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Young Adult Books You Want to Read

As you may or may not know, our company, The Book Report Network, has a number of websites about books and authors in addition to Bookreporter.com. Throughout the year, Bookreporter.com features adult books on Teenreads.com, our site for young adult readers, that we think will have definite appeal to a teen audience. In the spirit of sharing, we are now spotlighting a selection of titles each month from Teenreads.com that we believe are great reads that you might enjoy.

I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives by Caitlin Alifirenka

April 2015

It started as an assignment. Everyone in Caitlin's class wrote to an unknown student somewhere in a distant place. Martin was lucky to even receive a pen-pal letter. There were only 10 letters, and 40 kids in his class. But he was the top student, so he got the first one. That letter was the beginning of a correspondence that spanned six years and changed two lives. In this dual memoir, Caitlin and Martin recount how they became best friends --- and better people --- through their long-distance exchange.

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Black Dove, White Raven by Elizabeth Wein

April 2015

Emilia and Teo's lives changed in a fiery, terrifying instant when a bird strike brought down the plane their stunt pilot mothers were flying. Teo's mother died immediately, but Em has survived, determined to raise Teo according to his late mother's wishes --- in a place where he won't be discriminated against because of the color of his skin. But in 1930s America, a white woman raising a black adoptive son alongside a white daughter is too often seen as a threat.

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Fig by Sarah Elizabeth Schantz

April 2015

Fig’s world lies somewhere between reality and fantasy. But as she watches Mama slowly come undone, it becomes hard to tell what is real and what is not, what is fun and what is frightening. To save Mama, Fig begins a fierce battle to bring her back. The problem is that in the process of a daily sacrifice, she begins to lose herself as well, increasingly isolating herself from her classmates and engaging in self-destructive behavior that only further sets her apart.

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The Bullies of Wall Street: This Is How Greedy Adults Messed Up Our Economy by Sheila Bair

April 2015

In 2008, America went through a terrible financial crisis, and we are still suffering the consequences. As the former head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Sheila Bair worked to protect families during the crisis and keep their bank deposits safe. In THE BULLIES OF WALL STREET, she describes the many ways in which a broken system led families into financial trouble, and also explains the decisions being made at the time by the most powerful people in the country that led to the recession.

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The Tightrope Walkers by David Almond

March 2015

A gentle visionary coming of age in the shadow of the shipyards of northern England, Dominic Hall is torn between extremes. On the one hand, he craves the freedom he feels when he steals away with the eccentric girl artist next door, Holly Stroud --- his first and abiding love --- to balance above the earth on a makeshift tightrope. With Holly, Dom dreams of a life different in every way from his shipbuilder dad’s. On the other hand, he finds himself irresistibly drawn to the brutal charms of Vincent McAlinden, a complex bully who awakens something wild and reckless and killing in Dom.

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Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

March 2015

BONE GAP is the story of Roza, a beautiful girl who is taken from a quiet midwestern town and imprisoned by a mysterious man, and Finn, the only witness, who cannot forgive himself for being unable to identify her kidnapper. As we follow them through their melancholy pasts, their terrifying presents, their uncertain futures, acclaimed author Laura Ruby weaves a heartbreaking tale of love and loss, magic and mystery, regret and forgiveness --- a story about how the face the world sees is never the sum of who we are.

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The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand

March 2015

Since her brother, Tyler, committed suicide, Lex has been trying to keep her grief locked away and to forget about what happened that night. But as she starts putting her life, her family and her friendships back together, Lex is haunted by a secret she hasn't told anyone --- a text Tyler sent that could have changed everything.

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Dead to Me by Mary McCoy

March 2015

"Don't believe anything they say." Those were the last words that Annie spoke to Alice before turning her back on their family and vanishing without a trace. Alice spent four years waiting and wondering when the impossibly glamorous sister she idolized would return to her --- and what their Hollywood-insider parents had done to drive her away.  When Annie does turn up, the blond, broken stranger lying in a coma has no answers for her. But Alice isn't a kid anymore, and this time she won't let anything stand between her and the truth, no matter how ugly.

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The Distance Between Lost and Found by Kathryn Holmes

February 2015

Sophomore Hallie Calhoun has just endured the most excruciating six months of her life. Once the rumors about her and the preacher's son, Luke, made their way around school, her friends abandoned her, and Hallie has completely withdrawn. Now, on a hike in the Smoky Mountains with the same people who have relentlessly taunted her, Hallie is pushed to her limit. Then Hallie, outgoing newcomer Rachel, and Hallie's former friend, Jonah, get separated from the rest of the group. As days go by without rescue, their struggle for survival turns deadly.

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Unlikely Warrior: A Jewish Soldier in Hitler's Army by Georg Rauch

February 2015

As a young adult in wartime Vienna, Georg Rauch helped his mother hide dozens of Jews from the Gestapo behind false walls in their top-floor apartment and arrange for their safe transport out of the country. Then came the day he was drafted into Hitler's army and shipped out to fight on the Eastern front as part of the German infantry. Thus begins the incredible journey of a 19-year-old thrust unwillingly into an unjust war, who must use his smarts, skills and bare-knuckled determination to stay alive in the trenches.

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