--• Recommended Reading for Junior High Teens•--

Realistic Fiction

These titles are located throughout the library; please find the location in the catalog by clicking on the title.

Anderson, M. T.  – Burger Wuss (192 pages) – Hoping to lose his loser image, Anthony plans revenge on a bully which results in a war between two competing fast food restaurants, Burger Queen and O'Dermott's.

Avi - Nothing, but the Truth (177 pages) – A ninth-grader's suspension for singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" during homeroom becomes a national news story.

Bauer, Joan – Hope was Here (186 pages) – When sixteen-year-old Hope and the aunt who has raised her move from Brooklyn to Mulhoney, Wisconsin, to work as waitress and cook in the Welcome Stairways diner, they become involved with the diner owner's political campaign to oust the town's corrupt mayor.

Brashares, Ann – The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (294 pages) – The first of the series, four best girlfriends spend the biggest summer of their lives enchanted by a magical pair of pants.

Brooks, Bruce – The Moves Make the Man (280 pages) – A Black boy and an emotionally troubled white boy in North Carolina form a precarious friendship.

Brugman, Alyssa –Walking Naked (185 pages) – After being in detention with a girl called "The Freak," Megan finds herself torn between the developing friendship the two share and her involvement with a popular clique.

Coleman, Michael – On the Run (199 pages) – When a persistent youth offender is caught yet again, he is sentenced to community service as the partner to a blind runner.

Cormier, Robert – The Rag and Bone Shop (154 pages) – Trent, an ace interrogator from Vermont, works to procure a confession from an introverted twelve-year-old accused of murdering his seven-year-old friend in Monument, Massachusetts.

Danticat, Edwidge – Behind the Mountains (166 pages) – As bombs explode in the capital city of Port-au-Prince, Celiane Esprance and her mother are nearly killed, and are resolved to join Celiane's father in New York. When the family moves, Celiane narrates the difficulties they have adjusting.

Dessen, Sarah – That Summer (198 pages) - Haven's summer is framed by two weddings—her father's and her sister Ashley's. Nothing seems stable except for her memories of the summer that Ashley dated Sumner Lee, who suddenly reappears in Haven's life, giving the perfect link to that perfect past—and her future.

Dorros, Arthur – Under the Sun (212 pages) – Chronicles the harrowing journey of Ehmet, a thirteen-year-old boy from Sarajevo who gets caught up in the ethnic conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.

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.

Gilbert, Barbara Snow – Paper Trail (161 pages) – Though members of Soldiers of God, Walker senses his family is different. Shortly after his father reveals he is investigating the activities of the Soldiers of God for the FBI, members of the militia kill Walker’s mother. With his mother gone and his father's fate uncertain, Walker begins the fight for his survival in rough physical and psychological terrain.

Grimes, Nikki – Bronx Masquerade (167 pages) – While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they've written, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates.

Hite, Sid - The King of Slippery Falls (217 pages) – Lewis Hinton is in pursuit of two things—an elusive giant trout & his true identity. His adoptive parents, Martha & Avery Hinton, know they must let him search for clues about his past. His best friend just wants him to fall in love with her. And the townspeople of Slippery Falls are determined to discover if the letter from Lewis's birth mother confirms the rumor—Is he descended from French royalty? Could this simple boy from Idaho really be a king?

Ho, Minfong – 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.

Holt, Kimberly Willis – Keeper of the Night (308 pages) – Isabel, a thirteen-year-old girl living on the island of Guam, and her family try to cope with the death of Isabel's mother who committed suicide.

Mack, Tracy – Drawing Lessons (168 pages) – Twelve-year-old Rory begins to lose the passion for making art that she shares with her father after she finds him kissing his female model and fears for the safety of her parents' marriage.

Myers, Walter Dean – The Dream Bearer (180 pages) – During a summer in Harlem, David relies on his mother and a close friend and on an old man he meets in the park to help him come to terms with his father's outbursts and unstable behavior.

Namioka, Lensey – Ties that Bind, Ties that Break (154 pages) – Ailin’s refusal to have her feet bound has huge consequences as she grows up in China at the beginning of the 20th century.

Park, Linda Sue – 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.

Peters, Julie Anne – Define Normal (196 pages) – When she agrees to meet with Jasmine as a peer counselor at their middle school, Antonia never dreams that this girl with the black lipstick and pierced eyebrow will end up helping her deal with the serious problems she faces at home and become a good friend.

Quarles, Heather – A Door Near Here (231 pages) – Four siblings struggle to maintain a semi normal home life when their single mother's alcoholism becomes debilitating.

Spinelli, Jerry - Stargirl (186 pages) – In this story about the perils of popularity, the courage of nonconformity, and the thrill of first love, eccentric student named Stargirl changes Mica High School forever.

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

Veciana-Suarez, Ana – Flight to Freedom (224 pages) – Yara is an eight-grader living in a middle-class neighborhood of 1967 Havana, Cuba. When her parents, who do not share the Communist Party's beliefs, are forced to flee Cuba with their children to Miami, Florida, Yara records in her diaries her family's difficulties in a strange land with foreign customs.

Voigt, Cynthia - When She Hollers (177 pages) – Tish, a teenager who has been enduring abuse from her adoptive stepfather since she was a small child, finally decides she must do something to stop him.

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.

Wolff, Virginia Euwer – Make Lemonade (200 pages) – In order to earn money for college, fourteen-year-old LaVaughn babysits for a teenage mother.

Woodson, Jacqueline – I Hadn’t Meant to Tell You This (BIB#181467)(115 pages) – Marie, the only black girl in the eighth grade willing to befriend her white classmate Lena, discovers that Lena's father is doing horrible things to her in private.

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