2007 National Book Award Winner

In his first book for young adults, bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.  (J,S)

2007 National Book Award Finalists

When her bitter father dies, Sadima, a young woman who can communicate with animals, keeps house for two renegade magicians at a time when magic has been outlawed. Her experiences, which include learning to read and falling in love, alternate with those of Hahp, born generations after Sadima. Exiled by his wealthy, disapproving father, he attends a school of wizardry where, among other unpleasantness, students are starved to death if they can't conjure up food.  (M,J,S)

Karina has plenty to worry about on the last day of seventh grade: finding three Ds and a C on her report card again, getting laughed at by everyone again, being sent to the principal - again. Meanwhile, at home Karina and her sisters are dodging their abusive stepfather's blows. Finally her stepfather is taken away on child abuse charges. The problem is, he's not gone for good, and Karina starts to realize that for all the troubles her family had tried to escape by immigrating from Haiti, they brought most of them along to upstate New York. And Karina knows that if anything is going to change for this family, it is going to be up to her to make it happen.  (J,S)

Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in the station, Hugo's undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message from Hugo's dead father form the backbone of this intricate, tender, and spellbinding mystery.  (M,J)

When she is caught in the backseat of a car with her older brother's best friend - Deanna Lambert's teenage life is changed forever. Struggling to overcome the lasting repercussions and the stifling role of "school slut," she longs to escape a life defined by her past.  (S)

2006 National Book Award Winner

Raised by a group of rational philosophers known only by numbers, Octavian and his mother — a princess in exile from a faraway land — are the only persons in their household assigned names. Dressed in silks and given the finest of classical educations, it is only after he dares to open a forbidden door that he learns the hideous nature of their experiments — and his own chilling role in them.  (S)

2006 National Book Award Finalists

Lost and hungry after following a stately hart through the forest, poor peasant girl Keturah encounters Lord Death, who is ready to take her. Like Scheherazade, Keturah spins a story that she leaves unfinished and extracts from Lord Death a promise that if she finds her true love in a day, she can go free. But Lord Death is falling in love with her, and as the villagers begin to sense her alliance with this horrifying figure, her life twists and turns on itself.  (M,J,S)

Lakshmi, 13, knows nothing about the world beyond her village shack in the Himalayas of Nepal, and when her family loses the little it has in a monsoon, she grabs a chance to work as a maid in the city so she can send money back home. What she doesn't know is that her stepfather has sold her into prostitution. She ends up in a brothel far across the border in the slums of Calcutta, locked up, beaten, starved, drugged, and raped. When an American comes to the brothel to rescue girls, Lakshmi finally gets a sense of hope.  (J,S)

For Matt and his sisters, life with their cruel, vicious mother is a day-to-day struggle for survival. But then Matt witnesses Murdoch coming to a child’s rescue in a convenience store, and for the first time, he feels a glimmer of hope. When, amazingly, Murdoch begins dating Matt’s mother, life is suddenly almost good. But the relief lasts only a short time. When Murdoch inevitably breaks up with their mother, Matt knows he needs to take action. But can he call upon his hero? Or will he have to take measures into his own hands?  (J,S)

A tour-de-force by rising indy comics star Gene Yang, American Born Chinese tells the story of three apparently unrelated characters: Jin Wang, who moves to a new neighborhood with his family only to discover that he’s the only Chinese-American student at his new school; the powerful Monkey King, subject of one of the oldest and greatest Chinese fables; and Chin-Kee, a personification of the ultimate negative Chinese stereotype, who is ruining his cousin Danny’s life with his yearly visits. Their lives and stories come together with an unexpected twist in this action-packed modern fable.  (J,S)

2005 National Book Award Winner

This summer the Penderwick sisters have a wonderful surprise: a holiday on the grounds of a beautiful estate called Arundel. Soon they are busy discovering the summertime magic of Arundel’s sprawling gardens, treasure-filled attic, tame rabbits, and the cook who makes the best gingerbread in Massachusetts. But the best discovery of all is Jeffrey Tifton, son of Arundel’s owner, who quickly proves to be the perfect companion for their adventures.   (grades 4-6)

2005 National Book Award Finalists

Teen sisters Jane and Lily tell the story of their relationship in alternating chapters. The gradually developing plot brings a growing understanding that Jane is telling her story after her death. In life, she had a difficult time separating the real from the pretend. She needed to surround herself with items of comfort and preferred her grandparents' home to anyplace else on Earth; after she dies, she returns to their home and re-creates it as it was when they were alive. Attractive, popular Lily, one year younger than Jane, is coming to terms with her sister's death and mental illness. Also confronting her is the tight hold she has on her recently graduated boyfriend and her return to high school without him.  (M,J,S)

Keir Sarafian knows many things about himself. He is a talented footballplayer, a loyal friend, a devoted son and brother. Most of all, he is agood guy. And yet the love of his life thinks otherwise. Gigi says Keir has done something unforgivable. Keir doesn't understand. He would never do anything to hurt Gigi. So Keir carefully recounts the events leading up to that one fateful night, in order to uncover the truth.  (J,S)

Fifteen-year-old Jesse lives a clean and relatively careful life in contemporary Harlem. His best friend and honorary brother, Rise, is two years older and plays life faster and looser. The boys belong to a social club inherited from the men of the older generation. The Counts aren't a gang and the members tend to have a variety of aesthetic interests. Jesse is devoted to cartooning and sketching while C. J. is a fine musician. Rise, however, it seems to Jesse, has begun to lead a second life that doesn't include him or The Counts.  (J,S)

Ten-year-old Comfort Snowberger has attended 247 funerals - her family owns the local funeral home, after all. And even though Great-uncle Edisto keeled over with a heart attack and Great-great-aunt Florentine dropped dead - just like that - six months later, Comfort knows how to deal with loss, or so she thinks. She's more concerned with avoiding her crazy cousin Peach and trying to figure out why her best friend, Declaration, suddenly won't talk to her. But life is full of surprises. And the biggest one of all is learning what it takes to handle them.   (grades 4-6)

2004 National Book Award Winner

Fed up with his parents' boring old religion, agnostic-going-on-atheist Jason Bock invents a new god - the town's water tower. He recruits an unlikely group of worshippers, and as their religion grows, it takes on a life of its own. When the Chutengodians hold their first ceremony high atop the dome of the water tower, things quickly go from merely dangerous to terrifying and deadly. Jason soon realizes that inventing a religion is a lot easier than controlling it, but control it he must, before his creation destroys both his friends and himself.  (J,S)

2004 National Book Award Finalists

Sixteen-year-old Ruby McQueen is known as "that quiet girl" at school, so she is intoxicated when she meets gorgeous rich-kid Travis Becker, with whom she feels tough and "fearless." Travis involves her in increasingly dangerous stunts until Ruby finally breaks away, but her mother, Ann, knows the difficulty of choosing self-protection over a thrilling love: she has struggled for years to get over Ruby's absent, philandering father. To distract herself and her daughter, Ann brings Ruby to her book club with "The Casserole Queens," a group of wisecracking seniors who embroil Ann and Ruby in a plan to reunite a friend with a lost love.  (J,S)

With a beautiful open design, this illustrated history combines the politics of the black metropolis in the roaring 1920s with long, detailed chapters on the "blazing creativity" of performers, writers, visual artists, and intellectuals.  (M,J,S)

Twelve-year-old Pattie Mae dreams of going north, inspired by her urbane uncle Buddy's condemnation of "post slaves stuff." Their shared indignation is grimly justified when Buddy offends a white woman for a breach of etiquette, and she falsely accuses him of attempted rape. As Pattie Mae bears witness to Buddy's dire situation, she also worries about her grandfather's deteriorating health and chafes under her mother's strictness.  (M,J)

Regan's brother Liam can't stand the person he is during the day. Like the moon from whom Liam has chosen his female namesake, his true self, Luna, only reveals herself at night. In the secrecy of his basement bedroom Liam transforms himself into the beautiful girl he longs to be, with help from his sister's clothes and makeup. Now, everything is about to change - Luna is preparing to emerge from her cocoon. But are Liam's family and friends ready to welcome Luna into their lives?  (S)