8 Plus 1

Author	Ellen Raskin
ISBN	0140329455

When Mrs. Leon Carillon sets off to meet the husband she hasn't seen since he was five, she doesn't know what to expect. She certainly doesn't bargain for the storm that knocks their boat overboard, or the fact that her husband will disappear, leaving only one very waterlogged clue. She also doesn't know...

Author	Virginia Hamilton
ISBN	0590956272

Thomas Smart is a young man from a very loving family. Pesty Darrow is his best friend. She is adopted and all she wants is to be cherished and bring everyone together in her family. Thomas lives in a house surrounded by secrets, tunnels and treasures. The owner of the house was an abolitionist, and the tunnels...

Author	Michael Cart
ISBN	0689832036

"More than thirty years ago a pioneering young adult librarian named Margaret A. Edwards protested that 'many adults seem to think that if sex is not mentioned to adolescents, it will go away.' "As succeeding decades have demonstrated, silence is no arbiter of behavior. Not only has sex not gone away,...

Author

David Almond

Fourteen-year-old Davie and his best friend, Geordie, are altar boys at their local Catholic Church. They’re full of mischief, but that all changes when Stephen Rose comes to town. Father O’Mahoney thinks it would be a good idea for Davie and Geordie to befriend him—maybe some of their good nature...

Author	Chris Crutcher
ISBN	0060507837

This short story collection serves as my introduction to Chris Crutcher as an author.

These stories are easy to read despite dealing with social situations and moral dilemmas: self-esteem, reaction to death and dying, prejudice and discrimination, or family relationships.

I...

Author	E.L. Konigsburg
ISBN	0689821204

This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.

Throwing Shadows is a collection of short stories published by E.L. Konigsburg in 1979. Each story is told in the first person, from the perspective of a young person who, during his or her story, has a significant encounter with another...

Author	Norma Fox Mazer
ISBN	0380722909

Reread November 2015:
Well Past Self called it because I reread this and am bumping it from 3 stars to 4. If I read it again, I'll probably give it 5.

One, Sarabeth's friends are in it more than I remember and they are lovely. Yay, Patty. And Leo is there at important times and says things that...

Author	Anne Fine
ISBN	0440419166

Ian’s best friend, Stolly, is up on cloud nine. He’s in the hospital, unconscious, and hooked up to machines. The question Ian is trying to answer is: How did Stolly end up there?

In a way, Stolly’s always been on cloud nine, living life by his own rules and making those rules up as he goes...

Author	Marc Aronson
ISBN	0763645621

Pass! Shoot! Swish! An all-star team of YA authors scores spectacularly with an action-packed anthology about street basketball.

It’s one steamy July day at the West 4th Street Court in NYC, otherwise known as The Cage. Hotshot ESPN is wooing the scouts, Boo is struggling to guard the weird...

Author	Carolee Dean
ISBN	0618138463

Nothing ever happened here. Nothing ever would.

Fifteen-year-old Kenny Wilson wants nothing more than to get out of Comfort, Texas—fast. Only three things stand in his way: getting enough money together, convincing Cindy Blackwell to go with him, and escaping the clawlike grip of his...

Author	Mel Glenn
ISBN	0140385134

Nominated for the prestigious Edgar Allan Poe Award of the Mystery Writers of America

An ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults

Award-winning author and poet Mel Glenn presents a unique mystery told through a series of free verse poems.

When popular Tower High English teacher...

Author	Michael Newton
ISBN	0141442360

'The ghost is the most enduring figure in supernatural fiction. He is absolutely indestructible... He changes with the styles in fiction but he never goes out of fashion. He is the really permanent citizen of the earth, for mortals, at best, are but transients' - Dorothy Scarborough

This new...

Author	Rudyard Kipling
ISBN	1853261793

This is a fascinating selection of Kipling's most famous short stories, bringing together the very best of his work. "Life's Handicap" reflects his experiences of India, and contains two horror stories which permeate the collection with an air of haunted destinies.

Delusions and obsessions,...

Author

Eireann Corrigan

From the remarkable author of the PUSH bestseller YOU REMIND ME OF YOU, a searing novel in poems about a family falling apart after a violent assault.

It's about the aftermath. It's about what happens after a stranger breaks into a house and attacks a family. It's about the sisters who must barricade...

Author	Judy Blume
ISBN	0689842589

"What effect does [the climate of censorship] have on a writer?....It's chilling.
It's easy to become discouraged, to second-guess everything you write. There seemed to be no one to stand up to the censors....so I began to speak out about my experiences. And once I did, I found that I wasn't as alone...

Author	Amy Ehrlich
ISBN	0763613460

A daughter discovers her mother's mysterious, shocking secret.

From Montpelier, Vermont, across the country to Venice, California, Nina Lewis and her mother Joyce are always on the move. They own nothing that can't fit in the back of a van, and they never stay very long in any one place. Home...

Author	Richie Tankersley Cusick
ISBN	0671794035

Robin decides to take up a part-time job at the wealthy Swanson family mansion as she’s desperate for some extra cash. It seems simple enough, all Robin needs to do is rearrange all the books that had belonged to Lilith - who’d recently committed suicide.

But after a series of strange events...

Author	Jonah Black
ISBN	0064408000

"Jonah still doesn't know who I am, and it's driving me crazy."-- Northgirl999"Watch it, Jonah Black. You're a good diver, but you're not that good."-- Lamar Jameson"My son's diary is a testament to the fact that young people today need to be nicer to themselves. We all do."-- Dr. Judith Black, Radio...

Author	Gary Anderson
ISBN	0692689281

Told from numerous and at times oblique perspectives, while employing various literary forms and styles, ANIMAL MAGNET probes the notion of humanness, human identity, and humanity.

Spanning centuries and continents, this wild-eyed family saga jumps generationally if erratically down...

Author	R.L. Stine
ISBN	0064410358

Twelve ultra-smart, ultra-competitive kids have been selected to take part in a survival competition called Life Games.Not only will they have to overcome the dangers of life on a tropical island, they'll also have to face the evil presence that lives there...waiting for its next victim.No Survivors

April...

Author

A.D. Langholm

Alison Allbright is a high school nobody. She is prickly and selfish, so she has no friends. She resents being poor, living in a shabby home and not having the money to do the fun things her well-off classmates do. There isn’t even money for class trips, so Alison has to stay behind. All of her daydreams...

Author	Susie Day
ISBN	0545073308

The hilarious online misadventuring of a teenage girl, as told through her blog.

Serafina doesn't have a boyfriend, doesn't have a best friend, and her parents fight all the time. But she does have a shiny new laptop (a present from her guilt-ridden and therefore overly-generous dad). And...