Summer Reading Booklist for Older Teens, 2009
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FICTION
What I Saw and How I Lied / by Judy Blundell
When Evie’s stepfather returns home from World War II, the family quickly falls back into its normal life. But when movie-star handsome Peter Coleridge, a young ex-GI who served in Joe’s company in postwar Austria, shows up, Evie becomes caught up in a complicated web of lies that she only slowly recognizes.
The Compound / by S.A. Bodeen
After his parents, two sisters, and he have spent six years in a vast underground compound built by his wealthy father to protect them from a nuclear holocaust, fifteen-year-old Eli, whose twin brother and grandmother were left behind, begins to wonder whether his father has perpetrated a monstrous hoax on them all.
The Last Summer (Of You And Me) / by Ann Brashares
Riley and Alice, two sisters now in their twenties, and as fiercely different as they are loyal, have spent every summer at their parents’ modest beach house on New York’s Fire Island. Each year, they return to the house and community they have known since they were children—and to Paul, the boy next door. But this summer marks a season of change, and all three are forced to confront the increasing complexities of their lives and friendships.
Black Rabbit Summer / by Kevin Brooks
Thoughtful Pete, tough Pauly, twins Eric and Nicole, strange Raymond: As kids they were tight; now they’ve grown up—and apart. They agree to get together one last time, but, twisted by personal histories and fueled by drugs, old jealousies surface. The party’s soon over, and the group splinters off into the night. Days later, a girl goes missing. Could one of these childhood friends really be a cold-blooded killer?
Swim the Fly / by Don Calame
Fifteen-year-old Matt Gratton and his two best friends, Coop and Sean, always set themselves a summertime goal. This year’s? To see a real-live naked girl for the first time—quite a challenge, given that none of the guys has the nerve to even ask a girl out on a date. But catching a girl in the buff starts to look easy compared to Matt’s other summertime aspiration: to swim the 100-yard butterfly (the hardest stroke known to God or man) as a way to impress Kelly West, the sizzling new star of the swim team.
Graceling / by Kristin Cashore
Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight—she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug. When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change.
Down to the Bone / by Mayra Lazara Dole
Here’s what it means to be a tortillera: It means you’re a girl who loves girls. Which means you get kicked out of Catholic school faster than Mother Superior Sicko can say “immoral.” Which means your wacko Mami finds out. Which means you’re kicked to the curb with nowhere to go, and the love of your life is shipped off to Puerto Rico to marry a guy. But this is Miami, and if you have a bighearted best friend and a loyal puppy at your side, and if your broken heart is still full of love, you just might land on your feet.
Paper Towns / by John Green
When Margo Roth Spiegelman beckons Quentin Jacobsen in the middle of the night—dressed like a ninja and plotting an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows her. After a lifetime of loving Margo from afar, things are finally looking up for Q… until day breaks and she has vanished. Always an enigma, Margo has now become a mystery. But there are clues. And they’re for Q.
The Juliet Club / by Suzanne Harper
When Kate Sanderson gets dumped, out of the blue, she vows never to fall in love again. And when she is accepted to a summer Shakespeare symposium in Verona, Italy, Kate sees it as the ideal way to get over her heartbreak once and for all. But can even completely logical Kate resist the romance of living in a beautiful villa in the city where Romeo and Juliet met and died for each other?
Everything Beautiful / by Simmone Howell
Tricked into attending summer camp at Spirit Ranch, atheist and troublemaker Riley Rose has no intention of playing by the rules. So when she meets Dylan Kier, a recent paraplegic with a negative attitude, Riley finds the perfect partner in crime to take on the establishment, challenge beliefs, and make her unhappy presence known.
Genghis: Birth of an Empire / by Conn Iggulden
Temujin was born the son of a khan, and his young life was shaped by a series of brutal acts. But he endured—and from that moment on, he was driven by a singular fury: to survive in the face of death, and to conquer enemies who could come without warning from beyond the horizon. He rose to greater and greater power, until he was chasing a vision: to unite many tribes into one, to make the earth tremble under the hoofbeats of a thousand warhorses, and to subject unknown nations, and even empires, to his will.
Catch / by Will Leitch
Tim Temples is the golden boy in his small hometown of Mattoon, Illinois. It’s the summer before he’s supposed to leave for college at the University of Illinois, and he’s got a job working at the local Kraft plant with his friends. It’s going to be a sweet, easy summer, full of sunshine and girls and card games with his buddies. But when Tim meets Helena—beautiful, mysterious, and maybe a little damaged—he’s unprepared for everything to change.
The Carbon Diaries / by Saci Lloyd
It is the year 2015, and England has become the first nation to introduce carbon dioxide rationing in a drastic bid to combat climate change. For sixteen-year-old punk rocker Laura Brown, the first year of rationing is marked by both environmental and personal challenges, as she has to adjust to harsh living conditions, navigate the confusing world of romance, and deal with her family life, which is quickly spiraling out of control.
Walls of the Universe / by Paul Melko
John Rayburn thought all of his problems were the mundane ones of an Ohio farm boy in his last year in high school. Then his doppelgänger appeared, tempted him with a device that let him travel across worlds, and stole his life from him. John’s attempts to lie low in his new universe backfire when he inadvertently introduces pinball, and it becomes a huge success. Soon both John and his doppelgänger have drawn the notice of other, more dangerous travelers…
The Door of No Return / by Sarah Mussi
Zac’s grandfather has always told him that he’s the descendant of African kings, whose treasure was stolen when his ancestors were sold into slavery. Zac brushes this off as a tall tale—until his grandfather is murdered and their apartment ransacked. With no one he can trust and with everything to lose, Zac races against time as he tries to uncover the truth about the past—and a fortune in gold.
Victory of Eagles / by Naomi Novik
It is a grim time for the dragon Temeraire. On the heels of his mission to Africa, seeking the cure for a deadly contagion, he has been removed from military service—and his captain, Will Laurence, has been condemned to death for treason. Laurence and Temeraire must struggle to find each other amid the turmoil of war and to aid the resistance against the invasion before Napoleon’s foothold on England’s shores can become a stranglehold. (Fifth in the series that begins with His Majesty’s Dragon)
Surface Tension / by Brent Runyon
Lucas at 13 is excited about everything—swimming, fishing, skipping rocks, and searching for lucky stones—there’s so much to do in two weeks at the lake. Lucas at 14 is a little more jaded, and more interested in looking at the hot girl next door than in looking for rocks. Lucas at 15 is a little more angry. The friend he brings along makes him see his summer haven with new—and less appreciative—eyes. And Lucas at 16 is in love—until he gets a break-up post card from his girlfriend, and then he wants to die.
Marcelo in the Real World / by Francisco X. Stork
Marcelo Sandoval hears music no one else can hear—part of the autism-like impairment no doctor has been able to identify—and he’s always attended a special school where his differences have been protected. But the summer after his junior year, his father demands that Marcelo work in his law firm’s mailroom in order to experience “the real world.”
Creature of the Night / by Kate Thompson
Bobby’s life in Dublin is a reckless one, full of smoking, drinking, and stealing cars, and he is furious when his mother moves the family to the country to keep him out of trouble. But when his younger brother tells stories of a creature that visits him in the night, Bobby begins to suspect that their creaky little cottage might not be as quaint as it seems. Gradually, spooky details of the history of their house turn Bobby into a detective of night creatures real and imagined.
Vidalia in Paris / by Sasha Watson
When Vidalia wins a scholarship to study art abroad for the summer, she can’t believe her good fortune. Paris is filled with surprises, including Julien, the nice bookstore clerk Vidalia should like as more than a friend, and Marco, the mysterious art dealer she can’t stay away from. But when Marco’s dangerous secrets threaten to involve her directly, Vidalia has to separate reason from passion.
Impossible / by Nancy Werlin
Lucy is seventeen when she discovers that the women of her family have been cursed through the generations, forced to attempt three seemingly impossible tasks or to fall into madness upon their child’s birth. But Lucy is the first girl who won’t be alone as she tackles the list. She has her fiercely protective foster parents and her childhood friend Zach beside her. Do they have love and strength enough to overcome an age-old evil?
NONFICTION
Words in Your Face / by Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz
This history of slam poetry culture in the Big Apple and beyond places an emphasis on three major twentieth-century arts movements—the Harlem Renaissance, the Beats, and hip hop—in a chronicle that traces the origins of slam at the Nuyorican Poets’ Café and its monumental popularity at such venues as Lollapalooza and MTV’s Unplugged.
Weird Massachusetts / by Jeff Belanger
See how the world’s biggest elephant now fits into a peanut butter jar and why it brings good luck to students, discover the hidden secrets at Wizard’s Glen and Altar Rock, escape from the Sea Witch and the Cape Cod Mermaid, check out the Museum of Burnt Food, or eat an apple from one of Isaac Newton’s famous apple trees—but whatever you do, don’t pick up a red-headed hitchhiker on Route 44. Look out for the Pukwudgees, circle around haunted trees in cemeteries, or try climbing Dighton Rock and unravel the messages in its centuries-old carvings. It’s all here, it’s all weird, and it’s all in Massachusetts.
I’m Looking Through You: Growing Up Haunted / by Jennifer Finney Boylan
For Jennifer Boylan, creaking stairs, fleeting images in the mirror, and remote whispers were everyday events in the house she grew up in. But those spirits weren’t the only ghosts: Jenny herself—born a boy named James—lived in a haunted body, and both her reticent father and her impulsive sister would soon become ghosts to her as well.
Bodies from the Ice / by James Deem
In 1991, mountain climbers on the Niederjoch Glacier on the Italian-Austrian border came across something unexpected: a body. It had been a very warm summer, and five bodies had already turned up in the area. But something here was different: radiocarbon dating proved the iceman was over 5,000 years old. Author James M. Deem takes us on a captivating and creepy journey to learn about glaciers, hulking masses of moving ice that are now offering up many secrets of the past.
Discover’s 20 Things You Didn’t Know About Everything
How much do you know about: death, sleep, meteors, aliens, bees, sex in space, duct tape, airport security, ancient weapons, rats, the Internet, milk, or mosquitoes? This original book looks at many popular—and sometimes unexpected—topics in science and technology, and reveals quirky, intriguing, and little-known facts. Whether you’re just curious or think you already know everything, this book is guaranteed to expand your mind.
Dead Lucky / by Lincoln Hall
Lincoln Hall likes to say that on the evening of May 25, 2006, he died on Everest. In fact, he was pronounced dead after collapsing from altitude sickness. Two Sherpas spent hours trying to revive him, but as darkness fell, they had to leave him in order to save themselves. The news of his death traveled rapidly to news media worldwide, and ultimately to his family back in Australia. Early the next morning, however, another group of climbers were startled to find Hall sitting cross-legged on the summit ridge, just staring at them.
The Bite of the Mango / by Mariatu Kamara
As a child in a small rural village in Sierra Leone, Mariatu Kamara lived peacefully surrounded by family and friends. Rumors of rebel attacks were no more than a distant worry. But when she set out for a neighboring village, she was attacked by rebel soldiers, many no older than children themselves, who cut off both her hands. In this gripping and heartbreaking true story, Mariatu shares with readers the details of the brutal attack and its aftermath.
1968 / by Michael Kaufman
From fights for racial and gender equality to the struggle against the draft and the Vietnam war, in 1968 Americans asked questions and fought for their rights. Now, 40 years later, we look back on that seminal year—from the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy to the Columbia University riots to our changing role among other nations—in this gripping introduction to the events home and abroad.
The Soloist / by Steve Lopez
When Steve Lopez saw Nathaniel Ayers playing his heart out on a two-string violin on Los Angeles’s skid row, he found it impossible to walk away. Ayers had been a promising classical bass student at Juilliard—ambitious, charming, and also one of the few African-Americans—until he gradually lost his ability to function, overcome by schizophrenia. In the process of trying to save Ayers, Lopez finds that his own life changes, as well as his sense of what one man can accomplish in the lives of others.
Going Dutch in Beijing / by Mark McCrum
Why shouldn’t you offer to pay for your share of the meal in China? Or use the thumbs-up sign to mean “that’s excellent” in Sardinia? Because, despite the ease with which we can now communicate with and visit one another, they still do things differently over there. In China your host will “lose face” if you don’t let him pick up the tab. In Sardinia a raised thumb means, literally, “Sit on this!” Going Dutch in Beijing offers a lighthearted and informative guide to everything from first meeting to last rites.
What the World Eats / by Peter Menzel
Ever wondered what a typical meal is like on the other side of the world? Or next door? Authors Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio visited twenty-five families in twenty-one countries to create this fascinating look at what people around the world eat. Meet a family that spends long hours hunting for seal and fish together; a family that raises and eats guinea pigs; and a family that drinks six gallons of Coca-Cola a week.
Panic in Level 4 / by Richard Preston
Here are dramatic true stories from acclaimed author Richard Preston, including: the phenomenon of “self-cannibals,” who suffer from a rare genetic condition that forces them to compulsively chew their own flesh–and why everyone may have a touch of this disease; the search for the unknown host of Ebola virus, an organism hidden somewhere in African rain forests, where the disease finds its way into the human species, causing outbreaks of unparalleled horror; and the brilliant Russian brothers who built a supercomputer in their apartment in an attempt to find hidden order in the number pi (π).
Palestine / by Joe Sacco
Joe Sacco’s insightful reportage on Palestine takes place at the front lines, where busy marketplaces are spoiled by shootings and tear gas, soldiers beat civilians with reckless abandon, and roadblocks go up before reporters can leave. Sacco interviewed and encountered prisoners, refugees, protesters, wounded children, farmers who had lost their land, and families who had been torn apart by the Palestinian conflict. (Graphic novel)