ASK ME NO QUESTIONS
by Marina Budhos
Ginee Seo;ISBN: 9781416903512;$16.95;2006

In a timely, realistic story, fourteen-year-old Nadira strives to keep her illegal immigrant family from Bangladesh together after 9/11 when Muslim registration laws led to her father's incarceration and their near deportation.

Suggested for ages 11 - 15
Subjects: Family life | High schools | Immigration | New York (N.Y.) | September 11, 2001

BIG MOUTH AND UGLY GIRL
by Joyce Carol Oates
HarperCollins;ISBN: 0066237564;$16.99;2002

A careless joke about blowing up the school makes unlikely allies of wise guy Matt Donaghy and saucy loner Ursula Riggs. A provocative exploration of contemporary issues of school violence and destructive rumor that deals ultimately with timeless matters of friendship and trust.

Suggested for ages 14 - 18
Subjects: High schools

BUDDHA BOY
by Kathe Koja
ISBN: 0374309981;$26.95;

New-kid-in-school Jinsen is considered weird, with his strange clothes and his habit of begging at lunchtime. When Justin is forced to work with him on a class project, he develops a profound respect for Jinsen’s artistic abilities and the difficult past he has overcome.

Suggested for ages 13 - 18
Subjects: Artists | Bullies | High schools

DOES MY HEAD LOOK BIG IN THIS?
by Randa Abdel-Fattah
Orchard;ISBN: 9780439919470;$16.99;2007

When sixteen-year old Australian-Palestinian Amal decides to wear the traditional Muslim head scarf, she faces many emotional, practical, and social issues. Humorous and unpreachy, this contemporary story is full of music, fashion and chatter.

Suggested for ages 12 - 16
Subjects: Australia | Clothing | High schools | Islam

INEXCUSABLE
by Chris Lynch
Atheneum;ISBN: 0689847890;$16.95;2005

Senior Keir knows he's a good guy— even though people call him "Killer Keir”—and there's no way he could have done what the girl he loves says he did. That would be inexcusable. Detached flashbacks gradually reveal the complicated truth of date rape.

Suggested for ages 13 - 18
Subjects: High schools | National Book Award Finalist | Rape

RATS SAW GOD
by Rob Thomas
Simon & Schuster;ISBN: 0689802072;$17;1996

Steve York, son of a famous astronaut, has to explain to his guidance counselor how he went from being a 4.0 student to a troubled teen who doesn't care. Comic situations, snappy dialogue, and kids that are real make this one of the year's best.

Suggested for ages 15 - 17
Subjects: Divorce | Fathers and sons | High schools

SPEAK
by Laurie Halse Anderson
ISBN: 0374371520;$16;1999

Melinda Sordino's inner voice provides sardonic commentary on her high school experience, while her real self remains mute about a painful incident that has made her an outcast.

Suggested for ages 14 - 18
Subjects: High schools | Rape

SWEETBLOOD: A VAMPIRE NOVEL
by Pete Hautman
ISBN: 0689850484;$16.95;2003

Sixteen-year-old Lucy, a diabetic girl who theorizes that the original vampires were simply untreated diabetics, uses a self-deprecating, original voice to tell how she flirts with a Goth lifestyle, longs to meet a real vampire, and ignores her disease, with startling results.

Suggested for ages 13 - 18
Subjects: Diabetes | High schools | Vampires