What Teens Are Reading
Laurie Halse
Anderson
Prom
author of Tale for One City
Speak
Sex, teen drinking,
language
Kathe Koja
Kissing the
Bee
Starred reviews: Publisher’s
Weekly & Booklist
08 NYPL Books for the Teen
Age
Cover of September 2008
Booklist
Sex
Laura Pedersen
The Big
Shuffle
Ultimate Teen Reading List
http://www.teenreads.com/
Pretty graphic sex
scenes, drinking, gay
couple.
Maureen
Johnson
The
Bermudez
Triangle
ALA Popular Paperbacks for YA
2005 Book Sense Pick (online
independent bksellers)
Mildly graphic lesbian
love scenes.
Cathy Lamb
Julia’s
Chocolates
Meg Rosoff
How I Live
Now
‘06 Michael L. Printz Award, a
Guardian Fiction Prize, and the
Branford Boase Award.
Starred review – Booklist
Naeem Murr
The Perfect
Man
Susan Patron
Higher
Power of
Lucky
Starred review Publishers
Weekly
Best Adult Books for HS
Students 2007-School Library
Journal
Newbery award winner.
James Howe
The Misfits
Big sausages and
vagina party
"Don't cry, love! You
escaped a life's prison
sentence with King
Prick."
Kirkus Review-Starred Review,
Best Books for Children
Rhode Island Teen Book Award
Nominee
Publishers Weekly (Monday ,
14-year old boy and
15-year old girl
(cousins) have sex all
over the farm for one
entire chapter!
Violent, sexual, very
dark.
“Scrotum” used on
page 1. Caused an
uproar(!).
4 friends. 1 is gay.
Deals a lot w/teen
stereotyping, etc. The
narrator, Bob
May 19, 2003):
PW called this story of four best
friends, the target of cruel
name-calling who decide they
aren't going to take it anymore,
"an upbeat, reassuring novel
that encourages preteens and
teens to celebrate their
individuality." Ages 10-14.
Lisi Harrison
Clique Series
Cecily
Von Ziegesar
Gossip Girls
The Clique:
Colorado Blue Spruce Award
Nominee
Delaware Diamonds Award
Nominee
Colorado Blue Spruce Award
Nominee ‘05
ALA Rec. for Reluctant YA's
2003
*Starred Review
Zoey Dean
The A List
ALA Rec. for Reluctant YA's
2004
"Deliciously catty and
immediately engrossing, this is
the ultimate beach read for
teenage girls." -Kirkus
("fatso"), joins with
his three loser friends
in the seventh grade-Joe ("faggot"), Addie
("beanpole," "know-itall"), and Skeezie
("wop," "ree-tard")-to challenge the usual
popularity-contest
class elections and get
kids and teachers to
change.
MEAN, cruel, sexual,
and materialistic.
PW “ At a New York
City jet-set private
school populated by
hard-drinking,
bulimic, love-starved
poor little rich kids, a
clique of horrible
people behave badly
to one another.”
Basically Gossip Girls
in Beverly Hills.
Sherman Alexie
The
Absolutely
True Diary
of a Part
Time Indian
Nat’l Book Award Winner 2007,
Book Sense Book of the Year
Award 2008, Boston GlobeHorn Book Awards 2008 ; L.A.
Times Book Prize Nominee
2007 ; Georgia Peach Book
Award for Teen Readers
Nominee | 2008 - 2009 ;
Tayshas Reading Commended
Young Adult 2008 - 2009 ;
Capitol Choices: Noteworthy
Books for Children Fourteen
and Up | 2008 ; Delaware
Diamonds Award | Nominee |
High School | 2008 - 2009 ;
Native American Youth
Services Literature Award |
Winner | Young Adult | 2008
Crude cartoons,
Language,
Descriptions of
stereotypes.
Philipa Greggory
The Other
Boleyn Girl
PW Starred Review, NYT Best
Seller
Lia Block
Weetzie Bat
Won ALA’s ’05 Margaret E.
Edwards Award (sponsored by
SLJ)
Lia Block
Hanged Man
ALA Rec. for Reluctant Readers
‘99
Questioned by parent
of 6th grader re:
appropriateness in
school library
Sexuality,
nontraditional
families, death,
despair, AIDS
Exploring incest.
Death, anorexia.
Laurie Halse
Anderson
Speak
Bookseller's Choice | Winner |
Date rape, underage
Young Adult | 2000 2000 ;
drinking.
Edgar Allan Poe Awards |
Nominee | Young Adults | 2000
2000 ; National Book Awards |
Nominee | Young People's Lit. |
1999 1999 ; Michael L. Printz
Award | Honor Book | Young
Adults | 2000 2000 ; L.A. Times
Book Prize | Nominee | Young
Adult Fiction | 1999 1999 ;
Carolyn W. Field Award |
Winner | Children's | 2000
2000 ; California Young Reader
Medal | Nominee | High School |
The dominant mode
of the novel is comic,
even though there's
plenty of sadness, as
when Junior's sister
manages to shake off
depression long
enough to elope -only to die, passed out
from drinking, in a
fire.
2003 2003 ; New Atlantic
Independent Booksellers
Association Award | Winner |
Fiction | 2001 2001 ; South
Carolina Childrens, Junior and
Young Adult Book Award |
Winner | Young Adult | 2001 2002 ; Iowa Teen Award |
Nominee | Young Adult | 2002
2002 ; Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Children's Book Award |
Nominee | Children's | 2001
2001 ; Kentucky Bluegrass
Award | Winner | Grades 9-12 |
2001 2001 ; Black-Eyed Susan
Award | Nominee | High School
| 2002 - 2003 ; Volunteer State
Book Awards | Winner | Grades
4-6 | 2001 - 2002 ; Rhode
Island Teen Book Award |
Nominee | Ages 12 & Up | 2001
2001 ; Heartland Award |
Winner | Young Adult | 2001
2001 ; Sequoyah Book Awards |
Winner | Young Adult | 2001 2002
Mette Newth
The Dark
Light
Francesca Lia
Block
I was a
Teen-Age
Fairy
Torra, a 13 yr. old
Norwegian girl dying
of leprosy in a dank
hospital in 19th
century Bergen. The
novel is packed with
reality: rotting flesh,
puddles of vomit and
blood, and attempted
rape and amputation
with no anesthetic.”
Starred review PW, SLJ
Pedophilia and the
“fate of the teen
model lured into the
world of drugs, sex
and alcohol.”
Stephen
Chbosky
The Perks of
Being a
Wallflower
Capitol Choices: Noteworthy
Books for Children |
Recommended | Fourteen and
Up | 1999
SLJ Starred Review
Suicide, sex, teen
pregnancy, LSD
ALA Best Books Young Adults
2000
ALA Recmd for Reluctant YA's
2000
Virginia Walter
Making Up
Megaboy
Han Nolan
Dancing on
the Edge
13 yr. old boy kills
elderly Korean
grocery owner.
National Book Award Winner
‘97, winner of Parent’s Choice
Storybook Award,
Starred review: Kirkus, SLJ,
Bklist
Judy Blume
Forever
Nancy Garden
Annie on my
Mind
Shelley Stoehr
Crosses
Margaret A. Edwards Award
Opens w/Ouija board
séance evoking
bloody birth of the
young heroine cut
from her dead
mother’s womb.
Grandmother sets self
on fire/recovers from
mental illness.
Teen’s first sexual
encounter & teen
pregnancy.
2 high-school girls
who fall in love
“a lesbian love story
with a positive
ending”
Self Mutilation
Nancy and Katie are
best friends with one
big thing in common
they both cut
themselves, Not by
accident, we do it
purposely and
regularly because
physical pain is
comforting, and
because now it has
become a habit.
Chris Crutcher
Staying Fat
for Sarah
Byrnes
Starred Review SLJ
ALA Best Books for YA
Religion, peer
pressure, child abuse,
abortion, violence
Rob Thomas
Rats Saw
God
Lots of marijuana use,
sex
Linda Glovach
Beauty
Queen
Starred Review in Kirkus
Review, SLJ; SLJ Best Books,
ALA Best Books for YA, ALA
Recmd for Reluctant YA
Readers
Starred review Publishers
Weekly, ALA Rec. for Reluctant
Readers
Sarah Dessen
Dreamland
Emotionally, mentally,
& physically abusive
relationships
Alex Flinn
Breathing
Underwater
Starred review SLJ, Booklist
South Carolina Childrens,
Junior and Young Adult Book
Award | Nominee | Young Adult
| 2002 - 2003 ; Tayshas
Reading | Commended | Young
Adult | 2002 - 2003 ; Eliot
Rosewater Indiana High School
Book Award | Winner | Grades
9-12 | 2002 - 2003 ; Rhode
Island Teen Book Award |
Nominee | Ages 12 & Up | 2001
2001
Iowa High School Book Award |
Nominee | Young Adult | 2003 2004 ; Georgia Peach Book
Award for Teen Readers |
Honor Book | Young Adult |
2004 2004 ; Black-Eyed Susan
Award | Winner | High School |
2003 - 2004 ; Tayshas Reading
| Commended | Young Adult |
2002 - 2003 ; Eliot Rosewater
Indiana High School Book
Award | Nominee | Grades 9-12
| 2004 - 2005 ; Rhode Island
Teen Book Award | Nominee |
Ages 12 & Up | 2002 2002 ;
Sequoyah Book Awards |
Teen exotic dancing,
threesomes, and
heroin addiction
Emotionally, mentally,
& physically abusive
relationships, sex,
violence.
Alex Sanchez
Rainbow
Boys
Patricia
McCormick
Cut
Angela Johnson
The First
Part Last
Nominee | Young Adult | 2003 2004 ; Evergreen Young Adult
Book Award | Nominee | Young
Adult | 2004 2004
ALA Starred Review, Best
Books for YA
ALA Best Books for YA
South Carolina Children’s,
Junior and Young Adult Book
Award | Nominee | Young Adult
| 2002 - 2003 ; Tayshas
Reading | Commended | Young
Adult | 2003 - 2004 ; Isinglass
Teen Read Award | Winner |
Grades 6-8 | 2003 – 2004
Starred Review PW, SLJ
Coretta Scott King Award |
Winner | Author | 2004 2004 ;
Michael L. Printz Award |
Winner | Young Adult | 2004
2004 ; South Carolina
Children’s, Junior and Young
Adult Book Award | Nominee |
Young Adult | 2005 - 2006 ;
Iowa Teen Award | Nominee |
Young Adult | 2007 2007 ;
Tayshas Reading | Commended
| Young Adult | 2004 - 2005 ;
Eliot Rosewater Indiana High
School Book Award | Nominee |
Grades 9-12 | 2005 - 2006 ;
Volunteer State Book Awards |
Nominee | Young Adult | 2005 2006 ; Rhode Island Teen Book
Award | Nominee | Ages 12 &
Up | 2005 ; Sequoyah Book
Awards | Nominee | Young
Adult | 2005 – 2006
Starred Review:
PW, SLJ, ALA Best Books YA,
ALA Rec. for Reluctant Reader,
HS boys exploring gay
sex, accepting their
sexuality, and falling
in love.
Self-mutilation
Teen fatherhood (16
yr. old father,
girlfriend suffers
postpartum brain
damage & he is left to
care for newborn.)
Julie Anne Peters
Luna
Colorado Book Award | Winner
| Young Adult Literature | 2005
2005
Girl whose older
brother is transsexual
Kirkus Starred Review
ALA Best Books YA
Steve Berman
Vintage, A
Ghost Story
Alice Sebold
Lovely Bones Book Sense Book of the Year
Rape, murder,
Award | Winner | Adult Fiction pedophilia, disturbing
| 2003 2003 ; Bram Stoker
parts.
Awards | Finalist | Novel | 2002
2002 ; Bram Stoker Awards |
Winner | First Novel | 2002
2002 ; Buckeye Children's Book
Award | Second Place | Teen |
2005 2005 ; South Carolina
Childrens, Junior and Young
Adult Book Award | Winner |
Young Adult | 2004 - 2005 ;
Kentucky Bluegrass Award |
Winner | Grades 9-12 | 2004
2004 ; Tayshas Reading |
Commended | Young Adult |
2003 - 2004 ; Eliot Rosewater
Indiana High School Book
Award | Winner | Grades 9-12 |
2004 - 2005 ; Colorado Blue
Spruce Award | Nominee |
Young Adult | 2004 2004
Depressed gay boy
deals with suicide and
loneliness.
Starred Review:
Booklist, LJ, PW,
John Green
Looking For
Alaska
ALA Best Books YA
Young Reader's Choice Award |
Nominee | Senior/Grades 1012 | 2008 2008 ; Michael L.
Printz Award | Winner | Young
Adult | 2006 2006 ; L.A. Times
Book Prize | Finalist | Young
Adult Fiction | 2005 2005 ;
Buckeye Children's Book
Award | Nominee | Teen | 2007
Drinking, sex, death,
suicide
2007 ; Virginia Readers Choice
Award | Nominee | High School
| 2007 2007 ; Iowa High School
Book Award | Nominee | Young
Adult | 2007 - 2008 ; Georgia
Peach Book Award for Teen
Readers | Nominee | Young
Adult | 2006 - 2007 ; Kentucky
Bluegrass Award | Winner |
Grades 9-12 | 2006 2006 ;
Tayshas Reading | Commended
| Young Adult | 2006 - 2007 ;
Capitol Choices: Noteworthy
Books for Children |
Recommended | Fourteen and
Up | 2006 2006 ; Eliot
Rosewater Indiana High School
Book Award | Nominee |
Grades 9-12 | 2008 - 2009 ;
Volunteer State Book Awards |
Nominee | Young Adult | 2007 2008 ; Rhode Island Teen Book
Award | Nominee | Ages 12 &
Up | 2007 2007 ; Heartland
Award | Honor Book | Young
Adult | 2006 2006
Curtis Sittenfield
Prep
Brent Runyon
The Burn
Journals
Starred Review: SLJ, Kirkus
Review
ALA Best Books for YA
Rec. for Reluctant Readers
Ten Best Books of 2005 by The
New York Times, will be
published in fourteen foreign
countries, has been optioned by
Paramount Pictures.
Pennsylvania Young Reader's
Choice Award | Nominee |
Young Adult | 2006 2006 ;
Georgia Peach Book Award for
Teen Readers | Nominee |
Young Adult | 2006 - 2007 ;
Tayshas Reading | Commended
| Young Adult | 2005 - 2006 ;
Grand Canyon Reader Award |
Self destructive
behavior
Dark story.
When Brent Runyon
was fourteen, he
doused his bathrobe
in gasoline, draped it
over his shoulders,
and lit a match. Before
then, he had tried
several times to
Recommended | Teen | 2008
2008 ; Rhode Island Teen Book
Award | Nominee | Ages 12 &
Up | 2007 2007
Starred Review: Booklist, PW
Ellen Hopkins
Crank
NYT Bestseller, YALSA Teen
Read Nominee 2005
ALA Best Books for Reluctant
Readers
Ellen Hopkins
Burned
NYT Bestseller
Tayshas Reading | Commended
| Young Adult | 2007 - 2008
commit suicide. "I've
got to think of a way
to kill myself that I
can't turn back from,"
he remembers
thinking before
making the decision
that would leave him
with second- and
third-degree burns
over eighty-five
percent of his body.
Cocaine abuse,
pregnancy, drugs,
alcohol & substance
abuse, problem
families.
Abusive religious
family.