KBR Recommends Summer Reads: Young Adult Fiction Part II

Hankering for some fantastic young adult fiction you can share with your teens? This impressive line up of books will send you skyrocketing back to your young adult years... oh, and your kids may just love them, too.

High school is pretty predictable – there are the geeks, the hipsters, the princesses, the jocks... But when Cody Lightfoot – smart, handsome, cool and with a passion for the environment – joins the school, everything changes.

Suddenly the craze for green living is everywhere as the girls and boys of Clifton Springs pull out all the stops to impress him and outdo each other in the run up to Earth Day.

But as they go to more outrageous and crazier lengths, they start to wonder whether Cody is worthy of all their attention – and whether saving the world might just be more important than impressing a boy.

Title: The Crazy Things Girls Do for Love
Author: Dyan Sheldon
Publisher: Walker Books, $16.95 RRP
Publication Date: 1 January 2011
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781406319224
Type: Novel

This book is available online

John Smith is not your average teenager.

He regularly moves from small town to small town. He changes his name and identity. He does not put down roots. He cannot tell anyone who or what he really is. If he stops moving those who hunt him will find and kill him.

But you can't run forever.

So when he stops in Paradise, Ohio, John decides to try and settle down. To fit in. And for the first time he makes some real friends. People he cares about – and who care about him. Never in John's short life has there been space for friendship, or even love.

But it's just a matter of time before John's secret is revealed. He was once one of nine. Three of them have been killed. John is Number Four. He knows that he is next...

Title: I Am Number Four
Author: Pittacus Lore
Publisher: Penguin, $39.95 RRP
Publication Date: September 2010
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9780718156473
Type: Novel

This book is available online

In her 1916 ghost story, Kerfol, Edith Wharton tells of Anne de Barrigan, a young woman convicted of murdering her jealous husband. The elderly lord was found on the stairs, apparently savaged by a pack of dogs, though there were no dogs – no live dogs – at Kerfol that day.

In these remarkable intertwining stories, Deborah Noyes returns to the manor to tell de Barrigan's story through the sympathetic eyes of her servant girl.

Four more tales slip forward in time, following characters haunted by the ghosts of Kerfol – the dead dogs; the sensual, uneasy relationships; and the bitter taste of revenge.

Title: The Ghosts of Kerfol
Author: Deborah Noyes
Publisher: Walker Books, $17.95 RRP
Publication Date: 1 January 2011
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781406326086
Type: Novel

This book is available online

One night in the rain, Ethan Wate opened his eyes and fell in love with Lena Duchannes. His life would never be the same.

Lena is a Caster and her family is locked in a supernatural civil war: full of darkness and demons. On her sixteenth birthday Lena made a terrifying choice, which now haunts her day and night.

And as her seventeenth birthday approaches Lena and Ethan face even greater danger. A Caster and a Mortal can never truly be together.

Title: Beautiful Darkness
Author: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Publisher: Penguin, $19.95 RRP
Publication Date: October 2010
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780141326092
Type: Novel

This book is available online

Beware of a kiss under the full moon. It will change your life forever. Celeste Parker is used to hearing scary stories about werewolves—Legend’s Run is famous for them. She’s used to everything in the small town until the mysterious Brandon Maddox moves to Legend’s Run.

Despite already having the perfect boyfriend, Celeste finds herself immediately drawn to the handsome new student. After a chance encounter late one night with a pack of wolves, Celeste is rescued by gorgeous, enigmatic Brandon.

Is Brandon’s transformation a trick of the shadows in the moonlight? Or is there more to the werewolf stories of Legend’s Run?

Title: Once in a Full Moon
Author: Ellen Schreiber
Publisher: Pier 9, $14.99 RRP
Publication Date: January 2011
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781742661445
Type: Novel

This book is available online

The year is 1929. New York is ruled by the bright young things: flappers and socialistes seeking thrills and chasing dreams in the anything-goes roaring twenties.

Letty Larkspur and Cordelia Grey have escaped their small Midwestern town for New York's glittering metropolis. All Letty wants is to see her name in lights, but she quickly discovers Manhattan is gilled with pretty girls who will do anything to be a star...

Cordelia is searching for the father she's never known, a man as infamous for his wild parties as he is for his shadowy schemes. Overnight, she enters a world more thrilling and glamours than she could have imagined-and more dangerous. It's a life anyone would kill for.. and someone will.

The only person Cordelia can trust is Astrid Donal, a flapper who seems to have it all: money, looks, and the love of Cordelia's brother, Charlie. But Astrid's perfect veneer hides a score of family secrets.

Title: Bright Young Things
Author: Anna Godbersen
Publisher: Penguin, $19.95 RRP
Publication Date: October 2010
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780141335346
Type: Novel

This book is available online

On her seventeenth birthday, Cassia meets her match. Society dictates he is her perfect partner for life. Except he's not.

In Cassia's society, Officials decide who people love.

How many children they have.
Where they work.
When they die.

But, as Cassia finds herself falling in love with another boy, she is determined to make some choices of her own.

And that's when her whole world begins to unravel...

Title: Matched
Author: Allie Condie
Publisher: Penguin, $19.95 RRP
Publication Date: December 2010
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780141333052
Type: Novel

This book is available online

Vanessa Sands returns to Winter Harbor to find out why her sister Justine leaped to her death. When Vanessa learns that Justine's boyfriend Caleb is missing too, she and Caleb's older brother Simon join forces to find him. As Vanessa and Simon spend time together, their relationship grows from childhood friendship to something more.

Winter Harbour is abuzz with anxiety when another body washes ashore, and panic sets in when the small town becomes home to a string of fatal, water-related accidents. The phenomenon hits close to home with Vanessa. The deaths bring to the surface the root of her fears, and a secret she's kept for years. As the bodycount mounts, will she and Simon survive the dramatic climax?

Title: Siren
Author: Tricia Rayburn
Publisher: Penguin, $19.95 RRP
Publication Date: August 2010
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780143204497
Type: Novel

This book is available online