Author’s First Novels and Book Series

A Great and Terrible Beauty. Libba Bray “After the suspicious death of her mother in 1895, sixteen-year-old Gemma returns to England, after many years in India, to attend a finishing school where she becomes aware of her magical powers and ability to see into the spirit world.”
Eragon. Chris Paolini “In Aagaesia, a fifteen-year-old boy of unknown lineage called Eragon finds a mysterious stone that weaves his life into an intricate tapestry of destiny, magic, and power, peopled with dragons, elves, and monsters.”
The Exiles. Hilary McKay “The four Conroy sisters spend a wild summer at the seaside with Big Grandma, who tries to break them of their reading habit by substituting fresh air and hard work for books and gets unexpected results.
Speak. Laurie Halse Anderson + ” Having broken up an end-of-summer party by calling the police, high-school freshman Melinda Sordino begins the school year as a social outcast. She's the only person who knows the real reason behind her call: she was raped at the party by Andy Evans, a popular senior at her school.”
My Louisiana Sky. Kimberly Willis Holt “Growing up in Saitter, Louisiana, in the 1950's, twelve-year-old Tiger Ann struggles with her feelings about her stern, but loving grandmother, her mentally slow parents, and her good friend and neighbor, Jesse.”
The Singer of All Songs. Kate Constable “Calwyn, a young priestess of ice magic, or "chantment," joins with other chanters who have different magical skills to fight a sorcerer who wants to claim all powers for his own.”
Chasing Vermeer. Blue Balliett * ” When seemingly unrelated and strange events start to happen and a precious Vermeer painting disappears, eleven-year-olds Petra and Calder combine their talents to solve an international art scandal.”
Forgotten Fire. Adam Bagdassarian + “Based on a true story, this powerful historical novel tells about the tragedy through the personal experience of Vahan Kenderian, child of one of the richest and most respected Armenians in Turkey. He's 12 years old when his home is invaded and his protected life is torn apart. The child who was never even allowed on the streets after dark sees his father led away by police and many of his family and friends butchered before his eyes.”
The Secret of Castle Cant. K.P. Bath “When twelve-toed orphan Lucy Wickwright is brought to Castle Cant to be serving girl to the Baron's daughter, the Adorable & Honorable Pauline, she becomes involved with revolutionaries and uncovers surprising palace intrigues.”
Birdland. Tracy Mack “Fourteen-year-old, tongue-tied Jed spends Christmas break working on a school project filming a documentary about his East Village, New York City, neighborhood, where he is continually reminded of his older brother, Zeke, a promising poet who died the year before.”
Do You Know Me? Nancy Farmer * “Although he is continually getting into trouble, Tapiwa's uncle becomes her best friend when he comes to live with her family in Harare, Zimbabwe, after his village in Mozambique is burned by bandits.”
Blue Jasmine. Kashmira Sheth “When twelve-year-old Seema moves to Iowa City with her parents and younger sister, she leaves friends and family behind in her native India but gradually begins to feel at home in her new country.”
How I Live Now. Meg Rosoff + “To get away from her pregnant stepmother in New York City, fifteen-year-old Daisy goes to England to stay with her aunt and cousins, with whom she instantly bonds, but soon war breaks out and rips apart the family while devastating the land.”
Fire Proof. Suzanne Collins “In London as part of a student cultural exchange program, Shelby Woo and her friends, Vince and Angie, find themselves investigating a strange case of arson after a fire breaks out during a performance of "Romeo and Juliet" and shuts down the theater.”
In My Mother’s House. Margaret McMullan “Remembering her uncle's viola lessons and other elements from their Vienna home, Elizabeth becomes increasingly obsessed with her need to understand why her mother refuses to discuss the family's experiences during World War II.”
Drawing Lessons. Tracy Mack “Twelve-year-old Rory begins to lose the passion for making art that she shares with her father after she finds him kissing his female model and fears for the safety of her parents' marriage.”
Little Cricket. Jackie Brown “After the upheaval of the Vietnam War reaches them, twelve-year-old Kia and her Hmong family flee from the mountains of Laos to a refugee camp in Thailand and eventually to the alien world of Saint Paul, Minnesota.”
Be More Chill. Ned Vizzini “Badly in need of self-confidence and a change of image, high school nerd Jeremy Heere swallows a pill-sized super computer that is supposed to help him get whatever he wants.”
The Edge on the Sword. Rebecca Tingle “In ninth-century Britain, fifteen-year-old Aethelflaed, daughter of King Alfred of West Saxony, finds she must assume new responsibilities much sooner than expected when she is betrothed to Ethelred of Mercia in order to strengthen a strategic alliance against the Danes.”
Olive’s Ocean. Kevin Henkes “On a summer visit to her grandmother's cottage by the ocean, twelve-year-old Martha gains perspective on the death of a classmate, on her relationship with her grandmother, on her feelings for an older boy, and on her plans to be a writer.”
A Time to Kill. John Grisham + “Life becomes complicated in the backwoods town of Clanton, Mississippi, when a black worker is brought to trial for the murder of the two whites who raped and tortured his young daughter. Everyone gets involved, from Klan to NAACP.”
A Place of Lions. Eric Campbell “Chris Harris is overjoyed that he and his father are starting a new life away from cold, stodgy England, but when their small plane crashes over the Serengeti, he begins a lesson in desert survival. Surrounded and threatened by a pride of lions (and, later, by poachers), he devises a plan to get help for his father and the pilot, both injured and immobile.”
Seer and the Sword. Victoria Hanley “Princess Torina, who has the ability to see the future, and her friend Landen, who seeks a sword that belongs to his conquered kingdom, are separated when a treacherous murderer gains power, but from exile each works to restore peace and the rightful rulers.”
Gregor the Overlander. Suzanne Collins “When eleven-year-old Gregor and his two-year-old sister are pulled into a strange underground world, they trigger an epic battle involving men, bats, rats, cockroaches, and spiders while on a quest foretold by ancient prophecy.”
How I Survived My Summer Vacation. Robin Friedman “Thirteen-year-old Jackie, an aspiring author, is a master of first lines, but immediate writer's block arrives with the second sentence. In the summer before high school, he tries to write a best-seller, pals around with his buddies, falls in and out of love for the first time, leads the local swim team to victory over their rivals, and learns to accept and understand his "weirdo" parents.”
Feeling Sorry for Celia. Jaclyn Moriarty “Life isn't going well for high school student Elizabeth Clarry. Her absentee father just moved back to Australia from Canada for a year, and now he wants to spend "quality time" with her. She's getting anonymous love notes from a boy who refuses to tell her his name. Worst of all, her best friend has run away and joined the circus. In this funny, engaging novel–told as a series of notes and letters–Elizabeth deals with imperfect parents and romantic disappointments as well as tragedies large and small.”
The Life History of a Star. Kelly Easton “For more than a year, fourteen-year-old Kristin uses her diary to record her confused thoughts about the physical changes brought on by adolescence and the emotional strain on her family of living with the ghost of her beloved older brother who was physically and mentally destroyed while serving in Vietnam.”
One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies. Sonya Sones “Fifteen-year-old Ruby Milliken leaves her best friend, her boyfriend, her aunt, and her mother's grave in Boston and reluctantly flies to Los Angeles to live with her father, a famous movie star who divorced her mother before Ruby was born.”
Before We Were Free. Julia Alvarez ” In the early 1960s in the Dominican Republic, twelve-year-old Anita learns that her family is involved in the underground movement to end the bloody rule of the dictator, General Trujillo.”
A Northern Light. Jennifer Donnelly + “In 1906, sixteen-year-old Mattie, determined to attend college and be a writer against the wishes of her father and fiancé, takes a job at a summer inn where she discovers the truth about the death of a guest. Based on a true story.”
The Witch’s Boy. Michael Gruber “They call him Lump. Ugly, misshapen -- more goblin than human child -- abandoned as an infant and taken in by a witch, he is nursed by a bear, tutored by a djinn; his only playmates are the creatures of the forest, whose language he learns to speak. But when Lump inevitably stumbles into the human world, his innocence is no match for the depths of people's cruelty, which turns his heart to stone, and fuels a vengeance that places him and his witch mother in deadly peril. Yet these disasters also send Lump on a journey of self-discovery, to realms deep within the earth and far beyond mortal imagination.”
Ostrich Eye. Beth Cooley “Fifteen-year-old Ginger, who lives with her mother, stepfather, and younger stepsister and never knew her father, is convinced that the strange man who keeps showing up unexpectedly is really her dad.”
The Vanishing Point. Louise Hawes 8 “Presents the story of a young girl of Bologna who worked in her father's all-male painting studio and came to enjoy more fame than any female artist before her.”
Sign of the Quin. Bass, L.G. “In long-ago China, Prince Zong, the mortal young Starlord chosen to save humankind from destruction, joins the twin outlaws, White Streak and Black Whirlwind, to fight the Lord of the Dead and his demon hordes.”
Blue Fingers. Cheryl Aylward Whitesel 8 “An adventure set in 16th-century Japan. Because twins are believed to be bad luck, Kojiro and Taro's parents have always tried to conceal the fact that they have two sons, not one. After Taro saves the life of a master dye maker, the man wants to reward his rescuer with an apprenticeship. The boys' parents send Koji instead, hoping the dyer will not notice the difference, but the artisan soon grows impatient with Koji's clumsy ways and sends him home. Shamed, Koji runs away and is captured in the forest by people who call themselves "grass," but who are, as he soon realizes, ninja–a mysterious group with impressive skills who have set themselves up against the ruling samurai.”
Witch Hill. Marcus Sedgwick “When Jamie's house is destroyed by fire and he fails to rescue his baby sister, his parents send him to stay with his aunt in Crownhill to recover from the trauma. From the very first night, though, the boy has nightmares of an ugly crone and finds himself caught up in the unleashing of a buried history of witchcraft. When he helps the village clean the chalk markings that have long decorated the Cornwall hill, they discover that instead of a crown, the markings represent a woman, a crone or witch.”
Behind the Mountains. Edwidge Danticat “Writing in the notebook which her teacher gave her, thirteen-year-old Celiane describes life with her mother and brother in Haiti as well as her experiences in Brooklyn after the family finally immigrates there to be reunited with her father.”
Martyn Pig. Kevin Brooks “Teenager Martyn lives alone in a rundown neighborhood with his drunken, abusive father until one day, in a struggle; Dad falls, knocks his head, and dies. Martyn doesn’t call 911, and the longer he delays, the harder it is to explain why he didn’t call. Alex, his attractive friend across the street, gets pulled into the cover-up and so does her slimy boyfriend, Dean, who’s especially interested in the big inheritance Dad had just received. Martyn’s an avid mystery fan, so he knows how to cover his tracks. To trick his aunt, he and Alex lug the corpse into bed, make up the face, cover up the stink, and pretend Dad is sick and sleeping. They dump the body in a quarry, but first Martyn plants some of Dean’s hairs under the corpse’s fingernails.”
Summerland. Michael Chabon “Ethan Feld, a less-than-mediocre Little League player, is recruited by Ringfinger Brown, an old-timer from the Negro Leagues, to play in the ball game of his life–and save the world. Ethan lives on Clam Island, WA, where a place called Summerland exists. It is a link to alternate worlds where fantastic creatures reside, ruled by the trickster Coyote, who has decided that he wants to put an end to the world.”
Witch Child. Celia Rees “I am Mary. I am a witch.” Thus begins the journal of Mary Newbury, writing in the spring of 1659 as she watches her beloved grandmother being tortured and hung as a witch in her English village. Before the crowd can turn on Mary, she is whisked away and placed on a ship headed for America. Although Mary finds a new “family” and friends who understand and believe in her, her new surroundings are not a safe harbor. Witches are blamed for every death, every poor harvest, every strange phenomenon, and the lovely, aloof young Mary who finds solace in the forest and her few friends is immediately suspect.”
SERIES
Tom Clancy’s Net Force Teen Series: The Deadliest Game. Steve R. Pieczenik “Net Force Explorers Megan O'Malley and Leif Anderson match wits with an unknown and sinister enemy who is targeting computer users playing the Net's most popular online war game, "The Dominion of Sarxos."
High Wire. Mel Odom “When Net Force explorer Andy Moore helps to program the virtual animals of the Cservanka Brothers Circus, he discovers a black market of high-tech weapons software and hardware.”
Alex Rider Stormbreaker. Anthony Horowitz “After the death of the uncle who had been his guardian, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider is coerced to continue his uncle's dangerous work for Britain's intelligence agency, MI6.”
Scorpia. Anthony Horowitz “While vacationing in Italy, he is recruited by the deadliest terrorist organization in the world, Scorpia, away from the world of M16, a British secret intelligence organization. Through a web of lies and deceit, Alex is persuaded to assassinate the deputy head of M16, a former friend and supervisor, while Scorpia plans a secret mission that will kill hundreds of thousands of British children in the blink of an eye. Missing his target and captured by M16, Rider is sent back into Scorpia, but this time as a spy.”
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