High School Reads!

by Jennifer Mathieu Genre:  Realistic Fiction Caroline was supposed to be watching her brother Dylan when he disappeared.  He was found months later with Ethan, another boy from their town, who had been kidnapped four years earlier. Dylan is nonverbal and can't tell his family what happened to him while he was gone.  Caroline doesn't know what to do to help her family recover so she decides to get to know Ethan to see if he can help her figure out how to help Dylan.  But Ethan is battling his own memories of the four years that he was gone.  His parents aren't sure that his new friendship with Caroline is going to be helpful to his own recovery process.  Will Caroline and Ethan be able to turn a horrible beginning into a meaningful relationship?

by Francisco X. Stork Lexile:   680 Genre:  Realistic Fiction Vicky shouldn't be alive.  One night she decided to end the pain she has felt since her mother died. But her nanny found her and the doctors at Lakeview Hospital were able to save her life.  Now her task is to find a reason to live.  Her new friends in her group therapy sessions are going to push her to do the hard work of putting her life back together.  If she is to survive, she will have to find the courage and strength to rebuild herself and her relationships with her family members.

by A.S. King Genre:  Realistic Fiction Sarah doesn't know what's happening.  She is 16 and has decided that going to school is pointless and unoriginal.  She used to be an aspiring artist, but has now decided that is no longer interesting.  As Sarah works to figure herself out, she is unexpectedly visited by her 10 year old self who helps her remember what is really going on in her parents' marriage and the real reason about why she hasn't seen her brother in 6 years.  Sarah is also visited by her 23 year old and 40 year old selves which give her a glimpse into her future.  Can all of the Sarahs help her figure out what is going on with her 16 year old self?

by Jennifer Niven Lexile:  770 Genre:  Realistic Fiction Libby Stout was once known as "America's Fattest Teen."  She was so overweight that when she had a medical emergency, she had to be cut out of the house in order for a truck to be able to get her to the hospital.  Now Libby has lost 300 pounds and spent thousands of hours in therapy and it is now time for her to return to high school.  She is hoping that she will be able to blend into the crowd and that the kids who called her Flabby Lbs in elementary school will have matured.  It only takes her a matter of minutes to learn that this is not the case. And then she meets Jack Masselin, the all around perfect boy, except that he is hiding a terrifying secret which he reveals to Libby after their paths cross in an unusual way.

by Tara Sullivan Lexile:  810 Genre:  Realistic Fiction Amadou and Seydou try every day to make their quota of cacao pods so that they will be fed and avoid a beating.  They have been forced to work on the cacao farm for over a year without being paid or given any explanation as to when they will be allowed to leave.  They have accepted their harsh reality and work hard every day to survive.  But one day, a car pulls up and there are two things that seem unusual.  One - there is only one child.  Two - that child is a girl.  Amadou and Seydou have no idea how their lives are about to change.

by Mindy McGinnis Lexile:  980 Genre:  Realistic Fiction Alex Craft has gone out of her way to make herself invisible.  Ever since her sister died, she hasn't wanted to stand out. She would rather blend into the shadows.  But Jack Fisher sees her and wants to know more about her.  And then there is Peekay, a girl that she meets at the animal shelter where they volunteer.  Before Alex knows it, she has a new friend and a boyfriend.  But Alex has secrets that are too terrible to share to share with anyone, even her friend and her boyfriend.  Will she be able to move forward without admitting what she has done in the past and is afraid that she might do again in the future?

by Nicola Yoon Lexile:  650 Genre:  Realistic Fiction Natasha has one day left in New York City.  She and her family are being deported to Jamaica because her parents entered the country illegally many years ago.  Natasha is trying everything she can to get the deportation order removed.  New York is the only place she has ever called home and she has no desire to leave.  On her last day in New York City, she meets Daniel.  Daniel is the second son in a Korean family who is trying to live up to his family's expectation that he get into a good college so that he can become a doctor.  On the way to his alumni interview for Yale, he runs into Natasha.  Neither one realizes how their separate lives are about to converge for just one day.