Tayshas Reading List 2006-2007

The Diary of Pelly D

by Adlington, L. J.

Toni V, a construction worker on a futuristic colony, finds the diary of a teenage girl whose life has been turned upside-down by holocaust-like events, and he begins to question his own beliefs.

The Perfect Shot

by Alphin, Elaine Marie.

Brian uses basketball to block out memories of his girlfriend and her family who were murdered; however, the upcoming trial and a high school history assignment forces him to face the past.

Peaches: a Novel

by Anderson, Jodi Lynn.

Three teenaged girls from very different backgrounds, thrown together to pick peaches in a Georgia orchard, spend a summer in pursuit of the right boy, the truest of friends, and the perfect peach.

Prom

by Anderson, Laurie Halse.

Eighteen-year-old Ash wants nothing to do with senior prom, but when disaster strikes and her desperate friend, Nat, needs her help to get it back on track, Ash's involvement transforms her life.

24 Girls in 7 Days

by Bradley, Alex.

Unlucky in love, teenager Jack Grammar cannot get a date to prom until his friends play a practical joke and place a personal ad in the school online newspaper on his behalf. Now Jack has twenty-four dates and just seven days until prom.

Girls in Pants: the Third Summer of the Sisterhood

by Brashares, Ann.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants graduates from high school and spends their last summer before college learning about life and themselves.

Candy

by Brooks, Kevin.

Joe, an English boy from the right side of the tracks, is poised to get everything he has ever wanted, but he risks it all when he falls for Candy, and is drawn into her seedy, dangerous world.

The Tequila Worm

by Canales, Viola.

Sofia finds that her experiences as a scholarship student at an Episcopal boarding school in Austin only strengthen her ties to her family in the barrio community of McAllen, Texas.

Kissing Vanessa

by Cheshire, Simon.

Fifteen-year-old Kevin has plans to do better in school, but when the next term begins he is smitten by his new classmate, Vanessa, and he focuses all of his energy on getting close to her.

Daniel Half Human and the Good Nazi

by Chotjewitz, David.

In 1933, best friends Daniel and Armin admire Hitler, but as anti-Semitism buoys Hitler to power, Daniel learns he is half Jewish, threatening the friendship even as life in their beloved Hamburg, Germany, is becoming nightmarish. Also details Daniel and Armin's reunion in 1945 in interspersed chapters.

Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You

by Cirrone, Dorian.

Sixteen-year-old Kayla, a ballet dancer with very large breasts, and her sister Paterson, an artist, are both helped and hindered by classmates as they confront sexism, conformity, and censorship at their high school for the arts while still managing to maintain their sense of humor.

The Innocent

by Coben, Harlan

Matt Hunter, released from prison for accidentally killing someone when breaking up a fight, has his life back on track--a beautiful, pregnant wife, and a pending deal on the house of his dreams--until he receives bizarre photographs that send him running from the law.

The Blue Girl

by De Lint, Charles

Seventeen-year-old Imogene decides to reinvent herself after moving to a new town with her family, hoping to leave behind her tough, rebellious nature, befriending the high school outcast and trying her best to avoid trouble, but when she gets on the wrong side of a gang of malicious fairies, Imogene finds herself in more trouble than ever before.

Runner

by Deuker, Carl.

Living with his alcoholic father on a broken-down sailboat on Puget Sound has been hard on seventeen-year-old Chance Taylor, but when his love of running leads to a high-paying job, he quickly learns that the money is not worth the risk.

Fade to Black

by Flinn, Alex.

An HIV-positive high school student hospitalized after being attacked, the bigot accused of the crime, and the only witness, a classmate with Down Syndrome, reveal how the assault has changed their lives as they tell of its aftermath.

Head Games

by Fredericks, Mariah.

Two teenagers connect online in a role-playing game, which leads them into their own face-to-face, half-acknowledged courtship.

Looking for Alaska : a Novel

by Green, John.

Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash.

Where I Want to Be

by Griffin, Adele.

Two teenaged sisters, separated by death but still connected, work through their feelings of loss over the closeness they shared as children that was later destroyed by one's mental illness, and finally make peace with each other.

Dark Sons

by Grimes, Nikki.

Alternating poems compare and contrast the conflicted feelings of Ishmael, son of the Biblical patriarch Abraham, and Sam, a teenager in New York City, as they try to come to terms with being abandoned by their fathers and with the love they feel for their younger stepbrothers.

Invisible

by Hautman, Pete

Doug and Andy are unlikely best friends--one a loner obsessed by his model trains, the other a popular student involved in football and theater--who grew up together and share a bond that nothing can sever.

The Minister's Daughter

by Hearn, Julie

In 1645 in England, the daughters of the town minister successfully accuse a local healer and her granddaughter of witchcraft to conceal an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, but years later during the 1692 Salem trials their lie has unexpected repercussions.

Things Left Unsaid: a Novel in Poems

by Hemphill, Stephanie.

After a lifetime of conforming to the image of what her parents and high school friends want her to be, Sarah must come to terms with her own identity when her destructive best friend tries to commit suicide. Told in the form of free-verse poems.

The Hippie House

by Holubitsky, Katherine

In the summer of 1970 in a rural Canadian town the lives of Emma and other local teenagers are changed when a girl is found murdered in a deserted house hippies had used for band practice.

Hitch

by Ingold, Jeanette

To help his family during the Depression and avoid becoming a drunk like his father, Moss Trawnley joins the Civilian Conservation Corps, helps build a new camp near Monroe, Montana, and leads the other men in making the camp a success.

Stained

by Jacobson, Jennifer

In Weaver Falls, New Hampshire, in 1975, seventeen-year-old Jocelyn looks for answers when her lifelong neighbor and friend, Gabe, turns up missing and she learns that, while her boyfriend has been telling everything to a priest, Gabe has been keeping terrible secrets.

A Fast and Brutal Wing

by Johnson, Kathleen Jeffrie

A story told through e-mails, newspaper articles, and short story excerpts, in which Niki, a teenaged girl abandoned by her father, believes that she and her brother can transform themselves into a cat and a hawk, and a sympathetic classmate coping with his mother's death tries to protect the pair from rumors of incest.

13 Little Blue Envelopes

by Johnson, Maureen

When seventeen-year-old Ginny receives a packet of mysterious envelopes from her favorite aunt, she leaves New Jersey to criss-cross Europe on a sort of scavenger hunt that transforms her life.

Real Time: a Novel

by Kass, Pnina

Sixteen-year-old Tomas Wanninger persuades his mother to let him leave Germany to volunteer at a kibbutz in Israel, where he experiences a violent political attack and finds answers about his own past.

Dark Angel

by Klass, David

When his older brother is released from prison, seventeen-year-old Jeff's family secret is revealed, causing upheaval in his home, school and love life.

Magic or Madness

by Larbalestier, Justine

From the Sydney, Australia, home of a grandmother she believes is a witch, fifteen-year-old Reason Cansino is magically transported to New York City, where she discovers that friends and foes can be hard to distinguish.

The Convicts

by Lawrence, Iain

His efforts to avenge his father's unjust imprisonment force fourteen-year-old Tom Tin into the streets of nineteenth-century London, but after he is convicted of murder, Tom is eventually sent to Australia where he has a surprise reunion.

Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie

by Lubar, David

While navigating his first year of high school and awaiting the birth of his new baby brother, Scott loses old friends and gains some unlikely new ones as he hones his skills as a writer.

Stealing Henry

by MacCullough, Carolyn

Seventeen-year-old Savannah, fed up with her violent stepfather, hits him over the head with a frying pan and takes to the road with her eight-year-old half-brother in a journey that echoes in reverse the one her mother Alice took as a young unwed mother running away from home.

Pinned

by Martino, Alfred C.

Dealing with family problems, girls, and their own competitive natures, high school seniors Ivan Korske and Bobby Zane face each other in the final match of the New Jersey State Wrestling Championship.

Myrren's Gift

by McIntosh, Fiona

Fourteen-year-old Wyl Thirsk inherits the leadership of the Morgravian legions upon his father's death, a job that makes him duty-bound to pledge his loyalty to the spiteful and cruel crown prince Celimus, and the standoff between the two heats up when Myrren, a condemned witch to whom Wyl has shown kindness, gives him a miraculous gift.

The Secret Under My Skin

by McNaughton, Janet Elizabeth

In the year 2368, humans exist under dire environmental conditions and one young woman, rescued from a work camp and chosen for a special duty, uses her love of learning to discover the truth about the planet's future and her own dark past.

Twilight

by Meyer, Stephenie

When seventeen-year-old Bella leaves Phoenix to live with her father in Forks, Washington, she meets an exquisitely handsome boy at school for whom she feels an overwhelming attraction and whom she comes to realize is not wholly human.

Caught In the Act

by Moore, Peter

Everyone believes that sophomore honors student Ethan Lederer is a top-notch scholar and a great guy, but a new student helps Ethan to discover and disclose that he is just acting a role, even as she reveals her own mental instability.

Private Peaceful

by Morpurgo, Michael.

When Thomas Peaceful's older brother is forced to join the British Army, Thomas decides to sign up as well, although he is only fourteen years old, to prove himself to his country, his family, his childhood love, Molly, and himself.

Gothic! : Ten Original Dark Tales

These ten terrific tales are guaranteed to raise the hairs on your neck--and just possibly a scream in your throat. The well-balanced collection ranges in tone from dark humor to eerie mystery to true terror.

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment

by Patterson, James

Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel. Six kids who are pretty normal in most ways - except that they're 98 percent human, 2 percent bird. They grew up in a lab, living like rats in cages, but now they're free. Aside, of course, from the fact that they're prime prey for Erasers - wicked wolf-like creatures with a taste for flying humans.

A Room on Lorelei Street

by Pearson, Mary

To escape a miserable existence taking care of her alcoholic mother, seventeen-year-old Zoe rents a room from an eccentric woman, but her earnings as a waitress after school are minimal and she must go to extremes to cover expenses.

Just Like That

by Qualey, Marsha.

Danger. Just Like That is about all the dangerous things in everyday life: keeping and telling secrets, friendship, family, love, and thin ice. Plot wise, it’s about high school senior Hanna Martin, who takes a late-night walk by a lake near her Minneapolis home and has a life-changing encounter with two doomed teenagers.

Eyes of the Emperor

by Salisbury, Graham

Following orders from the United States Army, several young Japanese American men train K-9 units to hunt Asians during World War II.

America Through the Lens : Photographers Who Changed the Nation

by Sandler, Martin W.

Contains photographs and essays that highlight the careers of twelve American photographers, whose work has influenced the course of history, including Matthew Brady, William Henry Jackson, Edward S. Curtis, and Dorothea Lange.

I was a Non-Blonde Cheerleader

by Scott, Kieran

As a brunette on the all-blonde cheerleading squad at her new Florida high school, sophomore Annisa Gobrowski tries to fit in with her popular teammates without losing the friendship of Bethany, the only other non-blonde at the school.

The Book of Dead Days

by Sedgwick, Marcus

A magician named Valerian has only the days between Christmas and New Years to save his own life after making a pact with the devil years before and seeks the help of a servant boy and an orphan girl named Willow.

The Boy From the Basement

by Shaw, Susan

Charlie, a twelve-year-old boy who has been confined to his basement by his abusive, psychotic father, is accidentally locked out after sneaking outside one night, and ends up in the hospital where he gets the attention he needs and a new start in life.

Finding Lubchenko

by Simmons, Michael

When his father is framed for murder and bio-terrorism, high-school junior Evan, using clues from a stolen laptop, travels from Seattle to Paris with two friends to find the real culprit.

Fake ID

by Sorrells, Walter

After a lifetime of moving and assuming new identities, sixteen-year-old Chass begins to piece together the past that haunts her and her mother which involves a mysterious tape, a deceased popular singer, and the secrets of several people in a small Alabama town.

Light Years : a Novel

by Stein, Tammar

Maya Laor leaves her home in Israel to study astronomy at the University of Virginia after the tragic death of her boyfriend in a suicide bombing.

Black and White

by Volponi, Paul

Two star high school basketball players, one black and one white, experience the justice system differently after committing a crime together and getting caught.

Secrets of a Civil War Submarine : Solving the Mysteries of the H.L. Hunley by Walker, Sally M.

Tells the story of the "H. L. Hunley," the Confederate submarine that in 1864 became the first to ever sink an enemy ship but lay missing on the ocean floor for more than a century, describing its creation, its discovery, skeletons and objects found onboard, and facial reconstructions of several crew members by forensic anthropologists.

Juice

by Walters, Eric

When Coach Reeves retired, he was replaced by Coach Barnes, whose own determination to obtain a college post rested on his ability to create a division one high school team; however, to do this involved the illegal distribution of steroids to the team.

Uglies

by Westerfeld, Scott

Tally is faced with a difficult choice when her new friend Shay decides to risk life on the outside rather than submit to the forced operation that turns sixteen year old girls into gorgeous beauties, and realizes that there is a whole new side to the pretty world that she doesn't like.

Broken China

by Williams, Lori Aurelia

China Cup Cameron, a fourteen-year-old single mother with only her paralyzed Uncle Simon for support, takes on tremendous personal debt in hopes of a beautiful funeral after her daughter dies.

The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray

by Wooding, Chris

As Thaniel, a wych-hunter, and Cathaline, his friend and mentor, try to destroy the terrible creatures that infest the alleys of London's Old Quarter, their lives become entwined with that of Alaizabel Cray, a woman who may be either mad or possessed.

Elsewhere

by Zevin, Gabrielle

After fifteen-year-old Liz Hall is hit by a taxi and killed, she finds herself in a place that is both like and unlike Earth, where she must adjust to her new status and figure out how to "live."

I am the Messenger

by Zusak, Markus

After capturing a bank robber, nineteen-year-old cab driver Ed Kennedy begins receiving mysterious messages that direct him to addresses where people need help, and he begins getting over his lifelong feeling of worthlessness.