Awards: School Library Journal Selection

TITLE & AUTHOR

Adventure Of Blue Avenger*

On his 16^th birthday, David Schumacher changes his name to "Blue Avenger". In a short 24 hours his life undergoes amazing changes. Is there a connection between free will, destiny and your name?

After The Rain*

The story of two dynamic individuals who come to love and respect each other - one clinging to his final days, the other poised on the threshold of womanhood.

After The War*

15-year-old Ruth, the sole member of the family to survive the Holocaust, leads a group of children across Europe to illegally enter Palestine and the only safety they have ever known.

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.

Anna Of Byzantium

Teenage princess Anna Comnena fights for the throne to the Byzantine Empire, which has been seized by her younger brother.

Athletic Shorts: Six Short Stories

Six deeply touching stories in which the reader revisits some memorable characters from the author's distinguished novels.

Baboon King

Masai Morengaru lives as an outcast. Becoming increasingly more like the baboons he lives with, Marengura clings to his humanity in the hope of returning to his people one day.

Begonia For Miss Applebaum

Because of the impending death of their favorite teacher, two teenagers realize that it is not dying that is important, but living, and the legacy one leaves behind.

Belle Prater's Boy*

When Belle Prater disappears, her son Woodrow comes to live in Coal Station, Virginia - next door to his cousin Gypsy. The two cousins become best friends and together they are able to face and transcend tragedy.

Best Little Girl In The World*

LEVENKROM, S

A revealing novel of a young girl's battle with anorexia and her triumph over it.

Beyond The Mango Tree

While living in Liberia with her possessive, diabetic and often absent father, Sarina longs for a friend with whom to experience the world beyond her yard.

Black Pearl*

Finding the Pearl of Heaven earns Ramon the hatred of both his people and the notorious devilfish.

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.

Boy Who Drank Too Much

A realistic and dramatic portrayal of a young man torn by alcoholism and the conflicting demands of his father, hockey and his own values.

Breaking Rank*

17-year-old Casey has some of her preconceptions challenged when she tutors Baby, a member of the Clan, a gang-like society in her school.

Brian's Winter

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

Burger Wuss*

Hoping to lose his loser image, Anthony plans revenge on a school bully, which results in a war between two competing fast food restaurants, Burger Queen and O'Dermott's. A ferociously funny novel about teen life.

California Blue

When 17-year-old John Rodgers discovers a new butterfly species on land owned by a local lumber mill, he must decide if he will stick with his family and friends, or protect the butterfly and shut down the mill.

Canyons*

A mystical link forged between Brennan and the long-dead Apache, Coyote Runs, defies time in this supernatural adventurestory.

Catherine, Called Birdie

A young girl's hilarious account of her 14^th year against a background of everyday life on a medieval English manor in the year 1290.

Celine

Before Celine, a 16-year-old artist, can take a promised trip to Europe, she must show a little maturity, finish an overdue term paper, and support her 17-year-old neighbor during his parents' separation.

Chasing Redbird

Children Of The River

A powerful novel that tells the story of teenage Sundra from Cambodia, who flees with her aunt’s family from the Khmer Rouge terror to a small Oregon town.

Chinese Cinderella: The True Story Of An Unwanted Daughter

YEN MAH, A

An authentic portrait of 20^th-century China, as well as the story of the painful childhood of an unwanted daughter.

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.

Crash*

John "Crash" Coogan has always been comfortable with his tough, aggressive behavior until his relationship with a Quaker boy makes him consider the meaning of friendship and family.

Crazy Jack*

In this inventive recreation of Jack and the Beanstalk, Crazy Jack's search for his vanished father yields not gold, but love and a means to build a life.

Crossing

Manny Bustos is an orphan scrounging for food and money in the streets of Juarez, Mexico. To escape his impoverished existence - the filth, physical abuse and nagging hunger - Manny dreams of one day crossing the American border to make his fortune.

Crusader

Roberta struggles to unravel the mystery of her murdered mother's death and the hate crimes that suddenly explode where she works.

Dakota Dream

BENNETT, J

Determination, faith and a lot of crazy luck help Floyd make the journey to the Sioux reservation and embark on the sort of vision quest on which only Native Americans are allowed.

Dance For Three*

15-year-old Hannah must face some hard truths as pregnancy, and rejection by her boyfriend, propel her towards a mental breakdown.

Day No Pigs Would Die

To a 13-year-old Vermont farm boy whose father slaughters pigs for a living, maturity comes early as he learns "doing what's got to be done," especially regarding his pet pig that cannot produce a litter.

Day They Came To Arrest The Book*

Hilarious and strong novel on censorship of the book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from a high school curriculum.

December Stillness*

Kelly's interest in a homeless Vietnam veteran ends in a tragedy while opening a door to a deeper relationship with her father, who had never come to grips with his own experiences in Vietnam.

Devil's Arithmetic*

Hannah resents the traditions of her Jewish heritage until time travel takes her to a Polish village in the 1940's.

Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack

Dinky Hocker is fat, and refuses to be annoyed by either her boyfriend or her mother. Dinky Hocker does not shoot smack, she merely says so to get some attention.

Dive*

Happy with his stable life, Ben chooses to stay with his stepfather when his mother's increasing restlessness causes her to leave, taking Ben's older stepbrother with her.

Downriver*

Jesse and other rebellious teenage members of a wilderness survival team abandon their adult leader, steal his van and rafts, and brave the dangerous white waters of the Grand Canyon.

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.

Face In Every Window*

JP's safe and secure world unravels when his grandmother, his family's guiding hand, dies, leaving him with a mentally challenged father and a mother who retreats into adolescence.

Fast Sam, Cool Clyde And Stuff

When Francis, alias Stuff, moves to 116^th Street, he joins forces with Cool Clyde, Fast Sam, Gloria, BB, Angel and Maria, and learns the true meaning of friendship.

Fever 1793*

For Mike*

Freak The Mighty*

A brilliant poignant novel about a friendship between two boys - a slow learner too large for his age, and a tiny, crippled genius - who pair up to create one formidable human force known as "Freak the Mighty".

Ghost Boy

Harold, an albino, joins a visiting circus to escape the taunts of townspeople and to find a place that seems like home.

Gideon's People

Torn between youthful rebellion and their traditional heritage, two boys from very different cultures, one Amish and one Jewish, discover how similar they really are.

Gift Of Magic

When the old woman died, she left her grandchild Nancy with the extraordinary gift of magic. Nancy can read people's minds, know their thoughts, and make them do what she wants. Will she use her gift for good, or satisfy her own selfish desire?

Go And Come Back*

Teenage Alicia narrates the story of her developing friendship with two women anthropologists who have come to study her tribe in the Amazon jungle.

Goats

Two teenagers run away after a cruel prank and have to face danger and adventure / Survival.

Good Courage*

Habibi

Liyana is uprooted from her life when her family moves to Jerusalem, where she faces many changes and must deal with the tensions between Jews and Palestinians.

Hard Ball*

Billy Baggs and his rival, King Kenwood, are forced by their high school baseball coach to spend a week together as a consequence of their violent behavior. They find unexpected common ground in this fast-paced sport novel.

Hatchet*

Compelling and realistic story of a young boy's survival in the Canadian wilderness.

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.

Homecoming*

Four abandoned children take a journey from Connecticut to Maryland in search of love.

Homeless Bird *

13-year-old Koley enters into an ill-fated arranged marriage and suffers the destiny dictated by India's traditions.

I Am Mordred: A Tale From Camelot

Merlin has prophesied that King Arthur will die at his son Mordred's hand. Mordred wants a way to fight his fate in this retelling of the Arthurian tale.

I Am The Cheese*

Adam Farmer desperately tries to remember the events surrounding the mysterious disappearance of his parents.

I Hadn't Meant To Tell You This*

Two girls, one a poor abused white girl, the other a middle class African American whose mother had left the family, build a friendship in spite of their cultural and racial differences.

I Have Lived A Thousand Years. Growing Up In The Holocaust

A haunting and inspiring memoir of the Holocaust written by a survivor who was 13 years old when the Nazis invaded Hungary and forced her family on a dark journey that led to Auschwitz.

If You Come Softly*

For 15-year-old Jeremiah, who is black, and Ellie, who is Jewish, the love they find is special and rare. But can it withstand the prejudice the world around them feels towards a mixed relationship?

Imani All Mine

Imani All Mine tracks the progress of Tasha, a young, unwed mother, as she navigates her journey to adulthood in an increasingly violent world.

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.

Island

Will, who takes daily refuge on an island to get away from his problems, finally has to face Ray Bunner, the bully that is after him.

Jacob Have I Loved*

A twin, overshadowed by her talented and charismatic sister, is tormented by hate and jealousy.

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.

Just As Long As We're Together

Stephanie’s relationship with Rachel, her best friend, changes as she tries to conceal a family problem and meets a new girl from California.

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.

King's Shadow

A vivid historical novel chronicling the end of England's Anglo-Saxon kingdom through the eyes of Evyn, a young Welsh serf.

Kit's Wilderness

The bonds of family from one generation to the next are examined when Kit Watson allows his new friend Askew to take him into the coal mine, where their relatives have worked and died.

Language Of Goldfish

Carrie Stokes, a sensitive artist and talented mathematician who is suffering a mental breakdown. As Carrie retreats little by little into her head, a kaleidoscope of shifting emotions come tumbling out.

Last Mission*

Lesson Before Dying

Set in the 1940's, this is a heartbreaking story of friendship between two black men, one condemned to die.

Life In The Fat Lane

16-year-old Lara, beautiful, thin, smart and popular, begins to gain weight due to a metabolic disorder. She learns first-hand what it means to be overweight in a society obsessed with appearances.

Lives Of Our Own

When Shawna Riley, a new girl in town, writes an editorial in favor of integrating Old South Ball, she is faced with resentment and violence from popular Kari Lang.

Locked Inside

Kidnapped and locked away in a basement, 16-year-old heiress Marnie is forced to confront painful truths about her family as she tries to escape.

Lyddie*

When Lyddie’s family is tragically separated, she decides to take a mill job in Lowell, Massachusetts to earn money to reunite them. Working in the mill under appalling conditions, she must decided if she will fight for better working conditions, or stay quiet until perhaps it is too late.

Matilda Bone

Matilda tries to reconcile the various aspects of her life - both spiritual and practical - when she works as an apprentice "bone setter" and a practitioner of medicine in a Medieval English village.

Midwife's Apprentice*

This is the story of a spirited young woman in Medieval England. Homeless, nameless and alone, she persuades the village midwife to take her in.

Miracle's Boys

Lafayette's close friendship with his older brother Charlie changes after Charlie is released from the correctional facility and returns a hostile stranger.

Missing Since Monday

First Maggie’s little stepsister disappears. Then Maggie gets threatening phone calls, and fears that she will be the next one missing.

Motown And Didi

MYERS, W

Didi dreams of college and her boyfriend Motown dreams of steady work, but first, both of them must survive in the brutal present, which is Harlem - a backdrop of junkies, threats, danger and death.

Moves Make The Man

A black boy and an emotionally troubled white boy in North Carolina form a precarious friendship. Fast action on and off the basketball court.

Music From A Place Called Half Moon

Edie Jo and her father fight anti-Native American tension in North Carolina in the 1950’s. Her friendship with Cherokee Fish will be one that she never forgets.

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.

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.

Nothing But The Truth

A young high school student is suspended for humming "The Star Spangled Banner" during homeroom and finds himself the focus of a national news story.

Out Of Control

Taunted by three boys, Valerie stands up to them and finds herself the victim of their unwanted attentions.

Out Of The Dust

As dust storms and the Great Depression ravage Oklahoma, Billie Jo comes of age within the landscape of failing farms, personal tragedy, and family relationships that are badly in need of repair.

Outside Shot*

A Harlem youth on a basketball scholarship finds he is unprepared for the pressures of class, college sports and love.

Outsiders*

Outstanding novel about the tensions between two rival gangs in a city in Oklahoma, told from the point of view of Ponyboy, a young greaser.

Parallel Journeys

Two young Germans find their lives taking radically different turns - Helen going to Auschwitz and Alfons to a high rank in the Hitler Youth. Can the two emerge from war with respect and empathy for each other?

Parrot In The Oven, Mi Vida*

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.

Petey

Petey, born with cerebral palsy, and misdiagnosed as retarded, has spent sixty years in institutions. When Trevor Ladd rescues him from a group of snow throwing bullies, Petey is compelled to overcome his physical difficulties to become Trevor's friend.

Pigman

Two lonely high school students meet Mr. Pignati, an old man who lives in his dreams and makes daily visits to the baboons at the zoo. The three find love and laughter, but only for a short time.

Pigman And Me

A tender yet fast-paced and funny biography revealing a sensitive boy struggling to overcome the cruelties of life with humor and a little bit of help from the wise "pigman".

Place To Call Home

KOLLER, J

15-year-old biracial Anna tries to care for her 5-year-old sister and infant brother when her alcoholic mother disappears yet again. Anna discovers her mother's car in a nearby lake - evidence of her suicide.

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.

Raging Quiet

Reappearance Of Sam Webber

After his father’s desertion, Sam learns that family can come in various colors, shapes and sizes. An award winning portrayal of the daily joys, hopes and hungers of a middle-class black family, and that the worst of circumstances can be a blessing in disguise.

Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir Of The Cultural Revolution

Ji-li Jiang faces terror, persecution and an impossible choice when she must denounce her family or sacrifice her future with the Communist Party during China's Cultural Revolution.

Remembering The Good Times

Three friends consider their past together and wonder how well they really know each other.

Revolutions Of The Heart

Cory’s 17^th year is marked by her mother’s sudden death, the return of her hothead brother, her love for and romance with a Native American boy, and the eruption of bigotry in her small Wisconsin town.

Rifle

The mesmerizing tale of a rifle, lovingly created by a gifted gunsmith in 1768, passed from one owner to another to the present day without anyone checking to see if the gun was loaded. And it was.

Rite Of Passage

Johnny, a gifted 15-year-old, runs away from home when he discovers that he's really a foster child and that the faceless city bureaucracy is moving him to a new family. Suddenly alone on the streets, hungry and lost, he survives with a brutal gang, fights the leader for dominance, and helps mug a man in the park.

River Thunder

Jessie and the rest of the crew from Downriver return to the Grand Canyon to test their new maturity running the big rapids.

River, Cross My Heart

When 6-year-old Clara Bynum drowns, 12-year-old Johnnie Mae must come to terms with the powerful and confused emotions sparked by her sister's death.

Road To Memphis*

The saga of the Logan family of Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry continues as Cassie comes to the aid of a black youth trying to flee the state after injuring a white boy.

Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry*

Unforgettable book of black pride and black heritage. Cassie Logan, daughter of a Mississippi sharecropper, is determined to maintain her dignity through a turbulent year.

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 adventure where she and her employer learn a lot about the rules of the road - and the rules of life.

Rumble Fish

Rusty James's lack of direction, his longing for the days of street gangs, and his blind drive to be like his brother, eat away at his world until it comes apart in an explosive chain of events.

Runner

Bullet Tillerman is a track team who answers to no one. He'd rather be cut from the team than work with the promising new runner, Tamer Shipp. But Bullet finds his own rules are becoming too painful to live by.

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.

Saturnalia

In 1682 William, a Narragansett Native American captured six years before in a raid, leads a successful life as a printer's apprentice. However, increasingly anxious, he searches the streets by night for his lost brother and a link to his past.

Screen Test

While ring in her first feature film, 16-year-old Liz is dazzled by Los Angeles and a charming and handsome leading man.

Séance

Lauren is reluctant to be part of the séance from the start, and when the lights are turned off and only a candle flickers, she feels scared. Then Sara suddenly screams; something is wrong. When they turn the lights back on, Sara is missing. Then her body is found.

Seven Songs Of Merlin

A tide of evil sweeps the land of Fincayra - and its first victim is Merlin's own mother. Merlin's sole hope for saving her life is to master the Seven Songs of Wisdom and discover the secret of seeing not with his eyes, but with his heart.

Silent To The Bone*

From the moment he dialed 911 to get help for his baby sister, young Branwell has stopped talking. The au pair accuses Branwell of dropping his sister, but his friend, Connor is suspicious and begins investigating the events leading to his silence.

Silver

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?

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.

Somewhere In The Darkness

A teenage boy accompanies his father, who has recently escaped from prison, on a trip that turns out to be an often painful, time of discovery for them both. He learns that although some things can't be fixed, they can be understood - and forgiven.

Song Of The Buffalo Boy

Loi, a 17-year-old American-Asian left behind when the Americans withdraw from Vietnam, faces an important decision. Should she abandon her beloved country and family for a new life in America?

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.

Spinners

Love, greed, magic and revenge all come together in this elaborate retelling of a tale in which a young woman must spin straw into gold.

Squashed*

16-year-old Ellie Morgan's life would be almost perfect if she could just get her potentially prize-winning pumpkin to put on about 200 pounds - and if she could lose 20 herself. Ellie could then become a famous pumpkin-growing personality and squash obnoxious Cyril Pool once and for all.

Starplace*

Growing up in the early 1960's, Frannie has never given much thought to the color of her skin until Celeste, an African-American moves to her Oklahoma town.

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.

Stones In Water*

Roberto's life changes forever when German soldiers raid the theater where he is watching a movie. Rounded up and packed off to a brutal work camp, he and his friend vow to stay together in the face of this horror.

Summer Hawk*

Switchers

Tess and Kevin, can "switch" into animals, and together they have to stop the Northern Hemisphere from being destroyed by a mysterious, creeping iciness. Taking on one animal form after another, the two Switchers battle against the icy evil.

Sydney, Herself*

Taming The Runner*

Travis is the coolest kid in school, but no one seems to notice him. The only person that interests him is Casey. She's the bravest person Travis has ever met, brave enough to try to tame her horse, Runner. But Travis and Runner are two of a kind: creatures not meant to be tamed.

Tenderness*

The lives of two troubled teens dramatically intersect in this psychological thriller as teenage serial killer Eric Poole and runaway Lori Cranston embark on a journey that will either save of destroy them.

Tightrope*

Ashley's tightly wound existence as a good hardworking kid caring for her sickly mother, begins to unravel when a terrifying stranger discovers she is "Cindy", the daring graffiti artist who leaves her work in the most unreachable places.

To Be A Slave

Eloquent personal testimony of the men and women who lived through slavery in the USA.

Tuck Everlasting

Tunes For Bears To Dance To

Henry escapes his problems by watching Mr. Levine, a Holocaust survivor, carve a replica of his former village. When Henry is manipulated into betraying his friend, Henry comes to understand the nature of true evil.

Two Suns In The Sky*

In the summer of 1944 when Christine meets 15-year-old Adam, a Yugoslavian Jew in a refugee camp in upstate New York, they fall in love. But will the narrow-mindedness of their parents tear them apart again?

Under The Blood-Red Sun

When the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, everything changes for Hawaiian-born Tomi and his Japanese parents and grandfather.

Up Country

Carl is smart and focused on getting away from his drunken mother and her "classy guys". He runs a stolen car-radio business, hoping to earn enough money for college, but then his mother is arrested for drunk driving, and he has to live with his country relatives up north.

Voice On The Radio*

In this companion to The Face on the Milk Carton, Janie confronts her past again when her boyfriend Reeve uses it as dramatic filler for his job as a disc jockey at his college radio station.

Walk Two Moons

Salamanca travels from Ohio to Idaho with her eccentric grandparents. A richly layered novel that is funny, mysterious and touching.

Wanderer

An intimate journey of self-discovery unfolds when Sophie joins her three uncles and two male cousins on a transatlantic sailing trip to visit the uncles' father, her adopted grandfather, in England.

War Between The Classes

Amy and Adam are involved in the "color game" at school, an experiment that's designed to make students aware of class and racial prejudices. Now the experiment threatens to alienate Amy from her friends and tear her apart from Adam.

Weasel

Originally hired by the U.S. government to drive the Shawnees from the Ohio Territory in the 1830's, a deranged man known as "Weasel" now kills for the sake of killing since his Indian prey are either dead or have escaped to safety. When Weasel attacks Nathan's father, Nathan takes the law into his own hands.

Weetzie Bat

This story follows the wild adventure of Weetzie Bat and her Los Angeles punk friends, Dirk, Duck-Man, and Secret-Agent-Lover-Man.

Westing Game*

RASKIN, E

A wonderfully clever mystery in which only the reader has the clues.

What Jamie Saw

When Jamie saw Van throw his little sister, his mother moved them to a small trailer in the woods where they could learn to trust one another, and the people around them.

What's In A Name?*

Set against the conflict of a coastal Massachusetts town proposing to change its name, Wittlinger addresses the issues of class, identity and fitting in that many teenagers face.

When Kambia Elaine Flew In From Neptune

Shayla, growing up in the poorer section of Houston, is confused by the girl next door's fantastic stories and the need to keep them secret until she realizes Kambia Elaine is being hurt and needs help.

When No One Was Looking*

Kathy is a young tennis player with enough drive, attitude and talent to go right to the top. And it seems that everyone around her has a stake in her success. So, when Kathy is presented with an opponent she can't beat, and a tragedy occurs, everyone's motives are questioned. They all want victory badly, but would anyone really kill for it?

When She Was God*

Em spent the first 14 years of her life suffering from her father's alcoholic rages and her mother's silent depression, and the next three trapped with her abusive sister, Pamela. Then Pamela dies, and Em, alone at last, does her best to live as she imagines "normal" people do. Will she be able to manage now that she is on her own?

When She Was Good

The moving story of a young girl's courage and resilience in the face of family alcoholism, depression and abuse.

When Zachary Beaver Came To Town

Toby Wilson struggles to find himself in an imperfect world where his mother is leaving, his best friend's brother is in Vietnam, and Zachary Weaver, the fattest boy in the world, cannot easily be dismissed as only a freak attraction in a traveling show.

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.

Who Do You Think You Are?

ROCHMAN, H & MCCAMPBELL, D (eds.)

Thought-provoking collection of stories that explore the complexities of friendship that challenge teenagers everywhere.

Who Put That Hair In My Toothbrush

The sibling rivalry between Megin and her older brother Greg intensifies after she ruins his science project and he retaliates by throwing her favorite hockey stick into the pond.

Wild Kid

This coming-of-age story tells of the friendship forged between Sammy, who is mildly retarded, and the "wild child" he meets when he gets lost in the wilderness.

Wizard Of Earthsea

The first book of Le Guin's famous Earthsea cycle relates the story of Ged, a boy with an unusual aptitude for wizardry.

Wringer

Palmer LaRue does not want to be a wringer, one of the boys who breaks the necks of pigeons wounded at the annual pigeon shoot. When his three bullying friends suspect that he is sheltering a stray pigeon, Palmer decides to take a stand against this annual rite of passage.

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.

Zack*

BELL, W

Child of a mixed marriage, Zack Lane finds out why his mother won't talk about her side of the family in this tale of race hatred and personal identity.

Zia

A young Indian girl, caught between the traditional world of her mother and the present world of the mission, is helped by her Aunt Karana, whose story was told in Island of the Blue Dolphins