Teen Services
Top 10 Best Books for Teens in 2007
All books are listed in alphabetical order by author. Click here to see if a book is in!
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation Vol. 1: The Pox Party
by M.T. Anderson
It sounds like a fairy tale. He is a boy dressed in silks and white wigs and given the finest of classical educations. Raised by a group of rational philosophers known only by numbers, the boy and his mother - a princess in exile from a faraway land - are the only persons in their household assigned names. As the boy's regal mother, Cassiopeia, entertains the house scholars with her beauty and wit, young Octavian begins to question the purpose behind his guardians' fanatical studies. Only after he dares to open a forbidden door does he learn the hideous nature of their experiments - and his own chilling role in them.
Samurai Shortstop
by Alan Gratz
Tokyo, 1890. From his first day at boarding school, Toyo Shimada is taken aback when the seniors keep him from trying out for the baseball team - especially after he sees their current shortstop. Toyo isn't afraid to prove himself; He's more troubled by his uncle's recent suicide. Although his uncle's defiant death was supposedly heroic, it has made Toyo question many things about his family's samurai background. As the gulf between father and son grows wider, Toyo searches desperately for a way to prove there is a place for his family's samurai values in modern Japan. Baseball might just be the answer, but will his father ever accept a "Western" game that stands for everything he despises?
Surrender
by Sonya Hartnett
As life slips away, Gabriel looks back over his brief twenty years, which have been clouded by frustration and humiliation. A small, unforgiving town and distant, punitive parents ensure that he is never allowed to forget the horrific mistake he made as a child. He has only two friends - his dog, Surrender, and the unruly wild boy, Finnigan, a shadowy doppelganger with whom the meek Gabriel once made a boyhood pact. But when a series of arson attacks grips the town, Gabriel realizes how unpredictable and dangerous Finnigan is. As events begin to spiral violently out of control, it becomes devastatingly clear that only the most extreme measures will rid Gabriel of Finnigan for good.
Sold
by Patricia McCormick
Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut in a mountain village in Nepal. Her life is made up of simple pleasures but these happy times are undercut by the desperate poverty that threatens the lives of the villagers. Then one day, Lakshmi's father brings her to a shopkeeper in town and tells Lakshmi that she is going to go work as a maid in India so that her wages can be sent home. Glad to help support her family, Lakshmi undertakes the long journey and arrives at "Happiness House" full of hope. But she soon discovers the unthinkable truth: she has been sold into prostitution.
Anahita's Woven Riddle
by Meghan Nuttall Sayres
Anahita, a nomad, learns that her father has promised her hand in marriage to a man she dislikes. Determined to have a say in her own fate, Anahita convinces her father to let her hold a contest, in which potential suitors must correctly answer the riddle she has woven into her wedding carpet. A diplomat, a schoolteacher, a shepherd, and a prince compete in Anahita's battle of wits, for the heart of this extraordinary girl.
The Trap
by John Smelcer
Seventeen-year-old Johnny Least-Weasel knows that his grandfather Albert is a stubborn old man and won't stop checking his own traplines even though other men his age stopped doing so years ago. But Albert Least-Weasel has been running traplines in the Alaskan wilderness alone for the past sixty years. Nothing has ever gone wrong on the trail he knows so well.
When Albert doesn't come back from checking his traps, with the temperature steadily plummeting, Johnny must decide quickly whether to trust his grandfather or his own instincts.
The King of Attolia
by Meghan Whalen Turner
By scheming and theft, the Thief of Eddis has become King of Attolia. Eugenides wanted the queen, not the crown, but he finds himself trapped in a web of his own making surrounded by the subtle and dangerous intrigue of the Attolian court. When a naive young guard expresses his contempt for the king in no uncertain terms, he is dragged by Eugenides into the center of the political maelstrom. Like the king, he cannot escape the difficulties he makes for himself but he discovers a reluctant sympathy for Eugenides as he watches the newly crowned king struggle against his fate.
The Rules of Survival
by Nancy Werlin
It all starts when Matthew observes a heroic scene in a convenience store: A man named Murdoch puts himself
between an abusive father and his son. Matt is determined to get to know this man. And when, amazingly,
Murdoch begins dating Matt's mother, it seems as if life may become peaceful for the first time.
Matt and his sisters have never before known a moment of peace in a household ruled by their unpredictable,
vicious mother. And so, after Murdoch inevitably breaks up with her and the short period of family calm is
over, Matt sees that he needs to take action. He refuses to let his family remain at risk. Can he call upon
his hero, Murdoch? And if not, what might his desperation lead him to do?
American Born Chinese
by Gene Luen Yang
Three apparently unrelated tales of a monkey king, a young Asian boy, and a popular football player come together with an unexpected twist, in a modern fable that is hilarious, poignant, and action-packed. American Born Chinese is an amazing ride, all the way up to the astonishing climax.
The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak
Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak's groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can't resist-books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.