| Teen
Reads The following is a list of books for teens recommended by local teens. The call numbers for the books are listed under the author’s name. If the call number begins with a “J,” it is located upstairs. If it begins with a “YA” or “FIC,” it is located downstairs. Please ask a librarian if you need help finding these books.
Life As We Knew It Miranda is living an average teenage life with concerns about school, friends and family. Then a meteor hits the moon, causing it to become closer to the earth. After this event, life for everyone changes dramatically. Gas prices continually increase, natural disasters occur every day and food is scarce. Can the world, or part of it, survive this hard time in history? Will Miranda survive?
Xing Xing lives a life of Cinderella. Her stepmother makes her do everything for her and her daughter. Having small feet, Xing Xing is lucky, because her feet don’t have to be bound like her sister’s. But even though she’s just a servant girl, she gets a chance to live happily ever after.
Remy has just graduated from high school and is ready to get rid of her boyfriend. She’s an expert with break-ups because she has learned from her mother, who is getting married for the fifth time. Remy decides to go to college unattached. Then she meets Dexter, who is the opposite of what she looks for in a guy. But Remy takes the chance of being with him only for the summer. As summer comes to an end, Remy finds it hard to keep him only as a friend.
Alice is in her first year of high school and has a lot to deal with: she is coping with the loss of her boyfriend, getting involved in many activities and losing her best friends. Also, she has a secret admirer emailing her. Will Alice make her freshman year great or not? The book talks about things that really happen in everyday life and kind of gives you ideas of what you can do in these situations. Patiently Alice It’s the summer before 10th grade and Alice is going to camp. Alice and three friends have signed up to be camp counselors. The camp is full of children who dread the outdoors and cute male counselors. The book talks about feeling comfortable with growing up and new changes in relationships. All-American Girl Samantha Madison is the middle child and an outcast. Her older sister is a popular cheerleader and her younger sister is a genius. Then Samantha does something that turns her from being an unknown person to the talk of the country. Sam’s heroic act gets her attention from everyone, but she only cares about the opinion of one person. I enjoyed reading this book because I think many teens can relate to Sam and learn that fame isn’t everything. Books Recommended by Patrick Martin, Age 13 Ender’s Game This book is set in the future. Aliens try to take over the planet twice. So now we have to be prepared for another takeover attempt. A very smart kid is chosen to be the commander. The book mostly explains what his training is. This was very interesting; it was hard to stop reading it.
An underground city is made to keep people from going extinct. It was mysterious and suspenseful.
The Princess Bride Believing her true love, Westley, is dead, Buttercup agrees to marry evil Prince Humperdinck (so he won’t kill her), but soon discovers that Westley is not dead, and Prince Humperdinck has a plan to kill her anyway to start a war. It was very funny, and an element of suspense mixed with humor pushed me to want to know what would happen. The originality definitely shows something of Goldman’s imagination. My Sister’s Keeper Thirteen-year-old Anna was conceived to be
a bone marrow match for her 16-year-old sister, Kate, who has leukemia.
In a surprising sequence of events, Anna sues her parents for control
of her own body after realizing that she is expected to donate a kidney
to her sister. Picoult hits the issue on the head; she questions whether
a parent’s love for their children can be equally distributed
under alarming circumstances. Lyra Belacqua, a girl from Oxford, England of another world, and her daemon Pantalaimon set out to give her father a mysterious compass and release children who are being kidnapped by the Authority. It was well written and had a good plot full of questions for the reader to puzzle over. This is the first book in the His Dark Materials trilogy. The Subtle Knife This is the second book in the His Dark Materials trilogy. Lyra returns with a new character, Will, a daemon-less human from our world. They venture off together into Cittagazze, another world, to gain the unbeatable Subtle Knife and retrieve Lyra’s alethiometer (compass). The Amber Spyglass This is the final book in the His Dark Materials trilogy. The final battle between Lord Asriel and the Authority’s forces commences, while the Church sends out agents to kill Lyra before the Fall of Man repeats itself and the Kingdom of Heaven is replaced by the Republic of Heaven that will be present in each world. I liked that Pullman tied up all the mysteries and open-ended questions that were left at the end of The Subtle Knife. Maximum Ride: The Final Warning This is the fourth book in the Maximum Ride series. The Flock heads to Antarctica to observe the effects of global warming in a slew of environmental propaganda. I was definitely disappointed with the fourth book. It was too short and it seems Patterson wrote it to inform teens of global warming. The writing style was just as fantastically witty as the first three, though. Books Recommended by Ashlea Messick, age 14 Voices at Whisper Bend When Charlotte and her little brother decide to help the soldiers win the war, they get the kids at school to do a scrap metal drive. Then one night, somebody steals all the metal they collected. Will Charlotte be able to find the thief and learn why they stole the metal? The book helps you understand how kids our age would have felt during World War II. The Night Flyers Pam has pigeons that her Papa gave to her before going to war. As she takes care of them, her favorite pigeons start to disappear. Pam tries to find her pigeons and the culprit behind it all. The story helps you understand how kids felt during World War I.
The information on this page was created by the Vineland Public Library from a brochure funded by a Literacy Grant from the New Jersey State Library with funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services through its Grants to States program.
If you have comments or suggestions, email Helen Cowan Margiotti, Head of Children's and Young Adult Services This information last updated 10/08
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