Young Adult Books

Special Edition

Many of these selections and annotations come from the American Library Association Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). For more suggestions go to the YALSA site.

Books From YALSA

Hesser, Terry Spencer. (1988). Kissing Doorknobs. Delacorte.
Tara's quirks become obsessions.

Deem, James M. (1998). Bodies from the Bog. Houghton Mifflin.
This is how you'll look a thousand years from now.

Paulsen, Gary. (1998). My Life In Dog Years. Delacorte.
There's no such thing as too many dogs.

Flake, Sharon G. (1998). The Skin I'm In. Hyperion.
Can Maleeka love herself and the skin she's in?

Paulsen, Gary. (1998). Soldier's Heart. Delacorte.
The brutality of war changes a farm boy into a Union soldier.

Pullman, Philip. (1998). Clockwork. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine.
Clocks are harmless. So are stories--until they both come to life.

Fleishman, Paul, Whirlygig. Henry Holt.
Sixteen-year-old Brent Bishop is sent on an unusual journey of repentance, building wind toys across the land.

Grealy, Lucy. Autobiography of a Face.

Sports Books

Bloor, Edward. Tangerine.
Soccer, football, fitting in, family secrets, and murder.

Crutcher, Chris. Ironman.
Anger at his father fuels seventeen-year old Bo's quest for victory in the triathalon.

Kinsella, W.P. Shoeless Joe.
A magical tale of baseball heroes and a field of dreams.

Spinelli, Jerry. Crash.
Hilarious, poignant story of cocky seventh grade superjock Crash Coogan.

Biography

Spinelli, Jerry. Knots on My YO-YO String: The Autobiography of a Kid.
A humorous account of his childhood and neighborhood.

Real Life

Bauer, Joan. Thwonk.
A young women's struggles to surmount childhood cancer and disfigurement.

Blais, Madeleine. In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle.
The town, the team, the dream, Amherst's high school girl's winning basketball season.

McBride, James. Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother.
A young African-American man describes growing up in an all-black Brooklyn housing project, one of twelve children of a white mother and black father.

A Little Fantasy

Be careful what you wish for! That's exactly the problem caused by a personal cupid making dreams come true.

Dickinson, Peter. Eva.
Eva wonders why she has the memories of a chimpanzee after an automobile accident.

Willis, Connie, Bellwether.
A sociologist who studies fads and a chaos theorist are brought together by a strange misdelivered package.

Okay, not a real skinny book, but have you read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling? You Upper-School kids are not getting any younger, already reading adult books. Give your selves a break. Read something, fun and amusing this summer. I know you will thank me in the fall.

OK, I know this is a "Skinny Book" list but if you liked Bellwether you might want to try The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. Be warned it is almost 600 pages
"Stranded in the fourteenth century--a time of superstition and fear--time traveler Kivrin becomes an unlikely angel of hope during history's darkest hour and awaits rescue by her comrades." From The New York Times.

Real Fiction

Holman, Felice. Slake's Limbo.
A teen hiding in the New York subway tunnel ekes out a living for himself.

Thomas, Rob. Rats Saw God.
Steve York has won a National Merit scholarship, but if he is going to graduate from high school, he needs to make up credit for English. So, he takes on a writing assignment. Steve writes about his school, his romance with Wanda Varner, his less-than-perfect relationship with his astronaut father. And, what starts out as a chore grudgingly taken on to pass a class, becomes a chance for Steve to find out who he is.

Marsden, John. Letters from the Inside.
Through the mail, Mandy and Tracey become fast friends. They share news about their boyfriends, their siblings, and their pets. They trade stories about school and home. They confide their every hope and fear. Or do they?

Williams-Garcia, Rita. Like Sisters on the Homefront.
14-year-old Gayle is forced to take her baby and New York attitude to live with country cousins.

Block, Fracesca Lia. Weetzie Bat.
Weetzie and her friends form a new family in Los Angeles.

Deaver, Julie Reece. Say Goodnight, Gracie.
Seventeen-year-old Morgan must find a way to cope with the death of her best friend, Jimmy.

Poetry

Morrison, Lillian (Ed.). (1995). Slam Dunk. Hyperion.

"Take it to the hoop, "Magic" Johnson take the ball dazzling down the open lane herk & jerk & raise your six feet nine inch frame into the air sweating screams of your neon name . . ." from "A Poem for "Magic" by Quincy Troupe

This collection features poems about Shaquille O'Neal, Michael Jordan, Julius Erving and everything else from zone defense to nothing but net.

Rosenberg, Liz (Ed.). Earth Shattering Poems.
Here is a collection of the world's most intense poetry, carefully selected to inspire and feed fervent feelings.

Date modified: April 14th, 2010.

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