlett
O’Hara sets out to salvage her plantation home.
The Garden by Elsie V. Aidinoff. HarperTempest, c2004.
Retells the tale of the Garden of Eden from Eve’s point of view, as Serpent teaches her everything
from her own name to why she should eat the forbidden fruit, and then leaves her with Adam and the
knowledge that her choice has made mankind free.
For the Old Testament.
In the Shadow of the Ark by Anne Provoost. A. A. Levine, c2004.
Re Jana, a young healer and masseuse, believes that Noah’s son Ham, the married object of her af-
fection, will save her and her family if his father’s terrifying predictions about a great flood sent from
God come true.
For the Old Testament.
Dark Sons by Nikki Grimes. Hyperion Books, c2005.
Alternating poems compare and contrast the conflicted feelings of Ishmael, son of the biblical patri-
arch Abraham, and Sam, a teenager in New York City, as they try to come to terms with being aban-
doned by their fathers and with the love they feel for their younger stepbrothers.
For the Old Testament.
My Jim by Nancy Rawles. Crown, c2005.
Ex-slave Sadie Watson reveals to her granddaughter her experiences while in bondage and the love
she had for her husband, Jim, who escaped down the Mississippi with Huck Finn when he learned he
was to be sold.
For Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Modern Library, c1993.
Huck, in flight from his murderous father, and Jim, in flight from slavery, pilot their raft down
the Mississippi River in search of freedom.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

42
 Genres

Jazz
Books for Ages 12–15
Collier, James Lincoln. The Jazz Kid. H. Holt, c1994. 216pp.
Playing the coronet is the first thing that twelve-year-old Paulie Horvath has taken seriously, but his
obsession with becoming a jazz musician leads him into conflict with his parents and into the tough
underworld of Chicago in the 1920s.
Curtis, Christopher Paul. Bud, Not Buddy. Delacorte Press, c1999. 245pp.
Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes
a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father—the renowned
bandleader, H. E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.
Delaney, Mark. Growler’s Horn. Peachtree, c2000. 232pp.
The theft of Jake’s clarinet leads him and his friends to investigate other mysterious occurrences, in-
cluding the theft of millions and the disappearance of an up-and-coming jazz musician.
Levine, Gail Carson. Dave at Night. HarperTrophy, 2001, c1999. 281pp.
When orphaned Dave is sent to the Hebrew Home for Boys, where he is treated cruelly, he sneaks
out at night and is welcomed into the music- and culture-filled world of the Harlem Renaissance.
Mack, Tracy. Birdland. Scholastic Press, c2003. 198pp.
Thirteen-year-old Jed spends Christmas break working on a school project filming a documentary
about his East Village, New York City, neighborhood, where he is continually reminded of his older
brother, Zeke, a promising poet who died the summer before.
Townley, Rod. Sky: A Novel in Three Sets and an Encore. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2004.
265pp.
In New York City in 1959, fifteen-year-old Alec Schuyler, at odds with his widowed father over his
love of music, finds a mentor and friend in a blind, black jazz musician.

Books for Older Teens

Fleming, Charles. After Havana. St. Martin’s Minotaur, c2004. 340pp.
White jazz musician Peter Sloan, nursing his wounded heart in Havana in 1958, feels renewed hope
when his lost love, Anita, arrives in town, even though she is accompanied by her new paramour,
real estate magnate Nick Calloway, but things start to go bad when Anita is kidnapped by revolution-
aries and Sloan, Calloway, and security guard Luis go after her.
Fulmer, David. Chasing the Devil’s Tail. Poisoned Pen Press, c2001. 320pp.
Creole detective Valentin St. Cyr encounters an extraordinary cast of characters when he sets out to
discover why prostitutes are being murdered in Storyville, New Orleans in 1907, at the same time
that the jazz age is born.
Fulmer, David. Jass. Harcourt, c2005. 334pp.
In 1909 New Orleans, Creole detective Valentin St. Cyr investigates the murders of four musicians
and uncovers a link to a woman with a shadowy past and an ulterior motive.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Genres

Jazz
Hill, Laban Carrick. Harlem Stomp!: A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance. Little, Brown,
c2003. 151pp. (NF)
Offers a cultural history of the Harlem Renaissance, discussing how it sparked a period of intellec-
tual, artistic, literary, and political blossoming for many African Americans.
Holmes, Rupert. Swing: A Mystery. Random House, c2005. 372pp.
Jazz saxophonist and arranger Ray Sherwood is haunted by personal tragedy, but when a talented
student asks him to help orchestrate a new composition, Ray finds himself drawn to the coed. Their
involvement soon causes more problems for Ray and threatens everything he has accomplished. In-
cludes an audio CD-ROM.
Islas, Arturo. La Mollie and the King of Tears: A Novel. University of New Mexico Press, c1996.
199pp.
Jazz musician Louie Mendoza, speaking from his hospital bed, recounts the events of his harrowing
day as he waits to learn the fate of his lover, La Mollie.
Mackey, Nathaniel. Atet, A.D. City Lights Books, c2001. 184pp.
The third in the From a Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate series, presented in the form
of letters written over the course of seven months by N, one of the founding members of a band origi-
nally known as the Mystic Horn Society, in which he relates the adventures of the group.
Mallon, Thomas. Bandbox. Pantheon Books, c2004. 305pp.
Joe Harris, editor of the hugely successful Jazz Age magazine Bandbox, becomes engaged in a cut-
throat competition to keep himself and his magazine on top when his most ambitious protégé starts
up a rival publication, challenging Harris for stories on the stock market, Hollywood, the mob, and
other sensational news of the era.
Moody, Bill. Looking for Chet Baker: An Evan Horne Mystery. Walker, c2002. 253pp.
Pianist Evan Horne, on tour in Europe, is distracted from his music when his friend Ace Buffington
disappears while investigating the death of jazz trumpeter Chet Baker, who died on the sidewalk
alongside the Prins Hendrik Hotel in Amsterdam.
Wall, Alan. China. Thomas Dunne Books, 2004, c2003. 378pp.
Aging china company heir Digby Walton considers his life and legacy, accepting the blame for his
failed marriage and soured relationship with his son, Theo, a jazz musician, while his companion
Daisy, a former actress, struggles to understand her own son, who is involved in an international an-
archist movement.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Genres

Keeping ’Em on Their Toes

Books for Ages 12–15
Abelove, Joan. Go and Come Back. Puffin Books, 2000, c1998. 176pp.
Alicia, a young tribeswoman living in a village in the Amazonian jungle of Peru, tells about the two
American women anthropologists who arrive to study her people’s way of life.
Bauer, Joan. Thwonk. Putnam, 2001, c1995. 215pp.
A cupid doll comes to life and offers romantic assistance to A.J., a teenage photographer suffering
from unrequited love.
Cormier, Robert. The Rag and Bone Shop: A Novel. Delacorte Press, c2001. 154pp.
Trent, an ace interrogator from Vermont, works to procure a confession from an introverted
twelve-year-old accused of murdering his seven-year-old friend in Monument, Massachusetts.
Dickinson, Peter. Eva. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1990, c1988. 219pp.
After a terrible accident, a young girl wakes up to discover that she has been given the body of a
chimpanzee.
Flinn, Alex. Fade to Black. HarperTempest, c2005. 184pp.
An HIV-positive high school student hospitalized after being attacked; the bigot accused of the
crime; and the only witness, a classmate with Down Syndrome, reveal how the assault has changed
their lives as they tell about its aftermath.
Plum-Ucci, Carol. The Body of Christopher Creed. Harcourt, c2000. 248pp.
Torey Adams, a high school junior with a seemingly perfect life, struggles with doubts and questions
surrounding the mysterious disappearance of the class outcast.
Sleator, William. The Last Universe. Amulet Books, c2005. 215pp.
When her desperately ill older brother insists that she take him into their mysterious backyard gar-
den, designed by their quantum physicist great uncle, fourteen-year-old Susan discovers that things
are not always what they seem.

Books for Older Teens

Flinn, Alexandra. Breathing Underwater. HarperCollins, c2001. 263pp.
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 de-
scribes living with his abusive father.
Giles, Gail. Shattering Glass. Roaring Brook Press, c2002. 215pp.
Rob, the charismatic leader of the senior class, provokes unexpected violence when he turns the
school nerd into Prince Charming.
Lester, Julius. When Dad Killed Mom. Harcourt, c2001. 183pp.
After their college psychologist father kills their artist mother, young Jenna and Jeremy struggle
with the secret each of them keeps.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

45
 Genres

Keeping ’Em on Their Toes

Myers, Walter Dean. Monster. HarperCollins, c1999. 281pp.
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.
Werlin, Nancy. The Killer’s Cousin. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2000, c1998. 229pp.
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.
Werlin, Nancy. Locked Inside. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2001, c2000. 259pp.
After she is kidnapped from the exclusive boarding school she attends, heiress Marnie Skyedottir
must rethink her idealized relationship with her mother, her own sense of who she is, and her rela-
tionships with others.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

46
 Genres

Novels in Verse
Books for Ages 12–15
Carvell, Marlene. Who Will Tell My Brother? Hyperion Paperbacks for Children, 2004, c2002. 150pp.
During his lonely crusade to remove offensive mascots from his high school, a Native American
teenager learns more about his heritage, his ancestors, and his place in the world.
Creech, Sharon. Love That Dog. Joanna Cotler Books, c2001. 86pp.
A young student, who comes to love poetry through a personal understanding of what different fa-
mous poems mean to him, surprises himself by writing his own inspired poem.
Fields, Terri. After the Death of Anna Gonzales. H. Holt, c2002. 100pp.
Poems written in the voices of forty-seven people, including students, teachers, and other school
staff, record the aftermath of a high school student’s suicide and the preoccupations of teen life.
Frost, Helen. Spinning Through the Universe: A Novel in Poems from Room 214. Farrar, Straus &
Giroux, c2004. 93pp.
A collection of poems written in the voices of Mrs. Williams of room 214, her students, and a custo-
dian about their interactions with each other, their families, and the world around them. Includes
notes on the poetic forms represented.
Glenn, Mel. Foreign Exchange: A Mystery in Poems. Morrow Junior Books, c1999. 159pp.
A series of poems reflect the thoughts of various people—town residents young and old, teachers, and
some students visiting from the city—caught up in the events surrounding the murder of a beautiful
high school student who had recently moved to the small lakeside community of Hudson Landing.
Glenn, Mel. Jump Ball: A Basketball Season in Poems. Lodestar Books, c1997. 151pp.
Tells the story of a high school basketball team’s season through a series of poems reflecting the
feelings of students, their families, teachers, and coaches.
Grimes, Nikki. Bronx Masquerade. Dial Books, c2002. 167pp.
While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they’ve
written, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates.
Hesse, Karen. Aleutian Sparrow. Margaret K. McElderry Books, c2003. 156pp.
An Aleutian Islander recounts her suffering during World War II in American internment camps de-
signed to “protect” the population from the invading Japanese.
Hesse, Karen. Out of the Dust. Scholastic Press, c1997. 227pp.
In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family’s wheat
farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Great Depression.
Hesse, Karen. Witness. Scholastic Press, c2001. 161pp.
A series of poems express the views of various people in a small Vermont town, including a young
black girl and a young Jewish girl, during the early 1920s when the Ku Klux Klan is trying to infil-
trate the town.
Johnson, Lindsay Lee. Soul Moon Soup. Front Street, c2002. 134pp.
After her father leaves and Phoebe and her mother are struggling to survive in the city, Phoebe fi-
nally goes to the country to live with her grandmother, where she learns family secrets and hopes her
mother will return for her.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

47
 Genres

Novels in Verse
Koertge, Ronald. Shakespeare Bats Cleanup. Candlewick Press, c2003. 116pp.
When a fourteen-year-old baseball player catches mononucleosis, he discovers that keeping a jour-
nal and experimenting with poetry not only helps fill the time, it also helps him deal with life, love,
and loss.
Rylant, Cynthia. God Went to Beauty School. HarperTempest, c2003. 56pp.
A novel in poems that reveal God’s discovery of the wonders and pains in the world He has created.
Sones, Sonya. One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies. Simon & Schuster Books for
Young Readers, c2004. 268pp.
Fifteen-year-old Ruby Milliken leaves her best friend, her boyfriend, her aunt, and her mother’s
grave in Boston and reluctantly flies to Los Angeles to live with her father, a famous movie star who
divorced her mother before Ruby was born.
Sones, Sonya. Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy. HarperTempest,
2001, c1999. 149pp.
A younger sister has a difficult time adjusting to life after her older sister has a mental breakdown.
Sones, Sonya. What My Mother Doesn’t Know. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2001.
259pp.
Sophie describes her relationships with a series of boys as she searches for Mr. Right.
Testa, Maria. Becoming Joe DiMaggio. Candlewick Press, c2002. 51pp.
Joseph Paul grows up following the career of baseball great Joe DiMaggio and learning the rules of
the game from his grandfather, dreaming of becoming a famous baseball player himself and some-
how healing his grandfather’s broken heart.
Testa, Maria. Something About America. Candlewick Press, c2005. 84pp.
A collection of poems that relate a fictional story, inspired by actual events, in which a young girl
struggles with the difficulty of growing up in America as an immigrant from Kosova, Yugoslavia.
Turner, Ann. Learning to Swim: A Memoir. Scholastic, c2000. 115pp.
A series of poems convey the feelings of a young girl whose sense of joy and security at the family’s
summer house is shattered when an older boy who lives nearby sexually abuses her.
Wayland, April Halprin. Girl Coming in for a Landing: A Novel in Poems. Knopf (distributed by Ran-
dom House), c2002. 134pp.
A collection of over 100 poems recounting the ups and downs of one adolescent girl’s school year.
Wolff, Virginia Euwer. Make Lemonade. H. Holt, c1993. 200pp. (and sequels)
Fourteen-year-old LaVaughn, trying to earn money for college, takes a job caring for the two chil-
dren of Jolly, a single teenage mom, and must find the courage to make the right decision for all of
them after Jolly is fired from her job.
Woodson, Jacqueline. Locomotion. Putnam, c2003. 100pp.
Inspired by his teacher, eleven-year-old Lonnie begins to write about his life in a series of poems in
which he discusses his feelings about his friends, his foster mom, his little sister Lili, and the death of
his parents.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

48
 Genres

Novels in Verse
Books for Older Teens
Corrigan, Eireann. You Remind Me of You: A Poetry Memoir. Push/Scholastic, c2002. 123pp.
A collection of poems in which the author details her struggle with eating disorders and her changed
outlook on life after the suicide attempt of her boyfriend.
Frost, Helen. Keesha’s House. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2003. 116pp.
Seven teens facing such problems as pregnancy, closeted homosexuality, and abuse each describe in
poetic forms what caused them to leave home and where they found home again.
Glenn, Mel. Split Image: A Story in Poems. HarperCollins, c2000. 159pp.
A series of poems reflect the thoughts and feelings of various people—students, the librarian, par-
ents, the principal, and others—about the seemingly perfect Laura Li and her life inside and out of
Tower High School.
Hahn, Mary Downing. The Wind Blows Backward. Clarion Books, c1993. 263pp.
Although they share a love of poetry and problems with their parents, a shy high school senior’s at-
traction to a popular classmate is tempered by her fear of his moody, self-destructive side.
Hemphill, Stephanie. Things Left Unsaid: A Novel in Poems. Hyperion, c2005. 261pp.
After a lifetime of conforming to the image of what her parents and high school friends want her to
be, Sarah must come to terms with her own identity when her destructive best friend tries to commit
suicide. Told in the form of free-verse poems.
Herrera, Juan Felipe. Crashboomlove: A Novel in Verse. University of New Mexico Press, c1999.
155pp.
After his father leaves home, sixteen-year-old Cesar Garcia lives with his mother and struggles
through the painful experiences of growing up as a Mexican American high school student.
Herrick, Steven. A Place Like This. Simon Pulse, c2004. 137pp.
A verse novel set in Australia in which two young lovers postpone college to embark on a road trip
and find themselves working at an apple orchard, where they become immersed in the life of the
owner’s teenage daughter, who is pregnant as the result of rape.
Herrick, Steven. The Simple Gift. Simon Pulse, 2004, c2000. 188pp.
Sixteen-year-old Billy runs away from his alcoholic, abusive father and takes up residence in an
abandoned freight car, where he meets Old Bill, a fellow hobo, and together they form a friendship
based on small kindnesses that change their lives.
High, Linda Oatman. Sister Slam and the Poetic Motormouth Roadtrip. Bloomsbury (distributed by
Holtzbrinck), c2004. 256pp.
In this novel told in slam verse, after graduating from high school best friends and aspiring poets
Laura and Twig embark on a road trip from Pennsylvania to New York City, to compete at slam po-
etry events.
Johnson, Angela. The First Part Last. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2003. 131pp.
Bobby’s carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored
baby daughter.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

49
 Genres

Novels in Verse
Koertge, Ronald. The Brimstone Journals. Candlewick Press, c2001. 113pp.
In a series of short, interconnected poems, students at a high school nicknamed Brimstone reveal the
violence existing and growing in their lives.
Rosenberg, Liz. 17: A Novel in Prose Poems. Cricket Books, c2002. 142pp.
Seventeen-year-old Stephanie journeys from fall to spring and from childhood to womanhood as she
experiences first love and deals with her fear of inheriting her mother’s mental illness.
Wild, Margaret. Jinx. Simon Pulse, 2004, c2002. 215pp.
With the help of her understanding mother and a close friend, Jen eventually outgrows her nick-
name, Jinx, and deals with the deaths of two boys with whom she had been involved.
Wild, Margaret. One Night. Knopf (distributed by Random House), 2004, c2003. 236pp.
In this novel written in free verse and narrated by alternating characters, after a “one night stand” re-
sults in pregnancy, a teenage girl decides to have her baby and care for it on her own.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

50
 Genres

Short and Sweet

Books for Ages 12–15
Avi. Nothing But the Truth: A Documentary Novel. Orchard Books, 2003, c1991. 177pp.
A ninth-grader’s suspension for singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” during homeroom becomes a
national news story; one of the consequences is that he and his teacher both leave the school.
Blume, Judy. Blubber. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2001, c1974. 153pp.
Jill goes along with the rest of the fifth-grade class in tormenting a classmate and then finds out what
it’s like when she, too, becomes a target.
Bunting, Eve. Blackwater. Joanna Cotler Books, 2000, c1999. 146pp.
When a boy and girl are drowned in the Blackwater River, thirteen-year-old Brodie must decide
whether to confess that he may have caused the accident.
Cushman, Karen. The Midwife’s Apprentice. Clarion Books, c1995. 122pp.
In medieval England, a nameless, homeless girl is taken in by a sharp-tempered midwife, and in spite
of obstacles and hardship, eventually gains the three things she most wants: a full belly, a contented
heart, and a place in this world.
Flake, Sharon. Money Hungry. Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children, c2001. 187pp.
All thirteen-year-old Raspberry can think of is making money so that she and her mother never have
to worry about living on the streets again.
Fleischman, Paul. Seek. Cricket Books, c2001. 167pp.
Rob becomes obsessed with searching the airwaves for his long-gone father, a radio announcer.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Among the Hidden. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c1998. 153pp.
In a future where the Population Police enforce the law limiting a family to only two children, Luke
has lived all his twelve years in isolation and fear on his family’s farm, until another “third” con-
vinces him that the government is wrong.
Hamilton, Virginia. Bluish: a Novel. Blue Sky Press, c1999. 127pp.
Ten-year-old Dreenie feels both intrigued and frightened when she thinks about the girl nicknamed
Bluish, whose leukemia is making her pale and causing her to use a wheelchair.
Hautman, Pete. Invisible. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2005. 149pp.
Doug and Andy are unlikely best friends—one a loner obsessed by his model trains, the other a pop-
ular student involved in football and theater—who grew up together and share a bond that nothing
can sever.
Johnson, Angela. Toning the Sweep. Scholastic, 1994, c1993. 103pp.
On a visit to her grandmother Ola, who is dying of cancer in her house in the desert, four-
teen-year-old Emmie hears many stories about the past and her family history.
Lester, Julius. Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue. Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children,
c2005. 177pp.
Historical fiction written in first-person format that follows Emma, the slave of Pierce Butler,
through a series of events in her life as her master hosts the largest slave auction in American history
in Savannah, Georgia, in 1859 in order to pay off his mounting gambling debts.
From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

51
 Genres

Short and Sweet

McDonald, Janet. Twists and Turns. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2003. 135pp.
With the help of a couple of successful friends, eighteen- and nineteen-year-old Teesha and Keeba
try to capitalize on their talents by opening a hair salon in the run-down Brooklyn housing project
where they live.
Sleator, William. Rewind. Puffin Books, 2001, c1999. 120pp.
Not long after learning that he was adopted, eleven-year-old Peter is hit by a car and then given sev-
eral chances to alter events that could lead to his death.

Books for Older Teens

Anderson, M. T. Burger Wuss. Candlewick Press, 2001, c1999. 192pp.
Hoping to lose his loser image, Anthony plans revenge on a bully, which results in a war between
two competing fast food restaurants, Burger Queen and O’Dermott’s.
Cormier, Robert. The Rag and Bone Shop: A Novel. Delacorte Press, c2001. 154pp.
Trent, an ace interrogator from Vermont, works to procure a confession from an introverted
twelve-year-old accused of murdering his seven-year-old friend in Monument, Massachusetts.
Koertge, Ronald. Stoner & Spaz. Candlewick Press, c2002. 169pp.
A troubled youth with cerebral palsy struggles toward self-acceptance with the help of a drug-ad-
dicted young woman.
Myers, Walter Dean. The Beast. Scholastic, c2003. 170pp.
A teenager from Harlem struggles to save his girlfriend from herself when she develops a drug prob-
lem while he is away at a Connecticut prep school.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

52
 Genres

Tearjerkers
Books for Ages 12–15
Abelove, Joan. Saying It Out Loud. Puffin Books, 2001, c1999. 136pp.
With the help of her best friend, sixteen-year-old Mindy sorts through her relationships with her so-
licitous mother and her detached father as she tries to come to terms with the fact that her mother is
dying from a brain tumor.
Banks, Kate. Walk Softly, Rachel. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2003. 149pp.
When fourteen-year-old Rachel reads the journal of her brother, who died when she was seven, she
learns secrets that help her understand her parents and herself.
Bechard, Margaret. Hanging on to Max. Roaring Brook Press, c2002. 142pp.
When his girlfriend decides to give their baby away, seventeen-year-old Sam is determined to keep
him and raise him alone.
Blume, Judy. Tiger Eyes. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1991, c1981. 217pp.
Resettled in New Mexico with her mother and brother, Davey Wexler recovers from the shock of her
father’s death during a holdup of his 7-Eleven store in Atlantic City.
Cooney, Caroline B. Driver’s Ed. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1996, c1994. 199pp.
Three teenagers’ lives are changed forever when they thoughtlessly steal a stop sign from a danger-
ous intersection and a young mother is killed in an automobile accident there.
Creech, Sharon. Walk Two Moons. HarperCollins, c1994. 280pp.
After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing
her mother’s route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left.
Crist-Evans, Craig. Amaryllis. Candlewick Press, c2003. 184pp.
Jimmy and his older brother Frank share a love of surfing and their problems with a drunken father,
until Frank turns eighteen and goes to Vietnam.
Deans, Sis Boulos. Every Day and All the Time. H. Holt, c2003. 234pp.
Eleven-year-old Emily, still reeling from the car accident that took her older brother’s life and badly
injured her, uses psychotherapy and ballet dancing to cope with her parents’ decision to sell their
house—the only place she can still feel and talk to her brother.
Deaver, Julie Reece. Say Goodnight, Gracie. HarperCollins, 1989, c1988. 214pp.
When a car accident kills her best friend Jimmy, with whom she has shared everything from child-
hood escapades to entering the professional theater in Chicago, seventeen-year-old Morgan must
find her own way to cope with his death.
Draper, Sharon M. Tears of a Tiger. Atheneum, Maxwell Macmillan International, c1994. 162pp.
The death of high school basketball star Rob Washington in an automobile accident affects the lives
of his close friend Andy, who was driving the car, and many others in the school.
Johnson, Angela. The First Part Last. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2003. 131pp.
Sixteen-year-old Bobby finds out that he is going to become a father, and suddenly all the things that
seemed important to him before are insignificant, as he and his girlfriend, Nia, try to sort out the situ-
ation and decide what to do.
From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

53
 Genres

Tearjerkers
Kadohata, Cynthia. Kira-Kira. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2004. 244pp.
Chronicles the close friendship between two Japanese American sisters growing up in rural Georgia
during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the despair when one sister becomes terminally ill.
Lewis, Catherine Postcards to Father Abraham: A Novel. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2000.
288pp.
When sixteen-year-old Meghan loses her leg to cancer and her brother to the Vietnamese War, she
expresses intense anger in postcards that she writes to her idol, Abraham Lincoln.
Lowry, Lois. A Summer to Die. Houghton Mifflin, c1977. 154pp.
Thirteen-year-old Meg is envious of her sister’s beauty and popularity. Her feelings don’t make it
any easier for her to cope with Molly’s strange illness and eventual death.
McDaniel, Lurlene. Garden of Angels. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2005, c2003. 272pp.
Fourteen-year-old Darcy’s life undergoes a drastic change when her mother is diagnosed with breast
cancer in 1974 and is unable to help Darcy deal with the teenage struggles of starting high school,
falling in love, and worrying about the Vietnam War.
Park, Barbara. Mick Harte Was Here. Random House, 1996, c1995. 89pp.
Thirteen-year-old Phoebe recalls the death of her younger brother Mick in a bicycle accident, which
might not have been fatal had he been wearing his helmet, and how she and her family reacted to the
tragedy. Closes with an appeal to bikers to wear protective bicycle helmets.
Peck, Richard. Remembering the Good Times. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers,
1986, c1985. 181pp.
Trav, Kate, and Buck make up a trio during their freshman year in high school, but their special
friendship may not be enough to save Trav as he pressures himself relentlessly to succeed.
Pfeffer, Susan Beth. The Year Without Michael. Delacorte Press, 2003, c1987, 164pp.
The remaining members of the Chapman family try to cope with the disappearance of four-
teen-year-old Michael.

Books for Older Teens

Berg, Elizabeth. Never Change. Washington Square Press, 2002, c2001. 214pp.
Myra Lipinsky, a fifty-one-year-old visiting nurse who never married and has resigned herself to a
solitary life with her dog, crosses paths with the man she admired from afar in high school when he
becomes one of her patients—one with a terminal illness.
Berg, Elizabeth. Range of Motion. Berkley Books, c2000. 251pp.
Lainey must draw on a number of sources to keep her faith strong when her husband, Jay, is injured
in an accident and lingers in a coma.
Brooks, Kevin. Lucas. Chicken House/Scholastic, c2003. 423pp.
On an isolated English island, fifteen-year-old Caitlin McCann makes the painful journey from ado-
lescence to adulthood through her experiences with a mysterious boy, whose presence has an unset-
tling effect on the island’s inhabitants.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

54
 Genres

Tearjerkers
Cook, Karin. What Girls Learn: A Novel. Vintage Contemporaries, 1998, c1997. 304pp.
Tilden and her younger sister Elizabeth are uprooted again when their ever optimistic, romantic
mother Frances moves them north to live with Nick, the owner of a limousine service., Everything
seems to be going just fine until Frances discovers a lump in her breast.
Crutcher, Chris. Whale Talk. Greenwillow Books, c2001. 220pp.
Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial, adopted teenager, shuns organized sports and
the gung-ho athletes at his high school, until he agrees to form a swimming team and recruits some of
the school’s less popular students.
Frank, E. R. America: A Novel. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2002. 242pp.
America, a runaway boy who is being treated at Ridgeway, a New York hospital, finds himself open-
ing up to one of the doctors on staff and revealing things about himself that he had always vowed to
keep secret.
Giles, Gail. Shattering Glass. Roaring Brook Press, c2002. 215pp.
Rob, the charismatic leader of the senior class, provokes unexpected violence when he turns the
school nerd into Prince Charming.
Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner. Riverhead Books, c2003. 324pp.
Amir, haunted by his betrayal of Hassan, the son of his father’s servant and a childhood friend, re-
turns to Kabul as an adult after he learns Hassan has been killed, in an attempt to redeem himself by
rescuing Hassan’s son from a life of slavery to a Taliban official.
Hurwin, Davida. A Time for Dancing: A Novel. Puffin Books, 1997, c1995. 257pp.
Seventeen-year-old best friends Samantha and Juliana tell their stories in alternating chapters after
Juliana is diagnosed with cancer.
Maynard, Joyce. The Usual Rules. St. Martin’s Griffin, 2004, c2003. 386pp.
Thirteen-year-old Wendy, grieving over the death of her mother in the collapse of the World Trade
Center, is taken to live with her father in California, where she learns important life lessons from a
variety of people before returning home to her stepfather and brother, where she feels she truly be-
longs.
Orr, Wendy. Peeling the Onion. Holiday House, c1997. 166pp.
Following an automobile accident in which her neck is broken, a teenage karate champion begins a
long and painful recovery with the help of her family.
Peck, Robert Newton. A Day No Pigs Would Die. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c1999. 150pp.
To a thirteen-year-old Vermont farm boy whose father slaughters pigs for a living, maturity comes early
as he learns “doing what’s got to be done,” especially regarding his pet pig who cannot produce a litter.
Pennebaker, Ruth. Both Sides Now. H. Holt, c2000. 202pp.
Fifteen-year-old Liza tries to deal with the normal everyday crises of life in an Austin, Texas, high
school, a process complicated by her mother’s fight with breast cancer.
Sebold, Alice. The Lovely Bones: A Novel. Little, Brown, c2002. 328pp.
Fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon, the victim of a sexual assault and murder, looks on from the after-
life as her family deals with their grief, and waits for her killer to be brought to some type of justice.
From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Genres

Tearjerkers
Shreve, Anita. The Pilot’s Wife: A Novel. Back Bay Books, 1999, c1998. 293pp. (adult)
Kathryn Lyon’s life was peacefully routine, she had a good job and a happy marriage, so when she
receives the news that her pilot husband has died in a crash, her world is drastically changed. Even
before his body is recovered the media discover that her husband had a secret life, and Kathryn sets
out to learn who her husband really was.
Sparks, Nicholas. A Walk to Remember. Warner Books, 2001, c1999. 240pp.
When a twist of fate made Jamie Sullivan his date at the homecoming dance, Landon Carter never
dreamed they would fall in love, but as he comes to realize his true feelings for Jamie, he learns of a
terrible secret that will take his love away from him forever.
Strasser, Todd. Can’t Get There from Here. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2004.
198pp.
Tired of being hungry, cold, and dirty living on the streets of New York City with a tribe of other
homeless teenagers who are dying, one by one, a girl named Maybe ponders her future and longs for
someone to care about her.
Zeises, Lara M. Bringing up the Bones. Delacorte Press, c2002. 213pp.
Bridget Edelstein mourns the loss of her high school boyfriend, who died in a car crash, and re-
bounds with a new love.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

56
 Genres

True Adventure
Compiled by Beth Gallaway Youth Services Consultant/Trainer, Metrowest MA
Regional Library System, Waltham, Massachusetts.
Armstrong. Jennifer. Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage. Crown,
c2000. 134pp. (ages 12–15) (NF)
Story of the explorer who attempted to visit the poles.
Ballard, Robert. The Discovery of the Titanic. Warner Books, c1995. 287pp. (ages 12–15) (NF)
The oceanographe recounts his finding of the sunken ship Titanic.
Bryson, Bill. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail. Broadway
Books, c1999. 276pp. (older teens) (NF)
One man’s tale of trying to walk the entire Appalachian Trail.
Callahan, Steve. Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea. Houghton Mifflin, c2002. 237pp. (ages 12–15)
(NF)
Steven Callahan tells the story of his experiences after his small sloop capsized in the middle of the
Atlantic Ocean and he was forced to survive in an inflatable raft for seventy-six days.
Cordingly, David. Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates. Har-
court, c1997. 296pp. (older teens) (NF)
Exposes the truths and lies about piracy on the high seas.
Davidson, Robyn. Tracks. Vintage Books, c1995. 256pp. (older teens) (NF)
The author chronicles her 1977 trek alone across Australia by camel at the age of twenty-seven, a
journey shaped by discoveries about the country’s land and indigenous peoples, and one that trans-
formed her into a new person.
Duncan, Lois. Who Killed My Daughter. Dell, c1994. 354pp. (older teens) (NF)
The novelist for teens tells the true story of her daughter’s unsolved murder.
Fendler, Donn. Lost on a Mountain in Maine. Beech Tree Books, c1992. 109pp. (ages 12–15) (NF)
A twelve-year-old describes his nine-day struggle to survive after being separated from his compan-
ions in the mountains of Maine in 1939.
Gammelgaard, Lene. Climbing High: A Woman’s Account of the Everest Tragedy. Seal Press, c1999.
211pp. (older teens) (NF)
Lene Gammelgaard, the first Scandinavian woman to summit Mount Everest, provides a
step-by-step account of her weeks of training, her arrival in Nepal, and her climb to the peak of the
world’s highest mountain on May 10, 1996, and discusses the deadly storm that claimed the lives of
eight members of the expedition.
Graham, Robin Lee. The Boy Who Sailed Around the World Alone. Golden Press, 1973. 140pp. (ages
12–15) (NF)
Recounts the voyage of a California sixteen-year-old who spent nearly five years sailing around the
world alone.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

57
 Genres

True Adventure
Krakauer, Jon. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster. Villard, c1997.
293pp. (older teens) (NF)
An outdoorsman reporter tackles the highest mountain.
Kropp, Goran. Ultimate High: My Everest Odyssey. Discovery Books, c1999. 227pp. (older teens)
(NF)
Account of a man who climbed Mt. Everest.
Jenkins, Peter. Walk Across America. Perennial, c2001. 290pp.(older teens) (NF)
The author describes his experiences during the two years he spent walking across the United States,
from Alfred, New York, to the Gulf of Mexico.
Junger, Sebastian. The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea. W. W. Norton, c1997.
227pp. (older teens) (NF)
Gloucester fishermen battle the elements in one of the worst storms ever.
Mayes, Frances. Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy. Chronicle Books, c1996. 280pp. (older
teens) (NF)
A couple purchase a villa and love life in Tuscany—rich with sights, smells, and tastes.
Paulsen, Gary. Woodsong. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c1990. 132pp. (ages 12–15)
(NF)
The popular author runs the Iditarod dogsled race across the Alaskan tundra.
Paulsen, Gary. Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod. Harcourt, c1994. 256pp.
(older teens) (NF)
The YA novelist participates in the famous Alaskan dogsled race.
Pfetzer, Mark. Within Reach: My Everest Story. Puffin Books, c2000. 224pp. (ages 12–15) (NF)
A teen struggles twice to become the youngest person to achieve the summit of Mt. Everest.
Read, Piers Paul. Alive. Avon Books, c1975. 318pp. (older teens) (NF)
Story of plane crash victims who committed cannibalism to survive.
Riddles, Libby. Race Across Alaska: First Woman to Win the Iditarod Tells Her Story. Stackpole
Books, c1988. 239pp. (older teens) (NF)
Story of the Iditarod.
Severin, Tim. The Ulysses Voyage: Sea Search for the Odyssey. Dutton, c1987. 253pp. (older teens)
(NF)
Retraces Ulysses’s logical homeward route using a replica of a Bronze Age galley.
Sis, Peter. Tibet: Through the Red Box. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c1998. 57pp. (ages 12–15) (NF)
Story of a man’s travels through Communist China and into Tibet.
Sobel, Dava. Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem
of His Time. Walker, c1995. 184pp. (ages 12–15) (NF)
Story of the discovery of longitude and its significance in navigation.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

58
 Genres

Wordless
Books for All Ages
Aruego, Jose. Look What I Can Do. Aladdin Paperbacks, 1988, c1971. 32pp.
Two carabaos discover that being a copycat can lead to trouble.
Baker, Jeannie. Home. Greenwillow Books, c2004. 32pp.
A wordless picture book that observes the changes in a neighborhood, from before a girl is born until
she is an adult, as it first decays and then is renewed by the efforts of the residents.
Baker, Jeannie. Window. Greenwillow Books, c1991. 32pp.
Chronicles the events and changes in a young boy’s life and in his environment, from babyhood to
adulthood, through wordless scenes observed from the window of his room.
Banyai, Istvan. Re-zoom. Puffin Books, 1998, c1995. 64pp.
A wordless picture book presenting a series of scenes, each one from farther away, showing, for ex-
ample, a boat that becomes the image on a magazine, which is held in a hand, which belongs to a boy,
and so on.
Banyai, Istvan. Zoom. Viking Press, c1995. 64pp.
A wordless picture book presenting a series of scenes, each from farther away, showing, for exam-
ple, a girl playing with toys, which is actually a picture on a magazine cover, which is part of a sign
on a bus, and so on.
Blake, Quentin. Clown. H. Holt, 1998, c1995. 32pp.
After being discarded, Clown makes his way through town, having a series of adventures as he tries
to find a home for himself and his other toy friends.
Briggs, Raymond. The Snowman. Random House, c1978. 32pp.
A wordless book using over 175 picture frames to relate the story of the adventure shared by a little
boy and the snowman he built in the yard.
Carle, Eric. Do You Want to Be My Friend? HarperCollins, c1976. 32pp.
A mouse searches everywhere for a friend.
Catalanotto, Peter. Dylan’s Day Out. Orchard Books, 1993, c1989, 32pp.
In a story where almost everything is black and white, Dylan, a Dalmatian, escapes from his home
and becomes involved in a soccer game between penguins and skunks.
Collington, Peter. A Small Miracle. Knopf, c1997. 16pp.
The figures in a nativity scene come to life to help an old woman in need at Christmas.
Day, Alexandra. Carl Goes Shopping. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c1989. 32pp.
While his mistress shops, Carl, a large dog, and the baby in his care explore the department store
quite thoroughly and have a wonderful time.
Day, Alexandra. Carl Goes to Daycare. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c1993. 32pp.
Carl the rottweiler takes charge when things take an unexpected turn at the day care center he is
visiting.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

59
 Genres

Wordless
Day, Alexandra. Carl’s Birthday. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c1995. 32pp.
Carl, a rottweiler, and Madeline fool her mother once again as they inspect his presents and cake for
his surprise birthday party, all while she thinks they are taking a nap.
Day, Alexandra. Good Dog, Carl. Aladdin Paperbacks, 1997, c1985. 36pp.
Lively and unusual things happen when Carl the dog is left in charge of the baby.
De Paola, Tomie. The Hunter and the Animals: A Wordless Picture Book. Holiday House, c1981.
32pp.
When the discouraged hunter falls asleep, the forest animals play a trick on him.
De Paola, Tomie. Pancakes for Breakfast. Harcourt Brace, c1978. 32pp.
A little old lady’s attempts to have pancakes for breakfast are hindered by a scarcity of supplies and
the participation of her pets.
Felix, Monique. The Boat. Creative Education, c1993. 28pp.
A mouse trapped inside a book makes a boat out of paper and goes sailing.
Felix, Monique. The Colors. Creative Education, c1991. 28pp.
A mouse trapped in a book discovers what colors are.
Felix, Monique. The House. Creative Education, c1991. 30pp.
A little mouse trapped in a book makes a house.
Felix, Monique. The Wind. Stewart, Tabori & Chang, Creative Education, c1991. 30pp.
A little mouse trapped in a book discovers the wind.
Hoban, Tana. Shadows and Reflections. Greenwillow Books, c1990. 32pp.
Photographs without text feature shadows and reflections of various objects, animals, and people.
Hutchins, Pat. Changes, Changes. Aladdin Paperbacks, 1987, c1971. 32pp.
Two wooden dolls rearrange wooden building blocks to form various objects.
Kalan, Robert. Blue Sea. Mulberry, 1992, c1979. 24pp.
Several fishes of varying size introduce space relationships and size differences.
Liu, Jae Soo. Yellow Umbrella. Kane/Miller, c2002. 32pp.
Combines a wordless picture book, in which an increasing number of colorful umbrellas appear in
the falling rain, with a CD of background music designed to enrich the images.
Mayer, Mercer. A Boy, a Dog, a Frog and a Friend. Dial Books for Young Readers, c1971. 32pp.
A boy, a dog, and a frog catch a turtle while fishing down by the pond. Soon the three friends become
four.
Mayer, Mercer. Frog Goes to Dinner. Dial Books for Young Readers, c1974. 32pp.
When a boy goes with his parents to a fancy restaurant, Frog cannot resist the temptation to stow
away in an empty pocket.
Mayer, Mercer. One Frog Too Many. Dial Books for Young Readers, 2003?, c1975. 32pp.
A boy’s pet frog thinks that the new little frog the boy gets for his birthday is one frog too many.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

60
 Genres

Wordless
McCully, Emily Arnold. Four Hungry Kittens. Dial Books for Young Readers, c2001. 32pp.
In this wordless story, four kittens share adventures while their mother is away hunting food.
Ormerod, Jan. Moonlight. Frances Lincoln Children’s Books (distributed in the United States by Pub-
lishers Group West), 2004, c1982. 26pp.
As her parents attempt to help a child fall asleep at bedtime, they themselves become more and more sleepy.
Ormerod, Jan. Sunshine. Frances Lincoln Children’s Books (distributed in the United States by Pub-
lishers Group West), 2004, c1981. 26pp.
Awakened by the sun, a little girl proceeds to wake her parents and sees that they all leave the house
on time.
Rohmann, Eric. Time Flies. Crown, c1994. 32pp.
A wordless tale in which a bird flying around the dinosaur exhibit in a natural history museum has an
unsettling experience when the dinosaurs seem to come alive and view the bird as a potential meal.
Sneed, Brad. Picture a Letter. Phyllis Fogelman Books, c2002. 32pp.
A wordless alphabet book in which the illustrations show people, objects, and animals that form the
shapes of the individual letters.
Spier, Peter. Noah’s Ark. Doubleday, c1977. 46pp.
Retells in pictures how a pair of every manner of creature climbed on board Noah’s ark and thereby
survived the Flood.
Turkle, Brinton. Deep in the Forest. Puffin Books, 1987, c1976. 32pp.
A curious bear explores a cabin in the forest, with disastrous results.
Vincent, Gabrielle. A Day, a Dog. Front Street, c2000. 64pp.
Pictures tell the story of a dog’s day, from the moment he is abandoned on the highway until he finds
a friend in a young boy.
Weitzman, Jacqueline Preiss. You Can’t Take a Balloon into the Museum of Fine Arts. Dial Books for
Young Readers, c2002. 35pp.
While a brother and sister, along with their grandparents, visit the Museum of Fine Arts, the balloon
they were not allowed to bring into the museum floats around Boston, causing a series of mishaps at
various tourist sites.
Wiesner, David. Free Fall. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, c1988. 32pp.
A young boy dreams of daring adventures in the company of imaginary creatures inspired by the
things surrounding his bed.
Wiesner, David. Sector 7. Clarion Books, c1999. 50pp.
While on a school trip to the Empire State Building, a boy is taken by a friendly cloud to visit Sector
7, where he discovers how clouds are shaped and channeled throughout the country.
Wilson, April. April Wilson’s Magpie Magic: A Tale of Colorful Mischief. Dial Books for Young
Readers, c1999. 36pp.
A wordless picture book that depicts a young artist who draws a picture of a magpie, which then co-
mes to life and interacts with a series of colorful drawings.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

61
Part 2
Characters
 Characters

Adventure with Female Protagonists

Books for Ages 12–15
Armstrong, Jennifer. The Kindling. HarperCollins, c2002. 224pp. (and sequels)
In 2007, a small band of children have joined together in a Florida town, trying to survive in a world
where it seems that all the adults have been killed off by a catastrophic virus.
Avi. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. Orchard Books, 2003, c1990. 215pp.
Thirteen-year-old Charlotte Doyle, the only passenger aboard a seedy ship on a transatlantic voyage
from England to America in 1832, becomes caught up in a feud between the murderous captain and
his mutinous crew.
Farmer, Nancy. A Girl Named Disaster. Orchard Books, 2003, c1996. 309pp.
While journeying to Zimbabwe, eleven-year-old Nhamo struggles to escape drowning and starva-
tion, and in so doing comes close to the luminous world of the African spirits.
George, Jean Craighead. Julie of the Wolves. HarperCollins, c1972. 170pp.
While running away from home and an unwanted marriage, a thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl becomes
lost on the North Slope of Alaska and is befriended by a wolf pack.
Kehret, Peg. The Secret Journey. Pocket Books, c1999. 135pp.
In 1834 when a storm at sea destroys the slave ship on which she is a stowaway, twelve-year-old
Emma musters all her resourcefulness to survive in the African jungle.
Meyer, L. A. Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber,
Ship’s Boy. Harcourt, c2002. 278pp. (and sequels)
Reduced to begging and thievery in the streets of London, a thirteen-year-old orphan disguises her-
self as a boy and connives her way onto a British warship destined for high sea adventure .
Nelson, O. T. The Girl Who Owned a City. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1977,
c1975. 189pp.
When a plague sweeps over the earth, killing everyone except children under twelve, ten-year-old
Lisa organizes a group to rebuild a new way of life.
Thesman, Jean. When the Road Ends. Houghton Mifflin, c1992. 184pp.
Sent to spend the summer in the country, three foster children and a woman recovering from a seri-
ous accident are abandoned by their slovenly caretaker and must try to survive on their own.

Books for Older Teens

Marsden, John. Tomorrow, When the War Began. Houghton Mifflin, c1995. 286pp.
Seven Australian teenagers return from a camping trip in the bush to discover that their country has
been invaded and they must hide to stay alive.
O’Brien, Robert C. Z for Zachariah. Aladdin Paperbacks, 1987, c1974. 249pp.
After living alone for a year, believing herself to be the only survivor of a nuclear holocaust, six-
teen-year-old Ann makes a startling discovery—a scientist named John Loomis has also sur-
vived—but this pleasant surprise very quickly turns sinister.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

65
 Characters

Adventure with Female Protagonists

Rees, Celia. Pirates!: The True and Remarkable Adventures of Minerva Sharpe and Nancy Kington,
Female Pirates. Bloomsbury (distributed by Holtzbrinck), c2003. 379pp.
At the dawn of the eighteenth century, Nancy Kington and Minerva Sharpe set sail from Jamaica on
a pirate vessel, hoping to escape from an arranged marriage and slavery.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

66
 Characters

African American Girls: Positive Image

Books for Ages 12–15
Codell, Esmé Raji. Sahara Special. Hyperion Books for Children, c2003. 175pp.
Struggling with school and her feelings since her father left, Sahara gets a fresh start with a new and
unique teacher who supports her writing talents and the individuality of each of her classmates.
Creary, Eve M. A Silent Witness in Harlem. Silver Moon Press, c2002. 91pp.
Felicia’s grandmother tells her the story of a twelve-year-old girl named Lily, who witnessed a mys-
terious kidnapping one night in 1928 in Harlem, New York.
Draper, Sharon M. Romiette and Julio. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c1999. 236pp.
Romiette, an African American girl, and Julio, a Hispanic boy, discover that they attend the same
high school after falling in love on the Internet, but are harassed by a gang whose members object to
their interracial dating.
Duey, Kathleen. Zellie Blake: Lowell, Massachusetts, 1834. Aladdin Paperbacks, c2002. 133pp.
Zellie faces a difficult decision that could cost her a job when her boss, the owner of a boarding
house for the girls employed in the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, asks her to spy on the
young workers.
Flake, Sharon. The Skin I’m In. Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children, c1998. 171pp.
Thirteen-year-old Maleeka, uncomfortable because her skin is extremely dark, meets a new teacher
with a birthmark on her face and makes some discoveries about how to love who she is and what she
looks like.
Fogelin, Adrian. Crossing Jordan. Peachtree, c2000. 140pp.
Twelve-year-old Cass meets her new African American neighbor, Jemmie, and despite their fami-
lies’ prejudices, they build a strong friendship around their mutual talent for running and a pact to
read Jane Eyre.
Grimes, Nikki. Jazmin’s Notebook. Dial Books, c1998. 102pp.
Jazmin, an African American teenager who lives with her older sister in a small Harlem apartment in
the 1960s, finds strength in writing poetry and keeping a record of the events in her sometimes diffi-
cult life.
Hamilton, Virginia. Cousins. Philomel Books, c1990. 125pp.
Concerned that her grandmother may die, Cammy is unprepared for the accidental death of another
relative.
Hamilton, Virginia. Arilla Sun Down. Scholastic, 1995, c1976. 296pp.
A young girl, half African American and half Indian, lives in a small town, where her life revolves
around family, school, and friends.
Hamilton, Virginia. Time Pieces: The Book of Times. Blue Sky Press, c2002. 199pp.
Valena, her family, and their dog live in rural Ohio, where she and her cousin Melinda share experi-
ences that include seeing the aurora borealis, surviving a tornado, and going to an amazing circus.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

67
 Characters

African American Girls: Positive Image

Hamilton, Virginia. Zeely. Macmillan, c1967. 122pp.
Greeder’s summer at her uncle’s farm is made special because of her friendship with a very tall,
composed woman who raises hogs and who closely resembles the magazine photograph of a Watutsi
queen.
Hansen, Joyce. One True Friend. Clarion Books, c2001. 154pp.
Fourteen-year-old orphan Amir, living in Syracuse, exchanges letters with his friend Doris, still liv-
ing in their old Bronx neighborhood, in which they share their lives and give each other advice on
friendship, family, foster care, and making decisions.
Hesse, Karen. Witness. Scholastic Press, c2001. 161pp.
A series of poems express the views of various people in a small Vermont town, including a young
black girl and a young Jewish girl, during the early 1920s when the Ku Klux Klan is trying to infil-
trate the town.
Hewett, Lorri. Dancer. Puffin Books, 2000, c1999. 214pp.
Sixteen-year old Stephanie struggles to perfect her ballet dancing as her classes are complicated by
the introduction of a new male dancer.
Hoffman, Mary. Bravo, Grace! Frances Lincoln Children’s Books (distributed in the United States by
Publishers Group West), c2005. 112pp.
Grace has mixed feelings when she finds out that her mom and stepdad are going to have a baby and
confides those feelings to her grandmother.
Jenkins, Beverly. Belle and the Beau. Avon Books, c2002. 296pp.
Just before the American Civil War, Belle Palmer escapes from slavery in the South to freedom in
the North, where she meets and falls in love with Daniel Best.
Johnson, Angela. Heaven. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c1998. 138pp.
Fourteen-year-old Marley’s seemingly perfect life in the small town of Heaven is disrupted when
she discovers that her father and mother are not her real parents.
Johnson, Angela. Looking for Red. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2002. 116pp.
A thirteen-year-old girl struggles to cope with the loss of her beloved older brother, who disappeared
four months earlier off the coast of Cape Cod.
Johnson, Angela. Songs of Faith. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2001, c1998. 103pp.
Living in a small town in Ohio in 1975 and desperately missing her divorced father, thir-
teen-year-old Doreen comes to terms with disturbing changes in her family life.
Mantell, Paul. Fairway Phenom. Little, Brown, c2003. 132pp.
Malik Edwards, a young African American living in Brooklyn, decides to learn how to play golf in
spite of many obstacles in his path, especially the ridicule of his friends.
McDonald, Janet. Twists and Turns. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2003. 135pp.
With the help of a couple of successful friends, eighteen- and nineteen-year-old Teesha and Keeba
try to capitalize on their talents by opening a hair salon in the run-down Brooklyn housing project
where they live.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

68
 Characters

African American Girls: Positive Image

McGill, Alice. Here We Go Round. Houghton Mifflin, c2002. 119pp.
In 1946, seven-year-old Roberta goes to her grandparents’ North Carolina farm during the last
month of her mother’s pregnancy.
Mead, Alice. Junebug. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c1995. 101pp.
An inquisitive young boy who lives with his mother and younger sister in a rough housing project in
New Haven, Connecticut, approaches his tenth birthday with a mixture of anticipation and worry.
Meyer, Carolyn. White Lilacs. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, c1993. 242pp.
In 1921 in Dillon, Texas, twelve-year-old Rose Lee sees trouble threatening her black community
when the whites decide to take the land there for a park and forcibly relocate the black families to an
ugly stretch of territory outside the town.
Myers, Walter Dean. Crystal. HarperTrophy, 2001, c1987. 196pp.
Fifteen-year-old Crystal has difficulty trying to reconcile her personal and school life with the sexy,
sophisticated persona her career as a quickly advancing high-fashion model has forced upon her.
Myers, Walter Dean. Darnell Rock Reporting. Dell, 1996, c1994. 135pp.
Thirteen-year-old Darnell’s twin sister and the other members of the Corner Crew have doubts about
his work on the school newspaper, but the article he writes about a homeless man changes his atti-
tude about school.
Myers, Walter Dean. The Journal of Biddy Owens: The Negro Leagues. Scholastic, c2001. 139pp.
Teenager Biddy Owens’s 1948 journal about working for the Birmingham Black Barons includes
the games and the players, racism the team faces from New Orleans to Chicago, and his family’s re-
sistance to his becoming a professional baseball player. Includes a historical note about the evolution
of the Negro Leagues.
Myers, Walter Dean. The Mouse Rap. HarperTrophy, 1992, c1990. 186pp.
During an eventful summer in Harlem, fourteen-year-old Mouse and his friends fall in and out of
love and search for a hidden treasure from the days of Al Capone.
Pfeffer, Susan Beth. The Riddle Streak. H. Holt, 1995, c1993. 57pp.
Since her older brother always wins at ping pong, checkers, and everything else, Amy decides to
learn riddles in hope of finding some way she can beat him.
Robinet, Harriette. Walking to the Bus-Rider Blues. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2000. 146pp.
Twelve-year-old Alfa Merryfield, his older sister, and their grandmother struggle for rent money,
food, and their dignity as they participate in the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott in the summer
of 1956.
Slote, Alfred. Finding Buck McHenry. HarperTrophy, 1993, c1991. 250pp.
Eleven-year-old Jason, believing the school custodian, Mack Henry, to be Buck McHenry, a famous
pitcher from the old Negro League, tries to enlist him as a coach for his Little League team by reveal-
ing his identity to the world.
Williams-Garcia, Rita. Like Sisters on the Homefront. Puffin Books, 1997, c1995. 165pp.
Troubled fourteen-year-old Gayle is sent down South to live with her uncle and aunt, where her life
begins to change as she experiences the healing power of the family.
From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

69
 Characters

African American Girls: Positive Image

Wolff, Virginia Euwer. Make Lemonade. H. Holt, c1993. 200pp.
Fourteen-year-old LaVaughn, trying to earn money for college, takes a job caring for the two chil-
dren of Jolly, a single teenage mom, and must find the courage to make the right decision for all of
them after Jolly is fired from her job.
Woodson, Jacqueline. Hush. Putnam, c2002. 181pp.
Twelve-year-old Toswiah finds her life changed when her family enters the witness protection program.
Woodson, Jacqueline. If You Come Softly. Putnam, c1998. 181pp.
After meeting at their private school in New York, fifteen-year-old Jeremiah, who is black and
whose parents are separated, and Ellie, who is white and whose mother has twice abandoned her, fall
in love and then try to cope with peoples’ reactions.
Woodson, Jacqueline. Miracle’s Boys. Putnam, c2000. 133pp.
Twelve-year-old Lafayette’s close relationship with his older brother Charlie changes after Charlie
is released from a detention home and blames Lafayette for the death of their mother.

Books for Older Teens

Coleman, Evelyn. Born in Sin. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2001. 234pp.
Despite serious obstacles and setbacks, fourteen-year-old Keisha pursues her dream of becoming an
Olympic swimmer and medical doctor.
Placide, Jaira. Fresh Girl. Wendy Lamb Books, c2002. 216pp.
After having been sent, at a very young age, from New York to live with her grandmother in Haiti,
fourteen-year-old Mardi rejoins her parents and tries to shape a new life in Brooklyn.
Sanders, Dori. Clover: A Novel. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, c1990. 183pp.
After her father dies within hours of being married to a white woman, a ten-year-old black girl learns
with her new mother to overcome grief and to adjust to a new place in their rural African American
South Carolina community.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Characters

Author Memoirs
Books for Ages 12–15
Ada, Alma Flor. Under the Royal Palms: A Childhood in Cuba. Atheneum Books for Young Readers,
c1998. 85pp. (NF)
The author recalls her life and impressions growing up in Cuba.
Bagdasarian, Adam. First French Kiss and Other Traumas. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2002. 134pp. (NF)
The author recounts humorous, sad, traumatic, romantic, and confusing episodes from his childhood.
Bauer, Marion Dane. A Writer’s Story: From Life to Fiction. Clarion Books, c1995. 134pp. (NF)
The author explores the influences that led her to become a writer, including the importance of inspiration.
Berenstain, Stan. Down a Sunny Dirt Road: An Autobiography. Random House, c2002. 202pp. (NF)
In alternating chapters, Stan and Jan Berenstain, creators of the Berenstain Bears, tell their own sto-
ries, from early childhood until their marriage, then continue the tale together to the present day.
Byars, Betsy Cromer. The Moon and I. Beech Tree Books, 1996, c1991. 96pp. (NF)
While describing her humorous adventures with a black snake, Betsy Byars recounts childhood an-
ecdotes and explains how she writes a book.
Cleary, Beverly. A Girl from Yamhill: A Memoir. Morrow Junior Books, c1988. 279pp. (NF)
Follows the popular children’s author from her childhood years in Oregon through high school and
into young adulthood, highlighting her family life and her growing interest in writing.
Dahl, Roald. Boy: Tales of Childhood. Puffin Books, 1999, c1984. 176pp. (NF)
Presents humorous anecdotes from the author’s childhood, including his summer vacations in Nor-
way and life at an English boarding school.
Fleischman, Sid. The Abracadabra Kid: A Writer’s Life. Greenwillow Books, c1996. 198pp. (NF)
The autobiography of the Newbery award–winning children’s author, who set out from childhood to
be a magician.
Fritz, Jean. Homesick: My Own Story. Putnam, c1982. 163pp.
The author’s fictionalized version, although all the events are true, of her childhood in China in the 1920s.
Kehret, Peg. Five Pages a Day: A Writer’s Journey. Whitman, c2002. 185pp. (NF)
A biography of the author of numerous books for young people, describing her childhood bout with
polio, how she became a writer, family relationships, and the importance of writing in her life.
Kehret, Peg. Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio. Whitman, c1996. 179pp. (NF)
The author describes her battle against polio when she was thirteen and her efforts to overcome its
debilitating effects.
King-Smith, Dick. Chewing the Cud. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c2002. 196pp. (NF)
Dick King-Smith recounts his life from soldier to farmer to salesman to factory worker to teacher to,
finally, author.
Lobel, Anita. No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War. Greenwillow Books, c1998. 193pp. (NF)
The author, known as an illustrator of children’s books, describes her experiences as a Polish Jew
during World War II and for years in Sweden afterward.
From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Characters

Author Memoirs
Lowry, Lois. Looking Back: A Book of Memories. Houghton Mifflin, c1998. 181pp. (NF)
Using family photographs and quotes from her books, the author provides glimpses into her life.
Nixon, Joan Lowery. The Making of a Writer. Delacorte Press, c2002. 97pp. (NF)
The author recalls events from her childhood that contributed to her development as a writer.
Paulsen, Gary. Caught by the Sea: My Life on Boats. Delacorte Press, c2001. 103pp. (NF)
A memoir in which author Gary Paulsen discusses his lifelong love for the sea and shares his adven-
tures exploring the oceans.
Paulsen, Gary. Guts: The True Stories Behind Hatchet and the Brian Books. Delacorte Press, c2001.
148pp. (NF)
The author relates incidents in his life and how they inspired parts of his books about the character
Brian Robeson.
Paulsen, Gary. My Life in Dog Years. Delacorte Press, c1998. 137pp. (NF)
The author describes how dogs have impacted his life, from childhood through the present day, re-
counting the stories of his first dog, Snowball, in the Philippines; Dirk, who protected him from bul-
lies; and Cookie, who saved his life.
Sleator, William. Oddballs: Stories. Puffin Books, 1995, c1993. 134pp. (NF)
A collection of stories based on experiences from the author’s youth and peopled with an unusual as-
sortment of family and friends.
Spinelli, Jerry. Knots in My Yo-Yo String: The Autobiography of a Kid. Knopf (distributed by Random
House), c1998. 148pp. (NF)
This Italian American Newbery Medalist presents a humorous account of his childhood and youth in
Norristown, Pennsylvania.
Yep, Laurence. The Lost Garden. Beech Tree Books, c1996. 116pp. (NF)
The author describes how he grew up as a Chinese American in San Francisco and how he came to
use his writing to celebrate his family and his ethnic heritage.

Books for Older Teens

Crutcher, Chris. King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography. Greenwillow Books,
c2003. 260pp. (NF)
Chris Crutcher, author of young adult novels such as Ironman and Whale Talk, as well as short sto-
ries, tells of growing up in Cascade, Idaho, and becoming a writer.
Gantos, Jack. Hole in My Life. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2002. 199pp. (NF)
The author relates how, as a young adult, he became a drug user and smuggler, was arrested, did time
in prison, and eventually got out and went to college, all the while hoping to become a writer.
Paulsen, Gary. The Beet Fields: Memories of a Sixteenth Summer. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2002, c2000.
160pp. (NF)
In the summer of 1955, the author, then a sixteen-year-old boy ran away from his troubled home and
learned about people, friendship, love, and lust while working as a migrant farmer and a carny.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Characters

Biracial Characters
Books for Ages 12–15
Adoff, Jaime. Names Will Never Hurt Me. Dutton Children’s Books, c2004. 185pp.
Several high school students relate their feelings about school, themselves, and events as they unfold
on the fateful one-year anniversary of the killing of a fellow student.
Curry, Jane Louise. The Black Canary. Margaret K. McElderry Books, c2005. 279pp.
As the child of two musicians, twelve-year-old James has no interest in music, until he discovers a
portal to seventeenth-century London in his uncle’s basement and finds himself in a situation where
his beautiful voice and the fact that he is biracial might serve him well.
Hamilton, Virginia. Bluish: A Novel. Blue Sky Press, c1999. 127pp.
Ten-year-old Dreenie feels both intrigued and frightened when she thinks about the girl nicknamed
Bluish, whose leukemia is making her pale and causing her to use a wheelchair.
Hamilton, Virginia. Plain City. Scholastic, c1993. 194pp.
Twelve-year-old Buhlaire, a “mixed” child who feels out of place in her community, struggles to un-
earth her past and her family history as she gradually discovers more and more about her long-miss-
ing father.
Hesse, Karen. Aleutian Sparrow. Margaret K. McElderry Books, c2003. 156pp.
An Aleutian Islander recounts her suffering during World War II in American internment camps de-
signed to “protect” the population from the invading Japanese.
Meyer, Carolyn. Jubilee Journey. Harcourt Brace, c1997. 271pp.
Emily Rose has always felt comfortable growing up in Connecticut with her African American
mother and her French American father, but when they spend some time with her great-grandmother
in Texas, Emily Rose learns about her black heritage and uncovers some new and exciting parts of
her own identity.
Namioka, Lensey. Half and Half. Delacorte Press, c2003. 136pp.
At Seattle’s annual Folk Fest, twelve-year-old Fiona and her older brother are torn between trying to
please their Chinese grandmother and making their Scottish grandparents happy.
Peck, Richard. The River Between Us. Dial Books, c2003. 164pp.
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.
Pullman, Philip. The Broken Bridge. Knopf (distributed by Random House), 1998, c1992. 218pp.
Over the course of a long summer in Wales, sixteen-year-old Ginny, the mixed-race, artist daughter
of an English father and a Haitian mother, learns that she has a half-brother from her father’s earlier
marriage, and that her own mother may still be alive.
Saksena, Kate. Hang on in There, Shelley. Bloomsbury Children’s Books (distributed by Holtzbrinck),
c2003. 217pp.
Living in London, fourteen-year-old Shelley writes letters to a pop star describing her life with
friends and family, including her divorced alcoholic mother, and her struggles with a school bully.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Characters

Biracial Characters
Wyeth, Sharon Dennis. The World of Daughter Mcguire. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young
Readers, c1994. 167pp.
Eleven-year-old Daughter, called a “zebra” by a boy at school because one of her parents is black
and the other is white, wonders exactly who and what she is.
Yep, Laurence. Angelfish. Putnam, c2001. 216pp.
Robin, a young ballet dancer who is half Chinese and half white, works in a fish store for Mr. Tsow, a
brusque Chinese who accuses her of being a half-person and who harbors a bitter secret.

Books for Older Teens

Crutcher, Chris. Whale Talk. Greenwillow Books, c2001. 220pp.
Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial, adopted teenager, shuns organized sports and
the gung-ho athletes at his high school, until he agrees to form a swimming team and recruits some of
the school’s less popular students.
Frank, E. R. America: A Novel. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2002. 242pp.
America, a runaway boy who is being treated at Ridgeway, a New York hospital, finds himself open-
ing up to one of the doctors on staff and revealing things about himself that he had always vowed to
keep secret.
Luntta, Karl. Know It by Heart: A Novel. Curbstone Press, c2003. 336pp.
Teenagers Dub Teed, his sister Susan, and a neighbor, Doug Hammer, befriend Ricky Dubois, the
daughter of a mixed marriage, when someone puts a burning cross on her parents’ front lawn.
Wyeth, Sharon Dennis. Orphea Proud. Delacorte Press, c2004. 189pp.
A lyrical story about Orphea Proud, who shares her experiences with an audience in a dramatic per-
formance as she talks about her sexuality, her family, prejudices, and identity.
Young, Karen Romano. Cobwebs. Greenwillow Books, c2004. 388pp.
Sixteen-year-old Nancy enjoys the colorful ethnic mix of her heritage in several different Brooklyn
households, not suspecting how very strange that heritage is.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Characters

Boy Bonding
Books for Ages 12–15
Lynch, Chris. Extreme Elvin. HarperTrophy, 2001, c1999. 234pp.
As he enters high school, fourteen-year-old Elvin continues to deal with his weight problem as he
tries to find his place among his peers.
Paulsen, Gary. Harris and Me: A Summer Remembered. Harcourt Brace, c1993. 157pp.
Sent to live with relatives on their farm because of his unhappy home life, an eleven-year-old city
boy meets his distant cousin, Harris, and is given an introduction to a whole new world.
Paulsen, Gary. How Angel Peterson Got His Name: And Other Outrageous Tales About Extreme
Sports. Wendy Lamb Books, c2003. 111pp.
Author Gary Paulsen relates tales from his youth in a small town in northwestern Minnesota in the
late 1940s and early 1950s, such as skiing behind a souped-up car and imitating daredevil Evel
Knievel.
Paulsen, Gary. The Schernoff Discoveries. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1998,
c1997. 103pp.
Harold and his best friend, both hopeless geeks and societal misfits, try to survive unusual science
experiments, the attacks of the football team, and other dangers of junior high school.
Philbrick, W. R. Freak the Mighty. Scholastic, c1993. 169pp.
At the beginning of eighth grade, learning disabled Max and his new friend Freak, whose birth defect
has affected his body but not his brilliant mind, find that when they combine forces they make a pow-
erful team.
Powell, Randy. Three Clams and an Oyster. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2002. 216pp.
During their humorous search to find a fourth player for their flag football team, three high school ju-
niors are forced to examine their long friendship, their individual flaws, and their inability to try new
experiences.

Books for Older Teens

Crutcher, Chris. Stotan! Greenwillow Books, c1986. 183pp.
A high school coach invites members of his swimming team to a memorable week of rigorous train-
ing that tests their moral fiber as well as their physical stamina.
Crutcher, Chris. Whale Talk. Greenwillow Books, c2001. 220pp.
Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial, adopted teenager, shuns organized sports and
the gung-ho athletes at his high school, until he agrees to form a swimming team and recruits some of
the school’s less popular students.
Galloway, Steven. Finnie Walsh. Raincoast Books, c2000. 165pp.
Paul Woodward, the son of a mill worker, and Finnie Walsh, the mill owner’s son, develop a strong
friendship despite their class difference, built primarily on their love of hockey, and their devotion to
each other stands even when they find themselves on opposing teams as adults.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Characters

Boy Bonding
Going, Kelly. Fat Kid Rules the World. Putnam, c2003. 187pp.
Seventeen-year-old Troy, depressed, suicidal, and weighing nearly 300 pounds, gets a new perspec-
tive on life when Curt, a semi-homeless teen who is a genius on the guitar, asks Troy to be the drum-
mer in a rock band.
Green, John. Looking for Alaska. Dutton Books, c2005. 221pp.
Sixteen-year-old Miles’s first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good
friends and great pranks but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car
crash.
Levithan, David. The Realm of Possibility. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c2004. 210pp.
A variety of students at the same high school describe their ideas, experiences, and relationships in a
series of interconnected, free verse stories.
Minter, J. The Insiders. Bloomsbury Children’s Books (distributed by Holtzbrinck), c2004. 280pp.
In downtown New York City, a sophisticated, stylish high school junior is already having trouble
keeping his group of lifelong friends together, when his wild cousin Kelli arrives from St. Louis and
stirs things up.
Saenz, Benjamin Alire. Sammy & Juliana in Hollywood. Cinco Puntos Press, c2004. 291pp.
Sammy Santos and Juliana Rios live amongst the racism, discrimination, and everyday violence dur-
ing the Vietnam War years of the 1960s in a small town in Southern New Mexico.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Characters

Chick Lit with Minority Characters

Books for Ages 12–15
Banerjee, Anjali. Maya Running. Wendy Lamb Books, c2005. 209pp.
Maya, a Canadian of East Indian descent, struggles with her ethnic identity; her infatuation with a
classmate; and the presence of her beautiful Bengali cousin, Pinky, who comes for a visit bearing a
powerful statue of the god Ganesh, the Hindu elephant boy. (East Indian)
Davidson, Dana. Jason & Kyra. Jump at the Sun/Hyperion, c2004. 330pp.
Kyra Evans, a smart, less-than-popular high-schooler, begins to fall for Jason Vincent, a popular
basketball star. (African American)
Dhami, Narinder. Bindi Babes. Delacorte Press, 2004, c2003. 184pp.
Three Indian British sisters team up to marry off their traditional, nosy aunt and get her out of the
house. (East Indian)
Dhami, Narinder. Bollywood Babes. Delacorte Press, 2005, c2004. 213pp.
The Indian British Dhillon sisters open their home to a down-on-her-luck former movie star from In-
dia and employ her talents to raise money for their school. (East Indian)
Draper, Sharon M. Double Dutch. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2002. 183pp.
Three eighth-grade friends, preparing for the International Double Dutch Championship jump rope
competition in their hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio, cope with Randy’s missing father, Delia’s in-
ability to read, and Yo Yo’s encounter with the class bullies. (African American)
Draper, Sharon M. Forged by Fire. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c1997. 151pp.
Gerald, a teenager who has spent years protecting his fragile half-sister from their abusive father, must
face the prospect of one final confrontation before the problem can be solved. (African American)
Draper, Sharon M. Romiette and Julio. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c1999. 236pp.
Romiette, an African American girl, and Julio, a Hispanic boy, discover that they attend the same
high school after falling in love on the Internet, but are harassed by a gang whose members object to
their interracial dating. (African American)
Flake, Sharon. Begging for Change. Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children, c2003. 235pp.
African American teenager Raspberry Hill, off the streets after years of homelessness with her
mother, inexplicably steals money from one of her best friends and wonders if she is no different
than her recently returned, drug-addicted, thieving father. (African American)
Flake, Sharon. Money Hungry. Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children, c2001. 187pp.
All thirteen-year-old Raspberry can think of is making money so that she and her mother never have
to worry about living on the streets again. (African American)
Flake, Sharon. Who Am I Without Him?: Short Stories About Girls And the Boys in Their Lives. Jump
at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children, c2004. 168pp.
Presents ten short stories about teenage girls struggling with issues of self-worth. (African American)
Hopkins, Cathy. Mates, Dates, and Inflatable Bras. Simon Pulse, 2003, c2001. 164pp. (and sequels)
Fourteen-year-old Lucy finds herself desperately in need of a self-esteem boost when she is com-
pletely stumped by a class writing assignment, gets a bad haircut, and decides her physical develop-
ment is lacking in comparison with her friends’. (Jamaican)

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Characters

Chick Lit with Minority Characters

McDonald, Janet. Spellbound. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2001. 138pp.
Raven, a teenage mother and high school dropout living in a housing project, decides, with the help
and sometime interference of her best friend Aisha, to study for a spelling bee that could lead to a
college preparatory program and four-year scholarship. (African American)
McDonald, Janet. Twists and Turns. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2003.135pp.
With the help of a couple of successful friends, eighteen- and nineteen-year-old Teesha and Keeba
try to capitalize on their talents by opening a hair salon in the run-down Brooklyn housing project
where they live. (African American)

Books for Older Teens

De la Cruz, Melissa. Fresh off the Boat. HarperCollins, c2005. 243pp.
When her family emigrates from the Philippines to San Francisco, California, fourteen-year-old
Vicenza Arambullo struggles to fit in at her exclusive, all-girl private school. (Filipino)
Ewing, Lynne. Party Girl. Knopf (distributed by Random House), 1999, c1998. 110pp.
The death of her best friend Ana in a drive-by shooting causes fifteen-year-old Kata to question her
position in the Los Angeles gang life. (Hispanic)
Johnson, R. M. Dating Games: A Novel. Simon & Schuster, c2003. 310pp. (adult)
The lives of the women in the Rodgers family change forever when thirty-three-year-old mom Livvy
announces her plans to move to a smaller apartment and begin nursing school, leaving her teenage
twin daughters to fend for themselves. Hennesey goes off to college on a scholarship, while Alize
embarks on a dangerous money-making scheme. (African American)
McDonald, Janet. Chill Wind. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2002. 134pp.
Afraid that she will have nowhere to go when her welfare checks are stopped, nineteen-year-old high
school dropout Aisha tries to figure out how she can support herself and her two young children in
New York City. (African American)
Monroe, Mary. God Still Don’t Like Ugly. Dafina Books/Kensington, c2003. 311pp. (adult)
Annette Goode meets the father who left her and her mother when she was an infant, loses her groom
when her uncle announces that she used to be a prostitute, and reconnects with the friend who mur-
dered her rapist. (African American)
Triana, Gaby. Cubanita. HarperCollins, c2005. 195pp.
Seventeen-year-old Isabel, eager to leave Miami to attend the University of Michigan and escape her
overprotective Cuban mother, learns some truths about her family’s past and makes important deci-
sions about the type of person she wants to be. (Cuban American)
Velasquez, Gloria. Teen Angel. Piñata Books, c2003. 154pp. (and sequels)
When fifteen-year-old Celia Chavez becomes pregnant, she receives help from her friends, family,
and a psychiatrist who recently had a miscarriage. (Mexican American)
Williams-Garcia, Rita. Like Sisters on the Homefront. Lodestar Books, c1995. 165pp.
Troubled fourteen-year-old Gayle is sent down South to live with her uncle and aunt, where her life
begins to change as she experiences the healing power of the family. (African American)

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Characters

Female Quest Stories

Books for Ages 12–15
Armstrong, Jennifer. Becoming Mary Mehan: Two Novels. Dell Laurel-Leaf, c2002. 292pp.
Contains the complete text of two novels by Jennifer Armstrong featuring Mary Mehan and her ex-
periences during the Civil War and its aftermath.
Armstrong, Jennifer. The Kindling. HarperCollins, c2002. 224pp. (and sequels)
In 2007, a small band of children have joined together in a Florida town, trying to survive in a world
where it seems that all the adults have been killed off by a catastrophic virus.
Avi. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. Orchard Books, 2003, c1990. 215pp.
Thirteen-year-old Charlotte Doyle, the only passenger aboard a seedy ship on a transatlantic voyage
from England to America in 1832, becomes caught up in a feud between the murderous captain and
his mutinous crew.
Bauer, Joan. Rules of the Road. Putman, c1998. 201pp.
Sixteen-year-old Jenna gets a job driving the elderly owner of a chain of successful shoe stores from
Chicago to Texas to confront the son who is trying to force her to retire, and along the way Jenna
hones her talents as a saleswoman and finds the strength to face her alcoholic father.
Cushman, Karen. The Ballad of Lucy Whipple. Clarion Books, c1996. 195pp.
In 1849, twelve-year-old California Morning Whipple, who renames herself Lucy, is distraught
when her mother moves the family from Massachusetts to a rough California mining town.
Cushman, Karen. Rodzina. Clarion Books, c2003. 215pp.
A twelve-year-old Polish American girl is boarded onto an orphan train in Chicago, fearing traveling
to the West and a life of slavery.
Erdrich, Louise. The Birchbark House. Hyperion Books for Children, c1999. 244pp.
Omakayas, a seven-year-old Native American girl of the Ojibwa tribe, lives through the joys of sum-
mer and the perils of winter on an island in Lake Superior in 1847.
George, Jean Craighead, Julie of the Wolves. HarperCollins, c1972. 170pp.
While running away from home and an unwanted marriage, a thirteen-year-old Eskimo girl becomes
lost on the North Slope of Alaska and is befriended by a wolf pack.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Just Ella. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c1999. 185pp.
In this continuation of the Cinderella story, fifteen-year-old Ella finds that accepting Prince Charm-
ing’s proposal ensnares her in a suffocating tangle of palace rules and royal etiquette, so she plots to
escape.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Running Out of Time. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers,
c1995. 184pp.
When a diphtheria epidemic hits her 1840s 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.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

79
 Characters

Female Quest Stories

Hahn, Mary Downing. The Gentleman Outlaw and Me—Eli: A Story of the Old West. Clarion Books,
c1996. 212pp.
In 1887 twelve-year-old Eliza, disguised as a boy and traveling to Colorado in search of her missing
father, falls in with a Gentleman Outlaw and joins him in his illegal schemes.
Hendry, Frances Mary. Quest for a Maid. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c1992. 273pp.
Aware of her sister’s deadly efforts to secure the Scottish throne for Robert de Brus, Meg realizes she
must protect the young Norwegian princess who has been chosen as rightful heir.
Hesse, Karen. Out of the Dust. Scholastic Press, c1997. 227pp.
In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family’s wheat
farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Great Depression.

Books for Older Teens

Le Guin, Ursula K. Tehanu. Aladdin Paperbacks, 2001, c1990. 281pp.
Sparrowhawk, the Archmage of Earthsea, returns from the dark land stripped of his magic powers
and finds refuge with the aging widow Tenar and a crippled girl child, who carries an unknown des-
tiny.
Le Guin, Ursula K. The Tombs of Atuan. Atheneum, c1971. 163pp.
Arha’s isolated existence as high priestess in the tombs of Atuan is disrupted by a thief who seeks a
special treasure.
Levine, Gail Carson. Ella Enchanted. HarperCollins, c1997. 232pp.
In this novel based on the story of Cinderella, Ella struggles against the childhood curse that forces
her to obey any order given to her.
Lowry, Lois. Taking Care of Terrific. Houghton Mifflin, c1983. 168pp.
Taking her overprotected young charge to the public park to broaden his horizons, fourteen-year-old
baby sitter Enid enjoys unexpected friendships with a black saxophonist and a bag lady, until she is
charged with kidnapping.
McGovern, Ann. The Secret Soldier: The Story of Deborah Sampson. Scholastic, c1975. 63pp. (NF)
A brief biography of the woman who disguised herself as a man and joined the Continental Army
during the Revolutionary War.
McKinley, Robin. Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty & the Beast. HarperCollins, c1978.
247pp.
Kind Beauty grows to love the Beast, at whose castle she is compelled to stay, and through her love
she releases him from the spell that had turned him from a handsome prince into an ugly beast.
McKinley, Robin. The Hero and the Crown. Greenwillow Books, c1984, 246pp.
Aerin, with the guidance of the wizard Luthe and the help of the blue sword, wins the birthright due
her as the daughter of the Damarian king and a witchwoman of the mysterious, demon-haunted
North.

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Female Quest Stories

Napoli, Donna Jo. Sirena. Scholastic Signature, 2000, c1998. 210pp.
The gods grant immortality to the mermaid Sirena when she rescues a human man from the sea and
they fall in love, but his mortality creates great conflict between love and honor when he is called to
defend Greece in the Trojan War.
Nix, Garth. Sabriel. HarperCollins, c1995. 292pp.
Sabriel, daughter of the necromancer Abhorsen, must journey into the mysterious and magical Old
Kingdom to rescue her father from the Land of the Dead.
Nolan, Han. Dancing on the Edge. Harcourt Brace, c1997. 244pp.
A young girl from a dysfunctional family creates for herself an alternative world, which nearly re-
sults in her death but ultimately leads her to reality.
O’Brien, Robert C. Z for Zachariah. Aladdin Paperbacks, 1987, c1974. 249pp.
After living alone for a year, believing herself to be the only survivor of a nuclear holocaust, six-
teen-year-old Ann makes a startling discovery—a scientist named John Loomis has also sur-
vived—but this pleasant surprise very quickly turns sinister.
O’Dell, Scott. Island of the Blue Dolphins. Houghton Mifflin, c1990. 181pp.
Left alone on a beautiful but isolated island off the coast of California, a young Indian girl spends
eighteen years not only merely surviving through her enormous courage and self-reliance, but also
finding a measure of happiness in her solitary life.
Paterson, Katherine. Lyddie. Lodestar Books, c1991. 182pp.
Impoverished Vermont farm girl Lyddie Worthen is determined to gain her independence by becom-
ing a factory worker in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1840s.
Pierce, Tamora. Alanna: The First Adventure. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2002, c1983.
216pp.
Eleven-year-old Alanna, who aspires to be a knight even though she is a girl, disguises herself as a
boy to become a royal page, learning many hard lessons along her path to high adventure.
Pierce, Tamora. First Test. Random House, c1999. 216pp.
Ten-year-old Keladry of Mindalen, daughter of nobles, serves as a page but must prove herself to the
males around her if she is ever to fulfill her dream of becoming a knight.
Pullman, Philip. The Golden Compass. Knopf, c1995. 399pp.
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.
Rylant, Cynthia. Missing May. Orchard Books, c1992. 89pp.
After the death of the beloved aunt who has raised her, twelve-year-old Summer and her uncle Ob
leave their West Virginia trailer in search of the strength to go on living.
Taylor, Mildred D. The Gold Cadillac. Dial Press, c1987. 43pp.
Two black girls living in the North are proud of their family’s beautiful new Cadillac until they take
it on a visit to the South and encounter racial prejudice for the first time.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Female Quest Stories

Tchana, Katrin. The Serpent Slayer: And Other Stories of Strong Women. Little, Brown, c2000. 113pp.
A collection of twenty traditional tales from various parts of the world, each of whose main character
is a strong and resourceful woman.
Voigt, Cynthia. Elske. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c1999. 245pp.
Thirteen-year-old Elske escapes rape and certain death at the hands of the leaders of her barbaric society
and later becomes handmaiden to a rebellious noblewoman whose rightful throne they reclaim together.
Voigt, Cynthia. Homecoming. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c1981. 312pp.
Abandoned by their mother, four children begin a search for a home and an identity.
Wilson, Diane Lee. I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade. HarperTrophy, c1999. 288pp.
In early fourteenth-century China, Oyuna tells her granddaughter about her girlhood in Mongolia
and how love for her horse enabled her to win an important race and bring good luck to her family.
Wrede, Patricia C. Dealing with Dragons. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, c1990, 212pp.
Bored with traditional palace life, a princess goes off to live with a group of dragons and soon be-
comes involved with fighting against some disreputable wizards, who want to steal away the drag-
ons’ kingdom.
Yolen, Jane. Not One Damsel in Distress: World Folktales for Strong Girls. Silver Whistle/Harcourt,
c2000. 116pp.
A collection of thirteen traditional tales from various parts of the world, each of whose main charac-
ter is a fearless, strong, heroic, and resourceful woman.

Books for Older Teens

Bradley, Marion Zimmer. Lady of Avalon. Roc, c1997. 460pp.
Three different generations of holy women of Avalon—Caillean, Dierna, and Ana—struggle to
guide the fortunes of Roman Britain and their own destinies in the years before the birth of the leg-
endary King Arthur.
Bradley, Marion Zimmer. The Mists of Avalon. Ballantine, 2000, c1982. 876pp.
A re-creation of the Arthurian legend following the clash between Christianity and paganism that led
to the demise of Camelot.
Jones, Diana Wynne. Fire and Hemlock. HarperTrophy, 2002, c1985. 420pp.
At nineteen, Polly has two sets of sometimes overlapping, sometimes conflicting memories: the
real-life ones of school days and her parents’ divorce, and the heroic adventure ones that began the
day she accidentally gate-crashed a funeral and met the cellist Thomas Lynn.
Jones, Diana Wynne. The Spellcoats. GreenwillowBooks, c2001. 279pp.
Tanqui discovers she has the only means to conquer the evil Kankredin, who threatens her own peo-
ple, and the Heathens who have invaded prehistoric Dalemark.
Yolen, Jane. Briar Rose. Starscape, 2002, c1992. 241pp.
In this retelling of “Sleeping Beauty,” a young woman learns that her grandmother had a secret past
tied to the Holocaust.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Freshman Experience
Books for Ages 12–15
Cabot, Meg. The Princess Diaries. HarperCollins, c2000. 238pp.
Fourteen-year-old Mia, who is trying to lead a normal life as a teenage girl in New York City, is
shocked to learn that her father is the Prince of Genovia, a small European principality, and that she
is a princess and the heir to the throne.
Cabot, Meg. Princess in Pink. HarperCollins, c2004. 256pp.
In a series of humorous diary entries, high school freshman (and Genovian Princess) Mia tries to get
her reluctant boyfriend to take her to the prom.
Clarke, Judith. Kalpana’s Dream. Front Street, 2005, c2004. 164pp.
Neema’s struggle to complete an essay on the topic “Who Am I” for her freshman English class is
complicated by the arrival of Kampala, her Indian great-grandmother, who has come to Australia
chasing her dream of flying, and although they do not speak the same language, the two find com-
mon ground in skateboarder Gull Oliver.
Fredericks, Mariah. The True Meaning of Cleavage. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2003.
211pp.
When Jess and Sari, best friends since seventh grade, begin their freshman year of high school, and
Sari becomes obsessed with a senior boy, Jess wonders if their friendship will survive.
Gardner, Graham. Inventing Elliot. Dial Books, 2004, c2003. 181pp.
Elliot, a victim of bullying, invents a calmer, cooler self when he changes schools in the middle of
freshman year, but soon attracts the wrong kind of attention from the Guardians who “maintain or-
der” at the new school.
Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Patiently Alice. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2003. 243pp.
Alice experiences a lot of changes during the summer of her freshmen year when she gets to work as
an assistant camp counselor for three weeks, and then returns home to find the orderly world she left
behind in turmoil.
Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Simply Alice. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2002. 222pp.
In her freshman year, fourteen-year-old Alice experiences changes and challenges with friends, fam-
ily, and school activities, which leave her feeling better about herself than ever before.
Rallison, Janette. Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Free Throws. Walker, c2004. 185pp.
High school freshmen Josie and Cami try to remain best friends as they compete for basketball
awards and boys.

Books for Older Teens

Chbosky, Stephen. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. MTV Books/Pocket Books, c1999. 213pp.
Charlie, a freshman in high school, explores the dilemmas of growing up through a collection of let-
ters he sends to an unknown recipient.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Freshman Experience
Farrell, Juliana. High School, the Real Deal: From GPAs to Graduation. HarperTrophy, c2001.
142pp. (NF)
Provides advice for incoming freshmen on how to handle high school, listing dos and don’ts for the
first day and beyond, and discussing academics, extracurricular activities, working, stress, the social
scene, and post–high school concerns.
Frank, Hillary. Better Than Running at Night. Houghton Mifflin, c2002. 263pp.
Ellie, having endured a lonely high school existence, tries to make a place for herself as a freshman
art student at the New England College of Art and Design.
Garfinkle, Debra. Storky: How I Lost My Nickname and Won the Girl. Putnam, c2005. 184pp.
Fourteen-year-old high school student Michael “Storky” Pomerantz’s journal describes his fresh-
man year, from dealing with his mother’s dating his dentist to attempting to win the heart of the girl
he loves.
Lubar, David. Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie. Dutton Children’s Books, c2005. 279pp.
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.
Matthews, Andrew. A Winter Night’s Dream. Delacorte Press, 2004, c1997. 151pp.
Casey, a high school freshman, and Stew, a senior, search for love separately, with the help of a fa-
vorite teacher, before meeting each other.
Myracle, Lauren. Rhymes with Witches. Amulet Books, c2005. 209pp.
High school freshman Jane believes that she would do anything to be popular, until she is selected to
be in the school’s most exclusive clique and learns that popularity has a very high price.
Trope, Zoe. Please Don’t Kill the Freshman: A Memoir. HarperTempest, c2003. 295pp. (NF)
A memoir of the then-fifteen-year-old author’s high school experience to that point, in which diary
entries reflect her struggles, angst, and rebellion.
Zeises, Lara M. Contents Under Pressure. Delacorte Press, c2004. 244pp.
Lucy, a fourteen-year-old high school freshman, experiences the happiness and confusion of dating
a popular older boy, changing relationships with lifelong friends, and sharing a bedroom with her
older brother’s pregnant girlfriend.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Characters

Girls in Sports
Books for Ages 12–15
Adler, C. S. Winning. Clarion Books, c1999. 156pp.
Vicky is thrilled to be on the eighth-grade tennis team, until she realizes that her new playing partner,
Brenda, is ruthless about winning and will even cheat to do so.
Girls Got Game: Sports Stories & Poems. H. Holt, c2001. 152pp.
A collection of short stories and poems written by and about young women in sports.
Levy, Marilyn. Run for Your Life. Putnam & Grosset, 1997, c1996. 217pp.
While living in a housing project in Oakland, California, thirteen-year-old Kisha joins a track team,
which helps her discover that she can be a winner.
Mackel, Kathy. MadCat. HarperCollins, c2005. 185pp.
Fast-pitch softball catcher MadCat Campione’s love for the sport is strained when her team com-
petes on a national level and her best pal Jess puts the game before her friends.
Nitz, Kristin Wolden. Defending Irene. Peachtree, c2004. 185pp.
Thirteen-year-old Irene Benenati, a top soccer player on the girls’ team at her Missouri school, plays
on a fiercely competitive boy’s soccer team during the year her family spends in Italy and experi-
ences culture clashes both on and off the field.
Rallison, Janette. Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Free Throws. Walker, c2004. 185pp.
High school freshmen Josie and Cami try to remain best friends as they compete for basketball
awards and boys.
Roberts, Kristi. My 13th Season. H. Holt, c2005. 154pp.
Already downhearted due to the loss of her mother and her father’s overwhelming grief, thir-
teen-year-old Fran decides to give up her dream of becoming the first female in professional base-
ball, after a coach attacks her just for being a girl.
Rottman, S. L. Head Above Water. Peachtree, c1999. 196pp.
Skye, a high school junior, tries to find the time for both family obligations and personal interests,
which include caring for her brother who has Down Syndrome, dating her first boyfriend, and swim-
ming competitively.
Smith, Charles R. Hoop Queens: Poems. Candlewick Press, c2003. 35pp.
A collection of twelve poems that celebrate contemporary women basketball stars, including
Yolanda Griffith, Chamique Holdsclaw, and Natalie Williams.
Spinelli, Jerry. There’s a Girl in My Hammerlock. Aladdin Paperbacks, 1993, c1991. 199pp.
Thirteen-year-old Maisie joins her school’s formerly all-male wrestling team and tries to last
through the season, despite opposition from other students, her best friend, and her own teammates.
Wells, Rosemary. When No One Was Looking. Puffin Books, 2000, c1980. 189pp.
A tragic chain of events threatens a fourteen-year-old girl’s promising tennis career.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Girls in Sports
Wolff, Virginia Euwer. Bat 6: A Novel. Scholastic Signature, 1999, c1998. 230pp.
In small town, post–World War II Oregon, twenty-one sixthgrade girls recount the story of an annual
softball game, during which one girl’s bigotry comes to the surface.

Books for Older Teens

Lamott, Anne. Crooked Little Heart. Anchor Books, c1998. 326pp.
Thirteen-year-old tennis champion Rosie Ferguson, her mother Elizabeth, and her stepfather, James,
all struggle with their own heartbreak along the road to becoming a united family.
Ripslinger, Jon. How I Fell in Love & Learned to Shoot Free Throws. Roaring Brook Press, c2003.
170pp.
Seventeen-year-old Danny Henderson, an indifferent basketball player, has his eye on Angel
McPherson, star of the girls’ team in their Iowa high school.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Characters

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transsexual,

and Questioning
Books for Ages 12–15
Compiled by Joanna Nigrelli, Wired for Youth Librarian, Austin Public Library.
Hartinger, Brent. Geography Club. HarperTempest, c2003. 226pp.
A group of gay and lesbian teenagers find mutual support when they form the Geography Club at
their high school.
Howe, James. The Misfits. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2001. 274pp.
Four middle-schoolers band together against those who ridicule them for being different and decide
to run in the upcoming student council elections.
Kerr, M. E. Deliver Us from Evie. HarperTrophy, 1995, c1994. 177pp.
Sixteen-year-old Parr Burrman and his family face some difficult times when word spreads through
their rural Missouri town that his older sister is a lesbian, and she leaves the family farm to live with
the daughter of the town’s banker.
Koertge, Ronald. The Arizona Kid. Candlewick Press, c2005. 283pp.
Sixteen-year-old Billy comes to terms with his own values when he is sent to live with his gay uncle
in Tucson and is introduced to the world of rodeos, where he falls in love with an outspoken race-
horse rider named Cara.
Matthews, Andrew. The Flip Side: A Novel. Delacorte Press, c2003. 147pp.
Robert, a British fifteen-year-old, is confused when he plays the part of Rosalind while studying
Shakespeare in school and discovers parts of his personality that he did not know existed.
Myracle, Lauren. Kissing Kate. Dutton Books, c2003. 198pp.
Sixteen-year-old Lissa’s relationship with her best friend changes after they kiss at a party and Lissa
does not know what to do, until she gets help from an unexpected new friend.

Books for Older Teens

Am I Blue?: Coming Out from the Silence. HarperTrophy, c1994. 273pp.
A collection of short stories about homosexuality by such authors as Bruce Coville, M. E. Kerr, Wil-
liam Sleator, and Jane Yolen.
Boock, Paula. Dare Truth or Promise. Houghton Mifflin, c1999. 170pp.
Louie Angelo, a Woodhaugh High prefect who plans to be a lawyer, falls in love with a girl who
lives in a pub and just wants to get through her exams so she can become a chef.
Garden, Nancy. Annie on My Mind. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1992, c1982. 233pp.
Liza puts aside her feelings for Annie after a disaster at school, but eventually she allows love to tri-
umph over the ignorance of people.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Characters

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transsexual,

and Questioning
Griffith, Nicola. Slow River. Ballantine Books, c1996. 343pp.
A near-future novel in which eighteen-year-old Lore van de Oest, stripped of her identity chip by the
kidnappers who stole her from her wealthy family, struggles for control of her life after she is res-
cued by Spanner, a data pirate who offers Lore a world of possibilities.
Levithan, David. Boy Meets Boy. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c2003. 185pp.
Paul’s simple high-school life is confused by his desire for another boy, who seems unattainable un-
til Paul’s friends help him find the courage to pursue him.
Moore, Terry. Strangers in Paradise. 1: Pocket Book Collection. Abstract Studio, c2004. 344pp.
Katchoo, a talented artist in love with her best friend Francine, finds her life becoming complicated
when she meets David, a young man determined to win her heart. The gentle love triangle is threat-
ened when Katchoo’s dangerous past catches up with her. Presented in graphic novel form.
Mowry, Jess. Babylon Boyz. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c1997. 188pp.
Inner-city teenagers find a suitcase full of cocaine and must decide whether to sell it and take the op-
portunities the money would provide or to destroy it to keep the drug from poisoning their commu-
nity.
Not the Only One: Lesbian and Gay Fiction for Teens Alyson Books, c2004. 302pp.
A collection of short stories portraying gay and lesbian teenagers at different moments in their lives.
Peters, Julie Anne. Keeping You a Secret: A Novel. Little, Brown, c2003. 250pp.
As she begins a very tough last semester of high school, Holland finds herself puzzled about her fu-
ture and intrigued by a transfer student who wants to start a Lesbigay club at school.
Peters, Julie Anne. Luna: A Novel. Little, Brown, c2004. 248pp.
Fifteen-year-old Regan’s life, which has always revolved around keeping her older brother Liam’s
transsexuality a secret, changes when Liam decides to start the process of “transitioning” by first
telling his family and friends that he is a girl who was born in a boy’s body.
Ryan, Sara. Empress of the World. Viking Press, c2001. 213pp.
While attending a summer institute, fifteen-year-old Nic meets a girl named Battle, falls in love with
her, and finds the relationship to be difficult and confusing.
Sanchez, Alex. Rainbow Boys. Simon & Schuster, c2001. 233pp.
Three high school seniors—a jock with a girlfriend and an alcoholic father, a closeted gay, and a
flamboyant gay rights advocate—struggle with family issues, gay bashers, first sex, and conflicting
feelings about each other.
Weyr, Garret. My Heartbeat. Houghton Mifflin, c2002. 154pp.
As she tries to understand the closeness between her older brother and his best friend, four-
teen-year-old Ellen finds her relationship with each of them changing.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Characters

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transsexual,

and Questioning
Winick, Judd. Green Lantern: Brother’s Keeper. DC Comics, c2003. 124pp.
When not fighting crime as Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner is a freelance artist in New York. When
Terry Berg, his homosexual intern and his friend, becomes the victim of a vicious hate crime, Kyle
must temper his rage and use the power of the ring wisely as he pursues Terry’s attackers.
Winick, Judd. Pedro and Me: Friendship, Loss, and What I Learned. H. Holt, c2000. 187pp. (NF)
In graphic art format, describes the friendship between two roommates on the MTV show Real
World, one of whom died of AIDS.
Wittlinger, Ellen. Hard Love. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c1999. 224pp.
After starting to publish a zine in which he writes his secret feelings about his lonely life and his parents’
divorce, sixteen-year-old John meets an unusual girl and begins to develop a healthier personality.
Woodson, Jacqueline. From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun: A Novel. Scholastic, c1995. 141pp.
Thirteen-year-old Melanin Sun’s comfortable, quiet life is shattered when his mother reveals she has
fallen in love with a woman.
Woodson, Jacqueline. The House You Pass on the Way. Putnam, c2003, c1997. 114pp.
When fourteen-year-old Staggerlee, the daughter of a racially mixed marriage, spends a summer
with her cousin Trout, she begins to question her sexuality to Trout and catches a glimpse of her pos-
sible future self.
Yamanaka, Lois-Ann. Name Me Nobody. Hyperion Paperbacks, 2000, c1999. 229pp.
Emi-Lou struggles to come of age in her middle school years in Hawaii.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Characters

Kindness of Strangers
Books for Ages 12–15
Cameron, Ann. Colibri. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2003. 227pp.
Kidnapped when she was very young by an unscrupulous man who has forced her to lie and beg to
get money, a twelve-year-old Mayan girl endures an abusive life, always wishing she could return to
the parents she can hardly remember.
Choldenko, Gennifer. Al Capone Does My Shirts. Putnam, c2004. 225pp.
A twelve-year-old boy named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards’ families are
housed there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his
autistic sister.
Frost, Helen. Keesha’s House. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2003. 116pp.
Seven teens facing such problems as pregnancy, closeted homosexuality, and abuse each describe in
poetic forms what caused them to leave home and where they found home again.
Funke, Cornelia Caroline. The Thief Lord. Scholastic, c2002. 349pp.
Orphaned brothers Prosper and Bo, having run away from their cruel aunt and uncle, decide to hide
out in Venice, where they fall in with the Thief Lord, a thirteen-year-old boy who leads a crime ring
of street children.
Spinelli, Jerry. Maniac Magee: A Novel. Little, Brown, c1990. 184pp.
After his parents die, Jeffrey Lionel Magee’s life becomes legendary, as he accomplishes athletic
and other feats that awe his contemporaries.
Spinelli, Jerry. Stargirl. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c2000. 186pp.
Stargirl, a teen who animates quiet Mica High with her colorful personality, suddenly finds herself
shunned for her refusal to conform.
Strasser, Todd. Can’t Get There from Here. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2004.
198pp.
Tired of being hungry, cold, and dirty living on the streets of New York City with a tribe of other
homeless teenagers who are dying, one by one, a girl named Maybe ponders her future and longs for
someone to care about her.
Weeks, Sarah. So B. It: A Novel. Laura Geringer Books, c2004. 245pp.
After spending her life with her mentally retarded mother and agoraphobic neighbor,
twelve-year-old Heidi sets out from Reno, Nevada, to New York to find out who she is.

Books for Older Teens

Brooks, Martha. True Confessions of a Heartless Girl. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2003. 181pp.
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.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Characters

Kindness of Strangers
Herrick, Steven. The Simple Gift. Simon Pulse, 2004, c2000. 188pp.
Sixteen-year-old Billy runs away from his alcoholic, abusive father and takes up residence in an
abandoned freight car, where he meets Old Bill, a fellow hobo, and together they form a friendship
based on small kindnesses that change their lives.
Hyde, Catherine Ryan. Pay It Forward: A Novel. Pocket Books, 2000, c1999. 311pp.
A young boy who believes in the goodness of human nature sets out to change the world with his
seemingly simple plan, but he soon learns that some people are not willing to help him.
Kluger, Steve. Last Days of Summer: A Novel. Bard, 1999, c1998. 353pp.
Joey Margolis, a young boy whose father has deserted the family, begins writing to baseball player
Charlie Banks and forms a relationship with the third baseman that changes both their lives for the
better.
Letts, Billie. Where the Heart Is. Warner Books, 1998, c1995. 376pp.
Novalee Nation, seventeen, pregnant, and living in a Wal-Mart store, discovers friendship, encour-
agement, direction and love with a group of caring people in Sequoyah, Oklahoma.
Pearson, Mary A Room on Lorelei Street. H. Holt, 2005. 266pp.
To escape a miserable existence taking care of her alcoholic mother, seventeen-year-old Zoe rents a
room from an eccentric woman, but her earnings as a waitress after school are minimal and she must
go to extremes to cover expenses.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Characters

Mental Illness
Books for Ages 12–15
Fischer, Jackie. An Egg on Three Sticks. Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Griffin, c2004. 309pp.
In the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1970s, twelve-year-old Abby watches her mother fall
apart and must take on the burden of holding her family together.
Fritz, April Young. Waiting to Disappear. Hyperion Books for Children, c2002. 316pp.
In a small Southern town during the summer of 1960, two years after her older brother’s death, thir-
teen-year-old Buddy tries to cope with the absence of her mother, who has been hospitalized after
suffering a nervous breakdown.
Griffin, Adele. Where I Want to Be. Putnam, c2005. 150pp.
Two teenage sisters, separated by death but still connected, work through their feelings of loss over
the closeness they shared as children that was destroyed by one’s mental illness, and finally make
peace with each other.
Hautman, Pete. Invisible. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2005. 149pp.
Doug and Andy are unlikely best friends—one a loner obsessed by his model trains, the other a pop-
ular student involved in football and theater—who grew up together and share a bond that nothing
can sever.
Hermes, Patricia. Summer Secrets. Marshall Cavendish, c2004. 141pp.
Twelve-year-old Missy tries to learn more about her mother’s odd behavior as she and her two
friends share some secrets during a long, hot summer in Mississippi toward the end of World War II.
Hesser, Terry Spencer. Kissing Doorknobs. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1999,
c1998. 149pp.
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.
McCord, Patricia. Pictures in the Dark. Bloomsbury (distributed by Holtzbrinck), c2004. 288pp.
Life with their mentally ill mother becomes unbearable for twelve-year-old Sarah and fif-
teen-year-old Carlie, who are deprived of food and forbidden to use the bathroom.
Rinaldi, Ann. Or Give Me Death: A Novel of Patrick Henry’s Family. Harcourt, c2003. 226pp.
With their father away most of the time advocating independence for the American colonies, the
children of Patrick Henry try to raise themselves, manage the family plantation, and care for their
mentally ill mother.
Sones, Sonya. Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy. HarperTempest,
2001, c1999. 149pp.
A younger sister has a difficult time adjusting to life after her older sister has a mental breakdown.
Tashjian, Janet. Multiple Choice. H. Holt, c1999. 186pp.
Monica, a fourteen-year-old perfectionist and word game expert, tries to break free from the suffo-
cating rules in her life by creating a game for living called Multiple Choice.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Mental Illness
Weeks, Sarah. So B. It: A Novel. Laura Geringer Books, c2004. 245pp.
After spending her life with her mentally retarded mother and agoraphobic neighbor,
twelve-year-old Heidi sets out from Reno, Nevada, to New York to find out who she is.
White, Ruth. Memories of Summer. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2000. 135pp.
In 1955, thirteen-year-old Lyric finds her whole life changing when her family moves from the hills of
Virginia to a town in Michigan, and her older sister Summer begins descending into mental illness.
Wilson, Dawn. Saint Jude. Tudor Publishers, c2001. 171pp.
When committed to an upscale group home outside Asheville, North Carolina, eighteen-year-old
Taylor Drysdale pretends that her bipolar disorder is under control and that she will leave soon, but
relationships with her fellow residents may hold the key to real recovery.

Books for Older Teens

Fensham, Elizabeth. Helicopter Man. Bloomsbury (distributed by Holtzbrinck), 2005. 159pp.
Australian youth Peter Sinclair, living on the run with his father, who claims he is being pursued by a
secret organization, comes to the realization that his dad is mentally ill and must have treatment if
they are ever to have a normal life together.
Fuqua, Jonathon Scott. King of the Pygmies. Candlewick Press, c2005. 246pp.
After hearing what he believes are other peoples’ thoughts, high school sophomore Penn learns that
he may have schizophrenia and makes some important decisions about how to live his life.
Moore, Peter. Caught in the Act. Viking Press, c2005. 260pp.
Everyone believes that sophomore honors student Ethan Lederer is a top-notch scholar and a great
guy, but a new student helps Ethan to discover and disclose that he is just acting a role, even as she
reveals her own mental instability.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Physically Handicapped
Books for Ages 12–15
Bloor, Edward. Tangerine. Harcourt Brace, c1997. 294pp.
Twelve-year-old Paul, who lives in the shadow of his football hero brother Erik, fights for the right
to play soccer despite his near blindness, and slowly begins to remember the incident that damaged
his eyesight.
Farrell, Mame. Marrying Malcolm Murgatroyd. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1998, c1995. 121pp.
Hannah Billings hates being teased about marrying Malcolm Murgatroyd, the most unpopular and
misunderstood boy in her sixth-grade class, until he reveals his true personality when her brother
succumbs to muscular dystrophy.
Ferris, Jean. Of Sound Mind. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2001. 215pp.
Tired of interpreting for his deaf family and resentful of their reliance on him, high school senior
Theo finds support and understanding from Ivy, a new student who also has a deaf parent.
Fleischman, Paul. Mind’s Eye. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2001, c1999. 108pp.
A novel in play form in which sixteen-year-old Courtney, paralyzed in an accident, learns about the
power of the mind from an elderly blind woman, who takes Courtney on an imaginary journey to It-
aly using a 1910 guidebook.
Hamilton, Virginia. Bluish: A Novel. Blue Sky Press, c1999. 127pp.
Ten-year-old Dreenie feels both intrigued and frightened when she thinks about the girl nicknamed
Bluish, whose leukemia is making her pale and causing her to use a wheelchair.
Hatrick, Gloria. Masks. Orchard Books, c1996. 120pp.
Desperate to help his older brother Will, who has become paralyzed by a rare disease, Pete uses tribal
animal masks to communicate with Will, allowing him to escape his useless body and embark on a
series of strange and powerful dream journeys.
Hobbs, Valerie. Stefan’s Story. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2003. 165pp.
Thirteen-year-old, wheelchair-bound Stefan renews his friendship with Carolina as they work to-
gether to save an old-growth forest from destruction by loggers.
Johnson, Scott. Safe At Second. Puffin Books, 2001, c1999. 245pp.
Paulie Lockwood’s best friend, Todd Bannister, is destined for the major leagues, until a line drive to
the head causes him to lose an eye and they both must find a new future for themselves.
Johnston, Julie. Hero of Lesser Causes. Tundra Books of Northern New York, c2003. 222pp.
In 1946 twelve-year-old Keely is devastated when her older brother Patrick is paralyzed by polio,
and she starts a campaign to reawaken his waning interest in life.
Jung, Reinhardt. Dreaming in Black & White. P. Fogelman, 2003, c2000. 112pp.
A boy dreams that he is a student during the period of the Nazi Third Reich in Germany, where he is
persecuted for being physically handicapped.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Physically Handicapped
Kehret, Peg. Earthquake Terror. Puffin Books, 1998, c1996. 132pp.
When an earthquake hits the isolated island in northern California where his family were camping,
twelve-year-old Jonathan Palmer must find a way to keep himself, his partially paralyzed younger
sister, and their dog alive until help arrives.
Kehret, Peg. Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio. Whitman, c1996. 179pp. (NF)
The author describes her battle against polio when she was thirteen and her efforts to overcome its
debilitating effects.
Lowry, Lois. Gathering Blue. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2002, c2000. 215pp.
Lame and suddenly orphaned, Kira 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.
Martin, Ann M. A Corner of the Universe. Scholastic Press, c2002. 189pp.
The summer that Hattie turns twelve, she meets the childlike uncle she never knew and becomes
friends with a girl who works at the carnival that comes to Hattie’s small town.
McKay, Hilary. Saffy’s Angel. Margaret K. McElderry Books, c2002. 152pp.
After learning that she was adopted, thirteen-year-old Saffron’s relationship with her eccentric, ar-
tistic family changes, until they help her go back to Italy, where she was born, to find a special me-
mento of her past.
Mikaelsen, Ben. Petey. Hyperion Books for Children, c1998. 280pp.
In 1922 Petey, who has cerebral palsy, is misdiagnosed as an idiot and institutionalized; sixty years
later, still in the institution, he befriends a boy and shares with him the joy of life.
Mitchell, Marianne. Finding Zola. Boyds Mills Press, c2005. 144pp.
While trying to discover what happened to her elderly neighbor, who has mysteriously disappeared,
thirteen-year-old Crystal confronts her feelings of guilt related to the car accident that killed her fa-
ther and left her confined to a wheelchair.
Orr, Wendy. Peeling the Onion. Holiday House, c1997. 166pp.
Following an automobile accident in which her neck is broken, a teenage karate champion begins a
long and painful recovery with the help of her family.
Philbrick, W. R. Freak the Mighty. Scholastic, c1993. 169pp.
At the beginning of eighth grade, learning disabled Max and his new friend Freak, whose birth defect
has affected his body but not his brilliant mind, find that when they combine forces they make a pow-
erful team.
Platt, Chris. Willow King: Race the Wind. Random House, c2002. 248pp.
Fifteen-year-old Katie Durham learns about courage and independence as she befriends a blind girl
and fights to become a jockey and ride in the Kentucky Derby despite her own physical handicap.
Roos, Stephen. The Gypsies Never Came. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2001. 116pp.
Sixth-grader Augie Knapp, who has a deformed hand, is convinced by Lydie Rose, the strange new
girl in town, that the gypsies are coming for him.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Physically Handicapped
Scrimger, Richard. From Charlie’s Point of View. Dutton Books, c2005. 278pp.
Best friends Bernadette and Charlie begin seventh grade and help unravel the mysterious case of the
Stocking Bandit.
Sleator, William. The Last Universe. Amulet Books, c2005. 215pp.
When her desperately ill older brother insists that she take him into their mysterious backyard gar-
den, designed by their quantum physicist great uncle, fourteen-year-old Susan discovers that things
are not always what they seem.

Books for Older Teens

Koertge, Ronald. Stoner & Spaz. Candlewick Press, c2002. 169pp.
A troubled youth with cerebral palsy struggles toward self-acceptance with the help of a drug-ad-
dicted young woman.
Lebert, Benjamin. Crazy. Vintage, 2001, c2000. 177pp.
An English translation of the German novel about Benjamin Lebert, a sixteen-year-old with a dis-
ability who has been sent to a remedial boarding school, where he embarks on a discovery of life,
friends, love, booze, girls, and sex.
Martin, Rafe. Birdwing. A. A. Levine Books, c2005. 357pp.
Prince Ardwin, known as Birdwing, the youngest of six brothers turned into swans by their step-
mother, is unable to complete the transformation back into human form, so he undertakes a journey
to discover whether his feathered arm will be a curse or a blessing to him.
McBay, Bruce. Waiting for Sarah. Orca Book Publishers, c2003. 170pp.
After teenager Mike Scott loses his family and his legs in a car accident, he withdraws from life, until
he meets the mysterious Sarah, a girl who is not what she seems.
Trueman, Terry. Cruise Control. HarperTempest, c2004. 149pp.
A talented basketball player struggles to deal with the helplessness and anger that come with having
a brother rendered completely dysfunctional by severe cerebral palsy and a father who deserted the
family.
Trueman, Terry. Stuck in Neutral. HarperCollins, c2000. 114pp.
Fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel, who suffers from severe cerebral palsy and cannot function, re-
lates his perceptions of his life, his family, and his condition, especially as he believes his father is
planning to kill him.
Walters, Eric. Rebound. Stoddart Kids (distributed in the United States by General Distribution Ser-
vices), 2001, c2000. 262pp.
The friendship of Sean and David helps them to get on the basketball team.
Whelan, Gloria. Forgive the River, Forgive the Sky. Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 1999, c1998.
85pp.
After her father dies in the river they both love, twelve-year-old Lily struggles to come to terms with
her loss, and in so doing, she helps a paraplegic former pilot accept his condition and move on with
his life.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Politically Active
Books for Ages 12–15
Avi. Nothing But the Truth: A Documentary Novel. Orchard Books, 2003, c1991. 177pp.
A ninth-grader’s suspension for singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” during homeroom becomes a
national news story. One of the consequences is that he and his teacher both leave the school.
Barron, T. A. The Ancient One. Philomel Books, c1992. 367pp.
While helping her Great Aunt Melanie try to protect an Oregon redwood forest from loggers, thir-
teen-year-old Kate goes back five centuries through a time tunnel and faces the evil creature Gashra,
who is bent on destroying the same forest.
Bauer, Joan. Hope Was Here. Putnam, c2000. 186pp.
When sixteen-year-old Hope and the aunt who has raised her move from Brooklyn to Mulhoney,
Wisconsin, to work as waitress and cook in the Welcome Stairways diner, they become involved
with the diner owner’s political campaign to oust the town’s corrupt mayor.
Bennett, Cherie. A Heart Divided. Delacorte Press, c2004. 306pp.
When sixteen-year-old Kate, an aspiring playwright, moves from New Jersey to attend high school
in the South, she becomes embroiled in a controversy to remove the school’s Confederate flag symbol.
D’Adamo, Francesco. Iqbal: A Novel. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2003. 120pp.
A fictionalized account of the Pakistani child who escaped from bondage in a carpet factory and
went on to help liberate other children like him, before being gunned down at the age of thirteen.
Halpin, Mikki. It’s Your World—If You Don’t Like It, Change It: Activism for Teenagers. Simon
Pulse, c2004. 305pp. (NF)
Presents advice for teenagers who desire to cultivate changes within their schools and communities
and provides information on racism, animal and human rights, environmental issues, HIV/AIDS,
school violence, and tolerance.
Hentoff, Nat. The Day They Came to Arrest the Book: A Novel. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for
Young Readers, 1983, c1982. 169pp.
Students and faculty at a high school became embroiled in a censorship case about Huckleberry
Finn.
Hiaasen, Carl. Flush. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c2005. 263pp.
With their father jailed for sinking a river boat, Noah Underwood and his younger sister, Abbey,
must gather evidence that the owner of this floating casino is emptying his bilge tanks into the pro-
tected waters around their Florida Keys home.
Hiaasen, Carl. Hoot. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c2002. 292pp.
Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy’s attempt to save
a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site.
Keizer, Garret. God of Beer. HarperTempest, 2003, c2002. 242pp.
To complete a class assignment at his high school in rural Vermont, Kyle and his friends Quake and
Diana do a social protest project involving alcohol.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Politically Active
Konigsburg, E. L. The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2004.
296pp.
Upon leaving an oppressive summer camp, twelve-year-old Margaret Rose Kane spearheads a cam-
paign to preserve three unique towers her great-uncles have been building in their back yard for over
forty years.
Tashjian, Janet. The Gospel According To Larry. H. Holt, c2001. 227pp.
Seventeen-year-old Josh, a loner-philosopher who wants to make a difference in the world, tries to
maintain his secret identity as the author of a Web site that is receiving national attention.
Tashjian, Janet. Vote for Larry. H. Holt, c2004. 224pp.
Not yet eighteen years old, Josh, a.k.a. Larry, comes out of hiding and returns to public life, this time
to run for president as an advocate for issues of concern to youth and to encourage voter turnout.
Williams, Laura E. Up a Creek. H. Holt, c2001. 135pp.
Thirteen-year-old Starshine Bott learns how to cope with an unconventional, politically active
mother and does a lot of growing up in the process.

Books for Older Teens

Gitlin, Todd. Letters to a Young Activist. Basic Books, c2003. 174pp. (NF)
Todd Gitlin offers advice to young activists who want to make a difference in the world, discussing
how they can have the most impact on their community and the world in general.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Royally Good Reads

Books for Ages 12–15
Alexander, Lloyd. The Iron Ring. Puffin Books, c1999. 283pp.
Driven by his sense of “dharma,” or honor, young King Tamar sets off on a perilous journey, with a
significance greater than he can imagine, during which he meets talking animals, villainous and no-
ble kings, demons, and the love of his life.
Cabot, Meg. The Princess Diaries. HarperCollins, c2000. 238pp. (and sequels)
Fourteen-year-old Mia, who is trying to lead a normal life as a teenage girl in New York City, is
shocked to learn that her father is the Prince of Genovia, a small European principality, and that she
is a princess and the heir to the throne.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Just Ella. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c1999. 185pp.
In this continuation of the Cinderella story, fifteen-year-old Ella finds that accepting Prince Charming’s
proposal ensnares her in a suffocating tangle of palace rules and royal etiquette, so she plots to escape.
Kindl, Patrice. Goose Chase. Houghton Mifflin, c2001. 214pp.
Rather than marry a cruel king or a seemingly dim-witted prince, an enchanted goose girl endures
imprisonment, capture by several ogresses, and other dangers before learning exactly who she is.
Lasky, Kathryn. Elizabeth I, Red Rose of the House of Tudor. Scholastic, c1999. 237pp.
In a series of diary entries, Princess Elizabeth, the eleven-year-old daughter of King Henry VIII, cel-
ebrates holidays and birthdays, relives her mother’s execution, revels in her studies, and agonizes
over her father’s health.
Lasky, Kathryn. Marie Antoinette, Princess of Versailles. Scholastic, c2000. 236pp.
In 1769 thirteen-year-old Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna, daughter of Empress Maria Theresa, be-
gins a journal chronicling her life at the Austrian court and her preparations for her future role as
queen of France.
McKinley, Robin. Spindle’s End. Putnam, c2000. 422pp.
The infant princess Briar Rose is cursed on her name day by Pernicia, an evil fairy, and then whisked
away by a young fairy to be raised in a remote part of a magical country, unaware of her real identity
and hidden from Pernicia’s vengeful powers.
Meyer, Carolyn. Anastasia, the Last Grand Duchess. Scholastic, c2000. 220pp.
A novel in diary form in which the youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas II describes the privileged
life her family led up until the time of World War I and the tragic events that befell them.
Meyer, Carolyn. Doomed Queen Anne. Harcourt, c2002. 230pp.
In 1520 thirteen-year-old Anne Boleyn, jealous of her older sister’s beauty and position at court, de-
clares that she will one day be queen of England, and that her sister will kneel at her feet.
Meyer, Carolyn. Mary, Bloody Mary. Harcourt, 2001, c1999. 227pp.
Mary Tudor, who would reign briefly as Queen of England during the mid-sixteenth century, tells
the story of her troubled childhood as daughter of King Henry VIII.
Meyer, Carolyn. Patience, Princess Catherine. Harcourt, c2004. 198pp.
In 1501 fifteen-year-old Catharine of Aragon arrives in England to marry Arthur, the eldest son of King Henry
VII, but soon finds her expectations of a happy settled life radically changed when Arthur unexpectedly dies
and her future becomes the subject of a bitter dispute between the kingdoms of England and Spain.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Royally Good Reads

Meyer, Carolyn. Isabel: Jewel of Castilla. Scholastic, c2000. 204pp.
While waiting anxiously for others to choose a husband for her, Isabella, the future Queen of Spain,
keeps a diary account of her life as a member of the royal family.
O’Connell, Tyne. Pulling Princes. Bloomsbury (distributed by Holtzbrinck), c2004. 224pp.
Calypso Kelly, a California teenager attending an upscale boarding school in England, sets out to be-
come popular by claiming that her mother’s gay assistant is Calypso’s boyfriend and finds herself in
a royal mess when she gets a chance at a real relationship with a prince.
Wyatt, Melissa. Raising the Griffin. Wendy Lamb Books, c2004. 279pp.
When the people of Rovenia vote to restore their monarchy, sixteen-year-old Alex Varenhoff must
suddenly leave his native England to become prince of a land he knows only from his grandfather’s
stories.
Yolen, Jane. Girl in a Cage. Philomel Books, c2002. 234pp.
As English armies invade Scotland in 1306, eleven-year-old Princess Marjorie, daughter of the
newly crowned Scottish king, Robert the Bruce, is captured by England’s King Edward (Long-
shanks) and held in a cage on public display.
Yolen, Jane. Queen’s Own Fool: A Novel of Mary Queen of Scots. Philomel Books, c2000. 390pp.
When twelve-year-old Nicola leaves Troupe Brufort and serves as the fool for Mary, Queen of
Scots, she experiences the political and religious upheavals in both France and Scotland.

Books for Older Teens

Card, Orson Scott. Enchantment. Del Rey/Ballantine, 2000, c1999. 419pp.
American graduate student Ivan Smetski, haunted by the vision of a sleeping princess he believes he
saw as a ten-year-old boy while exploring the Carpathian forest, returns to his native land to investi-
gate and, with one kiss, is drawn into a world that vanished a thousand years earlier.
Goldman, William. The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adven-
ture: The “Good Parts” Version. Ballantine Books, c1998. 399pp.
Westley, a farm boy, goes off to seek his fortune shortly after declaring his love for Buttercup, the
most beautiful woman in the world, but their relationship is put to the test when his ship is captured
by pirates and she is summoned to become the bride of the prince.
McKinley, Robin. Deerskin. Ace, 1994, c1993. 309pp.
A beautiful princess flees from her father’s wrath and unlocks a door into a world of magic, where
she finds the key to her own survival.
Rawn, Melanie. Dragon Prince. DAW Books, c1985. 574pp.
Rohan, newly crowned prince of the Desert, aspires to bring permanent peace to his world of divided
princedoms and stop the dragon slaying that is regarded as proof of manhood.He finds a champion in
his quests when he falls in love with Sioned, a Sunrunner witch.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Fantasy Sheroes
Books for Ages 12–15
Bell, Hilari. The Goblin Wood. EOS, c2003. 294pp.
A young Hedgewitch, an idealistic knight, and an army of clever goblins fight against the ruling hier-
archy that is trying to rid the land of all magical creatures.
Billingsley, Franny. The Folk Keeper. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c1999. 162pp.
Orphan Corinna disguises herself as a boy to pose as a Folk Keeper, one who keeps the Evil Folk at
bay, and discovers her heritage as a seal maiden when she is taken to live with a wealthy family in
their manor by the sea.
Donoghue, Emma. Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins. HarperCollins, 1999, c1997. 228pp.
A collection of thirteen interconnected stories that give old fairy tales a new twist.
Gaiman, Neil. Coraline. HarperCollins, c2002. 162pp.
Looking for excitement, Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar to,
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.
Goodman, Alison. Singing the Dogstar Blues. Viking Press, 2002, c1998. 261pp.
In a future Australia, the saucy eighteen-year-old daughter of a famous newscaster and a sperm do-
nor teams up with a hermaphrodite from the planet Choria in a time travel adventure that may signifi-
cantly change both of their lives.
Hanley, Victoria. The Seer and the Sword. Holiday House, c2000. 341pp.
Princess Torina, who has the ability to see the future, and her friend Landen, who seeks a sword that
belongs to his conquered kingdom, are separated when a treacherous murderer gains power, but
from exile each works to restore peace and the rightful rulers.
Hoffman, Mary. Stravaganza: City of Stars. Bloomsbury Children’s Books (distributed by
Holtzbrinck), c2003. 452pp. (and sequels)
Fifteen-year-old Georgia, who loves horses as much as she hates her bullying stepbrother, buys a
figurine of a winged horse and finds it has magical powers that transport her from present-day Lon-
don to the sixteenth-century world of Talia, where, in the city of Remora, similar to Sienna, Italy, she
finds danger and intrigue as well as friendship and a chance to perfect her riding skills.
McKinley, Robin. Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty & the Beast. HarperCollins, c1978. 247pp.
Kind Beauty grows to love the Beast, at whose castle she is compelled to stay, and through her she
love releases him from the spell that had turned him from a handsome prince into an ugly beast.
McKinley, Robin. The Hero and the Crown. Greenwillow Books, c1984. 246pp.
Aerin, with the guidance of the wizard Luthe and the help of the blue sword, wins the birthright due her
as the daughter of the Damarian king and a witchwoman of the mysterious, demon-haunted North.
McKinley, Robin. Spindle’s End. Putnam, c2000. 422pp.
The infant princess Briar Rose is cursed on her name day by Pernicia, an evil fairy, and then whisked
away by a young fairy to be raised in a remote part of a magical country, unaware of her real identity
and hidden from Pernicia’s vengeful powers.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Fantasy Sheroes
Pierce, Tamora. First Test. Random House, c1999. 216pp.
Ten-year-old Keladry of Mindalen, daughter of nobles, serves as a page but must prove herself to the
males around her if she is ever to fulfill her dream of becoming a knight.
Smith, Sherwood. Wren to the Rescue. Firebird, 2004, c1990, 216pp.
With the help of a prince and an apprentice wizard, Wren strives to rescue her best friend, a princess
named Tess, from the fortress of a wicked king.
Vande Velde, Vivian. Heir Apparent. Harcourt, c2002. 315pp.
While playing a total immersion virtual reality game of kings and intrigue, fourteen-year-old
Giannine learns that demonstrators have damaged the equipment to which she is connected, and she
must win the game quickly or be damaged herself.
Wrede, Patricia C. Dealing with Dragons. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, c1990. 212pp. (and sequels)
Bored with traditional palace life, a princess goes off to live with a group of dragons and soon be-
comes involved in fighting against some disreputable wizards, who want to steal away the dragons’
kingdom.

Books for Older Teens

Black, Holly. Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale. Simon & Schuster, c2002. 310pp.
Sixteen-year-old Kaye, who has been visited by faeries since childhood, discovers that she herself is
a magical faerie creature with a special destiny.
Bull, Emma. War for the Oaks. Tor, 2004, c1987, 332pp.
The people of modern Minneapolis go about their daily business, unaware that an age-old war be-
tween the Seelie and Unseelie Courts is being fought in their midst. Only Eddi can see the battle, and
she has been drafted into the war.
Butler, Octavia E. Parable of the Sower. Warner Books, 2000, c1993. 345pp.
The odyssey of a sensitive young woman in a world that has become almost completely dehuman-
ized. Set in California in the years 2024 through 2027.
De Lint, Charles. Jack of Kinrowan. Orb, c1995. 412pp.
Presents two tales of faerie magic in “Jack, the Giant Killer,” about a faceless gang of bikers in Ot-
tawa who throw Jacky Rowan into the perilous land of Faerie, and “Drink Down the Moon,” about
Johnny Faw, a young fiddler who has to set the realm of the Faerie free from a horrible creature.
Flewelling, Lynn. Hidden Warrior. Bantam Books, c2003. 551pp.
Prince Tobin, second heir to the throne of Skala, learns to his surprise that he was given the shape of
a boy as an infant in order to protect him from his enemies, and that his true destiny is to claim that
throne in his real form, as a woman.
Gibson, William. Virtual Light. Bantam Books, c1994. 352pp.
Chevette Washington, a bike messenger in early twenty-first-century California, finds herself in
danger when the sunglasses she pickpocketed from a drunk turn out to be a high-tech device owned
by the deadly and powerful DatAmerica corporation.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Characters

Fantasy Sheroes
Lackey, Mercedes. The Fire Rose. Baen Books (distributed by Simon & Schuster), c1995. 433pp.
Medieval scholar Rosalind Hawkins, left destitute when her family fortune disappears, accepts a
position as governess in a house where there are no children, one servant, and a seemingly invisi-
ble employer.
Pratchett, Terry. Monstrous Regiment: A Novel of Discworld. HarperCollins, c2003. 353pp.
Polly Perks, fearing that the national deity’s decree against female ownership of a business is going
to cause her to lose the family’s inn, disguises herself as a man in order to join the military and find
her brother, whom she fears has been killed in Borogravia’s latest war.
Willis, Connie. Doomsday Book. Bantam Books, c1994. 578pp.
Young twenty-first-century historian Kivrin Engle becomes stranded in the fourteenth century after
a time-travel expedition goes wrong, and she finds herself cast in the role of an angel of hope during
one of history’s darkest hours.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

103
 Characters

Teen Romance with African American Characters

Books for Ages 12–15
Coleman, Evelyn. Born in Sin. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2001. 234pp.
Despite serious obstacles and setbacks, fourteen-year-old Keisha pursues her dream of becoming an
Olympic swimmer and medical doctor.
Davidson, Dana. Jason & Kyra. Jump at the Sun/ Hyperion Books for Children, c2005. 330pp.
Kyra Evans, a smart, less-than-popular high-schooler, begins to fall for Jason Vincent, a popular
basketball star.
Flake, Sharon. Money Hungry. Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children, c2001. 187pp.
All thirteen-year-old Raspberry can think of is making money so that she and her mother never have
to worry about living on the streets again.
Grimes, Nikki. Bronx Masquerade. Dial Books, c2002. 167pp.
While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they’ve
written, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates.
McDonald, Janet. Spellbound. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2001. 138pp.
Raven, a teenage mother and high school dropout living in a housing project, decides, with the help
and sometime interference of her best friend Aisha, to study for a spelling bee that could lead to a
college preparatory program and four-year scholarship.

Books for Older Teens

Draper, Sharon M. Darkness Before Dawn. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2001. 233pp.
Recovering from the recent suicide of her ex-boyfriend, senior class president Keisha Montgomery
finds herself attracted to a dangerous, older man.
Frost, Helen. Keesha’s House. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2003. 116pp.
Seven teens facing such problems as pregnancy, closeted homosexuality, and abuse each describe in
poetic forms what caused them to leave home and where they found home again.
Woodson, Jacqueline. Behind You. Putnam, c2004. 118pp.
After fifteen-year-old Jeremiah is mistakenly shot by police, the people who love him struggle to
cope with their loss as they recall his life and death, unaware that ’Miah is watching over them.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Part 3
Books About Self
 Books About Self

Aftereffects of Violence
Books for Ages 12–15
Blume, Judy. Tiger Eyes. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1991, c1981. 217pp.
Resettled in New Mexico with her mother and brother, Davey Wexler recovers from the shock of her
father’s death during a holdup at his 7-Eleven store in Atlantic City.
Flinn, Alex. Fade to Black. HarperTempest, c2005. 184pp.
An HIV-positive high school student hospitalized after being attacked; the bigot accused of the
crime;, and the only witness, a classmate with Down Syndrome, reveal how the assault has changed
their lives as they describe its aftermath.
Kerr, M. E. Slap Your Sides: A Novel. HarperCollins, c2001. 198pp.
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.
Mikaelsen, Ben. Touching Spirit Bear. HarperCollins, c2001. 241pp.
After his anger erupts into violence, fifteen year-old Cole, to avoid going to prison, agrees to partici-
pate in a sentencing alternative based on the Native American Circle Justice. He is sent to a remote
Alaskan Island, where an encounter with a huge Spirit Bear changes his life.
Peretti, Frank E. Hangman’s Curse. T. Nelson, c2001. 281pp.
When several students at Baker High School are stricken by an alleged curse of the school’s ghost,
Elijah and Elisha Springfield and their parents, undercover investigators, are sent to uncover the
truth behind the events.
Prose, Francine. After. Joanna Cotler Books, c2003. 330pp.
In the aftermath of a shooting at a nearby school, a grief and crisis counselor takes over Central High
School and enacts increasingly harsh measures to control students; those who do not comply, disap-
pear.
Soto, Gary. The Afterlife. Harcourt, 2005, c2003. 161pp.
After he is brutally murdered in the restroom of a club where he had gone to dance, a senior at East
Fresno High School lives on as a ghost .
Strasser, Todd. Give a Boy a Gun. Simon Pulse, 2002, c2000. 208pp.
Events leading up to a night of terror at a high school dance are told from the point of view of various
people involved.

Books for Older Teens

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c1999. 197pp.
A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda’s freshman year in
high school.
Carbone, Elisa Lynn. The Pack. Viking Press, c2003. 153pp.
Akhil Vyas, a new boy in school, reluctantly decides that to prevent a violent crime, he must tell
Omar and Becky his secret.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

107
 Books About Self

Aftereffects of Violence
Cole, Brock. The Facts Speak for Themselves. Front Street, c1997. 184pp.
At the request of her social worker, thirteen-year-old Linda gradually reveals how her life with her
unstable mother and her younger brother led to her being raped and the murder that she witnessed.
Coman, Carolyn. Many Stones. Front Street, c2000. 158pp.
After her sister Laura is murdered in South Africa, Berry and her estranged father travel there to par-
ticipate in the dedication of a memorial in her name.
Corrigan, Eireann. Splintering. Scholastic, c2004. 184pp.
Relates, in a series of poems from different perspectives, the events and after-effects of an intruder’s
violent attack on a family.
Crutcher, Chris. Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes. Greenwillow Books, c1993. 216pp.
The daily class discussions about the nature of man, the existence of God, abortion, organized reli-
gion, suicide and other contemporary issues serve as a backdrop for a high-school senior’s attempt to
answer a friend’s dramatic cry for help.
Dessen, Sarah. Dreamland: A Novel. Viking Press, c2000. 250pp.
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.
Flinn, Alex. Breaking Point. HarperTempest, 2003, c2002. 240pp.
Fifteen-year-old Paul enters an exclusive private school and falls under the spell of a charismatic
boy, who may be using him.
Flinn, Alex. Breathing Underwater. HarperTempest, 2002, c2001. 263pp.
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 de-
scribes living with his abusive father.
Flinn, Alex. Nothing to Lose. HarperTempest, c2004. 277pp.
A year after running away with a traveling carnival to escape his unbearable home life, six-
teen-year-old Michael returns to Miami, Florida, to find that his mother is going on trial for the mur-
der of his abusive stepfather.
Giles, Gail. Shattering Glass. Roaring Brook Press, c2002. 215pp.
Rob, the charismatic leader of the senior class, provokes unexpected violence when he turns the
school nerd into Prince Charming.
Johnson, Kathleen Jeffrie. Target. Roaring Brook Press, c2003. 175pp.
After being brutally raped, Grady finally goes to a new high school, where he meets an outgoing Af-
rican American and several other students who try to help him deal with the horrible secret that is
robbing him of his life.
Jones, Patrick. Things Change. Walker, 2004. 216pp.
Sixteen-year-old Johanna, one of the best students in her class, develops a passionate attachment for
troubled seventeen-year-old Paul and finds her plans for the future changing in unexpected ways.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

108
 Books About Self

Aftereffects of Violence
Koertge, Ronald. The Brimstone Journals. Candlewick Press, c2001. 113pp.
In a series of short, interconnected poems, students at a high school nicknamed Brimstone reveal the
presence of growing violence in their lives.
Mac, Carrie. The Beckoners. Orca Book Publishers, c2004. 217pp.
Zoe, unhappy to be moving once again, falls in with the Beckoners, a group of bullies at her new
school. She soon finds herself trying to get free from the gang, whose actions against their favorite
target, a girl they call Dog, are escalating to violence.
Myers, Walter Dean. Monster. HarperCollins, c1999. 271pp.
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.
Myers, Walter Dean. Shooter. HarperTempest, 2005, c2004. 223pp.
Written in the form of interviews, reports, and journal entries, the story of three troubled teenagers
ends in a tragic school shooting.
Plum-Ucci, Carol. What Happened to Lani Garver. Harcourt, c2002. 307pp.
Sixteen-year-old Claire is unable to face her fears about a recurrence of her leukemia, her eating dis-
order, her need to fit in with the popular crowd on Hackett Island, and her mother’s alcoholism, until
the enigmatic Lani Garver helps her get control of her life, at the risk of his own.
Sebold, Alice. The Lovely Bones. Little, Brown, c2002. 328pp.
Fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon, the victim of a sexual assault and murder, looks on from the after-
life as her family deals with their grief, and waits for her killer to be brought to some type of justice.
Shepard, Jim. Project X: A Novel. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c2004. 163pp.
Eight-grade misfits Edwin Hanratty and his only friend, Flake, feed each other’s misery and discon-
tent, until they decide the only solution is violence.
Shriver, Lionel. We Need to Talk About Kevin. Counterpoint, c2003. 400pp.
Eva Khatchadourian has been living a life plagued by guilt and denial since her son opened fire and
killed seven of his classmates two years earlier, and as she tries to come to terms with her son’s ac-
tions, she examines the parenting choices she made when raising him and wonders where she went
wrong.
Werlin, Nancy. Black Mirror: A Novel. Dial Books, c2001. 249pp.
Convinced her brother’s death was murder rather than suicide, sixteen-year-old Frances begins her
own investigation into suspicious student activities at her boarding school.
Werlin, Nancy. The Killer’s Cousin. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2000, c1998. 229pp.
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.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

109
 Books About Self

Anger
Fiction
Books for Ages 12–15
Crowe, Carole. Waiting for Dolphins. Boyds Mills Press, c2000. 139pp.
In the aftermath of her father’s untimely death, fifteen-year-old Molly must deal with grief and her
anger toward her mother.
Ferris, Jean. Of Sound Mind. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2001. 215pp.
Tired of interpreting for his deaf family and resentful of their reliance on him, high school senior
Theo finds support and understanding from Ivy, a new student who also has a deaf parent.
Lewis, Catherine. Postcards to Father Abraham: A Novel. Atheneum Books for Young Readers,
c2000. 288pp.
When sixteen-year-old Meghan loses her leg to cancer and her brother to the Vietnam War, she ex-
presses intense anger in postcards she writes to her idol, Abraham Lincoln.
Lynch, Chris. Who the Man. HarperCollins, c2002. 186pp.
Thirteen-year-old Earl Pryor is much too big for his age, and much too powerful for the anger that
rages within him when classmates tease him, the girl he likes disappoints him, or his parents’ prob-
lems get too real.
Mikaelsen, Ben. Touching Spirit Bear. HarperCollins, c2001. 241pp.
After his anger erupts into violence, fifteen-year-old Cole, to avoid going to prison, agrees to partici-
pate in a sentencing alternative based on the Native American Circle Justice. He is sent to a remote
Alaskan Island, where an encounter with a huge Spirit Bear changes his life.
Paterson, Katherine. Jacob Have I Loved. Crowell, c1980. 216pp.
Filled with resentment over the attention showered upon her twin sister and awaiting the day she can
leave her town behind, young Louise meets a wise old sea captain and begins learning how to let go
of her anger.
Ritter, John H. Over the Wall. Philomel Books, c2000. 312pp.
Thirteen-year-old Tyler, who has trouble controlling his anger, spends an important summer with
his cousins in New York City, playing baseball and sorting out how he feels about violence, war, and
in particular the Vietnamese conflict, which took his grandfather’s life.
Strasser, Todd. Give a Boy a Gun. Simon Pulse, 2002, c2000. 208pp.
Events leading up to a night of terror at a high school dance are told from the point of view of various
people involved.
Trueman, Terry. Cruise Control. HarperTempest, c2004. 149pp.
A talented basketball player struggles to deal with the helplessness and anger that come with having
a brother rendered completely dysfunctional by severe cerebral palsy and a father who deserted the
family.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

110
 Books About Self

Anger
Books for Older Teens
Crutcher, Chris. Ironman. HarperTempest, 2004, c1995. 279pp.
While training for a triathlon, seventeen-year-old Bo attends an anger management group at school,
which leads him to examine his relationship with his father.
Flinn, Alex. Breathing Underwater. HarperTempest, 2002. c2001. 263pp.
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 de-
scribes living with his abusive father.
Lubar, David. Dunk. Clarion Books, c2002. 249pp.
Chad, hoping to work out his frustrations and his anger by taking a summer job as a dunk tank Bozo
on the boardwalk at the New Jersey shore, comes to a better understanding of himself and the uses of
humor as he undergoes training in the fine art of insults.
Mochizuki, Ken. Beacon Hill Boys. Scholastic Press, c2002. 201pp.
In 1972 in Seattle, a teenager in a Japanese American family struggles for his own identity, along
with a group of three friends who share his anger and confusion.

Nonfiction
Books for Ages 12–15
Hershorn, Michael. Cool It!: Teen Tips to Keep Hot Tempers from Boiling Over. New Horizon Press,
c2003. 195pp. (NF)
Gives teenagers strategies for managing anger, showing how to recognize anger antecedents and
how to walk away, calm down, control one’s thoughts, communicate, negotiate, and stand up for
oneself, and explains how to reflect upon behaviors and consequences. Also covers such topics as
sibling rivalry, blended families, bullying, catastrophic stress, and making therapy work.
Licata, Renora. Everything You Need To Know About Anger. Rosen Publishing, c1999. 64pp. (NF)
Discusses the causes of anger and its ill effects on people, as well as ways to control it.
O’Donnell Rawls, Bea. Drugs and Anger. Rosen Publishing, c1994. 64pp. (NF)
Examines the connection between drugs and anger, showing what can happen when an angry person
uses drugs or alcohol.
Peacock, Judith. Anger Management. LifeMatters, c2000. 64pp. (NF)
Discusses the issues of anger and anger management, providing a definition of the problem, examin-
ing its effects on teens, and offering advice to young people on how to deal with their own angry feel-
ings as well as anger in others. Includes addresses and Internet sites for further information and
assistance.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

111
 Books About Self

Anger
Books for Older Teens
Enright, Robert D. Forgiveness Is a Choice: A Step-by-Step Process for Resolving Anger and Restor-
ing Hope. American Psychological Association, c2001. 299pp. (NF)
Explains how to end anger, depression, and resentment by understanding and undertaking the pro-
cess of forgiveness, and covers related issues, including helping children forgive and wanting for-
giveness from someone else.
Seaward, Brian Luke. Hot Stones & Funny Bones: Teens Helping Teens Cope with Stress & Anger.
Health Communications, c2002. 376pp. (NF)
Provides an inside look at ways in which teens cope with their stress and anger, such as keeping a
journal, meditating, or having a good laugh, and includes advice for parents and other teens.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

112
 Books About Self

Beating the Odds

Books for Ages 12–15
Davis, Sampson. We Beat the Street: How a Friendship Pact Helped Us Succeed. Dutton Children’s
Books, c2005. 194pp. (NF)
Shares anecdotes from the childhoods, teen years, and young adult lives of three men from Newark,
New Jersey, who made a pledge to each other in high school to stay safe from drugs, gangs, and
crime, and work to become doctors—a goal they have achieved.
Filipovic, Zlata. Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo. Penguin Books, 1995, c1994. 197pp. (NF)
The diary of a thirteen-year-old girl living in Sarajevo, begun just before her eleventh birthday, when
there was still peace in her homeland.
Hamilton, Bethany. Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the
Board. Pocket Books/MTV Books, c2004. 213pp. (NF)
Bethany Hamilton shares the story of her lifelong love of surfing, and tells how, after losing her arm
in a shark attack at the age of thirteen, she was able to recover and return to competition with the help
of her family, friends, and faith.
Jiang, Ji-li. Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution. HarperCollins, c1997. 285pp. (NF)
The author tells about the happy life she led in China until she was twelve-years-old, when her fam-
ily became a target of the Cultural Revolution, and discusses the choice she had to make between de-
nouncing her father and breaking with her family, or refusing to speak against him and losing her
future in the Communist Party.
Jimenez, Francisco. Breaking Through. Houghton Mifflin, c2001. 195pp.
Having come from Mexico to California ten years ago, fourteen-year-old Francisco is still working
in the fields but fighting to improve his life and complete his education.
Lobel, Anita. No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War. Greenwillow Books, c1998. 193pp. (NF)
The author, known as an illustrator of children’s books, describes her experiences as a Polish Jew
during World War II and for years in Sweden afterward.
McKernan, Victoria. Shackleton’s Stowaway. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c2005. 317pp.
A fictionalized account of the adventures of eighteen-year-old Perce Blackborow, who stowed away
with the 1914 Shackleton Antarctic expedition. After their ship, Endurance, was crushed by ice, he
endured many hardships, including the loss of his toes to frostbite, during the nearly two-year return
journey across sea and ice.

Books for Older Teens

Cox, Lynne. Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer. Knopf (distributed by Ran-
dom House), c2004. 323pp. (NF)
Distance swimmer Lynne Cox describes her emotional and spiritual need to swim and the mythical
act of swimming itself, also chronicling some of her more memorable swims.
Crutcher, Chris. Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes. Greenwillow Books, c1993. 216pp.
Daily class discussions about the nature of man, the existence of God, abortion, organized religion,
suicide and other contemporary issues serve as a backdrop for a high-school senior’s attempt to an-
swer a friend’s dramatic cry for help.
From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

113
 Books About Self

Beating the Odds

Crutcher, Chris. Whale Talk. Greenwillow Books, c2001. 220pp.
Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial, adopted teenager, shuns organized sports and
the gung-ho athletes at his high school, until he agrees to form a swimming team and recruits some of
the school’s less popular students.
Davis, Sampson. The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream. Riverhead Books,
2003, c2002. 263pp. (NF)
Presents the true story of three African American kids from the inner city of Newark, New Jersey,
who made a pact to support each other as they rose from an environment of poverty, crime, and drugs
to become successful doctors.
Flake, Sharon. Bang! Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children, c2005. 298pp.
A teenage boy must face the harsh realities of inner-city life, a disintegrating family, and destructive
temptations as he struggles to find his identity as a young man.
Frank, E. R. America: A Novel. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2002. 242pp.
America, a runaway boy who is being treated at Ridgeway, a New York hospital, finds himself open-
ing up to one of the doctors on staff and revealing things about himself that he had always vowed to
keep secret.
Gantos, Jack. Hole In My Life. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2002. 199pp. (NF)
The author relates how, as a young adult, he became a drug user and smuggler, was arrested, did time
in prison, and eventually got out and went to college, all the while hoping to become a writer.
Kaysen, Susanna. Girl, Interrupted. Vintage, 1994, c1993. 168pp. (NF)
The author describes her two-year stay at a psychiatric hospital renowned for its famous clientele
and for its progressive methods of treatment.
Mathabane, Mark. Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth’s Coming of Age in Apartheid South
Africa. Free Press, 1998, c1986. 354pp. (NF)
The author recalls his personal experiences growing up under apartheid in South Africa during the
1970s, the poverty and oppression of living in the ghettos of Alexandra, and those who helped him
escape from it.
Rodriguez, Luis J. Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. Simon & Schuster, c1994.
260pp. (NF)
The author recounts growing up in poverty in Los Angeles; his encounters with racism in school and
on the streets; and his struggle to overcome prejudice, drugs, and violence.
Runyon, Brent. The Burn Journals. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c2004. 374pp. (NF)
Presents the true story of Brent Runyon, who at fourteen set himself on fire and sustained burns over
80 percent of his body; describes the months of physical and mental rehabilitation that followed as
he attempted to pull his life together.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

114
 Books About Self

Child Abuse: Emotional, Physical,

and Sexual Abuse
Compiled by Beth Gallaway Youth Services Consultant/Trainer, Metrowest MA
Regional Library System, Waltham, Massachusetts.

Fiction
Books for Ages 12–15
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c1999. 197pp.
Miranda is so traumatized by an event at a summer party that led to her being shunned socially, she
can barely talk.
Block, Francesca Lia. I Was a Teenage Fairy. Joanna Cotler, c2000. 186pp.
A former teen model reveals how she was exploited.
Bloor, Edward. Tangerine. Harcourt, c1997. 294pp.
A boy with vision problems has dreams of being a soccer star, when a move to Florida forces him to
confront his past.
Deem, James M. The 3 NB’s of Julian Drew. Houghton Mifflin, c1994. 227pp.
Fifteen-year-old Julian keeps a cryptic notebook that reveals physical and emotional abuse at the
hands of his stepfather.
Klass, David. You Don’t Know Me. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2001. 262pp.
A teen suffers physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his stepfather.
Konigsburg, E. L. Silent to the Bone. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2000. 261pp.
In this book about shaken baby syndrome, a teen who isn’t talking is the only one who knows what
his nanny did to his infant sister.

Books for Older Teens

Alphin, Elaine Marie. Counterfeit Son. Harcourt, c2000. 180pp.
After his father Hank, a serial killer, is finally captured by police, abused son Cameron adopts the
identity of one of his father’s victims to distance himself from the crimes
Atkins, Catherine. When Jeff Comes Home. Puffin Books, c2001. 231pp.
Jeff is abducted and abused for several years before his captor guiltily releases him; Jeff’s eventual
return home is traumatic.
Chbosky, Stephen. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. MTV Books/Pocket Books, c1999. 213pp.
Sensitive Charlie has a secret . . . .
Coman, Carolyn. Bee and Jacky. Front Street, c1998. 101pp.
Thirteen-year-old Bee resumes a physical relationship with her seventeen-year old brother, forcing
them to confront their past.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Books About Self

Child Abuse: Emotional, Physical,

and Sexual Abuse
Dessen, Sarah. Dreamland. Speak, c2000. 250pp.
Can Caitlyn disengage from an abusive relationship?
Flinn, Alexandra. Breathing Underwater. HarperCollins, c2001. 263pp.
Sixteen-year-old Nick, in counseling for beating his girlfriend, keeps a journal that reveals his rela-
tionships with his girlfriend and his abusive father.
Mazer, Norma Fox. When She Was Good. Scholastic Signature, 2000, c1997. 228pp.
Em’s manipulative older sister is dead, but her abusive torment lives on.
Sparks, Beatrice. Treacherous Love: The Diary of an Anonymous Teenager. Avon Books, c2000.
164pp.
A girl develops a crush on her teacher, and he responds inappropriately by luring her into a relation-
ship.
Whitcher, Susan. The Fool Reversed. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2000. 183pp.
A young woman develops an inappropriate relationship with a much older man.

Nonfiction
Pelzer, David J. A Child Called It. Health Communications, c1995. 184pp. (NF)
Describes the life of a young boy who suffers abuse, including starvation, beating, verbal abuse, and
neglect, at the hands of his mother.
Tarbox, Katherine. A Girl’s Life Online (Katie.com). Plume, c2004. 196pp. (NF)
Katie (the author) uses poor judgment online, and is lured into a relationship with a pedophile that
comes to a head when the two agree to meet.
Theodore, Wayne. Wayne: An Abused Child’s Story of Courage, Survival and Hope. Harbor Press,
c2003. 212pp. (NF)
Local boy Wayne Theodore tells a tale of physical abuse and neglect.
Turner, Ann. Learning to Swim. Scholastic, c2000. 115pp. (NF)
A memoir, in poems, of a girl (the author) abused by an older cousin.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Books About Self

Coming of Age
Books for Ages 12–15
Blume, Judy. Deenie. Dell, c1991. 143pp.
A thirteen-year-old girl seemingly destined for a modeling career finds she has a deformation of the
spine called scoliosis.
Blume, Judy. Then Again, Maybe I Won’t: A Novel. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Read-
ers, 1991, c1971, 127pp.
Unable to accept or explain his family’s newly acquired wealth, his growing interest in sex, and a
friend’s shoplifting habit, a thirteen-year-old finds the pains in his stomach getting worse and worse.
Hunt, Irene. Up a Road Slowly. Berkley Jam Books, 2003, c1966, 183pp.
After her mother’s death, Julie goes to live with Aunt Cordelia, a spinster schoolteacher, where she
experiences many emotions and changes as she grows from seven to eighteen.
Rennison, Louise. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson.
HarperCollins, c2000. 247pp.
Presents the humorous journal of a year in the life of a fourteen-year-old British girl who tries to re-
duce the size of her nose, stop her mad cat from terrorizing the neighborhood animals, and win the
love of handsome hunk Robbie.

Books for Older Teens

Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c1998. 134pp.
A young girl living in a Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago ponders the advantages and disadvan-
tages of her environment and evaluates her relationships with family and friends.
Gibbons, Kaye. Charms for the Easy Life. Avon Books, c1993, 290pp.
A story of three generations of women in the Kate family, living in rural North Carolina.
Kidd, Sue Monk. The Secret Life of Bees. Viking Press, c2002. 301pp. (adult)
Fourteen-year-old Lily and her companion, Rosaleen, an African American woman who has cared
for Lily since her mother’s death ten years earlier, flee their home after Rosaleen is victimized by
racist police officers, finding a safe haven in Tiburon, South Carolina, at the home of three
beekeeping sisters, May, June, and August.
Strout, Elizabeth. Amy and Isabelle. Vintage Contemporaries, 2000, c1998. 303pp.
Isabelle Goodrow, horrified and enraged when she discovers her teenage daughter Amy is involved
with a math teacher at the high school, comes to realize that her outrage is mostly the result of the se-
cret she has been keeping for most of Amy’s life.
Thomas, Rob. Rats Saw God. Aladdin Paperbacks, c1996. 202pp.
In hopes of graduating, Steve York agrees to complete a hundred-page writing assignment, which
helps him to sort out his relationship with his famous astronaut father and the events that changed
him from a promising student into a troubled teen.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Books About Self

Cutting
Books for Ages 12–15
Hoffman, Alice. Green Angel. Scholastic Press, c2003. 116pp.
Haunted by grief and her past after losing her family in a fire, fifteen-year-old Green begins carving
tattoos into her body. She retreats into her ruined garden as she struggles to survive emotionally and
physically on her own.
Peters, Julie Anne. Define “Normal”. Little, Brown, c2000. 196pp.
When she agrees to meet with Jasmine as a peer counselor at their middle school, Antonia never
dreams that this girl with the black lipstick and pierced eyebrow will end up helping her deal with the
serious problems she faces at home and become a good friend.
Wilson, Dawn. Saint Jude. Tudor Publishers, c2001. 171pp.
When committed to an upscale group home outside Asheville, North Carolina, eighteen-year-old
Taylor Drysdale pretends that her bipolar disorder is under control and that she will leave soon, but
relationships with her fellow residents may hold the key to her real recovery.

Books for Older Teens

Collins, Max Allan. Skin Game. Ballantine Books, c2003. 260pp.
Max and Joshua decide to look for the brutal killer of several normal humans, suspecting that the
perpetrator may be a transgenic.
Holmes, Ann. Cutting the Pain Away: Understanding Self-Mutilation. Chelsea House, c1999. 91pp.
(NF)
Examines the nature, causes, and treatment of self-mutilation and related disorders, as well as ways
of helping someone who inflicts self-injuries.
Levenkron, Steven. Cutting: Understanding and Overcoming Self-Mutilation. W.W. Norton, c1998.
269pp. (NF)
Explains the psychological disorder of self-mutilation, using case studies and interviews to present a
portrait of the self-mutilator, and offering advice on how to overcome the affliction.
Levenkron, Steven. The Luckiest Girl in the World. Penguin Books, 1998, c1997. 188pp.
Figure-skating star Katie Roskova, unable to express her feelings of panic and anger, develops a
habit of cutting herself with scissors and hiding her scars beneath long-sleeve shirts, but as pressure
mounts her wounds become more serious, and soon her secret is revealed.
Marsden, John. So Much to Tell You. Fawcett Books, c1990. 119pp.
Sent to a boarding school by her mother, Marina, a disfigured Australian girl who refuses to speak,
reveals her thoughts and feelings in a diary.
McCormick, Patricia. Cut. Front Street, c2000. 168pp.
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.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Books About Self

Drug Abuse
Books for Ages 12–15
Fletcher, Ralph J. Uncle Daddy. H. Holt, c2001. 133pp.
When his long-absent father suddenly reappears, nine-year-old Rivers struggles with conflicting
feelings and re-examines his relationship with the great-uncle who had served as his father.
Harrison, Mette Ivie. The Monster in Me. Holiday House, c2003. 156pp.
In a small town near Salt Lake City, Utah, a caring foster family and her love of running help
twelve-year-old Natalie Wills feel that she can be part of normal life, despite having been raised by a
drug-addicted mother.
McCormick, Patricia. My Brother’s Keeper. Hyperion Books for Children, c2005. 187pp.
Thirteen-year-old Toby Malone struggles to keep his family together after his father leaves; how-
ever, keeping his older brother Jake’s drug habit from their mother is getting harder and harder.
Murray, Jaye. Bottled Up. Speak, 2004, c2003. 220pp.
A high school boy comes to terms with his drug addiction, life with an alcoholic father, and a youn-
ger brother who looks up to him.
Peck, Richard. Remembering the Good Times. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers,
1986, c1985. 181pp.
Trav, Kate, and Buck make up a trio during their freshman year in high school, but their special
friendship may not be enough to save Trav as he pressures himself relentlessly to succeed.

Books for Older Teens

Brooks, Kevin. Candy. The Chicken House/Scholastic, c2005. 364pp.
Joe, an English boy from the right side of the tracks, is poised to get everything he has ever wanted,
but he risks it all when he falls for Candy and is drawn into her seedy, dangerous world.
Burgess, Melvin. Smack. H. Holt, c1998. 327pp.
After running away from their troubled homes, two English teenagers move in with a group of squat-
ters in the port city of Bristol and try to find ways to support their growing addiction to heroin.
Butcher, A. J. Spy High: Mission Three: The Serpent Scenario. Little, Brown, 2004, c2003. 218pp.
The members of the Bond team at Deveraux Academy, a special high school that trains students to be
secret agents, are on the lookout for the source of a new street drug called Drac, while one student
seeks revenge on a gang called the Serpents.
Douglas, Lola. True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet: A Novel. Razorbill, c2005. 260pp.
Teen movie star Morgan Carter retreats to a small midwestern town to recuperate anonymously after
an overdose and rehabilitation, recording her thoughts in a diary.
Dunnion, Kristyn. Mosh Pit. Red Deer Press, 2005, c2004. 270pp.
Simone is torn between her loyalty to Cherry and her love for Carol, in a story that finds them on the
dark streets and alleys of the city’s drug scene.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

119
 Books About Self

Drug Abuse
Ellis, Bret Easton. Less Than Zero. Vintage Contemporaries, 1998, c1985, 208pp.
Clay comes home from an Eastern college for Christmas vacation and finds himself caught up in a
spiral of desperation as he renews old ties.
Glovach, Linda. Beauty Queen. HarperCollins, c1998. 168pp.
In an attempt to leave behind her unhappy home life, Sam becomes a dancer and a heroin addict.
Going, Kelly. Fat Kid Rules the World. Putnam, c2003. 187pp.
Seventeen-year-old Troy—depressed, suicidal, and weighing nearly 300 pounds—gets a new per-
spective on life when Curt, a semi-homeless teen who is a genius on guitar, asks Troy to be the drum-
mer in a rock band.
Hardrick, Jackie. Imani in Never Say Goodbye. Enlighten, c2003. 264pp.
High school senior Imani has dreams of getting into Howard University on a basketball scholarship;
however, a broken wrist and the deception of one of her teammates propels her into a world of bad
choices that takes everything she and her boyfriend can muster to overcome.
Hopkins, Ellen. Crank. Simon Pulse, c2004. 537pp.
Kristina Georgia Snow’s life is turned upside down when she visits her absentee father; gets turned
on to the drug “crank”; becomes addicted; and is led down a desperate path that threatens her mind,
soul, her life.
James, Brian. Pure Sunshine. Push/Scholastic, c2002. 159pp.
Seventeen-year-old Brendon embarks on a path-changing, two-day high on California acid, or “pure
sunshine,” during which he begins to break away from his friends, Will and Kevin.
Koertge, Ronald. Stoner & Spaz. Candlewick Press, c2002. 169pp.
A troubled youth with cerebral palsy struggles toward self-acceptance with the help of a drug-ad-
dicted young woman.
Lawler, Pat. What About Me? Scholastic, c1982, 170pp.
During her junior year, Brett runs for student body president against her boyfriend, Paul, discovers a
drug problem when her best friend dates a bad user, and learns about having friends and losing
friends.
Mackall, Dandi Daley. Kyra’s Story. Tyndale House, c2003. 277pp.
When seventeen-year-old Kyra of Macon, Iowa, becomes overwhelmed by the stress of senior year
in high school, the school play, and early admission to drama school, she begins taking prescription
drugs, unaware that her twin brother will suffer the consequences.
Myers, Walter Dean. The Beast. Scholastic, c2003. 170pp.
A teenager from Harlem struggles to save his girlfriend from herself when she develops a drug prob-
lem while he is away at a Connecticut prep school.
Qualey, Marsha. One Night. Speak, 2003, c2002. 170pp.
Nineteen-year-old Kelly, ex-addict niece of a nationally renowned Minnesota talk show host, has an
unexpected adventure with the visiting prince of a war-torn Eastern European country.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Books About Self

Drug Abuse
Rapp, Adam. Under the Wolf, Under the Dog. Candlewick Press, c2004. 310pp.
Sixteen-year-old Steve struggles to make sense of his mother’s terminal breast cancer and his
brother’s suicide.
Schraff, Anne E. The Darkest Secret. Perfection Learning, c1993. 115pp.
Brian tries to find his long-lost uncle Steve and struggles to help his friend Michelle when drugs take
over her life.
Voigt, Cynthia. Orfe. Simon Pulse, 2002, c1992, 151pp.
Enny tells of her relationship with Orfe, an unusually talented musician, and of the love between
Orfe and Yuri, a recovering addict.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Books About Self

Gangs
Books for Ages 12–15
Ashley, Bernard. Little Soldier. Scholastic, 2003, c1999. 230pp.
Taken from Africa to a foster home in London after his family is killed by an enemy tribe, Kaninda
discovers the meaning of hate and the value of not hating.
Bertrand, Diane Gonzales. Trino’s Choice. Pinata Books/Arte Publico, c1999. 124pp.
Frustrated by his poor financial situation and hoping to impress a smart girl, seventh-grader Trino
falls in with a bad crowd led by an older teen with a vicious streak.
Bonham, Frank. Durango Street. Puffin Books, 1999, c1965. 190pp.
As headman of his teenage gang, Rufus Henry has to deal not only with other gangs, but also with the
police-sanctioned sponsor who has involved himself with Rufus and his friends.
Bunting, Eve. Someone Is Hiding on Alcatraz Island. Berkley Books, 1994, c1984. 136pp.
When he offends the toughest gang in his San Francisco school, Danny tries to elude them by going
to Alcatraz, only to find himself and a Park Service employee trapped by the gang in an old prison
cell block.
Conly, Jane Leslie. In the Night, on Lanvale Street. H. Holt, c2005. 250pp.
While helping a stranger solve the murder of a neighbor, thirteen-year-old Charlie and her younger
brother are endangered by what they learn about gangs and drugs in the neighborhood.
Draper, Sharon M. Romiette and Julio. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c1999. 236pp.
Romiette, an African American girl, and Julio, a Hispanic boy, discover that they attend the same
high school after falling in love on the Internet, but are harassed by a gang whose members object to
their interracial dating.
Ewing, Lynne. Drive-By. HarperTrophy, 1998, c1996. 85pp.
While helping to care for his little sister, twelve-year-old Tito struggles to find his way during the af-
termath of his brother’s death in a gang-related shooting.
Garland, Sherry. Letters from the Mountain. Harcourt Brace, c1996. 211pp.
A teenage boy, sent for the summer to relatives in the mountains to remove him from gang influ-
ences, discovers life’s important values through his unlikely friendship with an economically chal-
lenged boy.
Hinton, S. E. The Outsiders. Viking Press, c1967. 188pp.
The struggle of three brothers to stay together after their parents’ death and their quest for identity
among the conflicting values of their adolescent society.
Hinton, S. E. That Was Then, This Is Now. Speak, 2003, c1971, 159pp.
Sixteen-year-old Mark and Bryon have been like brothers since childhood, but now, as their involve-
ment with girls, gangs, and drugs increases, their relationship seems to gradually disintegrate.
Myers, Walter Dean. Scorpions. HarperCollins, c1988. 216pp.
After reluctantly taking on the leadership of a Harlem gang, the Scorpions, Jamal finds that his ene-
mies treat him with respect when he acquires a gun—until a tragedy occurs.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Books About Self

Gangs
Rodriguez, Luis J. It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way: A Barrio Story. Children’s Book Press/Libros Para
Niños (distributed by Publishers Group West), c1999. 31pp.
Reluctantly a young boy becomes more and more involved in the activities of a local gang, until a
tragic event involving his cousin forces him to make a choice about the course of his life.

Books for Older Teens

Hinojosa, Maria. Crews. Harcourt Brace, c1995. 168pp. (NF)
Presents a sampling of interviews with gang members, portraying a sometimes shocking and some-
times heartening picture of the young men and women who live on the edge of poverty and violence.
Howe, Quincy. Broken Chains. Globe Fearon, c1995. 59pp.
Julio, infatuated with Vanessa, agrees to act as a big brother for her fourteen-year-old brother Hec-
tor, who has recently fallen in with a bad crowd, but Julio does not realize his involvement with Hec-
tor is going to compromise his relationship with Vanessa.
Howe, Quincy. Looking for Trouble. Globe Fearon, c1995. 58pp.
When Vasey’s friend Hi-C arrives in the city and becomes involved with a gang, Vasey’s friends
team up to try to teach Hi-C that life on the streets isn’t as cool as he thinks it is.
Myers, Walter Dean. Autobiography of My Dead Brother. HarperTempest, c2005. 212pp.
Jesse pours his heart and soul into his sketchbook to make sense of life in his troubled Harlem neigh-
borhood and the loss of a close friend.
Myers, Walter Dean. Monster. HarperCollins, c1999. 281pp.
While on trial as an accomplice to 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.
Rodriguez, Luis J. Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. Simon & Schuster, c1994.
260pp. (NF)
The author recounts growing up in poverty in Los Angeles; his encounters with racism in school and
on the streets; and his struggle to overcome prejudice, drugs, and violence.
Ruiz, Mona. Two Badges: The Lives of Mona Ruiz. Arte Publico Press, c1997. 288pp. (NF)
The autobiography of Mona Ruiz, a woman who overcame a difficult childhood in a neighborhood
with street gangs and became a police officer serving her community.
Williams, Stanley. Life In Prison. SeaStar Books, 2001, 1998, 80pp. (NF)
The author, imprisoned on Death Row since 1981, describes life in prison, warning young readers
not to make the mistakes he made.
Worth, Richard. Gangs and Crime. Chelsea House, c2002. 101pp. (NF)
Chronicles the history of American street gangs, describing their changing values, appearance, and
behavior as well as the efforts of law enforcement, the criminal justice system, and community lead-
ers to address them.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Books About Self

Gangs
Wright, Richard. Rite of Passage. HarperTrophy, 1996, c1994. 151pp.
When fifteen-year-old Johnny Gibbs is told that he is really a foster child, he runs off into the streets
of Harlem and meets up with a gang that wants him to participate in a mugging.
Zephaniah, Benjamin. Gangsta Rap. Bloomsbury (distributed by Holtzbrinck), c2004. 332pp.
When teenage Ray and his two friends, Prem and Tyronne, form a successful rap band in London’s
East End where they live, they soon find themselves embroiled in increasingly violent gang warfare.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Books About Self

Life in the Fat Lane:

Books About Food Issues for Teens
Compiled by Beth Gallaway Youth Services Consultant/Trainer, Metrowest MA Regional Library System,
Waltham, Massachusetts.

Overweight/Obesity
Bennett, Cherie. Life in the Fat Lane. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1999. 260pp.
(ages 12–15)
A pretty, popular, thin girl discovers what life is like on the other side when she gains weight sud-
denly.
Bone, Ian. Fat Boy Saves World. Pocket Pulse, c2001. 228pp. (older teens)
Teen boarding school reject Susan Bennett returns to her parents’ mansion—the scene of many bat-
tles observed by her bloated older brother, Neat, who has not said one word in eight years. But when
their parents are away, Neat suddenly speaks, saying he wants to save the world. With the help of
young street actor Todd, Neat goes on local cable TV and dispenses advice. And when Susan’s par-
ents return home, she decides to face them.
Crutcher, Chris. Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes. Greenwillow Books, c1993. 216pp. (ages 12–15)
Daily class discussions about the nature of man, the existence of God, abortion, organized religion,
suicide, and other contemporary issues serve as a backdrop for a high school senior’s attempt to an-
swer a friend’s dramatic cry for help.
Danziger, Paula. The Cat Ate My Gymsuit. Putnam, c2004. 151pp. (ages 12–15)
When the unconventional English teacher who helped her conquer many of her feelings of insecurity
is fired, a junior high student uses her newfound courage to campaign for the teacher’s reinstate-
ment.
Lipsyte, Robert. One Fat Summer. HarperTrophy, c1991. 232pp. (older teens)
An overweight, fourteen-year-old boy experiences a turning-point one summer in which he learns to
stand up for himself.
Lynch, Chris. Extreme Elvin. HarperTrophy, c2001. 234pp. (ages 12–15)
As he enters high school, fourteen-year-old Elvin continues to deal with his weight problem as he
tries to find his place among his peers.

Eating Disorders
Sparks, Beatrice. Kim: Empty Inside, Avon Books, c2002. 165pp. (older teens)
Kim’s distorted body image leads to binging, purging, crash dieting, and eventually a hospital stay
Eliot, Eve. Insatiable: The Compelling Story of Four Teens, Food and Its Power. Health Communica-
tions, c2001. 284pp. (ages 12–15) (NF)
A quartet of girls worry about their body image and attempt to use food to gain control over their
lives. The interlinked stories deal with self-mutilation, bulimia, and overeating.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Books About Self

Life in the Fat Lane:

Books About Food Issues for Teens
Eliot, Eve. Ravenous: The Stirring Tale of Teen Love, Loss and Courage. Health Communications,
c2002. (older teens) (NF)
Phoebe, the size-sixteen dreamer, finally gets a boyfriend, and readers witness her euphoria and her
fear during a particularly fragile time of life.
Frank, Lucy. I Am an Artichoke. Holiday House, c1995. 187pp. (ages 12–15)
A preteen girl’s babysitter tries to get her charge to admit she has anorexia.
Hanauer, Cathi. My Sister’s Bones. Delacorte Press, c1996. 258pp. (older teens)
Against a backdrop of malls and emerald-carpet lawns, Cassie Weinstein is slowly killing herself
with anorexia. And there seems to be nothing her younger sister Billie can do to stop her.
Levenkron, Steven. The Best Little Girl in the World. Warner Books, c1997. 253pp. (older teens)
Teenager Francesca Deitrich feels too fat, giving into the pressures of her ballet teacher and the pen-
cil-thin models in the media, in a revealing story about a “perfect” little girl suffering from the de-
structive obsession of anorexia nervosa.
Naylor, Phyllis. The Grooming of Alice. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2000. 215pp. (ages
12–15)
The support of best friends Alice and Pamela helps prevent Elizabeth’s descent into an eating disorder.
Porter, Tracey. A Dance of Sisters. Joanna Cotler Books, c2002. 276pp. (ages 12–15)
Although almost totally consumed by her intense ballet training and her obsession with her weight,
thirteen-year old Delia finds time to worry about her strange and rebellious older sister, Pearl, who
has been sent away to a private school.
Wilson, Jacqueline. Girls Under Pressure. Delacorte Press, c2002. 214pp. (ages 12–15)
Pretty, plump Ellie feels pressured to be as thin as her two best friends.

Nonfiction
Gold, Tracey. Room to Grow. New Millennium Press, c2003. 184pp. (older teens) (NF)
The actress and child star of Growing Pains reveals her struggles with body image and eating disor-
ders and her eventual road to recovery.
Gottlieb, Lori. Stick Figure: A Diary of My Former Self. Simon & Schuster, c2000. 222pp. (older
teens) (NF)
Memoir about anorexia.
Hornbacher, Marya. Wasted. HarperPerennial, c1998. 298pp. (older teens) (NF)
A memoir about anorexia and bulimia.
Siegler, Jamie Lyn. Wise Girl: What I’ve Learned About Love, Life and Loss. Pocket Books, c2002.
161pp. (older teens) (NF)
The actress and star of The Sopranos reveals her struggles with body image and eating disorders and
her eventual road to recovery.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Books About Self

Making Choices
Books for Ages 12–15
Avi. The Good Dog. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2001. 243pp.
McKinley, a malamute, is torn between the domestic world of his human family and the wild world
of Lupin, a wolf that is trying to recruit dogs to replenish the dwindling wolf population.
Avi. A Place Called Ugly. Avon Books, c1995. 134pp.
At the end of the summer, fourteen-year-old Owen refuses to leave the beach house that has been his
family’s summer home for ten years but is scheduled for demolition.
Babbitt, Natalie. Tuck Everlasting. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c1975. 139pp.
The Tuck family is confronted with an agonizing situation when they discover that a ten-year-old
girl and a malicious stranger now share their secret about a spring whose water prevents one from
ever growing any older.
Buchanan, Paul. Heads I Win, Tails You Lose. Concordia Publishing, c1999. 126pp.
Eighth grader Willie asks for God’s forgiveness when he neglects his friends in order to win a coin
collecting contest.
Bunting, Eve. Blackwater. Joanna Cotler Books, 2000, c1999. 146pp.
When a boy and girl are drowned in the Blackwater River, thirteen-year-old Brodie must decide
whether to confess that he may have caused the accident.
Cheaney, J. B. My Friend the Enemy. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c2005. 266pp.
In Oregon in 1943, eleven-year-old Hazel befriends a fifteen-year-old Japanese American orphan
boy she discovers hiding from internment on her neighbor’s farm.
Crutcher, Chris. Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes. Greenwillow Books, c1993, 216pp.
Daily class discussions about the nature of man, the existence of God, abortion, organized religion,
suicide, and other contemporary issues serve as a backdrop for a high school senior’s attempt to an-
swer a friend’s dramatic cry for help.
Duncan, Lois. I Know What You Did Last Summer. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers,
1999, c1973, 199pp.
Four teenagers who have desperately tried to conceal their responsibility for a hit-and-run accident
are pursued by a mystery figure seeking revenge.
Hobbs, Will. Wild Man Island. HarperCollins, c2002. 184pp.
After fourteen-year-old Andy slips away from his kayaking group to visit the wilderness site of his
archaeologist father’s death, a storm strands him on Admiralty Island, Alaska, where he manages to
survive, encounters unexpected animal and human inhabitants, and looks for traces of the earliest
prehistoric immigrants to America.
Kehret, Peg. Don’t Tell Anyone. Dutton Children’s Books, c2000. 137pp.
Twelve-year-old Megan does not realize that feeding a group of feral cats living in a field near her
house will involve her as a witness to a traffic accident and in the dangerous plan of an unstable
criminal.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Making Choices
Mazer, Norma Fox. Out of Control. Avon Books, 1994, c1993. 217pp.
After joining his two best friends in a spontaneous attack on a girl at their school, sixteen-year-old
Rollo finds that his life has changed forever.
McDaniel, Lurlene. Angel of Mercy. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2003, c1999. 211pp.
Eighteen-year-old Heather travels as a volunteer to Africa, where she provides direly needed medi-
cal help in Kenya and Uganda and hopes to act as God’s hands on Earth.
McDaniel, Lurlene. Saving Jessica. Bantam Books, c1996. 191pp.
When Jessica is diagnosed as having kidney failure, her only hope is a kidney transplant, but her
boyfriend Jeremy must find the strength to defy his parents in order to be the donor and save
Jessica’s life.
McDonald, Joyce. Swallowing Stones. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1999, c1997.
245pp.
Dual perspectives reveal the aftermath of seventeen-year-old Michael MacKenzie’s birthday cele-
bration, during which he discharges an antique Winchester rifle and unknowingly kills the father of
high school classmate Jenna Ward.
Mikaelsen, Ben. Stranded. Hyperion Paperbacks for Children, 1996, c1995. 247pp.
Twelve-year-old Koby, who has lost a foot in an accident, sees a chance to prove her self-reliance to
her parents when she tries to rescue two stranded pilot whales near her home in the Florida Keys.
Mikaelsen, Ben. Touching Spirit Bear. HarperCollins, c2001. 241pp.
After his anger erupts into violence, fifteen year-old Cole, to avoid going to prison, agrees to partici-
pate in a sentencing alternative based on the Native American Circle Justice. He is sent to a remote
Alaskan Island, where an encounter with a huge Spirit Bear changes his life.
Paterson, Katherine. Jacob Have I Loved. Crowell, c1980. 216pp.
Filled with resentment about the attention showered upon her twin sister and awaiting the day she
can leave her town behind, young Louise meets a wise old sea captain and begins learning how to let
go of her anger.
Paterson, Katherine. Jip: His Story. Puffin Books, 2005, c1996. 180pp.
While living on a Vermont poor farm during 1855 and 1856, Jip learns his identity and that of his
mother and comes to understand how he arrived at this place.
Paulsen, Gary. The Voyage of the Frog. Bantam Double Dell Books for Young Readers, 1990, c1989.
141pp.
When David goes out on his sailboat to scatter his recently deceased uncle’s ashes to the wind, he is
caught in a fierce storm and must survive many days on his own as he works out his feelings about
life and his uncle.
Peck, Robert Newton. Horse Thief: A Novel. HarperTrophy, 2003, c2002. 277pp.
In 1938, with the help of a lady doctor and an aging, card-cheating, dice-rolling horse thief, a seven-
teen-year-old orphan steals thirteen horses from Chickalookee, Florida’s doomed rodeo, and finds a
family in the process.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Making Choices
Richter, Conrad. The Light in the Forest. Knopf (distributed in the United States by Random House),
2005, c1953, 162pp.
John Cameron Butler, kidnapped by the Lenne Indians when he was only four years old, is returned
to his white family eleven years later and struggles to fit into the unfamiliar culture.

Books for Older Teens

Picoult, Jodi. My Sister’s Keeper: A Novel. Atria Books, c2004. 423pp. (adult)
Thirteen-year-old Anna, conceived specifically to provide blood and bone marrow for her sister
Kate, who was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia at the age of two, decides to sue her parents
for control of her body when her mother wants her to donate a kidney to Kate.
Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. Penguin Books, 1994, c1937. 105pp.
Sustained by the hope of someday owning a farm of their own, two migrant laborers arrive to work
on a ranch in central California.
Voigt, Cynthia. Seventeen Against the Dealer. Atheneum, c1989. 181pp.
Dicey struggles to make a go of a boatbuilding business while facing family concerns, romantic
problems, and the uncertainties of a drifter who offers to help her in her work.
Woodson, Jacqueline. From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun: A Novel. Scholastic, c1995. 141pp.
Thirteen-year-old Melanin Sun’s comfortable, quiet life is shattered when his mother reveals she has
fallen in love with a woman.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Books About Self

Meaning of Life
Books for Ages 12–15
Hautman, Pete. Godless. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2004. 198pp.
When sixteen-year-old Jason Bock and his friends create their own religion to worship the town’s
water tower, what started out as a joke begins to take on a power of its own.
Perkins, Lynne Rae. Criss Cross. Greenwillow Books, c2005. 337pp.
Teenagers in a small town in the 1960s experience new thoughts and feelings, question their identi-
ties, connect, and disconnect as they search for the meaning of life and love.
Tashjian, Janet. The Gospel According to Larry. H. Holt, c2001. 227pp.
Seventeen-year-old Josh, a loner-philosopher who wants to make a difference in the world, tries to
maintain his secret identity as the author of a Web site that is receiving national attention.

Books for Older Teens

Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson.
Doubleday, c1997. 192pp. (adult) (NF)
The author, an alumnus of Brandeis University, tells about his meetings with a former professor suf-
fering from Lou Gehrig’s disease and of the lessons he learned about life and death from this college
mentor.
Crutcher, Chris. The Sledding Hill. Greenwillow Books, c2005. 230pp.
Billy, recently deceased, keeps an eye on his best friend, fourteen-year-old Eddie, and helps him
stand up to a conservative minister and English teacher who is orchestrating a censorship challenge.
Gaarder, Jostein. Sophie’s World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy. Berkley, c1996. 523pp.
A novel about the history of philosophy, which uses the life of a schoolgirl, Sophie, as a backdrop for
a discussion of the meaning of life.
Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. Berkley, 2003, c1954. 315pp.
After a plane crash strands them on a tropical island while the rest of the world is ravaged by war, a
group of British schoolboys attempt to form a civilized society but descend into brutal anarchy.
Kushner, Harold S. When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Schocken Books, 2001, c1981. 202pp.
(NF)
Provides insight into the question of how to deal with human suffering and death.
Martel, Yann. Life of Pi: A Novel. Harcourt, c2001. 319pp. (adult)
Pi Patel, having spent an idyllic childhood in Pondicherry, India, as the son of a zookeeper, sets off with
his family at the age of sixteen to start anew in Canada, but his life takes a marvelous turn when their ship
sinks in the Pacific, leaving him adrift on a raft with a 450-pound Bengal tiger for company.
Trueman, Terry. Stuck in Neutral. HarperCollins, c2000. 114pp.
Fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel, who suffers from severe cerebral palsy and cannot function, re-
lates his perceptions of his life, his family, and his condition, especially as he believes his father is
planning to kill him.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Books About Self

Overcoming Poverty
Books for Ages 12–15
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Fever, 1793. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2000. 251pp.
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 in Philadelphia
in 1793.
Jimenez, Francisco. Breaking Through. Houghton Mifflin, c2001. 195pp.
Having come from Mexico to California ten years ago, fourteen-year-old Francisco is still working
in the fields but fighting to improve his life and complete his education.
Mawi Asgedom. Of Beetles & Angels: A Boy’s Remarkable Journey from a Refugee Camp to Har-
vard. Little, Brown, c2002. 142pp.
An autobiography that tells the story of how, at the age of three, the author fled civil war in Ethiopia
by walking with his mother and brother to a Sudanese refugee camp, and later moved to Chicago,
where he earned a full scholarship to Harvard University. Includes recipes and discussion questions.
Town, Florida. With a Silent Companion. Red Deer Press, 2000, c1999. 176pp.
A historical novel based on the true story of Margaret Anne Bulkley, a young woman born in Ireland
in the early 1800s who disguised herself as a man to attend medical school, and continued the ruse
throughout her career as a military doctor.
Wolff, Virginia Euwer. Make Lemonade. H. Holt, c1993. 200pp.
Fourteen-year-old LaVaughn, trying to earn the money for college, takes a job caring for the two
children of Jolly, a single teenage mom, and must find the courage to make the right decision for all
of them after Jolly is fired.
Wolff, Virginia Euwer. True Believer. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2001. 264pp.
Living in the inner city amid guns and poverty, fifteen-year-old LaVaughn learns from old and new
friends, and inspiring mentors, that life is what you make it—an occasion to rise to.

Books for Older Teens

Carson, Benjamin S. Gifted Hands. Zondervan, c1990. 232pp. (NF)
Captures this physician’s fight to beat the odds, the secret behind his outstanding accomplishments,
and what drives him to take risks.
Coleman, Michael. On the Run. Dutton Children’s Books, c2004. 199pp.
When a persistent youth offender is caught yet again, he is sentenced to community service as the
partner to a blind runner.
Davis, Sampson. The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream. Riverhead Books,
2003, c2002. 263pp. (NF)
Presents the true story of three African American kids from the inner city of Newark, New Jersey,
who made a pact to support each other as they rose from an environment of poverty, crime, and
drugs, and went on to become successful doctors.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Books About Self

Overcoming Poverty
Myers, Walter Dean. The Beast. Scholastic, c2003. 170pp.
A teenager from Harlem struggles to save his girlfriend from herself when she develops a drug prob-
lem while he is away at a Connecticut prep school.
Suskind, Ron. A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League.
Broadway Books, 1999, c1998. 373pp. (NF)
Follows gifted African American student Cedric Jennings from his crime-infested high school in
Washington, D.C., to his junior year at Brown University, discussing the problems he encountered
along the road out of the ghetto.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Books About Self

Perfectionism
Books for Ages 12–15
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Catalyst. Viking Press, c2002. 232pp.
Eighteen-year-old Kate, who sometimes chafes at being a preacher’s daughter, finds herself losing
control in her senior year as she faces difficult neighbors, the possibility that she may not be accepted
by the college of her choice, and an unexpected death.
Bennett, Cherie. Life in the Fat Lane. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1999, c1998. 260pp.
Sixteen-year-old Lara, winner of beauty pageants and Homecoming Queen, is distressed and bewil-
dered when she starts gaining weight and becomes overweight.
Dessen, Sarah. The Truth About Forever. Viking Press, c2004. 374pp.
The summer following her father’s death, Macy plans to work at the library and wait for her brainy
boyfriend to return from camp, but instead she goes to work at a catering business, where she makes
new friends and finally faces her grief.
Kantor, Melissa. Confessions of a Not It Girl. Hyperion, c2004. 247pp.
High schooler Jan Miller, hoping for a senior year romance, just cannot seem to do anything right,
especially when compared to her best friend Rebecca, who has just been named a New York “It
Girl”; but things start looking up when an old crush moves back to town.
Mackler, Carolyn. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things. Candlewick Press, c2003. 246pp.
Feeling that 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 relation-
ship, and her disillusionment with some of the people closest to her.

Books for Older Teens

Bunting, Josiah. All Loves Excelling. Bridge Works (distributed by National Book Network), c2001. 301pp.
Amanda Bahringer, a bright, impressionable student at a prestigious boarding school, struggles to
measure up to everyone’s demands, from her mother to her instructors, as she tries to gain the cre-
dentials needed for admission to Dartmouth.
Elliott, Miriam. Perfectionism: What’s Bad About Being Too Good? Free Spirit, c1999. 129pp. (NF)
Discusses the dangers of being a perfectionist, with tips for easing up on oneself, gaining control
over life, and getting professional help.
Lee, Marie G. Finding My Voice. HarperTrophy, 2001, c1992. 214pp.
As she tries to enjoy her senior year and choose which college she will attend, Korean American El-
len Sung must deal with the prejudice of some of her classmates and pressure from her parents to get
good grades.
Lee, Marie G. Saying Goodbye. Houghton Mifflin, c1994. 219pp.
Ellen Sung explores her interest in creative writing and in her Korean heritage during her freshman
year at Harvard.
Mackler, Carolyn. Vegan Virgin Valentine. Candlewick Press, c2004. 228pp.
Mara’s niece, who is only one year younger, moves in, bringing conflict between the two teenagers
because of their opposite personalities.
From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Books About Self

Road Trip
Books for Ages 12–15
Bauer, Joan. Rules of the Road. Putman, c1998. 201pp.
Sixteen-year-old Jenna gets a job driving the elderly owner of a chain of successful shoe stores from
Chicago to Texas to confront the woman’s son, who is trying to force her to retire, and along the way
Jenna hones her talents as a saleswoman and finds the strength to face her alcoholic father.
Callan, Annie. Taf. Cricket Books, c2001. 248pp.
Thinking she has killed her half-brother, twelve-year-old Taf flees her abusive home and sets out to
find her long-missing father. On her way from Idaho to Pendleton, Oregon, she discovers not only
adventure and sorrow, but also a number of people who love her.
Carlson, Melody. Road Trip: A Novel. Multnomah Publishers, c2003. 292pp.
After signing a contract with a major recording company, Chloe, Allie, and Laura set off on tour as
the opening act for the most popular Christian band in the country, but life on the road is not as glam-
orous as the girls thought it would be, and they soon begin to feel overwhelmed.
Creech, Sharon. Walk Two Moons. HarperCollins, c1994. 280pp.
After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing
her mother’s route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left.
Creech, Sharon. The Wanderer. HarperCollins, c2000. 305pp.
Thirteen-year-old Sophie and her cousin Cody record their transatlantic crossing aboard the Wan-
derer, a forty-five foot sailboat, which, along with uncles and another cousin, is en route to visit their
grandfather in England.
Fritz, April Young. Praying at the Sweetwater Motel: A Novel. Hyperion Books for Children, c2003.
266pp.
Sarah Jane and her mother move into the Sweetwater Motel in Ohio after her mother leaves Sarah’s
abusive father. Eventually Sarah begins to miss her old life and even her father.
Lieberg, Carolyn S. West with Hopeless. Dutton Children’s Books, c2004. 180pp.
Bound for Reno and their divorced father for the summer, two half-sisters leave from Iowa in an old
Ford Escort and learn a great deal on the way about the people they encounter and even more about
themselves.
Young, Karen Romano. The Beetle and Me: A Love Story. HarperTrophy, 2001, c1999. 207pp.
Surrounded by her busy extended family and their many cars, fifteen-year-old Daisy pursues her
goal of single-handedly restoring the car of her dreams, the old purple Volkswagen Beetle from her
childhood.

Books for Older Teens

Brooks, Martha. True Confessions of a Heartless Girl. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2003. 181pp.
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.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Books About Self

Road Trip
Cooney, Caroline B. Hit the Road. Delacorte Press, c2006. 192pp.
Sixteen-year-old Brittany acts as chauffeur for her grandmother and three other eighty-plus-year-old
women going to what is supposedly their college reunion, on a long drive that involves lies, theft,
and kidnappings.
Fleischman, Paul. Whirligig. H. Holt, c1998. 133pp.
While traveling to each corner of the country to build a whirligig in memory of the girl whose death
he caused, sixteen-year-old Brian finds forgiveness and atonement.
High, Linda Oatman. Sister Slam and the Poetic Motormouth Roadtrip. Bloomsbury (distributed by
Holtzbrinck), c2004. 256pp.
In this novel told in slam verse, after graduating from high school, best friends and aspiring poets
Laura and Twig embark on a road trip from Pennsylvania to New York City, to compete at slam po-
etry events.
Kerouac, Jack. On the Road. Viking Press, c1997. 307pp.
A fortieth-anniversary edition of the novel that defined the beat generation of the 1950s, in which Sal
Paradise tells about his travels throughout the North American continent in search of belief and
meaning.
Kingsolver, Barbara. The Bean Trees: A Novel. HarperFlamingo, c1998. 261pp.
Taylor, a poor Kentuckian, makes her way west with an abandoned baby girl and stops in Tucson.
There she finds friends and discovers resources in apparently empty places.
Lowry, Brigid. Guitar Highway Rose. Holiday House, c2003. 196pp.
Two fifteen-year-olds, Rosie and Asher, upset about the various unhappy circumstances of their
lives in the Australian city of Perth, decide to run away.
Paulsen, Gary. The Car. Harcourt Brace, c1994. 180pp.
A teenager takes off on his travels west in a kit car he built himself, and along the way picks up two
Vietnam veterans, who take him on an eye-opening journey.
Rottman, S. L. Stetson. Viking Press, c2002. 222pp.
Seventeen-year-old Stetson meets the sister he never knew he had, and together they try to make
sense of their pasts.
Shaw, Tucker. Confessions of a Backup Dancer. Simon Pulse, c2004. 265pp.
Kelly Kimbal lands a job as a backup dancer for pop diva Darcy Barnes, but is soon fired by Darcy’s
overbearing mother, until Darcy develops the courage to tell her mother off and bring Kelly back
into the show.
Steinbeck, John. Travels with Charley: In Search of America. Penguin Books, 1986, c1962. 277pp.
(NF)
Contains observations about life and descriptions of nature experienced by Steinbeck as he traveled
from coast to coast at sixty years of age with his French poodle, Charley.

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 Books About Self

Road Trip
Wittlinger, Ellen. Zigzag. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2003. 264pp.
A high-school junior makes a trip with her aunt and two cousins, discovering places she did not
know existed and strengths she did not know she had.
Yansky, Brian. My Road Trip To the Pretty Girl Capital of the World. Cricket Books, c2003. 178pp.
In 1979, when his life in Mansfield, Iowa, seems to fall apart, seventeen-year-old Simon takes his fa-
ther’s car and sets out for Texas, looking for his birth parents and picking up a man claiming to be El-
vis, two bums, and an abused young wife along the way.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Books About Self

Runaways
Books for Ages 12–15
Adler, C. S. The No Place Cat. Clarion Books, c2002. 153pp.
Tired of the strict rules and annoying children at her father and stepmother’s house, twelve-year-old
Tess walks across Tucson to her mother’s condo, stopping for the night at a state park, where she is
adopted by a very special cat.
Avi. Beyond the Western Sea. Book 1, The Escape from Home. Avon Books, c1996. 325pp.
Driven from their impoverished Irish village, fifteen-year-old Maura and her younger brother meet
their landlord’s runaway son in Liverpool while all three wait for a ship to America.
Butcher, Kristin. The Runaways. Kids Can Press, c1998. 168pp.
Twelve-year-old Nick Battle’s life takes an unexpected turn when he runs away from home after
learning that his mom and new stepfather are expecting a baby. He becomes friends with Luther, an
angry old man who lives on the streets.
Callan, Annie. Taf. Cricket Books, c2001. 248pp.
Thinking she has killed her half-brother, twelve-year-old Taf flees her abusive home and sets out to
find her long-missing father. On her way from Idaho to Pendleton, Oregon, she discovers not only
adventure and sorrow but also a number of people who love her.
Curtis, Christopher Paul. Bud, Not Buddy. Delacorte Press, c1999. 245pp.
Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes
a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father—the renowned
bandleader, H. E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.
Funke, Cornelia Caroline. The Thief Lord. Scholastic, c2002. 349pp.
Orphaned brothers Prosper and Bo, having run away from their cruel aunt and uncle, decide to hide
out in Venice, where they fall in with the Thief Lord, a thirteen-year-old boy who leads a crime ring
of street children.
Hobbs, Valerie. Charlie’s Run. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2000. 165pp.
Hoping to stop his parents’ impending separation and keep them from getting a divorce,
eleven-year-old Charlie runs away from their house in the California countryside and finds a ride to
the coast.
Hobbs, Will. The Maze. Morrow Junior Books, c1998. 197pp.
Rick, a fourteen-year-old foster child, escapes from a juvenile detention facility near Las Vegas and
travels to Canyonlands National Park in Utah, where he meets a bird biologist working on a project
to reintroduce condors to the wild.
Hrdlitschka, Shelley. Disconnected. Orca Book Publishers, c1998. 160pp.
Fourteen-year-old Canadians Tanner and Alex discover they have a mysterious connection when
drug dealers kidnap Tanner while he is on a hockey trip, mistaking him for Alex, who met them
while running away from an abusive father.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Books About Self

Runaways
Johnson, Angela. Bird. Dial Books, c2004. 133pp.
Devastated by the loss of a second father, thirteen-year-old Bird follows her stepfather from Cleve-
land to Alabama in hopes of convincing him to come home, and along the way helps two boys cope
with their difficulties.
Lawrence, Iain. The Convicts. Delacorte Press, c2005. 198pp.
His efforts to avenge his father’s unjust imprisonment force thirteen-year-old Tom Tin into the
streets of nineteenth-century London. After he is convicted of murder, Tom is eventually sent to
Australia, where he has a surprise reunion.
Lawrence, Iain. Ghost Boy. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2002, c2000. 326pp.
Unhappy in a home seemingly devoid of love, a fourteen-year-old albino boy who thinks of himself
as Harold the Ghost runs away to join the circus, where he works with the elephants and searches for
a sense of who he is. Includes reading group discussion guide.
Napoli, Donna Jo. North. Greenwillow Books, c2004. 344pp.
Tired of his mother’s over-protectiveness and intrigued by the life of African American explorer
Matthew Henson, twelve-year-old Alvin travels north and spends a season with a trapper near the
Arctic Circle.
Philbrick, W. R. Max the Mighty. Scholastic, c1998. 166pp.
Fourteen-year-old Max helps a younger girl escape from her abusive stepfather by running away
with her to the distant town of Chivalry, Montana, searching for her real father.
Smith, Sherri L. Lucy the Giant. Delacorte Press, c2002. 217pp.
Fifteen-year-old Lucy, the largest girl in her school, leaves her small Alaska town and her alcoholic
father and discovers hardship—and friendship—posing as an adult aboard a commercial fishing
boat.
Tocher, Timothy. Chief Sunrise, John McGraw, and Me. Cricket Books, c2004. 154pp.
In 1919, fifteen-year-old Hank escapes an abusive father and goes looking for a chance to become a
baseball player, accompanied by a man who calls himself Chief Sunrise and claims to be a
full-blooded Seminole.
Whelan, Gloria. Chu Ju’s House. HarperCollins, c2004. 227pp.
To save her baby sister, fourteen-year-old Chu Ju leaves her rural home in modern China and earns
food and shelter by working on a sampan, tending silk worms, and planting rice seedlings, while
wondering if she will ever see her family again.
Willis, Patricia. The Barn Burner. Clarion Books, c2000. 196pp.
In 1933, while running from a bad situation at home and suspected of having set fire to a barn, four-
teen-year-old Ross finds haven with a loving family, which helps him make an important decision.
Wyss, Thelma Hatch. Ten Miles from Winnemucca. HarperTrophy, 2003, c2002. 154pp.
When his mother and her new husband take off on a long honeymoon, and his new stepbrother
throws his belongings out the window, sixteen-year-old Martin J. Miller takes off in his Jeep and set-
tles in Red Rock, Idaho, where he finds a job, enrolls in school, and suffers from loneliness.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Books About Self

Runaways
Books for Older Teens
Bell, William. Death Wind. Orca Book, c2002. 92pp.
Allie, failing school and fearing she is pregnant by her ex-boyfriend, decides there is no way she can
face her always fighting parents and decides to run away. She gets a different perspective on her life
and future when a tornado hits, destroying her home and injuring her mother.
Collins, Pat Lowery. The Fattening Hut. Houghton Mifflin, c2003. 186pp.
A teenage girl living on a tropical island runs away to escape her tribe’s customs of arranged mar-
riages and female genital mutilation.
Cormier, Robert. Tenderness. Delacorte Press, 2004, c1997. 229pp.
A psychological thriller told from the points of view of a teenage serial killer and the runaway girl
who falls in love with him.
Dessen, Sarah. Dreamland. Speak, 2004, c2000. 250pp.
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.
Flinn, Alex. Nothing To Lose. HarperTempest, c2004. 277pp.
A year after running away with a traveling carnival to escape his unbearable home life, six-
teen-year-old Michael returns to Miami, Florida, to find that his mother is going on trial for the mur-
der of his abusive stepfather.
Frank, E. R. America: A Novel. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2002. 242pp.
America, a runaway boy who is being treated at Ridgeway, a New York hospital, finds himself open-
ing up to one of the doctors on staff and revealing things about himself that he had always vowed to
keep secret.
Koja, Kathe. The Blue Mirror. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2004. 119pp.
Seventeen-year-old loner Maggy Klass, who frequently seeks refuge from her alcoholic mother’s
apartment by sitting and drawing in a local cafe, becomes involved in a destructive relationship with
a charismatic homeless youth named Cole.
MacCullough, Carolyn. Stealing Henry. Roaring Brook, c2005. 196pp.
Seventeen-year-old Savannah, fed up with her violent stepfather, hits him over the head with a fry-
ing pan and takes to the road with her eight-year-old half-brother on a journey that echoes in reverse
the one her mother Alice took as a young, unwed mother running away from home.
Murphy, Rita. Looking for Lucy Buick. Delacorte Press, c2005. 165pp.
Following the death of her favorite adoptive aunt, Lucy goes searching for her biological family,
who abandoned her in an old Buick eighteen years before.
Paulsen, Gary. The Beet Fields: Memories of a Sixteenth Summer. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2002, c2000.
160pp.
In the summer of 1955, a sixteen-year-old boy runs away from his troubled home and learns about
people, friendship, love, and lust while working as a migrant farmer and a carny.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

139
 Books About Self

Runaways
Stine, Catherine. Refugees. Delacorte Press, c2005. 277pp.
Following the September 11, 2001. terrorist attacks, Dawn, a sixteen-year-old runaway from San
Francisco, connects by phone and e-mail with Johar, a gentle, fifteen-year-old Afghani who assists
Dawn’s foster mother, a doctor, at a Red Cross refugee camp in Peshawar.
Stone, Phoebe. All the Blue Moons at the Wallace Hotel. Little, Brown, c2000. 198pp.
Though very different, events in their lives have made eleven-year-old Fiona and her younger sister
Wallace close, so when Wallace disappears, Fiona risks missing the dance audition she has worked
so hard to get.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Books About Self

Search for Identity

Books for Ages 12–15
Avi. Crispin: The Cross of Lead. Hyperion Books for Children, c2002. 262pp.
Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century England flees
his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret.
Cushman, Karen. The Midwife’s Apprentice. Clarion Books, c1995. 122pp.
In medieval England, a nameless, homeless girl is taken in by a sharp-tempered midwife. In spite of
obstacles and hardship, she eventually gains the three things she most wants: a full belly, a contented
heart, and a place in this world.
Durrant, Lynda. Echohawk. Clarion Books, c1996. 181pp.
A twelve-year-old white boy, adopted and raised by Mochicans in the Hudson River Valley during
the 1730s, is sent with his younger brother to an English settlement, for schooling.
Fleischman, Paul. Saturnalia. HarperKeypoint, 1992, c1990. 112pp.
In 1681 in Boston, fourteen-year-old William, a Narraganset Indian captured in a raid six years ear-
lier, leads a productive and contented life as a printer’s apprentice but is increasingly anxious to
make some connection with his Indian past.
Fleischman, Paul. Seek. Cricket Books, c2001. 167pp.
Rob becomes obsessed with searching the airwaves for his long-gone father, a radio announcer.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Double Identity. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2005.
218pp.
Thirteen-year-old Bethany’s parents have always been overprotective, but when they suddenly drop
out of sight with no explanation, leaving her with an aunt she never knew existed, Bethany uncovers
shocking secrets that make her question everything she thought she knew.
Hale, Janet Campbell. The Owl’s Song. University of New Mexico Press, c1997. 153pp.
Billy White Hawk leaves his Idaho reservation in search of a better life in California, where instead
he encounters hatred and hostility that are increasingly difficult to cope with.
Hamilton, Virginia. Plain City. Scholastic, c1993. 194pp.
Twelve-year-old Buhlaire, a “mixed” child who feels out of place in her community, struggles to un-
earth her past and her family history as she gradually discovers more and more about her long-miss-
ing father.
Kretzer-Malvehy, Terry. Passage to Little Bighorn. Rising Moon, c1999. 217pp.
Fifteen-year-old Dakota, who has Lakota blood in him, is hurled back through time to meet his an-
cestor Sitting Bull and witness the massacre at the Battle of Little Bighorn.
Markle, Sandra. The Fledglings. Boyds Mills Press, c1998. 138pp.
Orphaned after the death of her mother, fourteen-year-old Kate runs away to live with her grandfa-
ther, a Cherokee Indian who is trying to stop the poaching of predator birds.
Meyer, Carolyn. Gideon’s People. Harcourt Brace, c1996. 297pp.
Torn between youthful rebellion and their traditional heritages, two boys from very different cultures—
one Amish, one Orthodox Jew—discover just how similar they really are.
From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

141
 Books About Self

Search for Identity

Namioka, Lensey. Half and Half. Delacorte Press, c2003. 136pp.
At Seattle’s annual Folk Fest, twelve-year-old Fiona and her older brother are torn between trying to
please their Chinese grandmother and making their Scottish grandparents happy.
Paterson, Katherine. Come Sing, Jimmy Jo. Puffin Books, c1995. 197pp.
When his family becomes a successful country music group and makes him a featured singer,
eleven-year-old James has to deal with big changes in all aspects of his life, even his name.
Paterson, Katherine. Jip: His Story. Puffin, 2005, c1996. 180pp.
While living on a Vermont poor farm in 1855 and 1856, Jip learns his identity and that of his mother
and comes to understand how he arrived at this place.
Paulsen, Gary. The Island. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1990, c1988. 202pp.
Fifteen-year-old Wil discovers himself and the wonders of nature when he leaves home to live on an
island in northern Wisconsin.
Richter, Conrad. The Light in the Forest. Knopf (distributed in the United States by Random House),
2005, c1953. 162pp.
John Cameron Butler, kidnapped by the Lenne Indians when he was only four years old, is returned
to his white family eleven years later and struggles to fit into the unfamiliar culture.
Weeks, Sarah. Regular Guy. HarperTrophy, 2000, c1999. 120pp.
Because he is so different from his eccentric parents, twelve-year-old Guy is convinced he has been
switched at birth with a classmate whose parents seem more normal.

Books for Older Teens

Hinton, S. E. Tex. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1989, c1979. 211pp.
The love between two teenage brothers helps to alleviate the harshness of their usually parentless life
as they struggle to grow up.
Irwin, Hadley. Kim/Kimi. Puffin Books, 1988, c1987. 200pp.
Despite a warm relationship with her mother, stepfather, and half-brother, sixteen-year-old Kim
feels the need to find answers about the Japanese American father she never knew.
Thomas, Rob. Rats Saw God. Aladdin Paperbacks, c1996. 202pp.
In hopes of graduating, Steve York agrees to complete a hundred-page writing assignment, which
helps him to sort out his relationship with his famous astronaut father and the events that changed
him from a promising student into a troubled teen.
Wolff, Virginia Euwer. The Mozart Season. Scholastic Signature, 2000, c1991, 249pp.
Allegra spends her twelfth summer practicing a Mozart concerto for a violin competition and finding
many significant connections in her world.
Woodson, Jacqueline. From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun: A Novel. Scholastic, c1995. 141pp.
Thirteen-year-old Melanin Sun’s comfortable, quiet life is shattered when his mother reveals she has
fallen in love with a woman.
Wright, Richard. Rite of Passage. HarperTrophy, 1996, c1994, 151pp.
When fifteen-year-old Johnny Gibbs is told that he is really a foster child, he runs off into the streets
of Harlem and meets up with a gang that wants him to participate in a mugging.
From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Books About Self

Self-Mutilation
Books for Ages 12–15
Hoffman, Alice. Green Angel. Scholastic Press, c2003. 116pp.
Haunted by grief and her past after losing her family in a fire, fifteen-year-old Green retreats into her
ruined garden as she struggles to survive emotionally and physically on her own.
Holt, Kimberly Willis. Keeper of the Night. H. Holt, c2003. 308pp.
Isabel, a thirteen-year-old girl living on the island of Guam, and her family try to cope with the death
of Isabel’s mother, who committed suicide.
Klass, David. You Don’t Know Me: A Novel. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2001. 262pp.
Fourteen-year-old John creates alternative realities in his mind as he tries to deal with his mother’s
abusive boyfriend, his crush on a beautiful but shallow classmate, and other problems at school.
Konigsburg, E. L. Silent to the Bone. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2000. 261pp.
Thirteen-year-old Branwell loses the power of speech after being wrongly accused of gravely injur-
ing his baby half-sister, and only his friend Connor is able to reach him and uncover the truth about
what happened.
Mackler, Carolyn. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things. Candlewick Press, c2003.
246pp.
Feeling that 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 relation-
ship, and her disillusionment with some of the people closest to her.
Marsden, John. Checkers. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2000, c1996. 122pp.
Speaking from a mental hospital, a teenage girl recounts the tremendous media pressure that pre-
ceded the breaking scandal of her father’s unethical business dealings.
McCormick, Patricia. Cut. Front Street, c2000. 168pp.
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.
Peters, Julie Anne. Define “Normal”. Little, Brown, c2000. 196 p
When she agrees to meet with Jasmine as a peer counselor at their middle school, Antonia never
dreams that this girl with the black lipstick and pierced eyebrow will end up helping her deal with the
serious problems she faces at home and become a good friend.
Weill, Sabrina Solin. We’re Not Monsters: Teens Speak Out About Teens in Trouble. HarperCollins,
c2002. 234pp. (NF)
Commentaries by teenagers about their fellow teens who commit crimes or violate social norms.
Wilson, Dawn. Saint Jude. Tudor Publishers, c2001. 171pp.
When committed to an upscale group home outside Asheville, North Carolina, eighteen-year-old
Taylor Drysdale pretends that her bipolar disorder is under control and that she will leave soon, but
relationships with her fellow residents may hold the key to her real recovery.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

143
 Books About Self

Self-Mutilation
Books for Older Teens
Goobie, Beth. The Dream Where the Losers Go. Roussan, c1999. 206pp.
After spending five months in treatment, Skey still doesn’t know why she hurt herself, but when she
meets another boy her own age who has many of the same problems, she begins to understand her
own destructive behavior.
Kettlewell, Caroline. Skin Game. St. Martin’s Griffin, c1999. 178pp.
A memoir in which the author, a former “cutter,” discusses the reasons why she began cutting herself
as an adolescent, and shares the story of how she was finally able to overcome the affliction.
Levenkron, Steven. The Luckiest Girl in the World. Penguin Books, 1998, c1997. 188pp.
Figure-skating star Katie Roskova, unable to express her feelings of panic and anger, develops a
habit of cutting herself with scissors and hiding her scars beneath long-sleeve shirts, but as pressure
mounts her wounds become more serious, and soon her secret is revealed.
Mackall, Dandi Daley. Kyra’s Story. Tyndale House, c2003. 277pp.
When seventeen-year-old Kyra of Macon, Iowa, becomes overwhelmed by the stress of senior year
in high school, the school play, and early admission to drama school, she begins taking prescription
drugs, unaware that her twin brother will suffer the consequences.
Marsden, John. So Much to Tell You. Fawcett Books, c1990. 119pp.
Sent to a boarding school by her mother, Marina, a disfigured Australian girl who refuses to speak,
reveals her thoughts and feelings in a diary.
Slade, Arthur G. Tribes. Wendy Lamb Books, c2002. 134pp.
For Percy, the loss of his father and the suicide of his best friend come to a head during the last week
before high school graduation.
Stoehr, Shelley. Crosses. Delacorte, c1991. 153pp.
Unhappy at home, Nancy and her friend Katie adopt punk lifestyles and find relief in cutting them-
selves, until Nancy is forced to confront her problems.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

144
 Books About Self

Surviving Peer Pressure

Nonfiction
Books for Ages 12–15
Davis, Anthony C. “Yo, Little Brother—”: Basic Rules of Survival for Young African American
Males. African American Images, c1998. 157pp. (NF)
Offers straightforward advice for young African American males on how to live safe, successful
lives, discussing courtesy, sex, friends, faith, racism, money, driving, and street smarts.
Mosatche, Harriet S. Girls—What’s So Bad About Being Good?: How to Have Fun, Survive the Pre-
teen Years, and Remain True to Yourself. Prima Pub, c2001. 218pp. (NF)
Presents guidance for preteen girls on such topics as self-image, healthy relationships, peer pressure,
bullies, learning, community service, and dreams and goals.
Mosatche, Harriet S. Too Old for This, Too Young for That!: Your Survival Guide for the Mid-
dle-School Years. Free Spirit, c2000. 190pp. (NF)
Quizzes, stories, surveys, and activities for middle schoolers addressing such issues as physical and
emotional changes, connecting with friends and family, setting goals, and handling peer pressure.
Sommers, Michael A. Chillin’: A Guy’s Guide to Friendship. Rosen Central, c2000. 48pp. (NF)
Provides advice on making new friends and negotiating issues such as peer pressure, acceptance, and
conformity.

Books for Older Teens

Glodoski, Ron. How to Be a Successful Criminal: The Real Deal On Crime (Drugs, and Easy Money.
Turn Around Publications, 2005, c1998. 259pp. (NF)
The author’s firsthand account of his experiences as a criminal, street thug, drug dealer, and prison
inmate, providing advice for troubled teens on how to avoid the same mistakes and stay out of jail.
Healy, Kent. “Cool Stuff” They Should Teach in School. Cool Stuff Media, c2005. 303pp. (NF)
A practical guide written by teens, who provide suggestions on what should be taught in school, such
as surviving in the real world, controlling attitude, conquering peer pressure, setting proper goals,
and handling money.
McGraw, Jay. Life Strategies for Teens. Simon & Schuster, c2000. 236pp. (NF)
A self-help guide for teenagers, including information on peer pressure, popularity, and ambition.
Palmer, Pat. Teen Esteem: A Self-direction Manual for Young Adults. Impact Publishers, c2000. 97pp.
(NF)
Provides guidance on developing self-esteem and the positive attitude necessary to cope with such
adolescent challenges as peer pressure, substance abuse, and sexual expression.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Part 4
Setting
 Setting

Ancient Civilizations
Books for Ages 12–15
Alexander, Lloyd. Time Cat: The Remarkable Journeys of Jason and Gareth. H. Holt, c2003. 211pp.
Jason and his magic cat Gareth travel through time to visit countries all over the world during differ-
ent periods of history.
Barrett, Tracy. On Etruscan Time. H. Holt, c2005. 172pp.
While spending the summer on an archaeological dig near Florence, Italy, with his mother,
eleven-year-old Hector meets an Etruscan boy who needs help to foil his treacherous uncle’s plan to
make him a human sacrifice—1,000 years in the past.
Bunting, Eve. I Am the Mummy Heb-Nefert. Harcourt Brace, c1997. 32pp.
A mummy recalls her past life in ancient Egypt as the beautiful wife of the pharaoh’s brother.
Carter, Dorothy Sharp. His Majesty, Queen Hatshepsut. Lippincott, c1987. 248pp.
A fictionalized account of the life of Hatshepsut, a queen in ancient Egypt who declared herself king
and ruled as such for more than twenty years.
Fletcher, Susan. Shadow Spinner. Aladdin Paperbacks, 1999, c1998. 219pp.
When Marjan, a thirteen-year-old crippled girl, joins the Sultan’s harem in ancient Persia, she gath-
ers for Shahrazad the stories that will save the queen’s life.
Lawrence, Caroline. The Thieves of Ostia: A Roman Mystery. Puffin Books, c2004. 152pp.
In Rome in the year A.D.79, a group of children from very different backgrounds work together to
discover who beheaded a pet dog and why.
Lester, Julius. Pharaoh’s Daughter: A Novel of Ancient Egypt. Silver Whistle/Harcourt, c2000.
182pp.
A fictionalized account of a biblical story in which an Egyptian princess rescues a Hebrew infant,
who becomes a prophet of his people, while his sister finds her true self as a priestess to the Egyptian
gods.
McGraw, Eloise Jarvis. The Golden Goblet. Puffin Books, 1986, c1961. 248pp.
A young Egyptian boy struggles to reveal a hideous crime and reshape his own destiny.
McGraw, Eloise Jarvis. Mara, Daughter of the Nile. Puffin Books, 1985, c1953. 278pp.
The adventures of an ingenious Egyptian slave girl who undertakes a dangerous assignment as a spy
in the royal palace of Thebes, in the days when Queen Hatshepsut ruled.
Napoli, Donna Jo. Song of the Magdalene. Simon Pulse, 2004, c1996. 240pp.
Relates the story of Miriam, a young girl being raised by her widowed father in ancient Israel, who
grows up to be Mary Magdalene.
Rubalcaba, Jill. A Place in the Sun. Clarion Books, c1997. 86pp.
In ancient Egypt, the gifted young son of a sculptor is taken into slavery when he attempts to save his
father’s life and is himself almost killed before his exceptional talent leads Pharoah to name him
Royal Sculptor.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Setting

Ancient Civilizations
Rubalcaba, Jill. The Wadjet Eye. Clarion Books, c2000. 156pp.
After his mother dies Damon, a young medical student living in Alexandria, Egypt, in 45 B.C. makes
a perilous journey to Spain to locate his father, who is serving in the Roman army led by Julius
Caesar.
Scieszka, Jon. Tut, Tut. Viking Press, c1996. 74pp.
Sam, Joe, and Fred finish their school project on ancient Egypt without using their magical time
travel book, but when Joe’s sister Anna plays with it and travels to the land of pyramids, they must
follow her back in time to bring her back to 1996.
Service, Pamela F. The Reluctant God. Fawcett Juniper, 1990, c1988. 182pp.
While his brother prepares to mount the throne of Egypt as the next member of the Twelfth Dynasty,
the teenage prince Ameni is sealed in a secret tomb in a state of suspended animation, to be revived
4,000 years later.
Sutcliff, Rosemary Black Ships Before Troy. Laurel-Leaf Books, c2005. 128pp.
Retells the story of the Trojan War, from the quarrel over the golden apple, to the flight of Helen with
Paris, to the destruction of Troy.
Sutcliff, Rosemary. The Eagle of the Ninth. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c1993. 291pp.
A young centurion ventures among the hostile tribes beyond the Roman Wall to recover the eagle
standard of the Ninth, a legion that mysteriously disappeared under his father’s command.
Sutcliff, Rosemary. The Wanderings of Odysseus: The Story of the Odyssey. Frances Lincoln Chil-
dren’s Books (distributed by Publishers Group West), 2005, c1995. 119pp.
A retelling of the adventures of Odysseus on his long voyage home from the Trojan War.

Books for Older Teens

Bradshaw, Gillian. The Sand-Reckoner. Forge, c2000. 351pp.
Tells the early life of the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes.
Cook, Robin. Sphinx. Signet, 1980, c1979. 313pp. (adult)
When Erica Baron finds a previously undiscovered pharaoh’s tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings,
she becomes involved in intrigue, corruption, and murder.
Graves, Robert. Claudius the God: And His Wife Messalina. Vintage, 1989, c1935. 533pp.
A historical novel in which Claudius, a self-professed cripple, stammerer, and fool of the royal fam-
ily, tells why he was persuaded to take the throne—a position he never wanted—and attempts to jus-
tify his actions during his thirteen-year reign as emperor of Rome.
Robinson, Lynda Suzanne. Eater of Souls. Ballantine Books, 1998, c1997. 276pp.
While investigating the death of Queen Nefertiti, Lord Meren must discover whether the killer is one
the god called the Devourer or a human in disguise, all while combating court intrigue.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

150
 Setting

Civil War
Books for Ages 12–15
Alphin, Elaine Marie. Ghost Soldier. H. Holt, c2001. 216pp.
Alexander, in North Carolina while his father decides whether to remarry and move there, meets the
ghost of a Confederate soldier and helps him look for his family.
Brenaman, Miriam. Evvy’s Civil War. Speak, 2004, c2002. 209pp.
In Virginia in 1860, on the verge of the Civil War, fourteen-year-old Evvy chafes at the restrictions
that her society places on both women and slaves.
Crisp, Marty. Private Captain: A Story of Gettysburg. Puffin Books, 2002, c2001. 293pp.
In 1863 Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Ben and his dog Captain set off in search of Ben’s brother,
who is missing from the Union Army.
Elliott, Laura. Annie, Between the States. Katherine Tegen Books, c2004. 488pp.
Instead of spending her teen years at parties and balls, Annie, an idealistic, poetry-loving patriot,
finds herself nursing soldiers, hiding valuables, and running the household as the Civil War rages
around her family’s Virginia home.
Ernst, Kathleen. Ghosts of Vicksburg. White Mane Kids, c2003. 215pp.
When Jamie Carswell joins the 14th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment fighting in Vicksburg, Missis-
sippi, he finds his cousin Althea living there, trying to make peace with her past and keep her family
safe during the Union’s siege.
Hahn, Mary Downing. Hear the Wind Blow. Clarion Books, c2003. 212pp.
With their mother dead and their home burned, a thirteen-year-old boy and his little sister set out
across Virginia in search of relatives during the final days of the Civil War.
Hughes, Pat. Guerrilla Season. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2003. 328pp.
Two fifteen-year-old boys in Missouri in 1863 find friendship and family loyalty tested by
Quantrell’s raiders, a Rebel guerrilla band that roamed under the black flag of “no quarter to be given
by Union troops.”
Kay, Alan N. No Girls Allowed. White Mane Kids, c2003. 148pp.
In 1862 two young girls, one a member of an aid society that helps the wounded, and the other dis-
guised as a boy and serving as a soldier in the Union army, find themselves working together at the
battle of Antietam.
Lyons, Mary E. Dear Ellen Bee: A Civil War Scrapbook of Two Union Spies. Atheneum Books for
Young Readers, c2000. 161pp.
A scrapbook kept by a young black girl details her experiences and those of the older white woman,
“Miss Bet,” who had freed her and her family, sent her north from Richmond to get an education, and
then worked to bring an end to slavery. Based on the life of Elizabeth Van Lew.
Matas, Carol. The War Within: A Novel of the Civil War. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers,
c2001. 151pp.
In 1862, after Union forces expel Hannah’s family from Holly Springs, Mississippi, because they are
Jews, Hannah reexamines her views regarding slavery and the war.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Civil War
McMullan, Margaret. How I Found the Strong: A Civil War Story. Houghton Mifflin, c2004. 136pp.
Frank Russell, known as Shanks, wishes he could have gone with his father and brother to fight for
Mississippi and the Confederacy, but his experiences with the war and his changing relationship
with the family slave, Buck, change his thinking.
Myers, Anna. Assassin. Walker (distributed by Holtzbrinck), c2005. 212pp.
In alternating passages, a young White House seamstress named Bella and the actor John Wilkes
Booth describe the events that led to the latter’s assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Peck, Richard. The River Between Us. Dial Books, c2003. 164pp.
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.
Reeder, Carolyn. Before the Creeks Ran Red. HarperCollins, c2003. 370pp.
Through the eyes of three different boys, three linked novellas explore the tumultuous times, begin-
ning with the secession of South Carolina and leading up to the first major battle of the Civil War.
Rinaldi, Ann. Numbering All the Bones. Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children, c2002. 170pp.
Thirteen-year-old Eulinda, a house slave on a Georgia plantation in 1864, turns to Clara Barton (the
real-life founder of the American Red Cross), for help in finding her brother Neddy, who ran away to
join the Northern war effort and is rumored to be at Andersonville Prison.
Rinaldi, Ann. Sarah’s Ground. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2004. 178pp.
In 1861 eighteen-year-old Sarah Tracy, from New York State, comes to work at Mount Vernon, the
historic Virginia home of George Washington, where she tries to protect the safety and neutrality of
the site during the Civil War, and where she encounters her future husband, Upton Herbert. Includes
historical notes.
Severance, John B. Braving the Fire. Clarion Books, c2002. 148pp.
Jem joins the Union Army but is not sure of his motives or what he hopes to accomplish, particularly
since the Civil War has divided his family and caused much violence and confusion in his life.
Siegelson, Kim L. Trembling Earth. Philomel Books, c2004. 152pp.
In 1864 two boys, one a slave running toward freedom and one a white boy hoping to collect the re-
ward for capturing him, make their way through Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp, relying on knowl-
edge the white boy’s father, disabled by the war, had passed on to him in happier times.
Taylor, Mildred D. The Land. P. Fogelman, c2001. 375pp.
In the aftermath of the Civil War, Paul-Edward, the son of a part-Indian, part-African slave mother
and a White plantation owner father, finds himself caught between the two worlds of his parents as
he pursues his dream of owning land.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Dust Bowl
Books for Ages 12–15
Connell, Kate. Hoping for Rain: The Dust Bowl Adventures of Patty and Earl Buckler National Geo-
graphic, c2004. 40pp. (NF)
Sixteen-year-old Earl Buckler, his twelve-year-old sister Patty, and their family endure the droughts,
black blizzards, and hardships of the Great Depression and the dust bowl in Oklahoma in 1935 be-
fore emigrating to California.
Coombs, Karen Mueller. Children of the Dust Days. Carolrhoda Books, c2000. 48pp. (NF)
Focuses on the experiences of children during the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s, when prolonged
drought, coupled with ruinous farming techniques, caused massive erosion from Texas to Canada’s
wheat fields.
De Angelis, Therese. The Dust Bowl. Chelsea House, c2002. 116pp. (NF)
Chronicles the plight of farmers living in the dust bowl in the 1930s, discussing the social upheaval
that accompanied the loss of their livelihood and the official programs and reforms enacted by the
federal government to help them.
Dearen, Patrick. When the Sky Rained Dust. Eakin Press, c2004. 126pp.
Fourteen-year-old Josh faces love, a dust storm, and the threat of losing his family’s farm during the
days of the dust bowl and the Great Depression in 1934.
Hamilton, John. Droughts. ABDO, c2006. 32pp. (NF)
Explains how droughts happen, describes the “dust bowl” in 1930s America, presents photos of
drought-ravaged places around the world, and discusses what can be done ahead of time to lessen a
drought’s devastation.
Heinrichs, Ann. The Dust Bowl. Compass Point Books, c2005. 48pp. (NF)
Discusses the dust bowl era of the 1930s, when dust storms raged across the heartland of the United
States, causing damage that reached from North Dakota to Texas, explains how a combination of
bad farming practices and drought caused the deadly conditions, and looks at how people and the
government responded to the crisis.
Henderson, Caroline A. Letters from the Dust Bowl. University of Oklahoma Press, c2001. 278pp.
(NF)
A collection of letters and articles written by Caroline Henderson between 1908 and 1966 provide
insight into her life on the Great Plains, featuring both published materials and private correspon-
dence. Includes a biographical profile, chapter introductions, and annotations.
Hesse, Karen. Out of the Dust. Scholastic Press, c1997. 227pp.
In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family’s wheat
farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.
Janke, Katelan. Survival in the Storm: The Dust Bowl Diary of Grace Edwards. Scholastic, c2002.
189pp.
A twelve-year-old girl keeps a journal of her family’s and friends’ difficult experiences in the Texas
panhandle, part of the dust bowl during the Great Depression. Includes a historical note about life in
America in 1935.
From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Dust Bowl
Meltzer, Milton. Driven from the Land: The Story of the Dust Bowl. Benchmark Books, c2000. 111pp.
(NF)
Describes the economic and environmental conditions that led to the Great Depression and the hor-
rific dust storms that drove people west from their homes during the 1930s.
Moss, Marissa. Rose’s Journal: The Story of a Girl in the Great Depression. Silver Whistle/Harcourt,
c2001. 52pp.
Rose keeps a journal of her family’s difficult times on their farm during the days of the dust bowl in
1935.
Porter, Tracey. Treasures in the Dust. HarperTrophy, c1999. 148pp.
Eleven-year-old Annie and her friend Violet tell about the hardships endured by their families when
dust storms, drought, and the Great Depression hit rural Oklahoma.
Stanley, Jerry. Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp. Crown,
c1992. 85pp. (NF)
Describes the plight of the migrant workers who traveled from the dust bowl areas to California dur-
ing the Great Depression and were forced to live in a federal labor camp; discusses the school that
was built for their children.
Worster, Donald. Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s. Oxford University Press, c2004.
290pp. (NF)
Discusses the tragedy that followed the destruction of America’s superb Western grasslands and
points out useful lessons learned from it.
Yancey, Diane. Life During the Dust Bowl. Lucent Books, Thomson/Gale, c2004. 112pp. (NF)
Discusses the causes and effects of the disastrous dust storms that hit the Great Plains in the 1930s.

Books for Older Teens

Slade, Arthur G. Dust. Wendy Lamb Books, c2003. 183pp.
Eleven-year-old Robert is the only one who can help when a mysterious stranger arrives, performing
tricks and promising to bring rain, and children begin to disappear from a dust bowl farm town in
Saskatchewan in the 1930s.
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. Penguin, c1992. 619pp.
The saga of a family in 1939 that struggles through the Great Depression by laboring as dust bowl
migrants.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Ellis Island
Books for Ages 12–15
Anderson, Dale. Arriving at Ellis Island. World Almanac Library, c2002. 48pp. (NF)
Discusses immigration to the United States during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and
describes the small island in New York harbor that served as the point of entry for millions of immi-
grants from 1892 to 1954.
Auch, Mary Jane. Ashes of Roses. H. Holt, c2002. 250pp.
Sixteen-year-old Rose Nolan arrives on Ellis Island in 1911 with hopes of starting a new life, but af-
ter most of her family is sent back to Ireland, she must find her own way in a new country and fend
for herself and her younger sister.
Houghton, Gillian. Ellis Island: A Primary Source History of an Immigrant’s Arrival in America.
Rosen Central Primary Source, c2004. 64pp. (NF)
Primary sources bring to life the immigrant experience through a history of America’s most famous
point of entry, Ellis Island.
Lasky, Kathryn. Hope in My Heart. Scholastic, c2003. 106pp.
After her family immigrates to America from Italy in 1903, ten-year-old Sofia is quarantined at the
Ellis Island Immigration Station, where she makes a good friend but endures nightmarish condi-
tions. Includes historical notes.
Marcovitz, Hal. Ellis Island. Mason Crest Publishers, c2003. 48pp. (NF)
Traces the history of Ellis Island, the place where immigrants coming to the United States were once
processed, and discusses its significance to the American people.
Moreno, Barry. Encyclopedia of Ellis Island. Greenwood Press, 2004. 321pp. (NF)
Contains 430 alphabetically arranged articles that provide information about people, places, and
events in the history of Ellis Island, including coverage of immigration laws and acts, operations,
and organizations.
Nixon, Joan Lowery. Land of Dreams. G. Stevens, c2001. 153pp.
In 1902 sixteen-year-old Kristin travels with her family from Sweden to a new life in Minnesota,
where she finds herself frustrated by the restrictions placed on what girls of her age are expected or
allowed to do.
Nixon, Joan Lowery. Land of Hope. G. Stevens, 2001, c1992. 171pp.
Rebekah, a fifteen-year-old Jewish immigrant arriving in New York City in 1902, almost abandons
her dream of getting an education when she is forced to work in a sweatshop.
Nixon, Joan Lowery. Land of Promise. G. Stevens, 2001, c1993. 169pp.
In 1902 fifteen-year-old Rose travels from Ireland to join family members in Chicago, where she
must use all her resources to deal with her father’s drinking and her brothers’ dangerous involvement
in politics.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Ellis Island
Raatma, Lucia. Ellis Island. Compass Point Books, c2003. 48pp. (NF)
Traces the history of Ellis Island, focusing on its role as a port for immigrants who came to the
United States between 1892 and 1924; provides information about the immigrant experience; and
includes discussion of the restoration of Ellis Island as a historic landmark.
Rebman, Renee C. Life on Ellis Island. Lucent Books, 1999, c2000. 95pp. (NF)
Discusses life on Ellis Island, including detainment and deportation of immigrants, daily activities,
the development of the immigration station, its role in the formation of the great melting pot of
America, and the later years.
Sherman, Augustus F. Augustus F. Sherman: Ellis Island Portraits, 1905–1920. Aperture, c2005.
141pp. (NF)
Presents a comprehensive collection of black-and-white photographs of over 200 families, groups,
and individuals as they passed through Ellis Island between 1904 and 1920.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Frontier and Pioneer Life

Books for Ages 12–15
Aldrich, Bess Streeter. A Lantern in Her Hand. Puffin Books, c1997. 251pp.
After marrying Will Deal and moving to Nebraska, Abbie endures the difficulties of frontier life and
raises her children to pursue the ambitions that were once her own.
Armstrong, Jennifer. Black-eyed Susan. Knopf, c1997. 120pp.
Ten-year-old Susie and her father love living on the South Dakota prairie with its vast, uninterrupted
views of land and sky, but Susie’s mother greatly misses their old life in Ohio.
Brink, Carol Ryrie. Caddie Woodlawn. Aladdin Paperbacks, 1997, c1935. 242pp.
Chronicles the adventures of eleven-year-old Caddie growing up with her six brothers and sisters on
the Wisconsin frontier in the mid-nineteenth century.
Calvert, Patricia. Betrayed! Aladdin Paperbacks, 2004, c2002. 212pp.
In 1867, after his father’s death and his mother’s remarriage, fourteen-year-old Tyler and his black
friend Isaac set out on the Missouri River, headed west to seek their fortunes, encountering an unsa-
vory keel boat captain and a Sioux chief along the way.
Conrad, Pam. My Daniel. HarperTrophy, 1991, c1989. 137pp.
Ellie and Stevie learn about a family legacy when their grandmother tells them stories of her
brother’s quest for dinosaur bones on their Nebraska farm.
Conrad, Pam. Prairie Songs. HarperTrophy, 1987, c1985. 167pp.
Louisa’s life in a loving pioneer family on the Nebraska prairie is altered by the arrival of a new doc-
tor and his beautiful, tragically frail wife.
Couloumbis, Audrey. The Misadventures of Maude Marche, Or, Trouble Rides a Fast Horse. Ran-
dom House, c2005. 295pp.
After the death of the stern aunt who raised them since they were orphaned, eleven-year-old Sallie
and her fifteen-year-old sister escape their self-serving guardians and begin an adventure resembling
those in the dime novels Sallie loves to read.
Cushman, Karen. The Ballad of Lucy Whipple. Clarion Books, c1996. 195pp.
In 1849 twelve-year-old California Morning Whipple, who renames herself Lucy, is distraught
when her mother moves the family from Massachusetts to a rough California mining town.
Durbin, William. Blackwater Ben. Dell Yearling, 2005, c2003. 200pp.
Thirteen-year-old Ben Ward drops out of school and joins his father working as a cook at the Black-
water Logging Camp in Minnesota in the winter of 1898.
Durbin, William. Song of Sampo Lake. Wendy Lamb, c2002. 217pp.
In 1900, as a family of Finnish immigrants begins farming on the edge of a Minnesota lake, Matti
works as a store clerk, teaches English, and works on the homestead, striving to get out of his older
brother’s shadow and earn their father’s respect.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Frontier and Pioneer Life

Ellsworth, Loretta. The Shrouding Woman. H. Holt, c2002. 151pp.
When her Aunt Flo comes to help care for eleven-year-old Evie and her younger sister after their
mother’s death, Evie wants nothing to do with her, and she is especially uncomfortable with her
aunt’s calling of helping prepare bodies for burial.
Fleischman, Paul. The Borning Room. HarperTrophy, 1993, c1991. 101pp.
Lying at the end of her life in the room where she was born in 1851, Georgina remembers what it was
like to grow up on the Ohio frontier.
Gregory, Kristiana. Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie: The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Camp-
bell. Scholastic, c1997. 168pp.
In her diary, thirteen-year-old Hattie chronicles her family’s arduous journey from Missouri to Ore-
gon in 1847 on the Oregon Trail.
Gregory, Kristiana. Jenny of the Tetons. Gulliver Books/Harcourt, 2002, c1989. 168pp.
Orphaned by an Indian raid while traveling west with a wagon train, fifteen-year-old Carrie Hill is
befriended by the English trapper Beaver Dick and taken to live with his Indian wife, Jenny, and
their six children.
Hahn, Mary Downing. The Gentleman Outlaw and Me—Eli: A Story of the Old West. Clarion Books,
c1996. 212pp.
In 1887 twelve-year-old Eliza, disguised as a boy and traveling to Colorado in search of her missing
father, falls in with a Gentleman Outlaw and joins him in his illegal schemes.
Haruf, Kent. The Tie That Binds: A Novel. Vintage Contemporaries, 2000, c1984. 246pp.
Edith Goodnough goes through life without despair or self-pity, denying herself a chance at love and
happiness to care for her father and brother until, at the age of eighty, she decides to seek a type of
freedom.
Hite, Sid. Stick and Whittle. Scholastic Signature, 2001, c2000. 202pp.
In 1872, while journeying from Texas to Kansas, a Civil War veteran named Melvin meets a six-
teen-year-old orphan, another Melvin, and they give each other nicknames, becoming partners and
traveling companions on an exciting adventure.
Holm, Jennifer L. Boston Jane: An Adventure. HarperCollins, c2001. 273pp. (and sequels)
Schooled in the lessons of etiquette for young ladies in 1854, Miss Jane Peck of Philadelphia finds
little use for manners during her long sea voyage to the Pacific Northwest and while living among
the American traders and Chinook Indians of Washington Territory.
Holm, Jennifer L. Our Only May Amelia. HarperCollins, c1999. 253pp.
As the only girl in a Finnish American family of seven brothers, May Amelia Jackson resents being
expected to act like a lady while growing up in Washington State in 1899.
Ingold, Jeanette. The Big Burn. Harcourt, c2002. 295pp.
Three teenagers battle the flames of the Big Burn of 1910, one of the century’s largest wildfires.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Frontier and Pioneer Life

Ingold, Jeanette. Mountain Solo. Harcourt, c2003. 309pp.
Tess, a violin prodigy who has been playing since age three, throws away all her training and talent
to start a new life with her father in Montana, where she realizes having a normal life isn’t always so
normal.
Kimmel, Elizabeth Cody. In the Eye of the Storm. HarperCollins, c2003. 132pp.
With the ever-present threat of further violence from pro-slavery border ruffians, nine-year-old Bill
must run the farm, even after his father comes home to recuperate from his knife wound, and go to
school.
Kimmel, Elizabeth Cody. To the Frontier. HarperTrophy, 2004, c2002. 182pp.
After the death of his brother, eight-year-old Bill Cody and his family set out from Iowa to make a
new home for themselves in the volatile Kansas Territory.
Koller, Jackie French. The Primrose Way. Harcourt Brace, 1995, c1992. 334pp.
A recent arrival to the New World in 1633, sixteen-year-old Rebekah, a missionary’s daughter, be-
friends a Native American woman and begins to question whether these “savages” need saving after
all.
Lane, Rose Wilder. Young Pioneers. HarperTrophy, c1998. 175pp.
After getting married and settling at Wild Plum Creek, David’s and Caroline’s lives are turned up-
side down when disaster strikes and David must go east to find work for the winter.
Lenski, Lois. Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison. HarperTrophy, 1995, c1941. 298pp.
A fictional retelling of the experiences of twelve-year-old Mary Jemison, who was captured by a
Shawnee war party during the French and Indian War, then later rescued and subsequently adopted
by two Seneca sisters, with whom she ultimately chose to stay.
Oswald, Nancy. Nothing Here But Stones. H. Holt, c2004. 215pp.
In 1882 ten-year-old Emma and her family, along with other Russian Jewish immigrants, arrive in
Cotopaxi, Colorado, where they face inhospitable conditions as they attempt to start an agricultural
colony, and lonely Emma is comforted by the horse whose life she saved.
Paulsen, Gary. Call Me Francis Tucket. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1996,
c1995. 97pp.
Having separated from the one-armed trapper who taught him how to survive in the wilderness of the
Old West, fifteen-year-old Francis gets lost and continues to have adventures, involving dangerous
men and a friendly mule.
Paulsen, Gary. Tucket’s Gold. Dell Yearling, 2001, c1999. 97pp.
Fifteen-year-old Francis and the two children he has adopted travel across the Old West, evade
Comancheros, discover a treasure, and wind up rich beyond their wildest dreams.
Rudolph, Marian. Lovina’s Song: A Pioneer Girl’s Journey with The Donner Party. Citron Bay Press,
c1999. 187pp.
Presents a fictionalized account of twelve-year-old Lovina Graves’s experiences as part of the
Donner Party on their ill-fated journey west in 1846–1847.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Frontier and Pioneer Life

Spooner, Michael. Daniel’s Walk. H. Holt, c2001. 214pp.
With little more than a bedroll, a change of clothes, and a Bible, fourteen-year-old Daniel LeBlanc
begins walking the Oregon Trail in search of his father who, according to a mysterious visitor, is in
big trouble and needs his son’s help.
Van Leeuwen, Jean. Cabin on Trouble Creek. Dial Books for Young Readers, c2004. 219pp.
In 1803 in Ohio, two young brothers are left to finish the log cabin and guard the land while their fa-
ther goes back to Pennsylvania to fetch their mother and younger siblings.
Wilder, Laura Ingalls. Little House. HarperTrophy, 1994, c1971. 9v.
A collection of nine books that recount the adventures of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family.

Books for Older Teens

Carbone, Elisa Lynn. Last Dance on Holladay Street. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c2005.
196pp.
Thirteen-year-old Eva, left alone in the world after the death of her adoptive parents, goes to Denver,
Colorado, in 1878 search of her birth mother in and is shocked to find the address is a house of ill re-
pute, and her mother only too willing to put her to work.
Cather, Willa. My Antonia. Pocket Books, c2004. 314pp.
A successful lawyer remembers his boyhood in Nebraska and his friendship with an immigrant Bo-
hemian girl. Includes background information, a chronology of the author’s life, explanatory notes,
critical analyses, and other reference material.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Holocaust
Books for Ages 12–15
Bennett, Cherie. Anne Frank and Me. Putnam, c2001. 291pp.
After suffering a concussion while on a class trip to a Holocaust exhibit, Nicole finds herself living
the life of a Jewish teenager in Paris during the Nazi occupation.
Denenberg, Barry. One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping: The Diary of Julie Weiss. Scholastic,
c2000. 250pp.
During the Nazi persecution of the Jews in Austria, twelve-year-old Julie escapes to America to live
with her relatives in New York City.
Drucker, Malka. Jacob’s Rescue: A Holocaust Story. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Read-
ers, 1994, c1993. 117pp.
In answer to his daughter’s questions, a man recalls the terrifying years of his childhood when a
brave Polish couple, Alex and Mela Roslan, hid him and other Jewish children from the Nazis. Based
on a true story.
Levitin, Sonia. Room in the Heart. Dutton, c2003. 290pp.
After German forces occupy Denmark during World War II, fifteen-year-old Julie Weinstein and
fifteen-year-old Niels Nelson and their friends and families try to cope with their daily lives, finding
various ways to resist the Nazis and, ultimately, to survive.
Lobel, Anita. No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War. Greenwillow Books, c1998. 193pp. (NF)
The author, known as an illustrator of children’s books, describes her experiences as a Polish Jew
during World War II and for years in Sweden afterward.
Matas, Carol. After the War. Aladdin Paperbacks, 1997, c1996. 133pp.
After being released from Buchenwald at the end of World War II, fifteen-year-old Ruth risks her
life to lead a group of children across Europe to Palestine.
Matas, Carol. Daniel’s Story. Scholastic, c1993. 136pp.
Daniel, whose family suffers as the Nazis rise to power in Germany, describes his imprisonment in a
concentration camp and his eventual liberation.
Mazer, Norma Fox. Good Night, Maman. Harcourt Brace, c1999. 185pp.
After spending years fleeing from the Nazis in war-torn Europe, twelve-year-old Karin Levi and her
older brother Marc find a new home in a refugee camp in Oswego, New York.
Orlev, Uri. The Lady with the Hat. Houghton Mifflin, c1995. 183pp.
In 1947 seventeen-year-old Yulek, the only member of his immediate family to survive the German
concentration camps, joins a group of young Jews preparing to live on a kibbutz in Israel, unaware
that his aunt, who is living in London, is looking for him.
Orlev, Uri. Run, Boy, Run: A Novel. Houghton Mifflin, c2003. 186pp.
Based on the true story of a nine-year-old boy who escapes the Warsaw Ghetto and must survive
throughout the war in the Nazi-occupied Polish countryside.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Holocaust
Pressler, Mirjam. Malka. Philomel Books, c2003. 280pp.
In the winter of 1943, a Polish physician and her older daughter make a dangerous and arduous trek
to Hungary, while seven-year-old Malka, whom they were forced to leave behind when she became
ill, fends for herself in a ghetto.
Spinelli, Jerry. Milkweed: A Novel. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c2003. 208pp.
A street child, known to himself only as Stopthief, finds community when he is taken in by a band of
orphans in a Warsaw ghetto, which helps him weather the horrors of the Nazi regime.
Williams, Laura E. Behind the Bedroom Wall. Milkweed Editions (distributed by Publishers Group
West), c1996. 169pp.
Ten-year-old Korinna must decide whether to report her parents to her Hitler youth group when she
discovers that they are hiding Jews in a secret space behind Korinna’s bedroom wall.

Books for Older Teens

Bassani, Giorgio. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c2005.
246pp.
A young middle-class Jew in the Italian city of Ferrara has always been fascinated by the wealthy
and aristocratic Jewish family, the Finzi-Continis, and as local Jews begin to gather at the
Finzi-Continis estate to escape the racial laws of the Fascists, he falls in love with their wealthy
daughter, Micol.
Goldstein, Jan. All That Matters. Hyperion, c2004. 198pp.
Twenty-three-year-old Jennifer Stempler, her mother dead, her father remarried, and deserted by her
lover, makes a failed attempt to kill herself, but her obvious call for help is answered by her beloved
grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, who takes Jennifer to her home in New York and tries to give her
a reason for living.
Keizer, Gregg. The Longest Night. Putnam, c2004. 368pp.
Hit man Leonard Weiss is sent to Europe, where he is told to rescue a train of Dutch Jews being sent
to one of Hitler’s work camps.
Kertesz, Imre. Fatelessness: A Novel. Vintage International, c2004. 262pp.
Gyorgy Koves, a fourteen-year-old Hungarian Jew who knows neither Yiddish nor Hebrew, at-
tempts to make sense of his experiences in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps
while being ostracized by the other prisoners.
Newbery, Linda. Sisterland. David Fickling Books, 2004, c2003. 369pp.
When Hilly’s grandmother becomes ill with Alzheimer’s disease, her family is turned upside down
by revelations about her life during World War II.
Russell, Mary Doria. A Thread of Grace: A Novel. Random House, c2005. 430pp.
Historical fiction surrounding the family of fourteen-year-old Claudette Blum, Jewish refugees hop-
ing to find safety in Italy in 1943 after the country broke with Germany, but who find that it is any-
thing but peaceful.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Life on the Home Front During World War II

Books for Ages 12–15
Avi. Don’t You Know There’s a War On? HarperCollins, c2001. 200pp.
In wartime Brooklyn in 1943, eleven-year-old Howie Crispers mounts a campaign to save his favor-
ite teacher from being fired.
Campbell, Barbara. Taking Care of Yoki. HarperTrophy, 1986, c1982. 167pp.
In St. Louis during the Second World War, Bob makes secret plans to save the life of an old horse
that pulls the milk delivery wagon.
Colman, Penny. Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II. Crown,
c1995. 120pp. (NF)
Describes the many roles assumed by women in the United States after the country’s entry into
World War II.
Enright, Elizabeth. The Four-Story Mistake. H. Holt, 2002, c1942. 196pp.
During the war, the Melendy family moves to a house in the country, where a secret room, a cupola, a
stable, and a brook provide Mona, Rush, Randy, and Oliver with adventures far different from the
city life to which they are accustomed.
Giff, Patricia Reilly. Lily’s Crossing. Delacorte Press, c1997. 180pp.
During the summer of 1944, spent at Rockaway Beach, Lily’s friendship with a young Hungarian
refugee causes her to see the war and her own world differently.
Giff, Patricia Reilly. Willow Run. Wendy Lamb, c2005. 149pp.
Eleven-year-old Meggie Dillon shares her feelings and experiences on the home front during World
War II after her family moves from Rockaway, New York, to Willow Run, Michigan.
Greene, Bette. Summer of My German Soldier. Dial Books, 2003, c1973. 230pp.
When German prisoners of war are brought to her Arkansas town during World War II,
twelve-year-old Patty, a Jewish girl, befriends one of them and must deal with the consequences of
that friendship.
Kochenderfer, Lee. The Victory Garden. Delacorte Press, c2002. 167pp.
Hoping to contribute to the war effort during World War II, eleven-year-old Teresa organizes her
friends to care for a sick neighbor’s victory garden.
Krull, Kathleen. V Is for Victory: America Remembers World War II. Knopf (distributed by Random
House), c1995. 115pp. (NF)
Chronicles World War II on both the battlefront and the home front, using photographs, letters, and
posters to illustrate how the war affected life.
Lee, Milly. Nim and the War Effort. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2002, c1997. 20pp.
In her determination to prove that an American can win a contest for the war effort, Nim does some-
thing that leaves her Chinese grandfather both bewildered and proud.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Life on the Home Front During World War II

Lisle, Janet Taylor. The Art of Keeping Cool. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2000. 207pp.
Robert and his cousin Elliot uncover long-hidden family secrets while staying in their grandparents’
Rhode Island town in 1942, where they also become involved with a German artist who is suspected
of being a spy.
Magorian, Michelle. Good Night, Mr. Tom. HarperCollins, 1986, c1981. 318pp.
A battered child learns to embrace life when he is adopted by an old man in the English countryside
during World War II.
Mochizuki, Ken. Baseball Saved Us. Lee & Low, c1993. 32pp.
A Japanese American boy learns to play baseball when he and his family are forced to live in an in-
ternment camp during World War II, and his ability to play helps him after the war is over.
Stein, R. Conrad. The Home Front During World War II in American History. Enslow, c2003. 112pp.
(NF)
Describes the experiences of those men and women who remained in the United States during World
War II, discussing their emotional ups and downs, financial status, hard work, patriotism, fear, ten-
sion, shortages, and loneliness.
Westall, Robert. Kingdom by the Sea. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c1991. 175pp.
During World War II twelve-year-old Harry and a stray dog travel through war-torn England in
search of safety.
Weston, Elise. The Coastwatcher. Peachtree, c2005. 132pp.
While eleven-year-old Hugh, his family, and his cousin Tom are spending the summer of 1943 on
the South Carolina shore to escape the polio epidemic, Hugh uncovers clues that point to a German
plot to sabotage a nearby naval base.
Whitman, Sylvia. V Is for Victory: The American Home Front During World War II. Lerner, c1993.
80pp. (NF)
Using period photographs, describes life in the United States during World War II, discussing such
activities as civil defense, the Japanese relocation, rationing, propaganda, and censorship.

Books for Older Teens

Knowles, John. A Separate Peace. Scribner Classics, 1996, c1987. 204pp.
Gene Forrester looks back fifteen years to a year during World War II in which he and his best friend
Phineas were roommates in a New Hampshire boarding school. Their friendship is marred by Finny’s
crippling fall, an event for which Gene is responsible and one that eventually leads to tragedy.
Reid, Constance. Slacks and Calluses: Our Summer in a Bomber Factory. Smithsonian Institution
Press, c1999. 181pp. (NF)
Constance Bowman and Clara Marie Allen describe the summer of 1943, when they—middle-class
art and English teachers at San Diego High School—went to work assembling B-24 bombers,
known as Liberators, for the war.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Middle Ages
Books for Ages 12–15
Avi. Crispin: The Cross of Lead. Hyperion Books for Children, c2002. 262pp.
Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in fourteenth-century England flees
his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret.
Branford, Henrietta. Fire, Bed & Bone. Candlewick Press, c1998. 122pp.
In England in 1381, a hunting dog recounts what happens to his beloved master Rufus and his family
when they are arrested on suspicion of being part of the peasants’ rebellion, led by Wat Tyler and the
preacher John Ball.
Crossley-Holland, Kevin. The Seeing Stone. Arthur A. Levine, c2001. 342pp. (and sequels)
Arthur, a thirteen-year-old boy in late twelfth-century England, tells how Merlin gave him a magical
seeing stone, which shows him images of the legendary King Arthur, the events of whose life seem
to have many parallels to his own.
Cushman, Karen. Catherine, Called Birdy. Clarion Books, c1994. 169pp.
The daughter of an English country knight keeps a journal in which she records the events of her life,
particularly her longing for adventures beyond the usual role of women and her efforts to avoid be-
ing married off.
Cushman, Karen. Matilda Bone. Clarion, c2000. 167pp.
Fourteen-year-old Matilda, an apprentice bonesetter and practitioner of medicine in a village in me-
dieval England, tries to reconcile the various aspects of her life, both spiritual and practical.
Cushman, Karen. The Midwife’s Apprentice. Clarion Books, c1995. 122pp.
In medieval England, a nameless, homeless girl is taken in by a sharp-tempered midwife.In spite of
obstacles and hardship, she eventually gains the three things she most wants: a full belly, a contented
heart, and a place in this world.
Goodman, Joan E. Peregrine. Houghton Mifflin, c2000. 222pp.
In 1144, fifteen-year-old Lady Edith, having lost her husband and child and anxious to avoid marry-
ing a man she detests, sets out from her home in Surrey to go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Goodman, Joan E. The Winter Hare. Houghton Mifflin, c1996. 255pp.
In 1140, with England divided between the supporters of King Stephen and those of the Empress
Matilda, twelve-year-old Will Belet, small for his age but longing to be a knight, comes to his un-
cle’s castle to be a page and soon finds himself involved in dangerous intrigues and adventures.
Konigsburg, E. L. A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver. Atheneum, c1973. 201pp.
While waiting in heaven for divine judgment to be passed on her second husband, Eleanor of
Aquitaine and three of the people who knew her well recall the events of her life.
McCaffrey, Anne. Black Horses for the King. Ballantine Books, 1998, c1996. 206pp.
Galwyn, son of a Roman Celt, escapes from his tyrannical uncle and joins Lord Artos, later known as
King Arthur, using his talent with languages and way with horses to help secure and care for the Lib-
yan horses that Artos hopes to use in battle against the Saxons.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Middle Ages
McKinley, Robin. The Outlaws of Sherwood. Ace, c1989. 278pp.
The author retells the adventures of Robin Hood and his band of outlaws, who live in Sherwood For-
est in twelfth-century England.
Morris, Gerald. The Squire, His Knight, & His Lady. Houghton Mifflin, c1999. 232pp.
After several years at King Arthur’s court, Terence, as Sir Gawain’s squire and friend, accompanies
him on a perilous quest that tests all their skills; its successful completion could mean certain death
for Gawain.
Morris, Gerald. The Squire’s Tale. Houghton Mifflin, c1998. 212pp.
In medieval England, fourteen-year-old Terence finds his tranquil existence suddenly changed when
he becomes the squire of the young Gawain of Orkney and accompanies him on a long quest, prov-
ing Gawain’s worth as a knight and revealing an important secret about Terence’s own true identity.
Smith, Sherwood. Crown Duel. Harcourt Brace, c1997. 214pp.
To fulfill their father’s dying wish, teenage Countess Meliara and her brother Branaric organize a
revolution against a greedy king.
Temple, Frances. The Ramsay Scallop. HarperTrophy, 1995, c1994. 310pp.
Thirteenth-century couple Elenor and Tom overcome their reluctance to marry after they are sent on
a prenuptial journey to Spain and learn more about the world and each other.
Thomson, Sarah L. The Dragon’s Son. Orchard Books, c2001. 181pp.
Based on the Mabinogion, a collection of medieval Welsh tales, as well as later legends; tells about
family members and servants important in the life of King Arthur, featuring Nimue, Morgan le Fay,
Luned, and Mordred.
Williams, Laura E. The Executioner’s Daughter. H. Holt, c2000. 134pp.
Thirteen-year-old Lily, daughter of the town’s executioner in fifteenth-century Europe, decides
whether to fight against her destiny or to rise above her fate.
Yolen, Jane. Girl in a Cage. Philomel Books, c2002. 234pp.
As English armies invade Scotland in 1306, eleven-year-old Princess Marjorie, daughter of the
newly crowned Scottish king, Robert the Bruce, is captured by England’s King Edward (Long-
shanks) and held in a cage on public display.
Yolen, Jane. Sword of the Rightful King: A Novel of King Arthur. Harcourt, c2003. 349pp.
Merlinnus the magician devises a way for King Arthur to prove himself the rightful king of Eng-
land—pulling a sword from a stone—but trouble arises when someone else removes the sword first.

Books for Older Teens

Alder, Elizabeth. The King’s Shadow. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1997, c1995.
259pp.
After he is orphaned and has his tongue cut out in a clash with the bullying sons of a Welsh noble,
Evyn is sold as a slave and serves many masters, from the gracious Lady Swan Neck to the valiant
Harold Godwinson, England’s last Saxon king.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Middle Ages
Bradley, Marion Zimmer. The Mists of Avalon. Ballantine Books, 2000, c1982. 876pp.
A re-creation of the Arthurian legend following the clash between Christianity and paganism that led
to the demise of Camelot.
Cadnum, Michael. The Book of the Lion. Viking Press, c2000. 204pp.
In twelfth-century England, after his master, a maker of coins for the king, is brutally punished for
alleged cheating, seventeen-year-old Edmund finds himself traveling to the Holy Land as squire to a
knight crusader on his way to join the forces of Richard Lionheart.
Jordan, Sherryl. The Raging Quiet. Aladdin Paperbacks, c2000. 266pp.
Suspicious of sixteen-year-old Marnie, a newcomer to their village, the residents accuse her of
witchcraft when she discovers that the village madman is not crazy but deaf and she begins to com-
municate with him through hand gestures.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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South Asia and the South Asian Diaspora

Compiled by Pooja Makhijani (www.poojamakhijani.com), is an essayist, journalist, and writer
of children’s literature, editor of Under Her Skin: How Girls Experience Race in America,
and author of the picture book Mama’s Saris.

Books for Ages 12–15

Alexander, Lloyd. The Iron Ring. Puffin Books, c1999. 283pp.
Driven by his sense of “dharma,” or honor, young King Tamar sets off on a perilous journey, with a
significance greater than he can imagine, during which he meets talking animals, villainous and no-
ble kings, demons, and the love of his life.
Banerjee, Anjali. Maya Running. Wendy Lamb Books, c2005. 209pp.
Maya, a Canadian of East Indian descent, struggles with her ethnic identity, infatuation with a class-
mate, and the presence of her beautiful Bengali cousin, Pinky, who comes for a visit bearing a pow-
erful statue of the god Ganesh, the Hindu elephant boy.
Banerjee, Anjali. Rani and the Fashion Divas. (Star Sisterz Sisters no. 4). Mirror Stone, c2005. 137pp.
The fourth title in a new series of adventures that follows a group of friends who receive mysterious
messages as they grow in confidence.
Bosse, Malcolm. Tusk and Stone. Front Street, c2004. 256pp.
After dacoits (thieves) attack his caravan and he loses his identity as a Brahmin, Arjun resigns him-
self to his new life, becomes an elephant driver, and searches for his kidnapped sister.
Clarke, Judith. Kalpana’s Dream. Front Street, 2005, c2004. 164pp.
Neema’s struggle to complete an essay on the topic “Who Am I” for her freshman English class is
complicated by the arrival of Kampala, her Indian great-grandmother, who has come to Australia
chasing her dream of flying. Although they do not speak the same language, the two find common
ground in skateboarder Gull Oliver.
Desai Hidier, Tanuja. Born Confused. Scholastic Press, c2002. 413pp.
As Dimple Lala turns seventeen, she realizes that life is about to become more complex as her best
friend starts pulling away and her parents try to find a suitable boyfriend for Dimple, despite the fact
that she is not interested.
Dhami, Narinder. Bindi Babes. Delacorte Press, 2004, c2003. 184pp.
Three Indian British sisters team up to marry off their traditional, nosy aunt and get her out of the
house.
Dhami, Narinder. Bollywood Babes. Delacorte Press, 2005, c2004. 213pp.
The Indian British Dhillon sisters open their home to a down-on-her-luck former movie star from In-
dia and employ her talents to raise money for their school.
Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee. The Conch Bearer. Aladdin Paperbacks, 2005, c2003. 265pp.
Twelve-year-old Anand is entrusted with a conch shell that possesses mystical powers and sets out
on a journey to return the shell to its rightful home, many hundreds of miles away.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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South Asia and the South Asian Diaspora

Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee. The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming: A Novel. Roaring Brook, c2005.
329pp.
As twelve-year-old Anand continues his studies to become a full-fledged member of The Brother-
hood of the Conch, he journeys back to Moghul times, where he encounters powerful sorcerers,
spoiled princes, noble warriors, and evil jinns.
Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee. Neela: Victory Song. Pleasant Co., c2002. 196pp.
In 1939 twelve-year-old Neela meets a young freedom fighter at her sister’s wedding and soon after
must rely on his help when her father fails to return home from a march in Calcutta against British
occupation.
Fleming, Candace. Lowji Discovers America. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2005. 152pp.
A nine-year-old East Indian boy tries to adjust to his new life in suburban America.
Gilmore, Rachna. A Group of One. H. Holt, c2001. 184pp.
Learning from her grandmother that her family was active in the Quit India movement of 1942—a
rebellion against nearly two centuries of British occupation—gives fifteen-year-old Tara new pride
in her heritage, but she still objects when her teacher implies that she is not a “regular Canadian.”
Godden, Rumer. Premlata and the Festival of Lights. Greenwillow Books, c1997. 58pp.
In Bengal, India, Premlata’s family is too poor to celebrate the Festival of Lights, until fate and an el-
ephant step in.
Godden, Rumer. The Valiant Chatti-Maker. Viking Press, c1983. 61pp.
When he inadvertently captures the tiger that has been terrorizing the neighborhood, a poor potter
not only gains fame and fortune but the unwanted honor of leading the Raja’s army against an invad-
ing enemy.
Khan, Rukhsana. Dahling, If You LUV Me, Would You Please, Please Smile. Stoddart Kids, c1999.
206pp.
Zainab, a young North American Muslim, has many difficulties making friends at school. When one
of her teachers offers to let her direct the upcoming school play, Zainab’s desire to fit in leads her to
cast the school’s most popular boy, Kevin, despite another student’s incredible audition.
Krishnaswami, Uma. Naming Maya. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2004. 178pp.
When Maya accompanies her mother to India to sell her grandfather’s house, she uncovers family
history relating to her parents’ divorce and learns more about herself and her relationship with her
mother.
Lasky, Kathryn. Jahanara: Princess of Princesses. Scholastic, c2002. 186pp.
Beginning in 1627, Princess Jahanara, first daughter of Shah Jahan of India’s Mogul Dynasty, writes
in her diary about political intrigues, weddings, battles, and other experiences of her life. Includes
historical notes on Jahanara’s later life and on the Mogul Empire.
Mukerji, Dhan Gopal. Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon. Dutton, 1968, c1954. 191pp.
The story of the training of a carrier pigeon and its service during the First World War, revealing the
bird’s courageous and spirited adventures over the housetops of an Indian village, in the Himalayan
Mountains, and on the French battlefield.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Nagda, Ann Whitehead. Meow Means Mischief. Holiday House, c2003. 92pp.
A stray kitten turns out to be the perfect way to help Rana make friends in her new school and to feel
more comfortable with her grandparents, who are visiting from India while her parents are away.
Perkins, Mitali. Monsoon Summer. Delacorte Press, c2004. 257pp.
Secretly in love with her best friend and business partner, Steve, fifteen-year-old Jazz must spend the
summer away from him when her family goes to India during that country’s rainy season to help set
up a clinic.
Perkins, Mitali. The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen: A Novel. Little, Brown, c2005. 176pp.
The arrival of her grandparents from India causes thirteen-year-old Sunita to resent her Indian heri-
tage and to be embarrassed by the differences she feels between herself and her friends in California.
Sheth, Kashmira. Blue Jasmine. Hyperion Books for Children, c2004. 186pp.
When twelve-year-old Seema moves to Iowa City with her parents and younger sister, she leaves
friends and family behind in her native India but gradually begins to feel at home in her new country.
Sreenivasan, Jyotsna. Aruna’s Journeys. Smooth Stone Press, c1997. 133pp.
Aruna, an eleven-year-old Indian American girl, reluctantly visits her relatives in India and in the
process discovers more about who she is.
Staples, Suzanne Fisher. Shiva’s Fire. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2000. 275pp.
In India, a talented dancer sacrifices friends and family for her art.
Whelan, Gloria. Homeless Bird. HarperCollins, c2000. 216pp.
Thirteen-year-old Koly enters into an ill-fated, arranged marriage and must either suffer a destiny
dictated by India’s customs or find the courage to oppose tradition.

Books for Older Teens

Bosse, Malcolm. Ordinary Magic. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c1993. 185pp.
Uprooted from his home in India by a tragedy, Ganesh begins a new life in the American Midwest,
where his experiences with Hinduism, Yoga, and mantras are considered alien.
Rana, Indi. Roller Birds of Rampur. H. Holt, c1993. 298pp.
An Indian teenager raised in England returns to India to find her identity.
Selvadurai, Shyam. Swimming in the Monsoon Sea. Tundra Books, Tundra Books of Northern New
York, c2005. 274pp.
In Sri Lanka in 1980, fourteen-year-old Amrith’s uneventful summer, filled with typing lessons and
hopes of a part in his school’s production of Othello, is turned upside down when he falls in love with
a boy.
Smith, Rukshana. Sumitra’s Story. Coward, McCann, c1983. 168pp.
When her East Indian family is displaced from its home in Uganda by the repressive Idi Amin re-
gime, and resettles in London, the eldest daughter, Sumitra, is torn between two cultures.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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South Asia and the South Asian Diaspora

Staples, Suzanne Fisher. Haveli. Knopf (distributed by Random House), 1997, c1993. 320pp.
Having reverted 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.
Staples, Suzanne Fisher. Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2003, c1989. 240pp.
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, and must ei-
ther accept the decision, as is the custom, or risk the consequences of defying her father’s wishes.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

171
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Vietnamese Conflict
Books for Ages 12–15
Antle, Nancy. Lost in the War. Puffin Books, 2000, c1998. 137pp.
Twelve-year-old Lisa Grey struggles to cope with a mother whose traumatic experiences as a nurse
in Vietnam during the war are still haunting her.
Couloumbis, Audrey. Summer’s End. Putnam’s, c2005. 184pp.
Three teenage cousins worry about their uncle, who is missing in Vietnam, their brothers—one who
was drafted and two who are dodging the draft—and the effects of their absence on the four genera-
tions gathered at the family farm in the summer of 1965.
Crist-Evans, Craig. Amaryllis. Candlewick Press, c2003. 184pp.
Jimmy and his older brother Frank share a love of surfing and their problems with a drunken father,
until Frank turns eighteen and goes to Vietnam.
Hobbs, Valerie. Sonny’s War. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2002. 215pp.
In the late 1960s, fourteen-year-old Cori’s life is greatly changed by the sudden death of her father
and her brother’s tour of duty in Vietnam.
Paulsen, Gary. The Car. Harcourt Brace, c1994. 180pp.
A teenager left on his own travels west in a kit car he built himself, and along the way picks up two
Vietnam veterans, who take him on an eye-opening journey.
Sherlock, Patti. Letters from Wolfie. Viking Press, c2004. 228pp.
Certain that he is doing the right thing by donating his dog, Wolfie, to the Army’s scout program in
Vietnam, thirteen-year-old Mark begins to have second thoughts when the Army refuses to say when
and if Wolfie will ever return.
Testa, Maria. Almost Forever. Candlewick Press, c2003. 69pp.
A young girl describes what she, her brother, and their mother do during the year that her doctor fa-
ther is serving in the Army in Vietnam.
White, Ellen Emerson. The Journal of Patrick Seamus Flaherty, United States Marine Corps. Scho-
lastic, c2002. 188pp.
An eighteen-year-old Marine records in his journal his experiences in Vietnam during the siege of Khe
Sanh, 1967–1968. Includes a history of Vietnam, war timeline, glossary, and related military information.

Books for Older Teens

Myers, Walter Dean Fallen Angels. Scholastic, c1988. 309pp.
Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school, enlists in the Army in the sum-
mer of 1967 and spends a devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.
Qualey, Marsha. Come in from the Cold. Houghton Mifflin, c1994. 219pp.
In 1969 the Vietnam War protest movement brings together two Minnesota teenagers.
Qualey, Marsha. Too Big a Storm. Dial Books, c2004. 246pp.
When serious worrier Brady Callahan meets vivacious Sally Cooper, daughter of a wealthy Minne-
sota family, they develop a close friendship that helps them both grow and survive during the turbu-
lent Vietnam War era.
From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Women’s Labor Movement

Books for Ages 12–15
Auch, Mary Jane. Ashes of Roses. H. Holt, c2002. 250pp.
Sixteen-year-old Rose Nolan arrives on Ellis Island in 1911 hoping to start a new life, but after most
of her family is sent back to Ireland, she must find her own way in a new country and fend for herself
and her younger sister.
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. A Coal Miner’s Bride: The Diary of Anetka Kaminska. Scholastic, c2000.
219pp.
A diary account of thirteen-year-old Anetka’s life in Poland in 1896, immigration to America, mar-
riage to a coal miner, widowhood, and happiness in finally finding her true love.
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. Growing Up in Coal Country. Houghton Mifflin, c1996. 127pp. (NF)
Describes what life was like, especially for children, in coal mines and mining towns in the nine-
teenth and early twentieth centuries.
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. Kids on Strike! Houghton Mifflin, c1999. 208pp. (NF)
Describes the conditions and treatment that drove workers, including many children, to various
strikes, from the mill workers’ strikes in 1828 and 1836 and the coal strikes at the turn of the century
to the work of Mother Jones on behalf of child workers.
Colman, Penny. Rosie the Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II. Crown,
c1995. 120pp. (NF)
Describes the many roles assumed by women in the United States after the country’s entry into
World War II.
Freedman, Russell. Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor. Clarion Books,
c1994. 104pp. (NF)
Text and accompanying photographs show the use of children as industrial workers, interwoven
with the story of Lewis W. Hine, who took these photographs and whose life work made significant
differences in the lives of others.
Josephson, Judith Pinkerton. Mother Jones: Fierce Fighter for Workers’ Rights. Lerner Publications,
c1997. 144pp. (NF)
A biography of Mary Harris Jones, the union organizer who worked tirelessly for the rights of work-
ers.
McCully, Emily Arnold. The Bobbin Girl. Dial Books for Young Readers, c1996. 34pp.
A ten-year-old bobbin girl working in a textile mill in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1830s, must
make a difficult decision—whether or not she will participate in the first workers’ strike in Lowell.
Paterson, Katherine. Lyddie. Lodestar Books, c1991. 182pp.
Impoverished Vermont farm girl Lyddie Worthen is determined to gain her independence by becom-
ing a factory worker in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1840s.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Women’s Labor Movement

Robinet, Harriette. Missing from Haymarket Square. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2001.
143pp.
Three children in Chicago in 1886 experience the Haymarket Riot in response to exploitative work-
ing conditions.
Ryan, Pam Muñoz. Esperanza Rising. Scholastic, c2000. 262pp.
Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work
in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing
Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression.
Stanley, Jerry. Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp. Crown,
c1992. 85pp. (NF)
Describes the plight of the migrant workers who traveled from the dust bowl areas to California dur-
ing the Great Depression and were forced to live in a federal labor camp; discusses the school that
was built for their children.

Books for Older Teens

Watson, Bruce. Bread and Roses: Mills, Migrants, and the Struggle for the American Dream. Viking
Press, c2005. 337pp. (NF)
Presents a comprehensive history of the 1912 textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and de-
scribes the struggle of the immigrant and women workers, which included 23,000 strikers from
fifty-one different nations.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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World War I
Books for Ages 12–15
Bagdasarian, Adam. Forgotten Fire. DK Ink, c2000. 273pp.
The story of how Vahan Kenderian survived the Turkish massacre of the Armenians in 1915.
Breslin, Theresa. Remembrance. Delacorte Press, c2002. 296pp.
The destinies of two Scottish families, one shopkeepers and one wealthy and powerful, become en-
twined through their involvement in World War I, social causes, and love.
Ingold, Jeanette. Pictures, 1918. Harcourt Brace, c1998. 152pp.
Coming of age in a rural Texas community in 1918, fifteen-year-old Asia assists in the local war ef-
fort, contemplates romance with a local boy, and expands her horizons through her pursuit of pho-
tography.
Lawrence, Iain. Lord of the Nutcracker Men. Delacorte Press, c2001. 212pp.
An English boy during World War I comes to believe that the battles he enacts with his toy soldiers
control the war his father is fighting on the front.
Levine, Beth Seidel. When Christmas Comes Again: The World War I Diary of Simone Spencer. Scho-
lastic, c2002. 172pp.
Teenage Simone’s diaries for 1917 and 1918 reveal her experiences as a carefree member of New
York society, then as a “Hello girl,” a volunteer switchboard operator for the Army Signal Corps in
France.
Meyer, Carolyn. Anastasia, the Last Grand Duchess. Scholastic, c2000. 220pp.
A novel in diary form in which the youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas II describes the privileged
life her family led up until the time of World War I and the tragic events that befell them.
Morpurgo, Michael. Private Peaceful. Scholastic Press, 2004, c2003. 202pp.
When Thomas Peaceful’s older brother is forced to join the British Army, Thomas decides to sign up
as well, although he is only fourteen years old, to prove himself to his country, his family, his child-
hood love, Molly, and himself.
Rostkowski, Margaret I. After the Dancing Days. HarperTrophy, 1988, c1986. 217pp.
A forbidden friendship with a badly disfigured soldier in the aftermath of World War I forces thir-
teen-year-old Annie to redefine the word “hero” and to question conventional ideas of patriotism.

Books for Older Teens

Follett, Ken. The Man from St. Petersburg. Signet, 1983, c1982. 342pp.
A Russian emissary sent to England to negotiate a Soviet–British alliance is stalked by a deadly an-
archist.
Harris, Ruth Elwin. Julia’s Story. Candlewick Press, c2002. 301pp.
Julia Purcell, having grown up in the shadow of her more talented sister, finds a kindred spirit in her
guardian’s son, and self-worth as a nurse in France during World War

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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World War I
Helprin, Mark. A Soldier of the Great War. Harcourt Brace, c1991. 792pp.
Alessandro Giuliani tells his young companion the story of his life: how he became a solider, a hero,
a prisoner, and a deserter during World War I.
Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front. Little Brown, c1958. 291pp.
Depicts the experiences of a group of young German soldiers fighting and suffering during the last
days of World War I.
Spillebeen, Geert. Kipling’s Choice. Houghton Mifflin, c2005. 147pp.
In 1915, mortally wounded in Loos, France, eighteen-year-old John Kipling, son of writer Rudyard
Kipling, remembers his boyhood and the events leading to what is to be his first and last World War I
battle.
Turtledove, Harry. The Great War: Breakthroughs. Random House, 2001, c2000. 584pp.
Offers an alternative history of World War II that theorizes how the war would have ended if certain
events had been different.
Wilson, John. And in the Morning. Kids Can Press, c2003. 198pp.
Canadian Jim Hay joins the army in World War I and is sent to France, where he meets a tragic end.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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World War II
Books for Ages 12–15
Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker. For Freedom: The Story of a French Spy. Delacorte Press, c2003.
181pp.
A novel based on the experiences of Suzanne David Hall, who, as a teenager in Nazi-occupied
France, worked as a spy for the French Resistance while training to be an opera singer.
Bruchac, Joseph. Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two. Dial Books,
c2005. 231pp.
After being taught in a boarding school run by whites that Navajo is a useless language, Ned Begay
and other Navajo men are recruited by the Marines to become Code Talkers, sending messages dur-
ing World War II in their native tongue.
Hesse, Karen. Aleutian Sparrow. Margaret K. McElderry Books, c2003. 156pp.
An Aleutian Islander recounts her suffering during World War II in American internment camps de-
signed to “protect” the population from the invading Japanese.
Lawrence, Iain. B for Buster. Delacorte Press, c2004. 321pp.
Sixteen-year-old Kak, desperate to escape his abusive parents, lies about his age in the spring of
1943 to enlist in the Canadian Air Force and soon finds himself based in England as part of a crew
flying bombing raids over Germany.
Maguire, Gregory. The Good Liar. Clarion Books, c1999. 129pp.
Now an old man living in the United States, Marcel recalls his childhood in German-occupied France,
especially the summer that he and his older brother Rene befriended a young German soldier.
Mah, Adeline Yen. Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society. HarperCollins, c2005. 242pp.
During the Japanese occupation of parts of China, twelve-year-old Ye Xian is thrown out of her fa-
ther’s and stepmother’s home, joins a martial arts group, and tries to help her aunt and the Americans
in their struggle against the Japanese invaders.
Matas, Carol. After the War. Aladdin Paperbacks, 1997, c1996. 133pp.
After being released from Buchenwald at the end of World War II, fifteen-year-old Ruth risks her
life to lead a group of children across Europe to Palestine.
Mazer, Harry. A Boy at War: A Novel of Pearl Harbor. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers,
c2001. 104pp.
While fishing with his friends off Honolulu on December 7. 1941, teenage Adam is caught in the
midst of the Japanese attack; throughout the chaos of the subsequent days he tries to find his father, a
naval officer who was serving on the U.S.S. Arizona when the bombs fell.
Spinelli, Jerry. Milkweed: A Novel. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c2003. 208pp.
A street child, known to himself only as Stopthief, finds community when he is taken in by a band of
orphans in a Warsaw ghetto, which helps him weather the horrors of the Nazi regime.
Vande Velde, Vivian. A Coming Evil. Houghton Mifflin, c1998. 213pp.
In 1940, during the German occupation of France, thirteen-year-old Lisette meets a ghost while liv-
ing with her aunt, who harbors Jewish and Gypsy children in the French countryside.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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World War II
Wilson, John. Flames of the Tiger. Kids Can Press, c2003. 176pp.
Dieter grows to be a young man in Germany believing in the pronouncements and policies of Hitler
and the Nazis, but as World War II intensifies and he is called upon to fight for his country, Dieter
begins to question everything he once believed.
Winter, Kathryn. Katarina: A Novel. Scholastic Signature, 1999, c1998. 257pp.
During World War II in Slovakia, a young Jewish girl in hiding becomes a devout Catholic and is
sustained by her belief that she will return home to her family as soon as the war ends.
Wulffson, Don L. Soldier X. Viking Press, c2001. 226pp.
In 1943, sixteen-year-old Erik experiences the horrors of war when he is drafted into the German
army and sent to fight on the Russian front.

Books for Older Teens

Chambers, Aidan. Postcards from No Man’s Land. Dutton Books, c2002. 312pp.
Alternates between two stories: In the present day, seventeen-year-old Jacob visits a daunting Am-
sterdam at the request of his English grandmother ,and in the past, nineteen-year-old Geertrui relates
her experience of British soldiers’ attempts to liberate Holland from German occupation.
Disher, Garry. The Divine Wind. Scholastic, 2004, c1998. 153pp.
On the eve of World War II, Hart, an Australian boy, and Mitsy, a Japanese Australian girl, fall in
love but are driven apart.
Newbery, Linda. Sisterland. David Fickling Books, 2004, c2003. 369pp.
When Hilly’s grandmother becomes ill with Alzheimer’s disease, her family is turned upside down
by revelations about her life during World War II.
Salisbury, Graham. Eyes of the Emperor. Wendy Lamb Books, c2005. 229pp.
Following orders from the U.S. Army, several young Japanese American men train K-9 units to hunt
Asians during World War II.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Part 5
Subjects
 Subjects

Almost Famous
Researched and compiled by Melissa Rabey, Teen Librarian, Pt.
Pleasant Boro Library, Pt. Pleasant, New Jersey.

Books for Ages 12–15

Brian, Kate. The Princess & the Pauper. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2003. 266pp.
Julia has never been like the other students at her elite high school: instead of worrying about her
looks, she is worrying about finding a way to keep a roof over her family’s head, and when a princess
who happens to look exactly like Julia offers her $10,000 to switch places for one day, Julia thinks
she has finally found a way to help her family.
Cabot, Meg. All-American Girl. HarperCollins, c2002. 247pp.
Sophomore Samantha Madison stops a presidential assassination attempt, is appointed teen ambas-
sador to the United Nations, and catches the eye of the very cute First Son.
Cabot, Meg. The Princess Diaries. HarperCollins, c2000. 238pp.
Fourteen-year-old Mia, who is trying to lead a normal life as a teenage girl in New York City, is
shocked to learn that her father is the Prince of Genovia, a small European principality, and that she
is a princess and the heir to the throne.
Sheldon, Dyan. Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. Candlewick Press, 2004, c1990. 335pp.
In her first year at a suburban New Jersey high school, Mary Elizabeth Cep, who now calls herself
“Lola,” sets her sights on the lead in the annual drama production, and finds herself in conflict with
the most popular girl in school.
Tashjian, Janet. The Gospel According to Larry. H. Holt, c2001. 227pp.
Seventeen-year-old Josh, a loner-philosopher who wants to make a difference in the world, tries to
maintain his secret identity as the author of a Web site that is receiving national attention.
Wilkens, Rose. So Super Starry. Dial Books, c2004. 230pp.
Fifteen-year-old Octavia Clairbrook-Cleeve, the daughter of a famous television actress and a re-
spected film and theater director, feels out of place amid the glamour, wealth, and high society that
surround her, and when she begins dating a rich and handsome older boy, her doubts about this life-
style become impossible to ignore.

Books for Older Teens

Cohn, Rachel. Pop Princess. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2004. 311pp.
Yearning to escape the small Massachusetts town where her family retreated after her sister’s death,
Wonder Blake gets her chance when her sister’s manager offers Wonder a record contract on her six-
teenth birthday.
Dean, Zoey. The A-list. Little, Brown, c2003. 243pp.
Seventeen-year-old blueblood Anna Percy leaves Manhattan to spend the second half of her senior
year with her father in Los Angeles, where she quickly becomes involved in the lives of the rich and
famous at Beverly Hills High School.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

181
 Subjects

Almost Famous
Jemas, Bill. Ultimate Spider-Man. Vol. 1. Marvel Comics, c2002. 184pp.
Contains issues 1–13 of the comic Ultimate Spider-Man and number 15 of Amazing Fantasy, which
chronicle the early adventures of Peter Parker, a timid student transformed into a superhero by a ra-
dioactive spider; also includes correspondence between editor Bill Jemas and writer Brian Michael
Bendis, as well as character sketches.
Manning, Sarra. Guitar Girl. Dutton Children’s Books, 2004, c2003. 217pp.
Seventeen-year-old Molly Montgomery learns the cost of fame when her band, The Hormones, a
group started with her friends just for fun, suddenly becomes all the rage.
Nolan, Han. Born Blue. Harcourt, c2001. 277pp.
Janie was four years old when she nearly drowned due to her mother’s neglect. Throughout an un-
happy foster home experience and years of feeling that she is unwanted, she keeps alive her dream of
someday being a famous singer.
Obana, Miho. Kodocha. Vol. 1. Sana’s Stage. Tokyopop, c2002. 193pp.
Child star Sana Kurata faces off with the bane of her existence, Akito Hayama, when his bullying
and blackmailing—of both students and teachers—goes too far.
Shaw, Tucker. Confessions of a Backup Dancer. Simon Pulse, c2004. 265pp.
Kelly Kimbal lands a job as a backup dancer for pop diva, Darcy Barnes, but is soon fired by Darcy’s
overbearing mother. Then Darcy develops the courage to tell her mother off and bring Kelly back
into the show.
Triana, Gaby. Backstage Pass. HarperCollins, c2004. 218pp.
After moving to Miami, Florida, sixteen-year-old Desert McGraw, whose life as the daughter of a
rock star has been anything but normal, determines to make a permanent home for herself and her
family—even if it means breaking up the band.
Von Ziegesar, Cecily. Gossip Girl. Warner Books, 2003, c2002. 265pp.
Gossip Girl, an unknown narrator, shares the inside scoop on her friends and foes in a privileged pri-
vate school in New York City, focusing on the return of the beautiful Serena van der Woodson, who
is rumored to have been kicked out of boarding school.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

182
 Subjects

Big Brother Is Watching

Books for Ages 12–15
Farmer, Nancy The House of the Scorpion. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2002. 380pp.
In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patron,
the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.
Lowry, Lois. Gathering Blue. Houghton Mifflin, c2000. 215pp.
Lame and suddenly orphaned, Kira 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.
Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2002, c1993. 179pp.
Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories
shared by only one other. He then learns the terrible truth about the Community.
Lowry, Lois. Messenger. Houghton Mifflin, c2004. 169pp.
In this novel that unites characters from The Giver and Gathering Blue, Matty, a young member of a
utopian community that values honesty, conceals an emerging healing power that he cannot explain
or understand.
Stahler, David. Truesight. Eos, c2004. 168pp.
In a distant frontier world, thirteen-year-old Jacob is uncertain of his future in a community that con-
siders blindness a virtue and “Seers” aberrations.
Weyn, Suzanne. The Bar Code Tattoo. Scholastic, c2004. 252pp.
Kayla is ostracized at school because she refused to get the required tattooed bar code, and now she
and her family must run to avoid the threats against them.

Books for Older Teens

Anderson, M. T. Feed. Candlewick Press, c2002. 237pp.
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.
Atwood, Margaret Eleanor. The Handmaid’s Tale. Anchor Books, 1998, c1986. 311pp.
In the near future, America has become a puritanical theocracy, and Offred tells her story of living as
a Handmaid under the new social order.
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. Simon & Schuster, 2003, c1953. 190pp.
After learning that books are a vital part of a culture he never knew, a book-burning official in a fu-
ture fascist state clandestinely pursues reading, until he is betrayed. Includes an introduction written
by the author in 2003.
Orwell, George. 1984: A Novel. Signet Classic, 1977, c1949. 268pp.
Depicts life in a totalitarian regime of the future.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

183
 Subjects

Community Service
Books for Ages 12–15
Fleischman, Paul. Seedfolks. HarperCollins, c1997. 69pp.
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; in doing so, the gardeners are themselves transformed.
Gauthier, Gail. Saving the Planet & Stuff. Putnam, c2003. 232pp.
After losing his summer job with his uncle, sixteen-year-old Michael agrees to go to work for an en-
vironmentalist magazine in Vermont run by friends of his grandparents.
Mills, Claudia. Makeovers by Marcia. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2005. 149pp.
At the beginning of eighth grade, all Marcia can think about is what nail polish to use, how to lose
weight, and whether Alex will ask her to the dance, but after giving makeovers in a nursing home for
a school project, she begins to appreciate the value of inner beauty.
Sorenson, Margo. Funny Man Gets Rolling. Perfection Learning, c2004. 103pp.
Derrick must put his joking manner aside to complete a community volunteer requirement that
could prevent him from graduating.
Wittlinger, Ellen. Gracie’s Girl. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2000. 186pp.
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.

Books for Older Teens

McCafferty, Megan. Sloppy Firsts: A Novel. Three Rivers Press, c2001. 298pp.
Sixteen-year-old Jessica Darling is devastated when her best friend moves away and leaves Jessica
to face the trials of high school on her own.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

184
 Subjects

Community Service as Punishment

Books for Ages 12–15
Christopher, Matt. Baseball Turnaround. Little, Brown, c1997. 120pp.
Sandy is drawn unknowingly into a shoplifting incident; his community service sentence involves
his beloved baseball, and he meets people who help him finally put the past behind him.
Cooney, Caroline B. Burning Up: A Novel. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2001, c1999. 230pp.
When a girl she had met at an inner-city church is murdered, fifteen-year-old Macey channels her
grief into a school project that leads her to uncover prejudice she had not imagined in her grandpar-
ents and their wealthy Connecticut community.
Kehret, Peg. Cages. Puffin Books, 2001, c1991. 150pp.
Kit gains a new perspective on her life and future after she is sentenced to twenty hours of volunteer
work at the humane society for shoplifting a bracelet.
Rottman, S. L. Hero. Peachtree Publishers, c1997. 134pp.
After years of abuse from his mother and neglect from his father, ninth-grader Sean Parker is headed
for trouble when he is sent to do community service at a farm owned by an old man, who teaches
Sean that he can take control of his own life.
Shusterman, Neal. The Schwa Was Here. Dutton Children’s Books, c2004. 228pp.
A Brooklyn eighth-grader nicknamed Antsy befriends the Schwa, an “invisible-ish” boy who is tired
of blending into his surroundings and going unnoticed by nearly everyone.
Siebold, Jan. Doing Time Online. Whitman, c2002. 88pp.
After he is involved in a prank that led to an elderly woman’s injury, twelve-year-old Mitchell
must make amends by participating in a police program in which he chats online with a nursing
home resident.

Books for Older Teens

Coleman, Michael. On the Run. Dutton Children’s Books, c2004. 199pp.
When a persistent youth offender is caught yet again, he is sentenced to community service as the
partner to a blind runner.
Matheson, Shirlee Smith. Fastback Beach. Orca Book, c2003. 97pp.
When Miles is put on probation for stealing a car, he learns about hot rods and rebuilding cars. When
the project is stolen, Miles has to face up to his friends.
Nixon, Joan Lowery. Nobody’s There. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2001, c2000. 200pp.,
Following an act of vandalism against her father’s girlfriend, a seventeen-year-old girl is paired by
the court with an eccentric senior citizen whose hobby as a sleuth turns deadly.
Thomas, Rob. Doing Time. Simon & Schuster, c1997. 184pp.
Each of these ten short stories focuses on a high school student’s mandatory 200 hours of community
service and each youth’s response to the required project.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

185
 Subjects

Criminally Minded
Compiled by Patti Cook, Wired for Youth Librarian, Austin Public Library, Texas.

Books for Ages 12–15

Ewing, Lynne. Drive-by. HarperTrophy, 1998, c1996. 85pp.
Twelve-year-old Tito, while helping to care for his little sister, struggles to find his way during the
aftermath of his brother’s death in a gang-related shooting.
Hinton, S. E. That Was Then, This Is Now. Viking Press, c1971. 159pp.
Sixteen-year-old Mark and Bryon have been like brothers since childhood, but now, as their involve-
ment with girls, gangs, and drugs increases, their relationship seems to gradually disintegrate.
Lipsyte, Robert. The Contender. HarperTrophy, c1967. 167pp.
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.
McDonald, Janet. Brother Hood. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2004. 165pp.
Sixteen-year-old Nate, an academically gifted student who attends an exclusive private boarding
school, straddles two cultures as he returns home for occasional visits to see his family and “gangsta
crew” in Harlem, New York.
Myers, Walter Dean. Scorpions. HarperCollins, c1988. 216pp.
After reluctantly taking on the leadership of the Harlem gang, the Scorpions, Jamal finds that his en-
emies treat him with respect when he acquires a gun—until a tragedy occurs.
Soto, Gary. The Afterlife. Harcourt, c2003. 161pp.
A senior at East Fresno High School lives on as a ghost after his brutal murder in the restroom of a
club where he had gone to dance.
Walter, Virginia. Making Up Megaboy. DK Publishing, c1998. 62pp.
When thirteen-year-old Robbie shoots an old man in a liquor store, everyone who knows the quiet,
withdrawn youth struggles to understand this act of seemingly random violence.
Wittlinger, Ellen. The Long Night of Leo and Bree. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers,
c2002. 111pp.
On the anniversary of his sister’s murder Leo, tormented by his mother’s insane accusations and his
own waking nightmares, kidnaps a wealthy girl, intending to kill her, but instead their long night to-
gether helps them both face their futures.

Books for Older Teens

Brooks, Kevin. Kissing the Rain. Scholastic, c2004. 320pp.
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.
Burgess, Melvin. Smack. H. Holt, c1998. 327pp.
After running away from their troubled homes, two English teenagers move in with a group of squat-
ters in the port city of Bristol and try to find ways to support their growing addiction to heroin.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

186
 Subjects

Criminally Minded
Ewing, Lynne. Party Girl. Knopf (distributed by Random House), 1999, c1998. 110pp.
The death of her best friend, Ana, in a drive-by shooting causes fifteen-year-old Kata to question her
position in Los Angeles gang life.
Gantos, Jack. Hole in My Life. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2002. 199pp.
The author relates how, as a young adult, he became a drug user and smuggler, was arrested, did time
in prison, and eventually got out and went to college, all the while hoping to become a writer.
Halliday, John. Shooting Monarchs. Margaret K. McElderry Books, c2003. 135pp.
Macy and Danny, two teenage boys who have both grown up under difficult circumstances, turn out
very differently—one becomes a hero, the other a murderer.
McCall, Nathan. Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America. Vintage, 1995, c1994.
416pp. (NF)
Washington Post reporter Nathan McCall recounts the story of his journey from troubled youth to
professional journalist, providing insight into what it’s like to be a young African American male in
this country.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

187
 Subjects

Dating Abuse
Books for Ages 12–15
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c1999. 197pp.
A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda’s freshman year in
high school.
Dessen, Sarah. Dreamland: A Novel. Viking Press, c2000. 250pp.
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.
Flake, Sharon. Who Am I Without Him?: Short Stories About Girls and the Boys in Their Lives. Jump
at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children, c2004. 168pp.
Presents ten short stories about teenage girls struggling with issues of self-worth.

Books for Older Teens

Andrews, Sarah. Fault Line. St. Martin’s Minotaur, c2002. 307pp.
Forensic geologist Emily Hansen finds herself called to Salt Lake City, Utah, when a small earth-
quake rocks the city on the eve of hosting the Olympics, and although the first quake is minor, Emily
must convince the city officials that there is a good chance a more severe quake will hit the city in the
very near future.
Flinn, Alexandra. Breathing Underwater. HarperCollins, c2001. 263pp.
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 de-
scribes living with his abusive father.
Giles, Gail. Playing in Traffic. Roaring Brook Press, c2004. 176pp.
Shy and unremarkable, seventeen-year-old Matt Lathrop is surprised and flattered to find himself
singled out for the sexual attentions of the alluring Skye Colby, until he discovers the evil purpose
behind her actions.
Jones, Patrick. Things Change. Walker, c2004. 216pp.
Sixteen-year-old Johanna, one of the best students in her class, develops a passionate attachment for
troubled seventeen-year-old Paul and finds her plans for the future changing in unexpected ways.
Lynch, Chris. Inexcusable. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2005. 165pp.
High school senior and football player Keir sets out to enjoy himself on graduation night, but when
he attempts to comfort a friend whose date has left her stranded, things go terribly wrong.
Schraff, Anne E. Someone to Love Me. Townsend Press, c2002. 162pp.
Cindy Gibson, an African American teenager struggling with her mother’s neglect and her mother’s
boyfriend’s emotional abuse, must find strength she did not know she had when the boy she thought
would be her savior begins beating her.
Stratton, Allan. Leslie’s Journal: A Novel. Annick Press, (distributed in the United States by Firefly
Books (U.S.)), c2000. 196pp.
Leslie’s life seems to settle from chaos to wonderful when Jason, the new guy in school, asks her out.
Things quickly change, however, and spin out of control as she finds out that Jason is not as nice as
she thought and she must find a way to break out of the relationship.
From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Subjects

Ecowarriors
Books for Ages 12–15
Bang, Molly. Nobody Particular: One Woman’s Fight to Save the Bays. H. Holt, c2000. 46pp. (NF)
Describes a female shrimper’s attempt to stop a large chemical company from polluting a bay in East
Texas.
Cooper, Susan. Green Boy. Margaret K. McElderry Books, c2002. 195pp.
Twelve-year-old Trey and his seven-year-old brother Lou, who does not speak, cross the barrier be-
tween two worlds, that of their island in the Bahamas, and a land called Pangaia, and play a mysteri-
ous role in restoring the natural environment in both places.
DeFelice, Cynthia C. Lostman’s River. Avon Books, c1995. 156pp.
In the early 1900s, thirteen-year-old Tyler encounters vicious hunters whose actions threaten to de-
stroy the Everglades ecosystem; as a result, he joins the battle to protect that fragile environment.
George, Jean Craighead. Who Really Killed Cock Robin?: An Eco Mystery. HarperTrophy, 1992,
c1971. 191pp.
Eighth-grader Tony Isidoro follows a trail of environmental clues to try to figure out what ecological
imbalances might have caused the death of the town’s best-known robin.
Hiaasen, Carl. Hoot. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c2002. 292pp.
Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy’s attempt to save
a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site.
Hobbs, Valerie. Stefan’s Story. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2003. 165pp.
Thirteen-year-old, wheelchair-bound Stefan renews his friendship with Carolina as they work to-
gether to save an old-growth forest from destruction by loggers.
Hobbs, Will. The Maze. Morrow Junior Books, c1998. 197pp.
Rick, a fourteen-year-old foster child, escapes from a juvenile detention facility near Las Vegas and
travels to Canyonlands National Park in Utah, where he meets a bird biologist working on a project
to reintroduce condors to the wild.
Hoose, Phillip M. The Race to Save the Lord God Bird. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2004. 196pp. (NF)
Tells the story of the ivory-billed woodpecker’s extinction in the United States, describing the en-
counters between this species and humans, and discussing what these encounters have taught us
about preserving endangered creatures.
Klass, David. California Blue. Scholastic, c1994. 199pp.
When seventeen-year-old John Rodgers discovers a new subspecies of butterfly that may necessitate
closing the mill where his dying father works, he and his father find themselves on opposite sides of
an environmental conflict.
Spinelli, Jerry. Crash. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c1996. 162pp.
Seventh-grader John “Crash” Coogan has always been comfortable with his tough, aggressive be-
havior, until his relationship with an unusual Quaker boy and his grandfather’s stroke make him con-
sider the meaning of friendship and the importance of family.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Subjects

Ecowarriors
Taylor, Theodore. The Weirdo. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, c1991. 289pp.
Seventeen-year-old Chip Clewt fights to save the black bears in the Powhaten National Wildlife Ref-
uge.
Van Draanen, Wendelin. Flipped. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c2001. 212pp.
In alternating chapters, two teenagers describe how their feelings about themselves, each other, and
their families have changed over the years.

Books for Older Teens

Abbey, Edward. The Monkey Wrench Gang. Perennial Classics, 2000, c 1975. 421pp.
A burnt-out veteran, a mad doctor, a sexy revolutionary, and a polygamist outdoorsman team up in a
concerted effort to halt what they see as a big government/big business conspiracy to destroy the en-
vironment of the American West.
Harr, Jonathan. A Civil Action. Vintage Books, 1996, c1995. 502pp. (NF)
Follows a lawsuit brought against W.R. Grace & Co. for contaminating the drinking water in
Woburn, Massachusetts.
Hill, Julia Butterfly. The Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the
Redwoods. HarperSanFrancisco, 2001, c2000. 256pp. (NF)
Presents information on Julia Butterfly Hill’s two-year “tree-sit,” which she hoped would stop the
Pacific Lumber company from clear-cutting the ancient redwood forest in California, and discusses
how she inaugurated a new era in environmental movements around the world.
Kingsolver, Barbara. Prodigal Summer: A Novel. HarperCollins, c2000. 444pp.
The coming of summer to Appalachia’s Zebulon Mountain brings a blossoming in nature as well as
in the lives of reclusive wildlife biologist Deanna Wolfe, young hunter Eddie Bondo, transplanted
city-girl Lusa Landowski, and a pair of elderly, feuding neighbors.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Subjects

Extreme Sports
Books for Ages 12–15
Bass, Scott. Surf!: Your Guide to Longboarding, Shortboarding, Tubing, Aerials, Hanging Ten, and
More. National Geographic, c2003. 64pp. (NF)
Presents guidance and tips on several different kinds of surfing and includes facts on the sport’s history.
Deady, Kathleen W. Extreme Mountain Biking Moves. Capstone High-Interest Books, c2003. 32pp.
(NF)
Discusses the sport of mountain biking, describing some of the racing and trick moves as well as
safety concerns.
Doeden, Matt. BMX Freestyle. Capstone Press, c2005. 32pp. (NF)
Describes the sport of BMX freestyle, including tricks and safety information.
Doeden, Matt. Motocross Freestyle. Capstone Press, c2005. 32pp. (NF)
Presents an introduction to freestyle motocross, telling how the sport began and discussing the spe-
cial features of the bikes, different freestyle tricks, and safety gear and practices.
Doeden, Matt. Snowboarding. Capstone Press, c2005. 32pp. (NF)
Describes the sport of snowboarding, including tricks and safety information.
Firestone, Mary. Extreme Downhill BMX Moves. Capstone High-Interest Books, c2004. 32pp. (NF)
Discusses the sport of extreme downhill Bicycle Motocross racing, describing some of the jumping
and passing techniques as well as safety concerns.
Firestone, Mary. Extreme Halfpipe Snowboarding Moves. Capstone High-Interest Books, c2004.
32pp. (NF)
Discusses the elements of the sport of snowboarding that take it to the extreme in snowy halfpipes.
Firestone, Mary. Extreme Waterskiing Moves. Capstone High-Interest Books, c2004. 32pp. (NF)
Discusses the sport of extreme waterskiing, describing some of the trick steps and aerials as well as
safety concerns.
Freimuth, Jeri. Extreme Skateboarding Moves. Capstone High-Interest Books, c2001. 32pp. (NF)
Discusses the sport of extreme skateboarding, including the moves involved in the sport.
Glaser, Jason. Bungee Jumping. Capstone High/Low Books, c1999. 48pp. (NF)
Discusses the history, stunts, competitions, equipment, and safety measures of bungee jumping.
Gutman, Bill. Catching Air: The Excitement and Daring of Individual Action Sports—
Snowboarding, Skateboarding, BMX Biking, In-Line Skating. Citadel Press/Kensington Pub, Corp,
c2004. 170pp. (NF)
Provides a comprehensive overview of the equipment, techniques, and skills of various individual
extreme sports, including snowboarding, skateboarding, BMX biking, and in-line skating.
Hayhurst, Chris. Bicycle Stunt Riding!: Catch Air. Rosen Central, c2000. 64pp. (NF)
Describes the sport of bicycle stunt riding, plus how to purchase equipment, practice stunts, ride
safely, and enter competitions.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

191
 Subjects

Extreme Sports
Horton, Ron. Awesome Athletes. Lucent Books, Thomson/Gale, c2004. 112pp. (NF)
Profiles five athletes who participate in the extreme sports of skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing,
rock climbing, and mountain bike racing.
Maurer, Tracy. ATV Riding. Rourke, c2003. 48pp. (NF)
Provides information about all-terrain vehicles, describing their different components, discussing
riding techniques and safety, and looking at the competition circuit.
Maxwell, E. J. Xtreme Sports: Cutting Edge. Scholastic, c2003. 95pp. (NF)
Presents photographs, facts, and profiles of Tori Allen, Apolo Anton Ohno, Shaun White, and other
stars of extreme sports such as surfing, rock climbing, and snowboarding.
McKenna, A. T. Big-Air Snowboarding. Capstone High/Low Books, c1999. 48pp. (NF)
Describes the history, equipment, techniques, and safety measures of big air snowboarding.
Oleksy, Walter G. Barefoot Waterskiing. Capstone Books, c2000. 48pp. (NF)
Describes the history, techniques, practice, and competition related to the sport of barefoot
waterskiing.
Parr, Danny. Extreme Bicycle Stunt Riding Moves. Capstone High-Interest Books, c2001. 32pp. (NF)
Discusses the sport of extreme bicycle stunt riding, including the moves involved in the sport.
Perry, Phyllis Jean. Boardsailing. Capstone Books, c2000. 48pp. (NF)
Describes the history, equipment, techniques, competition, and safety concerns related to the sport
of boardsailing or windsurfing.
Peterson, Christine. Extreme Surfing. Capstone Press, c2005. 32pp. (NF)
Describes surfing and surfboards, and provides illustrated definitions of surfing terms.
Peterson, Christine. Wakeboarding. Capstone, c2005. 32pp. (NF)
Using text and photos, describes the sport of wakeboarding, including tricks and safety information.
Peterson, Monique. Bike!: Your Guide to Mountain Biking, BMX, Road and Fast-Track Racing, C-X
Racing and More. National Geographic, c2002. 64pp. (NF)
Explores various aspects of biking, including mountain biking, BMX biking, road racing, and
fast-track racing.
Schaefer, A. R. Extreme Wakeboarding Moves. Capstone High-Interest Books, c2003. 32pp. (NF)
Discusses the sport of extreme wakeboarding, including the moves involved in the sports.
Shafran, Michael. Skate!: Your Guide to Inline, Aggressive, Vert, Street, Roller Hockey, Speed Skat-
ing, Dance, Fitness Training, and More. National Geographic, c2003. 64pp. (NF)
Provides instruction in everything from standing on skates for the first time to dancing or exercising
on them.
Takeda, Pete. Climb!: Your Guide to Bouldering, Sport Climbing, Trad Climbing, Ice Climbing, Alp-
inism, and More. National Geographic, c2002. 64pp. (NF)
An introduction and guide to climbing, including bouldering, sport climbing, trad climbing, ice
climbing, and alpinism.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

192
 Subjects

Extreme Sports
Books for Older Teens
Covert, Kim. Extreme Diving. Capstone Press, c2005. 32pp. (NF)
Presents several different types of extreme diving, including free diving (diving without breathing
gear), cave diving, and ice diving. Also provides information on equipment and diving competitions.
Covert, Kim. Skeleton: High-Speed Ice Sliding. Capstone Press, c2005. 32pp. (NF)
Introduces the sport of skeleton, including its history, equipment, and famous skeleton athletes.
Murdico, Suzanne J. Skateboarding in the X Games. Rosen Central, c2003. 47pp. (NF)
This book describes five skateboarding events in the X Games competition and tells about the ath-
letes who have earned metals in this premier event.
Murdico, Suzanne J. Street Luge and Dirtboarding. Rosen Central, c2003. 47pp. (NF)
An introduction to two new extreme sports that combine aspects of skateboarding with another
sport, street luge and dirtboarding.
Preszler, Eric. Kiteboarding. Capstone Press, c2005. 32pp. (NF)
Introduces the sport of kiteboarding, including necessary gear, tricks, and famous kiteboarders.
Roberts, Jeremy. Rock & Ice Climbing: Top the Tower. Rosen Central, c2000. 63pp. (NF)
Introduces the sports of rock and ice climbing, describing the history, equipment, safety tips, and
outstanding performers.
Tomlinson, Joe. Extreme Sports: In Search of the Ultimate Thrill. Firefly Books (U.S.), c2004. 192pp.
(NF)
Contains photographs and descriptions of a variety of extreme sports, including bungee jumping,
mountain biking, snowboarding, and others, and provides information on clothing and equipment,
safety, tricks and techniques, and venues.
Weil, Ann. Aggressive In-Line Skating. Capstone Press, c2005. 32pp. (NF)
Presents an introduction to aggressive in-line skating, looks at different skating styles, discusses
skates and safety gear, describes various tricks and extreme moves, and profiles some of the stars of
the sport and its competitions, the X Games and the Gravity Games.
Weil, Ann. BMX Racing. Capstone Press, c2005. 32pp. (NF)
Presents the history of BMX racing, the racetracks, and the superstars, including Samantha Cools,
Kyle Bennett, Alice Jung, Christophe Leveque, and Randy Stumpfhauser.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Subjects

Faeries and Faraway Realms

Prepared by Joanna Nigrelli, Wired for Youth Librarian, Austin Public Library, Texas.

Books for Ages 12–15

Bell, Hilari. The Goblin Wood. EOS, c2003. 294pp.
A young Hedgewitch, an idealistic knight, and an army of clever goblins fight against the ruling hier-
archy, which is trying to rid the land of all magical creatures.
Brennan, Herbie. Faerie Wars. Bloomsbury (distributed by Holtzbrinck), c2003. 367pp.
Troubled by family problems, Henry finds his life taking a whole new dimension when he and his
friend, old Mr. Fogarty, become involved with Prince Pyrgus Malvae, who has been sent from the
faerie world to escape the treacherous Faeries of the Night.
Colfer, Eoin. Artemis Fowl. Hyperion Books for Children, c2001. 277pp. (and sequels)
When a twelve-year-old evil genius tries to restore his family fortune by capturing a fairy and de-
manding a ransom in gold, the fairies fight back with magic, technology, and a particularly nasty
troll.
DiTerlizzi, Tony. The Spiderwick Chronicles. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers,
c2003–2004. 5v.
Chronicles the adventures of the Grace children after they go to stay at their Great-Aunt Lucinda’s
worn Victorian house and discover a field guide to fairies and other magical creatures.
Dunkle, Clare B. The Hollow Kingdom. H. Holt, c2003. 356pp.
In nineteenth-century England, Marak, a powerful sorcerer and king of the Goblins, chooses Kate,
the elder of two orphan girls who recently arrived at their ancestral home, Hallow Hill, to be his bride
and queen.
McGraw, Eloise Jarvis. The Moorchild. Margaret K. McElderry Books, c1996. 241pp.
Feeling that she is neither fully human nor “Folk,” a changeling learns her true identity and attempts
to find the human child whose place she had been given.
Pattou, Edith. East. Harcourt, c2003. 498pp.
A young woman journeys to a distant castle on the back of a great white bear who is the victim of a
cruel enchantment.
Pratchett, Terry. The Wee Free Men. HarperCollins, c2003. 263pp.
Tiffany, a young witch-to-be in the land of Discworld, teams up with the Wee Free Men, a clan of
six-inch-high blue toughs, to rescue her baby brother and ward off a sinister invasion from Fairy-
land.
Stroud, Jonathan. The Amulet of Samarkand. Miramax Books/Hyperion Books for Children, c2003.
462pp.
Nathaniel, a young magician’s apprentice, becomes caught in a web of magical espionage, murder,
and rebellion, after he summons the djinni Bartimaeus and instructs him to steal the Amulet of
Samarkand from the powerful magician Simon Loveland.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

194
 Subjects

Faeries and Faraway Realms

Books for Older Teens
Black, Holly. Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale. Simon & Schuster, c2002. 310pp.
Sixteen-year-old Kaye, who has been visited by faeries since childhood, discovers that she herself is
a magical faerie creature with a special destiny.
Block, Francesca Lia. I Was a Teenage Fairy. Joanna Cotler, 2000, c 1998. 186pp.
A feisty, sexy fairy helps a young woman heal traumas from her past.
Springer, Nancy. I Am Morgan Le Fay: A Tale from Camelot. Firebird, 2002, c2001. 227pp.
In 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.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

195
 Subjects

Genocide
Books for Ages 12–15
Denenberg, Barry. One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping: The Diary of Julie Weiss. Scholastic,
c2000. 250pp.
During the Nazi persecution of the Jews in Austria, twelve-year-old Julie escapes to America to live
with her relatives in New York City.
Isaacs, Anne. Torn Thread. Scholastic Press, c2000. 188pp.
In an attempt to save his daughter’s life, Eva’s father sends her from Poland to a labor camp in
Czechoslovakia, where she and her sister survive the war.
Kherdian, David. The Road from Home: The Story of an Armenian Girl. Greenwillow Books, c1979.
238pp. (NF)
A biography of the author’s mother, concentrating on her childhood in Turkey before the Turkish
government deported its Armenian population.
Matas, Carol. After the War. Aladdin Paperbacks, 1997, c1996. 133pp.
After being released from Buchenwald at the end of World War II, fifteen-year-old Ruth risks her
life to lead a group of children across Europe to Palestine.
Orlev, Uri. Run, Boy, Run: A Novel. Houghton Mifflin, c2003. 186pp.
Based on the true story of a nine-year-old boy who escapes the Warsaw Ghetto and must survive the
war in the Nazi-occupied Polish countryside.
Radin, Ruth Y. Escape to the Forest: Based on a True Story of the Holocaust. HarperCollins, c2000.
90pp.
A young Jewish girl living with her family in the town of Lida at the beginning of World War II re-
calls the horrors of life under first, the Russians, then the Nazis, before fleeing to join Tuvia Bielski,
a partisan who tried to save as many Jews as possible. Based on a true story.
Strasser, Todd. Thief of Dreams. Putnam, c2003. 160pp.
Thirteen-year-old Martin’s parents are always too busy making money to pay much attention to him,
so he enjoys the attention he gets from his Uncle Lawrence, until he discovers that his uncle has a se-
cret life.
We Are Witnesses: Five Diaries of Teenagers Who Died in the Holocaust. H. Holt, c1995. 196pp. (NF)
Excerpts from five diaries written by Jewish teenagers about their families’ experiences during
World War II.
Yolen, Jane. The Devil’s Arithmetic. Viking Kestrel, c1988. 170pp.
Hannah resents stories about her Jewish heritage and the past until, when opening the door during a
Passover Seder, she finds herself in Poland during World War II, where she experiences the horrors
of a concentration camp, and learns why she—and we—must remember the past.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

196
 Subjects

Materialism
Books for Ages 12–15
Keizer, Garret. God of Beer. HarperTempest, 2003, c2002. 242pp.
To complete a class assignment at his high school in rural Vermont, Kyle and his friends, Quake and
Diana, do a social protest project involving alcohol.
Koja, Kathe. Buddha Boy. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2003. 117pp.
Justin spends time with Jinsen, the unusual and artistic new student whom the school bullies torment
and call Buddha Boy, and ends up making choices that affect Jinsen, himself, and the entire school.
Myers, Bill. My Life as a Walrus Whoopee Cushion. Tommy Nelson, c1999. 116pp.
When Wally, Opera, and Wall Street win the Gazillion Dollar Lotto, they confront the dangers of
greed and materialism through a series of incidents involving bungling bad guys, a break-in at the
zoo, and a SWAT team.
Nye, Naomi Shihab. Going Going. Greenwillow Books, c2005. 232pp.
Florrie, a sixteen-year-old living in San Antonio, Texas, leads her friends and a new boyfriend in a
campaign that supports small businesses and protests the effects of chain stores.
Tashjian, Janet. The Gospel According to Larry. H. Holt, c2001. 227pp.
Seventeen-year-old Josh, a loner-philosopher who wants to make a difference in the world, tries to
maintain his secret identity as the author of a Web site that is receiving national attention.
Westerfeld, Scott. So Yesterday: A Novel. Razorbill, c2004. 225pp.
Hunter Braque, a New York City teenager who is paid by corporations to spot what is “cool,” com-
bines his analytical skills with girlfriend Jen’s creative talents to find a missing person and thwart a
conspiracy directed at the heart of consumer culture.
Woolf, Alex. Chrysalis Education (distributed in the United States by Smart Apple Media), c2004. 61pp.
(NF)
Examines some of the fundamental questions surrounding the issues of consumerism and discusses
how it affects underdeveloped countries, why some people are opposed to it, and what drives people
to consume.

Books for Older Teens

Anderson, M. T. Feed. Candlewick Press, c2002. 237pp.
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.
Menzel, Peter. Material World: A Global Family Portrait. Sierra Club Books, c1995. 255pp. (NF)
A photo-journey through the homes and lives of thirty families, revealing culture and economic lev-
els around the world.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Subjects

Medical Thrillers
Books for Ages 12–15
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Fever, 1793. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2000. 251pp.
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 the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia
in 1793.
Cooney, Caroline B. Code Orange. Delacorte Press, c2005. 200pp.
While conducting research for a school paper on smallpox, Mitty finds an envelope containing
100-year-old smallpox scabs and fears that he has infected himself and all of New York City.
DeFelice, Cynthia C. The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c1996. 151pp.
After his family dies of consumption in 1849, twelve-year-old Lucas becomes a doctor’s apprentice.
Farmer, Nancy. The House of the Scorpion. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2002. 380pp.
In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patron,
the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Running Out of Time. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers,
c1995. 184pp.
When a diphtheria epidemic hits her village in 1840, thirteen-year-old Jessie discovers it is actually a
1995 tourist site under observation by heartless scientists, and it’s up to Jessie to escape the village
and save the lives of the dying children.
Philbrick, W. R. The Last Book in the Universe. Blue Sky Press, c2000. 223pp.
After an earthquake has destroyed much of the planet, an epileptic teenager nicknamed Spaz begins
the heroic fight to bring human intelligence back to Earth of a distant future.

Books for Older Teens

Bear, Greg. Blood Music. Simon & Schuster, c2002. 344pp.
While experimenting with advanced biochips, researcher Vergil Ulam creates a microscopic intelli-
gence that threatens to bring about the end of the world as it mutates.
Bear, Greg. Darwin’s Children. Del Rey/Ballantine, 2004, c2003. 493pp.
Scientists Kaye Lang and Mitch Rafelson, parents of Stella, a genetically enhanced child born as a
result of mutations in the human genome caused by the SHEVA virus, lose the struggle to keep their
daughter safe from a repressive government that wants to control the virus children by isolating them
from the general population.
Bear, Greg. Darwin’s Radio. Ballantine Books, c1999. 430pp.
Molecular biologist Kay Lang, a specialist in retroviruses, teams up with virus hunter Christopher
Dicken and anthropologist Mitch Rafelson in an attempt to trace the ancient source of a flu-like dis-
ease that is killing expectant mothers and their offspring and threatening the future of the human
race.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Subjects

Medical Thrillers
Crichton, Michael. The Andromeda Strain. Avon Books, 2003, c1969. 331pp.
For five days, American scientists struggle to identify and control a deadly new form of life.
Crichton, Michael. The Terminal Man. Avon Books, 2002, c1972. 266pp.
Harry Benson, a man who suffers from violent seizures, is implanted with electrodes that are de-
signed to send soothing pulses to the pleasure centers of his brain, but something goes wrong with
the operation, and Benson sets out to get revenge on the doctors he believes are trying to turn him
into a machine.
Picoult, Jodi. My Sister’s Keeper: A Novel. Atria Books, c2004. 423pp. (adult)
Thirteen-year-old Anna, conceived specifically to provide blood and bone marrow for her sister
Kate, who was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia at the age of two, decides to sue her parents
for control of her body when her mother wants her to donate a kidney to Kate.
Preston, Richard. The Hot Zone. Anchor Books, c1995. 422pp.
Tells the dramatic story of U.S. Army scientists and soldiers who worked to stop the outbreak of a
deadly and extremely contagious virus in 1989.
Werlin, Nancy. Double Helix. Dial Books, c2004. 252pp.
Eighteen-year-old Eli discovers a shocking secret about his life and his family while working for a
Nobel Prize–winning scientist whose specialty is genetic engineering.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Subjects

Peace
Picture Books for Everyone
Bunting, Eve. Gleam and Glow. Harcourt, c2001. 32pp.
After his home is destroyed by war, eight-year-old Viktor finds hope in the survival of two very spe-
cial fish.
Bunting, Eve. The Wall. Clarion Books, c1990. 32pp.
A boy and his father come from far away to visit the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington and find
the name of the boy’s grandfather, who was killed in the conflict.
Cronin, Doreen. Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers,
c2000. 32pp.
When Farmer Brown’s cows find a typewriter in the barn, they start making demands, then go on
strike when the farmer refuses to give them what they want.
Cutler, Jane. The Cello of Mr. O. Dutton Children’s Books, c1999. 32pp.
When a concert cellist plays in the square for his neighbors in a war-besieged city, his priceless in-
strument is destroyed by a mortar shell, but he finds the courage to return the next day.
DiSalvo-Ryan, DyAnne. Grandpa’s Corner Store. HarperCollins, c2000. 36pp.
Grandfather’s corner grocery business is threatened by a new supermarket, but his granddaughter,
Lucy, organizes the neighbors to convince him to stay.
English, Karen. Hot Day on Abbott Avenue. Clarion Books, c2004. 32pp.
After having a fight, two friends spend the day ignoring each other, until the lure of a game of jump
rope helps them to forget about being mad.
Fox, Mem. Whoever You Are. Harcourt Brace, c1997. 32pp.
Despite the differences between people around the world, there are similarities that join us together,
such as pain, joy, and love.
Kellogg, Steven. The Island of the Skog. Dial Books for Young Readers, c1973. 32pp.
To escape the dangers of urban life, Jenny and her friends sail away to an island, only to be faced
with a new problem—its single inhabitant—the Skog.
Kuskin, Karla. The Upstairs Cat. Clarion Books, c1997. 32pp.
The fights between a mean, old cat and a lean, young cat always end in a draw and result in a waste of
energy that proves the futility of war.
Leaf, Munro. The Story of Ferdinand. Viking Press, c1964. 70pp.
Ferdinand likes to sit quietly and smell the flowers, but one day he gets stung by a bee, and his snort-
ing and stomping convince everyone that he is the fiercest of bulls.
Lionni, Leo. The Alphabet Tree. Knopf (distributed by Random House), 2004, c1968. 33pp.
After a storm blows some of them away, the letters on the alphabet tree learn from a strange bug to be
stronger by forming words, then a caterpillar comes along and tells them that words are not enough;
they must say something important.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Peace
Lobel, Anita. Potatoes, Potatoes. Greenwillow Books, c2004. 40pp.
Recounts how a mother’s love and potatoes ended a war.
McPhail, David M. Mole Music. H. Holt, c1999. 32pp.
Feeling that something is missing in his simple life, Mole acquires a violin and learns to make beau-
tiful, joyful music.
Muth, Jon J. Zen Shorts. Scholastic Press, c2005. 40pp.
When Stillwater the bear moves into the neighborhood, the stories he tells to three siblings teach
them to look at the world in new ways.
Say, Allen. Home of the Brave. Houghton Mifflin, c2002. 32pp.
Following a kayaking accident, a man experiences the feelings of children interned during World
War II and children on Indian reservations.
Seuss, Dr. The Butter Battle Book. Random House, c1984. 48pp.
Engaged in a long-running battle, the Yooks and the Zooks develop more and more sophisticated
weaponry as they attempt to outdo each other.
Shigekawa, Marlene. Blue Jay in the Desert. Polychrome, c1993. 40pp.
While living in a relocation camp during World War II, a young Japanese American boy receives a
message of hope from his grandfather.
Trivizas, Eugenios. The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig. Margaret K. McElderry Books,
c1993. 32pp.
An altered retelling of the traditional tale about the conflict between pig and wolf—with a surprise
ending.

Books for Ages 12–15

Deedy, Carmen Agra. The Yellow Star: The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark. Peachtree,
c2000. 32pp.
Retells the story of King Christian X and the Danish resistance to the Nazis during World War II.
Demi. Gandhi. Margaret K. McElderry Books, c2001. 36pp. (NF)
Color illustrations fill this chronicle of legendary pacifist social activist Mohandas Gandhi, whose
work to change India’s caste system and free India from British rule inspired both Martin Luther
King Jr. and Nelson Mandela.
Gilley, Jeremy. Peace One Day. Putnam, c2005. 44pp. (NF)
Jeremy Gilley describes his efforts to gather support for the creation of World Peace Day, a plan
adopted by the United Nations to set aside September 21 as an annual plea for a global ceasefire and
day of nonviolence.
Innocenti, Roberto. Rose Blanche. Creative Paperbacks, 1995, c1985. 32pp.
During World War II, a young German girl’s curiosity leads her to discover something far more ter-
rible than the day-to-day hardships and privations that she and her neighbors have experienced.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Peace
Ishii, Takayuki. One Thousand Paper Cranes: The Story of Sadako and the Children’s Peace Statue.
Laurel-Leaf Books, 2001, c1997. 97pp. (NF)
Hospitalized with the dreaded atom bomb disease, leukemia, a child in Hiroshima by the name of
Sadako races against time to fold 1,000 paper cranes to verify the legend that by doing so a sick per-
son will become healthy. After her death, Sadako’s classmates campaign to build the Children’s
Peace Statue in memory of Sadako and the other children who were victims of the atomic bombing
of Hiroshima.
Lalli, Judy. Make Someone Smile: And 40 More Ways to Be a Peaceful Person. Free Spirit, c1996.
71pp. (NF)
A collection of photographs of children modeling the skills of peacemaking and conflict resolution.
Marsden, John. Prayer for the Twenty-First Century. Lothian Books (distributed by Star Bright
Books), c1997. 32pp.
A poem, illustrated by photographs, illustrations, collages, and paintings, in which the author ex-
presses his hopes for a future of freedom, peace, and understanding.
Maruki, Toshi. Hiroshima No Pika. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, c1980. 48pp. (NF)
A retelling of a mother’s account of what happened to her family during the “Flash” that destroyed
Hiroshima in 1945.
Mochizuki, Ken. Baseball Saved Us. Lee & Low, c1993. 32pp.
A Japanese American boy learns to play baseball when he and his family are forced to live in an in-
ternment camp during World War II, and his ability to play helps him after the war is over.
Nye, Naomi Shihab. 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East. Greenwillow Books, c2002.
142pp.
A collection of sixty poems in which the Arab American author examines life in the Middle East.
Rappaport, Doreen. Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Jump at the
Sun/Hyperion Books for Children, c2001. 34pp. (NF)
Looks at the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, explaining his work to bring about a peaceful end to seg-
regation.
Rose, Naomi C. Tibetan Tales for Little Buddhas. Clear Light, c2004. 63pp.
Three traditional tales about mystical beings, yaks, an enormous sow, and yeti introduce Tibetan cul-
ture and wisdom. Includes a foreword from the Dalai Lama, map of Tibet, glossary of Tibetan terms,
and description of a Tibetan chant.
Smith, David J. If the World Were a Village: A Book About the World’s People. Kids Can Press, c2002.
32pp. (NF)
Breaks down the population of the world into a collection of 100 representative people and describes
what one would find in this global village, covering languages, ages, religions, food, air and water,
schooling, and possessions, accompanied by vivid color illustrations.
Zeman, Ludmila. Gilgamesh the King Tundra Books, c1992. 24pp.
Retells the ancient Sumerian legend of Gilgamesh, the king who was part god and part man.

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Peace
Books for Older Teens
Chambers, Aidan. Postcards from No Man’s Land. Dutton Books, c2002. 312pp.
Alternates between two stories in the present,, seventeen-year-old Jacob visits a daunting Amster-
dam at the request of his English grandmother, while in the past, nineteen-year-old Geertrui relates
her experience of British soldier’s attempts to liberate Holland from its German occupation.
Koplewicz, Harold S. Turbulent Times, Prophetic Dreams: Art from Israeli and Palestinian Children.
Devora Publishing, c2000. 87pp. (NF)
Presents more than thirty drawings by Palestinian and Israeli children about the way they see the vio-
lence between their peoples and what they would like the future to be like.
Meltzer, Milton. Ain’t Gonna Study War No More: The Story of America’s Peace Seekers. Random
House, 2002. 290pp. (NF)
Presents a history of pacifism and those who have protested against war, concentrating on war re-
sistance in the United States from colonial days to the present and concerns about nuclear arms and
terrorism.
Rall, Ted. To Afghanistan and Back: A Graphic Travelogue. Nantier, Beall, Minoustchine, c2002.
112pp. (NF)
New York cartoonist and columnist Ted Rall discusses his firsthand experiences in Afghanistan and
other countries in the region before and after September 11. 2001, criticizing U.S. military actions
there, and presenting a graphic novel about the war.
Sacco, Joe. Safe Area Gorazde. Fantagraphics Books, c2001. 227pp. (NF)
A graphic novel based on the author’s 1995–1996 visits to Gorazde, one of the UN-created “safe ar-
eas” in Eastern Bosnia, showing the brutality and humanity that coexisted there during the Bosnian
War of 1992–1995.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Picture Books About War

Books for All Ages
Abells, Chana Byers. The Children We Remember. Greenwillow Books, c1986. 50pp. (NF)
Text and photographs briefly describe the fate of Jewish children in World War II Europe after the
Nazis began to control their lives.
Balgassi, Haemi. Peacebound Trains. Clarion Books, c1996. 47pp.
Sumi’s grandmother tells the story of her family’s escape from Seoul during the Korean War, while
they watch the trains that will eventually bring Sumi’s mother back from army service.
Benchley, Nathaniel. Sam, the Minuteman. HarperCollins, c1969. 62pp.
An easy-to-read account of Sam and his father fighting as Minutemen against the British in the Bat-
tle of Lexington.
Borden, Louise. The Little Ships: The Heroic Rescue at Dunkirk in World War II. Aladdin, 2003,
c1997. 32pp.
A young English girl and her father take their sturdy fishing boat and join the scores of other civilian
vessels crossing the English Channel in a daring attempt to rescue Allied and British troops trapped
by Nazi soldiers at Dunkirk.
Borden, Louise. Sleds on Boston Common: A Story from the American Revolution. Margaret K.
McElderry Books, c2000. 40pp.
Henry complains to the royal governor, General Gage, after his plan to sled down the steep hill at
Boston Common is thwarted by the masses of British troops camped there.
Bunting, Eve. The Wall. Clarion Books, c1990. 32pp.
A boy and his father come from far away to visit the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington to find
the name of the boy’s grandfather, who was killed in the conflict.
Cutler, Jane. The Cello of Mr. O. Dutton Children’s Books, c1999. 32pp.
When a concert cellist plays in the square for his neighbors in a war-besieged city, his priceless in-
strument is destroyed by a mortar shell, but he finds the courage to return the next day.
Dabba Smith, Frank. My Secret Camera: Life in the Lodz Ghetto. Harcourt, c2000. 42pp. (NF)
Photographs taken secretly by a young Jewish man document the fear, hardship, generosity, and hu-
manity woven through the daily life of the Jews forced to live in the Lodz ghetto during the Holo-
caust.
Fleming, Candace. Boxes for Katje. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2003. 34pp.
After a young Dutch girl writes to her new American friend with thanks for the care package sent af-
ter World War II, she begins to receive increasingly larger boxes.
Fox, Mem. Feathers and Fools. Harcourt Brace, c1996. 34pp.
A modern fable about some peacocks and swans who allow the fear of their differences to become so
great that they end up destroying each other.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Picture Books About War

Granfield, Linda. In Flanders Fields: The Story of the Poem by John Mccrae. Stoddart Kids, c1996,
c1995. 32pp.
Presents the context for the writing of the famous poem by the Canadian medical officer who at-
tended injured soldiers in Flanders during the First World War.
Heide, Florence Parry. Sami and the Time of the Troubles. Clarion, c1992. 33pp.
A ten-year-old Lebanese boy goes to school, helps his mother with chores, plays with his friends,
and lives with his family in a basement shelter when bombings occur and fighting begins on his
street.
Kirkpatrick, Katherine. Redcoats and Petticoats. Holiday House, c1999. 32pp.
Members of a family in the village of Setauket on Long Island are displaced by the Redcoats and
serve as spies for the Revolutionary Army of George Washington.
Lee, Milly. Nim and the War Effort. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c1997. 40pp.
In her determination to prove that an American can win the contest for the war effort, Nim does
something that leaves her Chinese grandfather both bewildered and proud.
Maruki, Toshi. Hiroshima No Pika. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, c1980. 48pp. (NF)
A retelling of a mother’s account of what happened to her family during the “Flash” that destroyed
Hiroshima in 1945.
Mochizuki, Ken. Baseball Saved Us. Lee & Low, c1993. 32pp.
A Japanese American boy learns to play baseball when he and his family are forced to live in an in-
ternment camp during World War II, and his ability to play helps him after the war is over.
Oppenheim, Shulamith Levey. The Lily Cupboard. HarperCollins, c1992. 29pp.
During the German occupation of Holland, Miriam, a young Jewish girl, is forced to leave her par-
ents and hide with strangers in the country.
Polacco, Patricia. The Butterfly. Philomel Books, c2000. 50pp.
During the Nazi occupation of France, Monique’s mother hides a Jewish family in her basement and
tries to help them escape to freedom.
Rubin, Susan Goldman. Fireflies in the Dark: The Story of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and the Children
of Terezin. Holiday House, c2000. 47pp. (NF)
Covers the years during which Friedl Dicker, a Jewish woman from Czechoslovakia, taught art to
children at the Terezin Concentration Camp. Includes art created by teacher and students, excerpts
from diaries, and interviews with camp survivors.
Say, Allen. Grandfather’s Journey. Houghton Mifflin, c1993. 32pp.
A Japanese American man recounts his grandfather’s journey to America, which he later also under-
takes, and the feeling of being torn by love for two different countries.
Seuss, Dr. The Butter Battle Book. Random House, c1984. 48pp.
Engaged in a long-running battle, the Yooks and the Zooks develop more and more sophisticated
weaponry as they attempt to outdo each other.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Picture Books About War

Turner, Ann Warren. The Drummer Boy: Marching to the Civil War. HarperCollins, c1998. 32pp.
A thirteen-year-old soldier, coming of age during the American Civil War, beats his drum to raise
tunes and spirits and muffle the sounds of the dying.
Turner, Ann Warren. Katie’s Trunk. Aladdin Paperbacks, 1997, c1992. 32pp.
Katie, whose family is not sympathetic to the rebel soldiers during the American Revolution, hides
under the clothes in her mother’s wedding trunk when they invade her home.
Uchida, Yoshiko. The Bracelet. Philomel Books, c1993. 32pp.
Emi, a Japanese American in the second grade, is sent with her family to an internment camp during
World War II, but the loss of the bracelet her best friend has given her proves that she does not need a
physical reminder of that friendship.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Pirates
Books for Ages 12–15
Fleischman, Sid. The Giant Rat of Sumatra, or, Pirates Galore. Greenwillow Books, c2005. 194pp.
A cabin boy on a pirate ship finds himself in San Diego in 1846 as war breaks out between the United
States and Mexico.
Jacques, Brian. The Angel’s Command: A Tale from the Castaways of the Flying Dutchman. Philomel
Books, c2003. 374pp.
Ben and Ned, a boy and dog gifted with eternal youth and the ability to communicate with one an-
other nonverbally, encounter pirates on the high seas and rescue a kidnapped prince from a band of
gypsy thieves.
Lawrence, Iain. The Buccaneers. Delacorte Press, c2001. 244pp.
In the eighteenth century, sixteen-year-old John Spencer sails from England in his schooner, the
Dragon, to the Caribbean, where he and the crew encounter pirates, fierce storms, fever, and a
strange man who some fear may be cursed.
Meyer, L. A. Bloody Jack: Being An Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber,
Ship’s Boy. Harcourt, c2002. 278pp. (and sequels)
Reduced to begging and thievery in the streets of London, a thirteen-year-old orphan disguises her-
self as a boy and connives her way onto a British warship setting out for high sea adventure in search
of pirates.
Montgomery, Hugh. The Voyage of the Arctic Tern. Candlewick Press, c2002. 212pp.
A simple fisherman betrays his village for a handful of jewels, a group of courageous Englishmen
foil a treacherous Spanish pirate, and a lost soul seeks to redress an ancient wrong by finding a trea-
sure chest.
Moore, Robin. The Man with the Silver Oar. HarperCollins, c2002. 183pp.
In 1718, fifteen-year-old Daniel leaves his guardian uncle’s Quaker household to stow away on a
ship in pursuit of a pirate captain bent on raiding the coast of North America before returning to port
in Hispaniola.
Platt, Richard. Pirate Diary: The Journal of Jake Carpenter. Candlewick Press, c2001. 64pp.
The fictional diary of a ten-year-old boy, who in 1716 sets off from North Carolina to become a
sailor, but ends up a pirate instead.

Books for Older Teens

Bunch, Chris. Corsair. Warner Books, c2001. 406pp.
Captain Gareth Radnor leads a war of revenge against the Linyati, who enslaved and murdered his
family—but his battle against them takes on a new dimension when he discovers that the Linyati are
not human.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Pirates
Dumas, Alexandre. The Count of Monte Cristo. Penguin Books, c2003. 1276pp.
After escaping from the island fortress where he has been imprisoned for treason, young sailor
Edmund Dantes sets out to discover the treasure of Monte Cristo and seek revenge against the people
who falsely accused him.
Lee, Tanith. Piratica: Being a Daring Tale of a Singular Girl’s Adventure Upon the High Seas. Dutton
Children’s Books, 2004, c2003. 288pp.
Artemesia finally escapes the prim and proper world of finishing schools and sets out to win her
mother’s title as pirate queen of the seas, until she meets her match in Goldie Girl, the treacherous
captain of the pirate ship Enemy.
Llywelyn, Morgan. Grania: She-King of the Irish Seas. Forge, c2003. 412pp.
Brings to life the spirited story of Grace O’Malley, an Irish chieftain-pirate who struggled to survive
the attacks of England’s Elizabeth I in the sixteenth century.
Rees, Celia. Pirates!: The True and Remarkable Adventures of Minerva Sharpe and Nancy Kington,
Female Pirates. Bloomsbury (distributed to the trade by Holtzbrinck), c2003. 379pp.
At the dawn of the eighteenth century, Nancy Kington and Minerva Sharpe set sail from Jamaica on
a pirate vessel, hoping to escape from an arranged marriage and slavery.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Subjects

Questionable Medical Ethics

Books for Ages 12–15
Farmer, Nancy. The House of the Scorpion. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2002. 380pp.
In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patron,
the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Among the Hidden. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c1998.
153pp. (and sequels)
In a future where the Population Police enforce the law limiting a family to only two children, Luke
has lived all his twelve years in isolation and fear on his family’s farm, until another “third” con-
vinces him that the government is wrong.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Double Identity. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2005.
218pp.
Thirteen-year-old Bethany’s parents have always been overprotective, so when they suddenly drop
out of sight with no explanation, leaving her with an aunt she never knew existed, Bethany uncovers
shocking secrets that make her question everything she thought she knew about herself and her fam-
ily.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Running out of Time. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers,
c1995. 184pp.
When a diphtheria epidemic hits her village in 1840, thirteen-year-old Jessie discovers that it is actu-
ally a 1995 tourist site under observation by heartless scientists, and it’s up to Jessie to escape the
village and save the lives of the dying children.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Turnabout. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2000. 223pp.
Melly and Anny Beth agree to participate in Project Turnabout, a scientific experiment in which they
are given a shot that will make them grow younger, until they receive a second injection that will
stop the aging process. But when other participants die after receiving the second shot, Melly and
Anny Beth refuse to have the shot and set out to find someone to care for them when they become too
young to do it themselves.
Halam, Ann. Dr. Franklin’s Island. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2003, c2002. 245pp.
When their plane crashes over the Pacific Ocean, three science students are left stranded on a tropical
island and then imprisoned by a doctor who is performing horrifying experiments on humans involv-
ing the transfer of animal genes.
Halam, Ann. Taylor Five. Wendy Lamb Books, c2004. 197pp.
Fourteen-year-old Taylor is still dealing with the fact that she is a clone produced by the same com-
pany that funds the Orangutan Reserve that is her home on the island of Borneo, when the Reserve is
attacked and she flees with her younger brother and her uncle, the Reserve’s mascot.
Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Houghton Mifflin, c1993. 180pp.
Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories
shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which
he lives.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Subjects

Questionable Medical Ethics

Books for Older Teens
Cook, Robin. Coma. Center Point, Bolinda, 2003, c1977. 415pp. (adult)
The deaths of several patients who were admitted to the hospital for routine surgeries and ended up
with destroyed brains prompts a medical student to investigate what is really going on.
Crichton, Michael. Jurassic Park. Ballantine Books, c1991. 400pp. (adult)
An account of the attempt, through a hair-raising twenty-four hours on a remote jungle island, to
avert a global emergency—a crisis triggered by today’s rush to commercialize genetic engineering.
Dickinson, Peter. Eva. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1990, c 1988. 219pp.
After a terrible accident, a young girl wakes up to discover that she has been given the body of a
chimpanzee.
Keyes, Daniel. Flowers for Algernon. Harcourt Brace, c1966. 286pp.
After being mentally retarded for all of his thirty-two years, Charlie Gordon undergoes an operation
designed to change his life.
Layne, Steven L. This Side of Paradise. Pelican Books, c2001. 215pp.
After his father begins working for the mysterious Eden Corporation, Jack uncovers a sinister plot
that threatens the existence of his entire family.
Trueman, Terry. Stuck in Neutral. HarperCollins, c2000. 114pp.
Fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel, who suffers from severe cerebral palsy and cannot function, re-
lates his perceptions of his life, his family, and his condition, especially as he believes his father is
planning to kill him.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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Tattooing and Body Art

Books for Ages 12–15
Almond, David. The Fire-Eaters. Yearling, c2005. 218pp.
Despite observing his father’s illness and the suffering of the fire-eating Mr. McNulty, as well as en-
during abuse at school and the stress of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Bobby Burns and his family and
friends, living in England in 1962, still find reasons to rejoice in their lives and to have hope for the
future.
Bass, L. G. Sign of the Qin. Hyperion Books for Children, c2004. 383pp.
In long-ago China, Prince Zong, the mortal young Starlord chosen to save humankind from destruc-
tion, joins the twin outlaws, White Streak and Black Whirlwind, to fight the Lord of the Dead and his
demon hordes.
Brin, Susannah. The Rabbit Tattoo. Artesian Press, c2001. 67pp.
A teenager named Bags is intrigued by his new neighbor, Alexander, a young man with a sharp
tongue, a talent for magic, and a mysterious rabbit tattoo on his neck.
Dahl, Roald. Skin and Other Stories. Viking Press, c2000. 212pp.
Introduces teenagers to the adult short stories of Roald Dahl.
Desai Hidier, Tanuja. Born Confused. Scholastic Press, c2002. 413pp.
As Dimple Lala turns seventeen, she realizes that life is about to become more complex as her best
friend starts pulling away and her parents try to find a suitable boyfriend for Dimple, despite the fact
that she is not interested.
Hoffman, Alice. Green Angel. Scholastic Press, c2003. 116pp.
Haunted by grief and her past after losing her family in a fire, fifteen-year-old Green retreats into her
ruined garden as she struggles to survive emotionally and physically on her own.
Meyer, L. A. Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber,
Ship’s Boy. Harcourt, c2002. 278pp.
Reduced to begging and thievery in the streets of London, a thirteen-year-old orphan disguises herself as
a boy and connives her way onto a British warship setting out for high sea adventure in search of pirates.
Meyer, L. A. Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Mid-
shipman and Fine Lady. Harcourt, c2004. 488pp.
In 1803, after being exposed as a girl and forced to leave her ship, Jacky Faber finds herself attending
school in Boston, where, instead of learning to be a lady, she battles her snobbish classmates, roams
the city in search of adventure, and learns to ride a horse.
Weyn, Suzanne. The Bar Code Tattoo. Scholastic, c2004. 252pp.
Kayla is ostracized at school because she refused to get the required tattooed bar code, and now she
and her family must run to avoid the threats against them.
Wilson, Jacqueline. The Illustrated Mum. Delacorte Press, 2005, c1999. 282pp.
Ten-year-old Dolphin is determined to stay with her family, no matter what, but when her sister goes
to live with her newly discovered father, sending their mother further into manic depression, Dol-
phin’s life takes a turn for the better.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Vampires
Books for Ages 12–15
Hautman, Pete. Sweetblood. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2003. 180pp.
After a lifetime of being a model student, sixteen-year-old Lucy Szabo is suddenly in trouble at
school, at home, with the so-called vampires she has met online and in person, and most of all with
her uncontrolled diabetes.
Klause, Annette Curtis. The Silver Kiss. Dell, 1992, c1990. 198pp.
A mysterious teenage boy harboring a dark secret helps Zoe come to terms with her mother’s termi-
nal illness.
Rees, Douglas. Vampire High. Delacorte Press, c2003. 226pp.
When his family moves from California to New Sodom, Massachusetts, and Cody enters Vlad
Dracul Magnet School, many things seem strange, from the dark-haired, pale-skinned, supernatu-
rally strong students to Charon, the wolf who guides him around campus on the first day.
Schreiber, Ellen. Vampire Kisses. HarperCollins, c2003. 197pp.
Sixteen-year-old Raven, an outcast who always wears black and hopes to become a vampire some
day, falls in love with the mysterious new boy in town, eager to find out if he can make her dreams
come true.
Vande Velde, Vivian. Companions of the Night. Harcourt Brace, c1995. 212pp.
When sixteen-year-old Kerry Nowicki helps a young man escape from a group of men who claim he
is a vampire, she finds herself faced with some bizarre and dangerous choices.

Books for Older Teens

Anderson, M. T. Thirsty. Candlewick Press, 2003, c1997. 249pp.
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. Delacorte Press, c2000. 176pp.
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.
Atwater-Rhodes, Amelia. In the Forests of the Night. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2000, c 1999. 147pp.
Risika, a teenage vampire, wanders back in time to the year 1684 when, as a human, she died and was
transformed against her will.
Atwater-Rhodes, Amelia. Midnight Predator. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2003, c2002. 248pp.
Vampire hunter Turquoise Draka goes undercover as a human slave to enter the fabled vampire
realm of Midnight and assassinate Jeshikah, one of the cruelest vampires in history. But her disguise
brings up old memories of her past enslavement, and she finds herself comforted by her benign mas-
ter, Jaguar.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Vampires
Atwater-Rhodes, Amelia. Shattered Mirror. Delacorte Press, c2001. 227pp.
As seventeen-year-old Sarah, daughter of a powerful line of vampire-hunting witches, continues to
pursue the ancient bloodsucker Nikolas, she finds herself in a dangerous friendship with two vam-
pire siblings in her high school.
Bennett, Nigel. His Father’s Son. Baen, (distributed by Simon & Schuster), c2001. 337pp.
Richard Dun—a vampire for more than a thousand years who has had many identities in that time,
including Sir Lancelot of Arthur’s court—tries to cull wisdom from the centuries-old advice of his
former lover, the high priestess Sabra, in order to protect his current love, Stephanie, from danger
and accept the fact that, due to his life as a vampire, he cannot be her partner.
King, Stephen. ’Salem’s Lot. Doubleday, c1975. 451pp. (adult)
A stranger with an evil secret harms the lives of many inhabitants of a small New England town.
McKinley, Robin. Sunshine. Berkley Books, c2003. 389pp.
Sunshine is abducted by a vampire, and as she waits throughout the night, fearing the worst, she
forms an unlikely bond with her captor.
Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight. Little, Brown, c2005. 498pp.
When seventeen-year-old Bella leaves Phoenix to live with her father in Forks, Washington, she
meets an exquisitely handsome boy at school, for whom she feels an overwhelming attraction, and
who she comes to realize is not wholly human.
Rice, Anne. Interview with the Vampire. Knopf, c1976. 371pp.
Contains the e hypnotic, shocking, and erotic confessions of a vampire.
Stine, R. L. Dangerous Girls: A Novel. HarperCollins, c2003. 247pp.
After sixteen-year-old Destiny and her twin sister Livvy are turned into partial vampires at a summer
camp, they try to find the “Restorer,” who can return them to normal.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Violence
Books for Ages 12–15
Adoff, Jaime. Names Will Never Hurt Me. Dutton Children’s Books, c2004. 185pp.
Several high school students relate their feelings about school, themselves, and events as they unfold
on the fateful one-year anniversary of the killing of a fellow student.
Flake, Sharon. The Skin I’m In. Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children, c1998. 171pp.
Thirteen-year-old Maleeka, uncomfortable because her skin is extremely dark, meets a new teacher
with a birthmark on her face and makes some discoveries about how to love who she is and what she
looks like.
Flinn, Alex. Fade to Black. HarperTempest, c2005. 184pp.
An HIV-positive high school student hospitalized after being attacked; the bigot accused of the
crime; and the only witness, a classmate with Down Syndrome, reveal how the assault has changed
their lives as they tell about its aftermath.
Howe, James. The Misfits. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2001. 274pp.
Four students who do not fit in at their small-town middle school decide to create a third party for the
student council elections to represent all students who have ever been called names.
Huser, Glen. Stitches. Groundwood Books (distributed by Publishers Group West), c2003. 198pp.
Travis, a middle school student who wants to become a professional puppeteer, has endured years of
torment from a trio of bullies, but he finds himself fighting for his life when the harassment turns to
violence just after the ninth-grade dance.
Koertge, Ronald. Margaux with an X. Candlewick Press, c2004. 165pp.
Margaux, known as a “tough chick” at her Los Angeles high school, makes a connection with
Danny, who, like her, struggles with the emotional impact of family violence and abuse.
Koja, Kathe. Buddha Boy. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2003. 117pp.
Justin spends time with Jinsen, the unusual and artistic new student whom the school bullies torment
and call Buddha Boy, and ends up making choices that affect Jinsen, himself, and the entire school.
Koss, Amy Goldman. The Girls. Dial Books for Young Readers, c2000. 121pp.
Each of the girls in a middle school clique reveals the strong, manipulative hold that one of the group
exerts on the others, causing hurt and self-doubt among the girls.
Lynch, Chris. Who the Man. HarperCollins, c2002. 186pp.
Thirteen-year-old Earl Pryor is much too big for his age, and much too powerful for the anger that
rages within him when classmates tease him, the girl he likes disappoints him, or his parents’ prob-
lems get too real.
Plum-Ucci, Carol. The Body of Christopher Creed. Harcourt, c2000. 248pp.
Torey Adams, a high school junior with a seemingly perfect life, struggles with doubts and questions
surrounding the mysterious disappearance of the class outcast.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Violence
Plum-Ucci, Carol. What Happened to Lani Garver. Harcourt, c2002. 307pp.
Sixteen-year-old Claire is unable to face her fears about a recurrence of her leukemia, her eating dis-
order, her need to fit in with the popular crowd on Hackett Island, and her mother’s alcoholism, until
the enigmatic Lani Garver helps her get control of her life at the risk of his own.
Strasser, Todd. Give a Boy a Gun. Simon Pulse, 2002, c2000. 208pp.
Events leading up to a night of terror at a high school dance are told from the point of view of various
people involved.

Books for Older Teens

Atkins, Catherine. Alt Ed. Putnam, c2003. 198pp.
Participating in a special after-school counseling class with other troubled students, including a sen-
sitive gay classmate, helps Susan, an overweight tenth grader, develop a better sense of herself.
Brugman, Alyssa. Walking Naked. Delacorte Press, 2004, c2002. 185pp.
After being in detention with a girl called “The Freak,” Megan finds herself torn between the devel-
oping friendship the two share and her involvement with a popular clique.
Carbone, Elisa Lynn. The Pack. Viking Press, c2003. 153pp.
Akhil Vyas, a new boy in school, reluctantly decides that to prevent a violent crime, he must tell
Omar and Becky his secret.
Crutcher, Chris. Whale Talk. Greenwillow Books, c2001. 220pp.
Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial, adopted teenager, shuns organized sports and
the gung-ho athletes at his high school, until he agrees to form a swimming team and recruits some of
the school’s less popular students.
Flinn, Alex. Breaking Point. HarperTempest, 2003, c2002. 240pp.
Fifteen-year-old Paul enters an exclusive private school and falls under the spell of a charismatic boy
who may be using him.
Flinn, Alex. Breathing Underwater. HarperTempest, 2002, c2001. 263pp.
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 de-
scribes living with his abusive father.
Giles, Gail. Shattering Glass. Roaring Brook Press, c2002. 215pp.
Rob, the charismatic leader of the senior class, provokes unexpected violence when he turns the
school nerd into Prince Charming.
Mac, Carrie. The Beckoners. Orca Book, c2004. 217pp.
Zoe, unhappy to be moving once again, falls in with the Beckoners, a group of bullies at her new
school, but she soon finds herself trying to get free from the gang, whose actions against their favor-
ite target, a girl they call Dog, are escalating to violence.
Myers, Walter Dean. Autobiography of My Dead Brother. HarperTempest, c2005. 212pp.
Jesse pours his heart and soul into his sketchbook to make sense of life in his troubled Harlem neigh-
borhood and of the loss of a close friend.
From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Violence
Myers, Walter Dean. Monster. HarperCollins, c1999. 281pp.
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.
Myers, Walter Dean. Shooter. HarperTempest, 2005, c2004. 223pp.
Written in the form of interviews, reports, and journal entries, the story of three troubled teenagers
ends in a tragic school shooting.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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What’s Real? Books That Question Our Reality

Compiled by Patti Cook, Wired for Youth Librarian, Austin Public Library, Texas.

Books for Ages 12–15

Almond, David. Skellig. Delacorte Press, 1999, c1998. 182pp.
Unhappy about his baby sister’s illness and the chaos of moving into a dilapidated old house, Mi-
chael retreats to the garage, where he finds a mysterious stranger who is something like a bird and
something like an angel.
Clements, Andrew. Things Not Seen. Philomel Books, c2002. 251pp.
When fifteen-year-old Bobby wakes up and finds himself invisible, he and his parents and his new
blind friend, Alicia, try to find out what caused his condition and how to reverse it.
Hoffman, Alice. Green Angel. Scholastic Press, c2003. 116pp.
Haunted by grief and her past after losing her family in a fire, fifteen-year-old Green retreats into her
ruined garden as she struggles to survive emotionally and physically on her own.
L’Engle, Madeleine. A Wrinkle in Time. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999, c1962. 203pp.
Three extraterrestrial beings take Meg and her friends to another world.
Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Houghton Mifflin, c1993. 180pp.
Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories
shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which
he lives.
Rylant, Cynthia. God Went to Beauty School. HarperTempest, c2003. 56pp.
A novel in poems that reveal God’s discovery of the wonders and pains in the world he has created.
Walter, Virginia. Making up Megaboy. Dorling Kindersley, c1998. 64pp.
When thirteen-year-old Robbie shoots an old man in a liquor store, everyone who knows the quiet,
withdrawn youth struggles to understand this act of seemingly random violence.

Books for Older Teens

Block, Francesca Lia. I Was a Teenage Fairy. Joanna Cotler, 2000, c 1998. 186pp.
A feisty, sexy fairy helps a young woman heal traumas from her past.
Burgess, Melvin. Lady: My Life as a Bitch. H. Holt, c2002. 235pp.
Seventeen-year-old Sandra Francy is having way too much fun, and even though everyone wants her
to calm down and be sensible, she refuses, until she is accidentally turned into a dog and finds that
life as a canine has its own appeal.
Sebold, Alice. The Lovely Bones. Little, Brown, c2002. 328pp. (adult)
Fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon, the victim of a sexual assault and murder, looks on from the after-
life as her family deals with their grief, and waits for her killer to be brought to some type of justice.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Winter
Books for Ages 12–15
Colfer, Eoin. Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident. Hyperion Paperbacks for Children, c2002. 277pp.
Thirteen-year-old criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl must join forces with his nemesis, Captain
Holly Short of the LEPrecon fairy police, to save his father—one of the few people in the world Ar-
temis loves—who has been kidnapped by the Russian Mafiya.
Cooper, Susan. The Dark Is Rising Aladdin Paperbacks, 1986, c1973. 244pp.
On his eleventh birthday Will Stanton discovers that he is the last of the Old Ones, destined to seek
the six magical Signs that will enable the Old Ones to triumph over the evil forces of the Dark.
Crutcher, Chris. Stotan! Greenwillow Books, c1986. 183pp.
A high school coach invites members of his swimming team to a memorable week of rigorous train-
ing that tests their moral fiber as well as their physical stamina.
Gray, Dianne E. Together Apart. Houghton Mifflin, c2002. 193pp.
In 1888, a few months after barely surviving a deadly blizzard that has killed two of her brothers, fif-
teen-year-old Hannah goes to work at the home of a wealthy widow whose progressive social ideas
scandalize the town of Prairie Hill, Nebraska.
Hobbs, Will. Far North. Morrow Junior Books, c1996. 226pp.
After the destruction of their float plane, sixteen-year-old Gabe and his Dene friend, Raymond,
struggle to survive a winter in the wilderness of the Northwest Territories of Canada.
Horowitz, Anthony. Stormbreaker. Philomel Books, 2001, c2000. 192pp.
After the death of the uncle who had been his guardian, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider is coerced into
continuing his uncle’s dangerous work for Britain’s intelligence agency, MI6.
Houston, James A. Frozen Fire: A Tale of Courage. Margaret K. McElderry, 1986, c1977. 149pp.
Determined to find his father, who has been lost in a storm, a young boy and his Eskimo friend brave
windstorms, starvation, wild animals, and wild men during their search in the Canadian Arctic.
Lester, Alison. The Snow Pony. Houghton Mifflin, c2003. 194pp.
Prolonged drought has strained Dusty’s ranching family to the breaking point, but she finds consola-
tion with her wild and beautiful horse.
Lewis, C. S. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. HarperCollins, 2000, c 1978. 50pp.
An illustrated, abridged version of C. S. Lewis’s classic, in which four English schoolchildren find
their way through the back of a wardrobe into the magic land of Narnia and assist its ruler, the golden
lion Aslan, to triumph over the White Witch, who has cursed the land with eternal winter.
London, Jack. The Call of the Wild. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c1999. 112pp.
Buck, who is half St. Bernard and half Scotch shepher, is abducted and taken to the Klondike, where
he reverts to the wild and becomes the leader of a pack of wolves.
Mack, Tracy. Birdland. Scholastic Press, c2003. 198pp.
Thirteen-year-old Jed spends Christmas break working on a school project filming a documentary
about his East Village, New York City, neighborhood, where he is continually reminded of his older
brother, Zeke, a promising poet who died the summer before.
From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Winter
Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Blizzard’s Wake. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2002. 212pp.
In March 1941, when a severe blizzard suddenly hits Bismarck, North Dakota, a girl trying to save
her stranded father and brother inadvertently helps the man who killed her mother four years before.
Pattou, Edith. East. Harcourt, c2003. 498pp.
A young woman journeys to a distant castle on the back of a great white bear who is the victim of a
cruel enchantment.
Paulsen, Gary. Brian’s Winter. Delacorte Press, c1996. 133pp.
Instead of being rescued from a plane crash, as in the author’s other book, Hatchet, this story por-
trays what would have happened to Brian had he been forced to survive a winter in the wilderness
with only his survival pack and hatchet.
Paulsen, Gary. Dogsong. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c1985. 177pp.
A fourteen-year-old Eskimo boy who feels assailed by the modernity of his life takes a 1,400-mile
journey by dog sled across ice, tundra, and mountains, seeking his own “song” of himself.
Paulsen, Gary. The Winter Room. Orchard Books, c1989. 103pp.
A young boy growing up on a northern Minnesota farm describes the scenes around him and re-
counts his old Norwegian uncle’s tales of an almost mythological logging past.
Peyton, K. M. Snowfall. Houghton Mifflin, c1998. 343pp.
Desperate to see the world beyond her grandfather’s vicarage, sixteen-year-old Charlotte convinces
her older brother to take her along on a mountain-climbing trip to Switzerland, where her life be-
comes intertwined with an assortment of people in Victorian society.
Plummer, Louise. The Unlikely Romance of Kate Bjorkman. Dell Laurel-Leaf, c1995. 183pp.
Seventeen-year-old Kate hopes for romance when her older brother’s friend Richard comes to stay at
their house during Christmas vacation.
Rottman, S. L. Slalom. Viking Press, c2004. 246pp.
Sandro Birch has a good chance of making the ski team and having a real family with his girlfriend,
but first he must deal with his anger against his father, especially when the man returns after a seven-
teen-year absence.
Woodson, Jacqueline. If You Come Softly. Putnam, c1998. 181pp.
After meeting at their private school in New York, fifteen-year-old Jeremiah, who is black and
whose parents are separated, and Ellie, who is white and whose mother has twice abandoned her, fall
in love and then try to cope with people’s reactions.

Books for Older Teens

Davis, Claire. Winter Range. Picador USA, c2000. 262pp.
Sheriff Ike Parsons tries to help a local rancher who is down on his luck, but his good intentions are
rejected, and the rancher is so insulted that he plots to kill Ike’s wife.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Winter
Frazier, Charles. Cold Mountain. Atlantic Monthly Press, c1997. 356pp.
Inman, a wounded Confederate soldier, leaves the hospital where he is being treated and determines
to walk home to his sweetheart, Ada, only to find the land and the girl he remembers as changed by
the war as he is.
Guterson, David. Snow Falling on Cedars. Harcourt Brace, c1994. 345pp.
When a newspaper journalist covers the trial of a Japanese American accused of murder, he must
come to terms with his own past.
Judson, William. Cold River: A Novel. Signet, 1976, c1974. 182pp.
In the frozen Adirondacks in 1921, fourteen-year-old Lizzy and her younger brother Tim battle for
survival after losing their father in one of the worst snowstorms of the century.
Lawrence, Michael. A Crack in the Line. Greenwillow Books, 2004, c2003. 323pp.
Sixteen-year-old Alaric discovers how to travel to an alternate reality, where his mother is alive and
his place in the family is held by a girl named Naia.
Martin, Nora. A Perfect Snow. Bloomsbury Children’s Books (distributed by St. Martin’s Press),
c2002. 144pp.
Seventeen-year-old Ben, living in a trailer park with his unemployed father and younger brother Da-
vid, becomes involved in a violent white supremacy hate group operating in their small Montana
town, but with the help of new girlfriend Eden, and a growing friendship with a local “rich kid,” Ben
begins to see the error in his thinking and tries to save his brother before it is too late.
McDaniel, Lurlene. Starry, Starry Night: Three Holiday Stories. Bantam Books, 2000, c 1998. 255pp.
A collection of three stories in which teenagers face life-altering situations.
Shreve, Anita. Light on Snow: A Novel. Little, Brown, c2004. 305pp.
Twelve-year-old Nicky Dillon, still dealing with the loss of her mother and baby sister two years ear-
lier and her grieving father’s sudden decision to move to an isolated New England farmhouse, takes
further steps into the adult world when she and her dad find an abandoned newborn clinging to life in
the woods near their home, and later come to know the young mother and learn her story.
Spinelli, Jerry. Milkweed: A Novel. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c2003. 208pp.
A street child, known to himself only as Stopthief, finds community when he is taken in by a band of
orphans in the Warsaw ghetto, which helps him weather the horrors of the Nazi regime.
Werlin, Nancy. Black Mirror: A Novel. Dial Books, c2001. 249pp.
Convinced her brother’s death was murder rather than suicide, sixteen-year-old Frances begins her
own investigation into suspicious student activities at her boarding school.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Winter
Nonfiction
Books for Ages 12–15
Paulsen, Gary. How Angel Peterson Got His Name: And Other Outrageous Tales About Extreme
Sports. Wendy Lamb Books, c2003. 111pp. (NF)
Author Gary Paulsen relates tales from his youth in a small town in northwestern Minnesota in the
late 1940s and early 1950s, such as skiing behind a souped-up car and imitating daredevil Evel
Knievel.
Pfetzer, Mark. Within Reach: My Everest Story. Puffin Books, 2000, c 1998. 224pp. (NF)
The author describes how he spent his teenage years climbing mountains in the United States, South
America, Africa, and Asia, with an emphasis on his two expeditions up Mount Everest.

Books for Older Teens

Krakauer, Jon. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster. Villard, c1997.
293pp. (adult) (NF)
The author relates his experiences climbing Mount Everest during its deadliest season and examines
what it is about the mountain that makes people willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship,
and expense.
Paulsen, Gary. Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod. Harcourt Brace, c1994.
256pp. (NF)
The author’s account of his most ambitious quest: to know a world beyond his knowing, to train for
and run the Iditarod.
Read, Piers Paul. Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors. Avon Books, 2002, c1974. 398pp. (NF)
Discusses the ordeal of the survivors of an airplane crash in 1972 in the Andes wilderness.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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World Literature; Global Fiction for Teens

Compiled by Beth Gallaway Youth Services Consultant/Trainer,
Metrowest MA Regional Library System, Massachusetts.

Books for Ages 12–15

Abelove, Joan. Go and Come Back. Puffin Books, c2000. 176pp.
Anthropologists study a group of Peruvian natives in the late seventies.
Alverez, Julia. Before We Were Free. Knopf, c2002. 167pp.
Fictional account of growing up under the dictatorship of the Trujillo regime in the Dominican Re-
public.
Belpre, Pura. Firefly Summer. Pinata Books, c1996. 205pp.
At a plantation in rural Puerto Rico around the turn of the nineteenth century, the foreman pursues
the mystery surrounding his family.
Carmi, Danielle. Samir and Yonatan. Arthur A. Levine Books, c2000. 183pp.
Samir, a young Palestinian boy, dreads going to an Israeli hospital for an operation, but once there,
he bonds with an Israeli boy named Yonatan.
Choi, Sook Nyul. The Year of Impossible Goodbyes. Houghton Mifflin, c1991. 171pp.
A young Korean girl survives the oppressive Japanese and Russian occupation of North Korea dur-
ing the 1940s, to later escape to freedom in South Korea.
Ellis, Deborah. The Breadwinner. Douglas & McIntyre, c2002. 170pp.
The Taliban hauls away Parvana’s father, leaving her to become the “breadwinner” and disguise her-
self as a boy to support her mother, two sisters, and baby brother in war-ravaged Afghanistan.
Hidier, Desai. Born Confused. Scholastic, c2002. 413pp.
Seventeen-year-old Dimple, whose family is from India, discovers that she is not Indian enough for
the Indians and not American enough for the Americans, as she sees her hypnotically beautiful, ma-
nipulative best friend taking possession of both her heritage and the boy she likes
Ho, Minfong. The Clay Marble. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c1993. 163pp.
In the late 1970s, twelve-year-old Dara joins a refugee camp in war-torn Cambodia and becomes
separated from her family.
Na, An. A Step from Heaven. Front Street, c2001. 156pp.
A young Korean girl and her family find it difficult to learn English and adjust to life in America.
Napoli, Donna Jo. Beast. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2000. 260pp.
Retelling of the legend of Beauty and the Beast, set in Persia
Ryan, Pam Muñoz. Esperanza Rising. Scholastic, c2000. 262pp.
Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to work in
the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing
Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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World Literature; Global Fiction for Teens

Watkins, Yoko Kawashima. So Far from the Bamboo Grove. Beech Tree Books, 1994, c1986. 183pp.
When World War II comes to an end, Japanese on the Korean peninsula near China’s border are
forced to move.
Whelan, Gloria. Homeless Bird. HarperCollins, c2000. 216pp.
When thirteen-year-old Koly enters into an ill-fated arranged marriage, she must either suffer a des-
tiny dictated by India’s tradition or find the courage to oppose it.

Books for Older Teens

Bagdasarian, Adam. Forgotten Fire. DK Ink, c2000. 273pp.
Vahan survives the Turkish slaughter of Armenians between 1915 and 1923.
Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. Knopf, c1998. 134pp.
Esperanza doesn’t want to belong to the run-down Chicago suburan neighborhood she lives in, so
she struggles to find a way to reinvent herself.
Dalkey, Karen. Little Sister. Harcourt, c1996. 200pp.
Thirteen-year-old Fujiwara no Mitsuko, daughter of a noble family in the imperial court of
twelfth-century Japan, enlists the help of a shape-shifter and other figures from Japanese mythology
in her efforts to save her older sister’s life.
Esquival, Laura. Like Water for Chocolate. Doubleday, c1992. 245pp. (adult)
Romantic fantasy set in the early twentieth century about a young couple blocked from marrying by
the demands of her cold and selfish mother. To be near his love the young man marries her sister, and
she expresses her passion for him through her cooking.
Hamilton, Morse. Yellow Blue Bus Means I Love You. Greenwillow Books, c1994. 180pp.
Boarding school experience from the point of view of a Russian immigrant
Kim, Helen. A Long Season of Rain. H. Holt, c1996. 275pp.
When an orphan boy comes to live with her family, eleven-year-old Junehee begins to realize that
the demands placed on Korean women can destroy their lives.
Paton, Alan. Cry, the Beloved Country. Scribner Classics, c2003, c1948. 316pp.
A deeply moving story of Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, set against the back-
drop of a land and people driven by racial inequality and injustice, remains the most famous and im-
portant novel in South Africa’s history
Vijayaraghavan, Vineeta. The Motherland. Soho, c2001. 231pp.
Concerned that fifteen-year-old Maya may have fallen under the bad influence of her New York
friends, her parents send her to their extended family in Kerala, India, for the summer, where she dis-
covers family secrets and her heritage.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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Part 6
Audience
 Audience

Books That Changed the World

Books for Ages 12–15
Nelson, Peter. Left for Dead: A Young Man’s Search for Justice for the USS Indianapolis. Delacorte
Press, c2002. 201pp. (NF)
Recalls the sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis at the end of World War II, the Navy cover-up and un-
fair court martial of the ship’s captain, and how a young boy helped the survivors set the record
straight fifty-five years later.
Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. A. A. Levine Books, c1998. 309pp.
Rescued from the outrageous neglect of his aunt and uncle, a young boy with a great destiny proves
his worth while attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Books for Older Teens

Caro, Robert A. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. Knopf, 1994. 1,246pp.
(NF)
Biography of Robert Moses, a public administrator who created and carried out public works pro-
jects in New York City costing $27 billion over the course of forty-four years, looking at his power-
ful influence with some of the city’s most important politicians and financiers.
Darwin, Charles. The Origin of Species. Oxford University Press, c1998. 439pp. (NF)
Darwin’s 1859 text, in which he defines his theory of evolution, arguing that species change over
time, evolving or dying out entirely, through the process of natural selection.
The Federalist Papers. Signet Classic, c2003. 648pp. (NF)
An annotated edition of The Federalist Papers, in which James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and
John Jay set forth the principles of American government, leading to the ratification of the U.S. Con-
stitution. Includes an introduction by Isaac Kramnick and the text of the Constitution.
Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. W. W. Norton, 2001, c1963. 430pp. (NF)
A reissue of the 1963 text that sparked the feminist movement through its analysis of the changing
role and status of women, and includes an introduction by author Anna Quindlen in which she dis-
cusses the influence of the book on her personal history and society as a whole.
Haley, Alex. Roots. Dell, c1976. 729pp. (NF)
Magnificent saga tracing the heritage of an American family from eighteenth-century Africa to the
present.
Harr, Jonathan. A Civil Action. Vintage, 1996, c1995. 502pp. (NF)
Follows a lawsuit brought against W.R. Grace & Co. for contaminating the drinking water in
Woburn, Massachusetts.
Lewis, Anthony. Gideon’s Trumpet. Vintage, 1989, c1964. 277pp. (NF)
Account of Clarence Earl Gideon, who in 1962 was tried at the Supreme Court without a lawyer be-
cause he could not afford one, and how his case has changed the law of the United States.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

227
 Audience

Books That Changed the World

Locke, John. Two Treatises of Government. Cambridge University Press, c1988. 464pp. (NF)
Locke’s seventeenth-century classic work on political and social theory; includes a history of the
text, as well as notes and a bibliography.
Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. Amereon House, c1999. 341pp.
Describes the conditions of the Chicago stockyards through the eyes of a young immigrant strug-
gling to get by in America.
Tey, Josephine. The Daughter of Time. Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995, c1979. 206pp.
Follows Alan Grant, an injured policeman currently hospitalized and bored, as he searches for the
truth behind the belief that Richard III murdered the little princes in the tower.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

228
 Audience

Father-Son Book Club

Books for Ages 12–15
Bauer, Joan. Stand Tall. Putnam, c2002. 182pp.
Tree, a six-foot-three-inch twelve-year-old, copes with his parents’ recent divorce and his failure as
an athlete by helping his grandfather, a Vietnam vet and recent amputee, and Sophie, a new girl at
school.
Colfer, Eoin. Artemis Fowl. Hyperion Books for Children, c2001. 277pp. (and sequels)
When a twelve-year-old evil genius tries to restore his family fortune by capturing a fairy and de-
manding a ransom in gold, the fairies fight back with magic, technology, and a nasty troll.
Farmer, Nancy. The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm. Orchard Books, 2004, c1994. 311pp.
In 2194 in Zimbabwe, General Matsika’s three children are kidnapped and put to work in a plastic
mine, while three mutant detectives use their special powers to search for them.
Hiaasen, Carl. Flush. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c2005. 263pp.
With their father jailed for sinking a river boat, Noah Underwood and his younger sister, Abbey,
must gather evidence that the owner of the floating casino is emptying his bilge tanks into the pro-
tected waters around their Florida Keys home.
Hiaasen, Carl. Hoot. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c2002. 292pp.
Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy’s attempt to save
a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site.
Hoobler, Dorothy. The Demon in the Teahouse. Philomel Books, c2001. 181pp.
In eighteenth-century Japan, fourteen-year-old Seikei, a merchant’s son in training to be a samurai,
helps his patron investigate a series of murders and arson in the capital city of Edo, each of which is
associated in some way with a popular geisha.
Hoobler, Dorothy. The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn. Philomel Books, c1999. 214pp.
In eighteenth-century Japan, while attempting to solve the mystery of a stolen jewel, Seikei, a mer-
chant’s son who longs to be a samurai, joins a group of kabuki actors.
Horowitz, Anthony. Stormbreaker. Philomel Books, 2001, c2000. 192pp.
After the death of the uncle who had been his guardian, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider is coerced into
continuing his uncle’s dangerous work for Britain’s intelligence agency, MI6.
Karr, Kathleen. Playing with Fire. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2001. 185pp.
Greer spends the summer of 1924 at a Long Island seashore mansion, where she helps her psychic
mother and a sinister magician conduct séances, and finds new direction for her life.
Mikaelsen, Ben. Red Midnight. HarperCollins/Rayo, c2002. 212pp.
After soldiers kill his family, twelve-year-old Santiago and his four-year-old sister flee Guatemala in
a kayak and try to reach the United States.
Oppel, Kenneth. Silverwing. Aladdin Paperbacks, 1999, c1997. 216pp.
When a newborn bat named Shade but sometimes called “Runt” becomes separated from his colony
during migration, he grows in ways that prepare him for even greater journeys.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

229
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Father-Son Book Club

Paulsen, Gary. Guts: The True Stories Behind Hatchet and the Brian Books. Delacorte Press, c2001.
148pp.
The author relates incidents in his life and how they inspired parts of his books about the character
Brian Robeson.
Plum-Ucci, Carol. The Body of Christopher Creed, Harcourt, c2000. 248pp.
Torey Adams, a high school junior with a seemingly perfect life, struggles with doubts and questions
surrounding the mysterious disappearance of the class outcast.
Sachar, Louis. Holes. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c1998. 233pp.
As further evidence of his family’s bad fortune, which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative,
Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert, where he finds his first real
friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself.
Salisbury, Graham. Eyes of the Emperor. Wendy Lamb Books, c2005. 229pp.
Following orders from the U.S. Army, several young Japanese American men train K-9 units to hunt
Asians during World War II.
Salisbury, Graham. Lord of the Deep. Delacorte Press, c2001. 182pp.
Working for his stepfather on a charter fishing boat in Hawaii teaches thirteen-year-old Mikey not
just about fishing, but also about taking risks, making sacrifices, and facing some of life’s difficult
choices.
Spinelli, Jerry. Maniac Magee: A Novel. Little, Brown, c1990. 184pp.
After his parents die, Jeffrey Lionel Magee’s life becomes legendary, as he accomplishes athletic
and other feats that awe his contemporaries.
Trueman, Terry. Stuck in Neutral. HarperCollins, c2000. 114pp.
Fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel, who suffers from severe cerebral palsy and cannot function, re-
lates his perceptions of his life, his family, and his condition, especially as he believes his father is
planning to kill him.
Wynne-Jones, Tim. The Boy in the Burning House. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2001, c2000. 213pp.
Trying to solve the mystery of his father’s disappearance from their rural Canadian community,
fourteen-year-old Jim gets help from the disturbed Ruth Rose, who suspects her stepfather, a local
pastor.
Yolen, Jane. Dragon’s Blood. Magic Carpet Books/Harcourt, 1996, c1982. 303pp.
Jakkin, a bond boy who works as a Keeper in a dragon nursery on the planet Austar IV, secretly
trains a fighting pit dragon of his own in hopes of winning his freedom.
Yolen, Jane. Mightier Than the Sword: World Folktales for Strong Boys. Harcourt, c2003. 112pp.
A collection of folktales from around the world that demonstrate the triumph of brains over brawn.
Yolen, Jane. Not One Damsel in Distress: World Folktales for Strong Girls. Silver Whistle/Harcourt,
c2000. 116pp.
A collection of thirteen traditional tales from various parts of the world, each of whose main charac-
ter is a fearless, strong, heroic, and resourceful woman.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

230
 Audience

Father-Son Book Club

Yolen, Jane. Odysseus in the Serpent Maze. HarperCollins, c2001. 248pp.
Thirteen-year-old Odysseus, who longs to be a hero, has many opportunities to prove himself during
an adventure that involves pirates and satyrs, a trip to Crete’s Labyrinth, and more.

Books for Older Teens

Lubar, David. Hidden Talents. Starscape, 2003, c1999. 213pp.
Thirteen-year-old Martin, a new student at an alternative school for misfits and problem students,
falls in with a group of boys with psychic powers and discovers something surprising about himself.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

231
 Audience

(Books That Appeal to) Goths

Books for Ages 12–15
Augarde, Steve. The Various. David Fickling Books, c2004. 447pp.
While staying on her uncle’s rundown farm in the Somerset countryside, twelve-year-old Midge dis-
covers that she has a special connection to the Various, a tribe of “strange, wild—and sometimes
deadly” fairies struggling to maintain their existence in the nearby woods.
Barker, Clive. Abarat. Joanna Cotler Books, c2002. 388pp. (and sequels)
Candy Quackenbush of Chickentown, Minnesota, journeys to the Abarat, an archipelago filled with
strange wonders, and has a curious revelation: she has been here before, and it is her responsibility to
save this mysterious place from the evil forces that threaten it.
Cary, Kate. Bloodline: A Novel. Razorbill, c2005. 324pp.
Nineteen-year-old John Shaw returns from World War I and is haunted by nightmares of not only
the battles but the horrifying discovery that his regimental commander is descended from Count
Dracula.
Clarke, Judith. Kalpana’s Dream. Front Street, 2005, c2004. 164pp.
Neema’s struggle to complete an essay on the topic “Who Am I” for her freshman English class is
complicated by the arrival of Kampala, her Indian great-grandmother, who has come to Australia
chasing her dream of flying. Although they do not speak the same language, the two find common
ground in skateboarder Gull Oliver.
Golden, Christopher. Prowlers. Pocket Pulse, c2001. 290pp.
Nineteen-year-old Jack Dwyer searches for the killer of his best friend and discovers a band of beasts
called the Prowlers, who disguise themselves as humans and feed on them as well.
Gruber, Michael. The Witch’s Boy. HarperTempest, c2005. 377pp.
A grotesque foundling turns against the witch who sacrificed almost everything to raise him when he
becomes consumed by the desire for money and revenge against those who have hurt him, but he
eventually finds his true heart’s desire.
Halam, Ann. Dr. Franklin’s Island. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2003, c2002. 245pp.
When their plane crashes into the Pacific Ocean, three science students are left stranded on a tropical
island and then imprisoned by a doctor who is performing horrifying experiments on humans involv-
ing the transfer of animal genes.
Hautman, Pete. Sweetblood. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2003. 180pp.
After a lifetime of being a model student, sixteen-year-old Lucy Szabo is suddenly in trouble at
school, at home, with the so-called vampires she has met online and in person, and most of all with
her uncontrolled diabetes.
Hoffman, Alice. Green Angel. Scholastic Press, c2003. 116pp.
Haunted by grief and her past after losing her family in a fire, fifteen-year-old Green retreats into her
ruined garden as she struggles to survive emotionally and physically on her own.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

232
 Audience

(Books That Appeal to) Goths

Hoffman, Nina Kiriki. A Stir of Bones. Viking Press, c2003. 211pp.
After discovering the secrets that lie in an abandoned house, fourteen-year-old Susan Backstrom,
with the help of some new friends, has the ability to make a safe, new life for herself.
Klause, Annette Curtis. The Silver Kiss. Dell, 1992, c1990. 198pp.
A mysterious teenage boy harboring a dark secret helps Zoe come to terms with her mother’s termi-
nal illness.
Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Jade Green: A Ghost Story. Atheneum, c1999. 168pp.
While living with her uncle in a house haunted by the ghost of a young woman, recently orphaned
Judith Sparrow wonders if her one small transgression has caused mysterious happenings.
Sedgwick, Marcus. The Book of Dead Days. Wendy Lamb Books, c2004. 273pp.
After making a pact with the devil years before, a magician named Valerian has only the days be-
tween Christmas and New Year’s day to save his own life. He seeks the help of a servant boy and an
orphan girl named Willow.
Shan, Darren. Cirque du Freak. Little, Brown, c2001. 266pp.
Two boys who are best friends visit an illegal freak show, where an encounter with a vampire and a
deadly spider forces them to make life-changing choices.
Shusterman, Neal. Full Tilt: A Novel. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2003. 201pp.
When sixteen-year-old Blake goes to a mysterious, by-invitation-only carnival, he somehow knows
that it could save his comatose brother, but soon learns that much more is at stake if he fails to meet
the challenge presented there by the beautiful Cassandra.
Snyder, Midori. Hannah’s Garden. Viking Press, c2002. 247pp.
Seventeen-year-old Cassie Brittman, looking forward to her violin recital and the prom, finds her
life taking a very different direction when she and her mother are called to attend her dying grandfa-
ther. They arrive to discover his farm nearly destroyed—apparently by two feuding supernatural
clans.
Zevin, Gabrielle. Elsewhere. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2005. 275pp.
After fifteen-year-old Liz Hall is hit by a taxi and killed, she finds herself in a place that is both like
and unlike Earth, where she must adjust to her new status and figure out how to “live.”

Books for Older Teens

Aikawa, Yu. Dark Edge. 1. ComicsOne, c2004. 194pp.
Kurou Takagi is summoned to Yotsuji Private High School after his mother’s death, where he finds
his father—whom he believed was dead—is the proprietor, but he soon learns something strange is
going on when he and some other students break the rule against being on campus after sundown and
are attacked by zombies.
Anderson, M. T. Thirsty. Candlewick Press, 2005, c1997. 237pp.
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.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

233
 Audience

(Books That Appeal to) Goths

Atwater-Rhodes, Amelia. Shattered Mirror. Delacorte Press, c2001. 227pp.
As seventeen-year-old Sarah, daughter of a powerful line of vampire-hunting witches, continues to
pursue the ancient bloodsucker Nikolas, she finds herself in a dangerous friendship with two vam-
pire siblings in her high school.
Banks, L. A. The Awakening: A Vampire Huntress Legend. St. Martin’s Griffin, c2003. 264pp.
When different factions in the vampire world set out to claim her for their own purposes, powerful
vampire huntress Danali must place her trust in an ex-lover turned vampire in an effort to survive..
Brooks, Bruce. All That Remains. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, c2001. 168pp.
Contains three stories about young people who are doing their best to handle the loss of a loved one.
Klause, Annette Curtis. Blood and Chocolate. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers,
1999, c1997. 264pp.
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.
Koontz, Dean R. Watchers. Berkley Books, 2003, c1987. 487pp.
Relates the adventures of two creatures that have escaped from a secret, sinister government labora-
tory where experiments in genetic engineering are conducted.
Kostova, Elizabeth. The Historian: A Novel. Little, Brown, c2005. 642pp.
A young woman discovers an ancient book and a cache of old letters in her father’s library, and thus
begins her adventurous quest for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, a search that will span continents
and generations and will involve a confrontation with the darkest powers of evil.
Martinez, A. Lee. Gil’s All Fright Diner. Tor, c2005. 268pp.
Earl and Duke stop in at a roadside diner in Rockwood County, and Loretta, the cafe’s owner, asks
them to help solve the zombie problem that is troubling the town.
Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight. Little, Brown, c2005. 498pp.
When seventeen-year-old Bella leaves Phoenix to live with her father in Forks, Washington, she
meets an exquisitely handsome boy at school, for whom she feels an overwhelming attraction and
who she comes to realize is not wholly human.
Rees, Douglas. Vampire High. Delacorte Press, c2003. 226pp.
When his family moves from California to New Sodom, Massachusetts, and Cody enters Vlad
Dracul Magnet School, many things seem strange, from the dark-haired, pale-skinned, supernatu-
rally strong students to Charon, the wolf who guides him around campus on the first day.
Westerfeld, Scott. Peeps: A Novel. Razorbill, c2005. 312pp.
Cal Thompson is a carrier of a parasite that causes vampirism, and he must hunt down all of the girl-
friends he has unknowingly infected.
Young, Karen Romano. Cobwebs. Greenwillow Books, c2004. 388pp.
Sixteen-year-old Nancy enjoys the colorful ethnic mix of her heritage in several different Brooklyn
households, not suspecting how very strange that heritage is.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

234
 Audience

Nonfiction for Reluctant Readers

Books for Ages 12–15
Adams, Simon. Code Breakers: From Hieroglyphs to Hackers. DK, c2002. 96pp. (NF)
Describes the use of codes and code breaking, from ancient times to the present.
Armstrong, Jennifer. Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of
Shackleton and the Endurance. Crown, 2000, c1998. 134pp. (NF)
Describes the events of the 1914 Shackleton Antarctic expedition during which, after being trapped
in a frozen sea for nine months, their ship, Endurance, was finally crushed, forcing Shackleton and
his men to make a very long and perilous journey to reach inhabited land.
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845–1850.
Houghton Mifflin, c2001. 184pp. (NF)
Draws from letters, diaries, and other documents to chronicle the Irish potato famine of 1845–1850,
describing the political and personal impact it had on Ireland and its people, and presenting illustra-
tions from contemporary newspapers.
Campbell, Andrea. Forensic Science: Evidence, Clues, and Investigation. Chelsea House, 1999,
c2000. 135pp. (NF)
Examines forensic science and how it can be used to apprehend criminals by finding clues in rug fi-
bers, the way a bone is broken, DNA “fingerprints,” and more.
Fleischman, John. Phineas Gage: A Gruesome But True Story About Brain Science. Houghton
Mifflin, c2002. 86pp. (NF)
The true story of Phineas Gage, whose brain was pierced by an iron rod in 1848but who survived and
became a case study in how the brain functions.
Freedman, Russell. The Life and Death of Crazy Horse. Holiday House, c1996. 166pp. (NF)
A biography of the Oglala leader who relentlessly resisted the white man’s attempts to take over In-
dian lands.
Glover, Savion. Savion!: My Life in Tap. Morrow, c2000. 79pp. (NF)
Examines the life and career of the young tap dancer who speaks with his feet and who choreo-
graphed the Tony Award–winning Broadway show Bring in da Noise, Bring in da Funk.
Hawk, Tony. Hawk: Occupation: Skateboarder. Regan Books, 2001, c2000. 307pp. (NF)
Internationally known American skateboarding champ Tony Hawk chronicles his life and his very
eventful involvement with the sport.
Jackson, Livia Bitton. I Have Lived a Thousand Years: Growing Up in the Holocaust. Aladdin Paper-
backs, 1999, c1997. 234pp. (NF)
A memoir by Elli Friedmann, in which she tells about her experiences at Auschwitz concentration
camp, where she was taken at the age of thirteen in 1944 when the Nazis invaded her native Hungary.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

235
 Audience

Nonfiction for Reluctant Readers

Jiang, Ji-li. Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution. HarperCollins, c1997. 285pp. (NF)
The author tells about the happy life she led in China until she was twelve years old, when her family
became a target of the Cultural Revolution, and discusses the choice she had to make between de-
nouncing her father and breaking with her family, or refusing to speak against him and losing her fu-
ture in the Communist Party.
Kallner, Donna Jackson. The Bone Detectives: How Forensic Anthropologists Solve Crimes and Un-
cover Mysteries of the Dead. Little, Brown, c1996. 48pp. (NF)
Explores the world of forensic anthropology and its applications in solving crimes.
Kallner, Donna Jackson. Twin Tales: The Magic and Mystery of Multiple Birth. Little, Brown, c2001.
48pp. (NF)
Explores aspects of the topic of twins, including why and how they are born, twin telepathy, identi-
cal and fraternal twins, separation of twins, and more.
Krull, Kathleen. Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers, Rebels (and What the Neighbors Thought).
Harcourt, c2000. 95pp. (NF)
Profiles twenty historically significant women, highlighting their great accomplishments and unique
quirks; also includes color caricatures.
Lewin, Ted. I Was a Teenage Professional Wrestler. Orchard Books, c1993. 128pp. (NF)
Text and accompanying photographs describe the author’s early days supporting himself as a pro-
fessional wrestler.
Murphy, Jim. An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of
1793. Clarion Books, c2003. 165pp. (NF)
Provides an account of the yellow fever epidemic that swept through Philadelphia in 1793, discuss-
ing the chaos that erupted when people began evacuating in droves, leaving the city without govern-
ment, goods, or services, and examining efforts by physicians, the Free African Society, and others
to cure and care for the sick.
Murphy, Jim. Blizzard!: The Storm That Changed America. Scholastic, c2000. 136pp. (NF)
Presents a history, based on personal accounts and newspaper articles, of the massive snowstorm
that hit the Northeast in 1888, focusing on the events in New York City.
Murphy, Jim. The Great Fire. Scholastic, c1995. 144pp. (NF)
Photographs and text, along with personal accounts of actual survivors, tell the story of the great fire
of 1871 in Chicago.
Murphy, Jim. Pick & Shovel Poet: The Journeys of Pascal D’Angelo. Clarion Books, c2000. 162pp.
(NF)
A biography of an Italian peasant who immigrated to America in the early twentieth century and en-
dured poverty and the difficult life of an unskilled laborer, determined to become a published poet.
Myers, Walter Dean. The Greatest: Muhammad Ali. Scholastic, c2001. 172pp. (NF)
An illustrated biography of boxing great Muhammad Ali that addresses his politics, his fight against
Parkinson’s disease, and boxing’s dangers.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Audience

Nonfiction for Reluctant Readers

Nelson, Peter. Left for Dead: A Young Man’s Search for Justice for the USS Indianapolis. Delacorte
Press, c2002. 201pp. (NF)
Recalls the sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis at the end of World War II, the Navy cover-up and un-
fair court martial of the ship’s captain, and how a young boy helped the survivors set the record
straight fifty-five years later.
Opdyke, Irene Gut. In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer. Knopf (distributed by Random
House), c1999. 276pp. (NF)
Recounts the experiences of the author who, as a young Polish girl, hid and saved Jews during the
Holocaust.
Paulsen, Gary. My Life in Dog Years. Delacorte Press, c1998. 137pp. (NF)
The author describes how dogs have affected his life from childhood through the present day, re-
counting the stories of his first dog, Snowball, in the Philippines; Dirk, who protected him from bul-
lies; and Cookie, who saved his life.
Pfetzer, Mark. Within Reach: My Everest Story. Puffin Books, 2000, c1998. 224pp. (NF)
The author describes how he spent his teenage years climbing mountains in the United States, South
America, Africa, and Asia, with an emphasis on his two expeditions up Mount Everest.
Philbrick, Nat. Revenge of the Whale: The True Story of the Whaleship Essex. Putnam, c2002. 164pp.
(NF)
Recounts the sinking in 1820 of the whaleship Essex by an enraged sperm whale and how the crew
of young men survived against impossible odds. Based on the author’s adult book In the Heart of the
Sea.
Spinelli, Jerry. Knots in My Yo-Yo String: The Autobiography of a Kid. Knopf (distributed by Random
House), c1998. 148pp. (NF)
This Italian American Newbery Medalist presents a humorous account of his childhood and youth in
Norristown, Pennsylvania.
Sullivan, George. Don’t Step on the Foul Line: Sports Superstitions. Millbrook Press, c2000. 64pp.
(NF)
Describes a variety of superstitions observed by athletes in such sports as baseball, hockey, tennis,
and football.
Wormser, Richard. American Islam: Growing Up Muslim in America. Walker, 2002, c1994. 130pp.
(NF)
Young Muslims tell how they keep their identity and adapt their traditions to fit into American society.

Books for Older Teens

Arden, John Boghosian. America’s Meltdown: The Lowest-Common-Denominator Society. Praeger,
c2003. 234pp. (NF)
Examines contemporary American consciousness, focusing on the factors that have driven society
toward gossip and sensationalism at the cost of substance and depth.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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 Audience

Nonfiction for Reluctant Readers

Duey, Kathleen. More Freaky Facts About Natural Disasters. Aladdin Paperbacks, c2001. 217pp. (NF)
Provides strange and interesting facts about a wide range of natural disasters.
Gantos, Jack. Hole in My Life. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2002. 199pp. (NF)
The author relates how, as a young adult, he became a drug user and smuggler, was arrested, did time
in prison, and eventually got out and went to college, all the while hoping to become a writer.
Greene, Meg. Buttons, Bones, and the Organ-Grinder’s Monkey: Tales of Historical Archaeology.
Linnet Books, c2001. 122pp. (NF)
Describes five archaeological excavations, examining the mysteries uncovered by historical archae-
ologists. Includes La Salle’s ship Belle, the Jamestown settlement, the battlefield of the Little
Bighorn, Monticello’s slave quarters, and the nineteenth-century New York City neighborhood Five
Points.
Hickam, Homer H. October Sky: A Memoir. Dell, 2000, c1998. 428pp. (NF)
Homer Hickam, the introspective son of a mine superintendent and a mother determined to get him
out of Coalwood, West Virginia, forever, nurtures a dream to send rockets into outer space—an am-
bition that changes his life and the lives of everyone living in Coalwood in 1957.
Krakauer, Jon. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster. Villard, c1997.
293pp. (adult) (NF)
The author relates his experience climbing Mount Everest during its deadliest season and examines
what it is about the mountain that makes people willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship,
and expense.
Owen, David. Hidden Evidence: 40 True Crimes and How Forensic Science Helped Solve Them. Fire-
fly Books, 2000. 240pp. (NF)
Profiles forty true crime cases and explains how their investigations were aided by the use of foren-
sic science.
Pelzer, David J. A Child Called “It”: One Child’s Courage to Survive. Health Communications, c1995.
184pp. (NF)
David Pelzer, victim of one of the worst child abuse cases in the history of California, tells the story
of how he survived his mother’s brutality and triumphed over his past.
Shakur, Tupac. The Rose That Grew from Concrete. Pocket Books/MTV Books, c1999. 149pp. (NF)
A collection of poems written by rap artist and actor Tupac Shakur at the age of nineteen.
Spiegelman, Art. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. Pantheon Books, c1997. 295pp. (NF)
Memoir about Vladek Spiegleman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler’s Europe, and about his son, a car-
toonist who tries to come to terms with his father, his story, and history itself. Cartoon format por-
trays Jews as mice and Nazis as cats.
Zindel, Paul. The Pigman & Me. HarperCollins, c1992. 168pp. (NF)
An account of Paul Zindel’s teenage years on Staten Island, when his life was enriched by finding his
own personal pigman, or mentor.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Audience

Read-Alouds for High School Students

Books for Ages 12–15
Avi. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. Orchard Books, 2003, c1990. 215pp.
Thirteen-year-old Charlotte Doyle, the only passenger aboard a seedy ship on a transatlantic voyage
from England to America in 1832, becomes caught up in a feud between the murderous captain and
his mutinous crew.
Bauer, Joan. Rules of the Road. Putman, c1998. 201pp.
Sixteen-year-old Jenna gets a job driving the elderly owner of a chain of successful shoe stores from
Chicago to Texas to confront the son who is trying to force the woman to retire. Along the way Jenna
hones her talents as a saleswoman and finds the strength to face her alcoholic father.
Curtis, Christopher Paul. The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963: A Novel. Delacorte Press, c1995.
210pp.
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living
in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of
1963.
Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Houghton Mifflin, c1993. 180pp.
Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories
shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which
he lives.
Mikaelsen, Ben. Petey. Hyperion Books for Children, c1998. 280pp.
In 1922 Petey, who has cerebral palsy, is misdiagnosed as an idiot and institutionalized. Sixty years
later, still in the institution, he befriends a boy and shares with him the joy of life.
Peck, Robert Newton. A Day No Pigs Would Die. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c1999. 150pp.
To a thirteen-year-old Vermont farm boy whose father slaughters pigs for a living, maturity comes
early as he learns “doing what’s got to be done,” especially regarding his pet pig, who cannot pro-
duce a litter.
Philbrick, W. R. The Last Book in the Universe. Blue Sky Press, c2000. 223pp.
After an earthquake has destroyed much of the planet, an epileptic teenager nicknamed Spaz begins
the heroic fight to bring human intelligence back to Earth of a distant future.

Books for Older Teens

Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie. Wheeler, c1998. 171pp. (adult) (NF)
The author, an alumnus of Brandeis University, tells about his meetings with a former professor suf-
fering from Lou Gehrig’s disease and the lessons he learned about life and death from this college
mentor.
Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes: A Novel. Ballantine Books, 2001, c1963. 268pp.
Explorers in space find a planet that is identical to Earth, with the exception that on the planet
Betelgeuse the roles of ape and human are reversed.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Audience

Read-Alouds for High School Students

Bradbury, Ray. The Martian Chronicles. Avon Books, c1997. 268pp.
The first Earth people to attempt the colonization of Mars try to build their new world in the image of
the civilization they left behind.
Coupland, Douglas. All Families Are Psychotic: A Novel. Bloomsbury (distributed by St. Martin’s
Press), c2001. 279pp.
The Drummond family has reunited after years apart to watch their daughter Sarah rocket into space,
but they seem to encounter danger at every turn, and soon Sarah’s mission, and life, is threatened.
Goldman, William. The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adven-
ture: The “Good Parts” Version. Ballantine Books, c1998. 399pp.
Westley, a farm boy, goes off to seek his fortune shortly after declaring his love for Buttercup, the
most beautiful woman in the world, but their relationship is put to the test when his ship is captured
by pirates and she is summoned to become the bride of the prince.
King, Stephen. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. Scribner, c1999. 224pp. (adult)
Nine-year-old Trisha McFarland, lost in the woods after she wanders off to escape the bickering be-
tween her mom and her brother, boosts her courage by imagining that her hero, Boston Red Sox re-
lief pitcher Tom Gordon, is with her, helping her survive an unknown enemy.
Marsden, John. So Much to Tell You. Fawcett Books, c1990. 119pp.
Sent to a boarding school by her mother, Marina, a disfigured Australian girl who refuses to speak,
reveals her thoughts and feelings in a diary.
Tarbox, Katherine. A Girl’s Life Online. Plume, 2004, c2000. 196pp. (NF)
The author recalls her harrowing experiences as a thirteen-year-old who struck up an online relation-
ship with twenty-three-year-old Mark, and offers advice and insight on online sexual predators.
Werlin, Nancy. The Killer’s Cousin. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2000, c1998. 229pp.
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.
White, Robb. Deathwatch. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1973, c1972. 220pp.
Needing money for school, a college student accepts a job as a guide on a desert hunting trip and
nearly loses his life.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Audience

Read-Alouds for Middle School Students

Books for Ages 12–15
Bloor, Edward. Tangerine. Harcourt Brace, c1997. 294pp.
Twelve-year-old Paul, who lives in the shadow of his football hero brother Erik, fights for the right
to play soccer despite his near blindness and slowly begins to remember the incident that damaged
his eyesight.
Curtis, Christopher Paul. The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963: A Novel. Delacorte Press, c1995.
210pp.
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living
in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of
1963.
Davidson, Diane Mott. Tough Cookie. Bantam Books, 2001, c2000. 319pp.
Caterer Goldy Schulz, temporarily shut down while her kitchen is remodeled, must cook up a quick
crime-solving recipe when she makes arrangements to sell an item from her husband’s collection of
war memorabilia, only to have her buyer turn up suspiciously dead on the ski slopes.
DiCamillo, Kate. Because of Winn-Dixie. Candlewick Press, c2000. 182pp.
Ten-year-old India Opal Buloni describes her first summer in Naomi, Florida, and all the good
things that happen to her because of her big ugly dog, Winn-Dixie.
DiCamillo, Kate. The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a
Spool of Thread. Candlewick Press, c2003. 267pp.
The adventures of Despereaux Tilling, a small mouse of unusual talents, the princess whom he loves,
the servant girl who longs to be a princess, and a devious rat determined to bring them all to ruin.
Gantos, Jack. Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c1998. 153pp. (and sequels)
To the constant disappointment of his mother and his teachers, Joey has trouble paying attention or
controlling his mood swings when his prescription meds wear off, and he starts getting worked up
and acting wired.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Among the Hidden. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c1998.
153pp. (and sequels)
In a future where the Population Police enforce the law limiting a family to only two children, Luke
has lived all his twelve years in isolation and fear on his family’s farm, until another “third” con-
vinces him that the government is wrong.
Jacques, Brian. Redwall. Philomel Books, c1986. 351pp. (and sequels)
When the peaceful life of ancient Redwall Abbey is shattered by the arrival of the evil rat Cluny and
his villainous hordes, Matthias, a young mouse, determines to find the legendary sword of Martin
the Warrior, which, he is convinced, will help Redwall’s inhabitants destroy the enemy.
Kehret, Peg. Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio. Whitman, c1996. 179pp. (NF)
The author describes her battle against polio when she was thirteen and her efforts to overcome its
debilitating effects.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

241
 Audience

Read-Alouds for Middle School Students

Korman, Gordon. No More Dead Dogs. Hyperion Books for Children, c2000. 180pp.
Eighth-grade football hero Wallace Wallace is sentenced to detention attending rehearsals of the
school play.Despite himself, he becomes wrapped up in the production and begins to suggest
changes that improve not only the play but his life as well.
Lawrence, Iain. The Wreckers. Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1999, c1998. 196pp.
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 Cornish coastal town where they are
stranded.
Mikaelsen, Ben. Touching Spirit Bear. HarperCollins, c2001. 241pp.
After his anger erupts into violence, fifteen year-old Cole, to avoid going to prison, agrees to partici-
pate in a sentencing alternative based on the Native American Circle Justice. He is sent to a remote
Alaskan Island, where an encounter with a huge Spirit Bear changes his life.
Paulsen, Gary. Harris and Me: A Summer Remembered. Harcourt Brace, c1993. 157pp.
Sent to live with relatives on their farm because of his unhappy home life, an eleven-year-old city
boy meets his distant cousin, Harris, and is given an introduction to a whole new world.
Paulsen, Gary. Nightjohn. Delacorte Press, c1993. 92pp.
Twelve-year-old Sarny’s brutal life as a slave becomes even more dangerous when a newly arrived
slave offers to teach her how to read.
Peck, Richard. A Long Way from Chicago: A Novel in Stories. Dial Books for Young Readers, c1998.
148pp.
A boy recounts his annual summer trips to rural Illinois with his sister during the Great Depression to
visit their larger-than-life grandmother.
Peck, Robert Newton. A Day No Pigs Would Die. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c1999. 150pp.
To a thirteen-year-old Vermont farm boy whose father slaughters pigs for a living, maturity comes
early as he learns “doing what’s got to be done,” especially regarding his pet pig, who cannot pro-
duce a litter.
Philbrick, W. R. Freak the Mighty. Scholastic, c1993. 169pp.
At the beginning of eighth grade, learning disabled Max and his new friend, Freak, whose birth de-
fect has affected his body but not his brilliant mind, find that when they combine forces they make a
powerful team.
Robinson, Barbara. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. HarperTrophy, 1988, c1972. 80pp.
The six mean Herdman kids lie, steal, smoke cigars (even the girls), and then become involved in the
community Christmas pageant.
Ruckman, Ivy. Night of the Twisters. HarperCollins, c1984. 153pp.
A fictional account of the night freakish and devastating tornadoes hit Grand Island, Nebraska, as
experienced by a twelve-year-old, his family, and friends.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
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242
 Audience

Read-Alouds for Middle School Students

Sachar, Louis. Holes. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c1998. 233pp.
As further evidence of his family’s bad fortune, which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative,
Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert, where he finds his first real
friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself.
Spinelli, Jerry. Maniac Magee: A Novel. Little, Brown, c1990. 184pp.
After his parents die, Jeffrey Lionel Magee’s life becomes legendary, as he accomplishes athletic
and other feats that awe his contemporaries.
Spinelli, Jerry. Space Station Seventh Grade. Little, Brown, c1982. 232pp.
Seventh-grader Jason narrates the events of his year, from school, hair, and pimples, to mothers, lit-
tle brothers, and a girl.
Zindel, Paul. The Pigman: A Novel. HarperCollins, c1968. 182pp.
A teenage boy and a girl, high school sophomores from unhappy homes, tell about their bizarre rela-
tionship with an old man.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

243
 Audience

Reluctant Boy Readers

Books for Ages 12–15
Avi. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. Orchard Books, 2003, c1990. 215pp.
Thirteen-year-old Charlotte Doyle, the only passenger aboard a seedy ship on a transatlantic voyage
from England to America in 1832, becomes caught up in a feud between the murderous captain and
his mutinous crew.
Bunting, Eve. Someone Is Hiding on Alcatraz Island. Berkley Books, 1994, c1984. 136pp.
When he offends the toughest gang in his San Francisco school, Danny tries to elude them by going
to Alcatraz, only to find himself and a Park Service employee trapped by the gang in an old prison
cell block.
Butcher, A. J. Spy High: Mission One. Little, Brown, 2004, c2003. 214pp.
As students at a special high school that trains them to be secret agents, six teenagers struggle to
complete the training exercises as a team before being sent out into the field to sink or swim.
Colfer, Eoin. Artemis Fowl. Hyperion Books for Children, c2001. 277pp.
When a twelve-year-old evil genius tries to restore his family fortune by capturing a fairy and de-
manding a ransom in gold, the fairies fight back with magic, technology, and a particularly nasty
troll.
Curtis, Christopher Paul. Bucking the Sarge. Wendy Lamb Books, c2004. 259pp.
Deeply involved in his cold and manipulative mother’s shady business dealings in Flint, Michigan,
fourteen-year-old Luther keeps a sense of humor while running the Happy Neighbor Group Home
for Men, all the while dreaming of going to college and becoming a philosopher.
Curtis, Christopher Paul. Bud, Not Buddy. Delacorte Press, c1999. 245pp.
Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes
a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father—the renowned
bandleader, H. E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.
Curtis, Christopher Paul. The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963: A Novel. Delacorte Press, c1995.
210pp.
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living
in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of
1963.
Hinton, S. E. The Outsiders. Puffin Books, 1997, c1967. 180pp.
The struggle of three brothers to stay together after their parent’s death and their quest for identity
among the conflicting values of their adolescent society.
Horowitz, Anthony. Stormbreaker. Philomel Books, 2001, c2000. 192pp.
After the death of the uncle who had been his guardian, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider is coerced to
continue his uncle’s dangerous work for Britain’s intelligence agency, MI6.
Koja, Kathe. Buddha Boy. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2003. 117pp.
Justin spends time with Jinsen, the unusual and artistic new student whom the school bullies torment
and call Buddha Boy, and ends up making choices that affect Jinsen, himself, and the entire school.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

244
 Audience

Reluctant Boy Readers

Korman, Gordon. Son of the Mob. Hyperion, c2002. 262pp.
Seventeen-year-old Vince’s life is constantly complicated by the fact that he is the son of a powerful
Mafia boss, a relationship that threatens to destroy his romance with the daughter of an FBI agent.
Mikaelsen, Ben. Touching Spirit Bear. HarperCollins, c2001. 241pp.
After his anger erupts into violence, fifteen year-old Cole, to avoid going to prison, agrees to partici-
pate in a sentencing alternative based on the Native American Circle Justice. He is sent to a remote
Alaskan Island, where an encounter with a huge Spirit Bear changes his life.
Paulsen, Gary. Harris and Me: A Summer Remembered. Harcourt Brace, c1993. 157pp.
Sent to live with relatives on their farm because of his unhappy home life, an eleven-year-old city
boy meets his distant cousin, Harris, and is given an introduction to a whole new world.
Paulsen, Gary. How Angel Peterson Got His Name: And Other Outrageous Tales About Extreme
Sports. Wendy Lamb Books, c2003. 111pp. (NF)
Author Gary Paulsen relates tales from his youth in a small town in northwestern Minnesota in the
late 1940s and early 1950s, such as skiing behind a souped-up car and imitating daredevil Evel
Knievel.
Philbrick, W. R. Freak the Mighty. Scholastic, c1993. 169pp.
At the beginning of eighth grade, learning disabled Max and his new friend, Freak, whose birth de-
fect has affected his body but not his brilliant mind, find that when they combine forces they make a
powerful team.
Trueman, Terry. Inside Out. HarperTempest, c2003. 117pp.
A sixteen-year-old with schizophrenia is caught up in the events surrounding an attempted robbery
by two other teens, who eventually hold him hostage.
Trueman, Terry. Stuck in Neutral. HarperCollins, c2000. 114pp.
Fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel, who suffers from severe cerebral palsy and cannot function, re-
lates his perceptions of his life, his family, and his condition, especially as he believes his father is
planning to kill him.

Books for Older Teens

Choyce, Lesley. Thunderbowl. Orca Book, c2004. 102pp.
Sixteen-year-old Jeremy, caught up in the excitement of playing guitar for the hot band
Thunderbowl, begins to lose control of the rest of his life.
Cormier, Robert. The Rag and Bone Shop: A Novel. Delacorte Press, c2001. 154pp.
Trent, an ace interrogator from Vermont, works to procure a confession from an introverted
twelve-year-old accused of murdering his seven-year-old friend in Monument, Massachusetts.
Forsyth, Christine. Adrenaline High. James Lorimer (distributed in the United States by Orca Book),
c2003. 126pp.
Sixteen-year-old D’Arcy, always on the lookout for drama, finds herself in over her head when she
attempts to help her classmate, Zania, whose mother is being held hostage by a drug-dealing boy-
friend.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Audience

Reluctant Boy Readers

Halvorson, Marilyn. Bull Rider. Orca Book, c2003. 92pp.
Sixteen-year-old Layne faces a dangerous challenge when he defies his mother and enters himself in
a bull riding contest—the same rodeo event in which his father was killed.
Heneghan, James. Hit Squad. Orca Book, c2003. 106pp.
Students in an upscale high school decide to take on the bullies and take back their school, with de-
cidedly mixed consequences.
Lubar, David. Hidden Talents. Starscape, c2003, c1999. 213pp.
Thirteen-year-old Martin, a new student at an alternative school for misfits and problem students,
falls in with a group of boys with psychic powers and discovers something surprising about himself.
Matheson, Shirlee Smith. Fastback Beach. Orca Book, c2003. 97pp.
When Miles is put on probation for stealing a car, he learns about hot rods and rebuilding cars. When
the project is stolen, Miles has to face up to his friends.
McNamee, Graham. Acceleration. Wendy Lamb Books, c2003. 210pp.
Stuck working in the lost and found department 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.
Myers, Walter Dean. Monster. HarperCollins, c1999. 281pp.
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.
Thomas, Rob. Rats Saw God. Aladdin Paperbacks, c1996. 202pp.
In hopes of graduating, Steve York agrees to complete a hundred-page writing assignment, which
helps him to sort out his relationship with his famous astronaut father and the events that changed
him from a promising student into a troubled teen.
Volponi, Paul. Black and White. Viking Press, c2005. 185pp.
After committing a crime together and getting caught, two star high school basketball players, one
black and one white, experience the justice system differently.
Walters, Eric. Grind. Orca Book, c2004. 100pp.
When he begins videotaping himself and posting the movies on a Web site to make money, Philip,
obsessed with skateboarding, finds himself pushed to perform more and more dangerous stunts.
Walters, Eric. Overdrive. Orca Book, c2004. 102pp.
When Jake is involved in a street-racing accident, he struggles to do the right thing.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Audience

Reluctant Girl Readers

Books for Ages 12–15
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c1999. 197pp.
A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda’s freshman year in
high school.
Bechard, Margaret. Hanging on to Max. Roaring Brook Press, c2002. 142pp.
When his girlfriend decides to give their baby away, seventeen-year-old Sam is determined to keep
him and raise him alone.
Dessen, Sarah. Dreamland. Speak, 2004, c2000. 250pp.
After her older sister runs away, 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, and dangerous.
Ferris, Jean. Bad. Aerial Fiction/Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2001, c1998. 181pp.
In an attempt to please her boyfriend, sixteen-year-old Dallas goes along with a plan to rob a conve-
nience store. When her father refuses the judge’s offer to let her come home on probation, she is sen-
tenced to six months in the Girls’ Rehabilitation Center.
Johnson, Angela. The First Part Last. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2003. 131pp.
Bobby’s carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored
baby daughter.
Koja, Kathe. Buddha Boy. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2003. 117pp.
Justin spends time with Jinsen, the unusual and artistic new student whom the school bullies torment
and call Buddha Boy, and ends up making choices that affect Jinsen, himself, and the entire school.
Koja, Kathe. Straydog. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2002. 105pp.
Rachel, a teenager with a healthy dose of both aptitude and attitude, begins to feel at home volunteer-
ing at an animal shelter, until the arrival of a feral dog with whom she senses a special kinship.
Myracle, Lauren. Ttyl. Amulet Books, c2004. 209pp.
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.
Spinelli, Jerry. Stargirl. Knopf (distributed by Random House), c2000. 186pp.
Stargirl, a teen who animates quiet Mica High with her colorful personality, suddenly finds herself
shunned for her refusal to conform.
Tashjian, Janet. The Gospel According to Larry. H. Holt, c2001. 227pp.
Seventeen-year-old Josh, a loner-philosopher who wants to make a difference in the world, tries to
maintain his secret identity as the author of a Web site that is receiving national attention.
Woodson, Jacqueline. Hush. Putnam, c2002. 181pp.
Twelve-year-old Toswiah finds her life changed when her family enters the witness protection
program.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

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 Audience

Reluctant Girl Readers

Books for Older Teens
Brooks, Kevin. Candy. The Chicken House/Scholastic, c2005. 364pp.
Joe, an English boy from the right side of the tracks, is poised to get everything he has ever wanted,
but he risks it all when he falls for Candy and is drawn into her seedy, dangerous world.
Castellucci, Cecil. Boy Proof. Candlewick Press, c2005. 203pp.
Feeling alienated from everyone around her, high school senior and cinephile Victoria Denton hides
behind the identity of a favorite movie character, until an interesting new boy arrives at school and
helps her realize that there is more to life than just the movies.
Frank, E. R. Life Is Funny: A Novel. DK Ink, c2000. 263pp.
The lives of a number of young people of different races, economic backgrounds, and family situa-
tions living in Brooklyn, New York, become intertwined over a seven-year period.
Frost, Helen. Keesha’s House. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2003. 116pp.
Seven runaway teens facing such problems as pregnancy, closeted homosexuality, and abuse each
describe in poetic forms what caused them to leave home and where they found home again.
Giles, Gail. Dead Girls Don’t Write Letters. Roaring Brook Press, c2003. 136pp.
Fourteen-year-old Sunny is stunned when a total stranger shows up at her house posing as her older
sister Jazz, who supposedly died in a fire months earlier.
Giles, Gail. Playing in Traffic. Roaring Brook Press, c2004. 176pp.
Shy and unremarkable, seventeen-year-old Matt Lathrop is surprised and flattered to find himself
singled out for the sexual attentions of the alluring Skye Colby, until he discovers the evil purpose
behind her actions.
Going, Kelly. Fat Kid Rules the World. Putnam, c2003. 187pp.
Seventeen-year-old Troy, depressed, suicidal, and weighing nearly 300 pounds, gets a new perspec-
tive on life when Curt, a semi-homeless teen who is a genius on guitar, asks Troy to be the drummer
in a rock band.
Hopkins, Ellen. Crank. Simon Pulse, c2004. 537pp.
Kristina Georgia Snow’s life is turned upside down when she visits her absentee father, gets turned
on to the drug “crank,” becomes addicted, and is led down a desperate path that threatens her mind,
soul, and life.
Koja, Kathe. The Blue Mirror. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2004. 119pp.
Seventeen-year-old loner Maggy Klass, who frequently seeks refuge from her alcoholic mother’s
apartment by sitting and drawing in a local cafe, becomes involved in a destructive relationship with
a charismatic homeless youth named Cole.
Rosoff, Meg. How I Live Now. Wendy Lamb Books, c2004. 194pp.
To get away from her pregnant stepmother in New York City, fifteen-year-old Daisy goes to Eng-
land to stay with her aunt and cousins, with whom she instantly bonds, but soon war breaks out and
rips apart the family while devastating the land.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

248
 Audience

Reluctant Girl Readers

Sones, Sonya. What My Mother Doesn’t Know. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2001.
259pp.
Sophie describes her relationships with a series of boys as she searches for Mr. Right.
Trueman, Terry. Stuck in Neutral. HarperCollins, c2000. 114pp.
Fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel, who suffers from severe cerebral palsy and cannot function, re-
lates his perceptions of his life, his family, and his condition, especially as he believes his father is
planning to kill him.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

249
 Audience

Romance for Boy Readers

Books for Ages 12–15
Bagdasarian, Adam. First French Kiss and Other Traumas. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c2002. 134pp.
The author recounts humorous, sad, traumatic, romantic, and confusing episodes from his child-
hood.
Crutcher, Chris. Running Loose. Greenwillow Books, c1983. 190pp.
Louie, a high school senior in a small Idaho town, learns about sportsmanship, love, and death as he
matures into manhood.
Korman, Gordon. Son of the Mob. Hyperion, c2002. 262pp.
Seventeen-year-old Vince’s life is constantly complicated by the fact that he is the son of a powerful
Mafia boss, a relationship that threatens to destroy his romance with the daughter of an FBI agent.
Petersen, P. J. Rob&sara.com. Delacorte Press, c2004. 210pp.
Rob, who lives at a school for troubled teenagers, and Sara, the sixteen-year-old daughter of an army
colonel, meet in a poetry chat room and develop a close relationship via e-mail.
Powell, Randy. Is Kissing a Girl Who Smokes Like Licking an Ashtray? Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003,
c1992. 199pp.
An eighteen-year-old pinball addict and a smart-mouthed girl who don’t quite fit in with anyone else
develop a special relationship.
Young, Karen Romano. The Beetle and Me: A Love Story. HarperTrophy, 2001, c1999. 207pp.
Surrounded by her busy extended family and their many cars, fifteen-year-old Daisy pursues her
goal of single-handedly restoring the car of her dreams, the old purple Volkswagen Beetle from her
childhood.

Books for Older Teens

Black, Jonah. The Black Book. Vol. 1.Girls, Girls, Girls :Diary of a Teenage Stud. Avon Books, c2001.
233pp.
Jonah Black, whose thoughts are filled with fantasies about a Pennsylvania girl named Sophie,
chronicles in his journal his first six weeks back in Florida after being expelled from a Pennsylvania
prep school, during which time he is forced to watch his old friend and new crush, Posie, get friendly
with a womanizer.
Bradley, Alex. 24 Girls in 7 Days. Dutton Books, c2005. 265pp.
Unlucky in love, teenager Jack Grammar cannot get a date for the prom, until his friends play a prac-
tical joke and place a personal ad in the school online newspaper on his behalf. Now Jack has
twenty-four dates, and it is just seven days until the prom.
Green, John. Looking for Alaska. Dutton Books, c2005. 221pp.
Sixteen-year-old Miles’s first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good
friends and great pranks but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car
crash.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

250
 Audience

Romance for Boy Readers

Koertge, Ronald. Stoner & Spaz. Candlewick Press, c2002. 169pp.
A troubled youth with cerebral palsy struggles toward self-acceptance with the help of a drug-ad-
dicted young woman.
Koertge, Ronald. Where the Kissing Never Stops. Candlewick Press, c2005. 250pp.
While trying to cope with his father’s death, his mother’s new job as a stripper, and his own libido,
high school junior Walker meets a new girl, who makes life seem pretty wonderful after all.
Nelson, Blake. Rock Star, Superstar. Viking Press, c2004. 229pp.
When Pete, a talented bass player, moves from playing in the high school jazz band to playing in a
popular rock group, he finds the experience exhilarating, even as his new fame jeopardizes his rela-
tionship with his girlfriend, Margaret.
Ripslinger, Jon. How I Fell in Love & Learned to Shoot Free Throws. Roaring Brook Press, c2003.
170pp.
Seventeen-year-old Danny Henderson, an indifferent basketball player, has his eye on Angel
McPherson, star of the girls’ team in their Iowa high school.
Shaw, Tucker. Flavor of the Week. Hyperion, c2003. 220pp.
Cyril, an overweight boy who is good friends with Rose but wishes he could be more, helps his best
friend Nick woo her with culinary masterpieces, which Cyril himself secretly creates. Includes reci-
pes from the story.
Strasser, Todd. Cut Back. Simon Pulse, c2004. 305pp.
Kai tries to help his surfing partner, Spazzy, win a competition against Lucas, the local star.
Wooding, Chris. Crashing. Push/Scholastic, c2003, c1998. 142pp.
While his parents are out of town, decides to throw a start-of-summer party to cement his relation-
ship with friends who will be going to different schools next term, and hopefully begin a relationship
with Jo, a girl he has had a crush on for years, but things start to go wrong when misunderstandings
and gate crashers intrude.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by Libraries Unlimited.

251
 If you liked Give a Boy a If you liked Give a Boy a
Gun by Todd Strasser, try: Gun by Todd Strasser, try:

• Adoff, Jaime. Names Will Never Hurt Me. • Adoff, Jaime. Names Will Never Hurt Me.
Dutton Children’s Books, c2004. Dutton Children’s Books, c2004.

• Bernall, M. She Said Yes: The Unlikely • Bernall, M. She Said Yes: The Unlikely
Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall. Pocket Martyrdom of Cassie Bernall. Pocket
Books, c2000. Books, c2000.

• McDonald, Joyce. Swallowing Stones. • McDonald, Joyce. Swallowing Stones.

Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for
Young Readers, 1999. Young Readers, 1999.

• Mikaelsen, Ben. Touching Spirit Bear. • Mikaelsen, Ben. Touching Spirit Bear.
HarperCollins, c2001. HarperCollins, c2001.

• Myers, Walter Dean. Shooter. • Myers, Walter Dean. Shooter.

HarperTempest, 2005, c2004 HarperTempest, 2005, c2004

• Prose, Francine. After. Joanna Cotler • Prose, Francine. After. Joanna Cotler
Books, c2003. Books, c2003.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great,
Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil- Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by
Libraries Unlimited. Libraries Unlimited.
 If you liked The Misfits by If you liked The Misfits by
James Howe, try: James Howe, try:

• Bloor, Edward Tangerine. Harcourt • Bloor, Edward Tangerine. Harcourt

Brace, c1997. Brace, c1997.
• Crutcher, Chris. Staying Fat for Sarah • Crutcher, Chris. Staying Fat for Sarah
Byrnes. Greenwillow Books, c1993. Byrnes. Greenwillow Books, c1993.
• Hiaasen, Carl. Hoot. Knopf, c2002. • Hiaasen, Carl. Hoot. Knopf, c2002.
• Howe, James. Totally Joe. Atheneum • Howe, James. Totally Joe. Atheneum
Books for Young Readers, c2005. Books for Young Readers, c2005.
• Koja, Kathe. Buddha Boy. Farrar, • Koja, Kathe. Buddha Boy. Farrar,
Straus & Giroux, 2003. Straus & Giroux, 2003.
• Koss, Amy Goldman. The Girls. Dial • Koss, Amy Goldman. The Girls. Dial
Books for Young Readers, c2000. Books for Young Readers, c2000.
• Langan, Paul. The Gun. Townsend • Langan, Paul. The Gun. Townsend
Press, c2002. Press, c2002.
• McKay, Hilary. Indigo’s Star. Margaret • McKay, Hilary. Indigo’s Star. Margaret
K. McElderry Books, 2004, c2003. K. McElderry Books, 2004, c2003.
• Odd Girl Speaks Out: Girls Write • Odd Girl Speaks Out: Girls Write
About Bullies, Cliques, Popularity, and About Bullies, Cliques, Popularity, and
Jealousy. Harcourt, c2004. Jealousy. Harcourt, c2004.
• Peters, Julie Anne. Define “Normal”: • Peters, Julie Anne. Define “Normal”:
A Novel. Little, Brown, c2000. A Novel. Little, Brown, c2000.
• Sanchez, Alex. Rainbow Boys. Simon • Sanchez, Alex. Rainbow Boys. Simon
& Schuster, c2001. & Schuster, c2001.
• Sanchez, Alex. So Hard to Say. Simon & • Sanchez, Alex. So Hard to Say. Simon &
Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2004. Schuster Books for Young Readers, c2004.
• Spinelli, Jerry. Loser. Joanna Cotler • Spinelli, Jerry. Loser. Joanna Cotler
Books, c2002. Books, c2002.
• Spinelli, Jerry. Stargirl. Knopf (distrib- • Spinelli, Jerry. Stargirl. Knopf (distrib-
uted by Random House), c2000. uted by Random House), c2000.
• Wilhelm, Doug. The Revealers. Farrar, • Wilhelm, Doug. The Revealers. Farrar,
Straus & Giroux, 2003. Straus & Giroux, 2003.
From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great,
Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil- Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by
Libraries Unlimited. Libraries Unlimited.
 If you liked A Child Called If you liked A Child Called
It by Dave Peltzer, try It by Dave Peltzer, try
(for older teens): (for older teens):

• Atkins, Catherine. When Jeff Comes • Atkins, Catherine. When Jeff Comes
Home. Putnam, c1999. Home. Putnam, c1999.

• Burch, Jennings Michael. They Cage • Burch, Jennings Michael. They Cage
the Animals at Night. Signet, c1984. the Animals at Night. Signet, c1984.

• Fitch, Janet. White Oleander: A Novel. • Fitch, Janet. White Oleander: A Novel.
Little, Brown, c1999. Little, Brown, c1999.

• Flinn, Alexandra. Breathing Under- • Flinn, Alexandra. Breathing Under-

water. HarperCollins, c2001. water. HarperCollins, c2001.

• Frank, E. R. America: A Novel. • Frank, E. R. America: A Novel.

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Atheneum Books for Young Readers,
c2002. c2002.

• Goobie, Beth. Who Owns Kelly • Goobie, Beth. Who Owns Kelly
Paddik? Orca Book, 2003. Paddik? Orca Book, 2003.

• Hayden, Torey L. Ghost Girl: The True • Hayden, Torey L. Ghost Girl: The True
Story of a Child in Peril and the Story of a Child in Peril and the
Teacher Who Saved Her. Avon Books, Teacher Who Saved Her. Avon Books,
1992, c1991. 1992, c1991.

• Hayden, Torey L. Murphy’s Boy. Avon • Hayden, Torey L. Murphy’s Boy. Avon
Books, c1983. Books, c1983.

• Hunt, Irene. The Lottery Rose. Berkley • Hunt, Irene. The Lottery Rose. Berkley
Books, 1996, c1976. Books, 1996, c1976.

• Nolan, Han. Born Blue. Harcourt, • Nolan, Han. Born Blue. Harcourt,
c2001. c2001.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great,
Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil- Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by
Libraries Unlimited. Libraries Unlimited.
 If you liked A Child Called If you liked A Child Called
It by Dave Pelzer, try It by Dave Pelzer, try
(for ages 12 and up): (for ages 12 and up):

• Coman, Carolyn. What Jamie Saw. • Coman, Carolyn. What Jamie Saw.
Puffin Books, 1997, c1995. Puffin Books, 1997, c1995.
• Deans, Sis Boulos. Racing the Past. • Deans, Sis Boulos. Racing the Past.
H. Holt, 2001. H. Holt, 2001.
• Deem, James M. 3NBs of Julian Drew. • Deem, James M. 3NBs of Julian Drew.
Graphia, c1994. Graphia, c1994.
• Draper, Sharon M. Forged by Fire. • Draper, Sharon M. Forged by Fire.
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Atheneum Books for Young Readers,
c1997. c1997.
• Gibbons, Kaye. Ellen Foster. Vintage, • Gibbons, Kaye. Ellen Foster. Vintage,
1990, c1987. 1990, c1987.
• Klass, David. You Don’t Know Me: A • Klass, David. You Don’t Know Me: A
Novel. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2001. Novel. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2001.
• Konigsburg, E. L. Silent to the Bone. • Konigsburg, E. L. Silent to the Bone.
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Atheneum Books for Young Readers,
c2000. c2000.
• McCord, Patricia. Pictures in the Dark. • McCord, Patricia. Pictures in the Dark.
Bloomsbury, c2004. Bloomsbury, c2004.
• Mikaelsen, Ben. Petey. Hyperion • Mikaelsen, Ben. Petey. Hyperion
Books for Children, c1998. Books for Children, c1998.
• Rottman, S. L. Hero. Peachtree, c1997. • Rottman, S. L. Hero. Peachtree, c1997.
• Shaw, Susan. The Boy from the Base- • Shaw, Susan. The Boy from the Base-
ment. Dutton Children’s Books, c2004. ment. Dutton Children’s Books, c2004.
• Vance, Susanna. Sights. Delacorte • Vance, Susanna. Sights. Delacorte
Press, 2001. Press, 2001.
• Vries, Anke de. Bruises. Front • Vries, Anke de. Bruises. Front
Street/Lumniscaat , 1995. Street/Lumniscaat , 1995.
• Woodson, Jacqueline. I Hadn’t Meant to • Woodson, Jacqueline. I Hadn’t Meant to
Tell You This. Bantam Doubleday Dell Tell You This. Bantam Doubleday Dell
Books for Young Readers, 1995, c1994. Books for Young Readers, 1995, c1994.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great,
Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil- Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by
Libraries Unlimited. Libraries Unlimited.
 If you liked Cirque du Freak If you liked Cirque du Freak
by Darren Shan, try by Darren Shan, try
(for older teens): (for older teens):

• Anderson, M. T. Thirsty. Candlewick • Anderson, M. T. Thirsty. Candlewick

Press, 2005, c1997. Press, 2005, c1997.
• Atwater-Rhodes, Amelia. Midnight • Atwater-Rhodes, Amelia. Midnight
Predator. Delacorte Press, c2002. Predator. Delacorte Press, c2002.
• Hahn, Mary Downing. Look for Me by • Hahn, Mary Downing. Look for Me by
Moonlight. Clarion Books, c1995. Moonlight. Clarion Books, c1995.
• Hoffman, Nina Kiriki. A Stir of Bones. • Hoffman, Nina Kiriki. A Stir of Bones.
Viking Press, 2003. Viking Press, 2003.
• Huntington, Geoffrey. Demon Witch. • Huntington, Geoffrey. Demon Witch.
ReganBooks, c2003. ReganBooks, c2003.
• Huntington, Geoffrey. Sorcerers of the • Huntington, Geoffrey. Sorcerers of the
Nightwing. ReganBooks, c2002. Nightwing. ReganBooks, c2002.
• Klause, Annette Curtis. Blood and • Klause, Annette Curtis. Blood and
Chocolate. Bantam Doubleday Dell Chocolate. Bantam Doubleday Dell
Books for Young Readers, 1999, Books for Young Readers, 1999,
c1997. c1997.
• Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight. Little, • Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight. Little,
Brown, 2005. Brown, 2005.
• Pierce, Meredith Ann. The Darkangel. • Pierce, Meredith Ann. The Darkangel.
Magic Carpet Books/Harcourt Brace, Magic Carpet Books/Harcourt Brace,
1998. 1998.
• Rees, Douglas. Vampire High. • Rees, Douglas. Vampire High.
Delacorte Press, c2003. Delacorte Press, c2003.
• Rice, Anne. Interview with the Vam- • Rice, Anne. Interview with the Vam-
pire. Knopf, 1976. pire. Knopf, 1976.
• Soto, Gary. The Afterlife. Harcourt, • Soto, Gary. The Afterlife. Harcourt,
c2003. c2003.
• Stine, R. L. Dangerous Girls: A Novel. • Stine, R. L. Dangerous Girls: A Novel.
HarperCollins, c2003. HarperCollins, c2003.
• Vande Velde, Vivian. Companions of • Vande Velde, Vivian. Companions of
the Night. Harcourt Brace, c1995. the Night. Harcourt Brace, c1995.
• Zindel, Paul. Reef of Death. Hyperion • Zindel, Paul. Reef of Death. Hyperion
Paperbacks for Children, 1999. Paperbacks for Children, 1999.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great,
Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil- Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by
Libraries Unlimited. Libraries Unlimited.
 If you liked Cirque du Freak If you liked Cirque du Freak
by Darren Shan, try by Darren Shan, try
(for ages 12 and up): (for ages 12 and up):

• Hautman, Pete. Sweetblood. Simon & • Hautman, Pete. Sweetblood. Simon &
Schuster Books for Young Readers, Schuster Books for Young Readers,
c2003. c2003.

• Klause, Annette Curtis. The Silver Kiss. • Klause, Annette Curtis. The Silver Kiss.
Dell, 1992, c1990. Dell, 1992, c1990.

• Plum-Ucci, Carol. The She. Harcourt, • Plum-Ucci, Carol. The She. Harcourt,
c2003. c2003.

• Rees, Douglas. Vampire High. • Rees, Douglas. Vampire High.

Delacorte Press, c2003. Delacorte Press, c2003.

• Schreiber, Ellen. Vampire Kisses. • Schreiber, Ellen. Vampire Kisses.

HarperCollins, c2003. HarperCollins, c2003.

• Shusterman, Neal. Full Tilt: A Novel. • Shusterman, Neal. Full Tilt: A Novel.
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Simon & Schuster Books for Young
Readers, c2003. Readers, c2003.

• Sleator, William. The Boy Who • Sleator, William. The Boy Who
Couldn’t Die. Amulet, 2004. Couldn’t Die. Amulet, 2004.

• Vande Velde, Vivian. Companions of • Vande Velde, Vivian. Companions of

the Night. Harcourt Brace, c1995. the Night. Harcourt Brace, c1995.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great,
Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil- Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by
Libraries Unlimited. Libraries Unlimited.
 If you liked Gossip Girl by If you liked Gossip Girl by
Cecily von Ziegesar, try: Cecily von Ziegesar, try:

• Abbott, Hailey. Summer Boys. Scholas- • Abbott, Hailey. Summer Boys. Scholas-
tic, c2004. tic, c2004.

• Brashares, Ann. The Sisterhood of the • Brashares, Ann. The Sisterhood of the
Traveling Pants. Delacorte, c2001. Traveling Pants. Delacorte, c2001.

• Burgess, Melvin. Doing It. Henry Holt, • Burgess, Melvin. Doing It. Henry Holt,
2004, c2003. 2004, c2003.

• De la Cruz, Melissa. The Au Pairs: A • De la Cruz, Melissa. The Au Pairs: A

Novel. Simon & Schuster Books for Novel. Simon & Schuster Books for
Young Readers, c2004. Young Readers, c2004.

• Dean, Zoey. The A-list. Little, Brown, • Dean, Zoey. The A-list. Little, Brown,
c2003. c2003.

• Dent, Grace. LBD: It’s a Girl Thing. • Dent, Grace. LBD: It’s a Girl Thing.
Putnam’s, 2003. Putnam’s, 2003.

• Harrison, Lisi. The Clique: A Novel. • Harrison, Lisi. The Clique: A Novel.
Little, Brown, c2004. Little, Brown, c2004.

• Krulik, Nancy E. Ripped at the Seams. • Krulik, Nancy E. Ripped at the Seams.
Simon Pulse, 2004. Simon Pulse, 2004.

• Mayer, Melody. The Nannies. • Mayer, Melody. The Nannies.

Delacorte Press, c2005. Delacorte Press, c2005.

• McCafferty, Megan. Sloppy Firsts: A • McCafferty, Megan. Sloppy Firsts: A

Novel. Three Rivers Press, c2001. Novel. Three Rivers Press, c2001.

• Minter, J. The Insiders. Bloomsbury • Minter, J. The Insiders. Bloomsbury

Children’s Books, 2004. Children’s Books, 2004.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great,
Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil- Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by
Libraries Unlimited. Libraries Unlimited.
 If you liked Series of If you liked Series of
Unfortunate Events by Unfortunate Events by
Lemony Snicket, try: Lemony Snicket, try:

• Abbott, Tony. The Hidden Stairs and • Abbott, Tony. The Hidden Stairs and
the Magic Carpet. Scholastic, c1999. the Magic Carpet. Scholastic, c1999.

• Aiken, Joan. The Wolves of Willoughby • Aiken, Joan. The Wolves of Willoughby
Chase. Dell Yearling, 2001, c1962. Chase. Dell Yearling, 2001, c1962.

• Ardagh, Philip. The Fall of Fergal, Or, • Ardagh, Philip. The Fall of Fergal, Or,
Not So Dingly in the Dell. H. Holt, Not So Dingly in the Dell. H. Holt,
c2004. c2004.

• Ardagh, Philip. A House Called Awful • Ardagh, Philip. A House Called Awful
End. H. Holt, c2002. End. H. Holt, c2002.

• Dahl, Roald. Matilda. Viking Press, • Dahl, Roald. Matilda. Viking Press,
c1988. c1988.

• Dahl, Roald. The Witches. Farrar, • Dahl, Roald. The Witches. Farrar,
Straus & Giroux, c1983. Straus & Giroux, c1983.

• DiTerlizzi, Tony. The Spiderwick • DiTerlizzi, Tony. The Spiderwick

Chronicles. Simon & Schuster Books Chronicles. Simon & Schuster Books
for Young Readers, c2003–2004. for Young Readers, c2003–2004.

• Ibbotson, Eva. Dial-a-ghost. Puffin • Ibbotson, Eva. Dial-a-ghost. Puffin

Books, 2003, c1996. Books, 2003, c1996.

• Stewart, Paul. Beyond the Deepwoods. • Stewart, Paul. Beyond the Deepwoods.
David Fickling Books, 2004, c1998. David Fickling Books, 2004, c1998.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great,
Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil- Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by
Libraries Unlimited. Libraries Unlimited.
 If you liked Rats Saw God • Hornburg, Michael. Downers Grove. Grove
Press, 2001, c1999.
by Rob Thomas, try: • Hornby, Nick. High Fidelity. Riverhead
Compiled by Cathy Belben, Senior Levels Chair, Books, 2000, c1995.
Washington Library Media Association. Librarian, • Howe, Norma. The Adventures of Blue
Burlington-Edison High School, Burlington, Washington. Avenger. H. Holt, 1999.
• Amis, Martin. The Rachel Papers. Vintage, • Irving, John. A Prayer for Owen Meany.
c1992. Ballantine Books, 1990, c1989.
• Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. Farrar, • Irving, John. The World According to Garp.
Straus & Giroux, c1999. Ballantine Books, 1998, c1976.
• Black, Jonah. The Black Book (Diary of a • Mccants, William. Anything Can Happen in
Teenage Stud) Volume I: Girls, Girls, Girls. High School. Browndeer Press, Harcourt
(and sequels). Avon Books, c2001. Brace, c1993.
• Boylan, James. Getting In. Warner Books, c1998. • Payne, C.D. Youth in Revolt. Doubleday,
c1996.
• Brizzi, Enrico. Jack Frusciante Has Left the
Band: A Love Story—With Rock ’N’ Roll. • Perrotta, Tom. Bad Haircut. Berkley Books,
Grove Press, c1997. 1997, c1994.
• Canty, Kevin. Into the Great Wide Open. • Perrotta, Tom. Election. Berkley Books,
Vintage, c1997. c1998.
• Chbosky, Stephen. The Perks of Being a • Powell, Randy. Tribute to Another Dead
Wallflower. MTV Books/Pocket Books, Rock Star. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, c1999.
c1999. • Powell, Randy. The Whistling Toilets.
• Clark, Catherine. Truth or Dairy. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2001, c1996.
HarperTempest, c2000. • Rennison, Louise. Angus, Thongs, and
• Coupland, Douglas. Shampoo Planet. Simon Full-Frontal Snogging. HarperCollins,
& Schuster, c1992. c2000.
• Crutcher, Chris. Staying Fat for Sarah • Salzman, Mark. Lost in Place. Vintage,
Byrnes. Greenwillow Books, c1993. c2005.
• Dann, Patty. Mermaids. St. Martin’s Press, • Sedaris, David. Me Talk Pretty One Day.
2004, c1986. Little, Brown, c2000.
• Davis, Terry. If Rock and Roll Were a Ma- • Sedaris, David. Naked. Little, Brown, 1998,
chine. Delacorte Press, c1992. c1997.
• Davis, Terry. Vision Quest. Delacorte Press, • Sheldon, Dyan. Confessions of a Teenage
2005, c1979. Drama Queen. Candlewick Press, c1999.
• Duncan, David James. The Brothers K. Ban- • Townsend, Sue. The Adrian Mole Diaries.
tam Books, 1996, c1992. Avon Books, c1997.
• Fuhrman, Chris. The Dangerous Lives of Al- • Vizzini, Ned. Teen Angst? Naaah. Free
ter Boys. University of Georgia Press, Spirit, c2000.
c2001. • Weisberg, Joe. 10th Grade. Random House,
• Gallagher, Hugh. Teeth. Pocket Books, c1998. 2003, c2002.
• Hedges, Peter. An Ocean in Iowa. Scribner • Wittlinger, Ellen. Hard Love. Aladdin Pa-
Paperback Fiction, c1999. perbacks, 2001, c1999.
• Hedges, Peter. What’s Eating Gilbert • Wittlinger, Ellen. What’s in a Name? Simon
Grape? Washington Square Press, 1999, & Schuster Books for Young Readers,
c1991. c2000.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great,
Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil- Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by
Libraries Unlimited. Libraries Unlimited.
 If you liked The Princess If you liked The Princess
Diaries by Meg Cabot, try: Diaries by Meg Cabot, try:

• Brian, Kate. The Princess & the Pau- • Brian, Kate. The Princess & the Pau-
per. Simon & Schuster Books for per. Simon & Schuster Books for
Young Readers, c2003. Young Readers, c2003.

• Dessen, Sarah. Keeping the Moon. • Dessen, Sarah. Keeping the Moon.
Viking Press, 1999. Viking Press, 1999.

• Hopkins, Cathy. Mates, Dates, and • Hopkins, Cathy. Mates, Dates, and
Inflatable Bras. Simon Pulse, 2003, Inflatable Bras. Simon Pulse, 2003,
c2001. (and sequels) c2001. (and sequels)

• Mackler, Carolyn. The Earth, My Butt, • Mackler, Carolyn. The Earth, My Butt,
and Other Big Round Things. Candle- and Other Big Round Things. Candle-
wick Press, 2003. wick Press, 2003.

• Maxwell, Katie. The Year My Life Went • Maxwell, Katie. The Year My Life Went
Down the Loo. Dorchester, c2003. Down the Loo. Dorchester, c2003.

• Moriarty, Jaclyn. Feeling Sorry for • Moriarty, Jaclyn. Feeling Sorry for
Celia. St. Martin’s Griffin, c2000. Celia. St. Martin’s Griffin, c2000.

• O’Connell, Tyne. Pulling Princes. • O’Connell, Tyne. Pulling Princes.

Bloomsbury, 2004.Sheldon, Dyan. Bloomsbury, 2004.Sheldon, Dyan.
Confessions of a Teenage Drama Confessions of a Teenage Drama
Queen. Candlewick Press, 2004, c1999. Queen. Candlewick Press, 2004, c1999.

• Whytock, Cherry. My Cup Runneth • Whytock, Cherry. My Cup Runneth

Over: The Life of Angelica Cookson Over: The Life of Angelica Cookson
Potts. Simon & Schuster Books for Potts. Simon & Schuster Books for
Young Readers, 2003. Young Readers, 2003.

• Wilson, Jacqueline. Girls in Love. Dell • Wilson, Jacqueline. Girls in Love. Dell
Laurel-Leaf, 2002, c1997. Laurel-Leaf, 2002, c1997.

• Wyatt, Melissa. Raising the Griffin. • Wyatt, Melissa. Raising the Griffin.
Wendy Lamb Books, c2004. Wendy Lamb Books, c2004.
From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great,
Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil- Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by
Libraries Unlimited. Libraries Unlimited.
 If you liked If you liked
Romeo and Juliet, try: Romeo and Juliet, try:

• Atwater-Rhodes, Amelia. Hawksong. • Atwater-Rhodes, Amelia. Hawksong.

Delacorte Press, c2003. Delacorte Press, c2003.

• Avi. Romeo and Juliet—Together (And • Avi. Romeo and Juliet—Together (And
Alive!) at Last. Avon Books, 1988, Alive!) at Last. Avon Books, 1988,
c1987. c1987.

• Dai, Fan. Butterfly Lovers: a Tale of • Dai, Fan. Butterfly Lovers: a Tale of
the Chinese Romeo and Juliet. Homa & the Chinese Romeo and Juliet. Homa &
Sekey Books, c2000. Sekey Books, c2000.

• Draper, Sharon M. Romiette and Julio. • Draper, Sharon M. Romiette and Julio.
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Atheneum Books for Young Readers,
c1999. c1999.

• Jones, Diana Wynne. The Magicians of • Jones, Diana Wynne. The Magicians of
Caprona. Greenwillow Books, 2001, Caprona. Greenwillow Books, 2001,
c1980. c1980.

• Korman, Gordon. Son of the Mob. • Korman, Gordon. Son of the Mob.
Hyperion, c2002. Hyperion, c2002.

• Pearson, Mary Scribbler of Dreams. • Pearson, Mary Scribbler of Dreams.

Harcourt, c2001. Harcourt, c2001.

• Randle, Kristen D. Breaking Rank. • Randle, Kristen D. Breaking Rank.

HarperTempest, 2002, c1999. HarperTempest, 2002, c1999.

• Ray, Jeanne. Julie and Romeo: A • Ray, Jeanne. Julie and Romeo: A
Novel. Harmony Books, c2000. Novel. Harmony Books, c2000.

• Sutherland, Tui. This Must Be Love. • Sutherland, Tui. This Must Be Love.
HarperCollins, c2004. HarperCollins, c2004.

• Woodson, Jacqueline. If You Come • Woodson, Jacqueline. If You Come

Softly. Putnam, 1998. Softly. Putnam, 1998.

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great,
Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil- Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by
Libraries Unlimited. Libraries Unlimited.
If you liked Sisterhood of the If you liked Sisterhood of the
Traveling Pants by Ann Traveling Pants by Ann
Brashares, try: Brashares, try:

• Cabot, Meg. The Princess Diaries. • Cabot, Meg. The Princess Diaries.
HarperCollins, 2000 (and sequels) HarperCollins, 2000 (and sequels)
• Chbosky, Stephen. The Perks of Being • Chbosky, Stephen. The Perks of Being
a Wallflower. MTV Books/Pocket a Wallflower. MTV Books/Pocket
Books, c1999. Books, c1999.
• Clark, Catherine. Truth or Dairy. • Clark, Catherine. Truth or Dairy.
Harper Tempest, 2000. Harper Tempest, 2000.
• Hopkins, Cathy. Mates, Dates, and • Hopkins, Cathy. Mates, Dates, and
Inflatable Bras. Simon Pulse, 2003. Inflatable Bras. Simon Pulse, 2003.
• Oates, Joyce Carol.Big Mouth & Ugly • Oates, Joyce Carol.Big Mouth & Ugly
Girl. HarperTempest, 2002. Girl. HarperTempest, 2002.
• O’Connell, Tyne. Pulling Princes. • O’Connell, Tyne. Pulling Princes.
Bloomsbury Pub. (distributed by Bloomsbury Pub. (distributed by
Holtzbrinck), 2004 (and sequels). Holtzbrinck), 2004 (and sequels).
• Rennison, Louise Angus, Thongs and • Rennison, Louise Angus, Thongs and
Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of
Georgia Nicolson. HarperCollins, 2000 Georgia Nicolson. HarperCollins, 2000
(and sequels). (and sequels).
• Sheldon, Dyan. Confessions of a Teen- • Sheldon, Dyan. Confessions of a Teen-
age Drama Queen. Candlewick, 2002. age Drama Queen. Candlewick, 2002.
• Whytock, Cherry. My Cup Runneth • Whytock, Cherry. My Cup Runneth
Over: The Life of Angelica Cookson Over: The Life of Angelica Cookson
Potts. Simon & Schuster Books for Potts. Simon & Schuster Books for
Young Readers, 2003 (and sequels). Young Readers, 2003 (and sequels).
• Wilson, Jacqueline. Girls in Love. Dell • Wilson, Jacqueline. Girls in Love. Dell
Laurel-Leaf, 2002, c1997 (and sequels). Laurel-Leaf, 2002, c1997 (and sequels).

From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great, From Nancy J. Keane, The Big Book of Teen Reading Lists: 100 Great,
Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil- Ready-to-Use Book Lists for Educators, Librarians, Parents, and Chil-
dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by dren. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by
Libraries Unlimited. Libraries Unlimited.
If you liked Weetzie Bat by
• High, Linda Oatman. Sister Slam and
Francesca Lia Block, try: the Poetic Motormouth Roadtrip.
Bloomsbury (distributed to the trade by
• Allende, Isabel. The Stories of Eva Holtzbrinck), c2004.
Luna. Scribner Classics, 1999, c1989.
• Hoffman, Alice. Aquamarine. Scholas-
• Barker, Clive. Abarat. Joanna Cotler tic Press, 2001.
Books, c2002.
• Hoffman, Alice. Green Angel. Scholas-
• Black, Holly. Tithe: A Modern Faerie tic Press, 2003.
Tale. Simon & Schuster, c2002.
• Hoffman, Alice. The Probable Future.
• Cohn, Rachel. Gingerbread. Simon & Doubleday, c2003.
Schuster Books for Young Readers,
c2002.
• Johnson, Angela. Looking for Red.
Simon & Schuster Books for Young
• Corrigan, Eireann. You Remind Me of Readers, c2002.
You: A Poetry Memoir. Push/Scholas-
tic, c2002.
• Koja, Kathe. The Blue Mirror. Farrar,
Straus & Giroux, 2004.
• Donoghue, Emma. Kissing the Witch:
Old Tales in New Skins. HarperCollins,
• McNamee, Graham. Hate You. Dell,
1999, c1997.
2000, c1999.

• Esquivel, Laura. Like Water for Choco-

• Moon, Russell. Witch Boy.
late: A Novel in Monthly Installments,
HarperTempest, 2002.
with Recipes, Romances, and Home
Remedies. Doubleday, c1992.
• Rosenberg, Liz. 17: A Novel in Prose
Poems. Cricket Books, 2002.
• Eugenides, Jeffrey. The Virgin Sui-
cides. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1993.
• Trope, Zoe. Please Don’t Kill the
Freshman: A Memoir. HarperTempest,
• Gaiman, Neil. Neverwhere. Avon
c2003.Wittlinger, Ellen. Hard Love.
Books, c1997.
Simon & Schuster Books for Young
Readers, c1999.
• García Márquez, Gabriel. Chronicle of
a Death Foretold. Knopf, 1995.
• Wolff, Virginia Euwer. Make Lemon-
ade. H. Holt, c1993.
 Index

Abarat, 232 Aleutian Sparrow, 47, 73, 177

Abbey, Edward, 190 Alexander, Caroline, 13
Abells, Chana Byers, 204 Alexander, Lloyd, 99, 149, 168
Abelove, Joan, 45, 53, 222 Alice Macleod, Realist at Last, 37
Abracadabra Kid, The, 71 Alive, 58, 221
Absolutely, Positively Not, 36 All Families Are Psychotic, 240
Acceleration, 246 All Loves Excelling, 133
Across the Nightingale Floor, 11 All Quiet on the Western Front, 176
Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie, 158 All That Matters, 162
Action fantasy, 14 All That Remains, 234
Ada, Alma Flor, 29, 71 All the Blue Moons at the Wallace Hotel, 139
Adams, Simon, 235 All-American Girl, 35, 181
Adler, C. S., 85, 137 Allen, M. E., 35
Adoff, Jaime, 73, 214 Allison, Jennifer, 35
Adrenaline High, 245 Almond, David, 211, 217
Adrift, 57 Almost a Woman, 15
Adult fiction titles for young adults, 12 Almost famous, 181
Adult nonfiction titles for young adults, 13 Almost Forever, 172
Adventure with female protagonist, 65 Alphabet Tree, The, 200
African American girls, positive image, 67 Alphin, Elaine Marie, 115, 151
Aftereffects of violence, 107 Alt Ed, 287
After Havana, 43 Alverez, Julia, 222
After the Dancing Days, 175 Always Running, 114, 123
After the Death of Anna Gonzales, 47 Am I Blue?, 87
After the War, 161, 177, 196 Amaryllis, 53, 172
After, 107 Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents,
Afterlife, The, 107, 186 The, 30
Aggressive In-Line Skating, 193 Amber Spyglass, The, 7
Ahab’s Wife, 40 Amelia and the Outlaw, 21
Aidinoff, Elsie V., 42 America, 55, 74, 114, 139
Aikawa, Yu, 233 American Islam, 237
Aiken, Joan, 38 American Plague, An, 5, 236
Ain’t Gonna Study War No More, 203 America’s Meltdown, 237
Al Capone Does My Shirts, 90 Among the Hidden, 51, 209, 241
A-list, The, 181 Amulet of Samarkand, The, 194
Alanna, 81 Amy, 23
Albom, Mitch, 130, 239 Amy and Isabelle, 117
Alder, Elizabeth, 166 Anastasia, the Last Grand Duchess, 99, 175
Aldrich, Bess Streeter, 157 Ancient civilization, 149

267
 Index

Ancient One, The, 97 Atwood, Margaret Eleanor, 183

And in the Morning, 176 Auch, Mary Jane, 155, 173
Anderson, Dale, 155 Augarde, Steve, 232
Anderson, Laurie Halse, 107, 115, 131, 133, Augustus F. Sherman, 156
188, 198, 247 Austen, Jane, 20, 38
Anderson, M. T., 34, 35, 37, 52, 183, 197, 212, Author memoirs, 71
233 Autobiography of My Dead Brother, 123, 215
Andrews, Sarah, 188 Avi, 17, 35, 51, 65, 79, 97, 127, 137, 141, 163,
Andromeda Strain, The, 199 165, 239, 244
Angel of Mercy, 128 Awakening, The, 234
Angelfish, 74 Awesome Athletes, 192
Angel’s Command, The, 207
Anger (fiction), 110 B for Buster, 177
Anger (nonfiction), 111 Babbitt, Natalie, 127
Anger management, 111 Babylon Boyz, 88
Anglesey, Zoe, 32 Backstage Pass, 182
Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging, 36, Bad, 247
117 Bad Beginning, The, 37
Anne Frank and Me, 161 Bagdasarian, Adam, 71, 175, 223, 250
Annie On My Mind, 87 Baker, Jeannie, 59
Annie, Between the States, 151 Balgassi, Haemi, 204
Antle, Nancy, 172 Ballad of Lucy Whipple, The, 79, 157
Appelt, Kathi, 3 Ballard, Robert, 57
Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker, The, 198 Bandbox, 44
April Wilson’s Magpie Magic, 61 Banerjee, Anjali, 77, 168
Arden, John Boghosian, 237 Bang!, 114
Arilla Sun Down, 67 Bang, Molly, 189
Arizona Kid, The, 87 Banks, Kate, 53
Armstrong, Jennifer, 57, 65, 79, 157, 235 Banks, L. A., 234
Armstrong, Lance, 13 Banyai, Istvan, 59
Aronson, Marc, 5 Bar Code Tattoo, The, 183, 211
Arriving at Ellis Island, 155 Bardi, Abby, 9
Art of Keeping Cool, The, 164 Barefoot Heart, 14
Artemis Fowl, 7, 194, 229, 244 Barefoot Waterskiing, 192
Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident, 218 Barker, Clive, 232
Aruego, Jose, 59 Barn Burner, The, 138
Aruna’s Journeys, 170 Barrett, Tracy, 149
Ashes of Roses, 155, 173 Barron, T. A., 97
Ashley, Bernard, 122 Barry, Max, 9
Assassin, 152 Bartoletti, Susan Campbell, 173, 235
Aston. Elizabeth, 38 Baseball Saved Us, 164, 202, 205
At All Costs, 10 Baseball Turnaround, 185
Atet, A.D, 44 Based on a true story, 17
Atkins, Catherine, 19, 115, 287 Bass, L. G., 211
Attack of the Mutant Underwear, 35 Bass, Scott, 191
ATV Riding, 192 Bassani, Giorgio, 162
Atwater-Rhodes, Amelia, 33, 34, 212, 213, 234 Basu, Jay, 9

268
 Index

Bat 6, 86 Big Brother is watching, 183

Bauer, Joan, 20, 45, 79, 97, 134, 229, 239 Big Burn, The, 158
Bauer, Marion Dane, 71 Big-Air Snowboarding, 192
Baum, L. Frank, 40 Bike!, 192
Bausum, Ann, 3 Billingsley, Franny, 101
Beacon Hill Boys, 111 Bindi Babes, 77, 168
Bean Trees, The, 135 Biracial characters, 73
Bear, Greg, 198, 198 Birchbark House, The, 79
Beast, 25, 222 Bird, 138
Beast, The, 52, 120, 132 Bird, Sarah, 9
Beating the odds, 113 Birdland, 43, 218
Beatnik Rutabagas from Beyond the Stars, 35 Birdseye, Tom, 35
Beatty, Patricia, 17 Birdwing, 96
Beauty, 80, 101 Bissinger, H. G., 13
Beauty Queen, 120 Black and White, 246
Because of Winn-Dixie, 241 Black Book, The, 250
Bechard, Margaret, 53, 247 Black Canary, The, 73
Beckoners, The, 109, 215 Black Horses for the King, 165
Becoming Joe DiMaggio, 48 Black Mirror, 109, 220
Becoming Mary Mehan, 79 Black Potatoes, 235
Bee and Jacky, 115 Black Ships Before Troy, 150
Beet Fields, The, 19, 72, 139 Black, Holly, 102, 195
Beetle and Me, The, 134, 250 Black, Jonah, 250
Before the Creeks Ran Red, 152 Black-eyed Susan, 157
Before We Were Free, 222 Blackwater, 51, 127
Begging for Change, 77 Blackwater Ben, 157
Beginner’s Luck, 12 Blake, Quentin, 59
Behind the Bedroom Wall, 162 Blizzard!, 236
Behind You, 104 Blizzard’s Wake, 219
Bell, Hilari, 101, 194 Block, Francesca Lia, 115, 195, 217
Bell, William, 139 Blood and Chocolate, 234
Belle and the Beau, 68 Blood Music, 198
Belpre, Pura, 222 Bloodline, 232
Benchley, Nathaniel, 204 Bloody Jack, 65, 207, 211
Bennett, Cherie, 97, 125, 133, 161 Bloor, Edward, 94, 115, 241
Bennett, Nigel, 213 Blubber, 51
Beowulf, 41 Blue Avenger Cracks the Code, 40
Berenstain, Stan, 71 Blue Jasmine, 170
Berg, Elizabeth, 9, 54 Blue Jay in the Desert, 201
Bernie Magruder & The Bats in the Belfry, 36 Blue Mirror, The, 139, 248
Bertrand, Diane Gonzales, 122 Blue Sea, 60
Best Christmas Pageant Ever, The, 242 Bluish, 51, 73, 94
Best Little Girl in the World, The, 126 Blume, Judy, 51, 53, 107, 117
Betrayed!, 157 BMX Freestyle, 191
Better Than Running at Night, 84 BMX Racing, 193
Beyond The Western Sea, 137 Boardsailing, 192
Bicycle Stunt Riding!, 191 Boat, The, 60

269
 Index

Bobbin Girl, The, 173 Bras & Broomsticks, 36

Body of Christopher Creed, The, 45, 214, 230 Braving the Fire, 152
Bollywood Babes, 77, 168 Bravo, Grace!, 68
Bone Detectives, The, 236 Bread and Roses, 174
Bone, Ian, 125 Breadwinner, The, 222
Bonesetter’s Daughter, The, 12 Breaking Point, 108, 215
Bonham, Frank, 122 Breaking Through, 113, 131
Boock, Paula, 87 Breath, 26, 27
Book of Dead Days, The, 233 Breathing Underwater, 45, 108, 111, 116, 188,
Book of Fred, The, 9 215
Book of Rock Stars, The, 4 Brenaman, Miriam, 151
Book of the Lion, The, 167 Brennan, Herbie, 194
Books that changed the world, 227 Breslin, Theresa, 175
Books that question our reality, 217 Brian, Kate, 37, 181
Borden, Louise, 204 Brian’s Winter, 219
Born Blue, 182 Briar Rose, 26, 28, 82
Born Confused, 168, 211, 222 Briggs, Raymond, 59
Born in Sin,70, 104 Bright Freedom’s Song, 17
Borning Room, The, 158 Brimstone Journals, The, 50, 109
Bosse, Malcolm, 168, 170 Brin, Susannah, 211
Boston Jane, 158 Bringing up the Bones, 56
Both Sides Now, 55 Brink, Carol Ryrie, 17, 157
Both Sides of Time, 20 Broken Bridge, The, 73
Bottled Up, 119 Broken Chains, 123
Boulle, Pierre, 239 Brontë, Charlotte, 38
Bound, 25 Bronx Masquerade, 47, 104
Box, C. J., 9 Brooks, Bruce, 234
Boxes for Katje, 204 Brooks, Kevin, 54, 119, 186, 248
Boy, 71 Brooks, Martha, 90, 134
Boy, a Dog, a Frog and a Friend, A, 60 Brother Hood, 186
Boy at War, A, 177 Brown, Dan, 9
Boy bonding, 75 Bruchac, Joseph, 17, 33, 177
Boy in the Burning House, The, 230 Brugman, Alyssa, 287
Boy Meets Boy, 88 Bryson, Bill, 13, 57
Boy Meets Girl, 24 Bubba the Cowboy Prince, 30
Boy Next Door, The, 9 Buccaneers, The, 207
Boy Proof, 248 Buchanan, Paul, 127
Boy Who Sailed Around the World Alone, The, Bud, Not Buddy, 43, 137, 244
57 Buddha Boy, 197, 214, 244, 247
Bracelet, The, 206 Bull Rider, 246
Bradbury, Ray, 183, 240 Bull, Emma, 102
Bradley, Alex, 37, 250 Bunch, Chris, 207
Bradley, James, 13 Bungee Jumping, 191
Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker, 177 Bunting, Eve, 51, 122, 127, 149, 200, 204, 244
Bradley, Marion Zimmer, 38, 82, 167 Bunting, Josiah, 133
Bradshaw, Gillian, 150 Burger Wuss, 37, 52
Branford, Henrietta, 165 Burgess, Melvin, 119, 186, 217

270
 Index

Burn Journals, The, 6, 114 Catalanotto, Peter, 59

Burning Up, 185 Catalyst, 133
Butcher, A. J., 119, 244 Catching Air, 191
Butcher, Kristin, 137 Cather, Willa, 160
Butler, Octavia E., 102 Catherine, Called Birdy, 165
Butter Battle Book, The, 201, 205 Caucasia, 12
Butterfly, The, 205 Caught by the Sea, 72
Buttons, Bones, and the Organ-Grinder’s Caught in the Act, 93
Monkey, 238 Cello of Mr. O, The, 200, 204
Byars, Betsy Cromer, 71 Chambers, Aidan, 178, 203
Changes, Changes, 60
Cabin on Trouble Creek, 160 Charlie’s Run, 137
Cabot, Meg, 9, 20, 23, 35, 83, 99, 181 Charms for the Easy Life, 117
Caddie Woodlawn, 17, 157 Chaser Sic, 23
Cadnum, Michael, 167 Chasing the Devil’s Tail, 43
Cages, 185 Chbosky, Stephen, 83, 115
California Blue, 189 Cheaney, J. B., 127
Call Me Francis Tucket, 159 Checkers, 143
Call of the Wild, The, 218 Chewing the Cud, 71
Callahan, Steve, 57 Chick lit with minority character, 77
Callan, Annie, 134, 137 Chief Sunrise, John McGraw, and Me, 138
Calmenson, Stephanie, 29 Child abuse (emotional, physical and sexual
Calvert, Patricia, 157 abuse), 115
Cameron, Ann, 90 Child Called “It,” A, 116, 238
Campbell, Andrea, 235 Children of the Dust Bowl, 154, 174
Campbell, Barbara, 163 Children of the Dust Days, 153
Candy, 119, 248 Children We Remember, The, 204
Can’t Get There from Here, 56, 90 Chill Wind, 78
Capuzzo, Michael, 13 Chillin’, 145
Car, The, 135, 172 China, 44
Carbone, Elisa Lynn, 107, 160, 287 Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon
Card, Orson Scott, 26, 41, 100 Society, 177
Carl Goes Shopping, 59 Choi, Sook Nyul, 222
Carl Goes to Daycare, 59 Choldenko, Gennifer, 90
Carle, Eric, 59 Choyce, Lesley, 245
Carl’s Birthday, 60 Christine, 34
Carlson, Melody, 134 Christopher, Matt, 185
Carmi, Danielle, 222 Chrysalis Education, 197
Caro, Robert A., 227 Chu Ju’s House, 138
Carson, Benjamin S, 131 Cinder Edna, 30
Carter, Dorothy Sharp, 149 Cinderella, 40
Carter, Stephen, 10 Cinderella Penguin, Or, the Little Glass Flipper,
Carvell, Marlene, 47 30
Carver, a Life in Poems, 5 Cinderella’s Rat, 30
Cary, Kate, 232 Cinderellis and the Glass Hill, 25
Castellucci, Cecil, 248 Cinder-Elly, 30
Cat Ate My Gymsuit, The, 125 Circus Lunicus, The, 37

271
 Index

Cirque du Freak, 34, 233 Come Sing, Jimmy Jo, 142

Cisneros, Sandra, 117, 223 Coming Evil, A, 177
Civil Action, A, 190, 227 Coming of age, 117
Civil War, 151 Community service, 184
Clair Day, Robynn, 24 Community service as punishment, 185
Clarke, Judith, 83, 168, 232 Companions of the Night, 34, 212
Claudius the God, 150 Conch Bearer, The, 168
Clay Marble, The, 222 Conde, Maryse 38
Clean romance, 30 Confessions of a Backup Dancer, 135, 182
Cleary, Beverly, 20, 71 Confessions of a Boyfriend Stealer, 24
Clement-Davies, David, 7 Confessions of a Not It Girl, 133
Clements, Andrew, 217 Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, 181
Click Here, 23 Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, 26, 40
Click, Clack, Moo, 200 Conly, Jane Leslie, 122
Climb!, 192 Connell, Kate, 153
Climbing High, 57 Conrad, Pam, 157
Close to Shore, 13 Conroy, Pat, 14
Clover, 70 Contender, The, 186
Clown, 59 Contents Under Pressure, 84
Coal Miner’s Bride, A, 173 Convicts, The, 138
Coastwatcher, The, 164 Cook, Karin, 55
Coben, Harlan, 10 Cook, Robin, 150, 210
Cobwebs, 74, 234 Cooke, Elizabeth, 40
Code Breakers, 235 Cool It!, 111
Code Orange, 198 Cool Stuff, 145
Code Talker, 177 Coombs, Karen Mueller, 153
Codell, Esme Raji, 13, 67 Cooney, Caroline B., 20, 53, 135, 185, 198
Coffin Quilt, The, 22 Cooper, Michael L., 3
Cohn, Rachel, 181 Cooper, Susan, 189, 218
Cold Mountain, 220 Coraline, 33, 101
Cold River, 220 Cordingly, David, 57
Cole, Babette, 29 Cormier, Robert, 45, 52, 139, 245
Cole, Brock, 108 Corner of the Universe, A, 95
Coleman, Evelyn, 70, 104 Corrigan, Eireann, 49, 108
Coleman, Michael, 131, 185 Corsair, 207
Colfer, Eoin, 7, 194, 218, 229, 244 Couloumbis, Audrey, 157, 172
Colibri, 90 Count of Monte Cristo, The, 208
Collier, James Lincoln, 43 Counterfeit Son, 115
Collington, Peter, 59 Counting Coup, 13
Collins, Max Allan, 118 Coupland, Douglas, 240
Collins, Pat Lowery, 139 Cousins, 67
Colman, Penny, 3, 163, 173 Covert, Kim, 193
Colors, The, 60 Cowboy and the Black-Eyed Pea, The, 30
Colton, Larry, 13 Cox, Lynne, 113
Coma, 210 Crack in the Line, A, 220
Coman, Carolyn, 108, 115 Crank, 120, 248
Come in from the Cold, 172 Crash, 189

272
 Index

Crashboomlove, 49 Dahling, If You LUV Me, Would You Please,

Crashing, 251 Please Smile, 169
Crazy, 96 Dalkey, Karen, 223
Crazy Jack, 27 Daly, Maureen, 21
Creary, Eve M., 67 Dance of Sisters, A, 126
Creech, Sharon, 47, 53, 134 Dancer, 68
Crews, 123 Dancing on the Edge, 81
Crichton, Michael, 41, 199, 210 Dangerous Girls, 213
Criminally minded, 186 Daniel’s Story, 161
Crisp, Marty, 151 Daniel’s Walk, 160
Crispin, 141, 165 Danziger, Paula, 21, 23, 125
Criss Cross, 130 Dare Truth Or Promise, 87
Crist-Evans, Craig, 53, 172 Dark Edge, 233
Cronin, Doreen, 200 Dark Is Rising, The, 218
Crooked Little Heart, 86 Dark Sons, 42
Cross, Gillian, 27 Darkest Secret, The, 121
Crosses, 144 Darkness Before Dawn, 104
Crossing Jordan, 67 Darnell Rock Reporting, 69
Crossley-Holland, Kevin, 165 Darwin, Charles, 227
Crowe, Carole, 110 Darwin’s Children, 198
Crown Duel, 166 Darwin’s Radio, 198
Crucible, The, 38 Dating abuse, 188
Cruise Control, 96, 110 Dating Games, 78
Crutcher, Chris, 55, 72, 74, 75, 108, 113, 111, Dating Hamlet: Ophelia’s Story, 39
125, 127, 130, 215, 218, 250 Daughter of Time, The, 228
Cry, The Beloved Country, 223 Dave at Night, 43
Crystal, 69 Davidson, Dana, 77, 104
Cubanita, 78 Davidson, Diane Mott, 241
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Davidson, Robyn, 57
10 Davis, Anthony C., 145
Curry, Jane Louise, 73 Davis, Claire, 219
Curse of the Blue Tattoo, 211 Davis, Sampson, 113, 114, 131
Curtis, Christopher Paul, 17, 43, 137, 239, 241, Day, a Dog, A, 61
244 Day No Pigs Would Die, A, 55, 239, 242
Cushman, Karen, 51, 79, 141, 157, 165 Day of Tears, 51
Cut, 118, 143 Day They Came to Arrest the Book, The, 97
Cut Back, 251 Day, Alexandra, 59, 60
Cutler, Jane, 200, 204 De Angelis, Therese, 153
Cutting the Pain Away, 118 De la Cruz, Melissa, 78
Cutting, 118 De Lint, Charles, 102
Cutting, 118 De Paola, Tomie, 60
Dead Girls Don’t Write Letters, 248
Da Vinci Code, The, 9 Deady, Kathleen W., 191
Dabba Smith, Frank, 204 Dealing with dragons, 82, 102
D’Adamo, Francesco, 97 Dean, Zoey, 181
Dahl, Roald, 71, 211 Deans, Sis Boulos, 53
Dear Ellen Bee, 17, 151

273
 Index

Dear Peter Rabbit, 29 Don’t Step on the Foul Line, 237

Dearen, Patrick, 153 Don’t Tell Anyone, 127
Death Wind, 139 Don’t You Know There’s a War On?, 163
Deathwatch, 240 Doom Stone, The, 34
Deaver, Julie Reece, 53 Doomed Queen Anne, 99
Deedy, Carmen Agra, 201 Doomsday Book, 103
Deem, James M., 115 Double Dutch, 77
Deenie, 117 Double Helix, 199
Deep in the Forest, 61 Double Identity, 141, 209
Deerskin, 27, 100 Douglas, Lola, 119
DeFelice, Cynthia C., 189, 198 Down a Dark Hall, 33
Defending Irene, 85 Down a Sunny Dirt Road, 71
Define “Normal,” 118, 143 Down Cut Shin Creek: The Packhorse
Delaney, Mark, 43 Librarians of Kentucky, 3
Deliver Us from Evie, 87 Dr. Franklin’s Island, 33, 209, 232
Demi, 201 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 41
Demon in My View, 33, 212 Dragon Prince, 100
Demon in the Teahouse, The, 229 Dragon’s Blood, 230
Denenberg, Barry, 161, 196 Dragon’s Son, The, 166
Desai Hidier, Tanuja, 168, 211 Dragonwagon, Crescent, 14
Dessen, Sarah, 21, 108, 116, 133, 139, 188, 247 Draper, Sharon M., 39, 53, 67, 77, 104, 122
Devil’s Arithmetic, The, 196 Dream Where the Losers Go, The, 144
Dhami, Narinder, 77, 168 Dreaming in Black & White, 94
DiCamillo, Kate, 241 Dreamland, 108, 116, 139, 188, 247
Dickinson, Peter, 45, 210 Drive-By, 122, 186
Dinorella, 29 Driven from the Land, 154
Dinosaur’s New Clothes, 29 Driver’s Ed, 53
DiSalvo-Ryan, DyAnne, 200 Droughts, 153
Disconnected, 137 Drucker, Malka, 161
Discovery of the Titanic, The, 57 Drug abuse, 119
Disher, Garry, 178 Drugs and Anger, 111
Disobedience, 10 Drummer Boy, The, 206
DiTerlizzi, Tony, 194 Drummers of Jericho, 18
Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee, 168, 169 du Maurier, Daphne, 41
Dive from Clausen’s Pier, The, 11 Duey, Kathleen, 67, 238
Divine Wind, The, 178 Dumas, Alexandre, 208
Do You Want to Be My Friend?, 59 Duncan, Lois, 33, 57, 127
Dodd, Quentin, 35 Dunk, 21, 111
Doeden, Matt, 191 Dunkle, Clare B., 194
Dogsong, 219 Dunnion, Kristyn, 119
Doing Time, 185 Durango Street, 122
Doing Time Online, 185 Durbin, William, 157
Dominick, Andie, 14 Durrant, Lynda, 141
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, 14 Dust, 154
Donkeyskin, 27 Dust bowl, 153
Donoghue, Emma, 101 Dust Bowl, 153, 154
Don’t Look Behind You, 33 Dust to Eat, 3

274
 Index

Dying Ground, The, 32 Enright, Elizabeth, 163

Dylan’s Day Out, 59 Enright, Robert D., 112
Erdrich, Louise, 79
Eagle of the Ninth, The, 150 Ernst, Kathleen, 151
Ear, the Eye, and the Arm, The, 229 Ernst, Lisa Campbell, 29
Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, Escape to the Forest, 196
The, 133, 143 Esperanza Rising, 18, 174, 222
Earthquake Terror, 95 Esquival, Laura, 223
East, 27, 194 Estrich, Susan, 5
East of the Sun and West of the Moon, 27 Ethan Frome, 40
Eater of Souls, 150 Eva, 45, 210
Eaters of the Dead, 41 Every Day and All the Time, 53
Eating Disorders, 125 Everything You Need to Know About Anger, 111
Eberhardt, Thom, 21, 35 Evvy’s Civil War, 151
Echohawk, 141 Ewing, Lynne, 78, 122, 186, 187
Eckert, Allan W., 17 Executioner’s Daughter, The, 166
Ecowarriors, 189 Exegesis, 24
Educating Esme, 13 Extreme Bicycle Stunt Riding Moves, 192
Edwards, Pamela Duncan, 29 Extreme Diving, 193
Egan, Jennifer, 10 Extreme Downhill BMX Moves, 191
Egg on Three Sticks, An, 92 Extreme Elvin, 75, 125
Ehrenhaft, Daniel, 23 Extreme Halfpipe Snowboarding Moves, 191
Ehrenreich, Barbara, 14 Extreme Mountain Biking Moves, 191
Eliot, Eve, 125 Extreme Skateboarding Moves, 191
Elizabeth I, Red Rose of the House of Tudor, 99 Extreme sports, 191
Ella Enchanted, 25, 80 Extreme Sports, 193
Elliott, Laura, 151 Extreme Surfing, 192
Elliott, Miriam, 133 Extreme Wakeboarding Moves, 192
Ellis Island, 155 Extreme Waterskiing Moves, 191
Ellis Island, 155, 156 Eyes of the Emperor, 19, 178, 302
Ellis, Bret Easton, 120 Eyre Affair, The, 10
Ellis, Deborah, 222
Ellsworth, Loretta, 158 Facts Speak for Themselves, The, 108
Elsewhere, 233 Fade to Black, 45, 107, 214
Elske, 82 Faerie Wars, 194
E-mails, blogs, and IMs, 34 Faeries and faraway realms, 194
Emma, 38 Fahrenheit 451, 183
Emperor of Ocean Park, The, 10 Fair Weather, 36
Emperor’s Old Clothes, The, 30 Fairway Phenom, 68
Empress of the World, 88 Fairy tale variations, 37
Enchantment, 26, 100 Fairy tales variations arranged by individual
Encyclopedia of Ellis Island, 155 tales, 27
Ender’s Game, 41 Fall of the House of Usher, The, 41
Ender’s Shadow, 41 Fallen Angels, 172
Endurance, The: Shackleton’s Legendary Fantasy sheroes, 101
Antarctic Expedition, 13 Far North, 218
English, Karen, 200 Farmer, Nancy, 65, 183, 198, 209, 229

275
 Index

Farrell, Juliana, 84 Fledglings, The, 141

Farrell, Mame, 94 Fleischman, John, 3, 235
Fast Food Nation, 15 Fleischman, Paul, 51, 94, 135, 141, 158, 184
Fastback Beach, 185, 246 Fleischman, Sid, 71, 207
Fat Boy Saves World, 125 Fleming, Candace, 169, 204
Fat Kid Rules the World, 76, 120, 248 Fleming, Charles, 43
Fatelessness, 162 Fletcher, Ralph J., 119
Father-son book club, 229 Fletcher, Susan, 149
Fattening Hut, The, 139 Flewelling, Lynn, 102
Fault Line, 188 Flinn, Alex, 45, 107, 108, 111, 116, 139, 188,
Feathers and Fools, 204 214, 215
Federalist Papers, The, 227 Flip Side, The, 87
Feed, 183, 197 Flipped, 22, 190
Felix, Monique, 60 Flowers for Algernon, 210
Female quest stories, 79 Flush, 97, 229
Feminine Mystique, The, 227 Fogelin, Adrian, 67
Fendler, Donn, 57 Folk Keeper, The, 101
Fensham, Elizabeth, 93 Follett, Ken, 175
Ferris, Jean, 94, 110, 247 Fool Reversed, The, 116
Fever, 1793, 131, 198 For Freedom, 177
Fforde, Jasper, 10 Foreign Exchange, 47
Fielder, Lisa, 39 Forensic Casebook, The, 6
Fields, Terri, 47 Forensic Science, 235
Fifteen, 20 Forged By Fire, 77
Filipovic, Zlata, 113 Forgive the River, Forgive the Sky, 96
Finding Buck McHenry, 69 Forgiveness Is a Choice, 112
Finding My Voice, 133 Forgotten Fire, 175, 223
Finding Zola, 95 Forsyth, Christine, 245
Finnie Walsh, 75 Four Hungry Kittens, 61
Fire and Hemlock, 82 Four-Story Mistake, The, 163
Fire, Bed & Bone, 165 Fox, Mem, 200, 204
Fire Bringer, 7 Fractured fairy tales, 29
Fire Rose, The, 103 Frank, E. R, 55, 74, 114, 139, 248
Fire-Eaters, The, 211 Frank, Hillary, 84
Fireflies in the Dark, 205 Frank, Lucy, 126
Firefly Summer, 222 Frazier, Charles, 220
Firestone, Mary, 191 Freak the Mighty, 75, 95, 242, 245
First French Kiss and Other Traumas, 71, 250 Fredericks, Mariah, 83
First Part Last, The, 49, 53, 247 Free Fall, 61
First Test, 81, 102 Freedman, Russell, 3,. 173, 235
First They Killed My Father, 16 Freimuth, Jeri, 191
Fischer, Jackie, 92 Fresh Girl, 70
Five Pages a Day, 71 Fresh off the Boat, 78
Flags of Our Fathers, 13 Freshman experience, 83
Flake, Sharon, 51, 67, 77, 104, 114, 188, 214 Friday Night Lights, 13
Flames of the Tiger, 178 Friedan, Betty, 227
Flavor of the Week, 251 Fritz, April Young, 92, 134

276
 Index

Fritz, Jean, 71 Getting Away With Murder, 5

Frog Goes to Dinner, 60 Ghost Boy, 138
Frog Prince, The, 31 Ghost Soldier, 151
From Charlie’s Point of View, 96 Ghost Soldiers, 15
From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun, 89, 129, Ghosts of Vicksburg, 151
142 Giant Rat of Sumatra, or, Pirates Galore, The,
Frontier and pioneer life, 157 207
Frost, Helen, 47, 49, 90, 104, 248 Gibbons, Kaye, 117
Frozen Fire, 218 Gibson, William, 102
Full Tilt, 233 Gideon’s People, 141
Fuller, Alexandra, 14 Gideon’s Trumpet, 227
Fulmer, David, 43 Giff, Patricia Reilly, 163
Funke, Cornelia Caroline, 90, 137 Gifted Hands, 131
Funny Man Gets Rolling, 184 Gilda Joyce, Psychic Investigator, 35
Fuqua, Jonathon Scott, 93 Giles, Gail, 45, 55, 108, 188, 215, 248
Gilgamesh the King, 202
Gaarder, Jostein, 130 Gilley, Jeremy, 201
Gaiman, Neil, 33, 101 Gilmore, Rachna, 169
Galloway, Steven, 75 Gil’s All Fright Diner, 234
Gammelgaard, Lene, 57 Gilstrap, John, 10
Gandhi, 201 Girl Coming in for a Landing, 48
Gangs and Crime, 123 Girl from Yamhill, A, 71
Gangs, 122 Girl in a Cage, 100, 166
Gangsta Rap, 124 Girl Named Disaster, A, 65
Gantos, Jack, 6, 35, 72, 114, 187, 238, 241 Girl Who Invented Romance, The, 20
Garden of Angels, 54 Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, The, 240
Garden of the Finzi-Continis, The, 162 Girl Who Owned a City, The, 65
Garden, Nancy, 87 Girl, 15, Charming But Insane, 36
Garden, The, 42 Girl, Interrupted, 114
Gardner, Graham, 83 Girls, 145
Gardner, John, 41 Girls, The, 214
Garfinkle, Debra, 84 Girls Got Game, 85
Garland, Sherry, 122 Girls in sports, 85
Gatekeepers, The, 16 Girl’s Life Online (Katie.com), A, 116, 240
Gathering Blue, 95, 183 Girls Under Pressure, 126
Gauthier, Gail, 184 Gitlin, Todd, 98
Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, and Give a Boy a Gun, 18, 107, 110, 287
questioning, 87 Giver, The, 183, 209, 217, 239
Gay-Neck, 169 Glaser, Jason, 191
Genge, Ngaire, 6 Gleam and Glow, 200
Genocide, 196 Glenn, Mel, 47, 49
Gentleman Outlaw and Me—Eli, The, 80, 158 Glodoski, Ron, 145
Geography Club, 87 Glovach, Linda, 120
George, Jean Craighead, 65, 79, 189 Glover, Savion, 235
George, Nelson, 32 Go and Come Back, 45, 222
Geras, Adele, 28, 41 Goblin Wood, The, 101, 194
Gertrude and Claudius, 39 God of Beer, 97, 197

277
 Index

God Still Don’t Like Ugly, 78 Great War, The, 176

God Went to Beauty School, 48, 217 Greatest, The, 236
Godden, Rumer, 169 Green Angel, 118, 143, 211, 217, 232
Godfrey, Rebecca, 10 Green Boy, 189
Godless, 130 Green Lantern, 89
Going Going, 197 Green, John, 76, 250
Going, Kelly, 76, 120, 248 Greene, Bette, 163
Gold Cadillac, The, 81 Greene, Meg, 238
Gold, Tracey, 126 Greenfield, Eloise, 32
Golden Compass, The, 7, 81 Greenlaw, Linda, 14
Golden Goblet, The, 149 Gregory, Kristiana, 158
Golden, Christopher, 232 Grendel, 41
Goldilocks Returns, 29 Griffin, Adele, 92
Golding, William, 130 Griffith, Nicola, 88
Goldman, William, 100, 240 Grimes, Nikki, 42, 47, 67, 104
Goldschmidt, Judy, 23, 36 Grind, 246
Goldstein, Jan, 162 Grooming of Alice, The, 126
Gone for Good, 10 Group of One, A, 169
Gone With the Wind, 42 Growing Up in Coal Country, 173
Goobie, Beth, 144 Growler’s Horn, 43
Good Dog, Carl, 60 Gruber, Michael, 232
Good Dog, The, 127 Guerrilla Season, 151
Good Liar, The, 177 Guitar Girl, 182
Good Night, Maman, 161 Guitar Highway Rose, 135
Good Night, Mr. Tom, 164 Guterson, David, 220
Goode, Diane, 29 Gutman, Bill, 191
Goodman, Alison, 101 Guts, 72, 302
Goodman, Joan E, 165 Guy Time, 37
Goose Chase, 37, 99 Gypsies Never Came, The, 95
Goose Girl, The, 27
Gospel According to Larry, The, 98, 130, 181, Haddix, Margaret Peterson, 25, 51, 79, 99, 141,
197, 247 198, 209, 241
Gossip Girl, 182 Haddon, Mark, 10
Goths, 232 Hafer, Todd, 24
Gotta Get Some Bish Bash Bosh, 35 Hahn, Mary Downing, 33, 33, 49, 80, 151, 158
Gottlieb, Lori, 14, 126 Halam, Ann, 33, 209, 232
Gracie’s Girl, 184 Hale, Janet Campbell, 141
Graham, Robin Lee, 57 Hale, Shannon, 27
Grandfather’s Journey, 205 Haley, Alex, 227
Grandpa’s Corner Store, 200 Half and Half, 73, 142
Granfield, Linda, 205 Halliday, John, 187
Grania, 208 Halpin, Mikki, 97
Granowsky, Alvin, 29 Halvorson, Marilyn, 246
Grapes of Wrath, The, 154 Hamilton, Bethany, 113
Graves, Robert, 150 Hamilton, Jane, 10
Gray, Dianne E., 218 Hamilton, John, 153
Great Fire, The, 5, 236 Hamilton, Morse, 223

278
 Index

Hamilton, Virginia, 51, 67, 73, 94, 141 Hemmingway, Ernest, 42

Hamlet, 39, 39 Hemphill, Stephanie, 49
Hampton, Wilborn, 3 Henderson, Caroline A., 153
Hanauer, Cathi, 126 Hendry, Frances Mary, 80
Handmaid’s Tale, The, 183 Heneghan, James, 246
Hang on in There, Shelley, 73 Hentoff, Nat, 97
Hanging on to Max, 53, 247 Her Daughter’s Eyes, 11
Hangman’s Curse, 107 Here We Go Round, 69
Hanley, Victoria, 101 Hermes, Patricia, 92
Hannah’s Garden, 233 Hero, 185
Hansel and Gretle, 27 Hero and the Crown, The, 80, 101
Hansen, Joyce, 68 Hero of Lesser Causes, 94
Hard Love, 89 Herrera, Juan Felipe, 49
Hardrick, Jackie, 120 Herrick, Steven, 49, 91
Harlem Stomp!, 44 Hershorn, Michael, 111
Harlem, 32 Hesse, Karen, 47, 68, 73, 80, 153, 177
Harr, Jonathan, 190, 227 Hesser, Terry Spencer, 92
Harris and Me, 75, 242, 245 Hewett, Lorri, 68
Harris, Jim, 29 Hiaasen, Carl, 97, 189, 229
Harris, Robie H., 3 Hickam, Homer H., 238
Harris, Ruth Elwin, 175 Hidden Evidence, 238
Harrison, Mette Ivie, 119 Hidden Secrets, 15
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, 227 Hidden Talents, 231, 246
Hart, Elva Trevino, 14 Hidden Warrior, 102
Hartinger, Brent, 87 Hidier, Desai, 222
Haruf, Kent, 10, 158 High School, The Real Deal, 84
Hatrick, Gloria, 94 High, Linda Oatman, 49, 135
Hautman, Pete, 51, 92, 130, 212, 232 Hill, Julia Butterfly, 190
Haveli, 171 Hill, Laban Carrick, 44
Hawk, 235 Hinojosa, Maria, 123
Hawk, Tony, 235 Hinton, S. E., 122, 142, 186, 244
Hayhurst, Chris, 191 Hip Hop America, 32
Head Above Water, 85 Hip hop literature, 32
Heads I Win, Tails You Lose, 127 Hip-Hop Divas, 32
Healy, Kent, 145 Hip-Hop Story, A, 32
Hear the Wind Blow, 151 Hiroshima No Pika, 202, 205
Hearn, Lian, 11 His Father’s Son, 213
Heart Divided, A, 97 His Majesty, Queen Hatshepsut, 149
Heart on My Sleeve, 24 Historian, The, 234
Heath, Lorraine, 21 Hit Squad, 246
Heaven, 68 Hit the Road, 135
Hegland, Jean, 11 Hite, Sid, 158
Heide, Florence Parry, 205 Ho, Minfong, 222
Heinrichs, Ann, 153 Hoban, Tana, 60
Heir Apparent, 102 Hobbs, Valerie, 94, 137, 172, 189
Helicopter Man, 93 Hobbs, Will, 127, 137, 189, 218
Helprin, Mark, 176 Hoffman, Alice, 118, 143, 211, 217, 232

279
 Index

Hoffman, Mary, 68, 101 How I Fell in Love & Learned to Shoot Free
Hoffman, Nina Kiriki, 233 Throws, 86, 251
Hole in My Life, 6, 72, 114, 187, 238 How I Found the Strong, 152
Holes, 230, 243 How I Live Now, 248
Hollow Kingdom, The, 194 How to Be a Successful Criminal, 145
Holm, Jennifer L., 158 Howe, James, 87, 214
Holmes, Ann, 118 Howe, Norma, 40
Holmes, Rupert, 44 Howe, Quincy, 123
Holocaust, 161 Hrdlitschka, Shelley, 137
Holt, Kimberly Willis, 143 Huckleberry Finn, 42
Home, 59 Hughes, Pat, 151
Home front during World War II in American Humor, 35
history, 163 Hungry Ocean, The, 14
Home of the Brave, 201 Hunt, Irene, 117
Homecoming, 82 Hunter and the Animals, The, 60
Homeless Bird, 170, 223 Hurwin, Davida, 55
Homer, 41 Huser, Glen, 214
Homesick, 71 Hush, 70, 247
Hoobler, Dorothy, 229 Hutchins, Pat, 60
Hoop Queens, 85 Hybrid literature (parallel novels), 38
Hooper, Mary, 23 Hyde, Catherine Ryan, 91
Hoose, Phillip M., 4, 189
Hoot, 97, 189, 229 I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, 38
Hope in My Heart, 155 I Am an Artichoke, 126
Hope in the Unseen, A, 179 I Am Legend, 34
Hope Was Here, 20, 97 I Am Morgan Le Fay, 195
Hoping for Rain, 153 I Am the Mummy Heb-Nefert, 149
Hopkins, Cathy, 77 I Have Lived a Thousand Years, 235
Hopkins, Ellen, 120, 248 I Know What You Did Last Summer, 127
Hornbacher, Marya, 126 I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade, 82
Horowitz, Anthony, 218, 229, 244 I See the Rhythm, 32
Horror, 33 I Stay Near You, 21
Horse Thief, 128 I Was a Rat!, 30
Horton, Ron, 192 I Was a Teenage Fairy, 115, 195, 217
Hosseini, Khaled, 55 I Was a Teenage Professional Wrestler, 236
Hot Day on Abbott Avenue, 200 Iceberg Hermit, The, 18
Hot Stones & Funny Bones, 112 If the World Were a Village, 202
Hot Zone, The, 6, 199 If You Come Softly, 21, 70, 219
Houghton, Gillian, 155 Igus, Toyomi, 32
House, The, 60 Illiad, 41
House of the Scorpion, The, 183, 198, 209 Illustrated Mum, The, 211
House on Mango Street, The, 117, 223 Imani in Never Say Goodbye, 120
House You Pass on the Way, The, 89 In Flanders Fields, 205
Houston, Gloria, 17 In Harm’s Way, 16
Houston, James A., 218 In My Hands, 237
How Angel Peterson Got His Name, 75, 221, 245 In the Chat Room with God, 24
In the Eye of the Storm, 159

280
 Index

In the Forests of the Night, 34, 212 Jane Austen, 16

In the Heart of the Sea, 15 Jane Eyre, 38
In the Night, on Lanvale Street, 122 Jane Fairfax, 38
In the Shadow of the Ark, 42 Janke, Katelan, 153
Incident at Hawk’s Hill, 17 Jason & Kyra, 77, 104
Inclan, Jessica Barksdale, 11 Jass, 43
Indian Captive, 159 Jayhawker, 17
Inexcusable, 188 Jazmin’s Notebook, 67
Ingold, Jeanette, 158, 159, 175 Jazz Kid, The, 43
Innocenti, Roberto, 201 Jazz, 43
Insatiable, 125 Jean and Johnny, 20
Inside Out, 245 Jemas, Bill, 182
Insiders, The, 76 Jenkins, Beverly, 68
Interview with the Vampire, 213 Jenkins, Peter, 58
Into the Forest, 11 Jennifer Government, 9
Into Thin Air, 6, 14, 58, 221, 238 Jenny of the Tetons, 158
Inventing Elliot, 83 Jiang, Ji-li, 113, 236
Invisible, 51, 92 Jimenez, Francisco, 113, 131
Iqbal, 97 Jinx, 50
Iron Ring, The, 99, 168 Jip: His Story, 128, 142
Ironman, 111 Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, 241
Irwin, Hadley, 142 John Adams, 15
Is Kissing a Girl Who Smokes Like Licking an Johnson, Angela, 49, 51, 53, 68, 138, 247
Ashtray?, 250 Johnson, Kathleen Jeffrie, 108
Isaacs, Anne, 196 Johnson, Lindsay Lee, 47
Isabel: Jewel of Castilla, 100 Johnson, R. M., 78
Ishii, Takayuki, 202 Johnson, Scott, 94
Island of the Blue Dolphins, 81 Johnston, Julie, 94
Island of the Skog, The, 200 Johnston, Tony, 30
Island, The, 142 Jones, Diana Wynne, 82, 82
Islas, Arturo, 44 Jones, Patrick, 108, 188
It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way, 123 Jordan, Sherryl, 167
It’s Not About the Bike, 13 Josephson, Judith Pinkerton, 173
It’s Perfectly Normal, 3 Journal of Biddy Owens, The, 69
It’s Your World, 97 Journal of Patrick Seamus Flaherty, United
States Marine Corps, The, 172
Jack and the Beanstalk, 27 Jubilee Journey, 73
Jack of Kinrowan, 102 Juby, Susan, 37
Jack on the Tracks, 35 Judson, William, 220
Jackson, Ellen B., 30 Julia’s Story, 175
Jackson, Livia Bitton, 235 Julie and Romeo: A Novel, 39
Jacob Have I Loved, 110, 128 Julie of the Wolves, 65, 79
Jacob’s Rescue, 161 Jump Ball, 47
Jacques, Brian, 7, 207, 241 Junebug, 69
Jade Green, 34, 233 Jung, Reinhardt, 94
Jahanara, 169 Junger, Sebastian, 6, 58
James, Brian, 120 Jungle, The, 228

281
 Index

Jurassic Park, 210 Kingdom by the Sea, 164

Just Ella, 25, 79, 99 King’s Shadow, The, 166
King-Smith, Dick, 71
Kadohata, Cynthia, 54 Kingsolver, Barbara, 11, 135, 190
Kaffir Boy, 114 Kipling’s Choice, 176
Kalan, Robert, 60 Kira-Kira, 54
Kallner, Donna Jackson, 236 Kirkpatrick, Katherine, 205
Kalpana’s Dream, 83, 168, 232 Kissing Doorknobs, 92
Kantor, Melissa, 133 Kissing Kate, 87
Karr, Kathleen, 229 Kissing the Rain, 186
Katarina, 178 Kissing the Witch, 101
Kate and the Beanstalk, 30 Kite Runner, The, 55
Katie’s Trunk, 206 Kiteboarding, 193
Kay, Alan N., 151 Kiyosaki, Robert T., 4
Kaysen, Susanna, 114 Klass, David, 115, 143, 189
Keeper of the Night,143 Klause, Annette Curtis, 33, 212, 233, 234
Keeping Them on Their Toes, 45 Kluger, Steve, 91
Keeping Watch, 11 Knots in My Yo-Yo String, 72, 237
Keeping You a Secret, 88 Know It By Heart, 74
Keesha’s House, 49, 90, 104, 248 Knowles, John, 164
Kehret, Peg, 65, 71, 95, 127, 185, 241 Kochenderfer, Lee, 163
Keizer, Garret, 97, 197 Kodocha, 182
Keizer, Gregg, 162 Koertge, Ronald, 48, 50, 52, 87, 96, 109, 120,
Kellogg, Steven, 200 214, 251
Kerouac, Jack, 135 Koja, Kathe, 139, 197, 214, 244, 247, 248
Kerr, M. E., 21, 87, 107 Koller, Jackie French, 159
Kertesz, Imre, 162 Konigsburg, E. L., 17, 98, 115, 143, 165
Ketteman, Helen, 30 Koontz, Dean R., 234
Kettlewell, Caroline, 144 Koplewicz, Harold S., 203
Keyes, Daniel, 210 Korman, Gordon, 242, 245, 250
Khan, Rukhsana, 169 Koss, Amy Goldman, 214
Kherdian, David, 196 Kostova, Elizabeth, 234
Kidd, Sue Monk, 11, 117 Krakauer, Jon, 6, 14, 58, 221
Kids at work, 173 Kretzer-Malvehy, Terry, 141
Kids on Strike!, 173 Krishnaswami, Uma, 169
Killer’s Cousin, The, 46, 109, 240 Kropp, Goran, 58
Kim, Helen, 223 Krull, Kathleen, 4, 11, 163, 236
Kim/Kimi, 142 Kushner, Harold S, 130
Kim: Empty Inside, 126 Kuskin, Karla, 200
Kimmel, Elizabeth Cody, 159 Kyra’s Story, 120, 144
Kindl, Patrice, 25, 99
Kindling, The, 65, 79 La Mollie and the King of Tears, 44
Kindness of strangers, 90 Lackey, Mercedes, 103
King of the Mild Frontier, 72 Lady: My Life as a Bitch, 217
King of the Pygmies, 93 Lady of Avalon, 82
King, Laurie, 11 Lady With the Hat, The, 161
King, Stephen, 34, 213, 240 Lalli, Judy, 202

282
 Index

Lamott, Anne, 86 Lewin, Ted, 236

Land, The, 152 Lewis, Anthony, 227
Land of Dreams, 155 Lewis, C. S., 218
Land of Hope, 155 Lewis, Catherine, 54, 110
Land of Promise, 155 Licata, Renora, 111
Lane, Rose Wilder, 159 Lieberg, Carolyn S, 134
Lantern in Her Hand, A, 157 Life and Death of Crazy Horse, The, 3, 235
LaRochelle, David, 36 Life During the Dust Bowl, 154
Lasky, Kathryn, 7, 30, 99, 155, 169 Life in Prison, 123
Last Book in the Universe, The, 7, 198, 239 Life in the Fat Lane, 125, 133
Last Dance on Holladay Street, 160 Life Is Funny, 248
Last Days of Summer, 91 Life of Pi, 130
Last Universe, The, 45, 95 Life on Ellis Island, 156
Lawler, Pat, 120 Life on the home front during World War II, 163
Lawrence, Caroline, 149 Life Strategies for Teens, 145
Lawrence, Iain, 138, 175, 177, 207, 242 Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Free Throws, 83,
Lawrence, Michael, 220 85
Layne, Steven L., 210 Light in the Forest, The, 129, 142
Le Guin, Ursula K., 80 Light on Snow, 220
Leaf, Munro, 200 Like Sisters on the Homefront, 69, 78
Leaping Beauty, 25 Like Water for Chocolate, 223
Learning to Swim, 15, 48, 116 Lily Cupboard, The, 205
Lebert, Benjamin, 96 Lily’s Crossing, 163
Lee, Marie G., 133 Limb, Sue, 36
Lee, Milly, 163, 205 Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, The, 218
Lee, Tanith, 208 Lionni, Leo, 200
Left for Dead, 4, 227, 237 Lipsyte, Robert, 125, 186
Legacy of Luna, The, 190 Lirael: Daughter of the Clayr, 7
L’Engle, Madeleine, 217 Lisle, Janet Taylor, 164
Lenski, Lois, 159 Listen Up!, 32
Leonardo da Vinci, 15 Little House, 160
Leslie’s Journal, 188 Little Red Riding Hood, 27
Less Than Zero, 120 Little Ships, The, 204
Lester, Alison, 218 Little Sister, 223
Lester, Julius, 39, 45, 51, 149 Little Soldier, 122
Letters from a Slave Girl, 18 Liu, Jae Soo, 60
Letters from the Dust Bowl, 153 Lives of Extraordinary Women, 4, 236
Letters from the Mountain, 122 Lives of the Artists, 4
Letters from Wolfie, 172 Lives of the Athletes, 4
Letters to a Young Activist, 98 Lives of the Musicians, 4
Letts, Billie, 91 Lives of the Presidents, 4
Levenkron, Steven, 118, 126, 144 Lives of the Writers, 4
Levine, Beth Seidel, 175 Llywelyn, Morgan, 208
Levine, Gail Carson, 25, 43, 80 Lobel, Anita, 71, 113, 161, 201
Levithan, David, 76, 88 Locke, John, 228
Levitin, Sonia, 161 Locked Inside, 46
Levy, Marilyn, 85 Locomotion, 48

283
 Index

London, Jack, 218 Mackler, Carolyn, 133, 143

Long Night of Leo and Bree, The, 186 MadCat, 85
Long Season of Rain, A, 223 Magic Circle, The, 27
Long Way from Chicago, A, 242 Magorian, Michelle, 164
Longest Night, The, 162 Maguire, Gregory, 25, 26, 40, 177
Longitude, 58 Mah, Adeline Yen, 177
Look at Me, 10 Make Lemonade, 48, 70, 131
Look for Me by Moonlight, 33 Make Someone Smile, 202
Look What I Can Do, 59 Makeovers by Marcia, 184
Looking Back, 72 Makes Me Wanna Holler, 187
Looking for Alaska, 76, 250 Making choices, 127
Looking for Chet Baker, 44 Making of a Writer, The, 72
Looking for Lucy Buick, 139 Making Up Megaboy, 186, 217
Looking for Red, 68 Malka, 162
Looking for Trouble, 123 Mallon, Thomas, 44
Lord of the Deep, 230 Man from St. Petersburg, The, 175
Lord of the Flies, 130 Man with the Silver Oar, The, 207
Lord of the Nutcracker Men, 175 Maniac Magee, 90, 230, 243
Lost Garden, The, 72 Manning, Sarra, 182
Lost in the War, 172 Mansfield Park, 38
Lost on a Mountain in Maine, 57 Mansfield Revisited, 38
Lostman’s River, 189 Mantell, Paul, 68
Love That Dog, 47 Many Stones, 108
Lovely Bones, The, 55, 109, 217 Maraniss, David, 15
Lovina’s Song, 159 Marcovitz, Hal, 155
Lowji Discovers America, 169 Margaux with an X, 214
Lowry, Brigid, 135 Marie Antoinette, Princess of Versailles, 99
Lowry, Lois, 54, 72, 80, 95, 183, 209, 217, 239 Markle, Sandra, 141
Lubar, David, 21, 84, 111, 231, 246 Marrying Malcolm Murgatroyd, 94
Lucas, 54 Marsden, John, 8, 65, 118, 143, 144, 202, 240
Luckiest Girl, The, 20 Martel, Yann, 130
Luckiest Girl in the World, The, 118, 144 Martian Chronicles, The, 240
Lucky T, 37 Martin, Ann M, 95
Lucy the Giant, 138 Martin, Nora, 220
Luna, 88 Martin, Rafe, 96
Luntta, Karl, 74 Martin, Valerie, 41
Lyddie, 81, 173 Martinez, A. Lee, 234
Lynch, Chris, 75, 110, 125, 188, 214 Martin’s Big Words, 202
Lyons, Mary E., 17, 151 Maruki, Toshi, 202, 205
Mary, Bloody Mary, 99
Mac, Carrie, 109, 215 Mary Reilly, 41
Macbeth, 40 Masada: The Last Fortress, 18
MacCullough, Carolyn, 139 Masks, 94
Mack, Tracy, 43, 218 Massachusetts, California, Timbuktu, 12
Mackall, Dandi Daley, 120, 144 Matas, Carol, 151, 161, 177, 196
Mackel, Kathy, 85 Material World, 197
Mackey, Nathaniel, 44 Materialism, 197

284
 Index

Mates, Dates, and Inflatable Bras, 77 Medical thrillers, 198

Mathabane, Mark, 114 Meltdown, 3
Matheson, Richard, 34 Meltzer, Milton, 154, 203
Matheson, Shirlee Smith, 185, 246 Melville, Herman, 40
Matilda Bone, 165 Memories of Summer, 93
Matthews, Andrew, 84, 87 Mental illness, 92
Maurer, Tracy, 192 Menzel, Peter, 197
Maus, 238 Meow Means Mischief, 170
Mawi Asgedom, 131 Merchant of Venice, The, 40
Max the Mighty, 137 Messenger, 183
Maxwell, E. J., 192 Meyer, Carolyn, 18, 69, 73, 99, 141, 175
Maxwell, Katie, 24 Meyer, L. A., 65, 207, 211, 211
Maya Running, 77, 168 Meyer, Stephenie, 213, 234
Mayer, Mercer, 60 Mick Harte Was Here, 54
Mayes, Frances, 58 Middle Ages, 165
Maynard, Joyce, 55 Midnight Predator, 212
Maze, The, 137, 189 Midwife’s Apprentice, The, 51, 141, 165
Mazer, Harry, 177 Mightier Than the Sword, 230
Mazer, Norma Fox, 116, 128, 161 Mikaelsen, Ben, 95, 107, 110, 128, 229, 239,
McBay, Bruce, 96 242, 245
McCafferty, Megan, 184 Miklowitz, Gloria D., 18
McCaffrey, Anne, 165 Milkweed, 162, 177, 220
McCall, Nathan, 187 Miller, Arthur, 38
McCord, Patricia, 92 Mills, Claudia, 184
McCormick, Patricia, 118, 119, 143 Mind’s Eye, 94
McCullough, David, 15 Minter, J., 76
McCully, Emily Arnold, 61, 173 Minters, Frances, 30
McDaniel, Lurlene, 21, 54, 128, 220 Miracle’s Boys, 70
McDonald, Janet, 52, 68, 78, 78, 104, 186 Mirror Mirror, 26
McDonald, Joyce, 128 Mirror of Fire and Dreaming, The, 169
McDonell, Nick, 11 Misadventures of Maude Marche, The, 157
McGill, Alice, 69 Misfits, The, 87, 214
McGovern, Ann, 80 Missing from Haymarket Square, 174
McGraw, Eloise Jarvis, 149, 149, 194 Missing May, 81
McGraw, Jay, 145 Mists of Avalon, The, 38, 82, 167
McKay, Hilary, 95 Mitchell, Margaret, 42
McKenna, A. T, 192 Mitchell, Marianne, 95
McKernan, Victoria, 113 Mlynowski, Sarah, 36
McKinley, Robin, 25, 38, 27, 80, 99, 100, 101, Moby Dick, 40
166, 213 Mochizuki, Ken, 111, 164, 202, 205
McLaughlin, Emma, 11 Mole Music, 201
McMullan, Margaret, 152 Money Hungry, 51, 77, 104
McNamee, Graham, 246 Monkey Wrench Gang, The, 190
McPhail, David M., 201 Monroe, Mary, 78
Mead, Alice, 69 Monsoon Summer, 170
Meaning of life, 130 Monster, 46, 109, 123, 216, 246
Meddaugh, Susan, 30 Monster in Me, The, 119

285
 Index

Monstrous Regiment, 103 My Sister’s Bones, 126

Montgomery, Hugh, 207 My Sister’s Keeper, 129, 199
Moody, Bill, 44 My 13th Season, 85
Moon and I, The, 71 Myers, Anna, 152
Moonlight, 61 Myers, Bill, 197
Moorchild, The, 194 Myers, Walter Dean, 32, 46, 52, 69, 109, 120,
Moore, Peter, 93 122, 123, 132, 172, 186, 215, 216, 236,
Moore, Robin, 207 246
Moore, Terry, 88 Myracle, Lauren, 23, 84, 87, 247
More Freaky Facts About Natural Disasters, 238
Moreno, Barry, 155 Na, An, 222
Moriarty, Jaclyn, 23 Nagda, Ann Whitehead, 170
Morpurgo, Michael, 175 Name Me Nobody, 89
Morris, Gerald, 166 Names Will Never Hurt Me, 73, 214
Morte d’Arthur, 39 Naming Maya, 169
Mosatche, Harriet S., 145 Namioka, Lensey, 73, 142
Mosh Pit, 119 Nanny Diaries, The, 11
Moss, Marissa, 154 Napoli, Donna Jo, 25, 26, 27, 28, 81, 138, 149,
Mother Jones, 173 222
Motherland, 12 Narrative nonfiction for young adults, 9
Motherland, The, 20, 223 Naslund, Sena Jeter, 40
Motocross Freestyle, 191 Nastybook, 37
Mountain Solo, 159 Nathaniel Talking, 32
Mouse Rap, The, 69 Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds, 34, 36, 83, 126, 219,
Mowry, Jess, 88 233
Mozart Season, The, 142 Needles, 14
Mr. Darcy’s Daughters, 38 Neela, 169
Mukerji, Dhan Gopal, 169 Nelson, Blake, 251
Multiple Choice, 92 Nelson, Marilyn, 5
Murdico, Suzanne J., 193 Nelson, O. T., 65
Murphy, Jim, 5, 236 Nelson, Peter, 5, 227, 237
Murphy, Rita, 139 Never Change, 54
Murray, Jaye, 119 Never Mind!, 35
Muth, Jon J., 201 Newbery, Linda, 162, 178
My Antonia, 160 Nicholson, William, 7
My Brother’s Keeper, 119 Nickel and Dimed, 14
My Daniel, 157 Nicola and the Viscount, 20
My Friend the Enemy, 127 Night of the Bat, 34
My Heartbeat, 88 Night of the Twisters, 242
My Jim, 42 Nightjohn, 242
My Life as a Walrus Whoopee Cushion, 197 Nim and the War Effort, 163, 205
My Life in Dog Years, 72, 237 19 Varieties of Gazelle, 202
My Losing Season, 14 1984, 183
My Road Trip to the Pretty Girl Capital of the Nitz, Kristin Wolden, 85
World, 136 Nix, Garth, 7, 8, 81
My Scrumptious Scottish Dumplings, 37 Nixon, Joan Lowery, 72, 155, 155, 185
My Secret Camera, 204 No Girls Allowed, 151

286
 Index

No More Dead Dogs, 242 Opdyke, Irene Gut, 237

No Place Cat, The, 137 Open Season, 9
No Pretty Pictures, 71, 113, 161 Oppel, Kenneth, 229
Noah’s Ark, 61 Oppenheim, Shulamith Levey, 205
Nobody Particular, 189 Or Give Me Death, 92
Nobody’s There, 185 Ordinary Magic, 170
Nolan, Han, 81, 182 Orfe, 121
Nonfiction for reluctant readers, 235 Origin of Species, The, 227
North, 138 Orlev, Uri, 161, 196
Not One Damsel in Distress, 82, 230 Ormerod, Jan, 61, 61
Not the Only One, 88 Orphea Proud, 74
Nothing But the Truth, 17, 51, 97 Orr, Wendy, 55, 95
Nothing Here But Stones, 159 Orwell, George, 183
Nothing to Lose, 108, 139 Osborne, Mary Pope, 30
Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen, The, Oswald, Nancy, 159
170 Othello, 39
Novels in verse, 47 Othello: A Novel, 39
Nuland, Sherwin B, 15 Our Only May Amelia, 158
Numbering All the Bones, 152 Out of Control, 128
Nye, Naomi Shihab, 197, 202 Out of the Dust, 47, 80, 153
Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, The, 98
Obana, Miho, 182 Outlaws of Sherwood, The, 166
O’Brien, Robert C., 65, 81 Outsiders, The, 122, 244
O’Connell, Tyne, 36, 100 Over the Wall, 110
October Sky, 238 Overcoming poverty, 131
Oddballs, 72 Overdrive, 246
O’Dell, Scott, 81 Overweight/obesity, 125
O’Donnell Rawls, Bea, 111 Owen, David, 15, 238
Odysseus in the Serpent Maze, 231 Owl’s Song, The, 141
Of Beetles & Angels, 131
Of Mice and Men, 129 Pack, The, 107, 287
Of Sound Mind, 94, 110 Packer, Ann, 11
Old Man and the Sea, The, 42 Pact, The, 114, 131
Old Testament, 42 Palatini, Margie, 30
Oleksy, Walter G., 192 Palmer, Pat, 145
On Etruscan Time, 149 Pancakes for Breakfast, 60
On the Road, 135 Parable of the Sower, 102
On the Run, 131, 185 Park, Barbara, 54
One Eye Laughing, the Other Weeping, 161, 196 Parr, Danny, 192
One Fat Summer, 125 Party Girl, 78, 187
One Frog Too Many, 60 Passage to Little Bighorn, 141
One Last Wish, 21 Passion of Artemisia, The, 12
One Night, 50, 120 Passionate Vegetarian, 14
One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Patchett, Ann, 15
Dies, 23, 48 Paterson, Katherine, 81, 110, 128, 142, 173
One Thousand Paper Cranes, 202 Patience, Princess Catherine, 99
One True Friend, 68 Patiently Alice, 83

287
 Index

Paton, Alan, 223 Picture a Letter, 61

Pattou, Edith, 27, 194, 219 Picture books about war, 204
Paulsen, Gary, 19, 58, 72, 72, 75, 128, 135, 139, Pictures, 1918, 175
142, 159, 172, 219, 221, 230, 237, 242, Pictures in the Dark, 92
245 Pied Piper, 27
Pay It Forward, 91 Pierce, Tamora, 81, 102
Peace One Day, 201 Piggie Pie!, 30
Peace, 200 Pigman & Me, The, 238
Peacebound Trains, 204 Pigman, The, 243
Peacock, Judith, 111 Pilot’s Wife, The, 56
Pearson, Mary, 91 Pirate Diary, 207
Peck, Richard, 36, 54, 73, 119, 152, 242 Pirates, 207
Peck, Robert Newton, 55, 128, 239, 242 Pirates!, 66, 208
Pedersen, Laura, 12 Piratica, 208
Pedro and Me, 89 Place Called Ugly, A, 127
Peeling the Onion, 55, 95 Place in the Sun, A, 149
Peeps, 234 Place Like This, A, 49
Pelzer, David J., 116, 238 Placide, Jaira, 70
Pennebaker, Ruth, 55 Plain City, 73, 141
Peregrine, 165 Plainsong, 10
Peretti, Frank E., 107 Planet of the Apes, 239
Perfect Snow, A, 220 Platt, Chris, 95
Perfect Storm, The, 6, 58 Platt, Richard, 207
Perfectionism, 180 Playing in Traffic, 188, 248
Perkins, Lynne Rae, 130 Playing with Fire, 229
Perkins, Mitali, 170 Please Don’t Kill the Freshman, 6, 84
Perks of Being a Wallflower, The, 83, 115 Plummer, Louise, 21, 219
Perlman, Janet, 30 Plum-Ucci, Carol, 45, 109, 214, 215, 230
Perrault, Charles, 40 Poe, Edgar Allan, 41
Perry, Phyllis Jean, 192 Poison Place, The, 18
Peters, Julie Anne, 88, 118, 143 Poisonwood Bible, The, 11
Petersen, P. J., 24, 250 Polacco, Patricia, 205
Peterson, Christine, 192 Politically active, 97
Peterson, Kathy, 15 Pop Princess, 181
Peterson, Monique, 192 Porter, Tracey, 126, 154
Petey, 95, 239 Postcards from No Man’s Land, 178, 203
Peyton, K. M, 219 Postcards to Father Abraham, 54, 110
Pfeffer, Susan Beth, 54, 69 Potatoes, Potatoes, 201
Pfetzer, Mark, 58, 221, 237 Powell, Randy, 75, 250
Pharaoh’s Daughter, 149 Power Broker, The, 227
Philbrick, Nathaniel, 15, 237 Prairie Songs, 157
Philbrick, W. R., 7, 42, 75, 95, 138, 198, 239, Pratchett, Terry, 30, 103, 194
242, 245 Prayer for the Twenty-First Century, 202
Phineas Gage, 3, 235 Praying at the Sweetwater Motel, 134
Physically handicapped, 94 Premlata and the Festival of Lights, 169
Pick & Shovel Poet, 5, 236 Pressler, Mirjam, 162
Picoult, Jodi, 129, 199 Preston, Douglas J, 34

288
 Index

Preston, Richard, 6, 199 Rappaport, Doreen, 202

Preszler, Eric, 193 Raptor, 34
Pride and Prejudice, 20, 38 Rapunzel, 28
Primrose Way, The, 159 Rat Boys, 21, 35
Prince Cinders, 29 Rats, 34
Princess & the Pauper, The, 181 Rats Saw God, 117, 142, 246
Princess Bride, The, 100, 240 Ravenous, 126
Princess Diaries, The, 35, 83, 99, 181 Rawles, Nancy, 42
Princess in Pink, 83 Rawn, Melanie, 100
Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep, 25 Ray, Jeanne, 39
Principal’s New Clothes, The, 29 Read, Piers Paul, 58, 221
Private Captain, 151 Read alouds for middle school, 241
Private Peaceful, 175 Read alouds high school, 239
Prodigal Summer, 190 Realm of Possibility, The, 76
Project X, 109 Rebecca, 41
Prose, Francine, 107 Rebman, Renee C., 156
Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, A, 165 Rebound, 96
Provoost, Anne, 42 Red Cap, 28
Prowlers, 232 Red Midnight, 229
Ptah, Heru, 32 Red Scarf Girl, 113, 236
Pulling Princes, 36, 100 Redcoats and Petticoats, 205
Pullman, Philip, 7, 30, 73, 81 Redwall, 7, 241
Pure Sunshine, 120 Reeder, Carolyn, 152
Rees, Celia, 19, 66, 208
Qualey, Marsha, 120, 172 Rees, Douglas, 212, 234
Queen’s Own Fool, 100 Refugees, 24, 140
Quest for a Maid, 80 Regular Guy, 142
Questionable medical ethics, 209 Reid, Constance, 164
Reisert, Rebecca, 40
Raatma, Lucia, 156 Relic, The, 34
Rabbit Tattoo, The, 211 Reluctant boy readers, 244
Race Across Alaska, 58 Reluctant girl readers, 247
Race to Save the Lord God Bird, The, 4, 25 Reluctant God, The, 150
Radin, Ruth Y., 196 Remarque, Erich Maria, 176
Radioactive Boy Scout, The, 6 Remember Me to Harold Square, 21
Rag and Bone Shop, The, 45, 52, 245 Remembering the Good Times, 54, 119
Raging Quiet, The, 167 Remembrance, 175
Rainbow Boys, 88 Rennison, Louise, 36, 117
Raising the Griffin, 100 Revenge of the Whale, 237
Rall, Ted, 203 Rewind, 52
Rallison, Janette, 83, 85 Re-zoom, 59
Ramsay Scallop, The, 166 Rhymes with Witches, 84
Rana, Indi, 170 Rhys, Jean, 38
Randall, Alice, 42 Rice, Anne, 213
Range of Motion, 54 Rich Dad Poor Dad for Teens, 10
Rani and the Fashion Divas, 168 Richter, Conrad, 129, 142
Rapp, Adam, 121 Riddle Streak, The, 69

289
 Index

Riddles, Libby, 58 Rudolph, Marian, 159

Rinaldi, Ann, 22, 92, 152, 152 Ruiz, Mona, 123
Ripslinger, Jon, 86, 251 Rules of the Road, 79, 134, 239
Rite of Passage, 124, 142 Rumplestiltskin, 28
Ritter, John H., 110 Rumpelstiltskin Problem, The, 26, 28, 31
River Between Us, The, 73, 152 Rumpelstiltskin’s Daughter, 31
Road from Home, The, 196 Run, Boy, Run, 161, 196
Road trip, 134 Run for Your Life, 85
Road Trip, 134 Runaways, 137
Rob&sara.com, 24, 250 Runaways, The, 137
Roberts, Jeremy, 193 Running Loose, 250
Roberts, Kristi, 85 Running Out of Time, 79, 198, 209
Robinet, Harriette, 69, 174 Runyon, Brent, 6, 15
Robinson, Barbara, 242 Russell, Mary Doria, 162
Robinson, Lynda Suzanne, 150 Ryan, Pam Munoz, 18, 174, 222
Rock & Ice Climbing, 193 Ryan, Sara, 88
Rock Star, Superstar, 251 Rylant, Cynthia, 48, 81, 217
Rodriguez, Luis J., 114, 123
Rodzina, 79 Sabriel, 81
Rohmann, Eric, 61 Sacco, Joe, 203
Roller Birds of Rampur, 170 Sachar, Louis, 230, 243
Romance for boy readers, 250 Saenz, Benjamin Alire, 76
Romeo and Juliet, 39 Safe Area Gorazde, 203
Romiette and Julio, 39, 67, 77, 122 Safe At Second, 94
Room in the Heart, 161 Saffy’s Angel, 95
Room on Lorelei Street, A, 91 Sahara Special, 67
Room to Grow, 126 Saint Jude, 93, 118, 143
Roos, Stephen, 95 Saksena, Kate, 73
Roots, 227 Salem’s Lot, 213
Rose Blanche, 201 Salisbury, Graham, 19, 178, 230
Rose Daughter, 25 Sam, the Minuteman, 204
Rose That Grew from Concrete, The, 238 Samantha and the Cowboy, 21
Rose, Naomi C., 202 Sami and the Time of the Troubles, 205
Rosen, Michael J., 23 Samir and Yonatan, 222
Rosenberg, Liz, 50 Sammy & Juliana in Hollywood, 76
Rosenfeld, Stephanie, 12 Sanchez, Alex, 88
Rose’s Journal, 154 Sanders, Dori, 70
Rosie the Riveter, 163, 173 Sand-Reckoner, The, 150
Rosoff, Meg, 248 Santiago, Esmeralda, 15
Rostkowski, Margaret I., 175 Sarah’s Ground, 152
Roth, Arthur J., 18 Saturnalia, 141
Rottman, S. L., 85, 135, 185, 219 Saving Jessica, 128
Rowling, J. K., 227 Saving the Planet & Stuff, 184
Royally good reads, 99 Savion!, 235
Rubalcaba, Jill, 150 Say Goodnight, Gracie, 53
Rubin, Susan Goldman, 205 Say, Allen, 201, 205
Ruckman, Ivy, 242 Saying Goodbye, 133

290
 Index

Saying It Out Loud, 53 Shakespeare, William. 39, 40

Scams!, 5 Shakur, Tupac, 238
Schaefer, A. R., 192 Shan, Darren, 34, 233
Schernoff Discoveries, The, 75 Shattered Mirror, 213, 234
Schlosser, Eric, 15 Shattering Glass, 45, 55, 108, 215
Schmidt, Gary D., 26, 28 Shaw, Tucker, 135, 182, 251
Schraff, Anne E., 121, 188 Sheldon, Dyan, 181
Schreiber, Ellen, 212 Shepard, Jim, 109
Schroeder, Andreas, 5 Sherlock, Patti, 172
Schwa Was Here, The, 185 Sherman, Augustus F., 156
Scieszka, Jon, 31, 150 Sheth, Kashmira, 170
Scorpions, 122, 186 Shields, Carol, 16
Scrimger, Richard, 96 Shigekawa, Marlene, 201
Search for identity, 141 Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, 57, 235
Search for Perfectionism, 133 Shiva’s Fire, 170
Seaward, Brian Luke, 112 Shooter, 109, 216
Sebold, Alice, 55, 109, 217 Shooting Monarchs, 187
Secret Blog of Raisin Rodriguez, The, 23, 36 Short and sweet, 51
Secret Journey, The, 65 Shreve, Anita, 56, 220
Secret Life of Bees, The, 11, 117 Shriver, Lionel, 109
Secret Soldier, The, 80 Shrouding Woman, The, 158
Sector 7, 61 Shusterman, Neal, 19, 185, 233
Sedgwick, Marcus, 233 Sides, Hampton, 15
Seedfolks, 184 Siebold, Jan, 185
Seeing Stone, The, 165 Siegelson, Kim L., 152
Seek, 51, 141 Siegler, Jamie Lyn, 126
Seer and the Sword, The, 101 Sign of the Qin, 211
Self-mutilation, 143 Silent to the Bone, 17, 115, 143
Selvadurai, Shyam, 170 Silent Witness in Harlem, A, 67
Senna, Danzy, 12 Silver Kiss, The, 33, 212
Separate Peace, A, 164 Silverstein, Ken, 6
Serpent Slayer, The, 82 Silverwing, 229
Service, Pamela F., 150 Simple Gift, The, 49, 91
Seuss, Dr., 201, 205 Simply Alice, 83
17: A Novel in Prose Poems, 50 Sinclair, Upton, 228
Seventeen Against the Dealer, 129 Singer, Marilyn, 37
Seventeenth Summer, 21 Singing the Dogstar Blues, 101
Severance, John B., 152 Sirena, 81
Severin, Tim, 58 Sis, Peter, 58
Sew Simple Squares, 15 Sister of the Bride, 20
Shabanu, 171 Sister Slam and the Poetic Motormouth
Shackleton’s Stowaway, 113 Roadtrip, 49, 135
Shade’s Children, 8 Sisterland, 162, 178
Shadow Spinner, 149 Skate!, 192
Shadows and Reflections, 60 Skateboarding in the X Games, 193
Shafran, Michael, 192 Skeleton, 193
Shakespeare Bats Cleanup, 48 Skeleton Man, 33

291
 Index

Skellig, 217 Son of the Mob, 245, 250

Skin and Other Stories, 211 Sones, Sonya, 23, 48, 92, 249
Skin Game, 118, 144 Song of Sampo Lake, 157
Skin I’m In, The, 67, 214 Song of the Magdalene, 149
Sky, 43 Songs of Faith, 68
Slacks and Calluses, 164 Sonny’s War, 172
Slade, Arthur G., 144, 154 Sophie’s World, 130
Slalom, 219 Sorenson, Margo, 184
Slap Your Sides, 107 Soto, Gary, 107, 186
Sleator, William, 45, 52, 72, 96 Soul Moon Soup, 47
Sledding Hill, The, 130 Soul Surfer, 113
Sleds on Boston Common, 204 South Asia and the South Asian diaspora, 168
Sleeping Beauty, 28 Space Station Seventh Grade, 243
Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie, 84 Sparks, Beatrice, 116, 126
Sloppy Firsts, 184 Sparks, Nicholas, 56
Slote, Alfred, 69 Speak, 107, 115, 188, 247
Slow River, 88 Spellbound, 78, 104
Smack, 119, 186 Spellcoats, The, 82
Small Miracle, A, 59 Sphinx, 150
Small Steps, 71, 95, 241 Spiderwick Chronicles, The, 194
Smith, Charles R., 85 Spiegelman, Art, 238
Smith, David J., 202 Spier, Peter, 61
Smith, Rukshana, 170 Spillebeen, Geert, 176
Smith, Sherri L., 138 Spindle’s End, 25, 99, 101
Smith, Sherwood, 102, 166 Spinelli, Jerry, 22, 72, 85, 90, 161, 177, 189,
Snail Mail No More, 23 220, 230, 237, 243, 247
Sneed, Brad, 61 Spinners, 25, 28
Snicket, Lemony, 37 Spinning Through the Universe, 47
Snow Falling on Cedars, 220 Splintering, 108
Snow Pony, The, 218 Split Image, 49
Snowboarding, 191 Spooner, Michael, 160
Snowfall, 219 Springer, Nancy, 195
Snowman, The, 59 Spy High, 119, 244
Snyder, Midori, 233 Squashed, 20
So B. It, 90, 93 Squire, His Knight, & His Lady, The, 166
So Far from the Bamboo Grove, 223 Squire’s Tale, The, 166
So Much to Tell You, 118, 144, 240 Sreenivasan, Jyotsna, 170
So Super Starry, 181 Stahler, David, 183
So Yesterday, 197 Stand Tall, 229
Sobel, Dava, 58 Stanley, Diane, 31
Soldier of the Great War, A, 176 Stanley, Jerry, 154, 174
Soldier X, 18, 178 Stanton, Doug, 16
Soldier’s Heart, 19 Staples, Suzanne Fisher, 170, 171
Someone Is Hiding on Alcatraz Island, 122, 244 Star Split, 7
Someone to Love Me, 188 Stargirl, 22, 90, 247
Something About America, 48 Starry, Starry Night, 220
Sommers, Michael A., 145 Stars Can Wait, The, 9

292
 Index

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, 108, 114, 125, 127 Surf, 191
Stealing Henry, 139 Survival in the Storm, 153
Stefan’s Story, 94, 189 Surviving peer pressure, 143
Stein, R. Conrad, 164 Suskind, Ron, 132
Steinbeck, John, 129, 135, 154 Sutcliff, Rosemary, 150
Steinberg, Jacques, 16 Swallowing Stones, 128
Step from Heaven, A, 222 Sweetblood, 212, 232
Stetson, 135 Swimming in the Monsoon Sea, 170
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 41 Swimming to Antarctica, 113
Stick and Whittle, 158 Swing, 44
Stick Figure, 14, 126 Sword of the Rightful King, 166
Stine, Catherine, 24, 140
Stine, R. L., 213 Tademy, Lalita, 16
Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Taf, 134, 137
Tales, The, 31 Takeda, Pete, 192
Stir of Bones, A, 233 Taking Care of Terrific, 80
Stitches, 214 Taking Care of Yoki, 163
Stoehr, Shelley, 144 Tale of Despereaux, The, 241
Stone, Phoebe, 139 Tales from the Brothers Grimm and the Sisters
Stoner & Spaz, 52, 96, 120, 251 Weird, 26, 31
Stop Pretending, 48, 92 Tan, Amy, 12
Storky, 84 Tangerine, 94, 115, 241
Stormbreaker, 218, 229, 244 Tarbox, Katherine, 116, 240
Story of Ferdinand, The, 200 Target, 108
Stotan!, 75, 218 Tashjian, Janet, 92, 98, 130, 181, 197, 247
Stranded, 128 Tattooing and body art, 211
Stranger with My Face, 33 Taylor Five, 209
Strangers in Paradise, 88 Taylor, Mildred D., 81, 152
Strasser, Todd, 18, 56, 90, 107, 110, 196, 287, Taylor, Theodore, 190
251 Tchana, Katrin, 82
Stratton, Allan, 188 Teacher’s Funeral, The, 36
Stravaganza, 101 Tearjerkers, 53
Straw into Gold, 26, 28 Tears of a Tiger, 53
Straydog, 247 Teen Angel, 78
Street Luge and Dirtboarding, 193 Teen Angst’ Naaah, 6
Stroud, Jonathan, 194 Teen Esteem, 145
Strout, Elizabeth, 117 Teen romance with African American characters,
Stuck in Neutral, 96, 130, 210, 230, 245, 249 104
Subtle Knife, The, 7 Teens Beating the Odds, 113
Sullivan, George, 237 Tehanu, 80
Sumitra’s Story, 170 Tell It to Naomi, 23
Summer of Fear, 33 Teller, Astro, 24
Summer of My German Soldier, 163 Temple, Frances, 166
Summer Secrets, 92 Ten Miles from Winnemucca, 138
Summer to Die, A, 54 Tenderness, 139
Summer’s End, 172 Terminal Man, The, 199
Sunshine, 61, 213 Testa, Maria, 48, 172

293
 Index

Tex, 142 Toning the Sweep, 51

Tey, Josephine, 228 Too Big a Storm, 172
That Awful Cinderella, 29 Too Old for This, Too Young for That!, 145
That Was Then, This Is Now, 122, 186 Torn Skirt, 10
Then Again, Maybe I Won’t, 117 Torn Thread, 196
Theodore, Wayne, 116 Touching Spirit Bear, 107, 110, 128, 242, 245
There’s a Girl in My Hammerlock, 85 Tough Cookie, 241
Thesman, Jean, 65 Town, Florida, 131
They Marched into Sunlight, 15 Townley, Rod, 43
Thief Lord, The, 90, 137 Tracks, 57
Thief of Dreams, 196 Tramble, Nichelle D., 32
Thieves of Ostia, The, 149 Travels with Charley, 135
Things Change, 108, 188 Treacherous Love, 116
Things Left Unsaid, 49 Treasures in the Dust, 154
Things Not Seen, 217 Trembling Earth, 152
Third Witch, 40 Triana, Gaby, 78, 182
Thirsty, 34, 212, 233 Tribes, 144
This Lullaby, 21 Trino’s Choice, 122
This Side of Paradise, 210 Trivizas, Eugenios, 31, 201
Thomas Malory, 39 Trope, Zoe, 6, 84
Thomas, Rob, 117, 142, 185, 246 Troy, 41
Thomson, Sarah L., 166 True adventure, 57
Thread of Grace, 162 True Believer, 131
Three Clams and an Oyster, 75 True Confessions of a Heartless Girl, 90, 134
Three Little Dinosaurs, The, 29 True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet, 119
Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig, The, True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, The, 65,
31, 201 79, 239, 244
3 NB’s of Julian Drew, The, 115 True Meaning of Cleavage, The, 83
Thunderbowl, 245 True to Form, 9
Thwonk, 45 Trueman, Terry, 96, 110, 130, 210, 230, 245,
Tibet, 58 249
Tibetan Tales for Little Buddhas, 202 Truesight, 183
Tie That Binds, The, 158 Truth About Forever, The, 133
Tiger Eyes, 53, 107 Truth and Beauty, 15
Time Cat, 149 Ttyl, 23, 247
Time Flies, 61 Tuck Everlasting, 127
Time for Dancing, 55 Tucket’s Gold, 159
Time Pieces, 67 Tuesdays with Morrie, 130, 239
Tithe, 102, 195 Turbulent Times, Prophetic Dreams, 203
To Afghanistan and Back, 203 Turkle, Brinton, 61
To Say Nothing of the Dog, 12 Turnabout, 209
To the Frontier, 159 Turner, Ann, 48, 116, 206
Tocher, Timothy, 138 Turtledove, Harry, 176
Together Apart, 218 Tusk and Stone, 168
Tombs of Atuan, The, 80 Tut, Tut, 150
Tomlinson, Joe, 193 Twain, Mark, 42
Tomorrow, When the War Began, 8, 65 Twelve, 11

294
 Index

24 Girls in 7 Days, 37, 250 Virtual Light, 102

Twilight, 213, 234 Vizzini, Ned, 6
Twin Tales, 236 Voice That Challenged a Nation, The, 3
Twists and Turns, 52, 68, 78 Voigt, Cynthia, 82, 121, 129
Two Badges, 123 Volponi, Paul, 246
Two Treatises of Government, 228 Von Ziegesar, Cecily, 182
Vote for Larry, 98
Uchida, Yoshiko, 206 Voyage of the Arctic Tern, The, 207
Ultimate High, 58 Voyage of the Frog, The, 128
Ultimate Spider-Man, 182 Vreeland, Susan, 12
Ulysses Voyage, The, 58
Uncle Daddy, 119 Wadjet Eye, The, 150
Under the Black Flag, 57 Wait Till Helen Comes, 33
Under the Royal Palms, 71 Waiting For Dolphins, 110
Under the Tuscan Sun, 58 Waiting for Sarah, 96
Under the Wolf, Under the Dog, 121 Waiting to Disappear, 92
Unfairest of Them All, The, 29 Wakeboarding, 192
Ung, Loung, 16 Walk Across America, 58
Unlikely Romance of Kate Bjorkman, The, 21, Walk in the Woods, A, 13, 57
219 Walk Softly, 53
Up a Creek, 98 Walk to Remember, A, 56
Up a Road Slowly, 117 Walk Two Moons, 53, 134
Updike, John, 39 Walking Naked, 287
Upstairs Cat, The, 200 Walking to the Bus-Rider Blues, 69
Usual Rules, The, 55 Wall, Alan, 44
Wall, The, 200, 204
V Is for Victory, 163, 164 Walter, Virginia, 186, 217
Valiant Chatti-Maker, The, 169 Walters, Eric, 96, 246
Vampire High, 212, 234 Wanderer, The, 134
Vampire Kisses, 212 Wanderings of Odysseus, The, 150
Vampires, 212 War for the Oaks, 102
Van Draanen, Wendelin, 22, 190 War Within, The, 151
Van Leeuwen, Jean, 160 Wasted, 126
Vande Velde, Vivian, 26, 28, 31, 34, 102, 177, Watchers, 234
212 Watching the Roses, 28
Various, The, 232 Watkins, Yoko Kawashima, 223
Vega, Denise, 23 Watson, Bruce, 174
Vegan Virgin Valentine, 133 Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, The, 17,
Veiled Courage, 16 239, 241, 244
Velasquez, Gloria, 78 Wayland, April Halprin, 48
Vibe Magazine (eds.), 32 Wayne, 116
Victoria and the Rogue, 20 We Are Witnesses, 196
Victory Garden, The, 163 We Beat the Street, 113
Vietnamese conflict, 172 We Need to Talk About Kevin, 109
Vijayaraghavan, Vineeta, 12, 223 Wee Free Men, The, 194
Vincent, Gabrielle, 61 Weeks, Sarah, 37, 90, 93, 142
Violence, 214 Weil, Ann, 193

295
 Index

Weill, Sabrina Solin, 143 Whytock, Cherry, 37

Weirdo, The, 190 Wicked, 40
Weitzman, Jacqueline Preiss, 61 Wide Saragasso Sea, 38
Wells, Rosemary, 85 Wiesner, David, 61, 61
We’re Not Monsters, 143 Wild Man Island, 127
Werlin, Nancy, 46, 109, 199, 220, 240 Wild, Margaret, 50
West with Hopeless, 134 Wilder, Laura Ingalls, 160
Westall, Robert, 164 Wilkens, Rose, 181
Westerfeld, Scott, 197, 234 Williams, Laura E., 98, 162, 166
Weston, Elise, 164 Williams, Stanley, 123
Weyn, Suzanne, 183, 211 Williams-Garcia, Rita, 69, 78
Weyr, Garret, 88 Willis, Connie, 12, 103
Whale Talk, 55, 74, 75, 114, 215 Willis, Patricia, 138
Whales on Stilts, 35 Willow King, 95
Wharton, Edith, 40 Willow Run, 163
What About Me?, 120 Wilson, April, 61
What Daddy Did, 19 Wilson, Dawn, 93, 118, 143
What Girls Learn, 55 Wilson, Diane Lee, 82
What Happened to Lani Garver, 109, 287 Wilson, Jacqueline, 126, 211
What My Mother Doesn’t Know, 48, 249 Wilson, John, 176, 178
Whelan, Gloria, 96, 138, 170, 223 Wind Blows Backward, The, 49
When Bad Things Happen to Good People, 130 Wind Done Gone, The, 42
When Christmas Comes Again, 175 Wind Singer, The, 7
When Dad Killed Mom, 45 Wind, The, 60
When Jeff Comes Home, 19, 115 Window, 59
When No One Was Looking, 85 Winick, Judd, 89
When She was Good, 116 Winning, 85
When the Road Ends, 65 Winter, 218
When the Sky Rained Dust, 153 Winter Hare, The, 165
Where I Want to Be, 92 Winter Night’s Dream, A, 84
Where the Action Was, 3 Winter People, The, 17
Where the Broken Heart Still Beats, 18 Winter Range, 219
Where the Heart Is, 91 Winter Room, The, 219
Where the Kissing Never Stops, 251 Winter, Kathryn, 178
Whirligig, 135 Winterdance, 58, 221
Whitcher, Susan, 116 Wise Girl, 126
White Lilacs, 69 Wisler, G. Clifton, 28
White, Ellen Emerson, 172 Witch Child, 19
White, Robb, 240 Witch-Hunt, 5
White, Ruth, 93 Witch’s Boy, The, 232
Whitman, Sylvia, 164 With a Silent Companion, 131
Who Am I Without Him?, 77, 188 With Courage and Cloth, 3
Who Killed My Daughter, 57 With Love, Little Red Hen, 29
Who Really Killed Cock Robin?, 189 Within Reach, 58, 221, 237
Who the Man, 110, 214 Witness, 47, 68
Who Will Tell My Brother?, 47 Wittlinger, Ellen, 24, 89, 136, 184, 186
Whoever You Are, 200 Wizard of Oz, 40

296
Wolf, 27 Year of Secret Assignments, The, 23
Wolff, Virginia Euwer, 48, 94, 86, 131, 142 Year Without Michael, The, 54
Women’s labor movement, 173 Yellow Blue Bus Means I Love You, 223
Wooding, Chris, 251 Yellow Star, The, 201
Woodson, Jacqueline, 22, 48, 94, 89, 104, 129, Yellow Umbrella, 60
142, 219, 247 Yep, Laurence, 72, 74
Woodsong, 58 Yo, Little Brother, 145
Woolf, Alex, 197 Yokota Officers Club, 9
Wordless, 59 Yolen, Jane, 26, 28, 82,100, 100, 166, 196, 230,
World literature, 222 231
World of Daughter Mcguire, The, 101 You Can’t Take a Balloon Into the Museum of
World War I, 175 Fine Arts, 61
World War II, 177 You Don’t Know Me, 115, 143
Wormser, Richard, 237 You Remind Me of You, 49
Worster, Donald, 154 Young Man and the Sea, The, 42
Worth, Richard, 123 Young Pioneers, 159
Wreckers, The, 242 Young, Karen Romano, 74, 134, 234, 250
Wrede, Patricia C., 82, 102 Yourgrau, Barry, 37
Wren to the Rescue, 102 Yours Truly, Goldilocks, 29
Wright, Richard, 124, 142
Wrinkle in Time, A, 217 Z for Zachariah, 65, 81
Writer’s Story, A, 71 Zeely, 67
Wulffson, Don L, 18, 178 Zeena, 40
Wyatt, Melissa, 100 Zeises, Lara M., 56, 84
Wyeth, Sharon Dennis, 74 Zel, 26, 28
Wynne-Jones, Tim, 230 Zellie Blake, 67
Wyss, Thelma Hatch, 138 Zeman, Ludmila, 202
Zen Shorts, 201
Xtreme sports, 192 Zephaniah, Benjamin, 124
Zevin, Gabrielle, 233
Yamanaka, Lois-Ann, 89 Zigzag, 136
Yancey, Diane, 154 Zindel, Paul, 34, 34, 238, 243
Yansky, Brian, 136 Zlata’s Diary, 113
Year My Life Went Down the Loo, The, 35 Zoom, 59
Year of Impossible Goodbyes, The, 222 Zoom Broom, 30

297
 About the Author

NANCY J. KEANE is Library Media Specialist, Rundlett Middle School, Concord, New Hamp-
shire. She is author of Booktalking across the Curriculum: The Middle Years (Libraries Unlimited,
2002) and several other titles; and she is recipient of the 2004 Association for Library Service to
Children (ALSC)/Sagebrush Education Resources Literature Program Award. For more than a de-
cade, she has hosted a popular booktalk Web site (www.nancykeane.com). Nancy is also author of
The Big Book of Children’s Reading Lists (Libraries Unlimited, 2006).