Monster by Walter Dean Myers

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Steve is 16 and on trial as an accomplice to murder.  This is his first person account of the trial and his time in juvenile detention.

This book is amazing.  Steve tells the story in the form of a film script.  We see everything from his perspective as the court case goes on.  It illuminates the feelings that prisoners have and how they interact with each other without preaching to the reader.  I would recommend this to boys especially those who have trouble staying with a story.  The story is fast and the illustrations help to highlight the action and move the story along.

The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart

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Ruby is seeing a shrink to deal with the panic attacks that she has been having.  (Five in one week is really too many.)  After Ruby starts explaining that she lost her boyfriend and all of her friends and became a social leper her doctor suggests that she make a list of all of her boyfriends, even if she thinks they don’t count.  She uses the list to tell the story.

This book is fantastic!  It really nails the pettiness and randomness of friendships in middle and high school.  It shows how one mistake, even something small, can change your whole world.  The characters are realistic, not over the top, and the situations are believable for the age group. There is no one “mean girl” that ruins the main character’s life.  She makes bad choices, and some other characters make bad choices.  That does not make them “bad people”.  (I would recommend this book to high school age girls that like realistic fiction.)

The List by Siobhan Vivian

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It is a tradition at Mount Washington High School for a list of the four prettiest girls and the four ugliest girls to be produced just before Homecoming.  One girl is chosen from each grade.  This book tells the story from the perspective of all eight girls.

I enjoyed reading the book, including the twist ending.  It’s interesting to see how the list affects the girls positively and negatively.  The girls most hurt by the list are not the ones that you would think.  The book is both realistic and eye opening.  It’s more serious and fun then I thought it would be when I picked it up, but I really liked the book.

Guy Langman: Crime Scene Procrastinator by Josh Berk

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Guy (16) and his best friend Anoop join the forensics club at school soon after Guy’s father’s death.  It is a way to keep his mind off of his dad.  Right from the start Guy makes jokes, slacks off, and is generally a pain in the butt.  To spite his behavior he genuinely likes learning the science, so when a real body turns up Guy and Anoop are determined to solve the crime.

I liked the story but I think it would have been better without the real crime.  There is enough going on with Guy, his mom, the cute girl in forensics, and Anoop that solving the mystery of the body was not really necessary.  The book is funny and sweet.  I would recommend this for guys who like to read humorous realistic stories. 

Curveball: the Year I Lost My Grip by Jordan Sonnenblick

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Pete is an all-star athlete, and he is set to make a big splash as a great baseball pitcher when ninth grade starts.  Life seems pretty easy until a serious injury leaves him unable to pitch ever again.  Now he has to figure out who he is if he can’t be the star pitcher anymore.  On top of all of that, his grandfather is acting strange and there is a new girl in class whose presence renders him speechless. 

Jordan Sonneblick is a great writer.  That is all there is to it.  He writes some of the best teen fiction I have ever read.  When I read his books all of the characters read true for their age.  This story sounds sad, but it is full of humor and a lot of teens will be able to identify with Pete and his family.  I would recommend this for teens who like realistic stories with lots of humor. 

The Night She Disappeared by April Henry

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Pete’s pizza is a cool place to work. Drew takes the calls, Kayla or Gabie makes the deliveries. Everything is cool until Kayla and Gabie switch shifts and Kayla gets kidnapped. Did the kidnapper mean to take her or was it really Gabie that he was after? Is Kayla even still alive?


This is a thriller about a kidnapped girl, and the people who are left behind. The reader gets to see 14 days from the day the girl goes missing, until the end of the story. I enjoyed reading the story from several different points of view, even the kidnapper’s. I would recommend this book to guys and girls who enjoy suspense.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

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This book is about a high school guy, Greg, and his only friend, Earl. In order to stay hidden from everyone and have some fun they make truly awful movies. It doesn’t matter that the films are abysmal because no one knows them and no one will ever see the movies. When Greg’s mom makes him become friends with a girl (dying of cancer, but it is not as horrible as it sounds) he starts to make a movie that does not stink, and he plans on showing it.


This is a really hysterically funny book that a lot of guys would enjoy reading. I laughed a lot, in public, while reading this book. I would recommend this to older teen readers looking for realistic fiction with plenty of humor.

After by Amy Efaw

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Devon is a star soccer player and a straight A student. Her life is going great until she has a baby and dumps it in a trash can. After her arrest everyone, including Devon herself, tries to figure out why she did what she did.

The book was interesting. Devon is not a monster, but she did something monstrous. While reading it I found myself becoming frustrated with her, just like other characters in the book. She does nothing to help her own defense, and she seems to not really know what is going on for most of the book. I like the story, but I wished it didn’t take so long to get to the meat of the story. The author only gives little details at a time. I almost gave up on the story, but I wanted to know what would happen to Devon. I would recommend this book to an older teen girl who likes dramatic realistic fiction.

Sparks: the Epic, Completely True Blue, (Almost) Holy Quest of Debbie by S.J. Adams

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Debbie is a girl with a secret. When that secret is threatened she finds herself thinking about the kind of person she is and what she can do about it. At a loss, she starts a holy quest with some new friends to save a friend from Norman, the most BORING human on the earth, and to find true love.

This book was not what I thought it was going to be. I loved the cover; started reading it without knowing what I was getting into; and could not put it down. I’m not sure what I thought it would be about, but I really liked the book. Debbie has been in love with her best girl friends since sixth grade. When her friend is about to go All The Way with Norman, she feels like she needs to declare her love and hope for the best. To help her out her new friends take her on a holy quest. It’s a great story and I would recommend it to guys and girls looking for a positive story with a gay main character, or to anyone who likes to laugh their butts off.

Swim the Fly by Don Calame

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Matt and his two best friends set themselves a challenge every summer. They choose something that they all must do before school starts. This summer they are 15 and their goal is to see a real, live, in person naked girl. You would think since they are all on a coed swim team it would not be that difficult, but they go to some pretty amazing lengths to get the job done.


This book is so funny! The characters are realistic and well thought out. Sean, Coop, and Matt are amazing, but the really impressive characters are the girls. When you read this story you will recognize girls that you knew in high school. The story is sweet and fun and not at all as racy as the summary would lead you to believe. I would recommend this book for 9th grade and up. It’s a great way for girls to find out what guys are really thinking. This book features Matt as the main character but the other book, Beat the Band tells a story from Coops perspective.

Blood on My Hands by Todd Strasser

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Callie is at a party when she starts looking for her best frenemy. As she is walking by the dugout she trips over the body. What’s a sensible girl to do but feel for a pulse? No pulse but lots of blood all over Katherine and Callie. What’s that shiny object next to the body? Maybe Callie should pick it up…Oh it’s a knife (the murder weapon). Snap. Snap. Snap. Everyone from the party with a phone is taking pictures of Callie covered in Katherine’s blood and holding the murder weapon. Now Callie is on the run in her small town. She is trying to prove she is innocent by avoiding the cops and doing her own investigation.

The ending was a bit of a surprise, but this is my least favorite Todd Strasser book. His stories are usually a little tighter. The motive is a little shaky for my taste and some of the characters are a little one dimensional until the big reveal at the end of the story. I would read Wish You Were Dead by Strasser instead.

Every You, Every Me by David Levithan

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Evan had a friend named Ariel. Ariel is gone now, but Evan starts finding photos that make him believe that she is back somehow and looking to get back at him. He becomes more and more paranoid as the photos pileup.


I picked up this book because I liked the idea of the story being told with photos as well as with the writing. The pictres are a little creepy and I wanted to see how they related to the story.  I read the book and I’m still not sure how I feel about it. Evan is the unreliable narrator. He writes things and then scratched them out, so the reader is never really certain of the truth. Weird is what I think about this book. It has received some starred reviews and a lot of people have liked the story. I guess I’m not really a fan of psychological thrillers because it left me feeling a little flat.

Blink and Caution by Tim Wynne-Jones

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Blink is a sixteen year old runaway who spends his time stealing rich kid’s clothes so he can sneak into hotels and eat left over room service before housekeeping cleans up the hallways. Caution is a runaway living with an abusive, drug dealing boyfriend. When Blink sees a not quite kidnapping, and Caution runs away with some serious drug money their lives are thrown into turmoil. Fortunately they find and try to help each other. Unfortunately they are facing double the trouble trying to solve the kidnapping mystery and stay alive.


Why is it that whenever I read a gritty and unusual urban fiction book it’s almost always set in Canada? Those Canadians know how to keep me interested, even without spells or the walking dead. This book is written in a fast and exciting way. Guys who don’t want to read will be sucked into Blink’s story. There’s no flowery prose here, but somehow the story gets told…and it’s told well. The blunt way the story is told mirrors the blunt and rough way these teens are living, without being to over the top.  There’s some cussing, and drugs, and a whole lot of violence, but what do you expect from a mystery book written about runaways. My advice is to Read It.

The Anti Prom by Abby McDonald

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The cool girl, the outcast, and the wall flower. What do they all have in common? Prom of course. All three girls show up expecting different things and none of them get exactly what they thought they were going to out of their prom night.


Told in alternating chapters we see from each girl’s point of view. I like the way the story is told, and the way it’s all wrapped up. Each girl is incredibly believable and I think a lot of teen girls will see themselves or someone they know in the book. I would recommend for 9th grade and up because of some mild language and implied sexual content. (Nothing explicit in the book and no F bombs.) This is a good girlie teen book.

Withering Tights by Louise Rennison

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Tallulah is off to performing arts school in the country. She will be spending six weeks away from her family at sleep away camp. She is planning on studying the performing arts and boys. Unfortunately no one told her that the camp is all girls. Does she let it stop her? No. She makes friends and finds out a lot about herself and, meets some boys from the next camp over.


For those people who liked reading about Georgia, you are going to love her cousin Tallulah. It starts with Tullulah heading to the country.  We get to meet the crazy family she is staying with, and the tiny Yorkshire village where the camp is located.  This is a whole new English world for readers to enjoy.  The book is cute, funny, and full of the promise of snogging. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a girly story .

Addie on the Inside by James Howe

 

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From the outside Addie is an outspoken know it all.  She cares about the environment, human rights, and preventing animal cruelty.  On the inside she cares about those things, but she is aware of just how much she doesn't know.  This book is told in verse, poems from Addies perspective, about what's going on in her life as a 7th grader in Paintbrush Falls Middle School.  She deals with friends, bullies, gossip, and her very popular boyfriend.

This is a companion novel to "The Misfits" and "Totally Joe".  This time we get to tread the book from Addie's perspective.  I was surprised when I opened the book at it was in verse.  I didn't expect it, but I loved it.  The poems are in various styles, but the voice rings true for a 13 year old girl in middle school.  Howe deals with some difficult topics in the book, and he faces the subjects head on, while managing to keep it age appropriate for a 7th grade reader.  This is a great book and I recommend it for everyone.  

                                                                                                               Read the other books  in the Misfits Universe.

Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements

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Bobby is a regular teen living in a regular town.  His parents are smart scholarly types and he does just fine in school. Everything is running smoothly until he wakes up one morning and is invisable.  As he tries to figure out how to become visable again he and his parents struggle with the rumers that he is a missing person. 

This book caught me right away.  Bobby and his parents are realistic characters, who deal with his invisability the way most families probably would.  I love the way that everything is normal and true to life, except for the whole invisability thing.  I would reccomend this book to guys and girls who like scifi and realistic fiction. 

Rage by Jackie Morse Kessler

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Missy has a terrible secret. She cuts herself to let out all of the bad stuff she feels. She thinks she keeps it hidden so well, but when something brings her secret to light she’s not sure what to do. When her cutting brings her to the edge of death she is presented an offer. Die or become one of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse. Now she is the Red Rider; she is War.


This is the second book by Jackie Morse Kessler. The first featured a girl who became famine. Both books are amazing. I usually hate books that deal with the sad depressing fact that people hurt themselves. For some reason the way Morse Kessler writes, the insight she brings to the topic, and the fact that death likes to wear the skin of a rock god I listened to when I was a teen all comes together in an incredibly readable story. I recommend these books to everyone. There is some implied sexual content and violence, but it’s nothing gratuitous. What happens in the story is what must happen to get the main character where she belongs. GREAT BOOK!

Amelia O'Donohue is So Not a Virgin by Helen Fitzgerald

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Rachel is the girl in town who everyone tells their secrets to, because it’s guaranteed that she will never tell the secret. After she gets in trouble at a town dance, her parents send her to the pricy private boarding school that she really wants to go to. It seems like all of her dreams will come true. She will graduate at the top of her class, get into medical school, and live happily ever after. Things are going well, until her friends start trash talking about her and she uncovers a secret that is too big to keep.


The book was not what I expected. The back cover and the title make it seem like the book is about Amelia, but it’s not. She is in the story, but the real story is Rachel. We see the world through Rachel’s eyes, so much so that we don’t see everything clearly. The story was a surprise and I’m glad that I read it. It’s told from a unique prospective. I would recommend this to older teen readers because of some sexual content (nothing explicit just a little more information than some tweens are ready for), and the maturity level of the characters and situations. (9th grade and up).

Trapped by Michael Northrop

Scotty and 7 others are trapped in their high school when a record breaking blizzard strikes. Over ten feet of snow piles onto the roof of the school where the kids are trapped. The windows are obscured and the halls are pitch black. There is plenty of food in the cafeteria, but without electricity how can they cook or stay warm? They are buried in the school, and know on knows they are there. They are trapped.

I loved the book. Survival stories are my favorite, especially when the situation is realistic. These are regular students, no geniuses. They are trying to survive it what is a very realistic situation. The teens read true to their age, and the situation, and the description of the events and the weather was so spot on I felt cold while I was reading it. I would recommend this book to guys and girls who like survival stories and realistic fiction. There was no cursing or sex, but there was plenty of longing and death.

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