Middle Young Adult Fiction

THE WILD GIRLS
by Pat Murphy
When thirteen-year-old Joan moves to California in 1972, she becomes friends with Sarah, who is timid at school but an imaginative leader when they play in the woods, and after winning a writing contest together they are recruited for an exclusive summer writing class that gives them new insights into themselves and others.

BENEATH MY MOTHER’S FEET
by Amjed Qamar
When her father is injured, fourteen-year-old Nazia is pulled away from school, her friends, and her preparations for an arranged marriage, to help her mother clean houses in a wealthy part of Karachi, Pakistan, where she finally rebels against the destiny that is planned for her.

THE HOPE CHEST
by Karen Schwabach
When eleven-year-old Violet runs away from home in 1918 and takes the train to New York City to find her older sister who is a suffragist, she falls in with people her parents would call "the wrong sort," and ends up in Nashville, Tennessee, where "Suffs" and "Antis" are gathered, awaiting the crucial vote on the nineteenth amendment.

KEEPING CORNER
by Kashmira Sheth
In India in the 1940s, thirteen-year-old Leela's happy, spoiled childhood ends when her husband since age nine, whom she barely knows, dies, leaving her a widow whose only hope of happiness could come from Mahatma Ghandi's social and political reforms.

THE CASE OF THE PECULIAR PINK FAN: AN ENOLA HOLMES MYSTERY
by Nancy Springer
While fourteen-year-old Enola Holmes endeavors to save her friend Lady Cecily Alistair from an unwelcome arranged marriage, she meets with some assistance from her older brother, Sherlock, and interference by the eldest, Mycroft.

Young Adult Fiction

A CURSE DARK AS GOLD
by Elizabeth C. Bunce
Upon the death of her father, seventeen-year-old Charlotte struggles to keep the family's woolen mill running in the face of an overwhelming mortgage and what the local villagers believe is a curse, but when a man capable of spinning straw into gold appears on the scene she must decide if his help is worth the price.

GRACELING
by Kristin Cashore
In a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace, the Grace of killing, and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king.

THE HUNGER GAMES
by Suzanne Collins
In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss' skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.

GIRLWOOD
by Claire Dean
When Polly Greene's older sister Bree runs away from home, Polly and her eccentric grandmother believe she is hiding in the neighboring Idaho woods, and when they discover a mysterious, hidden grove of larches, Polly and her friends build a shelter for Bree and try to save the grove from developers.

THE SURRENDER TREE: POEMS OF CUBA'S STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM
by Margarita Engle
Engle’s hauntingly beautiful free verse prose breathes life into this finely crafted story that illuminates Cuba’s fight for independence from Spain in the 1800s. Told from the perspective of four distinct voices, Engle intricately weaves a harrowing, heart-wrenching story of enslavement, survival, determination and heroism.

GIRL OVERBOARD
by Justina Chen Headley
After a snowboarding accident, Syrah Cheng, a billionaire's daughter, must rehabilitate both her knee and her self-esteem while forging relationships with those who accept her for who she is.

WHITE SANDS, RED MENACE
by Ellen Klages
It is 1946, and Dewey Kerrigan is now living near the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico with the Gordon family. Dewey and her "sister," Suze, share secrets, art and science as they adjust to high school in an isolated desert town. Then, Dewey's long-lost mother, Rita Gallucci, reappears in their lives.

THE DISREPUTABLE HISTORY OF FRANKIE LANDAU-BANKS
by E. Lockhart
Sophomore Frankie starts dating senior Matthew Livingston, but when he refuses to talk about the all-male secret society that he and his friends belong to, Frankie infiltrates the society in order to enliven their mediocre pranks.

THE SHADOW SPEAKER
by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu
In West Africa in 2070, after fifteen-year-old "shadow speaker" Ejii witnesses her father's beheading, she embarks on a dangerous journey across the Sahara to find Jaa, her father's killer, and upon finding her, she also discovers a greater purpose to her life and to the mystical powers she possesses.

LIVING DEAD GIRL
by Elizabeth Scott
When Alice was ten, Ray took her away from her family, her friends, her life. She learned to give up all power, to endure all pain. She waited for the nightmare to be over. Now Alice is fifteen and Ray still has her, but he speaks more and more of her death. He does not know it is what she longs for. She does not know he has something more terrifying than death in mind for her.

BIG FAT MANIFESTO
by Susan R. Vaught
Overweight, self-assured, high school senior Jamie Carcaterra writes in the school newspaper about her own attitude to being fat, her boyfriend's bariatric surgery, and her struggles to be taken seriously in a very thin world.

CLIMBING THE STAIRS
by Padma Venkatraman
In India, in 1941, when her father becomes brain-damaged in a non-violent protest march, fifteen-year-old Vidya and her family are forced to move in with her father's extended family and become accustomed to a totally different way of life.

Young Adult Nonfiction

ROCK ‘N’ ROLL CAMP FOR GIRLS: HOW TO START A BAND, WRITE SONGS, RECORD AN ALBUM, AND ROCK OUT!
edited by Marisa Anderson
Learn the nuts, bolts and business of creating a rock band. An introduction especially for girls who want to push the boundaries -- and play some awesome rock 'n' roll!

MS. AND THE MATERIAL GIRLS: PERCEPTIONS OF WOMEN FROM THE 1970s THROUGH THE 1990s
by Catherine Gourley
Traces the political and cultural roles of women in the twentieth century, including media representations, landmark accomplishments and social movements.

THE GREAT SWIM
by Gavin Mortimer
In 1926, four female American swimmers faced both physical and mental challenges in the contest to be the first woman to swim the English Channel.

BODY DRAMA
by Nancy Amanda Redd
From fashion magazines to taboo web sites, curious young women have access to tons of old wives’ tales about and thousands of airbrushed and inaccurate images of the female body — misinformation and harmful portrayals that can lead to low self-esteem, self-destructive acts, or even disturbing plastic surgery procedures. Teaming up with a leading physician specializing in adolescent health issues, Harvard graduate and former Miss Virginia, Nancy Redd, now offers a down-to-earth, healing and reassuring response to those damaging myths.

A DANGEROUS WOMAN: THE GRAPHIC BIOGRAPHY OF EMMA GOLDMAN
by Sharon Rudahl
Explore the life and loves of labor activist and free-love advocate Emma Goldman as told in comic book format.

INSIDE OUT: PORTRAIT OF AN EATING DISORDER
by Nadia Shivack
While hospitalized for treatment of bulimia, Shivack uses an illustrated journal to document her battle with Ed, her eating disorder.

HE’S A STUD, SHE’S A SLUT AND 49 OTHER DOUBLE STANDARDS EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW
by Jessica Valenti
This catalogue of the 50 most common double standards that women deal with daily includes tips and solutions about how to respond to them and challenge the underlying sexist perceptions.

HER STORY: A TIMELINE OF WOMEN WHO CHANGED AMERICA
by Charlotte S. Waisman and Jill S. Tietjen
This one-of-a-kind illustrated timeline highlights the awesome, varied, and often unrecognized contributions of American women since the 1500s.

List from the 2009 Amelia Bloomer Project.