Want a book about a teen like you? Not feeling up for an intergalactic space adventure, or swashbuckling adventures on the high seas? Check out a relatively recent realistic fiction title today!
Mary, Patrick, Winter, and Dez are determined to win the unofficial Senior Week Scavenger Hunt, but throughout the afternoon and evening, Mary encounters the demons she and her friends have faced as high school “also-rans.” 2012. YA ALT
Accepting the challenge to live like the earliest human ancestors for a class science project, smart and funny Cat’s lifestyle transforms when she gives up modern luxuries and snacks, causing surprising results. *a favorite title of Miss Kate. 2009. YA BRA
Sixteen-year-old Valerie, whose boyfriend Nick committed a school shooting at the end of their junior year, struggles to cope with integrating herself back into high school life, unsure herself whether she was a hero or villain. *Read the spring 2011 review by a local teen here. 2009. YA BRO
Paired with the infamous “Hot Dog” Helen for a health class presentation on safe sex, tenth-grader Coop tries to regain his cool by entering his musically challenged rock group in the “Battle of the Bands” competition. 2010. YA CAL
His life of death-metal music and violent video games enhanced by his obsession with the popular and pretty Neilly, Declan is astonished when his father announces his engagement to Neilly’s mother, a situation that is complicated by setbacks in their social lives. 2011. YA COO
Meet Mara Waters, Eliza Thompson, and Jacqui Velasco – new au pairs for one of New York City’s wealthiest families – who will spend their summer in one of the most posh, exclusive spots for summering: the Hamptons. If the girls can manage au pair duties – all the while mastering the ins and outs of the Hamptons’ social scene – it just might turn out to be the most incredibly summer of their lives. But to do it they’ll have to stick together. And that’s where things definitely get sticky. 2004. YA DEL
Preparing for the Senior Showcase production during their final year at a performing arts school, Emme, Sophie, Ethan and Carter pursue their respective ambitions while struggling with varying career aspirations and unexpected romantic feelings. 2012. YA EUL
Adonis is smart, intellectually gifted, and born without legs; Autumn is strong, a great wrestler, and barely able to read in ninth grade. Autumn is attracted to Adonis, and is determined to make him part of her life – regardless of what he or her best friend thinks. 2012. YA FLA
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten. Make sure you have a box of tissues handy. *July 2012 Teen Book Discussion book. 2012. YA GRE.
Sixteen-year-old Miles’ first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by his search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash. 2005. YA GRE.
Alex has it all – brains, beauty, popularity and a super-hot boyfriend. Her little sister Thea wants it all, and she’s stepped up her game to get it. Even if it means spinning the truth to win the attention she deserves. Even if it means uncovering a shocking secret her older sister never wanted to share. Even if it means crying wolf. Told in alternating voices, this novel is the story of sibling rivalry on speed. 2012. YA GRI
What if you kissed someone – and your kiss killed him? That’s what happens to Samantha. Trying to make another boy jealous, Samantha, who recently ate a peanut butter sandwich, kisses Alex, who has a fatal peanut allergy. 2012. YA GUR.
A disparate group of high school students thrown together in detention form a band to play at a school talent show and end up competing with a wildly popular local rock band. 2007. YA HUG
Eighteen-year-old Piper becomes the manager for her classmates’ popular rock band, Dumb, giving her the chance to prove her capabilities to her parents and others, if only she can get the band members to get along. 2010. YA JOH
Astrid Jones, a teen from a small town torn by gossip and narrow-mindedness, struggles with her family’s dysfunction and hides her love for another girl. 2012. YA KIN
After his favorite uncle’s violent death, Tom Mackee watches his family implode, quits school, and turns his back on music and everyone who matters, and while he is in no shape to mend what is broken, he fears that no one else is, either. 2011, 2010. YA MAR
Told in their separate voices, thirteen-year-old soccer star Kevin and police sergeant Brown, who knew Kevin’s dad, try to keep Kevin out of juvenile hall after he is arrested on very serious charges. 2011. YA MYE
Teenaged loner Jason struggles to hide his father’s declining mental condition after his mother’s death, but when his dad disappears, he must confide in the other members of a therapy group he has been forced to join at school. 2010. YA NOL
With his family still grieving over his sister’s death in a terrorist bombing seven years earlier, Jamie is far more interested in his cat, Roger, his birthday Spiderman T-shirt, and keeping his new friend, Sunya, a secret from his father. 2012, 2011. YA PIT
Falling in love with a girl who is struggling with mental illness, Conner, who is aware that Izzy can never love him the same way, becomes Izzy’s closest confidante in her frenetic, exhilarating world until her increasingly self-destructive behavior threatens her survival. 2012. YA REE
In England, a beautiful, manipulative teenaged girl affiliated with a group of political anarchists seduces both seventeen-year-old Jamie and his older brother, a wounded veteran of the war in Afghanistan. 2012. YA REE