Denver Public Library: Teens: Find a Good Book, Book Lists

DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL
by Anne Frank
Traces the life of the Jewish girl who hid with seven other people in an attic for two years in Nazi-occupied Holland and chronicled her day-to-day life in a diary which was discovered after her death in a German concentration camp.

Nonfiction
	CHOCOLATE FOR A TEEN'S SOUL compiled by Kay Allenbaugh From teens of every age, including women who remember what it was like, come stories of first love, first jobs, best friends, heartbreak, hope, innocence and the real world.
	FREEDOM RIDERS compiled by Ann Bausum Freedom Riders compares and contrasts the childhoods of John Lewis and James Zwerg in a way that helps young readers understand the segregated experience of our nation's past. It shows how a common interest in justice created the convergent path that enabled these young men to meet as Freedom Riders on a bus journey south.
	A LONG WAY GONE: MEMOIRS OF A BOY SOLDIER compiled by Ishmael Beah Ishmael Beah, now 25 years old, tells how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he'd been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts.
	WARRIORS DON'T CRY: A SEARING MEMOIR OF THE BATTLE TO INTEGRATE LITTLE ROCK'S CENTRAL HIGH by Melba Pattillo Beals A heart-wrenching account of the nine high school students who integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957.
	THROUGH MY EYES by Ruby Bridges Ruby Bridges recounts the story of her involvement, as a six-year-old, in the integration of her school in New Orleans in 1960.
	BUDDHA STORIES by Demi A collection of ten tales from Buddha.
	ANNEXED by Sharon Dogar Everyone knows about Anne Frank and her life hidden in the secret annex, but what about Peter van Pels, the boy who was also trapped there with her? As Peter and Anne become closer and closer in their confined quarters, how can they make sense of what they see happening around them? Anne's diary ends on August 4, 1944, but Peter's story goes on, beyond their betrayal and into the Nazi death camps.
	MY SISTERS' VOICES: TEENAGE GIRLS OF COLOR SPEAK OUT by Iris Jacob A passionate and poignant collection of writings from teenage girls of African American, Hispanic, Asian American, Native American and biracial backgrounds.
	DARKNESS OVER DENMARK: THE DANISH RESISTANCE AND THE RESCUE OF THE JEWS by Ellen Levine An account of people in Denmark who risked their lives to protect and rescue their Jewish neighbors from the Nazis during World War II.
	HOPE THROUGH HEARTSONGS by Mattie J.T. Stepanek Poetry about sustaining hope when your life and your world challenge you. Mattie's struggle with a rare form of muscular dystrophy has not diminished his ability to see light and hope in each individual and in the world.
	YOU CAN SAVE THE PLANET: 50 WAYS YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE by Jacquie Wines Describes fifty useful things that readers can do to make their homes, schools and neighborhoods more environmentally friendly.
	CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE TEEN SOUL SERIES by Various Authors Collections of stories written by teenagers and adults reflecting on their teenage years. Also try: TEENS TALK RELATIONSHIPS TEENS TALK TOUGH TIMES THE REAL DEAL ON TOUGH STUFF CHRISTMAS TREASURY And Chicken Soup for the: ADOPTED PET LOVER'S OCEAN LOVER'S VOLUNTEER'S SPORTS FAN'S COLLEGE And many more…Soul!
Fiction
	THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART TIME INDIAN by Sherman Alexie Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
	BEFORE WE WERE FREE by Julia Alvarez Twelve-year-old Anita tries to live a normal life amidst a revolution in her native Dominican Republic in the 1960s.
	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.
	SAHARA SPECIAL by Esmé Raji Codell Struggling with school and her feelings since her father left, Sahara gets a fresh start with a new and unique teacher who supports her writing talents and the individuality of each of her classmates.
	WALK TWO MOONS by Sharon Creech After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother's route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left.
	THE WATSONS GO TO BIRMINGHAM-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis Kenny's family takes a wild road trip to straighten out his older brother.
	BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE by Kate DiCamillo Ten-year-old India Opal Buloni describes her first summer in the town of Naomi, Florida, and all the good things that happen to her because of her big ugly dog Winn-Dixie.
	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.
	WHIRLIGIG by Paul Fleischman While traveling to each corner of the country to build a whirligig in memory of the girl whose death he caused, sixteen-year-old Brian finds forgiveness and atonement.
	WHALE RIDER by Witi Ihimaera As her beloved grandfather, chief of the Maori tribe of Whangara, New Zealand, struggles to lead in difficult times and to find a male successor, young Kahu is developing a mysterious relationship with whales, particularly the ancient bull whale whose legendary rider was their ancestor.
	LA LÍNEA by Ann Jaramillo When fifteen-year-old Miguel's time finally comes to leave his poor Mexican village, cross the border illegally, and join his parents in California, his younger sister's determination to join him soon imperils them both.
	TONING THE SWEEP by Angela Johnson On a visit to her grandmother Ola, who is dying of cancer in her house in the desert, fourteen-year-old Emmie hears many stories about the past and her family history and comes to a better understanding of relatives both dead and living.
	A RING OF ENDLESS LIGHT by Madeline L’Engle During the summer her grandfather is dying of leukemia and death seems all around, 15-year-old Vicky finds comfort with the pod of dolphins with whom she has been doing research.
	NUMBER THE STARS by Lois Lowry In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis.
	SARAH, PLAIN AND TALL by Patricia MacLachlan When their father invites a mail-order bride to come live with them in their prairie home, Caleb and Anna are captivated by their new mother and hope that she will stay.
	SOLD by Patricia McCormick A novel in vignettes, in which Lakshmi, a thirteen-year-old girl from Nepal, is sold into prostitution in India.
	HABIBI by Naomi Shihab Nye When fourteen-year-old Liyanne Abboud, her younger brother, and her parents move from St. Louis to a new home between Jerusalem and the Palestinian village where her father was born, they face many changes and must deal with the tensions between Jews and Palestinians.
	A YEAR DOWN YONDER by Richard Peck During the recession of 1937, fifteen-year-old Mary Alice is sent to live with her feisty, larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois and comes to a better understanding of this fearsome woman.
	ESPERANZA RISING by Pam Muñoz Ryan Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression.
	HOMECOMING by Cynthia Voigt Abandoned by their mother, four children begin a search for a home and an identity.
	TRUE BELIEVER by Virginia Euwer Wolff Living in the inner city amidst guns and poverty, fifteen-year-old LaVaughn learns from old and new friends, and inspiring mentors, that life is what you make it — an occasion to rise to.
	AMERICAN BORN CHINESE by Gene Luen Yang and Lark Pien This graphic novel portrays the life of a young Chinese-American boy who moves from San Francisco’s Chinatown to the suburbs, where he is one of two Asian children in the school.
	THE ASTONISHING LIFE OF OCTAVIAN NOTHING, TRAITOR TO THE NATION SERIES by M. T. Anderson Volume 1: The Pox Party Volume 2: The Kingdom on the Waves Various diaries, letters and other manuscripts chronicle the experiences of Octavian, a young African American, from birth to age sixteen, as he is brought up as part of a science experiment in the years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War.

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