The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian
Alexie, Sherman, 1966-
"Junior is a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian reservation." "Born with a variety of medical problems, he is picked on by everyone but his best friend. Determined to receive a good education, Junior leaves the rez to attend an all-white school in the neighboring farm town where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Despite being condemned as a traitor to his people and enduring great tragedies, Junior attacks life with wit and humor and discovers a strength inside of himself that he never knew existed.

A long way gone : memoirs of a boy soldier
Beah, Ishmael, 1980-
"In the more than fifty violent conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them." "In a Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Ishmael Beah, now twenty-six years old, tells a story: at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he'd been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. At sixteen, he was removed from fighting by UNICEF, and through the help of the staff at his rehabilitation center, he learned how to forgive himself, to regain his humanity, and finally, to heal."

Mister Pip
Jones, Lloyd, 1955-
"On a copper-rich tropical island shattered by war, where the teachers have fled with almost everyone else, only one white man chooses to stay behind: the eccentric Mr. Watts, object of much curiosity and scorn, who sweeps out the ruined schoolhouse and begins to read to the children each day from Charles Dickens's classic Great Expectations." "So begins this story about the abiding strength that imagination, once ignited, can provide. While artillery echoes in the mountains, thirteen-year-old Matilda and her peers are riveted by the adventures of a young orphan named Pip in a city called London, a city whose contours soon become more real than their own blighted landscape. As Mr. Watts says, "A person entranced by a book simply forgets to breathe." Soon come the rest of the villagers, initially threatened, finally inspired to share tales of their own that bring alive the rich mythology of their past. But in a ravaged place where even children are forced to live by their wits and daily survival is the only objective, imagination can be a dangerous thing."

Skulduggery Pleasant
Landy, Derek
Meet Skulduggery Pleasant Ace Detective Snappy Dresser Razor-tongued Wit Crackerjack Sorcerer and Walking, Talking, Fire-throwing Skeleton --as well as ally, protector, and mentor of Stephanie Edgley, a very unusual and darkly talented twelve-year-old. These two alone must defeat an all-consuming ancient evil. The end of the world? Over his dead body.

Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal
Peet, Mal
From the author of the acclaimed "Keeper" comes a powerfully moving, Carnegie Medal-winning story about love, lies, and secrets set against the daily fear and horror of Nazi-occupied Holland.

American Shaolin : flying kicks, Buddhist monks, and the legend of iron crotch : an odyssey in the new China
Polly, Matthew
Laced with humor and illuminated by cultural insight, this coming-of-age tale explores one young American's quest to become a kung fu master at China's legendary Shaolin Temple. 8-page photo insert.

The invention of Hugo Cabret : a novel in words and pictures
Selznick, Brian
Orphan, clock keeper, thief: Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. Combining elements of picture book, graphic novel, and film, Caldecott Honor artist Selznick breaks open the novel form to create an entirely new reading experience in this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery.

The arrival
Tan, Shaun
In this wordless graphic novel, Tan captures the struggles and joy of the immigrant experience through clear, mesmerizing images which tell the story of a man who leaves his homeland and his family to build a better life.

The Pox Party
M.T. Anderson
Various diaries, letters, and other manuscripts chronicle the experiences of Octavian, a young African American, from birth to age sixteen, as he is brought up as part of a science experiment in the years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War.

Samurai Shortstop
Alan Gratz
While obtaining a Western education at a prestigious Japanese boarding school in 1890, sixteen-year-old Toyo also receives traditional samurai training which has profound effects on both his baseball game and his relationship with his father.

Surrender
Sonya Hartnett
As he is dying, a twenty-year-old man known as Gabriel recounts his troubled childhood and his strange relationship with a dangerous counterpart named Finnigan.

Sold
Patricia McCormick
Thirteen-year-old Lakshmi, though poor, enjoys her life until the Himalayan monsoons wash away her family's crops and she is sold to a brothel in India by her stepfather. She remembers her mother's wisdom, "Simply to endure is to triumph," until the day comes that she can reclaim her life.

Anahita's Woven Riddle
Meghan Nuttall Sayres
In Iran, more than 100 years ago, a young girl with three suitors gets permission from her father and a holy man to weave into her wedding rug a riddle to be solved by her future husband, which will ensure that he has wit to match hers.

The Trap
John Smelcer
In alternating chapters, seventeen-year-old Johnny Least-Weasel, who is better known for brains than brawn, worries about his missing grandfather, and the grandfather, Albert Least-Weasel, struggles to survive, caught in his own steel trap in the Alaskan winter.

The King of Attolia
Megan Whalen Turner
Eugenides, still known as a Thief of Eddis, faces palace intrigue and assassins as he strives to prove himself both to the people of Attolia and to his new bride, their queen.

The Rules of Survival
Nancy Werlin
Seventeen-year-old Matthew recounts his attempts, starting at a young age, to free himself and his sisters from the grip of their emotionally and physically abusive mother.

American Born Chinese
Gene Yang
Alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese Americans trying to participate in the popular culture. Presented in comic book format.

The Book Thief
Marcus Zusack
Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.

Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow
Susan Campbell Bartoletti
“I begin with the young…What material! With them I can make a new world.” Adolf Hitler exploited the idealism of millions of Germany’s young people to fuel his evil master plan for global domination.

Upstate
Kalisha Buckhanon
Natasha and Antonio, young lovers, communicate via letters for nine years during his incarceration for murdering his father.

Come Back to Afghanistan: A California Teenager's Story
Said Hyder Akbar and Susan Burton
California teen Hyder describes three summers (2002-4) he spent with his father who had returned to the Afghanistan to help rebuild his country by serving as spokesman to the president and governor of a border province.

Looking for Alaska
John Green
Miles is looking for the Great Perhaps--and an Alabama boarding school offers the possibility of finding it, especially after he meets the captivating, unpredictable, and utterly alive Alaska.

Inexcusable
Chris Lynch
High school senior and football star Keir Sarafina says, “I hate it when people I love condemn me,” but has Keir done something inexcusable to Gigi Boudakian?

Twilight: A Novel
Stephanie Meyer
Bella's move to rainy Forks, Washington is the most boring move she will ever make, until she meets Edward, the vampire love of her life.

Runaways: Volume 1
Brian K. Vaughan
Six teenagers discover that their parents are super-villains, and after deciding to turn them in, fight for both their own survival and an end to the evil from which they were born.

Peeps
Scott Westerfeld
College freshman Cal comes to NY, spends a night with a beautiful girl-- and becomes a carrier. Now everyone he kisses develops a craving for meat, an aversion to sunlight, and super strength.

Poison
Chris Wooding
When Poison's sister is kidnapped by Phaeries, Poison is determined to get her back but she doesn't realize that she is part of a much larger, darker story.

I Am the Messenger
Markus Zusak
Aimless, amiable 19-year-old cab driver, Ed Kennedy, foils a bank robber and then begins to receive mysterious messages assigning him to intervene in the lives of strangers.