The Carrollton Public Library recognizes the fact that every child learns to read and develops as a reader at his/her own unique pace. The following list is very general, and is in no way designed to be prescriptive.

Brashares, Ann. The sisterhood of the traveling pants.
Carmen decides to discard an old pair of jeans, but Tibby, Lena, and Bridget think they are great and decide that whoever the pants fit best will get them. When the jeans fit everyone perfectly, a sisterhood and a memorable summer begin.

Davis, Amanda. Wonder when you'll miss me.
Sixteen-year-old Faith Duckle embarks on a journey of discovery when she runs off with the circus after attacking one of the boys who raped her the year before.

Donnelly, Jennifer. A northern light.
Sixteen-year-old Mattie, determined to attend college and be a writer against the wishes of her father and boyfriend, takes a job at a hotel in 1906 where the death of a guest renews her determination to live her own life.

Frost, Helen. Keesha's house.
Seven teens facing such problems as pregnancy, closeted homosexuality, and abuse each describe in poetic forms what caused them to leave home and where they found home again.

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Gallo, Donald R. No easy answers: Short stories about teenagers making tough choices.
Sixteen short stories about teenagers in situations that test their character.

Giles, Gail. Shattering glass.
When Rob, the charismatic leader of the senior class, turns the school nerd into Prince Charming, his actions lead to unexpected violence.

Going, K.L. Fat kid rules the world.
Seventeen-year-old Troy, depressed, suicidal, and weighing nearly three hundred pounds, gets a new perspective on life when Curt, a semi-homeless teen who is a genius on guitar, asks Troy to be the drummer in a rock band.

Green, John. Looking for Alaska.
Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash.

Haddon, Mark. The curious incident of the dog in the night-time.
Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother.

Horvath, Polly. The canning season.
Thirteen-year-old Ratchet spends a summer in Maine with her eccentric great-aunts Tilly and Penpen, hearing strange stories from the past and encountering a variety of unusual and colorful characters.

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Johnson, Angela. The first part last.
Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter.

Levithan, David. The realm of possibility.
A variety of students at the same high school describe their ideas, experiences, and relationships in a series of interconnected free verse stories.

Matthews, Andrew. A winter night's dream.
Casey, a high school freshman, and Stew, a senior, search for love separately, with the help of a favorite teacher, before meeting each other.

Moriarty, Jaclyn. The year of secret assignments*.
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.

Oppel, Kenneth. Airborn.
Matt, a young cabin boy aboard an airship, and Kate, a wealthy young girl traveling with her chaperone, team up to search for the existence of mysterious winged creatures reportedly living hundreds of feet above the Earth's surface.

Osa, Nancy. Cuba 15.
Violet Paz, a Chicago high school student, reluctantly prepares for her upcoming "quince," a Spanish nickname for the celebration of an Hispanic girl's fifteenth birthday.

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Reeve, Philip. Mortal engines.
Tom, a third class apprentice in a distant future in which technology has been lost and tiered cities move about the Earth on caterpillar tracks, often absorbing smaller locales, has many dangerous adventures after being pushed off London by Thaddeus Valentine, a historian who is trying to resurrect an ancient atomic weapon.

Rosoff, Meg. How I live now.
To get away from her pregnant stepmother in New York City, fifteen-year-old Daisy goes to England to stay with her aunt and cousins, with whom she instantly bonds, but soon war breaks out and rips apart the family while devastating the land.

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis.
Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. Sequel: Persepolis 2

Schmidt, Gary D. Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster boy.
In 1911, Turner Buckminster hates his new home of Phippsburg, Maine, but things improve when he meets Lizzie Bright Griffin, a girl from a poor, nearby island community founded by former slaves that the town fathers--and Turner's--want to change into a tourist spot.

Sebold, Alice. The lovely bones.
Fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon, the victim of a sexual assault and murder, looks on from the afterlife as her family deals with their grief, and waits for her killer to be brought to some type of justice.

Stratton, Allen. Chanda's secrets.
A girl's struggle amid the African AIDS pandemic. When her youngest sister dies and the first hint of HIV/AIDS emerges, Chanda must confront undercurrents of shame and stigma.

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