Still looking for something to read for your summer reading assignment? Here are some good titles for students in high school. These books are located in the young adult fiction section of the library by the author's last name unless otherwise noted. Please see the Children's or Reference Librarian for the exact location of these books.
Across the Universe by Beth Revis
Amy, a cryogenically frozen passenger aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed, is nearly killed when her cryo chamber is unplugged fifty years before Godspeed's scheduled landing. Amy doesn't know who she can trust on this ship ruled by a tyrant. All she knows is that she must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets before whoever woke her tries to kill again.
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
When Anna's romance-novelist father sends her to an elite American boarding school in Paris for her senior year of high school, she reluctantly goes, and meets an amazing boy who becomes her best friend, in spite of the fact that they both want something more.
(Also available on audio AUD CD YA FIC Perkins)
Reading Level: 9th grade and up
Birthmarked by Caragh O'Brien
In a future world baked dry by the sun and divided into those who live inside the wall and those who live outside it, 16-year-old midwife Gaia Stone is forced into a difficult choice when her parents are arrested and taken into the city.
Grade Level: 9th-10th grade
Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore
In the sequel to
Graceling, Bitterblue, queen of Monsea, realizes her responsibility and the futility of relying on advisors who surround her with lies as she tries to help her people to heal from the thirty-five-year spell cast by her father.
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life, A by Dana Reinhardt
Sixteen-year-old atheist Simone Turner-Bloom's life changes in unexpected ways when her parents convince her to make contact with her biological mother, an agnostic from a Jewish family who is losing her battle with cancer. (YAP and AUD CD YA FIC Reinhardt)
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Chime by Franny Billingsley
In the early twentieth century in Swampsea, 17-year-old Briony, who can see the spirits that haunt the marshes around their town, feels responsible for her twin sister's horrible injury until a young man enters their lives and exposes secrets that even Briony does not know about.
(Also available on audio AUD CD YA FIC Billingsley)
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Crossed by Allyson Condie
Seventeen-year-old Cassia sacrifices everything and heads to the Outer Provinces in search of Ky, where she is confronted with shocking revelations about Society and the promise of rebellion. This is the sequel to
Matched.
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Told in the alternating voices of two 16-year-olds, Dash and Lily, carry on a wintry scavenger hunt at Christmas-time in New York, neither knowing quite what—or who—they will find.
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Seventeen-year-old Karou, a lovely, enigmatic art student in a Prague boarding school, carries a sketchbook of hideous, frightening monsters—the chimaerae who form the only family she has ever known.
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Entwined by Heather Dixon
Confined to their dreary castle while mourning their mother's death, Princess Azalea and her eleven sisters join The Keeper, who is trapped in a magic passageway, in a nightly dance that soon becomes nightmarish.
(Also available on audio AUD CD YA FIC Dixon)
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Divergent by Veronica Roth
In a future Chicago, 16-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomaly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.
Fans of
The Hunger Games will enjoy this series.
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Fault in Our Stars, The by John Green
Sixteen-year-old Hazel, a stage IV thyroid cancer patient, has accepted her terminal diagnosis until a chance meeting with a boy at a cancer support group forces her to reexamine her perspective on love, loss, and life.
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Forgotten by Cat Patrick
Sixteen-year-old London Lane forgets everything each night and must use notes to struggle through the day, even to recall her wonderful boyfriend, but she "remembers" future events and as her "flashforwards" become more disturbing she realizes she must learn more about the past lest it destroy her future.
(Also available on audio AUD CD YA FIC Patrick)
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Froi of the Exiles by
Melina Marchetta
Fiercely loyal to the Queen and Finnikin, Froi has been taken roughly and lovingly in hand by the Guard sworn to protect the royal family but is soon sent on a secretive mission to the kingdom of Charyn where he must unravel both the dark bonds of kinship and the mysteries of a half-mad princess. This is the sequel to Finnikin of the Rock.
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
How To Save a Life by Sara Zarr
Told from their own viewpoints, 17-year-old Jill, in grief over the loss of her father, and Mandy, nearly 19, are thrown together when Jill's mother agrees to adopt Mandy's unborn child but nothing turns out as they had anticipated.
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
I Will Save You by Matt de la Peña
Seventeen-year-old Kidd Ellison runs away to work for the summer at a beach campsite in California where his hard work and good looks lead to friendship and love but painful past memories surface in menacing ways.
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Insurgent by Veronica Roth
As war surges in the dystopian society around her, 16-year-old Divergent Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves
—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love. This is the sequel to
Divergent.
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Irises by
Francisco X. Stork
Kate, eighteen, and Mary, sixteen, must make some adult decisions about the course their lives should take when their loving but old-fashioned father dies suddenly, leaving them with their mother, who has been in a persistant vegetative state since an accident four years earlier.
(Also available on audio AUD CD YA FIC Stork)
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Ironman by Chris Crutcher
While training for a triathlon, 17-year-old Bo attends an anger management group at school which leads him to examine his relationship with his father.
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
In small-town Australia, teens Jasper and Charlie form an unlikely friendship when one asks the other to help him cover up a murder until they can prove who is responsible.
(Also available on audio AUD CD YA FIC Silvey)
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
Abandoned by her drug-addicted mother at the age of eleven, high school student Taylor Markham struggles with her identity and family history at a boarding school in Australia.
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Legend by Marie Lu
In a dark future, when North America has split into two warring nations, 15-year-olds Day, a famous criminal, and prodigy June, the brilliant soldier hired to capture him, discover that they have a common enemy.
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Love You Hate You Miss You by Elizabeth Scott
After coming out of alcohol rehabilitation, 16-year-old Amy sorts out conflicting emotions about her best friend Julia's death in a car accident for which she feels responsible.
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Mexican Whiteboy by Matt de la Peña
Sixteen-year-old Danny searches for his identity amidst the confusion of being half-Mexican and half-white while spending a summer with his cousin and new friends on the baseball fields and back alleys of San Diego County, California.
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Monster Calls, A by Patrick Ness
Thirteen-year-old Conor awakens one night to find a monster outside his bedroom window, but not the one from the recurring nightmare that began when his mother became ill. This monster is a
n ancient, wild creature that wants him to face truth and loss.
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Nightshade by Andrea Cremer
Calla and Ren have been raised knowing it is their destiny to mate with one another and rule over their shape-shifting wolf pack, but when a human boy arrives and vies for Calla's heart, she is faced with a decision that could change her whole world. Fans of Twilight will enjoy this series.
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta
Sixteen-year-old Francesca could use her outspoken mother's help with the problems of being one of a handful of girls at a parochial school that has just turned co-ed, but her mother has suddenly become severely depressed.
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr
In the three years since her father caught her in the back seat of a car with an older boy, 16-year-old Deanna's life at home and school has been a nightmare, but while dreaming of escaping with her brother and his family, she discovers the power of forgiveness.
(Also available on audio AUD CD YA FIC Zarr)
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Stotan! by Chris Crutcher
A high school coach invites members of his swimming team to a memorable week of rigorous training that tests their moral fiber as well as their physical stamina.
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Sweethearts by Sara Zarr
After losing her soul mate, Cameron, when they were nine, Jennifer, now 17, transformed herself from the unpopular fat girl into the beautiful and popular Jenna, but Cameron's unexpected return dredges up memories that cause both social and emotional turmoil. (Also available on audio AUD CD YA FIC Zarr)
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Underworld by Meg Cabot
John Hayden, a death deity, takes 17-year-old Pierce Oliviera back to the Underworld against her will to keep her safe from the Furies, but her family is still at risk and she, herself, may never escape his captivity. This is the sequel to Abandon.
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
Unwritten Rule, The by Elizabeth Scott
Petite and young-looking, 17-year-old Sarah has been best friends with the glamorous and seductive Brianna forever, but when she starts liking Brianna's boyfriend, their friendship becomes precarious.
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen
Following her parents' bitter divorce as she and her father move from town to town, 17-year-old Mclean reinvents herself at each school she attends until she is no longer sure she knows who she is or where she belongs.
Grade Level: 9th grade and up
