Said Hyder Akbar and Susan Burton.  Come Back to Afghanistan: 

A California Teenager's Story  Said Hyder Akbar was living an ordinary suburban life in California when the shocking events of September 11, 2001, turned his world upside down. After the fall of the Taliban, Hyder's father, a scion of an Afghan political family, sold his business - a hip-hop clothing store in Oakland - and left for Afghanistan, where he became President Hamid Karzai's chief spokesman. Obsessed since youth with a country he had never even visited, seventeen-year-old Hyder convinced his father to let him join him during three successive summer vacations. In Afghanistan, Hyder witnessed a scarred country at a time of radical change, its hope for the future marred by blood feuds, poverty, and divided loyalties.

Susan Campbell Bartoletti.  Hitler Youth:  Growing Up in Hitler's

Shadow   The story of a generation of German young people who devoted all their energy to the Hitler Youth and the propaganda that brought Hitler his power, and the youths that resisted the Nazi movement.

Karen Blumenthal.  Let Me Play:  The Story of Title IX:  The Law

That Changed the Future of Girls in America  Up until the 1970s, if you were a girl, you were told you shouldn't play team sports, or go to college. But, in 1972, Title IX changed that, by ensuring that girls have the same opportunities as boys to participate in sports and classes. But that change did not come without a fight.

Tonya Bolden.  Maritcha:  A Nineteenth Century American Girl

A biography of a remarkable black girl growing up in the mid-1800's in Manhatten, N.Y.

James M. Deem.  Bodies From the Ash:  Life and Death in Ancient

Pompeii    The story of the eruption of Versuvius and its destruction of Pompeii.  Deem explains how the site was excavated and how scientists are able to reacreate a picture of life at the time of the eruption.

Leslie Dendy and Mel Boring.   Guinea Pig Scientists:  Bold Self-

Experimenters in Science and Medicine   Scientists who perform research on themselves to further their discoveries.

Will Eisner.  The Plot:  The Secret Story of the Protocols of the

Elders of Zion  Completing The Plot in the last month of his life, Will Eisner tackled what he regarded as his most powerful work. Deeply disturbed that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which purports to be the actual blueprint by Jewish leaders to take over the world, continued to be published and disseminated to millions of people around the globe, Eisner hoped that his own graphic account of this outrageous fabrication could reach a mass audience in a way that no academic work possibly could.

Jeanette Farrell.  Invisible Allies:  Microbes That Shape Our

Lives   Usually, microbes are equated with disease, but in fact most microbes are actually our allies. Learn how the microbes that are everywhere around us help us to survive every day.

Candace Fleming.  Our Eleanor:  A Scrapbook Look at Eleanor

Roosevelt's Remarkable Life  There has hardly been a life in the last century that Eleanor Roosevelt has not affected, in one way or another. From securing safe, low-cost housing for Kentucky's poor, to helping her grandchildren hang a tire swing on the White House's south lawn, to representing America as the first female delegate to the United Nations, Eleanor rarely kept a second of her life for herself -- and she wouldn't have had it any other way.

Mitch Frank.  Understanding the Holy Land:  Answering

Questions About the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict  

James Cross Giblin.  Good Brother, Bad Brother:  The Story of

Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth  On April 14, 1865, five days after the end of the Civil War, John Wilkes Booth fired a single shot and changed the course of American history. His infamous deed cost him his life and brought notoriety and shame to his family-particularly his elder brother, the renowned actor Edwin Booth. From that day forward, Edwin would be known as "the brother of the man who killed President Lincoln."

Yuval Taylor, editor.  Growing Up in Slavery:  Stories of Young

Slaves as Told By Themselves

Suzanne Jurmain.  The Forbidden Schoolhouse:  The True and

Dramatic Story of Prudence Crandall and Her Students  

Bee Lavender.  Lessons in Taxidermy

Diagnosed with cancer at age twelve and perilously pregnant at eighteen, surviving surgeries and violent accidents: Sometimes you can't believe Bee Lavender is still alive; sometimes you think nothing could kill her. Lessons in Taxidermy is Lavender's fierce and expressive search for truth and an elusive sense of safety.

Marily Nelson.  Fortune's Bones:  The Manumission Requiem

There is a skeleton on display in the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, Connecticut. It has been in the town for over 200 years. Over time, the bones became the subject of stories and speculation in Waterbury. In 1996 a group of community-based volunteers, working in collaboration with the museum staff, discovered that the bones were those of a slave named Fortune who had been owned by a local doctor. After Fortune's death, the doctor dissected the body, rendered the bones, and assembled the skeleton. A great deal is still not known about Fortune, but it is known that he was baptized, was married, and had four children. He died at about the age of 60, sometime after 1797.

Marilyn Nelson.  A Wreath for Emmett Till

In 1955 people all over the United States knew that Emmett Louis Till was a fourteen-year-old African American boy lynched for supposedly whistling at a white woman in Mississippi. The brutality of his murder, the open-casket funeral held by his mother, Mamie Till Mobley, and the aquittal of the men tried for the crime drew wide media attention.  In a profound and chilling poem, award winning poet Marilyn Nelson reminds us of the boy whose fate helped spark the civil rights movement. This martyr's wreath, woven from a little-known but sophisticated form of poetry, challenges us to speak out against modern-day injustices, to "speak what we see."

Joe O'Donnell.  Japan 1945:  A U. S. Marine's Photographs from

Ground Zero  Three weeks after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, O'Donnell, a 23-year-old Marine, was sent to Japan to document the aftermath of atomic and traditional bombing campaigns in 50 cities. O'Donnell (who later became a White House photographer) took thousands of photographs, most of which disappeared into military archives. Some 300 b&w images taken with his personal camera are the basis for this volume.

Elizabeth Partridge.  John Lennon:  All I Want Is the Truth

The story of one of rock's biggest legends, from his birth during a 1940 World War II air raid on Liverpool, through his turbulent childhood and teen years, to his celebrated life writing, recording, and performing with the Beatles and beyond.

Valerie Zenatti.  When I Was a Soldier:  A Memoir

What is it like to be a young woman in a war? At a time when Israel is in the news every day and politics in the Middle East are as complex as ever before, this story of one girl's experience in the Israeli national army is both topical and fascinating. Valerie begins her story as she finishes her exams, breaks up with her boyfriend, and leaves for service with the Israeli army. Nothing has prepared her for the strict routines, grueling marches, poor food, lack of sleep and privacy, or crushing of initiative that she now faces. But this harsh life has excitement, too, such as working in a spy center near Jerusalem and listening in on Jordanian pilots. Offering a glimpse into the life of a typical Israeli teen, even as it lays bare the relentless nature of war, Valerie's story is one young readers will have a hard time forgetting.

L. J. Adlington.  The Diary of Pelly D

When Toni V, a construction worker on a futuristic colony, finds the diary of a teenage girl whose life has been turned upside-down by holocaust-like events, he begins to question his own beliefs.

Margaret Bechard.  Spacer and Rat

Jack's predictable existence on Freedom space station is transformed when Kit, the Earthie rat, enters his life and enlists him and a sensitive robot in an effort to outwit the Company.

Holly Black.  Valiant:  A Modern Tale of Faerie

Seventeen-year-old Val runs away to New York City, where she falls in with a gang of squatters who live in the city's subway system and consort with faeries, trolls, and other strange creatures.

Libba Bray.  Rebel Angels

Gemma and her friends from the Spence Academy return to the realms to defeat her foe, Circe, and to bind the magic that has been released.

Joseph Bruchac.  Code Talker:  A Novel About the Navajo Marines

of World War Two  After being taught in a boarding school run by whites that Navajo is a useless language, Ned Begay and other Navajo men are recruited by the Marines to become Code Talkers, sending messages during World War II in their native tongue.

Kalisha Buckhanon.  Upstate

Antonio and Natasha's world is turned upside down, and their young love is put to the test, when Antonio finds himself in jail, accused of a shocking crime. Antonio fights to stay alive on the inside, while on the outside, Natasha faces choices that will change her life. Over the course of a decade, they share a desperate correspondence. Often, they have only each other to turn to as life takes them down separate paths and leaves them wondering if they will ever find their way back together.

Cecil Castellucci.  Boy Proof

Feeling alienated from everyone around her, Los Angeles high school senior and cinephile Victoria Denton hides behind the identity of a favorite movie character until an interesting new boy arrives at school and helps her realize that there is more to life than just the movies.

Jake Coburn.  LoveSick

After an accident seems to end his college and athletic dreams, Ted is offered a second chance at school if he agrees to spy on a classmate and help her father monitor her bulimia.

Priscilla Cummings.  Red Kayak

Living near the water on Maryland's Eastern Shore, thirteen-year-old Brady and his best friends J.T. and Digger become entangled in a tragedy which tests their friendship and their ideas about right and wrong.

Joseph Delaney.  Revenge of the Witch

Young Tom, the seventh son of a seventh son, starts work as an apprentice for the village spook, whose job is to protect ordinary folk from "ghouls, boggarts, and all manner of wicked beasties."

Nancy E. Mercado, editor.  Every Man for Himself:  Ten Short

Stories About Being a Guy  An anthology of ten original short stories about such things as family problems, sexuality, and courage, written by well-known authors of children's books.

Sharon G. Flake.  Bang!

A teenage boy must face the harsh realities of inner city life, a disintegrating family, and destructive temptations as he struggles to find his identity as a young man.

Paul Fleischman.  Zap

When they're not dusting off the old classics--over and over--high-school drama departments are constantly in search of new material. But what play could possibly suit the point-and-click attention spans of kids born with remote controls in their cribs? Cue the lights for Zap, a nonstop farce that juxtaposes seven different plays--performed simultaneously--with a comic genius that brings to mind masters from Monty Python to the Marx Brothers.

E. R. Frank.  Wrecked

After a car accident seriously injures her best friend and kills her brother's girlfriend, sixteen-year-old Anna tries to cope with her guilt and grief, while learning some truths about her family and herself.

Neil Gaiman.  Anansi Boys

Mr. Nancy left Fat Charlie things. Things like the tall, good-looking stranger who appears on Charlie's doorstep, who appears to be the brother he never knew. A brother as different from Charlie as night is from day, a brother who's going to show Charlie how to lighten up and have a little fun...just like Dear Old Dad. And all of a sudden, life starts getting very interesting for Fat Charlie.

Gregory Galloway.  As Simple as Snow

It is said that Anna (Anastasia) Cayne was born in a thunderstorm. A slightly spooky and complicated high school girl with a penchant for riddles, shortwave radios, Houdini tricks, and ghost stories, Anna spends much of her time writing obituaries for every living person in town. She is unlike anyone the narrator has ever been with, and they make an unlikely, though happy, pair.

John Green.  Looking for Alaska

Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash.

Adele Griffin.  Where I Want to Be

Two teenaged sisters, separated by death but still connected, work through their feelings of loss over the closeness they shared as children that was later destroyed by one's mental illness, and finally make peace with each other.

Nikki Grimes.  Dark Sons

Alternating poems compare and contrast the conflicted feelings of Ishmael, son of the Biblical patriarch Abraham, and Sam, a teenager in New York City, as they try to come to terms with being abandoned by their fathers and with the love they feel for their younger stepbrothers.

Michael Gruber.  The Witch's Boy

A grotesque foundling turns against the witch who sacrificed almost everything to raise him when he becomes consumed by the desire for money and revenge against those who have hurt him, but he eventually finds his true heart's desire.

Ann Halam.  Siberia:  A Novel

After spending two years at a prison school, thirteen-year-old Sloe sets off on a trek across frozen wastelands, tending to the secret "seeds" of wild animals her mother left in her care, trying to reach a new life for all of them.

Sonya Hartnett.  Stripes of the Sidestep Wolf

Satchel O'Rye, devoted son of an impoverished couple in a dying rural town, must weigh in balance the life of his most cherished dog and the freedom of a rare striped tiger.

Pete Hautman.  Invisible

Doug and Andy are unlikely best friends--one a loner obsessed by his model trains, the other a popular student involved in football and theater--who grew up together and share a bond that nothing can sever.

Julie Hearn.  The Minister's Daughter

In 1645 in England, the daughters of the town minister successfully accuse a local healer and her granddaughter of witchcraft to conceal an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, but years later during the 1692 Salem trials their lie has unexpected repercussions.

Carl Hiaasen.  Flush

With their father jailed for sinking a river boat, Noah Underwood and his younger sister, Abbey, must gather evidence that the owner of this floating casino is emptying his bilge tanks into the protected waters around their Florida Keys home.

Josef Holub.  An Innocent Soldier

A sixteen-year-old farmhand is tricked into fighting in the Napoleonic Wars by the farmer for whom he works, who secretly substitutes him for the farmer's own son.

Jennifer Richard Jacobson.  Stained

In Weaver Falls, New Hampshire, in 1975, seventeen-year-old Jocelyn looks for answers when her lifelong neighbor and friend, Gabe, turns up missing and she learns that, while her boyfriend has been telling everything to a priest, Gabe has been keeping terrible secrets.

Maureen Johnson.  13 Little Blue Envelopes

When seventeen-year-old Ginny receives a packet of mysterious envelopes from her favorite aunt, she leaves New Jersey to criss-cross Europe on a sort of scavenger hunt that transforms her life.

Pnina Moed Kass.  Real Time

Sixteen-year-old Tomas Wanninger persuades his mother to let him leave Germany to volunteer at a kibbutz in Israel, where he experiences a violent political attack and finds answers about his own past.

Kazu Kibuishi.  Daisy Kutter:  The Last Train

Christopher Krovatin.  Heavy Metal and You

High schooler Sam begins losing himself when he falls for a preppy girl who wants him to give up getting wasted with his best friends and even his passion for heavy metal music in order to become a better person.

Margo Lanagan.  Black Juice

Provides glimpses of the dark side of civilization and the beauty of the human spirit through ten short stories that explore significant moments in people's lives, events leading to them, and their consequences.

Justine Larbalestier.  Magic or Madness

From the Sydney, Australia home of a grandmother she believes is a witch, fifteen-year-old Reason Cansino is magically transported to New York City, where she discovers that friends and foes can be hard to distinguish.

David Larochelle.  Absolutely Positively Not

Chronicles a teenage boy's humorous attempts to fit in at his Minnesota high school by becoming a macho, girl-loving, "Playboy" pinup-displaying heterosexual.

Julius Lester.  Day of Tears:  A Novel in Dialogue

Emma has taken care of the Butler children since Sarah and Frances's mother, Fanny, left. Emma wants to raise the girls to have good hearts, as a rift over slavery has ripped the Butler household apart. Now, to pay off debts, Pierce Butler wants to cash in his slave "assets", possibly including Emma.

David Lubar.  Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie:  A Novel

While navigating his first year of high school and awaiting the birth of his new baby brother, Scott loses old friends and gains some unlikely new ones as he hones his skills as a writer.

Chris Lynch.  Inexcusable

High school senior and football player Keir sets out to enjoy himself on graduation night, but when he attempts to comfort a friend whose date has left her stranded, things go terribly wrong.

Jim Lynch.  The Highest Tide:  A Novel

On a moonlit night, thirteen-year-old Miles O'Malley slips out of his house, packs up his kayak and goes exploring on the tidal flats of Puget Sound. But what begins as a routine hunt for starfish, snails and clams turns into a televised spectacle after Miles finds a rare deep-sea creature stranded in the mud. When he continues to discover more exotic ocean life in the quiet backwater bays near his home, Miles becomes a local sensation. Soon he is shadowed on the flats by people curious as to whether he is just an observant boy or an unlikely prophet.

A. Lee Martinez.  Gil's All Fright Diner

Duke and Earl are just passing through Rockwood County in their pickup truck when they stop at the diner for a quick bite to eat. They aren't planning to stick around - until Loretta, the eatery's gargantuan owner, offers them one hundred dollars to take care of her zombie problem. Given that Duke is a werewolf and Earl's a vampire, this looks right up their alley.  But the shambling dead are just the tip of a particularly spiky iceberg. Seems someone's out to drive Loretta from the diner, and more than willing to raise a little hell on earth if that's what it takes. Before Duke and Earl get to the bottom of the diner's troubles, they'll run into such otherworldly complications as undead cattle, an amorous ghost, a jailbait sorceress, and the terrifying occult power of pig Latin.

Alison McGhee.  All Rivers Flow to the Sea

After a car accident in the Adirondacks leaves her older sister Ivy brain-dead, seventeen-year-old Rose struggles with her grief and guilt as she slowly learns to let her sister go.

Stephenie Meyer.  Twilight:  A Novel

When seventeen-year-old Bella leaves Phoenix to live with her father in Forks, Washington, she meets an exquisitely handsome boy at school for whom she feels an overwhelming attraction and who she comes to realize is not wholly human.

Walter Dean Myers.  Autobiography of My Dead Brother

Jesse uses his sketchbook and comic strips to make sense of his home in Harlem and the loss of a close friendship.

Kenneth Oppel.  Skybreaker

Matt Cruse, a student at the Airship Academy, and Kate de Vries, a young heiress, team up with a gypsy and a daring captain, to find a long-lost airship, rumored to carry a treasure beyond imagination.

Mary E. Pearson.  A Room on Lorelei Street

To escape a miserable existence taking care of her alcoholic mother, seventeen-year-old Zoe rents a room from an eccentric woman, but her earnings as a waitress after school are minimal and she must go to extremes to cover expenses.

Mal Peet.  Keeper

In an interview with a young journalist, World Cup hero, El Gato, describes his youth in the Brazilian rain forest and the events, experiences, and people that helped make him a great goalkeeper and renowned soccer star.

Matt de la Pena.  Ball Don't Lie

Seventeen-year-old Sticky lives for basketball and plays at school and at the Lincoln Rec Center in Los Angeles but he is unaware of the many dangers--including his own past--that threaten his dream of playing professionally.

Lynne Rae Perkins.  Criss Cross

Teenagers in a small town in the 1960s experience new thoughts and feelings, question their identities, connect, and disconnect as they search for the meaning of life and love.

Marsha Qualey.  Just Like That

A tragic accident ending with the death of two people her own age changes life forever for an eighteen-year-old woman.

Rick Riordan.  The Lightning Thief:  Percy Jackson and the

Olympians  Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson learns he is a demigod, the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the sea. His mother sends him to a summer camp for demigods where he and his new friends set out on a quest to prevent a war between the gods.

J. K. Rowling.  Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince takes up the story of Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at this point in the midst of the storm of this battle of good and evil.

Graham Salisbury.  Eyes of the Emperor

Following orders from the United States Army, several young Japanese American men train K-9 units to hunt Asians during World War II.

Geert Spillebeen.  Kipling's Choice

In 1915, mortally wounded in Loos, France, eighteen-year-old John Kipling, son of writer Rudyard Kipling, remembers his boyhood and the events leading to what is to be his first and last World War I battle.

Suzanne Fisher Staples.  Under the Persimmon Tree

During the 2001 Afghan War, the lives of Najmal, a young refugee from Kunduz, Afghanistan, and Nusrat, an American-Muslim teacher who is awaiting her husband's return from Mazar-i-Sharif, intersect at a school in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Tammar Stein.  Light Years:  A Novel

Maya Laor leaves her home in Israel to study astronomy at the University of Virginia after the tragic death of her boyfriend in a suicide bombing.

Lilli Thal.  Mimus

Grace Tiffany.  Ariel

A magical retelling of William Shakespeare's "The Tempest" from the point of view of Ariel, the mischievous air spirit.

Rebecca Tingle.  Far Traveler

After the death of her mother, Aethelflaed of Mercia, seventeen-year-old Aelfwyn flees imprisonment by her uncle King Edward and, in the guise of a youthful bard, plays her part in the resolution of the tangled political enmities of tenth century Britain.

Diane Tullson.  Red Sea

Brian K. Vaughan.  Runaways:  Volume 1

Susan Vaught.  Stormwitch

In Pass Christian, Mississippi in 1969, sixteen-year-old Ruba, trained by her Haitian grandmother in both voodoo and Amazonian warrior tactics, uses her skills to fight against racism and the African witch Zashar, now coming ashore in the form of Hurricane Camille.

Paul Volponi.  Black and White

Two star high school basketball players, one black and one white, experience the justice system differently after committing a crime together and getting caught.

Will Weaver.  Full Service

In the summer of 1965, teenager Paul Sutton, a northern Minnesota farm boy, takes a job at a gas station in town, where his strict religious upbringing is challenged by new people and experiences.

Scott Westerfeld.  Peeps

Cal Thompson is a carrier of a parasite that causes vampirism, and must hunt down all of the girlfriends he has unknowingly infected.

Scott Westerfeld.  Uglies

Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that? Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license -- for turning pretty.

Laura Whitcomb.  A Certain Slant of Light

After benignly haunting a series of people for 130 years, Helen meets a teenage boy who can see her and together they unlock the mysteries of their pasts.

Ellen Wittlinger.  Sandpiper

When The Walker, a mysterious boy who walks constantly, intervenes in an argument between Sandpiper and a boy she used to see, their lives become entwined in ways that change them both.

Chris Wooding.  Poison

When Poison leaves her home in the marshes of Gull to retrieve the infant sister who was snatched by the fairies, she and a group of unusual friends survive encounters with the inhabitants of various Realms, and Poison herself confronts a surprising destiny.

Tim Wynne-Jones.  A Thief in the House of Memory

The death of an apparent stranger in the Steeple family's old home triggers troubling questions for sixteen-year-old Declan as he tries to make sense of his fragmented dreams, random memories, and unexplained coincidences, hoping to learn the truth about the mother who suddenly left when he was ten.

Markus Zusak.  I Am the Messenger

After capturing a bank robber, nineteen-year-old cab driver Ed Kennedy begins receiving mysterious messages that direct him to addresses where people need help, and he begins getting over his lifelong feeling of worthlessness.