During World War II, fifteen-year-old Chris Cook feels trapped and bored in Oswego, New York until a refugee camp is opened near her home. Although her father tells her to stay away from the camp, Chris sneaks down to the shelter where she meets Adam Bornstein, a refugee from Yugoslavia who escaped the Nazis. The two are drawn to each other despite their differences in language, religion, nationality, and family, but what will happen to them when the war ends?

In this classic young adult novel, fifteen-year-old Janie Johnson recognizes herself as the missing child on a school milk carton. Could her own parents have kidnapped her when she was three years old? Janie feels compelled to investigate and has to choose between her love for the people she has always known as her parents and her need to learn the truth. 

To read more about Caroline B. Cooney, the author of this novel, go to Author of the Month.

Todd Bannister has it all: a fastball that makes him look like a major leaguer, a talent scout or college recruiter at his door every week, a feature in Sports Illustrated, and a beautiful girlfriend. He also has his best friend and number one fan Paulie, and the two plan a great future for themselves in the big leagues. It seems nothing can stop them until one line drive hits Todd in the face, and he loses an eye. As Paulie desperately tries to help Todd recover from the accident, he learns that he needs to see his future and himself in a new way.

Colie expects the worst when she's sent to spend the summer with her eccentric aunt Mira while her mother, queen of the television infomercial, tours Europe. Always an outcast for being fat, Colie has no friends at home and doesn't expect to find any in Colby, North Carolina. But then she lands a job at the Last Chance Café and meets fellow waitresses and best friends Morgan and Isabel, who are very close despite being total opposites. Both weird and wise, Morgan and Isabel help Colie see herself in a new way.

Hannah, an American teenager, is tired of hearing her family's stories about the Nazis during the Holocaust, but when she opens the door for Elijah at the Passover Seder, she is transported back in time to a small village in 1940's Poland. Eventually she is captured and put in a death camp where she experiences the very horrors that had embarrassed and annoyed her when her elders related their Holocaust experiences. Soon a girl named Rivka befriends her, teaching her how to fight the dehumanization of the camp and hold onto her identity, until they are both faced with a terrible choice. 

Teddy cannot stand his younger brother Bobby, who is happy, kind, considerate, helpful, thoughtful, and who always does the right thing. He's everything that Teddy isn't and Teddy feels it is his right as an older brother to make "perfect" Bobby's life miserable. When his mother insists that Teddy buy Bobby a nice gift for his birthday, Teddy spitefully decides to purchase a baby alligator, which then wreaks havoc in the house. Laurence Yep is the "Author of the Month" for March. Click here to read more about him. 

In this retelling of the Rapunzel story, a young woman named Zel lives alone in the woods with her mother and both seem to be happy. But when Zel begins to have thoughts of a life of her own, her mother is terrified that her daughter will leave her and becomes desperate to keep her away from other people. When a young man accidentally meets Zel and they become attracted to each other, Zel's mother locks her away in a tower far away from everyone, especially the young man. 

When Ellie and six of her friends return from a camping trip deep in the Australian bush, they find that things have gone hideously wrong at home. Their families are gone, their houses are abandoned, and their pets are dead. As they gradually realize that their country has been invaded, they decide that they have to make a life and death decision. Should they hide in the bush or give themselves up to the enemy or to try fight them? 

Although Paul needs thick glasses to enable him to see well enough to do things other kids do, his instinctual vision isn't impaired. It's 20/20, allowing him to "see" behind the facade of Tangerine County, Florida, where his family has recently moved. He chronicles his adjustment to this bizarre new place, describing his triumph at soccer, making new friends, and tending a tangerine grove. He also unravels the horrible truth about his disturbed and menacing older brother.

Should a young girl follow the cultural rules of her society and go through with an arranged marriage, or should she embark upon a dangerous journey in an attempt to escape the situation? That's the dilemma that confronts Ying, the 11-year-old heroine in this suspenseful novel that offers a thought-provoking glimpse of Chinese society in the 1940s, where children have no rights, but belong body and soul to their father's family. When Ying's wealthy, autocratic grandmother informs her  that she's to be married immediately, Ying protests, but her objections are brushed aside. Feeling out of options, Ying makes a dangerous choice.

Brent, a self-centered 16-year-old, drives away from a party after being humiliated in front of his classmates and tries to commit suicide by closing his eyes and letting go of the steering wheel. Instead, he kills the driver of another car, a seventeen-year-old girl. As part of a negotiated settlement, the victim's mother asks that he build four whirligigs as monuments to her daughter and set them up in Maine, Florida, California, and Washington, the four corners of the United States. Brent surprises himself by agreeing, and with a 45-day bus pass and a small bag of tools, he sets off on his journey of atonement.

Liz enjoys her summer pool job at the glamorous Ridley Hotel. Until the night, a dark and lonely night, a ghasty shadow surges up from the pool. A face -- eyes wide, mouth gaping -- stares at Liz. A hand clutches at her sneaker. Then it, whatever it is, is gone. But danger isn't. Strange things are happening at the hotel, and a shaken Liz wants to know why. But whoever is behind the trouble will stop at nothing -- even murder -- to get what he wants... Joan Lowery Nixon is the author of the month for February. Click here to read more about her.
 

Sage is in love with George. George is in love with Sage. The only problem is that they have been friends for so long that neither can admit their feelings. Sage is also writing a historical romance that she believes to be a work of genius. The only problem is that Sage’s writing is absolutely horrible. George can’t bring himself to tell Sage the truth about her talent (or lack Of), but is desperate to find a way to stop Sage from entering her masterpiece in the school writing contest--and save her from public humiliation.
 

In China in 1911, all the women of good families follow the ancient tradition of foot binding which is considered necessary to make a woman attractive as a wife. Knowing she will never move freely again once her feet are bound, Ailin rebels and refuses to follow this torturous tradition. This ends her engagement to a wealthy young man and leads her on a path which leaves her unsuitable for marriage by anyone of her class and unsure about her future in China. 
 

Ann and Sharon were alone in the dark on top of a cliff when Ann fell 500 feet into a torrential river. No body was ever found and there were no witnesses, yet Sharon is accused of murder. Her only defense is that Sharon jumped into the river, but everyone who knew Ann said that she was not the suicidal type. As the trial progresses, Sharon begins to realize that the fall was part of Ann’s cunning plan for revenge against her. But if Ann didn’t die that night, where is she now? And is she still plotting revenge?

Why does the pampered daughter of the king of England become known as “Bloody Mary”? How does a girl go from being the Princess of Wales to being a servant in her own home? How can a girl consider her own sister as her mortal enemy? Read this story of Mary Tudor to answer these question about one of the most unpopular queens in history of England. 

On her half birthday Lori Gottlieb's makes a wish: "I wish to be the thinnest girl at school, or maybe even the thinnest eleven-year-old on the entire planet. I mean, what are girls supposed to wish for, other than being thin?" This a a true story based on the diaries that Gottlieb kept as she grew up in Beverly Hills, California in the late 1970's. She decided to publish this diary when she found it among her childhood possessions. A smart, funny, tragic, hopeful account of one girl's struggle to live up to society's expectations.

Because he is convinced that he will someday be a famous triathlete, Bo Brewster gives the exclusive rights to the story of his life to the only adult he thinks will listen, talk show host Larry King. In his letters to Larry, Bo describes his troubled relationship with his father and his experiences with the "future serial killers and freeway snipers" in the anger management class that he is assigned to attend after outbursts at his teachers and coaches. Chris Crutcher is the “Author of the Month” for December. Read more about him on the library web page.

On Prom night, wimpy sixteen-year-old Fred Bauer discovers that he has three problems: two high school thugs consider him their worst enemy, his girlfriend plans to expose the person responsible for dumping toxins into the local water supply, and he finds a lump the size of an egg growing on his neck. The last problem leads to chemotherapy and the drugs that he takes suddenly transform him from wimp into superhero, which gives him the power to deal with the first two problems.

 Writing daily, and sometimes hourly, in her diary, Georgia Nicolson, a 14-year-old English girl, relates the trials of her life with her precocious 3-year-old sister who leaves the occasional diaper in her room, an insane pet cat who stalks the neighbors' poodle, her weird parents who threaten to move her family  to New Zealand, and her obsession with the proper "snogging" techniques. A "Bridget Jones' Diary" for Young Adults. 

This first novel in the Tillerman saga is about a 'family' of four children ages 6 to 13, who are abandoned by their mother in a  parking lot in a strange town. With $11 and change, a little adult help and a lot of adult interference, the four make their way from Rhode Island to Connecticut on the strength of courage, resourcefulness, good camping instincts, and the sheer will to stay together and find a home. The sequel, "Dicey's Song", won the Newbery Medal.

Alexander Huntington-Ackerman is a wealthy, sheltered young man who discovers his two conniving uncles' murderous plot to incapacitate his parents and steal his money. The uncles succeed as far as inducing comas in the parents, a servant, and a pet chicken, who are all removed to a convalescent home full of weird and eccentric characters. A screwball comedy and a love story, this novel begins with "once upon a time," and ends "as happily ever after as real life will allow".

Fifteen-year-old Lia comes from a long line of courageous women, dating back to a Civil War survivor who single-handedly saved her Louisiana plantation house, Graymoss, from destruction. But Graymoss is haunted by a terrible evil. With clues from a diary and "Favorite Tales of Edgar Allan Poe", Lia, who doesn't feel as if she's inherited any family genes of courage, must figure out what--or who--the evil wants.

It's 1971 in Antler, Texas, a place where "nothing ever happens". So when a small trailer decorated with Christmas lights pulls into town, Toby Wilson and his best friend Cal are as excited as everyone else. Eventually they meet the inhabitant of the trailer, Zachary Beaver, the self-proclaimed fattest boy in the world, and three  boys begin a series of adventures that leave them all changed forever. The 1999 National Book Award For Young People's Literature. 

Who would have believed that The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn could cause the worst crisis in the history of George Mason High School? Certainly not Barney Roth, editor of the school paper. But when a small but vocal group of students and parents decide that the book is racist, sexist, and immoral--and should be removed from reading lists and the school library--Barney takes matters into his own hands. When the Huck Finn issue comes up for a hearing, Barney decides to print his story about previous censorship efforts at school. He's sure that investigative reporting and publicity can help the cause. But is he too late to turn the tide of censorship?

Thirteen-year-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle's mother has disappeared. While tracing her steps on a car trip with her grandparents, Salamanca tells a story  about a friend named Phoebe Winterbottom who met a potential lunatic and received secret messages after her mother vanished. Eventually she learns to draw strength from her Native American ancestry, which helps her to face the truth about her mother. 1995 Newbery Medal winner.

While in London as part of an all-boy acting company preparing to perform in the new replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Nat Field suddenly finds himself transported back to 1599 and acting in the original Globe Theatre with the author himself. A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1999.

When a rumor appears on the Internet that a giant asteroid is going to hit the earth in 24 hours, serious student Allegra Hanover decides that if she's going to die tomorrow, it's definitely time to cut class and meet the boy of her dreams, the Pascal-quoting surfer and "totally inappropriate guy", Andros Bliss. 

It's the Depression in Flint, Michigan and Bud (not Buddy) Calloway has been on his own since his mother died when he was six. After a terrible evening with his latest foster family, Bud decides to run away. Armed with only a small blue flyer and his own list of  "Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar out of Yourself", he hits the road to try to find his father, who may or may not be a famous bandleader. The 2000 Newbery Medal winner.