The BookKids Blog!

Do you have a teen on your list who’s read everything?  Who is too smart for their own good?  Who wants to read something new and different and maybe even a little shocking?  It might be the last minute, but we can still help you out.  Check out these mind-blowing teen titles!

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
Seventeen-year-old Jenna Fox has just woken up from a coma.  She doesn’t remember anything about her life.   Jenna watches videos – there is one for each year of her life.  Slowly things start to come back to her: her dad is a doctor who has developed revolutionary medicine, her grandmother used to dote upon her and now can hardly look at her.  When she cuts her hand and doesn’t bleed, Jenna knows something is wrong – and that her new friends at school would never accept her if they knew.

The Patron Saint of Butterflies by Cecila Galante
Agnes and Honey have grown up together on the Mount Blessing religious commune.  They’ve always been best friends, but lately things have been different.  While Agnes loves being a Believer, Honey has started to resent the commune, especially their leader Emmanuel.  Emmanuel has control over the lives of everyone at Mount Blessing, and when Agnes’ grandmother visits and discovers a horrible secret, things begin to go awry.  Grandma Pete is quick to scoop up the children and take them away.  Honey is excited for a new future, but Agnes is terrified.  These girls’ journey will break your heart and challenge your views in a way most books can only hope to do.

The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman
Honor has grown up on one of the northern islands with her parents – they fend for themselves, with no help or interference from the government.  But when they are found and brought to the colony on Island 365, Honor’s life changes forever.  She discovers that her family doesn’t fit in – she never learned to worship Earth Mother, or about New Weather.  Even her name is strange: her letter H is silent, unlike the other girls born her year.  It’s not long before the government takes notice and Honor realizes she has a choice to make.  Will she try and fit in, or will she be able to overcome society’s pressure to do right by her parents?  Taking place in the future when the polar ice caps have melted, this book will take your breath away with its environmental and political insights.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
In the future North America has been divided into twelve colonies.  There once were thirteen, but the government destroyed the thirteenth colony during an uprising, and as punishment, every year they now hold the Hunger Games – a televised fight to the death.  Each colony is required to provide two tributes – a boy and a girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen.  The names are drawn at random, but in exchange for food rations, a family can enter their child extra times. When her sister’s name is drawn, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to go in her place, and finds herself deep in the strange world of glamour – it is television, after all – and wilderness combat.  A strange mix of Survivor and Sparticus, this isn’t a book you want to miss.