Diaries, Letters & Email
YA FIC ADA Adams, Ivy International Kissing Club
Piper, Cassidy, Mei, and Izzy have been best friends their whole lives. And they've always agreed on one goal: to get out of tiny Paris, Texas, and see the world. The school's foreign exchange program seems like the perfect escape: Piper will go to the original Paris; Mei will go to China; Cassidy will go to Australia; and Izzy, unable to afford the program, will stay at home. To add spice to their semester away, and to stay connected to their best friends, the girls start The International Kissing Club, a Facebook page where they can anonymously update one another and brag about all the amazing guys they're meeting. After all, these girls are traveling abroad: amazing guys abound at every turn! But sometimes fun, flirty vacation flings turn into more serious romances, and sometimes you don't return from abroad the same person you were. Will the girls' relationships-and their friendships-be able to survive?
YA FIC ADA Adams, Lenora Baby Girl
At age seventeen, Sheree writes to her mother from the home for teen-age mothers, explaining how she, the product of a teen pregnancy, finds herself in the same situation. The voice is street-smart, savvy, and vulnerable. Sheree clearly sees those around her, and sees her own flaws and weaknesses. She writes letters to the baby, telling him of her love and her renewed relationship with both her mother and her largely absent father. But Sheree also speaks out to all the girls out there who do not guard themselves from pregnancy, thinking that the love they feel for their "man" will be enough to make a family.
YA FIC ADL Adler, Emily & Alex Echevarria Sweet 15
Fourteen-year-old Destiny Lozada sees her world turning upside down when her parents force her to celebrate her 15th birthday with a lavish Puerto Rican-style quinceanera party. Destiny does not want to disappoint her parents; she is proud of her Latinidad, but she is not sure that she wants to switch her skateboard for high heels or her jeans for a fancy, uncomfortable dress. Destiny is growing and changing, but she cannot picture herself attending a religious ceremony or having a caballero, a court and chambelanes. Will she give up her own dreams to please her parents? Or will she stand by her sister's side and refuse to be part of the traditional celebration?
YA FIC ALO Alonzo, Sandra Riding Invisible
Everyone has to know the truth in case I get killed on the trail. It’ll be My Escape all written and drawn WHILE IT HAPPENS. Could be a little raw. I’m a little raw. I’m going to lay low, still and quiet, blend in, harmonize with the world out there. It’s not an easy thing to be, a boy on a horse...riding invisible. So begins 15-year-old Yancy Aparicio's adventure journal. Tormented and abused by his older brother Will, Yancy runs away from home on the night that his brother viciously attacks his horse, Shy. With just a backpack, a flashlight, his horse, and a journal, Yancy takes to the California desert on a journey of self-discovery. There, he will learn the hardships of being homeless, experience his first kiss, and meet a Mexican laborer, Tavo, who has a thing or two to teach him about life and love.
Tween & YA FIC AMA Amato, Mary Invisible Lines
Trevor, a seventh-grader, lives in a tough, run-down housing project, but his school is in a rich neighborhood nearby, and it is hard for him to fit in. He is thrilled to join the soccer team, even though he cannot afford cleats, and his spoiled, rich classmate, Xander, won’t pass him the ball. With his father in jail and his mom searching for work, Trevor has to balance soccer practice with babysitting for his beloved, irritating younger siblings. A gifted artist, he finds escape from his life’s pressures when he begins to keep a required notebook for science class, which he fills with drawings, facts, and observations.
YA FIC APO Apostolina, M Hazing Meri Sugarman
Cindy Bixby dreams of escaping her high school loser image when she begins college. Following in her mother's footsteps, Cindy pledges Alpha Beta Delta, hoping to find acceptance and popularity. Cindy's captivation with Meri Sugarman, sorority president, causes her to make moral compromises to gain Meri's approval. When Cindy lands a boyfriend, an ex of Meri's, she becomes victim of Meri's powerful wrath. Cindy and her friends have no choice but to destroy this evil villain before she destroys them.
YA FIC APO Apostolina, M Meri Strikes Back
Readers who enjoyed gaining access to Cindy Bixby's diary entries in Hazing Meri Sugarman will want to read more in Meri Strikes Back by M. Apostolina. Cindy, who kissed Meri's boyfriend and pushed Meri out of the picture in book one, attempts to put her Rumson U. sorority back together again. But banished Meri has a plan to bring down Alpha Beta Kappa.
YA FIC APO Apostolina, M Dark Cindy
Cindy takes a walk on the wild side! Yikes! This tale of sorority girls gone bad has gotten nasty! When we left off, Meri was back (big time!) and trying to sabotage Cindy and the girls' attempts to save Alpha Beta Delta. (Scandalous!) Cindy tried to end Meri's reign of terror once and for all, but she was still no match for the queen of evil. But now things are different. Cindy has found something that Meri has kept hidden for years -- her supersecret diary! Cindy has also figured out that if you want to catch an evil person in great shoes, you've got to act (and dress) the part. So Cindy is putting on her Harley boots and taking a walk on the dark side!
YA FIC ARN Arntson, Steven The Wrap-up List
In this modern-day suburban town, one percent of all fatalities come about in the most peculiar way. Deaths—eight-foot-tall, silver-gray creatures—send a letter to whoever is chosen for a departure, telling them to wrap up their lives and do the things they always wanted to do before they have to "depart." When sixteen-year-old Gabriela receivesthe notice that her days are numbered, she is, of course, devastated. Will she kiss her crush Sylvester before it's too late? Friendship, first love, and fantasy artfully mesh in this magically realistic world that ultimately celebrates life.
YA FIC BAN Banks, Kate Walk Softly, Rachel
When fourteen-year-old Rachel reads the journal of her brother, who died when she was seven, she learns secrets that help her understand her parents and herself.
YA FIC BAR Baratz-Logsted, Lauren Secrets of my Suburban Life
Everything changed for Lauren ("Ren") after Harry Potter killed her mom. No, it's not what you think—Harry Potter didn't come to life and stab her or anything. A stack of those thick books crushed her. Now Ren is stuck out in the suburbs of Connecticut, dragged out there because her father is too grief stricken to continue living in New York. Ren tries to fit in at her new school, but the most popular girl, Farrin, keeps icing her out. Then Ren discovers that Farrin has a secret: She's been communicating online with an older man, and they are actually planning to meet! Ren can't let Farrin go through with it—she's witnessed enough tragic events as it is. So she comes up with the perfect plan to stop the perv. But then she finds out who he is...
YA FIC BAR Barnes, Derrick The Making of Dr. Truelove
Diego is a sixteen-year-old boy with a problem. He loves his girlfriend, Roxy. And when they suddenly break up due to Diego's own insecurity issues, the boy is crushed. How ever will he win Shorty back? On the trusty advice of his (crazy) best friend, Diego invents an alter ego known as Dr. Truelove. A sex and relationship e-columnist, Truelove is smooth where Diego is gawky, skilled where Diego is clueless. Truelove is, quite clearly, the way back into Roxy's heart. Or so it seems. . . .
YA FIC BAR Barnes, John Tales of the Madman Underground
Wednesday, September 5, 1973: The first day of Karl Shoemaker's senior year in stifling Lightsburg, Ohio. For years, Karl's been part of what he calls "the Madman Underground"—a group of kids forced (for no apparent reason) to attend group therapy during school hours. Karl has decided that senior year is going to be different. He is going to get out of the Madman Underground for good. He is going to act—and be—Normal. But Normal, of course, is relative. Karl has five after-school jobs, one dead father, one seriously unhinged drunk mother . . . and a huge attitude. Welcome to a gritty, uncensored rollercoaster ride, narrated by the singular Karl Shoemaker.
YA FIC BAR Barnholdt, Lauren One Night That Changes Everything
Two years ago, when Eliza Sellman was in ninth grade, her dad found out he was being transferred and the family was going to move. Having always been shy and not so confident about her body, Eliza took that opportunity to start a list in her private notebook of all the things she planned on doing when she moved but had always been afraid to--like wearing a miniskirt and asking guys to dance; singing karaoke in front of strangers; posting a photo of herself on her Facebook wall in a bikini...you get the idea. New town, new Eliza, right? Well, she'll never know because the transfer fell through and they didn't move. But Eliza kept adding her goals and secret fears to the list in the notebook. Now it's two years later, and in that time Eliza has had and lost her first boyfriend. But this was more than your average breakup...turns out the sweet and cute Cooper was only dating her as a hazing stunt by a secret society. Eliza got her revenge by posting some pretty nasty (and only sort-of true) stuff about Cooper online. That posting has had major consequences and now Cooper and his buddies have stolen her private notebook and won't give it back until she performs all the things on her list in one night. It's torture...until Eliza steals something from the boys she knows they'll want to trade her notebook for. What starts out as a night of humiliation turns into a night of revelations as Eliza learns what Cooper was really thinking when they dated, the real reason he's stolen her notebook, and how freeing--and life-changing--it can be to do the things you fear the most.
Tween & YA FIC BAR Barnholdt, Lauren Rules for Secret Keeping
HAVE A SECRET YOU JUST NEED TO GET OUT? IS YOUR BEST FRIEND'S NEW BACK-TO-SCHOOL SHIRT A TOTAL FASHION DON'T? WANNA ANNONYMOUSLY TELL YOUR CRUSH YOU LIKE HIM? Save yourself the embarrassment and pass your secret through me, Samantha Carmichael. Drop your secret along with a dollar into locker number 321, and it will be delivered to the recipient of your choice. **YOUR SECRET WILL NOT BE READ.** Confidentiality and discretion is Samantha Carmichael's policy. How else could she run a secret passing business so successful that YOU GIRL magazine (motto: America's number one tween magazine) has named her as one of the finalists for their tween entrepreneur of the year award before her seventh grade year has barely even begun? But the business of business is more cut-throat in middle school than any Fortune 500-- and Samantha is about to learn that imitation is not always the sincerest form of flattery when she overhears her new classmate, Marissa, has a secret passing business of her own. And when a secret that Sam can't quite stomach leaks out and her own clandestine crush is at stake, it's anyone's guess how the battle of the middle school deep throats will play out!
YA FIC BEA Beam, Matt Last December
This coming-of-age story is in the form of a diary written by fifteen-year-old Steven to his unborn sister Sam. Plagued with the all-too-common situations of a teenager—being new to a school, girls, trying out for a sports team, drinking, and family issues—Steven chooses to write to the one person who cannot judge him, at least not yet.
YA FIC BEA & Adult FIC Beard, Philip Dear Zoe
"On September 11, 2001, far from either New York or Washington, Tess DeNunzio loses her three-year old sister to a hit-and-run driver. With the eyes of the world elsewhere, Tess's small tragedy sends her family reeling into an impenetrable silence. Dear Zoe is her attempt to break that silence." "Already acutely aware of her odd place in a home where her mother and stepfather now have children of their own, Tess begins her letter to Zoe as a means of figuring out her own life - from her two-hour-a-day hair and make-up ritual to her complicity in Zoe's death. Only after she moves in with her real father, a well-intentioned deadbeat, and stumbles into a halting romance with the sweet but aimless boy next door does Tess begin to open her heart once more."
YA FIC BEA Beaudoin, Sean Wise Young Fool
Teen rocker Ritchie Sudden is pretty sure his life has just jumped the shark. Except he hates being called a teen, his band doesn't play rock, and "jumping the shark" is yet another dumb cliché. Part of Ritchie wants to drop everything and walk away. Especially the part that's serving ninety days in a juvenile detention center. Telling the story of the year leading up to his arrest, Ritchie grabs readers by the throat before (politely) inviting them along for the (max-speed) ride. A battle of the bands looms. Dad split about five minutes before Mom's girlfriend moved in. There's the matter of trying to score with the dangerously hot Ravenna Woods while avoiding the dangerously huge Spence Proffer--not to mention just trying to forget what his sister, Beth, said the week before she died.
YA FIC BEN Benwell, Sarah The Least Leaves Are Falling
Japanese teenager, Sora, is diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Lonely and isolated, Sora turns to the ancient wisdom of the samurai for guidance and comfort. But he also finds hope in the present; through the internet he finds friends that see him, not just his illness. This is a story of friendship and acceptance, and testing strength in an uncertain future.