Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block

Block, F. L. (1989). Weetzie bat. New York: HarperCollins.
ISBN 0-06-073625-9
109 pgs
Format: Book
Genre: Fantasy
Classification: Fiction
Age level: Young Adult

Reader's annotation
Weetzie Bat and Dirk meet in high school, become friends, and build a life and a family together in a little bungalow in Los Angeles.

Summary
This novel strikes a lighthearted, whimsical tone as we meet high school students Weetzie Bat and Dirk. They live in Hollywood and love the city, its history and old movies. They drive around the city in a ‘slinkster cool’ car and life is perfect, except they are both searching for a perfect Duck to complete their lives. Dirk falls in love with a boy named Duck, and while Weetzie searches a little longer, she eventually falls in love with My Secret Agent Lover Man and the carve out an unconventional family life together in a little bungalow with lovers and children, while keeping a close friendship.

Notes
Readers will be inspired by the unconventional, close family life these characters create, while enjoying the ride.

Weetzie Bat Series
Weetzie Bat (1999)
Beautiful Boys (2004)
Goat Girls (2004)

The Ruby and the Smoke: A Sally Lockhart Mystery by Philip Pullman

Pullman, P. (1985). The ruby and the smoke: a Sally Lockhart mystery. New York : Knopf.
ISBN-10 037584516X
ISBN-13 978-0375845161
230 pgs
Format: Book
Genre: Mystery, Historical Novel
Classification: Fiction
Age level: Young Adult

Reader's annotation
Sally Lockhart is lost in a world of intrigue in 19th century England as she investigates the suspicious death of her father.

Summary
Set in Victorian England, The Ruby and the Smoke is atmospheric and dark, and filled with suspense and mystery. Sally Lockhart, a sixteen-year-old orphan, is an intelligent and brave heroine, and it’s fascinating to spend time with her on the streets of London as she tries to solve the mystery of her father’s murder; he drowned in the South China Sea. She is trying to find the meaning of the phrase "the Seven Blessings" and is horrified when it causes a close friend of her father to die in fright when she mentions it. Sally befriends a young photographer who takes portraits in the early days of the medium, and his sister, an actress. They become a kind of found family for Sally even as she feels conflicted about possibly bringing danger into their lives. The novel is reminiscent of Dickens as the reader becomes acquainted with the dire poverty in London, especially as it affects children, and the consequences of the opium trade.

Notes
This novel manages to be both historical and feminist, and while Sally grieves the loss of her father she is a strong, even-headed, intelligent young women who is in charge of her own destiny.

Awards and honors
ALA Best Book for Young Adults

Sally Lockhart Mystery Series
The Ruby and the Smoke (1985)
Shadow in the North (1988)
The Tiger in the Well (1990)

Other titles by this Philip Pullman
His Dark Materials Series
The Golden Compass (1995)
The Subtle Knife (1997)
The Amber Spyglass (2000)

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Collins, S. (2008). The hunger games. New York: Scholastic Press.
ISBN-10 0439023483
ISBN-13 978-0439023481
384 pgs
Format: Book
Genre: Adventure
Classification: Fiction
Age level: Young Adult

Reader's annotation
Katniss lives with her mother and younger sister in an impoverished district of Panem, a country that exists in what used to be the United States. When her younger sister is chosen to fight in the annual Hunger Games at the Capitol, Katniss volunteers to go in her places, even though she faces an almost certain death. The Hunger Games is a brutal, televised competition in which the last child left alive is the winner.

Summary
Sixteen-year-old Katniss is used to struggling for survival as for years she has helped to feed her mother and younger sister by foraging and hunting in the woods near their home and trading with merchants in town. When her little sister has her name drawn to participate in the annual Hunger Games at the Capitol, a brutal televised children’s competition, Katniss volunteers to go in her place. Along with her teammate, the baker’s son Peeta, she travels from a remote district to the Capitol to fight for her life as the nation follows every move. Set in a future in a North American country called Panem that has been degraded by environmental catastrophe, poverty and conflict, The Hunger Games takes our voyeuristic society to a horrifying new level in this suspenseful story.

Notes
The Hunger Games is a thought-provoking and entertaining recreational read for older teens. Katniss is a wonderful character, smart and resourceful, and Peeta brings humanity to the story with his kindness. The story takes some of the defining features of our time, environmental decay and reality television, and mixes it with a lot of imagination and detail to create a believable novel that leaves the reader with food for thought. This is the first novel in a trilogy; the other titles have not been published yet.

Awards and honors
Cybils Award for YA Fantasy and Science Fiction 2008
2009 ALA Best Books for Young Adults Top 10

Series title
The Hunger Games (2008)
Catching Fire (2009)

Also by Suzanne Collins
The Underland Chronicles Series

Also recommended
Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Slam by Nick Hornby

Hornby, N. (2007). Slam. New York: Putnam Juvenile.
ISBN 0399250484
ISBN-13 9780399250484
309 pgs
Format: Book
Genre: Contemporary life
Classification: Fiction
Age level: Grades 9-12

Reader's annotation
Fifteen-year-old Sam struggles to not repeat the mistakes of his young single parents as he begins a passionate relationship with a beautiful girl named Alicia in this British coming-of-age novel.

Summary
Fifteen-year-old Sam is being raised in Islington, London by his thirty-two-year-old single mother. He’s a skater and his hero is Tony Hawk, or TH, and he often confides in him about his problems. TH offers advice back via quotes from his memoir, which Sam has memorized, which is sometimes helpful, and sometimes not. At the party of a family friend, Sam’s mother introduces him to the lovely, and out-of-his-league, sixteen-year-old Alicia. He confronts her attitude with some tart honestly and wins her over, starting a passionate relationship. Soon life is moving along fast and Sam is confronted with his future prospects which plays out in several potential scenarios including teen parenthood, college, marriage, and running away from it all as he tries not to repeat the mistakes of his parents.

Notes
Themes of mistakes and taking responsibility will speak to readers in any circumstance, not just those in the impossible situation of becoming a parent at sixteen. Despite the subject matter the language isn’t graphic and sexual situations are addressed discreetly.

Awards and honors
Booklist Editors’ Choice Books for Youth, 2007

Other titles by Nick Hornby
About a Boy
A Long Way Down
How To Be Good
High Fidelity
Fever Pitch

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

Rosoff, M. (2004). How i live now. New York: Random House.
ISBN-10 0553376055
ISBN-13 978-0553376050
194 pgs
Format: Book
Genre: Dystopia
Classification: Fiction
Age level: Young Adult

Reader's annotation
Daisy thinks that life is complicated when her stepmother becomes pregnant, and so she decides to move from New York City to England to go live with relatives. But things take an unexpected turn when war breaks out trapping the family for an extended period.

Summary
Fifteen-year-old Daisy escapes from living with her father and pregnant stepmother in New York City by going to live with her four cousins and Aunt Penn on their sprawling, picturesque farm in the English countryside. Aunt Penn was Daisy's mother's older sister; her mother died during childbirth. Soon after arriving, a London train is bombed and the country is drawn into war and becomes an occupied state. Aunt Penn, who works as a diplomat, is away in Oslo and is unable to get back to the farm. The first few weeks without adults is isolated, free and idyllic but soon the family is split up and Daisy is on the move in the English countryside with her youngest cousin, Piper. As the violence escalates, Piper and Daisy work to find their way back to the farm in an increasingly desperate time as industry and services are shut down. It's never quite clear who the foreign enemy is exactly, but that doesn't effect the themes of the story: survival, search for family and safety. The story is told in a very authentic voice. Many of the sentences run on and on in a rambling, enthusiastic tone and none of the dialog has quotation marks, lending a casual, intimate feel to the novel. It reads almost like a diary, and feels very believable.

Notes
How I Live Now while a thought-provoking and worthwhile read, contains some sensitive subjects. There is a sexual relationship between two cousins aged fifteen and sixteen. There are depictions of violence during wartime, including shootings and a scene of a massacre.

Awards and honors
Michael L. Printz Award, 2005

Also by Meg Rosoff
What I Was

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Meyer, S. (2005). Twilight. New York: Little Brown and Co.
ISBN-10 0316015849
ISBN-10 0316015849
498 pgs
Format: Book
Genre: Fantasy
Classification: Fiction
Age level: Age 12 and up

Reader's annotation
Seventeen-year-old Bella moves from living with her mom in Phoenix to her dad’s house in rainy, remote Forks, Washington where she makes a place for herself at her new high school and attracts the attention of another student, the pale, mysterious, and handsome Edward.

Summary
Bella somewhat unwillingly moves from sunny Phoenix to dreary Washington State to live with her single father after her mother remarries during her junior year. She is quickly enveloped in the social life of her new school, making a few close girlfriends and is pursued by a couple of boys in her class. However, her heart is stolen to her lab partner, the aloof and mysterious Edward, who usually keeps to the company of his siblings at school. Soon, Bella and Edward can’t hide their attraction for one another and we learn that Edward, as well as his family, are vampires, albeit ‘ethical’ vampires who feed only on wild animals. Edward protects Bella from danger time after time, but their relationship puts her at risk from Edward, and other vampires. As more distance grows between Bella and her father and friends the reader wonders if she will give up everything, including being human, as she pursues her love for Edward.

Notes
This is an ideal recreational read that appeals to teenage girls. The book is lengthy but the text is easy to read and the suspense and romance make it a page-turner as the reader follows along to see what happens between Bella and Edward. Includes descriptions of vampire activities and some violence.

Twilight Saga Series
Twilight (2005)
New Moon (2006)
Eclipse (2007)
Breaking Dawn (2008)

Also by Stephenie Meyer
The Host: A Novel

Also recommended
The best-selling five-book series House of Night by P.C. Cast

Author Information
www.stepheniemeyer.com

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Green, J. (2005). Looking for Alaska. New York: Dutton Children's Books.
ISBN-10 014241221X
ISBN-13 978-0142412213
221 pgs
Format: Book
Genre: Realistic
Classification: Fiction
Age level: Young Adult

Reader's annotation
Miles seeks new experiences as he leaves his boring life in Florida and enrolls in a college prep boarding school in rural Alabama. He quickly makes friends and is deep into his new life when events take a tragic turn and lead to some serious soul-searching.

Summary
Sixteen-year-old Miles Halter is bored and out of place at his high school. In search of ‘the great perhaps,’ he decides to leave Florida in his junior year and to go away to boarding school, as many in his family have, at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama. He befriends his roommate Chip, a rebellious scholarship student, and Chip’s best friend, a girl named Alaska Young. Like every other boy on campus, Miles is instantly smitten with Alaska. She’s smart, gorgeous and has an appetite for a little danger. Miles’s social life is soon filled with parties, smoking, drinking, and pranks. As Miles gets to know Alaska better, her deep unhappiness is revealed. When she is hit by a car and killed, Miles is left reeling, unsure if her death was an accident or suicide.

Notes
Looking for Alaska is a smart and literate book that takes on heavy themes of love, death and grief in the setting of a rural boarding school. Readers may feel frustrated by the unresolved ending.

Awards and honors
Michael Printz Award, ALA Best Book for Young Adults, 2006
ALA Quick Pick
LA Times 2005 Book Prize Finalist
NYPL Book for the Teen Age
Booklist Editor's Choice, 2005
School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, 2005

Also by John Green
An Abundance or Katherines

Cures for Heartbreak by Margo Rabb

Rabb, M. (2007). Cures for heartbreak. New York: Delacorte Press.
ISBN-10 0385734034
ISBN-13 978-0385734035
238 pgs
Genre: Contemporary life
Classification: Fiction
Age level: Young Adult

Reader's annotation
After a string of difficult experiences including the death of her mother, ninth-grader Mia is left reeling. As she tries to move her life forward, she relies on her father and a couple of close friends, and discovers the healing power of forgiveness.

Summary
Ninth grade student Mia Perlman is having some hard times. Her mother died suddenly after a recent cancer diagnosis, her father had a heart attack and endured a long hospital stay, her sister left for college, and to top it off, she might be developing feelings for a cute young cancer patient. It’s hard to concentrate on school and soon her studies fall behind. But after months of struggling with grief, eventually life begins to move on. A new best friend is made, and her father begins to date. When an unexpected tragedy comes calling again, while there may not be a cure for heartbreak, a safety net is in place.

Notes
This novel explores personal as well as cultural grief, as Mia’s mother is among a generation of children of Holocaust survivor’s living in the New York area. In the novel, this generation is marked by many early deaths from illness and suicide.

Cut by Patricia Mccormick

McCormick, P. (2000). Cut. New York: Scholastic.
ISBN 0-439-32459-9
151 pgs
Format: Book
Genre: Realistic
Classification: Fiction
Age level: Age 13 and up

Reader's annotation
Fifteen-year-old Callie is spending some time at Sea Pines, a psychiatric facility, where her parents sent her because she cuts herself to relieve her difficult emotions surrounding issues in her family life. Much of the book is a description of daily life in the facility told through the thoughts of the protagonist.

Summary
The novel Cut is set in a mental institution called Sea Pines, and the residents are a group of troubled young women, Most of the story is the internal dialog of a teenage girl named Callie who has a problem with cutting herself in order escape psychological pain she is experiencing related to family problems and her brothers’ health problems. Callie resists the treatment for a long time, refusing to speak in group therapy and generally disliking everything about the facility but eventually opens up in therapy and begins to explore the strong emotions that cause her to harm herself.

Notes
Cut is a short but ambitious novel similar to Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson and Silent to the Bone by E.L. Konigsburg in that is deals with a difficult, painful issue that the protagonist cannot articulate. Cutting is a disturbing and growing problem among teenage girls, so the novel is timely and it lends a sympathetic voice to a little understood problem.

Awards and honors
ALA Quick Pick for YA Readers
A NYPL Book for the Teen Age

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

Levithan, D. (2003). Boy meets boy. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
ISBN 0-375-83299-8
185 pgs
Genre: Realistic fiction
Classification: Fiction
Age level: Young Adult

Reader's annotation
Paul, a sophmore in high school, falls in love with a senior named Noah, just as his ex, Kyle, is starting to be friendly to him again. Paul hurts Noah by kissing Kyle, and needs the help of his friends, Tony, Infinite Darlene, Amber, Amy, Emily, Ted and his brother Jay, to win him back.

Summary
Paul is an extremely well-adjusted gay sophomore in high school, who is fully accepted by his family and friends, and spends his time studying, hanging out with his friends and looking for love like anyone else. Paul has had a few boyfriends, including Kyle, who broke his heart when he claimed Paul tricked him and then started a very public romance with a girl at school. But it’s love at first sight when Paul meets Noah at a bookstore event. The relationship struggles however, while they are very attracted to each other, Noah has some trouble trusting Paul after he unexpectedly kisses Kyle in a school closet. Paul’s friendships with his friends are really important to him as well, as is his family and his community. The novel is very well-written and the characters and scenes come to life. Notably, Infinite Darlene, Paul’s transgender friend who is the homecoming queen and star quarterback, and also the schools biggest gossip. There is Joanie, who is drifting away from Paul and their group as she dates a possessive football player. Tony lives with his religious family in a conservative town nearby and struggles to respect his family’s values while being true to himself and his friends. Paul feels it’s his role in their friendship to show Tony what is possible, and he does that for the reader, as well.

Notes
This novel gives a welcome glimpse into an American high school free of discrimination where gay and straight students live together in openness and friendship. Homosexual relationships among teens; bisexual and transgender teens

Awards and honors
ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults
ALA Quick Pick
A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age
A LAMBDA Literary Award Winner

Other titles by this author: How They Met, and Other Stories, The Realm of Possibility, 21 Proms, Wide Awake, Are We There Yet?

Also recommended
Geography Club by Brent Hartinger
Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez
Keeping You A Secret by Julie Anne Peters

Skim by Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Jilliam Tamaki

Tamaki, M. Illustrated by J. Tamaki. (2008). Skim. Toronto: Groundwood Books.
ISBN-10 1406321362
ISBN-13 978-1406321364
141 pgs
Format: Book
Genre: Realistic
Classification: Graphic novel
Age level: Young Adult

Reader's annotation
High school student Skim has been feeling a little down. She doesn’t quite fit in at her private girls high school but life begins to look up when she forms a close relationship with her free-spirited drama teacher, Ms. Archer.

Summary
This beautifully drawn graphic novel tells the story of love, loss, depression and friendship among students at an all-girls private high school in Toronto. Kim, known as Skim, is a sensitive girl who is learning about Wicca, and hangs out with her best friend Lisa. Skim forms a close relationship to her drama teacher Ms. Archer, and begins to fall in love with her. Suddenly, Ms. Archer pulls away from her friendship with Kim and leaves her job at the school. Skim is confused, heartbroken and hurt, and finds an unexpected connection with a fellow student whose life is upended when her boyfriend commits suicide. The author and the illustrator are cousins and their words and images flow together seamlessly in this story about how first love can change your life, for good and for bad.

Notes
This is an absorbing graphic novel that will appear to teen girls. The frames are so realistically drawn that they pull you into the story easily. While rather melancholy, the novel rings true to life and Skim is a sympathetic character.

The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle

Engle, M. (2008). The surrender tree: poems of Cuba's struggle for freedom. New York: Henry Holt.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8050-8674-4
ISBN-10: 0-8050-8674-9
169 pgs
Format: Book
Genre: War/Conflict
Classification: Poetry
Age level: Young Adult

Reader's annotation
This collection of free verse poetry captures a variety of experiences in Cuba in the late 1800’s as a series of wars for independence from Spain ravaged the population. Told from several different voices, including a freed slave and the son of a slave hunter, this book brings insight into a Cuban struggle that is often overlooked in history books.

Summary
The Surrender Tree is a book of minimal, free verse poems told from several different points of view and set in the second half of the 1800’s in Cuba. During this time Cuba was experiencing ongoing wars with Spain, known as the three Cuban wars for independence, and life was often marked by hunger and illness. One narrator is a 19th Century Cuban healer named Rosa, a freed slave who nurses runaway soldiers and slaves in caves far away from the dangerous reconcentraton camps. Other characters are Jose, Rosa’s husband, also a freed slave and Silvia, a young refugee that Rosa is teaching to be a healer by using wild herbs and flowers. Another character, known as Lieutenant Death, is a soldier and the son of a slave hunter. The descriptions of Cuba are fascinating; the magical natural environment is starkly contrasted with the brutality of slavery. The book brings alive a very distinctive and little known time in history with its detailed descriptions and themes of colonialism and slavery.

Notes
The free verse style wonderfully captures the emotion of the Cuban wars for independence but be aware that there are some graphic descriptions of violence.

Awards and honors
Newbery Honor Award, 2009
Pura Belpre Author Award, 2009

Also by Margarita Engle
The Poet Slaves of Cuba, which was named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, a Bank Street College of Education Best Book, and a Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book

Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta

Marchetta, M. (2003). Saving Francesca. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
ISBN-10 0375829830
ISBN-13 978-0375829833
243 pgs
Format: Book
Genre: Realistic
Classification: Fiction
Age level: Age 12 and up

Reader's annotation
Francesca has a lot on her plate. She is starting at a new school, and her family life is falling apart after her strong-wiled mother suffers a breakdown. After floundering in frustration, Francesca realizes she has power to create change in her life.

Summary
Francesca’s mother is a force to be reckoned with: a willful, successful, intelligent, well-educated woman who is at the heart of the family. And then one day, she can’t get out of bed. She’s fallen into a deep depression and her family doesn’t know why or how to help her. Francesca is adapting to problems of her own since she started at a new, co-ed high school that marks a big change from her nurturing all-girls school. Added to that, her father shuttles her among family members who can care for her while until her mother gets better. Months pass in this manner, but Francesca is resilient and tenatious, qualities that help her be a friend to her little brother, a kick in the butt to her passive dad, and helps her form a strong group of new friends at school. And ultimately, it helps her reclaim her broken family.

Notes
Francesca can come off as a little haughty and spoiled, but her honest, straightforward take on her relationships is admirable and in the end, it’s what helps her father to find a way to help her mother, and it helps her to find romance with her difficult classmate, Will Trombal.