Disease and Disorders
Tween & YA FIC ABB Abbott, Tony Firegirl
When burn victim Jessica Feeney enters St. Catherine's school, she is almost too hideous to behold. Although Mrs. Tracy, the homeroom teacher attempts to prepare the students, no one is really ready for the shock of Jessica's appearance. Even though she is only in the school a few weeks, her presence and her ordeal changes the life of one student, Tom Bender. Told in first person, this is a powerful story of simple things and the complexities of being sensitive. Tom has a crush on Courtney, a beautiful classmate, and when Jessica becomes a part of the class, making an impression on his secret love becomes the driving force of Tom's life. Vying for utmost importance in Tom's life is the promise of his friend, Jeff, that they will both take a ride in Jeff's uncle's Cobra. However, after meeting Jessica and coming to understand her accident, Tom's perspective is radically changed.
YA FIC ALB Albert, Louise Less Than Perfect
In an affluent Westchester, NY, suburb, Laura Gould, 15, struggles to cope with her mother's recent breast cancer diagnosis, her musical prodigy brother, a new boy in the neighborhood, and the realities of change and loss. Torn by shame, anxiety, and denial over her mother's needs and fears, the teen buries herself in schoolwork and hopes for a romance with Paul. By coincidence, she meets his mother, Miriam Rosen, and agrees to take on a part-time job walking the family's golden retriever while Paul helps his mother at work. As Laura and Paul embark on a relationship, she finds that she is not alone in dealing with the anxieties of an ill parent.
YA FICALO 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.
YA FICANDAnderson, Jessica LeeBorder Crossing
The mixed-race son of apple pickers, Manz lives with his hard-drinking mother and her truck-driver boyfriend in the hardscrabble world of dusty Rockhill, Texas. Forced to take a summer job rebuilding fence of a cattle ranch, Manz works alongside his friend Jed and meets a girl named Vanessa — but even among his friends, Manz suffers from an uncontrollable paranoia. As the summer wears on, Manz becomes convinced that "Operation Wetback," a brutal postwar relocation program, is being put back into effect. As the voices in his head grow louder and more insistent, Manz struggles to negotiate the difficulties of adolescence, the perils of an oppressed environment, and the terror of losing his grip on reality.
YA FICAND Anderson, Laurie Halse Impossible Knife of Memory
For the past five years, Hayley Kincain and her father, Andy, have been on the road, never staying long in one place as he struggles to escape the demons that have tortured him since his return from Iraq. Now they are back in the town where he grew up so Hayley can attend school. Perhaps, for the first time, Hayley can have a normal life, put aside her own painful memories, even have a relationship with Finn, the hot guy who obviously likes her but is hiding secrets of his own.
YA FICAND Anderson, Laurie Halse Wintergirls
"Dead girl walking," the boys say in the halls.
"Tell us your secret," the girls whisper, one toilet to another.
I am that girl.
I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.
I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame.
Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the skinniest. But what comes after size zero and size double-zero? When Cassie succumbs to the demons within, Lia feels she is being haunted by her friend's restless spirit.
YA FICAND Andrews, Jesse Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Up until senior year, Greg has maintained total social invisibility. He only has one friend, Earl, and together they spend their time—when not playing video games and avoiding Earl’s terrifying brothers— making movies, their own versions of Coppola and Herzog cult classics. Greg would be the first one to tell you his movies are f*@$ing terrible, but he and Earl don’t make them for other people. Until Rachel. Rachel has leukemia, and Greg’s mom gets the genius idea that Greg should befriend her. Against his better judgment and despite his extreme awkwardness, he does. When Rachel decides to stop treatment, Greg and Earl make her a movie, and Greg must abandon invisibility and make a stand.
YA FIC ARC Arcos, CarrieOut of Reach
Rachel has always idolized her older brother Micah. He struggles with addiction, but she tells herself that he’s in control. And she almost believes it. Until the night that Micah doesn’t come home. Rachel’s terrified—and she can’t help but feel responsible. She should have listened when Micah tried to confide in her. And she only feels more guilt when she receives an anonymous note telling her that Micah is nearby and in danger. With nothing more to go on than hope and a slim lead, Rachel and Micah’s best friend, Tyler, begin the search. Along the way, Rachel will be forced to confront her own dark secrets, her growing attraction to Tyler…and the possibility that Micah may never come home.
YA FIC ARN Arnold, Elana Sacred
Growing up on Catalina Island, off the California coast, Scarlett Wenderoth has led a fairly isolated life. After her brother dies, her isolation deepens as she withdraws into herself, shutting out her friends and boyfriend. Her parents, shattered by their own sorrow, fail to notice Scarlett's pain and sudden alarming thinness. Scarlett finds pleasure only on her horse, escaping to the heart of the island on long, solitary rides. One day, as she races around a bend, Scarlett is startled by a boy who raises his hand in warning and says one word: "Stop." The boy—intense, beautiful—is Will Cohen, a newcomer to the island. For reasons he can't or won't explain, he's drawn to Scarlett and feels compelled to keep her safe. To keep her from wasting away. His meddling irritates Scarlett, though she can't deny her attraction to him. As their relationship blossoms into love, Scarlett's body slowly awakens at Will's touch. But just when her grief begins to ebb, she makes a startling discovery about Will, a discovery he's been grappling with himself. A discovery that threatens to force them apart. And if it does, Scarlett fears she will unravel all over again.
YA FICAVE Averett, Edward Cameron & the Girls
“Mad crashes into happy and sad bounces off of guilty until they all live in a big smoky heap in my mind.” Fourteen-year-old Cameron Galloway of Lexington, Washington, understands that he has schizophreniform disorder and needs to take pills to quiet the voices in his head. But he likes the voices, especially the gentle, encouraging voice of The Girl. Conflicted, he turns to his friend Nina Savage, who is clinically depressed and can relate to his horror of the numbing effects of medication. They make a pact to ditch the pills. At first they feel triumphant, but soon Cameron’s untreated mind goes haywire—to disastrous effect.
YA FIC BARBaratz-Logsted, LaurenCrazy Beautiful
Last year, Lucius Wolfe blew off his hands in a science experiment gone bad. Last year, Aurora Belle's mother died. Now both Lucius and Aurora are about to start sophomore year in a new school. On the very first day they meet, forming an instant connection. But high-school politics runs against the notion of the girl everyone wants to be around having anything to do with the boy no one wants to be around, the boy whose nickname is Hooks. Yet still, their connection deepens and the unlikely friendship grows. But there's another boy who likes Aurora, Jessup Tristan. Aurora doesn't return Jessup's affection as he would like and bad things start to happen. Aurora's father, the school librarian, is falsely accused of making improper advances against a female student, the daughter of the vice principal, and the rumor is spread that it was Lucius who fingered Mr. Belle. Can Lucius clear Mr. Belle's name, clear his own name, and finally win the girl?
YA FIC BAR Barkley, Brad & Heather Hepler Jars of Glass
The definition of family always included both a mother and a father for teenage sisters Shana and Chloe. They reminisce about the days when their mom would take them to the beach, telling tales of underwater kingdoms and sea glass. But their mother was sent to a mental institution, and now their lives feel less like a fairy tale and more like a nightmare. Chloe won't let herself believe those stories any more since becoming the cook of the house and primary caretaker of their adopted brother, Micah. She wishes her mother would come home and that her father would start acting like their dad again, rather than some distant drunk. Shana, on the other hand, seeks to escape the broken pieces of their life under black and white makeup and Goth garb. While she also wishes everything would feel normal again, she knows something that Chloe doesn't, and it's this secret that she uses to make sure her mother never comes home again. When things get even worse, the two try to redefine their friendship and their family—but is it too late?
YA FICBAU Bauer, Joan Best Foot Forward
Jenna, spunky heroine of Bauer's award-winning Rules of the Road, makes a welcome reappearance in this sequel. Back in Chicago after a road trip driving her tough-minded though tender-hearted boss, Mrs. Gladstone, down to Texas to help save her shoe company from a takeover by her sleazy son, Elden, in the previous title, 16-year-old Jenna is now happily working at Gladstone Shoes while juggling responsibilities at school and at home. She's still wrestling with her father's alcoholism (she called the police on him for driving drunk) and she attends Al-Alon for support. Meanwhile, a new challenge comes into her life: Tanner, a "dangerously cute" teenager whom she encounters when he tries to steal from the shoe store. Instead of prosecuting him, Mrs. Gladstone hires him—and assigns Jenna to be his mentor. Interestingly, this doesn't become a romantic relationship (Jenna meanwhile meets the perfect guy: "'He understands retail,' I said dreamily"), but both of them learn and grow from their work experience, especially when Mrs. Gladstone's son tries to turn the business into a discount chain and is revealed to be using sweatshop labor in Thailand.
YA FICBAU Bauman, Beth Ann Rosie & Skate
Sisters Rosie, 15, and Skate, 16, have little in common other than hard times. Their widowed, alcoholic father is in jail. Rosie is quiet and reserved and has faith in her dad. In contrast, Skate is tough and independent and refuses to visit her father. Rosie falls for Nick, who also has an alcoholic father. Skate is in high school while her boyfriend, Perry, is at Rutgers and has found new interests. She refuses to see it and is left heartbroken, but she has Frank, 21, to help her pick up the pieces.
YA FIC BEL Bell, Julia Massive
"I'm fat," I hear myself saying. I look in the mirror. My face has gone hot and red; I feel like I'm going to explode. "I'm fat." It sizzles under my skin, puffing me up, pushing me out, making me massive. Weight has always been a big issue in Carmen's life. How could it not? Her mom is obsessed with the idea that thin equals beautiful, thin equals successful, thin equals the way to get what you want. Carmen knows that as far as her mom is concerned, there is only one option: be thin. When her mother sweeps her off to live in the city, Carmen finds that her old world is disappearing. As her life spirals out of control Carmen begins to take charge of the only thing she can — what she eats. If she were thin, very thin, could it all be different?
YA FICBEN Bennett, Sophia The Look
Can she be a supermodel and a super-sister? She finds her answer in just one look. Two sisters, both beautiful in different ways: Fifteen-year-old Ted has got "The Look." That's what the scout for the modeling agency tells her, and she can't believe her luck. But just as Ted's jet-setting off on her new career, Ava is diagnosed with cancer. Can Ted be a supermodel and a super-sister? Or will she have to choose between family and fame? With their worlds turned upside down, the girls have to look past appearances, look deep inside, to figure out what really matters.
YA FIC BER Berry, Julie All the Truth That’s In Me
Four years ago, Judith and her best friend disappeared from their small town of Roswell Station. Two years ago, only Judith returned, permanently mutilated, reviled and ignored by those who were once her friends and family. Unable to speak, Judith lives like a ghost in her own home, silently pouring out her thoughts to the boy who’s owned her heart as long as she can remember—even if he doesn’t know it—her childhood friend, Lucas. But when Roswell Station is attacked, long-buried secrets come to light, and Judith is forced to choose: continue to live in silence, or recover her voice, even if it means changing her world, and the lives around her, forever.
YA FIC BIN Bingham, Kelly Shark Girl
On a sunny day in June, at the beach with her mom and brother, fifteen-year-old Jane Arrowood went for a swim. And then everything — absolutely everything — changed. Now she’s counting down the days until she returns to school with her fake arm, where she knows kids will whisper, "That’s her — that’s Shark Girl," as she passes. In the meantime there are only questions: Why did this happen? Why her? What about her art? What about her life?
YA FIC BOC Bock, Caroline Before My Eyes
Claire has spent the last few months taking care of her six-year-old sister, Izzy, as their mother lies in a hospital bed. Claire believes she has everything under control until she meets a guy online who appears to be a kindred spirit. Claire is initially flattered by the attention but when she meets Max, the shy state senator’s son, her feelings become complicated. Working alongside Max at a beachfront food stand is Barkley. Lonely and obsessive, Barkley has been hearing a voice in his head.
YA FIC BRA Bray, Libba Going Bovine
Can Cameron find what he’s looking for?
All 16-year-old Cameron wants is to get through high school—and life in general—with a minimum of effort. It’s not a lot to ask. But that’s before he’s given some bad news: he’s sick and he’s going to die. Which totally sucks. Hope arrives in the winged form of Dulcie, a loopy punk angel/possible hallucination with a bad sugar habit. She tells Cam there is a cure—if he’s willing to go in search of it. With the help of a death-obsessed, video-gaming dwarf and a yard gnome, Cam sets off on the mother of all road trips through a twisted America into the heart of what matters most.
YA FIC BRE Brenna, Beverly Waiting for No One
Taylor Jane Simon is an eighteen-year-old girl with Asperger’s Syndrome who has a refreshingly different view of the people she encounters and the life she wants to have. Young adult readers will identify with Taylor’s struggle for independence and self-control, and empathize as she outlines the ways—both positive and negative— that her Asperger’s Syndrome affects her daily life. Connecting with a play by Samuel Beckett, Taylor explores a fear of solitary existence while reaching out to a world at times perplexing. Most important, Taylor wants to be seen as an individual, not as a stereotypical “person with special needs,” or a rare wild flower—images that haunt her from the past.