Reading Room - This Small World

--• This Small World: Fiction Set in Foreign Lands •--

These titles are located throughout the library; please note the location in the catalog.

Africa

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi – Purple Hibiscus (307 pages) - While his Nigerian community sees him as a devout Christian and highly respected man, Kambili's fanatically religious father has privately always demanded perfection of his family and doled out brutal punishment for anything less. When an outspoken aunt reenters their lives during the political turbulence of a military coup, the fragile family order begins to crumble, ultimately resulting in tragedy.

Coman, Carolyn - Many Stones (158 pages) - After her sister Laura is murdered in South Africa, Berry and her estranged father travel there to participate in the dedication of a memorial in her name.

Dickinson, Peter - AK (229 pages) - When a military coup occurs in the constantly war-torn African country of Nagala, Paul is forced to flee into the open countryside to avoid enemy soldiers who seek his life.

Farmer, Nancy - A Girl Named Disaster (309 pages) - While journeying to Zimbabwe from Mozambique, eleven-year-old Nhamo struggles to escape drowning and starvation and in so doing comes close to the luminous world of the African spirits.

Quintana, Anton - The Baboon King (183 pages) - Son of a Kikuyu mother and a Masai herdsman father, Morengaru the hunter lives on the edges of tribal society until banishment forces him to make a life for himself among a troop of baboons.

Asia

Adamson, Isaac - Hokkaido Popsicle (329 pages) - After a fight with the director of the movie based on his life, reporter Billy Chaka gets sent to Hokkaido on a mandatory vacation, but he soon finds himself back at work after a porter at the Hotel Kitty dies in his room.

Asai, Carrie - The Book of the Sword (218 pages) - Sole survivor of a plane crash, Heaven is adopted by a wealthy Japanese family and at nineteen is forced to marry the son of her father's business rival. On her wedding day she loses the person she loves most, learns that all she knows about her family is a lie and that she is being hunted and must fight back or die. First in the Samurai Girl series.

Bagdasarian, Adam - The Forgotten Fire (273 pages) - A boy survives Turkey's campaign of genocide against Armenians.

Bell, William - Forbidden City (197 pages) - Teenager Alex Jackson is thrilled to join his father—a cameraman for the Canadian Broadcasting Company—on a trip to China, but when they witness the massacre at Tiananman Square, they are forced to flee the country.

Chen, Da - Wandering Warrior (322 pages) - Eleven-year-old Luka, destined to become the future emperor of China, is trained in the ways of the kung fu wandering warriors by the wise monk Atami.

Dalkey, Kara - Little Sister (200 pages) - Thirteen-year-old Fujiwara no Mitsuko, daughter of a noble family in the imperial court of twelfth century Japan, enlists the help of a shape-shifter and other figures from Japanese mythology in her efforts to save her older sister's life.

Hearn, Lian - Across the Nightingale Floor (287 pages) - In a novel set in a land much like ancient Japan, a young boy named Takeo becomes a pawn in the ceaseless wars between rival warlord clans in a culture ruled by codes of honor and formal rituals.

Ho, Minfong - The Stone Goddess (201 pages) - After the Communists take over Cambodia and her family is torn from their city life, twelve-year-old Nakri and her older sister attempt to maintain their hope as well as their classical dancing skills in the midst of their struggle to survive.

Kim, Helen - The Long Season of Rain (275 pages) - When an orphan boy comes to live with her family, eleven-year-old Junehee begins to realize that the demands placed on Korean women can destroy their lives.

McCaughren, Geraldine - The Kite Rider (272 pages) - In thirteenth-century China, after trying to save his widowed mother from a horrendous second marriage, twelve-year-old Haoyou has life-changing adventures when he takes to the sky as a circus kite rider and ends up meeting the great Mongol ruler Kublai Khan.

Mori, Kyoko - Shizuko's Daughter (214 pages) - After her mother's suicide when she is twelve years old, Yuki spends years living with her distant father and his resentful new wife, cut off from her mother's family, and relying on her own inner strength to cope with the tragedy.

Namioka, Lensey - Ties That Bind, Ties That Break (154 pages) - Ailin's life takes a different turn when she defies the traditions of upper class Chinese society by refusing to have her feet bound.

Park, Linda Sue –

A Single Shard (152 pages) - Tree-ear, a thirteen-year-old orphan in medieval Korea, lives under a bridge in a potters' village, and longs to learn how to throw the delicate celadon ceramics himself.
When My Name Was Keoko (199 pages) - With national pride and occasional fear, a brother and sister face the increasingly oppressive occupation of Korea by Japan during World War II, which threatens to suppress Korean culture entirely.

Wilson, Diane L. - I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade (288 pages) - In early fourteenth-century China, Oyuna tells her granddaughter of her girlhood in Mongolia and how love for her horse enabled her to win an important race and bring good luck to her family.

Yumoto, Kazumi - The Letters (165 pages) - In Japan, the death of her former landlady triggers a young woman's memories about her father's death when she was six years old, and the special way the old lady helped her to cope with the loss.

Australia and New Zealand

Beatty, Patricia - Jonathon Down Under (219 pages) - Thirteen-year-old Jonathan accompanies his luckless miner father to the gold fields of Australia, where he learns to be his own man amidst the rough-and-ready society of nineteenth-century Victoria.

Bond, Nancy - Truth to Tell (325 pages) - In 1958, having been dragged by her mother to a decaying mansion in New Zealand, fourteen-year-old Alice thinks that she has stumbled on a shocking secret involving her long-dead father.

Crew, Gary - No Such Country (248 pages) - When an archaeology student, hoping to learn about his Aboriginal heritage, comes to work near their isolated village, sixteen-year-old friends Sarah and Rachel discover why the man known as the Father has had such control over their lives.

Disher, Garry - The Divine Wind: A Love Story (153 pages) - On the eve of World War II, Hart, an Australian boy and Mitsy, a Japanese-Australian girl, fall in love but are driven apart.

Fienberg, Anna - Borrowed Light (278 pages) - A sixteen-year-old feels alienated from her family while struggling with the difficult decisions surrounding her unplanned pregnancy.

Gee, Maurice - The Fat Man (182 pages) - In 1933, Herbert Muskie returns to his rundown hometown of Loomis, New Zealand, and uses a combination of cunning and psychological threats to take control of the lives of twelve-year-old Colin Potter and his family as part of a plan to get even for the mistreatment he suffered as a schoolboy.

Goodman, Alison - Singing the Dogstar Blues (261 pages) - In a future Australia, the saucy eighteen-year-old daughter of a famous newscaster and a sperm donor teams up with a hermaphrodite from the planet Choria in a time travel adventure that may significantly change both of their lives.

Hartnett, Sonya –

Thursday's Child (261 pages) - A young woman, looking back on her childhood, recounts her farm family's poverty, her father's cowardice, and her younger brother's obsession for digging tunnels and living underground.
What the Birds See (196 pages) - While the residents of his town concern themselves with the disappearance of three children, a lonely, rejected nine-year-old boy worries that he may inherit his mother's insanity.

Hausman, Gerald - Escape from Botany Bay: The True Story of Mary Bryant (220 pages) - In 1791, after being transported to Australia in the first shipment of convicts, Mary Bryant, her husband, two children, and seven other convicts, unable to endure the terrible conditions of the penal colony, organize a daring escape in an open boat.

Horniman, Joanne - Mahalia (184 pages) - When his girlfriend leaves him and their five-month-old baby, seventeen-year-old Matt struggles to make a life for himself and Mahalia, the daughter he adores. Synopsis from bn.com.

Ihimaera, Witi Tame - Whale Rider (152 pages) - As her beloved grandfather, chief of the Maori tribe of Whangara, New Zealand, struggles to lead in difficult times and to find a male successor, young Kahu is developing a mysterious relationship with whales, particularly the ancient bull whale whose legendary rider was their ancestor.

Klein, Robin - The Sky in the Silver Lace (177 pages) - During wintertime the Melling sisters move to the big city with their mother while Dad is away looking for work.

Lowry, Brigid - Guitar Highway Rose (196 pages) - Two fifteen-year-olds, Rosie and Asher, upset over the various unhappy circumstances of their lives in the Australian city of Perth, decide to run away.

Mahy, Margaret –

Alchemy (207 pages) - Seventeen-year-old Roland discovers that an unpopular girl in his school is studying alchemy and finds that their destiny is linked with that of a power-hungry magician.
The Catalogue of the Universe (185 pages) - Determined to satisfy her curiosity about her unknown father, eighteen-year-old Angela May embarks on an emotional journey that shapes and forever alters the way she looks at herself, her unconventional mother, and her devoted friend Tycho.
Memory (278 pages) - On the fifth anniversary of his older sister's death, nineteen-year-old Jonny Dart, troubled by feelings of guilt and an imperfect memory of the event, goes in search of the only other witness to the fatal accident and, through a chance meeting with a senile old woman, finds a way to free himself of the past.

Marsden, John –

Checkers (122 pages) - Speaking from a mental hospital, a teenage girl recounts the tremendous media pressure that preceded the breaking scandal of her father's unethical business dealings.
Letters from the Inside (146 pages) - The relationship between two teenage girls who become acquainted through letters intensifies as their correspondence reveals some of the terrible problems of their lives.
So Much to Tell You (117 pages) - Sent to a hospital by her mother, Marina, a disfigured Australian girl who refuses to speak, reveals her thoughts and feelings in a diary.
Tomorrow When the War Began (286 pages) - Seven Australian teenagers return from a camping trip in the bush to discover that their country has been invaded and they must hide to stay alive. The first in the series.
Winter (147 pages) - Winter, a sixteen-year-old girl in Australia, faces her family's tragic past in order to move ahead with her own future.

Marshall, James Vance - Walkabout (158 pages) - Two Australian school children, defenseless in the vast wilderness of the Outback, meet an Aborigine youth in his walkabout and are forced to undergo a walkabout of their own.

Moriarty, Jaclyn –

Feeling Sorry for Celia (276 pages) – “The Association of Teenagers" is coming down pretty hard on Elizabeth. What is she to do when her best friend Celia keeps disappearing, her absent father suddenly reappears, and her communication with her mother consists entirely of wacky notes left on the refrigerator? And now, because her English teacher wants to rekindle the "Joy of the Envelope" in the "Age of the Internet," a complete and utter stranger knows more about Elizabeth than anyone else. Synopsis taken from bn.com.
The Year of Secret Assignments (340 pages) - Three female students from Ashbury High write to three male students from rival Brookfield High as part of a pen pal program, leading to romance, humiliation, revenge plots, and war between the schools.

Orr, Wendy - Peeling the Onion (166 pages) - Following an automobile accident in which her neck is broken, a teenage karate champion begins a long and painful recovery with the help of her family.

Taylor, William - Pebble in a Pool (124 pages) - Two tragic deaths are handled very differently by school administrators. A drunk driving accident paralyzes Adrian Vanderlaar and kills his girlfriend. The outpouring of grief is starkly contrasted with the muted response to a gay-bashing murder, causing Paul Carter to speak out.

Williams, Sean - The Prodigal Sun (393 pages) - Commander Morgan Roche of the Commonwealth of Empires is charged with escorting an artificial intelligence unit to her superiors, with the aid of a genetically engineered warrior who suffers from amnesia. The first in the Evergence series.

Zusak, Markus - Fighting Ruben Wolfe (207 pages) - Partly because of their family's poor finances and partly to prove themselves, brothers Ruben and Cameron take jobs as fighters and find themselves reacting very differently in the boxing ring.

Canada

Bedard, Michael - Stained Glass (297 pages) - Charles Endicott discovers many things about himself and his past as he follows a homeless girl through the streets of his hometown on a warm summer day.

Book, Rick - Necking with Louise (197 pages) - Depicts key events in the life of Eric Anderson, a Saskatchewan farm boy, in 1964 and 1965, the year he turns sixteen.

Brooks, Martha –

True Confessions of a Heartless Girl (181 pages) - A confused seventeen-year-old girl, a single mother and her young son, two elderly women, and a sad and lonely man, with their own individual tragedies to bear, come together in a small Manitoba town and find a way to a better future.
Two Moons in August (199 pages) - Kieran, a new boy visiting her small town for the summer, helps Sidonie and her family come together again following the death of Sidonie's mother.

Buffie, Margaret - The Watcher (260 pages) - Knowing that she is different from her family in more ways than just in her looks, Emma finds herself searching for answers, yet when the mystery starts to unravel, she finds herself facing up to issues she had never anticipated. First of the Watcher's Quest series.

Goobie, Beth –

Kicked Out (92 pages) - Dime is always angry. Her parents don't like the way she dresses, her boyfriend, or her attitude. Her older brother, Darren, was paralyzed in an accident Dime walked away from, and Dime feels her parents wish she was the one in the wheelchair. When the fights escalate, Dime moves in with Darren. But when her troubles follow her, Dime realizes that she has to start taking some responsibility for her actions.
The Lottery (264 pages) - At Saskatoon Collegiate all the most important aspects of school life were controlled by a secret club called Shadow Council. Each fall, Shadow Council held a traditional lottery during which a single student's name was drawn. The rest of the student body called this student the lottery winner. But Shadow Council knew better; to them the winner was the lottery victim. Whatever the label, the fated student became Council's go-fer, delivering messages of doom to selected targets. In response, the student body shunned the lottery winner for the entire year. This year's victim was fifteen-year-old Sally Hanson.
Sticks and Stones (86 pages) - Jujube is thrilled when Brent asks her out. She is not so happy when the rumors start flying at school. Pretty soon her name is showing up on bathroom walls and everyone is snickering and sniping. No one expects Jujube to fight back when her reputation takes a beating.
Who Owns Kelly Paddick? (89 pages) - Kelly Paddik is locked up. Sent to a secure facility because she is a "danger to herself, " Kelly wants only to escape. But her painful past continues to haunt her until she is forced to face up to the most painful memory of all. A searing look at one girl's struggle for self-respect.

Halvorson, Marilyn - Bull Rider (92 pages) - Layne wants nothing more than to follow in his father's footsteps and be a bull rider. His dad was one ride away from a National Championship when he got trampled to death. Layne wants to be able to give his dad that championship by winning it for him. What he doesn't want, though, is to end up like his father and die in the rodeo arena. When the chance comes, Layne realizes he must face up to his greatest fear. With the help of his friend Jana, and his bratty younger sister, Layne learns to reach deep inside and trust himself.

Heneghan, James –

Flood (182 pages) - After his mother and stepfather die in a Vancouver mudslide, eleven-year-old Andy Flynn, having been saved by leprechauns, is taken by his stern aunt to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he meets the charming father he thought was dead, and where he must decide what place to call home.
Torn Away (185 pages) - Exiled from Ireland as a terrorist, Declan goes to live with a family in Canada.

Hughes, Monica - Invitation to the Game (183 pages) - Unemployed after high school in the highly robotic society of 2154, Lisse and seven friends resign themselves to a boring existence in their "Designated Area" until the government invites them to play The Game.

Juby, Susan - Alice I Think (290 pages) - Fifteen-year-old Alice keeps a diary as she struggles to cope with the embarrassments and trials of family, dating, school, work, small town life, and a serious case of "outcastitis."

Katz, Welwyn - Witchery Hill (244 pages) – Summering with his father on the Channel Island of Guernsey, fourteen-year-old Mike perceives inexplicable, but undeniable, signs of witchcraft which seem directed at destroying his friends.

Lawrence, Iain –

Ghost Boy (326 pages) - Unhappy in a home seemingly devoid of love, a fourteen-year-old albino boy who thinks of himself as Harold the Ghost runs away to join the circus, where he works with the elephants and searches for a sense of who he is.
Lightkeeper's Daughter (246 pages) - When, after a four-year absence, seventeen-year-old Squid returns to her childhood home on a remote lighthouse island off British Columbia with her young daughter in tow, she and her parents try to come to terms with each other and the painful events of the past, especially the death of her older brother.

Mcnamee, Graham –

Acceleration (210 pages) - Stuck working in the Lost and Found of the Toronto Transit Authority for the summer, seventeen-year-old Duncan finds the diary of a serial killer and sets out to stop him.
Hate You (119 pages) - Nursing hatred for the father who choked her and damaged her voice as a child, seventeen-year-old Alice writes songs she feels she cannot sing and seeks to reconcile her feelings for herself and her father.

Slade, Arthur - Tribes (134 pages) - For Percy, the loss of his father and the suicide of his best friend build to a head during the last week before high school graduation.

Taylor, Theodore - The Hostage (160 pages) - Fourteen-year-old Jamie has second thoughts about harboring a killer whale that his father and he captured off the coast of Vancouver, British Columbia and plan to sell to a sea amusement park.

Toten, Teresa - The Game (208 pages) - Dani had played The Game with her sister, Kelly, for as long as she could remember, but now it is a hazy memory as Dani looks up from the floor of the isolation room at Riverwood Clinic. She remembers the vodka and pills. Slowly, Dani emerges from the painful effects of substance abuse, and begins to adapt to life at Riverwood, a psychiatric treatment facility for "teens with problems." Teens like her roommate, Scratch, an admitted self-mutilator. Or Scratch's friend, Kevin, whose family can't accept his homosexuality. As she recovers from her physical trauma, Dani must confront a deeper emotional trauma. Synopsis from book jacket.

Trembath, Don - The Tuesday Café (121 pages) - Harper Winslow has set a small fire at his high school and is sentenced to write an essay titled "How I plan to turn my life around." He joins a writing class, sees a school counselor, and begins to work things out with his family. The first of a series of books about Harper Wilson.

Wynne-Jones, Tim –

The Boy in the Burning House (213 pages) - Trying to solve the mystery of his father's disappearance from their rural Canadian community, fourteen-year-old Jim gets help from the disturbed Ruth Rose, who suspects her stepfather, a local pastor.
The Maestro (231 pages) - Fleeing from his brutal father, fourteen-year-old Burl arrives at the remote cabin of an eccentric genius that in just one day changes the young man's life forever.

Europe (except United Kingdom and Ireland)

Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker - For Freedom: The Story of a French Spy (181 pages) - Despite the horrors of World War II, a French teenager pursues her dream of becoming an opera singer, which takes her to places where she gains information about what the Nazis are doing—information that the French Resistance needs.

Chambers, Aidan - Postcards from No Man's Land (312 pages) - Alternates between two stories—contemporarily, seventeen-year-old Jacob visits a daunting Amsterdam at the request of his English grandmother--and historically, nineteen-year-old Geertrui relates her experience of British soldiers' attempts to liberate Holland from its German occupation.

Dickinson, Peter - The Tears of the Salamander (197 pages) - When Alfredo, a twelve-year-old choir boy in eighteenth-century Italy, loses his family in a fire, he goes to live with Uncle Giorgio, who he discovers is a sorcerer in control of the fires of Mt. Etna with sinister plans for his nephew.

Funke, Cornelia - The Thief Lord (349 pages) - Two brothers, having run away from the aunt who plans to adopt the younger one, are sought by a detective hired by their aunt, but they have found shelter with—and protection from—Venice's "Thief Lord."

Galloway, Priscilla - The Courtesan's Daughter (259 pages) - From humble beginnings, Phano rises to become one of ancient Athens' most powerful citizens through her marriage to Theo, but they both have powerful enemies who don't share their political views.

Garden, Nancy - Dove and Sword: A Novel of Joan of Arc (237 pages) - In 1455 in France, Gabrielle is visited by Pierre d'Arc, a brother of Joan of Arc, and with him reminisces about their childhood together in Domremy and Joan's subsequent trial and burning at the stake at Rouen twenty-four years before.

Heuston, Kimberly Burton - Dante's Daughter (302 pages) - In fourteenth-century Italy, Antonia, the daughter of Dante Alighieri, longs for a stable family and home while developing her artistic talent and seeking a place for herself in a world with limited options for women.

Jennings, Patrick - The Wolving Time (197 pages) - In France during a time of witch-hunts, in a village with a corrupt priest, thirteen-year-old Lazlo longs to be able to turn into a wolf as his parents can, but also desires the friendship of a village girl.

Lebert, Benjamin - Crazy (177 pages) - A German coming-of-age story follows the informal "education" of a sixteen-year-old boy interned in a remedial boarding school as he discovers drinking, sex, and the after-hours lifestyle.

Levitin, Sonia - Room in the Heart (290 pages) - After German forces occupy Denmark during World War II, fifteen-year-old Julie Weinstein and fifteen-year-old Niels Nelson and their friends and families try to cope with their daily lives, finding various ways to resist the Nazis and, ultimately, to survive.

Mooney, Bel - The Voices of Silence (180 pages) - Thirteen-year-old Flora Popescu and her family find themselves caught up in events leading to the overthrow of the repressive regime of Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania in 1989.

Napoli, Donna Jo –

Daughter of Venice (274 pages) - Frustrated with the restrictions her gender imposes on her life, fourteen-year-old Donata, disguised as a boy, sneaks out of her noble family's house to roam the streets of late sixteenth-century Venice and then must confront the repercussions of her actions.
For the Love of Venice (245 pages) - Seventeen-year-old Percy is reluctant to accompany his family to Venice for the summer until he meets Graziella, a beautiful and passionate girl who draws him into a world where young Venetians make desperate, dangerous plans to save their city from being taken over by tourists.

Nilsson, Per - Heart's Delight (155 pages) - As a sixteen-year-old looks at and systematically destroys each of his mementos of Ann-Katrin, he replays scenes from their relationship and realizes that it was not the great romance he believed it to be.

Reuter, Bjarne –

The Boys from St. Petri (215 pages) - In 1942, a group of young men begin a series of increasingly dangerous protests against the German invaders of their Danish homeland.
The Ring of the Slave Prince 372 pages) - Fourteen-year-old Tom O'Connor, a poor, adventurous, charming liar who lives with his mother and half-sister at a tavern on the island of Nevis in 1639, rescues a slave from drowning, learns he is a prince, and brings him home to Cape Verde, hoping for a grand reward.

Richardson, V. A. - The House of Windjammer (350 pages) - In the fall of 1636, Adam, fourteen-year-old heir to the House of Windjammer, must find a way to keep his family afloat after his father dies and tulip fever sweeps Amsterdam.

Sauerwein, Leigh - Song for Eloise (133 pages) - In twelfth-century France, fifteen-year-old Eloise, newly and unhappily married to the rough, ambitious, much older but devoted Robert of Rochefort, finds it difficult to adjust to her new life and unwisely falls in love with the young troubadour who comes to sing at her husband's castle.

Simoen, Jan - What about Anna? (254 pages) - In Belgium in 1999, upon learning that her brother who was reported killed by a landmine in Bosnia may still be alive, sixteen-year-old Anna resents that she is the only one strong enough to try to uncover the truth.

Vries, Anke de - Bruises (168 pages) - While living in Holland, Michael meets Judith, who is frightened, bullied, and beaten by her mother and blames herself for the abuse she is enduring.

India

Rana, Indi - The Roller Birds of Rampur (312 pages) - An Indian teenager raised in England returns to India to find her identity.

Staples, Suzanne Fisher - Shiva's Fire (275 pages) - In India, a talented dancer sacrifices friends and family for her art.

Vijayaraghavan, Vineeta - Motherland (231 pages) - A fifteen-year-old Indian girl reluctantly returns to India, where she confronts her heritage head on in the person of her grandmother Ammamma as she struggles to come to terms with her dual loyalties.

Whelan, Gloria - Homeless Bird (216 pages) - When thirteen-year-old Koly enters into an ill fated arranged marriage, she must either suffer a destiny dictated by India's tradition or find the courage to oppose it.

Mexico

Esquivel, Laura - Like Water for Chocolate (245 pages) - The classic love story takes place on the De la Garza ranch, as the tyrannical owner, Mama Elena, chops onions at the kitchen table in her final days of pregnancy. While still in her mother's womb, her daughter to be weeps so violently she causes an early labor, and little Tita slips out amid the spices and fixings for noodle soup. This early encounter with food soon becomes a way of life, and Tita grows up to be a master chef. She shares special points of her favorite preparations with listeners throughout the story. Synopsis from book jacket.

Middle East

Banks, Lynne Reid - Broken Bridge (320 pages) - The murder of fourteen-year-old Glen Shelby, soon after his arrival in Israel to visit his father's family, has a dramatic effect on the lives of his relatives, the other members of their kibbutz, and the Palestinians responsible for his death.

Ellis, Deborah - The Breadwinner (170 pages) - Because the Taliban rulers of Kabul, Afghanistan, impose strict limitations on women's freedom and behavior, eleven-year-old Parvana must disguise herself as a boy so that her family can survive after her father's arrest.

Matas, Carol - The Garden (148 pages) - After leading a group of Jewish refugees to Israel after World War II, sixteen-year-old Ruth joins the Haganah, the Jewish army, and helps her people fight to keep the land granted to them by the United Nations.

Nye, Naomi Shihab - Habibi (259 pages) - When fourteen-year-old Liyanna, her younger brother, and her parents move from St. Louis to a new home between Jerusalem and the Palestinian village where her father was born, they face many changes and must deal with the tensions between Jews and Palestinians.

Staples, Suzanne Fisher - Shabanu, Daughter of the Wind (240 pages) - In a year that brings a destructive sandstorm, a feud with a rich landowner, and other disasters, Shabanu, the eleven-year-old daughter of a nomad in the Cholistan Desert of Pakistan, becomes a victim of her people's views of sex role and marriage.

South America

Abelove, Joan - Go and Come Back (176 pages) - Alicia, a young tribeswoman living in an Amazonian village in the Andes, tells about the two American women anthropologists who arrive to study their way of life.

Allende, Isabel - City of the Beasts (406 pages) - When fifteen-year-old Alexander Cold accompanies his individualistic grandmother on an expedition to find a humanoid Beast in the Amazon, he experiences ancient wonders and a supernatural world as he tries to avert disaster for the Indians.

Holtwijk, Ineke - Asphaly Angels (184 pages) - Abandoned on the streets of Rio de Janeiro, thirteen-year-old Alex joins a group of children like him and finds himself adapting to his new life.

Ibbotson, Eva - Journey to the River Sea (298 pages) - Sent with her governess to live with the dreadful Carter family in exotic Brazil in 1910, Maia endures many hardships before fulfilling her dream of exploring the Amazon River.

United Kingdom and Ireland

Almond, David –

Counting Stars (205 pages) - In a series of interconnected stories, a boy describes his life growing up in the English urban district of Felling.
Heaven's Eyes (233 pages) - Having escaped from their orphanage on a raft, Erin, January, and Mouse float down into another world of abandoned warehouses and factories, meeting a strange old man and an even stranger girl with webbed fingers and little memory of her past.
Kit's Wilderness (229 pages) - Thirteen-year-old Kit goes to live with his grandfather in the decaying coal-mining town of Stoneygate, England, and finds both the old man and the town haunted by ghosts of the past.
Secret Heart (199 pages) - Living with his mother in a small village on the edge of the suburbs, shy, often inarticulate, Joe Maloney frequently dreams of a beautiful, elusive tiger whose significance begins to be clear after he befriends a young trapeze artist who comes to town with a shabby traveling circus.
Skellig (182 pages) - Unhappy about his baby sister's illness and the chaos of moving into a dilapidated old house, Michael retreats to the garage and finds a mysterious stranger who is something like a bird and something like an angel.

Alton, Steve - The Malifex (181 pages) - In the Dorset, England, countryside on a family vacation, a video game fanatic reluctantly embarks on a quest to battle an ancient evil, aided by the daughter of a Wiccan and a man once apprenticed to Merlin.

Brooks, Kevin –

Kissing the Rain (320 pages) - Fifteen-year-old Moo Nelson, shy, overweight, and bullied by his classmates, finds his life spinning out of control after he witnesses a car chase and a fight that results in a murder.
Lucas (423 pages) - On an isolated English island, fifteen-year-old Caitlin McCann makes the painful journey from adolescence to adulthood through her experiences with a mysterious boy, whose presence has an unsettling effect on the island's inhabitants.
Martyn Pig (230 pages) - Faced with the possibility of living with a dreadful aunt, fifteen-year-old Martyn Pig decides not to tell authorities when his alcoholic father dies accidentally, instead of asking a friend for her help in disposing of the body.

Bunting, Eve - The Haunting of Kildoran Abbey (159 pages) - Caught in the grip of a severe famine, eight hungry homeless youngsters join forces for one simple mission, to steal food from the rich and feed the poor.

Bray, Libba - A Great and Terrible Beauty (403 pages) - After the suspicious death of her mother in 1895, sixteen-year-old Gemma returns to England, after many years in India, to attend a finishing school where she becomes aware of her magical powers and ability to see into the spirit world.

Breslin, Theresa - Remembrance (296 pages) - The destinies of two Scottish families, one of shopkeepers and one of wealth and power, become intertwined through their involvement in World War I, social causes, and love.

Burgess, Melvin –

Bloodtide (371 pages) - Twins Siggy and Signy become entangled in family ties and the tragic rivalries that could destroy them both in a city that becomes a battle ground between two warring families of ruthless ganglords.
Lady: My Life as a Bitch (235 pages) - In Manchester, England, when a seventeen-year-old girl who hasn't been acting like herself lately is turned into the very creature she has personified, she isn't sure that the change is all bad.
Smack (327 pages) - After running away from their troubled homes, two English teenagers move in with a group of squatters in the port city of Bristol and try to find ways to support their growing addiction to heroin.

Cadnum, Michael –

Forbidden Forest (218 pages) - Profiles Little John, from his quiet life before joining Robin Hood through his adventures protecting a beautiful lady when she is wrongfully accused of murdering her husband.
Raven of the Waves (200 pages) - On his first Viking raid, seventeen-year-old Lidsmod sails on the ship Raven, joining his comrades as they destroy and plunder villages in medieval England and take an Anglo-Saxon boy as captive.

Clement-Davies, David - Fire Bringer (498 pages) - Rannoch, a young red deer, discovers he is the changeling destined to fulfill “The Prophecy,” to defeat the evil Sgorr, and reunite the Great Herd.

Corder, Zizou - Lion Boy (275 pages) - In the near future, a boy with the ability to speak the language of cats sets out from London to seek his kidnapped parents and finds himself on a Paris-bound circus ship learning to train lions.

Crossley- Holland, Kevin - The Seeing Stone (342 pages) - In late twelfth-century England, a thirteen-year-old boy named Arthur recounts how Merlin gives him a magical seeing stone which shows him images of the legendary King Arthur, the events of whose life seem to have many parallels to his own.

Doyle, Malachy –

Georgie (154 pages) - With help from a sympathetic fellow resident, a patient teacher, and other staff at a school for emotionally disturbed teenagers, fourteen-year-old Georgie begins to find his way back to sanity.
Who is Jesse Flood? (172 pages) - Striving to cope with the arguments of his parents and his feelings of not belonging, fourteen-year-old Jesse Flood struggles to find his place in a small town in Northern Ireland.

Dunkle, Clara - The Hollow Kingdom (230 pages) - In nineteenth-century England, a powerful sorcerer and King of the Goblins chooses Kate, the elder of two orphan girls recently arrived at their ancestral home, Hallow Hill, to be his bride and queen.

Fforde, Jasper - The Eyre Affair (384 pages) – In this alternative Great Britain, circa 1985, time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection. But when someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature and plucks Jane Eyre from the pages of Brontë's novel, Thursday is faced with the challenge of her career.

Heneghan, James –

The Grave (245 pages) - Thirteen-year-old Tom, an unhappy foster child in Liverpool, falls into a massive open grave and is transported to Ireland in 1847, where he finds himself in the midst of the deadly potato famine.
Torn Away (185 pages) - Exiled from Ireland as a terrorist, Declan goes to live with a family in Canada.

Hooper, Mary –

Amy (170 pages) - Lonely after being dumped by her two best friends, Amy hopes for a romance with Zed, whom she met in an Internet chat room, but the day they spend together in his seaside village near London is not what she expected.
At the Sign of the Sugared Plum (2169 pages) - In June 1665, excited at the prospect of coming to London to work at her sister Sarah's candy shop, teenaged Hannah is unconcerned about rumors of Plague until, as the hot summer advances and increasing numbers of people succumb to the disease, she and Sarah find themselves trapped in the city with no means of escape.

Hopkins, Cathy - Mates, Dates, and Inflatable Bras (164 pages) - A turning point is exactly what Lucy Loverling does NOT want. Everything is changing around her, and suddenly she has to make all sorts of decisions. Everyone else knows who and what she wants to be except her. But then one day Lucy sees the most wonderful boy crossing the street, and things do start to change—in all areas of her life.

Jordan, Sherryl - The Hunting of the Last Dragon (186 pages) - In England in 1356, as a monk records his every word, a young peasant tells of his journey with a young Chinese noblewoman to St. Alfric's Cove and the lair of a dragon.

MacPhail, Catherine –

Dark Waters (175 pages) - Col McCann becomes a local hero when he saves a boy from drowning but when his older brother is suspected of a serious crime, Col must decide if he should be loyal to his family or tell the truth about what he saw while under the water.
Missing (191 pages) - Shortly after her runaway brother is declared dead, thirteen-year-old Maxine begins receiving phone calls from someone claiming to be her brother.

Malone, Patricia - The Legend of Lady Ilena (232 pages) - In sixth-century Great Britain, a fifteen-year-old girl seeking knowledge of her lineage is drawn into battle to defend the homeland she never knew, aided by one of King Arthur's knights.

Manning, Sarra - Guitar Girl (217 pages) - Seventeen-year-old Molly never planned on becoming famous. Starting a band with her best friends, Jane and Tara, was just a way to have some fun. But when charismatic bad-boy Dean joins the group, things onstage—and backstage—start happening, fast . Their band, The Hormones, is front-page news, and their debut album is rocketing up the charts. Molly is the force behind the band, but the hazards of fame, first love, screaming fans, and sleazy managers are forcing the newly crowned teen queen of grrrl angst close to the edge.

Matthews, Andrew - The Flip Side (147 pages) - Robert, a British fifteen-year-old, is confused when he plays the part of Rosalind while studying Shakespeare in school and discovers parts of his personality that he did not know existed.

Maxwell, Katie - The Year My Life Went Down the Loo (221 pages) - Sixteen -year-old Emily's family has been uprooted from Seattle to England. Now she must learn to adjust to a whole new lingo, new friends, and, worst of all, no malls.

Mayfield, Sue - Drowning Anna (316 pages) - Beautiful, intelligent Anna Goldsmith has just attempted suicide. As she lays in a coma, her friend Melanie and Anna's parents try to figure out why she tried to take her own life.

Rana, Indi - The Roller Birds of Rampur (312 pages) - An Indian teenager raised in England returns to India to find her identity.

Rennison, Louise - Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging (247 pages) - The humorous journal of a year in the life of a fourteen-year-old British girl who tries to reduce the size of her nose, stop her mad cat from terrorizing the neighborhood animals, and win the love of handsome hunk Robbie. The first of a series.

Pullman, Philip –

The Golden Compass (399 pages) - Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.
The Ruby in the Smoke (230 pages) - In nineteenth-century London, sixteen-year-old Sally Lockhart, a recent orphan, becomes involved in a deadly search for a mysterious ruby. Synopsis taken from Novelist.
White Mercedes (170 pages) - Seventeen-year-old Chris, living and working in Oxford, falls in love with an elusive girl and while searching for her discovers the devastating consequences of placing his trust in the wrong person.

Sedgwick, Marcus –

Dark Horse (217 pages) - Having risen to power as chief of his people, the Storn, sixteen-year-old Sigurd leads them as they try to resist the bloodthirsty invaders known as the Dark Horse and makes a shocking discovery about his foster sister Mouse.
Floodland (148 pages) - After global warming causes the sea to rise until cities in England become islands, ten-year-old Zoe goes on a harrowing solitary boat journey to search for her parents.

Sutcliffe, Rosemary –

Outcast (229 pages) - Fifteen-year-old Beric feels increasingly bitter isolation when, because of his Roman birth, he is cast out by the Celtic tribe that raised him and, after reaching a Roman settlement, he is sold into slavery and sentenced to serve in a galley for the rest of his life.
The Silver Branch (215 pages) - A young Roman army medical officer, sent to Britain during the period of waning Roman rule, befriends a kinsman with whom he shares an adventure of intrigue, exile, and underground activity with the Lost Ninth Legion.

Thesman, Jean - A Sea So Far (195 pages) - After surviving the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fires, two teenage girls, a wealthy semi-invalid and her hired companion, travel together to Ireland and discover they share much in common, from a love of romance novels to grief over the loss of their mothers.

Tingle, Rebecca - The Edge of the Sword (277 pages) - In ninth-century Britain, fifteen-year-old Aethelflaed, daughter of King Alfred of West Saxony, finds she must assume new responsibilities much sooner than expected when she is betrothed to Ethelred of Mercia in order to strengthen a strategic alliance against the Danes.

Wilson, Jacqueline - Girls in Love (181 pages) – The first in the Girls Quartet. Ellie's starting ninth grade and she's got some very definite goals. She'll stay best friends with Magda and Nadine. She'll go on a diet and stick to it. She'll get a glamorous hairstyle. And she'll get a boyfriend. Even if she has to settle for one who likes her more than she likes him.

Wrede, Patricia - Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot (316 pages) - In 1817 in England, two young cousins, Cecilia living in the country and Kate in London, write letters to keep each other informed of their exploits, which take a sinister turn when they find themselves confronted by evil wizards.

Zephaniah, Benjamin - Face (207 pages) - A teenage boy's face is disfigured in an automobile accident, and he must learn to deal with the changes in his life.

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