"Tayshas" takes its name from the Caddo Indian word meaning "friends or allies". Written texas, texios, tejas, teyas, or tayshas, the word was applied to the Caddos by the Spanish in eastern Texas, who regarded them as friends and allies against the Apaches. (Newcomb, W.W., ,Jr. The Indians from Texas: Prehistoric to Modern Times. University of Texas Press, 1961.)

The objectives of the Tayshas project are to motivate young adults to read more and to enjoy opportunities to become a community of readers in Texas.  Books marked with an * are nonfiction.

	Elaine Alphin.  Simon Says An alienated, aspiring young painter who attends high school at a boarding school for the arts discovers that being true to himself means opening the door to both pain and pleasure
	Steve Alten.  Domain In the year 2012, Mick Gabriel, a paranoid schizophrenic, attempts to charm psychologist Dominique Vazquez into believing his father's theories of the Apocalypse so he can escape. Mick's archaeologist father spent 32 years studying the 2,500-year-old Mayan calendar which can predict the end of humanity. When a rare galactic alignment occurs, and a space transmission reaches Earth, it is the beginning of the end.
	Tamim Ansary.  West of Kabul, East of New York * Ansary spent the first 16 years of his life in the Afghan capital of Kabul, before leaving for travels throughout the Islamic world and eventual residence in the United States. Here he recalls his travels, reflecting on the current and past rifts within the Islamic world and exploring the possibilities that he (born of an American mother and an Afghan father) and the rest of the world can reconcile the rifts between the West and Islam.
	Kathi Appelt.  Poems from Homeroom:  A Writer's Place to Start A collection of poems about the experiences of young people and a section with information about how each poem was written to enable readers to create their own original poems
	Adam Bagdasarian.  Forgotten Fire Beautifully written, this novel of a young boy's journey to survive and to become the man his father wanted him to be will speak to adults and to younger readers as well. It is a story made all the more powerful because it is the true story of the author's great-uncle during the Armenian genocide of 1915.
	David Baldacci.  Last Man Standing Web London, an FBI agent in the Hostage and Rescue Team, becomes the only survivor of a particularly brutal ambush of his squad. An investigation takes place to discover why he - and no-one else was spared.
	Margaret Bechard.  Hanging on to Max When his girlfriend decides to give their baby away, seventeen-year-old Sam is determined to keep him and raise him alone.
	Marc Bekoff.  The Smile of a Dolphin * This collection of accounts from more than 50 animal behavior researchers offers the surprisingly complex emotional lives of animals. Compelling full-color photos capture emotions once thought to belong to only humans.
	Rick Bragg.  Ava's Man * Rick Bragg brings his astonishing gift for storytelling to the tale of his grandfather, a man who kept his family one step ahead of poverty and starvation. Charlie Bundrum was a man who took giant steps in rundown boots, a true hero whom history would otherwise have overlooked.
	Bruce Brooks.  Dolores:  Seven Stories about Her A series of events captures the life of a free-spirited girl as she grows from a savvy seven -year-old to a self-assured sixteen-year-old.
	Harlan Coben.  Tell No One She was his great love, the woman he'd adored since they were children. But a few months into their marriage, Elizabeth Beck was abducted, then found dead, the brutalized victim of a serial killer. Now, eight years later, Beck receives a mysterious e-mail suggesting that Elizabeth may still be alive.
	Rachel Cohn.  Gingerbread After being expelled from a fancy boarding school, Cyd Charisse's problems with her mother escalate after Cyd falls in love with a sensitive surfer and is subsequently sent from San Francisco to New York City to spend time with her biological father.
	Gillian Cross.  Phoning a Dead Man When John, a British demolitions expert, is supposedly killed blowing up a building in Siberia, his fiancée Annie insists on investigating, despite being in a wheelchair, and John's teenage sister Hayley goes along and finds that the Russian Mafia is involved.
	Carolee Dean.  Comfort Fourteen-year-old Kenny Roy Willson fantasizes about escape from his hometown of Comfort , Texas, following his alcoholic father's release from prison.
	Sarah Dessen.  This Lullaby:  A Novel Raised by a mother who's had five husbands, eighteen-year-old Remy believes in short-term, no-commitment relationships until she meets Dexter, a rock band musician.
	Barbara Ehrenreich.  Nickel and Dimed:  On (Not) Getting By in America * Millions of Americans work full-time, year-round, for poverty-level wages. In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that a job -- any job -- could be the ticket to a better life. But how does anyone survive, let alone prosper, on six to seven dollars an hour?
	L. M. Elliott.  Under a War-Torn Sky After his plane is shot down by Hitler's Luftwaffe, nineteen-year-old Henry Forester of Richmond, Virginia, strives to walk across occupied France, with the help of the French Resistance, in hopes of rejoining his unit.
	Elizabeth Fama.  Overboard Escaping from a sinking ferry in the waters off Sumatra, fourteen-year-old Emily fights for survival for herself and a young Indonesian boy, who draws courage from his quiet but firm Islamic faith.
	Nancy Farmer.  The House of the Scorpion In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patrón, the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.
	Jean Ferris.  Eight Seconds Eighteen-year-old John must confront his own sexuality when he goes to rodeo school and finds himself strangely attracted to an older boy who is smart, tough, complicated, gorgeous, and gay.
	Antwone Quenton Fisher.  Finding Fish:  A Memoir * Born in prison to a single mother, Antwone Fisher was a ward of Cleveland's foster care system. At 17 he broke free, only to suffer the hardships of life on the streets. Yet despite the damage to his self-esteem, "Fish" managed to resist the lure of crime and drugs. Enlisting in the United States Navy, he found a "family" of his own. Yet before he could make peace with his past, he had to discover who he really was and where he came from.
	Alex Flinn.  Breaking Point Fifteen-year-old Paul enters an exclusive private school and falls under the spell of a charismatic boy who may be using him.
	E. R. Frank.  America Teenage America , a not-black, not-white, not-anything boy who has spent many years in institutions for disturbed, antisocial behavior, tries to piece his life together.
	Jack Gantos.  Hole in My Life * The author relates how, as a young adult, he became a drug user and smuggler, was arrested, did time in prison, and eventually got out and went to college, all the while hoping to become a writer.
	Gail Giles.  Shattering Glass When Rob, the charismatic leader of the senior class, turns the school nerd into Prince Charming, his actions lead to unexpected violence.
	Nikki Grimes.  Bronx Masquerade While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they've written, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates.
	Ann Halam.  Dr. Franklin's Island When their plane crashes over the Pacific Ocean, three science students are left stranded on a tropical island and then imprisoned by a doctor who is performing horrifying experiments on humans involving the transfer of animal genes.
	Lian Hearn.  Across the Nightingale Floor Already a sensation around the world, this first book of The Otori Trilogy is a brilliantly imagined, wholly seductive tale of war, passion, and intrigue, evoking the spirit of medieval Japan. It is the story of a boy who is suddenly plucked from his life in a remote and peaceful village to find himself a pawn in a political scheme filled with treacherous warlords, rivalry, and the intensity of first love
	Valerie Hobbs.  Tender After her beloved Gran dies, fifteen-year-old Liv goes to California to live with the father she has never known and must adjust to his gruff ways and his life as an abalone diver, so different from her life in New York City.
	Dean Hughes.  Soldier Boys Two boys , one German and one American, are eager to join their respective armies during World War II, and their paths cross at the Battle of the Bulge.
	Jeanette Ingold.  The Big Burn Three teenagers battle the flames of the Big Burn of 1910, one of the century's biggest wildfires.
	A. M. Jenkins.  Damage Seventeen-year-old football hero Austin, trying to understand the inexplicable depression that has drained his interest in life, thinks that he has found relief in a girl who seems very special.
	M. E. Kerr.  Slap Your Sides Life in their Pennsylvania hometown changes for Jubal Shoemaker and his family when his older brother witnesses to his Quaker beliefs by becoming a conscientious objector during World War II.
	Daniel King.  Chess:  From First Moves to Checkmate * Introduces the rules and strategies of chess , as well as its history and some of the great players and matches.
	Kathe Koja.  Straydog Rachel, a teenager with a healthy dose of both aptitude and attitude, begins to feel at home volunteering at an animal shelter.
	Gordon Korman.  Son of the Mob Seventeen-year-old Vince's life is constantly complicated by the fact that he is the son of a powerful Mafia boss, a relationship that threatens to destroy his romance with the daughter of an FBI agent.
	Mercedes Lackey.  The Serpent's Shadow Living most of her 25 years in her native India, Maya Witherspoon is the daughter of a prominent British physician and a Brahmin woman of the highest caste--and a doctor herself. Maya's mother was a former priestess of the magic fueled by the powerful pantheon of Indian gods. When her parents are murdered, Maya flees to Edwardian London where she must master her own magic.
	Latifa.  My Forbidden Face * A moving tale of oppression and courageous defrance -- the true story of a teenage girl growing up in wartorn Afghanistan. From 1997 to 2001, sixteen-year-old Latifa was a prisoner in her own home as the Taliban wreaked havoc on the lives of Afghan girls and women. This is her testimony -- a young woman's reaction to the inhumanity taking place before her very eyes.
	Iain Lawrence.  The Lightkeeper's Daughter When, after a four-year absence, seventeen-year-old Squid returns to her childhood home on a remote lighthouse island off British Columbia with her young daughter in tow, she and her parents try to come to terms with each other and the painful events of the past, especially the death of her older brother.
	Martel Yann.  Life of Pi Pi, the son of a zookeeper, is marooned aboard a lifeboat with four wild animals. His knowledge and cunning allow him to coexist for 227 days with Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger.
	Adam Mastoon.  The Shared Heart:  Portraits and Stories Celebrating Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Young People * This collection of writings by homosexual and bisexual youth reflect the soul searching, suffering and discrimination many have undergone. Photographs from a traveling exhibit are included that show the faces of dynamic, thoughtful, hopeful members of our communities and world.
	Patrick McCormick.  Cut While confined to a mental hospital, thirteen-year-old Callie slowly comes to understand some of the reasons behind her self-mutilation, and gradually starts to get better.
	Vickie Nam, ed.  YELL-Oh Girls!:  Emerging Voices Explore Culture, Identity and Growing Up Asian American * Culled from hundreds of submissions from all over the country, these poignant, honest, real, and surprising pieces on being Asian-American address such topics as culture clash, body image, interracial dating, adoption, and stereotypes.
	Han Nolan.  Born Blue Janie was four years old when she nearly drowned due to her mothers neglect. Through an unhappy foster home experience, and years of feeling that she is unwanted, she keeps alive her dream of someday being a famous singer.
	Naomi Shihab Nye.  19 Varieties of Gazelle This volume collects for the first time all of Nye's poems about the Middle East, peace, and being an Arab-American in the U.S.
	Joyce Carol Oates.  Big Mouth & Ugly Girl When sixteen-year-old Matt is falsely accused of threatening to blow up his high school and his friends turn against him, an unlikely classmate comes to his aid.
	Susan Heyboer O'Keefe.  My Life and Death by Alexandra Canarsie Escaping school and family problems in a cemetery, fifteen-year-old Allie begins attending strangers' funerals, which leads to her first real friendship and a mystery that she believes only she can solve.
	Michael Palmer.  Fatal A young maverick doctor returns to his West Virginia hometown and finds residents afflicted with a bizarre syndrome leading to deformity, madness, and death. Joining him on his quest for answers is a Boston-based pathologist, but the doctors soon discover that the first lives they must save are their own.
	Harry Parsons.  The Nature of Frogs:  Amphibians with Attitude * Stunning color photographs introduce the animals in these well-designed natural histories. Close-ups invite readers to learn more. Along with descriptions are anecdotes of the animals' depiction in literature, myths and interesting tales of famous animals.
	Randy Powell.  Three Clams and an Oyster During their humorous search to find a fourth player for their flag football team, three high school juniors are forced to examine their long friendship, their individual flaws, and their inability to try new experiences.
	Alex Sanchez.  Rainbow Boys Three high school seniors, a jock with a girlfriend and an alcoholic father, a closeted gay, and a flamboyant gay rights advocate, struggle with family issues, gay bashers, first sex, and conflicting feelings about each other.
	Alice Sebold.  Lovely Bones Starting with the first chapter, 14-year-old Susie Salmon recounts her rape and murder, from heaven, and watches her family as they cope with their grief.
	Patrice Vecchione.  Truth and Lies:  An Anthology of Poems Drawing on poets from Margaret Atwood to Langston Hughes, from Walt Whitman to Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Vecchione shows how truth is necessary, but how it can hurt; how lies may kill, and yet can soothe.
	Kate Wilhelm.  Desperate Measures Attorney Barbara Holloway's latest case pits her against her most worthy foe yet--her father--when a friend of his is accused of murder.
	Lori Aurelia Williams.  Shayla's Double Brown Baby Blues Thirteen-year-old Shayla is upset when her estranged father's new baby is born on her birthday, but she learns that her problems are nothing compared to those faced by her friends Kambia and Lemm.
	Ellen Wittlinger.  The Long Night of Leo and Bree On the anniversary of his sister's murder, Leo, tormented by his mother's insane accusations and his own waking nightmares, kidnaps a wealthy girl intending to kill her, but instead their long night together helps them both face their futures.
	Ellen Wittlinger.  Razzle When his retired parents buy a group of tourist cabins on Cape Cod, fifteen-year-old Kenyon Baker's days are filled with repair work until he becomes friends with an eccentric girl and makes her the subject of a series of photographs.
	Cathy Young, ed.  One Hot Second A collection of eleven stories by award-winning authors that explore the many varieties of teenage desire, including first crushes, first kisses, and first times.