Flash Burnout by L. K. Madigan

Blake takes a photo of someone he thinks is a street person. However, the woman turns out to be his friend Marissa's drug-addicted mother. Wanting to help Marissa, Blake finds himself emotionally torn between her and his jealous girlfriend Shannon. Madigan effectively blends Blake's smart-alecky voice with serious subject matter in this well-paced story.
-Horn Book-

Food, Girls, and Other things I Can't Have by Allen Zadoff

When three-hundred-pound outcast Andrew Zansky is recruited by his high school's charismatic star quarterback to play center for the football team, Andrew's life changes dramatically. His extra girth is actually an advantage in his new endeavor, and this fact, coupled with the attendant popularity of being a jock, does wonders for his self-esteem. He begins to wonder if he actually stands a chance with the girl of his dreams, a beautiful new student who has joined the cheerleading squad. Andrew's sudden rise to fame and popularity is intoxicating, and he will not let anything stand in his way -- not the school bully, not his former best friend, not the aftershocks of his parents' messy divorce, not even his severe asthma.
-Horn Book-

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

Bullied by their classmates, outcasts Valerie and Nick compile a "hate list." To Valerie's horror, the list serves as a roster for Nick's school shooting spree. Set post-massacre and powered by flashbacks, the story intimately explores Valerie's struggle to cope with the tragedy, including coming to terms with her complicated feelings for Nick and understanding her role in the violence.
-Horn Book-

Hold Still by Nina LaCour

Still reeling from the recent death of her best friend, Caitlin returns to school hoping to find some peace but instead finds only confusion, loneliness and pain. Her photography class was once her safe haven, but now she can barely stand to look at the photos that stare at her from the walls. Desperate to find a reason for Ingrid's suicide, Caitlin turns to her friend's journal, which she finds under her bed. As she reads, she has to confront not only her friend's memories but her own demons as well. Interspersed with drawings and journal entries, the story of Caitlin's journey through her grief is both heart-wrenching and realistic.
-Kirkus Review-

If I Grow Up by Todd Strasser

He treated you like a gangbanger. I thought that’s what you wanted, says DeShawn early on in the book. This conflation of fear and respect is central to DeShawn’s life in a housing project ruled by the Douglass Disciples, a gang in constant battle with the nearby Gentry Gangstas. DeShawn is 12 when the book begins; he is 28 when it ends, and the time shift between each section dramatically illustrates how quickly things can go wrong—a caring mother becomes a prostitute, a promising student becomes a drug pusher, and so on. Despite the lure of money and power, the sensitive DeShawn has no intention of joining the Disciples, instead focusing on his schoolwork while watching his best friend, Terrell, work his way up the hierarchy. But in Strasser’s tough, authentic, and only occasionally preachy work, tragedy is always just a gunshot away, and temptation all too often upsets the best-laid plans. Strasser loads the book with startling true statistics, and the final pages are both hopeful and heartbreaking.
-Booklist-