2012 Young Adult Choices

When a serious case of acne threatens thirteen-year-old Olivia's budding relationship with classmate J.W., as well as her career as an actress in television commercials, she must rethink the path she has been following.

From the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Once and for All A new day. A new place. A new life. In the past few years, Mclean has pretended to be so many different people that she hardly remembers who she really is anymore. The adorable guy next door might be able to help her figure it out. But is she ready for it? “A cut above” —People Sarah Dessen is the winner of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her contributions to YA literature, as well as the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award. Books by Sarah Dessen: That Summer Someone Like You Keeping the Moon Dreamland This Lullaby The Truth About Forever Just Listen Lock and Key Along for the Ride What Happened to Goodbye The Moon and More Saint Anything Once and for All

Ever since the gods of Ancient Egypt were unleashed in the modern world, Carter Kane and his sister Sadie have been in trouble. As descendants of the House of Life, the Kanes have some powers at their command, but the devious gods haven't given them much time to master their skills at Brooklyn House, which has become a training ground for young magicians. And now their most threatening enemy yet - the chaos snake Apophis - is rising. If they don't prevent him from breaking free in a few days' time, the world will come to an end. In other words, it's a typical week for the Kane family. To have any chance of battling the Forces of Chaos, the Kanes must revive the sun god Ra. But that would be a feat more powerful than any magician has ever accomplished. First they have to search the world for the three sections of the Book of Ra, then they have to learn how to chant its spells. Oh, and did we mention that no one knows where Ra is exactly? Narrated in two different wisecracking voices, featuring a large cast of new and unforgettable characters, and with adventures spanning the globe, this second installment in the Kane Chronicles is nothing short of a thrill ride.

Abandoned by his mother in an Acadia National Park campground, Jack tries to make his way back to Boston before anyone figures out what is going on, with only a small toy elephant for company. Abandoned by his mother in an Acadia National Park campground, eleven-year-old Jack tries to make his way back to Boston before anyone figures out what is going on, with only a small toy elephant for company.

At a rustic summer camp, sixteen-year-old Tori, a senator's daughter, learns that she is descended from medieval dragon slayers, that dragons still exist, and that she is expected to hone her special abilities to join her fellow campers in battling the beasts and the man who controls them.

Sixteen-year-old Missy copes with being an outcast at school and stress at home by cutting herself with a razor blade, until Death chooses her as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, War, and offers her a new blade.

What would you give up to be perfect? Four teens find out in the New York Times bestselling companion to Impulse. Everyone has something, someone, somewhere else that they’d rather be. For four high school seniors, their goals of perfection are just as different as the paths they take to get there. Cara’s parents’ unrealistic expectations have already sent her twin brother Conner spiraling toward suicide. For her, perfect means rejecting their ideals to take a chance on a new kind of love. Kendra covets the perfect face and body—no matter what surgeries and drugs she needs to get there. To score his perfect home run—on the field and off—Sean will sacrifice more than he can ever win back. And Andre realizes that to follow his heart and achieve his perfect performance, he’ll be living a life his ancestors would never understand. A riveting and startling companion to the bestselling Impulse, Ellen Hopkins’s Perfect exposes the harsh truths about what it takes to grow up and grow into our own skins, our own selves.

The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children. If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company. There are no strangers in the town of Near. These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life. But when an actual stranger, a boy who seems to fade like smoke, appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true. The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi's need to know about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy.

Seattle sixteen-year-old Jael must negotiate normal life in Catholic school while learning to control the abilities she inherited from her mother, a demon, and protect those she loves from Belial, the Duke of Hell.

Michael Vey's secret powers earn him the scrutiny of an unknown organization that wants him for their own purposes. When they kidnap his mother, Michael must use his power and his wits to free his mother, save his friends, and defeat the organization's relentless hunters.

Sam has always loved grace. As a wolf, he watched her from afar. As a boy, he held her in his arms. Now facing life without her, Sam will do anything to keep grace safe. Even if it means risking everything he has. Anything, as long as their love can survive....

Friday, December 14th. Fourteen-year old Alex rushes home that night to beat his curfew. The next morning, he wakes up in an unfamiliar house, different part of the country, and it's the middle of June. Six months seem to have disappeared overnight. The family at the breakfast table? Total strangers. And when Alex looks in the mirror, another boy - called Philip, or Flip - stares back. The race against the clock is on, and unless Alex finds out what's happened and how to get back his own life, he'll be forever trapped in someone else's body and life.

In this modern take on the Cyrano story, brilliant and witty high school student Sarah Burke, who is cursed with an enormous nose, helps her beautiful best friend try to win the heart of a handsome and smart new student, even though Sarah wants him for herself.

This work is a collection of some of the more creative and hilarious ways that students have tackled challenging exam questions. "F" stands for "funny" in this perfect gift for students or anyone who has ever had to struggle through a test and needs a good laugh. Celebrating the creative side of failure in a way we can all relate to, this book gathers the most hilarious and inventive test answers provided by students who, faced with a question they have no hope of getting right, decide to have a little fun instead. Whether in science (Q: What is the highest frequency noise that a human can register? A: Mariah Carey), the humanities (Q: What did Mahatma Gandhi and Genghis Khan have in common? A: Unusual names), math, or other subjects, these 250 entries prove that while everyone enjoys the spectacle of failure, it's even sweeter to see a FAIL turn into a WIN. --From publisher.

In the dim light of the darkroom/I'm alone, but not for long.
As white turns to gray, Kate is with me.
background of the dance studio blurred,
so the focus is all on her--legs extended in a perfect soaring split.
The straight line to my squiggle, my forever-best friend.

Sixteen-year-old Liz is Photogirl—sharp, focused, and confident in what she sees through her camera lens, confident that she and Kate will be best friends forever. But everything changes in one blurry night. Suddenly, Kate is avoiding her and people are looking the other way she passes in the halls. As the aftershocks from a startling accusation rip through Liz's world, everything she thought she knew about photography, family, friendship, and herself shifts out of focus. What happens when the picture you see no longer makes sense? Told in breathtaking, searingly raw free verse, Kimberly Marcus's unforgettable debut will appeal to fans of Ellen Hopkins and Laurie Halse Anderson.

New York City has been decimated by war and plague, and most of civilization has migrated to underground enclaves, where life expectancy is no more than the early 20's. When Deuce turns 15, she takes on her role as a Huntress, and is paired with Fade, a teenage Hunter who lived Topside as a young boy. When she and Fade discover that the neighboring enclave has been decimated by the tunnel monsters--or Freaks--who seem to be growing more organized, the elders refuse to listen to warnings. And when Deuce and Fade are exiled from the enclave, the girl born in darkness must survive in daylight--guided by Fade's long-ago memories--in the ruins of a city whose population has dwindled to a few dangerous gangs. Ann Aguirre's thrilling young adult novel is the story of two young people in an apocalyptic world--facing dangers, and feelings, unlike any they've ever known.

In the aftermath of a war, America's landscape has been ravaged and two thirds of the population left dead from a vicious strain of influenza. Fifteen-year-old Stephen Quinn and his family were among the few that survived and became salvagers, roaming the country in search of material to trade for food and other items essential for survival. But when Stephen's grandfather dies and his father falls into a coma after an accident, Stephen finds his way to Settler's Landing, a community that seems too good to be true, where there are real houses, barbecues, school, and even baseball games. Then Stephen meets strong, defiant, mischievous Jenny, who refuses to accept things as they are. And when they play a prank that goes horribly wrong, chaos erupts, and they find themselves in the midst of a battle that will change Settler's Landing forever. (Book Blurb)

‘Divergent’ is the first in a trilogy of dystopian, YA novels by Veronica Roth. The book is written from Beatrice Prior’s (Tris), point of view and is written in short chapters making it easy to put down and pick up again. The story is fast paced with full on action throughout. It contains elements of humour and romance, alongside some seriously brutal scenes, especially during Tris’s initiation. There is also quite a few though provoking moments. This was one of the first YA novels that I read and I found myself hooked right through to the very last word. The scenes are described in detail giving you a clear picture and making it easy to visualise the on goings in your head. Tris can be a little moody at times and doubts herself too much, but this only adds to her good nature, fun, determined and strong personality which we see blossom throughout The ending wasn’t what I expected, thus my need to get the second book, ‘Insurgent’, straight away. I Needed to know what happened next. I surprisingly found myself enjoying Divergent much more than I first thought I would, and thus my love of YA novels began. Divergent was made into a movie back in 2014. If you have seen the film but not read the book then you are missing out on vital aspects of the plot and characters, that didn’t appear in the film. I enjoyed the film, just not as much as the book.

Rehabilitating Frankenstein while training a new squad to help recover from an attack by evil vampire Valeri Rusmanov, teen operator Jamie Carpenter races to recapture escaped prisoners who have been transformed into vampires, including one who has a deep connection to Department 19. Department 19 Operator Jamie trains a new squad while an escapee from a maximum security prison sets out to expose the existence of vampires. The plot contains profanity and graphic violence. Book #3

After his failed attempt to escape from Furnace Penitentiary, Alex struggles to survive the bloodstained laboratories beneath where monsters are manufactured, with a death sentence--or worse--hanging over his head.

The Dead is the second book in Charlie Higson's jaw-dropping zombie horror series for teens. Everyone over the age of fourteen has succumbed to a deadly zombie virus and now the kids must keep themselves alive. A terrible disease is striking everyone over the age of fourteen. Death walks the streets. Nowhere is safe. Maxie, Blue and the rest of the Holloway crew aren't the only kids trying to escape the ferocious adults who prey on them. Jack and Ed are best friends, but their battle to stay alive tests their friendship to the limit as they go on the run with a mismatched group of other kids - nerds, fighters, misfits. And one adult, Greg, a butcher, who claims he's immune to the disease. They must work together if they want to make it in this terrifying new world. But when fresh disaster threatens to overwhelm London, they realize they won't all survive...

Sixteen-year-old Amber, hoping to spend one perfect day alone at the beach before her world is turned upside down, meets and feels a strong connection to Cade, who is looking for his own escape, for a very different reason.

Seventeen-year-old Cassia sacrifices everything and heads to the Outer Provinces in search of Ky, where she is confronted with shocking revelations about Society and the promise of rebellion.

By weaving through her memories and watching the family and friends she left behind, eighteen-year-old Liz Valchar solves the mystery of how her life ended in the Long Island Sound.

Natalie boldly goes where no girl has gone before in this fresh, funny peek inside the male mind!

Natalie writes the relationship column for her high school newspaper. Then she is accused of knowing nothing about guys and giving girls bad relationship advice, so she decides to disguise herself as a guy and spend a week at Underwood Academy, the private all-boys boarding school in town. And in the process, she learns about guys, though in ways she never expected. But when she starts to fall for her dreamy roommate, things get even more complicated. The fun doesn't stop in this light, lively offering for teen girls.

In the year 2060, when people hardly ever leave the security of their houses and instead do everything online, Madeline Freeman, the seventeen-year-old daughter of the man who created the national digital school attended by all citizens, is wooed by a group of radicals who are trying to get people to "unplug."

Hakata Soy's past life as the leader of a futuristic super team won't stay in the past! The former space hero is doing his best to keep his head down at Astronaut Academy. Things aren't going so great, though. The most popular girl in school has it in for him. His best friend won't return his calls. And his new roommate is a complete jock who only cares about Fireball. Hakata just wants to make a fresh start. But how will he find time to study Anti-Gravity Gymnastics and Tactical Randomness when he's got a robot doppelganger on its way to kill him?

After the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano destroys his city and its surroundings, fifteen-year-old Alex must journey from Cedar Falls, Iowa, to Illinois to find his parents and sister, trying to survive in a transformed landscape and a new society in which all the old rules of living have vanished.