Best
Books for Young Adults 2006 
Best
Books for Young Adults 2006 13
little blue envelopes
By Johnson, Maureen, 1973-
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.
Absolutely,
positively not
By LaRochelle, David.
Chronicles a teenage boy's humorous attempts to fit in at his Minnesota high
school by becoming a macho, girl-loving, "Playboy" pinup-displaying
heterosexual.
All
rivers flow to the sea
By McGhee, Alison, 1960-
After a car accident in the Adirondacks leaves her older sister Ivy brain-dead,
seventeen-year-old Rose struggles with her grief and guilt as she slowly learns
to let her sister go.
Anansi
boys
By Gaiman, Neil.
Charlie Nancy was leading a comfortable life until his father died and discovered
that dear old dad was a human form of Anansi, the African trickster god, and
that he had a brother, Spider, who inherited some of his father's godlike abilities.
Are
we there yet?
By Levithan, David.
Tricked by their parents into taking a trip to Italy together, two brothers--one
in high school and the other recently graduated from college--reflect on the
directions of their own lives and on the distance that has grown between them.
Ariel
By Tiffany, Grace, 1958-
Contains a retelling of William Shakespeare's "The Tempest" from the
point of view of Ariel, the mischievous air spirit.
As
simple as snow
By Galloway, Gregory.
After his eccentric girlfriend mysteriously disappears, a young man must unravel
the puzzle she left behind in her cryptic, riddle-filled letters and in the
obituaries she created for every living person in town.
Autobiography
of my dead brother
By Myers, Walter Dean, 1937-
Jesse pours his heart and soul into his sketchbook to make sense of life in
his troubled Harlem neighborhood and the loss of a close friend.
Ball
don't lie
By Pena, Matt de la.
Seventeen-year-old Sticky lives to play basketball at school and at Lincoln
Rec Center in Los Angeles and is headed for the pros, but he is unaware of the
many dangers--including his own past--that threaten his dream.
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.
Black
juice
By Lanagan, Margo, 1960-
Provides glimpses of the dark side of civilization and the beauty of the human
spirit through ten short stories that explore significant moments in people's
lives, events leading to them, and their consequences.
Bodies
from the ash
By Deem, James M.
Describes the archaeological excavations that began on the ancient cities of
Pompeii and Herculaneum which had been buried by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius
in AD 79.
Boy
proof
By Castellucci, Cecil, 1969-
Feeling alienated from everyone around her, high school senior and cinephile
Victoria Denton hides behind the identity of a favorite movie character until
an interesting new boy arrives at school and helps her realize that there is
more to life than just the movies.
A
certain slant of light
By Whitcomb, Laura.
After benignly haunting a series of people for 130 years, Helen meets a teenage
boy who can see her and together they unlock the mysteries of their pasts.
Code
Talker : a novel about the Navajo Marines of World War Two
By Bruchac, Joseph, 1942-
After being taught in a boarding school run by whites that Navajo is a useless
language, Ned Begay and other Navajo men are recruited by the Marines to become
Code Talkers, sending messages during World War II in their native tongue.
Come
back to Afghanistan : a California teenager's story
By Akbar, Said Hyder.
Presents the author's first-hand account and observations of living in Afghanistan
when his father is appointed President Hamid Karzai's chief spokesman.
Criss
cross
By Perkins, Lynne Rae.
Teenagers in a small town in the 1960s experience new thoughts and feelings,
question their identities, connect, and disconnect as they search for the meaning
of life and love.
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.
Day
of tears : a novel in dialogue
By Lester, Julius.
Presents an historical fiction written in first-person format that follows Emma,
the slave of Pierce Butler, through a series of events in her life as her master
hosts the largest slave auction in American history in Savannah, Georgia in
1859 in order to pay off his mounting gambling debts.
The
diary of Pelly D
By Adlington, L. J. (Lucy J.), 1970-
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.
Every
man for himself : ten short stories about being a guy
An anthology of ten original short stories about such things as family problems,
sexuality, and courage, written by well-known authors of children's books
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.
Far
traveler
By Tingle, Rebecca.
After the death of her mother, Aethelflaed of Mercia, seventeen-year-old Aelfwyn
flees imprisonment by her uncle King Edward and, in the guise of a youthful
bard, plays her part in the resolution of the tangled political enmities of
tenth century Britain.
Flush
By Hiaasen, Carl.
With their father jailed for sinking a river boat, Noah Underwood and his younger
sister, Abbey, must gather evidence that the owner of this floating casino is
emptying his bilge tanks into the protected waters around their Florida Keys
home.
The
forbidden schoolhouse : the true and dramatic story of Prudence Crandall and
her students
By Jurmain, Suzanne.
Chronicles the life and struggles of Prudence Crandall who, in the 1830s closed
her all-white boarding school for girls in Canterbury, Connecticut, and began
admitting African-American students; and describes the intense opposition from
the townspeople.
Fortune's
bones : the manumission requiem
By Nelson, Marilyn, 1946-
A series of poems on the life of Fortune, an eighteenth-century African-American
slave in New England whose skeleton came to be an exhibit at Connecticut's Mattatuck
Museum; includes notes and archival photos.
Full
service
By Weaver, Will.
In the summer of 1965, teenager Paul Sutton, a northern Minnesota farm boy,
takes a job at a gas station in town, where his strict religious upbringing
is challenged by new people and experiences.
Gil's
All Fright Diner
By Martinez, A. Lee.
Earl and Duke stop in at a roadside diner in Rockwood County, and Loretta, the
cafe's owner asks them to help solve the zombie problem that is troubling the
local town.
Good
brother, bad brother : the story of Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth
By Giblin, James.
Tells the life stories of nineteenth-century actor Edwin Booth and his actor
brother John Wilkes Booth, describing the differences between the two men, chronicling
John's assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and examining the impact of John's
crime on the Booth family for decades afterward.
Guinea
pig scientists : bold self-experimenters in science and medicine
By Dendy, Leslie A., 1946-
Recounts the true stories of ten scientists and medical researchers that have
endured extreme hardship and discomfort in order to test new discoveries and
inventions in the fields of medicine and science.
Harry
Potter and the half-blood prince
By Rowling, J. K.
Novice wizard Harry Potter, now sixteen-years-old, begins his sixth year at
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the midst of the battle between
good and evil which has heated up with the return of the Dark Lord Voldemort.
Heavy
metal and you
By Krovatin, Christopher.
High schooler Sam begins losing himself when he falls for a preppy girl who
wants him to give up getting wasted with his best friends and even his passion
for heavy metal music in order to become a better person.
The
highest tide : a novel
By Lynch, Jim, 1961-
When thirteen-year-old Miles O'Malley discovers a rare deep-sea creature stranded
in the mud of the tidal flats of Puget Sound, he finds himself thrown into the
limelight, but when he continues discovering rare ocean creatures, some begin
to wonder if he is an unlikely prophet.
Hitler
Youth : growing up in Hitler's shadow
By Bartoletti, Susan Campbell.
A photo-illustrated look at the youth organizations Adolf Hitler founded and
used to meet his sociopolitical and military ends; includes profiles of individual
Hitler Youth members as well as young people who opposed the Nazis, such as
Hans and Sophie Scholl.
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.
Inexcusable
By Lynch, Chris.
High school senior and football player Keir sets out to enjoy himself on graduation
night, but when he attempts to comfort a friend whose date has left her stranded,
things go terribly wrong.
An
innocent soldier
By Holub, Josef, 1926-
A sixteen-year-old farmhand is tricked into fighting in the Napoleonic Wars
by the farmer for whom he works, who secretly substitutes him for the farmer's
own son.
Invisible
By Hautman, Pete, 1952-
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.
Invisible
allies : microbes that shape our lives
By Farrell, Jeanette.
Examines some of the microbes that can be harmful to humans and others that
are essential to preserving foods.
Japan
1945 : a U.S. Marine's photographs from Ground Zero
By O'Donnell, Joe, 1922-
A collection of photographs by U.S. Marine Joe O'Donnell that capture the people,
places, and horrors he witnessed in Japanese cities after the U.S. bombing raids.
John
Lennon : all I want is the truth : a photographic biography
By Partridge, Elizabeth.
Presents a biography of musician John Lennon, chronicling his life and times
from his troubled childhood in Liverpool, England, through his career writing,
recording, and performing as a member of the Beatles. Includes 140 black-and-white
photographs.
Just
like that
By Qualey, Marsha.
A tragic accident ending with the death of two people her own age changes life
forever for an eighteen-year-old woman.
Keeper
By Peet, Mal.
South American journalist Paul Faustino begins his interview with World Cup
Soccer star El Gato and learns a fantastic story of a young, lonely boy growing
up in the middle of a rain forest who wandered upon a mysterious soccer field
and an apparition that appeared to him daily.
Kipling's
choice
By Spillebeen, Geert.
In 1915, mortally wounded in Loos, France, eighteen-year-old John Kipling, son
of writer Rudyard Kipling, remembers his boyhood and the events leading to what
is to be his first and last World War I battle.
Lessons
in taxidermy
By Lavender, Bee.
Contains the author's first-hand account of her early struggles with throat
and skin cancer, surgeries, life-threatening allergies, and multiple injuries
from a car accident, and describes the strength she had to endure these hardships
and live her life to its fullest.
Let
me play : the story of Title IX, the law that changed the future of girls in
America
By Blumenthal, Karen.
Examines Title IX, the 1972 legislation which mandated that schools receiving
federal funds could not discriminate on the basis of gender. and focuses on
its effects in schools, politics, sports and the culture as a whole.
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.
The
lightning thief
By Riordan, Rick.
Percy, expelled from six schools for being unable to control his temper, learns
the truth from his mother that his father is the Greek god Poseidon, and is
sent to Camp Half Blood where he is befriended by a satyr and the demigod daughter
of Athena who join him in a journey to the Underworld to retrieve Zeus's lightning
bolt and prevent a catastrophic war.
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.
LoveSick
By Coburn, Jake.
After an accident seems to end his college and athletic dreams, Ted is offered
a second chance at school if he agrees to spy on a classmate and help her father
monitor her bulimia.
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.
Maritcha
: a nineteenth-century American girl
By Bolden, Tonya.
Presents the personal memoirs of Maritcha Remond Lyons who was born in nineteenth-century
New York City and describes how she and her family escaped to Rhode Island during
the 1863 Draft riots and how she overcame prejudice to become the first African-American
person to graduate from Providence High School.
Mimus
By Thal, Lilli.
As Prince Florin of Moltovia races to join his father at a banquet to celebrate
the war's end, he encounters a devastating betrayal that separates him from
his father and loyal followers, placing him as a lowly apprentice to the spiteful
and wily court jester, Mimus.
The
minister's daughter
By Hearn, Julie, 1958-
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.
Our
Eleanor : a scrapbook look at Eleanor Roosevelt's remarkable life
By Fleming, Candace.
Presents
a collection of illustrated photographs and stories representing the life and
career of Eleanor Roosevelt, and examines her White House years, her years as
a delegate to the United Nations, and more.
Peeps
: a novel
By Westerfeld, Scott.
Cal Thompson is a carrier of a parasite that causes vampirism, and must hunt
down all of the girlfriends he has unknowingly infected.
The
plot : the secret story of the protocols of the Elders of Zion
By Eisner, Will.
A graphic novel by Will Eisner that depicts the rise of modern antisemitic thought
in the world.
Poison
By Wooding, Chris, 1977-
When Poison leaves her home in the marshes of Gull to retrieve the infant sister
who was snatched by the fairies, she and a group of unusual friends survive
encounters with the inhabitants of various Realms, and Poison herself confronts
a surprising destiny.
Pyongyang
: a journey in North Korea
By DeLisle, Guy.
Documents the two months French animator, Guy Delisle spent overseeing cartoon
production in North Korea, where he records everything from the statues and
portraits of dictators Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il to the ordinary citizens
of the country.
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.
Rebel
angels
By Bray, Libba.
Gemma and her friends from the Spence Academy return to the realms to defeat
her foe, Circe, and to bind the magic that has been released.
Red
kayak
By Cummings, Priscilla, 1951-
Living near the water on Maryland's Eastern Shore, thirteen-year-old Brady and
his best friends J.T. and Digger become entangled in a tragedy which tests their
friendship and their ideas about right and wrong.
Revenge
of the witch
By Delaney, Joseph, 1945-
Young Tom, the seventh son of a seventh son, starts work as an apprentice for
the village spook, whose job is to protect ordinary folk from "ghouls,
boggarts, and all manner of wicked beasties."
A
room on Lorelei Street
By Pearson, Mary (Mary E.)
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.
Runaways.
Vol. 1
By Vaughan, Brian K.
A collection of comics following the adventures of a group of six California
teens who find themselves on the run after they learn their parents are members
of a secret criminal society.
Skybreaker
By Oppel, Kenneth.
Matt Cruse, a student at the Airship Academy, and Kate de Vries, a young heiress,
team up with a gypsy and a daring captain, to find a long-lost airship, rumored
to carry a treasure beyond imagination.
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.
Spacer
and rat
By Bechard, Margaret.
Jack's
predictable existence on Freedom space station is transformed when Kit, the
Earthie rat, enters his life and enlists him and a sensitive robot in an effort
to outwit the Company.
Stained
By Jacobson, Jennifer, 1958-
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.
Stormwitch
By Vaught, Susan, 1965-
In Pass Christian, Mississippi in 1969, sixteen-year-old Ruba, trained by her
Haitian grandmother in both voodoo and Amazonian warrior tactics, uses her skills
to fight against racism and the African witch Zashar, now coming ashore in the
form of Hurricane Camille.
Stripes
of the sidestep wolf
By Hartnett, Sonya.
Satchel O'Rye, devoted son of an impoverished couple in a dying rural town,
must weigh in balance the life of his most cherished dog and the freedom of
a rare striped tiger.
Superman
: birthright
By Waid, Mark.
Collects the twelve issues of "Superman: Birthright," in which twenty-five-year-old
Clark Kent undergoes a life-changing experience in Africa and embraces his calling
as the last in a line of heroes, returning home to become Superman.
A
thief in the house of memory
By Wynne-Jones, Tim.
The death of an apparent stranger in the Steeple family's old home triggers
troubling questions for sixteen-year-old Declan as he tries to make sense of
his fragmented dreams, random memories, and unexplained coincidences, hoping
to learn the truth about the mother who suddenly left when he was ten.
Twilight
By Meyer, Stephenie, 1973-
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 who she comes to realize is not wholly human.
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.
Under
the persimmon tree
By Staples, Suzanne Fisher.
A young Afghan girl, Najmah, befriends an American woman, Nusrat in Peshawar, Pakistan, after Najmah flees her native Afghanistan during the 2001 war; and together they begin a long journey to located their missing loved ones after the war ends.
Understanding
the Holy Land : answering questions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
By Frank, Mitch. Presents a series of questions and answers that
seeks to explain the origins and conflict behind the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
failed attempts at peace, and its significance to the rest of the world.
Valiant
: a modern tale of faerie
By Black, Holly.
Seventeen-year-old Valerie Russell runs away to New York City and befriends
a group of very unusual characters who live in the city's subway tunnels and
soon finds herself bound into service by a troll named Ravus.
When
I was a soldier : a memoir
By Zenatti, Valerie, 1970-
Presents the memoirs of Valerie Zenatti, who at eighteen, enlisted in the Israeli
army, endured harsh conditions and surroundings, and participated in top secret
missions for the Israeli Secret Service, and describes her French-Jewish heritage
and personal struggles.
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.
The
witch's boy
By Gruber, Michael, 1940- A grotesque foundling turns against the
witch who sacrificed almost everything to raise him when he becomes consumed
by the desire for money and revenge against those who have hurt him, but he
eventually finds his true heart's desire.
A
wreath for Emmett Till
By Nelson, Marilyn, 1946-
This illustrated poetry collection eulogizes Emmett Till, an African American
man who was killed in a brutal, racially motivated lynching in 1955.
Wrecked
By Frank, E. R
After a car accident seriously injures her best friend and kills her brother's
girlfriend, sixteen-year-old Anna tries to cope with her guilt and grief, while
learning some truths about her family and herself.
Zap
By Fleischman, Paul.
Contain a juxtaposition of several different plays that parody the works of
Tennessee Williams, Anton Chekhov, Samuel Beckett, Neil Simon, and others.