• A Long Way from Chicago

    by Richard Peck Year Published: Historical Fiction

    City kids, Mary Alice and her brother, Joey, are sent to spend time each summer with their country bumpkin Grandma.  They learn valuable lessons from this woman such as: how to throw a funeral, how to keep the sheriff in line, and how to be charitable to the town hobos.  Even though she embarrasses her grandchildren, those of us reading the story love her! This book has a sequel, A Year Down Yonder.

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  • Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snugging

    by Louise Rennison Year Published: Realistic Fiction

    Georgia is a "typical" teenage girl who keeps a journal about her daily problems: friendships, boys, her crazy parents. Mix in a four year old sister who "lobes" her and a Scottish wildcat named Angus, Georgia's daily drama is pure entertainment. This book is the first in a series.

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  • Eleanor and Park

    by Rainbow Rowell Year Published:
    Eleanor, 15, is the new girl at school and bullied because she's overweight and dresses in a flamboyant manner. Park is a half-Korean boy who has lived in Omaha, Nebraska, all his life but still feels like an outsider. This is a story of first love, which very slowly builds from the first day Eleanor sits next to Park on the school bus. First they ignore each other, and then they slowly become friends through their love of comic books and 1980s alternative music. Park is the only good thing in Eleanor's life. Her home life is a miserable exercise in trying to stay out of her abusive stepfather's way, and finding new ways to wear the same clothes repeatedly since there is no money for anything extra. Park adores everything about Eleanor, and she finds refuge at his house after school with his understanding parents. Things finally explode at Eleanor's house and Eleanor and Park's relationship is truly tested.
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  • Stuck in Neutral

    by Terry Trueman Year Published: Realistic Fiction

    This is a story about a teenage boy who sufferes from Cerebral Palsy. He is completely paralyzed and unable to communicate. His father is torn between watching his son suffer on a daily basis or finding a way to end the suffering for them both. Little does Dad know that his son WANTS to live.

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  • The City of Ember

    by Jeanne DuPrau Year Published: Fantasy

    When Lina and Doon are assigned jobs on their birthdays, they also learn there is a secret about their city which is only illuminated by lightbulbs. They discover that their mayor is in the middle of the plot to keep the residents of Ember "in the dark", so to speak. Together they find a way out of Ember, only to end up in the city of Sparks, another mysterious place. This book is first in a sequel. The next three books are The People of Sparks, The Prophet of Yonwood, and The Diamond of Darkhold.

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  • The Fault in Our Stars

    by John Green Year Published:
    Hazel Grace Lancaster, a three-year stage IV–cancer survivor, is clinically depressed. To help her deal with this, her doctor sends her to a weekly support group where she meets Augustus Waters, a fellow cancer survivor, and the two fall in love. Both kids are preternaturally intelligent, and Hazel is fascinated with a novel about cancer called An Imperial Affliction. Most particularly, she longs to know what happened to its characters after an ambiguous ending. To find out, the enterprising Augustus makes it possible for them to travel to Amsterdam, where Imperial’s author, an expatriate American, lives. What happens when they meet him must be left to readers to discover. Suffice it to say, it is significant.
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  • The Hunger Games

    by Suzanne Collins Year Published: Fantasy

    Twenty-four are forced to enter. Only the winner survives. In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Each year, the districts are forced by the Capitol to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the Hunger Games, a brutal and terrifying fight to the death - televised for all of Panem to see.

    Survival is second nature for sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who struggles to feed her mother and younger sister by secretly hunting and gathering beyond the fences of District 12. When Katniss steps in to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, she knows it may be her death sentence. If she is to survive, she must weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

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  • The Impossible Knife of Memory

    by Laurie Halse Anderson Year Published:
    Hayley is the daughter of a veteran, and his PTSD colors every aspect of their lives. After serving his country, Andy is trying to rebuild some stability for himself and his daughter, but each day is a challenge for them both. Hayley lives with the constant threat of her father harming himself or others while also dealing with feelings of abandonment after essentially losing her parental figures. She copes through snark and skepticism but begins to let her guard down when her charming, easygoing classmate, Finn, gives her a much-needed taste of normal teenage life. A relationship with Finn opens the door to the possibility of trusting again, but it's not easy.
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  • Unsigned Hype

    by Booker Mattison Year Published:
    Tory Tyson may only be in high school, but he knows what he wants out of lifea successful music career. And he's not going to learn about all that at school. So when school lets out next month he's not going back. He's finally ready to stop spinning old records at parties and start laying down his own beatsand the Unsigned Hype music contest is the perfect place to launch his career. But will he be able to handle the fame and fortune he seeks?
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  • Wintergirls

    by Laurie Halse Anderson Year Published:
    Lia and Cassie had been best friends since elementary school, and each developed her own style of eating disorder that leads to disaster. Now 18, they are no longer friends. Despite their estrangement, Cassie calls Lia 33 times on the night of her death, and Lia never answers. As events play out, Lia's guilt, her need to be thin, and her fight for acceptance unravel, sending her world in a downward spiral.
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