Read Up! 11/12
Terrific Titles for Teens, grades 11-12

Purple Hibiscus
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi (FIC ADICHIE)
Kambili & Jaja have learned to live with their father's tyranny, until time spent with relatives begins to open their eyes to new ways.

The Garden
Aidinoff, Elsie (YA AIDINOFF)
Eve loves the world, loves learning from the Serpent, isn't particularly impressed with God, and is annoyed by that obnoxious Adam. And she wants to know what's outside the Garden....

Ten Little Indians
Alexie, Sherman (YA ALEXIE)
Eleven stories about heartrending, tragic, sometimes wondrous moments of being that test loyalties, capacities & notions of love and self.

When Jeff Comes Home
Atkins, Catherine (YA ATKINS)
Jeff, returning home after having been kidnapped & held prisoner for three years by a sexual predator, must face his family, friends & school.

Rule of the Bone
Banks, Russell (FIC BANKS)
Rejected by his parents, Chappie drifts until he finally settles in an abandoned school bus with an abused child & an exiled Rastafarian who dramatically change his life.

Jennifer Government
Barry, Max (YA BARRY)
In a world where corporations run everything, even giving employees their surnames, Jennifer steps in to help Hack Nike, who has unwittingly contracted to murder teenagers as part of a shoe marketing ploy.

Ecstasia
Block, Francesca Lia (YA BLOCK)
"Sex, drugs & rock'n'roll" rule in Elysia, where the only crime is to grow old.

The Da Vinci Code
Brown, Dan (FIC BROWN)
Was Mary Magdalene one of Jesus' disciples? Did they have a child together? Are there descendants of Jesus living now? Pursuit of the answers leads to murder and the unraveling of ancient secrets.

Doing It
Burgess, Melvin (YA BURGESS)
Three teenage guys learn about life & themselves through their sexual experiences.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Chbosky, Stephen (YA CHBOSKY)
What do you do when you're caught between trying to live your life--and trying to run from it?

Caramelo
Cisneros, Sandra (FIC CISNEROS)
Lala struggles to write her own history amongst her family's vida loca & to uncover the reasons her Awful Grandmother is so awful.

Truth or Dairy
Clark, Catherine (YA CLARK)
"It's true; life CAN get weirder."

The Lords of Discipline
Conroy, Pat (FIC CONROY)
Cadets at a military academy face hazing, hatred & prejudice as they struggle against a secret society dedicated to preserving tradition.

Tenderness
Cormier, Robert (YA CORMIER)
Eric & lori are both looking for tenderness. Lori gets it by giving herself to boys. Eric gets it by killing pretty girls. Will Lori & Eric be each other's salvation or destruction?

Hey, Nostradamus!
Coupland, Douglas (FIC COUPLAND)
A catastrophic episode of teen violence changes a suburban community forever--and leaves behind survivors struggling to pick up the pieces.

Ironman
Crutcher, Chris (YA CRUTCHER)
Beau is at war with pretty much everybody--including himself. For him there are only 2 ways to win: be a triathlete & write to Larry King.

Dreamland
Dessen, Sarah (YA DESSEN)
Why can't she leave the boy who hits her?

48 Shades of Brown
Earls, Nick (YA EARLS)
Dan spends a summer with his hip, bass-playing Aunt Jacq and her friend, Naomi, a "flaxen-haired-love-goddess." His 4 goals: beer, sex, attitude & Calculus.

The Virgin Suicides
Eugenides, Jeffrey (FIC EUGENIDES)
"On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her last turn at suicide...the two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven."

Breathing Underwater
Flinn, Alex (YA FLINN)
Caitlin is the love of Nick's life. So how come he can't stop hurting her?

Better Than Running at Night
Frank, Hilary (YA FRANK)
Ellie's first year of college as an art student brings almost more new experiences than she can handle.

Cold Mountain
Frazier, Charles (FIC FRAZIER)
A Confederate soldier struggles to return to his home and his love.

Neverwhere
Gaiman, Neil (FIC GAIMAN)
Richard learns the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished.

Nathan's Run
Gilstrap, John (FIC GILSTRAP)
Branded a copy killer, Nathan has nowhere to turn for help, except himself...and the radio listeners to whom he pleads his case.

The Torn Skirt
Godfrey, Rebecca (FIC GODFREY)
"Blame it on the Pleasure Family. Blame it on the Vietnam War. Blame it on a lot of things. But don't blame it on Justine. She was just a weak, scared girl; a lost, violent girl. A lot of things, she was. Was."

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
Haddon, Mark (YA HADDON)
Christopher has enough trouble coping with his autism. When his neighbor's dog is murdered, he sets out to solve the mystery--and turns his world upside down.

Across the Nightingale Floor
Hearn, Lian (YA HEARN)
Swords, warriors, love, betrayal, adventure, danger, magical feats. And that's just in the first few days of Takeo's new life as adopted son to Lord Otori!

Blue Diary
Hoffman, Alice (FIC HOFFMAN)
Ethan is a great family man & pillar of his community--but then his secret comes out....

High Fidelity
Hornby, Nick (FIC HORNBY)
Rob's loves are pop music, vinyl albums & sexy singers. But seeing his ex-girlfriend gets him to thinking that a life with a wife & kids might not be so bad.

The Kite Runner
Hosseini, Khaled (FIC HOSSEINI)
"I thought about Hassan...I thought of the life I had lived until the winter of 1975 came along & changed everything. And made me what I am today."

The Poisonwood Bible
Kingsolver, Barbara (FIC KINGSOLVER)
The Price family moves to the Congo to save souls, but the seeds they plant bloom in tragic ways.

Confessions of a Shopaholic
Kinsella, Sophie (YA KINSELLA)
Becky's solution of shopping to cope with her boring job works great...until the creditors start calling and she can't stop shopping!

Odd Thomas
Koontz, Dean (FIC KOONTZ)
Odd has a gift...or a curse. He can communicate with the dead. And they're telling him that the new guy in town is big trouble.

Love and Sex: 10 Stories
Cart, Michael, ed. (YA LOVE)
Ten stories that explore the pressures, complications & joys of love and sex.

Parrot in the Oven
Martinez, Victor (YA MARTINEZ)
Manny wants to be somebody. In his neighborhood, the way to be somebody is to be in a gang. But what if Manny wants more?

Sloppy Firsts
McCafferty, Megan (YA MCCAFFERTY)
When her best friend moves away, Jessica wonders how she'll cope with "friends" she hates, her dad's track obsession, her sister's stupid wedding & her nonexistent love life.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
McCall Smith, Alexander (YA MCCALL)
As the only female detective in Botswana, Precious Ramotswe finds herself tracking down a missing husband, uncovering a con man & searching for a boy who may have been kidnapped by witchdoctors.

Twelve
McDonell, Nick (FIC MCDONELL)
Sex, drugs & death surround NYC's wealthy teens.

Sunshine
McKinley, Robin (YA MCKINLEY)
When Rae is captured by vampires, she never imagined she'd be trying to save one.

The Nanny Diaries
McLaughlin, Emma & Nicola Kraus (FIC MCLAUGHLIN)
A job as a nanny becomes a nearly impossible mission to maintain the mental health of her charge, as well as her own integrity--and sanity.

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff,
Christ's Childhood Pal
Moore, Christopher (YA MOORE)
Follows the teen through adult years of Jesus & his best friend Biff, who helps Jesus understand sinning by doing it every chance he gets.

The Center of Everything
Moriarty, Laura (YA MORIARTY)
With an out-of-work mother who is dating a married man as her primary role model, Evelyn has to find her own way to grow up.

The Bluest Eye
Morrison, Toni (FIC MORRISON)
A little black girl yearns for the eyes of a little white girl.

Fallen Angels
Myers, Walter Dean (YA MYERS)
5 boys in Vietnam. All came for different reasons. All have one goal: get out alive.

Fight Club
Palahniuk, Chuck (FIC PALAHNIUK)
Tyler & his friends think they've found a way to break out of the boundaries of their stultifying lives. But maybe life without boundaries is too dangerous.

The Pact
Picoult, Jodi (FIC PICOULT)
Chris & Emily have been soulmates since they were born. So how come Emily's dead--and Chris is holding the gun that killed her?

Cabinet of Curiosities
Preston, Douglas & Lincoln Child (FIC PRESTON)
A gruesome discovery of the bones of dozens of murder victims leads to a serial killer...who may be immortal.

Rainbow Boys
Sanchez, Alex (YA SANCHEZ)
3 guys discover that they're in love...with other guys.

Archangel
Shinn, Sharon (YA SHINN)
The fate of all Samaria rests on the voices of the angel Gabriel and his rebellious human wife, Rachel.

Blankets
Thompson, Craig (FIC Thompson)
A graphic novel story that explores the author's experiences with family, religion and first love and loss.

The Song Reader
Tucker, Lisa (YA TUCKER)
Mary Beth helps others with their problems by reading songs, but she can't seem to help herself or her sister, Leeann.

The Keep
Wilson, F. Paul (YA WILSON)
The battle has begun: on one side, the ultimate man-created evil. On the other, the unthinkable, unstoppable terror that man has awakened.

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