The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams

Thirteen-year-old Kyra is part of a polygamous sect, obedient to her father, his wives, and God's will as interpreted by their prophet. When the prophet says she must marry her sixty-year-old uncle, Kyra begins to imagine a life outside her secluded community. The immediacy of Kyra's first-person perspective heightens the story's emotional impact. Readers will hold their breath, hoping for her freedom.
-Horn Book starred-

Fat Cat by Robin Brande

Cat is determined to dominate in her advanced Research Science class, and she especially hopes to tromp smug, brilliant Matt, a former friend whose betrayal years ago still stings. She is thrown for a loop when assigned an anthropology topic but spins it into a project that will change not just her body but her life. Severely overweight, Cat decides to “become prehistoric,” eating and living as similarly to early hominids as possible, with the supervision of a dietitian. As her whole-foods diet and walking routine melts the pounds and guys start treating her differently, she adapts her project to take in these observations, too.
-Booklist-

After by Amy Efaw

Fifteen-year-old Devon is driven to make more of herself than her single mother who in Devon's eyes is only out for the next man she can catch. Devon copes with the boyfriends her mother brings home by driving herself to succeed as an honor student and a standout soccer player. This drive is so intense it leads her to deny the undeniable signs that she is pregnant. Her denial is so complete that she cuts herself off from everyone who could help her deal with the situation. In shock after delivering the baby alone while her mother is at work, Devon panics and places the newborn in a dumpster where it is discovered by a neighbor walking his dog. Devon finds herself charged with murder and incarcerated in Juvenile Detention. Devon must face up to her actions and come to grips with the situation. The story ending is realistic and leaves the reader feeling Devon sees herself and her relationship with her mother through a new lens. A gripping story with strong characters and good pacing, Amy Efaw's realistic fiction is very believable and holds the reader to the end.
-Alda Moore, Library Media Connection-

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-

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Forman (Sisters in Sanity, 2007) provides a compelling and highly textured account of the brutal 24 hours that may be 17-year-old Mia’s last. Her day starts with a drive, with her loving and moderately punk parents and her effervescent little brother, to a bookstore. A collision with another vehicle leaves Mia’s parents dead. The narrative is told in a robust first-person voice, with flashbacks, flash-forwards, and out-of-body reports on her immediate surroundings as Mia is transported, in grave condition, to the hospital. The story then follows the medical efforts to save her life, extended family and friends’ efforts to provide emotional care, and Mia’s coming to terms with what has happened and what might still await her. Mia, a gifted cellist, finds support from her alt-rock boyfriend and a best friend whose own mother is a hysteric. Mia’s recounting of this critical day is laced with insight, good humor, and wonder, allowing the reader to enter the scene as fully as Mia herself seems to have, at least for now, left her broken body.
-Booklist starred-

King of the Screwups by K. L. Going

High-school senior Liam is a talented, straight athlete who is as gorgeous as his mother, a former supermodel, and has inherited her interest in clothes: “I love fashion. And girls.” A mediocre student, he constantly disappoints his dad, an angry, sometimes verbally abusive executive who kicks Liam out of the house after one too many perceived transgressions. Against his homophobic dad’s wishes, Liam moves in with his gay, cross-dressing, trailer-dwelling uncle, Aunt Pete. Determined to meet his father’s expectations, Liam joins the AV club at his new school and actively tries to fight his natural status as “Mr. Popularity”; but once again, everything goes awry.
-Booklist-

The Morgue and Me by John C. Ford

Christopher takes a summer job at a morgue. There he discovers--and decides to investigate--the cover-up of a murder. His suspicions wend their way through a number of his small town's prominent citizens. Blackmail and double-crosses pile up, and Christopher nearly finds himself accused of murder before solving the crimes. There's plenty of action in this absorbing story.
-Horn Book-

Muchacho: A Novel by Louanne Johnson

High school junior Eddie Corazon and his Mexican-American family live in a crime infested town of New Mexico where kids are often pressed into service as drug runners if found on the streets alone. He is in an alternative high school and brandishing his role as a juvinile delinquent until he meets Lupe, a bright girl with dreams of college. Poignant memories of a caring former teacher and the Four Agreements also play a role in Eddie's transformation into a reflective honor student.
            -School Library Journal-

Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick

Private Matt Duffy awakes in a hospital bed, suffering from a severe brain injury sustained during a confrontation with insurgents. His memory of the encounter is foggy, but the pieces that slowly settle in contradict the story told by his squadmate and friend, Justin. An Iraqi kid was killed, though no one seems to know why or by whom, and Matt gets the distinct feeling that the Army doesn’t want to know. McCormick clearly evokes Matt’s longing to return to his unit and his buddies and sets that against the psychological trauma of reentering the fray and coming to terms with a death for which he holds himself accountable.                                        -Booklist-

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Grace has always had a thing for the wolves in the woods behind her house, and when she finally meets the human form of a particularly enchanting wolf, Sam, the two cling to each other with the force of destiny. Time is running out, though, as these lycanthropes don’t change with full moons but rather each year spend less time as humans and more as wolves, until the balance completely tips them into the animal world. The two will then do whatever it takes to stay together.
                                                            - Booklist-

We Were Here By Matt De La Pena

After a judge sentences Miguel to spend a year in a group home and write in a journal, he makes plans to escape the youth detention center and go to Mexico, where he can put his past behind him.