Support Teen Literature Day-April 18

This week (April 14-20) is National Library Week. Today is Support Teen Literature Day. Read below about some novels you might enjoy that you may not have previously considered reading.

Each year the Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to teens. Check out the 2013 winners 🙂

1. Caring is Creepy by David Zimmerman
While trying to survive a long boring summer in rural Georgia, Lynn befriends a lonely soldier online.  When they meet face to face, tables are turned as Lynn tries to exert power in her out-of-control life.  Dangerous, amusing, role-bending, and definitely creepy!

2. Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman
With only a worn copy of the Girl Scout Handbook for reference, resourceful and tenacious Rory Hendrix must navigate the depressing landscape of a 1970s trailer park where she suffers abuse at the hands of a neighbor and neglect from her mother.

3. Juvenile in Justice by Richard Ross
Richard Ross’ riveting photographs give voices to incarcerated youth in juvenile detention centers across America.

4. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
Clay Johnson loses his web-designer job and begins working the night shift in a bookstore with only a few customers.  This marvelous mashup blends mystery, adventure, and romance into a literary and technological tale.

5. My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf
Written by a former classmate of Jeffery Dahmer, this graphic novel illustrates the teenage years of a future serial killer.

6. One Shot at Forever by Chris Ballard
This remarkable story follows the Macon Ironmen, a team of misfits with a hippie coach, through a record setting baseball season.

7. Pure by Juliana Baggott
In a world destroyed by nuclear detonations, only a privileged few have remained pure. Two teens from different sides of the Dome unite to search for answers to troubling questions about their origins.

8. The Round House by Louise Erdrich
An attack on 13-year-old Joe’s mother near their North Dakota Ojibwe reservation home leads him and his friends on a quest to solve the crime.  This coming-of-age story highlights friendship, family, tradition, and the uneasy relationship between the tribal and white communities.

9. Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
June thought she knew everything about her beloved uncle, Finn. After his death from a mysterious new illness called AIDS, his grieving boyfriend delivers Finn’s favorite teapot to June’s door, and she realizes nothing is what she thought it was: not her family, not her uncle, not even herself.

10. Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple
Through a series of emails, letters, and FBI files, Bee follows the trail of her missing mother to the ends of the earth in this quirky, laugh-out-loud tale.