2012 Teen Recommended

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Teen Grand Canyon Readers Recommended List

The Art of Racing in The Rain: A Novel by Garth Stein (2008)

Enzo, the dog of professional race car driver Denny Swift, recalls the memories of his life and shares his insight into the human condition that he learned from observing his owner.

By The Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead by Julie Anne Peters (2010)

High school student Daelyn Rice, who has been bullied throughout her school career and has more than once attempted suicide, again makes plans to kill herself, in spite of the persistent attempts of an unusual boy to draw her out.  

The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan (2009)

Sixteen-year-old Nick and his family have battled magicians and demons for most of his life, but when his brother, Alan, is marked for death while helping new friends Jamie and Mae, Nick's determination to save Alan leads him to uncover a devastating secret.

Foiled by Jane Yolen (2010)

Aliera Carstairs, having always felt like an outcast at school but special in her fencing class, falls for Avery Castle, until a fencing foil with a large ruby on the hilt that her mother found at a sale reveals to her that both Avery and the world around her are not what they seem.

Going Bovine by Libba Bray (2009)

Cameron Smith, a disaffected sixteen-year-old diagnosed with mad cow disease, sets off on a road trip with a death-obsessed, video-gaming dwarf he meets in the hospital in an attempt to find a cure.

Half The Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity For Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Krostof (2009)

Tells the stories of women in Africa and Asia who have been victims of sex trafficking and forced prostitution, gender-based violence, and maternal mortality, and shows how girls' education and micro-finance can change their lives while providing a boost to the economies of developing countries.

Hate List by Jennifer Brown (2009)

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 a villain.

Hatter M. Volume One: The Looking- Glass Wars  by Frank Beddor

By order of Queen Genevieve, Hatter Madigan, the Royal bodyguard, flees Wonderland with the princess, Alyss Heart, but when he loses Alyss in an alternate reality he embarks on a thirteen year quest to rescue her, and bring her back to the Wonderland realm.

The Heretic's Daughter: A Novel by Kathleen Kent (2008)

Sarah Carrier and Martha, her mother, who live on the family farm in Andover, Massachusetts, endure a dispute with Sarah's uncle about their plot, and when reports of supernatural activity in nearby Salem escalate into mass hysteria, people begin accusing Martha and her family of being witches.

Hero by Perry Moore (2007)

Thom, the teenage son of a fallen superhero who seems to be linked to his mother's disappearance, joins the League and finds himself dealing with confusing sexual feelings for the hero Uberman while learning to use his powers and moving toward the truth about his mother's disappearance.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman (2009)

While in a coma following an automobile accident that killed her parents and younger brother, seventeen-year-old Mia, a gifted cellist, weights whether to live with her grief or join her family in death.

Impossible by Nancy Werlin (2008)

When seventeen-year-old Lucy discovers her family is under an ancient curse by an evil Elfin Knight, she realizes that she must perform three impossible tasks before her daughter is born to break the curse and to save them both.

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld (2009)

In an alternate 1914 Europe, fifteen-year-old Austrian Prince Alek, on the run from the Clanker Powers who are attempting to take over the globe using mechanical machinery, forms an uneasy alliance with Deryn who, disguised as a boy to join the British Air Service, is learning to fly genetically-engineered beasts.

The Life of Glass by Jillian Cantor (2010)

Through her freshman year of high school, fourteen-year-old Melissa struggles to hold on to memories of her deceased father, cope with her mother's return to dating, get along with her sister, and sort out her feelings about her best friend.

Out of the Pocket by Bil Konigsberg (2008)

As Bobby Framingham, quarterback of his high school football team, finally acknowledges to himself that he is gay, events start to spin out of control when his sexual orientation is revealed in the student newspaper and then in the local press, and he learns that his father has cancer.


Pop by Gordon Korman (2009)

Lonely after a midsummer move to a new town, sixteen-year-old high-school quarterback Marcus Jordan becomes friends with a retired professional linebacker who is great at training him, but whose childish behavior keeps Marcus in hot water. 

Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick (2009)

While recuperating in a Baghdad hospital from a traumatic brain injury sustained during the Iraq War, eighteen-year-old soldier Matt Duffy struggles to recall what happened to him and how it relates to his ten-year-old friend, Ali.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (2009)

In all the years she has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house, Grace has been particularly drawn to an unusual yellow-eyed wolf, unaware he turns into a human for a short time each year, but when the two find one another in human form, they vow to do whatever it takes to stay together.

Wake by Lisa McMann (2008)

Ever since she was eight years old, high school student Janie Hannagan has been uncontrollably drawn into other people's dreams, but it is not until she befriends an elderly nursing home patient and becomes involved with an enigmatic fellow-student that she discovers her true power.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green (2010)

When two teens, one gay and one straight, meet accidentally and discover that they share the same name, their lives become intertwined as one begins dating the other's best friend, who produces a play revealing his relationship with them both.