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.
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
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
spaced-out mother and his younger brother, tries to avoid
temptation
so he does not end up in jail like his father
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
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
with her estranged father, an aging
Collins, S Hunger Games In a future
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.
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.
Doctorow, C Little Brother Interrogated for days by the Dept. of Homeland Security in
the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on
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
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.
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
Just
Another Hero As Kofi, Arielle, Dana, November, and
personal challenges
during their last year of high school, a misunderstood
student brings a gun
to class and demands to be taken seriously.
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 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
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
but is
defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal
car
crash.
Paper
Towns One
month before graduating from his
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
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
best friends
Anne and Michelle accept the wrong ride and Michelle is lost—
seemingly
forever.
Kephart,
Beth
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.
McCormick, P. Purple Heart While recuperating in a
18 year old
soldier Matt struggles to recall what happened.
Sold A novel in
vignettes, in which Lakshmi, a 13 year old girl from
sold into
prostitution in
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
their
girlhood years they share everything—until Sula gets
out of the bottom,
their
neighborhood.
Myers, Walter
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
Autobiography
of My Dead Brother Jesse pours his heart and soul into
his
sketchbook to make sense of life in his troubled
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.
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
Picoult,
Jodi
Nineteen Minutes The people of
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
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
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
astronomy at
the
boyfriend in
a suicide bombing.
Stockett,
K The Help Skeeter returns home to
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 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.