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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.

We All Fall Down: Living with Addiction by Nic Sheff

April 2011

In his memoir TWEAK, Nic Sheff took readers on an emotionally gripping roller-coaster ride through his days as a drug addict. In this powerful follow-up about his continued efforts to stay clean, Nic writes candidly about eye-opening stays at rehab centers, devastating relapses, and hard-won realizations about what it means to be a young person living with addiction.

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Teeth: Vampire Tales by Ellen Datlow

April 2011

Fascinated by vampires? Then feast on 19 tantalizing, bite-sized tales exploring the intersections between the living, dead and undead. The vampires in these stories range from romantic to chilling to gleeful --- and touch on nearly every emotion in between. The one thing they have in common is their desire for blood!

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Viola in Reel Life by Adriana Trigiani

April 2011

Viola doesn't want to go to boarding school, but somehow she ends up at an all-girls school in South Bend, Indiana far away from her home in Brooklyn, New York. There's no way she's going to survive the year. Boarding school, though, and her roommates and even the Midwest are nothing like she thought they would be.

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Strings Attached by Judy Blundell

April 2011

When Kit Corrigan arrives in New York City, she doesn't have much. She's fled from her family in Providence, Rhode Island, and she's broken off her tempestuous relationship with a boy named Billy, who's enlisted in the army. The city doesn't exactly welcome her with open arms. She gets a bit part as a chorus girl in a Broadway show, but she knows that's not going to last very long. She needs help --- and then it comes, from an unexpected source.

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Words in the Dust by Trent Reedy

April 2011

A quiet, severely disfigured Afghan girl experiences a promising vision of her nation's future when American troops occupy her desert village and arrange surgery for her cleft lip. Based on an enlightening true story, WORDS IN THE DUST tells of a shy 13-year-old and how much her life changes because of the simple kindness of a few concerned American soldiers. Reviewed by Melanie Smith and excerpted.

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Summer and the City: A Carrie Diaries Novel by Candace Bushnell

March 2011

Seventeen-year-old Carrie Bradshaw is finally in New York. But can she manage to prove herself as a writer so she can remain in the city of her dreams? As the countdown of her summer ticks away, she grapples with writer's block, men and friendships in another delightful installment of her adventures.

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Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

March 2011

It's 1941, and Lina is just like any other 15-year-old Lithuanian girl. That is, until Soviet officers barge into her home. Separated from her father, Lina, her mother and her brother travel north on a crowded train to a camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here, under Stalin's orders, they are forced to dig for beets --- and fight for their lives --- under the cruelest conditions.

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Lost and Found: Three by Shaun Tan

March 2011

The Lost Thing won Best Animated Short at this year's Academy Awards. This huge honor coincides with the release of LOST & FOUND, a collection of Shaun Tan's early picture books that includes the story on which the film is based, along with THE RED TREE and THE RABBITS.

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To Timbuktu: Nine Countries, Two People, One True Story by Casey Scieszka

March 2011

Two young adults meet while studying abroad in Morocco. They fall in love and decide to travel some more...and their adventures begin. For the next year-and-a-half, they teach English in China, wander Southeast Asia, and do research in Mali. TO TIMBUKTU is a fully illustrated chronicle of their illuminating time abroad --- and what they learned there.

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Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann

February 2011

Kendall Fletcher’s world consists of her family farm; her best friend and sort-of boyfriend, Nico; soccer; dance; and her obsessive-compulsive disorder. When two classmates disappear, her rigid routine is disrupted by search parties, worry and grief. When she starts hearing voices, Kendall wonders if she’s completely losing her grip on reality, or if the missing students are reaching out to her for help.

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