Friday, June 20, 2014

If you like books by John Green: Book recommendations


On the current display in the teen area, you'll find recommended books for fans of The Fault in Our Stars and author John Green. I previously posted a Fault in Our Stars readalikes list, and now here is part two. If you've read books by John Green and enjoy his realistic dialogue, humor, and authentic characters, check out these titles. (Find an easy-to-print version here.)

The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler
It's 1996, and less than half of all American high school students have ever used the Internet. Emma just got her first computer and Josh is her best friend. They power up and log on--and discover themselves on Facebook, fifteen years in the future. Everybody wonders what their Destiny will be. Josh and Emma are about to find out.
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
When high school student Clay Jenkins receives a box in the mail containing thirteen cassette tapes recorded by his classmate Hannah, who committed suicide, he spends a bewildering and heartbreaking night crisscrossing their town, listening to Hannah's voice recounting the events leading up to her death.
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
When a plane crash strands thirteen teen beauty contestants on a mysterious island, they struggle to survive, to get along with one another, to combat the island's other diabolical occupants, and to learn their dance numbers in case they are rescued in time for the competition.
Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Cameron Smith, a disaffected sixteen year-old who, after being diagnosed with Creutzfeld-Jakob's (aka mad cow) disease, sets off on a road trip with a death-obsessed video gaming dwarf he meets in the hospital in an attempt to find a cure.
Swim the Fly by Don Calame
Fifteen-year-old Matt Gratton and his two best friends, Coop and Sean, always set themselves a summertime goal. This year's? To see a real-live naked girl for the first time--quite a challenge, given that none of the guys has the nerve to even ask a girl out on a date. But catching a girl in the buff starts to look easy compared to Matt's other summertime aspiration: to swim the 100-yard butterfly (the hardest stroke known to God or man) as a way to impress Kelly West, the sizzling new star of the swim team. First book in a series.

Beat the Band by Don Calame
Paired with the infamous "Hot Dog" Helen for a health class presentation on safe sex, tenth-grader Coop tries to regain his "cool" by entering his musically challenged rock group in the "Battle of the Bands" competition. Second book in the series.
Call the Shots by Don Calame
Coop is cooking up another sure-misfire scheme (big surprise), and this time the comedy plays out from Sean's point of view. Third book in the series.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Most people think 15-year-old Charlie is a freak. The only friend he had killed himself, forcing him to face high school alone. But then seniors Patrick and his beautiful stepsister Sam take Charlie under their wings and introduce him to their eclectic, open-minded, hard-partying friends. It is from these older kids that Charlie learns to live and love, until a repressed secret from his past threatens to destroy his newfound happiness.
Spoiled by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
When her mother dies, sixteen-year-old Molly moves from Indiana to California, to live with her newly discovered father, a Hollywood megastar, and his pampered teenaged daughter.
Messy by Heather Cocks
Brooke wants to start a blog revealing the inner workings of Hollywood in order to be in the spotlight but has no time to write one, so she enlists the help of a ghost-writer, seventeen-year-old Max McCormack, who needs the money but not the hassles when the adorable actor, Brady Swift, comes between them. Sequel to Spoiled.
Welcome, Caller, This is Chloe by Shelley Coriell
When big-hearted Chloe Camden's best friend shreds her reputation and her school counselor axes her junior independent study project, Chloe is forced to take on a "more meaningful" project by joining her school's struggling radio station.
Carter Finally Gets It by Brent Crawford
Awkward freshman Will Carter endures many painful moments during his first year of high school before realizing that nothing good comes easily, focus is everything, and the payoff is usually incredible. First book in a series.
Carter's Big Break by Brent Crawford
Fourteen-year-old Will Carter's summer gets off to a bad start when his girlfriend leaves him, but then he is cast opposite a major star, Hilary Idaho, in a small movie being filmed in his town and things start looking up. Second book in the series.
Carter's Unfocused, One-Track Mind by Brent Crawford
Fifteen-year-old Will Carter's sophomore year at Merrian High presents new problems, from the return of Scary Terry to friends-with-benefits negotiations with Abby, but when Abby considers transferring to a New York arts school Carter's world is turned upside-down. Third book in the series.
Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler
Sixteen-year-old Min Green writes a letter to Ed Slaterton in which she breaks up with him, documenting their relationship and how items in the accompanying box, from bottle caps to a cookbook, foretell the end.
And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard
Sent to an Amherst, Massachusetts, boarding school after her ex-boyfriend shoots himself, seventeen-year-old Emily expresses herself through poetry as she relives their relationship, copes with her guilt, and begins to heal.
Paper Covers Rock by Jenny Hubbard
In 1982 Buncombe County, North Carolina, sixteen-year-old Alex Stromm writes of the aftermath of the accidental drowning of a friend, as his English teacher reaches out to him while he and a fellow boarding school student try to cover things up.
Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King
When her best friend, whom she secretly loves, betrays her and then dies under mysterious circumstances, high school senior Vera Dietz struggles with secrets that could help clear his name.
The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth LaBan
While preparing for the most dreaded assignment at the prestigious Irving School, the Tragedy Paper, Duncan gets wrapped up in the tragic tale of Tim Macbeth, a former student who had a clandestine relationship with the wrong girl, and his own ill-fated romance with Daisy.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
When Anna's romance-novelist father sends her to an elite American boarding school in Paris for her senior year of high school, she reluctantly goes, and meets an amazing boy who becomes her best friend, in spite of the fact that they both want something more.

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
Budding costume designer Lola lives an extraordinary life in San Francisco with her two dads and beloved dog, dating a punk rocker, but when the Bell twins return to the house next door Lola recalls both the friendship-ending fight with Calliope, a figure skater, and the childhood crush she had on Cricket.
Withering Tights by Louise Rennison
Self-conscious about her knobby knees but confident in her acting ability, fourteen-year-old Tallulah spends the summer at a Yorkshire performing arts camp that, she is surprised to learn, is for girls only. First book in a series.
A Midsummer Tights Dream by Louise Rennison
Now that Tallulah Casey has been officially admitted to the Dother Hall performing arts program, she knows she must stay focused and ignore the boys at Woolfe Academy if she wants to win this year's grand prize for best student performance. 2nd book in the Tallulah Casey series.
The Taming of the Tights by Louise Rennison
Tallulah Casey has returned for another term at her performing arts school, but after sharing a secret kiss with the local bad boy, Tallulah is now determined to find her perfect leading man.3rd book in the Tallulah Casey series.
Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick by Joe Schreiber
Perry's parents insist that he take Gobi, their quiet, Lithuanian exchange student, to senior prom but after an incident at the dance he learns that Gobi is actually a trained assassin who needs him as a henchman, behind the wheel of his father's precious Jaguar, on a mission in Manhattan.
The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp
In the last months of high school, charismatic eighteen-year-old Sutter Keely lives in the present, staying drunk or high most of the time, but that could change when starts working to boost the self-confidence of a classmate, Aimee.
Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley
Seventeen-year-old Cullen's summer in Lily, Arkansas, is marked by his cousin's death by overdose, an alleged spotting of a woodpecker thought to be extinct, failed romances, and his younger brother's sudden disappearance.

Pink by Lili Wilkinson
Sixteen-year-old Ava does not know who she is or where she belongs, but when she tries out a new personality--and sexual orientation--at a different school, her edgy girlfriend, potential boyfriend, and others are hurt by her lack of honesty.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Book Bite: "Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe"


“Summer was here again. Summer, summer, summer. I loved and hated summers. Summers had a logic all their own and they always brought something out in me. Summer was supposed to be about freedom and youth and no school and possibilities and adventure and exploration. Summer was a book of hope. That's why I loved and hated summers. Because they made me want to believe.”
- Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (2012)

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

What to read if you enjoyed "The Fault in Our Stars"

Whether you already read The Fault in Our Stars or are currently on the hold list for a copy, here are some other books you may be interested in checking out. Find the list on BiblioCommons here (click on the printer icon for a clean printable copy!). Come back to the blog later this week when I'll have another reading list for fans of John Green!

This Star Won't Go Out: The Life and Words of Esther Grace Earl by Esther Earl
(new) TEEN BIOGRAPHY EARL
A memoir told through the journals, letters, and stories of young cancer patient Esther Earl.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
TEEN ANDREWS
Seventeen-year-old Greg has managed to become part of every social group at his Pittsburgh high school without having any friends, but his life changes when his mother forces him to befriend Rachel, a girl he once knew in Hebrew school who has leukemia.
Dear Life, You Suck by Scott Blagden
RANDALL OAKS TEEN BLAGDEN
Irreverent, foul-mouthed, seventeen-year-old Cricket Cherpin, living under the watchful eye of Mother Mary at a Catholic boys' home in Maine, has such bleak prospects he is considering suicide when Wynona Bidaban steps into his world.

Deadline by Chris Crutcher
TEEN CRUTCHER
Given the medical diagnosis of one year to live, high school senior Ben Wolf decides to fulfill his greatest fantasies, ponders his life's purpose and legacy, and converses through dreams with a spiritual guide known as "Hey-Soos."
Before I Die by Jenny Downham
TEEN DOWNHAM
A terminally ill teenaged girl makes and carries out a list of things to do before she dies.
Looking for Alaska by John Green
TEEN GREEN
RANDALL OAKS TEEN GREEN
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.
I'm Not Her by Janet Gurtler
TEEN GURTLER
Brainy Tess Smith is the younger sibling of the beautiful, popular, volleyball-scholarship-bound Kristina. When Kristina is diagnosed with bone cancer, it drastically changes both sisters' lives. Sometimes the things that annoy us the most about our siblings are the ones we'd miss the most if we lost them.
Catcher, Caught by Sarah Collins Honenberger
FICTION HONENBERGER
A few months after doctors tell him he has only a year to live, a precocious fifteen-year-old from a small town in Virginia has an intense reaction to The Catcher in the Rye. Deriving inspiration from J. D. Salinger's narrative, Daniel Landon begins to question the intentions and authority of those around him in his own search for identity in the face of death.
Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern
(new) TEEN MCGOVERN
Born with cerebral palsy, Amy can't walk without a walker, talk without a voice box, or even fully control her facial expressions. Plagued by obsessive-compulsive disorder, Matthew is consumed with repeated thoughts, neurotic rituals, and crippling fear. Both in desperate need of someone to help them reach out to the world, Amy and Matthew are more alike than either ever realized. When Amy decides to hire student aides to help her in her senior year at Coral Hills High School, these two teens are thrust into each other's lives. As they begin to spend time with each other, what started as a blossoming friendship eventually grows into something neither expected.
Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy
(new) TEEN MURPHY
Alice is ready to go out in a blaze of glory, but then she discovers she's in remission from cancer and she must deal with all of the mistakes she's made and the people she's hurt.
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
TEEN ROWELL
RANDALL OAKS TEEN ROWELL
Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits--smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.
The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider
TEEN SCHNEIDER
Star athlete and prom king Ezra Faulkner's life is irreparably transformed by a tragic accident and the arrival of eccentric new girl Cassidy Thorpe.
Somebody Up There Hates You by Hollis Seamon
TEEN SEAMON
Dying of cancer in a hospice, seventeen-year-old prankster Richard has big plans for his final days.
After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick
JUV FICTION SONNENBLICK
RANDALL OAKS JUV FICTION SONNENBLICK
Although Jeff and Tad, encouraged by a new friend, Lindsey, make a deal to help one another overcome aftereffects of their cancer treatments in preparation for eighth-grade graduation, Jeff still craves advice from his older brother Stephen, who is studying drums in Africa.

Drums, Girls, & Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick
TEEN SONNENBLICK
JUV FICTION SONNENBLICK
When his younger brother is diagnosed with leukemia, thirteen-year-old Steven tries to deal with his complicated emotions, his school life, and his desire to support his family.
How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford
RANDALL OAKS TEEN STANDIFORD
After moving to Baltimore and enrolling in a private school, high school senior Beatrice befriends a quiet loner with a troubled family history.
The Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco X. Stork
TEEN STORK
RANDALL OAKS TEEN STORK
Seventeen-year-old Pancho is bent on avenging the senseless death of his sister, but after he meets D.Q, who is dying of cancer, and Marisol, one of D.Q.'s caregivers, both boys find their lives changed by their interactions.
The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen
TEEN VAN 
When a school bus accident leaves sixteen-year-old Jessica an amputee, she returns to school with a prosthetic limb and her track team finds a wonderful way to help rekindle her dream of running again.

Noggin by John Corey Whaley
After dying at age sixteen, Travis Coates' head was removed and frozen for five years before being attached to another body, and now the old Travis and the new must find a way to coexist while figuring out changes in his relationships.