Fiction

HOPE WAS HERE
by Joan Bauer
When sixteen-year-old Hope and the aunt who has raised her move from Brooklyn to Mulhoney, Wisconsin, to work as a waitress and cook in the Welcome Stairways Diner, they become involved with the diner owner's political campaign to oust the town’s corrupt mayor.

WHO WILL TELL MY BROTHER?
by Marlene Carvell
Evan continues a crusade begun by his late brother to remove the Indian as their high school mascot.

THE PLAIN JANES
by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg
When transfer student Jane is forced to move from the confines of Metro City to Suburbia, she thinks her life is over. But there she finds her tribe: three other girls named Jane. The four girls form a secret art gang, but can art really save the hell that is high school?

THE SLEDDING HILL
by Chris Crutcher
Billy, recently deceased, keeps an eye on his best friend, fourteen-year-old Eddie, who has added to his home and school problems by becoming mute, and helps him stand up to a conservative minister and English teacher who is orchestrating a censorship challenge.

BUCKING THE SARGE
by Christopher Paul Curtis
A light-hearted take on social activism, the main character exposes his mother as a slum lord and welfare cheat.

SEEDFOLKS
by Paul Fleischman
A group of inner-city residents start planting small gardens on a trash-filled vacant lot, and bring love and beauty to their lives.

THE YEAR THEY BURNED THE BOOKS
by Nancy Garden
While trying to come to terms with her own lesbian feelings, Jamie, a high-school senior and editor of the school newspaper, finds herself in the middle of a battle with a group of townspeople over the new health education curriculum.

SKULLDUGGERY
by Pete Hautman
During a field trip in the local woods, Roni and Brian find the local archaeology professor, Andrew Dart, knocked unconscious in a cave, which leads them to investigate a land development scheme.

FLUSH
by Carl Hiaasen
This is the story of what happens after Paine Underwood pulls the plug on the Coral Queen, gets arrested for this act, and how this spurs his family and community to take action.

HOOT
by Carl Hiaasen
New to Florida and Trace Middle School, Ray Eberhardt is at the mercy of the local bully but he is intrigued by a strange unschooled kid whose passion for the local wildlife leads them both into a crusade against a new pancake shop that will displace a colony of burrowing owls.

THE MISFITS
by James Howe
Four students who do not fit in at their small-town middle school decide to create a third party for the student council elections to represent all students who have ever been called names.

CALIFORNIA BLUE
by David Klass
John's discovery of a new species of butterfly threatens the future of a mill town and sets him against his dying father.

WIDE AWAKE
by David Levithan
In the not-too-distant future, when a gay Jewish man is elected president of the United States, sixteen-year-old Duncan examines his feelings for his boyfriend, his political and religious beliefs, and tries to determine his rightful place in the world.

SECRETS IN THE FIRE
by Henning Mankell
Based on the true story of a young girl in Mozambique, this is the horrifying yet hopeful story of Sofia, who loses both her legs in a land mine explosion but survives through her own personal determination.

DEVIL ON MY HEELS
by Joyce McDonald
In 1957 fifteen-year-old Dove, the daughter of a prosperous orange grower in Benevolence, Florida, feels increasingly uneasy after learning of acts of racism against the African American orange pickers by those close to her.

THE BEAT GOES ON
by Adele Minchin
When Emma, 16, is diagnosed as HIV positive, she swears her younger cousin Leyla to secrecy. Leyla becomes involved in teaching drum lessons at a local HIV outreach center to show her support for her cousin.

PRIVATE PEACEFUL
by Michael Morpurgo
Fifteen-year-old Tommo Peaceful and his older brother Charlie enlist in the British army and are sent to fight in the trenches in France after their noble landlord offers them a choice between joining up or having the family evicted from their home.

TULSA BURNING
by Anna Myers
In 1921, fifteen-year-old Noble Chase hates the sheriff of Wekiwa, Oklahoma, and is more than willing to cross him to help his best friend, a black man, who is injured during race riots in nearby Tulsa.

GOING, GOING
by Naomi Shihab Nye
Florrie's favorite coffee shop, with its open mike night, dreamy candles, and cute waiters...Going? The mysterious little hut selling fresh lemon ice on the west side of town...Going? The boutique featuring clothes you don't find at the mall, allowing you to look like...an interesting person... Going? Individuality. Originality. Quality. Independence. Opportunity. Going, going, gone. What's a girl to do?

MY MOTHER THE CHEERLEADER
by Rob Sharenow
Thirteen-year-old Louise uncovers secrets about her family and her neighborhood during the violent protests over school desegregation in 1960 New Orleans.

WRINGER
by Jerry Spinelli
As Palmer comes of age, he must either accept the violence of being a wringer at his town's annual Pigeon Day or find the courage to oppose it.

CHANDA'S SECRETS
by Allan Stratton
Sixteen-year-old Chanda loves school and dreams of a scholarship and a life beyond her family's poverty.  But her mother is tired all the time after her little sister's death, and Chanda must fight to keep her dreams alive and conquer her fears in the face of the brutal reality of Africa's AIDS epidemic.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LARRY
by Janet Tashjian
Things spiral out of control for Josh, a loner, who masquerades as "Larry" as he espouses anti-consumerism on his anonymous web site.

VOTE FOR LARRY
by Janet Tashjian
Not yet eighteen years old, Josh, a.k.a. Larry, comes out of hiding and returns to public life, this time to run for President as an advocate for issues of concern to youth and to encourage voter turnout.

NO SHAME, NO FEAR
by Ann Turnbull
England in 1662 was a time of great religious upheaval, when the Quakers were forbidden to meet and practice their simpler lifestyle. William, the 17-year-old son of the wealthy mayor, gives up his place in society to follow his heart when he falls in love with Susanna, a 15-year-old Quaker girl who stands by her principles even though she faces persecution and jail.

I AM THE MESSENGER
by Markus Zusak
Aimless, amiable 19-year-old cab driver, Ed Kennedy, foils a bank robber and then begins to receive mysterious messages assigning him to intervene in the lives of strangers.

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