AFTER – Amy Efaw
In
complete denial that she is pregnant, straight-A student and star
athlete Devon Davenport leaves her baby in the trash to die, and after
the baby is discovered, Devon is accused of attempted murder.
Weblinks: www.amyefaw.com
BEASTLY – Alex Flinn
A
modern retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" from the point of view of
the Beast, a vain Manhattan private school student who is turned into a
monster and must find true love before he can return to his human form. www.alexflinn.com.
Booktrailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUCOBQf2GpQ
*BEFORE I DIE – Jenny Downham
A terminally ill teenaged girl makes and carries out a list of things to do before she dies. www.randomhouse.com/authors.
See also: Teenreads.com author profile: "Jenny Downham." http://www.teenreads.com/authors/au-downham-jenny.asp
CARTER FINALLY GETS IT – Brent Crawford
Awkward
freshman Will Carter endures many painful moments during his first year
of high school before realizing that nothing good comes easily, focus
is everything, and the payoff is usually incredible. www.brent-crawford.com
See also "My Blog." http://www.brent-crawford.com/blog/Blog/Blog.html
COLUMBINE – Dave Cullen
An
account of the shootings at Colorado's Columbine High School on April
20, 1999, focusing on the teenage killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold,
drawing from interviews, police files, psychological studies, and
writings and tapes by the boys to look at the signs they left that
disaster was looming. www.davecullen.com
THE COMPOUND – S.A. Bodeen
After
his parents, two sisters, and he have spent six years in a vast
underground compound built by his wealthy father to protect them from a
nuclear holocaust, fifteen-year-old Eli, whose twin brother and
grandmother were left behind, discovers that his father has perpetrated a
monstrous hoax on them all. http://us.macmillan.com/author/sabodeen
FLASH BURNOUT – L.K. Madigan
After
he takes a photograph of a woman who is living on the streets and
discovers it to be the meth-addicted mother of his closest friend
Marissa, Blake finds himself spending more time with Marissa than with
his girlfriend. www.lkmadigan.com
GHOSTS OF WAR – Ryan Smithson
Recounts the author's experiences as an Army engineer in the Iraq War. www.harpercollins.com/authors
*GOING BOVINE – Libba Bray
Cameron Smith, a disaffected sixteen year-old who, after being diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob's (aka mad cow) disease, sets off on a road trip with a death-obsessed video gaming dwarf he meets in the hospital in an attempt to find a cure. www.libbabray.com
HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE – Dana Reinhardt
Seventeen-year-old
Harper Evans hopes to escape the effects of her father's divorce on her
family and friendships by volunteering her summer to build a house in a
small Tennessee town devastated by a tornado. www.danareinhardt.net
IF I STAY -- Gayle Forman
While
in a coma following an automobile accident that killed her parents and
younger brother, seventeen-year-old Mia, a gifted cellist, weighs
whether to live with her grief or join her family in death. www.gaylforman.com
Booktrailer: http://www.gayleforman.com/books/if-i-stay/videos/
*THE LOOKING GLASS WARS – Frank Beddor (Speak, 2007) When
she is cast out of Wonderland by her evil aunt Redd, young Alyss Heart
finds herself living in Victorian Oxford as Alice Liddell, and struggles
to keep memories of her kingdom intact until she can return and claim
her rightful throne. www.frankbeddor.com
*LOVE IS THE HIGHER LAW – David Levithan (Knopf, 2010) Three
New York City teens express their reactions to the bombing of the World
Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and its impact on their lives and
the world. www.davidlevithan.com. Video of "David Levithan reading from Love is the Higher Law." YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfLfMtH-Mgc
THE MAZE RUNNER – James Dashner (Delacorte, 2010) Sixteen-year-old
Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he
must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to
escape. www.jamesdashner.com
MEXICAN WHITE BOY – Matt de la Pena
Sixteen-year-old
Danny searches for his identity amidst the confusion of being
half-Mexican and half-white while spending a summer with his cousin and
new friends on the baseball fields and back alleys of San Diego County,
California. www.mattdelapena.com
REALITY CHECK – Peter Abrahams
After
a knee injury destroys sixteen-year-old Cody's college hopes, he drops
out of high school and gets a job in his small Montana town; but when
his ex-girlfriend disappears from her Vermont boarding school, Cody
travels cross-country to join the search. www.peterabrahams.com
SHIVER – Maggie Stiefvater
In
all the years she has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house,
Grace has been particularly drawn to an unusual yellow-eyed wolf who,
in his turn, has been watching her with increasing intensity. www.maggiestiefvater.com
STORY OF A GIRL – Sara Zarr
In
the three years since her father caught her in the back seat of a car
with an older boy, sixteen-year-old Deanna's life at home and school has
been a nightmare, but while dreaming of escaping with her brother and
his family, she discovers the power of forgiveness. www.sarazarr.com
TWEAK: GROWING UP ON METHAMPHETAMINES – Nic Sheff
The
author details his immersion in a world of hardcore drugs, revealing
the mental and physical depths of addiction, and the violent relapse one
summer in California that forever changed his life, leading him down
the road to recovery. www.davidsheff.com
WHY I FIGHT – J. Adams Oaks
After
his house burns down, twelve-year-old Wyatt Reaves takes off with his
uncle, and the two of them drive from town to town for six years,
earning money mostly by fighting, until Wyatt finally confronts his
parents one last time. http://jadamsoaks.com
WISH YOU WERE DEAD – Todd Strasser
Madison,
a senior at a suburban New York high school, tries to uncover who is
responsible for the disappearance of her friends, popular students
mentioned in the posts of an anonymous blogger, while she, herself, is
being stalked online and in-person. www.toddstrasser.com
WORLD WAR Z: AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE ZOMBIE WAR – Max Brooks
An
account of the decade-long conflict between humankind and hordes of the
predatory undead is told from the perspective of dozens of survivors
who describe in their own words the epic human battle for survival. www.maxbrooks.com
