Back to Book Lists

Just For the Fun of It

Bauer, Joan. Hope Was Here. G.P. Putnam, 2000. 186p.
When sixteen-year-old Hope and her aunt who raised her move form Brooklyn to small town Mulhoney, Wisconsin, they find work as a waitress and a cook in the local diner and become active in a political campaign to oust the town’s corrupt mayor.

Clements, Andrew. Things Not Seen. Philomel Books, 2002. 251p.
When fifteen-year-old Bobby wakes up one morning and finds that he is invisible, he, his parents, and his new friend Alicia try to figure out how this happened and what can be done to reverse his condition.

Donnelly, Jennifer. A Northern Light. Harcourt, 2003. 386p.
In 1906, sixteen-year-old would-be writer and college student, Mattie, finds herself compelled to search for the truth about the drowning death of Grace Brown. Based on a true story.

DuPrau, Jeanne. City of Ember. Random House, 2003. 270p.
In the year 214, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day becoming a messenger, a job that takes her to new places in beloved but decaying city and even, perhaps, to places beyond.

_____________. People of Sparks. Random House, 2004. 338p.
Riveting sequel to City of Ember.

Ferris, Jean. Of Sound Mind. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2001. 215p.
Tried of interpreting for his deaf family and resentful of their dependence on him, Theo, a high school senior, finds support & understanding from Ivy, a new student whose father is also deaf.

Giles, Gail. Dead Girls Don’t Write Letters. Roaring Brook Press, 2003. 136p.
Fourteen-year-old Sunny is stunned when a total stranger shows up at her house claiming to be her older sister who supposedly died in a fire months before.

Grimes, Nikki. Bronx Masquerade. Dial Books, 2002. 167p.
Convinced that poetry isn’t worth their time, students at a Bronx high school are surprised to discover its value as they read aloud the poems that they’ve written, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates.

Horowitz, Anthony. Stormbreaker. Speak, 2000. 234p.
After the death of a beloved uncle who raised him, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider is coerced to continue his uncle’s work for the British Intelligence Agency, M16.

Jiménez, Francisco. Breaking Through. Houghton Mifflin, 2001. 193p.
Fourteen-year-old Francisco leads a secret life. Since moving illegally from Mexico to California ten years ago, he has been working in the fields and as a janitor at his high school all the while trying to live like a normal American teenager. Semi-autobiographical sequel to The Circuit.

Johnson, Angela. The First Part Last. Simon & Schuster, 2003. 131p.
Bobby’s carefree teenage life comes to a screeching halt when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter.

Kantor, Melissa. Confessions of a Not It Girl. Hyperion, 2004. 247p.
Senior Jan Miller is convinced that the forces of the universe are against her as she struggles with her less-than-perfect self in the high-style world of Manhattan.

Korman, Gordon. Son of the Mob. Hyperion, 2002. 262p.
Vince Luca is trying to live his life as a normal high school student under the shadow of his powerful organized-crime boss father.

Miklowitz, Gloria D. The Enemy Has a Face. Eerdmans, 2003. 139p.
Israeli citizens Netta, her brother Adam, and her parents have temporarily relocated to L.A. because of her father’s sensitive research. When Adam disappears, all signs point to it being the work of Palestinian terrorists.

Peters, Julie Anne. Define “Normal”. Little, Brown & Company, 2000. 196p.
When she agrees to participate in the peer counseling program at school, Antonia is unprepared for the black lipstick and pierced eyebrows of her first counselee, and she never dreams that Jazz is the one who will ultimately help Antonia deal with the serious problems she has at home.

Plum-Ucci, Carol. The She. Harcourt, 2003. 280p
After his parents are lost at sea, Evan Barrett finds himself helping a fellow student deal with another drowning and learns to face his fears-- both real and imagined.

Reese, Celia. Pirates! Bloomsbury, 2003. 379p.
The “true” and remarkable adventures of Nancy Kington and her slave friend, Minerva Sharpe, female pirates who travel the world in search of treasure.

Rylant, Cynthia. God Went to Beauty School. HarperTempest, 2003. 56p.
A novel written in poems that reveal God’s discovery of the world He has created.

Tolan, Stephanie. Surviving the Applewhites. Harper Collins, 2002.
Jake, a budding juvenile delinquent, is sent to be home schooled at the arty and eccentric Applewhite family’s “Creative Academy,” where he discovers talents he never new he had.

Trueman, Terry. Stuck in Neutral. HarperCollins, 2000. 114p.
Fourteen-year-old Shaun McDaniel, who has cerebral palsy, is living with the fear or hope that his father is planning to kill him.

.Back to Book Lists