Young Adults - Holiday Reading 2009
Free? : Stories Celebrating Human Rights – Amnesty International (ed.)
This is a celebration of human rights. To commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Walker Books and Amnesty International have joined together to create a short-story collection for young adults, celebrating what it means to be free. Hosting a variety of talented children’s authors from all around the globe, the anthology embraces such themes as asylum, law, education and faith in a way that will both inspire and entertain.
Gunstories: Life-Changing Experiences with Guns – S. Beth Atkins
Guns are a fact of life for young people growing up in the United States. Guns can cause accidents, injuries, and deaths, while they can also nurture self-esteem, bolster confidence, and foster athletic abilities. The impact of guns is life changing and undoubtedly twofold. In a series of evocative and stirring interviews and photographs, S. Beth Atkin presents an array of young people who candidly share the mixed consequences of guns in their lives. Told in their own voices, these are their remarkable stories.
End of the Alphabet – Fleur Beale (NZ)
Ruby Yarrow is 14 and she’s a good girl who helps out a lot around the house with cooking and looking after the little ones. Ruby’s best friend Tia tells her to stop being a doormat which gets Ruby thinking. How do you stop being a doormat and start standing up for yourself? Ruby can’t even get her own bedroom, so why does she think she could get accepted for a school trip to Brazil? But Tia has made her start thinking and things will never be the same again for Ruby or her family.
The Demon’s Lexicon – Sarah Rees Brennan
Nick and his brother Alan are on the run with their mother, who was once the lover of a powerful magician. When she left him, she stole an important charm - and he will stop at nothing to reclaim it. Now Alan has been marked with the sign of death by the magician’s demon, and only Nick can save him. But to do so he must face those he has fled from all his life - the magicians - and kill them. So the hunted becomes the hunter…but in saving his brother, Nick discovers something that will unravel his whole past…
Killing God – Kevin Brooks
Dawn Bundy is fifteen. She doesn’t fit in and she couldn’t care less. Dawn has other things on her mind. Her dad disappeared two years ago and it’s all God’s fault. When Dawn’s dad found God, it was the worst time ever. He thought he’d found the answer to everything. But that wasn’t the end of it.
Nicholas Dane – Melvin Burgess
When Nick’s mother dies suddenly and unexpectedly, the 14 year old is sent straight into a boys’ home, where he finds institutional intimidation and violence keep order. After countless fights and punishments, Nick thinks life can’t get any worse - but the professionally respected deputy head, Mr. Creal, who has been grooming him with sweets and solace, has something much more sinister in mind. Nick has no choice but to escape. Living on the run, he falls in with a modern Fagin, a cheerful Rasta who fences stolen credit cards and car stereos. The scarring, shaming experience he suffered at the hands of Mr. Creal can never quite be suppressed, and when the old hatred surfaces, bloody murder and revenge lead to an unforgettable climax.
Don’t judge a girl by her cover – Ally Carter
When Cammie "the Chameleon" Morgan visits her roommate Macey in Boston, she thinks she’s in for an exciting end to her summer break… But when you go to the world’s best school (for spies), "exciting" and "deadly" are never far apart. (Latest title in a really cool teenage spy series).
Fire – Kathleen Cashore
It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. In King City, the young King Nash is clinging to the throne, while rebel lords in the north and south build armies to unseat him. War is coming. And the mountains and forest are filled with spies and thieves. This is where Fire lives, a girl whose beauty is impossibly irresistible and who can control the minds of everyone around her. Eerily romantic companion to the highly praised "Graceling".
Because I am Furniture – Thalia Chaltas
The youngest of three siblings, fourteen-year-old Anke feels both relieved and neglected that her father abuses her brother and sister but ignores her, but when she catches him with one of her friends, she finally becomes angry enough to take action.
City of Glass – Cassandra Clare
Still pursuing a cure for her mother’s enchantment, Clary uses all her powers and ingenuity to get into Idris, the forbidden country of the secretive Shadowhunters, and to its capital, the City of Glass, where with the help of a newfound friend, Sebastian, she uncovers important truths about her family’s past that will not only help save her mother but all those that she holds most dear. Book Three in the Mortal Instruments series.
Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins
By winning the annual Hunger Games, District 12 tributes Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark have secured a life of safety and plenty for themselves and their families, but because they won by defying the rules, they unwittingly become the faces of an impending rebellion. Sequel to The Hunger Games.
Confessions of a Liar, Thief and Failed Sex God – Bill Condon
A hilarious, yet grim account of how Neil Bridges survives his last year at a Catholic boys’ school where the teachers rule with leather straps and fists, and learning is incidental. Neil and his wild mate Troy survive the trial of school by mucking around and playing stupid practical jokes.
A Voice of Her Own : Becoming Emily Dickinson – Barbara Dana
A fictionalized first-person account of revered American poet Emily Dickinson’s girlhood in mid-nineteenth-century Amherst, Massachusetts.
The 10PM Question – Kate de Goldi (NZ)
Twelve-year-old Frankie Parsons has a rather large, quirky family. Until now they’ve been the centre of his universe, but now Frankie’s view of his world begins to change. There’s a new arrival at school- a dreadlocked girl called Sydney who becomes perplexingly fascinating to him. She even starts to draw him away from his best friend, Gigs.
Along for the Ride – Sarah Dessen
When Auden impulsively goes to stay with her father, stepmother, and new baby sister the summer before she starts college, all the trauma of her parents’ divorce is revived, even as she is making new friends and having new experiences such as learning to ride a bike and dating.
Auslander – Paul Dowswell
When Peter’s parents are killed, he is sent to an orphanage in Warsaw. Then German soldiers take him away to be measured and assessed. They decide that Peter is racially valuable. He is Volksdeutscher: of German blood. With his blond hair, blue eyes, and acceptably proportioned head, he looks just like the boy on the Hitler-Jugend poster. Someone important will want to adopt Peter. They do. Professor Kaltenbach is very pleased to welcome such a fine Aryan specimen to his household. People will be envious. But Peter is not quite the specimen they think. He is forming his own ideas about what he is seeing, what he is told. Peter doesn’t want to be a Nazi, and so he is going to take a very dangerous risk. The most dangerous risk he could possibly choose to take in Berlin in 1942.
Brainjack – Brian Falkner (NZ)
Sam, a teenage computer genius, takes up an invitation to join a secret online convention for the best hackers in the world. The location for the convention? The White House. But Sam finds out that it is really a challenge to find expert hackers to protect the country. Sam is thrown into a world of international high-risk security and double crossing traitors where he must protect the world from a metasystem, connected to every computer terminal satellite and security camera, that seeks to erase the human race.
Falling Hard : 100 Love Poems by Teenagers – Betsy Franco (ed.)
From an acclaimed anthologist comes this unforgettable collection of poems by teenagers--straight, gay, bi, and transgender--capturing the vertigo-inducing realm of romantic love.
Tribal Ash – Vince Ford (NZ)
Having survived the warring tribe of the North, Trei makes his way back home, leaving his twin sister Souk with the Northmen. After struggling through snowy mountains, he is taken in and looked after for a time by the sea people, before he heads off again on his journey to find his own tribe, the People of the Canyons. Book Three in The Chronicles of Stone.
If I Stay – Gayle Forman
Everybody has to make choices. Some might break you. For seventeen-year-old Mia, surrounded by a wonderful family, friends and a gorgeous boyfriend decisions might seem tough, but they’re all about a future full of music and love, a future that’s brimming with hope. But life can change in an instant. A cold February morning …a snowy road …and suddenly all of Mia’s choices are gone. Except one. As alone as she’ll ever be, Mia must make the most difficult choice of all.
Earthless Trees : Short Stories by Young Refugees in New Zealand – Pauline Frances (ed.)
Created during a series of writing workshops for young refugees, these vibrant stories provide an insight into the lives of new New Zealanders - individuals and families who came to New Zealand seeking security and freedom. From an escape through mountains on a overloaded truck, to living trough an explosion in urban Kabul, these stories touch on universal themes: survival, family, home, friends.
The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman
When a baby escapes a murderer intent on killing the entire family, who would have thought it would find safety and security in the local graveyard? Brought up by the resident ghosts, ghouls and spectres, Bod has an eccentric childhood learning about life from the dead.
Hunger : A Gone Novel – Michael Grant
Conditions worsen for the remaining young residents of a small California coastal town isolated by supernatural events when their food supplies dwindle and the Darkness underground awakens. Sequel to “Gone”.
Paper Towns – John Green
One month before graduating from his Central Florida high school, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen basks in the predictable boringness of his life until the beautiful and exciting Margo Roth Spiegelman, Q’s neighbour and classmate, takes him on a midnight adventure and then mysteriously disappears.
The Bone Tiki – David Hair (NZ)
What do you do when you meet a tohunga makutu? You run. When reality dissolves and myths and legends come alive? You run faster. And when the dead come to life and blood debts have to be paid, will you have the courage to do what must be done? Matiu Douglas has a bone tiki he stole from a tangi. His father’s important new client wants it. Badly. And he has some very nasty friends. When Mat is forced to flee for his life, an unexpected meeting with a girl called Pania sets his world spinning. Suddenly he’s running through the bush with a girl-clown, a dog who is way too human, and a long-dead warrior. Fearful creatures from legend are rising up around him, and Mat faces a terrifying ordeal. And there is nowhere left to hide…not even in another world. A breathtaking adventure set in two parallel New Zealands.
Butterfly – Sonya Hartnett
Here is Plum Coyle, on the threshold of adolescence, striving to be new. Her fourteenth birthday is approaching: her old life and her old body will fall away, and she will become graceful, powerful, at ease. The strength in the objects she stores in a briefcase under her bed - a crystal lamb, a yoyo, an antique watch, a penny - will make sure of it. Over the next couple of weeks, Plum’s life will change. Her beautiful neighbour Maureen will begin to show her how she might fly. The older brothers she adores - the charismatic Justin, the enigmatic Cydar - will court catastrophe in worlds that she barely knows exist. And her friends - her worst enemies - will tease and test, smelling weakness.
The Beginner’s Guide to Living – Lia Hills
Seventeen-year-old Will is clever but he can’t find answers to any of his questions after his mother dies in a car accident. His father seems to be drifting and his older brother stays away from home. And Will just can’t get past being either angry or in tears. He finds his mum’s old camera and begins taking photos that help him see thing differently. When he meets sixteen-year-old Taryn he falls for her in a big way. On top of that, his mind is exploding with new questions: like so many teenagers, he’s desperate for ideas by which he can live and die.
Tricks – Ellen Hopkins
Five troubled teenagers fall into prostitution as they search for freedom, safety, community, family, and love.
The Nest – Paul Jennings
Robin’s life is spiralling out of control. His father’s tyrant, his mother’s disappeared and the wrong girl’s luring him into her web…Intolerable images keep flashing through his head. What does Robin really know about his past? Are there clues in his own writing? And what secrets lie within the frozen forest?
Liar – Justine Larbalestier
Micah Wilkins is a liar. But when her boyfriend Zach, dies under brutal circumstances, the shock might be enough to set her straight. Or maybe not. Was Micah dating Zach? Did they kiss? Did she see him the night she died? Where does the truth actually lie?
Purple Heart – Patricia McCormick
While recuperating in a Baghdad hospital from a traumatic brain injury sustained during the Iraq War, eighteen-year-old soldier Matt Duffy struggles to recall what happened to him and how it relates to his ten-year-old friend, Ali.
Fire : Tales of Elemental Spirits – Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson (ed.)
Master storytellers Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson, the team behind "Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits," collaborate again to create five captivating tales incorporating the element of fire.
A Small Free Kiss in the Dark – Glenda Millard
A captivating story about two young boys, an old tramp, a beautiful lost dancer and her sweet baby Sixpence - rag-tag survivors of a sudden war, playing happy families in the remnants of a fun fair until violence shatters their fragile world.
The Year of the Shanghai Shark – Mo Zhi Hong (NZ)
The north-eastern Chinese city of Dalian is home to orphaned teenager Hai Long. In the year of the SARS epidemic, he and his friends live out their urban existence, going to school, navigating the malls and watching American basketball and Michael Jordan. And then there is Uncle, whose shadowy occupation exerts an irresistible pull on Hai Long’s life.
Amiri & Odette : A Love Story : A Poem – Walter Dean Myers
Presents a modern, urban retelling in verse of the ballet in which brave Amiri falls in love with beautiful Odette and fights evil Big Red for her on the streets of the Swan Lake Projects.
Dope Sick – Walter Dean Myers
Seeing no way out of his difficult life in Harlem, seventeen-year-old Jeremy "Lil J" Dance flees into a house after a drug deal goes awry and meets a weird man who shows different turning points in Lil J’s life when he could have made better choices.
No Such Thing as The Real World – An Na et.al.
Six award-winning young adult authors present short stories featuring teens who have to face the "real world" for the first time.
The Ask and The Answer – Patrick Ness
Reaching the end of their tense and desperate flight in THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO, Todd and Viola did not find healing and hope in Haven. They found instead their worst enemy, Mayor Prentiss, waiting to welcome them to New Prentisstown. There they are forced into separate lives: Todd to prison, and Viola to a house of healing where her wounds are treated. Soon Viola is swept into the ruthless activities of the Answer, aimed at overthrowing the tyrannical government. Todd, meanwhile, faces impossible choices when forced to join the mayor’s oppressive new regime. In alternating narratives — Todd’s gritty and volatile; Viola’s calmer but equally stubborn — the two struggle to reconcile their own dubious actions with their deepest beliefs. Torn by confusion and compromise, suspicion and betrayal, can their trust in each other possibly survive? Book Two in the Chaos Walking Series.
Notes from the dog – Gary Paulsen
When Johanna shows up at the beginning of summer to house-sit next door to Finn, he has no idea of the profound effect she will have on his life by the time summer vacation is over.
Guantanamo Boy – Anna Perera
Khalid, a fifteen-year-old Muslim boy from Rochdale, is abducted from Pakistan while on holiday with his family. He is taken to Guantanamo Bay and held without charge, where his hopes and dreams are crushed under the cruellest of circumstances. An innocent denied his freedom at a time when Western boys are finding theirs, Khalid tries and fails to understand what’s happening to him and cannot fail to be a changed young man.
Rage : A Love Story – Julie Anne Peters
At the end of high school, Johanna finally begins dating the girl she has loved from afar, but Reeve is as much trouble as she claims to be as she and her twin brother damage Johanna’s self-esteem, friendships, and already precarious relationship with her sister.
Bloodhound – Tamora Pierce
Having been promoted from "Puppy" to "Dog," Beka, now a full-fledged member of the Provost’s Guard, and her former partner head to a neighbouring port city to investigate a case of counterfeit coins. The Second book in the Beka Cooper Series.
The Omnivores Dilemma: The Secrets Behind What You Eat – Michael Pollan
“What’s for dinner?” seemed like a simple question—until journalist and supermarket detective Michael Pollan delved behind the scenes. From fast food and big organic to small farms and old-fashioned hunting and gathering, this young readers’ adaptation of Pollan’s famous food-chain exploration encourages kids to consider the personal and global health implications of their food choices. It’s time to take charge of our national eating habits—and it starts with you.
Emily the Strange: The Lost Days – Rob Reger
Emily the Strange has lost her memory and finds herself in the town of Blackrock with nothing more than her diary, her slingshot, and the clothes on her back.
The Lucky Ones – Tohby Riddle
Set in 1980s inner-city Sydney, The Lucky Ones follows maverick teen Tom, as he tries to make sense of life after school. The novel reveals in poignant and hilarious ways the workings of a young male mind – with all its misplaced romanticism, youthful delusions, bewilderment about girls and need for adventure
The Forest of Hands and Teeth – Carrie Ryan
In Mary’s world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future-between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?
Love you, Hate you, Miss you – Elizabeth Scott
After coming out of alcohol rehabilitation, sixteen-year-old Amy sorts out conflicting emotions about her best friend Julia’s death in a car accident for which she feels responsible.
Ghosts of war: the true story of a 19-year-old GI – Ryan Smithson
Ryan Smithson joined the Army Reserve when he was seventeen. Two years later, he was deployed to Iraq as an Army engineer. In this extraordinary and harrowing memoir, readers march along one GI’s tour of duty.
Shiver – Maggie Stiefvater
In all the years she has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house, Grace has been particularly drawn to an unusual yellow-eyed wolf who, in his turn, has been watching her with increasing intensity.
Marcelo in the real world – Francisco X Stork
Marcelo Sandoval, a seventeen-year-old boy on the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum, faces new challenges, including romance and injustice, when he goes to work for his father in the mailroom of a corporate law firm.
The Chosen One – Carol Lynch Williams
In a polygamous cult in the desert, Kyra, not yet fourteen, sees being chosen to be the seventh wife of her uncle as just punishment for having read books and kissed a boy, in violation of Prophet Childs’ teachings, and is torn between facing her fate and running away from all that she knows and loves.
Beatle meets Destiny – Gabrielle Williams
Imagine your name is John Lennon, only everyone calls you Beatle. And then you meet your Dream girl and her name is Destiny McCartney. But what if you’re already with the perfect girl? A novel about change, chance and everybody doing the wrong thing.
IraqiGirl: diary of a teenage girl in Iraq – Elizabeth Wrigley-Field
With her intimate reflections on family, friendship, and community, the true story of IraqiGirl allows us to witness the determination of one girl not only to survive, but to create, amidst the devastation of war, a future worth living for.
The Uninvited – Tim Wynne-Jones
After a disturbing freshman year at New York University, Mimi is happy to get away to her father’s remote Canadian cottage only to discover a stranger living there who has never heard of her or her father and who is convinced that Mimi is responsible for leaving sinister tokens around the property..