Teenscape LaGrange

Hapka, Cathy. French Kissmas (Students Across the Seven Seas). YA/ SAS
While spending the winter holidays in Paris participating in a promotional video for the S.A.S.S. program, Nicole Larson is unnerved to discover that her feelings for Luc, the boy she met during her semester abroad the year before, are more than just casual friendship.

Rinaldi, Ann. The Last Silk Dress. YA/ RIN
During the Civil War, Susan finds a way to help the Confederate Army and uncovers a series of mysterious family secrets. High-spirited, beautiful Susan Chilmark, fourteen, vows to do something meaningful to support the Confederacy during the Civil War. Despite the wishes of her mother, Susan and her best friend, Connie, collect silk dresses from all the ladies of Richmond to make a balloon that will be used to spy on the Yankees. But the issues behind the war aren't as obvious as Susan thinks. When she meets her dashing, scandalous older brother and discovers why he was banished from the family, Susan unlocks a Pandora's box of secrets that forces her to rethink and challenge the very system she was born into. Does she have the courage to do what is right even though it may hurt the ones she loves?

Carlson, Melody. Diary of a Teenage Girl: Becoming Me, by Caitlin O'Conner. YA/ CAR
Sixteen-year-old Caitlin O'Conner keeps a six-month diary in which she records the day-to-day events of her life as well as her struggles to understand herself and God's plan for her future.

McNab, Andy. Traitor. YA/ McN
A boy who believes his grandfather to be a traitor, a spy who turned against England and then disappeared, tracks down his grandfather and finds out the truth.

Dowd, Siobhan. Bog Child. YA/ DOW
In 1981, the height of Ireland's "Troubles," eighteen-year-old Fergus is distracted from his upcoming A-level exams by his imprisoned brother's hunger strike, the stress of being a courier for Sinn Fein, and dreams of a murdered girl whose body he discovered in a bog.

Mikaelsen, Ben. Ghost of Spirit Bear. YA/ MIK
After a year in exile on an Alaskan island as punishment for severely beating a fellow student, Cole Matthews returns to school in Minneapolis having made peace with himself and his victim--but he finds that surviving the violence and hatred of high school is even harder than surviving in the wilderness.

Hearn, Julie. Ivy. YA/ HEA
In mid-nineteenth-century London, young, mistreated, and destitute Ivy, whose main asset is her beautiful red hair, comes to the attention of an aspiring painter of the pre-Raphaelite school of artists who, with the connivance of Ivy's unsavory family, is determined to make her his model and muse.

Uehashi, Nahoko. Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit. YA/ UEH
The wandering warrior Balsa is hired to protect Prince Chagum from both a mysterious monster and the prince's father, the Mikado.

Bauer, Joan. Peeled. YA/ BAU
In an upstate New York farming community, high school reporter Hildy Biddle investigates a series of strange occurrences at a house rumored to be haunted.

Ruby, Laura. Play Me. YA/ RUB
With his online TV show a success, Eddy, who knows how to play the game, meets his match in the unapproachable Lucinda Dulka and discovers that he is not in control--and that the rules can change at any time.

Weyn, Suzanne. Reincarnation. YA/ WEY
When a young couple dies in prehistoric times, their love--and link to various green stones--endures through the ages as they are reborn into new bodies and somehow find a way to connect.

Strahan, Jonathan. The Starry Rift. YA/ STA
Truly successful science fiction does two things: it gives credible glimpses into the future while entertaining the reader. With this in mind, anthologist Jonathan Strahan asked sixteen of today's most inventive, compelling writers to look past the horizon of the present day and to the future of science fiction.

Meehl, Brian. Suck it Up. YA/ MEE
After graduating from the International Vampire League, a scrawny, teenaged vampire named Morning is given the chance to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a superhero when he embarks on a League mission to become the first vampire to reveal his identity to humans and to demonstrate how peacefully-evolved, blood-substitute-drinking vampires can use their powers to help humanity.

Fletcher, Christine. Ten Cents A Dance. YA/ FLE
In 1940s Chicago, fifteen-year-old Ruby hopes to escape poverty by becoming a taxi dancer in a nightclub, but the work has unforeseen dangers and hiding the truth from her family and friends becomes increasingly difficult.

Cooke, Bev. Feral. YA/ COO
Living in the subway, Little Cat fears everything around her until she meets Candlewax, a street kid exiled from the subway tunnels, and Katherine, a student photographer, and from these two she learns that trust can banish fear.

Gould, Steven. Jumper: Griffin’s Story. YA/ GOU
Blessed with the ability to "jump"--to teleport himself to any place on Earth that he has been to before--Davy is determined to locate others like himself, but interference from the government could prevent him from doing so.

Hijuelos, Oscar. Dark Dude. YA/ HIJ
In the 1960s, Rico Fuentes, a pale-skinned Cuban American teenager, abandons drug-infested New York City for the picket fence and apple pie world of Wisconsin, only to discover that he still feels like an outsider and that violent and judgmental people can be found even in the wholesome Midwest.

Jimenez, Francisco. Reaching Out. YA/ JIM
From the perspective of the young adult he was then, Francisco Jiménez describes the challenges he faced in his efforts to continue his education. During his college years, the very family solidarity that allowed Francisco to survive as a child is tested. Not only must he leave his family behind when he goes to Santa Clara University, but while Francisco is there, his father abandons the family and returns to Mexico. This is the story of how Francisco coped with poverty, with his guilt over leaving his family financially strapped, with his self-doubt about succeeding academically, and with separation. Once again his telling is honest, true, and inspiring.

Lynch, Chris. The Big Game of Everything. YA/ LYN
Jock and his eccentric family spend the summer working at Grampus's golf complex, where they end up learning the rules of "The Big Game of Everything."

Sebestyen, Ouida. The Girl in the Box. YA/ SEB
Kidnapped and left in an underground room, Jackie explores her psychological strengths and limitations as she tries to make contact with the outside world by writing messages and sending them through a slit in the door.