Dreamland by Sarah Dessen (fiction) - After her older sister runs away, sixteen-year-old Caitlin decides that she needs to make a major change in her own life and begins an abusive relationship with a boy who is mysterious, brilliant, and dangerous.
This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff (non-fiction) - In this memoir of boyhood in the 1950s, we meet the young Toby Wolff, by turns tough and vulnerable, crafty and bumbling, and ultimately winning. Separated by divorce from his father and brother, Toby and his mother are constantly on the move. Between themselves they develop an almost telepathic trust that sees them through their wanderings from Florida to a small town in Washington State.
Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos (non-fiction) - The author relates how, as a young adult, he became a drug user and smuggler, was arrested, did time in prison, and eventually got out and went to college, all the while hoping to become a writer.
Icy Sparks by Gwen Hyman Rubio (fiction) - Icy Sparks has spent most of her life being ridiculed because she suffers from Tourette Syndrome, but as she grows older, she teaches the people in her town how to accept people for who they are, not what they appear to be.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (fiction) - At its center is the deaf-mute John Singer, who becomes the confidant for various types of misfits in Georgia mill town during the 1930s. Each one yearns for escape from small town life. When Singer's a mute companion goes insane, Singer moves into the Kelly house, where Mick Kelly finds solace in her music
Looking for Alaska by John Green (fiction) - Miles "Pudge" Halter befriends some fellow boarding-school students and falls in love with Alaska Young, the razor-sharp, self-destructive nucleus of the group. When tragedy strikes, Pudge discovers the value of unconditional love.
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (non-fiction) - Bryson and a childhood friend decide to hike the length of the 2100-mile Appalachian Trail in this very funny personal memoir, which is also a delightful chronicle of the trail, the people who created it, and the places it passes through.
Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatuki Houston and James D. Houston (non-fiction) - This is an autobiographical story of the Japanese-American experience during and after their WWII internment.
Hoops by Walter Dean Myers (fiction) - A teenage basketball player from Harlem is befriended by a former professional player who, after being forced to quit because of a point-shaving scandal, hopes to prevent other young athletes from repeating his mistake.
The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis (non-fiction) - Details the life of University of Mississippi football player Michael Oher, who was raised by a crack addicted mother and adopted at the age of sixteen by a wealthy family, and explores the rising importance and salary of the offensive left tackle in the game of football.
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen (non-fiction) - The author describes her two-year stay at a psychiatric hospital renowned for its famous clientele and for its progressive methods of treatment.
House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer (science fiction) - In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patron, the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.
Into Thin Air: by Jon Krakauer: (non-fiction) - The tragedy that took the lives of experienced mountain guides and novice climbers in a raging blizzard atop Mt. Everest in 1996 is chronicled with clarity, poignancy, and brutal honesty by one who witnessed the even first-hand.
Peeling the Onion by Wendy Orr (fiction) - Following an automobile accident in which her neck is broken, a teenage karate champion begins a long and painful recovery with the help of her family.
Maus Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman (graphic novel) - A story of a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe and his son, a cartoonist who tries to come to terms with his father's story and history itself.
Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer (fiction) - When seventeen-year-old Bella leaves Phoenix to live with her father in Forks, Washington, she meets an exquisitely handsome boy at school for whom she feels an overwhelming attraction and who she comes to realize is not wholly human.
Slam by Walter Dean Meyers (fiction) - 17-year-old Greg Harris tells of the year in which he transfers to a magnet school for the arts, a more academically challenging, mostly white school. After being the hot shot star of his Harlem high school team, he has to learn to fit in and be a team player at his new school. He may not be able to do anything about the rest of his life--his relationships with his family and friends, his grandmother's illness, his scholastic difficulties, or what goes on in his Harlem neighborhood--but when he gets onto the basketball court, "Slam" feels in control.