TN VSBA-YA
Reading List for Schools
2008-2009
Abrahams, Peter. Behind the Curtain: an Echo Falls Mystery. HarperCollins, 2006.
Mystery. Author Residence: Massachusetts. Reading Level: Middle and High School.
An avid Sherlock Holmes fan, eighth grader Ingrid Levin-Hill is kidnapped while investigating mysterious happenings in her home town.
Acampora, Paul. Defining Dulcie. Dial Books, 2006.
When sixteen-year-old Dulcie's father dies, her mother makes a decision to move them to California, where Dulcie makes an equally radical decision to steal her dad's old truck and head back home.
Anderson, M.T. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation. Candlewick, 2006. Historical fiction. Author residence: Cambridge, MA. Reading level: High School.
Various diaries, letters, and other manuscripts chronicle the experiences of Octavian, a young African American, from birth to age sixteen, as he is brought up as part of a science experiment in the years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War. Barkley, Brad and Heather Hepler. Scrambled Eggs at Midnight. Dutton, 2006.Realistic fiction. Authors residence: Maryland, Texas. Reading level: Middle and High School.
Calliope and Eliot, two fifteen-year-olds in Asheville, North Carolina, begin to acknowledge some unpleasant truths about their parents and form their own ideas about love.
De La Pena, Matt. Ball Don’t Lie. Delacorte, 2005.
Modern Realism. Author Residence: New York City. Reading Level: High School.
Seventeen-year-old Sticky lives to play basketball at school and at Lincoln Rec Center in Los Angeles and is headed for the pros, but he is unaware of the many dangers--including his own past--that threaten his dream.
Giles, Gail. What Happened to Cass McBride? Little, Brown and Company, 2006.
Suspense. Author residence: Texas. Reading Level: High School.
After his younger brother commits suicide, Kyle Kirby decides to exact revenge on the person he holds responsible.
Green, John. An Abundance of Katherines. Dutton, 2006.
Realistic Fiction. Author residence: New York. Reading level: High School
Having been recently dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine, recent high school graduate and former child prodigy Colin sets off on a road trip with his best friend to try to find some new direction in life while also trying to create a mathematical formula to explain his relationships.
Hobbs, Will. Crossing the Wire. Harper Collins, 2006.
Modern realism. Author residence: Durango, Colorado. Reading level: Middle and High School.
Fifteen-year-old Victor Flores journeys north in a desperate attempt to cross the Arizona border and find work in the United States to support his family in central Mexico.
Jones, Traci. Standing Against the Wind. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.
Realistic Fiction. Author Residence: Denver, CO. Reading Level: Middle School.
As she tries to escape her poor Chicago neighborhood by winning a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school, shy and studious eighth-grader Patrice discovers that she has more options in life than she previously realized.
Kidd, Ronald. Monkey Town. Simon & Schuster, 2006.
Historical fiction. Author residence: Nashville, Tennessee. Reading level: Middle and High School.
When her father hatches a plan to bring publicity to their small Tennessee town by arresting a local high school teacher for teaching about evolution, the resulting 1925 Scopes trial prompts fifteen-year-old Frances to rethink many of her beliefs about religion and truth, as well as her relationship with her father.
Korman, Gordon. Born to Rock. Hyperion, 2006.
Modern fiction. Author residence: Long Island, N.Y. Reading level: Middle and High School.
High school senior Leo Caraway, a conservative Republican, learns that his biological father is a punk rock legend.
Larson, Kirby. Hattie Big Sky. Delacorte, 2006.Historical Fiction. Author Residence: Washington. Reading Level: Middle and High School.
After inheriting her uncle's homesteading claim in Montana, sixteen-year-old orphan Hattie Brooks travels from Iowa in 1917 to make a home for herself and encounters some unexpected problems related to the war being fought in Europe.
Levithan, David and Rachel Cohn. Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Knopf, 2006.
Realistic fiction. Author residence: New Jersey and New York. Reading Level: High School.
High school student Nick O'Leary, member of a rock band, meets college-bound Norah Silverberg and asks her to be his girlfriend for five minutes in order to avoid his ex-sweetheart.
McCormick, Patricia. Sold. Hyperion, 2006.
Modern fiction. Author residence: New York. Reading level: High School.
Thirteen-year-old Lakshmi leaves her poor mountain home in Nepal thinking that she is to work in the city as a maid only to find that she has been sold into the sex slave trade in India and that there is no hope of escape.
Miller, Kristin. Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City. Bloomsbury USA, 2006.
Mystery. Author Residence: New York. Reading Level: Middle School.
Life becomes more interesting for Ananka Fishbein when, at the age of twelve, she discovers an underground room in the park across from her New York City apartment and meets a mysterious girl called Kiki Strike who claims that she, too, wants to explore the subterranean world.
Pearsall, Shelley. All of the Above. Little Brown, 2006.
When Mr. Collins suggests that his seventh-grade math class should try to break the Guinness World Record for the largest tetrahedron, several of his inner-city students take on the challenge.
Portman, Frank. King Dork. Delacorte, 2006.
Realistic fiction. Author residence: San Francisco. Reading level: High School.
High school loser Tom Henderson discovers that "The Catcher in the Rye" may hold the clues to the many mysteries in his life.
Resau, Laura. What the Moon Saw. Delacorte Press, 2006.
Realistic fiction. Author residence: Colorado. Reading level: Middle School.
Fourteen-year-old Clara Luna spends the summer with her grandparents in the tiny, remote village of Yucuyoo, Mexico, learning about her grandmother's life as a healer, her father's decision to leave home for the United States, and her own place in the world.
Riordan, Rick. The Lightning Thief. Miramax, 2006.
Fantasy/Adventure. Author residence: San Antonio, TX. Reading level: Middle and High School
Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson learns he is a demigod, the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the sea. His mother sends him to a summer camp for demigods where he and his new friends set out on a quest to prevent a war between the gods.
Salisbury, Graham. The House of the Red Fish. Delacorte, 2006. Historical fiction. Author residence: Portland, OR. Reading level: Middle and High School.
Over a year after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and the arrest of Tomi's father and grandfather, Tomi and his friends, battling anti-Japanese-American sentiment in Hawaii, try to find a way to salvage his father's sunken fishing boat.
Schlosser, Eric and Charles Wilson. Chew on This: Everything You Don’t Want to Know about Fast Food. Houghton Mifflin, 2006.
Non-fiction. Authors Residence: California. Reading Level: Middle and High School.
A behind-the-scenes look at the fast food industry.
Shulman, Polly. Enthusiasm. G.P.Putnam’s Sons, 2006.
Realistic fiction. Author residence: New York City. Reading level: Middle and High School.
Julie and Ashleigh, high school sophomores and Jane Austen fans, seem to fall for the same Mr. Darcy-like boy and struggle to hide their true feelings from one another while rehearsing for a school musical.
Werlin, Nancy. The Rules of Survival. Dial, 2006.Modern realism. Author residence: Massachusetts. Reading level: High School.
Seventeen-year-old Matthew recounts his attempts, starting at a young age, to free himself and his sisters from the grip of their emotionally and physically abusive mother.
Whelan, Gloria. Listening for Lions. Harper Collins, 2005.
Historical fiction. Author residence: Michigan. Reading level: Middle School.
Left an orphan after the influenza epidemic in British East Africa in 1918, thirteen-year-old Rachel is tricked into assuming a deceased neighbor's identity to travel to England, where her only dream is to return to Africa and rebuild her parents' mission hospital.
Zevin, Gabrielle. Elsewhere. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.
Fantasy. Author residence: New York City. Reading level: Middle and High School
After fifteen-year-old Liz Hall is hit by a taxi and killed, she finds herself in a place that is both like and unlike Earth, where she must adjust to her new status and figure out how to "live."