Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

In three months, Tally will become pretty. In her world, everyone is an “ugly” until they turn 16 and are officially transformed into a “pretty” through surgery. It’s supposed to be the best time of Tally’s life, but things change when she meets Shay. Shay raises questions that are forbidden. Why can’t society accept them for who they are? Are they really freaks if they remain uglies? Why does everyone have to look the same? Although Tally is shaken by her encounter with Shay, she still looks forward to her chance to join the pretties. But now it is not clear if her chance will ever come. She is given orders to spy on Shay after she runs away to the Smoke – a secret place where everyone lives together in freedom, where there are no uglies and no pretties. Struggling with her future and what is right, Tally learns that what she finds in the Smoke may actually change things for good.

http://www.scottwesterfeld.com/ Cara Woudenberg

The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls

Jeanette Walls is a successful gossip reporter for MSNBC, but until she wrote The Glass Castle she harbored a family secret. While she was enjoying a glamorous New York City lifestyle, her own parents were living on the streets, rooting through dumpsters for food and wearing rags to stay warm. The story of this supremely dysfunctional family began in Arizona, where Walls’ earliest memory is of being set on fire at age three while cooking hot dogs for dinner. Walls’ alcoholic father and artist mother moved their four children from place to place whenever the bills piled up, eventually landing in Welch, West Virginia, near their paternal grandparents. Here their father encouraged the children to dig a large hole for the foundation of the palace he planned to build for them, the “Glass Castle” of the memoir’s title. But they couldn’t afford the town’s trash collection fee, and the hole for the Glass Castle’s foundation became the family dump. Meanwhile, the Walls children survived neglect, hunger, ridicule, and abuse. This gripping memoir reveals how the author survived her childhood, escaping the cycle of poverty, and how the long shadow of her parents’ unconventional lifestyle eventually caught up with her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW0XVno–0gM Amy Pickett

Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James Swanson

April 1864, spring had come to Washington and the long Civil War had come to an end. President Lincoln, his wife and several friends were enjoying an evening out at Ford’s theater,
Suddenly, someone stepped into the booth and shot the President. Who was John Wilkes Booth?
Was he a lone terrorist or part of a bigger conspiracy? Follow the author’s investigation of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

http://www.newseum.org/exhibits_th/manhunt/
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/video.jsp?pID=1640149541&bcpid=1640149541&bclid=1557820329&bctid=5622215001 Marti Trzepacz

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need by Daniel H. Pink

Johnny Bunko is a good person. He's actually a lot like you and me. He always listened to his parents, studied (fairly) hard, and did (pretty) well in school. When it was time to choose a major, he did what everyone said he should do: he majored in accounting and got a job with Boggs Corporation. Now Johnny feels like he's wasting his life in a dead–end cubicle. Is it possible that everything he thought he knew about work is wrong? But working late one night turns out to be the best thing that could happen to Johnny Bunko's career. When he opens a charmed pair of chopsticks from the local sushi place, a unique career adviser named Diana appears. Part genie and part manga heroine, Diana helps him discover the six most important lessons of a satisfying AND successful career. Read The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, the very first manga–style career guide and the last career guide you'll ever need!
http://www.danpink.com/
http://www.johnnybunko.com/ Amy Pickett

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

Jenna Fox is recovering from a serious accident that left her in a coma. Upon waking, she has little or no memory of who she is. She meets her parents, but has no memories of them. Nothing about her surroundings is familiar, and then she learns that her family has relocated to a new area to have a fresh start after her accident. Despite being fed pieces of her life from her parents and watching countless DVDs that captured her life before the coma, she barely recognizes the girl she sees on the screen. As she explores deeper into who she is and flashes of images begin to appear in her mind, she starts to feel that those closest to her are hiding something … something big.

http://www.whoisjennafox.com/
http://www.marypearson.com/index.html Cara Woudenberg

They Came From Below by Blake Nelson

Seventeen-year-old Emily comes to Cape Cod every summer to spend time with her scientist dad. She’s made a really close friend there, Reese. Emily and Reese are prepared to spend another lazy summer together at the beach and other local hangouts. Their prime objective? Get boyfriends! Well they meet two really great looking guys, Steve and Dave, who behave a little oddly, but hey, they claim to be
foreign exchange students, so that makes sense, right? But strange things happen when Steve and Dave are around. They miraculously heal injuries, and they can talk to any living thing. Weird! Well, Steve and Dave aren’t really foreign exchange students, but they’re not from around here either. They’re aliens who have come from the sea to rescue a friend and in the process offer a warning about global pollution. This book is funny, exciting and has a bit of a message,too.

http://www.blakenelsonbooks.com/ Patty McClune

Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers

It’s 2003, and Harlem teen Robin Perry has graduated from high school. Although his father wants him to go to college, he makes his first major adult decision and decides to join the military. His life quickly becomes a blur of activity as he is introduced to his unit – a Civil Affairs detail – and before he knows it, he is in the thick of the war in Iraq. The soldiers in his unit quickly become tight; they stick together and watch each other’s backs like brothers and sisters. All the while they struggle with their mission to interact and make peace with the people of the war-torn but beautiful land of Iraq – the very same people they are fighting. Through tragedy and triumph, they simply try to survive a war that just doesn’t seem to make sense.

http://www.walterdeanmyers.net/ Cara Woudenberg

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau–Banks by E. Lockhart

This effervescent novel is part mystery, part romance, and part case study of a unique girl named Frankie Landau–Banks. Between her freshman and sophomore years at elite Alabaster Preparatory Academy, Frankie blossoms from a scrawny, awkward child into a beautiful, curvaceous young lady. She immediately catches the eye of popular senior Matthew Livingston, who draws Frankie into his influential circle of friends. When she discovers that he’s a part of an all–male secret society called the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, she hopes he will include her or, at the very least, confide in her about the group. But Frankie slowly realizes that although Matthew finds her adorable, he will never welcome her into his boys–only club. Increasingly dissatisfied with her role as Matthew’s arm candy, Frankie capitalizes on a family connection to the Basset Hounds to infiltrate their network and mastermind a series of pranks that shakes up the entire school. How does she orchestrate the, um, bosomy Library Lady, Night of a Thousand Dogs, the Canned Beet Rebellion, and the Abduction of the Guppy? And can she possibly get away with it? Read The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau–Banks to find out!

http://e–lockhart.com/ Amy Pickett

The God of Animals: A Novel by Aryn Kyle

Desert Valley, Colorado has always been Alice Winston’s home, but it hasn’t been an easy place for her to grow up. When she was a baby, her mother went upstairs to take a rest and never came back downstairs. Now Alice is twelve, and her beloved older sister Nona has run off and married a rodeo cowboy. Then her friend and shop partner, Polly, drowns in the canal near the Winston family ranch. Meanwhile, Alice’s father relies on her more and more to help keep the ranch afloat. Money is tight, so the Winston’s board horses for their wealthy neighbors and provide riding lessons to a rich but untalented girl named Sheila, who tries to befriend Alice. Struggling to deal with the changes in her world, Alice is drawn into a complicated relationship with her English teacher. Secret builds upon secret until everything begins to unravel in a series of disasters. The fate of horses, first love, and family bonds all hang in the balance in this beautifully crafted, unforgettable first novel.

http://www.arynkyle.com/ Amy Pickett

Juvie Three by Gordon Korman

They’re three juvenile offenders: Gecko who drove a getaway car; Terence the tough Chicago gang member and Arjay who’s accused of murder. They’re all doing time in brutal detention centers. Enter Doug Healy, a man who had his own difficult times growing up and is now willing to lend a hand to teens who made mistakes like he did. Doug’s opening a new type of halfway house for a few select juvies. Lucky for Gecko, Terence and Arjay; they’re the ones chosen for this noble experiment. They’re going to get a second chance, even though society and the social worker in charge of them, all think they’re beyond redemption. Doug and the boys live together in an apartment in NYC. They each have distinct personalities and things don’t always go smoothly. A fight breaks out and Doug is accidentally hurt, badly hurt. The boys are scared and anonymously drop an unconscious Doug off at an emergency room. The juvies eventually realize this really is their last chance and they better work together to pull off the appearance of normalcy or they’ll all be back in hellish lockups. Can three kids labeled “no good” follow the rules and make the right choices without any adult supervision? What follows is a fast-paced, exciting story complete with humor, romance, and suspense.

http://gordonkorman.com/ Patty McClune

Paper Towns by John Green

Quentin "Q" Jacobsen has had an unrequited crush on Margo Roth Spiegelman, his next–door neighbor, since they were kids. Now, with high school graduation just weeks away, Margo recruits Q to be her accomplice on an epic night of pranking and score–settling. The next day, Margo vanishes. Did she simply run away, Q wonders, or did the outrageous adventures of Margo Roth Spiegelman came to a suicidal end? A trail of clues that Margo seemingly left just for him leads Q to a Woody Guthrie poster, a Walt Whitman poem, an abandoned mini–mall, and Orlando's many "paper towns" (labyrinthine subdivisions that were planned but never built). All the while, Margo stays just out of reach. Finally, sure that he's cracked the final cryptic clue, Q and three friends race against time on an all–night road trip that is by turns hilarious and heart–stopping. John Green, the author of Looking for Alaska, delivers another gripping coming–of–age novel about an elusive girl who only seems too good to be true.

http://www.sparksflyup.com/ Amy Pickett

Deadline by Chris Crutcher

What would you do if you knew you only had one year to live? Different people would have very different answers to that question. Ben is a high school senior when he finds out he has an incurable form of leukemia. He decides that rather than waiting to die, he wants to live life to the hilt! He makes the decision to keep his illness a secret from family and friends, and skips traditional medical treatments that could have debilitating side effects. Ben can do that because he’s over the legal age of 18. The plan is to live out his senior year as “normally” as possible. He wants to go all out and cram a whole lifetime into one year, and he does! Ben tries out for football, despite the fact that he weighs less than a hundred and thirty pounds; he befriends the town drunk; and he finally gets up the courage to ask out the girl of his dreams. This is a quick read with a blend of football action, love scenes and true-life drama.
http://www.chriscrutcher.com/ Patty McClune

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

This story is quick-paced science fiction, set in the not too distant future. America is now called Pamen and is divided into twelve districts. The rich, privileged people in the Capitol keep the people in the outlying districts in line through a reality TV program called The Games. Every year each district is required to send one boy and one girl, between the ages of 12 – 18, to participate in The Games. These games are a fight-to-the-death version of the TV show Survivor, complete with alliances and a little romance thrown in. There’s also the glitzy aspect of Dancing with the Stars as the 24 contestants all get makeovers complete with flashy outfits so they’re more photogenic. This book is very exciting, but it also makes you stop and think about what happens when a culture values entertainment more than humaneness.
http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/ Patty McClune

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Arnold Spirit, known as Junior to family and friends, is a Native American teenager with a lot of problems: various medical issues, bullies who regularly seek him out, an alcoholic father, and a dirt-poor family (so poor that they’re forced to shoot their dog because there’s no money for a vet). Despite all his problems Junior has a great sense of humor. He’s a basketball player and a cartoonist, too, and his drawings are laugh-out-loud funny. He’s the kind of underdog you’ll love to root for. Junior’s school on the reservation is terrible: with 30-yr-old textbooks and teachers who forget to come to class. Junior wants to fight that, but finally his math teacher convinces him that things on the rez are never going to change. Mr. P lays it on the line and tells Junior he needs to get off the reservation, before it kills him and his spirit. He encourages Junior to transfer to a wealthy, all-white high school nearby. Talk about culture shock! The only other Indian there is the school mascot. Things are tough at the new school. Kids aren’t friendly and make fun of his NA heritage. What makes the situation worse is that the whole reservation thinks Junior's a sell-out. Now he belongs nowhere. This is a seriously funny story about overcoming poverty, handicaps, and discrimination.

http://www.fallsapart.com/ Patty McClune