Pink Smog: Becoming Weetzie Bat

Pink Smog: Becoming Weetzie Bat

Francesca Lia Block

Fiction B622pi

When Weetzie Bat is a thirteen-year-old junior high school outcast mourning the life her family lost when their cottage in the Los Angeles hills burned down, her father leaves her alcoholic mother without telling either of them where he is going and Weetzie learns how to stand up for herself and to find beauty in even the most difficult situations (Publisher's description). 

The Edumacation of Jay Baker

The Edumacation of Jay Baker

Jay Clark

C548e

Meet Jay Baker . . . or, as he is not-so-affectionately called by his opponent in the freshman-class presidential election--no comment.

A few random bullet points about Jay:

• He is stupidly in love with his best friend, cheerleading dynamo Cameo "Appearance" Parnell.
• He is also trying to score (points) with earthbound tennis-playing goddess Caroline Richardson.
• He is fighting a losing battle with Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
• He rocks a touché array of pop-culture references, jokes, and puns.
• His family life cookie is about to crumble.

Root for Jay as he exchanges ego-blows with his mortal enemy, gets awkward around his dream girl(s), loses his marbles in a Bermudian love triangle, watches his parents' relationship implode, and, finally, learns to keep it real and be himself(ish) (Publisher description).

There Is No Dog

There Is No Dog

Meg Rosoff

Fiction R733t

What if God were a teenaged boy?

In the beginning, Bob created the heavens and the earth and the beasts of the field and the creatures of the sea, and twenty-five million other species (including lots of cute girls). But mostly he prefers eating junk food and leaving his dirty clothes in a heap at the side of his bed.

Every time he falls in love, Earth erupts in natural disasters, and it's usually Bob's beleaguered assistant, Mr. B., who is left cleaning up the mess. So humankind is going to be very sorry indeed that Bob ever ran into a beautiful, completely irresistible girl called Lucy . . .

Cinder

Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1)

Marissa Meyer

M575c

Sixteen-year-old Cinder is considered a technological mistake by most of society and a burden by her stepmother. Being cyborg does have its benefits, though: Cinder's brain interface has given her an uncanny ability to fix things (robots, hovers, her own malfunctioning parts), making her the best mechanic in New Beijing. This reputation brings Prince Kai himself to her weekly market booth, needing her to repair a broken android before the annual ball. He jokingly calls it "a matter of national security," but Cinder suspects it's more serious than he's letting on. 

Although eager to impress the prince, Cinder's intentions are derailed when her younger step-sister, and only human friend, is infected with the fatal plague that's been devastating Earth for a decade. Blaming Cinder for her daughter's illness, Cinder's stepmother volunteers her body for plague research, an "honor" that no one has survived. 

But it doesn't take long for the scientists to discover something unusual about their new guinea pig. Something others would kill for.

Zahra's Paradise

Zahra's Paradise

Amir & Khalil

GN. Am56z

Tehran, Iran, June 2009: After one of the great street protests following the elections, a young man called Mehdi has vanished. His mother, Zahra, and his brother - a blogger and our narrator - search for him desperately. Their quest will take them through the labyrinthine corridors of a cruel regime. 

From hospitals to the morgue, from pleading with corrupt bureaucrats to hacking into a prison's computers, nothing can weaken the deep and abiding love of a mother for her son.

The Iron King

The Iron King

Julie Kagawa

K1197i

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny—one she could never have imagined…

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan's life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school…or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she's known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth—that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she'll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face…and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

Wandering Son, Volume 1

Wandering Son

Shimura Takako

GN Sh629w:E v. 1

The fifth grade. The threshold to puberty, and the beginning of the end of childhood innocence. Shuichi Nitori and his new friend Yoshino Takatsuki have happy homes, loving families, and are well-liked by their classmates. But they share a secret that further complicates a time of life that is awkward for anyone: Shuichi is a boy who wants to be a girl, and Yoshino is a girl who wants to be a boy. Written and drawn by one of today’s most critically acclaimed creators of manga, Shimura portrays Shuishi and Yoshino’s very private journey with affection, sensitivity, gentle humor, and unmistakable flair and grace. Book One introduces our two protagonists and the friends and family whose lives intersect with their own. Yoshino is rudely reminded of her sex by immature boys whose budding interest in girls takes clumsily cruel forms. Shuichi’s secret is discovered by Saori, a perceptive and eccentric classmate. And it is Saori who suggests that the fifth graders put on a production of The Rose of Versailles for the farewell ceremony for the sixth graders - with boys playing the roles of women, and girls playing the roles of men. Wandering Son is a sophisticated work of literary manga translated with rare skill and sensitivity by veteran translator and comics scholar Matt Thorn. (Publisher's description)