SPEAK
by Laurie Halse Anderson
Farrar, Straus & Giroux;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 12 - 16
Subjects: Fiction | Rape

NECKING WITH LOUISE
by Rick Book
Red Deer;ISBN: 0889951942;$7.95;1999

Seven short stories, ranging from a first date to a pounding hockey game to a first job away from home, introduce the reader to Eric and his growing realization of a world beyond his small, 1965, Saskatchewan town.

Suggested for ages 13 - 16
Subjects: Canada | Fiction

THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER
by Stephen Chbosky
Pocket Books;ISBN: 0671027344;$12;1999

Charlie teeters on the edge of peer acceptance and sanity, sharing his thoughts and fears about life, love, sex, and family through letters to an anonymous friend.

Suggested for ages 13 - 16
Subjects: Drug Abuse | Drugs | Fiction

BABE DIDRICKSON ZAHARIAS: THE MAKING OF A CHAMPION
by Russell Freedman
Clarion;ISBN: 0395633672;$18;1999

In a year that saw the U.S. women's soccer team win the World Cup, here is a portrait of the woman whose athletic ability ranks her among the best of the 20th century.

Suggested for ages 11 - 16
Subjects: Athletes | Biography | Golf | Swimming | Track and Field | Women

WHAT ARE YOU? VOICES OF MIXED-RACE YOUNG PEOPLE
edited by Pearl Fuyo Gaskins
Henry Holt;ISBN: 0805059687;$18.95;1999

In essay, interview and poetry, 45 mixed-race young people speak out about growing up outside traditional racial boundaries. Disturbing, frank, witty and heartfelt.

Suggested for ages 12 - 16
Subjects: Biracial | Ethnicity | Multiracial | Race Relations | Teenagers

THE ADVENTURES OF BLUE AVENGER: A NOVEL
by Norma Howe
Henry Holt;ISBN: 0805060626;$15.95;1999

The morning of his 16th birthday, David Schumacher changes his name to "Blue Avenger" and begins his fight to abolish handguns, win the love of Omaha Nebraska Brown, discover the secret of weepless lemon meringue pie, and learn to control fate. A quirky, comic, smart novel.

Suggested for ages 12 - 16
Subjects: Fiction | Guns | Humor

WHITECHURCH
by Chris Lynch
HarperCollins;ISBN: 0060283300;$14.95;1999

The story of three teenage friends, told in blank verse and prose, who struggle to stay together as one leaves for college and another collapses into madness.

Suggested for ages 14 - 16
Subjects: Death | Fiction | Guns | Mental Illness

TERROR OF THE SPANISH MAIN: SIR HENRY MORGAN AND HIS BUCCANEERS
by Albert Marrin
Dutton;ISBN: 0525459421;$19.99;1999

A riveting biography of the 17th century's most infamous sea-rover and the brutal era of Spanish-English rivalry in which he lived.

Suggested for ages 12 - 16
Subjects: Biography | History | Pirates