Amid the backdrop of the true 2002 Beltway Sniper attacks around Washington, D.C., two boys struggle through friendship, loss, grief, fear, and love. They both cling to people in their pasts and have a hard time noticing each other in the present.

Nikki Giovanni collects 100+ poems by African-American writers famous and obscure. Some of the impact of the poems can be attributed to her skillful juxtaposition, relating or contrasting one poem with the next. There are poets you've heard of and some you might not know, but every poem is well worth reading.

The "cheats" happen in interludes throughout the book--a brief collection of poems about jazz, for example, which push the total number of poems to well over 100.

Comes with a CD of some of the poems being read aloud, including an absolutely jaw-dropping group rendition of Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool."

Gabe rules the radio on his weekly midnight show, Beautiful Music for Ugly Children, but during the day he's stuck being Liz. Gabe's always known that he's really a boy, but his parents have been cold and distant ever since he told them the truth. His best friend Paige is there for him, even though she's hovering between friend and more than friend, and Gabe's next door neighbor John is his music guru and guide.

When a disastrous date ends in Gabe's outing, he faces not just ridicule but danger. Will the Ugly Children Brigade stick by him, or will he have to face the music alone?

An engaging read for music nerds and fans of complex, conflicted everyday heroes. The Author's Notes in the back are a little didactic, but they're good for anyone who wants further information about transgender issues.

Elliott North has been running her father's estate since her mother died when she was fourteen. In her pastoral post-Reduction world, no technology is allowed, not even electricity. So when Elliott creates a new strain of wheat so that her family and their servants won't starve, she knows she's doing forbidden work...but she does it anyway.

When the Fleet, a daring group of sailors who venture into the unknown, rents the shipyards belonging to Elliott's ailing grandfather, she expects to have nothing to do with them beyond using their money to keep the estate afloat. But the Fleet brings an old friend--Kai, who used to work on the North estate, is now Captain Malakai Wentforth, the most famous Fleet Captain in the world. He left the estate when he and Elliott were both fourteen, and she never expected to see him again. But Kai doesn't seem happy to be 'home'. When Elliott finds out that the Fleet is hiding an abominable secret, she'll have to choose which is most important to her--family, responsibility, or love.

Based on Jane Austen's Persuasion, For Darkness Shows the Stars is a futuristic historical romance with solid characters and excellent world-building. Even the slightly too-perfect ending works, considering the source material. Highly recommended.

Stephen has always been the sidekick of the super-sleuth duo he shares with his best friend Marco. Now Marco is getting bullied for being gay, a nerd, and the being a fanatic detective, and Stephen is trying to do his best to solve this mystery behind his "boss's" back. It can be funny at times, and a good read, but Marco's personality will get in the way of many readers and he won't come off as a very likable character. Still, worth a read.

When Angela decides to change her name to Grady and announce that she has always felt like he was really a boy, Grady's life suddenly becomes so much more complicated. To Grady, being a boy has always felt like a much better fit than being a girl, but being transgender in high school (especially after having been homeschooled most of your life) is incredibly daunting. This book is an excellent read for anyone, whether you are familiar with trans people or not.

Another sequel to Hartinger's The Geography Club, Split Screen tells two concurrent stories from different narrators--the familiar narrator Russell, and then his friend Min. While skimming the surface of real issues for queer teens in high school, readers familiar with this series will enjoy the fluff of this plot as they go along with Russell, Gunnar, Min, Otto, and Em as they work as extras during the local filming of a new teen zombie movie.

Aristotle has never had a single friend until a boy at the pool, Dante, decides he wants to teach Ari how to swim. Though complete opposites, the two boys hit it off and quickly become each others' best (and only) friends. With many ups and downs, and twists and turns, their friendship lasts while both of them discover meaning in their Mexican-American heritage and their strong family ties.

Everything changed for Gratuity "Tip" Tucci after her mother was abducted by aliens. Actually, everything changed for everybody when the Boov took over. They decided that Earthlings should all move to certain segments of their countries (do I smell a metaphor?), which in America means Florida. So Tip sets out for Florida, hoping to find her mother there. What she finds instead is a renegade Boov named J.Lo (yes, after that J.Lo), and another whole race of aliens called the Gorg. And the Gorg are about to make the Boov look like stuffed toys...

Alternately hilarious and heartbreaking, with Polaroids and J.Lo's own illustrations interspersed in the narrative, this is one of my favorite books I've read lately. Dreamworks is working on a film, and I can only hope it measures up. Recommended for everyone from tween to adult.

Yes, I am still pushing through a reread of this series...but I'm about to drop it. The obvious sexism of the previous book gets even worse in this one, with a protagonist committing what is very clearly rape...after which the woman falls in love with him.

Plot-wise, there's a growing schism betwen F'lar's riders and the Oldtimers, who were brought up out of the past to save Pern in a previous book. The Oldtimers are resistant to F'lar's innovations, and Kylara (a stock 'scarlet woman' caricature) wreaks havoc by having the same lack of inhibitions as the men. Meanwhile, the parasitic Thread is falling where and when it shouldn't, making the future of life on Pern questionable.

Excellent world-building ruined with awful characterization.

Aww, Clint. If life seemed hard in the first trade, it's nothing compared to how bad things are about to get. The tracksuit mafia is in a rush to settle their score with him, which means they're bringing in even more dangerous help from the outside. Help that isn't overly concerned about things like "collateral damage." And did we mention the hurricane barreling down on New York?

And then there's "Pizza Is My Business," the final installment of the trade. You'd think having an entire issue narrated by a dog would be funny--even gimmicky at the worst. But the story is full of unexpected emotional impact and might well be the best individual issue of the run.

"Okay, this looks bad." A fitting opening for the series, in which Clint Barton just can't catch a break. Between the tracksuit mafia, the other Hawkeye (an heiress named Kate Bishop), and a one-eyed dog, his life is complicated even without the trouble that comes from being in the hero business.

One of the best Marvel runs in recent memory. Recommended for everyone.

St. Ignatius Academy for Boys is a last hope for "troublesome boys." It is a school that has a long reputation of secrecy and most outsiders suspect plenty of foul play happening there. But no one quite knows the extent of it until Teddy's mom's boyfriend sends Teddy there and he witnesses it all.

This novel gives a startling (and fictional) look at the physical and sexual abuse from some Catholic priests in the 1950s and 1960s, bringing light to the controversy that began surfacing much later. Teddy is so shocked by what he see's "holy men" doing that he starts to wonder how God would let people get away with the things happening in this school.

Standish Treadwell can't read very well, or write very well, either. But that doesn't mean he isn't smart and the certainly doesn't mean that he clueless about what's going on. He knows the high-ups who have taken over his home country are trying to stage the first moon landing to show the rest of the world that they are a force to be reckoned with. And he also knows that if you step out of line, your punishment will be death. But Standish is ready to risk everything to save his country and his best friend Hector by showing the world how weak and how fake the ruling Motherland really is.

Phoebe lives with her mom and older sister, and they are all shocked to hear that their cousin from Arizona, Leonard, is coming to live with them. They have no idea how to live with a boy, and when Leonard gets there, they all think he's really weird. He's flamboyant, jovial, and Phoebe thinks he has all the telltale signs of being gay. Leonard doens't identify as anything, yet--he thinks he's just being himself.

Tragedy strikes when Leonard goes missing and suddenly the whole town of Neptune, New Jersey is turned upside down by trying to uncover what happened to Leonard Pelkey. Phoebe undergoes her coming of age in learning to deal with Leonard's disappearance and grappling between the difference of good and evil.

Rudy hates that his family has to (temporarily?) move to a remote island to try to save his younger brother's life. This island is surrounded by legends of "magical" fish with healing properties, and is inhabited mostly by people with terminal illnesses. And the fish really DO work.

But the legends of a ghost seem to be the only thing to rouse Rudy out of his loneliness as he starts to unfold the secrets and scandals this island and its inhabitants are trying to hide, including the merman he meets in the ocean whose own story is important to everyone on the island.

Jody and Jolene Barton are twins. Jody and Jolene both instantly fall in love with the hot guy who walks into their parents' diner. Jody's bedroom is covered in posters of River Phoenix, whom Jody swears this new hot guy could pass as. But it's instantly not your typical love triangle, because Jody has a secret. A BIG secret.

WHAT'S UP WITH JODY BARTON is a funny look at being a teenager in modern middle class London, not caring about the crazy football culture of England (even if your bedroom happens to overlook Wembley Stadium), and having a forbidden crush on the guy who looks just like your beloved bedroom posters of River Phoenix.

Carlos Duarte knows it's his destiny to become a famous makeup artist, and he's determined to start at the FeatureFace counter at the New York Macy's. He only has to pad his resume a little to get an interview, and once the manager sees how talented he is, he's got a job.

But there are complications. His boss Valentino hates him, his sister's boyfriend is abusing her, and his mom loses her job managing a dry cleaner. And that's not to mention Gleason, Carlos' sort-of-friend that he'd like to have as a lot more than a friend. When a huge career opportunity comes up, Carlos has to decide what rules can be broken, and if the consequences are worth the rewards.

As a reward for a lifetime of perfect grades, eighth-grader Bee decides that her family is going to take a trip to Antarctica--something that her agoraphobic, misanthropic mother can't handle. Circumstances build until her mother Bernadette finally decides that she can't take it anymore--and she disappears.

Told through a series of documents, with Bee's notes and experiences included, the novel explores the breakdown of a famous architect turned unwilling suburban mom. The ending is satisfying but not as simple as it seems. An adult novel recommended for older teens.

Within the first twenty pages, Brent has done something almost unforgivable: He gets drunk and wrecks his car, killing another teenager. What he can't tell anyone is that he was trying to commit suicide at the time.

Since he's a minor, and his parents are rich, Brent serves no jail time. Instead, the dead girl's mother asks him to build a whirligig at each of the four corners of the United States in her daughter Lea's memory. So Brent sets out for Washington with a backpack, a saw, and an old book on building whirligigs.

After each of Brent's chapters is a chapter that takes place long after the whirligigs have been built, showing how the whirligigs themselves affect the lives of the people who see them, showing that our good actions--not just our bad--can ripple outwards into the future.

A teen classic that I somehow had never read. Eric is the only hope of getting his friend Sarah Byrnes out of a catatonic state--one that he believes is self-induced. He thinks that getting her to wake up will solve all of their problems, but that's only the start of the trouble. Frank discussions in Eric's Contemporary American Thought class are the main reason that this book appears on lists of frequently-banned books. Highly recommended.

Somehow my middle-school self missed the appallingly misogynistic aspects of this book. I get that the book is a product of its time, but a hero who is constantly shaking the heroine, to the point where she's actively afraid of provoking that reaction, is not okay. The worldbuilding is incredible, and later books in the series seem to be somewhat less problematic, but this one is about as sexist as its pulp-style cover implies.

For awesome dragons without the sexist aftertaste, try Naomi Novik's Temeraire series.

Nate Foster is back in Tim Federle's sequel to his debut novel, BETTER NATE THAN EVER. E.T.:THE MUSICAL is beginning rehearsals and preparing for the first preview performance, and Nate has so much to learn about how Broadway really works. This novel is hilarious for theater geeks, younger teens, and anyone looking to read a book that keeps you smiling all the way through.

A rare find of a book. Nate Foster is nearly fourteen, and as an eighth grader he just can't catch a break. He's only 4'8", has a high voice, has shown no attraction to girls yet, and he is obsessed with Broadway musicals. So he is often bullied at school and even a seventh-grader shoved him into a locker. Being called a "fag" is nothing new, even though he hasn't even thought about his own sexuality; it's not important to him yet, but he definitely doesn't know if he's gay or straight and he doesn't want to think about it.

His only friend Libby helps him hatch his escape plan to run away to New York to audition for the new E.T.: THE MUSICAL. But Nate has no idea what to expect when he arrives in New York by himself and tries to audition for a real Broadway musical. He's much less prepared than he originally thought, and hilarity ensues. Nate's naivety is the best part of the book as he takes us along for his crazy ride. A great debut novel.

Russel Middlebrook is back in this sequel to Brent Hartinger's GEOGRAPHY CLUB. This novel picks up right where the last one left off--Russel has been outed to his entire high school and now he is known as "the gay kid." Eager to escape, he jumps at the chance to be a summer camp counselor with his best friends Gunnar and Min as soon as the school year ends.

While at camp, the three friends have their share of romantic adventures, intrigue, and mishaps pretty predictably. However, Hartinger does a good job of keeping enough twists in the plot to keep it interesting. He especially has added much more depth to the three main characters to make this novel better and more mature than its predecessor. A quick and fun read and a sequel that definitely is an improvement on the "just scratching the surface" nature of the first book.

Bobby tries to explain how he got to where he is now: a sixteen-year-old single father in New York City, with a baby girl he loves more than anything. A very short, very powerful book told in a non-linear fashion. Highly, highly recommended.

A quick and suspenseful read. A likeable protagonist. Bits of humor and potential romance sprinkled through out the more macabre elements of the books. Similar to I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga, Bad Kitty by Jaffe, and the Christopher Killer series.

Another great adventure story from Seven the Series. Would be a good readalike for fans of Gary Paulsen, Gary Schmidt, and other outdoorsy-adventure-survival stories.

Very well written, interesting story about a little known ethnic group, not sure how much popular appeal this will have

Austin Szerba is obsessed with history, and so he takes it upon himself to observe and record history as the truth. He has been doing so for so long that he has volumes upon volumes of his "history books" which he wrote giving his "truthful" accounts of his observable world. Austin has two friends, Robby, who is gay, and Shann, who is Austin's girlfriend. Austin loves them both, and he feels guilty because he knows he can't love them both in the way he wants to.

But Austin encounters bigger problems when he and Robby are witnesses to the beginning of the end of the world as they know it. Their bullies accidentally release a science experiment from their Iowa town's shady past, and soon 6-foot tall bugs begin taking over. Austin tries his best to record everything with accuracy from the unstoppable bugs, to his romantic failures with his only two friends, to ultimately linking his ancestry with his present. This hilarious novel is like a crazy horror movie, with campy gore and matter-of-fact storytelling from our ever-historically-minded and witty narrator.