Teen/YA

The Betrayal of Maggie Blair by Elizabeth Laird

The Betrayal of Maggie Blair by Elizabeth Laird

The Betrayal of Maggie Blair, by Elizabeth Laird.  Houghton Mifflin, 2011, 420 pages. Reading Level: Young Adult, Ages 12-15 Recommended for: Ages 14 and up ...
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Entwined by Heather Dixon

*Entwined by Heather Dixon

*Entwined, by Heather Dixon.  Greenwillow, 2011, 472 pages. Reading Level: Young Adult, ages 12-15 Recommended for: Ages 12-15 Bottom Line: Entwined is a fairy-tale romance ...
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Enchanted: Three new fairy tales

Heartless, by Anne Elisabeth Stengl.  Bethany House, 2010.  Age/interest level: 14-up (first in a series) Princess Una is a romantic sort, indulged by her father and ...
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Rebel by R. J. Anderson

Rebel by R. J. Anderson. Enclave Publishing, Reprint edition, 2015. 308 pages. Reading Level: Young Adult, 12-15. Recommended for: Ages 12-15 Bottom Line: Rebel, a story ...
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Turn On the Light

At least twice a year, it seems, there's a controversy blowing up in the Young-Adult book trade.  The latest brouhaha began with an article in ...
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Prom and Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg

Prom and Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg

Prom and Prejudice, by Elizabeth Eulberg.  Point (Scholastic), 2011, 227 pages.  Reading Level: Young Adult, ages 12-15 Recommended for: Ages 12-14 and up Bottom Line: ...
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Enthusiasm by Polly Schulman

Enthusiasm by Polly Schulman

Enthusiasm, by Polly Schulman. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2006, 198 pages.  Reading Level: Young Adult, ages 12-15 Recommended for: Ages 12-14 Bottom Line: Enthusiasm, a ...
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The Year We Were Famous by Carole Estby Dagg

*The Year We Were Famous by Carole Estby Dagg

*The Year We Were Famous by Carole Estby Dagg.  Clarion, 2011, 241 pages with author note. Reading Level: Young Adult, ages 12-15 Recommended for: Ages ...
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The Graduate

In anticipation of our interview with Dr. Veith next week (see Emily's anticipatory post), I intended to write some thoughts on life after homeschooling to ...
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Divergent by Veronica Roth

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Divergent, by Veronica Roth. Katherine Tegan Books (HarperCollins), 2011, 487 pages. Reading Level: Young Adult, ages 12-15 Recommended for: Ages 15-18 and up Bottom Line: ...
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Beautiful by Cindy Martinusen-Coloma

Beautiful by Cindy Martinusen-Coloma

Beautiful: Truth's Found When Beauty's Lost, by Cindy Martinusen-Coloma.  Thomas Nelson, 2009, 272 pages. Reading Level: Young Adult, ages 12-15 Recommended for: Ages 12-14 and ...
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Good Christian Girls

I remember when Jeanette Oke and "deliverance" stories were about the only options teenage girls had if they wanted to read some Christian fiction.  The ...
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Love Will Keep Us Together by Anne Dayton

Love Will Keep Us Together by Anne Dayton

Love Will Keep Us Together, by Anne Dayton and May Vanderbilt.  Hatchett: 2010, 287 pages.  (Miracle Girls series #4) Reading Level: Young adult, ages 12-15 ...
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Becoming Me by Melody Carlson

Becoming Me by Melody Carlson

Becoming Me, by Melody Carlson.  Multnomah, 2010.  (Diary of a Teenage Girl series #1.) Reading Level: Young Adults, Ages 12-15 Recommended for: Ages 12-14 and up ...
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Motorcycles, Sushi, and One Strange Book by Nancy Rue

Motorcycles, Sushi, and One Strange Book by Nancy Rue

Motorcycles, Sushi, and One Strange Book, by Nancy Rue.  Zondervan, 2010, 211 pages.  (Real Life series #1) Reading Level: Middle grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: ...
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The Airborn trilogy by Kenneth Oppel

The Airborn trilogy by Kenneth Oppel

Airborn, by Kenneth Oppel.  HarperCollins, 2004, 355 pp.  Skybreaker (2007); Starclimber (2009). Reading Level: Middle grade, ages 10-12 Recommended for: Ages 10-12 and up One-line ...
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The Leviathan Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld

The Leviathan Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld

Leviathan, by Scott Westerfield, illustrations by Keith Thompson.  Simon Pulse, 2009, 434 pages plus historical note. Reading Level: Young Adult, ages 12-15 Recommended for: Ages ...
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Steampunk!

Example of Clanker technology from the 1914-ish world of "Leviathan." According to Wikipedia, the term was probably coined by science-fiction writer K. W. Jeter as ...
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Looking For Love: The Paranormal Teen Romance

Several years ago I started noticing references to a new YA novel that was enjoying sensational sales, especially among adolescent girls.  As months passed, excitement ...
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Peak by Roland Smith

Peak by Roland Smith

Peak by Roland Smith.  Harcourt: 2007, 246 pages.  Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: Ages 10-12 and up One-line summary: Fourteen-year-old Peak Marcello's ...
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Escaping the Tiger by Laura Manivong

Escaping the Tiger by Laura Manivong

Escaping the Tiger by Laura Manivong. HarperCollins, 2010. 210 pages. Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 12-14 Recommended for: Ages 15-18 Bottom line: The experience of ...
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Young Adult or Adult “Youngs”?

Once upon a time there was no such thing as YA in the publishing world.  That may be because there was no such thing as ...
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“Jane! Jane!”

Few literary cries have echoed down the ages as persistently as that one: the ultimate impassioned plea from the ultimate gothic romance, which stands as ...
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‘True Grit’ and True Grace

“Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for ...
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The Perilous Gard

*The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope

The Perilous Gard, by Elizabeth Marie Pope.  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001, 288.  Age/interest level 12-up. Reading Level: Teens/Young Adults Recommended for: Ages 15-18 Bottom line: ...
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The Bartimaeus series by Jonathan Stroud

The Bartimaeus series by Jonathan Stroud

The Bartimaeus Trilogy, by Jonathan Stroud: The Amulet of Samarkand (Hyperion/Miramax, 2003), The Golem's Eye (2004), Ptolemy's Gate (2005). Reading Level: Young Adult, ages 12-14 ...
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The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud

The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud

The Ring of Solomon, by Jonathan Stroud.  Hyperion/Disney, 2010, 398 pages.  Reading level: Middle grades, 10-12 Recommended for: Ages 12-14 One-line Summary: The witty narrator ...
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Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson and the Olympians, by Rick Riordan: The Lightning Thief (Hyperion/Miramax,2005), The Sea of Monsters (2006), The Titan's Curse (2007), The Battle of the ...
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The Digital Age

We're in it; deal. Thanks to Kindle, iPhone, iPad, Android, and their promised descendents, digital publishing will eat its way like PacMan (remember PacMan?) into ...
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THe book thief cover image

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

The Book Thief, a literary novel for teens and adults, explores Nazi Germany and the Holocaust through the eyes of a child, in prose that ...
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Annexed cover image

Annexed by Sharon Dogar

Annexed is the fictionalized story of Peter van Pels, Anne Frank's fellow inmate, who offers a moving account of the Holocaust for teens, but no ...
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Dystopia, Part Three

Part One. Part Two. What's the problem with a glut of grim, futurist fiction on the YA bookshelves? Maybe nothing. Youth is resilient, and most ...
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Dystopia, Part Two

(Find Part One here) Besides being uniformly grim, there are other traits the current crop of dystopian novels share: A post-apocalyptic future--the story opens after ...
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Dystopia: Dead Ahead

Part One How's this for a scenario: In the future, the USA has been divided into thirteen districts, and the most prosperous oppresses all the ...
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