Mysteries to keep you in suspense…
I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
After capturing a bank robber, nineteen-year-old cab driver Ed Kennedy begins receiving mysterious messages that direct him to addresses where people need help, and he begins getting over his lifelong feeling of worthlessness.
Acceleration by Graham McNamee
Stuck working in the Lost and Found of the Toronto Transit Authority for the summer, seventeen-year-old Duncan finds the diary of a serial killer and sets out to stop him.
In an upstate New York farming community, high school reporter Hildy Biddle investigates a series of strange occurrences at a house rumored to be haunted.
Down the Rabbit Hole: An Echo Falls Mystery by Peter Abrahams
Like her idol Sherlock Holmes, eighth grader Ingrid Levin-Hill uses her intellect to solve a murder case in her home town of Echo Falls. Welcome to Echo Falls.
The Road of the Dead by Kevin Brooks
Two brothers, sons of an incarcerated gypsy, leave London traveling to an isolated and desolate village, in search of the brutal killer of their sister.
The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
High school junior Violet uses her uncanny ability to sense murderers and their victims to try to stop a serial killer who’s terrorizing her town, and although her best friend and would-be boyfriend Jay promises to keep her safe, she becomes a target.
New display!
There’s a new display in the Teen Fiction area at the library. This one highlights books written in poetry format. We hope you’ll come have a look at them, and maybe even take some home with you! Want an idea of the books that are in the display? Here’s one of the lists we used: Novels in Verse 2011.
If you want to reserve any of these books, please ask at the Reference Desk or give the library a call.
Happy Chicken Soup for the Soul Day!
Chicken Soup for the Soul Day is today. It’s a celebration about you.
When: Always November 12th
According to the creators of the book series of the same name, Chicken Soup for the Soul Day was created as “…. a celebration of who you are, where you’ve been, where you’re going, and who you will be thankful to when you get there!”
We suggest you take this day as a celebration of the value and healing of chicken soup, especially mom’s chicken soup. Chicken soup has long been seen as a remedy for colds, flus, and just about anything that ails you. You can’t find that healing in a can. You can only find it in homemade chicken soup.
Have a happy Chicken Soup for the Soul Day. You can find these books and others in the series at our library. Click on the titles to locate them in the catalog.
Chicken soup for the teenage soul: 101 stories of life, love, and learning
Chicken soup for the teenage soul on love & friendship
Chicken soup for the Christian teenage soul: stories of faith, love, inspiration, and hope
Chicken soup for the college soul: inspiring and humorous stories about college
If you liked Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side…
Beth Fantaskey, one of our 2012 TBF authors, has written a fun book called “Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side.” What it’s about: Seventeen-year-old Jessica, adopted and raised in Pennsylvania, learns that she is descended from a royal line of Romanian vampires and that she is betrothed to a vampire prince, who poses as a foreign exchange student while courting her.
If you’ve already read this and want similar titles, here are a few suggestions:
Prom Dates from Hell – Rosemary Clement-Moore
High school senior and yearbook photographer Maggie thought she would rather die than go to prom, but when a classmate summons a revenge-seeking demon, she has no choice but to buy herself a dress and prepare to face jocks, cheerleaders, and Evil Incarnate.
The Reformed Vampire Support Group – Catherine Jinks
Fifteen-year-old vampire Nina has been stuck for fifty-one years in a boring support group for vampires, and nothing exciting has ever happened to them–until one of them is murdered and the others must try to solve the crime.
I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It – Adam Selzer
Living in the post-human era when the undead are part of everyday life, high schooler Alley breaks her no-dating rule when Doug catches her eye, but classmate Will demands to turn her into a vampire and her zombie boyfriend may be unable to stop him. (Adam Selzer is another TBF 2012 author!)
Spooky stories
With Halloween approaching, we thought you’d be in the mood for something a little scary. For bonus points and a prize, post your favorite scary book in the comments. In the meantime, try these titles:
In the small town of Ondine, Louisiana, fourteen-year-old Iris uncovers family secrets when she conjures up the ghost of a boy missing for decades and decides to solve the mystery of his disappearance.
On a dare from her brother Charlie, Emma explores a spooky house, only to discover that the spirit inhabiting the house has been waiting for her, convinced that she has a role to play in the reenactment of a doomed love affair.
When six high school students sneak into an abandoned mental institution to make a film about their night there, they do not expect the inexplicable and terrifying events that keep occurring within the crumbling, maze-like building, causing them to question themselves and, ultimately, to make different choices about the course of their lives.
After fifteen-year-old Chloe starts seeing ghosts and is sent to Lyle House, a mysterious group home for mentally disturbed teenagers, she soon discovers that neither Lyle House nor its inhabitants are exactly what they seem, and that she and her new friends are in danger.
When Miranda’s guardian angel Zachary recklessly saves her from falling into an open grave and dying, the result is that she turns into a vampire and he is left to try to reinstate his reputation by finally doing the right thing.
In all the years she has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house, Grace has been particularly drawn to an unusual yellow-eyed wolf who, in his turn, has been watching her with increasing intensity.
It’s all about the drama…
When Casey Chang becomes the stage manager of the drama club at Ridgeport High, she soon finds herself caught up in the excitement that drives the club and becomes drawn to the sexy leading man.
When Hartley Blackstone, the famous Broadway icon, chooses Orion Academy to hold auditions for one lucky guy and girl to attend his summer theater program in New York City, Bryan Stark knows he has to bring his A-game for this big break.
Spending their summer at Wildewood Academy, an elite boarding school for the performing arts, tests the bond between teens Sadye and her best friend Demi.
A freshman is afraid of taking risks at her new school, but as she secretly observes an improvisational theater class week after week, she begins to apply its principles to her own life.
Seventeen-year-old Bertie strives to save Theater Illuminata, the only home she has ever known, but is hindered by the Players who magically live on there, especially Ariel, who is willing to destroy the Book at the center of the magic in order to escape into the outside world.
An outcast in a school full of jocks, sixteen-year-old Bret struggles to keep his individuality through his interest in drama and music, while trying to reconnect with his father.
Voyages by land and sea
This fictionalized journal relates the experiences of a young stowaway from 1768 to 1771 aboard the Endeavor which sailed around the world under Captain James Cook.
Reduced to begging and thievery in the streets of London, a thirteen-year-old orphan disguises herself as a boy and connives her way onto a British warship set for high sea adventure in search of pirates.
Around the World in 100 Days by Gary Blackwood
When seventeen-year-old Harry Fogg undertakes a race against time to win a wager with a member of his famous father’s club, he puts to good use the recklessness and fascination with all things mechanical that have caused him trouble in Victorian England.
Distant Waves: A Novel of the Titanic by Suzanne Weyn
In the early twentieth century, five sisters and their widowed mother, a famed spiritualist, travel from New York to London, and as the Titanic conveys them and their acquaintances, journalist W.T. Stead, scientist Nikola Tesla, and industrialist John Jacob Astor, home, Tesla’s inventions will either doom or save them all.
Shackleton’s Stowaway by Victoria McKernan
A fictionalized account of the adventures of eighteen-year-old Perce Blackborow, who stowed away for the 1914 Shackleton Antarctic expedition and, after their ship Endurance was crushed by ice, endured many hardships, including the loss of the toes of his left foot to frostbite, during the nearly two-year return journey across sea and ice.
Celebrate the Right to Read
In honor of the start of Banned Books Week, here is a small selection of teen titles that have been banned or challenged. Why don’t you read one and tell us what you think — is it dangerous or inappropriate? Does it give you bad ideas or set a bad example?
The Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Angus, Thongs, and Full-frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz
Get Well Soon – Julie Halpern
Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler
Bone by Jeff Smith
Out of time…
Here are some books about time travel you might enjoy!
Firestorm – David Klass
After learning that he has been sent from the future for a special purpose, eighteen-year-old Jack receives help from an unusual dog and a shape-shifting female fighter.
Transall Saga – Gary Paulsen
While backpacking in the desert, thriteen-year-old Mark falls into a tube of blue light and is transported into a more primitive world, where he must use his knowledge and skills to survive.
Sterkarm Handshake – Susan Price
Having traveled to a sixteenth century border clan in England through a tunnel created by a twenty-first century company, Andrea must decide in which era she will live.
Feeling good about the bad weather
On this rainy day, there’s nothing better than a good book to distract you from the dreariness. Here are some feel-good books you might enjoy:
As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth – Lynne Rae Perkins
Train.
Car.
Plane.
Boat.
Feet.
He’ll get there.
Won’t he?
One Whole and Perfect Day – Judith Clarke
Sometimes Lily wishes she weren’t so sensible. If she were less reliable, then perhaps she’d have more fun. As it is, her hardworking but flaky mom and her dreamy older brother count on her to run the house. She wishes things could be different, but how can she change her responsible ways? Perhaps, she thinks, she should fall in love!
Meanwhile, her scheming grandmother is planning a family party and, as is typical, Lily worries. Her fears are not entirely unfounded. Her grandfather has recently disowned her brother, and her brother has a new girlfriend who might not fit in. Her mother will probably bring the loony Mrs. Nightingale from the adult day care center where she works. And these are only the predictable complications. Lily is beginning to understand how easily unimaginable things can happen, too.
Enthusiasm – Polly Shulman
“There is little more likely to exasperate a person of sense than finding herself tied by affection and habit to an Enthusiast.” Julie knows from bitter experience: her best friend, Ashleigh, is an Enthusiast. Ashleigh’s current fancy is also Julie’s own passion, Pride and Prejudice, and the heroine’s quest for True Love. And so Julie finds herself swept along with Ashleigh, dressed in vintage frocks and sneaking into a dance at the local all-boys’ prep school. There they discover several likely candidates for True Love, including the handsome and sensitive Parr. And Julie begins to wonder if maybe this obsession of Ashleigh’s isn’t so bad after all. . . .
To find any of these books, search here.
