Special Collections
United States of YA
Description: Go on a vacation this summer without ever leaving your couch. Whether you choose to visit the Alaskan wilderness, the beaches of Hawaii, or the cornfields in Kansas, adventure awaits in this collection of young adult novels. Ages 13 and up. #teens
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The Upside of Unrequited
by Becky AlbertalliFrom the award-winning author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda comes a funny, authentic novel about sisterhood, love, and identity.
Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love. No matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can’t stomach the idea of rejection. So she’s careful. Fat girls always have to be careful.
Then a cute new girl enters Cassie’s orbit, and for the first time ever, Molly’s cynical twin is a lovesick mess. Meanwhile, Molly's totally not dying of loneliness—except for the part where she is. Luckily, Cassie's new girlfriend comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick. If Molly can win him over, she'll get her first kiss and she'll get her twin back.
There's only one problem: Molly's coworker, Reid. He's a chubby Tolkien superfan with a season pass to the Ren Faire, and there's absolutely no way Molly could fall for him. Right?
He Said, She Said
by Kwame AlexanderSparks will fly in this hip-hop-hot teen novel that mixes social protest and star-crossed romance He Said, She Said is perfect for fans of Walter Dean Myers and Rachel Vail alike.
He says: Omar "T-Diddy" Smalls has got it made--a full football ride to UMiami, hero-worship status at school, and pick of any girl at West Charleston High.
She says: Football, shmootball.
Heres what Claudia Clarke cares about: Harvard, the poor, the disenfranchised, the hungry, the staggering teen pregnancy rate, investigative journalism . . . the list goes on. She does not have a minute to waste on Mr. T-Diddy Smalls and his harem of bimbos.
He Said, She Said is a fun and fresh novel from Kwame Alexander that throws these two high school seniors together when they unexpectedly end up leading the biggest social protest this side of the Mississippi--with a lot of help from Facebook and Twitter.
The stakes are high, the romance is hot, and when these worlds collide, watch out
The Revenge Playbook
by Rachael AllenDon't get mad, get even!
In this poignant and hilarious novel, Rachael Allen brilliantly explores the nuances of high school hierarchies, the traumas sustained on the path to finding true love, and the joy of discovering a friend where you least expect.
In the small town of Ranburne, high school football rules and the players are treated like kings.
How they treat the girls they go to school with?
That's a completely different story.
Liv, Peyton, Melanie Jane, and Ana each have their own reason for wanting to teach the team a lesson--but it's only when circumstances bring them together that they come up with the plan to steal the one thing the boys hold sacred.
All they have to do is beat them at their own game.
Peaches
by Jodi Lynn AndersonThree Georgia peaches are in for one juicy summer . . .
. . . but Birdie would rather eat Thin Mints and sulk in the A/C.
Leeda would prefer to sneak off with her boyfriend, Rex.
And Murphy would much rather cause a little mischief.
Together these three very different girls will discover the secret to finding the right boy, making the truest of friends, and picking the perfect Georgia peach.
Wintergirls
by Laurie Halse AndersonWintergirls is a powerful but intimate story of one girl's chilling descent into the all-consuming vortex of anorexia.
Lia and Cassie were best friends. But something went wrong and Cassie changed. Now Cassie is dead and Lia has thirty-three unanswered calls on her phone, thirty-three messages from her ex-best friend, all sent the day she died. How did she die? Why did she cut herself off?
While Lia searches for answers, she drives herself relentlessly on her own path to destruction: to be thin, strong, in control. And completely empty.
Laurie Halse Anderson is the author of several books for young adults, including the New York Times bestselling novel Speak. She is the recipient of the prestigious ALAN Award (2008), which honours those who have made outstanding contributions to the field of adolescent literature. Laurie Halse Anderson lives in northern New York State with her husband.
Obsidian
by Jennifer L. ArmentroutStarting over sucks.When we moved to West Virginia right before my senior year, I'd pretty much resigned myself to thick accents, dodgy internet access, and a whole lot of boring.... until I spotted my hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes.
Things were looking up.
And then he opened his mouth.
Daemon is infuriating. Arrogant. Stab-worthy. We do not get along. At all.
But when a stranger attacks me and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something...unexpected happens.
The hot alien living next door marks me.
You heard me. Alien. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon's touch has me lit up like the Vegas Strip. The only way I'm getting out of this alive is by sticking close to Daemon until my alien mojo fades.
If I don't kill him first, that is.
Everneath
by Brodi AshtonLast spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath.
Now she's returned--to her old life, her family, her boyfriend--before she's banished back to the underworld . . . this time forever.
She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.
Nikki longs to spend these precious months forgetting the Everneath and trying to reconnect with her boyfriend, Jack, the person most devastated by her disappearance--and the one person she loves more than anything.
But there's just one problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who enticed her to the Everneath in the first place, has followed Nikki home.
Cole wants to take over the throne in the underworld and is convinced Nikki is the key to making it happen.
And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back, this time as his queen.
As Nikki's time on the Surface draws to a close and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she is forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole's queen.
Everneath is a captivating story of love, loss, and immortality from debut author Brodi Ashton.
The Islands at the End of the World
by Austin AslanIn this fast-paced survival story set in Hawaii, electronics fail worldwide, the islands become completely isolated, and a strange starscape fills the sky. Leilani and her father embark on a nightmare odyssey from Oahu to their home on the Big Island. Leilani's epilepsy holds a clue to the disaster, if only they can survive as the islands revert to earlier ways.
A powerful story enriched by fascinating elements of Hawaiian ecology, culture, and warfare, this captivating and dramatic debut from Austin Aslan is the first of two novels. The author has a master's degree in tropical conservation biology from the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
The Port Chicago 50
by Steve Sheinkin and Christine BarcellonaAn astonishing civil rights story from Newbery Honor winner and National Book Award finalist Steve Sheinkin.
On July 17, 1944, a massive explosion rocked the segregated Navy base at Port Chicago, California, killing more than 300 sailors who were at the docks, critically injuring off-duty men in their bunks, and shattering windows up to a mile away.
On August 9th, 244 men refused to go back to work until unsafe and unfair conditions at the docks were addressed.
When the dust settled, fifty were charged with mutiny, facing decades in jail and even execution.
The Port Chicago 50 is a fascinating story of the prejudice and injustice that faced black men and women in America's armed forces during World War II, and a nuanced look at those who gave their lives in service of a country where they lacked the most basic rights.
This thoroughly-researched and documented book can be worked into multiple aspects of the common core curriculum, including history and social studies.
Tales of the Madman Underground
by John BarnesWednesday, September 5, 1973: The first day of Karl Shoemaker's senior year in stifling Lightsburg, Ohio.
For years, Karl's been part of what he calls "the Madman Underground" - a group of kids forced (for no apparent reason) to attend group therapy during school hours.
Karl has decided that senior year is going to be different. He is going to get out of the Madman Underground for good. He is going to act - and be - Normal.
But Normal, of course, is relative. Karl has five after-school jobs, one dead father, one seriously unhinged drunk mother . . . and a huge attitude.
Welcome to a gritty, uncensored rollercoaster ride, narrated by the singular Karl Shoemaker.
Squashed
by Joan BauerHumor, agriculture and young love all come together in Joan Bauer's first novel, set in rural Iowa.
Sixteen-year-old Ellie Morgan's life would be almost perfect if she could just get her potentially prize-winning pumpkin to put on about 200 more pounds--and if she could take off 20 herself...in hopes of attracting Wes, the new boy in town.
Little Blog on the Prairie
by Cathleen Davitt BellThirteen-year-old Genevieve's summer at a frontier family history camp in Laramie, Wyoming, with her parents and brother is filled with surprises, which she reports to friends back home on the cell phone she sneaked in, and which they turn into a blog.
What I Saw and How I Lied
by Judy BlundellThis National Book Award winner set during the aftermath of WWII is now available in paperback!When Evie's father returned home from World War II, the family fell back into its normal life pretty quickly. But Joe Spooner brought more back with him than just good war stories. When movie-star handsome Peter Coleridge, a young ex-GI who served in Joe's company in postwar Austria, shows up, Evie is suddenly caught in a complicated web of lies that she only slowly recognizes. She finds herself falling for Peter, ignoring the secrets that surround him . . . until a tragedy occurs that shatters her family and breaks her life in two.
The Indigo Girl
by Natasha Boyd and Saskia MaarleveldA deeply-researched and powerfully-written work of historical fiction, based on the untold story of Eliza Lucas, an extraordinary sixteen-year-old girl in Colonial-era South Carolina, whose actions were before their time: the story of the indigo girl.
In 1739, bright and determined sixteen-year-old Eliza Lucas is charged with keeping her family’s struggling plantations afloat, in her father’s absence.
Learning of the high value of indigo, Eliza becomes determined to learn the secret of growing the enigmatic crop, believing it to be her family’s salvation, but everyone tells Eliza growing indigo in the region is impossible.
Thwarted at nearly every turn, even by her own family, Eliza finds her only allies in an aging horticulturalist, an older and married gentleman lawyer, and a slave with whom she strikes a dangerous deal: teach her the intricate thousand-year-old secret process of making indigo dye and in return—against the laws of the day—she will teach the slaves to read.
So develops an incredible story of romance, intrigue, hidden friendships, threats, ambition, betrayal, and sacrifice, based on historical documents and Eliza Lucas’ own letters.
Torn Away
by Jennifer BrownBorn and raised in the Midwest, Jersey Cameron knows all about tornadoes. Or so she thinks.
When her town is devastated by a twister, Jersey survives -- but loses her mother, her young sister, and her home.
As she struggles to overcome her grief, she's sent to live with her only surviving relatives: first her biological father, then her estranged grandparents.
In an unfamiliar place, Jersey faces a reality she's never considered before -- one in which her mother wasn't perfect, and neither were her grandparents, but they all loved her just the same.
Together, they create a new definition of family. And that's something no tornado can touch.
Ringside, 1925
by Jen BryantTake a ringside seat at one of the most controversial trials in American history.
The year is 1925, and the students of Dayton, Tennessee, are ready for a summer of fishing, swimming, and drinking root beer floats at Robinson's Drugstore.
But when their science teacher, J. T. Scopes, is arrested for having taught Darwin's theory of evolution, it seems it won't be an ordinary summer in Dayton.
As Scopes's trial proceeds, the small town pulses with energy and is faced with astonishing nationwide publicity.
Suddenly surrounded by fascinating people and new ideas, Jimmy Lee, Pete, Marybeth, and Willy are thrilled.
But amidst the excitement and circus-like atmosphere is a threatening sense of tension--not only in the courtroom, but among even the strongest of friends.
All American Girl
by Meg CabotTop Ten Reasons Samantha Madison is in Deep Trouble --
10. Her big sister is the most popular girl in school.
9. Her little sister is a certified genius.
8. She's in love with her big sister's boyfriend.
7. She got caught selling celebrity portraits in school.
6. And now she's being forced to take art classes.
5. She's just saved the president of the United States from an assassination attempt.
4. So the whole world thinks she is a hero.
3. Even though Sam knows she is far, far from being a hero.
2. And now she's been appointed teen ambassador to the UN.
And the number-one reason Sam's life is over?
1. The president's son just might be in love with her.
The Splendor Falls
by Rosemary Clement-MooreCan love last beyond the grave?
Sylvie Davis is a ballerina who can’t dance. A broken leg ended her career, but Sylvie’s pain runs deeper.
What broke her heart was her father’s death, and what’s breaking her spirit is her mother’s remarriage—a union that’s only driven an even deeper wedge into their already tenuous relationship.
Uprooting her from her Manhattan apartment and shipping her to Alabama is her mother’s solution for Sylvie’s unhappiness.
Her father’s cousin is restoring a family home in a town rich with her family’s history.
And that’s where things start to get shady.
As it turns out, her family has a lot more history than Sylvie ever knew. More unnerving, though, are the two guys that she can’t stop thinking about.
Shawn Maddox, the resident golden boy, seems to be perfect in every way. But Rhys—a handsome, mysterious foreign guest of her cousin’s—has a hold on her that she doesn’t quite understand.
Then she starts seeing things. Sylvie’s lost nearly everything—is she starting to lose her mind as well?
Breakfast Served Anytime
by Sarah CombsA coming-of-age debut evokes the bittersweet joys and pangs of finding independence in one unforgettable summer away at "geek camp. "
When Gloria sets out to spend the summer before her senior year at a camp for gifted and talented students, she doesn’t know quite what to expect.
Fresh from the heartache of losing her grandmother and missing her best friend, Gloria resolves to make the best of her new circumstances.
But some things are proving to be more challenging than she expected.
Like the series of mysterious clues left by a certain Professor X before he even shows up to teach his class, Secrets of the Written Word.
Or the very sweet, but very conservative, roommate whose coal-industry family champions mountaintop removal.
Not to mention the obnoxious Mason, who dresses like the Mad Hatter and immediately gets on Gloria’s nerves — but somehow won’t escape her thoughts.
Beautifully told by debut author Sarah Combs, this honest and touching story of growing up is imbued with the serene atmosphere of Kentucky’s natural landscape.
The Sledding Hill
by Chris CrutcherBilly Bartholomew has an audacious soul, and he knows it. Why? Because it's all he has left. He's dead.
Eddie Proffit has an equally audacious soul, but he doesn't know it.
He's still alive.
These days, Billy and Eddie meet on the sledding hill, where they used to spend countless hours -- until Billy kicked a stack of Sheetrock over on himself, breaking his neck and effectively hitting tilt on his Earthgame. The two were inseparable friends. They still are. And Billy is not about to let a little thing like death stop him from hanging in there with Eddie in his epic struggle to get his life back on track.
Blindsided
by Priscilla CummingsIn many ways, Natalie O'Reilly is a typical fourteen year- old girl. But a routine visit to the eye doctor produces devastating news: Natalie will lose her sight within a few short months. Suddenly her world is turned upside down.
Natalie is sent to a school for the blind to learn skills such as Braille and how to use a cane. Outwardly, she does as she's told; inwardly, she hopes for a miracle that will free her from a dreaded life of blindness.
But the miracle does not come, and Natalie ultimately must confront every blind person's dilemma. Will she go home to live scared? Or will she embrace the skills she needs to make it in a world without sight? .
Seventeenth Summer
by Maureen DalyUntil the summer before college, Angie Morrow didn't really date. Her mother didin't like her to go out much. But no one -- not even Angie's mother -- can resist the charm of strikingly handsome Jack Duluth. His good looks grab Angies's attention from the moment in June when Jack throws Angie a smile at McKight's drugstore. And on their first date sailing under the stars -- when Jack leans in and whispers to Angie, "You look nice with the wind in your hair," the strange new feeling s begin. Tingles, prickles, warmth: the tell-tale signs of romance. It's the beginning of an unforgettable summer for Angie, full of wonder, warmth, tears, challenge, and love. Maureen Daly had created a love story so honest that it has withstood the test of time, winning new fans for more than six decades. Today, this classic is enjoyed by many who think of it as the quintessential love story, and as a glimpse of love in the 1940's; a refreshing alternative to modern love stories, reflecting the beauty and innocence of new love.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post
by Emily M. DanforthWhen Cameron Post's parents die suddenly in a car crash, her shocking first thought is relief. Relief they'll never know that, hours earlier, she had been kissing a girl.
But that relief doesn't last, and Cam is soon forced to move in with her conservative aunt Ruth and her well-intentioned but hopelessly old-fashioned grandmother. She knows that from this point on, her life will forever be different. Survival in Miles City, Montana, means blending in and leaving well enough alone (as her grandmother might say), and Cam becomes an expert at both.
Then Coley Taylor moves to town. Beautiful, pickup-driving Coley is a perfect cowgirl with the perfect boyfriend to match. She and Cam forge an unexpected and intense friendship-one that seems to leave room for something more to emerge. But just as that starts to seem like a real possibility, ultrareligious Aunt Ruth takes drastic action to "fix" her niece, bringing Cam face-to-face with the cost of denying her true self-even if she's not exactly sure who that is.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a stunning and unforgettable literary debut about discovering who you are and finding the courage to live life according to your own rules.
Ten Miles Past Normal
by Frances O'Roark DowellJanie Gorman is smart and creative and a little bit funky...but what she really wants to be is normal. Because living on an isolated goat farm with her modern-hippy parents is decidedly not normal, no matter how delicious the homemade bread.
High school gives Janie the chance to get on par with her suburban peers, but before long she realizes normal may not ever be within her grasp--and that doesn't have to be a bad thing.
Between joining a jam band at school (and finding she has flair with a bass guitar), befriending a wild-child senior named Emma, running afoul of the law, and falling in like with a boy named Monster (yes, that's his real name), Janie discovers that growing up gets complicated...and that normal is entirely overrated.
Beloved, award-winning middle-grade author Frances O'Roark Dowell applies her fierce humor and keen eye to create this compelling teen debut that is rife with wit, wisdom, and the quest for righteous chocolate.
Trouble the Water
by Frances O'Roark DowellFrom the award-winning author of Dovey Coe comes a sweeping tale of the friendship between a black girl and a white boy and the prejudices they must overcome in segregated Celeste, Kentucky, as the pair try to solve the mysteries surrounding a lonely old dog.
Eleven-year-old Callie is fearless, stubborn, and a little nosy. So when she sees an old yellow dog wandering around town by itself, you can bet she's going to figure out who he belongs to. But when her sleuthing leads her to cross paths with a white boy named Wendell who wants to help, the segregated town doesn't take too kindly to their budding friendship.
Meanwhile, a nearly invisible boy named Jim is stuck in a cabin in the woods. He's lost his dog, but can't remember exactly when his pup's disappeared. When his companion, a little boy named Thomas, who's been invisible much longer than he, explains that they are ghosts, the two must figure out why they can't seem to cross the river to the other side just yet...
And as Callie and Wendell's search for the old dog brings them closer and closer to the cabin in the woods, the simmering prejudices of the townspeople boil over. Trouble the Water is a story that spans lifetimes, showing that history never truly disappears, and that the past will haunt us until we step up to change the present and stand together for what is right.