Catching my breath here from all the 5th, 6th, and 8th grade field trips and class visits to recommend ten favorite reads from the past few months.
Fantasy
The Caller, by Juliet Marillier, 2014. In the final book of the Shadowfell trilogy, Neryn, the rebels, and the Good Folk must work together to survive their final confrontation with King Keldec.
Eleanor, by Johnny Worthen, 2014. Shapeshifter Eleanor lives the life of a teenager in rural Wyoming until the only person who knows her secret shows up and challenges her existence and everything she hopes to be.
The Stepsister's Tale, by Tracy Barrett, 2014. A retelling of "Cinderella" which takes the viewpoint of the supposedly evil stepsisters and turns the story inside out.
Realistic
Grandmaster, by David Klass, 2014. Daniel Pratzer. a freshman and a newbie to chess—or patzer in chess lingo—is approached by the senior chess club co-captains of his high school. A father-son weekend tournament is coming up, and Daniel and his father are more required than requested to be there. First prize is $10,000, but Daniel’s father doesn’t play chess. At least, that’s what Daniel thinks.
100 Sideways Miles, by Andrew Smith, 2014. Finn Easton, sixteen and epileptic, struggles to feel like more than just a character in his father's cult-classic novels with the help of his best friend, Cade Hernandez, and first love, Julia, until Julia moves away.
Stupid Fast, by Geoff Herbach, 2011. Just before his sixteenth birthday, Felton Reinstein has a sudden growth spurt that turns him from a small, jumpy, picked-on boy with the nickname of "Squirrel Nut" to a powerful athlete, leading to new friends, his first love, and the courage to confront his family's past and current problems.
Tangerine, by Edward Bloor, 1997. Twelve-year-old Paul, who lives in the shadow of his football hero brother Erik, fights for the right to play soccer despite his near blindness and slowly begins to remember the incident that damaged his eyesight.
Science Fiction
Partials, by Dan Wells, 2012. In a post-apocalyptic eastern seaboard ravaged by disease and war with a manmade race of people called Partials, the chance at a future rests in the hands of Kira Walker, a sixteen-year-old medic in training.
Adult Books for Teens
Red Rising, by Pierce Brown, 2014. A tale set in a bleak future society torn by class divisions follows the experiences of secret revolutionary Darrow, who after witnessing his wife's execution by an oppressive government joins a revolutionary cell and attempts to infiltrate an elite military academy.
Universe Versus Alex Woods, by Gavin Extence, 2013. Alex Woods was struck by a meteorite when he was ten years old, leaving scars that marked him for an extraordinary life. The son of a fortune teller, bookish, and an easy target for bullies, he hasn't had the most conventional childhood. When he meets curmudgeonly widower Mr. Peterson, he finds an unlikely friend. Someone who teaches him that that you only get one shot at life. That you have to make it count. So when, aged seventeen, Alex is stopped at Dover customs with 113 grams of marijuana, an urn full of ashes on the passenger seat, and an entire nation in uproar, he's fairly sure he's done the right thing.
