Young Adults — Holiday Reading 2010
Anderson, Laurie Halse Wintergirls
18 year old Lia comes to terms with her best friend’s death from anorexia as she struggles with the same disorder.
Beale, Fleur End of the alphabet (New Zealand)
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? Things will never be the same again for Ruby or her family.
Beale, Fleur Fierce September (New Zealand)
Juno and the Taris inhabitants must leave their dying island to live on the Outside, a seemingly hostile place of pandemics and conflict. Juno enjoys the new freedoms and choices now available to her in a future New Zealand. But Taris doesn’t give up its hold so easily, and she is shocked to find the island held more secrets than any of them knew.
Black, Holly White cat
When Cassel Sharpe discovers that his older brothers have used him to carry out their criminal schemes and then stolen his memories, he figures out a way to turn their evil machinations against them.
Brooks, Kevin iBoy
Before the attack, 16 year old Tom Harvey was just an ordinary boy. But now fragments of a shattered iPhone are embedded in his brain and it’s having an extraordinary effect … Because now Tom has powers.
Catran, Ken Smiling Jack (New Zealand)
When Robert’s father and uncle are killed in a road accident, his comfortable world rapidly begins to unravel. With so much to deal with, he barely thinks about the evil grin on the playing card Jack, found at the site of the accident. Until the second death, and the third, when once again Jack’s leering malicious grin is found nearby.
Collins, Suzanne Mockingjay
Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she’s made it out of the bloody arena alive, she’s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what’s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either.
Connolly, John The Gates
Young Samuel Johnson and his dachshund Boswell are trying to show initiative by trick-or-treating a full three days before Halloween. Which is how they come to witness strange goings-on at 666 Crowley Avenue.
Dashner, James The Scorch Trials
The Gladers are far from finished with running. Instead of freedom, they find themselves faced with another trial. They must cross the Scorch, the most burned-out section of the world, and arrive at a safe haven in two weeks. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.
Dogar, Sharon Annexed
Everyone knows about Anne Frank, and her life hidden in the secret annexe — or do they? Peter van Pels and his family are locked away in there with the Franks, and Peter sees it all differently.
Falkner, Brian The project (New Zealand)
It all started with a book. The most boring book in the world! So boring that nobody would ever read it. The perfect place to hide a terrible secret. But now the book has emerged from its hiding place and the world may never be the same.
Flynn, Leonie The ultimate teen book guide
Covering everything from classics to newly released titles, graphic novels to cult fiction. Each review is a personal recommendation from top teen and adult authors, including Anthony Horowitz, Meg Cabot, Philip Pullman and Jonathan Coe and is accompanied by a suggestion of what to read next.
Gee, Maurice The limping man (New Zealand)
Third instalment of Maurice Gee’s Salt Trilogy. When Hana’s mam chooses to swallow frogweed poison rather than die in the great witch-burning in People’s Square, Hana flees the burrows before she too is taken. Deep in the forest she meets Ben, son of Lo, and the two journey back to the burrows to find a way to destroy the Limping Man before his evil consumes the world. But first they must discover the secret of his strength.
Grant, Michael Lies
As conditions worsen in the FAYZ, where supernatural forces have trapped children under the age of fifteen and resources are running out, it becomes tempting to heed the words of a prophet who says that only death will set them free.
Hall, Leanne This is shyness
In the suburb of Shyness, where the sun doesn’t rise and the border crackles with a strange energy, Wolfboy meets a stranger at the Diabetic Hotel. She tells him her name is Wildgirl, and she dares him to be her guide through the endless night.
Higson, Charlie The Dead
The second heart-stopping, mind-blowing book in this killer zombie series — the Enemy is back.
Hurwin, Davida Freaks and revelations
Tells, in two voices, of events leading up to a 1980 incident in which 14 year old Jason, a gay youth surviving on the streets as a prostitute, and 17 year old Doug, a hate-filled punk rocker, have a fateful meeting in a Los Angeles alley.
Mulligan, Andy Trash
14 year olds Raphael and Gardo team up with a younger boy, Rat, to figure out the mysteries surrounding a bag Raphael finds during their daily life of sorting through trash in a third-world country’s dump.
Ness, Patrick Monsters of men
Three armies march on New Prentisstown, each one intent on destroying the others. Todd and Viola are caught in the middle, with no chance of escape. As the battles commence, how can they hope to stop the fighting? The heart-stopping conclusion to the Chaos Walking Trilogy.
Newsome, Richard Emerald casket
Gerald, Sam and Ruby fly to India in Gerald’s private jet for a holiday at the home of Alisha Gupta, looking forward to getting away from the exhausting business of stolen gems, bejewelled caskets, thieves and bumbling police officers. But their holiday soon turns to a desperate quest to outwit a deadly cult, and to beat Mason Green to the Emerald Casket in a fast-paced race against time and tide.
Sachar, Louis Cardturner
When Alton’s ageing, blind uncle asks him to attend bridge games with him, he agrees. After all, it’s better than a crappy summer job in the local shopping mall, and Alton’s mother thinks it might secure their way to a good inheritance sometime in the future. As his relationship with his uncle develops, and he meets the very attractive Toni, deeply buried secrets are uncovered and a romance that spans decades is finally brought to a conclusion.
Volponi, Paul Rikers High
Arrested on a minor offence, a New York City teenager attends high school in the jail facility on Rikers Island, as he waits for his case to go to court.
Zafon, Carlos Ruiz The Prince of Mist
Max Carver’s father — a watchmaker and inventor — decides to move his family to a small town on the coast, to an old house that once belonged to a prestigious surgeon, Dr Richard Fleischmann. But the house holds many secrets and stories of its own.