New YA Fiction 2008
Taken
Edward Bloor
In 2035 kidnapping rich children has become an industry, but when thirteen-year-old Charity Meyers is taken and held for ransom, she soon discovers that this particular kidnapping is not what it seems.
Zen and the Art of Faking It
Jordan Sonnenblick
When thirteen-year-old San Lee moves to a new town and school for the umpteenth time, he is looking for a way to stand out when his knowledge of Zen Buddhism, gained in his previous school, provides the answer--and the need to quickly become a convincing Zen master.
Freak
Marcella Fleischman Pixley
Twelve-year-old Miriam, poetic, smart, and quirky, is considered a freak by the popular girls at her middle school, and she eventually explodes in response to their bullying, revealing an inner strength she did not know she had.
H.I.V.E.: Higher-Institute-of-Villainous-Education
Mark Walden
Swept away to a hidden academy for training budding evil geniuses, Otto, a brilliant orphan, Wing, a sensitive warrior, Laura, a shy computer specialist, and Shelby, an infamous jewel thief, plot to beat the odds and escape the prison known as H.I.V.E.
Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City
Kirsten Miller
After discovering an entrance to a secret world beneath Manhattan's city streets, Ananka learns about the Shadow City through a meeting with one of its residents, Kiki Strike, as Kiki begins to recruit delinquent kids to guard her underground world.
Dragon's Keep
Janet Lee Carey
Born with a dragon claw where her ring finger should be, Princess Rosalind, forced by her mother, the queen, to wear gloves at all times until a cure can be found, finally understands her true destiny when she is carried off by a dragon who sees beauty where her mother only saw shame.
Firehorse
Diane Lee Wilson
Spirited fifteen-year-old horse lover Rachel Selby determines to become a veterinarian, despite the opposition of her rigid father, her proper mother, and the norms of Boston in 1872, while that city faces a serial arsonist and an epidemic spreading through its firehorse population.
Sure Fire
Jack Higgins
Fifteen-year-old twins, Rich and Jade, soon find they have complicated problems when their father is kidnapped and their attempts to rescue him involve them in a dangerous international plot to control the world's oil.
Standard Hero Behavior
John David Anderson
When fifteen-year-old Mason Quayle finds out that their town of Darlington is about to be attacked by orcs, goblins, ogres, and trolls, he goes in search of some heroes to save the day
Saturday Night Dirt
Will Weaver
In a small town in northern Minnesota, the much-anticipated Saturday night dirt-track race at the old-fashioned, Headwaters Speedway becomes, in many ways, an important life-changing event for all the participants on and off the track.
Smiles to Go
Jerry Spinelli
High-school freshman Will Tuppence has girl trouble. His feelings for Mi-Su, good friend, fellow scientist, Monopoly tycoon, and pizza enthusiast may or may not be reciprocated. And there's a love-hate fascination with a skateboard ride down Dead Man's Hill, and proof of the death of the proton, and Will is facing a tough a year.
Click
Linda Sue Park and other YA authors
An adventurous mystery features a cast of odd characters, messages from the dead, and a dangerous secret that needs to be solved. All these short stories are written and connected to each other by a diverse cast of celebrated authors.
Imaginary Enemy
Julie Gonzalez
Having written letters of blame and anger to her imaginary enemy named Bubba since she was a child, Jane is shocked over an entirely new set of problems and a most unexpected letter from Bubba himself!
Pirates of the Retail Wasteland
Adam Selzer
When the only remaining cool coffee shop in the neighborhood is put at risk of going out of business by the latest corporate cafe, Leon and his brainy buds come up with a clever plan to get rid of the invader in order to save the last happening hang-out in town.
First Shot
Walter Sorrells
David Crandall, haunted by his mother's murder two years ago, uncovers a dark family secret that leads him to believe that his father, headmaster of the military school in which David is currently a senior, is the killer.
13 Little Blue Envelopes
Maureen Johnson
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.
Evolution, Me, and Other Freaks of Nature
Robin Brande
Following her conscience leads high school freshman Mena to clash with her parents and former friends from their conservative Christian church, but might result in better things when she stands up for a teacher who refuses to include "Intelligent Design" in lessons on evolution.
Princess Ben
Catherine Gilbert Murdock
A girl is transformed, through instruction in life at court, determination, and magic, from sullen, pudgy, graceless Ben into Crown Princess Benevolence, a fit ruler of the kindgom of Montagne as it faces war with neighboring Drachensbett.
Must Reads before you grow out of the Young Adult section
(according to our teens)
- Jade Green: A Ghost Story – Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
- Girl 15, Charming but Insane – Sue Limb
- Bloody Jack – L.A. Meyer
- The Silver Kiss – Annette Curtis Klause
- Speak – Laurie Halse Anderson
- The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants – Ann Brashares
- The Year of Secret Assignments – Jaclyn Moriarty
- Stormbreaker – Anthony Horowitz
- Dealing with Dragons – Patricia C Wrede
- Uglies – Scott Westerfeld
- Pirates! – Celia Rees
- Son of the Mob – Gordon Korman
- Fever 1793 – Laurie Halse Anderson
- The Wee Free Men - Terry Pratchett
- Code Orange – Caroline Cooney
- Lightning Thief – Rick Riordan
- Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie – Jordan Sonnenblick
- Dairy Queen – Catherine Murdock
- Down the Rabbit Hole – Peter Abrahams
- Once Upon a Marigold - Jean Ferris
- Cirque du Freak – Darren Shan
- Hope was Here – Joan Bauer
- Crossing Jordan – Adrien Fogelin
- Thief Lord – Cornelia Funke
- Interstellar Pig – William Sleator