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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy [Series]
Douglas Adams (YA ADAMS)
What do you do when your planet’s destroyed? Hitchhike about the galaxy! (Grades 8-12) |
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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Sherman Alexie (YA ALEXIE)
When he starts attending school in a nearby town, Junior Spirit becomes a “part-time” Indian, torn between two identities. (Grades 9+) |
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Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Jesse Andrews (YA ANDREWS)
Greg’s only friend is Earl—and he likes it that way. Together, he and Earl make their own DIY,
low-budget versions of arthouse movies. Their movies don’t have any purpose—until they befriend a girl dying of Leukemia. (Grades 9+) |
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Going Bovine
Libba Bray ( YA BRAY)
Cam gets Mad Cow Disease & sets out on a quest with a Mexican –American dwarf to unravel the great mystery. (Grades 8+) |
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Ender’s Game [Series]
Orson Scott Card (YA CARD)
One boy will decide the fate of the world. (Grades 6+) |
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The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Stephen Chbosky (YA CHBOSKY)
What’s to be done when you’re caught between living your life and running from it?
(Grades 10-12) |
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Pirate Cinema
Cory Doctorow (YA DOCTOROW)
Trent puts together his own videos using parts of other movies, then uploads them to the Internet. The problem is, that’s highly illegal in near-future Britain. His family’s Internet connection severed for a year, so he heads for the underground… (Grades 9+) |
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The Graveyard Book
Neil Gaiman (YA GAIMAN)
Meet Nobody. His parents were murdered, and now he’s going to be raised by ghosts—with a tomb for a home. (Grades 6+) |
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Looking for Alaska
John Green (YA GREEN)
Miles Halter is the “seeker of the great perhaps.” Is Alaska - young, feminist, and rabblerousing – the key? (Grades 9+) |
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Will Grayson, Will Grayson
John Green & David Levithan (YA GREEN)
Two kids who have the same name & not much else in common trying to figure out how to be themselves. A large & brave tale. (Grades 9+) |
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Football Genius [Series]
Tim Green (YA GREEN)
Predicting football—a blessing or a curse? (Grades 6+) |
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The Outsiders
S.E. Hinton (YA HINTON)
Gang life’s tough, but it’s all they know. (Grades 6+) |
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Stormbreaker [Series]
Anthony Horowitz (YA HOROWITZ)
Alex Rider Series. Alex must use his prowess to outsmart the terrorists who want him and every child in England dead.(Grades 6-9) |
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Paper Covers Rock
Jenny Hubbard (YA HUBBARD)
During his year at a boarding school in North Carolina, Alex’s friend accidentally drowns. Instead of coming clean, he allows his lie to snowball. (Grades 9+) |
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Everybody Sees the Ants
A.S. King (YA KING)
Tormented by bullies and haunted by his grandfather who never returned from Vietnam, Lucky Linderman is just looking for signs that life may be worth living after all. (Grades 9+) |
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Blood Ninja [Trilogy]
Nick Lake (YA LAKE)
A young samurai vampire must combat the horrors of the ninja vampires who decapitated his father (yes, really). (Grades 8+) |
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Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie
David Lubar (YA LUBAR)
Starting high school’s bad enough without a baby sibling on the way. (Grades 7+) |
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Hold Me Closer, Necromancer [Has a Sequel]
Lish McBride (YA MCBRIDE)
With dead-raising necromancers and werewolves hot on your heels, your fast food job and
b-movie hobby don’t seem quite as important... (Grades 8+) |
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Railsea
China Mieville (YA MIEVILLE)
A Steampunk take on Moby Dick: instead of chasing whales, the diesel train crew chase moldwarpes - man-eating mole-like creatures who burrow beneath the train tracks. (Grades 9+) |
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Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal
Christopher Moore (YA MOORE)
“The first time I saw the man who would save the world he was sitting near the central wall in Nazareth with a lizard hanging out of his mouth.” (Grades 9+) |
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Paranoid Park
Blake Nelson (YA NELSON)
He was just skating in Portland. He didn’t mean for the guard to die. Sometimes, your own conscience is your worst enemy. (Grades 10+) |
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The Knife of Never Letting Go [Trilogy]
Patrick Ness (YA NESS)
Chaos Walking Trilogy. The noise germ makes Todd hear everything that everyone is thinking at all times. When he discovers a patch of silence in the cacophony, he sets out to discover a dark secret. (Grades 9+) |
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A Confusion of Princes
Garth Nix (YA NIX)
Khemri is a superhuman intergalactic prince. The problem is, princes want to become rulers—to do that, they need to kill...or be killed. Then he meets a girl who forces him to rethink everything about his life. (Grades 9+) |
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This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein
Kenneth Oppel (YA OPPEL)
Even the brothers Frankenstein were young once... (Grades 8+) |
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Hatchet [Series]
Gary Paulsen (YA PAULSEN)
Brian’s Saga Series. Stranded in the wilderness with only his hatchet & his wits. Will Brian survive? (Grades 6-9) |
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Mexican Whiteboy
Matt de la Peña (YA PEÑA)
He may be used to facing demons on the baseball field, but now Danny’s got to come to grips with his heritage. That may be more difficult than throwing a fastball. (Grades 9+) |
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King Dork
Frank Portman (YA PORTMAN)
Some have called “A Catcher in the Rye” a life-changing novel. For Tom (AKA “Mo”), it’s the father he never knew. (Grades 10+) |
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Heart of a Samurai
Margi Preus (YA PREUS)
In the 19th Century, Manjiro finds himself shipwrecked far from his Japanese homeland. A chance rescue puts him on a crash course to America...and destiny. (Grades 6-8) |
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Always Running: La Vida Loca—Gang Days in L.A.
Luis Rodriguez (921 RODRIGUEZ, LUIS)
Stabbings. Shootings. Robberies. Drug use. Funerals. Very few make it to 21. Luis is an exception. (Grades 10+) |
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The Wednesday Wars [Has a Sequel]
Gary Schmidt (YA SCHMIDT)
Meet Holling Hoodhood, fan of the New York Yankees...and William Shakespeare?! (Grades 7-10) |
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The Schwa Was Here [Has a Sequel]
Neal Shusterman (YA SHUSTERMAN)
The Schwa just wants to be noticed by Antsy and his friends—problem is, he tends to disappear before your eyes! (Grades 7-10) |
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Jasper Jones
Craig Silvey (YA SILVEY)
Jasper leads Charlie into a secluded forest grove where a horrific site awaits—a dead girl, hanging from a tree. Even worse— Charlie’s got to help him hide the body...(Grades 9+) |
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Snow Crash
Neal Stephenson (YA STEPHENSON)
In the future, Hiro’s got a great job hacking the Metaverse and delivering pizza for the mob. When his friend fries his brain on a deadly new electronic drug, he decides to unravel the mystery. (Grades 9+) |
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Rikers High
Paul Volponi (YA VOLPONI)
Martin was a good kid who never meant to be arrested...but he did, and now he’s spent five months of his life on Rikers Island. (Grades 8+) |
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Leviathan [Trilogy]
Scott Westerfeld (YA WESTERFELD)
World War I as never seen before. This global conflict is between the Clankers, who put their faith in machines, and the Darwinists, whose technology is based on new species. (Grades 7+) |
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Where Things Come Back
John Corey Whaley (YA WHALEY)
Cullen has lived a comfortable (if slightly boring) life in his small town. Life changes when his little brother seemingly vanishes from the face of the Earth. Meanwhile, the town is more interested in a woodpecker. (Grades 9+) |
