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Contemporary YA Fiction Featuring Sports Book List

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Looking for a good contemporary book featuring sports and athletics in some capacity? Here’s a nice, solid list of titles to check out. As has been the theme all week, these books are all published between 2010 and today, and all descriptions come from WorldCat. If you’ve got a title you’d like to add, drop it in the comments. 

Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach: Just before his sixteenth birthday, Felton Reinstein has a sudden growth spurt that turns him from a small, jumpy, picked-on boy with the nickname of “Squirrel Nut” to a powerful athlete, leading to new friends, his first love, and the courage to confront his family’s past and current problems.

Boy21 by Matthew Quick: Finley, an unnaturally quiet boy who is the only white player on his high school’s varsity basketball team, lives in a dismal Pennsylvania town that is ruled by the Irish mob, and when his coach asks him to mentor a troubled African American student who has transferred there from an elite private school in California, he finds that they have a lot in common in spite of their apparent differences.

Stealing Parker by Miranda Kenneally: Parker Shelton pretty much has the perfect life. She’s on her way to becoming valedictorian at Hundred Oaks High, she’s made the all-star softball team, and she has plenty of friends. Then her mother’s scandal rocks their small town and suddenly no one will talk to her. Now Parker wants a new life.

The Final Four by Paul Volponi: Four players at the Final Four of the NCAA basketball tournament struggle with the pressures of tournament play and the expectations of society at large.

Anything But Ordinary by Lara Avery: A slight error left Olympic diving-hopeful Bryce Graham in a five-year coma and now, at at twenty-two, she must adjust to a world that went on without her and to visions that may or may not be real.

Audition by Stasia Ward Kehoe: When sixteen-year-old Sara, from a small Vermont town, wins a scholarship to study ballet in New Jersey, her ambivalence about her future increases even as her dancing improves.

Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip by Jordan Sonnenblick: After an injury ends former star pitcher Peter Friedman’s athletic dreams, he concentrates on photography which leads him to a girlfriend, new fame as a high school sports photographer, and a deeper relationship with the beloved grandfather who, when he realizes he is becoming senile, gives Pete all of his professional camera gear.

Leverage by Joshua Cohen: High school sophomore Danny excels at gymnastics but is bullied, like the rest of the gymnasts, by members of the football team, until an emotionally and physically scarred new student joins the football team and forms an unlikely friendship with Danny.

Playing Hurt by Holly Schindler: Chelsea Keyes, a high school basketball star whose promising career has been cut short by a terrible accident on the court, and Clint Morgan, a nineteen-year-old ex-hockey player who gave up his sport following a game-related tragedy, meet at a Minnesota lake resort and find themselves drawn together by the losses they have suffered.

Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally: What girl doesn’t want to be surrounded by gorgeous jocks day in and day out? Jordan Woods isn’t just surrounded by hot guys, though. She leads them as the captain and quarterback of her high school football team. They all see her as one of the guys, and that’s just fine. As long as she gets her athletic scholarship to a powerhouse university. But now there’s a new guy in town who threatens her starting position…suddenly she’s hoping he’ll see her as more than just a teammate.

Head Games by Keri Mikulski: Basketball star Taylor, who doubts that she is attractive due to her height, reluctantly agrees to participate in a fashion show, an event complicated by her divided feelings about two boys and about her team’s preparations for the playoffs.

The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen: When a school bus accident leaves sixteen-year-old Jessica an amputee, she returns to school with a prosthetic limb and her track team finds a wonderful way to help rekindle her dream of running again.

Bunheads by Sophie Flack: Hannah Ward, nineteen, revels in the competition, intense rehearsals, and dazzling performances that come with being a member of Manhattan Ballet Company’s corps de ballet, but after meeting handsome musician Jacob she begins to realize there could be more to her life.

Compulsion by Heidi Ayarbe: Poised to lead his high school soccer team to its third straight state championship, seventeen-year-old star player Jake Martin struggles to keep hidden his nearly debilitating obsessive-compulsive disorder. 

Crossing Lines by Paul Volponi: High school senior Adonis struggles to do the right thing when his fellow football players escalate their bullying of a new classmate, Alan, who is transgendered.

Jersey Tomatoes are the Best by Maria Padian: When fifteen-year-old best friends Henry and Eve leave New Jersey, one for tennis camp in Florida and one for ballet camp in New York, each faces challenges that put her long-cherished dreams of the future to the test.
Queen of Secrets by Jenny Meyerhoff: Fifteen-year-old Essie Green, an orphan who has been raised by her secular Jewish grandparents in Michigan, experiences conflicting loyalties and confusing emotions when her aunt, uncle, and cousin move back from New York, and her very religious cousin tries to fit in with the other football players at Essie’s high school, one of whom is Essie’s popular new boyfriend.
Shutout by Brendan Halpin: Fourteen-year-old Amanda and her best friend Lena start high school looking forward to playing on the varsity soccer team, but when Lena makes varsity and Amanda only makes junior varsity, their long friendship rapidly changes.

Center Field by Robert Lipsyte: Mike lives for baseball and hopes to follow his idol into the major leagues one day, but he is distracted by a new player who might take his place in center field, an ankle injury, problems at home, and a growing awareness that something sinister is happening at school.

Perfected by Girls by Alfred Martino: Melinda Radford has difficulty everyday because she is on the boys wrestling team.

Contemporary YA Fiction in Alternative Formats Book List

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Looking to read a book written in an alternative format? I’ve got you covered. Here are a host of recently published contemporary YA titles written in an alternative format. I’ve included epistolary, verse, and multiple point of view books in this list. None of these books are published after 2010, and all descriptions come from WorldCat. I’ve kept it to one book per author, since some authors choose to write multiple books in an alternative format. 

This is obviously not a comprehensive list, so feel free to add any additional titles in the comments.

The Day Before by Lisa Schroeder (verse): Sixteen-year-old Amber, hoping to spend one perfect day alone at the beach before her world is turned upside down, meets and feels a strong connection to Cade, who is looking for his own escape, for a very different reason.

Cracked by KM Walton (multiple POV): When Bull Mastrick and Victor Konig wind up in the same psychiatric ward at age sixteen, each recalls and relates in group therapy the bullying relationship they have had since kindergarten, but also facts about themselves and their families that reveal they have much in common.

Crazy by Amy Reed (epistolary and multiple POV): Connor and Izzy, two teens who met at a summer art camp in the Pacific Northwest where they were counsellors, share a series of emails in which they confide in one another, eventally causing Connor to become worried when he realizes that Izzy’s emotional highs and lows are too extreme.

Getting Somewhere by Beth Neff (multiple POV): Four teenaged girls participating in a progressive juvenile detention facility on a farm have their lives changed by the experience.

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley (multiple POV): Told in alternating voices, an all-night adventure featuring Lucy, who is determined to find an elusive graffiti artist named Shadow, and Ed, the last person Lucy wants to spend time with, except for the fact that he may know how to find Shadow.

The List by Siobhan Vivian (multiple POV): Every year at Mount Washington High School somebody posts a list of the prettiest and ugliest girls from each grade–this is the story of eight girls, freshman to senior, and how they are affected by the list.

34 Pieces of You by Carmen Rodrigues (multiple POV): After Ellie dies of a drug overdose, her brother, her best friend, and her best friend’s sister face painful secrets of their own when they try to uncover the truth about Ellie’s death.

The Children and the Wolves by Adam Rapp (multiple POV): Abducted by teen genius Bounce and her drifter friends Wiggins and Orange, three-year-old Frog seems content to eat cereal and play a video game about wolves all day–a game that parallels the reality around her–until Wiggins is overcome by guilt and tension and takes action.

Tilt by Ellen Hopkins (verse and multiple POV): Three teens, connected by their parents’ bad choices, tell in their own voices of their lives and loves as Shane finds his first boyfriend, Mikayla discovers that love can be pushed too far, and Harley loses herself in her quest for new experiences.

My Book of Life by Angel by Martine Leavitt (verse): 16-year-old Angel struggles to free herself from the trap of prostitution in which she is caught.

Pieces of Us by Margie Gelbwasser (multiple POV): Four teenagers from two families–sisters Katie and Julie and brothers Alex and Kyle–meet every summer at a lakeside community in upstate New York, where they escape their everyday lives and hide disturbing secrets.

How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr (multiple POV): Told from their own viewpoints, seventeen-year-old Jill, in grief over the loss of her father, and Mandy, nearly nineteen, are thrown together when Jill’s mother agrees to adopt Mandy’s unborn child but nothing turns out as they had anticipated.

The Absolute Value of -1 by Steve Brezenoff (multiple POV): Three teenagers relate their experiences as they try to cope with problems in school and at home by smoking, drinking, using drugs, and running track.

Audition by Stasia Ward Kehoe (verse): When sixteen-year-old Sara, from a small Vermont town, wins a scholarship to study ballet in New Jersey, her ambivalence about her future increases even as her dancing improves.

Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters by Natalie Standiford (multiple POV): Upon learning on Christmas Day that their rich and imperious grandmother may soon die and disown the family unless the one who offended her deeply will confess, each of the three Sullivan sisters sets down her offenses on paper.

Displacement by Thalia Chaltas (verse): After tragedy strikes her family, Vera runs away to a small desert town where she tries unsuccessfully to forget her grief and sorrow.

Exposed by Kimberly Marcus (verse): High school senior Liz, a gifted photographer, can no longer see things clearly after her best friend accuses Liz’s older brother of a terrible crime.

Leverage by Joshua Cohen (multiple POV): High school sophomore Danny excels at gymnastics but is bullied, like the rest of the gymnasts, by members of the football team, until an emotionally and physically scarred new student joins the football team and forms an unlikely friendship with Danny.

LIE by Caroline Bock (multiple POV): Told in several voices, a group of Long Island high school seniors conspire to protect eighteen-year-old Jimmy after he brutally assaults two Salvadoran immigrants, until they begin to see the moral implications of Jimmy’s actions and the consequences of being loyal to a violent bully.

Orchards by Holly Thompson (verse): Sent to Japan for the summer after an eighth-grade classmate’s suicide, half-Japanese, half-Jewish Kana Goldberg tries to fit in with relatives she barely knows and reflects on the guilt she feels over the tragedy back home.

Rival by Sara Bennett-Wealer (multiple POV): Two high school rivals compete in a prestigious singing competition while reflecting on the events that turned them from close friends to enemies the year before.

Shakespeare Makes the Playoffs by Ron Koertge (verse): Fourteen-year-old Kevin Boland, poet and first baseman, is torn between his cute girlfriend Mira and Amy, who is funny, plays Chopin on the piano, and is also a poet.

Tweet Heart by Elizabeth Rudnik (Tweets, emails, blogs): Lottie wants to help her friend Claire find love, and Claire thinks that she is on the right track when her crush starts following her on Twitter, while Will hides his crush on her and a mutual friend tries to get them together.

Unlocked by Ryan G Van Cleave (verse): While trying to impress a beautiful, unattainable classmate, fourteen-year-old Andy discovers that a fellow social outcast may be planning an act of school violence.

Waiting by Carol Lynch Williams (verse): As the tragic death of her older brother devastates the family, teenaged London struggles to find redemption and finds herself torn between her brother’s best friend and a handsome new boy in town.

You Are Not Here by Samantha Schutz (Verse): Annaleah’s grief over the tragic death of seventeen-year-old Brian is compounded by the fact that her friends did not like him, while his friends and both of their families knew nothing of their intimate relationship.

Display This: Zombies!

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Continuing on the horror theme, I thought after last week’s compilation of books and films featuring haunted houses,
I’d take another trope that creeps me out: zombies. There have been a
number of zombie titles out over the last few years, ranging from
serious zombies-are-going-to-get-you to more lighthearted
zombies-are-going-to-get-you-but-you’ll-laugh-on-the-way-out-maybe.

I’ve
limited this list to YA titles only, and I’ve only highlighted the
first book if it happens to be in a series. If you can think of other
titles I may have missed that aren’t subsequent books in a series, share
them in the comments.

All descriptions come from WorldCat and I’ve included links if we’ve reviewed the title.

Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry (first in a series): In a post-apocalyptic world where fences and border patrols guard the
few people left from the zombies that have overtaken civilization,
fifteen-year-old Benny Imura is finally convinced that he must follow in
his older brother’s footsteps and become a bounty hunter. Reviewed here.

Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick (first in a series): Alex, a resourceful seventeen-year-old running from her incurable brain
tumor, Tom, who has left the war in Afghanistan, and Ellie, an angry
eight-year-old, join forces after an electromagnetic pulse sweeps
through the sky and kills most of the world’s population, turning some
of those who remain into zombies and giving the others superhuman
senses. Reviewed here.

Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard (first in a series): In an alternate nineteenth-century Philadelphia, Eleanor Fitt sets out
to rescue her brother, who seems to have been captured by an evil
necromancer in control of an army of Undead.

This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers: Barricaded in Cortege High with five other teens while zombies try to
get in, Sloane Price observes her fellow captives become more
unpredictable and violent as time passes although they each have much
more reason to live than she has. Reviewed here.

Bad Taste in Boys by Carrie Harris: Future physician Kate Grable is horrified when her high school’s
football coach gives team members steroids, but the drugs turn players
into zombies and Kate must find an antidote before the flesh-eating
monsters get to her or her friends. Reviewed here.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan (first in a series): Through twists and turns of fate, orphaned Mary seeks knowledge of
life, love, and especially what lies beyond her walled village and the
surrounding forest, where dwell the Unconsecrated, aggressive
flesh-eating people who were once dead.

Generation Dead by Daniel Waters (first in a series): When dead teenagers who have come back to life start showing up at her
high school, Phoebe, a goth girl, becomes interested in the phenomenon,
and when she starts dating a “living impaired” boy, they encounter
prejudice, fear, and hatred.

I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It bu 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.

You Are So Undead to Me by Stacey Jay (first in a series): Megan Berry, a Carol, Arkansas, high school student who can communicate
with the Undead, must team up with her childhood friend Ethan to save
homecoming from an army of flesh-hungry zombies.

The Undertakers by Ty Drago (first in a series): When the living dead invade Philadelphia, Will Ritter and a group of
teenage resistance fighters, known as the Undertakers, are the only ones
that can see them to stop the invasion.

Banished by Sophie Littlefield (first in a series and book two, Unforsaken, delves more into the zombie aspect): Sixteen-year-old Hailey Tarbell, raised by a mean, secretive
grandmother, does not know that she comes from a long line of healers
until her Aunt Prairie arrives with answers about her past that could
quickly threaten her future.

Zombie Blondes by Brian James: Each time fifteen-year-old Hannah and her out-of-work father move she
has some fears about making friends, but a classmate warns her that in
Maplecrest, Vermont, the cheerleaders really are monsters.

Zombies vs. Unicorns anthology: Twelve short stories by a variety of authors seek to answer the question of whether zombies are better than unicorns.

The Enemy by Charlie Higson: After a disease turns everyone over sixteen into brainless, decomposing,
flesh-eating creatures, a group of teenagers leave their shelter and
set out of a harrowing journey across London to the safe haven of
Buckingham Palace.

Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel (first in a series): In the year 2195 when society is technologically advanced but follows
the social mores of Victorian England, recently orphaned Nora Dearly is
left at the mercy of her domineering, social-climbing aunt, until she
is nearly kidnapped by zombies and falls in with a group of mysterious,
black-clad commandos.

 

Zombie Queen of Newbury High by Amanda Ashby: While trying to cast a love spell on her date on the eve of the senior
prom, Mia inadvertently infects her entire high school class with a
virus that will turn them all into zombies.

Never Slow Dance with a Zombie by E Van Lowe: When most of their high school classmates turn into flesh-eating
zombies, Margot and best friend Sybil see an opportunity to finally
become popular and find boyfriends–if they can just stay alive.

The Cellar by A. J. Whitten: Seventeen-year-old Meredith Willis has seen the monstrous truth about
her new next-door neighbor, Adrien, who is wildly popular at school and
her sister Heather’s new love interest, but trying to stop him could be
fatal.

Undead by Kirsty McKay: When their ski-coach pulls up at a cafe, and everyone else gets off, new
girl Bobby and rebel Smitty stay behind. They hardly know each other
but that changes when through the falling snow, the see the others coming back. Something has happened to them. Something bad…

The Infects by Sean Beaudoin: Seventeen-year-old Nero is stuck in the wilderness with a bunch of
other juvenile delinquents on an “Inward Trek.” As if that weren’t bad
enough, his counselors have turned into flesh-eating maniacs overnight
and are now chowing down on his fellow miscreants. These kids have seen
zombie movies. They know the rules. Unfortunately, knowing the rules
isn’t going to be enough.

Alice in Zombieland by
Gena Showalter: Alice Bell must learn to fight the undead to avenge her
family and learn to trust Cole Holland who has secrets of his own.

Zom-B by Darren Shan: When the news starts reporting a zombie outbreak in Ireland, B’s father
thinks it’s a hoax-but even if it isn’t, the two of them joke, it’s only
the Irish, right? That is, until zombies actually attack the school. B
is forced on a mad dash through the serpentine corridors of high school,
making allegiances with anyone with enough gall to fight off their
pursuers. But when they come face-to-face with the ravenous, oozing corpses, all bets are off. There are no friends. No allies. Just whatever it takes to survive.
 

Have any others or do you have a particular flavor of favorite zombie story? Share it in the comments. Oh, and this is worth checking out, too: 19 infographics about surviving the zombie apocalypse. Then if you need some more ideas for surviving the zombie apocalypse, here’s yet another guide. 

Display This: On This Island

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I love settings in books. A book that has an okay plot and okay characters can be made stronger for me as a reader with a memorable setting. I’ve done book lists with settings by country, but I noticed an interesting trend this year, and that’s island settings. These are both real islands and fictional, and for me, that kind of setting is interesting as it installs both realistic and artificial barriers to character and plot development.

In developing this YA book list, I’ve left off classics, including Anne of Green Gables, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Lord of the Flies, and others in that tradition (and arguably, these might not technically be considered YA titles anyway). I’ve tried to limit to YA titles, too, as I’m aware of a few strong middle grade candidates (like Gordon Korman’s entire “Island” series, though you’ll see I did include one or two middle grade titles with good YA appeal). My interest is in more recent offerings, and I am interested in island settings in any genre. I know I’m going to miss a few, so feel free to drop in any other suggestions in the comments. The bulk of these books are available now, but I’ve noted the instances where they are not published just yet.

All descriptions come from WorldCat.

Abarat by Clive Barker: Candy Quackenbush of Chickentown, Minnesota, one day finds herself on the edge of a foreign world that is populated by strange creatures, and her life is forever changed.

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko: A twelve-year-old boy named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards’ families were housed there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister.

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray: When a plane crash strands thirteen teen beauty contestants on a mysterious island, they struggle to survive, to get along with one another, to combat the island’s other diabolical occupants, and to learn their dance numbers in case they are rescued in time for the competition.

Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan (September): On remote Rollrock Island, men go to sea to make their livings–and to catch their wives. The witch Misskaella knows the way of drawing a girl from the heart of a seal, of luring the beauty out of the beast. And for a price a man may buy himself a lovely sea-wife. He may have and hold and keep her. And he will tell himself that he is her master. But from his first look into those wide, questioning, liquid eyes, he will be just as transformed as she. He will be equally ensnared. And the witch will have her true payment.

A Brief History of Montmaray by Michelle Cooper: On her sixteenth birthday in 1936, Sophia begins a diary of life in her island country off the coast of Spain, where she is among the last descendants of an impoverished royal family trying to hold their nation together on the eve of the second World War.

Burn for Burn by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian (September): Three teenaged girls living on Jar Island band together to enact revenge on the people that have hurt them. 

Lost Girls by Ann Kelly: In 1974, fourteen-year-old Bonnie, eight other Amelia Earhart Cadets aged nine to seventeen, and their irresponsible young leader are stranded on a forbidden island off the coast of Thailand on the brink of a deadly storm and must fight to survive.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs: After a family tragedy, Jacob feels compelled to explore an abandoned orphanage on an island off the coast of Wales, discovering disturbing facts about the children who were kept there.

The Forsaken by Lisa M Stasse: After the formation of the United Northern Alliance–a merger of Canada, the United States, and Mexico into one nation–sixteen-year-old Alenna is sent to an desolate prison island for teenagers believed to be predisposed to violence.

Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Childs: When her mother suddenly decides to marry a near-stranger, Phoebe, whose passion is running, soon finds herself living on a remote Greek island, completing her senior year at an ancient high school where the students and teachers are all descended from gods or goddesses.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater: Nineteen-year-old returning champion Sean Kendrick competes against Puck Connolly, the first girl ever to ride in the annual Scorpio Races, both trying to keep hold of their dangerous water horses long enough to make it to the finish line.

The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman: Born in the eighth year of Enclosure, ten-year-old Honor lives in a highly regulated colony with her defiant parents, but when they have an illegal second child and are taken away, it is up to Honor and her friend Helix, another “Unpredictable,” to uncover a terrible secret about their Island and the Corporation that runs everything.
 

Island’s End by Padma Venkatraman: A young girl trains to be the new spiritual leader of her remote Andaman Island tribe, while facing increasing threats from the modern world.

The Floating Islands by Rachel Neumeier: The adventures of two teenaged cousins who live in a place called The Floating Islands, one of whom is studying to become a mage and the other one of the legendary island flyers.

Ten by Gretchen McNeil (September): Ten teens head to a house party at a remote island mansion off the Washington coast . . . only for them to picked off by a killer one by one.

The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe: Sixteen-year-old old Kaelyn challenges her fears, finds a second chance at love, and fights to keep her family and friends safe as a deadly new virus devastates her island community.

Unraveling Isobel by Eileen Cook: When seventeen-year-old Isobel’s mother marries a man she just met and they move to his gothic mansion on an island, strange occurrences cause Isobel to fear that she is losing her sanity as her artist father did.

Blackwood by Gwenda Bond (September): On Roanoke Island, the legend of the 114 people who mysteriously vanished from the Lost Colony hundreds of years ago is just an outdoor drama for the tourists, a story people tell. But when the island faces the sudden disappearance of 114 people now, an unlikely pair of 17-year-olds may be the only hope of bringing them back.

Of course, there are these two, too, which would make nice read alikes to each other beyond simply their island setting: 

The Turning by Francine Prose (October): A teen boy becomes the babysitter for two very peculiar children on a haunted island in this modern retelling of The Turn of the Screw.

Tighter by Adele Griffin: Based on Henry James’s “The Turn of the Screw,” tells the story of Jamie Atkinson’s summer spent as a nanny in a small Rhode Island beach town, where she begins to fear that the estate may be haunted, especially after she learns of two deaths that occurred there the previous summer.

“If you like this, you might like…”

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So you know how the ladies of The Readventurer wrote that guest post for me this week? The one with the amazing YA Flow Chart?

They were kind enough to ask me to write them a guest post, too. And it’s up! The mission was to talk about random things I like and make recommendations based off those things. So I talked about things like books about people’s day jobs, movies about werewolves, music about girls, and bok choy. Go check it out. It would make my day, too, if you left a comment over there. Even if you lie about how great those recommendations are.