Introduction and Expectations for Students

Charlie, a freshman in high school, explores the dilemmas of growing up through a collection of letters he sends to an unknown receiver.

It’s Not About the Accent (Caridad Ferrer)

Caroline Darcy decides to start college as a new person and takes her inspiration from her vibrant Cuban great-grandmother, becoming a half-Cuban aspiring actress, but once she arrives at school, Caroline realizes she cannot shed her past so easily.

After Tupac & D Foster (Jacquline Woodson)

In the New York City borough of Queens in 1996, three girls bond over their shared love of Tupac Shakur's music, as together they try to make sense of the unpredictable world in which they live.

Rainbow Boys (Alex Sanchez) Three high school seniors - a jock with a girlfriend and an alcoholic father, a closeted gay, and a flamboyant gay rights advocate - struggle with family issues, gay bashers, first sex, and conflicting feelings about each other.
Diva (Alex Flinn) Despite her mother's objections, 16-year-old Caitlin determines to pursue her dream of becoming an opera singer by attending a performing arts school in Miami.
The First Part Last (Angela Johnson) Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter.
Cuba 15 (Nancy Osa) Violet Paz, a Chicago high school student, reluctantly prepares for her upcoming "quince," a Spanish nickname for the celebration of an Hispanic girl's fifteenth birthday.
The New Rules of High School (Blake Nelson) Seventeen-year-old Max Caldwell has been the perfect high school student -on the honor roll, captain of the debate team, and soon-to-be editor of the school newspaper - but during his senior year, he begins questioning his approach to life and things start to change.
Who Am I Without Him?: Short Stories About Girls and the Boys in Their Lives (Sharon Flake) Hilarious and anguished, these 10 short stories about growing up black today speak with rare truth about family, friends, school, and especially about finding a boyfriend.
Bottled Up (Jay Murray) A high school boy comes to terms with his drug addiction, life with an alcoholic father, and a younger brother who looks up to him.
Cruise Control (Terry Trueman) A talented basketball player struggles to deal with the helplessness and anger that come with having a brother rendered completely dysfunctional by severe cerebral palsy and a father who deserted the family.
Thirteen Reasons Why (Jay Asher)

When Clay Jenson plays the cassette tapes he received in a mysterious package, he's surprised to hear the voice of dead classmate Hannah Baker. He's one of 13 people who receive Hannah's story, which details the circumstances that led to her suicide. Clay spends the rest of the day and long into the night listening to Hannah's voice and going to the locations she wants him to visit.

Breathing Underwater (Alex Flinn) Told in the form of a journal, Nick recounts his violent relationship with Caitlin, while spending time in a violence class for boys.
The Truth About Forever (Sarah Dessen) Macy plans to work at the library and wait for her brainy boyfriend to return from camp, but instead she goes to work at a catering business where she makes new friends and finally faces her grief.
13 Little Blue Envelopes (Maureen Johnson) When 17-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.
Blind Faith (Ellen Wittlinger)

While coping with her grandmother's sudden death and her mother's resulting depression and fascination with a spiritualist church, whose ministers claim to communicate with the dead, fifteen-year-old Liz finds herself falling for a new neighbor whose mother is dying of cancer.

Slam (Nick Hornby)

Sam is a disarmingly ordinary 15-year-old kid who loves to skate But then he is blindsided: his girlfriend gets pregnant, and Sam talks about it with his sort-of-imaginary friend: the world's greatest skater, Tony Hawk, whose poster Sam talks to when he has problems.

Schooled (Gordon Korman)

Leo, a high school senior and Mr. Republican, has received a scholarship to Harvard. However, after being accused of helping another student during a test, he loses the financial assistance which he must have to enroll. Although he was talking, he was not giving answers to the other student and stands up for himself. At about the same time, he learns that his biological father is really King Maggot, the leader of a popular punk rock band. Leo manages to get a job as a roadie with the band hoping to get King to pay his college tuition. That summer, he learns who his real friends are and much more about himself.

Acceptance (Susan Coll) While following the senior year of several students agonizing over college acceptance, the novel is a thinly disguised attack at the U.S. News and World Report college ranking system. Will AP Harry fulfill his lifelong dream of getting into Harvard? Oh no, 30 of his classmates are applying there too!
Waiting For Normal (Leslie Conner)

Addie is used to her mom’s inconsistencies and while she disappears for days at a time, Addie keeps busy in their trailer home. Addie concentrates on the things she can control, like her music, her friends and getting to see her half sister whenever she can. But as her half sister’s lives get increasingly better Addie must learn to deal with her not so great life.

Change of Heart (Jodi Picoult) June Nealon's life is shattered when Shay Bourne murders her husband and daughter, but when her eleven-year-old daughter, Claire, needs a heart transplant, Bourne decides that his only chance at redemption is to give Claire his heart after he is put to death, leaving June to decide if she wants to let the man who destroyed her life save her daughter's.
Ragtime (E.L. Doctorow) Presents life in the early 20^th Century when immigration and race were affecting society. This book is the source of the hit musical by the same name.
Zorro (Isabel Allende) A fictionalized account of the life of Zorro. Tells the story of how a young boy in Spanish California, through his adventures and escapades, became the legendary hero we’ve come to know through television and movies.
Prep (Curtis Sittenfeld)

Midwesterner Lee Fiora is sent by her father to a prestigious boarding school in Massachusetts where she manages to survive in spite of the social differences between her and her classmates.

The Namesake (Jhumpa Lahiri) Beautifully written story of a young man born of Indian parents in America who struggles with issues of identity from his teens to his thirties.
The Life of Pi (Yann Martel) The compelling story of one young man’s journey in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger for company.
Snow in August (Pete Hamill) Eleven-year-old Irish Catholic Michael Devlin and Rabbi Judah Hirsch form a wonderful, if unlikely, friendship in Brooklyn in 1947, but the actions of a group of anti-Semitic thugs soon have them trapped in a spiral of hate and hoping for a miracle.
Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden) Nitta Sayuri, a young Japanese woman who was taken from her home at the age of nine and sold into slavery as a geisha, discovers a rare opportunity for freedom when the outbreak of World War II forces an end to the only life she has ever known.
The Darling (Russell Banks) The story of Hannah Musgrave, a political radical, who flees America for Liberia where she marries a Liberian man and encounters terrorism, political violence and the clash of cultures.
A Million Little Pieces (James Frey) Frey drew controversy with this dramatic and partially fictionalized tale of his recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, beginning with his enrollment in a Minnesota rehabilitation center.
Bel Canto (Anne Patchett) A group of international guests, taken hostage by terrorists while attending a birthday party at the home of the vice president of a small South American country, form bonds with their captors and enter into an almost idyllic lifestyle, united by the music of Roxanne Coss, opera's most revered soprano.

Empire Falls (Richard Russo) Miles Roby, called back from college to the small town of Empire Falls in Dexter County, Maine, to take care of his ailing mother, falls into a rut that keeps him trapped until years later when a series of revelations and tragedies jolts him back into an awareness of his life.
A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini)

Afghan women Mariam and Laila grow close despite their nearly twenty-year age difference and initial rivalry, as they suffer at the hands of a common enemy--their abusive, much-older husband, Rasheed.

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac (Gabrielle Zevin)

16 year old Naomi conks her head after school one day and she can't remember anything that happened since sixth grade. As she is introduced to her present life, she is surprised by everything from the birth-control pills in her bedside table to her parents' astonishing, rancorous split. Eventually, the memories return, leaving Naomi questioning the basis of a new romance, and wondering which of her two lives, present or former, represents her most authentic self.