TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY - A Novel By Jay Asher

CONTEMPORARY FICTION BOOK LIST FOR JUNIORS

 

Alphin, E.               Perfect Shot  Brian uses basketball to block out memories of his

                                    girlfriend and her family who were gunned down a year ago, but the

                                    upcoming murdered trial and a high school history assignment

                                    force him to face the past.

      Twisted

 

Anderson, L.           Twisted.  After finally getting noticed by someone other than school

                                    bullies and his ever-angry father, seventeen-year-old Tyler enjoys his

                                    tough new reputation and the attentions of a popular girl, but when life

                                    starts to go bad again, he must choose between transforming himself or

                                    giving in to his destructive thoughts

 

Asher, Jay             Thirteen Reasons Why  High School student clay Jenkins receives a

                                    box in the mail with 13 cassette tapes recorded by his classmate

                                    Hannah, who committed suicide.

 

Bauer, M.               The Running Man   14 year old Joseph reluctantly agrees to draw a portrait

                                    of his reclusive neighbor, Tom, for a class assignment, and over time, like the

                                    silkworms Tom raises, both men come out of their cocoons and face their fears.

   

Booth, Coe              Tyrell  Fifteen year old tyrell, who is living in a Bronx shelter with his

                                    spaced-out mother and his younger brother, tries to avoid temptation

                                    so he does not end up in jail like his father

 

            Tyrell         Kendra  Kendra’s mom was only 14 when she had Kendra.  Then she left

                                    Kendra with Kendra’s grandmother and went on with her life.  Now

                                    Kendra’s 14 and her grandmother wants her mother to start acting

                                    like a mother…especially when Kendra starts getting into trouble with

                                    boys.

 

Bray, Libba            Going Bovine Cameron Smith, a disaffected sixteen-year-old diagnosed with

                                    mad cow disease, sets off on a road trip with a death-obsessed, video-gaming

                                    dwarf he meets in the hospital in an attempt to find a cure.

 

Brooks, Martha      Mistik Lake  Odella’s mother leaves her, her sisters, and their father in

                                    Manitoba and moves to Iceland with another man, she then dies there, and the                                 

family learns some of the many secrets that have haunted them for two

                                    generations. 

 

                                    True Confessions of a Heartless Girl A confused seventeen-year old girl, a

                                    single mother and her young son, two elderly women, and a sad and lonely man,                                 

with their own individual tragedies to bear, come together in a small Manitoba                               

town and find a way to a better future.

 

Brown, Jennifer     Hate List  16 year old Valerie, whose boyfriend Nick committed a school

                                    shooting at the end of their junior year, struggles to cope with integrating

                                    herself back into high school.

 

Caletti, Deb           The Secret Life of Prince Charming 17 year old Quinn explores the nature of

                                    relationships and the varying trustworthiness of men.

 

Cameron, Peter       Someday This Pain will be Useful to You  18 year old James living in NY City

                                    with his older sister and divorced mother struggles to find direction.

 

Castellucci, Cecil    Beige Kay, a quiet French Canadian teenager, reluctantly leaves Montreal to be

                                    with her estranged father, an aging Los Angeles punk rock legend.

                                                         

Collins, S               Hunger Games  In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem

                                    maintain control through an annual televised competition pitting young people

                                    from each of the twelve districts against one another, 16 year old Katniss’s  

                                    skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takers her younger sister place.

 

                                    Catching Fire By winning the annual Hunger Games, District 12 tributes Katniss

                                    Everdeen and Peeta Mellark have secured a life of safety and plenty for

themselves and their families, but because they won by defying the rules, they            

            unwittingly become the faces of an impending rebellion.

                                                      Along For The Ride By Sarah Dessen Book                 

Dessen, Sarah        Along for the Ride Auden gets a chance to recapture the carefree teen life

                                    she missed while her parents were going through a divorce when she goes to

                                    spend the summer with her dad and his new family in a charming beach town and

                                    meets fellow insomniac Eli, an intriguing loner fighting demons of his own.

 

                                    Lock and Key   When she is abandoned by her alcoholic mother, high school

                                    senior Ruby winds up living with Cora, the sister she has not seen for ten years,

                                    and learns about Cora's new life, what makes a family, how to allow people to

                                    help her when she needs it, and that she too has something to offer others.

 

                                    Just Listen  Isolated from friends who believe the worst because she has not

                                    been truthful with them, 16 year old Annabel finds an ally in classmate Owen,

                                    whose honesty & passion for music help her to face and share what really

                                    happened at the end of the year party that changed her life.

 

                                    Truth About Forever  The summer following her father's death Macy plans to

                                    work at the library and wait for her brainy boyfriend to return form camp, but

instead she goes to work at a catering business where she makes new friends

                                    and finally faces her grief.

Little Brother

Doctorow, C           Little Brother  Interrogated for days by the Dept. of Homeland Security in

                                    the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco, 17 yr. old Marcus

                                    is released into what is now a police state, and decides to use his

                                    expertise in computer hacking to set things right.

 

Dowd, Siobhan       Bog Child  In 1981, the height of Ireland’s “Troubles”, 18 year old Fergus is

                                    distracted from his upcoming A-level exams by his imprisoned brother’s hunger

                                    strike, the stress of being a courier for Sinn Fein, and dreams of a murdered

                                    girl whose body is discovered in a bog.

                                                                                            November Blues - Book                             

Draper, S             November Blues  Shortly after her boyfriend Josh is killed in a pledging

                                 accident, November Nelson learns she is pregnant and fears she has no one to

                                 turn to, until she finds solace in the arms of Josh's cousin Jericho

 

                                    Just Another Hero As Kofi, Arielle, Dana, November, and Jericho face

                                    personal challenges during their last year of high school, a misunderstood

                                    student brings a gun to class and demands to be taken seriously.

 

                                    Battle of Jericho

           Touching Snow

Felin, M. S.            Touching Snow  After her stepfather is arrested for child abuse, 13 year old

                                    Karina’s home life improves.  But while the severity of her older sister’s injuries

                                    and the urging of younger sister, their uncle, and a friend tempt her to

                                    testify against him, her mother, and other well meaning adults persuade her to

                                    claim responsibility.

                         

Ferraris, Zoe         Finding Nouf   The family of sixteen-year-old Nouf calls upon desert guide Nayir

                                     ash-Sharqi to investigate her disappearance; however, when her body is found in

                                    the desert and it is determined she died from drowning, Nayir teams up with lab

                                    worker Katya Hijazi to find out what really happened.

 

Flinn, Alex             Fade to Black  An HIV-positive high school student hospitalized after being

                                    attacked, the bigot accused of the crime and the only witness, a classmate

                                    with Down Syndrome, reveal how the assault has changed their lives as they

                                    tell of its aftermath. 

 

Freymann-Weyr     Stay With Me  When her sister kills herself, 16 year old Leila goes looking for

                                    a reason and instead, discovers great love, her family’s true history and what

                                    her own place in it is. 

                                                After the Moment

                                    After the Moment  Seventeen-year-old Leigh changes high schools his senior

            year to help his stepsister and finds himself falling in love with her emotionally

disturbed friend, even though he is still attached to a girl back home.

 

Gee, Maurice          Salt    Hari, a downtrodden underclass boy, and Pearl, a privileged girl, both

                                    develop a talent to speak to animals and humans through mind control, and find

                                    themselves thrown together on a quest to save mankind from a terrible weapon.

 

Giles, Gail              Playing in Traffic.  Shy and unremarkable, seventeen year old Matt

                                    Lathrop is surprised and flattered to find himself singled out for the

                                    sexual attentions of the alluring Skye Colby, until he discovers the evil

                                    purpose behind her actions.

 

Going, K. L.             Saint Iggy  Iggy Corso, who lives in city public housing is caught physically

                                    and spiritually between good and bad when he is kicked out of high school,

                                    goes searching for his missing mother, and causes his friend to get involved

                                    with the same dangerous drug dealer who deals to his parents.

 

Green, John           Looking for Alaska  Sixteen year old Miles’ first year at Culver Creek

                                    Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks

                                    but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal

                                    car crash. 

                                                    Paper Towns

                                    Paper Towns  One month before graduating from his Central Florida high

                                    school, Quentin “Q” Jacobsen basks in the predictable boringness of his life

                                    until the beautiful and exciting Margo Roth Spiegelman, Q’s neighbor and

                                    classmate, takes him on a midnight adventure and then mysteriously disappears.

 

 

Hornsby, Nick        Slam  At the age of 15, Sam Jone’s girlfriend gets pregnant and Sam’s life  of

                                    skateboarding and daydreaming about Tony Hawk changes drastically.

 

Hyde, C.                 Becoming Chloe  A gay teenage boy and a fragile teenage girl meet while

                                    living on the streets of NYC and eventually decide to take a road trip

                                    across America to discover whether or not the world is a beautiful place. 

 

Johnson, Peter        What Happened  When Duane is involved in a hit and run accident during a

                                    snowstorm, passengers Kyle and his younger brother must face Duane’s

                                    powerful father, a man whose hatred of their own absent father may lead

                                    him to harm the  boys.

 

Kasicschke, L.         Feathered.   While on spring break in Cancun, Mexico, High School seniors and

                                    best friends Anne and Michelle accept the wrong ride and Michelle is lost—

                                    seemingly forever.

 

Kephart, Beth         Undercover  High school sophomore Elisa is used to observing while going

                                    unnoticed except when classmates ask her to write love notes for them, but she

                                    doesn’t want to have a Cyrano role forever.

 

Labalestier, J.       Liar   Compulsive liar Micah promises to tell the truth after revealing that her

                                                boyfriend has been murdered.

 

Lockhart, E.           The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks 

 

MacCullough, C.        Stealing Henry  The experiences of high-schooler, following her decision to

                                    take her 8 year old half brother from his abusive father and their oblivious

                                    mother, are interspersed with  the earlier story of her mother.

                                          Purple Heart

McCormick, P.        Purple Heart  While  recuperating in a Bagdad hospital from a brain injury

                                    18 year old soldier Matt struggles to recall what happened. 

 

                             Sold  A novel in vignettes, in which Lakshmi, a 13 year old girl from Nepal is

                                    sold into prostitution in India.

 

McKissack, F.         Shooting Star  Jumo starts taking performance enhancing drugs in order to

                                    be an even better high school football player.

 

Miller, Mar Beth    On the Head of a Pin  While drinking alcohol and playing with a loaded gun

                                    at a party, a teenage boy accidentally shoots and kills another student

                                    and then tries to conceal her death.

 

Morgenroth, K.       Echo  After Justin witnesses his brother’s accidental shooting death, he must

                                    live with the repercussions, as the same horrific day seems to happen over and

                                    over. 

 

Morrison, Toni       A Mercy  Reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery.  But at its heart it

                                    is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother who casts off her daughter

                                    in order to save her, and of a daughter who may need to exorcise that

                                    abandonment. 

 

                                    Sula  At its center—a friendship between 2 women, a friendship whose

                                    intensity first sustains, then injures.  Sula and Nel—both black, both smart

                                    both poor, raised in a small Ohio town—meet when they are 12.  Throughout

                                    their girlhood years they share everything—until Sula gets out of the bottom,

                                    their neighborhood. 

                                                                            Sunrise Over Fallujah

Myers, Walter       Sunrise of Fallujah  Robin Perry, from Harlem, is sent to Iraq in 2003 as a

                                    member of the Civilian Affairs Battalion, and his time  there profoundly

                                    changes him. 

 

                                    The Glory Field  A novel about the perseverance and courage of one

                                    African American Family.  A family whose history saw its first ancestor

                                    captured, shackled, and brought to this country from Africa. 

 

                                    Autobiography of My Dead Brother  Jesse pours his heart and soul into

                                    his sketchbook to make sense of life in his troubled Harlem neighborhood and

                                    the loss of a close friend.

 

Northrop, Michael  Gentlemen.  When 3 teen boys suspect that their English teacher is

                                    responsible for their friend’s disappearance, they must navigate a maze of

                                    clues. 

 

Pearson, M.                The Adoration of Jenna Fox   In the not-too distant future, where

                                    biotechnological advances have made synthetic bodies and brains possible but

                                    illegal, a 17 year old girl, recovering from a serious accident and suffering from

                                    memory lapses, learns a startling secret about her existence.

 

Pfeffer, S.             Life as We Knew It  Through journal entries sixteen-year-old Miranda

                                    describes her family's struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing

                                    worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.

 

                                    The Dead and the Gone  After a meteor hits the moon and sets off a series

                                    of horrific climate changes, 17 year old Alex Morales must take care of his

                                    sisters alone in the chaos of NY City.

                                                            Trickster's choice

Pierce, Tammy        Trickster’s Choice  (Fantasy)  Aly, 16, daughter of Alana, longs to follow in her

                                    fathers footsteps as a spy, but her parents refuse to allow it. Annoyed, she

                                    sails off in her boat, only to be captured by pirates and sold into slavery.

 

                                    Trickster’s Queen  (Fantasy) Aly fails to foresee the dangers that await as she

                                    uses her magic to safeguard Dave and her younger siblings, despite knowing

                                    that her 13 year old charge might be queen of the Copper Isles when the

                                    colonial rulers are defeated

                                                                                    Nineteen minutes: a novel

Picoult, Jodi              Nineteen Minutes  The people of Sterling, New Hampshire, are forever

                                   changed after a shooting at the high school leaves ten people dead, and the

                                   judge presiding over the trial tries to remain unbiased, even though her

                                   daughter witnessed the events and was friends with the assailant

 

                                    Plain Truth  Philadelphia defense attorney Ellie Hathaway, unsatisfied with the

                                    course of her career and personal life, leaves her job for an open-ended stay at

                                     her great-aunt's home in Paradise, Pennsylvania, arriving just in time to become

                                    embroiled in the case of a young, unmarried Amish woman accused of killing her

                                    newborn baby.

 

                             The Tenth Circle  Comic book artist Daniel Stone, a stay-at-home dad with a

                                    fourteen-year-old daughter Trixie, and an unfaithful wife, turns a blind eye to

                                    Trixie's first broken heart and wife Laura's affair, but the feelings of rage he

                                     has buried for years come to the surface when Trixie is raped at a party and

                                    accuses her former boyfriend.

 

Sonnenblick, J.      Notes from the Midnight Driver  After being assigned to perform

                                    community service at a nursing home, sixteen-year old Alex befriends a

                                    cantankerous old man who has some lessons to impart about jazz guitar

                                    playing, ove, and forgiveness. 

 

Stein, Tammar        Light Years: A Novel          Maya Laor leaves her home in Israel to study

                                    astronomy at the University of Virginia after the tragic death of her

                                    boyfriend in a suicide bombing.

               The Help

Stockett, K            The Help Skeeter returns home to Mississippi from college in 1962 and begins

                                    to write stories about the African-American women that are found working in

                                     white households, which includes Aibileen, who grieves for the loss of her son

                                    while caring for her seventeenth white child, and Minny, Aibileen's sassy friend,

 the hired cook for a secretive woman who is new to town.

 

Stork, Francisco    Marcelo in the Real World    Marcelo, a 17 year old boy on the high-functioning

                                    end of the autistic spectrum, faces new challenges. 

 

Vizzini, Ned           It’s Kind of a Funny Story   A humorous account of a NYC teenager’s battle

                                    with depression and his time spent in a psychiatric hospital.

 

Volponi, Paul           Rooftop  Still reeling from seeing police shoot his unarmed cousin to death       

                                    on the roof of a NYC housing project, 17 year old Clay is dragged into the

                                    whirlwind of political manipulation that follows.

        Black and White                    

                                    Black and White  Two star high school basketball players, one black and

                                    on white, experience the justice system differently after committing a

                                    crime together. 

 

Williams-Garcia     Jumped  The lives of Leticia, Dominique, and Trina are irrevocably

                                    intertwined through the course of one day in an urban high school. 

 

Zusak, Markus       I Am the Messenger   After capturing a bank robber, 19 year old cab driver

                                    Ed Kennedy begins receiving mysterious messages that direct him to

                                    addresses where people need help, and he begins getting over his lifelong

                                    feeling of worthlessness.    

 





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