Choices by Kate Buckley
www.katebuckleybooks.com
Description: A teen girl breaks all the rules and finds herself alone, her life spinning out of control when binge drinking, date rape, and teen pregnancy collide. Choices is a compelling and bumpy coming-of-age journey that hurtles an over-protected girl into turmoil and confusion. The many sides of the reproductive rights issue come together in Choices, a story voiced with respect, sensitivity, heart and emotion.
Cut by Patricia McCormick
www.pattymccormick.com
Description: Fifteen-year-old Callie isn't speaking to anyone, not even her therapist at Sea Pines, the residential treatment facility: where her parents sent her after discovering she cuts herself. As her story unfolds, Callie reluctantly becomes involved with the other guests at Sea Pines, other young woman struggling with problems of their own. Although their issues are different from hers, Callie is drawn into the group, finds her voice, and gradually, confronts the family trauma that triggered her destructive behavior.
Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen
Description: Ruby knows that the game is up. For the past few months, she's been on her own in the yellow house, managing somehow, knowing that her mother will probably never return.
That's how she comes to live with Cora, the sister she hasn't seen in 10 years, and Cora's husband Jamie, whose down-to-earth demeanor makes it hard for Ruby to believe he founded the most popular networking Web site around. A luxurious house, fancy private school, a new wardrobe, the promise of college and a future --- it's a dream come true. So why is Ruby such a reluctant Cinderella, wary and defensive? And why is Nate, the genial boy next door with some secrets of his own, unable to accept the help that Ruby is just learning to give?
Bestselling author Sarah Dessen explores the heart of a gutsy, complex girl dealing with unforeseen circumstances and learning to trust again.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
Description: Carmen got the jeans at a thrift shop. They didn't look all that great: they were worn, dirty, and speckled with bleach. On the night before she and her friends part for the summer, Carmen decides to toss them. But Tibby says they're great. She'd love to have them. Lena and Bridget also think they're fabulous. Lena decides that they should all try them on. Whoever they fit best will get them. Nobody knows why, but the pants fit everyone perfectly. Even Carmen (who never thinks she looks good in anything) thinks she looks good in the pants. Over a few bags of cheese puffs, they decide to form a sisterhood and take the vow of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants . . . the next morning, they say good-bye. And then the journey of the pants - and the most memorable summer of their lives - begins.
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Description: Written in the first-person narrative, this book begins with Melinda Sordino entering the first day of her freshmen year in high school. No one will sit with Melinda on the bus. At school, students call her names and harass her; her best friends from junior high scatter to different cliques and abandon her. No one at school will speak to her because she called the police and got everyone in trouble at the seniors' big end-of-summer party. This incident sets the premise of the story. Readers learn the reason why Melinda made that call later in the book.
As a result of Melinda being an outcast she finds that it's been getting harder and harder for her to speak out loud: "My throat is always sore, my lips raw.... Every time I try to talk to my parents or a teacher, I sputter or freeze.... It's like I have some kind of spastic laryngitis." Yet with time through the support of her compassionate art teacher and the work in class does she begin to reach out to others and eventually find her voice. Melinda breaks her silence and begins her journey towards forgiveness and healing.
