9-12 Books

Follow

• 

  Under a Painted Sky

  Stacey Lee

  All Samantha wanted was to move back to New York and pursue her music, which was difficult enough being a Chinese girl in Missouri, 1849. Then her fate takes a turn for the worse after a tragic accident leaves her with nothing and she breaks the law in self-defense. With help from Annamae, a runaway slave she met at the scene of her crime, the two flee town for the unknown frontier. But life on the Oregon Trail is unsafe for two girls. Disguised as Sammy and Andy, two boys heading for the California gold rush, each search for a link to their past and struggle to avoid any unwanted attention. Until they merge paths with a band of cowboys turned allies, and Samantha can’t stop herself from falling for one. But the law is closing in on them and new setbacks come each day, and the girls will quickly learn there are not many places one can hide on the open trail.

• 

  Under Rose-Tainted Skies

  Louise Gornall

  Norah has agoraphobia and OCD. When groceries are left on the porch, she can't step out to get them. Struggling to snag the bags with a stick, she meets Luke. He's sweet and funny, and he just caught her fishing for groceries. Because of course he did. Norah can't leave the house, but can she let someone in? As their friendship grows deeper, Norah realizes Luke deserves a normal girl. One who can lie on the front lawn and look up at the stars. One who isn't so screwed up. Can she let him go, or will she find the strength to face her demons?

• 

  Under the Lights (Daylight Falls, #2)

  Dahlia Adler

  As Vanessa confronts her emerging feelings for her handler, Bri, her co-star Josh confronts his realization that the Hollywood scene might not really be his cup of tea.

• 

  Under the Mesquite

  Guadalupe Garcia McCall

  Throughout her high school years, as her mother battles cancer, Lupita takes on more responsibility for her house and seven younger siblings, while finding refuge in acting and writing poetry.

• 

  Under the Wolf, Under the Dog

  Adam Rapp

  Sixteen-year-old Steve struggles to make sense of his mother's terminal breast cancer and his brother's suicide.

• 

  Unreachable

  Katie Leone

  Janice Rosenthal is entering her eighth year of teaching, but it might be her last. Never before has she had a student as unruly and insubordinate as this one. Andrew Bryant is the terror of seventh grade, a student known for driving teachers to the edge of retirement, and he is in her class. How can Janice--and the rest of her students--make it through the school year with such a disruptive force in the classroom? Her only hope is to try to break through the orphan's defenses, to pierce a wall that no other teacher has ever scratched. When she discovers Andrew's secret, two lives will be changed forever.

• 

  Unspoken (The Lynburn Legacy #1)

  Sarah Rees Brennan

  Kami Glass is in love with someone she's never met--a boy she's talked to in her head since she was born. This has made her an outsider in the sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale, but she has learned ways to turn that to her advantage. Her life seems to be in order, until disturbing events begin to occur. There has been screaming in the woods and the manor overlooking the town has lit up for the first time in 10 years. The Lynburn family, who ruled the town a generation ago and who all left without warning, have returned. Now Kami can see that the town she has known and loved all her life is hiding a multitude of secrets--and a murderer. The key to it all just might be the boy in her head. The boy she thought was imaginary is real, and definitely and deliciously dangerous.

• 

  Up From the Sea

  Leza Lowitz

  A novel in verse about the March 2011 tsunami that sent Japan into chaos, told from the point-of-view of Kai, a biracial teenaged boy. The March 2011 tsunami devastated Kai's coastal Japanese village, and he lost nearly everyone and everything he cares about. When he's offered a trip to New York to meet kids whose lives were changed by 9/11, Kai realizes he also has a chance to look for his estranged American father. Visiting Ground Zero on its tenth anniversary, Kai discovers that the only way to make something good come out of the disaster back home is to return there and help rebuild his town.

• 

  Uprooted: The Japanese American Experience During World War II

  Albert Marrin

  Just seventy-five years ago, the American government did something that most would consider unthinkable today: it rounded up over 100,000 of its own citizens based on nothing more than their ancestry and, suspicious of their loyalty, kept them in concentration camps for the better part of four years. How could this have happened? Uprooted takes a close look at the history of racism in America and carefully follows the treacherous path that led one of our nation’s most beloved presidents to make this decision. Meanwhile, it also illuminates the history of Japan and its own struggles with racism and xenophobia, which led to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, ultimately tying the two countries together. Today, America is still filled with racial tension, and personal liberty in wartime is as relevant a topic as ever. Moving and impactful, National Book Award finalist Albert Marrin’s sobering exploration of this monumental injustice shines as bright a light on current events as it does on the past.

• 

  Vengeance Road

  Erin Bowman

  When Kate Thompson’s father is killed by the notorious Rose Riders for a mysterious journal that reveals the secret location of a gold mine, the eighteen-year-old disguises herself as a boy and takes to the gritty plains looking for answers and justice. What she finds are devious strangers, dust storms, and a pair of brothers who refuse to quit riding in her shadow. But as Kate gets closer to the secrets about her family, she gets closer to the truth about herself and must decide if there's room for love in a heart so full of hate.

• 

  Vintage: A Ghost Story

  Steve Berman

  A lonely seventeen-year-old who has dreamed of meeting a different and special boy desperately seeks help from his friend Trace, a Goth girl, to free him from the clutches of a handsome ghost he has met on a rural New Jersey highway.

• 

  Walk Two Moons

  Sharon Creech

  After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother's route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left.

• 

  Wandering Son, Vol. 1 (Wandering Son #1)

  Takako Shimura

  The fifth grade. The threshold to puberty, and the beginning of the end of childhood innocence. Shuichi Nitori and his new friend Yoshino Takatsuki have happy homes, loving families, and are well-liked by their classmates. But they share a secret that further complicates a time of life that is awkward for anyone : Shuichi is a boy who wants to be a girl, and Yoshino is a girl who wants to be a boy.

• 

  Wandering Son, Vol. 2 (Wandering Son #2)

  Takako Shimura

  In the second volume of Shimura Takako's superb coming-of-age story, our transgendered protagonists, Shuichi and Yoshino, have entered the sixth grade. Shuichi spends a precious gift of cash from his grandmother on a special present for himself, a purchase that triggers a chain of events in which his sister Maho learns his secret, and Shuichi inadvertently steals the heart of a boy Maho in interested in.

• 

  Wandering Son, Vol. 3 (Wandering Son #3)

  Takako Shimura

  Shuichi and his friend Yoshino have a secret: Shuichi is a boy who wants to be a girl, and Yoshino is a girl who wants to be a boy. But one day, abruptly, their secret is exposed, and the two find themselves the target of sixth-grade cruelty. Their friendship is strained, as Yoshino makes a half-hearted effort at being a 'normal girl'-- and their mentor, Yuki, reveals the harder reality of being transgendered. Meanwhile, Shuichi's sister, Maho, realizes her dream of becoming a model, and drags Shuichi along for the ride. Shuichi meets another boy who wants to be a girl, and finds himself on an arranged date with a boy who doesn't know that the girl he has a crush on is actually a boy.

• 

  Wandering Son, Vol. 4 (Wandering Son #4)

  Takako Shimura

  Two Japanese tweens who find themselves coping with the knotty issue of gender identification, as they slowly realize that maybe they aren't who they were meant to be.

• 

  Wandering Son, Vol. 5 (Wandering Son #5)

  Takako Shimura

  Shuichi, a boy who wants to be a girl, and Yoshino, a girl who wants to be a boy, become friends in junior high school, where they tackle problems such as gender identity, love, social acceptance, and puberty.

• 

  Wandering Son, Vol. 6 (Wandering Son #6)

  Takako Shimura

  Faced with unwanted changes to their growing bodies, male-identified Takatsuki-san discovers the wonders of "breast binders," and female-identified Nitori-kun explores the limits of his ability to "pass."

• 

  Wandering Son, Vol. 7 (Wandering Son #7)

  Takako Shimura

  Nitori-kun gets his first signs of acne. This may well be the end of the world. But when he turns to nationally famous model Anna-chan for help, events take an unexpected turn. Meanwhile, Nitori-kun and Chiba-san are scouted by the theater club after the success of their gender-bending play, The Rose of Versailles. But when Takatsuki-san congratulates Chiba-san, Chiba-san calls her a hypocrite. If Takatsuki-san wanted to join the theater club, she wouldn't congratulate Chiba-san -- she'd be jealous. So says Chiba-san, but what does she know?

• 

  Wandering Son, Vol. 8 (Wandering Son #8)

  Takako Shimura

  Nitori-kun, a boy who wants to be a girl, explores kissing with girlfriend Anna-chan; and Yoshino-san, a girl who wants to be a boy, finds the courage to go to school wearing a boy's uniform. Meanwhile, one of their male classmates, Doi-kun, who has caused our protagonists misery in the past, becomes intrigued with their grown-up friend Yuki-san, a transwoman. But Nitori-kun finds himself strangely drawn to Doi-kun.

• 

  War of the Eagles

  Eric Walters

  During World War II near Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Jed comes to better understand and take pride in his British and native Tsimshian ancestry through caring for an injured eagle at a military fort and losing his Japanese Canadian best friend to an internment camp.

• 

  Way to Go

  Tom Ryan

  Danny thinks he must be the only seventeen-year-old guy in Cape Breton-in Nova Scotia, maybe-who doesn't have his life figured out. His buddy Kierce has a rule for every occasion, and his best friend Jay has bad grades, no plans, and no worries. Danny's dad nags him about his post-high-school plans, his friends bug him about girls and a run-in with the cops means he has to get a summer job. Worst of all, he's keeping a secret that could ruin everything.

• 

  We Are Okay

  Nina LaCour

  Marin hasn’t spoken to anyone from her old life since the day she left everything behind. No one knows the truth about those final weeks. Not even her best friend Mabel. But even thousands of miles away from the California coast, at college in New York, Marin still feels the pull of the life and tragedy she’s tried to outrun. Now, months later, alone in an emptied dorm for winter break, Marin waits. Mabel is coming to visit and Marin will be forced to face everything that’s been left unsaid and finally confront the loneliness that has made a home in her heart.

• 

  We Are the Ants

  Shaun David Hutchinson

  Abducted by aliens periodically throughout his youth, Henry Denton is informed by his erstwhile captors that they will end the world in 144 days unless he stops them by deciding that humanity is worth saving.

• 

  We Are the Youth

  Diana Scholl and Laurel Golio

  We are the youth is an ongoing photographic journalism project chronicling the individual stories of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth in the United States. Through portraits, by photographer Laurel Golio, and as-told-to personal essays, by writer Diana Scholl, this book captures the incredible strength and diversity of LGBT youth.