The Christopher Killer
When aspiring forensic pathologist Cameryn Mahoney convinces her father, the county coroner, to hire her as his assistant, she has no idea that one of the first deaths she will investigate will be that of her friend.
Diva
Flinn, Alex
Caitlin, who was abused by her 16-year-old boyfriend, in Flinn's Breathing Underwater, wants to put that relationship behind her. A talented singer, she gets into Miami High School for the Performing Arts despite her own nervousness and her mother's objections. Even there she feels like an outcast as she can't dance or sing pop and she obsesses about her weight.
Skate
Harmon, Michael
Ian McDermott has basically raised himself and his young brother, who has fetal alcohol syndrome. Their mother is a deadbeat drug addict. At school the administration wants him out. One day, he loses his cool and ends up breaking Coach Florence's jaw. The teen knows that he and Sammy have to get away fast before the cops catch up with him. They skate out of Spokane to search for their estranged father.
Grand and
Humble
Hartinger, Brent
Harlan, 17, the gorgeous, brilliant son of a rich senator, appears to have it all; he never notices that his dad is always busy or that his mom is a control freak. Manny, also 17, is a theater geek, the child of a poor, nurturing single-parent dad, who has secrets that he won't share with his son. But the boys are alike in at least one way: both have panic attacks and recurring nightmares about drowning and being hit by a truck.
Rash
Hautman, Pete
In 2076 in the United Safer States of America, verbal abuse, obesity, and dangerous activities are against the law. Helmets and health food are de rigueur, and sports are either outlawed or radically changed because of the bulky safety equipment required. The penalty for breaking any of the rules is a lengthy prison term. Bo Marsten, 16, goes to jail for lack of self-control after he hits a classmate. Bo has the opportunity to reduce his sentence when he's chosen for the prison's (illegal) football team, but the sadistic coach is determined that his players win at any cost.
Sold
McCormick, Patricia
Lakshmi, 13, knows nothing about the world beyond her village shack in the Himalayas of Nepal, and when her family loses the little it has in a monsoon, she goes to work as a maid in the city so she can send money back home. What she doesn't know is that her stepfather has sold her into prostitution. She ends up in a brothel far across the border in the slums of Calcutta, locked up, beaten, starved, drugged, raped, "torn and bleeding," until she submits.
Shackelton's
Stowaway
McKernan, Victoria
Perce Blackborow, 18, hides in a cramped locker for two days until the Endurance is at sea before revealing his presence as a stowaway. Given a chance to disembark at South Georgia Island, he signs up as a steward and a gruff Shackleton insists that he write to his family: "Tell them what god-awful mischief you've got yourself into." The ill-fated ship is crushed in the ice hundreds of miles from the nearest whaling station, forcing the crew to drag its lifeboats and gear across unstable ice floes.
Knights
of the Hill Country
Tharp, Tim
Teachers don't recognize his smarts, he struggles with
his mother's unsuccessful romantic relationships, and he is unsure of
himself around girls, but when senior football star Hampton Green is
on the field, everything clicks. Hampton
finds himself attracted to self-assured, intelligent Sara, whom best
friend Blaine says is not good for his image. As the championship
unfolds, things get tense, and Blaine drags Hampton into a confrontation
with the opposing team, during which Blaine pulls a gun
and Hampton must finally assert himself.
Life
as we Knew It
Pfeffer, Susan Beth
It's the end of Miranda's sophomore year in high school, and her journal reflects the busy life of a typical teenager: conversations with friends, fights with mom, and hopes for a driver's license. When Miranda first begins hearing the reports of a meteor on a collision course with the moon, it hardly seems worth a mention. But after the meteor hits, pushing the moon off its axis and causing worldwide earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes, all the things Miranda used to take for granted begin to disappear. Food and gas shortages, along with extreme weather changes, come to her small Pennsylvania town; and Miranda's family is forced to make tough choices while they consider their increasingly limited options.