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Adult Books that Appeal to Teen Readers |
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Adult Books that Appeal to Teen Readers |
2009
Barlow, Toby.
SHARP
TEETH
A fast-paced ride through
the brutality of L.A.’s wilderness of drugs, gangs, and the
connections people make with one another. The fact that most of
the characters in this bloody, sexy, free-verse tale are mostly
lycanthropes is almost incidental. (Fic)
Benioff, David. CITY
OF THIEVES
Two teenage boys encounter
cannibals, murderers, prostitutes, and assassins as they struggle
to complete an impossible task during the freezing Siege of Leningrad
in this funny, shocking, and briskly written tome. (Fic)
Bloom, Stephen G. THE
OXFORD PROJECT
In this riveting
sociological study, the residents of Oxford, Iowa were photographed
in 1984 and then again in 2005. Their compelling life stories,
vividly expressed in brief biographical sketches, show just how
much someone can change in 21 years.
Ferraris, Zoë.
FINDING
NOUF
After a 16-year-old girl
from a wealthy Saudi family is found dead in the middle of the
desert, a devout Muslim guide and a young medical examiner seek
to unravel the mystery while facing the sanctions of Middle Eastern
society. (Fic M)
Jordan, Hillary. MUDBOUND
At the close of WW II, two
soldiers return to their home in the South to find racial tensions
as explosive as the battlefields of Europe. This beautifully written
story casts a spell as inescapable as the mud fields of the Mississippi
Delta. (Fic)
King, Stephen. JUST
AFTER SUNSET: STORIES
Modern terrors abound—a
porta-potty prison, class warfare on an apocalyptic afternoon—in
this wickedly compelling collection of macabre, absurd, and gleefully
vulgar stories. Scary, dirty fun. (Fic)
Rebeck, Theresa. THREE
GIRLS AND THEIR BROTHER
This witty satire of show-biz
politics, told from the perspective of four New York teenage siblings
in the eye of a publicity tornado, provides a fascinating insider’s
look at the world of the rich and famous. (Fic)
Swanwick, Michael.
THE
DRAGONS OF BABEL
In this original steampunk
fantasy, young Will embarks on a quest that takes him to the dizzying
heights and gritty depths of the postindustrial world of Babel.
(Fic SF)
Tinti, Hannah. THE
GOOD THIEF
In this suspenseful and unpredictable
adventure, Ren, a one-handed eighteenth-century orphan, becomes
apprenticed to a con man. Surprisingly, Ren seems born to it.
(Fic)
Tucker, Todd. OVER
AND UNDER
The bond of friendship is tested when the fathers of two twelve-year-old
boys become enemies during the Borden Casket Company labor strike
-- one is a manager, and the other is a union laborer -- as the
boys, Andy and Tom, share one last life-changing summer. (YA Fic
Tucker)
2008
Beah, Ishmael.
A
LONG WAY GONE: MEMOIRS OF A BOY SOLDIER
As a boy of 12, Beah
gets swept up in Sierra Leone's civil war and finds himself in
the army—in a drug-filled life of casual mass slaughter that
lasts until he is 15, when he's brought to a rehabilitation center
sponsored by UNICEF. The process marks out Beah as a gifted spokesman
for the center's work after his "repatriation" to civilian
life in the capital. When the war finally engulfs the capital,
it sends 17-year-old Beah fleeing again, this time to the U.S.,
where he now lives. (921 B3594AAl)
Iggulden, Conn. GENGHIS:
BIRTH OF AN EMPIRE
A chronicles of the rise to power of Genghis Khan, one of the
world's most powerful and fearsome rulers, from his tragic beginnings,
to the murder of his father, to his legendary exploits as a feared
warrior who conquered much of the known world. (Fic)
Jones, Lloyd. MISTER
PIP
On a copper-rich tropical island shattered by war, on which survival
is a daily struggle, eccentric Mr. Watts, the only white man left
after the other teachers flee, spends his day reading to the local
children from Charles Dickens's classic "Great Expectations."
(Fic)
Kyle Aryn. THE
GOD OF ANIMALS
Rancher's daughter Alice
Winston helps to support the family business by boarding the horses
of rich neighbors and leaving behind the innocence of her youth.
(Fic)
Lemire, Jeff. TALES
FROM THE FARM: ESSEX COUNTY VOLUME 1
After moving to his uncle's farm, 10-year-old orphan Lester befriends
the town's gas station owner, damaged former hockey star Jimmy
Lebeuf, and the two escape to a fantasy world of super-heroes,
alien invaders, and old-fashioned pond hockey.
Lutz, Lisa. THE
SPELLMAN FILES
Izzy Spellman launches her
career as a private investigator while working for the firm of
her outlandishly dysfunctional family. (Fic)
Maltman, Thomas. THE
NIGHT BIRDS
For Asa, the summer of 1876
was a time of fear and uncertainty, when his mysterious aunt Hazel
arrives and turns his entire life upside-down with her tales and
secrets from the past. (Fic)
Polly, Matthew. AMERICAN
SHAOLIN: FLYING KICKS, BUDDHIST MONKS AND THE LEGEND OF IRON CROTCH:
AN ODYSSEY IN THE NEW CHINA
Laced with humor and
illuminated by cultural insight, this coming-of-age tale explores
one young American's quest to become a kung fu master at China's
legendary Shaolin Temple. (915.1 P766a)
Rothfuss, Patrick.
THE
NAME OF THE WIND (KINGKILLER CHRONICLE, DAY ONE)
A hero named Kvothe, now
living under an assumed name as the humble proprietor of an inn,
recounts his transformation from a magically gifted young man
into the most notorious wizard, musician, thief, and assassin
in his world. (Fic SF)
Ruff, Matt. BAD
MONKEYS
Confessing that she is a
member of a secret organization dedicated to assassinating bad
guys, murder suspect Jane Charlotte lands in a psychiatric hospital,
where she recounts her increasingly bizarre life as a trained
killer. (Fic)
2007
Connolly, John.
THE
BOOK OF LOST THINGS
Stephen King meets
the Brothers Grimm in this gruesome fairy tale about a motherless
boy transported to a world where the path home leads home through
a quest for the Book of Lost Things. (Fic)
Doig, Ivan. THE
WHISTLING SEASON
Rose, "who
can’t cook but doesn’t bite" arrives in Montana,
bringing joy and order to three motherless boys and their father.
(Fic)
D’Orso, Michael.
EAGLE
BLUE: A TEAM, A TRIBE AND A HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL SEASON IN ARCTIC
ALASKA
Life in a remote Alaskan
village is transformed by the championship aspirations of the
high-school basketball team. (796.323 D738e)
Gruen, Sara.
WATER
FOR ELEPHANTS
Suddenly orphaned and penniless
during the Depression, a veterinary student jumps a third-rate
circus train and finds romance danger and a bond with a special
elephant named Rosie. (Fic)
Hamamura, John.
COLOR
OF THE SEA
Raised in the samurai
tradition, a teenager struggles to live within this code, even
as he decides to fight for the U.S. after the bombing of Pearl
Harbor. (Fic)
Joern, Pamela Carter.
THE
FLOOR OF THE SKY
Toby, 72, is about
to lose the family ranch when Lila, her pregnant granddaughter
comes for the summer. Lila uncovers family secrets while trying
to decide whether to keep her baby. (Fic)
Lewis, Michael.
THE
BLIND SIDE: EVOLUTION OF A GAME
A dying woman’s
wish leads an abused 15-year-old from the streets of Memphis to
a loving family, an education, and a professional football career.
(796.332 L587b)
Mitchell, David.
BLACK
SWAN GREEN
In the British
village of Black Swan Green, 13-year-old Jason survives ghost
sightings, bullies, a first kiss, and his parents divorce. (Fic)
Rash, Ron. THE
WORLD MADE STRAIGHT
When 17-year-old
Travis Shelton discovers a marijuana farm in the Appalachian woods,
he begins a confrontation with the subtle evils within his rural
world. (Fic)
Setterfield, Diane. THE
THIRTEENTH TALE
Margaret, a shy, unknown
biographer, has to sift truth from fiction as she becomes the
first person to hear the secrets of a reclusive best-selling author’s
mysterious past. (Fic)
2006
Bates, Judy
Fong. MIDNIGHT
AT THE DRAGON CAFE
After leaving China with
her mother, Su-Jen enjoys her comfortable new life in Canada,
but dark secrets threaten her family’s stability. (Fic)
Buckhanon, Kalisha.
UPSTATE
Teens Antonio and Natasha
try to keep their love alive through letters after he goes to
prison. As Natasha excels in school, Antonio frights for survival.
(Fic)
Gaiman, Neil. ANANSI
BOYS
After Fat Charlie Nancy’s
father drops dead on a karaoke stage, Charlie meets Spider, a
brother he never knew he had and isn’t sure he wants. (Fic)
Gallaway, Gregory.
AS
SIMPLE AS SNOW
After his girlfriend mysteriously
disappears, high-school student Cayne looks for clues in Anna’s
cryptic behavior during their five months together. (Fic)
Ishiguro, Kazuo. NEVER
LET ME GO
There’s a dark secret
at the Hailsham School, where the students live in carefully planned,
idyllic isolation, ignorant of the future that’s been planned
for them. (Fic)
Martinez, A. Lee. GIL'S
ALL FRIGHT DINER
In this gruesome and wacky
tale, can two travelers (one vampire, one werewolf) save a roadside
diner, besieged by zombies and ghouls, from dark forces and find
true love? (Fic)
Palwick, Susan. THE
NECESSARY BEGGAR
A young merchant accused
of murder and his family are banished from their otherworld home
to begin a strange life of exile in an internment camp in the
Nevada desert. (Fic SF)
Rawles, Nancy. MY
JIM
Sadie Watson’s love
and courage carry through the cruelties of slavery into life as
a free woman. (Fic)
Scheeres, Julia. JESUS
LAND: A MEMOIR
Scheere’s unflinching
memoir chronicles life in rural Indiana with her disciplinarian
father, fundamentalist mother, and adopted African American brothers.
Each child finds a way to survive, with very different endings.
(921 Sch35AAj)
Walls, Jeannette. THE
GLASS CASTLE: A MEMOIR
This empowering memoir recounts
the strength and creativity of the Walls children as they overcome
the poverty and social challenges their parents brought upon them.
(921 W159AAg)
2005
Almond, Steve.
CANDYFREAK:
A JOURNEY THROUGH THE CHOCOLATE UNDERBELLY OF AMERICA
Almond’s
obsession with candy blends family memoir, reporting, and travelogue
in a hilarious, unflinching examination of the world of sweets.
(338.7664 Al68c)
Cox, Lynn. SWIMMING
TO ANTARCTICA: TALES OF A LONG-DISTANCE SWIMMER
A long-distance
swimmer describes her record-setting swims in the icy waters of
the Bering Strait and Antarctica. An inspiring story of personal
achievement and determination. (797.21 C839s)
Halpin, Brendan. DONORBOY
When her lesbian
mothers are killed in an accident, 14-year-old Rosalind meets
and moves in with her young sperm donor father. With humor and
empathy, the author tells a moving story of strangers creating
a family. (Fic)
Kurson, Robert. SHADOW
DIVERS: THE TRUE ADVENTURES OF TWO AMERICANS WHO DISCOVERED HITLER'S
LOST SUB
In this vivid and thrilling
account, a journalist recounts the adventures of the two deep-sea
divers who discover a WWII German U-boat off the coast of New
Jersey and become obsessed with uncovering its story. (940.5451
K966s)
Meyers, Kent. WORK
OF WOLVES
In this moving,
romantic novel, a gifted Lakota boy, a German exchange student,
and a horse trainer rescue three abused horses, dramatically changing
their lives. (Fic)
Patchett, Ann. TRUTH
AND BEAUTY: A FRIENDSHIP
As young writers
Patchett and Lucy Grealy began a once-in-a-lifetime friendship
that lasted until Lucy’s tragic death. With intimacy, grace,
and humor, Patchett’s memoir captures Lucy’s rollercoaster
life—her exuberance, partying and childlike affection and
her struggle with a cruel disfigurement and insurmountable depression.
(921 G767p)
Picoult, Jodi. MY
SISTER'S KEEPER
Thirteen-year-old
Anna knows that she was conceived in order to provide organs and
other life support for her critically ill sister. After enduring
multiple surgeries, she sues her parents for the rights to her
own body. (Fic)
Reed, Kit. THINNER
THAN THOU
Three teens embark
on a rescue mission through an America in which bodily perfection
has become a religion. This provocative novel satirizes a world
of adults who have lost perspective and teens forced to respond
with heroic action. (Fic SF)
Shepard, Jim. PROJECT
X
School is a nightmare
for eighth-grader Edwin, who suffers daily indignities and bullying.
With his only friend, he plots a terrible revenge. A searing,
startlingly real account of one boy’s path to violence. (Fic)
Sullivan, Robert. RATS:
OBSERVATIONS ON THE HISTORY AND HABITAT OF THE CITY'S MOST UNWANTED
INHABITANTS
Sullivan spent
a year observing the lives and deaths of New York City’s
rats in this surprising, graphic, and entertaining natural history.
2004
Davis, Amanda. WONDER
WHEN YOU'LL MISS ME
After she is sexually assaulted
under the school bleachers, 16-year old Faith runs away from home,
accompanied by The Fat Girl, a taunting imaginary former self.
At the circus, Faith finds a safe haven and healing environment.
(Fic)
Haddon, Mark. THE
CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME
In this acclaimed
and engaging debut, Christopher, an autistic math wiz, takes his
life too literally and can’t relate to others. Inspired by
Holmes, he investigates the death of his neighbor’s dog and
unravels secrets closer to home. (YA Fic Haddon, Fic)
Hosseini, Khaled. THE
KITE RUNNER.
Set amid the destruction
of contemporary Afghanistan, this debut novel follows two boys,
linked by love, lies, sacrifice, and betrayal, whose friendship
endures, despite different life paths. (Fic)
Niffenegger, Audrey.
THE
TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE
In this arresting
debut romance, Henry travels through time and space and meets
his bride Clare in all her stages of life, from childhood to old
age. (Fic SF)
Packer, Z.Z. DRINKING
COFFEE ELSEWHERE
The predominantly
African-American characters in this debut collection of short
fiction struggle to maintain their sense of self while confronting
unexpected life events.
Roach, Mary. STIFF:
THE CURIOUS LIVES OF HUMAN CADAVERS
What happens to
human cadavers if they fall into the hands of scientists and researchers?
Salon columnist Mary Roach explores this question in her
funny, informative, and highly original study.
Salzman, Mark. TRUE
NOTEBOOKS
While teaching
writing to 17-year olds detained in the Los Angeles Central Juvenile
Hall, Salzman was surprised by the boys’ talent. Their heartwarming
and funny voices are included in this irresistible and provocative
memoir. (364.36 Sa39t)
Satrapi, Marjane. PERSEPOLIS
In graphic novel format,
the author describes her youth in revolutionary Iran. From the
overthrow of the Shah to the establishment of the new regime,
she witnesses heartbreak and struggle as life changes in her country.
(YA 955.0542 Satrapi, 741.5999 Sa83p)
Winspear, Jacqueline. MAISIE
DOBBS
In post World War I London,
Maisie Dobbs takes her first case as a private investigator and
experiences flashbacks to her modest upbringing and doomed wartime
romance. This unique historical mystery is the first in a proposed
series. (Fic M)
Yates, Bart. LEAVE
MYSELF BEHIND
Secrets of the
present and past complicate 17-year old Nick’s life when
he falls in love with the boy next door. A psychologically complex
and emotionally satisfying debut novel.
2003
Barry, Lynda. ONE HUNDRED
DEMONS
Barry uses an
Asian painting exercise called "One Hundred Demons"
to organize and connect 17 "autobifictionalographic"
stories in which she meditates on a variety of demons that include
pretentious boyfriends, lost childhood friends, family relationships,
and even the 2000 presidential election.
Conroy, Pat. MY
LOSING SEASON
Written about
his first year at the Southern military college, the Citadel,
Conroy has written an American classic about young men and the
bonds they form, about losing and the lessons it imparts, about
finding ones voice and ones self in the midst of defeat. (921
C7644Aam)
Ferris, Timothy. SEEING
IN THE DARK: HOW BACKYARD STARGAZERS ARE PROBING DEEP SPACE AND
GUARDING EARTH FROM INTERPLANETARY PERIL
Timothy Ferris invites us
all to become stargazers. He recounts his own experiences as an
enthralled lifelong amateur astronomer and reports from around
the globe -- from England and Italy to the Florida Keys and the
Chilean Andes -- on the revolution that's putting millions in
touch with the night sky. (520 F417s)
Fforde, Jasper. THE
EYRE AFFAIR
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, including Jane
Eyre, from works of literature. (Fic SF)
Lawson, Mary. CROW
LAKE
In the rural farm
country of northern Ontario, the lives of two families--the farming
Pye family, and zoologist Kate Morrison and her three brothers--are
brought together and torn apart by misunderstanding, resentment,
family love, and tragedy. (Fic)
Malloy, Brian. THE
YEAR OF ICE
Struggling with the realization
of his homosexuality, high-school student Kevin Doyle finds his
strained relationship with his father further challenged when
he learns the truth about his mother's death. (Fic)
Otsuka, Julie. WHEN
THE EMPEROR WAS DIVINE
A story told from
five different points of view, chronicles the experiences of Japanese
Americans caught up in the nightmare of the World War II internment
camps. (Fic)
Packer, Ann. THE
DIVE FROM CLAUSEN'S PIER
When her fiancâe
Mike is left paralyzed following a tragic accident, Carrie Bell
begins to question her familiar world, from her everyday life
in Wisconsin to her relationships, as she sets out to rediscover
her own identity. (Fic)
Southgate, Martha.
THE FALL OF ROME
The only African-American
faculty member of an exclusive New England boys' boarding school,
Jerome Washington spends his life isolated from his peers and
students, until the arrival of Rashid Bryson, a bright, young
African-American student. (Fic)
Weisberg, Joseph. 10TH
GRADE
hilarious--peek
inside one boy's journal of a year marked by unrequited lust and
awkward social maneuvers. A sophomore at Hutch Falls High School
in New Jersey, Jeremy Reskin trolls the halls and writes what
he sees from his vantage point as a social nonentity.
2002
Brooks, Geraldine.
YEAR
OF WONDERS: A NOVEL OF THE PLAGUE
A year after the plague strikes
her village, Anna reflects on how the townsfolk handled their
minister's request to remain in town to prevent the illness from
spreading. Faith, then healing herbs and potions keep everyone
going--until doubt creeps in, and witch-hunting, greed, and madness
take over the villagers' lives.
Doyle, William. AN
AMERICAN INSURRECTION: THE BATTLE OF OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI, 1962
When James Meredith
became the first black man to enter the University of Mississippi,
he "forced America to face the contradiction of second-class
citizenship for multitudes of its black citizens, not with speeches,
boycotts, or sit-ins, but on a battlefield." Doyle takes
teens to two of those battlefields: a cerebral one where Meredith,
President John Kennedy, and Governor Barnett grapple over politics;
and a physical one, where federal troops and local mobs converge
on the university campus.
Durham, David Anthony.
GABRIEL'S
STORY
Upset when he has to leave
Baltimore to join his mother and her new husband on a Kansas farm,
15-yearold African American Gabriel and his new friend, James,
run away from their homes to join a group of mostly white cowboys
herding cattle to Texas. Too late, they realize that their cowboy
comrades are their worst enemies. A graphic, richly poetic view
of frontier life during Reconstruction.
Ehrenreich, Barbara.
NICKEL
AND DIMED: ON (NOT) GETTING BY IN BOOM-TIME AMERICA
To find out if individuals
can survive on the "wages available to the unskilled,"
journalist Ehrenreich spent 12 months working at a variety of
minimum-wage jobs. Her experiences offer a gritty glimpse into
the world of day-to-day work, a stark picture of living from hand
to mouth, and a personal perspective on the politics of welfare.
Enger, Leif. PEACE
LIKE A RIVER
Set in a quiet 1960s Minnesota
community, this magical debut novel centers around 11-year-old
asthmatic Reuben Land and his family--his father, his brother,
and his precocious younger sister. Life turns upside down when
Davy, Reuben's older brother, kills two intruders who plan to
harm the family. After Davy breaks out of jail, the Lands leave
their home and set out to find him.
Kruger, Kobie. THE
WILDERNESS FAMILY: AT HOME WITH AFRICA'S WILDLIFE
Kruger eagerly embraced her
husband's assignment to a remote ranger station in South Africa,
where her life revolved around temperamental hippos, rambunctious
badgers, and three beautiful, willful daughters. What she didn't
count on was the starving lion cub that her husband brought home.
Morrissey, Donna. KIT'S
LAW
Kit lives in a ramshackle
cottage with her mentally challenged mother, Josie, the town tramp,
and her loving, protective grandmother, Lizzy. When Lizzy dies,
Kit fights to keep her mother out of an asylum, but Josie's wild
ways make it difficult. Speculations about the identity of Kit's
father and Kit's first love add more texture to this earthy but
charming first novel, which is set in Newfoundland.
Odom, Mel. THE
ROVER
Four-feet-tall Wick, Third
Level Librarian in the Vault of All Known Knowledge, is an imaginative
Halfer who longs for the drama he reads about in books. He finally
gets a chance to experience adventure when he's kidnapped by pirates,
sold into slavery, rescued by thieves, and sent to rob a tomb.
Lighthearted, exuberant, and fun.
Vijayaraghavan, Vineeta.
MOTHERLAND
Fifteen-year-old
Maya must reconcile her Indian heritage with her life as a modern
American teen when she goes to spend the summer with her grandmother
in India. An accident and an unexpected illness are the catalysts
for the revelation of a family secret that gives Maya a profoundly
different view of her mother--and ultimately herself.
Walker, Rebecca. BLACK,
WHITE AND JEWISH: AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SHIFTING SELF
Born in 1969 to civil rights
activists who defied convention, Walker was a "movement child."
But when the movement changed course, and her white father and
black mother divorced, Walker found herself without an identity--a
misfit: too black for some; not black enough for others. A poignant,
sometimes angry recollection about racism, growing up, growing
away, and finding oneself.
2001
Bradley, James. FLAGS
OF OUR FATHERS
Bradley, whose father was
one of the six men photographed raising the flag on Iwo Jima,
investigated the young men who were immortalized and, with Ron
Powers, introduces the men and the battles they fought––overseas
and at home.
Bradshaw, Gillian.
THE
SAND-RECKONER
Archimedes knew that sand
was best for doing calculations; writing on his cloak upset his
sister and his slave, Marcus. But no one could remain angry for
long, when they realized this frequently distracted young scientist
could build a device that allowed water to run uphill and a catapult
to keep the Romans from overtaking Syracuse.
Chevalier, Tracy. THE
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING
Dutch painter
Vermeer’s portrait of a girl with a pearl earring is a quiet,
radiant tribute to an unnamed girl. In Chevalier’s imaginative,
elegant novel, the lovely young woman is given a name, Griet,
an age, 16, and a job, servant in the household of the painter
himself, where she is surrounded by noisy children, the smell
of paint, and secrets.
Colton, Larry. COUNTING
COUP: A TRUE STORY OF BASKETBALL AND HONOR ON THE LITTLE BIG HORN
Colton spent 15
months on the Crow Reservation in Montana to observe Hardin High
School’s girls’ basketball team. One player stood out—talented
but troubled Sharon LaForge. As her story unfolded, so did Colton’s
understanding of the conditions on the reservation and their impact
on the players’ lives and aspirations.
Jordan, June. SOLDIER:
A POET'S CHILDHOOD
Writing in the
flowing language of a prose poem, a poet and professor of African
American Studies turns her eyes inward in haunting and painful,
yet often joyous memories of her first 12 years––especially
her impressions of her alternately brutal and caring father.
Marillier, Juliet.
DAUGHTER
OF THE FOREST
The first book in the SevenWaters
fantasy trilogy sets a high standard for the others as it recasts
a Celtic myth: to restore her brothers who have been turned into
swans, the youngest of seven children must weave each a shirt
from a blistering plant that rips her skin to shreds.
Philbrick, Nathaniel.
IN
THE HEART OF THE SEA: THE TRAGEDY OF THE WHALESHIP ESSEX
Philbrick delves deeply into
the nineteenth-century tragedy of the Essex, on which Moby Dick
was based, revealing information about Nantucket’s whaling
industry and actions of the crew that were heroic as well as racist
and cowardly.
Sherwood, Ben. THE
MAN WHO ATE THE 747
There’s humor
and sweet romance in this novel set in small-town America, but
the real appeal for teens is the quirky, clever idea. Nebraska
farmer Wally Chubb is eating an airplane, methodically grinding
it into a paste that he spreads like ketchup on his food. J. J.
Smith, Keeper of the Records for The Book of Records, is sure
Chubb wants publicity. But Wally doesn’t care about records
or headlines; he’s doing everything for love.
Strauss, Darin. CHANG
AND ENG
Little is known
about the famous conjoined brothers, Chang and Eng Bunker, who
became exploited sideshow celebrities. But Strauss’s fascinating
novel, narrated by Eng, cleverly extrapolates, telling about the
prejudice, the anger, the jealousy, and the true nature of the
brothers’ unbreakable bonds.
Watt, Alan. DIAMOND
DOGS
A father-son relationship
is at the heart of this riveting story, which is as hard hitting
in language and physical description as in the turbulent emotions
it explores. A brutal father and his bullying, brutalized teenage
son are forced to acknowledge a terrible secret after the son
is involved in a hit-and-run death.
2000
Breashears, David.
HIGH
EXPOSURE: AN ENDURING PASSION FOR EVEREST AND UNFORGIVING PLACES
Breashears summons up episodes
from his youth and career, culminating in a recollection of his
1996 Everest IMAX Filming Expedition, during which he and his
crew sought to rescue survivors and reclaim the bodies of the
people caught in the well-publicized Everest climbing disaster.
Card, Orson Scott.
ENDER'S
SHADOW
This exciting
novel, by the author of the very popular ENDER'S GAME (1985),
is what Card’s readers have been waiting for. Bean, an orphan
living on the streets, finds himself plucked from desperate straits
and placed in Battle School, where he encounters Ender Wiggin.
Clarke, Breena. RIVER,
CROSS MY HEART
“Whites still rule the
roost” in the 1920s, and they’ve barred 10-year-old
Johnnie Mae and her friends from swimming in a local pool. When
Johnnie Mae goes swimming in the river, her younger sister drowns,
leaving the family and community to struggle with the legacy of
prejudice.
Codell, Esmé
Raji. EDUCATING
ESME: DIARY OF A TEACHER'S FIRST YEAR
As first-year teacher Codell discovered, ensuring a good education
for her inner-city students meant more than knowing the material.
It meant fighting lazy teachers and unsupportive administrators;
dealing with violence and racism; and marshalling energy, imagination,
and wit.
Fuqua, Jonathon Scott.
THE
REAPPEARANCE OF SAM WEBBER
Sam Webber’s new home
is a smelly apartment light years away from the middle-class area
where he spent his first 11 years. He eventually finds a friend
is the school’s black janitor––who turns out to
need Sam as much as Sam needs him.
Gaiman, Neil. STARDUST
To retrieve a fallen star
for his beloved, 17-year-old Tristran does the unthinkable––he
enters the land of Fairie, where nothing is really what it seems.
Greenlaw, Linda. THE
HUNGRY OCEAN: A SWORDBOAT CAPTAIN'S JOURNEY
The captain of the Hanna
Boden, sister ship to the Andrea Gail, whose loss was portrayed
in Sebastian Junger’s THE PERFECT STORM, tenders a different
view of life at sea. Hers is a record of a typical month-long
sword-fishing trip.
Hart, Elva Treviño.
BAREFOOT
HEART: STORIES OF A MIGRANT CHILD
“My whole childhood,
I never had a bed,” begins Hart’s bittersweet musings
about growing up one of six children in a migrant family that
made the circuit from Texas to Minnesota each year.
Haruf, Kent. PLAINSONG
Two elderly brothers, a high-school
teacher and his two young sons, and a pregnant teenager gradually
comes together in family in a graceful story of rural life that
is at once complex and elemental.
Porter, Connie. IMANI
ALL MINE
15-year-old Tasha’s
love for her baby, Imani, is as plain as her fear of the rapist
who fathered the child. In the stark language of a tough urban
neighborhood, Tasha comes alive on the page as she struggles to
reconcile devotion to her daughter with feelings about Imani’s
conception.
1999
Alexander, Caroline.
THE
ENDURANCE: SHACKLETON'S LEGENDARY ANTARCTIC EXPEDTION
The Imperial Transatlantic
Expedition, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s daring but ill-fated
attempt to cross the South Pole, comes to life in pictures taken
by one of the crew and in the words of the men who lived the extraordinary
adventure.
Boylan, James Finney.
GETTING IN
Boylan takes wicked
aim at the college mystique, bringing together three adults and
four high-school seniors for a whirlwind tour of swanky eastern
colleges. Interspersed with sex, self-discovery, and family betrayal,
it’s a road trip none of them will forget.
Dominick, Andie. NEEDLES:
MEMOIR OF GROWING UP WITH DIABETES
“I know about
needles. My sister leaves them everywhere,” begins this absorbing
memoir of life marked by diabetes. In graceful yet unsparing prose,
Dominick recalls the exacting routines, the doctors, the hospitals,
and the struggle for normalcy that shaped her older sister’s
life––and then ruled her own.
Gilstrap, John. AT
ALL COSTS.
That federal agents
happened to be looking for someone else didn’t matter once
they learned that the Donavans were on the Ten Most Wanted List.
By that time, though, the Donovans, including their 13-year-old
son, were on the run, hoping to prove that someone else committed
the crime they were accused of.
Kercheval, Jesse Lee.
SPACE:
A MEMOIR
Set against the
promise implicit in the launching of Apollo, this touching recollection
of Kercheval’s childhood and teenage years speaks to universal
concerns about growing up and resurrects a pivotal episode of
American history and culture for a new generation.
Kluger, Steve. LAST
DAYS OF SUMMER.
“I am a 12-year-old
boy and I am dying of an incurable disease” begins the first
of many letters written by perfectly healthy Joey Margolis to
his idol, Charlie Banks, rookie third baseman for the New York
Giants. A funny, tender epistolary novel that depicts loneliness,
friendship, love, and loss in a way that transfixes and transcends
its 1940s setting.
LEGENDS: STORIES BY
THE MASTERS OF MODERN FANTASY.
Ed. by Robert Silverberg.
Eleven well-known
writers, including Anne McCaffrey and Robert Silverberg, reenter
the universes they so lovingly created in series in this collection
of novellas that will please fans and provide teens who don’t
know the earlier books with a wonderful preview of what’s
in store.
Robinson, Kim Stanley.
ANTARCTICA
The popular author
of the Mars trilogy conducts readers to Antarctica, where a group
of characters with vastly different agendas wrangle over the frozen
continent in a gradually widening circle of intrigue.
Santiago, Esmeralda.
ALMOST
A WOMAN
In a patchwork of memories
about growing up in two cultures, Santiago reconstructs her guilty
longing to escape the Brooklyn barrio where she lived as a child
and teenager.
Senna, Danzy. CAUCASIA
Questions about integration,
intermarriage, and identity bubble beneath the surface of this
dramatic, heartrending novel, set in the 1970s, about mixed-race
Birdie, who loses both her beloved sister and her black heritage.
1998
Bodanis, David. THE
SECRET FAMILY: TWENTY-FOUR HOURS INSIDE THE MYSTERIOUS WORLDS
OF OUR MINDS AND BODIES
By following the activities
of one family, Bodanis peels back the layers of our minds and
bodies to reveal a churning world of tiny, invisible components,
living and inanimate, in our surroundings and in us.
Bragg, Rick. ALL
OVER BUT THE SHOUTIN'
In this comic, poignant memoir
that begins in Alabama in 1959, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
recalls growing up poor and white as well as his love for his
courageous mother, who raised him and taught him what really mattered.
Carroll, Rebecca. SUGAR
IN THE RAW: VOICES OF YOUNG BLACK GIRLS IN AMERICA
Teenagers will
hear themselves echoed in the honest, unfiltered words of 15 young
black women, who speak candidly about their personal lives, their
race, their gender, and their future as black women.
Cook, Karin. WHAT
GIRLS LEARN
Cook’s first novel reads
as if it were written just for teens. Two sisters––Tilden,
quiet and good; Elizabeth, the family rebel––are thrust
into uncharted territory when their beloved mother is diagnosed
with breast cancer.
Hamill, Pete. SNOW
IN AUGUST
Eleven-year-old
Michael Devlin, growing up in a prejudiced, working-class Brooklyn
neighborhood, finds an unexpected friend in Rabbi Judah Hirsch,
a refugee from Prague, who trades wonderful stories from Jewish
folklore for lessons in English and American culture.
Junger, Sebastian.
THE
PERFECT STORM: A TRUE STORY OF MEN AGAINST THE SEA
In 1991, as Halloween
nears, a cold front moves south from Canada, a hurricane swirls
over Bermuda, and an intense storm builds over the Great Lakes.
These forces converge to create the cruelest holiday trick of
all, a tempest that catches the North Atlantic fishing fleet off
guard and unprotected.
Krakauer, Jon. INTO
THIN AIR: A PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF THE MT. EVEREST DISASTER
Only a handful
of people have stood atop Everest. Krakauer is one of them, but
the story he tells is not about glorious triumph. It’s about
a 1996 climbing disaster in which he nearly lost his life, and
about survivor guilt and human endurance.
Thomas, Velma Maia.
LEST
WE FORGET: THE PASSAGE FROM AFRICA TO SLAVERY AND EMANCIPATION
In a cleverly
designed interactive book, the creator of the Black Holocaust
Exhibit relates the struggle of her people––from the
African villages to the boats, from the plantations to the end
of the Civil War and Jubilee, the day of freedom.
Trice, Dawn Turner.
ONLY TWICE I'VE WISHED FOR HEAVEN
Eleven-year-old
Tempest feels like an outsider in the planned community for African
Americans where her parents have moved. What saves her is a friendship
with troubled Valerie and secret trips to Miss Jonetta’s
store, where she discovers courage and caring as well as terrible
secrets about the world of grown-ups and about her friend.
Willis, Connie. TO
SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG: OR, HOW WE FOUND THE BISHOP'S BIRD STUMP
AT LAST
A glitch caused
by a time traveler from 2057 will change the course of history
unless time traveler Ned Henry returns to the year 1888 to set
things right.
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2/8/10
Duluth Public Library, 520 W. Superior St., Duluth, MN 55802