My Difficult Life :::

Tales about tough times for teens. 

       
Alphin, Elaine Marie.  The perfect shot.            
Brian uses basketball to block out memories of his girlfriend and her family who were murdered; however, the upcoming trial and a high school history assignment forces him to face the past.

Anderson, Laurie Halse.  Speak. 
A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year in high school.

Black, Jonah.  Girls, girls, girls. 
The diary of 17 year-old Jonah Black, who relates both his real-life and his fantasy adventures, as well as what happened during the two years that he was away at boarding school.

Bunting, Josiah.  All loves excelling. 
Amanda Bahringer, a bright, impressionable student at a prestigious boarding school, struggles to measure up to everyone's demands, from her mother to her instructors, as she tries to gain the credentials needed for admission to Dartmouth.

Canales, Viola.  The tequila worm. 
Sofia finds that her experiences as a scholarship student at an Episcopal boarding school in Austin only strengthen her ties to her family in the barrio community of McAllen,Texas.

Cook, Trish.  So lyrical.  
Trace's teenaged life becomes even more challenging when she must balance her friendships, school work, and a-typical family life with her quest to find her birth father.

Coy, John.   Crackback.   
Miles barely recalls when football was fun after being sidelined by a new coach, constantly criticized by his father, and pressured by his best friend to take
performance-enhancing drugs.

Crutcher, Chris.  Whale talk.
Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial, adopted teenager, shuns organized sports and the gung-ho athletes at his high school until he agrees to
form a swimming team and recruits some of the school's less popular students.

Dessen, Sarah.  Just listen.
Isolated from friends who believe the worst because she has not been truthful with them, sixteen-year-old Annabel finds an ally in classmate Owen, whose honesty and passion for music help her to face and share what really happened at the end-of-the-year party that changed her life.

Draper, Sharon M. Darkness before dawn.  
Recovering from the recent suicide of her ex-boyfriend, senior class president Keisha Montgomery finds herself attracted to a dangerous, older man.

Fleischman, Paul.  A fate totally worse than death.   
In this horror novel parody, three self-centered members of Cliffside High School's ruling clique, who are beginning to age rapidly, become convinced that the
beautiful new exchange student is the ghost of the girl whose death they caused the year before.

Flinn, Alex.  Breaking point. 
Fifteen-year-old Paul enters an exclusive private school and falls under the spell of a charismatic boy who may be using him.

Flinn, Alex.  Fade to black. 
An HIV-positive high school student hospitalized after being attacked, the bigot accused of the crime, and the only witness, a classmate with Down Syndrome, reveal how the assault has changed their lives as they tell of its aftermath.

Garden, Nancy.  Endgame.
Fifteen-year-old Gray Wilton, bullied at school and ridiculed by an unfeeling father for preferring drums to hunting, goes on a shooting rampage at his high school.

Garfinkle, Debra.  Storky : how I lost my nickname and won the girl.   
Fourteen-year-old high school student Michael "Storky" Pomerantz's journal describes his freshman year, from dealing with his mother's dating his dentist to
attempting to win the heart of the girl he loves.

Green, John.  Looking for Alaska.
Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes ood friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash.

Horowitz, Anthony.  Point blank. 
Alex, a fourteen-year-old spy, has been assigned by the British MI6 to investigate a series of mysterious deaths. He ends up in a boarding school in the Swiss Alps, and finds many strange things are happening to the students.

Hughes, Pat.  Open ice. 
Hockey has been Nick Taglio's life since he was five years old, so when a massive concussion benches him--possibly for good--everything seems to fall apart, including his schoolwork, his family relationships, his friendships, and his love life.

Kantor, Melissa.  If I have a wicked stepmother, where's my prince?
High school sophomore Lucy Norton finds herself trapped in a Cinderella story with a wicked stepmother, two evil stepsisters, and a charming prince who could make all Lucy's dreams come true.

Lubar, David.  Hidden talents. 
Thirteen-year-old Martin, a new student at an alternative school for misfits and problem students, falls in with a group of boys with psychic powers and discovers something surprising about himself.

Lyga, Barry.  The astonishing adventures of Fanboy & Goth Girl.
A fifteen-year-old "geek" who keeps a list of the high school jocks and others who torment him, and pours his energy into creating a great graphic novel, encounters Kyra, Goth Girl, who helps change his outlook on almost everything, including himself.

Moriarty, Jaclyn.  The year of secret assignments.
Three female students from Ashbury High write to three male students from rival Brookfield High as part of a pen pal program, leading to romance, humiliation, revenge plots, and war between the schools.

Myers, Walter Dean.  Shooter. 
Teachers, therapists,law enforcement officials, and others try to piece together the facts in the aftermath of a tragedy in which Len, a high school senior fed up with being bullied, shoots and kills a football hero and then commits suicide.

Myracle, Lauren.  Rhymes with witches. 
High school freshman Jane believes that she would do anything to be popular until she is selected to be in the school's most exclusive clique and learns that popularity has a price.

Nelson, Blake.  Paranoid Park. 
A sixteen-year-old Portland, Oregon skateboarder, whose parents are going through a difficult divorce, is engulfed by guilt and confusion when he accidentally kills a security guard at a train yard.

Oates, Joyce Carol.  Big Mouth & Ugly Girl. 
When sixteen-year-old Matt is falsely accused of threatening to blow up his high school and his friends turn against him, an unlikely classmate comes to his aid.

Osa, Nancy.  Cuba 15. 
Violet Paz, a Chicago high school student, reluctantly prepares for her upcoming "quince," a Spanish nickname for the celebration of an Hispanic girl's fifteenth birthday.

Ruby, Laura.  Good girls. 
Audrey, a sixteen-year-old high school senior, is humiliated when a compromising photograph of her is sent around her school, but she discovers a toughness within her that she never knew she had.

Shepard, Sara.  Pretty little liars. 
When one of their tightly-knit group mysteriously disappears, four high school girls find their friendship difficult to maintain when they begin receiving taunting messages from someone who seems to know everything about their past and present secrets.

Shulman, Polly.  Enthusiasm. 
Julie and Ashleigh, high school sophomores and Jane Austen fans, seem to fall for the same Mr. Darcy-like boy and struggle to hide their true feelings from one another while rehearsing for a school musical.

Shusterman, Neal.  Dread locks. 
Accustomed to a carefree existence, fourteen-year-old Parker Baer meets the girl next door and finds his life taking a menacing turn as he begins to absorb some of her terrible powers.

Valdes-Rodriguez, Alisa.  Haters. 
Having tried for years to deny her psychic abilities, high school sophomore Paski has disturbing visions about the popular girl at her new high school in Orange County, California.

Vizzini, Ned.  Be more chill. 
Badly in need of self-confidence and a change of image, high school nerd Jeremy Heere swallows a pill-sized super computer that is supposed to help him get  whatever he wants.

Volponi, Paul.  Black and white.   
Two star high school basketball players, one black and one white, experience the justice system differently after committing a crime together and getting caught.

Watt, Alan.  Diamond dogs. 
Seventeen-year-old Neil Garvin blames his abusive father for driving his mother away years earlier, and plans on leaving his small hometown after graduating high school, but when he accidentally commits a terrible crime, which his father, unasked, covers up, he finds himself unwillingly indebted to his father.

Werlin, Nancy.  Black mirror. 
Convinced her brother's death was murder rather than suicide, sixteen-year-old Frances begins her own investigation into suspicious student activities at her boarding school.