Holiday Reading 2005

Fiction for Young Adults

A taste of cockroach: A collection of twelve short stories sharing the common theme of clashes between cultures.
Blackman, Malorie Checkmate: Can the future ever erase the past? Rose has a Cross mother and a nought father in a society where the pale-skinned noughts are treated as inferiors and those with dual heritage face a life-long battle against deep-rooted prejudices. Last in the Noughts & Crosses trilogy.
Brashares, Ann Girls in pants: the third summer of the sisterhood: The members of the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants graduate from high school and spend their last summer before college learning about life and themselves.
Breslin, Theresa Divided city: A young man lies bleeding in the street. It could be any street, in any city. But it's not. It's Glasgow. And it's May - the marching season. The Orange Walks have begun. Graham doesn't want to be involved. He just wants to play football with his new mate, Joe. But when he witnesses a shocking moment of violence, suddenly he and Joe are involved.
Brooks, Kevin Candy: Joe is hooked from the moment he sees Candy. What is it that catches his eye? Is it her hair, her smile, or just the way she's standing? When they chat over coffee there's an instant attraction, but can love really be this sweet?
Burgess, Melvin Bloodsong: Sigurd has a fabulous but frightening future predicted: even to start, he must leave everything he knows to go and fight a dragon, and from there descend into the Underworld. Sounds bad enough, but when you know that the dragon lives on a futuristic, industrially-ruined moonscape that was once Hampstead Heath, the scene is set for a staggeringly brutal fight on an epic scale.
Cadnum, Michael The dragon throne: At the request of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the newly-knighted Edmund and Hubert accompany a young noblewoman on her dangerous pilgrimage from England to Rome. Completes the trilogy begun by The book of the Lion and continued by The Leopard sword.
Chambers, Aidan This is all: Subtitled "The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn", this is a self portrait of a passionate girl who needs to write down the story of her teenage years. It is also the last novel in the loosely connected sequence of novels which began with Breaktime in 1978.
Chibbaro, Julie Redemption: In 1524, 12-year-old Lily Applegate leaves her small village in England with her mother for the New World. They believe that her father has been sent there as punishment for harbouring a Protestant monk.
Cross, Gillian The black room: Sequel to The dark ground Robert has come back from a horrible ordeal in a strange parallel world. Now he can’t stop thinking about the people he left behind to face a winter that most won’t survive. When Robert sees a chance to save his friend Lorn, he is desperate to succeed. But is he prepared for the realities of her world?
Crowley, Cath Chasing Charlie Duskin: Charlie Duskin is running. Fleeing from failures and memories and friends who have given up on her. And she's not only running, she's chasing things - like a father who will talk to her, friends who don't think she's as invisible as a piece of cling wrap, and an experience with a boy in which she doesn't look like an idiot. But Charlie Duskin is about to have the best summer of her life. She's about to meet a friend who'll change her forever. She's about to fall in love. She just doesn't know it yet.
Dickinson, John The widow and the king: This book opens twelve years after the end of The Cup of the World and tells the story of Ambrose, son of Phaedra and last in the king's line, who is living in exile with his mother in the dilapidated manor of Tarceny.
Dubosarsky, Ursula Theordora’s gift: Sequel to award-winning The first book of Samuel this novel continues the story of Samuel and Theodora and their complex family.
Elliott, Patricia Ambergate: Supernatural thriller and sequel to Murkmere.
Fisk, Pauline The red judge: When Zed finds himself caught up in an innocent prank with his sister which goes horribly wrong, his whole world falls apart. A companion title to Sabrina Fludde.
Geras, Adle Ithaka: This tells the story of the women left behind after the end of the Trojan War. While Odysseus is slowly making his way home, overcoming terrible obstacles sent by the gods, his wife Penelope does not know whether he's alive or dead. How long will she be able to withstand the pressure of the numerous suitors who seek her hand (and Ithaka) - and will she remain as faithful as mythology states, or might she fall in love with one of them?
Gibbons, Alan The defender: Guns, violence, mob rule or defending the cause? At the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland Ian's dad thought he was fighting for a cause, for his people. But the price was too high - after the murder of his sister's husband and his own wife's death, he's paying for trying to get out.
Halam, Ann Siberia: Set in a new Ice Age this is the story of one girl's 1000 mile journey across desolate wastes, with only the magical Lindquists to help her.
Hern, Julie The merrybegot: This is the story of Nell who lives with her grandmother, the local cunning woman and healer, in a west country village in the seventeenth century. When one of the minister's daughters falls pregnant she and her sister attempt to conceal it by accusing Nell of putting a curse on them. The witchfinder general, Matthew Hopkins, is called in and in an atmosphere of fear, the local villagers turn nasty and Nell's grandmother falls victim to their hatred. Nell is all alone, and in great danger.
Hill, Stuart The cry of the icemark: Fourteen-year-old Thirrin Freer Strong-in-the-Arm Lindenshield, Wild Cat of the North, shoulders burdens as heavy as her name is long. She inherits the throne of Icemark just as the ruthless, as-yet-undefeated Polypontian Empire mobilizes for an invasion.
Jacobson, Jennifer Richard Stained: In Weaver Falls, New Hampshire, in 1975, seventeen-year-old Jocelyn looks for answers when her lifelong neighbour and friend, Gabe, turns up missing and she learns that, while her boyfriend has been telling everything to a priest, Gabe has been keeping terrible secrets.
Jennings, Paul How Hedley Hopkins did a dare, robbed a grave, made a new friend who may not really have been there at all, and while he was at it, committed a terrible sin which everyone else was doing even though he didn’t know it: The title says it all! This first full-length novel by Paul Jennings is a coming-of-age story (largely autobiographical) set in 1950s Australia.
Lawrence, Iain The convicts: When his father lands in debtors' prison, Tom, 14, tries to survive on the rough streets of early-nineteenth-century London.
Lester, Julius Day of tears: a novel in dialogue: This historical novel is told in dialogue and through monologues. It also moves around in time, from the period when the story takes place to "interludes," in which the various characters look back on these events years later. It begins with a factual event — the largest slave auction in United States history that took place in 1859 on Pierce Butler's plantation in Georgia.
McCafferty, Megan (ed) Sixteen: stories about that sweet and bitter birthday: A compilation of short stories inspired by all the angst, melodrama, and wonderment of being sixteen.
McLay, John (ed) Thirteen: A collection of short stories about being on the brink of young adulthood.
McNaughton, Janet The secret under my skin: Set in 2368, this dystopian novel offers a glimpse of a potential future for our world
Mark. Jan Riding Tycho: Demetria has never questioned her harsh and joyless life on High Island. The bullying, the guards and the siren's scream announcing yet another failed escape from the prisons of Low Island across the sea, are all she has ever known. But then Political Prisoner Ianto Morgan is billeted with Demetria's family - and introduces Demetria to a world she never knew existed.
McCaughrean, Geraldine The white darkness: Captain Oates, hero of the Antarctic, has been dead for nearly a century. But not in Sym's head. In there, he is her constant companion, her soul mate, her adviser. It is as if he walked out of the Polar blizzard and into her mind. In fact, if it were not for Titus, life might be as bleak a place as the Antarctic wilderness.
Michael, Livi The whispering road: In Victorian England, two poverty-stricken siblings, left by their mother at the workhouse and then sold to an abusive farmer, try to get to Manchester to find her.
Millard, Glenda The novice: It is a few years on in the treacherous world of New Carradon and we again meet the collection of intriguing characters who have escaped its walls for a better life beyond. However, all is not well, and a whole series of new adventures unravel with refugees and government plots, daring escapades and dangerous missions. Sequel to Bringing Reuben Home.
Mosley, Walter 47: Mosley tells a story of escape from slavery in which SF and African American myth blend with the realism of plantation brutality and the courage of resistance.
Murphy, Kirsten The king of whatever: Joe King is in year twelve. He is the younger brother of two overachieving siblings, has no idea of what he is going to do with his life and has just discovered that the girl he is in love with is going out with his best friend. His ex-best friend.
Naidoo, Beverley Web of lies: Sequel to The other side of truth, Carnegie medal winner in 2000.
Nicholson, William Seeker: The first book in the Noble warriors trilogy.
Nix, Garth Across the wall: Includes a tale of the Abhorsen as well as other stories
Noyes, Deborah Gothic! : ten original dark tales: Drawing on dark fantasy as well as horror and wild humour, ten contemporary authors pay homage to the gothic tale in original stories of the supernatural and the surreal.
Peters, Julie Anne Far from Xanadu: When an exotic new girl, Xanadu, arrives in the small Kansas town, Mike's world is turned upside down. Xanadu is everything Mike is not-cool, complicated, sexy, and … straight.
Rai, Bali The whisper: Ellie, Jas, Della, Will and Billy are tough and street-smart. They're the Crew, and they live in what they call the Ghetto - the estates round the city centre where everyone is skint and it's important to stick together. No-one has a go once you're part of a gang. Except, sometimes, the older gangs who can be really dangerous. Sequel to The crew.
Rees, Celia The wish house: First love, first sex, first death. In the summer of 1976, on holiday in South Wales, fifteen-year-old Richard is shocked and fascinated to meet the tenants of the historic Wish House. Jay Dalton is a well-known artist, and his large, bohemian family - casually stripping naked on the beach, smoking dope, ignoring convention - seem astonishingly glamorous.
Rennison, Louise And then he ate my boy entrancers: more mad, marvy confessions of Georgia Nicolson
Richardson, Nigel The wrong hands: Graham was born with disaster areas for hands. He was also born with a secret. The only time he's ever told someone his secret, it got him into big trouble. So he won't be telling anyone ever again. Then, suddenly, his life is changed for ever. The plane, the baby, the e-mail out of the blue - is he going to have to reveal his secret once again? It could be an amazing opportunity - or the biggest mistake of his life.
Rush hour : a journal of contemporary voices vol 3, Face: edited by Michael Cart
Schindler, Nina An order of Amelie, hold the fries: Seventeen-year-old Tim is smitten when he glimpses the girl of his dreams. But who is she? When her name and address falls from her bag, he can't believe his luck. But to his surprise, the address belongs to someone else: Amelie. A series of humorous and sarcastic exchanges begin. Through emails and letters, scratchings on take-out containers, and scrawlings on news clippings, the relationship grows.
Sedgwick, Marcus The foreshadowing: Set against the backdrop of World War I, this novel is about a girl with a tragic gift. Alexandra can see the future - but can she use her power to save her brothers and change their destiny?
Shearer, Alan The fugitives: On the run after blowing up a deserted building with dodgy fireworks, Davy and Mike are taken in by a passing couple who witnessed their misdemeanor. It's almost like the loving family they never had, except it's not. But events take a sinister turn and things will never be the same again.
Thompson, Kate The new policeman: Everyone in Kinvara is conscious that time is flying past, faster and faster - to such an extent that when JJ asks his mother what she would like as a birthday present she ask for more time. JJ dismisses this as mere wishful thinking, an impossibility, for who know where the time goes? Winner of the Guardian Children's Book Prize 2005.
Updale, Eleanor Montmorency and the assassins: As the nineteenth century draws to a close, war is in the air, and influenza is sweeping the globe. After twenty years as a gentleman, Montmorency is glad to be free of Scarper, his wretched alter-ego. However, when Montmorency's young friend Frank finds himself caught in the middle of a murderous political plot, Montmorency may have no choice but to call upon none other than Scarper for help. Follow Montmorency, Fox-Selwyn, Dr. Farcett, and a whole new generation of characters on their travels from London to Scotland, Italy and America.
Westerfield, Scott So yesterday: Hunter Braque, a New York City teenager who is paid by corporations to spot what is "cool," combines his analytical skills with girlfriend Jen's creative talents to find a missing person and thwart a conspiracy directed at the heart of consumer culture.
Williams, Lori Aurelia Broken china: China Cup Cameron might miss school or fall asleep in class sometimes, but she's trying hard to be a good mother to Amina, her two-year-old daughter. When tragedy befalls the small family, China must quit school and work full-time to make ends meet. But the only place in town that's willing to hire a fourteen-year-old high-school dropout is Obsidian Queens, a strip club, and China is forced to make some difficult and potentially self-destructive decisions.
Zevin, Gabrielle Elsewhere: Welcome to Elsewhere. It is warm, with a breeze, and the beaches are marvellous. It’s quiet and peaceful. You can’t get sick or any older. Elsewhere is where fifteen-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died. It is a place so like Earth, yet completely different. Here Liz will age backward from the day of her death until she becomes a baby again and returns to Earth. But Liz wants to turn sixteen, not fourteen again. She wants to get her driver’s license. She wants to graduate from high school and go to college. And now that she’s dead, Liz is being forced to live a life she doesn’t want with a grandmother she has only just met. And it is not going well. How can Liz let go of the only life she has ever known and embrace a new one? Is it possible that a life lived in reverse is no different from a life lived forward?