Gold Boy, Emerald Girl

Gold Boy, Emerald Girl
Yiyun Li
Fiction L6123g
These spellbinding short stories are filled with suspense, depth, and beauty, in which history, politics, and folklore magnificently illuminate the human condition. (Book jacket)

Mindblind

Mindblind
Jennifer Roy
Fiction R812m
Formulas are 14-year-old Nathaniel’s friends because they relax him, an important consideration for someone given to panic attacks when he has to interact with people. Nathaniel is a high-functioning “Aspie,” a term that those—like him—with Asperger’s syndrome employ to describe themselves. Fortunately, formulas aren’t Nathaniel’s only friends. His neighbor Cooper is one; pretty, vivacious Jessa, upon whom Nathaniel has a serious but unarticulated crush, is another; and Molly—an Aspie like him—is a third. The multitalented Nathaniel plays keyboards in a band, teaches himself Mandarin Chinese, and is an absolute whiz at mathematics. And why not? He has an IQ of 182. A genius, you say? Well, yes, but don’t tell Nathaniel that, for he has read that to be a bona fide genius, you have to make a contribution to the world, something he is determined to do (just as he is determined to kiss Jessa). (Booklist)

Pathfinder

Pathfinder
Orson Scott Card
Fiction C178p
Thirteen-year-old Rigg has a secret ability to see the paths of others’ pasts, but revelations after his father’s death set him on a dangerous quest that brings new threats from those who would either control his destiny or kill him.

Dash and Lily's Book of Dares

Dash and Lily's Book of Dares
Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Fiction C66d
Told in the alternating voices of Dash and Lily, two sixteen-year-olds carry on a wintry scavenger hunt at Christmas-time in New York, neither knowing quite what--or who--they will find.

The Miracle Stealer

The Miracle Stealer
Neil Connelly
Fiction C7627m
In small-town Pennsylvania, nineteen-year-old Andi Grant will do anything to protect her six-year-old brother Daniel from those who believe he has a God-given gift as a healer--including their own mother.

Revolution

Revolution
Jennifer Donnelly
Fiction D7186r
An angry, grieving seventeen-year-old musician facing expulsion from her prestigious Brooklyn private school travels to Paris to complete a school assignment and uncovers a diary written during the French revolution by a young actress attempting to help a tortured, imprisoned little boy--Louis Charles, the lost king of France.

Evil Genius

Evil Genius
Catherine Jinks
Fiction J564e

Cadel Piggott has a genius IQ and a fascination with systems of all kinds. At seven, he was illegally hacking into computers. Now he’s fourteen and studying for his World Domination degree, taking classes like embezzlement, misinformation, forgery, and infiltration at the institute founded by criminal mastermind Dr. Phineas Darkkon. Although Cadel may be advanced beyond his years, at heart he’s a lonely kid. When he falls for the mysterious and brilliant Kay-Lee, he begins to question the moral implications of his studies for the first time. But is it too late to stop Dr. Darkkon from carrying out his evil plot? (Publisher)

Trilogy:
2 Genius Squad [Fiction J564g2008]
3 The Genius Wars [Fiction J564ge2010]

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet
Reif Larsen
Fiction L329s
The son of a laconic Montana rancher and a noted, if absentminded, coleopterist, 12-year-old prodigy Tecumseh Sparrow Spivet draws diagrammatic maps (e.g., zoological, geological, topographical) as well as maps of people shucking corn or chopping wood, drainage patterns, and a city’s electricity grid usage. The Smithsonian has been accepting illustrations, schematics, charts, and maps from T. S. for some time when Mr. Jibsen calls him to say that T. S. has won the prestigious Baird Award for the popular advancement of science and is invited to D.C. to give a speech. Thus begins T. S.’s odyssey, and a surreal, mind-bending one it is, for sure. During his journey east, T. S. ruminates on many things: his curious ancestry and other family matters, the cultural impact of McDonald’s, loneliness, Chicago litter, Newton’s three laws of motion and their application to his trip, and much more. Toss into the mix a bit of quantum mechanics, Darwinism vs. creationism, and a commentary on human nature, as well as a touch of the fantastic. (Booklist)

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Lisa See
Fiction Se31s
In nineteenth-century China, in a remote Hunan county, a girl named Lily, at the tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, “old same,” in an emotional match that will last a lifetime. The laotong, Snow Flower, introduces herself by sending Lily a silk fan on which she’s painted a poem in nu shu, a unique language that Chinese women created in order to communicate in secret, away from the influence of men. As the years pass, Lily and Snow Flower send messages on fans, compose stories on handkerchiefs, reaching out of isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments. Together, they endure the agony of foot-binding, and reflect upon their arranged marriages, shared loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their deep friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart. (Publisher)

Behemoth

Behemoth
Scott Westerfeld
Fiction W5233b
This sequel to Leviathan [Fiction W5233le] continues the hard-driving, action-packed adventures of Alek, heir to the throne of the Austrian empire and current British prisoner of war, and Deryn Sharp, a midshipman assigned to the Leviathan. Their loyalties to their respective governments and philosophies are tested as their friendship grows; Alek is an Austrian Clanker and Deryn an English Darwinist. After the Leviathan is damaged by a German attack, Alek and his personal guard escape the airship and join a revolutionary group dedicated to the overthrow of the sultan of Istanbul. Meanwhile Deryn has been sent to sabotage a key military blockade in the Istanbul harbor. But true havoc doesn't ensue until the teens are reunited. (School Library Journal)

Alien Invasion and Other Inconveniences

Alien Invasion and Other Inconveniences
Brian Yanksy
Fiction Y17a
When a race of aliens quickly takes over the earth, leaving most people dead, high-schooler Jesse finds himself a slave to an inept alien leader--a situation that brightens as Jesse develops telepathic powers and attracts the attention of two beautiful girls.

Airborn

Airborn
Kenneth Oppel
Fiction Op52a
An original and imaginative Victorian-era fantasy. Matt, 15, only feels alive when he's aloft working as a cabin boy aboard the Aurora,a luxury airship that is part dirigible, part passenger cruise ship. When wealthy Kate and her chaperone come aboard, Matt soon discovers that she is determined to prove her grandfather's claims that he saw strange creatures flying in the sky in that area the year before. The man's diary describes them as huge, furry beasts with batlike wings and sharp claws.
This rousing adventure has something for everyone: appealing and enterprising characters, nasty villains, and a little romance. (School Library Journal)

Full Dark No Stars

Full Dark No Stars
Stephen King
Fiction K5872fu
A collection of four stories. In "1922," a farmer murders his wife to retain the family land she hopes to sell, then watches his life unravel hideously as the consequences of the killing suggest a near-supernatural revenge. "Big Driver" tells of an otherwise ordinary woman who discovers her extraordinary capacity for retribution after she is raped and left for dead. "A Good Marriage" explores the aftermath of a wife's discovery of her milquetoast husband's sinister secret life, while "Fair Extension," the book's most disturbing story, follows the relationship between a man and the best friend on whom he preternaturally shifts all his bad luck and misfortune. (Publishers Weekly)

A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns
Khaled Hosseini
Fiction H794t
Mariam is the illegitimate daughter of a maid and a businessman, who is given away in marriage at 15 to Rasheed, a man three times her age; their union is not a loving one. Laila is born to educated, liberal parents in Kabul the night the Communists take over Afghanistan. Adored by her father but neglected in favor of her older brothers by her mother, Laila finds her true love early on in Tariq, a thoughtful, chivalrous boy who lost a leg in an explosion. But when tensions between the Communists and the mujahideen make the city unsafe, Tariq and his family flee to Pakistan. A devastating tragedy brings Laila to the house of Rasheed and Mariam, where she is forced to make a horrific choice to secure her future. At the heart of the novel is the bond between Mariam and Laila, two very different women brought together by dire circumstances. (Booklist)

If I Stay

If I Stay
Gayle Forman
Fiction F765i
The last normal moment that Mia, a talented cellist, can remember is being in the car with her family. Then she is standing outside her body beside their mangled Buick and her parents' corpses, watching herself and her little brother being tended by paramedics. As she ponders her state (Am I dead? I actually have to ask myself this), Mia is whisked away to a hospital, where, her body in a coma, she reflects on the past and tries to decide whether to fight to live. (Publishers Weekly)

Everything Matters

Everything Matters!
Ron Currie Jr.
Fiction C9369e
A mysterious voice has accompanied Junior Thibodeax all his life, having chosen the moment after Junior's birth to tell him that a meteor will destroy Earth in 36 years. The voice also tells him secrets about his father, his girlfriend and his brother, as well as providing a cure for cancer and sage advice against bombing a federal building. From modest beginnings, Junior descends into violent insanity before finding himself lifted to a position of supreme importance. But even with his foreknowledge, the prophet cannot win every battle, and the ones he loses are more than sufficient to break his heart.

Going Bovine

Going Bovine
Libba Bray
Fiction B739go
Cameron, a 16-year-old slacker whose somewhat dysfunctional family has just about given up on him, as perhaps he himself has, when his diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jacob, "mad cow" disease, reunites them, if too late. The heart of the story, though, is a hallucinatory—or is it?—quest with many parallels to the hopeless but inspirational efforts of Don Quixote, about whom Cameron had been reading before his illness. Just like the crazy—or was he?—Spaniard, Cam is motivated to go on a journey by a sort of Dulcinea. His pink-haired, white-winged version goes by Dulcie and leads him to take up arms against the Dark Wizard and fire giants that attack him intermittently, and to find a missing Dr. X, who can both help save the world and cure him. Cameron's Sancho is a Mexican-American dwarf, game-master hypochondriac he met in the pot smokers' bathroom at school who later turns up as his hospital roommate. Bray blends in a hearty dose of satire on the road trip as Cameron leaves his Texas deathbed—or does he?—to battle evil forces with a legendary jazz horn player, to escape the evil clutches of a happiness cult, to experiment with cloistered scientists trying to solve the mysteries of the universe, and to save a yard gnome embodying a Viking god from the clutches of the materialistic, fame-obsessed MTV-culture clones who shun individual thought. (School Library Journal)

Wintergirls

Wintergirls
Laurie Halse Anderson
Fiction An239w
Lia and Cassie had been best friends since elementary school, and each developed her own style of eating disorder that leads to disaster. Now 18, they are no longer friends. Despite their estrangement, Cassie calls Lia 33 times on the night of her death, and Lia never answers. As events play out, Lia's guilt, her need to be thin, and her fight for acceptance unravel in an almost poetic stream of consciousness in this startlingly crisp and pitch-perfect first-person narrative. (School Library Journal)

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen
Fiction G7609p
In what’s described as an “expanded edition” of Pride and Prejudice, 85 percent of the original text has been preserved but fused with  “ultraviolent zombie mayhem.” For more than 50 years, we learn, England has been overrun by zombies, prompting people like the Bennets to send their daughters away to China for training in the art of deadly combat, and prompting others, like Lady Catherine de Bourgh, to employ armies of ninjas. Added to the familiar plot turns that bring Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy together is the fact that both are highly skilled killers, gleefully slaying zombies on the way to their happy ending. (Booklist)

The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book
Neil Gaiman
Fiction G141g
Somewhere in contemporary Britain, "the man Jack" uses his razor-sharp knife to murder a family, but the youngest, a toddler, slips away. The boy ends up in a graveyard, where the ghostly inhabitants adopt him to keep him safe. Nobody Owens, so named because he "looks like nobody but himself," grows up among a multigenerational cast of characters from different historical periods that includes matronly Mistress Owens; ancient Roman Caius Pompeius; an opinionated young witch; a melodramatic hack poet; and Bod's beloved mentor and guardian, Silas, who is neither living nor dead and has secrets of his own. As he grows up, Bod has a series of adventures, both in and out of the graveyard, and the threat of the man Jack who continues to hunt for him is ever present. (School Library Journal)

The Hunger Games trilogy

The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins
Fiction C696h
In a not-too-distant future, the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. (School Library Journal)


Sequels:
Catching Fire [Fiction C696c]
Mockingjay [Fiction C698m]

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Sherman Alexie
Fiction AL2752a
Junior is a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, he leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. (Publisher)

House of Stairs

   

House of Stairs

Sleator, William

Fiction SL22H

Five fifteen-year-old orphans of widely varying personality characteristics are involuntarily placed in a house of endless stairs as subjects for a psychological experiment on conditioned human response.

Earthseed

   

Earthseed

Sargent, Pamela

Fiction SA733E

Before Zoheret and her companions can populate a new planet, they must learn to conquer those same instincts that almost destroyed their ancestors on Earth over one hundred years ago.

Mortal Engines

   

Mortal Engines: A Novel

Reeve, Philip

Fiction R295m2004

In the distant future, when cities move about and consume smaller towns, a fifteen-year-old apprentice is pushed out of London by the man he most admires and must seek answers in the perilous Out-Country, aided by one girl and the memory of another.

Evil Genius

   

Evil Genius

Jinks, Catherine

Fiction J564e

Child prodigy Cadel Piggot, an antisocial computer hacker, discovers his true identity when he enrolls as a first-year student at an advanced crime academy.

Never Let Me Go

   

Never Let Me Go

Ishiguro, Kazuo

Fiction Is32n 2000

Within the grounds of Hailsham, Kathy grows from schoolgirl to young woman, but it’s only when she and her friends Ruth and Tommy leave the safe grounds of the school (as they always knew they would) that they realize the full truth of what Hailsham is.

The House of the Scorpion

   

The House of the Scorpion

Farmer, Nancy

Fiction F229h

In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patrón, the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.

The City of Ember

   

The City of Ember

DuPrau, Jeanne

Fiction D928c

In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in her decaying but beloved city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown Regions.

Jurassic Park

   

Jurassic Park

Crichton, Michael

Fiction C866ju 1990

Jurassic Park is a tourist trap with a new theme: on a small Pacific island, enterprising scientists create living, breathing replicas of every species of dinosaur that walked the earth. One can expect their efforts to go horribly awry.

Sequel:

The Lost World [Fiction C866L 1996]