This summer is going to be awesome, Geena thinks, fixing her hair into two long braids and grabbing her skateboard. Her cousin Hero is coming back to town after a year away at boarding school, and she's going to work with Geena and her best friend Amber at Triple Shot Betty's, a popular, teeny-tiny coffeehouse with a drive-through window and very little elbow room.

Loud, wild Amber and preppy, conservative Hero are like oil and water - they just don't mix. Throw in a bunch of guys - including a conceited recent graduate, an intriguing Italian boy, and Geena's lifelong classmate who is her academic rival - and someone's sure to reach their boiling point. This book is a modern-day version of Much Ado about Nothing, complete with mistaken identities and romantic blunders.

Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty is Jody Gehrman's first novel for teens. She's also written three adult novels and is hard at work on the next Betty book.

Do you approach writing teen fiction differently than you approach writing adult fiction?

Well, it is different, I suppose, but my approach is pretty much the same: find the character, delve into the setting, tell a story. The big challenge with YA is getting into that 16-year-old perspective again and trying to keep it contemporary without forcing the voice, you know? Like sometimes it's tempting to go overboard with slang just to show how "hip" you are, and that's kind of repellant. I think teen readers sense right away how inauthentic that is.

( Read more... )

Visit Jody's website.

The Second Virginity of Suzy Green is a novel for teens set in Australia, written by a British author, and released by an American publisher. Some people may balk at the title while others will dive into it, both parties expecting something racy. The story is far more tame than those people assume, as Suzy tries to reinvent herself at a new school and be a model daughter at home. In this exclusive interview, author Sara Hantz talks about her writing career, her travels, and her teen years.

Do you recall the title and plot of the first story you ever wrote?

The first book I finished was about 4 years ago, called Virgin on the Ridiculous. ( Read more... )

Visit Sara's website.

Kim, a middle school teacher, requested a booklist for middle schoolers. I started listing away and had to stop myself before I hit 100 books. Then I typed this up and just keep going.

Please feel free to ask for additional titles and/or more information about any of the books I have listed below.

First, the absolute must-haves: realistic comedies and dramas set in middle school or with characters in that age group.

Contemporary Realistic Fiction
(alphabetical by author)
The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy by Jeanne Birdsall
Just as Long as We're Together by Judy Blume
Here's to You, Rachel Robinson by Judy Blume
Leap of Faith by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Being Bindy by Alyssa Brugman
The Steps by Rachel Cohn
Two Steps Forward by Rachel Cohn
Sixth Grade Can Really Kill You by Barthe DeClements
Where I'd Like To Be by Frances O'Roark Dowell
Shug by Jenny Han
Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf by Jennifer L. Holm, artwork and illustrations by Elicia Castaldi, additional artwork by Matthew Holm
The Creek by Jennifer L. Holm
The Misfits by James Howe
The Girls by Amy Goldman Koss
The Truth About Sixth Grade by Colleen O'Shaughnessy McKenna
Sixth-Grade Glommers, Norks, and Me by Lisa Papademetriou
Define "Normal" by Julie Anne Peters
Sixth Grade Secrets by Louis Sachar
Yours Truly, Skye O'Shea by Megan Shull
Skye's the Limit! by Megan Shull
The Broccoli Tapes by Jan Slepian
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree by Lauren Tarshis
Multiple Choice by Janet Tashjian
Tru Confessions by Janet Tashjian
A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban
Click Here (To Find Out How I Survived Seventh Grade) by Denise Vega

. . . and series:

The Zibby Payne series by Alison Bell
#1 Zibby Payne and the Wonderful, Terrible Tomboy Experiment
#1 Zibby Payne and the Drama Trauma
#3 Zibby Payne and the Party Problem
#4 Zibby Payne and the Trio Trouble

Anastasia Krupnik series by Lois Lowry
- Anastasia Krupnik
- Anastasia Again!
- Anastasia At Your Service
- Anastasia, Ask Your Analyst
- Anastasia on her Own
- Anastasia has the Answers
- Anastasia's Chosen Career
- Anastasia at this Address
- Anastasia Absolutely

The Alice McKinley series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
There are over twenty books in this series, following Alice from third grade through high school. Here are the titles set in middle school:
- The Agony of Alice
- Alice in Rapture, Sort of
- Reluctantly Alice
- All but Alice
- Alice in April
- Alice In-Between
- Alice the Brave
- Alice in Lace
- Outrageously Alice
- Achingly Alice
- Alice on the Outside
- The Grooming of Alice (the summer between middle school and high school)

Fantasy/Mystery/Science Fiction Series
OutCast quartet by Christopher Golden and Thomas E. Sniegoski
#1 The Un-Magician
#2 Dragon Secrets
#3 Ghostfire
#4 Wurm War

Owlboy series by Thomas E. Sniegoski, illustrated by Eric Powell
#1 Billy Hooten, Owlboy
#2 The Girl with the Destructo Touch
#3 The Terror of the Zis-Boom-Bah
#4 The Flock of Fury

Ghost trilogy by Bruce Coville
#1 The Ghost in the Third Row
#2 The Ghost Wore Gray
#3 The Ghost in the Brass Bed

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
#1 The Golden Compass (published overseas as Northern Lights)
#2 The Subtle Knife
#3 The Amber Spyglass
- Lyra's Oxford (short story, taking place after Spyglass)
- Once Upon a Time in the North (prequel)
- The Book of Dust (which may not be out until 2010)

The Young Wizards series by Diane Duane
#1 So You Want to Be a Wizard
#2 Deep Wizardry
#3 High Wizardry
#4 A Wizard Abroad
#5 The Wizard's Dilemma
#6 A Wizard Alone
#7 Wizard's Holiday
#8 Wizards at War
#9 Wizard on Mars

Fantasy/Mystery/Science Fiction Stand-Alone Titles
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Sisters, Long Ago by Peg Kehret
The Wish by Gail Carson Levine
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

. . . and stock up on these authors!

John Bellairs books, including The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt
Mary Downing Hahn books, including The Doll in the Garden
Margaret Peterson Haddix books, including Among the Hidden (the first in the Shadow Children series), Just Ella, and Turnabout

Classics
The Anne Shirley octet by L.M. Montgomery
#1 Anne of Green Gables
#2 Anne of the Island
#3 Anne of Avonlea
#4 Anne of Windy Poplars
#5 Anne's House of Dreams
#6 Anne of Ingleside
#7 Rainbow Valley
#8 Rilla of Ingleside

All-of-a-Kind Family series by Sydney Taylor
- All-of-a-Kind Family
- More All-of-a-Kind Family
- All-of-a-Kind Family Uptown
- All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown
- Ella of All-of-a-Kind Family

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll
White Fang by Jack London
Call of the Wild by Jack London

Various titles by Noel Streatfeild, including
- Ballet Shoes
- Dancing Shoes
- Theatre Shoes

Historical Fiction
Behind the Attic Wall by Sylvia Cassedy
Runaround by Helen Hemphill
Mable Riley: A Reliable Record of Humdrum, Peril, and Romance by Marthe Jocelyn
Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Lawson
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
The Maggie Valley Trilogy by Kerry Madden
- Gentle's Holler
- Louisiana's Song
- Jessie's Mountain
Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller by Sarah Miller
A Break with Charity by Ann Rinaldi
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
(See the classics section above for even more historical fiction!)

Favorite Series
Nancy Drew
The Hardy Boys
The Baby-Sitters Club
Sweet Valley Twins (easy reads, yes, but far more appropriate for middle schoolers than the Sweet Valley series set in high school and college)
Junior High (which is sadly out-of-print)

Kim also asked for a shorter list for a specific boy, so I drew this up:

( Read more... )

Related Booklists: Gifted Middle School Readers, Clean Reads for Early Teens, If Then for Middle School