Volunteer State Book Award- Young Adult
2004 –2005 Reading List for Schools
 

Note:  Not all titles on this list may be appropriate for your school.  Please READ whatever you select for your school.
Reviews do not always tell you what you need to know for your community
Kathy will read all of these (eventually!)

1. Alvarez, Julia.  Before We Were Free.  A. Knopf, August 2002.  ISBN:  0375815449
 In the early 1960’s in the Dominican Republic, twelve-year-old Anita learns that her family is involved in the underground movement to end the bloody rule of the dictator, General Trujillo.

2. Anderson, M.T.  Feed.  Candlewick Press, August 2002.  ISBN:  0763617261
 In a novel filled with irony and satire (not to mention profanity), Anderson provides a bleak vision of the future, saturated as it is with the constant bombardment of ads that are fed directly into everyone’s brains, rampant consumerism, and the senselessness of the latest fashion crazes.

3. Auch, Mary Jane.  Ashes of Roses.  Henry Holt, May 2002.  ISBN:  0805066861
 Rose Nolan, a sixteen-year-old Irish immigrant girl, arrives at Ellis Island excited about the possibilities this new life could bring.  She and her family encounter many problems they did not expect in this land of prosperity.  Rose befriends Gussie, the daughter of a union organizer and she helps Rose deal with the unpleasant working conditions in the sweatshop where she works.  She later gets a job at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory and is trapped, with all her coworkers, in the building during the infamous fire in which 146 people perished.

4. Bardi, Abby.  The Book of Fred.  Washington Square Press, September 2002.  ISBN:  0743411943
 Having been sheltered from television and popular culture by her upbringing in a fundamentalist religious sect, fifteen-year-old Mary Fred is placed in a foster home after two of her siblings die of curable illnesses.  While Mary’s world view is dramatically changed by her foster family, she brings a remarkably positive influence on each of them.

5. Clements, Andrew.  Things not Seen.  Philomel Books, March 2002.  ISBN:  0399236260
 When fifteen-year-old Bobby wakes up and finds himself invisible, he and his parents and his new blind friend Alicia try to find out what caused his condition and how to reverse it.

6. Farmer, Nancy.  House of the Scorpion.  Atheneum Books for Young Readers, September 2002.  ISBN:  0689852223
 Matt is a clone, living in the land of Opium, ruled by 100+ year-old drug lord, El Patron on the border between Mexico and California.  Matt lives his life loved by only a few and despised by the rest of the people in his small world because clones are classified as animals and are used for body parts by their wealthy owners.  Most are rendered into “eejits” by an injection into their brains, but Matt is allowed to keep his intelligence. (Suitable for 8-12, kbp)
 

7. Flinn, Alex.  Breathing Underwater.  HarperCollins, May 2001.  ISBN:  0060291982
 After hitting his girlfriend, Caitlin, Nick must attend Family Violence Class and confront his behavior by starting a journal.  The journal retells the violent, both physical and emotional abuse, of Caitlin and forces Nick to come to terms with his own demons. (suitable for 9-12, kbp)

8. Gaiman, Neil.  Coraline.  HarperCollins, July 2002.  ISBN:  0380977788
 Looking for excitement, Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must challenge a gruesome entity in order to save herself, her parents, and the souls of three others.

9. Gantos, Jack.  A Hole in My Life.  Farrar, Straus and Giroux, March 2002.  ISBN:  0374399883
 The author relates how, as a young adult, he became a drug user and smuggler, was arrested, did time in prison, and eventually got out and went to college, all the while hoping to become a writer. (Suitable for 10-12, kbp)

10. Hobbs, Valerie.  Sonny’s War.  Frances Foster Books, September 2002.  ISBN:  0374371369
 At the height of the Viet Nam War, Cory’s father dies and her brother Sonny is drafted and sent to Viet Nam.  Alone with her mother, Cory struggles to find her place in life.  Because of a fascinating and inspiring new teacher, that place seems to be at his side as an anti-war protestor at the high school.  After the teacher is fired, Cory has to decide whether her loyalty is to her teacher, her mother, her brother or the community.

11. Kidd, Sue Monk.  The Secret Life of Bees.  Viking, October 2002.  ISBN:  0670032379
 During the 1960’s, fourteen-year-old Lily and her companion, Rosaleen, an African-American woman who has cared for Lily since her mother’s death ten years earlier, flee their home after Rosaleen is victimized by racist police officers, and find a safe haven in Tibouron, South Carolina at the home of three beekeeping sister, May, June and August.

12. Kindl, Patrice.  Goose Chase.  Houghton Mifflin Company, March 2001.  ISBN:  0618033777
 The Goose Girl is under a spell or curse.  She has been bestowed by an old woman with a beauty as “lovely as the dawn,” cries real diamonds and has perpetual gold dust in her hair.  A prince and a king both want to marry her for her beauty and her wealth but she wants neither.  She is set free from her prison tower by the gaggle of loyal geese she tended to as a commoner and her adventures begin. (Suitgble for all, kbp)

13. Klass, David.  New York:  Home of the Braves.  Frances Foster Books, October 2002.  ISBN:  0374399638
 Senior Joe Brickman, team soccer captain, faces fierce rivalries not only on the soccer field, but also between the neighboring town, and the school’s football team.  His most bitter rivalry, however, is with a brilliant Brazilian soccer player now attending the same school, dominating their team and dating the girl Joe considers his own.

14. Les Becquets, Diane.  The Stones of Mourning Creek.  Winslow, September 2001.  ISBN:  1588370046
 Set in a small town in Alabama in 1966, Francie must overcome the death of her mother, the brutal beating of her alcoholic father, the possibility of being followed by a stranger, and the racial tensions caused by her friendship with Ruthie.  Francie learns there are many secrets in her small town and she might be the one to expose and end the violence and hatred.

15. Littke, Lael.  Lake of Secrets.  Henry Holt, May 2002.  ISBN:  0805067302
 Carleen’s brother Keith disappeared three years before she was born.  Now, Carleen and her mother return to the town where her brother disappeared, searching for clues and maybe Keith himself.  Haunted by memories that are not her own, Carleen struggles with the realization that she possibly lived a past life that will lead her to the whereabouts of her brother.

16. McCafferty, Megan.  Sloppy Firsts.  Crown Publishing, August 2001.  ISBN:  0609807900
 Jessica, a hyper-aware, hypercritical and often profane teenager, feels like a fish out of water at school and a stranger at home.  Her best friend Hope made it all bearable.  But when Hope moves out of state, Jessica finds that she must find a way on her own to cope with her non-existent love-life, the boy crazy girls at school, and her sister’s wedding.

17. Moore, Peter.  Blind Sighted.  Viking, September 2002.  ISBN:  0670035432
 Kirk may finally be getting his life together even though he has lost interest in school and is failing all of his classes.  He has started making friends, and even has a girlfriend.  His new friends admire his poetry and song writing talents and he may have a future there.  But then his mother leaves with her boyfriend for California and Kirk is on his own.

18. Peters, Julie Anne.  Define “Normal.”  Little Brown and Company, 2000.  ISBN:  0316734896
 High school honor student Antonia Brown is assigned as peer tutor for radical looking Jazz in an effort to assuage Jazz’s troubles at home and school.  The two clash until Jazz finds out Antonia’s home life is seriously disturbed by her mentally ill mother and the two find common ground.

19. Salisbury, Graham.  Island Boyz.  Delacorte, April 2002.  ISBN:  0385729707
 A brilliantly written collection of short stories, some historical fiction, some modern realism, about growing up on the Hawaiian Islands.

20. Plum-Ucci, Carol.  What Happened to Lani Garver?  Harcourt, September 2002.  ISBN:  0152168133
 Claire McKenzie seems to lead an ideal life.  She is a popular, talented, sixteen-year-old who dates one of the best looking guys on Hackett Island.  But things are not always as they appear.  Claire is recovering from Leukemia and now is fighting an eating disorder.  Her mother is an alcoholic and her friends are both shallow and dangerous.  Enter Lani Garver.  Lani is an androgynous, yet unique, individual with strong philosophical beliefs.

21. Sebold, Alice.  The Lovely Bones.  Little Brown and Company, June 2002.  ISBN:  0316666343
 After she is raped and killed by a neighbor, a teenager narrates the story from heaven, viewing the devastating effects of her murder on her family. (Suitable for 9-12, kbp)
 

22. Sones, Sonya.  What My Mother Doesn’t Know.  Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, October 2001.  ISBN:  0689841140
 Teenager Sophie reveals her inner-self through short poems in this sweet story of young love.  Her life is filled with many issues that face young girls falling in love for the first time.

23. Van Draanen, Wendelin.  Flipped.  Henry Holt, October 2001.  0375811745
 Juliana has a crush on her neighbor Bryce since he moved across the street the summer before second grade.  Bryce has only wanted “Juli” to leave him alone.  Now in eighth grade, Julianna begins to think that perhaps there is not much more to Bryce than his blue eyes.   But Bryce begins to think that perhaps there is more to Juli than he realized. (Suitable for all, kbp)

24. Werlin, Nancy.  Black Mirror.  Dial Books for Young Readers, October 2001.  ISBN:  0803726058
 Convinced that her brother’s death was murder rather than suicide, sixteen-year-old Frances begins her own investigation into suspicious student activities at her boarding school. (Suitable for all, kbp)

25. Wittlinger, Ellen.  Razzle.  Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, September 2001.  ISBN:  0689835655
 “Looking back, I’d have to say my life was one long snooze until the day I met Razzle Penney at the Truro dump.”  Kenyon Baker has never met anyone as outspoken and strange as Razzle.  She certainly has a way about her that will change his whole idea of life and friendship.