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 Caged Graves
by Dianne K. SalerniThe year is 1867, and seventeen-year-old Verity Boone is excited to return from Worcester, Massachusetts, to Catawissa, Pennsylvania, the hometown she left when she was just a baby.
Now she will finally meet the fiancé she knows only through letters!
Soon, however, she discovers two strangely caged graves . . . and learns that one of them is her own mother's.
Verity swears she'll get to the bottom of why her mother was buried in "unhallowed ground" in this suspenseful teen mystery that swirls with rumors of witchcraft, buried gold from the days of the War of Independence, and even more shocking family secrets.
Annie, Between the States
by L. M. ElliottAnnie's home and heart are divided by the Civil War.Annie Sinclair's Virginia home is in the battle path of the Civil War.
Her brothers, Laurence and Jamie, fight to defend the South, while Annie and her mother tend to wounded soldiers.
When she develops a romantic connection with a Union Army lieutenant, Annie's view of the war broadens.
Then an accusation calls her loyalty into question. A nation and a heart divided force Annie to choose her own course.
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.
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.
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.
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
Yellow Flag
by Robert LipsyteIn any race, there are drivers and, at the front of the pack, there are racers. In the final laps, it's the racer who moves his car through the sweet spot, picks off the competition, and drives through a hole to win.
In Kyle's family, his older brother, Kris, has always been the racer, born and bred to it, like his father and grandfather and great-grandfather before him. And that's just fine with Kyle; he's got other things to do.
Now Kris is out of commission, injured, and Kyle has no choice but to drive. Does he want to drive just long enough to keep Kris's seat warm, or does he want to race--and win?
On the heels of Raiders Night, Yellow Flag is a pulse-pounding look inside the elite world of NASCAR racing, from award-winning novelist and sportswriter Robert Lipsyte.
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.
Boy Meets Boy
by David LevithanThis is the story of Paul, a sophomore at a high school like no other: The cheerleaders ride Harleys, the homecoming queen used to be a guy named Daryl (she now prefers Infinite Darlene and is also the star quarterback), and the gay-straight alliance was formed to help the straight kids learn how to dance.
When Paul meets Noah, he thinks he's found the one his heart is made for. Until he blows it.
The school bookie says the odds are 12-to-1 against him getting Noah back, but Paul's not giving up without playing his love really loud.
His best friend Joni might be drifting away, his other best friend Tony might be dealing with ultra-religious parents, and his ex-boyfriend Kyle might not be going away anytime soon, but sometimes everything needs to fall apart before it can really fit together right.
This is a happy-meaningful romantic comedy about finding love, losing love, and doing what it takes to get love back in a crazy-wonderful world.
Summer of the Mariposas
by Guadalupe Garcia MccallWhen Odilia and her four sisters find a dead body in the swimming hole, they embark on a hero's journey to return the dead man to his family in Mexico. But returning home to Texas turns into an odyssey that would rival Homer's original tale.
With the supernatural aid of ghostly La Llorona via a magical earring, Odilia and her little sisters travel a road of tribulation to their long-lost grandmother's house.
Along the way, they must outsmart a witch and her Evil Trinity: a wily warlock, a coven of vicious half-human barn owls, and a bloodthirsty livestock-hunting chupacabras.
Can these fantastic trials prepare Odilia and her sisters for what happens when they face their final test, returning home to the real world, where goddesses and ghosts can no longer help them?
Summer of the Mariposas is not just a magical Mexican American retelling of The Odyssey, it is a celebration of sisterhood and maternal love.
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.
Mudbound
by Hillary JordanJamie McAllan, Laura's brother-in-law, is everything her husband is not-charming, handsome, and haunted by his memories of combat.
Ronsel Jackson, eldest son of the black sharecroppers who live on the McAllan farm, has come home with the shine of a war hero.
But no matter his bravery in defense of his country, he is still considered less than a man in the Jim Crow South.
It is the unlikely friendship of these brothers-in-arms that drives this powerful novel to its inexorable conclusion.
The men and women of each family relate their versions of events and we are drawn into their lives as they become players in a tragedy on the grandest scale.
Sources of Light
by Margaret McmullanIt's 1962, a year after the death of Sam's father--he was a war hero--and Sam and her mother must move, along with their very liberal views, to Jackson, Mississippi, her father's conservative hometown. Needless to say, they don't quite fit in.
People like the McLemores fear that Sam, her mother, and her mother's artist friend, Perry, are in the South to "agitate" and to shake up the dividing lines between black and white and blur it all to grey.
As racial injustices ensue--sit-ins and run-ins with secret white supremacists--Sam learns to focus with her camera lens to bring forth the social injustice out of the darkness and into the light.
Shiver, Linger, Forever
by Maggie StiefvaterLose yourself in Maggie Stiefvater's NEW YORK TIMES bestselling Shiver series: SHIVER, LINGER, and FOREVER.
shiver
Sam's not just a normal boy -- he has a secret. During the summer he walks and talks as a human, but when the cold comes, he runs with his pack as a wolf. Grace has spent years watching the wolves in the woods behind her house -- but never dreamed that she would fall in love with one of them. Now that they've found each other, the clock ticks down on what could be Grace and Sam's only summer together.
linger
Can Grace and Sam last? Each will have to fight to stay together -- whether it means a reckoning with his werewolf past for Sam, or for Grace, facing a future that is less and less certain. Enter Cole, a new wolf who is wrestling with his own demons, embracing the life of a wolf while denying the ties of being human. For Grace, Sam, and Cole, life is harrowing and euphoric, enticing and alarming. As their world falls apart, love is what lingers. But can it be enough?
forever
For Grace, Sam, and Cole, the story continues -- only now, the stakes are even higher than before. Wolves are being hunted. Lives are being threatened. It's becoming harder and harder to hold on to one another. The past, the present, and the future are about to collide in one pure moment -- a moment of death or life, farewell or forever.
Full Service
by Will WeaverThe times they are a-changin' . .
The summer that Paul turns sixteen his mother pushes him to take a job in town instead of just working on the family farm. "You need to meet the public," she says, which is saying a lot for a woman deeply committed to the tightly knit religious community to which they belong.
And meet the public Paul does: He meets Kirk, the angry gas station manager; Harry, a reclusive and kindly gangster; and a family of hippies passing in a yellow peace van to San Francisco. He also meets beautiful Peggy, a high school sensation, and dark-haired Dale, her on the- side boyfriend who is headed to Vietnam. All of them come to the station - as well as girls on summer vacation, tanned and smelling of coconut oil, and ministers from Paul's fundamentalist church, who are worried about his soul.
As the summer progresses, Paul learns the secrets of his small Minnesota town and discovers that he's ready to have a few secrets of his own.
With richly developed characters and a flair for arresting imagery, Will Weaver tells the story of the end of one boy's innocence, unfolding at a time when the country as a whole is undergoing a difficult, deeply disturbing coming-of-age.
Jacob Have I Loved
by Katherine Paterson"Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated . . ."
With her grandmother's taunt, Louise knew that she, like the biblical Esau, was the despised elder twin. Caroline, her selfish younger sister, was the one everyone loved.
Growing up on a tiny Chesapeake Bay island in the early 1940s, angry Louise reveals how Caroline robbed her of everything: her hopes for schooling, her friends, her mother, even her name.
While everyone pampered Caroline, Wheeze (her sister's name for her) began to learn the ways of the watermen and the secrets of the island, especially of old Captain Wallace, who had mysteriously returned after fifty years.
The war unexpectedly gave this independent girl a chance to fulfill her childish dream to work as a watermen alongside her father. But the dream did not satisfy the woman she was becoming. Alone and unsure, Louise began to fight her way to a place where Caroline could not reach.
Renowned author Katherine Paterson here chooses a little-known area off the Maryland shore as her setting for a fresh telling of the ancient story of an elder twin's lost birthright.
Newbery Medal Winner
Lovely, Dark and Deep
by Amy McnamaraA resonant debut novel about retreating from the world after losing everything--and the connections that force you to rejoin it.
Since the night of the crash, Wren Wells has been running away. Though she lived through the accident that killed her boyfriend Patrick, the girl she used to be didn't survive.
Instead of heading off to college as planned, Wren retreats to her father's studio in the far-north woods of Maine. Somewhere she can be alone.
Then she meets Cal Owen. Dealing with his own troubles, Cal's hiding out too. When the chemistry between them threatens to pull Wren from her hard-won isolation, Wren has to choose: risk opening her broken heart to the world again, or join the ghosts who haunt her.
Freaked
by J. T. DuttonAt a grateful dead concert you need:
Acid: two windowpanes taped to chest checked
Tape deck for recording shows Checked
Wad of cash Checked
PB&J sandwiches for the munchies Missing
Tickets to the show Missing
.45 handgun What?
Scotty Loveletter is in big trouble. He's about to be expelled from school, but all he cares about is getting to Freedom to see Jerry Garcia-even though he doesn't have tickets.
But if dedicating his life to Jerryism has taught him anything, Scotty knows he's got to keep on trucking and smile, smile, smile.
In a stunning debut novel, J. T. Dutton crafts a brilliant story about an unforgettable teen finding himself in the music of one of the world's most beloved bands.
Outside In
by Karen Romano YoungCherie Witkowski is twelve, and she doesn't want to turn thirteen this year. This is the year, 1968, that everything -- absolutely everything-seems to be changing. At home her parents are expecting a new baby, her mother is fixing up the house so they can sell it and move who-knows-where, and everyone is starting to tease her about the boy next door.
Meanwhile her newspaper route brings the changes of the outside world crashing in on her: the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the disappearance of a girl from a few towns away -- a girl who more braids like Cherie, who was about the same age as Cherie, who could have been Cherie.
Suddenly Cherie is scared; nothing seems safe and simple anymore. She longs for easier fears-for playing hide-and-seek in the dark, skipping school, daredevil bike tricks..She builds her own inside world: an elaborate elf house under a bush, complete with staircases, elevators, and carefully designed furniture.
But you can't keep the outside world away forever, especially when you're delivering the daily paper. And maybe Cherie has the strength to deal with it after all, and even to change some of the bad to good...
Skink--No Surrender
by Carl HiaasenCarl Hiaasen serves up his unique brand of swamp justice in the New York Times bestseller Skink—No Surrender.
When your cousin goes missing under suspicious circumstances, who do you call? There’s only one man for the job: a half-crazed, half-feral, one-eyed ex-governor named Skink.
Skink joins 14-year-old Richard on a breakneck chase across Florida, undaunted by lightning storms, poisonous snakes, flying bullets, and giant gators.
There are a million places cousin Malley could be, a million unpleasant fates that might have befallen her, but one thing is certain: in the Florida swamp, justice is best served wild.
SUNSHINE STATE AWARD FINALIST!
A National Book Award Longlist Selection
Hairstyles of the Damned
by Joe MenoThe debut novel from Akashic's new imprint, PUNK PLANET BOOKS! Included in MTV.com's "These 17 Music-Themed YA Books Could Be Your Life" A selection of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Program. "Meno gives his proverbial coming-of-age tale a punk-rock edge, as seventeen-year-old Chicagoan Brian Oswald tries to land his first girlfriend...Meno ably explores Brian's emotional uncertainty and his poignant youthful search for meaning...His gabby, heartfelt, and utterly believable take on adolescence strikes a winning chord." --Publishers Weekly "A funny, hard-rocking first-person tale of teenage angst and discovery." --Booklist "Captures the loose, fun, recklessness of midwestern punk." --MTV.com "Captures both the sweetness and sting of adolescence with unflinching honesty." --Entertainment Weekly "Joe Meno writes with the energy, honesty, and emotional impact of the best punk rock. From the opening sentence to the very last word, Hairstyles of the Damned held me in his grip." --Jim DeRogatis, pop music critic, Chicago Sun-Times "The most authentic young voice since J.D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield...A darn good book." --Daily Southtown "Sensitive, well-observed, often laugh-out-loud funny...You won't regret a moment of the journey." --Chicago Tribune "Meno is a romantic at heart. Not the greeting card kind, or the Harlequin paperback version, but the type who thinks, deep down, that things matter, that art can change lives." --Elgin Courier News "Funny and charming and sad and real. The adults are sparingly yet poignantly drawn, especially the fathers, who slip through without saying much but make a profound impression." --Chicago Journal "Underneath his angst, Brian, the narrator of Hairstyles of the Damned, possesses a disarming sense of compassion which allows him to worm his way into the reader's heart. It is this simple contradiction that makes Meno's portrait of adolescence so convincing: He has dug up and displayed for us the secret paradox of the teenage years, the desire to belong pitted against the need for individuality--a constant clash of hate and love." --NewPages.com "Joe Meno knows Chicago's south side the way Jane Goodall knew chimps and apes--which is to say, he really knows it. He also knows about the early '90s, punk rock, and awkward adolescence. Best of all, he knows the value of entertainment. Hairstyles of the Damned is proof positive." --John McNally, author of The Book of Ralph "Filled with references to dozens of bands and mix-tape set lists, the book's heart and soul is driven by a teenager's life-changing discovery of punk's social and political message...Meno's alter ego, Brian Oswald, is a modern-day Holden Caulfield...It's a funny, sweet, and, at times, hard-hitting story with a punk vibe." --Mary Houlihan, Chicago Sun-Times "Meno's language is rhythmic and honest, expressing things proper English never could. And you've got to hand it to the author, who pulled off a very good trick: The book is punk rock. It's not just punk rock. It's not just about punk rock; it embodies the idea of punk rock; it embodies the idea of punk--it's pissed off at authority, it won't groom itself properly, and it irritates. Yet its rebellious spirit is inspiring and right on the mark." --SF Weekly Hairstyles of the Damned is the debut novel of our Punk Planet Books imprint, which originates from Punk Planet magazine. Hairstyles of the Damned is an honest, true-life depiction of growing up punk on Chicago's south side: a study in the demons of racial intolerance, Catholic school conformism, and class repression. It is the story of the riotous exploits of Brian, a high school burnout, and his best friend, Gretchen, a punk rock girl fond of brawling. Based on the actual events surrounding a Chicago high school's segregated prom, this work of fiction unflinchingly pursues the truth in discovering what it means to be your own person.
I Am Number Four
by Pittacus LoreThe first book of the #1 New York Times bestselling series and the inspiration for the hit movie from Dreamworks!John Smith seems like an ordinary teenager, living a normal life with his guardian Henri in Paradise, Ohio. But for John, keeping a low profile is essential, because he is not an ordinary teenager. He's an alien from the planet Lorien, and he's on the run. A group of evil aliens from the planet Mogadore, who destroyed his world, are hunting anyone who escaped. Nine Loric children were sent to Earth to live in hiding until they grew up and developed their Legacies, powers that would help them fight back--and help them save us. Three of them are now dead. John is Number Four, and he knows he's next....Michael Bay, director of Transformers, raved: "Number Four is a hero for this generation." This epic story is perfect for fans of action-packed science fiction like The 5th Wave series by Rick Yancey, The Maze Runner series by James Dashner, and Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. The battle for Earth's survival wages on. Read all of the books: #2: The Power of Six, #3: The Rise of Nine, #4: The Fall of Five, #5: The Revenge of Seven, #6: The Fate of Ten, and #7: United as One.
Hostage!
by Edward MyersWhile hiking with a group of other teens in the Utah desert, Alyssa and Rob attempt to foil the plans of a fossil-stealing kidnapper.
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.
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.