This fourth YA-level installment in Westerfeld’s futuristic installment begins with Aya. She is a fifteen-year-old “Ugly” who is struggling to fit in the post “mind-rain” era. In her Japanese city, many have experimented to become “tech-heads”, “kickers”, and “surge monkeys”. Much of these motivations of these experiments are to climb ranks. Aya is stuck at 451,369. She dreams of reaching the top thousand, where privilege is the norm and she will be famous to all. To do this, though, she needs to “kick” a great story. When she meets the Sly Girls things begin to look up. But has she gotten more than she bargained for and what principles will she bend to in her search for famedom?
42. Tunnels by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams
In this J-level book Will Burrows truly finds himself. This may seem weird when you find that his father works in a museum and does archaeological digs in his spare time, his mother watches television constantly, and his sister does all of the housework and thinks that dirt is a sin. Will does love his father and helps on digs. He has even started his own archaeological digs. Then Will begins to find strange tunnels that mysteriously get filled in. And his father disappears. Eventually, Will discovers “The Colony” an underground city. Once there he finds a scary reception and an unexpected welcome as well. This is the first book in a series.
41. The Final Warning by James Patterson
The fourth book in the YA-level Maximum Ride series has a heavy global warning message. The premise for the series is that 6 kids escaped from “The School” where they were genetically created and kept in dog crates like animals. Some of the genetic modifications are cool, like bird wings so they can fly. Other modifications can be scary, like reading people’s minds.
In this fourth installment, Max and the other bird kids are appearing in the Capitol to see if the government can do anything for them. Then someone plants a bomb in their pizza delivery, so they go on the run. A refuge is found as research assistants in Antarctica. Then things go wrong like they always do. Along the way each bird kid finds out facts about what global warming is doing to the earth and how they can help save the world. Saving the world is a recurring theme throughout the series, but this is the first time a specific goal beyond survival is spelled out as such.
40. The Sky Inside by Clare B. Dunkle
In this YA-level book Martin lives in suburbia, under the dome, with his parents and WonderBaby little sister. His life is routine, with school and the morning vote, until he receives a modified bot dog for his birthday. His dog seems to be able to access things that other pets can’t. Martin finds a boy who has been missing for two years, then the lab coat woman comes to collect him. Martin finds more and more strange things about his world than he ever imagined. The last straw is when the stranger comes and collects all of the WonderBabies to go to a new special school just for them. His little sister Cassie is gone and there is a question if she ever went to the new special school. Martin decides he is going to go “outside”. He knows the poison gas and blowing sand will probably kill him but he has to find out what happened to Cassie. The strong social commentary evident in this novel may scare some with its plausibility.
39. The sweet, terrible, glorious year I truly, completely lost it by Lisa Shanahan
This YA-level novel is set in Australia. Gemma Stone’s sister is getting married to a family of war fanatics. Her mother only cross-stitches fruit and is constantly cross-stitching. Gemma is very repressed and feels that it is bad form to throw a birkett of any kind. Then she falls for a boy who convinces her to try out for the school play. The boy who likes her decides to follow suit and the chaos is in full tilt. Throughout it all Gemma learns what it means to truly love someone, whether it is romantically or as a new in-law. She also finds out that at the right moment a birkett may be just what is needed. This story is surprisingly poignant while dealing with small town stereotypes in Australia.
38. Grimpow: The Invisible Road by Rafael Abalos
This YA-level novel takes place in the 14th century during the Dark Ages and leads to the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment. Grimpow is a young teenager who was born on an auspicious night. It was always said that he would have the best of luck in life. One winter morning Grimpow finds a dead man in the snow who has an important coded message and a curious rock. Grimpow then begins a period of learning in a local monastery. His time ends as he decides try and deliver the dead man’s message. With the help of his rock and friends he makes along the way, Grimpow struggles to follow the Invisible Road past pursuit and convoluted riddles. The pope and the king of France would like the power of the rock all to themselves, but Grimpow must find a way to bring the enlightenment of learning to all peoples. It is unclear whether this is the first book in a series or whether it is a stand-alone novel.
37.Runemarks by Joanne Harris
This YA-level novel can be checked out in book or audio formats. Maddy Smith is living five hundred years after the End of the World. She does not fit with the rest of her village because of the “ruin” mark on her hand. The first person to ever truly see her is One-Eye an itinerant merchant. When Maddy is 14-years old the whole world that she knows is turned upside down. Chaos, Faeries, gods, magic, goblins, chaos and order are all involved in a quest Maddy must make. Through trials and betrayals Maddy learns that she is not what she seems, she has god blood in her as well as demon blood. She must wend her way through all nine worlds to reshape her own world where order and chaos are in balance.
36. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
The main character in this J-level novel is a middle school boy named Greg Heffley. Greg’s best friend is Rowley. Greg thinks of Rowley as a nerd and pretends to put up with him. This is because Greg wants to be popular. He does everything he can think of to become popular. Unfortunately, all of his schemes seem to backfire on him. Greg takes shameless advantage of Rowley and Rowley lets him, for the most part. This diary journals Greg’s schemes and outcomes throughout an entire school year. Kids will love his imaginative antics and hopefully learn a lesson or two.
35. The Black Book of Secrets by F. E. Higgins
This J-level book is set in Victorian England. Ludlow Fitch runs away from the city and his family when they try to sell his teeth to Mr. Gumbroot (having to remove them to do this). He hitches a ride with Mr. Ratchet to the small mountain town of Pagus Parvus. There he meets a secret pawnbroker Joe Zabbidou and becomes his apprentice. The two set up shop in Pagus Parvus and begin the odd trade of pawning secrets. Ludlow must learn to trust his new master as he begins to find a new outlook on life. He also has to beware the secrets of Pagus Parvus or they could bring ruin to all.
34. The Book of Time by Guillaume Prevost
This is the first book in a new J-level series that has been translated from French. Samuel Faulkner is a fourteen-year old boy. His father has been missing for ten days. This is not that unusual, except that it is Sam’s birthday. He returns home to look for evidence of where his father may have gone and finds a secret room in the basement. In the room there is a book about Dracula and a weird stone sculpture. Sam finds a ring that looks like it goes on the statue and his adventure begins. Sam finds himself in Iona during a Viking attack. He uses the stone to get out but still can’t find his father. And how does the mysterious stone actually work? This is a good beginning to the series but leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
