Teen Zone Titles!: February 2008

Book of the Day: The Melting Season by Celeste Conway

Giselle, the sheltered daughter of two famous ballet dancers, comes to terms with her relationships with both her late father and her mother, realizing some important truths that help her move forward both in her life and with her own dancing.

Book of the Day: Other Side of Dark by Joan Lowery Nixon

Seventeen-year-old Stacy awakens from a four-year coma ready to identify, locate, and prosecute the young man who murdered her mother and wounded her.

Book of the Day: America: a novel by E.R. Frank

Teenage America, a part-black, part-white, part-anything boy who has spent many years in institutions for disturbed, antisocial behavior, tries to piece his life together.

Book of the Day: Rob&sara.com by P.J. Petersen

Rob, who lives at a school for troubled teenagers, and Sara, the sixteen-year-old daughter of an army colonel, meet in a poetry chat-room and develop a close relationship via email.

Book of the Day: Twelve Again by Sue Corbett

Twelve year old Patrick's mother is missing and unless he can get her back, he faces a life of waiting on his brothers.

Book of the Day: Nothing to Lose by Alex Flinn

A year after running away with a traveling carnival to escape his unbearable home life, sixteen-year-old Michael returns to Miami, Florida, to find that his mother is going on trial for the murder of his abusive stepfather.

Book of the Day: Beastly by Alex Flinn

A modern retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" from the point of view of the Beast, a vain Manhattan private school student who is turned into a monster and must find true love before he can return to his human form.

Book of the Day: Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar

While navigating his first year of high school and awaiting the birth of his new baby brother, Scott loses old friends and gains some unlikely new ones as he hones his skills as a writer.

Book of the Day: Gingerbread by Rachel Cohn

After being expelled from a fancy boarding school, Cyd Charisse's problems with her mother escalate after Cyd falls in love with a sensitive surfer and is subsequently sent from San Francisco to New York City to spend time with her biological father.

Book of the Day: Jake, Reinvented by Gordon Korman

Rick becomes friends with the popular new boy, Jake Garrett, football player and host of superlative parties, and in the process discovers the true nature of his schoolmates and uncovers the mystery of Jake's past.

Book of the Day: The College Hook by Pam Proctor

Increase your chances of admission to the college of your choice! College consultant Pam Proctor has designed this book to help you define your "hook".

Essay and Poetry Contest!

Win Barnes and Noble Giftcards by getting involved in this year's One Book, One Community!

The essay/poetry contest is open to all those in grades 9-12. This year the theme is true friendship and mentoring.

CLICK HERE for more information about this year's One Book, One Community title, I'm Proud of You by Tim Madigan.

CLICK HERE for more info about the essay/poetry contest and to download an application.

Book of the Day: The diary of Pelly D. by L.J. Adlington

When Toni V, a construction worker on a futuristic colony, finds the diary of a teenage girl whose life has been turned upside-down by holocaust-like events, he begins to question his own beliefs.

Book of the Day: Girl stories by Lauren R. Weinstein

A collection of comics about the ins and outs of being a girl on the verge of adolescence, many of which appeared originally on the website gurl.com.

Book of the Day: Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher

The daily class discussions about the nature of man, the existence of God, abortion, organized religion, suicide and other contemporary issues serve as a backdrop for a high-school senior's attempt to answer a friend's dramatic cry for help.

Book of the Day: Betrayal by Scott Wallens

Reed has promised himself that he will always look out for his brother T.J. After all, he owes T.J. But last week, T.J's coach at Boston College called and offered Reed the starting quarterback spot for the fall position T.J. thinks will be his.

Book of the Day: Swollen by Melissa Lion

A teenaged girl copes with the death of a star track and field athlete by running.

Book of the Day: The Arrival by Shaun Tan

In this wordless graphic novel, a man leaves his homeland and sets off for a new country, where he must build a new life for himself and his family.

Book of the Day and a Question for you HARRY POTTER fans!

Wizard's Hall by Jane Yolen was published eight years before Harry Potter, and a lot of people have noticed the similarities. Read the book and let me know what you think-- Did Rowling steal HP from Yolen? Check out Jane Yolen's own words, "I read the first three. The fourth one stopped me in my tracks, partially because even though the story moves along, I just don't feel like they're well written. Besides, I wrote a book called "Wizard's Hall" [in 1991, eight years before the first "Harry Potter" book]. And there's an awful lot of "Wizard's Hall" in it [the Harry Potter books]. I always tell people that if Ms. Rowling would like to cut me a very large check, I would cash it. ["Wizard's Hall"] has got a boy named Henry [who] goes to wizard school, doesn't think he has talent. He has a good friend with red hair. There's a wicked wizard who's trying to destroy the school, and the pictures on the wall move and speak and change. I have kids who write to me all the time and say, "I thought you had stolen Harry Potter, but my teacher pointed out that you published it eight years before Harry Potter."

BookS of the Day: I Kissing Dating Good-bye and I Gave Dating a Chance

I Kissed Dating Good-bye by Joshua Harris

Tired of the game? Kiss dating goodbye. Going out? Been dumped? Waiting for a call that doesn’t come? Have you tasted pain in dating, drifted through one romance or, possibly, several of them? Ever wondered, Isn’t there a better way? I Kissed Dating Goodbye shows what it means to entrust your love life to God. Joshua Harris shares his story of giving up dating and discovering that God has something even better—a life of sincere love, true purity, and purposeful singleness.

I Gave Dating a Chance by Jeramy Clark

Clark gives his interpretation of a Christian approach to dating.

Book of the Day: Confessions of a NOT IT Girl by Melissa Kantor

High school senior Jan Miller is convinced she's destined for the world's least fabulous life because she doesn't have IT. But, maybe, just maybe, being a Not It Girl will turn out to have some major rewards.

Book of the Day: Garage Band by Gipi

Four troubled boys, Guiliano, Stefano, Alberto, and Alex, form a band. They practice in a garage that Guilano's dad loaned them. When their amp blows right before the deadline for their demo tape, the boys become desperate to replace it and land themselves in more trouble than they know how to handle.

Book of the Day: Eleanor's story : an American girl in Hitler's Germany by Eleanor Ramrath Garner

During the Great Depression, when she is 9, Eleanor's family moves from America to Germany, where her father has been offered a good job. But the war breaks out as her family is crossing the Atlantic. They are trapped in Germany for the duration of the war.