Author: csempowich

Everyone has a family, and trust me, EVERY family has a story … and a secret.

Blumenthal, Deborah. Mafia Girl. 2014.
As the daughter of an infamous mob boss, seventeen-year-old Gia struggles to come out of the shadow of her family’s notorious reputation and be her own person.

Carleson, J.C. The Tyrant’s Daughter. 2014.
Exiled to the American suburbs when her father, a Middle Eastern royal, is killed in a coup, fifteen-year-old Laila gradually adjusts to a different culture and considers new opportunities, while her mother conspires with CIA operatives and rebel factions to regain the family throne.

Christopher, Lucy. The Killing Woods. 2014.
When her father, an ex-soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder is arrested for murder, Emily’s efforts to exonerate him take her into the woods to play the Game, an extreme version of childhood games.

Fantaskey, Beth. Buzz Kill. 2014.
To Bee or not to Bee? When the widely disliked Honeywell Stingers football coach is found murdered, seventeen-year-old Millie is determined to investigate. She is chasing a lead for the school newspaper – and looking to clear her father, the assistant coach, and prime suspect.

Hopkins, Ellen. Fallout. 2013.
Written in free verse, explores how three teenagers try to cope with the consequences of their mother’s addiction to crystal meth and its effects on their lives.

Lockhart, E. We Were Liars. 2014.
Spending the summers on her family’s private island off the coast of Massachusetts with her cousins and a special boy named Gat, teenaged Cadence struggles to remember what happened during her fifteenth summer.

Nickerson, Jane. The Mirk and Midnight Hour. 2014.
Seventeen-year-old Violent Dancey is spending the Civil War with a new stepmother and stepsister and her young cousin when she comes upon a wounded Yankee soldier, Thomas, who is being kept alive by mysterious voodoo practitioners.

Scott, Elizabeth. Heart Beat. 2014.
Does life go on when your heart is broken? Things change for Emma after her mother passes away, and her stepfather is keeping her mother’s body alive because of the baby she is carrying.

Smith-Ready, Jeri. This Side of Salvation: a novel. 2014.
After his older brother is killed, David turns to anger and his parents to religion, but just as David’s life is beginning to make sense again, his parents press him and his sister to join them in cutting worldly ties to prepare for the Rush, when the faithful will be whisked off to heaven.

Walton, Leslye J. The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender. 2014.
Born with bird wings into a family cursed to be foolish in love, sixteen-year-old Ava delves into her family’s past hoping to understand her unusual nature and learn to fit in with her peers, but she is ill-prepared for what she discovers.

Gather round the campfire with these stories about sleepaway summer camps, from today and yesterday.

Calonita, Jen. Summer State of Mind. 2014.
Spoiled, yet lovable fifteen-year-old Harper McCallister is sent to sleep-away camp where she is an outcast at first but eventually finds a way to make her mark, gaining new perspectives on friendship and life in general.

Dominy, Amy Fellner. OyMG. 2011.
Ellie will do almost anything to win a scholarship to the best speech school in the country, but must decide if she is willing to hide her Jewish heritage while at a Phoenix, Arizona, summer camp that could help her reach her goal.

Edwardson, Ake. Samurai Summer. 2013.
A boy sent to a camp for unwanted children adopts the samurai lifestyle in order to protect himself and his friends from the sadistic camp overseer, Matron, and her adult son who is stalking one of the female campers.

Kim, Susan. Brain Camp. 2010.
Lucas and Jenna are chosen to attend a camp that promises to turn delinquents into high achieving students, but when they arrive, they realize that the camp is not what it seems. Deliciously creepy.

LaMarche, Una. Five Summers. 2013.
Reuniting at a camp where they spent five inseparable summers together, best friends Emma, Skylar, Johanna and Maddie explore the shared bond that helped them get through their toughest school challenges and on which they rely when forced to confront painful problems.

Lupica, Mike. Summer Ball. 2008, 2007.
Thirteen-year-old Danny must prove himself all over again for a disapproving coach and against new rivals at a summer basketball camp. Sequel to Travel Team.

Nixon, Joan Lowery. Nightmare. 2003.
Emily is sent to Camp Excel, a camp for underachievers, where she discovers a murderer on the staff who might provide an explanation for her recurring nightmares.

Nolan, Han. Pregnant Pause. 2011.
Nobody gets away with telling Eleanor Crowe what to do. But as a pregnant sixteen-year-old, her options are limited: move to Kenya with her missionary parents or marry the baby’s father and work at his family’s summer camp for overweight kids.

Strand, Jeff. I Have a Bad Feeling About This. 2014.
Everything un-athletic sixteen-year-old Henry was dreading about survival camp turns out to be true – or even worse – when armed killers arrive and survival takes on a whole new meaning.

Wolf, Elaine. Camp. 2012.
Struggling with mixed feelings about sleep away camp despite her anger toward her mother who is unduly harsh with her autistic brother, Amy is subjected to humiliating “initiation” rites and relentless bullying by senior campers until a cousin reveals dark secrets about Amy’s mother’s past.

Sometimes we just need a vacation from the here and now. What better way to escape than into a novel that fully immerses you into the past? Here are ten picks that will catapult you back in time.

Biggs, Sharon. A Mad, Wicked Folly. 2014.
In 1909 London, as the world of debutante balls and high society obligations closes in around her, seventeen-year-old Victoria must figure out just how much is she willing to sacrifice to pursue her dream of becoming an artist.

Blankman, Anne. Prisoner of Night and Fog. 2014.
In 1930s Munich, the favorite niece of rising political leader Adolph Hitler is torn between duty and love after meeting a fearless and handsome young Jewish reporter.

Bradbury, Jennifer. A Moment Comes. 2013.
As the partition of India nears in 1947 bringing violence even to Jalandhar, Tariq, a Muslim, finds himself caught between his forbidden interest in Anupreet, a Sikh girl, and Margaret, a British girl whose affection for him might help with his dream of studying in Oxford.

Castor, H.M. VIII. 2013.
Hal, a young man of extraordinary talents, skill on the battlefield, sharp intelligence, and virtue, believes he is destined for greatness but, haunted by his family’s violent past, he embarks on a journey that leads to absolute power and brings him face to face with his demons as he grows to become Henry VIII.

Christopher, Nicholas. The True Adventures of Nicolo Zen: a novel. 2014.
Orphan Nicolo Zen is all alone in 1700s Venice, save for his clarinet, enchanted by a mysterious magician to allow its first player to perform expertly.

Honeyman, Kay. The Fire Horse Girl. 2013.
When Jade Moon, born in the unlucky year of the Fire Horse, and her father immigrate to America in 1923 and are detained at Angel Island Immigration Station, Jade Moon is determined to find a way through and prove that she is not cursed.

Kiem, Elizabeth. Dancer, Daughter, Traitor, Spy. 2013.
After a harrowing defection to the United States in 1982, Russian teenager Marya and her father settle in Brooklyn, where Marya is drawn into a web of intrigue involving her gift of foresight, her mother’s disappearance, and the boy she cannot bring herself to trust.

Patrick, J. Nelle. Tsarina. 2014.
When a mystical Fabergé egg that protects the tsar disappears, his fiancée, Natalya, embarks on a daring quest to find the egg – only to be challenged by a handsome, dark-haired man who has plans of his own for both the egg and Natalya.

Sayres, Meghan Nuttall. Anahita’s Woven Riddle. 2006.
In Iran, more than 100 years ago, a young girl with three suitors gets permission from her father and a holy man to weave into her wedding rug a riddle to be solved by her future husband, which will ensure that he has wit to match hers.

Smith, Lindsay. Sekret: an empty mind is a safe mind. 2014.
Yulia’s father always taught her to hide her thoughts and control her emotions to survive the harsh realities of Soviet Russia. But when she’s captured by the KGB and forced to work as a psychic spy with a mission to undermine the U.S. space program, she’s thrust into a world of suspicion, deceit, and horrifying power. Yulia quickly realizes that she can trust no one – not her KGB superiors or the other operatives vying for her attention – and must rely on her own wits and skills to survive.

Expand your horizons with these multicultural novels!

Abdel-Fattah, Randa. Does My Head Look Big In This? 2007, 2005.
Year eleven at an exclusive prep school in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, would be tough enough, but it is further complicated for Amal when she decides to wear the hijab, the Muslim head scarf, full-time as a badge of her faith – without losing her identity or sense of style.

Bray, Libba. Beauty Queens. 2011.
When a plane crash strands thirteen teen beauty contestants on a mysterious island, they struggle to survive, to get along with one another, to combat the island’s other diabolical occupants, and to learn their dance numbers in case they are rescued in time for the competition.

Fichera, Liz. Hooked. 2013.
Invited to become her varsity golf team’s only female member, Native American Fredericka Oday pursues her dream of earning a scholarship, only to be challenged by spoiled golden boy Ryan Berenger, who resents Fred for replacing his best friend on the team.

Goo, Maurene. Since You Asked… 2013.
Fifteen-year-old Holly Kim, the copy-editor for her San Diego high school’s newspaper, accidentally submits a piece ripping everyone to shreds and suddenly finds herself the center of unwanted attention – but when the teacher in charge of the paper asks her to write a regular column, her troubles really begin.

Holland, L. Tam. The Counterfeit Family Tree of Vee Crawford-Wong. 2013.
When Vee Crawford-Wong’s history teacher assigns an essay on his family history, Vee knows he’s in trouble. He’s parents – Chinese-born dad and Texas-bred Mom – are mysteriously and stubbornly close-lipped about his ancestors. So, he makes it all up and turns in the assignment. And then everything falls apart.

Medina, Meg. Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your ASS. 2013.
Informed that a bully she does not know is determined to beat her up because of her pale skin, good grades, and lack of accent, Latina teen Piddy struggles to stay on top of a busy work schedule and learn more about the father she has never met, until the bully’s gang forces her to confront more difficult challenges.

Nelson, Vaunda Micheaux. No Crystal Stair. 2012.
Told by a banker that he should sell fried chicken rather than books, Lewis Michaux defied the odds to build Harlem’s National Memorial African Bookstore, an intellectual center and gathering place from 1939 to 1975.

Sheinkin, Steve. The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights. 2014.
On July 17, 1944, a massive explosion rocked the segregated Navy base at Port Chicago, California, killing more than 300 sailors who were at the docks, critically injuring off-duty men in their bunks, and shattering windows up to a mile away. On August 9th, 244 men refused to go back to work until unsafe and unfair conditions at the docks were addressed. When the dust settled, fifty were charged with mutiny, facing decades in jail and even execution.

Venkatraman, Padma. A Time to Dance. 2014.
Losing her leg after a devastating injury, talented Indian dancer Veda begins retraining on her prosthetic leg before falling in love with a young man who approaches dance from a spiritual perspective and who helps Veda to better understand herself and the world.

  Yang, Gene Luen. Boxers & Saints. 2013.
Boxers: In 1898 China, Little Bao has had enough of foreign missionaries and soldiers robbing peasants, and he recruits an army of Boxers to fight  to free China from its oppressors.
Saints: Vibiana, an unwanted fourth child, finds her name and identity in Christianity, but with the Boxer Rebellion in full swing and Chinese Christians facing death, she must decide whether her loyalties will lie with her religion or her country.

What does it mean to be free? To have freedom? To lose your freedom? In honor of the Fourth of July, chow down on these titles!

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. 2007.
Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. 2007.
In this heart-wrenching, candid autobiography, a human rights activist offers a firsthand account of war from the perspective of a former child soldier, detailing the violent civil war that wracked his native Sierra Leone and the government forces that transformed a gentle young boy into a killer as a member of the army.

Doctorow, Cory. Little Brother. 2008.
After being interrogated for days by the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco, seventeen-year-old Marcus, released into what is now a police state, decides to use his expertise in computer hacking to set things right.

The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them. 1999.
A true account of a teacher who confronted a room of “at-risk” students details their life-changing journey and includes diary excerpts.

Hautman, Pete. Rash. 2006.
In a future society that has decided it would “rather be safe than free,” sixteen-year-old Bo’s anger control problems land him in a tundra jail where he survives with the help of his running skills and an artificial intelligence program named Bork.

Hawkins, Rachel. Rebel Belle. 2014.
Seventeen-year-old Harper Price’s charmed (and planned) life is turned upside down when she discovers she’s been given magical powers in order to protect her school nemesis, David Stark.

King, A.S. Reality Boy. 2013.
An emotionally damaged seventeen-year-old boy in Pennsylvania who was once an infamous reality TV star, meets a girl from another dysfunctional family, and she helps him out of his angry shell.

Lake, Nick. Hostage Three. 2013.
Seventeen-year-old Amy, her father, and her stepmother become hostages when Somalian pirates seize their yacht, but although she builds a bond with one of her captors it becomes brutally clear that the price of life and its value are two very different things.

Reedy, Trent. Divided We Fall. 2014.
Danny Wright, seventeen, joined the Idaho Army National Guard to serve the country as his father had, but when the Guard is sent to an anti-government protest in Boise and Danny’s gun accidentally fires, he finds himself at the center of a conflict that results in the federal government declaring war on Idaho.

Shusterman, Neal. Unwind. 2007.
In a future world where those between the ages of thirteen and eighteen can have their lives “unwound” and their body parts harvested for use by others, three teens go to extreme lengths to uphold their beliefs – and perhaps, save their own lives. Followed by UnWholly and UnSouled.