This booklist was contributed by Appleton Public Library Reference and Information Services Staff, 12/07
The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian(2007)National Book Award, 2007
Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
The adventures of Blue Avenger: a novel(1999)On his sixteenth birthday, still trying to cope with the unexpected death of his father, David Schumacher decides--or does he--to change his name to Blue Avenger, hoping to find a way to make a difference in his Oakland neighborhood and in the world.
Al Capone does my shirts
A twelve-year-old boy named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards' families were housed there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister.
Alice, I think(2003)Fifteen-year-old Alice keeps a diary as she struggles to cope with the embarrassments and trials of family, dating, school, work, small town life, and a serious case of "outcastitis."
Blue Avenger cracks the code(2000)Sequel to: The adventures of Blue Avenger.
In his new identity as Blue Avenger, sixteen-year-old David visits Venice, Italy, and continues to pursue various crusades, including trying to solve the mystery of who really wrote Shakespeare's works.
Brian's hunt(2003)Two years after having survived a plane crash into the Canadian wilderness, a sixteen-year-old returns to the wild to befriend a wounded dog and hunt a rogue bear.
Buddha boy(2003)Justin spends time with Jinsen, the unusual and artistic new student whom the school bullies torment and call Buddha Boy, and ends up making choices that impact Jinsen, himself, and the entire school.
Car trouble: a novel(2005)Early one August morning, seventeen-year-old computer "nerd" Duff Pringle leaves Richmond, Virginia, in a newly-acquired used car and begins an unexpectedly convoluted journey to San Jose, California, and the job that awaits him there.
Criss cross(2005)Newbery Medal, 2006
Teenagers in a small town in the 1960s experience new thoughts and feelings, question their identities, connect, and disconnect as they search for the meaning of life and love.
Crossing the wire(2006)Fifteen-year-old Victor Flores journeys north in a desperate attempt to cross the Arizona border and find work in the United States to support his family in central Mexico.
Flush(2005)With their father jailed for sinking a river boat, Noah Underwood and his younger sister, Abbey, must gather evidence that the owner of this floating casino is emptying his bilge tanks into the protected waters around their Florida Keys home.
A friend at midnight(2006)After rescuing her younger brother abandoned at a busy airport by their divorced father, fifteen-year-old Lily finds her faith in God sorely tested as she struggles to rescue herself from the bitterness and anger she feels.
The gospel according to Larry(2003)Seventeen-year-old Josh, a loner-philosopher who wants to make a difference in the world, tries to maintain his secret identity as the author of a web site that is receiving national attention.
Heat(2006)Pitching prodigy Michael Arroyo is on the run from social services after being banned from playing Little League baseball because rival coaches doubt he is only twelve years old and he has no parents to offer them proof.
Hoot(2002)Newbery Honor book
Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy's attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site. From the bestselling mystery novelish comes this story for younger readers. New to Florida, Roy is on the school bus when he spots the running boy--running away from the bus, carrying no books or wearing no shoes. Sensing a mystery, Roy sets himself on the boy's trail, which leads him to potty-trained alligators, a fake-fart champion, and a renegade eco-avenger.
Hope was here(2000)When sixteen-year-old Hope and the aunt who has raised her move from Brooklyn to Mulhoney, Wisconsin, to work as waitress and cook in the Welcome Stairways diner, they become involved with the diner owner's political campaign to oust the town's corrupt mayor.
I am the messenger(2005)After capturing a bank robber, nineteen-year-old cab driver Ed Kennedy begins receiving mysterious messages that direct him to addresses where people need help, and he begins getting over his lifelong feeling of worthlessness.
In search of Mockingbird(2007)On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, Erin receives her long-dead mother's diary, which reveals that she too revered Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" and wanted to be a writer, and Erin impulsively decides to take the Greyhound bus from St. Paul, Minnesota to Monroeville, Alabama, to visit the reclusive author.
Jackie's Wild Seattle(2003)Fourteen-year-old Shannon and her little brother, Cody, spend the summer with their uncle, helping at a wildlife rescue center named Jacke's Wild Seattle.
The last chance Texaco(2004)Troubled teen Lucy Pitt struggles to fit in as a new tenant at a last-chance foster home.
Love, Stargirl(2007)Still moping months after being dumped by her Arizona boyfriend Leo, fifteen-year-old Stargirl, a home-schooled free spirit, writes "the world's longest letter" to Leo, describing her new life in Pennsylvania.
Make lemonade(1993)In order to earn money for college, fourteen-year-old LaVaughn babysits for a teenage mother.
Memory boy: a novel(2003)Sixteen-year-old Miles and his family must flee their Minneapolis home and begin a new life in the wilderness after a chain of cataclysmic volcanic explosions creates dangerous conditions in their city.
The murder of Bindy MacKenzie(2006)Class brain Bindy Mackenzie has alienated her entire high school but when she realizes someone is trying to kill her, she has to make friends in order to get help.
Nothing but the truth: and a few white lies(2006)Fifteen-year-old Patty Ho, half Taiwanese and half white, feels she never fits in, but when her overly-strict mother ships her off to math camp at Stanford, instead being miserable, Patty starts to become comfortable with her true self.
On the wings of heroes(2007)A boy in Illinois remembers the homefront years of World War II, especially his two heroes--his brother in the Air Force and his father, who fought in the previous war.
Pay it forward: a novel(1999)It all started with the social studies teacher's extra-credit assignment: come up with a plan to change the world for the better, and do it. Twelve-year-old Trevor McKinney began by doing something good for three people. But instead of paying him back, he asked them to "pay it forward" by doing a favor for three more people, who in turn would help three others, and so on, each act a link in a chain of human kindness.
And no one -- not his teacher, his mom, or anyone in his small California town -- could ever have dreamed of how far Trevor's plan would go.
The perfect distance: a novel(2005)While competing in the three junior national equitation championships, seventeen-year-old Francie Martinez learns to believe in herself and makes some decisions about the type of person she wants to be.
Picture perfect(2007)When her mother leaves her family suddenly to take a new job, fourteen-year-old Phoebe tries to deal with her own confused feelings and, in the process, learns some things about love and the complicated ties that bind families together.
Schooled(2007)Homeschooled by his hippie grandmother, Capricorn (Cap) Anderson has never watched television, tasted a pizza, or even heard of a wedgie. But when his grandmother lands in the hospital, Cap is forced to move in with a guidance counselor and attend the local middle school. While Cap knows a lot about tie-dyeing and Zen Buddhism, no education could prepare him for the politics of public school.
Side effects(2006)Everything changes for Isabelle, not quite fifteen, when she is diagnosed with lymphoma--but eventually she survives and even thrives.
Stand tall(2002)Tree, a six-foot-three-inch twelve-year-old, copes with his parents' recent divorce and his failure as an athlete by helping his grandfather, a Vietnam vet and recent amputee, and Sophie, a new girl at school.
Stargirl(2000)In this story about the perils of popularity, the courage of nonconformity, and the thrill of first love, an eccentric student named Stargirl changes Mica High School forever.
True believer(2001)Living in the inner city amidst guns and poverty, fifteen-year-old LaVaughn learns from old and new friends, and inspiring mentors, that life is what you make it--an occasion to rise to. In this second novel of Wolff's "Make Lemonade" trilogy, 15-year old Verna LaVaughn is visited by Jody, a boy she knew as a cild who comes back to the housing project where she lives. Jody behaves as if he's in love with her, but Jody is wrestling with questions of his own identity.
The very ordered existence of Merilee Marvelous(2007)In the small town of Jumbo, Texas, thirteen-year old Merrille, who has Asperger's Syndrome, tries to live a "very ordered existence". But disruption begins when a boy and his father arrive in town. and the youngster makes himself a part of the family.
A year down yonder(2000)2001 Newbery Medal
In 1937, during the Depression, fifteen-year-old Mary Alice, initially apprehensive about leaving Chicago to spend a year with her fearsome, larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois, gradually begins to better understand and admire her grandmother's unusual qualities.