Young Adult Literature
Abeel, Samantha. My Thirteenth Winter. (2003)
A memoir in which Samantha Abeel discusses her life before and after being diagnosed
with the math-related learning disability discalculia in seventh grade.
Ahmedi, Farah. The Story of My Life: An Afghan Girl on the Other Side of the Sky.
(2005)
Farah Ahmedi, the victim of a land mine when she was just twelve years old, tells about her
childhood in Afghanistan, a country trapped in war her entire life, and discusses the
challenges she has faced as a result of losing her leg, and in trying to adapt to living in the
United States.
Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. (2007)
Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to
attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Native American is the school
mascot.
Alphin, Elaine Marie. The Perfect Shot. (2005)
Brian uses basketball to block out memories of his girlfriend and her family who were
murdered; however, the upcoming trial and a high school history assignment forces him to
face the past.
An, Na. The Fold. (2008)
Joyce Park, a high school junior who is always compared to her beautiful and talented older
sister, Helen, wants to attract the attention of John Ford Kang, and wrestles with whether to
get plastic surgery as a gift from her aunt.
Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. (1999)
A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda's
freshman year in high school.
Anderson, M. T. Burger Wuss. (1999)
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. Great
humor.
Anderson, M. T. Thirsty. (1997)
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.
Auch, Mary Jane. Ashes of Roses. (2002)
Sixteen-year-old Rose Nolan arrives on Ellis Island in 1911 in the hopes of starting 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.
Bauer, Joan. Thwonk. (1995)
A cupid doll comes to life and offers romantic assistance to A.J., a teenage photographer
suffering from unrequited love.
Becker, Tom. Darkside. (2007)
Jonathan Starling's father is in an asylum and his home has been attacked when, while
running away from kidnappers, he stumbles upon Darkside, a terrifying and hidden part of
London ruled by the descendents of Jack the Ripper, where Jonathan is in mortal danger if
he cannot find the way out.
Bowler, Tim. Frozen Fire. (2006)
Fifteen-year-old Dusty gets a mysterious call from a boy who says he is going to kill
himself, and while he claims to have called her randomly, he seems to know her intimately.
Brashares, Ann. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. (2001)
Carmen decides to discard an old pair of jeans, but Tibby, Lena, and Bridget think they are
great and decide that whoever the pants fit best will get them. When the jeans fit everyone
perfectly, a sisterhood and a memorable summer begin.
Bray, Libba. A Great and Terrible Beauty. (2003)
After the suspicious death of her mother in 1895, sixteen-year-old Gemma returns to
England, after many years in India, to attend a finishing school where she becomes aware of
her magical powers and ability to see into the spirit world.
Breslin, Theresa. Remembrance. (2002)
The destinies of two Scottish families, one of shopkeepers and one of wealth and power,
become entwined through their involvement in World War I, social causes, and love.
Bruchac, Joseph. Code Talker. (2005)
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 during World War II in their native tongue.
Bruchac, Joseph. The Way. (2007)
Cody LeBeau, the new kid, becomes the new target for the bullies even though he is
Abenaki like most of the school, but things begin to change when his uncle comes to town
for a martial arts competition and he and Cody begin training together.
Bunce, Elizabeth C. A Curse Dark as Gold. (2008)
Upon the death of her father, seventeen-year-old Charlotte struggles to keep the family's
woolen mill running in the face of an overwhelming mortgage and what the local villagers
believe is a curse, but when a man capable of spinning straw into gold appears on the scene
she must decide if his help is worth the price.
Carvell, Marlene. Sweetgrass Basket. (2005)
In alternating passages, two Mohawk sisters describe their lives at the Carlisle Indian
Industrial School, established in 1879 to educate Native Americans, as they try to assimilate
into white culture and one of them is falsely accused of stealing.
Chambers, Aidan. Postcards from No Man’s Land. (2002)
Alternates between two stories – comtemporarily, seventeen-year-old Jacob visits a daunting
Amsterdam at the request of his English grandmother – and historically, nineteen-year-old
Geertrui relates her experience of British soldiers's attempts to liberate Holland from its
German occupation.
Chotjewitz, David. Daniel Half Human and the Good Nazi. (2004)
In 1933, best friends Daniel and Armin admire Hitler, but as anti-Semitism buoys Hitler to
power, Daniel learns he is half Jewish, threatening the friendship even as life in their
beloved Hamburg, Germany, is becoming nightmarish. Also details Daniel and Armin's
reunion in 1945 in interspersed chapters.
Clement-Davies, David. The Sight. (2007)
Morgra, a lone wolf that possesses a mysterious and terrifying power known as the Sight,
sets off a battle that involves all of nature when she attempts to find a pup, born into a brave
and loving pack, that holds the key to a power that could control the world.
Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. (2008)
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen accidentally becomes a contender in the annual Hunger
Games, a grave competition hosted by the Capitol where young boys and girls are pitted
against one another in a televised fight to the death.
Dessen, Sarah. Lock and Key. (2008)
When she is abandoned by her alcoholic mother, high school senior Ruby winds up living
with Cora, the sister she has not seen for ten years, and learns about Cora's new life, what
makes a family, how to allow people to help her when she needs it, and that she too has
something to offer others.
Donnelly, Jennifer. A Northern Light. (2003)
Sixteen-year-old Mattie, determined to attend college and be a writer against the wishes of
her father and boyfriend, takes a job at a hotel in 1906 where the death of a guest renews
her determination to live her own life.
Dorris, Michael. A Yellow Raft in Blue Water. (1987)
A saga of three generations of Indian women, beset by hardship and torn by angry secrets,
yet joined by the indissoluble bonds of kinship.
Draper, Sharon. Tears of a Tiger. (1994)
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.
Easton, Kelly. Hiroshima Dreams. (2007)
Lin O'Neil, a talented but shy girl growing up in Providence, Rhode Island, develops a close
relationship with her Japanese grandmother, who shares Lin's gift of precognition.
Feinstein, John. Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery. (2005)
After winning a basketball reporting contest, eighth graders Stevie and Susan Carol are sent
to cover the Final Four tournament, where they discover that a talented player is being
blackmailed into throwing the final game.
Gordon, Sheila. Waiting for the Rain. (1987)
Chronicles nine years in the lives of two South African youths – one black, one white – as
their friendship ends in a violent confrontations between student and soldier.
Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki. Farewell to Manzanar. (1973)
Biography of Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston relating her experiences of living at the Manzanar
internment camp during World War II and how it has influenced her life.
Ibbitson, John. The Landing. (2008)
Fifteen-year-old Ben wants to be a violinist, but his chances of leaving Cook’s Landing, the
family farm, grow slimmer every year. Then one day in early summer, possible salvation
arrives in the form of a new neighbor – Ruth Chapman, a wealthy New Yorker.
Johnson, Angela. The First Part Last. (2003)
Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for
his adored baby daughter.
Jones, Stan. White Sky, Black Ice. (1999)
Nathan Active, given up for adoption by his fifteen-year-old mother, an Inupiat girl, returns
to the village of his birth as a state trooper where he enlists the help of beautiful villager
Lucy Generous in solving the mystery of a series of atypical suicides, and in coming to
understand his Eskimo heritage.
Kerr, M. E. Deliver Us from Evie. (1994)
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.
Kingsolver, Barbara. The Poisonwood Bible. (1998)
Nathan Price and his family move to the Belgian Congo in 1959, and the experiences they
have while living in Africa affect each member of the family in a different way.
Klass, David. You Don’t Know Me. (2001)
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.
Klause, Annette Curtis. Blood and Chocolate. (1997)
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.
Konigsburg, E. L. Silent to the Bone. (2000)
When he is wrongly accused of gravely injuring his baby half-sister, thirteen-year-old
Branwell loses his power of speech and only his friend Connor is able to reach him and
uncover the truth about what really happened.
Krakauer, Jon. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster.
(1997)
The author relates his experience of 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.
Kurson, Robert. Shadow Divers. (2004)
Tells the story of the discovery in 1991 of a World War II German U-boat, sunk sixty
miles off the coast of New Jersey, by deep sea divers John Chatterton and Richie Kohler,
and their six year obsession with identifying the submarine which sank with its crew
onboard.
Larbalestier, Justine. Magic or Madness. (2005)
From the Sydney, Australia, home of a grandmother she believes is a witch, fifteen-year-old
Reason Cansino is magically transported to New York City, where she discovers that
friends and foes can be hard to distinguish.
Levitin, Sonia. Dream Freedom. (2000)
Marcus and his classmates learn about the terrible problem of slavery in present-day Sudan
and raise money to help buy the freedom of some of the slaves. Alternate chapters tell the
stories of the slaves.
Mackler, Carolyn. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things. (2003)
Feeling like she does not fit in with the other members of her family, who are all thin,
brilliant, and good-looking, fifteen-year-old Virginia tries to deal with her self-image, her
first physical relationship, and her disillusionment with some of the people closest to her.
McNamee, Graham. Acceleration. (2003)
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.
McNeal, Laura and Tom. Crooked. (1999)
Two ninth graders, Clara and Amos, suddenly find their lives turned upside down by their
families, by each other, and by the two meanest brothers in town.
Meyer, L. A. My Bonny Light Horseman. (2008)
Jacky Faber, forced to go behind enemy lines in Paris as an American dancer, seduces a
French general to obtain military secrets and save her friends, then dresses in male clothing
and penetrates the French army to fight with Napoleon.
Meyer, Stephanie. Twilight. (2005)
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 whom she comes to realize is not wholly human.
Mikaelsen, Ben. Petey. (1998)
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.
Myers, Walter Dean. Fallen Angels. (1988)
Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school, enlists in the Army in
the summer of 1967 and spends a devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.
Myers, Walter Dean. Harlem Summer. (2007)
In 1920s Harlem, sixteen-year-old saxophonist Mark Purvis struggles to advance his jazz
career while working as a gopher for the new African-American magazine, "The Crisis,"
and becoming involved with mobster Dutch Schultz.
Nicholson, William. Noman. (2007)
Seeker, who is obsessed with his increasingly perilous quest to kill the last of the Old Ones,
finds that his mission has placed him at odds with a new leader who preaches peace and
joy.
Nixon, Joan Lowery. Whispers from the Dead. (1989)
Sarah's contact with the spirit world during a near-death experience leaves her open to
otherworldly messages about a murder committed in her new home in Houston.
Nye, Naomi Shihab. Honeybee. (2008)
A collection of poems and short prose pieces in which Naomi Shihab Nye reflects on the
topics that are most important to people, including love, memories, war, and the planet.
Parker, Robert B. The Boxer and the Spy. (2008)
Fifteen-year-old Terry, an aspiring boxer, uncovers the mystery behind the unexpected
death of a classmate.
Paulsen, Gary. Soldier’s Heart. (1998)
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.
Paulsen, Gary. Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod. (1994)
The author's account of his most ambitious quest: to know a world beyond his knowing, to
train for and run the Iditarod.
Picoult, Jodi. My Sister’s Keeper. (2002)
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.
Powell, Randy. Three Clams and an Oyster. (2002)
During their humorous search to find a fourth player for their flag football team, three high
school juniors are forced to examine their long friendship, their individual flaws, and their
inability to try new experiences.
Rennison, Louise. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging. (2000)
Presents the humorous journal of a year in the life of a fourteen-year-old British girl who
tries to reduce the size of her nose, stop her mad cat from terrorizing the neighborhood
animals, and win the love of handsome hunk Robbie.
Riordan, Rick. The Lightning Thief. (2005)
Percy, expelled from six schools for being unable to control his temper, learns the truth
from his mother that his father is the Greek god Poseidon, and is sent to Camp Half Blood
where he is befriended by a satyr and the demigod daughter of Athena who join him in a
journey to the Underworld to retrieve Zeus's lightning bolt and prevent a catastrophic war.
Rosoff, Meg. How I Live Now. (2004)
To get away from her pregnant stepmother in New York City, fifteen-year-old Daisy goes
to England 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.
Schmidt, Gary. Trouble. (2008)
Fourteen-year-old Henry, wishing to honor his brother Franklin's dying wish, sets out to
hike Maine's Mount Katahdin with his best friend and dog, but fate adds another
companion--the Cambodian refugee accused of fatally injuring Franklin--and reveals
troubles that predate the accident.
Schumacher, Julie. Black Box. (2008)
When her sixteen-year-old sister is hospitalized for depression and her parents want to
keep it a secret, fourteen-year-old Elena tries to cope with her own anxiety and feelings of
guilt that she is determined to conceal from outsiders.
Sensel, Joni. The Humming of Numbers. (2008)
Aiden, a novice about to take monastic vows in tenth century Ireland, meets Lana, a girl who
understands his ability to hear the sounds of numbers humming from all living things, and
just as he is beginning to question his religious calling, the two of them are thrown together
in a mission to save their village from invading Vikings.
Sherlock, Patti. Letters from Wolfie. (2004)
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.
Sides, Hampton. Ghost Soldiers. (2001)
Provides an account of the World War II mission undertaken by 121 select troops from the
U.S. Army 6th Ranger Battalion in January 1945 to rescue 513 American and British
prisoners, including survivors of the Bataan Death March, being held in a camp in the
Philippines.
Sones, Sonya. Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy.
(1999)
A younger sister has a difficult time adjusting to life after her older sister has a mental
breakdown. Written in poetic form.
Sones, Sonya. What My Mother Doesn’t Know. (2001)
Sophie describes her relationships with a series of boys as she searches for Mr. Right.
Written in poetic form.
Staples, Suzanne Fisher. Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind. (1989)
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 either accept the decision, as is the custom, or risk the consequences of
defying her father's wishes.
Stratton, Allan. Chanda’s Wars. (2008)
Chanda Kabelo, a teenaged African girl, must save her younger siblings after they are
kidnapped and forced to serve as child soldiers in General Mandiki's rebel army.
Von Drehle, Dave. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America. (2003)
Chronicles the events surrounding the fire at the Triangle shirtwaist factory which broke out
on March 25, 1911, killing more than one hundred factory workers who were trapped after
the fire broke out, and discusses how the fire changed the work force in America.
Waters, Daniel. Generation Dead. (2008)
When dead teenagers who have come back to life start showing up at her high school,
Phoebe, a goth girl, becomes interested in the phenomenon, and when she starts dating a
"living impaired" boy, they encounter prejudice, fear, and hatred.
Wells, Rosemary. When No One Was Looking. (1980)
A tragic chain of events threatens a 14-year-old girl's promising tennis career.
Werlin, Nancy. Black Mirror: A Novel. (2001)
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.
Whelan, Gloria. The Disappeared. (2008)
Teenaged Silvia tries to save her brother, Eduardo, after he is captured by the military
government in 1970s Argentina.
White, Robb. Deathwatch. (1972)
Needing money for school, a college student accepts a job as a guide on a desert hunting
trip and nearly loses his life.
Williams-Garcia, Rita. No Laughter Here. (2004)
In Queens, New York, ten-year-old Akilah is determined to find out why her closest friend,
Victoria, is silent and withdrawn after returning from a trip to her homeland, Nigeria.
Wright, Bil. When the Black Girl Sings. (2008)
Adopted by white parents and sent to an exclusive Connecticut girls' school where she is
the only African-American student, fourteen-year-old Lahni Schuler feels like an outcast,
particularly when her parents separate, but after attending a local church where she hears
gospel music for the first time, she finds her voice.
Wulffson, Don L. Soldier X. (2001)
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.