Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
The changing ideas and feelings of young girl growing up in midst of fear before being discovered by Gestapo. HoM: 2, 10, 12
At Risk (Alice Hoffman)
How can it be possible that young Amanda is dying of AIDS?The effects of this devastating news on her family is told with sensitivity. HoM: 3, 6, 16
Athletic Shorts (Chris Crutcher)
A collection of short stories about young athletes struggling with their athletic feats and issues of life that go beyond the game. HoM: 15, 16
The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Malcolm X)
Malcolm X chronicles his life from childhood to the streets and prison, and eventual conversion to Islam. HoM: 5, 9
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (Ernest Gaines)
From being freed from slavery after the Civil War to her participation in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, Miss Jane's life provides an insight into history. HoM: 1, 3
Baby Be-Bop (Francesca Lia Block)
When Dirk settles with the past, he stops struggling with who he is andbecomes able to accept love and the future. HoM: 2, 5, 11, 13
The Bean Trees (Barbara Kingsolver)
Taylor has left her all-too-predictably dull life in Kentucky and finds herself in Tucson. She gets the adventure she longed for in the form of Central American refugees and a small child who need her. HoM: 7, 13, 14, 15
The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)
Esther launches her career in New York City but her hectic and hollow life leads to depression and a breakdown. HoM: 3
Beloved (Toni Morrison)
Told in flashbacks, this historical novel deals with slavery and its dehumanizing legacy on individuals and families. HoM: 1, 3, 7, 9
Black Like Me (John Howard Griffin)
Disguised as a black man, Griffin experiences hatred, injustice, and insults from white society as he travels through the South. HoM: 3, 8, 12
The Bomb (Theodore Taylor)
Depicts the cultural disruption and geographical relocation of island populations due to atomic bomb testing in Pacific islands. HoM: 4, 6, 7, 13, 15
Born on the Fourth of July (Ron Kovic)
Kovic relates his experiences in the Vietnam War and its emotional and physical scars in this autobiography. HoM: 3, 5, 7, 10, 16
The Brave (Robert Lipsyte)
Sonny left the reservation to become a boxer in New York City. His success will be limited without necessary training and self-discipline. HoM: 2, 16
A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes (Stephen Hawking)
A challenging explanation of the origin of the universe and where it's going by one of the greatest physicists and a remarkable man. HoM: 5, 6, 9, 12
The Car (Gary Paulsen)
A teenager expected adventure when he headed westward in his self-made car but discovers more than he expected when two Vietnam vets take over as tour guides. HoM: 3, 8, 13, 16
Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
A savage, often raunchy, attack on war in which a World War II flier tries to convince his comrades that he is too insane to continue. HoM: 5, 9, 10, 11
Catcher in the Rye (J. D. Salinger)
Holden Caulfield encounters hypocrisy and phonies among his classmates and in the adult world. HoM: 4, 6, 11, 12
Catherine, Called Birdy (Karen Cushman)
This medieval maiden is not content with womanly tasks like embroidery and is aghast at the thought of a pre-arranged marriage. Her journal reveals her romantic notions and gives a sardonic look at life in a castle. HoM: 2, 9, 12, 14
The Chocolate War (Robert Cormier)
Jerry is destroyed by the evil headmaster and a secret student organization when he confronts the system by refusing to join the annual fund-raising drive. HoM: 1, 2, 5
The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean Auel)
Set in prehistoric times, Ayla learns to survive after being rescued by a Neanderthal clan. HoM: 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11
Confessions of Nat Turner (William Styron)
An unsuccessful slave rebellion in the American south that took place in 1831 is the basis for this historical novel. HoM: 7, 8, 13, 15
A Death in the Family (James Agee)
A grieving family must come to grips with emotions and relationships when the father is killed in an accident. HoM: 3, 10
Deenie (Judy Blume)
Deenie's scoliosis ends her mother's modeling dreams for her and both of them must now adjust to the situation. HoM: 3
Deliver Us From Evie (M. E. Kerr)
When his sister Evie falls in love with the "wrong" type of person, Parr's conservative farm community has to come to terms with an unsettling issue. HoM: 4, 13
Devil's Arithmetic (Jane Yolen)
Hannah reluctantly participates in a Passover and is swept back in time to 1942.She experiences the journey to the Nazi death camps and learns the value of remembering. HoM: 3, 5, 8, 16
Don't Care High (Gordon Korman)
Apathy rules at a high school, so an imaginative student invents the ultimately cool dude who becomes the model of school pride. HoM: 4, 11, 14
Doom Stone (Paul Zindel)
During a visit to mysterious Stonehenge, an American teenager is caught in a deadly situation. HoM: 7, 8, 13
Dove (Robin Lee Graham)
Alone on a 6-year sail in the South Pacific, Robin Graham's adventures include lonely boredom, storms and danger, new friends and love. HoM: 1, 2, 5, 10, 11
Driver's Ed (Caroline Cooney)
A prank leads to tragedy when teens steal a stop sign. HoM: 2
El Dorado (Lloyd Alexander)
Seventeen-year-old Vesper Holly eagerly explores her Central American volcano property only to find her land and the native Indians threatened by Alain de Rochefort. HoM: 1, 7, 8
Ellen Foster (Kaye Gibbons)
Ellen tries to find a place where she can find contentment after the death of her parents. HoM: 5, 7
Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)
Separated from his parents at age 6, Ender later discovers he has been chosen to be the military genius who will lead the Earth to victory in its interstellar war. HoM: 6, 7, 8, 11
Eva (Peter Dickinson)
Ethical questions are raised when an injured girl's memory and brain patterns are copied into a healthy chimpanzee in this provocative story. HoM: 4, 5, 11, 12, 13
Fade (Robert Cormier)
Paul is not sure that his supernatural ability is a blessing or a curse. Be careful what you wish for. HoM: 2, 4, 10, 13
Fallen Angels (Walter Dean Myers)
Richie enlists in the army and finds himself assigned to Vietnam and its sights and sounds of war. HoM: 5, 9, 10, 13, 15
Farewell to Manzanar (Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston)
Fears and frustrations are experienced by a Japanese-American girl and her family when they are placed in a relocation camp after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. HoM: 1, 9
Fell Down (M. E. Kerr)
An unusual mystery that began a generation ago impacts Fell after the death of his friend. HoM: 4, 6, 7, 11
Five Smooth Stones (Ann Fairbairn)
David struggles and earns his acceptance to a prestigious northern university. After meeting Sarah, he fights both his feelings for her and the prejudice he faces, eventually becoming a civil rights leader. HoM: 1, 2, 3, 7
Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes)
Charlie's journal reflects his intellectual and social growth following an extraordinary surgery that transforms him from mental dullness to brilliance. HoM: 3, 4, 12
Forrest Gump (Winston Groom)
Recent historical events are reflected uniquely from the point of view of a mentally slow man. HoM: 3, 4, 10, 16
The Giant's House (Elizabeth McCracken)
A unique relationship develops between a boy of unusual height and a librarian who becomes devoted to him in this fascinating novel. HoM: 3, 5, 12, 16
Gift From the Sea (Anne Morrow Lindbergh)
In these personal essays, Lindbergh examines the contrasts between the life she leads and the life she has idealized. HoM: 5, 9, 12
Girl Named Disaster (Nancy Farmer)
Nhamo escapes in a canoe from an arranged marriage to a cruel man who has three wives and draws strength from spirits and ancestors on her journey to freedom. HoM: 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16
The Giver (Lois Lowry)
Jonas has been chosen to bear the powerful responsibility of receiving and keeping all the memories from the past. HoM: 8, 9, 12, 16
Harris and Me (Gary Paulsen)
A young boy spends the summer on his cousin's farm and has some unusual times for sure! HoM: 4, 9, 11, 14
Hatchet (Gary Paulsen)
On his way to spending the summer with his Dad, Brian finds strength and courage within himself after he becomes the sole survivor of a plane crash. HoM: 1, 5, 7, 10
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (Carson McCullers)
An awkward teenage girl, a bitter black doctor, a drunken radical, a bar owner, and a deaf mute share loneliness and the need to communicate with others. HoM: 3
Hiroshima (John Hersey)
The dramatic and harrowing experiences of six survivors of the bomb. HoM: 5, 7, 10
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
Arthur races to save the universe with Ford Prefect, a galaxy tour guide writer. HoM: 4, 9, 11, 12
Hot Zone (Richard Preston)
The destruction of rainforest environments may be the cause of deadly viral infections. HoM: 4, 6, 7, 15
I Am the Cheese (Robert Cormier)
Non-linear thinking ability is required for this novel about Adam's journeys, which aren't always geographical. When you can trust no one, you stand alone. HoM: 4, 5, 9, 11
I Heard the Owl Call My Name (Margaret Craven)
A terminally ill vicar is sent to a remote Indian village in British Columbia and experiences love, courage, and dignity. HoM: 1, 3, 8, 12
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou)
Maya recalls her childhood, including being assaulted which had emotionally devastating consequences. HoM: 3, 5, 9, 10
I Want to Buy a Vowel (John Welter)
Alfredo knows that his success will depend on learning to speak English, so television programs become his means to that end. HoM: 1, 6, 9, 14, 16
If Beale Street Could Talk (James Baldwin)
A powerful love story of survival in spite of prejudice and injustice. HoM: 1, 3
Interview with a Vampire (Anne Rice)
A 200-year old vampire grants an interview and reveals horrifying details of his life. HoM: 9, 11, 12
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster (Jon Krakauer)
This riveting account of a mountain-climbing disaster in 1996 is told with breath-taking precision by a survivor. HoM: 4, 10, 13, 15
Into the Wild (Jon Krakauer)
Chris McCandless went to Alaska looking for adventure and a chance to prove himself, but his lack of information and poor planning lead to his death. HoM: 2, 4, 13
Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan)
The friendship of four Chinese women and the effects of their lives upon their daughters. HoM: 3, 4, 8, 9, 16
Jumping the Nail (Eve Bunting)
A teenage girl, stressed by her boyfriend and her family, watches friends challenging their very lives at the ocean cliff in this novel of adolescent peer pressure. HoM: 2, 7, 13
Killing Mr. Griffin (Lois Duncan)
The plan is just to scare Mr. Griffin, a tough teacher, but something goes wrong. HoM: 7
Kitchen God's Wife (Amy Tan)
Two Chinese-American sisters have personal revelations as they learn the details of their mother's tragic and abused past. HoM: 3, 8, 12, 13
Life Among the Savages (Shirley Jackson)
Autobiographical account of Jackson's hilarious adventures of raising four children and various pets in a large house while becoming an author. HoM: 14
Lisa, Bright and Dark (John Neufeld)
It's normal to worry, right? Don't all teenagers worry about parents, friends, and boy friends? But Lisa worries that she is going crazy and no one will listen. HoM: 3, 5, 10
Little Big Man (Thomas Berger)
The life of young Jack Crabbe and his resourcefulness in both the white and Cheyenne world is portrayed in this novel of the Old West. HoM: 11, 13, 14
Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
When shipwrecked English school boys try to construct their own society on an island, it soon becomes uncivilized terror. HoM: 8, 11, 15
The Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka)
When Gregor awakens one morning to find he has become a giant cockroach, both he and his family have some adjustments to make. HoM: 4, 10, 11, 12
The Mosquito Coast (Paul Theroux)
Charlie records his family's experiences as they follow his father's utopian but irrational dreams in the Honduran wilderness. HoM: 4, 10, 11, 12
Motown and Didi (Walter Dean Myers)
Motown and Didi are drawn to each other, looking for hope in their future. HoM: 1, 3, 7
The Moves Make the Man (Bruce Brooks)
Jerome knows the skills needed to survive in basketball and life itself, but his friend Bix refuses to learn the fake moves. HoM: 3, 11
Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones (Ann Head)
Despite the pressures of a forced marriage and parental protectiveness, July and Bo Jo struggle to face adulthood. HoM: 1, 2, 7
Murphy's Boy (Tori Hayden)
In this moving story by Hayden, an adult struggles and ultimately succeeds in making contact with a child who has been forsaken by traditional therapies. HoM: 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 16
Necessary Roughness (Marie Lee)
In this story of assimilation and change, Chan Jung Kim's Korean-American family moves from Los Angeles to a small town in Minnesota where Asian-Americans are rare. HoM: 1, 4, 7, 16
Night Kites (M.E. Kerr)
As one of the first young adult novels to deal with AIDS, the concepts of loyalty, guilt, and family solidarity are explored as Erick experiences terminations of life, friendship, and love. HoM: 3, 4, 5
No Language But a Cry (Richard D'Ambrosio)
A psychoanalyst tells the story of a girl named Laura and her miraculous recovery from physical abuse. HoM: 1, 3, 7, 10
The Obnoxious Jerks (Stephen Manes)
Frank is flattered when asked to join the nonconformist group at school. HoM: 2, 11
Ordinary People (Judith Guest)
Conrad attempts suicide in the grief and guilt the follow his brother's drowning as his family seems to disintegrate. HoM: 3, 7
Parable of the Sower (Octavia Butler)
The world in this sci-fi novel is different from ours ... or is it a vision of the consequences of today's political, economic and spiritual ills? HoM: 9, 13, 15
Parrot in the Oven (Victor Martinez)
This series of vignettes set in the Central Valley of California follows the difficulties of Manny Hernandez and his family in maintaining their integrity and cultural honor despite harsh social conditions. HoM: 1, 15
Passage to India (E. M. Forster)
A social misunderstanding results in a confrontation betweenIndian and British cultural values in this classic novel. HoM: 3, 4, 9, 16
The Pigman (Paul Zindel)
Mr. Pignati, like John and Lorraine, is lonely and lives on dreams. The trio does wild, zany things to avoid adult responsibilities. HoM: 2, 11, 12
Pigs in Heaven (Barbara Kingsolver)
An already troubled family flounders when an attempt is made to return their beloved adopted Native American daughter back to her tribe. HoM: 1, 7, 11, 15
Plague Year (Stephanie Tolan)
When the new boy at school becomes the object of hate, David cannot help but become involved. HoM: 3, 7, 13
The Planet of Junior Brown (Virginia Hamilton)
Friendship and brotherhood are themes when Buddy takes Junior to an underground hideout. HoM: 3, 5, 11, 12
The Postman (David Brin)
Gordon spreads news and hope as he travels through post-nuclear-holocaust America. HoM: 6. 8
Prince of Tides (Pat Conroy)
A twin brother and sister examine their past and its effect on their lives in this novel set in South Carolina and New York City. HoM: 3, 4, 8, 9, 15
Profiles in Courage (John F. Kennedy)
Despite the vilification or vindication received, each courageous statesman made a decision based on principle. HoM: 1, 6, 7, 11
Rats Saw God (Rob Thomas)
Steve York has problems. Maybe this time he can figure out his life and make peace with his disappointed father. HoM: 5, 11, 14
Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
This Gothic romance becomes more suspenseful as Maxim de Winter's new wife discovers the truth about his past and the death of his first wife. HoM: 5, 6, 12
The Red Badge of Courage (Stephen Crane)
After Henry eagerly enlists in Union Army, he must face the effects of the horror of war. HoM: 1, 7, 8
River Runs Through It (Norman MacLean)
Fly-fishing for trout in Montana is the setting for a father and his sons to learn about life and each other. HoM: 2, 3, 16
Rose Daughter (Robin McKinley)
This sophisticated retelling of the Beauty and the Beast fairytale displays marvelous use of language. HoM: 9, 10, 11
Roughing It (Mark Twain)
Mark Twain recalls his years in the Old West in these tales told with humor and satire. HoM: 4, 11, 14
Rule of the Bone (Russell Banks)
A boy runs away from home where he feels unloved and unwanted to face life on the streets. HoM: 2, 5, 7, 10, 12, 13, 14
Runs With Horses (Brian Burks)
A Native American boy is determined to help save his people from being subdued by the U. S. Army in the late 1800s. HoM: 1, 4, 8, 13, 15
Sabriel (Garth Nix)
Sabriel crossesthrough the Gates of Hell into a mystical world of secrets, love, magic, and evil to find her necromancer father, only to discover that she must take over his life's work. HoM: 1, 4, 7, 10, 12, 13
Saint Maybe (Anne Tyler)
A Baltimore family seems to be happy until a tragedy occurs and 17-year-old Ian feels guilty of causing a suicide. HoM: 3, 6, 7
A Separate Peace (John Knowles)
A tragic story of a fleeting, intense friendship between two boys in a New England boarding school during the early years of World War II. HoM: 3
Siddhartha (Herman Hesse)
Siddhartha searches for meaningful life in the spiritual and material worlds. HoM: 2, 5, 7, 11
Slam! (Walter Dean Myers)
A young man comes of age as he tries to make it on the basketball courts of an inner city. His greatest opponent is himself. HoM: 1, 2, 7
Snow Falling on Cedars (David Guterson)
Old grudges and continuing prejudices trouble a town in this murder mystery set in Washington State. HoM: 3, 4, 6, 8, 13, 15
Soldier's Heart (Gary Paulsen)
Subtitled Being the Story of the Enlistment and Due Service of the Boy Charley Goddard in the First Minnesota Volunteers, this is the extraordinary account of 15-year-old Charley's horrific Civil War experiences. HoM: 5, 10, 12, 13
Somewhere in the Darkness (Walter Dean Myers)
When Jimmy Little is surprised by a visit from his long-imprisoned father and embarks on a trip with him, he has to sort out the meanings of love, loyalty, and trust. HoM: 3, 5, 6, 8, 13
Split Infinity (Piers Anthony)
Stile struggles to survive in two worlds, one of games and one of magic. HoM: 1, 4, 7, 11
The Starlite Drive-In (Marjorie Reynolds)
Callie is torn between the complexities of the adults in her 12-year-old world during the summer of 1956—her embittered father, her agoraphobic mother, and the handsome stranger who enters their lives. HoM: 4, 5, 7, 13
Studs Lonigan (James Farrell)
A view of the social upheavals in the early 1900s as Studs struggles to make his life match his dreams. HoM: 1, 4, 10, 11
Summer Sisters (Judy Blume)
Caitlin and Victoria seem unlikely friends who only share summers, but what summers they are! After coping with all of the changes and challenges of adolescence, their paths diverge in adulthood. HoM: 2, 3, 7, 13
Sword in the Stone (T. H. White)
The fantasy story of Wart, the boy who becomes king, is told with humor and wit in this Arthurian legend. HoM: 7, 11, 12, 13, 14
A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)
Classic novel of the French Revolution and a friend's self-sacrifice. HoM: 3, 11
The Thief (Megan Turner)
All Gen has to do in return for being released from prison is use his skills as a master thiefto steal a special stone for the magus in this witty and suspenseful fantasy adventure. HoM: 1, 8, 10, 11, 13
The Things I Did for Love (Ellen Conford)
Stephanie learns a great deal when she decides to research the concept of love for a psychology project. HoM: 2, 6, 12
Tisha (Robert Specht)
Anne Hobbes journeys to Alaska in 1927 to teach school in the tiny town of Chicken. HoM: 3, 4, 11
To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
View of small-town southern life through the eyes of Scout, daughter of the defense attorney in a racially charged trial. HoM: 3, 6, 7, 11
Undaunted Courage (Stephen Ambrose)
This amazing true story of Lewis and Clark's epic journey across the unknown continent is full of historical detail, geography, biography. HoM: 1, 6, 8, 12, 13, 15, 16
The Wave (Todd Strasser)
Based on a true incident, this book recounts the story of a social experiment that was conducted in a California high school and its powerful effects. HoM: 6, 16
When She Hollers (Cynthia Voigt)
A young victim of sexual abuse is able to overcome her feelings of shame to finally fight back for her survival. HoM: 7, 13
Wolf by the Ears (Anne Rinaldi)
Harriet is the daughter of Sally Hemings and rumor is that none other than Thomas Jefferson is her father. Should she try to "pass" as white or remain loyal to her maternal heritage? HoM: 6, 13
Wolf Rider: A Tale of Terror (Avi)
Andy is on his own to seek out a stalker who now seems to be stalking him in this psychological thriller. HoM: 1, 5, 7
The World According to Garp (John Irving)
Satire abounds in this novel of Garp's progression from son to husband to father and writer. HoM: 4, 5, 9
The Year of the Gopher (Phyllis Reynolds Naylor)
George defies family tradition by choosing not to go to Harvard. HoM: 3, 7
The Year Without Michael (Susan Beth Pfeffer)
After watching her family fall apart when her brother disappears, Jodi risks her own life to find him on the streets of New York City. HoM: 1, 3, 8
Z for Zachariah (Robert O'Brien)
One of the few survivors of World War III, Ann is first thrilled, then later threatened, when a stranger enters her valley. HoM: 1, 4, 7
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Robert Persig)
A father and son embark on a cross-country motorcycle trip during which the father tries to save his son's sanity and discover the meaning of life. HoM: 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16
