Southbury Public Library

2007 Best Books for Teens

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has prepared the 2007 Best Books for Young Adults list. Teens, as well as publishers, authors, and librarians selected this list of recommended books. It is a diverse list that features science fiction and fantasy, nonfiction, novels in verse, cutting-edge contemporary fiction, and graphic novels. The "best books" listed below can be found in the Teen Area.

You'll find a complete list of the Best Books for Young Adults on the YALSA website.

Nonfiction
Bausum, Ann
	Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement. 2006
	Examining the lives of two Nashvillians--one white and one black--in a way that helps young readers understand the segregated experience of the nation's past, Bausum shows how a common interest in justice enabled these young men to meet as Freedom Riders on a bus journey south. Photos.
Fleischman, Sid
	Escape!: The Story of the Great Houdini. 2006
	In this passionate biography, the Newbery Medal-winning author of "The Whipping Boy" turns his eye to the greatest magician of them all: Harry Houdini. Includes an index, Author's Note, and bibliography.
Hopkinson, Deborah
	Up before Daybreak: Cotton and People in America. 2006
	Read about the importance of cotton in America's history and learn about the lives of people who picked it and worked with it.
McClafferty, Carla Killough
	Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radium. 2006
	Meet Manya Sklodowska, better known today as Marie Curie, the co-discoverer of radium, and who became the first woman awarded the Nobel prize for her work on the discovery. Learn what life was like for Marie, and the effect her discovery had on the world.
Fiction
Almond, David
	Clay. 2006
	The developing relationship between teenager Davie and a mysterious new boy in town morphs into something darker and more sinister when Davie learns firsthand of the boy's supernatural powers.
Anderson, M.T.
	The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1: The Pox Party. 2006
	Various diaries, letters, and other manuscripts chronicle the experiences of Octavian, a young African American, from birth to age sixteen, as he is brought up as part of a science experiment in the years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War.
Booth, Coe
	Tyrell. 2006
	Fifteen-year-old Tyrell, who is living in a Bronx homeless shelter with his spaced-out mother and his younger brother, tries to avoid temptation so he does not end up in jail like his father.
Brooks, Kevin
	The Road of the Dead. 2006
	Two brothers, sons of an incarcerated gypsy, leave London traveling to an isolated and desolate village, in search of the brutal killer of their sister.
Budhos, Marina
	Ask Me No Questions. 2006
	Fourteen-year-old Nadira, her sister, and their parents leave Bangladesh for New York City, but the expiration of their visas and the events of September 11, 2001, bring frustration, sorrow, and terror for the whole family.
Cohn, Rachel and Levithan, David
	Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. 2006
	High school student Nick O'Leary, member of a rock band, meets college-bound Norah Silverberg and asks her to be his girlfriend for five minutes in order to avoid his ex-sweetheart.
Cornish, D.M.
	Monster Blood Tattoo: Foundling. 2006
	Having grown up in a home for foundlings and possessing a girl's name, Rossamünd sets out to report to his new job as a lamplighter and has several adventures along the way as he meets people and monsters who are more complicated that he previously thought.
Dessen, Sarah
	Just Listen. 2006.
	Isolated from friends who believe the worst because she has not been truthful with them, sixteen-year-old Annabel finds an ally in classmate Owen, whose honesty and passion for music help her to face and share what really happened at the end-of-the-year party that changed her life.
	Firebirds Rising:  An Anthology of Original Science Fiction and Fantasy. 2006
	A collection of sixteen short science fiction and fantasy stories by award-winning authors.
Fletcher, Susan
	Alphabet of Dreams. 2006
	Fourteen-year-old Mitra, of royal Persian lineage, and her five-year-old brother Babak, whose dreams foretell the future, flee for their lives in the company of the magus Melchoir and two other Zoroastrian priests, traveling through Persia as they follow star signs leading to a newly-born king in Bethlehem.
Frost, Helen
	The Braid. 2006
	Two Scottish sisters, living on the western island of Barra in the 1850s, relate, in alternate voices and linked narrative poems, their experiences after their family is forcible evicted and separated with one sister accompanying their parents and younger siblings to Cape Breton, Canada, and the other staying behind with other family on the small island of Mingulay.
Gantos, Jack
	The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs. 2006
	A young woman named Ivy, who made a shocking discovery in her small western Pennsylvania town when she was seven years old and learned a surprising secret nine years later, questions whether she has inherited the Rumbaugh curse.
Glass, Linzi Alex
	The Year the Gypsies Came. 2006
	In Johannesburg, South Africa, in the late 1960s, twelve-year-old Emily, who longs for affection from her quarreling parents, finds comfort in the stories of a Zulu servant and in her friendship with a young houseguest who has an equally troubled family.
Going, K.L.
	Saint Iggy. 2006
	Iggy Corso, who lives in city public housing, is caught physically and spiritually between good and bad when he is kicked out of high school, goes searching for his missing mother, and causes his friend to get involved with the same dangerous drug dealer who deals to his parents.
Green, John
	An Abundance of Katherines. 2006
	Having been recently dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine, recent high school graduate and former child prodigy Colin sets off on a road trip with his best friend to try to find some new direction in life while also trying to create a mathematical formula to explain his relationships.
Jansen, Hanna
	Over a Thousand Hills I Walk With You. 2006.
Jaramillo, Ann
	La Linea. 2006
	When fifteen-year-old Miguel's time finally comes to leave his poor Mexican village, cross the border illegally, and join his parents in California, his younger sister's determination to join him soon imperils them both.
Johnson, Harriet McBryde
	Accidents of Nature. 2006
	Having always prided herself on blending in with "normal" people despite her cerebral palsy, seventeen-year-old Jean begins to question her role in the world while attending a summer camp for children with disabilities.
Johnson, Maureen
	Devilish. 2006
	Jane Jarvis, a senior at a Catholic girl's school in Providence, Rhode Island, tries to save her best friend by making a pact with a demon--in the form of a cupcake-eating, very friendly teenage girl.
Knox, Elizabeth
	Dreamhunter: Book One of the Dreamhunter Duet. 2006
	In a world where select people can enter "The Place" and find dreams of every kind to share with others for a fee, a fifteen-year-old girl is training to be a dreamhunter when her father disappears, leaving her to carry on his mysterious mission.
Lanagan, Margo
	White Time. 2006
	Presents ten short stories, both dark and hopeful, that journey into the past, the future, and altered versions of the present.
Lansens, Lori
	The Girls. 2006
	Since their birth, twin sisters Rose and Ruby Darien have been known as "the girls." Raised by Aunt Lovey, the nurse who took them in after their mother abandoned them, they have lived all their lives in the small town of Leaford, in an old farmhouse bordered by cornfields.
Larson, Kirby
	Hattie Big Sky. 2006
	After inheriting her uncle's homesteading claim in Montana, sixteen-year-old orphan Hattie Brooks travels from Iowa in 1917 to make a home for herself and encounters some unexpected problems related to the war being fought in Europe.
Lisle, Janet Taylor
	Black Duck. 2006
	Years afterwards, Ruben Hart tells the story of how, in 1929 Newport, Rhode Island, his family and his best friend's family were caught up in the violent competition among groups trying to control the local rum-smuggling trade.
Lynch, Scott
	The Lies of Locke Lamora. 2006
	An orphan's life is harsh - and often short - in the island city of Camorr, built on the ruins of a mysterious alien race. But born with a quick wit and a gift for thieving, Locke Lamora has dodged both death and slavery, only to fall into the hands of an eyeless priest known as Chains - a man who is neither blind nor a priest.
McCormick, Patricia
	Sold. 2006
	Thirteen-year-old Lakshmi, though poor, enjoys her life until the Himalayan monsoons wash away her family's crops and she is sold to a brothel in India by her stepfather. She remembers her mother's wisdom, "Simply to endure is to triumph," until the day comes that she can reclaim her life.
Murdock, Catherine Gilbert
	Dairy Queen. 2006
	After spending her summer running the family farm and training the quarterback for her school's rival football team, sixteen-year-old D.J. decides to go out for the sport herself, not anticipating the reactions of those around her.
Myers, Walter Dean
	Street Love. 2006
	This story told in free verse is set against a background of street gangs and poverty in Harlem in which seventeen-year-old African American Damien takes a bold step to ensure that he and his new love will not be separated.
Na, An
	Wait for Me. 2006
	As her senior year in high school approaches, Mina yearns to find her own path in life but working at the family business, taking care of her little sister, and dealing with her mother's impossible expectations are as stifling as the southern California heat, until she falls in love with a man who offers a way out.
Pfeffer, Susan Beth
	Life as We Knew It. 2006
	Through journal entries sixteen-year-old Miranda describes her family's struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.
Portman, Frank
	King Dork. 2006
	High school loser Tom Henderson discovers that "The Catcher in the Rye" may hold the clues to the many mysteries in his life.
Pratchett, Terry
	Wintersmith. 2006
	When witch-in-training Tiffany Aching accidentally interrupts the Dance of the Seasons and awakens the interest of the elemental spirit of Winter, she requires the help of the six-inch-high, sword-wielding, sheep-stealing Wee Free Men to put the seasons aright.
Price, Charlie
	Dead Connection. 2006
	A loner who communes with the dead in the town cemetery hears the voice of a murdered cheerleader and tries to convince the adults that he knows what happened to her.
Reinhardt, Dana
	A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life. 2006
	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.
Rosoff, Meg
	Just in Case. 2006
	Convinced that fate is out to get him, fifteen-year-old David Case assumes a new identity in the hope of avoiding what he believes is certain doom.
Sedgwick, Marcus
	The Foreshadowing. 2006
	It is 1915, and seventeen-year-old Alexandra (Sasha) Fox is the privileged only daughter of a respected doctor living in the wealthy seaside town of Brighton. But her brothers, Edgar and Tom, have gone to war and Sasha has a terrible gift. She can see the future.
Stahler, David, Jr
	Doppelganger. 2006
	When a sixteen-year-old member of a race of shape-shifting killers called doppelgangers assumes the life of a troubled teen, he becomes unexpectedly embroiled in human life--and it is nothing like what he has seen on television.
Sturtevant, Katherine
	A True and Faithful Narrative. 2006
	In London in the 1680s, Meg--now sixteen years old--tries to decide whether to marry either of the two men who court her, taking into account both love and her writing ambitions.
Tharp, Tim
	Knights of the Hill Country. 2006
	In his senior year, high school star linebacker Hampton Greene finally begins to think for himself and discovers that he might be interested in more than just football. In a small Oklahoma town, one star linebacker must decide what kind of man he wants to be--both on and off the field.
Turner, Megan Whalen
	The King of Attolia. 2006
	Eugenides, still known as a Thief of Eddis, faces palace intrigue and assassins as he strives to prove himself both to the people of Attolia and to his new bride, their queen. Sequel to The Thief and The Queen of Attolia.
Vizzini, Ned
	It's Kind of a Funny Story. 2006
	A humorous account of a New York City teenager's battle with depression and his time spent in a psychiatric hospital.
Volponi, Paul
	Rooftop. 2006
	Still reeling from seeing police shoot his unarmed cousin to death on the roof of a New York City housing project, seventeen-year-old Clay is dragged into the whirlwind of political manipulation that follows.
Vrettos, Adrienne Maria
	Skin. 2006
	When his parents decide to separate, eighth-grader Donnie watches with horror as the physical condition of his sixteen-year old sister, Karen, deteriorates due to an eating disorder.
Werlin, Nancy
	The Rules of Survival. 2006
	Seventeen-year-old Matthew recounts his attempts, starting at a young age, to free himself and his sisters from the grip of their emotionally and physically abusive mother.
Wooding, Chris
	Storm Thief. 2006
	With the help of a golem, two teenaged thieves try to survive on the city island of Orokos, where unpredictable probability storms continually change both the landscape and the inhabitants.
Woodrell, Daniel
	Winter's Bone: A Novel. 2006
	The sheriff's deputy at the front door brings hard news to Ree Dolly. Her father has skipped bail on charges that he ran a crystal meth lab, and the Dollys will lose their house if he doesn't show up for his next court date.
Yang, Gene Luen
	American Born Chinese. 2006
	Alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese Americans trying to participate in the popular culture. Presented in comic book format.
Zusak, Markus
	The Book Thief. 2006
	Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.