There’s a certain stage in life where an individual starts to experience things that they’ve never seen before. Bodies change, brains develop, passions emerge, and new friendships are made. At the edge of all the chaos is Charlie, a boy who has just entered the strange world of high school. The Perks of Being a Wallflower follows Charlie’s expedition through the awkward teenage years, as he battles the fight between living his life and running away from it.
The Giver is a science-fiction book by Lois Lowry and is set in a futuristic society free of crime and sadness. At the age of 12, the young children of this society will be assigned jobs that they will train for and perform for the rest of their lives. One of these children is a boy named Jonas, who is assigned the isolated job of training under the Giver, a respected yet mysterious man.
To Belly, everything good and magical happens during the summer. During the summer she stays in a beach house in the town of Cousins with her mom, brother, Susannah, and most importantly Jeremiah and Conrad. They’re the boys Belly has known since her very first summer in Cousins and she’s experienced almost everything with them. However, this summer everything keeps changing, and the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should’ve been all along.
The Outsiders is a coming-of-age novel by S.E. Hilton and is a story about how a boy and his two older brothers survive in the world after the death of their parents. The main character, Ponyboy (his real name is Michael Curtis), is a 14-year-old who is in a gang with his brothers and friends. They view themselves as outsiders to the real world and take care of one another like family. The book covers the journey they go through as they struggle to get by.
Natasha is a girl who believes in facts and knows them very well. A fact she currently knows all too well right now is that tonight her family is going to have to leave America. Natasha knows that this is not her fault, it was her father’s but she has to deal with the consequences and move from New York to Jamaica. All on her mind is fixing the problem that was not hers in the first place.
You may have read Madeleine L’Engle’s most famous book, A Wrinkle in Time, which won the Newbery Medal and is still available almost everywhere, even 60 years after it was published in 1962. But you may not know about L’Engle’s “other” famous series, about the Austin family. The Moon by Night is the second book in the Austin family series. The book, which is not science fiction, focuses on the coming-of-age story of Vicky Austin, age 14.
Natasha and Daniel live in New York City living two different lives. Natasha wants truth and a-to-b points in life, and Daniel wants to be the best for his father and make his father’s dreams come true, but not everything can happen their way. Their lives crossed and stars tried to align, but will the stars every make the right constellation? This book was definitely a read for the ages! I was never disappointed with any part of the book. The feelings that arose from this book were very strong and I would absolutely recommend this to everyone!
I’ll Give You the Sun is Jandy Nelson’s second novel, and her most acclaimed - it won the Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature in 2015. The story follows twins Noah and Jude Sweetwine as they struggle with love, death, art, and each other. It’s set on the California coast with a cast of artists, surfers, and occasional vengeful ghosts. The audience switches between Noah’s point of view in their younger years, and Jude’s after they’ve grown up a little.
