Realistic+Fiction



//The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian // The Wellpinit reservation is a rough place to grow up, but to Arnold, it's home. So he feels torn when he begins attending an affluent high school off the reservation. Things only get worse when Arnold's new basketball team returns to play the team from Wellpinit, and he must face his best friend and all his former teammates on the court. Could the crowd really be booing him? "I felt like one of those Indian scouts who led the U.S. Cavalry against other Indians."
 * by Sherman Alexie **

//Wintergirls // On Saturday night Lia ignores thirty-three phone calls from her ex-best friend Cassie. On Monday morning Lia learns that Cassie has been found dead in a motel room. Lia has always been skilled at hiding her emotions, and her ongoing struggle with anorexia has taught her how to keep secrets--she sews quarters into her bathrobe to trick the bathroom scale and simulates eating by smearing ketchup on her mouth and making a mess in the microwave. But hiding her guilt over Cassie's death will push her to the edge--and visions of Cassie's ghost, beckoning Lia to join her, might push her over it.
 * by Laurie Halse Anderson **

__//Mexican WhiteBoy //__ When Danny can relax, he's an amazing pitcher. But he can't relax. He's painfully shy, and his mixed racial heritage makes him feel too pale--"albino almost"--to fit in with his Mexican relatives. More than anything, though, the disappearance of his father three years ago still weighs heavily on Danny's mind. Then he meets Uno, a boy with his own troubles--and a lot of confidence. As Uno takes Danny under his wing, can he help Danny get his head back in the game?
 * by Matt de la Peña **

//We Were Here // After his conviction, Miguel is sentenced to live in a group home. There he meets Mong, a wild-eyed boy who convinces him to flee to Mexico with him. Miguel's kindhearted, slow-witted roommate, Rondell, joins them, and they hit the road, dreaming of freedom. But Miguel has a dark secret--one that he can't escape, no matter where he runs.
 * by Matt de la Peña **

//Along for the Ride // Auden has always been a model student, focusing on academics to please her demanding mother. When her happy-go-lucky, globe-trotting older brother sends her a picture frame that reads, "THE BEST OF TIMES," Auden realizes she has nothing to put in it. So she decides to spend her summer with her father and stepmother in the beach-resort town of Colby. There she meets Eli, an intriguing loner and fellow insomniac. With Eli as her guide (and maybe more), Auden explores the town's nocturnal world, determined to live the carefree teenage life she's missed out on--even if just for one summer.
 * by Sarah Dessen **

//Solace of the Road // <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">When Holly Hogan finds the wig, everything changes. Wearing the long, flowing blond locks, she's not Holly anymore; she's Solace, the girl with the slinkster walk and the super-sharp talk. She's older, more confident--the kind of girl who can walk right out of her foster family's house, hitch to Ireland, and find her mum.
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">by Siobhan Dowd **

//**<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">If I Stay **// <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">In a single moment, everything changes. Seventeen-year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall riding along the snow-wet Oregon road with her family. Then, in a blink, she finds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck… A sophisticated, layered, and heart-achingly beautiful story about the power of family and friends, the choices we all make, and the ultimate choice Mia commands.
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">by Gayle Forman **

//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks // <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">Frankie Landau-Banks, a sophomore at the prestigious Alabaster Preparatory Academy, thought she had her school's social dynamics figured out. But when she begins dating the gorgeous and witty senior Matthew Livingston and hanging out with his rich, popular friends, Frankie senses there's something that they're not telling her. She soon discovers that they are members of an all-boys secret society. Frankie lets them keep thinking she's just a cute, clueless girl, all the while implementing a plan with a seemingly impossible goal: to take over the Loyal Order of the Basset Hound.
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">by E. Lockhart **

//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">Purple Heart // <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">When Private Matt Duffy wakes up in an Army hospital in Iraq, he's honored with a Purple Heart. But he doesn't feel like a hero. Matt is haunted by a hazy memory of an Iraqi boy being shot--and the sense that he is somehow responsible for the boy's death.
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">by Patricia McCormick **

//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">Trouble // <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">After Henry Smith's brother is hit by a car, Henry needs to get away from his grieving family. He and his best friend Sanborn decide to hitchhike to Maine and take the hike that Henry and his brother had planned--a dangerous climb to the top of Mt. Katahdin. But the only driver to offer Henry and Sanborn a ride is a boy fleeing demons of his own: Chay Chouan, who was convicted of hitting Henry's brother. As they drive north, the three struggle to deal with the truth of what happened the night of the accident.
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">by Gary D. Schmidt **

//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">Black Box // <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">Dora and Elena are as different as two sisters can be. Dora's tall and theatrical; Elena is short and practical. "It was as if, growing up, Dora had occupied a certain space and developed a certain kind of personality," Elena says, "and I had taken what was left over. On a barometer, Dora was a storm on the horizon; I was the needle that always pointed to //steady//." But after Dora is admitted to the local hospital following a suicide attempt, Elena finds it increasingly difficult to remain the family's "steady Eddie."
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">by Julie Schumacher **

//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">The Last Summer of the Death Warriors // <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">Pancho is reserved, angry, and determined to avenge his sister's death. D.Q. is effusive, optimistic, and determined to complete his philosophical Death Warrior Manifesto before brain cancer kills him. When they meet at St. Anthony's orphanage, they become unlikely best friends. Then they fall for the same girl.
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">by Francisco X. Stork **

//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">Marcelo in the Real World // <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">When Marcelo Sandoval's father challenges him to intern at his law firm over the summer, Marcelo is anxious. He has a condition similar to Asperger's syndrome and attends a school that caters to his needs. Reluctantly, he begins to work at the firm, where the complications of the "real world" confront him immediately. Marcelo's coworker, Jasmine, is kind and beautiful, but is frustratingly aloof. Wendell, the son of another partner in the firm, attempts to use Marcelo's naïveté to manipulate him. Then, as Marcelo sorts documents one day, he stumbles upon a shocking piece of evidence marked "trash" that seems to incriminate his father.
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13px;">by Francisco X. Stork **