HOME OF THE BRAVE
by Katherine Applegate
Kek, an African refugee, is confronted by many strange things at the Minneapolis home of his aunt and cousin, as well as in his fifth grade classroom. He longs for his missing mother, but finds comfort in the company of a cow and her owner.

SHARK GIRL
by Kelly Bingham
After a shark attack causes the amputation of her right arm, fifteen-year-old Jane, an aspiring artist, struggles to come to terms with her loss and the changes it imposes on her day-to-day life and her plans for the future.

ALL THE BROKEN PIECES
by Ann E. Burg
Two years after being airlifted out of Vietnam in 1975, Matt Pin is haunted by the terrible secret he left behind. Now, in a loving adoptive home in the United States, a series of profound events forces him to confront his past.

BECAUSE I AM FURNITURE
by Thalia Chaltas
The youngest of three siblings, fourteen-year-old Anke feels both relieved and neglected that her father abuses her brother and sister but ignores her, but when she catches him with one of her friends, she finally becomes angry enough to take action.

HEARTBEAT
by Sharon Creech
Twelve-year-old Annie ponders the many rhythms of life the year that her mother becomes pregnant, her grandfather begins faltering, and her best friend (and running partner) becomes distant.

LOVE THAT DOG
by Sharon Creech
Jack hates poetry. But his teacher keeps giving the class poetry assignments, and something amazing happens. The more Jack writes, the more he has something to say.

HATE THAT CAT
by Sharon Creech
Jack is studying poetry again in school, and he continues to write poems reflecting his understanding of famous poems and how they relate to his life.

THE FIREFLY LETTERS: A SUFFRAGETTE'S JOURNEY TO CUBA
by Margarita Engle
Draws on little-known Cuban history to tell a stirring story in poetry. Based on the diaries and letters of Swedish suffragist Fredrika Bremer, who spent three months in Cuba in 1851, the story focuses on oppressed women, the privileged as well as the enslaved, in three alternating free-verse narratives.

KEESHA’S HOUSE
by Helen Frost
Seven teens facing such problems as pregnancy, closeted homosexuality, and abuse, each describe in poetic forms what caused them to leave home and where they found home again.

CROSSING STONES
by Helen Frost
In their own voices, four young people, Muriel, Frank, Emma, and Ollie, tell of their experiences during the first World War, as the boys enlist and are sent overseas, Emma finishes school, and Muriel fights for peace and women's suffrage.

HIDDEN
by Helen Frost
When fourteen-year-olds Wren and Darra meet at a Michigan summer camp, both are overwhelmed by memories from six years earlier when Darra's father stole a car, unaware that Wren was hiding in the back.

A GIRL NAMED MISTER
by Nikki Grimes
A pregnant teenager finds support and forgiveness from God through a book of poetry presented from the Virgin Mary's perspective.

PLANET MIDDLE SCHOOL
by Nikki Grimes
A series of poems describes all the baffling changes at home and at school in twelve-year-old Joylin's transition from tomboy basketball player to not-quite-girly girl.

BRONX MASQUERADE
by Nikki Grimes
While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they've written, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates.

WICKED GIRLS: A NOVEL OF THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS
by Stephanie Hemphill
A fictionalized account, told in verse, of the Salem witch trials, told from the perspective of three young women living in Salem in 1692--Mercy Lewis, Margaret Walcott, and Ann Putnam, Jr.

NAKED BUNYIP DANCING
by Steven Herrick
This novel in verse follows the school year of Australian students in classroom 6C, as their unconventional teacher encourages them to discover their own strengths and talents and perform in a memorable concert.

COLD SKIN
by Steven Herrick
In a rural Australian coal mining town shortly after World War II, teenaged Eddie makes a startling discovery when he investigates the murder of a local high school girl.

LOVE, GHOSTS, AND FACIAL HAIR
by Steven Herrick
Jack's got a lot on his mind: He's trying to figure out the mystery of the opposite sex, he can't stop wondering about facial hair, and he won't let go of his mother's ghost, even though she died seven years ago. Jack knows he can't hang on to the past forever, but what he doesn't know is how to let go. Then he meets Annabel. She's beautiful, smart, and she gets him. Suddenly love makes sense, and the future seems hopeful. And for the first time, Jack feels ready to leave the past where it belongs.

OUT OF THE DUST
by Karen Hesse
In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.

WITNESS
by Karen Hesse
A series of poems express the views of various people in a small Vermont town, including a young black girl and a young Jewish girl, during the early 1920s when the Ku Klux Klan is trying to infiltrate the town.

SISTER SLAM AND THE POETIC MOTORMOUTH ROADTRIP
by Linda Oatman High
In this novel told in slam verse, best friends and aspiring poets Laura and Twig embark on a road trip after graduating from high school, from Pennsylvania to New York City, to compete at slam poetry events.

BRAINS FOR LUNCH: A ZOMBIE NOVEL IN HAIKU?!
by K. A. Holt
At a middle school where zombies, blood-sucking chupacabras, and humans never mingle, "lifer" Siobhan and Loeb, a zombie who likes to write haiku, share an attraction.

PERFECT
by Ellen Hopkins
Northern Nevada teenagers Cara, Kendra, Sean, and Andre, tell in their own voices of their very different paths toward perfection and how their goals change when tragedy strikes.

FALLOUT
by Ellen Hopkins
Written in free verse, explores how three teenagers try to cope with the consequences of their mother's addiction to crystal meth and its effects on their lives.

BURNED
by Ellen Hopkins
Seventeen-year-old Pattyn, the eldest daughter in a large Mormon family, is sent to her aunt's Nevada ranch for the summer, where she temporarily escapes her alcoholic, abusive father and finds love and acceptance, only to lose everything when she returns home.

CRANK
by Ellen Hopkins
Kristina Georgia Snow is the perfect daughter, gifted high school junior, quiet, never any trouble. But on a trip to visit her absentee father, Kristina disappears and Bree takes her place. Bree is the exact opposite of Kristina. Through a boy, Bree meets the monster: Crank. And what begins as a wild ecstatic ride turns into a struggle through hell for her mind, her soul - her life.

GLASS
by Ellen Hopkins
In a powerful sequel to Crank, Kristina is determined to manage her addiction to crack in order to keep her newborn child, but when she is unable to manage her use of the drug and the pull becomes too strong, her greatest fears are quickly realized.

TRICKS
by Ellen Hopkins
Five troubled teenagers fall into prostitution as they search for freedom, safety, community, family and love.

IDENTICAL
by Ellen Hopkins
Sixteen-year-old identical twin daughters of a district court judge and a candidate for the United States House of Representatives, Kaeleigh and Raeanne Gardella desperately struggle with secrets that have already torn them and their family apart.

IMPULSE
by Ellen Hopkins
Three teens who meet at Reno, Nevada's Aspen Springs mental hospital after each has attempted suicide connect with each other in a way they never have with their parents or anyone else in their lives.

DAY OF TEARS
by Julius Lester
Emma has taken care of the Butler children since Sarah and Frances's mother, Fanny, left. Emma wants to raise the girls to have good hearts, as a rift over slavery has ripped the Butler household apart. Now, to pay off debts, Pierce Butler wants to cash in his slave "assets," possibly including Emma.

EXPOSED
by Kimberly Marcus
High school senior Liz, a gifted photographer, can no longer see things clearly after her best friend accuses Liz's older brother of a terrible crime.

SOLD
by Patricia McCormick
A novel in vignettes, in which Lakshmi, a thirteen-year-old girl from Nepal, is sold into prostitution in India.

AMIRI & ODETTE: A LOVE STORY
by Walter Dean Myers
A modern, urban retelling in verse of the ballet in which brave Amiri falls in love with beautiful Odette and fights evil Big Red for her on the streets of the Swan Lake Projects.

A STEP FROM HEAVEN
by An Na
A young Korean girl and her family find it difficult to learn English and adjust to life in America.

KARMA: A NOVEL IN VERSE
by Cathy Ostlere
In 1984, following her mother's suicide, 15-year-old Maya and her Sikh father travel to New Delhi from Canada to place her mother's ashes in their final resting place. On the night of their arrival, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated, Maya and her father are separated when the city erupts in chaos, and Maya must rely on Sandeep, a boy she has just met, for survival.

YELLOW STAR
by Jennifer Roy
From 1939, when Syvia is four and a half years old, to 1945 when she has just turned ten, a Jewish girl and her family struggle to survive in Poland's Lodz ghetto during the Nazi occupation.

SONG OF THE SPARROW
by Lisa Ann Sandell
In fifth-century Britain, seventeen-year-old Elaine describes her changing perceptions of war and the people around her as she becomes increasingly involved in the bitter struggle against the invading Saxons.

CHASING BROOKLYN
by Lisa Schroeder
As teenagers Brooklyn and Nico work to help each other recover from the deaths of Brooklyn's boyfriend – Nico's brother Lucca – and their friend Gabe, the two begin to rediscover their passion for life, and a newly blossoming passion for one another.

FAR FROM YOU
by Lisa Schroeder
A novel in verse about sixteen-year-old Ali's reluctant road trip with her stepmother and new baby sister, and the terror that ensues after they end up lost in the snow-covered woods.

THE DAY BEFORE
by Lisa Schroeder
Sixteen-year-old Amber, hoping to spend one perfect day alone at the beach before her world is turned upside down, meets and feels a strong connection to Cade, who is looking for his own escape, for a very different reason.

THE WAY A DOOR CLOSES
by Hope Anita Smith
There are so many ways that a door can close, but it’s not just the closing; it’s the knowing. And thirteen-year-old CJ knows too much—about losing his father, about his family’s pain, and especially about what it means to hold things together when times are the toughest.

ONE OF THOSE HIDEOUS BOOKS WHERE THE MOTHER DIES
by Sonya Sones
Fifteen-year-old Ruby Milliken leaves her best friend, her boyfriend, her aunt and her mother's grave in Boston and reluctantly flies to Los Angeles to live with her father, a famous movie star who divorced her mother before Ruby was born.

WHAT MY GIRLFRIEND DOESN'T KNOW
by Sonya Sones
Fourteen-year-old Robin Murphy is so unpopular at high school that his name is slang for "loser." When he begins dating the beautiful and popular Sophie her reputation plummets, but he finds acceptance as a student in a drawing class at Harvard.

ORCHARDS
by Holly Thompson
Sent to Japan for the summer after an eighth-grade classmate's suicide, half-Japanese, half-Jewish Kana Goldberg tries to fit in with relatives she barely knows and reflects on the guilt she feels over the tragedy back home.

HARD HIT
by Ann Turner
A rising high school baseball star faces his most difficult challenge when his father is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

UNLOCKED
by Ryan G. Van Cleave
While trying to impress a beautiful, unattainable classmate, fourteen-year-old Andy discovers that a fellow social outcast may be planning an act of school violence.

GLIMPSE
by Carol Lynch Williams
Living with their mother who earns money as a prostitute, two sisters take care of each other and when the older one attempts suicide, the younger one tries to uncover the reason.

MAKE LEMONADE
by Virginia Euwer Wolff 
In order to earn money for college, fourteen-year-old LaVaughn babysits for a teenage mother.

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.

THIS FULL HOUSE
by Virginia Euwer Wolff
High school senior LaVaughn's perceptions and expectations of her life begin to change as she learns about the many unexpected connections between the people she loves best.

LOCOMOTION
by Jacqueline Woodson
In a series of poems, eleven-year-old Lonnie writes about his life after the death of his parents, being separated from his younger sister, living in a foster home, and finding his poetic voice at school.

PEACE, LOCOMOTION
by Jacqueline Woodson
Through letters to his little sister, who is living in a different foster home, sixth-grader Lonnie, also known as "Locomotion," keeps a record of their lives while they are apart, describing his own foster family, including his foster brother who returns home after losing a leg in the Iraq War.

REACHING FOR SUN
by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer
Josie, who lives with her mother and grandmother and has cerebral palsy, befriends a boy who moves into one of the rich houses behind her old farmhouse.

42 MILES
by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer
As her thirteenth birthday approaches, JoEllen decides to bring together her two separate lives – one as Joey, who enjoys weekends with her father and other relatives on a farm, and another as Ellen, who lives with her mother in a Cincinnati apartment near her school and friends.

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