Booklist for Teens Grades 9-10 Fiction Title: Annie On My Mind Author: Nancy Garden Summary: Liza meets Annie at a museum one day and soon the girls are more than friends, but is Liza brave enough to love Annie openly, or will she give up Annie forever? Title: Behind the Wheel: Poems about Driving Author: Janet Wong Summary: This witty collection of poetry portrays the trials and tribulations of driving and relates them to life in general. Title: Big Mouth and Ugly Girl Author: Joyce Carol Oates Summary: Matt Donaghy's stupid joke about blowing up the school blows up in his face, and the only person who doesn't suspect him of being a teenage terrorist is Ursula Riggs, also known as "Ugly Girl." Title: Born Confused Author: Tanuja Desai Hidier Summary: Shy, 17-year-old Dimple Lala feels like she doesn't belong in either India or in America, but her feelings begin to change when she sees her perfectly beautiful American best friend usurping her heritage and the boy she likes. Title: Chocolate War Author: Robert Cormier Summary: Jerry Renault learns the devastating consequences of non-conformity when he refuses to participate in his school's chocolate sale. Title: Chosen Author: Chaim Potok Summary: The unlikely friendship between an Orthodox and a secular Jew in 1940s Brooklyn brings deeper understanding to both young men. Title: Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things Author: Carolyn Mackler Summary: As the only one who isn't glamorous, Virginia feels like an outsider in her own family. Title: East Author: Edith Pattou Summary: Rose leaves home with an enchanted white bear she discovers to be a lost prince, and to save him from the evil Troll Queen, must travel east of the sun and west of the moon. Title: Fat Kid Rules the World Author: K. L. Going Summary: Feeling suicidal because of his weight, Troy is about to jump off a subway platform when a legendary punk rock guitarist recruits him to be the drummer in his band. Title: First Part Last Author: Angela Johnson Summary: Bobby has some new rules in his life because even though he's just a teenager, he's also a single father whose life has been divided into "then" and "now." Title: Gingerbread Author: Rachel Cohn Summary: Cyd Charisse, a young girl with a painful secret and a wild streak, goes to New York to stay with her biological father and finally realizes that some secrets shouldn't be kept and families, like people, are never perfect. Title: Gospel According to Larry Author: Janet Tashjian Summary: Through his alter ego, Larry, 17-year-old Josh secretly authors a web site against consumerism that develops a cult following more popular than he is ready to handle. Title: Great and Terrible Beauty Author: Libba Bray Summary: While at a Victorian London boarding school, Gemma experiences visions that lead her to another realm and provide a connection to her dead mother. Title: Hard Love Author: Ellen Wittlinger Summary: Zine authors John and Marisol learn that the love that heals is the hard love. Title: Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven Author: Sherman Alexie Summary: The author, a Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian, links the lives of people young and old, hopeful and sad, funny and courageous, through twenty-two short stories set on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Title: Memories of Summer Author: Ruth White Summary: After moving to Michigan, 13-year-old Lyric's life becomes increasingly consumed with caring for her sister, Summer, who struggles with mental illness. Title: Monster Author: Walter Dean Myers Summary: Steve Harmon is only sixteen but everyone is convinced he's a monster: is he really responsible for the shooting of a convenience store owner or was he just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Title: My Heartbeat Author: Garret Freymann-Weyr Summary: Fourteen-year-old Ellen believes her older brother and his best friend might be gay, but when her suspicion is spoken aloud, her relationship with both boys changes drastically. Title: Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida Author: Victor Martinez Summary: Manny Hernandez struggles to understand himself and his large family as he copes with a violent father, a strong but traditional mother, his pregnant sister, and the gangs in his neighborhood. Title: Perks of Being a Wallflower Author: Stephen Chbosky Summary: Through a series of letters to an unknown "friend," meet Charlie and follow the triumphs and tragedies of his freshman year in high school. Title: Pirates! Author: Celia Rees Summary: When Nancy Kingston is shipped off to Jamaica for an arranged marriage, she rescues a young slave girl from a violent plantation overseer, leaving them both fugitives who must turn to piracy to survive. Title: Ropemaker Author: Peter Dickinson Summary: Tilja and Tahl's families have always upheld the traditions that keep their valley safe from invaders, but as those enchantments fail, they, along with Tilja's grandmother and Tahl's grandfather, must seek the aid of a legendary magician. Title: Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Author: Ann Brashares Summary: Four close friends experience a life-changing summer when they take turns wearing a special pair of pants. Title: Speak Author: Laurie Halse Anderson Summary: A traumatic experience at a party renders Melinda a virtually speechless social outcast Title: Step from Heaven Author: An Na Summary: America seems like just a step from heaven for a young Korean girl and her family until they face the realities of making a new life in a new country. Title: Sweetblood Author: Pete Hautman Summary: Insulin-dependent diabetic, Lucy Szabo, has a fascination with vampires that leads to writing an English essay on her pet theory that vampires are really people with diabetes. Title: Tomorrow, When the War Began Author: John Marsden Summary: Six Australian teens must decide whether to turn themselves in or start a dangerous guerilla war when they return from a camping trip to find their country has been invaded by unknown enemies. Title: True Believer Author: Virginia Euwer Wolff Summary: LaVaughn's freshman year of high school is one of discovery as she drifts away from best friends, has a crush on an old friend, and sees her mother in a new light. This novel is in the Make Lemonade Trilogy. Title: Warchild Author: Karin Lowachee Summary: Jos will risk death to escape his enslavement to the abusive space pirate who killed his family, but when rescued by Earth's alien enemy, can Jos betray humanity to help his savior? Title: Wee Free Men: A Story of Discworld Author: Terry Pratchett Summary: The young witch, Tiffany Aching, sets out to rescue her brother from Fairyland and is assisted by a frying pan and the Wee Free Men: tiny, blue Scotsmen who love nothing more than 'stealin' an' drinkin' an fightin'!" Title: Weetzie Bat Author: Francesca Lia Block Summary: When Weetzie Bat-who lives in a glittery L.A. wonderland and wears pink harlequin sunglasses, feathers, spangles, and a bleach blonde flattop- makes three wishes, they just might come true. Title: What Happened to Lani Garve Author: Carol Plum-Ucci Summary: When Claire returns to high school after recovering from leukemia, she makes friends with the new kid, Lani Garver, whose feminine mannerisms make him a target for cruelty. Title: You Don't Know Me Author: David Klass Summary: John begins his story with, "You don't know me," and that's true: John lives mostly in his imagination, hiding his painful crush on a girl at school and the abuse he suffers at the hands of his mother's boyfriend. Non-Fiction Title: American Chica: Two Worlds, One Childhood Author: Marie Arana Summary: This colorful memoir follows the author as she grows up in two conflicted cultures, American and Peruvian. Call Number: B ARANA Title: Flags of Our Fathers Author: James Bradley with Ron Powers Summary: This is the story of the six men who raised the American flag at Iwo Jima and were immortalized in the famous photograph. Call Number: 940.5426 BRA Title: Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case Author: Chris Crowe Summary: Public outrage across the country helped fuel the Civil Rights Movement in 1955 as two white men from Mississippi were found innocent, then later publicly confessed, to murdering a black youth from Chicago. Call Number: 364.152309 CRO Title: Hole in My Life Author: Jack Gantos Summary: The highly lauded author of humorous books for youth describes how he came to be in a federal penitentiary when he was 19 years old, and how he put his life back together after he served his time. Call Number: B GANTOS Title: Lost in Place: Growing Up Absurd in Suburbia Author: Mark Salzman Summary: Salzmans humorous memoirs track his childhood and teen years as a highly unique person with highly unique interests, despite an upbringing in a typical suburb by conventional parents. Call Number: B SALZMAN Title: Making of America: A History of the United States from 1492 to the Present Author: Robert A. Johnston Summary: In 200 pages, a look at America's past reveals the triumphs and hardships of growing into a world power. Call Number: 973 JOH Title: More Than a Label: Why What You Wear or Who You're With Doesn't Define Who You Are Author: Aisha Muharrar Summary: Muharrar, who surveyed teens while working on the Teen People news team, reports her findings on stereotypes, labels and cliques in teens' lives. Call Number: 305.235 MUH Title: Rocket Boys Author: Homer H. Hickam, Jr. Summary: Now a consultant for NASA, Homer tells how it all began: blowing up his backyard and building real rockets as a teen in a dirt-poor coal-mining town. Call Number: B HICKAM Title: Stick Figure: A Diary of My Former Self Author: Lori Gottlieb Summary: After meeting her popular, slender cousin and seeing everyone's approval of her dieting, the young Lori begins her own diet and is soon on her way to becoming a stick figure. Call Number: 616.85262 GOT