Tween Booklists

In 1929 New York City, twelve-year-old housemaid Martha O'Doyle suspects that a wealthy recluse may be trying to communicate with the outside world through the paintings on her gallery walls.

Matt and Mike are best friends, just two working-class guys trying to earn some money in Montauk for the summer. When they meet Driana, JoJo, and Stef, three friends who live a much different life of privilege, Matt and Mike find themselves in a sticky situation where temptation rivals sensibility. Worlds collide when the group ventures out to sea aboard a small boat that Stef sneaks out from her dad's dock. As the waves rise and the fragile vessel weakens, things go horribly wrong. Adrift at sea for days, who will have what it takes to survive?

A shy, overweight 12-year-old & her best friend take on the case of a popular 16-year-old who died mysteriously leading to a breathtaking surprise twist.

On an island off the south coast of Victorian England, fourteen-year-old Faith investigates the mysterious death of her father, who was involved in a scandal, and discovers a tree that feeds upon lies and gives those who eat its fruit visions of truth.

When Ted inherits his uncle's apartment "and all the treasure within," he realizes the apartment is set up like a real-life video game and must solve the puzzles with his friends to discover the treasure.

Quinnie's teacher has disappeared. Quinnie suspects a kidnapping but her mom, even though she's the sheriff of their small Maine town, disagrees. So Quinnie teams with her glamorous new neighbor to investigate the mystery.

Brought over from Russia to help NASA prevent an asteroid from colliding with Earth, seventeen-year-old physics genius Yuri feels awkward and alone until he meets free-spirited Dovie.

"Noah is just trying to make it through seventh grade. The girls are confusing, the homework is boring, and even his friends are starting to bug him. Not to mention that his older sister, Emma, has been acting pretty strange, even though Noah thought she'd been doing better ever since the Thing They Don't Talk About. The only place he really feels at peace is in art class, with a block of clay in his hands

When two brothers decide to prove how brave they are, everything backfires--literally.

As World War II draws to a close, refugees try to escape the war's final dangers, only to find themselves aboard a ship with a target on its hull.

Harassed at her middle school, not taken seriously at home, and with a "perfect" older brother, Matthew, to live up to, thirteen-year-old Claire has always felt like her life was cursed--then one morning, when she are her beloved father are talking at breakfast, her father suddenly falls over with a stroke, and suddenly everything changes.

Kept as forced labor on a chocolate plantation in the Ivory Coast, Amadou and his younger brother Seydou had given up hope, until a young girl arrives at the camp who rekindles the urge to escape.

Inspired by the epic poem Beowulf, Kid Beowulf follows the journey of 12-year-old twin brothers, Beowulf and Grendel, as they travel to distant lands and meet fellow epic heroes therein.

Jack dreads summer because his single mother has to work and leaves him at home with his boring little sister who is autistic. She doesn't talk at all. Ever. But one day while they are at a flea market, she does talk. She tells Jack to trade their mother's car for a box of mysterious seeds. It's the best mistake Jack has ever made!

Every time it is invaded the City gets a new name, but to the natives in is the Nameless City, and they survive by not letting themselves get involved--but now the fate of the City rests in the hands of Rat, a native, and Kaidu, one of the Dao, the latest occupiers, and the two must somehow work together if the City is to survive

After escaping the Black Hook Gang in 1860 New York City, twelve-year-old twins Alexander and Cleopatra flee to New Orleans, become separated, and try to find each other in San Francisco, while being followed by pirates who think they hold the key to treasure.

The scene: New York City. The dazzling lights cast shadows that grow ever darker as the glitzy prosperity of the Roaring Twenties screeches to a halt. Enter a cast of familiar characters: a young girl, Samantha White, returning after being sent away by her cruel stepmother, the Queen of the Follies, years earlier; her father, the King of Wall Street, who survives the stock market crash only to suffer a strange and sudden death; seven street urchins, brave protectors for a girl as pure as snow; and a mysterious stock ticker that holds the stepmother in its thrall, churning out ticker tape imprinted with the wicked words "Another . . . More Beautiful . . . KILL.

"Reluctant Skye is accidentally sent to the wrong summer camp. Not wanting to please her 'step-monster,' Skye is dead-set on not fitting in. That won't be a problem, as everyone at Camp Midnight--with the exception of fellow camper and fast-friend Mia--is a full-fledged monster! The perfect book for fans of Raina Telgemeier's Smile, but wish it had more bowls of gooey eyeballs!

Now that the strange war is over, sixteen-year-old Hallie and her sister struggle to maintain their family farm, waiting to see who will return from the distant battlefield, soon hiring a veteran to help them but, as ugly truths about their family emerge, Hallie is taking dangerous risks and keeping desperate secrets while monsters and armies converge on the small farm.

In the Bad Bayous, guile--a power in the water that changes people and objects, sometimes for the worse--sets Yonie Watereye, 16, on a path that puts her own life in danger as she traces her family tree and finds a murderer.

Sixteen-year-old Elli was chosen as the heir to a queen who wields powerful ice and fire magic. But when the queen dies, the magic doesn't enter Elli and she uncovers devastating new information about the magic, and those who wield it.

Magnus Chase, a homeless boy living in Boston, finds out he is the son of a Norse god

When thirteen-year-old Saki Yamamoto unintentionally invokes a death curse, she must enter the dangerous spirit world at the Night Parade and attempt to perform deeds that can break the curse.

In 1888 seventeen-year-old Evelyn Fallow, herself disfigured by the phosphorus in the match factory where she worked, has been hired as a maid to Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man--but when the Jack the Ripper murders begin she and Merrick find themselves haunted by the ghosts of the slain women, and Evelyn is caught up in the mystery of Jack's identity.

An illustrated edition of the fantastical book featured in the Miss Peregrine series that includes unusual fairy tales about wealthy cannibals, a fork-tongued princess, and the origins of the first ymbryne.

Edgar Brim is a sensitive orphan who, exposed to horror stories from his father as a young child, is afraid of almost everything and suffers from nightly terrors. His stern new guardian, Mr. Thorne, sends the boy to a gloomy school in Scotland where his dark demons only seem to worsen and he is bullied and ridiculed for his fears. But years later, when sixteen-year-old Edgar finds a journal belonging to his novelist father, he becomes determined to confront his nightmares and the bullies who taunt him. After the horrific death of a schoolmate, Edgar becomes involved with an eccentric society at the urging of a mysterious professor who believes that monsters from famous works of literature are real and whose mandate is to find and destroy these creatures. With the aid of a rag-tag crew of friends, the fear-addled teen sets about on his dark mission, one that begins in the cemetery on the bleak Scottish moors and ends in a spine-chilling climax on the stage of the Royal Lyceum Theatre in London.

Seventeen-year-old Stella has no recollection of the day her best friend disappeared while the two, then six, were picking strawberries, until the corpse of a similar girl turns up and Stella not only begins to remember, she learns that something dark has been at work in their little town for generations

Ophaned at a young age, fifteen-year-old Kata is a trained ninja who works alone and can take care of herself. She is fully prepared for her first solo assignment, that is until she learns she is to be an assassin and she flees with her target and his sister, fighting to survive against skilled samurai warriors, deceptive ninjas, and supernatural beings in order to protect a powerful family secret.

A sixteen-year-old biracial girl in rural Oregon in the 1920s searches for the truth about her father's death while avoiding trouble from the Ku Klux Klan in this YA historical novel inspired by Shakespeare's 'HamleT

In Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 2034, a comet is due to hit the Earth within the hour. Denise, who's sixteen years old and autistic, must try to find her missing sister and also help her neglectful, undependable mother safely aboard a spaceship.

"Seventeen-year-old Cardinal has escaped the virus that ravaged his town, leaving its victims alive but without their memories"

When space-farmer Rae is kidnapped by the native inhabitants of her moon, she is trained to become a warrior. But can she attack her own people?

Zak is standing on the subway platform when the tunnel starts to fill with water. He sees it before anyone else; a voice only he hears warns him to run. His friends Moira and Khalid believe this is more than a premonition, and soon all three find themselves in an alternate universe that is both familiar and seriously strange. As Zak unravels the mystery behind the voice, he faces decisions that may mean the end of their world at home-- if they can even get home!

In a world of drones and androids Zen Starling is a human thief, but mostly he just likes to ride the Interstellar Express, the sentient trains that travel through the K gates from planet to planet, something only the Guardians understand--but now the mysterious Raven wants him to steal the Pyxis, an object that could either open up a new gate, challenging the Guardians, or put the entire gate system, and the universe itself in danger.

Documents the true story of the legendary samurai who was raised in the household of the enemies who killed his father before being sent to live in a monastery where, against the odds, he learned and perfected his fighting skills.

Text and numerous detailed illustrations introduce and explain the scientific principles and workings of hundreds of machines.

Examines the Borden murders, using newspaper articles to recreate the events and the trial and acquittal of Lizzie Borden and exploring Lizzie's story to theorize on what may have happened.

The Rock and Gem Book is packed full of photos of natural wonders, including rocks, minerals, gems, shells and fossils. This children's encyclopedia displays more than 1,200 full-color specimens, from sapphires and rubies to silver and pearl, revealing the unique qualities of each material and how it is used in industry, architecture, art and science. Including precious metals, rare fossils, tiny gemstones and giant shells, the Rock and Gem Book gives a complete overview of the Earth's naturally occurring marvels and the beautiful objects created from them.

Thirteen prominent cartoonists discuss their creative processes and the experiences and influences that led to their success in one of today's most vibrant art forms. Each interview is followed by an original graphic short on the common theme of "the city.

A biography of the famous astronaut drawing on personal and family photographs from her childhood, school days, college, life in the astronaut corps, and afterward.

A biographical novel about Antonio Chuffat, a Chinese-African-Cuban messenger boy in 1870s Cuba who became a translator and documented the freedom struggle of indentured Chinese laborers in his country.

"Garvey's father has always wanted Garvey to be athletic, but Garvey is interested in astronomy, science fiction, reading--anything but sports. Feeling like a failure, he comforts himself with food. Garvey is kind, funny, smart, a loyal friend, and he is also overweight, teased by bullies, and lonely. When his only friend encourages him to join the school chorus, Garvey's life changes. The chorus finds a new soloist in Garvey, and through chorus, Garvey finds a way to accept himself, and a way to finally reach his distant father--by speaking the language of music instead of the language of sports.

A novel in verse about the March 2011 tsunami that sent Japan into chaos, told from the point-of-view of Kai, a biracial teenaged boy.

Right before winter break, fourteen-year-old Molly Rosenberg reluctantly volunteers to participate in Santa Monica's annual homeless count, just to get her school's community service requirement out of the way. But when she ends up meeting Red, a spirited homeless girl only a few years older than she is, Molly makes it her mission to reunite her with her family in time for Christmas. This turns out to be extremely difficult--because Red refuses to talk about her past. There are things Molly won't talk about either. Like the awful thing that happened last winter. She may never be ready to talk about that. Not to Red, or to Cristo, the soulful boy she meets while riding the Ferris wheel one afternoon.

The stress of her father's job loss causes Fain to feel invisible at home and in her new school, but she escapes with the monsters of her imagination until a family crisis and a human friend cause her to reconsider.

Sheltered seventeen-year-old Emmy's childhood best friend Oliver reappears after disappearing with his father ten years ago.

A young survivor of the tragic Donner Party of 1846 describes how her family and others became victims of freezing temperatures and starvation.

In a near-future America, a sentient computer program named Charlotte has turned terrorist, but Lee Fisher, the closeted son of an ultraconservative President, is more concerned with keeping his Secret Service detail from finding out about his developing romance with Nico, the new guy at school, but when the spider-like robots that roam the school halls begin acting even stranger than usual, Lee realizes he is Charlotte's next target.

Repairing roof fixtures in an alternate world resembling Victorian South Africa, Anglet Sutonga investigates the death of an apprentice while caring for her sister's baby against a backdrop of racial tensions, political secrets, and a historical icon.

Growing up in Alaska in the 1970s isn't like growing up anywhere else: Don't think life is going to be easy. Know your place. And never talk about yourself. Four vivid voices tell intertwining stories of hardship, tragedy, wild luck, and salvation.

Told in their separate voices, Gavin, a loner outcast, and Delilah, back in small-town Kansas after years at a Massachusetts boarding school, reconnect their senior year, but as their relationship deepens, it is clear that the eerie house Gavin dwells in will do anything to keep the two apart.

After regaining consciousness from a seemingly fatal accident, eighteen-year-old U.S. Army Ranger Gideon Blake discovers that he is War, one the legendary Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and together with Conquest, Famine, and Death, must save humanity from an ancient evil.

It looks like Sarah's afterlife will be pretty exciting. She woke up dead at the Mall of America, where the universe sends teens who are murdered. Now, with the help of her death coach, she must learn to move on or she could meet a fate totally worse than death: becoming a mall walker. While she has no idea who killed her, or why, Sarah finds out that someone she loves is in grave danger. Can she live with herself if she doesn't make her death matter?

Cassandra Leung--a seventeen-year-old trainer of Reckoners, sea beasts bred to defend ships--is kidnapped by the pirate queen Santa Elena and ordered to train a Reckoner pup to defend Santa Elena's ship.

After her parents' divorce, Zoe Webster moves from Brooklyn to upstate New York where she meets the weirdly compelling misfit, Philip Digby, and soon finds herself in a series of hilarious and dangerous situations as he pulls her into his investigation into the kidnapping of a local teenage girl which may be related to the disappearance of his kid sister eight years ago.

A UFO crashes in the Midwest, not far from the boarding school attended by Alice, whose father is the director of special projects at NASA.