B- Biography F- Fiction N- Non-Fiction P- Poetry
It's Not About the Bike :My Journey Back to Life(B)*
Champion cyclist, Lance Armstrong describes his triumph over cancer and his successful competition in the Tour de France.
Armstrong, William
Sounder(F)*
Angry and humiliated when his sharecropper father is jailed for stealing food for his family, a young black boy grows in courage and understanding with the help of his devoted dog, Sounder, and by learning to read.
Avi
The Fighting Ground (F)
Thirteen-year-old Jonathan goes off to fight in the Revolutionary War and discovers the real war is being fought within himself. (Also try: Nothing But the Truth and Crispin)
Barron, T. A..
The Lost Years of Merlin (F)
A young boy who has no identity or memory of his past washes ashore on the coast of Wales and finds his true name after a series of magical, fantastic adventures.(Also try: The Seven Songs of Merlin, The Fires of Merlin, The Mirror of Merlin, and The Wings of Merlin)
She Said Yes (B)
Misty Bernall relates the story of her daughter's life before she was murdered by a fellow student in the library of Columbine School on April 20, 1999.
Tangerine (F)
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 - and he is going to have to confront his parents and brother about it.
Boas, Jacob
We Are Witnesses (N)
Five diaries of teenagers who died in the Holocaust are presented in this book.
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451 (F)
A bookburner official in a future fascist state finds out books are a vital part of a culture he never knew.
Brashares, Ann
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (F)
Carmen decides to discard an old pair of jeans, but Tibby, Lena, and Bridget think they are great and decide that whomever the pants fit best will get them. When the jeans fit everyone perfectly, a sisterhood and a memorable summer begin.(Also try: The Second Summer of the Sisterhood and Girls in Pants:The Third Summer of the Sisterhood)
Cabot, Meg
The Princess Diaries (F)
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, and that she is a princess and heir to the throne.(Also try: other books in the Princess Diaries series)
Canfield, Jack
Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul : 101 Stories of Life, Love, and Learning (N)
A collection of essays that offer inspiration to teens. (Also try : all other Chicken Soup story collections)
Christopher, John
The White Mountains (F)
Three boys strive for freedom in a future society run by enormous metal robots called Tripods, who capture mature human beings and make them docile, obedient servants. (Also try: City of Gold and Lead and The Pool of Fire)
Choldenko, Gennifer
Al Capone Does My Shirts (F)
A twelve-year-old boy named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards' families were housed there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister.
Collier, J.L. and C.
The Clock (F)
In 1810 Connecticut, trapped in a grueling job in the local textile mill to help pay her father's debts, fifteen-year-old Annie becomes the victim of the cruel overseer and plots revenge against him. (Also try: With Every Drop of Blood, War Comes to Willy Freeman, and Jump Ship to Freedom)
Cooney, Caroline
Face on the Milk Carton (F)
A photograph of a missing girl on a milk carton leads Janie on a search for her real identity. (Also try: Whatever Happened to Janie, Voice on the Radio, Driver's Ed, Both Sides of Time, Out of Time, Prisoner of Time, The Terrorist, and Burning Up)
Cormier, Robert
In the Middle of the Night (F)
Sixteen-year-old Denny lives in the shadow of a deadly accident with which his father was connected when he was Denny's age, a disaster for which some of the survivors still blame his father. (Also try: I Am the Cheese and The Chocolate War)
Creech, Sharon
Walk Two Moons (F)
After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother's route and leading Sal to a painful discovery. (Also try: Absolutely Normal Chaos , Chasing Redbird and The Wanderer)
Crichton, Michael
The Andromeda Strain (F)
Scientists struggle to identify and control a deadly new virus threatening the United States. (Also try: Jurassic Park and The Lost World)
Curtis, Christopher Paul
Bud, Not Buddy (F)
Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home situation and sets out to find the man he thinks is his father- the renowned bandleader, H. E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.
Cushman, Katherine
Midwife's Apprentice (F)
In medieval England, a nameless, homeless girl is taken in by a sharp-tempered midwife, and in spite of many obstacles and hardships , eventually gains the three things she wants most in the world. (Also try: Catherine Called Birdy and The Ballad of Lucy Whipple)
Draper, Sharon
Tears of a Tiger (F)
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.(Also try: Forged from Fire and Darkness before Dawn)
Duncan, Lois
Killing Mr. Griffin (F)
A teenager casually suggests playing a cruel trick on an unpopular English teacher with disastrous consequences. (Also try: Don't Look Behind You, Gallows Hill, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Who Killed My Daughter)
Farmer, Nancy
The House of the Scorpion (F)
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. (Also try: The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm and The Sea of Trolls.)
Filipovic, Zlata
Zlata's Diary (B)
Diary of a thirteen-year-old girl living in Sarajevo.
Forbes, Esther
Johnny Tremain (F)
A teenager in colonial Boston becomes involved in the Revolutionary cause.
Frank, Ann
Diary of a Young Girl (B)
The journal of a Jewish girl in her early teens describing both the joys and torments of daily life, as well as typical adolescent thoughts, throughout two years spent in hiding with her family during the Nazi occupation of Holland.
Garland, Sherry
Silent Storm (F)
Thirteen-year-old Alyssa has not spoken since seeing her parents die in a hurricane, and now, three years later, another storm threatens the home she shares with her grandfather on Galveston Island.
George, Jean Craighead
Julie of the Wolves (F)
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. (Also try: Julie and Julie's Wolf Pack)
Greenberg, Jan (Ed.)
Heart to Heart : Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century American Art(P)
A compilation of poems by Americans writing about American art in the twentieth century, including such writers as Nancy Willard, Jane Yolen, and X.J. Kennedy.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson
Running Out of Time (F)
When a diphtheria epidemic hits her 1840 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. (Also try: Among the Hidden and Among the Imposters)
Hamanuka, Shiela
On the Wings of Peace (P)
Famous authors and illustrators present a collection of prose and poetry exploring aspects of peace, from issues of personal and community violence to international conflict, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the environmental dangers of nuclear proliferation.
Hesse, Karen
Out of the Dust (F)
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. (Also try: The Music of Dolphins and Witness)
Hiaasen, Carl
Hoot (F)
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. (Also try: Flush)
Hinton, S. E.
That Was Then, This Is Now (F)
Two boys' friendship is threatened by the influences of girls, gangs, and drugs. (Also try: The Outsiders, Rumble Fish, and Tex)
Holt, Kimberly Willis
When Zachary Beaver Came to Town (F)
During the summer of 1971 in a small Texas town, thirteen-year-old Toby and his best friend Cal meet the star of a sideshow act, six-hundred pound Zachary, the fattest boy in the world.
Stormbreaker(F)
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, M 16. (Also try: other books in the Alex Rider series)
Hull, Robert
Breaking Free: An Anthology of Human Rights Poetry (P)
An anthology of poetry dedicated to freedom and human rights.
Hunt, Irene
The Lottery Rose (F)
A young victim of child abuse gradually overcomes his fears and suspicions when placed in a home with other boys. (Also try: No Promises in the Wind and Across Five Aprils)
Jackson, Livia Britton
I Have Lived a Thousand Years (B)
A memoir of Elli Friedmann in which she tells of her experiences in an Auschwitz concentration camp.
Jacques, Brian
Mossflower (F)
Martin the Warrior Mouse and Gonff the Mousethief set out to find the missing ruler of Mossflower, while other animal inhabitants prepare to rebel against the evil wildcat who has seized power. (Also try: Redwall and all others in this series)
Jones, Ron
The Acorn People (N)
Relates the experiences of a group of children with severe physical disabilities during a summer spent at camp.
Kadohata, Cynthia
Kira-Kira (F)
This 2005 Newbery award winning book chronicles the close friendship between two Japanese-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia during the late 1950's and early 1960s , and the despair they suffer when one sister becomes terminally ill.
Lee, Harper
To Kill a Mockingbird (F)
Eight year old Scout Finch tells of life in a small Alabama town where her father is a lawyer involved in an controversial case.
Lipsyte, Robert
The Contender (F)
A Harlem high school drop-out escapes from a gang of punks into a boxing gym. He learns being a contender is hard and often discouraging work and the value of perseverance. (Also try: The Brave and The Chief)
London, Jack
White Fang (F)
The story about an animal who is part dog, part wolf and who is first abused and then transformed by patience and affection. (Also try: Call of the Wild)
Lord, Walter
A Night to Remember (N)
The story of the "unsinkable" Titanic, which went down with approximately 1,500 men, women, and children aboard.
Lowry, Lois
The Giver (F)
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 horrifying truth about the society in which he lives. (Also try: Number the Stars)
Lupica, Mike
Travel Team (F)
After he is cut from his travel basketball team, the very same team that his father played in, twelve-year-old Danny Walker forms his own team of cast-offs . (Also try: Heat)
Lynch, Chris
Slot Machine (F)
When overweight Alvin Bishop is sent to camp at St. Paul's Seminary Retreat Center, he and his two best friends are forced to try out various sports in order to find out where they belong. (Also try:Extreme Elvin and Shadow Boxer and Iceman)
McCaffrey, Anne
Dragonflight (F)
Exciting adventure as Lesser of Pern wages a single-handed secret battle against her sworn enemies - the dragonmen. (Also try: Dragonriders of Pern series)
Myers, Walter Dean
Hoops (F)
A teenage basketball player is befriended by a former professional player, who, after being forced to quit because of a point shaving scandal, hopes to prevent other young athletes from repeating his mistake. (Also try: Fallen Angels, Scorpions, and Somewhere in the Darkness)
Nixon, Joan Lowery
Seance (F)
The seance started as a game, but it led to murder and terror for the people of a small East Texas community. (Also try: The Other Side of Dark, Spirit Seeker, and Search for the Shadowman)
Panzer, Nora
Celebrate America in Poetry and Art (P)
Text and accompanying photographs present a collection of American poetry and art.
Park, Linda Sue
A Single Shard (F)
Tree-ear, a thirteen-year-old orphan in medieval Korea, lives under a bridge in a potters' village, and longs to learn how to throw the delicate celadon ceramics himself.
Paulsen Gary
The Hatchet (F)
After a plane crash, Brian will have to spend fifty-four days in the wilderness with nothing but a hatchet to help him. (Also try: The River, Brian's Winter, Nightjohn, Sarney Remembered, Voyage of the Frog, and Woodsong)
Peck, Richard
Lost in Cyberspace (F)
Sixth-grader Josh and his friend Aaron use the school computer to travel through time. (Also try: Ghosts I Have Been , The Great Interactive Dream Machine, A Year Down Yonder and Fair Weather)
Peck, Robert Newton
A Day No Pigs Would Die (F)
To a thirteen-year-old Vermont farm boy whose father slaughters pigs for a living, maturity will come very early due to life-changing events. (Also try: A Part of the Sky)
Plum-Ucci, Carol
The Body of Christopher Creed (F)
Torey Adams, a high-school junior with a seemingly perfect life, struggles with doubts and questions surrounding the mysterious disappearance of the class outcast.
Poe, Edgar Allan
Collected Tales and Poems (P)
Collection of Poe's writings that includes his most well known works as well as less familiar stories, poems, and essays.
Rawls, Wilson
Where the Red Fern Grows (F)
A young boy living in the Ozarks achieves his heart's desire when he becomes the owner of two redbone hounds and teaches them to be champion hunters. This is a must for pet lovers!
Rinaldi, Ann
A Break With Charity (F)
While waiting for a church meeting in 1706, Susanna English recalls the malice, fear, and accusations of witchcraft that tore her village apart in 1692. (Also try: An Acquaintance with Darkness, Wolf by the Ears, The Staircase and Amelia's War)
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (F)
Harry Potter lives a miserable life with his aunt, uncle, and spoiled cousin, Dudley. He soon discovers that his deceased parents were famous witches and he is about to be invited to attend Hogwarts, a school for witches and wizards. (Also try: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)
Holes (F)
As further evidence of his family's bad fortune, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a frightening correctional camp in a Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself.
Sleator, William
The Night the Heads Came (F)
When aliens abduct both Leo and his artist friend Tim, Leo tries to determine why these creatures from outer space want to use his friend's talent. (Also try: Singularity, House of Stairs, Into the Dream, Boxes, Beasties, and Rewind)
Tarbox, Katherine
Katie.com : My Story (B)
Katie Tarbox explains how and why she became involved, at the age of thirteen, with a dangerous Internet stalker.
Taylor, Mildred
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (F)
An African-American family living in the South during the 1930s is faced with prejudice and discrimination which the children don't understand. (Also try: Let the Circle Be Unbroken and The Land)
Taylor,Theodore
The Cay (F)
When the freighter they are traveling on is torpedoed by a German submarine during World War II, an adolescent white boy, blinded by a blow on the head, and an old black man are stranded on a tiny Caribbean island where the boy acquires a new kind of vision, courage, and love from his old companion.(Also try: Timothy of the Cay and The Bomb)
Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit (F)
The adventures of the well-to-do hobbit, Bilbo Boggins, who lived happily in his comfortable home until a wandering wizard granted his wish. (Also try: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Return of the King, and The Two Towers.)
Trueman, Terry
Stuck in Neutral(F)
Fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel, who suffers from severe cerebral palsy and cannot function, relates his perceptions of his life, his family, and his condition, especially as he believes his father is planning to kill him.
Voigt, Cynthia
The Homecoming (F)
Abandoned by their mother, four children begin a search for a home and an identity. (Also try: Dicey's Song, Sons from Afar, and Izzy Willy Nilly)
White, Ryan
Ryan White, My Own Story (B)
Ryan White describes how he got AIDS, engaged in a legal battle to return to school, and became a celebrity and spokesman for issues concerning the disease.
Wiesel, Elie
Night (B)
A true account of the author's experiences as a Jewish boy with his family in a Nazi concentration camp.
Yep, Lawrence
Dragon's Gate (F)
When he accidentally kills a Manchu, a fifteen-year-old Chinese boy is sent to America to join his father, an uncle, and other Chinese working to build a tunnel for the transcontinental railroad through the Sierra Nevada mountains. (Also try: Child of the Owl and Dragonwings)
Yolen, Jane
Dragon's Blood (F)
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. (Also try: The Dragon's Boy , The Devil's Arithmetic,and Briar Rose)
Zindel, Paul
The Pigman (F)
Two high school sophomores from unhappy homes form a close friendship with a lonely old man with a terrible secret. (Also try: Loch and The Pigman's Legacy, Raptor, Rats, Reef of Death)
