STACKED

books

Twitterview: Brandy Colbert (POINTE)

|

Yesterday, we had a review of Brandy Colbert’s knockout debut Pointe. Today, we have a Twitterview with her, asking the tough questions about Pointe, her writing process, as well as the books and music that inspire her. This is our first Twitterview of the new year, and it’s a good one.


In addition, we’re giving away two finished copies of Pointe. Form is at the bottom of the interview, and the contest is open to US and Canadian residents only.


I’m so excited to share this conversation, so without further ado, here’s Brandy.

Pitch Pointe in 140 characters.

A gifted dancer’s life unravels when her childhood best friend returns after four years in captivity—and she has ties to the abduction.
What inspired Pointe?

A lifelong love of dance and an obsession with long-term kidnapping stories, especially the one portrayed in I Know My First Name Is Steven.

How would you describe Theo, your main character?

Determined. Foolhardy. Passionate. Competitive. 


Theo is a POC in a very white world (in setting and sport). Talk about that.

Theo is very aware that she sticks out in her world, but she refuses to let her race define her, in both her life and desired profession.

Do you have more to say about that?  

I do! POINTE is the third book I’ve written about a teenage black girl, but it’s the first in which her race was not the focal point or even a subplot of the story. As someone who grew up black in a predominantly white town in southwest Missouri, I wanted to write a character who dealt with some of the day-to-day issues and obstacles I’d experienced without that being the point of the book. I was very involved in academics and extracurricular activities as a child and teen, and although it was a little tough almost always being the only black person in the room, or being the first black person to, for instance, join my high school’s dance team, I think those years were instrumental in shaping the person I am today. Overall, I had a great time in high school and tried to make the best of it. If people were going to notice me for being different anyway, I wanted them to especially notice me for my accomplishments. I believe Theo has a similar attitude.

There’s romance in this book but it’s the friendships that stand out to me. Tell me about Theo and Ruthie’s friendship.

They’re lifelong friends from ballet and are competitive, but also have a mutual respect and trust that extends to life beyond the studio.

And how about Theo and Donovan’s friendship?

Complicated. They’re essentially strangers now, but also bonded for life, because and in spite of what happened when they were thirteen.

Was there a particular scene in the book you most enjoyed writing?

Theo + Hosea in the gazebo. They don’t really know each other and are both very  private, but they open up to talk honestly about their art.



What about a scene that gave you the most trouble writing? 

Scenes at the abandoned park and convenience store. Dance scenes can be tough; you want to show authority + beauty without getting jargon-y.

Who is your ideal reader for Pointe? 

Truly, everyone. But I love the idea of young black girls who haven’t seen themselves represented this way in YA fiction connecting to it.

Is there anything you want readers to walk away with? 

Hmm. I’d be happy knowing people think about the story at all after they finish the book.

Pointe is your debut novel. What’s been the most exciting part of your debut year so far?

That people who aren’t related to me care about this little idea that lived in my head and on my computer for years. It’s so very surreal.

What’s been the most surprising part of your debut year? 

Emotions, everywhere! About everything! Also, time management is pretty much nonexistent these days.

If you had to give your book a “____ meets _____” pitch, what two (or three! or four!) books/films/shows would Pointe be a meeting of?

My editor has described it as “Black Swan” meets “Speak.” I’m terrible at mash-ups and it’s super flattering, so I’ll go with that.

Outside of writing, what do you do with your free time? 

I joke about being a hermit and it’s maybe 40% true. I read a lot. Obsess over TV. Hang with friends who trick me into things like hiking.


Who or what do you write for?

Myself, mostly. Writing is very therapeutic for me, and my work is at its best when I write the type of story I would love to read.

What was your most influential read as a teenager?

How Do You Lose Those Ninth-Grade Blues? It was already dated when I first read it, but DeClements’ books really speak to me. 
Who are your top three writing influences?

ZZ Packer, Courtney Summers, Barthe DeClements
Who do you believe is breaking ground in YA right now?

Stephanie Kuehn, Corey Ann Haydu, Carrie Mesrobian, Blythe Woolston, Steve Brezenoff

Can you share three of your all-time, would-recommend-to-anyone favorite books?

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender, A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Hold Still by Nina LaCour
What’s the best writing advice you ever received?

Be an honest writer. I found my voice once I stopped worrying what people would think of me for writing dark books about complicated topics.

What’s your best writing advice to give?

If people say there’s no room on the shelves for the books you write, keep at it until someone makes room for you. Don’t give up.

What is your writing routine?

I am completely without routine, but I’ve always done my best writing late at night, and when I have large chunks of time to devote to it.

What gets you jazzed to write?

I’m inspired by good writing and storytelling, so: discovering new books/TV/film, my critique partners’ work, rereading old favorites.

Do you have a writing soundtrack? Care to share a bit?

I love music, but don’t write to it! In the rare instance I do, I tend to go with groups like Zero 7, Daft Punk, and Thievery Corporation.

What’s next for you?

More gritty YA contemp about black girls. I’m working on two projects that I’m unbelievably excited about, but they’re under wraps for now.

Favorite ice cream?

Only the tough questions! Tie between Ben & Jerry’s AmeriCone Dream, Häagen-Dazs Dulche de Leche, and Trader Joe’s Golden Caramel Swirl.

Would you like the chance to win Pointe? We’re giving away two finished copies. Fill out the form below. We’ll pull winners at the end of the month.

Get Genrefied: Contemporary Realistic Fiction

|

Every month, we’re highlighting one genre within YA fiction as part of Angela’s reader’s advisory challenge. We’ve talked about horror, science fiction, high fantasy, mysteries and thrillers, and verse novels.  This month, it’s my favorite genre: contemporary realistic fiction. 

Since this is a topic I talk pretty extensively about already, I’m going to be a little self-indulgent and link to some of the stuff I’ve written on this topic. 

First, what is contemporary realistic fiction? I wrote about defining contemporary, realistic, and historical fiction last year. I still stand by what I said, even if I’m a little wild in delineating a time frame that distinguished “contemporary” from “realistic.” In short: contemporary fiction takes place in the recognizable world during the present time. Realistic is a little broader, in that it takes place in the recognizable world but may show elements of aging — think things like pay phones, MySpace appearances, a lack of cell phones, and references to older bands or television shows. I like to think of contemporary as a subdivision of realistic fiction, much as there are contemporary fantasies, contemporary romances, and other “contemporary” genres. 

Novelist doesn’t divide contemporary from realistic in its definition. Their official definition of realistic fiction is “real life set to fiction. It’s about anything that can happen in real life — good, bad, and in-between. It’s real emotions and behaviors in real settings and encompasses the experiences of characters from all different backgrounds. It can also include extremes, both positive and negative, from high living with a focus on wealth, designer clothes, and private schools to the darker extremes of drug use, family breakdowns, and sexual assault. The only limit is reality, which, depending on one’s point of view, is either a jump-off point into the fantastical or just where it starts to get interesting all on its own.” 

Realistic fiction can encompass other genres — plenty of mysteries and romances are perfectly realistic and/or contemporary in their own right. The topics explored with realistic/contemporary YA span from the dark to the light and humorous. It’s a genre that has a book for all kinds of readers, and it takes reading a wide range of books to understand how diverse and rich it is. These aren’t all sad stories. They’re not all stories rife with pain and angst. They’re not all “fluffy romances.” There is a range of voices, stories, storytelling styles, and more within contemporary/realistic. 
Over the last couple of years, I’ve made it my goal to highlight the exciting and interesting aspects of contemporary fiction. I put together a contemporary YA week in 2011, and I revisited this with another series on contemporary YA in 2012. Both series included extensive reading lists and suggestions, arranged thematically. I’ve blogged about contemporary series books, with extensive additional suggestions in the comments. I am in the midst of writing a book for VOYA press on contemporary/realistic YA fiction, too — I could talk over 200 pages worth of thoughts on the genre, which is why I wanted to have it put on paper. I also have an annotated book list in the June 2013 issue of VOYA magazine covering some recent contemporary/realistic titles that are more than worth reading. 
I’m going to try to highlight some of the titles out in the last year, as well as a handful of forthcoming titles and hit on those which I haven’t talked a whole lot about either here or in other venues. I’m also not including the obvious titles here — though I have included the new Sarah Dessen. These are very current books. I want to showcase the range of stories within the genre, so these cover a little bit of everything — family relationships, friendship, survival, grief, mental illness, and more. A number of these are books I’ve read already, and I’ve included relevant links. All descriptions are from WorldCat or Goodreads. 
These are separated out, so these first books are out now (or coming out this month) and the second batch are titles coming out later this year. I’ve also included a handful of 2014 titles I am looking forward to, and I’ve noted where authors included in list have titles coming out in the next year. 

The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler: Jude has learned a lot from her older sisters, but the most important thing is this: The Vargas brothers are notorious heartbreakers. But as Jude begins to fall for Emilio Vargas, she begins to wonder if her sisters were wrong. 

Bruised by Sarah Skilton: When she freezes during a hold-up at the local diner, sixteen-year-old Imogen, a black belt in Tae Kwan Do, has to rebuild her life, including her relationship with her family and with the boy who was with her during the shoot-out.

Burning Blue by Paul Griffin: When beautiful, smart Nicole, disfigured by acid thrown in her face, and computer hacker Jay meet in the school psychologist’s office, they become friends and Jay resolves to find her attacker.

Charm & Strange by Stephanie Kuehn (available this month): A lonely teenager exiled to a remote Vermont boarding school in the wake of a family tragedy must either surrender his sanity to the wild wolves inside his mind or learn that surviving means more than not dying.

Criminal by Terra Elan McVoy: Eighteen-year-old Nikki’s unconditional love for Dee helps her escape from her problems, but when he involves her in a murder Nikki winds up in prison, confronted with hard facts that challenge whether Dee ever loved her, and she can only save herself by telling the truth about Dee.

Dr. Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets by Evan Roskos: A sixteen-year-old boy wrestling with depression and anxiety tries to cope by writing poems, reciting Walt Whitman, hugging trees, and figuring out why his sister has been kicked out of the house. Reviewed here. 

Golden by Jessi Kirby: Seventeen-year-old Parker Frost has never taken the road less traveled. Valedictorian and quintessential good girl, she’s about to graduate high school without ever having kissed her crush or broken the rules. So when fate drops a clue in her lap–one that might be the key to unraveling a town mystery–she decides to take a chance. 

Falling for You by Lisa Schroeder: Very good friends, her poetry notebooks, and a mysterious “ninja of nice” give seventeen-year-old Rae the strength to face her mother’s neglect, her stepfather’s increasing abuse, and a new boyfriend’s obsessiveness.

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley: 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.

If He Had Been With Me by Laura Nowlin: A love story spanning the history of two teenagers’ lives and all the moments when if one little thing had been different, their futures would have been together instead of apart.

The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr: Sixteen-year-old San Franciscan Lucy Beck-Moreau once had a promising future as a concert pianist. Her chance at a career has passed, and she decides to help her ten-year-old piano prodigy brother, Gus, map out his own future, even as she explores why she enjoyed piano in the first place. Reviewed here. 

The Milk of Birds by Sylvia Whitman: When a nonprofit organization called Save the Girls pairs a fourteen-year-old Sudanese refugee with an American teenager from Richmond, Virginia, the pen pals teach each other compassion and share a bond that bridges two continents.

Over You by Amy Reed: A novel about two girls on the run from their problems, their pasts, and themselves. Max and Sadie are escaping to Nebraska, but they’ll soon learn they can’t escape the truth. 

Permanent Record by Leslie Stella: Being yourself can be such a bad idea. For sixteen-year-old Badi Hessamizadeh, life is a series of humiliations. After withdrawing from public school under mysterious circumstances, Badi enters Magnificat Academy. To make things “easier,” his dad has even given him a new name: Bud Hess. Grappling with his Iranian-American identity, clinical depression, bullying, and a barely bottled rage, Bud is an outcast who copes by resorting to small revenges and covert acts of defiance, but the pressures of his home life, plummeting grades, and the unrequited affection of his new friend, Nikki, prime him for a more dangerous revolution. Strange letters to the editor begin to appear in Magnificat’s newspaper, hinting that some tragedy will befall the school. Suspicion falls on Bud, and he and Nikki struggle to uncover the real culprit and clear Bud’s name. Permanent Record explodes with dark humor, emotional depth, and a powerful look at the ways the bullied fight back. 

The Reece Malcolm List by Amy Spalding: When her father dies suddenly, Devan is shipped off to Los Angeles to live with her estranged mother, Reece Malcolm, a bestselling novelist with little time for a daughter, and Devan navigates her way through her new performing arts school. Reviewed here.  
Spalding’s second contemporary book, titled Ink is Thicker Than Water will be available in December. 

The Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality by Elizabeth Eulberg: Sick of living in the shadow of her seven-year-old pageant queen sister who is praised for her looks, Lexi resolves to get a makeover when she determines her personality just isn’t enough to garner the attentions of boys.

Rotten by Michael Northrop: When troubled sixteen-year-old Jimmer “JD” Dobbs returns from a mysterious summer “upstate” he finds that his mother has adopted an abused Rottweiler that JD names Johnny Rotten, but soon his tenuous relationship with the dog is threatened. Reviewed here. 

Send Me A Sign by Tiffany Schmidt: Superstitious before being diagnosed with leukemia, high school senior Mia becomes irrationally dependent on horoscopes, good luck charms, and the like when her life shifts from cheerleading and parties to chemotherapy and platelets, while her parents obsess and lifelong friend Gyver worries. Reviewed here. 
Schmidt’s second contemporary book, Bright Before Sunrise, will be out in February 2014. 

The Space Between Us by Jessica Martinez: Seventeen-year-old Amelia feels like her life might be getting back on track after a bad break-up when her younger sister’s pregnancy gets them both banished to Canada, where new relationships are forged, giving Amelia a new perspective.

Starting From Here by Lisa Jenn Bigelow: Sixteen-year-old Colby is barely hanging on with her mother dead, her long-haul trucker father often away, her almost-girlfriend dumping her for a boy, and her failing grades, when a stray dog appears and helps her find hope.

The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen: During her last summer at home before leaving for college, Emaline begins a whirlwind romance with Theo, an assistant documentary filmmaker who is in town to make a movie.

The Storyteller by Antonia Michaelis: Wealthy, seventeen-year-old Anna begins to fall in love with her classmate, Abel, a drug dealer from the wrong side of town, when she hears him tell a story to his six-year-old sister, but when his enemies begin turning up dead, Anna fears she has fallen for a murderer. Reviewed here. 

This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith: Perfect strangers Graham Larkin and Ellie O’Neill meet online when Graham accidentally sends Ellie an e-mail about his pet pig, Wilbur. The two 17-year-olds strike up an e-mail relationship from opposite sides of the country and don’t even know each other’s first names. What’s more, Ellie doesn’t know Graham is a famous actor, and Graham doesn’t know about the big secret in Ellie’s family tree. When the relationship goes from online to in-person, they find out whether their relationship can be the real thing.

Thousand Words by Jennifer Brown: Talked into sending a nude picture of herself to her boyfriend while she was drunk, Ashleigh became the center of a sexting scandal and is now in court-ordered community service, where she finds an unlikely ally, Mack.


Unbreak My Heart by Melissa Walker: Taking the family sailboat on a summer-long trip excites everyone except sixteen-year-old Clementine, who feels stranded with her parents and younger sister and guilty over a falling-out with her best friend.

Wanted by Heidi Ayarbe: Seventeen-year-old Michal Garcia, a bookie at Carson City High School, raises the stakes in her illegal activities after she meets wealthy, risk-taking Josh Ellison.

Way to Go by Tom Ryan: Danny is pretty sure he’s gay, but he spends his summer trying to prove otherwise.  

What Happens Next by Colleen Clayton: The stress of hiding a horrific incident that she can neither remember nor completely forget leads sixteen-year-old Cassidy “Sid” Murphy to become alienated from her friends, obsess about weight loss, and draw close to Corey “The Living Stoner” Livingston.

When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney: When his mother dies three weeks before his high school graduation, Danny goes to Tokyo, where his mother had been going for cancer treatments, to learn about the city his mother loved and, with the help of his friends, come to terms with her death.

Wild Awake by Hilary T. Smith: The discovery of a startling family secret leads seventeen-year-old Kiri Byrd from a protected and naive life into a summer of mental illness, first love, and profound self-discovery. 

Winger by Andrew Smith: Two years younger than his classmates at a prestigious boarding school, fourteen-year-old Ryan Dean West grapples with living in the dorm for troublemakers, falling for his female best friend who thinks of him as just a kid, and playing wing on the Varsity rugby team with some of his frightening new dorm-mates.

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina: One morning before school, some girl tells Piddy Sanchez that Yaqui Delgado hates her and wants to kick her ass. Piddy doesn’t even know who Yaqui is, never mind what she’s done to piss her off. Word is that Yaqui thinks Piddy is stuck-up, shakes her stuff when she walks, and isn’t Latin enough with her white skin, good grades, and no accent. And Yaqui isn’t kidding around, so Piddy better watch her back. At first Piddy is more concerned with trying to find out more about the father she’s never met and how to balance honors courses with her weekend job at the neighborhood hair salon. But as the harassment escalates, avoiding Yaqui and her gang starts to take over Piddy’s life. Is there any way for Piddy to survive without closing herself off or running away?” — from publisher’s web site.

Freaks Like Us by Susan Vaught: A mentally ill teenager who rides the “short bus” to school investigates the sudden disappearance of his best friend.

Forthcoming Contemporary Realistic Titles

All of these are coming out between July and December of this year. 

Dead Ends by Erin Jade Lange: When Dane, a bully, refuses to hit Billy D because he has Down Syndrome, Billy takes that as a sign of friendship and enlists Dane’s help in solving riddles left in an atlas by his missing father, sending the pair on a risky adventure.

The Distance Between Us by Kasie West: Seventeen-year-old Caymen Meyers studies the rich like her own personal science experiment, and after years of observation she’s pretty sure they’re only good for one thing—spending money on useless stuff, like the porcelain dolls in her mother’s shop. So when Xander Spence walks into the store to pick up a doll for his grandmother, it only takes one glance for Caymen to figure out he’s oozing rich. Despite his charming ways and that he’s one of the first people who actually gets her, she’s smart enough to know his interest won’t last. Because if there’s one thing she’s learned from her mother’s warnings, it’s that the rich have a short attention span. But Xander keeps coming around, despite her best efforts to scare him off. And much to her dismay, she’s beginning to enjoy his company. She knows her mom can’t find out—she wouldn’t approve. She’d much rather Caymen hang out with the local rocker who hasn’t been raised by money. But just when Xander’s attention and loyalty are about to convince Caymen that being rich isn’t a character flaw, she finds out that money is a much bigger part of their relationship than she’d ever realized. And that Xander’s not the only one she should’ve been worried about.

Fault Line by Christa Desir: After his gilfriend, Ani, is assaulted at a party, Ben must figure out how he can help her to heal, if he can help her at all. 

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick: A day in the life of a suicidal teen boy saying good-bye to the four people who matter most to him.

Freakboy by Kristin Elizabeth Clark: Told from three viewpoints, seventeen-year-old Brendan, a wrestler, struggles to come to terms with his place on the transgender spectrum while Vanessa, the girl he loves, and Angel, a transgender acquaintance, try to help.

If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan: In Iran, where homosexuality is punishable by death, seventeen-year-olds Sahar and Nasrin love each other in secret until Nasrin’s parents announce their daughter’s arranged marriage and Sahar proposes a drastic solution.

Sex & Violence by Carrie Mesrobian: Sex has always come without consequences for Evan. Until the night when all the consequences land at once, leaving him scarred inside and out. 
Where the Stars Still Shine by Trish Doller: Abducted at age five, Callie, now seventeen, has spent her life on the run but when her mother is finally arrested and she is returned to her father in small-town Florida, Callie must find a way to leave her past behind, become part of a family again, and learn that love is more than just a possibility.





This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales: Nearly a year after a failed suicide attempt, sixteen-year-old Elise discovers that she has the passion, and the talent, to be a disc jockey.

Takedown by Allison van Diepen: After years in “juvie,” Darren cooperates with the police to infiltrate a drug ring to settle a vendetta, but sweet, innocent Jessica is now in his life so when a deadly turf war erupts, Darren must protect not only his own life, but Jessica’s as well. 

A Few More Forthcoming Contemporary/Realistic  

These titles will hit shelves in 2014 — I don’t have exact release dates, nor do I have covers for these yet, but they’re on my radar and should be on yours, too.
Pointe by Brandy Colbert: A ballet prodigy’s life begins to unravel when she is forced to admit to the role she played in her childhood friend’s abduction.
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters. 
Goldfish by Kody Keplinger: About a teen dealing with the fallout from her failed suicide attempt and her romance with a boy with secrets of his own.
All the Rage by Courtney Summers: A 17-year-old girl’s attempt to blackmail her rich classmates results in her waking up on a dirt road with no money, no memory of how she got there and a semi-erased message she left for herself the only clue as to why. When she tries to piece together the evening before and all the events leading up to it, a dark and sinister game is revealed.

An Ode to the Series, Contemporary YA Style

|

I’m not a huge fan of series books. The biggest reason is that when I read a book that’s part of a series, I want to read the entire series at once. I don’t want to have to wait. So, when I do read a series, usually it’s after the final book is out so I can marathon them. 

But I’ve been thinking about series books in contemporary YA a lot lately, both because it’s relevant to the book I’m writing and because I seem to not hold the same stigma about the books than those which are more genre fiction series. I think my memory for contemporary stories and series might be stronger than that for genre because it’s a world I can remember a lot more of since it’s the real world. 

Series books come in two flavors: there are series where the books are contingent upon one another and then there are series which are much more about being companions to one another, set in the same world and sometimes using the same characters, but they aren’t dependent upon one another to be read. Below is a list of some of the contemporary series titles I can come up with. I’ve limited myself to books in the last handful of years, and I’m not including books that have a singular sequel or companion (so books like Ron Koertge’s “Shakespeare” companions didn’t count). I want at least three books in the series. Descriptions come from WorldCat, and I’ve linked to relevant reviews. 

Can you think of any others? What are your thoughts on contemporary YA series more generally? I’d love to hear. 

The Dairy Queen series by Catherine Gilbert Murdock (reviewed here in 2009)

The Dairy Queen
After spending her summer running the family farm and training the quarterback for her school’s rival football team, sixteen-year-old D.J. decides to go out for the sport herself, not anticipating the reactions of those around her.

The Off Season
High school junior D.J. staggers under the weight of caring for her badly injured brother, her responsibilities on the dairy farm, a changing relationship with her friend Brian, and her own athletic aspirations.

Front and Center
During her junior year basketball season, D.J. faces the dual challenges of college recruiting and romance.

The Stupid Fast series by Geoff Herbach. How much do I adore this series? And how many fantastic similarities are there between it and the Murdock series? Many. Like the Wisconsin setting. The athletic backdrop. The family challenges. The great voice of the main character. 

Stupid Fast 
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. Reviewed here. 

Nothing Special
Continues the story of Wisconsin teenager and high school football player Felton Reinstein, how he relates to his friends Gus and Aleah and what he does when his little brother Andrew runs away on his way to orchestra camp. Reviewed here. 

I’m With Stupid (May 2013)
It’s nerd-turned-jock Felton Reinstein’s last year before college, and the choices he makes now will affect the rest of his life. That’s a lot of pressure. Before leaving home forever, Felton will have to figure out just who he is, even if, sometimes, it sucks to be him. 

The Summer series by Jenny Han — I’ve read this entire series and dug the romance and more specifically, the way that Belly navigates two good choices and yet doesn’t lose sight of herself in the process. 

The Summer I Turned Pretty 
Belly spends the summer she turns sixteen at the beach just like every other summer of her life, but this time things are very different. Reviewed here in 2009.

It’s Not Summer Without You 
Teenaged Isobel “Belly” Conklin, whose life revolves around spending the summer at her mother’s best friend’s beach house, reflects on the tragic events of the past year that changed her life forever.

We’ll Always Have Summer 
The summer after her first year of college, Isobel “Belly” Conklin is faced with a choice between Jeremiah and Conrad Fisher, brothers she has always loved, when Jeremiah proposes marriage and Conrad confesses that he still loves her.

The Swim the Fly series by Don Calame — I haven’t read this series, but it’s one that has been popular at the libraries I’ve worked at, especially with the boys. I had one specifically ask for the final book in the series before it came out because he wanted to read it so bad.

Swim the Fly 
Fifteen-year-old Matt and his two best friends Sean and Coop, the least athletic swimmers on the local swim team, find their much anticipated summer vacation bringing them nothing but trouble with unsucessful schemes to see a live naked girl and with Matt, eager to impress the swim team’s “hot” new girl, agreeing to swim the 100-yard butterfly.

Beat the Band
Paired with the infamous “Hot Dog” Helen for a health class presentation on safe sex, tenth-grader Coop tries to salvage his social status by entering his musically challenged rock group in the “Battle of the Bands” competition.

Call the Shots
Coop is cooking up another sure-misfire scheme (big surprise), and this time the comedy plays out from Sean’s point of view. What’s the new master plan? Making a cheapo horror movie guaranteed to make Coop, Sean, and Matt filthy rich! It’s a terrible idea, and Sean knows it. But he actually is desperate for cash — and for a way to wipe that big fat L off his girlfriend-less forehead. But when he agrees to write ascript about the attack of zombie-vampire humanzees, he has no idea just how powerful a chick magnet this movie will be. Suddenly Sean is juggling not one but three interested ladies. Will any of them wind up as Sean’s true leading lady? Will Sean stop being a doormat and finally start calling the shots?

The Violet series by Melissa Walker — these have been sitting on my book shelf for so long. I’ve read the first one, Violet on the Runway, and I’ve passed along the series to many a reader before, looking for a story of a model and the modeling world. In a non Tyra Banks way. 

Violet on the Runway
Seventeen-year-old Violet Greenfield of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, believes herself too tall and skinny until a top modeling agent gives her the royal treatment in New York City, and Vi suddenly finds herself facing fame, popularity, and the jealousy of her best friends.

Violet by Design
Despite her intentions to give up runway modeling, eighteen-year-old Violet is lured back by the promise of travel to Brazil, possibly Spain and France, and, after seeing her best friends off to college, embarks on an, often exciting, often painful, international adventure.

Violet in Private
Enrolled at Vassar College, Violet Greenfield, an insecure nineteen-year-old supermodel, accepts an internship with “Teen Fashionista” magazine and finds herself falling in love with her best friend, Roger.

The Carter series by Brent Crawford — I’ve only read the first book, Carter Finally Gets It and it wasn’t my thing. But I totally see the audience. I have a feeling many of the readers who love the Calame series will enjoy this one, too.

Carter Finally Gets It
Awkward freshman Will Carter endures many painful moments during his first year of high school before realizing that nothing good comes easily, focus is everything, and the payoff is usually incredible.

Carter’s Big Break
Fourteen-year-old Will Carter’s summer gets off to a bad start when his girlfriend leaves him, but then he is cast opposite a major star, Hilary Idaho, in a small movie being filmed in his town and things start looking up.

Carter’s Unfocused, One-Track Mind 
Fifteen-year-old WIll Carter’s sophomore year at Merrian High presents new problems, from the return of Scary Terry to friends-with-benefits negotiations with Abby, but when Abby considers transferring to a New York arts school Carter’s world is turned upside-down.

The Naughty List series by Suzanne Young — I’ve read the first two. This is a fun series, perfect for fans who like a little mystery mixed up with a lot of humor. And a lot of girl-boy tension. 

The Naughty List
Head cheerleader Tessa runs the ultra-secret SOS, or Society of Smitten Kittens, that spies on her fellow-students’ cheating boyfriends, until her own boyfriend is implicated. Reviewed here in 2010. 

So Many Boys
Head cheerleader Tessa works to stop an imposter who threatens to expose the secret identities of SOS, the Society of Smitten Kittens, while also facing ongoing problems with her boyfriend, Aiden.

A Good Boy is Hard to Find
I believe this book was released as a digital-only publication. I may be wrong, but I can’t find the description in WorldCat. You can find out more on the Amazon page. 

The Hundred Oaks series by Miranda Kenneally — I haven’t read any of these, but I’ve been interested in doing it. In addition to these four books, there are a couple others coming, too. 

Catching Jordan
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.

Stealing Parker
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.

Things I Can’t Forget (March 2013)
Seeking God’s forgiveness for a past sin, eighteen-year-old Kate finds summer employment at a church camp, where she is tempted to have a fling with co-counselor Matt.

Racing Savannah (December 2013)
No description on WorldCat yet, but you can read about it over at Goodreads.

Obviously, this isn’t a complete list. What are some other contemporary YA series you can think of? I don’t want mysteries (in the style of Ally Carter, for example) nor genre fiction.  

Contemporary YA Fiction 2012 Book List of 2013 Contemporary Titles to Watch For

|

I have one more book list, and this one is by request. I’ve been keeping tabs on forthcoming 2013 contemporary YA titles, and I’ve done a quick survey to grab titles I might miss. I’ve pulled them together for an incomplete list of titles to keep on your radar. Please note that the bulk of these are in the early portion of the year simply because I had access to publisher catalogs for winter and spring 2013, but not for fall. 

If you know of a contemporary title — and I reemphasize contemporary meaning realistic — coming out next year some time, please feel free to leave a comment. I am including only traditionally published books, be they from big presses or smaller ones. I have included title images where they’re available, and descriptions come from WorldCat, Goodreads, or publisher catalogs. I’ve done my best to make this list alphabetical, as well. Note that not all of the books have covers yet, but I’ve included a handful to break up the blocks of text.

Because I am crazy, I’ve starred debut novels, too. 

* Canary
by Rachele Alpine (August): Kate
Franklin’s life changes for the better when her dad lands a job at
Beacon Prep, an elite private school with one of the best basketball
teams in the state. She begins to date a player on the team and
quickly gets caught up in a world of idolatry and entitlement,
learning that there are perks to being an athlete. But those perks
also come with a price. Another player takes his power too far and
Kate is assaulted at a party. She knows she should speak out, but her
dad tries to silence her in order to protect the team. The world that
Kate was once welcomed into is now her worst enemy, and she must
decide whether to stay silent or expose the corruption, destroying
her father’s career and bringing down a town’s heroes.
Right
of Way
by Lauren Barnholdt (July): Told
in their separate voices, seventeen-year-old Peyton convinces
eighteen-year-old Jace to drive her from a Florida wedding toward her
Connecticut home with the intention of staying in North Carolina
rather than face her parents’ marital and financial problems, while
both avoid the obvious attraction they have felt since they met at
Christmas.
* 45
Pounds by KA Barson (July): Ann, a
sixteen-year-old girl who doesn’t fit—not in her blended family
and certainly not in Snapz! clothes—is convinced that if she could
only lose 45 pounds, her life would be perfectly normal. She soon
learns that there is nothing perfect about normal.
Surfacing
by Nora Raleigh Baskin (March): Though
only a sophomore, Maggie Paris is a star on the varsity swim team,
but she also has an uncanny, almost magical ability to draw out
people’s deepest truths, even when they don’t intend to share
them. It’s reached a point where most of her classmates, all but
her steadfast best friend, now avoid her, and she’s taken to giving
herself away every chance she gets to an unavailable — and
ungrateful — popular boy from the wrestling team, just to prove she
still exists. Even Maggie’s parents, who are busy avoiding each
other and the secret deep at the heart of their devastated family,
seem wary of her. Is there such a thing as too much truth?
* Dancing
in the Dark
by Robyn Bavati (February): Ditty
was born to dance, but she was also born Jewish. When her strictly
religious parents won’t let her take ballet lessons, Ditty starts to
dance in secret. But for how long can she keep her two worlds apart?
And at what cost?
A
dramatic and moving story about a girl who follows her dream, and
finds herself questioning everything she believes in.
Also
Known As by Robin Benway
(February): As
the active-duty daughter of international spies, sixteen-year-old
safecracker Maggie Silver never attended high school so when she and
her parents are sent to New York for her first solo assignment,
Maggie is introduced to cliques, school lunches, and maybe even a
boyfriend.
Emmy
& Oliver
by Robin Benway: The
story of two childhood friends who grew up next door to one another
until they were six years old, when Oliver was kidnapped by his dad
during a custody dispute. Ten years later, Oliver comes home and he &
Emmy are forced to deal not only with their losses, but also with
their new romantic beginnings.
Sin-Eater’s
Confession by Ilsa J Bick: While
serving in Afghanistan, Ben writes about incidents from his senior
year in a small-town Wisconsin high school, when a neighbor he was
trying to help out becomes the victim of an apparent hate crime and
Ben falls under suspicion.
* Dear
Life, You Suck by Scott Blagden
(March): In
this emotionally powerful, funny debut, Cricket Cherpin needs to
figure out what to do with his life before he turns eighteen. But
life sucks–so why not just give up?
* Leap
of Faith
by Jamie Blair: Now
that Leah Kurtz has a place to call home, there’s no way she can
tell the truth.
That
her name is Faith, not Leah.
That
she’s seventeen, not nineteen.
That
the baby isn’t hers—she kidnapped her.
She
had to kidnap Addy though. She couldn’t let her newborn sister grow
up like she did, with parties where the drugs flow all night and an
empty refrigerator in the kitchen holding nothing but pickle juice
and ketchup packets inside.
She
can’t risk losing Chris—the only guy she’s ever given herself
to completely—by telling him she’s been lying. He’s the most
generous person she’s ever known, and he’s already suffered the
tragic deaths of his mom and infant sister.
But
being on the run with a newborn catches up with her when a cop starts
asking questions, and Chris’s aunt finds a newspaper article about
Faith and a missing baby. Faith knows it’s time to run again—from
Chris and the only place that’s ever felt like home.
Thousand
Words by Jennifer Brown (May):
Talked
into sending a nude picture of herself to her boyfriend while she was
drunk, Ashleigh became the center of a sexting scandal and is now in
court-ordered community service, where she finds an unlikely ally,
Mack.
* Anthem
for Jackson Dawes by
Celia Bryce (April): When Megan, thirteen, arrives for her first
cancer treatment, she is frustrated to be on the pediatric unit where
the only other teen is Jackson Dawes.
* Out
of This Place
by Emma Cameron (May): Luke
spends his days hanging out at the beach, working shifts at the local
supermarket, and trying to stay out of trouble at school. His mate
Bongo gets wasted, blocking out memories of the little brother that
social services took away from his addict mom and avoiding the
stepdad who hits him. And Casey, the girl they both love, longs to
get away from her strict, controlling father and start anew in a
place where she can be free. But even after they each find a way to
move on and lead very different lives, can they outrun their family
stories — and will they ever be able to come together again? Set in
Australia and narrated in alternating points of view, here is an
affecting look at the evolving lives of three friends from talented
new author Emma Cameron.
Perfect
Scoundrels by Ally Carter (February):
When feisty teenaged thief Kat’s on-again off-again boyfriend,
Hale, suddenly inherits his family’s billion dollar company, Kat gets
a tip-off that the will is a fake.
* Me,
Him, Them, and It by Caela
Carter (February): Playing the “bad girl” at school to get
back at her feuding parents, sixteen-year-old Evelyn becomes pregnant
and faces a difficult decision.
* Red
by Alison Cherry (October): Felicity
St. John has it all—loyal best friends, a hot guy, and artistic
talent. And she’s right on track to win the Miss Scarlet pageant.
Her perfect life is possible because of just one thing: her long,
wavy, coppery red hair. Having red hair is all that matters in
Scarletville. Redheads hold all the power—and everybody knows it.
That’s why Felicity is scared down to her roots when she receives
an anonymous note: I
know your secret. Because
Felicity is a big fake. Her hair color comes straight out of a
bottle. And if anyone discovered the truth, she’d be a social
outcast faster than she could say “strawberry blond.” Her
mother would disown her, her friends would shun her, and her
boyfriend would dump her. And forget about winning that pageant crown
and the prize money that comes with it—money that would allow her
to fulfill her dream of going to art school. Felicity isn’t about
to let someone blackmail her life away. But just how far is she
willing to go to protect her red cred?
Return
to Me by Justina Chen
(January): Always
following her parents’ wishes and ignoring her psychic inner voice
takes eighteen-year-old Rebecca Muir from her beloved cottage and
boyfriend on Puget Sound to New York City.

All I Need by Susane Colasanti (May): Skye wants to meet the boy who will change her life forever. Seth feels their instant connection the second he sees her. When Seth starts talking to Skye at the last beach party of the summer, it’s obvious to both of them that this is something real. But when Seth leaves for college before they exchange contact info, Skye wonders if he felt the same way she did—and if she will ever see him again. Even if they find their way back to each other, can they make a long-distance relationship work despite trust issues, ex drama, and some serious background differences?

* A Point So Delicate by Brandy Colbert: A ballet prodigy’s life begins to unravel when she is forced to admit to the role she played in her childhood friend’s abduction.

* Pretty
Girl-13 by
Liz Coley (March): Sixteen-year-old Angie finds herself in her
neighborhood with no recollection of her abduction or the three years
that have passed since, until alternate personalities start telling
her their stories through letters and recordings.
* Blaze
by Laurie Boyle Crompton (February): Blaze
is tired of spending her life on the sidelines, drawing comics and
feeling invisible. She’s desperate for soccer star Mark to notice
her. And when her BFF texts Mark a photo of Blaze in sexy lingerie,
it definitely gets his attention. After a hot date in the back of her
minivan, Blaze is flying high, but suddenly Mark’s feelings seem to
have been blasted by a freeze-ray gun, and he dumps her. Blaze gets
her revenge by posting a comic strip featuring uber-villain Mark the
Shark. Mark then retaliates by posting her “sext” photo,
and, overnight, Blaze goes from Super Virgin Girl to Super Slut. That
life on the sidelines is looking pretty good right about now.
Period
8
by Chris Crutcher (March): Paul
“the Bomb” Baum tells the truth. No matter what. It was
something he learned at Sunday School. But telling the truth can
cause problems, and not minor ones. And as Paulie discovers, finding
the truth can be even more problematic. Period 8 is supposed to be
that one period in high school where the truth can shine, a safe
haven. Only what Paulie and Hannah (his ex-girlfriend, unfortunately)
and his other classmates don’t know is that the ultimate bully, the
ultimate liar, is in their midst. 
Fault
Line
by Christa Desir (November): Ben
could date anyone he wants, but he only has eyes for the new girl —
sarcastic free-spirit, Ani. Luckily for Ben, Ani wants him too. She’s
everything Ben could ever imagine. Everything he could ever want.
But
that all changes after the party. The one Ben misses. The one Ani
goes to alone.
Now
Ani isn’t the girl she used to be, and Ben can’t sort out the
truth from the lies. What really happened, and who is to blame?
Ben
wants to help her, but she refuses to be helped. The more she pushes
Ben away, the more he wonders if there’s anything he can do to save
the girl he loves.
The
Moon and More
by Sarah Dessen (June): Set
in the fictional beach town of Colby, where several of Dessen’s
novels take place, it features 18-year-old Emmeline, who is spending
her last summer before college working for her family’s vacation
rental business and enjoying a summer romance with a young aspiring
filmmaker.
* How
My Summer Went Up in Flames
by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski (May): Placed under a temporary
retstraining order for torching her former boyfriend’s car,
seventeen-year-old Rosie embarks on a cross-country car trip from New
Jersey to Arizona while waiting for her court appearance.
All That Was Lost by Trish Doller (October — note the title may change): Callie is skilled in the art of leaving. She and her mother have crisscrossed the country for more than a decade, on the run since the day her mother–who suffers from borderline personality disorder–abducted her. When her mom is arrested, Callie is reunited in Tarpon Springs, Florida, with a father she doesn’t remember. There Callie must learn to navigate the life of a normal 17-year-old girl–one that includes friends, guys, and an extended Greek American family she never knew existed. But a childhood secret and her mother’s reappearance threaten the tentative security of her new life, and Callie must choose between staying and leaving–and what she’s willing to leave behind.

Panic
by Sharon Draper (March): As rehearsals begin for the ballet version
of Peter Pan, the teenaged members of an Ohio dance troupe lose their
focus when one of their own goes missing.
Revenge
of the Girl with the Great Personality
by Elizabeth Eulberg (March): Everybody loves Lexi. She’s popular,
smart, funny…but she’s never been one of those girls, the pretty
ones who get all the attention from guys. And on top of that, her
seven-year-old sister, Mackenzie, is a terror in a tiara, and part of
a pageant scene where she gets praised for her beauty (with the help
of fake hair and tons of makeup). Lexi’s sick of it. She’s sick of
being the girl who hears about kisses instead of getting them. She’s
sick of being ignored by her longtime crush, Logan. She’s sick of
being taken for granted by her pageant-obsessed mom. And she’s sick
of having all her family’s money wasted on a phony pursuit of
perfection. The time has come for Lexi to step out from the
sidelines. Girls without great personalities aren’t going to know
what hit them. Because Lexi’s going to play the beauty game – and
she’s in it to win it.
Hooked
by
Liz Fichera (January): HE
said: Fred
Oday is a girl? Why is a girl taking my best friends spot on the
boy’s varsity golf team?
SHE
said: Can
I seriously do this? Can I join the boys’ team? Everyone will hate me
– especially Ryan Berenger.
HE
said: Coach
expects me to partner with Fred on the green? That is crazy bad.
Fred’s got to go – especially now that I can’t get her out of my
head. So not happening.
SHE
said: Ryan
can be nice, when he’s not being a jerk. Like the time he carried my
golf bag. But the girl from the rez and the spoiled rich boy from the
suburbs? So not happening.
But
there’s no denying that things are happening as the girl with the
killer swing takes on the boy with the killer smile.
Just
One Day by Gayle Forman (January): Sparks fly when American good
girl Allyson encounters laid-back Dutch actor Willem, so she follows
him on a whirlwind trip to Paris, upending her life in just one day
and prompting a year of self-discovery and the search for true love.

Our Song by Jordanna Fraiberg (May): Olive Bell has spent her entire life in the beautiful suburb of Vista Valley, with a picture-perfect home, a loving family, and a seemingly perfect boyfriend. But after a near-fatal car accident, she’s haunted by a broken heart and a melody that she cannot place. Then Olive meets Nick. He’s dark, handsome, mysterious . . . and Olive feels connected to him in a way she can’t explain. Is there such a thing as fate? The two embark on a whirlwind romance—until Nick makes a troubling confession. Heartbroken, Olive pieces together what really happened the night of her accident and arrives at a startling revelation. Only by facing the truth can she uncover the mystery behind the song and the power of what it means to love someone

The
39 Deaths of Adam Strand by Gregory
Galloway (February): Adam Strand isn’t
depressed. He’s just bored. Disaffected. So he kills himself—39
times. No matter the method, Adam can’t seem to stay dead; he wakes
after each suicide alive and physically unharmed, more determined to
succeed and undeterred by others’ concerns. But when his
self-contained, self-absorbed path is diverted, Adam is struck by the
reality that life is an ever-expanding web of impact and forged
connections, and that nothing—not even death—can sever those
bonds.

* Reclaimed by Sarah Guillory (October): A girl determined to flee her small town finds a reason to stay when she falls in love with twin brothers, one who can’t remember his past and the other who doesn’t want him to remember, told in three alternating points of view.

* Nobody
But Us by Kristin Halbrook
(January): Told
in their separate voices, eighteen-year-old Will who has aged out of
foster care, and fifteen-year-old Zoe whose father beats her, set out
for Las Vegas together, but their escape may prove more dangerous
than what they left behind.
* Crash
and Burn by
Michael Hassan (February): Steven “Crash” Crashinsky
relates his sordid ten-year relationship with David “Burn”
Burnett, the boy he stopped from taking their high school hostage at
gunpoint.
* OCD
Love Story
by Corey Ann Haydu (July): In an instant, Bea felt
almost normal with Beck, and as if she could fall in love again, but
things change when the psychotherapist who has been helping her deal
with past romantic relationships puts her in a group with Beck–a
group for teens with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
I’m
With Stupid by
Geoff Herbach (May): Felton
Reinstein, dork-turned-athlete, must make peace with his father’s
death and accept his own ability to be brutal like his dad once was.
Final chapter in the Stupid Fast series.
* That
Time I Joined the Circus
by J.J. Howard (April): After
her father’s sudden death and a break-up with her best friends,
seventeen-year-old Lexi has no choice but to leave New York City
seeking her long-absent mother, rumored to be in Florida with a
traveling circus, where she just may discover her destiny.
* Nantucket
Blue by Leila Howland (May):
Seventeen-year-old
Cricket Thompson is planning on spending a romantic summer on
Nantucket Island near her long time crush, Jay–but the death of her
best friend’s mother, and her own sudden intense attraction to her
friend’s brother Zach are making this summer complicated.
FML
by Shaun Hutchinson (June): At a party near the end of senior year,
seventeen-year-old Simon Cross imagines his life with and without
Cassie, the girl he has yearned for since they were freshman, and
begins to discover the unpredictable wonders of life his best
friends, Ben and Coop, have urged him to explore.



Things
I Can’t Forget by Miranda Kenneally
(March): Seeking God’s forgiveness for a past sin, eighteen-year-old
Kate finds summer employment at a church camp, where she is tempted
to have a fling with co-counselor Matt.
Goldfish
by Kody Keplinger: About
a teen dealing with the fallout from her failed suicide attempt and
her romance with a boy with secrets of his own.
Golden
by Jessi Kirby (May): Seventeen-year-old
Parker Frost may be a distant relative of Robert Frost, but she has
never taken the road less traveled. Valedictorian and quintessential
good girl, she’s about to graduate high school without ever having
kissed her crush or broken the rules. So when fate drops a mystery in
her lap—one that might be the key to uncovering the truth behind a
town tragedy, she decides to take a chance.

* Five Summers by Una LaMarch (May): The summer we were nine: Emma was branded “Skylar’s friend Emma” by the infamous Adam Loring . . . The summer we were ten: Maddie realized she was too far into her lies to think about telling the truth . . . The summer we were eleven : Johanna totally freaked out during her first game of Spin the Bottle . . . The summer we were twelve : Skylar’s love letters from her boyfriend back home were exciting to all of us—except Skylar . . . Our last summer together: Emma and Adam almost kissed. Jo found out Maddie’s secret. Skylar did something unthinkable . . . and whether we knew it then or not, five summers of friendship began to fall apart. Three years after the fateful last night of camp, the four of us are coming back to camp for reunion weekend—and for a second chance. Bittersweet, funny, and achingly honest, Five Summers is a story of friendship, love, and growing up that is perfect for fans of Anne Brashares and Judy Blume’s Summer Sisters.

* Alice in Everville by S. C. Langgle (March): Alice Little thinks she’s read every word the world-famous poet Sylvie Plate published before her untimely death…until she discovers a coded message hidden in Sylvie’s final collection of poems–a message that may explain the poet’s mysterious demise. All she has to do is decipher the code and she knows she can convince her beloved English teacher, Miss A, that Sylvie’s message is real. Unfortunately, she only has one manic day at Everville Mall to do it. And between keeping track of her fountain-splashing, havoc-wreaking sister, finding a new copy of Sylvie’s poems, and…oh yeah…dealing with the blue-eyed, guitar-playing, majorly swoon-worthy Jaden Briar, who keeps popping up everywhere she goes, Alice wonders if she will ever finish deciphering in time.
Going
Vintage by Lindsay Leavitt
(March): When sixteen-year-old Mallory learns that her boyfriend,
Jeremy, is cheating on her with his cyber “wife,” she
rebels against technology by following her grandmother’s list of
goals from 1962, with help from her younger sister, Ginnie.
Pieces
by Chris Lynch (March): Eighteen-year-old
Eric deals with the loss of his older brother Duane by meeting three
of the seven recipients of Duane’s organs a year after his death, and
pondering who they are to him, and he to them.
Kissing
Mr. Glaser
by Erin McCahan: Brainy
16-year-old Josie Sheridan falls in love with a guy who falls in love
with her older sister who is engaged to a man Josie hates. When
Josie’s sister appears to return the feelings of Josie’s love
interest, Josie finds herself armed with the ammunition she has been
looking for that will stop her sister’s wedding. But emotions cloud
Josie’s normally logical mind, and she struggles to balance her
feelings with her sister’s. At the same time, she must learn what to
do when the person she loves might never love her back.
* Brianna
On the Brink
by Nicole McInnes (January): Sixteen-year-old
Brianna Taylor finds herself lost, alone and pregnant after a
one-night-stand (let’s just say it’s complicated). Just when she’s
got nowhere left to turn, help arrives from the one person who is
closest to her big mistake, but accepting that help will leave
Brianna forced to choose between clinging to the ledge of fear and
abandonment – or jumping into the unknown where a second chance at
hope might just be waiting.
Yaqui
Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by
Meg Medina (March): One
morning before school, some girl tells Piddy Sanchez that Yaqui
Delgado hates her and wants to kick her ass. Piddy doesn’t even
know who Yaqui is, never mind what she’s done to piss her off. Word
is that Yaqui thinks Piddy is stuck-up, shakes her stuff when she
walks, and isn’t Latin enough with her white skin, good grades, and
no accent. And Yaqui isn’t kidding around, so Piddy better watch
her back. At first Piddy is more concerned with trying to find out
more about the father she’s never met and how to balance honors
courses with her weekend job at the neighborhood hair salon. But as
the harassment escalates, avoiding Yaqui and her gang starts to take
over Piddy’s life. Is there any way for Piddy to survive without
closing herself off or running away? In an all-too-realistic novel,
Meg Medina portrays a sympathetic heroine who is forced to decide who
she really is.
* The
Summer I Became a Nerd
by Lisa Rae Miller: On
the outside, seventeen-year-old Emma Jean Summers looks like your
typical blond cheerleader. But inside, Emma spends more time
agonizing over what will happen in the next issue of her favorite
comic book than planning pep rallies with her quarterback boyfriend.
That she’s a nerd hiding in a popular girl’s body isn’t just unknown,
it’s anti-known. And she needs to keep it that way. Summer break is
the only time Emma lets her real self out to play, but when she slips
up and the adorkable guy behind the local comic shop’s counter
uncovers her secret, she’s busted. Before she can shake a pom-pom,
Emma’s whisked into Logan’s world of comic conventions, live-action
role playing, and first-person-shooter video games. And she loves it.
But the more she denies who she really is, the deeper her lies
become, and the more she risks losing Logan forever.
* If
You Find Me by Emily Murdoch (March): A
broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the only home
fifteen-year-old Carey can remember. The trees keep guard over her
threadbare existence, with the one bright spot being Carey’s younger
sister, Jenessa, who depends on Carey for her very survival. All they
have is each other, as their mentally ill mother comes and goes with
greater frequency. Until that one fateful day their mother disappears
for good, and the girls are found by their father, a stranger, and
taken to re-enter the “normal” life of school, clothes and
boys.
Rotten
by Michael Northrop (April): When
troubled sixteen-year-old Jimmer “JD” Dobbs returns from a
mysterious summer “upstate” he finds that his mother has
adopted an abused Rottweiler that JD names Johnny Rotten, but soon
his tenuous relationship with the dog is threatened.
Book
of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler
(May): Jude has learned a lot from her older sisters, but the most
important thing is this: The Vargas brothers are notorious
heartbreakers. But as Jude begins to fall for Emilio Vargas, she
begins to wonder if her sisters were wrong.
Salvation
by Anne Osterlund (January): Salvador
Resendez–Salva to his friends–appears to have it all. His Mexican
immigrant family has high expectations, and Salva intends to fulfill
them. He’s student body president, quarterback of the football team,
and has a near-perfect GPA. Everyone loves him.
Especially
Beth Courant, AKA the walking disaster area. Dreamy and shy, Beth is
used to blending into the background. But she’s also smart, and she
has serious plans for her future.
Popular
guy and bookish girl–the two have almost nothing in common. Until
fate throws them together and the attraction is irresistible. Soon
Beth is pushing Salva to set his sights higher than ever–because she
knows he has more to offer, more than even he realizes.
Then
tragedy strikes–and threatens to destroy everything that Salva has
worked for. Will Beth’s love be enough to save him?
The
Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Robin Palmer (June):
Sixteen-year-old Annabelle Jacobs never asked
to be famous, but as the daughter of Janie Jacobs, one of the biggest
TV stars in the world, she is. Growing up is hard enough. Having to
do it in public because your mother is a famous actress? Even harder.
When your mom crashes and burns after her DUI mug shot is splashed
across the internet? Definitely not fun. Then your mom falls for a
guy so much younger than she that it would be more appropriate for
you to be dating him? That’s just a train wreck waiting to happen.
Isla
and the Happily Ever After by
Stephanie Perkins (May): Falling
in love in the world’s most romantic city is easy for hopeless
dreamer Isla and introspective artist Josh. But as they begin their
senior year at the School of America in Paris, Isla and Josh are
quickly forced to deal with the heartbreaking reality that
happily-ever-afters aren’t always forever. Their romantic journey
is skillfully intertwined with those of beloved couples Anna and
Étienne and Lola and Cricket, whose paths are destined to collide in
a sweeping finale certain to please fans old and new.

Rules of Summer by Joanna Philbin (June): THE RULES OF SUMMER is about two 17 year-old girls living in the same beachfront mansion in East Hampton for the summer, one “upstairs” (the daughter of a very blue-blooded family) and one “downstairs” (the niece of the family’s housekeeper.) Isabel is the privileged daughter who’s used to having guys fall at her feet. Rory is the no-nonsense girl from a small New Jersey town who’s always been the friend, never the girlfriend.  Besides becoming each other’s unlikely allies, both Rory and Isabel have a summer romance that will change her life.

* The
S Word by Chelsea Pitcher (May):
Angie’s quest for the truth behind her best friend’s suicide drives
her deeper into the dark, twisted side of Verity High.
This Is How I Find Her by Sara Polski: Sophie Canon has just started her junior year when her mother tries to kill herself. Sophie has always lived her life in the shadow of her mother’s bipolar disorder, monitoring her medication, rushing home after school to check on her instead of spending time with friends, and keeping her mother’s diagnosis secret from everyone outside their family. But when the overdose lands Sophie’s mother in the hospital, Sophie no longer has to watch over her. She moves in with her aunt, uncle, and cousin, from whom she has been estranged for the past five years. Rolling her suitcase across town to her family’s house is easy. What’s harder is figuring out how to build her own life.
Forgive
Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew
Quick (August): Today
is Leonard Peacock’s birthday. It is also the day he hides a gun in
his backpack. Because today is the day he will kill his former best
friend, and then himself, with his grandfather’s P-38 pistol.
* The
Symptoms of My Insanity
by Mindy Raf (April): When
you’re a hypochondriac, there are a million different things that
could be wrong with you, but for Izzy, focusing on what could be
wrong might be keeping her from dealing with what’s really
wrong–with her friendships, her romantic entanglements, and even her
family
Over
You
by Amy Reed (June): A novel about two girls on the run from their
problems, their pasts, and themselves. Max and Sadie are escaping to
Nebraska, but they’ll soon learn they can’t escape the truth.
* Dr
Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets
by Evan Roskos: A
sixteen-year-old boy wrestling with depression and anxiety tries to
cope by writing poems, reciting Walt Whitman, hugging trees, and
figuring out why his sister has been kicked out of the house.
My
Suicide Playlist
by Leila Sales: 16-year-old named Elise Dembowski, who stumbles on an
underground dance club in her town and gains entry to a world of
late-night dance parties, until, as Barbara explained, “her
ordinary life threatens to intrude.”
* Riptide
by Lindsey Scheibe (May): For
Grace Parker, surfing is all about the ride and the moment.
Everything else disappears. She can forget that her best friend, Ford
Watson, has a crush on her that she can’t reciprocate. She can
forget how badly she wants to get a surf scholarship to UC San Diego.
She can forget the pressure of her parents’ impossibly high
expectations.
When
Ford enters Grace into a surf competition— the only way she can
impress the UCSD surfing scouts—she has one summer to train and
prepare. Will she gain everything she’s ever wanted or lose the
only things that ever mattered?
* Uses
for Boys by
Erica
Lorraine Scheidt (January): Anna
remembers a time before boys, when she was little and everything made
sense. When she and her mom were a family, just the two of them
against the world. But now her mom is gone most of the time, chasing
the next marriage, bringing home the next stepfather. Anna is left on
her own—until she discovers that she can make boys her family. From
Desmond to Joey, Todd to Sam, Anna learns that if you give boys what
they want, you can get what you need. But the price is high—the
other kids make fun of her; the girls call her a slut. Anna’s
new friend, Toy, seems to have found a way around the
loneliness, but Toy has her own secrets that even Anna can’t know.
Then
comes Sam. When Anna actually meets a boy who is more than just
useful, whose family eats dinner together, laughs, and tells stories,
the truth about love becomes clear. And she finally learns how it
feels to have something to lose—and something to offer. 
Severed
Heads, Broken Hearts
by Robyn Schneider (June): Star
athlete and prom king Ezra Faulkner’s life is irreparably transformed
by a tragic accident and the arrival of eccentric new girl Cassidy
Thorpe.
Falling
for You by Lisa Schroeder (January): Very good friends, her
poetry notebooks, and a mysterious “ninja of nice” give
seventeen-year-old Rae the strength to face her mother’s neglect, her
stepfather’s increasing abuse, and a new boyfriend’s obsessiveness.
* Bruised
by Sarah Skilton (March): When Imogen, a
sixteen-year-old black belt in Tae Kwon Do, freezes during a holdup
at a local diner, the gunman is shot and killed by the police, and
she blames herself for his death. Before the shooting, she believed
that her black belt made her stronger than everyone else — more
responsible, more capable. But now her sense of self has been
challenged and she must rebuild her life, a process that includes
redefining her relationship with her family and navigating first love
with the boy who was at the diner with her during the shootout. With
action, romance, and a complex heroine, Bruised introduces a vibrant
new voice to the young adult world — full of dark humor and hard
truths.
Winger
by Andrew Smith: Two years younger than his classmates at a
prestigious boarding school, fourteen-year-old Ryan Dean West
grapples with living in the dorm for troublemakers, falling for his
female best friend who thinks of him as just a kid, and playing wing
on the Varsity rugby team with some of his frightening new
dorm-mates.
This
is What Happy Looks Like by
Jennifer E. Smith (April): Perfect
strangers Graham Larkin and Ellie O’Neill meet online when Graham
accidentally sends Ellie an e-mail about his pet pig, Wilbur. When
the relationship goes from online to in-person, they find out whether
their relationship can be the real thing.
Trinkets
by Kirsten Smith (March): When
three Lake Oswego High School girls from different social groups,
good-girl Elodie, popular Tabitha, and tough Moe, meet in a
rehabilitation group, they discover they have much more in common
than shoplifting.
* The
Reece Malcolm List by Amy
Spalding (February): While
attending a performing arts school, making new friends, landing the
lead in the musical, and falling for the attractive Sai,
sixteen-year-old Devan attempts to forge a relationship with her
enigmatic mother, Reece Malcolm, after her father’s death.
Ink is Thicker Than Water by Amy Spalding (December): Kellie has a pretty easy life: great friends and a job at her mom and stepdad’s tattoo shop, the Family Ink. But when Kellie’s sister Sara’s birth mother contacts her, and Sara starts to slip away from the family she’s always known for the one she’s just discovering, Kellie can’t help but feel that everything is falling apart. When the college guy she hooked up a few months ago makes a reappearance in her life–just when everything else seems to be going wrong–Kellie finds an intense relationship may be just what she needs — or is it?
Then
You Were Gone
by Lauren Strasnick (January): Adrienne and Dakota’s long-term best
friendship has been over for two years, but when Dakota goes missing,
a presumed suicide, Adrienne is overwhelmed, leading to problems at
school and with her boyfriend.

All the Rage by Courtney Summers (Fall): A 17-year-old girl’s attempt to blackmail her rich classmates results in her waking up on a dirt road with no money, no memory of how she got there and a semi-erased message she left for herself the only clue as to why. When she tries to piece together the evening before and all the events leading up to it, a dark and sinister game is revealed. 

The
Language Inside
by Holly Thompson (May): Raised in Japan, American-born tenth-grader
Emma is disconcerted by a move to Massachusetts for her mother’s
breast cancer treatment, because half of Emma’s heart remains with
her friends recovering from the tsunami.
Fat
Angie
by E. E. Charlton-Trujillo (March): Angie
is broken — by her can’t-be-bothered mother, by her high-school
tormenters, and by being the only one who thinks her
varsity-athlete-turned-war-hero sister is still alive. Hiding under a
mountain of junk food hasn’t kept the pain (or the shouts of “crazy
mad cow!”) away. Having failed to kill herself — in front of a
gym full of kids — she’s back at high school just trying to make
it through each day. That is, until the arrival of KC Romance, the
kind of girl who doesn’t exist in Dryfalls, Ohio. A girl who is one
hundred and ninety-nine percent wow! A girl who never sees her as Fat
Angie, and who knows too well that the package doesn’t always match
what’s inside. With an offbeat sensibility, mean girls to rival a
horror classic, and characters both outrageous and touching, this
darkly comic anti-romantic romance will appeal to anyone who likes
entertaining and meaningful fiction.
* OCD,
the Dude, and Me by
Lauren Roedy Vaughn (March): Danielle Levine stands out even at her
alternative high school–in appearance and attitude–but when her
scathing and sometimes raunchy English essays land her in a social
skills class, she meets Daniel, another social misfit who may break
her resolve to keep everyone at arm’s length.
* My
Life After Now
by Jessica Verdi (April): When she loses a leading role and her
leading man to another girl, sixteen-year-old Lucy, a member of the
high school drama club, does something completely out of character
that has life-altering consequences.
In
Too Deep
by Coert Voorhees (July): Annie
Fleet, master scuba diver and history buff, knows she can’t fight
her nerd status as a freshman at her Los Angeles private school. And
she doesn’t care—except for the fact that her crush, Josh, thinks
she’s more adorable than desirable. Annie is determined to set him
straight on their school trip to Mexico. But her teacher has other
plans: he needs Annie to help him find Cortez’s lost-long treasure.
Suddenly,
Annie finds herself scuba diving in pitch-black waters, jetting to
Hawaii with Josh, and hunting for the priceless Golden Jaguar. But
Annie and Josh aren’t the only ones lured by the possibility of
finding the greatest treasure ever lost at sea. Someone else wants
the gold—and needs Annie dead. In deeper danger than she ever
imagined, can Annie get the boy and find the Jaguar, or is she in
over her head?
Empty
by KM Walton (January): Deeply depressed after her father cheated on
and divorced her mother, seventeen-year-old Adele has gained over
seventy pounds and is being bullied and abused at school–to the
point of being raped and accused of being the aggressor.
The
Distance Between Us
by Kasie West: Seventeen-year-old
Caymen Meyers studies the rich like her own personal science
experiment, and after years of observation she’s pretty sure
they’re only good for one thing—spending money on useless stuff,
like the porcelain dolls in her mother’s shop. So when Xander
Spence walks into the store to pick up a doll for his grandmother, it
only takes one glance for Caymen to figure out he’s oozing rich.
Despite his charming ways and that he’s one of the first people who
actually gets her, she’s smart enough to know his interest won’t
last. Because if there’s one thing she’s learned from her
mother’s warnings, it’s that the rich have a short attention
span. But Xander keeps coming around, despite her best efforts to
scare him off. And much to her dismay, she’s beginning to enjoy his
company. She knows her mom can’t find out—she wouldn’t approve.
She’d much rather Caymen hang out with the local rocker who hasn’t
been raised by money. But just when Xander’s attention and loyalty
are about to convince Caymen that being rich isn’t a character
flaw, she finds out that money is a much bigger part of their
relationship than she’d ever realized. And that Xander’s not the
only one she should’ve been worried about.
When
You Were Here by Daisy Whitney
(June): An
American teenager travels from California to Tokyo to uncover the
secrets surrounding the death of his mother, all while trying to both
hold onto and let go of the girl he’s been in love with his whole
life.
Made
of Stars
by Kelley York: 18-year-old
Hunter Jackson and his half-sister, Ashlin, have been summer-friends
with Chance Harvey since they were kids. Chance, charismatic and
adventurous, was everything from their first friend to their first
kiss, always bringing their summers to life.
But
when they’re reunited with Chance for the first time in years, they
start to see Chance’s oddities in a whole new light. Like the bruises
he tries to hide, or how he refuses to go home for days at a time.
What the siblings used to think of as Chance’s quirks—the lies
about his parents, his clinginess and dangerous impulsiveness—are
now warning signs that something is seriously wrong.
Then
Chance’s mom turns up with a bullet to the head, and all eyes turn to
Chance and his dad. Hunter thinks Chance is innocent…he just has to
prove it. But how can he protect the boy he loves when Chance keeps
running away?
The
Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr
(May):Sixteen-year-old
San Franciscan Lucy Beck-Moreau once had a promising future as a
concert pianist. Her chance at a career has passed, and she decides
to help her ten-year-old piano prodigy brother, Gus, map out his own
future.

Feel free to add others in the comments. Remember that these are contemporary realistic novels. Not just any novels published in 2013.

Contemporary YA Fiction on Grief Book List

|

I wasn’t quite ready to end contemporary week yet, so I thought I’d share another book list before wrapping up the series. I mentioned yesterday that I’d left books about grieving off the tough issues list, in hopes that I could compile those titles into a separate booklist. And voila! The grief and grieving booklist is here, and it is lengthy. 

All of these titles have been published in the last two years, and all of them tackle grieving in different ways. I’ve tried to organize them by topic as best possible, but since some have more than one topic addressed, this is also somewhat subjective. If you can think of other contemporary titles published between 2010 and today exploring grief in its myriad ways, feel free to leave a comment. As usual, all descriptions are via WorldCat. 

Losing a friend


I’ve included not just friends, but significant others in this category. 


A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend by Emily Horner: As she tries to sort out her feelings of love, seventeen-year-old Cass, a spunky math genius with an introverted streak, finds a way to memorialize her dead best friend.

Lovely, Dark, and Deep by Amy McNamara: In the aftermath of a car accident that kills her boyfriend and throws her carefully planned future into complete upheaval, high school senior Wren retreats to the deep woods of Maine to live with the artist father she barely knows and meets a boy who threatens to pull her from her safe, hard-won exile.

One Moment by Kristina McBride: Rising high school senior Maggie remembers little about the accidental death of her boyfriend, Joey, but as she slowly begins to recall that day at the gorge with their long-time friends, she realizes he was keeping some terrible secrets.  

The Opposite of Hallelujah by Anna Jarzab: For eight of her sixteen years Carolina Mitchell’s older sister Hannah has been a nun in a convent, almost completely out of touch with her family–so when she suddenly abandons her vocation and comes home, nobody knows quite how to handle the situation, or guesses what explosive secrets she is hiding.

Something Like Normal by Trish Doller: When Travis returns home from Afghanistan, his parents are splitting up, his brother has stolen his girlfriend and car, and he has nightmares of his best friend getting killed but when he runs into Harper, a girl who has despised him since middle school, life actually starts looking up.

The Secret Year by Jennifer R Hubbard: Reading the journal of the high-society girl he was secretly involved with for a year helps high school senior Colt cope with her death and come closer to understanding why she needed him while continuing to be the girlfriend of a wealthy classmate.



You Are Not Here by Samantha Schutz: 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.

Freefall by Mindi Scott: A bass guitar player in a teen rock band deals with alcoholism, his best friend’s death, and first love.

Family


Entire family






The Beginning of After by Jennifer Castle: In the aftermath of a car accident that killed her family, sixteen-year-old Laurel must face a new world of guilt, painful memories, and the possibility of new relationships.

Mother


Emily’s Dress and Other Missing Things by Kathryn Burak: A new girl in Amherst, Massachusetts, comes to terms with her mother’s suicide and her best friend’s disappearance with the help of Emily Dickinson’s poetry–and her dress.

Someone Else’s Life by Katie Dale: When seventeen-year-old Rosie’s mother dies from Huntington’s Disease, a devastating secret is revealed that sends Rosie on a journey from England to the United States with her ex-boyfriend, where she discovers yet more deeply buried and troubling secrets and lies.

The Survival Kit by Donna Freitas: After her mother dies, sixteen-year-old Rose works through her grief by finding meaning in a survival kit that her mother left behind. Rose’s Survival kit includes an iPod, a picture fo peonies, a crystal heart, a paper star, a box of crayons, and a tiny handmade kite.

The Sharp Time by Mary O’Connell: In the week following her mother’s death in a freak accident, eighteen-year-old Sandanista Jones finds small measures of happiness even as she fantasizes about an act of revenge against an abusive teacher at her high school.

Father


After by Kristin Harmel: When her father is killed in a car accident, Lacey feels responsible, so when she is given a chance to make a difference in the lives of some of her fellow students, she jumps at the chance.

The Beautiful Between by Alyssa B Sheinmel: Connelly Sternin feels like Rapunzel, locked away in her Upper East Side high-rise apartment studying for the SAT exams, until she develops an unlikely friendship with her high school’s Prince Charming and begins to question some of the things that have always defined her life.

Fall for Anything by Courtney Summers: As she searches for clues that would explain the suicide of her successful photographer father, Eddie Reeves meets the strangely compelling Culler Evans who seems to know a great deal about her father and could hold the key to the mystery surrounding his death.

How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr: 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.

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson: Taylor Edwards’ family might not be the closest-knit–everyone is a little too busy and overscheduled–but for the most part, they get along just fine. Then Taylor’s dad gets devastating news, and her parents decide that the family will spend one last summer all together at their old lake house in the Pocono Mountains. Crammed into a place much smaller and more rustic than they are used to, they begin to get toknow each other again. And Taylor discovers that the people she thought she had left behind haven’t actually gone anywhere. Her former best friend is still around, as is her first boyfriend…and he’s much cuter at seventeen than he was at twelve. As the summer progresses and the Edwards become more of a family, they’re more aware than ever that they’re battling a ticking clock. Sometimes, though, there is just enough time to get a second chance–with family, with friends, and with love.

Sign Language by Amy Ackley: Teenaged Abby must deal with her feelings about her father’s cancer and its aftermath while simultaneously navigating the difficult problems of growing up.



Try Not to Breathe by Jennifer R Hubbard: The summer Ryan is released from a mental hospital following his suicide attempt, he meets Nicki, who gets him to share his darkest secrets while hiding secrets of her own.

What Comes After by Steve Watkins: When her veterinarian father dies, sixteen-year-old Iris Wight must move from Maine to North Carolina where her Aunt Sue spends Iris’s small inheritance while abusing her physically and emotionally, but the hardest to take is her mistreatment of the farm animals.

Brother


In Honor by Jessi Kirby: Three days after she learns that her brother Finn died serving in Iraq, Honor receives a letter from him asking her to drive his car from Texas to California for a concert, and when his estranged best friend shows up suddenly and offers to accompany her, they set off on a road trip that reveals much about all three of them.

Personal Effects by E. M. Kokie: Matt has been sleepwalking through life while seeking answers about his brother T.J.’s death in Iraq, but after discovering that he may not have known his brother as well as he thought he did, Matt is able to stand up to his father, honor T.J.’s memory, and take charge of his own life.

Waiting by Carol Lynch Williams: 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.

Adios Nirvana by Conrad Wesselhoeft: As Seattle sixteen-year-old Jonathan helps a dying man come to terms with a tragic event he experienced during World War II, Jonathan begins facing his own demons, especially the death of his twin brother, helped by an assortment of friends, old and new.

Sister


The Freak Observer by Blythe Woolston: Suffering from a crippling case of post-traumatic stress disorder, sixteen-year-old Loa Lindgren tries to use her problem solving skills, sharpened in physics and computer programming, to cure herself.

Losing Faith by Denise Jaden: Brie tries to cope with her grief over her older sister Faith’s sudden death by trying to learn more about the religious “home group” Faith secretly joined and never talked about with Brie or her parents.

Saving June by Hannah Harrington: After her sister’s suicide, Harper Scott takes off for California with her best friend Laney to scatter her sister’s ashes in the Pacific Ocean.



The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson: In the months after her sister dies, seventeen-year-old Lennie falls into a love triangle and discovers the strength to follow her dream of becoming a musician.

Tell Me A Secret by Holly Cupala: Seventeen-year-old Rand’s unexpected pregnancy leads her on a path to unravel the mystery of her sister’s death and face her own more hopeful future.

Without Tess by Marcella Pixley: Fifteen-year-old Lizzie Cohen recalls what it was like growing up with her imaginative but disturbed older sister Tess, and how she is striving to reclaim her own life since Tess died.