Prep

Lee Fiora is a smart girl from Indiana who decides to leave the Heartland to journey to the mysterious, elite world of Ault School in Massachusetts. Her dreams of entering the ranks of her rich peers never quite come to fruition, and Lee is often waiting on the sidelines for her life to come together, and it never quite does. Prep is a leisurely-paced novel that revolves around the internal life of Lee rather than pure plot, which can be both fascinating and frustrating. At 400 pages, this detailed account of Lee's 4 years at Ault makes the reader feel like they have truly joined her in her high school experience. We are with her as she struggles to make friends, feels hopelessly alienated, stumbles through awkward and casual sex experiences, and grapples with being an invisible outsider on scholarship.

Appeals: Character-driven, frustratingly real protagonist, rich with detail. Elements of romance and friendship, but ultimately balanced in a way that addresses the loneliness and unhappiness many people feel during adolescence.

This book shares the alienation of Holden in Catcher in the Rye, the strange solitude and pointlessness of life felt by the main character of The Bell Jar, and the solitude and internal struggle of the main character in Speak (by Laurie Halse Anderson).

If you like stories about alienated, disillusioned youth, you might also enjoy Rule of the Bone by Russell Banks.

Sittenfeld, Curtis. Prep. 2005. 420 pages.

The Graveyard Book

Nobody Owens is anything but ordinary. After his entire family is killed, Nobody (aka Bod) is raised and educated by ghosts, werewolves, and people somewhere between life and death.
When Bod becomes a teen, he longs to learn about life outside the graveyard, and most importantly, to find Jack, the man who killed his family.
Winner of the Newbery Medal in 2009, Gaiman's book is part fantasy, part reality, part adventure, and all macabre.

Appeals: fast pace, elements of fantasy, tinges of horror and adventure

If you enjoy the dark adventure of The Graveyard Book, you might also enjoy Coraline (also by Neil Gaiman), or the Cirque du Freak series by Darren Shan.

Gaiman, Neil. The Graveyard Book. 2008. 312 pages.

Bonus: Want to find out what author Neil Gaiman has been reading? Watch this video, courtesy of Salon.com

Spanking Shakespeare

His parents cursed him with a horrible name, and life has only gotten worse since he was born on Hitler’s birthday. Shakespeare Shapiro is a senior in high school and has never had a girlfriend, has a younger brother who’s cooler than he is, and has a best friend who discusses nothing but his bowel movements. But Shakespeare can write, and he chronicles every mortifying moment in this borderline obscene tale.

Appeals: Hilarious, awkward, gross.

Wizner, Jake. Spanking Shakespeare. 2007. 304 pages.

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things

Virginia Shreves isn’t FAT fat, just chubby fat, which means that hooking up with Froggy Welsh must be kept a secret. Virginia lives in a penthouse in New York with a skinny, perfect family and wonders if she was switched at birth. When something happens to mar the family’s good name, Virginia starts to write her own rules, and before long, it seems like anything is possible.

Appeals: funny, girl power message, deals with tough and uncomfortable issues.

If you like books about teenangers who don't quite fit in, you might enjoy Boy Proof by Cecil Castellucci, The Astonishing Adventures of Fan Boy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga or Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli.

If you like books that make you laugh like this one, you might enjoy Girl, 15, Charming but Insane by Sue Limb, Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdoch, or Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison.

Mackler, Carolyn. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things. 2005. 256 pages.

Rule of the Bone

Drugs. Identity. Broken families. Slavery. Ashanti warriors and Rastafarians. White privilege. Journey.

This is how I would describe Rule of the Bone.

Bone is a story of 14-year-old Chappie. Chappie hates his stepfather and is well on his way to self-destructing when he starts using and dealing drugs, stealing from his family, and running from the law. Life changes when he meets I-Man, a Jamaican mystic who starts to change Chappie's outlook on life and who starts him on a journey of self-discovery.

Ultimately, Bone is a story about finding yourself and figuring out what's important in life.

Appeals: Strong first-person narration, gritty, tale of journey and growing up

If you like this book, you might also like What is the What by Dave Eggers for a similar though very different tale of pilgrimage and discovery. Also, the Autobiography of Malcolm X.

Banks, Russell. Rule of the Bone. 1995. 390 pages.