Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

When it was first published in 1967, The Outsiders defied convention with its immediate, deeply sympathetic portrayal of Ponyboy and his struggle to find a place for himself in a difficult world. Thirty years later, it speaks to teenagers as powerfully as ever. Even though its almost 2010 the teens in this book speak to us. The times were hard back in those days and to a 14 year old Ponyboy its hard to live. Him,... (more)

Gemma Doyle Trilogy: Book 1

A Great and Terrible Beauty

by Libba Bray

It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma’s reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she’s been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her.... (more)

The Diary of a Young Girl

by Anne Frank

Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl is among the most enduring documents of the twentieth century. Since its publication in 1947, it has been read by tens of millions of people all over the world. It remains a beloved and deeply admired testament to the indestructible nature of the human spirit. Restored in this Definitive Edition are diary entries that were omitted from the original edition. These passages,... (more)

The Liars' Club: A Memoir

by Mary Karr

When it was published in 1995, Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club took the world by storm and raised the art of the memoir to an entirely new level, as well as bringing about a dramatic revival of the form. Karr’s comic childhood in an east Texas oil town brings us characters as darkly hilarious as any of J. D. Salinger’s—a hard-drinking daddy, a sister who can talk down the sheriff at twelve, and an... (more)

To Kill a Mockingbird

by Harper Lee

The explosion of racial hate in an Alabama town is viewed by a little girl whose father defends a black man accused of rape.

Find a Stranger, Say Goodbye

by Lois Lowry

Seventeen-year-old Natalie's life seems to be going wonderfully. She is smart and pretty, her family loves her, and she has a great boyfriend. The only thing missing is the fact that she does not know the identity of her biological mother. HC: Houghton Mifflin.

The Luckiest Girl in the World : A Young Skater Battles Her Self-Destructive Impulses

The Luckiest Girl in the World : A Young Skater Battles Her Self-Destructive Impulses

by Steven Levenkron

Just looking at Katie Roskova, you'd think she had it all: she was pretty, popular, an A-student at an exclusive private school, and on her way to becoming a champion figure skater. But there was another Katie--the one she hid from the world--who was having trouble dealing with the mounting pressures of her young life. And it was this Katie who, with no other means of expression available to her, reacted to her... (more)

A Tribe Apart: A Journey into the Heart of American Adolescence (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

A Tribe Apart: A Journey into the Heart of American Adolescence (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

by Patricia Hersch

For three fascinating, disturbing years, writer Patricia Hersch journeyed inside a world that is as familiar as our own children and yet as alien as some exotic culture--the world of adolescence. As a silent, attentive partner, she followed eight teenagers in the typically American town of Reston, Virginia, listening to their stories, observing their rituals, watching them fulfill their dreams and enact their... (more)

Gingerbread

by Rachel Cohn

"I will be as wild as I wanna be." After getting tossed from her posh boarding school, wild, willful, and coffee addicted Cyd Charisse returns to San Francisco to live with her parents. But there's no way Cyd can survive in her parents' pristine house. Lucky for Cyd she's got Gingerbread, her childhood rag doll and confidante, and her new surfer boyfriend. When Cyd's rebelliousness gets out of hand, her... (more)

I'm Not Scared

by Niccolo? Ammaniti

“Stop all this talk about monsters, Michele. Monsters don’t exist. It’s men you should be afraid of, not monsters.” A sweltering heat wave hits a tiny village in Southern Italy, sending the adults to seek shelter, while their children bicycle freely throughout the countryside, playing games and getting into trouble. On a dare, nine-year-old Michele Amitrano enters an old, abandoned farmhouse, where he stumbles... (more)

Anita and Me

by Meera Syal

Now in paperback, the prize-winning coming-of-age novel about a young Indian girl in northern England. Winner of the Betty Trask Award and finalist for the Guardian Fiction Award, Anita and Me, which has been compared to To Kill a Mockingbird, tells the story of Meena, the daughter of the only Punjabi family in the British village of Tollington. With great warmth and humor, Meera Syal brings to life a quirky,... (more)

The Cat Ate My Gymsuit

by Paula Danziger

Marcy Lewis is bored by school, she knows she’s never going to be thin, and her family life’s a nightmare. Then Marcy meets Ms. Finney, an English teacher who will try anything in the classroom. Finally, Marcy’s life in and out of school begins to have a purpose. But when Ms. Finney is suspended, Marcy knows she’s got to take a stand, no matter the price she must pay.

13 Little Blue Envelopes

by Maureen Johnson

Inside little blue envelope 1 are $1,000 and instructions to buy a plane ticket. In envelope 2 are directions to a specific London flat. The note in envelope 3 tells Ginny: Find a starving artist. Because of envelope 4, Ginny and a playwright/thief/ bloke–about–town called Keith go to Scotland together, with somewhat disastrous–though utterly romantic–results. But will she ever see him again? ... (more)

Out Stealing Horses

by Per Petterson

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW A TIME MAGAZINE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER OF THE IMPAC DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD Out Stealing Horses has been embraced across the world as a classic, a novel of universal relevance and power. Panoramic and gripping, it tells the story of Trond Sander, a sixty-seven-year-old man who has moved from the city to a remote, riverside... (more)

Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America

Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America

by Nathan McCall

Examining the complexities of the problems of black youths from an insider's perspective, an African-American journalist recalls his own troubled childhood, his rehabilitation while in prison, and his successful Washington Post career. Reprint. 150,000 first printing.

Silent to the Bone

by E. L. Konigsburg

Speechless Connor is sure his best friend, Branwell, couldn't have hurt Branwell's baby half sister, Nikki. But Nikki lies in a coma, and Branwell is in a juvenile behavioral center, suspected of a horrible crime and unable to utter the words to tell what really happened. Connor is the only one who might be able to break through Branwell's wall of silence. But how can he prove Branwell didn't commit the... (more)

Spring's Awakening

by Eric Bentley, Frank Wedekind

Spring's Awakening is a tragi-comedy of teenage sex. Its fourteen-year-old heroine, Wendla, is killed by abortion pills. The young Moritz, terrorized by the world around him, and especially by his teachers, shoots himself. The ending seems likely to be the suicide of Moritz's friend, Melchior, but in a confrontation with a mysterious stranger (the famous Masked Man) he finally manages to shed his illusions and... (more)

Click Here (to find out how i survived seventh grade)

Click Here (to find out how i survived seventh grade)

by Denise Vega

magine if all your personal thoughts about crushes, fears, enemies, and even kissing practice ended up on the internet for everyone to read! That's what happens to Erin Swift when her secret blog lands on the school Web site. As if navigating the treacherous waters of seventh grade weren't enough! Writing with warm, knowing humor, first-time novelist Denise Vega perfectly captures life from a seventh grade girl's... (more)

The Book of Lists for Teens

by Sandra Choron

Face it: no self-respecting young adult likes to be caught out of the know. But few teenagers have the time or inclination to plow through Web sites, almanacs, and weighty reference books to find the answers to all their questions. The Book of Lists for Teens is an informative, lively, and engaging source of information about all kinds of things, and it"s fun. It"s all here: everything that matters most to people... (more)

The Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America (Native Agents)

The Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America (Native Agents)

by Michelle Tea

Dirty, sweet, pop and poetic, Michelle Tea is like a twisted Spice Girl who can actually sing - and write. - Mary Gaitskill Passionate Mistakes charts the turbulent adventures of one girl in America from Boston's teenage goth world to whoring in New Age Tucson to arriving in San Francisco's dyke underground. Honest, sarcastic, lyrical and direct, Tea's work is the most literate and sophisticated treatment... (more)

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by S. E. Hinton