Croak by Gina Damico

Damico, Gina. Croak. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. Print.  ISBN 978-0-547-60832-7; Paperback; $8.99.

Annotation: 

Lex is angry and out of control so she gets shipped to the country to live with her uncle Mort where she can put her skills to use, as a Grim Reaper.

Book Talk:

Lex Bartleby used to be a good girl but all that has changed.  Sarcastic, volatile, prone to smashing people in the face, Lex is on her last straw with school authorities when her parents send her off to visit her weird uncle Mort in the country to see if she can sort out her "anger issues."  Instead of chanting Kumbaya and churning butter, Lex quickly learns that Croak, the tiny town where Mort lives, is the home of reapers who haunt the dead and Lex is there to learn the family business.  Now that Lex has an explanation for her sudden fascination with death and endless anger, what will happen when she is turned loose with the power to take lives without seeming consequence?  Is Lex even a little too hardcore for the residents of Croak? 

Available in paperback, hardcover, and ebook. 

Teen quote:

"Anyone will love this book."

~Marie, 16.

Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer

Wolitzer, Meg. Belzhar. New York, New York: Dutton Juvenile, 2014. Print.  ISBN 978-0-525-42305-8; Hardcover; $17.99.

Annotation:
Jam's boyfriend is dead and she can't bear living until a special English class at a boarding school for "emotionally fragile" intellectuals opens her eyes to a possible future.

Book Talk:
Jam Gallahue falls madly in love with the tall, romantic and gorgeous English exchange student Reeve and they spend 41 perfect days together until the unthinkable happens.  He dies.  Jam, unable to bear the loss, buries herself in the blankets on her bed and can barely function.  After a year of serious depression her parents ship her off to a boarding school in Vermont called The Wooden Barn.  There she meets others like her: drifters, misfits, sensitive souls with traumatic pasts they can't bear in the present.  Jam is sure nothing will ever feel good again until she is enrolled in a mysterious class called Special Topics in English where the entire curriculum is based on the work of Sylvia Plath.  This is where they learn about Belzhar.  When Jam and her classmates discover how to go back to the way things were before their lives fell apart they each have to decide whether they want to live in an unchanging and comfortable past or an uncertain future.  Find out what Jam discovers in Belzhar and see if she chooses love over life.

Available in paperback, hardcover, eBook, and audio CD.

Teen quote:

"It's not as dark as it sounds, ending on a hopeful note about transformation." 
~Amy, 18.

Glory O'Brien's History of the Future by A.S. King

King, A.S. Glory O'Brien's History of the Future.  New York: Little, Brown, 2014.  Print.  ISBN 978-0-316-22272-3; Hardcover; $18.00.

Annotation: Glory O'Brien can see the future and the past but she isn't sure if she wants to stick around long enough to see if it comes true.

Book Talk:
After one night of doing something really stupid and gross, Glory and her best friend Ellie acquire the uncanny ability to see both the past and the future of everyone around them, except for themselves.  As Glory tries to unravel what her visions of war, female oppression, and unexpected love reveal, her best friend must confront her own demons of sexual promiscuity and betrayal.  Read A.S. King's brave and powerful new novel to find out what Glory O'Brien knows about the History of the Future and whether or not she can save it.

Available in hardcover, eBook, and audio CD.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Alexie, Sherman, and Ellen Forney. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Little, Brown and Co, 2009. Print.  ISBN 978-0-316-01368-0; Hardcover; $20.00.

Annotation: 
Junior leaves the reservation to attend the all-white high school 20 miles down the road.  Will he survive tragedy and illness to get the girl and graduate?

Book Talk:
Junior is a nerdy, sickly, reading and drawing obsessed Spokane Native who leaves his friends and family behind on the reservation to attend a racist all-white high school in the next town.  Despite meeting the girl of his dreams, Penelope, and making new friends, like Gordy, tragedy strikes and one horrible thing after another happens, until Junior isn't sure if he can go on.  Does being Native destine him to a life of drunken poverty, unhappiness and early death?  He says, 

"I used to think the world was broken down by tribes...By black and white.  By Indian and white.  But I know that isn't true.  The world is only broken into two tribes: The people who are assholes and the people who are not."

Read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian to discover if Junior is willing to change everything in order to change his life.  When given the choice, which tribe will he choose?

Available in paperback, hardcover, eBook and audio CD. 

Awards:

2007 National Book Award for Young People's Literature
2008 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, Fiction and Poetry
2009 Odyssey Award as the year's "best audiobook for children or young adults"
2010 California Young Reader Medal, Young Adult Book