Holiday Reading 2004

Fiction for Young Adults

Anderson, Matthew T. The Game of Sunken Places: When two boys stay with an eccentric relative at his mansion in rural Vermont, they discover an old-fashioned board game that draws them into a mysterious adventure.
Aspin, Diana Ordinary miracles: Short stories by a Canadian writer.
Bass, L. G. Sign of the Qin: In long-ago China, Prince Zong, the mortal young Starlord chosen to save humankind from destruction, joins the twin outlaws, White Streak and Black Whirlwind, to fight the Lord of the Dead and his demon hordes.
Blackman, Malorie Knife edge: Following on from Noughts and Crosses, Sephy is struggling to raise her mixed-race child in an apartheid society and to make her mark as a singer in a society prejudiced against Crosses like her. But when her daughter finds out about her parentage, she must reassess her identity.
Bloor, Edward Story time: George and Kate are promised the best education but instead face obsessed administrators, endless tests, and evil spirits when they are transferred to Whittaker Magnet School.
Bone, Ian Sleep rough tonight: Alex allows himself to be goaded into sleeping rough in town for a night, without money and food. It costs him dearly.
Brian, Kate The V club: When an announcement is made for a special scholarship, four best friends agree that this can be a ticket to success and so, in the hopes of doing something notable that will win them the prize, the girls begin a special club that is designed to demonstrate the 'purity' required by the scholarship.
Brooks, Kevin Bloodline: Finbar Black's day is turned upside down when a crazy, beautiful girl bursts into the house with a gun and a bag full of cash.
Brooks, Kevin Kissing the rain: In Moo Nelson's life it rains every day - a constant rain of spite and derision. His only refuge is the bridge, where he spends time thinking and dreaming. Until the night he witnesses a car chase and a murder - or does he? Moo must decide between truth and lies, loneliness and loyalty.
Cadnum, Michael Blood gold: Historical adventure story set during the 1849 Californa gold rush.
Carlson, Ron The speed of light: Twelve-year-old Larry spends the summer before junior high school with his best friends, Witt and Rafferty, playing different forms of baseball and discovering the secrets of the universe.
Cassidy, Anne Looking for JJ: Explores the circumstances and motives behind the murder of a child by her best friend. Seven years later, JJ has now been released, and has a new identity. But is there any way that she can lead a "normal" life?
Corbet, Robert Shelf life: In this gritty social comedy Adam arrives for work at the supermarket where he meets Louisa, a nursing student who is working at two jobs while struggling to keep her life together.
Crist-Evans, Craig Amaryllis: Jimmy and his older brother Frank share a love of surfing and their problems with a drunken father, until Frank turns eighteen and goes to Vietnam.
Dessen, Sarah The truth about forever: The summer following her father's death, Macy plans to work at the library and wait for her brainy boyfriend to return from camp, but instead she goes to work at a catering business where she makes new friends and finally faces her grief.
Dickinson, John The cup of the world: Phaedra has been visited in dreams by an elusive knight for almost as long as she can remember. And when his presence becomes a reality, she is forced to choose him and a new life over her home and father. But this sets off a chain of events that she could not have foreseen.
Doherty, Berlie Deep secret: The Barnes family has lived in one tiny village for generations. Twins Madeleine and Grace, their cousin Elspeth, their mums, old Aunt Susan - all there forever. But then two things change - one twin dies, and the villagers are told that their valley is to be sunk underwater to make a reservoir.
Don't cramp my style: stories about that time of the month: edited by Lisa Rowe Fraustino In these fictional narratives, celebrated authors explore with spirit and strength everything from boyfriends buying tampons to embarrassing encounters in white, to heart-wrenching pregnancy scares.
Doyle, Brian Boy O'Boy: A sensitively written story of a young boy's triumph over sexual abuse.
Drake, John The fourth test: With no Dad to guide him, Sam has to make his own decisions about standing up for what he knows is right, but this time he's picked the wrong guy to mess with.
Gantos, Jack Desire lines: Sixteen-year-old Walker has accidentally discovered that two female classmates are lovers. When a rabid evangelical preacher arrives in their town, a witch-hunt is launched against gay students and Walker, for some reason, is the prime target.
Gates, Susan Dusk: Dusk is transgenic, a mix of hawk and human genes bred in a US military laboratory.
Gibbons, Alan The dark beneath: This novel about a girl being stalked is taut with menace and knife-edge twists.
Gibbons, Alan The lost boys' appreciation society: An exploration of how men and boys deal with bereavement.
Gwynne, Phillip Jetty rats: Dogleg Bay is one big retirement home; the richest man in town - the funeral director - drives a hotted-up hearse. Hunter Vettori is thirteen, and longs to catch a record-breaking mulloway, leave Dogleg Bay and become bigger then Rexy Hunt. On the way, maybe he'll get to kiss a girl (there's only two to choose from and they're twins) and save his mum from getting a really bad tatt. But, above all, Hunter wants his father back.
Hautman, Pete Godless: When sixteen-year-old Jason Bock and his friends create their own religion to worship the town's water tower, what started out as a joke begins to take on a power of its own.
Hendry, Frances Mary Victoria: Neither Iceni, nor truly Roman, 16-year-old Victoria flees an arranged marriage, settling with Iceni cousins only to be caught up in Boudicca's revolt. Torn between saving her family in London or fighting alongside her new friends, she finds herself abandoned and alone, battling for survival.
Herrick, Steven By the river: A verse novel.
Heuston, Kimberley Burton Dante's daughter: In fourteenth-century Italy, Antonia, the daughter of Dante Alighieri, longs for a stable family and home while developing her artistic talent and seeking a place for herself in a world with limited options for women.
Hoeye, Michael No time like show time: a Hermux Tantamoq adventure: Watchmaker-mouse Hermux Tantamoq enters the exciting and somewhat shady world of show business to investigate a mysterious blackmailer at the Varmint Theater.
Horowitz, Anthony Scorpia: Latest in the Alex Riderseries.
Jarman, Julia The peace weavers: Hilde is furious when her peace-campaigner mother sends her to live with her father on a USAF base. Refusing to go to school, she joins an archaeological dig, 'not really her scene' where she meets Friedman, 'definitely not her type'. He's the son of an American fighter pilot. War with Iraq looks likely: Hilde is against the war but thinks protest is futile - till she steals a gold brooch from the grave of a sixth century woman, a peace weaver, and her feelings start to change.
Jubert, Herve Dance of the assassins: In a world where big cities are recreated as theme parks Mary Graham is found murdered in a dark alley in Whitechapel. It appears the Jack the Ripper has returned. Roberta Morgenstern, a qualified witch, and her assistant Clement Martineau, fresh out of the police academy, set out to solve the murder.
Lanagan, Margo Black juice: Outstanding, and disturbing, short stories.
Lawrence, Iain B for Buster: In the spring of 1943, sixteen-year-old Kak, desperate to escape his abusive parents, lies about his age to enlist in the Canadian Air Force and soon finds himself based in England as part of a crew flying bombing raids over Germany.
Lee Guin, Ursula Gifts: When a young man in the Uplands blinds himself rather than use his gift of "unmaking", a violent talent shared by members of his family, he upsets the precarious balance of power among rival, feuding families, each of which has a strange and deadly talent of its own.
Levithan, David The Realm of Possibility: A variety of students at the same high school describe their ideas, experiences, and relationships in a series of interconnected free verse stories.
Lowry, Lois Messenger: In this novel that unites characters from The Giver and Gathering Blue Matty, a young member of a utopian community that values honesty, conceals an emerging healing power that he cannot explain or understand.
McCaughrean, Geraldine Not the End of the World: Everyone knows the story of the Flood, the men God chose to survive, the animals that went in two-by-two. But what about the others that sailed on the Ark, the women and the children? This adventure story asks what it was really like when the heavens opened and the world drowned - and what might have happened in the days that followed.
MacPhail, Catherine Underworld: A disparate group of children on an outward-bound week become trapped in a cave.
Mark, Jan Useful idiots: Set in a dystopic future where the lowlands of Britain are flooded, this novel explores a world where archaeology is banned for fear of social unrest. The discovery of a human skull precipitates a series of events that changes the lives of those involved, especially the tribe of the Inglish.
Marks, Graham How it works: It takes one day for Seb's life to fall apart, he is in trouble at school and with his mother and is dumped. He heads into London for the day, only to get into a fight and wake up in hospital days later. When his life is saved by a stranger, he becomes obsessed with finding his guardian angel.
Moriarty, Jaclyn Finding Cassie crazy: Cassie is in Year 10 at Ashbury High. Ashbury students claim that the kids at Brookfield High are drug-dealers and psychopaths. Their teacher starts a pen-pal project which leads to an escalation of the war between the two schools, to secret romance and to Cassie learning to face her fears.
Myers, Walter Dean Shooter: Written in the form of interviews, reports, and journal entries, the story of three troubled teenagers ends in a tragic school shooting.
Napoli, Donna Jo Breath: Elaborates on the tale of "The Pied Piper," told from the point of view of a boy who is too ill to keep up when a piper spirits away the healthy children of a plague-ridden town after being cheated out of full payment for ridding Hameln of rats.
Nilsson, Per Heart's delight: As a sixteen-year-old looks at and systematically destroys each of his mementos of Ann-Katrin, he replays scenes from their relationship and realizes that it was not the great romance he believed it to be. (Translated from the Swedish)
Peters, Julie Anne Luna: Fifteen-year-old Regan's life, which has always revolved around keeping her older brother Liam's transsexuality a secret, changes when Liam decides to start the process of "transitioning" by first telling his family and friends that he is a girl who was born in a boy's body.
Pierce, Tamora Trickster's queen: Aly fails to foresee the dangers that await as she uses her magic to safeguard Dova and her younger siblings, despite knowing that her thirteen-year-old charge might be queen of the Copper Isles when the colonial rulers are defeated.
Provoost, Anne In the Shadow of the Ark: Re Jana and her family have ventured into the desert, looking for work on an enormous ship that a man called Noah is building. Here, Re Jana falls in love with Noah's son, Ham, and becomes pregnant with his child. When the ship finally runs aground, she realises she will be instrumental in founding a new world.
Rai, Bali Rani and Sukh: In 1950s Punjab, a secret affair goes terribly wrong and the bride commits suicide after her lover is attacked by her family. The two families part in violence and conflict. In Leicester in 2004, Rani and Sukh fall in love, unaware of the terrible legacy of the past and the conflict between their families.
Rennison, Louise '… and that's when it fell off in my hand': further fabbitty-fab confessions of Georgia Nicolson
Rosoff, Meg How I Live Now: Terrorists invade and occupy England in this novel about a world war breaking out in the 21 century.
Roy, James Ichabod Hart and the lighthouse mystery: First in the Steampunk series of pseudo-historical adventure novels.
Rush Hour: a journal of contemporary voices. Volume I: Sin: edited by Michael Cart Intended as a twice yearly publication this includes artwork, fiction, poetry, essays and excerpts from novels by noted contemporary authors.
Sauerwein, Leigh Song for Eloise: In twelth-century France, fifteen-year-old Eloise, newly and unhappily married to the rough, ambitious, much older but devoted Robert of Rochefort, finds it difficult to adjust to her new life and unwisely falls in love with the young troubadour who comes to sing at her husband's castle.
Sedgwick, Marcus The dark flight down: Held captive in the palace of the Emperor Frederick, Boy and Willow are plunged into a world of gilded finery and splendour. But beneath its golden veneer lies cruelty, madness and desperation. They are in terrible danger as they confront the whirlwind furies of the Emperor, the calculating ambitions of his confidante, Maxim, and follow a deadly trail which will lead them to the Phantom. Sequel to The book of dead days.
Snyder, Zilpha Keatley The unseen: Feeling angry and out-of-place in her large family, twelve-year-old Xandra finds a magical key to a world of ghostly, sometimes frightening, phantoms that help her see herself and her siblings more clearly.
Strasser, Todd Can't get there from here: Tired of being hungry, cold, and dirty from living on the streets of New York City with a tribe of other homeless teenagers who are dying, one by one, a girl named Maybe ponders her future and longs for someone to care about her.
Skin deep: edited by Tony Bradman Stories about racism.
Vizzini, Ned Be more chill: One boy's exploration of what it takes to be "cool", how to get a girl and what (not) to do when you've got one. What do you do if you're not cool? Take a pill containing a supercomputer that travels to your brain and tells you how to be cool - all the time!
Werlin, Nancy Double helix: Eighteen-year-old Eli discovers a shocking secret about his life and his family while working for a Nobel Prize-winning scientist whose specialty is genetic engineering.
Ye, Ting-xing Throwaway daughter: Grace Dong-Mei is adopted and taken to Canada. Watching the Tianenmen Square massacre on television prompts her to explore her Chinese ancestry and she begins to unlock the truth about what really happened to her almost 20 years before.
Zephaniah, Benjamin Gangsta Rap: Ray's ambition is to have a successful hip-hop band, but his life is on the downward spiral.