Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer
Science Fiction
As plague ravages the overcrowded Earth, observed by ruthless lunar people, Cinder, a gifted mechanic and cyborg, becomes involved with handsome Prince Kai and must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect the world in this futuristic take on the Cinderella story. -MLN Catalog
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
Realistic Fiction/Novels in Verse
There are three rules in the neighborhood: Don’t cry ; Don’t snitch ; Get revenge. Will takes his dead brother Shawn’s gun, and gets in the elevator on the 7th floor. As the elevator stops on each floor, someone connected to Shawn gets on. Someone already dead. Dead by teenage gun violence. And each has something to share with Will. -MLN Catalog
The Hunger Games (Hunger Games #1) by Suzanne Collins
Dystopian
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’s skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister’s place. -MLN Catalog
Ghost (Track #1) by Jason Reynolds
Realistic Fiction/Sports
Ghost. Lu. Patina. Sunny. Four kids from wildly different backgrounds with personalities that are explosive when they clash. But they are also four kids chosen for an elite middle school track team — a team that could qualify them for the Junior Olympics if they can get their acts together. They all have a lot to lose, but they also have a lot to prove, not only to each other, but to themselves. Ghost has a crazy natural talent, but no formal training. If he can stay on track, literally and figuratively, he could be the best sprinter in the city. But Ghost has been running for the wrong reasons — it all starting with running away from his father, who, when Ghost was a very little boy, chased him and his mother through their apartment, then down the street, with a loaded gun, aiming to kill. Since then, Ghost has been the one causing problems — and running away from them — until he meets Coach, an ex-Olympic Medalist who blew his own shot at success by using drugs, and who is determined to keep other kids from blowing their shots at life. -MLN Catalog
We are all Made of Molecules by Susin Nielsen
Realistic Fiction
Thirteen-year-old brilliant but socially-challenged Stewart and mean-girl Ashley must find common ground when, two years after Stewart’s mother died, his father moves in with his new girlfriend–Ashley’s mother, whose gay ex-husband lives in their guest house. -MLN Catalog
Hatchet (Brian’s Saga #1) by Gary Paulsen
Adventure
After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in the Canadian wilderness, learning to survive with only the aid of a hatchet given him by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents’ divorce. -MLN Catalog
Gone (Gone #1) by Michael Grant
Dystopian
In a small town on the coast of California, everyone over the age of fourteen suddenly disappears, setting up a battle between the remaining town residents and the students from a local private school, as well as those who have “The Power” and are able to perform supernatural feats and those who do not. -MLN Catalog
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
Historical Fiction
In 1941, fifteen-year-old Lina, her mother, and brother are pulled from their Lithuanian home by Soviet guards and sent to Siberia, where her father is sentenced to death in a prison camp while she fights for her life, vowing to honor her family and the thousands like hers by burying her story in a jar on Lithuanian soil. -MLN Catalog
Divergent (Divergent #1) by Veronica Roth
Dystopian
In a future Chicago, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomaly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all. -MLN Catalog
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Science Fiction
As her mother prepares to be a contestant on the 1980s television game show, “The $20,000 Pyramid,” a twelve-year-old New York City girl tries to make sense of a series of mysterious notes received from an anonymous source that seems to defy the laws of time and space. -MLN Catalog
Drama by Raina Telgemeier
Graphic Novel/Realistic Fiction
Callie rides an emotional roller coaster while serving on the stage crew for a middle school production of Moon over Mississippi as various relationships start and end, and others never quite get going. -MLN Catalog
Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
Historical Fiction
In 1793 Philadelphia, sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook, separated from her sick mother, learns about perseverance and self-reliance when she is forced to cope with the horrors of a yellow fever epidemic. -MLN Catalog
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Realistic Fiction/Romance
In this story about the perils of popularity, the courage of nonconformity, and the thrill of first love, an eccentric student named Stargirl changes Mica High School forever. -MLN Catalog
Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
Fantasy
Welcome to Elsewhere. It is warm, with a breeze, and the beaches are marvelous. It’s quiet and peaceful. You can’t get sick or any older. Curious to see new paintings by Picasso? Swing by one of Elsewhere’s museums. Need to talk to someone about your problems? Stop by Marilyn Monroe’s psychiatric practice. Elsewhere is where fifteen-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died. It is a place so like Earth, yet completely different. Here Liz will age backward from the day of her death until she becomes a baby again and returns to Earth. But Liz wants to turn sixteen, not fourteen again. She wants to get her driver’s license. She wants to graduate from high school and go to college. And now that she’s dead, Liz is being forced to live a life she doesn’t want with a grandmother she has only just met. And it is not going well. How can Liz let go of the only life she has ever known and embrace a new one? Is it possible that a life lived in reverse is no different from a life lived forward? This moving, often funny book about grief, death, and loss will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned. -MLN Catalog
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Historical Fiction
Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel–a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors. -MLN Catalog
Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
Realistic Fiction/Romance
Isolated from friends who believe the worst because she has not been truthful with them, sixteen-year-old Annabel finds an ally in classmate Owen, whose honesty and passion for music help her to face and share what really happened at the end-of-the-year party that changed her life. -MLN Catalog
Uglies (Uglies #1) by Scott Westerfeld
Dystopian
Just before their sixteenth birthdays, when they will will be transformed into beauties whose only job is to have a great time, Tally’s best friend runs away and Tally must find her and turn her in, or never become pretty at all. -MLN Catalog
Peak (Peak #1) by Roland Smith
Adventure
A fourteen-year-old boy attempts to be the youngest person to reach the top of Mount Everest. -MLN Catalog
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
Crime Fiction
While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken. -MLN Catalog
Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride #1) by James Patterson
Fantasy/Thriller
After the mutant Erasers abduct the youngest member of their group, the “bird kids,” who are the result of genetic experimentation, take off in pursuit and find themselves struggling to understand their own origins and purpose. -MLN Catalog
Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson
Realistic Fiction/Graphic Novel
A graphic novel adventure about a girl who discovers roller derby right as she and her best friend are growing apart. -MLN Catalog
The Selection (Selection #1) by Kiera Cass
Dystopian Romance
America Singer is chosen to compete in the Selection–a contest to see which girl can win the heart of Illea’s prince–but all she really wants is a chance for a future with her secret love, Aspen, who is a caste below her. -MLN Catalog
City of Bones (Mortal Instruments #1) by Cassandra Clare
Fantasy
Suddenly able to see demons and the Darkhunters who are dedicated to returning them to their own dimension, fifteen-year-old Clary Fray is drawn into this bizzare world when her mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a monster. -MLN Catalog
I am Number Four (Lorian Legacies #1) by Pittacus Lore
Science Fiction
In rural Ohio, friendships and a beautiful girl prove distracting to a fifteen-year-old who has hidden on Earth for ten years waiting to develop the Legacies, or powers, he will need to rejoin the other six surviving Garde members and fight the Mogadorians who destroyed their planet, Lorien. -MLN Catalog
Allies by Alan Gratz
Historical Fiction
It is June 6, 1944, D-Day, and Dee Carpenter (true name Dietrich Zimmermann), an underage private in the United States Army, is headed for Omaha Beach, seeking revenge for his uncle, who was arrested by Nazis when Dee was a little boy; meanwhile, Samira Zidano, an eleven-year old French-Algerian girl is looking for the French resistance, desperate to deliver the message that the invasion is about to begin, and get their help in freeing her mother–this is the most important day of the twentieth century, and both children want to fight, and survive. -MLN Catalog
The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
Realistic Fiction/Sports
Fourteen-year-old twin basketball stars Josh and Jordan wrestle with highs and lows on and off the court as their father ignores his declining health. -MLN Catalog
Legend (Legend #1) by Marie Lu
Dystopian/Science Fiction
In a dark future, when North America has split into two warring nations, fifteen-year-old Day–a famous criminal, and prodigy June–the brilliant soldier hired to capture him, discovers that they have a common enemy. -MLN Catalog
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
Adventure
The adventures of an unusual dog, part St. Bernard, part Scotch shepherd, that is forcibly taken to the Klondike gold fields where he eventually becomes the leader of a wolf pack. -MLN Catalog
The Maze Runner (Maze Runner #1) by James Dashner
Dystopian/Science Fiction
Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape. -MLN Catalog
The Boyfriend List (Ruby Oliver #1)
Romance
A Seattle fifteen-year-old explains some of the reasons for her recent panic attacks, including breaking up with her boyfriend, losing all her girlfriends, tensions between her performance-artist mother and her father, and more. -MLN Catalog
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Traveling Pants #1) by Ann Brashares
Realistic Fiction
Four best girlfriends spend the biggest summer of their lives enchanted by a magical pair of pants. -MLN Catalog
The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials #1) by Philip Pullman
Fantasy
Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North. -MLN Catalog
Posted by John David Anderson
Realistic Fiction
In middle school, words aren’t just words. They can be weapons. They can be gifts. The right words can win you friends or make you enemies. They can come back to haunt you. Sometimes they can change things forever. When cell phones are banned at Branton Middle School, Frost and his friends Deedee, Wolf, and Bench come up with a new way to communicate: leaving sticky notes for each other all around the school. It catches on, and soon all the kids in school are leaving notes — though for every kind and friendly one, there is a cutting and cruel one as well. In the middle of this, a new girl named Rose arrives at school and sits at Frost’s lunch table. Rose is not like anyone else at Branton Middle School, and it’s clear that the close circle of friends Frost has made for himself won’t easily hold another. As the sticky-note war escalates, and the pressure to choose sides mounts, Frost soon realizes that after this year, nothing will ever be the same. -MLN Catalog
The New Kid by Jerry Craft
Graphic Novel/Realistic Fiction
Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. But instead of sending him to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in a prestigious private school known for its academics, where Jordan is one of the few kids of color in his entire grade. As he makes the daily trip from his Washington Heights apartment to the upscale Riverdale Academy Day School, Jordan soon finds himself torn between two worlds–and not really fitting into either one. Can Jordan learn to navigate his new school culture while keeping his neighborhood friends and staying true to himself? -MLN Catalog
The Ruins of Gorlon (Ranger’s Apprentice #1) by John Flanagan
Fantasy
When fifteen-year-old Will is rejected by battleschool, he becomes the reluctant apprentice to the mysterious Ranger Halt, and winds up protecting the kingdom from danger. -MLN Catalog
Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson
Realistic Fiction/Romance
Quiet Emily’s sociable and daring best friend, Sloane, has disappeared leaving nothing but a random list of bizarre tasks for her to complete, but with unexpected help from popular classmate Frank Porter, Emily gives them a try. -MLN Catalog
March (March #1) by John Lewis
Graphic Novel/Historical Fiction
This graphic novel trilogy is a first-hand account of Congressman John Lewis’ lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis’ personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement. -MLN Catalog
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
Historical Fiction
This graphic novel trilogy is a first-hand account of Congressman John Lewis’ lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis’ personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement.
Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead
Realistic Fiction
As Bridge makes her way through seventh grade on Manhattan’s Upper West Side with her best friends, curvaceous Em, crusader Tab, and a curious new friend–or more than friend–Sherm, she finds the answer she has been seeking since she barely survived an accident at age eight: “What is my purpose?” -MLN Catalog
The 5th Wave (5th Wave #1) by Rick Yancey
Dystopian
After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one. Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother — or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up. -MLN Catalog
The Testing (Testing #1) by Joelle Charbonneau
Dystopian
Sixteen-year-old Malencia (Cia) Vale is chosen to participate in The Testing to attend the University; however, Cia is fearful when she figures out her friends who do not pass The Testing are disappearing. -MLN Catalog
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott Odell
Historical Fiction
After she is left alone on an isolated island off the coast of California, Karana, a young Indian girl, not only learns the art of survival over the next eighteen years, but also finds a measure of happiness in her solitary life. -MLN Catalog
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
Historical Fiction
Bored and lonely after his family moves from Berlin to a place called “Out-With” in 1942, Bruno, the son of a Nazi officer, befriends a boy in striped pajamas who lives behind a wire fence. -MLN Catalog
Monument 14 (Monument 14 #1) by Emmy Laybourne
Survival
Trapped inside a chain superstore by an apocalyptic sequence of natural and human disasters, six high school kids from various popular and unpopular social groups struggle for survival while protecting a group of younger children. -MLN Catalog
White Fang by Jack London
Adventure
Born in the wilds of the freezing cold Yukon, the wolf cub White Fang soon learns the harsh laws of nature, growing fiercer and more independent in his struggle to survive. Yet buried deep inside him are distant memories of affection and love. Can he learn to trust man again? -MLN Catalog
The Distance Between Us by Kasie West
Realistic Fiction/Romance
Seventeen-year-old Caymen Meyers knows better than to trust a rich boy. But then she meets the richest guy of all, who proves money might not matter after all. -MLN Catalog
The Raft by S.A. Bodeen
Adventure
Seventeen-year-old Caymen Meyers knows better thant to trust a rich boy. But then she meets the richest guy of all, who proves money might not matter after all. -MLN Catalog
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
Mystery/Paranormal
Rory, of Bénouville, Louisiana, is spending a year at a London boarding school when she witnesses a murder by a Jack the Ripper copycat and becomes involved with the very unusual investigation. -MLN Catalog
Shug by Jenny Han
Realistic Fiction/Romance
A twelve-year-old girl learns about friendship, first loves, and self-worth in a small town in the South. -MLN Catalog
Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova
Graphic Novel/Realistic Fiction
After shunning Jaime, the school nerd, on her first day at a new middle school, Penelope Torres tries to blend in with her new friends in the art club, until the art club goes to war with the science club, of which Jaime is a member. -MLN Catalog