Before We Were Free, Julia Alvarez, 2002, $6.99, 192 pp. Twelve-year-old Anita de la Torre discovers that

her family is involved in a movement to end Trujillo’s bloody dictatorship in the Dominican Republic.

Define Normal, Julie Anne Peters, 2000, $7.99, 196 pp. When she agrees to meet with Jasmine as a peer

counselor at their middle school, Antonia never dreams that this far-out girl with the black lipstick and

pierced eyebrow will end up helping her deal with her own problems.

First Part Last, Angela Johnson, 2003, $6.99, 144 pp. Why is sixteen-year-old Bobby taking care of his new-

born daughter Feather? You don’t find out until the end what happened to her mother, Nia.

The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman, 2008, $17.99 hardcover, 307 pp. Winner, 2009 Newbery Medal. "Bod"

Owens is a normal boy, except for being raised by ghosts in a graveyard after his family is murdered when

he is a toddler. He’s safe there, with both dead and living friends. But the killer still wants to finish his job.

Hole in My Life, Jack Gantos, 2002, $8.00, 208 pp. Autobiography. Now the successful author of the Joey Pigza

books, Jack Gantos was desperate for cash in the spring of 1971. He agreed to help sail a yacht loaded

with drugs, got caught, and spent 15 months in prison.

Jim and Me: A Baseball Card Adventure. Dan Gutman, 2008, $5.99, 224 pp. Stosh and his longtime

enemy Bobby Fuller travel back in time hoping to stop Jim Thorpe from losing his Olympic medals.

Instead they get to watch his first season struggles with the New York Giants baseball team.

Million Dollar Throw, Mike Lupica, 2009, hardcover $17.99, 244 pp. Teen football star Nate Brodie worships

New England quarterback Tom Brady. When Nate gets a nationally televised chance to throw a football

through a small target for a million dollars, money his family badly needs, Brady is there to encourage him.

Night Hoops, Carl Deuker, 2000, $6.99, 256 pp. While trying to prove he is good enough to play on his high

school varsity basketball team, sophomore Nick Abbott also has to deal with his parents’ divorce and

the erratic behavior of a talented but troubled teammate.

Restless: A Ghost’s Story, Rich Wallace, 2003, $5.99, 176 pp. Before moving on to a higher plane in the after-

life now that he is dead, Frank wants to connect with the athletic teenage brother he envies.

Rucker Park Setup, Paul Volponi, 2007, $5.99, 149 pp. Playing street basketball tournament finals on the

court where his best friend just got murdered, Mackey comes to terms with his own role in that murder.

Three Cups of Tea: the Young Reader’s Edition, Greg Mortensen, adapted by Sarah Thomson, 2009, $8.99,

205 pp. Lost while climbing K2, Greg Mortensen was moved by the kindness of the Himalayan villagers.

He promised to return to build a school, and has so far built 60 in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

missing her "perfect" boyfriend Jason who is away for the summer, Macy gets a catering job with a fun-

What I Saw and How I Lied, Judy Blundell, 2008, $8.99, 288 pp. Winner, 2008 National Book Award for

Young Adult Fiction. Teenage Evie falls in love with a young soldier who served in her stepfather’s

World War II army unit–and gets entangled in a web. Blackmail, adultery, homicide? What did she see?

Darnell is sensitive to other-worldly beings. As soon as she walks into her family’s new home in

Houston, the voices alert her to danger.

between Jacob and Edward, but when Seattle is ravaged by mysterious killings, the three put their

conflicts in the background. Sequel = Breaking Dawn

geniuses and save Earth from alien attack. Despite his young age, he is unbeatable at war games. But

he has enemies. An award-winning classic with several sequels. First sequel = Ender’s Shadow

Evernight, Claudia Gray, 2008, 2008, $8.99, 352 pp. Sixteen-year-old Bianca finds herself drawn to another

outsider at her new boarding school. She does not yet know that she is a vampire-to-be and that dark

forces threaten to tear her and Lucas apart. Sequel = Stargazer

* The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins, 2008, $8.99, 374 pp. In a future North America, an annual televised

survival competition pits young people against each other in a fight to the death. But the country falls

in love with the plucky Katniss and her partner Peeta. Can they break the rules so that both survive?

First sequel = Catching Fire

* Life As We Knew It, Susan Beth Pfeffer, 2006, $6.95 paperback to be released May, 2010, 360 pp. In her

journal, sixteen-year-old Miranda Evans describes her family’s struggle to survive after a meteor hits

the moon, causing worldwide disaster. First sequel = The Dead and the Gone

* The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan, Book I of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. 2005, $7.99, 400 pp. Percy

has just been kicked out of boarding school again, only to discover that he is a half-blood and son of a

god, and has just ten days to find and restore Zeus’s lightning bolt before war breaks out on Mt. Olympus.

First sequel = Sea of Monsters

of whom can fly, were created in a lab as an experiment. Now they are on the run from predators who have

orders to destroy them before the world finds out. First sequel = Maximum Ride: School’s Out Forever

the thoughts of people in photographs, and doesn’t want to attend Bloor’s Academy for gifted children,

where his classmates also have mysterious powers. He does go, and adventures ensue.

First sequel = Charlie Bone and the Time Twister

Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman? Eleanor Updale, 2005, $6.99, 240 pp. A prison term for theft gave

Montmorency time to plan for his survival. His knowledge of the Victorian London sewers has given him

escape routes, even after he becomes a full-fledged gentleman. First sequel = Montmorency on the Rocks

Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz, 2003, $7.99, 288 pp. Reluctant teenage spy Alex Rider, sent to help the CIA find

nuclear weapons on an island off Cuba, is kidnapped by a demented Russian who plans to adopt him and to

blow up part of the world. Next sequel = Scorpia