SPHS Learning Commons

 

 

 

 

Young Adult Reading Suggestions  

Compiled by SPHS Learning Commons

 

 

Reality Check. Abrahams, Peter. After a knee injury destroys sixteen-year-old Cody's college hopes, he

drops out of high school and gets a job in his small Montana town; but when his ex-girlfriend disappears from her Vermont boarding school, Cody travels cross-country to join the search.

 

Crewel. Albin, Gennifer. Adelice wants to fail; wants to keep her talent hidden. If they come for her, she’ll be forced to control people’s lives.

 

Kingdom of Little Wounds. Cokal, Susann. A young seamstress and a royal nursemaid find themselves at

the center of an epic power struggle in this stunning debut novel.

 

Poison Princess. Cole, Kresley. In a tale of dark mysticism and breathtaking romance, Evie could save the world, or destroy it. Who can she trust?

 

Kill Me Softly. Cross, Sarah. Mirabelle is not interested in the charming but boring prince who is destined

to wake her. She’s likes Felix who bears a curse he won’t explain.

 

Swagger. Deuker, Carl. An intense story in which excellent basketball action is tautly woven into a plot

about teen-coach ethics.

 

Maggot Moon. Gardner, Sally. Set in a ruthless regime, an unlikely teenager risks all to expose the truth about a heralded moon landing.

 

The Fault in Our Stars. Green, John. Hazel and Augustus meet at a cancer support group and begin a

journey of growth, strength, beauty and love.

 

Why We Broke Up. Handler, Daniel aka Lemony Snickett. Sixteen-year-old Min Green writes a letter to

Ed Slaterton in which she breaks up with him, documenting their relationship and how items in the accompanying box, from bottle caps to a cookbook, foretell the end.

 

Everybody Sees the Ants. King, A.S. Lucky endures the mundane torture of his life by escaping in his

dreams to the Vietnam War where he saves his grandfather. How long can he hide in his dreams?

 

Second Impact. Klass, David. The high school’s star quarterback co-authors a sports blog for the school newspaper. When his best friend suffers a head injury in a game, the blog, and the town, heat up.

 

Butter. Lange, Erin Jade. Butter weighs 423 pounds and announces online he’ll eat himself to death on New Year’s Eve. A compelling tale of cyberbullying, obesity and teen suicide.

 

Every Day. Levithan, David. Every day a different body, a different life, in love with the same girl. Never any warning about where or who he will be. It’s okay - until he meets the girl.

 

Lorien Legacies series. Lore, Pittacus. 1. I Am Number Four, 2. The Power of Six, 3. The Rise of Nine, 4.

The Fall of Five, 5. The Revenge of Seven. The series follows the story of nine human-looking aliens brought to Earth when they were six years old. Their purpose is to grow into their powers and return to their planet, Lorien, and get it back from the evil Mogadorians. The teenagers have been protected by a charm, which only allows them to be killed in a set order and by non-gifted guardians called Cêpan.

 

Legend trilogy. Lu, Marie. 1. Legend, 2. Prodigy, 3. Champion. Day is a Legend. June is a Prodigy, Who will be Champion? A famous criminal and the soldier hired to capture him join forces against a common enemy. Factions will fight, traitors will be tried and convicted, and secrets revealed before star-crossed lovers Day and June's powerful story, and their complicated relationship, ends with unexpected poignancy in the final book.

 

Dunk. Lubar, David. While hoping to work as the clown in an amusement park dunk tank on the New

Jersey shore the summer before his junior year, Chad faces his best friend’s serious illness, hassles with police, and the girl that got away.

 

The End Games. Martin, T. Michael. Two brothers battle monsters in the zombie apocalypse, following

the game master’s instructions. But the rules are changing and the brothers will never be the same.

 

Pushing the Limits. McGarry, Katie. So wrong for each other...and yet so right. A love story of two troubled teens who together find a path to healing.

 

The False Prince. Nielsen, Jennifer. In a plan to unify a discontent kingdom, four orphans compete for

the role of puppet prince. 

 

Panic. Oliver, Lauren. New York state graduating seniors can earn big money and an escape from a bleak future in their depressed town by participating in terrifying tests of reckless courage in the Panic competition.

 

Divergent trilogy. Roth, Veronica. 1. Divergent, 2. Insurgent, 3. Allegiant. In a future Chicago, 16-year-old Beatrice must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anamoly who does not fit into any one group.

 

Eleanor & Park. Rowell, Rainbow. Unlikely love blossoms on the bus when two unique, exceptional souls find strength in each other’s differences in this emotionally charged and hopeful novel.

 

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Saenz, Benjamin Alire. Fifteen-year-old Ari Mendoza is an angry loner with a brother in prison, but when he meets articulate and self-assured Dante, and they become friends, Ari starts to ask questions about himself, his parents, and his family that he has never asked before.

 

Midwinterblood. Sedgwick, Marcus. Seven stories of passion and love separated by centuries but mysteriously intertwined. A tale of horror and beauty, tenderness and sacrifice.

 

Escape from Furnace series. Smith, Alexander Gordon. 1. Lockdown, 2. Solitary, 3. Death sentence, 4. Fugitives, 5. Execution. Furnace, where brutal inmates and sadistic guards reign, boys disappear and return weirdly altered, and escape might just be possible.

 

Grasshopper Jungle. Smith, Andrew. Austin Szerba narrates the end of humanity as he and his best friend Robby accidentally unleash an army of giant, unstoppable bugs and uncover the secrets of a decades-old experiment gone terribly wrong.

 

The Raven cycle. Stiefvater, Maggie. 1. Raven Boys, 2. The Dream Thieves, 3. Blue Lily, Lily Blue (publ. 2014). Privileged private school boys follow a ley line - an invisible channel of energy connecting sacred places—that runs beneath their small Virginia town, on a dangerous quest for the legendary sleeping Welsh King. The boy’s secrets, dreams, and nightmares complicate their quest and their relationships.

 

The Final Four. Volponi, Paul. Four players at the Final Four of the NCAA basketball tournament struggle

with the pressures of tournament play and the expectations of society at large.

 

Code Name Verity. Wein, Elizabeth. A young female spy captured in Nazi-occupied France writes a confession. Her story is of best friends who embark upon a covert mission that would determine which of them would live or die.

 

The 5th Wave. Yancey, Rick. After an extraterrestrial invasion, Cassie is surviving in a terrifying new

world where she can’t trust anyone...except, maybe, a soldier known as Zombie.

 

Boy Nobody. Zadoff, Allen. Republished under the name, I Am The Weapon. Boy Nobody, the unknown assassin, controlled by The Program, has no memory of who he used to be. When memories and questions surface, he wants out.