The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

After breaking his teacher's nose on the first day of 9th grade, Junior decides to leave the reservation and go to school at the white high school. True, funny and heartbreaking.

Highly Recommended

The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs by Jack Gantos

Ivy discovers a disturbing secret in her small, Pennsylvania town that stems from a curse of excessive mother-love.



Recommended

The Plain Janes by Cecil Castelluci and Jim Rugg

After a terrorist attack, Jane's parents decide that Metro City is too dangerous and they need to move to the suburbs. In between dealing with her PTSD and her overprotective mother, Jane manages to find some like-minded friends and they start P.L.A.I.N.- People Loving Arts in Neighborhoods.

Highly Recommended

Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

Bella is still human and her vampire boyfriend and werewolf best friend are still vying for her undivided attention.

Recommended

Pants on Fire by Meg Cabot

Katie thinks she has the perfect life: popularity, a football player boyfriend and even a drama hottie on the side. Unfortunately it's all built on a web of lies and when Tommy Sullivan comes back into town, the web starts to unravel.

Highly Recommended

El Principe de la Niebla por Carlos Ruiz Zafon

When Max's father drags his family to a seaside town to escape the pressures of WWII, they think it will be pretty boring. As soon as they arrive in the train station, strange things start happening. Soon Max and his older sister are involved in a creepy mystery that has their lives in danger.

Highly Recommended

Good Girls by Laura Ruby

Audrey is the over-achieving. good girl until a picture of a private moment is leaked to the entire school, including her parents. Now she has to figure out what it means to be "good" and if it's really all it's cracked up to be.


Highly Recommended

Fourth Comings by Megan McCafferty

Jessica Darling has graduated from college and is attempting to live her dream in NYC. She has no full-time job, is sharing a bunk bed with Hope and now has one week to make a life-changing decision: accept Marcus' marriage proposal or not.

Highly Recommended

I Hate Myself and Want to Die: the 52 most depressing songs you've ever heard
by Tom Reynolds

Despite what you might think from the title, this book is hilarious. Tom Reynolds dissects what he thinks are the most hideously depressing songs ever recorded leading up to the "Perfect Storms."

Highly Recommended

Summer Reading (June, July, & August):

Saint Dale by Sharyn McCrumb
The Accidental Florist by Jill Churchill
Invisible by Pete Hautman
The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga
Secret Society Girl: an ivy league novel by Diana Peterfreund
Why I Let My Hair Grow Out by Maryrose Wood
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Pedro and Me by Judd Winick
Ultimate X-Men: Tomorrow People, Volume 1 by Mark Millar and Adam Kubert
Mars, Volume 1 by Fuyumi Soryo
100 Demons by Lynda Barry
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (recorded for librivox.org)
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (recorded for librivox.org)
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (recorded for librivox.org)
This is Chick-Lit edited by Lauren Baratz-Logsted
Fables For the Frivolous by Guy Wetmore Carryl (recorded for librivox.org)
Queen of Babble in the Big City by Meg Cabot
What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones
The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith
No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July

Ethan, Suspended by Pamela Ehrenberg

When Ethan is suspended from school, his mom sends him to stay with his grandparents in Washington, DC. Soon he's dealing with being the only white kid at Parker Junior High and his parent's separation. Will he ever find his place?


Highly Recommended

The Prestige by Christopher Priest

A 19th century magicians' feud has unintended consequences that affect future generations.



Highly Recommended

Cupcake by Rachel Cohn

The third book about Cyd Charisse. CC has graduated high school and moved in with her half-brother in NYC. She is supposed to go to culinary school but she keeps getting distracted, even with her soul-mate Shrimp far away in New Zealand.

Highly Recommended

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

You can do a lot of things in nineteen minutes, like saving a life or taking one.


Highly Recommended

Devilish by Maureen Johnson

Jane and Allison are outcasts at their Catholic girls' school until Allison is made an offer that she can't refuse.

Highly Recommended

13 Little blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

When Ginny's eccentric Aunt dies, she leaves her 13 envelopes and instructions that will take her on a life-changing journey.


Highly Recommended

The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson

When Nina comes back from the first summer she's ever spent apart from her best friends Mel and Avery, she is not too surprised that their relationship has changed. She just doesn't realize how much.

Highly Recommended

The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz

Growing up in a family of PIs gives Izzy a different perspective on privacy than most people. There's also the problem of blurring the line between work and home, especially when you work with your parents and live above the office.

Highly Recommended

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

When DJ Schwenk agrees to train the quarterback for the rival high school's football team, she has no idea that it will end up changing her life.

Highly Recommended

The Mislaid Magician or Ten Years After by Patricia C. Wrede and Carolyn Stevermer

In this sequel to The Grand Tour, it's been 10 years since their honeymoon and now Kate and Cecy have growing families. Soon they and their families are embroiled in a magical mystery. A
magician working for the railroad has seemingly disappeared into thin air and they must find out what happened.

This time around we get letters from James and Thomas as well.

Highly Recommended

The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron

Lucky cleans up after all the 12 step meetings in Hard Pan, she also eavesdrops on all of them. She becomes convinced that if she finds her "higher power" then all of her problems would be solved but what if she has to hit rock bottom first?


Recommended

Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky

When Dana Clarke gives birth to her first child, she and her husband are overjoyed. Soon, however, everyone is gossiping about them when it is revealed that their child has African-American features. Could they be from the father she never knew?


Recommended

Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughan and Art by Niko Henrichon

A powerful graphic novel based on the true story of a pride of lions set free from the Baghdad zoo during the American bombing in 2003.


Highly Recommended

Diva by Alex Flinn

Last year Caitlin was dealing with her abusive ex-boyfriend but this year she's ready for something new. She's off to Miami High School for the Arts but does she have what it takes to be a diva?

Highly Recommended

Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn

Nick is going through a hard time. His girlfriend Caitlin has dumped him and taken out a restraining order and now he has to go to anger management classes. How can he let Caitlin go when she's the best thing to ever happen to him and the only one who knows about his dad's temper?


Highly Recommended

Winning the City by Theodore Weesner

Dale Wheeler is all set to take his Detroit school's basketball team to the city championships until a rich dad kicks him off to make room for his sons.


Highly Recommended

Am I the Last Virgin?: Ten African American Reflections on Sex & Love ed. by Tara Roberts

A great collection of memoirs on a wide variety of sexual and coming-of-age issues. They will make you laugh and cry but you will feel stronger for it. Definitely a book that should be updated.


Highly Recommended

The Uses of Enchantment by Heidi Julavits

Fifteen years after her supposedly faked abduction, Mary returns home for her mother's funeral only to be sucked back into the web of deceit.


Highly Recommended

Remember Me: a lively tour of the new American way of death by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen

With humor and respect Mrs. Cullen explores the latest innovations in the funeral business and the people who choose them.


Highly Recommended

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Told in three alternating story lines: the story of the Monkey King, Jin Yang trying to adjust to life as one of a handful of Asians in a White school, and a sitcom: "Everyone Ruvs Chin-Kee."


If you only read one graphic novel this year, make it this one.


Highly Recommended

SchoolGirls: young women, self-esteem and the confidence gap by Peggy Orenstein

Peggy Orenstein does spectacular job of examining the school and home cultures that contribute to low self-esteem in females during adolescence. In her book she follows girls at two different schools: one mostly White, middle-class and suburban, the other mostly African-American and Latino, working class and urban.

Highly Recommended

Nothing But The Truth (and a few white lies) by Justina Chen Headley

Patty Ho never thought being half-white and half-Chinese was anything special. Especially when it seemed like her older brother Abe had gotten all the non-gawky genes. Then she goes to math camp at Stanford and realizes how hot being hapa can be.


Highly Recommended

The Librarian by Larry Beinhart

A political thriller about a Republican attempt to steal the election from a female Democratic candidate. Unfortunately for them, there's a librarian on the case.


Highly Recommended

The Dewey Decimal System of Love by Josephine Carr

A celibate, spinster Librarian falls in love and solves a mystery.


Highly recommended

Girl Talk by Julianna Baggott

When Lissy Jablonski's father runs away with another woman the summer she turns 15, she couldn't realize how much her life would be changed.


Highly Recommended

Sin (Rush Hour Volume 1) edited by Michael Cart

Some of your favorite YA authors address the theme of sin in short stories, poetry, excerpts and more.


Highly Recommended

love is a mix tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time by Rob Sheffield

Rob Sheffield celebrates the life and early death of his wife Renee through the mix tapes she left behind.


Highly Recommended

Sandpiper by Ellen Wittlinger

Sandpiper has a reputation as the go-to girl for oral sex. At first it made her feel powerful, now it just sickens her. She's trying to change but someone won't let her forget.


Highly Recommended

Forever in Blue: the fourth summer of the sisterhood by Ann Brashares

The magic pants that allowed them to be apart, show them how to come back together.


Recommended

Devil in a Blue Dress
Bad Boy Brawly Brown by Walter Mosley

Easy Rawlins is a WWII vet back in LA. helping his friends out with their problems using his own special skills.


Highly Recommended

Blankets by Craig Thompson

A compelling and bittersweet memoir of growing up when you never quite fit in.


Highly Recommended

Fun Home: a family tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

A bittersweet memoir of coming out and dealing with its unexpectedly tragic repercussions.


Highly Recommended

The Thing About Jane Spring by Sharon Krum

What happens when a high-powered, military-bred attorney takes on a new strategy in the game of love? Anything and everything when her new role model is Doris Day. Que sera, sera indeed.


Highly Recommended

Valentine Princess by Meg Cabot

Mia relives her first Valentine's Day with Michael when she finds her old diary.

Recommended

Nailed by Patrick Jones

Bret's father always tells him, "the nail that sticks out the farthest gets hammered the hardest." What do you do if the that nail is always you?


Highly Recommended

Naughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman

Imagine a society, not unlike our own, where racial segregation is still going strong. There are separate schools and most of the "inferior" race are poor but there is one difference: the "superior" race is black.

Recommended

Runaways (Vols. 1-4) by Brian K. Vaughn and Adrian Alphona

What if you found out that your parents are evil super-villains, what would you do?

Highly Recommended

Anybody Out There? by Marian Keyes

With the help of her friends and family, Anna Walsh deals with the aftermath of a horrible car accident.


Recommended

Princess on the Brink by Meg Cabot

Volume VIII of the Princess Diaries

Mia is just starting her Junior year when her boyfriend drops a bomb: He's going to Japan for a year (at least!) to build a robot. How will she survive without him?

Highly Recommended

Small Steps by Louis Sachar

Armpit has been out of Camp Green Lake for two years but he is still trying to prove himself. When he goes along with X-Ray's ticket scalping scheme, he almost loses everything.

Highly Recommended

Marketed as a sequel to Holes but it is really the continuation of Armpit's and tangentially X-Ray's stories.

Blind Submission by Debra Ginsberg

The Devil Wears Prada meets Gaslight. Who knew editing the great American novel would be so dangerous?

Highly Recommended

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan looks at the journey from field to plate of four meals: fast food, Big organic, little organic, and hunted and gathered. What he discovers will change the way you look at eating.

Highly Recommended

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1: The Pox Party
by M. T. Anderson

An almost surreal look at the life of a slave, Octavian, who has been raised by the Novanglian College of Lucidity as an experiment in intelligence. As he comes of age and fully realizes his situation, the Colonies are being thrust into the beginning of the Revolution.

Highly Recommended

Are We There Yet? by David Levithan

Two estranged brothers, one about to go to college and one in the rat race, go on a trip to Italy and find they have more in common than they think.

Highly Recommended

The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld

A sequel to Peeps that focuses on a band made up of various young musicians, including a Peep, who find that their music has supernatural powers.

Highly Recommended