Hate List by Jennifer Brown is about Valerie, a high school senior who has never quite fit in. She has been the victim of the meanest school bullies since she started dressing and acting differently in middle school. Valerie found a soul mate in Nick when he moved to town when they were both freshmen. Together, they could weather the bullying. Valerie started the Hate List in a red spiral notebook as a way to vent about being constantly picked on my the other students at school. Each time something happened, she'd write down the bully's name. Eventually, the list grew and grew, with names on the list multiple times. Valerie always thought of the list as a way to get out her pain, but Nick took it to a different level. On May 2nd of their junior year, Nick brought a gun to school and shot several of the students on the Hate List. Valerie, once she realized what Nick was doing, threw herself in front of the last victim and took a bullet in her leg. Immediately after accidentally shooting Valerie, Nick shot and killed himself. Now, Valerie is left to deal with her injury, the loss of a boyfriend she truly loved, and the accusatory attitude of most of the people in her small town - including her own parents. Bravely, Valerie returns to her high school in the fall, only to find that her friends have abandoned her. She does, however, find a friend in the most unlikely place. It takes her awhile to accept it, but Valerie eventually becomes friends with the girl she took the bullet for - the queen bee of the school, the one who was at the top of the Hate List due to her constant bullying and nastiness. With the help of her psychologist Dr. Heiler, her art instructor Bea, and a new notebook filled with her sketches, Valerie learns a lot about herself and her classmates, and realizes that she has never quite looked at anything in her life in a way that allows her to "see" what is really there.
Accomplice by Eireann Corrigan is about best friends, Finn and Chloe. Both girls are looking ahead to their future: college. Unfortunately, despite their good grades, extracurricular activities, and positive attitudes, the girls are afraid they don't have anything to write their application essays about that will make them stand out amongst the other applicants. So, they hatch a plan to get them noticed. They will fake Chloe's disappearance. While Chloe hides out in Finn's grandmother's vacant house, the rest of their small town begins a manhunt to track down her kidnapper. This leaves Finn to deal with all of the police and news crews who show up to help. Throughout the entire ordeal, Finn nearly cracks. She finds some solace in Dean, the boy who had recently become Chloe's boyfriend and is now the prime suspect in her disappearance. Finn visits Chloe in secret when she gets an opportunity, and is convinced they need to call off the plan. As things get more and more heated in town and their plan begins to change, Finn can't seem to get past the need to come clean, while Chloe remains resolved to see it through. In the end, Finn learns some things about Chloe and her plan that she never would have suspected and she begins to wonder how solid their friendship was in the first place.
Reincarnation by Suzanne Weyn is a love story about two people who meet over and over through multiple lives from prehistory through the present time. Amazingly they are able to find one another in each life, their story growing with each lifetime. Through every lifetime, both characters bring something of their former selves and are easily able to recognize one another, even though they don't exactly know why. Each part of the story ends tragically, with their love never quite working out, with the exception of the final story, in which they find one another and are together even now!
11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass is the story of Amanda's and Leo's 11th birthday. Ever since they were born, Amanda and Leo celebrated their birthdays together with one big, fantastic party. That is, until their 11th birthday. During their 10th birthday party, Amanda overheard Leo saying some very hurtful things about her to some of the popular boys at their school. Ever since, Amanda has refused to even speak to Leo. On the morning of their 11th birthday, Amanda awoke to her alarm like usual, startled to find a giant SpongeBob balloon floating near her bed. From that moment on, Amanda's day got worse and worse - beginning with having to ride the bus to school because her father was sick, and ending with a costume party that everyone left early (or didn't even show up) to go to Leo's party instead. Thankful the day was finally over, Amanda went to bed. Surprised, she woke up to her alarm the next morning, even though it was Saturday. When she saw the SpongeBob balloon, Amanda realized something wasn't quite right. Everyone was acting as if it was Friday again! Amanda was being forced to live her 11th birthday over and over again!! After several days of this, Amanda realized that Leo was the only other person who knew what was happening. Together, they had to figure out what to do so that Saturday would finally come!
Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen is the story of Bryce and Juli, neighbors who've had a history since Bryce moved to town in 2nd grade (they're in high school now!). The story is told through both characters' perspectives in alternate chapters. Basically, Juli has had a crush on Bryce for as long as she's known him and Bryce has found Juli annoying for just as long. Through a series of funny, touching, amazing, misunderstood, and sad events, the two find their feelings toward one another become "flipped". Everything comes to a head when popular Bryce is voted to be a basket boy in a fund raising auction where girls get to bid on having a picnic lunch with the boy of their choice!
Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick is about Nora, a typical teen who leads an a-typical life. Her father was killed several months ago and she lives with her single mother in an old farm house on the outskirts of a small Oregon town. Her mother has to travel a lot for her job, so Nora is left alone in the house more often than not. This arrangement was working out just fine until some strange things began happening. First, Nora was paired up with the mysterious transfer student in biology class, Patch, who seemed to know a lot more about her than she had actually revealed. Nora began feeling like someone was watching her and even suspected someone had been in her room! A stranger tried to attack her while driving home one night, but when she was able to escape there was no damage to the car she thought had been smashed up! Things got even more strange when Nora and her best friend Vee met a new student who had previously gone to a fancy prep school in Portland. Elliot and his friend Jules were just a little too interested in hanging out with the two girls. Nora became suspicious of this behavior when she learned that Elliot had been suspected in the death of one of his former classmates and that was the real reason he had left the private school. Nora is convinced Elliot is behind the strange events plaguing her and her friends, while Vee is just as convinced it is Patch causing the problems. Nora is inexplicably draw to Patch, and on the evening of a strange storm learns a lot more about him, Elliot, and Jules than she ever could have thought was possible.
If I Stay by Gayle Forman is about seventeen year old Mia, a typical high school senior living in Oregon. Mia has a wonderful family including two super-cool parents and an awesome eight year old brother, a perfect best friend, a boyfriend who shares her love of music, and a good chance at getting into Julliard. Everything in Mia's life is pretty great until one fateful morning. Mia and her family woke up to a slight snow storm which caused all of the schools in the area to close. Rather than miss out on a chance to spend quality family time together, everyone decides to hop in the car and head toward Portland where they'll visit with friends, eat dinner with the grandparents, and Mia will round out the evening by watching her boyfriend Adam play in his band. A terrible car accident derails all of those plans, though. Mia's entire family is killed and Mia's body is left in a coma. Her soul, however remains behind to witness all of her remaining loved ones' reactions to the accident. The rest of the story is told through Mia reliving many different moments in her life, all leading up to her big decision... should she stay or let go and join her family?
Linger by Maggie Stiefvater is the second book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls Series. In this book, Sam and Grace are content as a couple, knowing the "cure" worked for Sam - he will never turn into a wolf again, no matter how cold it gets. Unfortunately, Beck didn't know about Sam's cure and created some new wolves to help take care of the pack. Cole is trying desperately to become a wolf and stay a wolf, wanting to leave his tumultuous past behind. He and Sam do not get along. Cole and Isabel do get along, until she finds out about his plan to force the wolf out of himself. She is still upset and guilty about her brother dying from the same thing that cured Sam and doesn't understand Cole's need to change for good. Things take a turn for the worse when Grace begins to exhibit some strange symptoms. It gets even worse when her parents find her with Sam when she was supposed to be alone. The ground her and force the two apart during what could possibly be the worst time of Grace's life. No one will say it, but everyone who knows about the wolves of Mercy Falls is convinced that Grace will be the next to turn (even Grace).
Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie S. Tolan is about juvenile delinquent, Jake Semple and his experience living with the Applewhite family. Jake has had it rough - his parents are in jail on drug charges, he's been kicked out of nearly every public school in Rhode Island, he'd been accused of burning down the most recent school from which he was expelled, and even his grandfather doesn't want him. That's how he ends up in foster care at the Applewhite's acreage, Wit's End. Every member of the Applewhite family is an artist of some kind, except the middle child, E.D. Her calling in life is organization. She's the only one of the many Applewhites that doesn't accept Jake immediately. She's the only one who cares about his all black clothes, his swearing, his fire-engine red spiky hair, and his bad attitude. Once Jake realizes that those thinks don't get a rise out of anyone anymore, he just sort of loses them. The Applewhite kids are all home-schooled and get to learn by doing what interests them. Jake ends up helping E.D. with her butterfly project, much to the chagrin of them both. Eventually, Jake ends up finding a passion in the arts that he never would have expected, and a love for a family (including a pushy puppy) that he never could have imagined.
White Sands, Red Menace by Ellen Klages is the sequel to The Green Glass Sea. Both stories are about Dewey Kerrigan and Suze Gordon, two eighth grade girls living in New Mexico during the late 1940s. In White Sands, Red Menace, Dewey has been living with the Gordon family for nearly two years since the death of her father. The army has now asked the scientists who had been working on the atomic bomb to continue their work, but with rockets. Suze and Dewey struggle to fit in to the new school and town - dealing with the typical struggles of adolescent teens - but also dealing with being headstrong, smart, and curious girls during a time when men ruled the scientific world. The girls also struggle with one another as they try to figure out their relationships. A kink gets thrown into the mix with Suze's mom gets pregnant and Dewey's long lost mother returns.
Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare is about the relationships between two different couples. Hero is the daughter of the governer of Messina, Leonato. She falls for Claudio, the closest friend of Prince Don Pedro. The make plans to be married, but in a fit of jealousy, Don Pedro's brother, Don John hatches a plan to separate the happy couple. Meanwhile, Benedick, another friend of the prince, has decided to never love and never marry. Beatrice, Hero's cousin, has professed the same thing. Without their knowledge, their friends make plans to get the two together. By the end of the story they have fallen for one another and make plans to marry!
