When you're adopted, can you love two families?
The last time Matt Pin saw his mother, she shoved him through the screaming crowd into the arms of a soldier hanging from an American helicopter. The ten-year-old boy was swept away from Vietnam in the last days of the war.
Matt carries with him all of the broken pieces of his life: the Vietnamese mother he wishes he knew, the adoptive American family he hopes not to disappoint, the baseball teammates he hopes to win over with his pitching skills, and the Vietnam War veterans he longs to find acceptance with.
"Anyone can hide. Facing up to things, working through them,that's what makes you strong." - Sarah Dessen
It’s a snap decision. Auden isn’t going to spend her last summer before college with her control-freak college professor mom. Instead, Auden heads for the beach front community where her novelist (and usually clueless) dad, his new young wife, and their new baby live.
Auden’s summer plan to read her college texts doesn’t happen as she hopes. The girls at the boutique where Auden works interfere; the fellow loner and mysterious Eli occupies Auden’s thoughts; and her families’ quirks and issues prevent Auden from focusing.
Operation Iraqi Freedom, that's the code name. But the young men and women in the military's Civil Affairs Battalion have a simpler name for it: WAR
When eighteen-year-old Robin decides after 9/11 to enlist in the Army rather than attend college, he finds himself in Operation Iraqi Freedom serving with the Civil Affairs team.
He wasn’t supposed to be on the front lines. He wasn’t supposed to shoot to kill. He wasn’t supposed to be shot at. He wasn’t supposed to be scared and confused. Why are the fighting? Whom are they fighting? Where will the next attack come from?
Would you risk everything
to save a stranger?
The only unusual thing about Charlie is that he thinks he’s the only high school boy who has a 10 PM bedtime. And then he wakes up one morning bloodied and in pain, shackled to a chair, and surrounded by torture devices.
Charlie discovers that he’s a fugitive from the law, wanted by the government and terrorists alike. Through harrowing chases, narrow escapes from gun fire, and brutal fist fights, Charlie battles for his life, as well as the life of a government official. Will he risk everything to save this stranger?
Would you rather die or be unwound?
In the future, a Second Civil War has been fought over the issue of abortion, resulting in a new Bill of Rights. Abortions are illegal and a child’s life is protected until the age of 13. Then, if parents choose, they can have a child “unwound,” a process that harvests every part of the child to be sold. The catch? At least one part of the child must remain alive.
Connor, Risa, and Lev are “unwounds” who meet one another through a strange series of events. Destined for a harvest camp, the three escape and are swept into the underground world of Unwinds.
Sometimes a book comes along,
and it is best to read it knowing nothing.
Marcus is not happy about being dragged to a new town and a new school. At least the school has an undefeated football team—and Marcus intends to be the varsity quarterback. Only one person stands in his way: Troy Popovich.
Sometimes there are images that haunt a soldier who has been in war.
When 18-year-old Matt wakes up in a Baghdad military hospital, he cannot remember completely the events that brought him there. He’s suffered a traumatic head injury, and while he sees flashes of events in his head, he cannot piece everything together.
High-ranking officers and investigators assure Matt that everything is going to be fine and that he should “stick to the story,” but he doesn’t even know what the story should be. Matt is an innocent character, and the soldiers in his unit are likeable and friendly. But everyone acts suspiciously, and none of them may be as innocent or friendly as readers believe.
Following, hiding, moving silently, seeing tragedy and horror--how can a 13-year-old boy prevent his parents' certain death?
Samuel lives in the Pennsylvania wilderness when the Hessians, Iroquois, and the Revolutionary War come to his part of the world, destroying his village and home, kidnapping his parents, and changing his life forever. How will Samuel find his parents? How will he survive in the wilderness as he tries to track them down? What will he do when he finds them?
Cancer is the worst thing to happen to a kid, right?
The survivor of the Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie takes the spotlight in this follow-up novel. Jeffrey’s cancer is in remission, and now he has to deal with the everyday life of being an eighth grader. His best friend and fellow cancer survivor Tad works with Jeffrey to try to pass the state-wide eighth grade exam, and in return, Jeffrey will help Tad train in the gym so he can walk across the graduation stage without his crutches or braces. Often hilarious (cancer survivors can say things to one another that none of the rest of us could!) and sometimes sad—this book is a great story of friendship, dealing with your obstacles head-on, and challenging authority.
A fairy tale told in contemporary times: The Beauty and the Beast
I am a beast, a horrible creature who walks upright—a creature with fangs and claws and hair springing from every pore. I am a monster. You think I’m talking fairy tales? No. The place is New York City, the time is now, and this is no deformity or disease. I’m forever ruined unless I can break the spell.Yes, the spell that a witch in my English class cast on me. I’ll tell you why. I’ll tell you how I used to by Kyle Kingsbury, the guy you wished you were, with the money and looks and perfect life. Then I’ll tell you know I became perfectly. . . beastly.
Liver tumors, jaundice, high blood pressure, heart disease, delusions, mood swings. . .
why would anyone ever take steroids?
Savvy is an extraordinarily talented eighth grade basketball player who plays on an elite team of older girls. She and her family are struggling after moving cross-country: their financial situation is strained, her older sister faces peer pressure, and Savvy deals with hard feelings from her teammates.After a rival basketball player finds steroids in Savvy’s gym bag, her family’s reputation crumbles, leaving her alone on all fronts. How can Savvy prove her innocence?
What would life be like as a middle school student on a military base?
In her first year teaching on an Air Force military base, Miss Loupe uses improv acting activities with her sixth-grade students to help them work through the feelings and stress of being the children of military parents. She herself is a military child, but her family has shunned her since she quit the Academy to teach. When family tragedy strikes, Miss Loupe’s previously skeptical students use what they’ve learned to help her, her brother, and other wounded soldiers.
What risks would you take
for the people you love?
Sixteen-year-old Sophie finds plenty of room in her heart for Pablo, a five-year-old Mexican orphan whose parents died during their illegal border crossing. Silent since his parents' death, he finally tells Sophie's family the name of his Mexican village, and plans are made to visit.
Sophie's fears--of everything from kitchen germs and diseases, not to mention relationships with boys--are tested when decides to join her great-aunt, her boyfriend Mr. Lorenzo, and his son Ángel on the trip. Will the relationship that develops between Ángel and Sophie be enough to overcome the obstacles they face?
What if your hero
doesn't want to be a hero?
It’s every baseball kid’s dream summer job: batboy for your hometown Major League team. But for 14-year-old Brian, the job means more than just the chance to hang around his idols. Now Brian sees the job as a way to win back his dad, who left Brian and his mom to coach in Japan.There is no winning back some people, though.
Just ask Hank Bishop—once the most popular player in baseball before he was banned for allegedly using steroids. Now Hank is making his comeback. And an unlikely friendship slowly develops between Hank, who’s looking for a family, and Brian, who’s looking for a dad.
What is it like to live with autism?
Even for a typical kid, it can be hard getting by from one school day to the next—hard to relate, hard to figure out the right thing to do at the right moment. But Jason is anything by typical, and every day is a battle to meet people’s expectations.
Jason can be himself and be happy when he’s writing short stories and sharing them online. When a girl responds and encourages him, Jason is excited. But when he has the chance to meet her at a conference, will he? Or will he hide behind his stories?
IOWA TEEN AWARD
2011-2012