20 Wholesome, Interesting, Challenging, Comtemporary Fiction Teen Reads - An Annotated List (Alphabetically listed by Author):
Bradley, Alan. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.
Flavia de Luce is an 11-year-old detective who is also a clever chemist. Smart and independent, she helps police discover who killed the man found dead in her garden.
Bradley, Alan. The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag.
Flavia is back to her clever detective work. This time she must help figure out the secrets revolving around Porson’s Puppets. Will she solve an old local mystery as well?
Choldenko, Gennifer. Al Capone Does My Shirts: a Novel.
Moose has moved to Alcatraz Island with his family. His father is a security guard and an electrician for the high security prison. He meets Piper, the warden’s daughter, who pretends to be the perfect child but who is really a pack of trouble.
Creech, Sharon. Walk Two Moons. (also The Wanderer)
Salamanca learns what it means to walk in another person’s shoes for a bit and comes to accept that her mother is gone and is not coming back.
George, Jessica Day. Princess of the Midnight Ball.
Galen returns from the war to find employment in the king’s gardens. It is not long before he detects there is something mysterious about the king’s daughters and their nightly disappearances.
Hale, Shannon. Princess Academy. (other novels include The Goose Girl, Enna Burning, River Secrets, Forest Born, Book of a Thousand Days).
What does it take to become a princess? Miri comes to understand herself and others, deciding that being a princess may not be all it seems. Danger and adventure are the last thing she thought training to be a princess would entail.
Herlong, M.H. The Great Wide Sea.
Coping with the death of wife and mother, a father and his three sons sell their home and set sail for the Bahamas. In a twist of fate, the boys end up facing the most challenging trial of their lives. 15-year-old, Ben, learns what it means to be a man.
Hobbs, Will. Far North.
Those who have gone before us can teach us how to survive. Gabe must survive in the wilderness of the Far North and make desperate decisions involving the life of his friend, Raymond.
Hobbs, Will. Go Big or Go Home.
When a meteorite burns through the roof right over Gabe’s bedroom, his life changes in fantastic ways. But there’s a hitch and the changes don’t last - in fact, things go from excellent to horrible too fast.
Kadohata, Cynthia. Kira-Kira.
Though life is a little rough for Katie and her family, she finds things to laugh at, learn from, and question. When her sister gets sick with a terminal illness, she must learn to cope.
Levine, Gail Carson. Fairest.
Aza’s body bothers her until she discovers her courage and heritage which help her to focus on what is really important.
Park, Linda Sue. A Single Shard.
What is it like to be homeless? Can a poor waif of a boy learn to create the beautiful celadon pottery so prized by the emperor? When Tree-ear is entrusted to make a perilous journey, he learns what it means to have true courage.
Peck, Richard. A Year Down Yonder. (also A Long Way from Chicago)
Joey and Mary Alice have to visit Grandma Dowdel out in the country. These two city-bred kids have great adventures because their Grandmother is so outrageous!
Riordan, Rick. The Lightning Thief: Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
Percy is just figuring out who he is and what all of his unusual characteristics mean. Pushed to the edge of his endurance, Percy must outlast his foes and fight against an evil beyond anything the mythological gods have had to deal with.
Schmidt, Gary D. Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy
Turner is just beginning to see all the trouble with people - they can be downright evil or very good, or somewhere in between. As he copes with the unfair treatment of his friend, Lizzie, Turner makes choices for himself to be honorable and good.
Stead, Rebecca. When You Reach Me.
A puzzle within a puzzle! Miranda learns to see people so very differently than she had always done as she unravels a mysterious jumble of strange events, unexplainable notes, and confusing behaviors.
Tolan, Stephanie. Surviving the Applewhites.
Jake is a tough kid who bucks the school system and is kicked out. The Applewhites take him in and a bigger collection of strange people there never was. As Jake is allowed to slow down and figure himself out, even amidst the chaos, he discovers talents and begins to find a place in the world.
Westerfeld, Scott. Uglies. (other novels in the series - Pretties, Specials, Extras)
What if everyone could become pretty? What would life be like? What if you were forced to be pretty? Then what? Tally discovers the fraud behind the glamor.
Whelen, Gloria. Homeless Bird
Koly, an East Indian girl, is married and widowed at 13 years old. With no one to depend on, she must make her own way in a male-dominated society. Her resourcefulness and strength are tested as she struggles to find her place in the world.
Yolen, Jane and Robert J. Harris. Girl in a Cage.
Marjorie, the newly crowned king of Scotland’s daughter, is captured and put in a cage outdoors to be mocked by the English townspeople. Under the most distressing circumstances she remains true to herself and her father.
Yolen, Jane and Harris, Robert. The Rogues.
What separates a rogue and a chieftain? Sometimes men are more than what they seem. Roddy attempts to help his family escape to America and in the process embarks on a wild adventure with a rogue in the Highlands of Scotland.
