Holiday Reading 2006

Fiction for Young Adults

Anderson M T The Pox party: Various diaries, letters, and other manuscripts chronicle the experiences of Octavian, a young African American, from birth to age sixteen, as he is brought up as part of a science experiment in the years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War.
Anderson, Rachel Red moon: When his father is murdered in an act of random violence, Hamish’s world turns upside down.
Bondoux, Anne-Laure The killer’s tears: A young boy, Paolo, and the man who murdered his parents, Angel, gradually become like father and son as they live and work together on the remote Chilean farm where Paolo was born.
Brooks, Kevin The road of the dead: Late one night, two brothers learn that their sister has died in the worst imaginable way. She’s found, strangled, in a desolate place hundreds of miles from their East London home. Ruben and Cole Ford set out to find their own answers. Together they retrace their sister’s final journey to a remote Dartmoor village with a dark, menacing core.
Budhos, Marina Ask me no questions: Fourteen-year-old Nadira, her sister, and their parents leave Bangladesh for New York City, but the expiration of their visas and the events of September 11, 2001, bring frustration, sorrow, and terror for the whole family.
Burgess, Melvin Sara’s face: Sarah is going to have a face transplant. She has allowed herself to be drawn into the orbit of a highly manipulative and ruthless pop-star who is going to take her discarded face to cover his own scarred and damaged one.
Cohn, Rachel Nick and Norah’s infinite playlist: High school student Nick O’Leary, member of a rock band, meets college-bound Norah Silverberg and asks her to be his girlfriend for five minutes in order to avoid his ex-sweetheart. According to Read Alert it’s “the rocking-est, funniest and smartest novel you will read this year.”
Dessen, Sarah Just listen: Isolated from friends who believe the worst because she has not been truthful with them, sixteen-year-old Annabel finds an ally in classmate Owen, whose honesty and passion for music help her to face and share what really happened at the end-of-the-year party that changed her life.
Dickinson, Peter Angel Isle: Despite his immense powers, the Ropemaker alone cannot control the chaos raging through the Empire, so he choses twenty-four magicians to aid him in his task - the Watchers. Sequel to The Ropemaker
Draper, Sharon Copper sun: Two fifteen-year-old girls, one a slave and the other an indentured servant, escape their Carolina plantation and try to make their way to Fort Moses, Florida, a Spanish colony that gives sanctuary to slaves.
Dubosarsky, Ursula The red shoe: The story of Matilda and her two sisters growing up in Sydney in the 1950s at the time of the Petrov Affair.
Earls, Nick Monica Bloom: When Monica Bloom’s Irish accent drifts over his neighbour’s fence, Matt Sherman knows that his last year of school will not turn out to be the year that he had expected.
Ehrenhaft, Daniel Drawing a blank, or How I tried to solve a mystery, end a feud, and land the girl of my dreams: Carlton Dunne IV, an outcast boarding school student with a secret identity as a graphic novelist, teams up with a beautiful Scottish girl who yearns to be an American police officer to resolve an ancient feud and rescue Carlton’s kidnapped father.
Fine, Anne The road of bones: Told who to cheer for, who to believe in, Yuri grows up in a country where no freedom of thought is encouraged, where even one’s neighbours report any dissension to the authorities. But it is still a shock when a few careless words lead him to a virtual death-sentence, being sent on a nightmare journey up north to a camp amidst the frozen wastes.
Glass, Linzi The year the gypsies came: In Johannesburg, in the late 1960s, the Iris family takes in house guests and Emily looks forward to them. One spring a family of wanderers - an Australian couple and their two boys, Streak and Otis, who is brain damaged - comes to stay. Then tragedy strikes.
Guéne, Faïza Just like tomorrow: Fifteen-year-old Doria isn’t in a good place. Or to be precise: she’s in the sadly misnamed Paradise Estate on the outskirts of Paris. Her father has gone off back Morocco to find a wife who can give him a boy, and her illiterate, non-French speaking mother has to fend for herself with a cleaning job in a grim motel.
Hearn, Lian Harsh cry of the heron: An attempted assassination of Kaede reveals that the forces of destiny still bear down on Takeo. While his strength and power come from the enduring love of Kaede, the blind sage’s prophecy that only his son could bring death to him, haunts his thoughts.
Hill, Stuart Blade of fire: Twenty years have passed since the tiny kingdom of Icemark last defended itself from invasion by the Empire. Now, the vengeful imperial general, Scipio Bellorum is back, joined by his twisted twin sons and a terrifying fleet of sky ships.
Horniman, Joanne Little Wing: What happens when you can't love the baby you thought you'd adore? Sometimes it seems that the best thing is to run away. Little Wing> tells what happens to Emmy when she leaves her baby with the father, Matt, and tries to find her way back to being herself. Companion volume to Mahalia (2002)
Hyde, Catherine Becoming Chloe: A gay teenage boy and a fragile teenage girl meet while living on the streets of New York City and eventually decide to take a road trip across America to discover whether or not the world is a beautiful place.
Jansen, Hanna Over a thousand hills I walk with you: Follows a young girl, Jeanne, through the days before and after the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
Jonsberg, Barry Dreamrider: Michael Terny is the fat boy. He’s at his seventh school in four years and he knows that even if he keeps his head down, he can’t change the script. He will be ridiculed and laughed at and pushed around.
Jinks, Catherine Pagan’s daughter: At sixteen, Babylonne is desperate. She’s been starved and beaten, she’s endured six bloody sieges, and now her aunt wants her to marry a crazy old man who thinks he’s a giant olive. Can she trust the mysterious priest who’s been spying on her, claiming to be a friend of her father’s? Or would it be better to fight - and perhaps die - in the long, vicious war with the French? The fifth title in the Pagan Chronicles.
Jones, Patrick Nailed: An outcast in a school full of jocks, sixteen-year-old Bret struggles to keep his individuality through his interest in drama and music, while trying to reconnect with his father.
Klause, Annette Curtis Freaks : alive, on the inside: After leaving home in search of adventure, romance, and riches, seventeen-year-old Abel, the "normal" son of freak show entertainers, is haunted by a mysterious spirit.
Lester, Julius Time’s memory: Ekundayo, a Dogon spirit brought to America from Africa, inhabits the body of a young African American slave on a Virginia plantation, where he experiences loss, sorrow, and reconciliation in the months preceding the Civil War.Le Guin, Ursula Voices A sequel to author’s Gifts, and the second in her Annals of the Western Shore.
Lynch, Chris Inexcusable: High school senior and football player Keir sets out to enjoy himself on graduation night, but when he attempts to comfort a friend whose date has left her stranded, things go terribly wrong.
McCaughrean, Geraldine Cyrano: Cyrano de Bergerac is a flamboyant character and a skilled swordsman, not in the least afraid of drawing attention to himself in public for he can be highly amusing, even at his own expense, with jokes about his enormous nose. But he has a weakness: he has fallen in love with his beautiful cousin Roxane, and because of his own appearance is too ashamed to declare his love.
McGowan, Anthony Henry Tumour: The tale of Hector Brunty’s attempts to survive at school with the help of Henry, his talking brain tumour. Winner of the 2006 Booktrust Teenage Award. Mal Peet, who chaired the judging panel, commented: “Henry Tumour by Anthony McGowan is a dirty boisterous comedy about a boy with a tumour. It’s also a wise, sensitive and questioning novel about the conflicting forces that make us who we are.”
Marchetta, Melina On the Jellicoe Road: Taylor Markham is erratic, has no people skills and never turns up to meetings. But she’s lived at Jellicoe School most of her life and as leader of the boarders that’s her greatest asset. Especially now the cadets, led by the infamous Jonah Griggs, have arrived. The territory wars between the boarders, townies and cadets are about to recommence.
Miller, Kirsten Kiki strike: Ananka Fishbein, a seventh grader at an expensive New York City school, likens her life to flavourless mush. But when she wakes up one Saturday morning and finds that the small park across the street has become a sinkhole, her decision to explore it transforms her existence.
Moranville, Sharelle Byars A higher geometry: While grieving the death of her grandmother in 1959, teenager Anna is torn between her aspirations to study maths in college and her family’s expectations that she will marry and become a homemaker after high school.
Na, An Wait for me: As her senior year in high school approaches, Mina yearns to find her own path in life but working at the family business, taking care of her little sister, and dealing with her mother’s impossible expectations are as stifling as the southern California heat, until she falls in love with a man who offers a way out.
Nicholson, William Jango: Seeker, the Wildman, and Morning Star discover that the mysterious warrior sect they had been so desperate to join is not quite what it appears from the outside.
Rai, Bali The last taboo: Simran likes Tyrone from the moment she spots him in the crowd. There’s just one problem. Tyrone is black and Simran’s not sure how her family will react.
Reeve, Philip A darkling plain: It’s six months after the tumultuous events on Brighton, and Wren Natsworthy and her father Tom have taken to the skies in their airship, The Jenny Haniver. Wren is enjoying life as an aviatrix but Tom is troubled by Hester’s disappearance, and the old wound caused by Pennyroyal’s bullet. A fluke encounter with a familiar face sets him thinking about the ruins of London and the possibility of going back.
Reinhardt, Dana A brief chapter in my impossible life: Sixteen-year-old atheist Simone Turner-Bloom’s life changes in unexpected ways when her parents convince her to make contact with her biological mother, an agnostic from a Jewish family, who is losing her battle with cancer.
Sedgwick, Marcus My swordhand is singing: Tomas and his son, Peter, arrive in Chust and settle there as woodcutters. Tomas digs a channel of fast flowing waters around their hut so they have their own little island kingdom. Peter doesn’t understand why his father has done this nor why his father carries a long battered box, whose mysterious contents he is forbidden to know.
Rosoff, Meg Just in case: Convinced that fate is out to get him, fifteen-year-old David Case assumes a new identity in the hope of avoiding what he believes is certain doom.
Savvides, Irini Aliki says: The novel follows the story of two cousins, Aliki and Lisa, who are heading into their final year of school. Inseparable, the girls are suddenly pulled apart by a family secret and adults who keep making decisions without consulting them.
Shanahan, Lisa My big birkett: Gemma Stone is convinced that it’s always unseemly to "chuck a birkett" and that it’s actually insane to chuck one in front of a complete stranger. But that’s before she falls in love with a boy who barely knows she exists.
Sheth, Kashmirab Koyal dark, mango sweet: Growing up with her family in Mumbai, India, sixteen-year-old Jeeta disagrees with much of her mother’s traditional advice about how to live her life and tries to be more modern and independent.
Singleton, Sarah Heretic: When Elizabeth finds a green-tinged creature in the woods she’s amazed to discover that it’s actually a girl her own age. Isabella has spent the last 300 years in the faery world, hiding from persecutors who accused her of being the daughter of a witch.
Singleton, John Angel blood: X-Ray, Chicken Angel, Lights Out and Cough Cough are the only four children left in the institution known as the Bin. X-Ray and his friends may have terrible things wrong with them, but they're no fools. They know that things have been getting worse since Dr Dearly was put in charge. They have to get out, but how?
Stewart, Paul Clash of the sky galleons: Quint is travelling with his father, Wind Jackal, on a mission to track down and bring to justice Turbot Smeal, the man who started the fire that killed their family. Ninth in the Edge Chronicles series.
Suzuma, Tabitha A note of madness: Life as a student is good for Flynn. As one of the top pianists at the Royal College of Music, he has been put forward for an important concert, the opportunity of a lifetime. But beneath the surface, things are changing.
Thompson, Gareth The great Harlequin: Grim Glenn Jackson is thirteen and has moved with his father to Torbeck in the Lake District. His Mum has not come with them and Glenn’s father is avoiding Glenn’s questions. From the moment Glenn meets Laura, quiet and overshadowed by her vindictive adoptive sister, he is bewitched.
Twice told: original stories inspired by original artwork: Presents nine drawings by a single illustrator, each of which has been translated into a story by two different authors writing about what they imagine is going on in the picture.
Voigt, Cynthia Bad girls, bad girls, whatcha gonna do?: As new ninth-graders eager only to survive high school, Mikey and Margalo must deal creatively with stolen money and cheating on the tennis courts.
Westerfeld, Scott Specials: The final volume in the Uglies trilogy