Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
            Arthur Dent, a refugee from the late planet Earth, and his pal from the planet Betelguese, Ford Perfect, thumb their way through comic misadventures through the universe.

Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer
            Sixteen-year-old Jenna gets a job driving the elderly owner of a chain of successful shoe stores from Chicago o Texas to confront the son who is trying to force her to retire, and along the way Jenna hones her talents as a saleswoman and finds the strength to face her alcoholic father.

Squashed by Joan Bauer
            As a sixteen-year-old pursues her two goal—growing the biggest pumpkin in Iowa and losing twenty pounds herself—she strengthens her relationship with her father and meets a young man with interests similar to her own.

Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block
            Bleach-blond L.A. girl Weetzie Bat encounters a genie who grants her three wishes a Hollywood cottage, a dream man for her, and a surfer guy for her gay friend, Dirk, but Weetzie’s wishes soon begin to backfire.

Princess in Love by Meg Cabot
            In a series of humorous diary entries, a New York City ninth grader agonizes over her love life, final exams, and future role as the princess of Genovia.  Book III of the Princess Diaries.

Absolutely Normal Chaos by Sharon Creech
            Thirteen-year-old Mary Lou grows up considerably during the summer while learning about romance, homesickness, death, and her cousin’s search for his biological father.

Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
            A collection of short stories featuring characters from earlier books.

Ironman by Chris Crutcher
            While training for a triathlon, seventeen-year-old Bo attends an anger management group at school which leads him to examine his relationship with his father.

The Watsons Go To Birmingham – 1963 by Christopher Curtis
            The ordinary interactions and everyday routine of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.

This Place Has No Atmosphere by Paula Danziger
            Aurora loves her life on Earth in the twenty-first century, until she learns that her family is moving to a colony on the moon.

Love Among the Walnuts:  Or How I Saved My Family From Being Poisoned by Jean Ferris
            Born and raised in isolation in a wealthy, eccentric family, Sandy is shocked when he, his parents, and their servants become victims of a vicious plat by his greedy uncles to incapacitate them and take their money.

 A Fate Totally Worse Than Death by Paul Fleischman
            In this horror novel parody, three self-centered members of Cliffside High School’s ruling clique, who are beginning to age rapidly, become convinced that the beautiful new exchange student is the ghost of the girl whose death they caused the year before.

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
            Eldest of  three sisters in a land where it is considered to be a misfortune, Sophie is resigned to her fate as a hot shop apprentice until a witch turns her into an old woman and she finds herself in the castle of the greatly feared wizard Howl.

Confess-O-Rama by Ronald Korge
            While his mother grieves the death of her fourth husband, Tony vents his feelings to the Confess-O-Rama, never suspecting who’s on the other end of the line.

A Semester in the Life of a Garbage Bag by Gordon Korman
            When luckless Raymond Jardine becomes Sean Delancy’s eleventh-grade English-project partner, he persuades Sean’s grandfather to pose as a long-deceased, obscure Canadian poet, in an effort to pass the course and win a vacation to a luxurious Green Island.

The Exiles by Hilary McKay
            The four Conroy sisters spend a wild summer at the seaside with Big Grandma, who tries to break them oaf their reading habit by substituting fresh air and hard work for books and gets unexpected results.

Behaving Bradley by Perry Nodelman
            Recruited by his best friend to gather student input for the proposed Code of Conduct at his school, Brad encounters obstinate faculty members, monstrous bullies, spineless student leaders, and personal agendas.

The Boy Who Owned the School by Gary Paulsen
            Jacob Fristen, often in a fog, tries to ease through high school unnoticed; but a beautiful classmate takes notice of him and his life begins to change.

The Schernoff Discoveries by Gary Paulsen
            Haro and his best friend, both helpless geeks and societal misfits, try to survive unusual science experiments, the attacks of the football team, and other dangers of junior high school.

Be-Air Bambi and the Mall Rats by Richard Peck
            Bambi, Buffie, and Brick, three totally cool siblings form Los Angeles, move with their parents to Hicory Fork, a small town terrorized by a high school gang.

A Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck
            A boy recounts his annual summer trips to rural Illinois with is sister during the Great Depression to visit their larger-than-life grandmother.

Those Summer Girls I Never Met by Richard Peck
            Drew and Stephanie, ages almost-sixteen and fourteen, reluctantly take a Baltic cruise with their heretofore unknown grandmother, a singing star of the 1940’s, and have the experience of a lifetime.

A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck
            During the recession of 1937, fifteen-year-old Mary Alice is sent to live with her feisty, larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois and comes to a better understanding of this fearsome woman.

Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging:  Confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louise Rennison
            Present the humorous journal of a year in the life of a fourteen-year-old British girl who tries to reduce the size of her nose, stop her mad cat from terrorizing the neighborhood animals, and win the love of handsome hunk Robbie.

Knocked Out by Nung-Nungas:  Further, Further Confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louise Rennison
            The saga of fourteen-year-old Georgia Nicolson continues as she travels to Scotland on a nightmarish family vacation, confesses her anxiety over being the girlfriend of a sex god, and test the limits of true friendship.

Holes by Louis Sachar
            As further evidence of his family’s bad fortune which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnts is sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Teas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself.

Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen by Dyan Sheldon
            In her firs year at a suburban New Jersey high school, Mary Elizabeth Cep, who now calls herself “Lola” sets her sights on the lead in the annual drama production, and finds herself in conflict with the most popular girl in school.

Green Thumb by Rob Thomas
            While spending the summer in the Amazon rain forest of Brazil doing botanical research, thirteen-year0-old Gradey discovers a secret language used the trees to communicate with each other and falls afoul of the dictatorial Dr. Carter, whose motives seem questionable.

The Undertaker’s Gone Bananas by Paul Zindel
            Two teenagers believe a neighbor, an undertaker, had murdered his wife but can’t convince anyone else.

List compiled by Eva Davis, Plymouth District Library, Plymouth, MI