1.
Along for the Ride – Sarah Dessen – Realistic Fiction
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.
2.
Angel Boy – Bernard Ashley - Realistic Fiction
Leonard Boameh, bored while on holiday from school, decides to travel to Elmina Castle, where he is kidnapped by a street gang that uses him to con tourists.
3.
The Book of Nonsense – David Michael Slater – Fantasy Fiction
Nearly thirteen-years-old, Daphna and Dexter's lives change when they receive an ancient book full of nonsense from their father, who since the book appeared in their lives has been acting distant; and they wonder about the red-eyed boy who has been threatening them.
4.
The Carbon Diaries – Saci Lloyd – Science Fiction
In 2015, when England becomes the first nation to introduce carbon dioxide rationing in a drastic bid to combat climate change, sixteen-year-old Laura documents the first year of rationing as her family spirals out of control.
5.
Children of the Sea – Daisuke Igarashi – Fantasy – Graphic Novel
Ruka is drawn to the aquarium where her dad works and the two strange boys, Umi and Sora, she meets there. Soon all three are caught up in the mystery of the disappearance of fish from all over the world.
6.
The Day of the Pelican – Katherine Paterson – Realistic Fiction
In 1998 when the Kosovo hostilities escalate, thirteen-year-old Meli's life as an ethnic Albanian, changes forever after her brother escapes his Serbian captors and the entire family flees from one refugee camp to another until they are able to immigrate to America.
7.
Fever Crumb – Philip Reeve – Science Fiction
Foundling Fever Crumb has been raised as an engineer although females in the future London, England, are not believed capable of rational thought, but at age fourteen she leaves her sheltered world and begins to learn startling truths about her past while facing danger in the present.
8.
If I Had a Hammer – David Rubel – Non-Fiction
The author describes his experiences working with Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit organization that builds housing with volunteer laborers.
9.
Leviathan – Scott Westerfeld – Science Fiction
In an alternate 1914 Europe, fifteen-year-old Austrian Prince Alek, on the run from the Clanker Powers who are attempting to take over the globe using mechanical machinery, forms an uneasy alliance with
Deryn who, disguised as a boy to join the British Air Service, is learning to fly genetically-engineered beasts.
10.
Lost Riders – Elizabeth Laird – Realistic Fiction
Taken to work in a strange country, Rashid and his little brother Shari cling to each other. Then they are separated and forced to become jockeys in the lucrative camel-racing business. Rashid is starved and worked to exhaustion by harsh supervisors - but he has a talent for racing and quickly becomes his stable's star jockey. Soon he begins to forget what life was like when he had a proper home.
11.
The Sky Village – Monk and Nigel Ashland – Fantasy Fiction
As animals and machines battle for control on Earth, twelve-year-old Mei is taken into the Sky Village, a web of hot air balloons flying above the ground, where she hopes to be protected from those who hunt her for her unique Kaimira gene, which blends human, animal, and machine traits and makes her a target for all three groups, who want to use her powers for their own good.
12.
When You Reach Me – Rebecca Stead – Realistic/Fantasy Fiction
As her mother prepares to be a contestant on the 1980s television game show, "The $20,000 Pyramid," a twelve-year-old New York City girl tries to make sense of a series of mysterious notes received from an anonymous source that seems to defy the laws of time and space.