2. Eleanor & Park
By Rainbow
Rowell
Set over the course of one school
year in 1986, this is the story of
two star-crossed misfits—smart
enough to know that first love
almost never lasts, but brave and
desperate enough to try. When
Eleanor meets Park, you’ll
remember your own first love—
and just how hard it pulled you
under.
Come check it out in the Media Center today!
3. Winger
By Andrew Smith
Ryan Dean West is a fourteen-year-old junior at
a boarding school for rich kids. He’s living in
Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troublemakers,
and rooming with the biggest bully on the rugby
team. And he’s madly in love with his best friend
Annie, who thinks of him as a little boy. With the
help of his sense of humor, rugby buddies, and
his penchant for doodling comics, Ryan Dean
manages to survive life’s complications and even
find some happiness along the way. But when
the unthinkable happens, he has to figure out
how to hold on to what’s important, even when
it feels like everything has fallen apart.
4. All Our
Yesterdays
by Cristin Terrill
Em must travel back in time to
prevent a catastrophic time
machine from ever being
invented, while Marina battles
to prevent the murder of the
boy she loves.
5. Of Beast and
Beauty
by Stacey Jay
In the city of Yuan, the blind Princess Isra, a Smooth Skin, is
raised to be a human sacrifice whose death will ensure her
city’s vitality. In the desert outside Yuan, Gem, a mutant
beast, fights to save his people, the Monstrous, from
starvation. Neither dreams that together, they could return
balance to both their worlds. Isra wants to help the city’s
Banished people, second-class citizens despised for
possessing Monstrous traits. But after she enlists the aid of
her prisoner, Gem, who has been captured while trying to
steal Yuan’s enchanted roses, she begins to care for him, and
to question everything she has been brought up to believe. As
secrets are revealed and Isra’s sight, which vanished during
her childhood, returned, Isra will have to choose between
duty to her people and the beast she has come to love.
6. March: Book One
John Lewis
March is a vivid, first-hand
account of John Lewis' lifelong
struggle for civil and human rights
(including his key roles in the
historic 1963 March on
Washington and the 1965 Selma-Montgomery
March), meditating in the modern age on the
distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and
segregation.
7. Out of Nowhere
by Maria Padian
At Enniston High School, Tom Bouchard
has it made: captain and star of the
soccer team, boyfriend to one of the
prettiest, most popular girls, and third
in his class, likely to have his pick of any
college, if he ever bothers filling out his
applications. But life in his idyllic small
Maine town quickly gets turned upside
down after the events of 9/11.
8. th
5
The
Wave
by Rick Yancey
After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After
the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd,
only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only
one rule applies: trust no one. Now, it's the dawn
of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of
highway, Cassie runs from them. The beings who
only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see.
Who have scattered Earth's last survivors. To stay alone is to stay
alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and
mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie's only hope for rescuing her
brother--or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between
trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life
and death. To give up or to get up.
9. Me, Him, Them and It
by Caela Carter
When Evelyn decided to piss off her parents
with a bad reputation, she wasn't planning to
ruin her valedictorian status. She also wasn't
planning to fall for Todd-the guy she was just
using for sex. And she definitely wasn't
planning on getting pregnant. When Todd
turns his back on her, Evelyn's not sure
where to go. Can a distant mother, a cheating
father, an angry best friend, and a
(thankfully) loving aunt with adopted
daughters of her own help Evelyn make the
heart-wrenching decisions that follow?
10. The Tragedy Paper
by Elizabeth Laban
While preparing for the most
dreaded assignment at the
prestigious Irving School, the
Tragedy Paper, Duncan gets
wrapped up in the tragic tale of
Tim Macbeth, a former student
who had a clandestine relationship
with the wrong girl, and his own illfated romance with Daisy.
11. Torn
by David Massey
In war-torn Afghanistan, a girl walks right into
a hail of bullets: Elinor watches it with her
own eyes. The young British army medic risks
the line of fire to rescue her, only to realize the
girl is gone. To find the missing, mysterious
child, Elinor enlists the help of an American
Navy SEAL. But in all the confusion, with coalition troops fighting
every day to maintain a fragile peace, does Ben have something to
hide? Elinor came to Afghanistan with the hope of changing hearts
and minds: What she's about to discover will make her question
everything she ever believed about love and war.
12. Just One Day
by Gayle Forman
Allyson Healey's life is exactly like her
suitcase—packed, planned, ordered.
Then on the last day of her threeweek post-graduation European tour,
she meets Willem. A free-spirited,
roving actor, Willem is everything she’s not, and
when he invites her to abandon her plans and come
to Paris with him, Allyson says yes. This
uncharacteristic decision leads to a day of risk and
romance, liberation and intimacy: 24 hours that will
transform Allyson’s life.
13. Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass
by Meg Medina
One morning before school, some girl tells Piddy
Sanchez that Yaqui Delgado hates her and wants to kick
her ass. Piddy doesn’t even know who Yaqui is, never
mind what she’s done to piss her off. Word is that Yaqui
thinks Piddy is stuck-up, shakes her stuff when she
walks, and isn’t Latin enough with her white skin, good
grades, and no accent. And Yaqui isn’t kidding around,
so Piddy better watch her back. At first Piddy is more
concerned with trying to find out more about the
father she’s never met and how to balance honors
courses with her weekend job at the neighborhood
hair salon. But as the harassment escalates, avoiding
Yaqui and her gang starts to take over Piddy’s life. Is
there any way for Piddy to survive without closing
herself off or running away?
14. Openly Straight
by Bill Konigsberg
Rafe is a normal teenager from Boulder, Colorado. He
Plays soccer. He's won skiing prizes. He likes to write. And,
oh yeah, he's gay. He's been out since 8th grade, and he
isn't teased, and he goes to other high schools and talks
About tolerance and stuff. And while that's important, all
Rafe really wants is to just be a regular guy. Not that GAY guy. To have it be a part
of who he is, but not the headline, every single time. So when he transfers to an
all-boys' boarding school in New England, he decides to keep his sexuality a secret
-- not so much going back in the closet as starting over with a clean slate. But
then he sees a classmate breaking down. He meets a teacher who challenges him
to write his story. And most of all, he falls in love with Ben . . . who doesn't even
know that love is possible.
15. In the Shadow of
Blackbirds
by Cat Winters
In 1918, the world seems on the verge of
apocalypse. Americans roam the streets
in gauze masks to ward off the deadly
Spanish influenza, and the government
ships young men to the front lines of a brutal
war, creating an atmosphere of fear and
confusion. Sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches as
desperate mourners flock to séances and spirit photographers for
comfort, but she herself has never believed in ghosts. During her
bleakest moment, however, she’s forced to rethink her entire way of
looking at life and death, for her first love—a boy who died in
battle—returns in spirit form. But what does he want from her?
16. Steelheart
by Brandon Sanderson
At age eight, David watched as
his father was killed by an Epic,
a human with superhuman
powers, and now, ten years
later, he joins the Reckoners-the only people who are trying
to kill the Epics and end their
tyranny.
17. The Shadow Society
by Marie Rutkoski
Sixteen-year-old Darcy Jones
knows little about her past
except that she was
abandoned outside a Chicago
firehouse at age five, but
when the mysterious Conn
arrives at her high school she
begins to discover things
about her past that she is not
sure she likes.
18. My Friend Dahmer
by Derf Backderf
You only think you know this story. In 1991, Jeffrey
Dahmer—the most notorious serial killer since
Jack the Ripper—seared himself into the American
consciousness. To the public, Dahmer was a
monster who committed unthinkable atrocities. To
Derf Backderf, "Jeff" was a much more complex
figure: a high school friend with whom he had
shared classrooms, hallways, and car rides. In My
Friend Dahmer, a haunting and original graphic
novel, writer-artist Backderf creates a surprisingly
sympathetic portrait of a disturbed young man
struggling against the morbid urges emanating
from the deep recesses of his psyche—a shy kid, a
teenage alcoholic, and a goofball who never quite
fit in with his classmates.
19. Orleans
by Sherri L. Smith
First came the storms. Then came the Fever. And
the Wall. After a string of devastating hurricanes
and a severe outbreak of Delta Fever, the Gulf
Coast has been quarantined. Years later,
residents of the outer states are under the
assumption that life in the Delta is all but
extinct…but in reality, a new primitive society
has been born. Fen de la Guerre is living with the
O-Positive blood tribe in the Delta when they are
ambushed. Left with her tribe leader’s newborn,
Fen is determined to get the baby to a better life
over the wall before her blood becomes tainted.
Fen meets Daniel, a scientist from the Outer
States who has snuck into the Delta illegally.
Brought together by chance, kept together by
danger, Fen and Daniel navigate the wasteland of
Orleans. In the end, they are each other’s last
hope for survival.
20. Criminal
by Terra Elan McVoy
Eighteen-year-old Nikki's
unconditional love for Dee
helps her escape from her
problems, but when he
involves her in a murder Nikki
winds up in prison,
confronted with hard facts
that challenge whether Dee
ever loved her, and she can
only save herself by telling the
truth about Dee.
21. Living With Jackie Chan
by Jo Knowles
This isn’t how Josh expected to spend senior year. He
thought he’d be hanging out with his best friends,
Dave and Caleb, driving around, partying, just like
always. But here he is, miles from home — new
school, new life, living with his Jackie-Chan-obsessed
uncle, Larry, and trying to forget. But Josh can’t forget.
So many things bring back memories of last year and
the night that changed everything. Every day the pain,
the shame, and the just not knowing are never far
from his thoughts. Why is he such a loser? How could
he have done what he did? He finds some moments of
peace when he practices karate with Stella, the girl
upstairs and his one real friend. As they move
together through the katas, Josh feels connected in a
way he has never felt before. He wonders if they could
be more than friends, but Stella’s jealous boyfriend
will make sure that doesn’t happen. And maybe it
doesn’t matter. If Stella knew the truth, would she still
think he was a True Karate Man?
