American Library Association (ALA) Quick Pick

The Quick Picks Committee seeks books that teens will pick up on their own and read for pleasure. The list is geared to the teenager who, for whatever reason, does not like to read. The visual appearance of a book and the standard considerations in the quality of content is equally important when selecting books for reluctant young readers. Teen input is a vital aspect in the final decision of the committee. 

TITLE & AUTHOR

Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging*

RENNISON, L

Brash and outrageous journal of 14-year-old Georgia captures the misadventure of adolescence while she tries to catch the attention of handsome hunk, Robbie.

Bad*

Sentenced to six months in the Girls Rehabilitation Center for her participation in a convenience store robbery, Dallas acknowledges her responsibility for her actions and is insightful about how her low self-esteem and need for love has driven her to delinquency.

Blood And Chocolate

Having fallen for a human boy, a beautiful teenage werewolf must battle both her pack mates and the fear of the townspeople to decide where she belongs, and with whom.

Brian's Return*

After returning to civilization, Brian finds that he can no longer live in the city, but must return to the wilderness where he really belongs.

Brian's Winter

What if Brian Robeson of Hatchet had not been rescued? Could he have survived the winter in the wilderness?

Bull Catcher*

Freshman Neil "Bull" Larsen has one goal in mind - to play baseball through high school and beyond. However, when he submits his four-year baseball diary as his senior project, Bull re-examines his dreams and makes some surprising discoveries about himself.

Buried Onions*

19-year-old Eddie just wants to get by and leave his past behind, but finds himself inexorably drawn back into the violence of Fresno's mean streets.

Burning Up

Macy Clare researches the history of a burned-out barn for a school project, and uncovers the destructive forces of hatred and prejudice hidden in the past.

Climb Or Die*

While traveling in the Colorado Rockies, the Darcy family drives into a blinding snowstorm. When the car careers off the road, injuring both parents, the teenagers, Danielle and Jake must go for help.

Close To A Killer

In this gripping mystery, a 17-year-old girl's involvement in a string of murders forever changes her sense of community, family and self.

Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey*

Tish chronicles her life in the journal she must keep for English class. When her abusive father returns home, Tish's entries are increasingly marked "Do Not Read" until she realizes silence may be dangerous.

Downsiders

When Tolan ventures out from the tunnels beneath New York City where he lives, and returns with a newcomer, he has broken the Downside law of mingling. The punishment for his crime is death.

Driver's Ed*

A group of driver's education students steal some highway signs as a class prank - with tragic results.

Ella Enchanted

Ella has been the unfortunate recipient of an added fairy's gift - the "gift of obedience" since her birth,. She must obey any order that is given to her - even chopping off her own head! But Ella refuses to accept her fate, and embarks on a quest to break the curse.

Ethan Between Us*

MYERS, A

Finding My Voice

Korean-American high school senior Ellen Sung struggles against racism and her own family's dreams for her to find a place for herself in two very different cultures.

Firegold

After troubling questions about his heritage arise, Jonathan flees to the Red Mountains where he encounters a legendary race of people called Dalriada.

Forged By Fire*

While his mother was serving a prison sentence for child neglect, Gerald lived with his aunt. Then, one day, his mother returns with her new husband and Angel, Gerald's little sister. As the children grow up, it becomes more and more apparent that Angel needs Gerald's protection from her father's sexual abuse. But who will protect Gerald?

Four Perfect Pebbles: A Holocaust Story

PERL, L

Told through the eyes of a child, the author recounts the harrowing ordeal during WW II as her family lived in refugee, transit and prison camps.

Free Fall*

Four high school boys, lost in an underground cave, must band together in this race-against-time thriller.

Harley, Like A Person

Harley, an artistic teenager living with his alcoholic father and angry mother, suspects that she's adopted and begins a search to find her long lost father, and hope.

Hate You*

Nursing hatred for an abusive father that choked her and damaged her voice as a child, 17-year-old Alice writes songs she cannot sing, and tries to come to terms with her feelings.

Heart Of A Champion

Best friends, Seth Barham and Jimmy Winter, share a passion for baseball. While Seth struggles to accept his father's death, Jimmy seems destined to become a major league until he embarks on a self-destructive path.

Hidden Talents*

When "smart mouthed" Martin Anderson meets up with five misfits at the Edgeview Alternative School, he realizes each possesses a special psychic talent, and undertakes to help them all.

In The Forests Of The Night*

Three hundred years ago she was Rachel, not Risika. She had a family and she was human. Now she is a vampire and her past has come to haunt her.

In The Middle Of The Night*

Every October, the phone begins to ring for Denny's father, who was once involved in the accidental death of 22 children. Defying his parents, 16-year-old Danny decides to answer the phone and is drawn into a dark world of obsession, vengeance, and a life gone wrong.

Jason's Gold*

Told with bone-chilling authenticity, this gripping survival story follows 15-year-old Jason Hawthorn as he races through the wilderness with his husky to catch up with his brothers in the Klondike gold fields in 1897.

Keeping The Moon

Sent to spend the summer with an eccentric aunt, Colie, an overweight girl, expects her life as an outsider to continue. A job and new friends help her to see herself in a new light, and to appreciate the qualities she has always had.

Killer's Cousin*

17-year-old David has moved to Massachusetts to finish high school, away from the media glare that surrounded his murder acquittal. However, life with his cold aunt, his hostile cousin Lily, and the haunted attic apartment forces David to come to terms with his own past.

Kissing Doorknobs*

Tara is bright and funny, but is also troubled with quirky behaviors she knows are irrational, but can't control - like kissing doorknobs. A funny and compelling story about obsessive-compulsive behavior, and how it affects relationships.

Never Trust A Dead Man

Accused of murder, teenager Selwyn teams up with the ghost of the victim in a desperate search to find the real murderer.

No Easy Answers, Short Stories About Teenagers Making Tough Choices*

Sixteen original short stories involving moral and ethical issues. Individuals face the consequences of their actions and consider what it means to "do the right thing".

Nobody Else Has To Know*

15-year-old Webber must live with guilt or tell the truth about who the person was driving his grandfather's car when it struck and seriously injured a little girl.

Only Alien On The Planet*

Ginny never thought she would fall for someone like Smitty, a child abuse victim. Eventually, Smitty lets Ginny into his troubled, hidden world and they begin the gradual process of healing - together.

Pedro And Me

A heartfelt memoir about the author's friendship with AIDS educator Pedro Zamora, who died of the disease after appearing on MTV's Real World.

Peeling The Onion*

Anna is 17 when a car accident alters her life. Thrust into a world of pain, fear and disassociation from the layers that made up who she used to be - her looks, her friends, her karate prowess - Anna slowly comes to see who she really is.

Players*

18-year-old Corey suspects his dream of winning the basketball championship is in jeopardy when he discovers the new player will stop at nothing to be the of the team.

Rough Waters*

After the death of their parents, teenage brothers Scott and Gregg are sent to live with an uncle in Colorado. Rocky, the owner of a white-water rafting company, has the boys working right away, struggling to master the art of survival both off and on the river.

Rules Of The Road

Jenna Boller, employee of a shoe store chain, is hired to drive the store's elderly president for the summer. Thus begins a cross-country adventurewhere she and her employer learn a lot about the rules of the road - and the rules of life.

Rundown*

In a quest for attention from her family, 17-year-old Jennifer Thayer reports a crime that never happened, claiming that she is the victim of a rapist. As her lie continues, Jennifer faces the hard reality that she knows the truth.

Runs With Horses*

As a member of the last band of Apaches to resist capture by the US Government, 16-year-old Runs With Horses struggles to honor his training as a warrior in the face of the historical realities of 1886.

Safe At Second*

Baseball player Todd Bannister, Paulie Lockwood's best friend, has it all until a line drive to his head causes him to lose an eye. Now everything is different, and the two friends must chart a new future for their lives.

Skin I'm In*

An African American girl learns to accept herself when tough kids at school harass by following the example of a strong African American teacher.

Slam*

17-year-old Greg "Slam" Harris can do it all on the court, but his grades aren't so hot. When his teachers put pressure on him, he blows up, and suddenly Slam is going one-on-one with his future.

Smugglers*

John Spencer, 16 years old, is entrusted with his father's schooner. Can a former smuggler's ship and mysterious crew be trusted to conduct honest trade?

Soldier's Heart*

Charley Goddard, who has never been any place beyond Minnesota, and thinks war would be a great adventure, lies his way into the Union Army at the age of 15. Unsparing in the details of what actually happens on the battlefield.

Someone Like You*

Quiet Halley and popular Scarlet strive for a new balance in their friendship junior year when Scarlett's boyfriend dies in a motorcycle accident and Scarlett discovers that she is pregnant, and really needs her best friend.

Speak

Melinda enters high school as an outcast - silent, angry and traumatized by rape. Her black humor and honest depiction of the high school experience will resonate with many teens.

Staying Fat For Sarah Burnes

When smart, sarcastic Sarah Burns was three years old, her face and hands were badly burned in a mysterious accident. 15 years later, Sarah's horrific past finally catches up with her, and it becomes her friend Eric's mission to help her through the pain.

Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Sister Went Crazy

SONES, S

Cookie's short first-person poems reveal her unraveling world and concern for her own sanity when her older sister is institutionalized after a mental breakdown.

Stuck In Neutral*

Cerebral Palsy traps Shawn McDaniel in a world where he can't speak or control his movement. No one knows that he is more than he seems - that he thinks, reads and understands that his dad wants him dead.

Tears Of A Tiger

Andy is an African-American teenager whose life derails when, after a long evening of drinking, the car he drives crashes, killing his best friend. His guilt and despair lead him to turn away from family, friends and his plans for the future.

Terrorist

Thin Ice*

Arden is a creative independent 17-year-old who has been raised by her older brother. When Scott disappears, presumed dead in a snowmobile accident, Arden is convinced he has staged his death.

Transall Saga

Mark's solo hike in the desert turns into a life-altering odyssey when he stumbles into a beam of blue light that transports him into an alien world.

Whistle Me Home*

White Horse

16-year-old Raina reveals her life with a dysfunctional family, life on the streets, drug abuse and an unplanned pregnancy through her writing to a concerned teacher.

Who Are You? *

High school student Kristi Evans begins investigating a complete stranger after police detectives reveal that he has been keeping a secret file of her entire life.

You Hear Me

FRANCO, B (ed.)

Teenage boys from all over America speak out in this collection of poems, story and essays on issues concerning them.