Awards: Selections by Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)

TITLE & AUTHOR

SYNOPSIS

Bell Jar

Autobiographical novel about a young woman on the brink of madness and suicide.

Briar Rose

Yolen's recasting of the Sleeping Beauty is evocatively grounded in the horror of the Holocaust.

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.

Chinese Handcuffs

Dillion Hemingway must pick up the pieces of his own life after his brother's suicide, plus deal with girlfriend problems and peer pressure.

Chocolate War

High school politics, cruelty and conformity sparked by the annual fundraising event.

Chosen

The odyssey of two young men journeying from boyhood to manhood, set against the background of the conflicts and traditions of Hasidic and Orthodox Jews.

Deathwatch

Madec was not the kind of man Ben would ordinarily have chosen as a companion for a quiet hunting trip. He was a cold man who was dangerous with a gun.

Eva

After a terrible accident, a young girl wakes up to discover that she has been given the body of a chimpanzee.

Giver

Jonas is given a huge task by the Elders of the Committee - to be responsible for receiving and keeping all memories of the past.

Go Ask Alice*

True and painful diary of a 15-year-old girl's experience with drugs that eventually leads to her death.

Handmaid's Tale

The story is set in a future America where women are categorized in terms of whether or not they are able to bear children, and function in the strictly defined roles assigned to them by men.

I Am The Cheese*

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

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?

Ironman

When Bo Brewster's angry outbursts at school cost him a spot on the football team and move him close to expulsion, he finds himself in an anger management group with hard-edged survivors like himself.

Jacob Have I Loved*

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

Joy Luck Club

Chronicles the lives of four Chinese women, their forty-year friendship, and how the death of one member brings her daughter into the group, creating a new understanding for each.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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".

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.

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.

Running Loose

Louie Banks takes a stand against the coach when he sets the team up to injure a black player on an opposing team, and learns that you can't be honorable with dishonorable men.

Shabanu: Daughter Of The Wind*

The second daughter of a Pakistani family, Shabanu has been brought up with more freedom than most Muslim girls. Should she listen to the stirrings of her own heart when her family insists on an arranged marriage?

Sixteen: Short Stories By Outstanding Writers For Young Adults*

GALLO, D (ed.)

Sixteen representative short stories by today's best-known writers for teenagers.

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.

Swallowing Stones

When Michael fires his new rifle into the air on his 17^th birthday, he never imagines that the bullet will end up killing someone. But it does, and he must deal with the haunting consequences.

Tangerine

Paul Fisher, who is legally blind, has a passion for soccer and a deep mistrust of his football hero brother, Erik. Why is everyone - except Paul himself - blind to the terrifying truth about Erik?

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.

Things They Carried

A profound study of men at war and the intangible burdens of soldier - grief, terror, love, longing.

Tomorrow When The War Began*

Returning from a camp trip in the Australian bush, Ellie and six of her friends find their families gone, their homes destroyed, and their country invaded. Ellie must decide whether to hide, surrender or find a way to fight.

Watership Down

Picturesque saga of a maverick band of rabbits that, against all odds, seek a new home and a better society.

We Are Witnesses

Five Jewish teenagers kept diaries of their lives under Hitler's twisted rule. Through them unfolds a personal history of the Holocaust and the hope each had in the face of horror and death.

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.

Whirligig*

Offered a chance to atone for causing the death of a young girl, 16-year-old Brent undertakes a rite of repentance, journeying to the four corners of the USA building whirligigs.

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.