ANANSI BOYS
Mythology and modern times collide again in this masterpiece from Neil Gaiman. This follow-up to American Gods is equal parts humorous, terrifying, adventurous, and epic in the standard mythological style --- but it is also an intimate story about the beauty, and danger, of family.   Neil Gaiman

ANGELA'S ASHES
"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while," write Frank McCourt in his memoir. ANGELA'S ASHES, imbued on every page with McCourt's astounding humor and compassion, is a glorious book that bears all the marks of a classic.    Frank McCourt

BALZAC AND THE LITTLE CHINESE SEAMSTRESS
Part historical novel, part fable, part love story, BALZAC AND THE LITTLE CHINESE SEAMSTRESS is a moving testament to the transformative power of literature. In 1971, as Mao's Cultural Revolution sweeps across China, two teenage boys are branded "ractionary intellectuals" and sent to live on a remote mountain.    Dai Sijie

THE BELL JAR
Sylvia Plath's witty and disturbing novel follows Esther Greenwood through three seasons, step by painful step. Esther slides ever deeper into devastating depression, attempts suicide, undergoes bungled electroshock therapy, and enters a private hospital. Based on Plath's own summer,fall and winter of 1953-1954, THE BELL JAR ends with the hope, if not the clear promise, of recovery.   Sylvia Plath

BLIND FAITH
After Liz Scattergood's grandmother dies, her mother spirals into a depression and then starts attending a spiritualist church --- which drives Liz's atheist dad away from her mom and their family. Liz turns to her new neighbor, Nathan, who is dealing with his own mother's terminal cancer, and together they help each other cope. This moving novel explores how a loved one's death impacts those who are left behind.        Ellen Wittlinger

THE BODY OF CHRISTOPHER CREED
All his life Christopher Creed had been considered a freak, the target of the bullies at his school. But when he disappears without a trace, things get stranger than ever. In this suspenseful, frank novel, sixteen-year-old Torey Adams tries to solve the mystery of what happened to Chris and, in the process, learns how truly brutal life can be.    Carol Plum Ucci

A BRIEF CHAPTER IN MY IMPOSSIBLE LIFE
In this promising first novel by Dana Reinhardt, Simone's typical teen concerns are put in perspective when her birth mother contacts her, seemingly out of the blue. Simone discovers love, heartbreak, and a family history she never could have imagined.     Dana Reinhart

THE BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEAD
When a virus wipes out mankind, the dead gather in "The City" to remain as long as someone on Earth remembers them. Laura's parents, co-workers, friends and acquaintances reside there but Laura, isolated at an Antarctic research center, has no idea how truly alone she is...or that so many dead people rely on her memories alone in order to continue their afterlife existence.     Kevin Brockmeier

CATALYST
The unexpected twists and turns that occur in teenager Kate Malone's life force her to take a hard look at her relationships with her family, her friends, her boyfriend, and even her deceased mother. As she struggles with needing to be popular and the desire to please everyone at the expense of herself, Kate discovers that she is only human, fraught with insecurities, doubts, and questions --- and that's okay.   Laurie Halse Anderson

THE CHOCOLATE WAR
Watching someone take a stand is easy; doing it yourself can be absolutely terrifying. That's what Jerry Renault learns when he refuses to participate in his school's annual candy drive and incurs the wrath of the ruling clique of students ---- a wrath egged on by the school's administration. The ending --- which takes place in a boxing ring --- is brutal, frightening, and completely mesmerizing.    Robert Cormier

THE CHOSEN
The now-classic story of two fathers and two sons and the pressures on all of them to pursue the religion they share in the way that is best suited to each. As the boys grow into young men, they discover in the other a lost spiritual brother and a link to an unexplored world that neither had ever considered before. In effect, they exchange places, and find peace they will ever retreat from again.    Chaim Potok

COLD SASSY TREE
On July 5, 1906, in a small Georgia town, things take a scandalous turn. That's the day E. Rucker Blakeslee, proprietor of the general store and barely three weeks a widower, elopes with Miss Love Simpson --- a woman half his age and, worse yet, a Yankee. That's the day an unimpeachably pious, deliciously irreverent town comes to life --- and the day fourteen-year-old Will Tweedy's adventures begin. COLD SASSY TREE explores timeless issues of love, death, coming of age, and the ties that bind families and generations.   Olive Ann Burns

A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
This American comic masterpiece outswifts Swift, whose poem gives the book its title. Set in New Orleans, this humorous classic is filled with unforgettable characters and unbelievable plot twists, shimmering with intelligence, and dazzling in its originality.     John Kennedy Toole

THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME
Christopher John Francis Boone is a fifteen-year-old autistic savant obsessed with Sherlock Holmes. He knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow. This improbable story of Christopher's quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog makes for a captivating and unusual tale.     Mark Haddon

DAIRY QUEEN
When you don't talk, there's a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said. Like why D. J.'s best friend, Amber, isn't friendly anymore. Why her mom has two jobs and a big secret. Why her college-football-star brothers won't call home. And why Brian Nelson is so out of her league. Welcome to the summer that fifteen-year-old D. J. Schwenk of Red Bend, Wisconsin, learns to talk, and ends up having an awful lot of stuff to say.     Catherine Gilbert Murdock

DANDELION WINE
DANDELION WINE is Ray Bradbury's semi-autobiographical novel about 12-year-old Douglas Spaulding of Green Town, Illinois, who discovers that summer is more than the repetition of established rituals whose mystical power holds time at bay. It can be a best friend moving away, a human time machine who can transport you back to the Civil War, or a sideshow automaton able to glimpse the bittersweet future.     Ray Bradbury

THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL
First published in 1947, Anne Frank's diary --- in which she recounts the two years she spent hiding in an Amsterdam warehouse with her Jewish family during the Nazi occupation --- continues to resonate with readers. It remains a beloved and deeply admired testament to the indestructible nature of the human spirit.     Anne Frank

DUNE
A blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune --- set on the desert planet Arrakis --- is the story of a mysterious man known as Maud'dib, who seeks to avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family and bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.    Frank Herbert

THE EARTH, MY BUTT, AND OTHER BIG ROUND THINGS
Don't let the whimsical title fool you --- although Carolyn Mackler's novel about 15-year-old Virginia Shreves is lighthearted and humorous, at its core is a serious message about self-confidence and self-acceptance.     Carolyn Mackler

EAST
Rose has always felt out of place in her family. So when an enormous white bear mysteriously shows up and asks her to come away with him, she readily agrees. The bear takes Rose to a distant castle, where each night she is confronted with a mystery. In solving that mystery, she finds love, discovers her purpose and realizes her travels have only just begun.     Edith Pattou

ELDEST
In the second book in the Inheritance Trilogy, Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, have just saved the rebel state from destruction by the mighty forces of King Galbatorix, cruel ruler of the Empire. Now Eragon must travel to Ellesmera, land of the elves, for further training as a Dragon Rider. But chaos and betrayal plague him at every turn, and nothing is what it seems.     Christopher Paolini     In Spanish

ERAGON
A chance discovery changes the life of Eragon, a poor farm boy, overnight and thrusts him into a perilous world of destiny, magic, and power. With only an ancient sword, the advice of an old storyteller, and a fledgling dragon, Eragon must navigate the dangerous terrain of an Empire ruled by an evil king. Can Eragon take up the mantle of the legendary Dragon Riders? The fate of the Empire may rest in his hands.     Christopher Paolini            In Spanish

ESPERANZA RISING
A tragedy forces Esperanza and her mother to flee their Mexican ranch for California during the Great Depression. They settle in a camp for Mexican farm workers, and Esperanza isn't ready for the hard labor, financial struggles, or lack of acceptance she faces. When their new life is threatened, Esperanza must find a way to rise above her difficult circumstances --- Mama's life and her own depend on it.      Pam Munoz Ryan    In Spanish

FAHRENHEIT 451
In the alternate society presented in this science fiction classic, firemen start fires. Fireman Guy Montag loves to rush to a fire and watch books burn up, a mandate of the government. Then he meets a seventeen-year old girl who tells him of a past when people were not afraid, and a professor who tells him of a future where people can think. And Guy Montag knows what he has to do....     Ray Bradbury

FALLEN ANGELS
From the mean streets of Harlem to the rice paddies and jungles of Vietnam, Walter Dean Myers's critically acclaimed FALLEN ANGELS is the riveting account of one soldier's tour of duty. Just out of high school, 17-year-old Richie Perry is fresh out of prospects. He has no money for college and the streets of Harlem are a dead-end, and so he enlists in the Army. But no one prepares him for the horrors of war.     Walter Dean Myers

FAST FOOD NATION: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
Fast food has hastened the malling of our landscape, widened the chasm between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and propelled American cultural imperialism abroad. That's a lengthy list of charges, but here Eric Schlosser makes them stick with an artful mix of first-rate reportage, wry wit, and careful reasoning.     Eric Schlosser

THE FORETELLING
Rain is girl of the Amazon tribe of women warriors, born in a time of blood and fear. As the future leader of her people, she must seek and hold fast to her inner warrior. What she encounters along her poignant and harrowing path toward her destiny --- a kind young man, a strange, recurrent prophecy, and a condemned baby brother --- lead her, against odds, to forge mercy, love, and peace.   Alice Hoffman

FRIED GREEN TOMATOES AT THE WHISTLE STOP CAFE
Gray-headed Mrs. Threadgoode is telling her life story to Evelyn, who is in the sad slump of middle age. The story she tells is also of two women --- of the irrepressible tomboy Idgie and her friend Ruth --- who back in the thirties ran a cafe in Whistle Stop, Alabama, offering good food, love and laughter, and even an occasional murder. And as the past unfolds, for Evelyn the present will never be quite the same.     Fannie Flagg

GIFTS
In the first book in the Annals of the Western Shore series, each family who resides in the Uplands possesses powerful gifts, which can either help or harm others. The Uplanders live in constant fear that one family might unleash its gift against another, but two young people --- friends since childhood --- decide not to use their gifts.     Ursula K. Le Guin

GILEAD
GILEAD tells of three generations spanning the Civil War to the twentieth century, a story about fathers and sons and the spiritual battles that still rage at America's heart. In the luminous and unforgettable voice of Congregationalist minister John Ames, this brilliant novel reveals the human condition and the often unbearable beauty of an ordinary life.     Marilynne Robinson

GODLESS
Fed up with his parents' boring old Catholic religion, agnostic-going-on-atheist Jason Bock invents a new god --- the town's water tower. He recruits an unlikely group of worshippers: his snail-farming best friend, Shin, cute-as-a-button (whatever that means) Magda Price, and the violent and unpredictable Henry Stagg. But as their religion grows, it takes on a life of its own.     Peter Hautman

THE HANDMAID'S TALE
In the world of the near future, who will control women's bodies? Offred can remember the days before the Republic of Gilead, when she lived and made love with her husband Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now....     Margaret Atwood

THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor. Together this dynamic pair begins an unusual journey through space.     Douglas Adams

THE HOBBIT
In the enchanting prelude to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, hobbit Bilbo Baggins wants to be left alone in quiet comfort. But the wizard Gandalf comes along with a band of homeless dwarves. Soon Bilbo is drawn into their quest, facing evil orcs, savage wolves, giant spiders, and worse dangers. Finally, it is Bilbo --- alone and unaided --- who confronts the terrible dragon Smaug.     J.R.R. Tolkein

HOW THE GARCIA GIRLS LOST THEIR ACCENTS
Uprooted from their home in the Dominican Republic, the four Garcia sisters arrive in New York City in 1960 to find a life far different from the genteel existence of maids, manicures, and extended family they left behind. What they have lost --- and what they find --- is revealed in the fifteen interconnected stories.    Julia Alvarez

I AM THE MESSENGER
Ed Kennedy is an underage cabdriver, living in a shack with his coffee-addicted dog and hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence, until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery. That's when Ed becomes the messenger, making his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary). Only one question remains: Who's behind Ed's mission?     Markus Zusak

IT
Master of horror Stephen King spins a story about seven kids who stumbled upon a hidden terror in their hometown. Now, as adults, they are summoned together when the cycle of evil begins again. But none of them can withstand the force that has drawn them all back to Derry, Maine, to face the nightmare without end, and the evil without a name.     Stephen King

THE JOY LUCK CLUB
Four mothers, four daughters, four families whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's "saying" the stories. In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. And forty years later the stories and history continue.     Amy Tan

KING DORK
Frank Portman's inaugural foray into the world of young adult fiction, pseudo-slacker Tom Henderson (a.k.a. King Dork) becomes obsessed with deciphering mysterious messages left behind in his deceased father's copy of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE.     Frank Portman

LIFE OF PI
When sixteen-year-old Pi Patel finds himself stranded in a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with only a menacing 450-pound Bengal tiger for company, he quickly realizes that the only way to survive is to make sure the tiger is more afraid of him than he is of it.     Yann Martel

THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE
The first volume in the Chronicles of Narnia series follows the four Pevensie siblings into the magical world of Narnia. Under the guidance of a noble and mystical ruler, the lion Aslan, the children fight to try to overcome the White Witch's powerful hold over Narnia.     C.S. Lewis

THE LITTLE PRINCE
Since 1943, the wise little boy from Asteroid B-612 has led children and adults to deeper understandings of love, friendship, and responsibility. Few stories are as widely read and as universally cherished as THE LITTLE PRINCE by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.     Antoine de Saint-Exupery

LORD OF THE FLIES
William Golding's classic novel of savagery and survival begins after a plane wreck deposits a group of English school boys on an isolated tropical island. Their struggle to survive and impose order quickly evolves from a battle against nature into a battle against their own primitive instincts.     William Golding

MAXIMUM RIDE: THE ANGEL EXPERIMENT
James Patterson takes readers on a thrilling ride in his first book for young adults. Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, Angel, and Maximum are six kids who amazingly have the ability to fly --- and they will need their wings as five of them embark on a rescue mission that will change their lives forever.     James Patterson

THE MEMORY KEEPER'S DAUGHTER
Kim Edwards's stunning family drama articulates every mother's silent fear: what would happen if you lost your child and she grew up without you? In 1964, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins, he immediately recognizes that one of them has Down Syndrome and makes a split-second decision that will haunt all their lives forever.     Kim Edwards

MY SISTER'S KEEPER
Jodi Picoult is widely acclaimed for her keen insights into the hearts and minds of real people. In MY SISTER'S KEEPER, she tells the emotionally riveting story of a family torn apart by conflicting needs and a passionate love that triumphs over human weakness.     Jodi Picoult

MYSTIC RIVER
A tense and unnerving psychological thriller, MYSTIC RIVER is also an epic novel of love, loyalty, faith, and family. Twenty-five years after a terrible incident destroyed their boyhood friendship, three Boston men are brought together by another tragedy --- causing conflict and finally bringing to light what happened all those years ago.     Dennis Lehane

NICKEL AND DIMED: On (Not) Getting by in America
Millions of Americans work for poverty-level wages. But how can anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 to $7 an hour? Inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that any job equals a better life, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to find out --- by joining them. This expose, acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this expose has changed the way America perceives its working poor.     Barbara Ehrenreich

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST
Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, this is the unforgettable story of a mental ward and its inhabitants --- especially the tyrannical Big Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy, the brawling, fun-loving new inmate who resolves to oppose her. We see the struggle through the eyes of Chief Bromden, the seemingly mute half-Indian patient who witnesses and understands McMurphy's heroic attempt to do battle with the awesome powers that keep them all imprisoned.     Ken Kesey

A PAINTED HOUSE
In a departure from his well-known legal thrillers, John Grisham crafts a tale of small town American life in rural Arkansas in the '50s. Seven-year-old Luke Chandler has never kept a secret or told a single lie in his young life until September of 1952, when two groups of migrant workers --- and two very dangerous men --- come through the Arkansas Delta to work on the Chandler cotton farm.    John Grisham

THE PERFECT STORM
October 1991. It was "the perfect storm" --- a tempest that may happen only once in a century. Creating waves ten stories high and winds of 120 miles an hour, the storm whipped the sea to inconceivable levels few people on Earth have witnessed. Except for the six-man crew of the Andrea Gail, a commercial fishing boat tragically headed towards the storm's hellish center.     Sebastian Junger

THE POISONWOOD BIBLE
In 1959, Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist, takes his four young daughters, his wife, and his mission to the Belgian Congo --- a place, he is sure, where he can save needy souls. But the seeds they plant bloom in tragic ways within this complex culture.     Barbara Kingsolver

THE PRINCESS BRIDE
What happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be...well...a lot less than the man of her dreams? Combining scenes of rousing fantasy with hilarious reality, this swashbuckling fable is guaranteed to entertain.     William Goldman

THE PRINCESS DIARIES
Mia is just a New York City girl living with her artist mom. News Flash: Dad is prince of Genovia. (So that's why a limo meets her at the airport!) Downer: Dad can't have any more kids. (So no heir to the throne.) Shock of the Century: Like it or not, Mia Thermopolis is prime princess material.     Meg Cabot

ROCKET BOYS/OCTOBER SKY
This is the true story that inspired the feature film October Sky. It was 1957, and the small mining town of Coalwood, West Virginia, was slowly dying. Faced with an uncertain future, Homer Hickam nurtured a dream: to send rockets into outer space. He fell in with a group of misfits who learned not only how to turn scraps of metal into sophisticated rockets but how to sustain their hope in a town that swallowed its men alive.     Homer Hickam

THE RULE OF FOUR
An ivy league murder, a mysterious coded manuscript, and the secrets of a Renaissance prince collide memorably in THE RULE OF FOUR -- a brilliant work of fiction that weaves together suspense and scholarship, high art and unimaginable treachery.     Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason

RUNNING WITH SCISSORS
RUNNING WITH SCISSORS is the true story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of Anne Sexton) gave him away to be raised by her unorthodox psychiatrist who bore a striking resemblance to Santa Claus. Augusten Burroughs offers a funny and harrowing account of an ordinary boy's survival under the most extraordinary circumstances.     Augusten Burroughs

SKELLIG
Ten-year-old Michael's baby sister is ill, his parents are frantic, and Doctor Death has come to call. Michael feels helpless. Then he discovers a human being --- or a strange kind of beast --- in the garage. Together Michael and his new friend Mina carry the creature out into the light, and Michael's world changes forever.     David Almond

SOPHIE'S WORLD
One day Sophie finds two questions in her mail --- Who are you? and Where does the world come from? --- prompting her to enroll in a correspondence course with a mysterious philosopher. When she begins receiving unusual letters from someone she doesn't know, Sophie must make use of the philosophy she is learning to unravel the riddle. But the truth is far more complicated than she could have imagined.     Jostein Gaarder

STARGIRL
Stargirl. From the day she arrives at quiet Mica High in a burst of color and sound, the hallways hum with the murmur of "Stargirl, Stargirl." She captures Leo Borlock's heart with just one smile. She sparks a school-spirit revolution with just one cheer. The students of Mica High are enchanted. At first. And then they turn on her.     Jerry Spinelli

THE THINGS THEY CARRIED
They carried malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated Bibles, each other. And, if they made it home alive, they carried unrelenting images of a nightmarish war that history is only beginning to absorb. THE THINGS THEY CARRIED has become an unparalleled Vietnam testament, a profound study of men at war that illuminates the capacity, and the limits, of the human heart and soul.     Tim O'Brien

THIRSTY
In this savagely funny tale of terror, teen angst, suspense, and satire, all Chris really wants is to be a normal kid. Unfortunately, he appears to be turning into a vampire. So while his hometown performs an ancient ritual that keeps Tch'muchgar, the Vampire Lord, locked in another world, Chris desperately tries to save himself from his own vampiric fate. He needs help, but whom can he trust?     M.T. Anderson

A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN
Through it is often categorized as a coming-of-age novel, A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN is much more than that. Its richly-plotted narrative of three generations in a poor but proud American family offers a detailed and unsentimental portrait of urban life at the beginning of the century.     Betty Smith

TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE
Mitch Albom chronicles the time he spent with Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago, after he rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final "class": lessons in how to live.     Mitch Albom

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
Eva never really wanted to be a mother --- and certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher who tried to befriend him, all two days before his sixteenth birthday. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevin's horrific rampage.     Lionel Shriver

A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA
Ged is the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, but once he was called Sparrowhawk, a reckless youth, hungry for power and knowledge, who tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance.     Ursula K. Le Guin

A WRINKLE IN TIME
In this beloved children's tale, an unearthly stranger appears at young Meg Murray's home. He claims to have been blown off course and that there is such a thing as a "wrinkle in time." Meg's father had been experimenting with time-travel when he suddenly disappeared. Will Meg, her little brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin outwit the forces of evil as they search through space for their father?     Madelene L'Engle

A YELLOW RAFT IN BLUE WATER
This saga is the story of three generations of Indian women, beset by hardships and torn by angry secrets, yet inextricably joined by the bonds of kinship: fifteen-year-old part-black Rayona; her American Indian mother, Christine; and the fierce and mysterious Ida, mother and grandmother whose haunting secrets, betrayals, and dreams echo through the years, braiding together the strands of the shared past.     Michael Dorris