Popular Teen Sci-Fi or Fantasy

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• Teen books
• Science Fiction or Fantasy
  

The Hunger Games
By Suzanne Collins
YA F COLLINS
In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.

The Amulet of Samarkand
By Jonathan Stroud
YA F STROUD
Nathaniel, a magician's apprentice, summons up the djinni Bartimaeus and instructs him to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from the powerful magician Simon Lovelace.

Unwind
By Neal Shusterman
YA F SHUSTERM
In a future world where those between the ages of thirteen and eighteen can have their lives "unwound" and their body parts harvested for use by others, three teens go to extreme lengths to uphold their beliefs--and, perhaps, save their own lives.

The Wee Free Men
By Terry Pratchett
YA F PRATCHET
A young witch-to-be named Tiffany teams up with the Wee Free Men, a clan of six-inch-high blue men, to rescue her baby brother and ward off a sinister invasion from Fairyland.

Life As We Knew It
By Susan Beth Pfeffer
YA F PFEFFER
Through journal entries sixteen-year-old Miranda describes her family's struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.

Fast-paced Quirky Historical Fiction Set in the U.S.

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• Fast-paced books
• Historical fiction
• Books set in the United States
• Quirky books

Hattie Big Sky
By Kirby Larson
YA F LARSON
After inheriting her uncle's homesteading claim in Montana, sixteen-year-old orphan Hattie Brooks travels from Iowa in 1917 to make a home for herself and encounters some unexpected problems related to the war being fought in Europe.

North by Night
By Katherine Ayres
YA F AYRES
It's 1851 and Lucy Spencer's family is keeping a secret. Their Ohio home is a station on the Underground Railroad, the network of people and places that helps fugitive slaves escape to freedom in Canada. Lucy believes in what she and her family do to help the fugitives, even if it means putting herself in danger.

These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901
By Nancy Turner
F TURNER
This is the fictionalized diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 17, who goes from New Mexico to Texas and back, protecting her family with her rifle and her common sense. She recounts the trials and heartaches of settling the Arizona Territory but also the joys of life that helped her to keep going. This book starts off a bit slow but readers who stick with it are very satisfied.

Anne of Green Gables
By L.M. Montgomery
YA F MONTGOME
Anne, an eleven-year-old orphan, is sent by mistake to live with a lonely, middle-aged brother and sister on a Prince Edward Island farm and proceeds to make an indelible impression on everyone around her. (This book is not set in the U.S., but it's a fun, classic historical fiction book.)

Fast-paced Teen Action Thrillers

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• Action thrillers
• Adventure
• Fast-paced books
• Teen books
• Books written in the last 10 years

SilverFin
By Charles Higson
YA F HIGSON
This pequel to the adventures of James Bond, 007, introduces the young James when he is just starting boarding school in England and is about to become involved in his first adventure. Book one in the Young Bond Series; sequel is Blood Fever.

Dangerous Days of Daniel X
By James Patterson
YA F PATTERSON
Fifteen-year-old Daniel has followed in his parents' footsteps as the Alien Hunter, exterminating beings on The List of Alien Outlaws on Terra Firma, but when he faces his first of the top ten outlaws, the very existence of Earth and another planet are at stake.

The Recruit
By Robert Muchamore
YA F MUCHAMORE
When James is recently orphaned, he is recruited by a secret agency for his math skills and must undergo one hundred days of grueling training. Book one in the Cherub Series; sequel is The Dealer.

Devil’s Breath
By David Gilman
YA F GILMAN
When his father goes missing and he is almost killed at his boarding school in England, Max travels to the wilderness of Namibia to try to find him where he soon learns about his father's work to stop Shaka Chang and his evil plot for ecological destruction.

Ruins of Gorlan
By John Flanagan
YA F FLANAGAN
When fifteen-year-old Will is rejected by battleschool, he becomes the reluctant apprentice to the mysterious Ranger Halt, and winds up protecting the kingdom from danger. Book one in the Ranger’s Apprentice series; sequel is “Burning Bridge.”

Multicultural Historical Fiction

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• Historical fiction
• Multicultural books

Kitchen God’s Wife
By Amy Tan
F TAN
Chinese-born Winnie and her American-born daughter Pearl have both been keeping secrets--Winnie about her past and Pearl about her declining health. When Winnie reveals her secrets, she describes her life in war-torn China in the 1940s, where she had a lonely and miserable childhood followed by a horrific arranged marriage.

Sister of My Heart
By Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
F DIVAKARUNI
Sudha and Anju are cousins, both born prematurely on the same day. Although Sudha is beautiful and Anju is not, the girls form a strong bond, one that is seemingly unbreakable. However, arranged marriages for each girl lead to the discovery of secrets that threatens to break that bond.

Swallows of Kabul
By Yasmina Khadra
F KHADRA
Mohsen was once a wealthy merchant, but the destruction of the Soviet War and Talib rule has changed that; now he merely spends his days wandering the streets. One day, he stops to witness the stoning of a prostitute and is caught up in the frenzy.

Homeless Bird
By Gloria Whelan
YA F WHELAN
When 13-year old Kholy enters into an ill-fated arranged marriage, she must either suffer a destiny dictated by India’s traditions or find the courage to oppose it.

In the Time of the Butterflies
By Julia Alvarez
F ALVAREZ
Inspired by the true story of the three Mirabal sisters who, in 1960, were murdered for their part in an underground plot to overthrow the government, this novel tells of what the sisters' teenage years may have been like and how they became involved with the revolution.

Goose Girl Read-alikes

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• Read-alikes for Shannon Hale
• Fairy Tales
• Fantasy
• Teen
  
• Clean Reads

Beauty
By Robyn McKinley
YA F MCKINLEY
Kind Beauty grows to love the Beast at whose castle she is compelled to stay and through her love releases him from the spell which had turned him from a handsome prince into an ugly beast.

Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow
By Jessica Day George
YA F GEORGE
A girl travels east of the sun and west of the moon to free her beloved prince from a magic spell.

Keturah and Lord Dead
By Martine Leavitt
YA F LEAVITT
When Lord Death comes to claim sixteen-year-old Keturah while she is lost in the King's Forest, she charms him with her story and is granted a twenty-four hour reprieve in which to seek her one true love.

The Princess and the Hound
By Mette Ivie Harrison
YA F HARRISON
George has always felt burdened by his princely duties, and even more by the need to hide the magic through which he speaks with animals, but when he is betrothed to the strange princess of a neighboring kingdom, his secret, and the persecution of people like himself, must come to an end.

Wings
By Aprilynne Pike
YA F PIKE
When a plant blooms out of fifteen-year-old Laurel's back, it leads her to discover the fact that she is a faerie and that she has a crucial role to play in keeping the world safe from the encroaching enemy trolls.

Enchantment
By Orson Scott Card
SCI-FI CARD
Follows one man from ninth-century Russia to present-day America as he struggles to rescue a princess and her kingdom, find true love, and overcome the blackest of evil.

Upbeat Historical Classics

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• Historical fiction
• Classics

Black Sheep
By Georgette Heyer
ROMANCE HEYER
After rejecting all of her more respectable suitors, Abigail Wendover faces the formidable task of persuading her wealthy family to accept Miles Calverleigh, who is both cynical and ill-mannered.

Little Women
By Louisa May Alcott
YA F ALCOTT
Chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters as they grow into young women in nineteenth-century New England.

Emma
By Jane Austen
F AUSTEN
Emma tries to impose her matchmaking ideas on everyone and finds that sometimes she should desist.

The Blue Castle
By L.M. Montgomery
YA F MONTGOMERY
Valancy Stirling, an inhibited twenty-nine-year-old spinster, undergoes a total personality change when a doctor tells her she has no more than one year to live.

Historical Fiction Set in China

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Historical fiction
• Books set in China
• Female characters

Ties that Bind, Ties that Break
By Lensey Namioka
YA F NAMIOKA
Ailin's life takes a different turn when she defies the traditions of upper class Chinese society by refusing to have her feet bound.

Women of the Silk
By Gail Tsukiyama
F TSUKIYAMA
Spanning the years between the world wars, this tale of a young Chinese girl forced to work in a silk factory describes the sisterhood of workers she discovers there.

Bound
By Donna Jo Napoli
YA F NAPOLI
In a novel based on Chinese Cinderella tales, fourteen-year-old stepchild Xing-Xing endures a life of neglect and servitude, as her stepmother cruelly mutilates her own child's feet so that she alone might marry well.

Shanghai Shadows
By Losi Ruby
YA F RUBY
From 1939 to 1945, a Jewish family struggles to survive in occupied China; young Ilse by remaining optimistic, her older brother by joining a resistance movement, her mother by maintaining connections to the past, and her father by playing the violin that had been his livelihood.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
By Lisa See
F SEE
A story of friendship set in nineteenth-century China follows an elderly woman and her companion as they communicate their hopes, dreams, joys, and tragedies through a unique secret language.

The Last Empress
By Anchee Min
F MIN
Follows the last empress of China, as Empress Orchid copes with tragic personal losses as she struggles to save her crumbling empire.

Contemporary Psychological Thrillers

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• Mysteries
• Psychological thrillers
• Contemporary books
  

13 Steps Down
By Ruth Rendell
MYSTERY RENDELL
Elderly Gwendolyn Chawcer and her colorful group of friends become increasingly suspicious of her tenant, Michael "Mix" Cellini, an eccentric who idolizes serial killer Reggie Christie, as his odd behavior and obsessions take an ever darker turn.

Night Passage
By Robert B. Parker
MYSTERY PARKER
An otherwise washed-up LAPD cop with a drinking problem gets a job offer from a small Massachusetts town that is too good to be true, and Jesse Stone finds himself with no one to trust and a town full of moral and political corruption. Sequel: Trouble in Paradise

One for the Money
By Janet Evanovich
MYSTERY EVANOVICH
Evanovich's debut introduces one of the funniest, most appealing new heroines to stroll down the mean streets in a long while. Stephanie Plum, a New Jersey native, is a laid-off. Desperate for bucks, she decides to pursue a career as an "apprehension agent," tracking down scofflaws for her bail bondsman cousin, Vinnie. Sequel: Two for the Dough

Everywhere That Mary Went
By Lisa Scottoline
F Scottoline
While trying to become a partner in the cutthroat Philadelphia law firm where she works, Mary DiNunzio begins to receive threatening phone calls from a dangerous stalker. Sequel: Final Appeal

Fast Forward
By Judy Mercer
LP Mercer
Waking up badly bruised and lacking all memory of who she is, Ariel Gold searches through the home that she thinks is hers and, unwilling to trust anybody, improvises her own life while she tries to learn the truth. Sequel: Double Take

These is My Words Read-alikes

Try these books if you are looking for:

• Read-alikes for These is My Words by Nancy Turner
• Historical fiction
• Light Romance
• Journals and Diaries
• Frontier Life

The Diary of Mattie Spenser
By Sandra Dallas
F DALLAS
Unexpectedly married to the man considered the catch of her hometown, a young woman finds herself traveling via covered wagon to Colorado in search of a new start, with only her reticent husband and her personal journal to keep her company.

The Journal of Callie Wade
By Dawn Miller
ROMANCE MILLER
Callie Wade writes letters telling of the difficulties for women traveling west, including childbirth between storms and the forlorn despair of Native Americans watching their world come to an end.

On Agate Hill
By Lee Smith
F SMITH
Discovered in the ruins of a North Carolina plantation, an old box of mementos brings to life the world of young Molly Petree, an orphan growing up in the smoldering remains of the post-Civil War American South.

The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen
By Syrie James
F JAMES
The discovery of an old chest in the attic of the Austen family home reveals secrets about Jane's private romantic life and the inspiration of her beloved works.

Mrs. Mike
By Benedict Freedman
F FREEDMAN
Young Katherine Mary O'Fallon, a city girl, marries Canadian Mountie Sergeant Mike Flannigan and begins a new life in the wilderness of the North Woods of Canada.

Fiction with Strong Female Characters

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• Female characters
• Fiction
• Conversational style

The Secret Life of Bees
By Sue Monk Kidd
F KIDD
After her "stand-in mother," a bold black woman named Rosaleen, insults the three biggest racists in town, Lily Owens, whose life has been defined by the tragic death of her mother, joins Rosaleen on a journey to Tiburon, South Carolina, where they are taken in by three black, bee-keeping sisters who show them the true meaning of love and family.

These Is My Words
By Nancy E. Turner
F TURNER
Based on the real-life exploits of the author's great-grandmother, this fictionalized diary vividly details one woman's struggles with life and love in frontier Arizona at the end of the last century.

The Persian Pickle Club
By Sandra Dallas
F DALLAS
In 1930s Harveyville, Kansas, Rita Ritter, a recent arrival, is invited to join the Persian Pickle Club, but her interest in journalism brings her dangerously close to a secret the club has sworn to keep.

The Joy Luck Club
By Amy Tan
F TAN
Encompassing two generations and a rich blend of Chinese and American history, the story of four struggling, strong women also reveals their daughters' memories and feelings.

Clean Romantic Suspense

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• Romance
• Suspense

Lady Liberty
By Vicki Hinze
ROMANCE HINZE
U.S. Vice President Sybil Stone, code-named Lady Liberty, has seventy-two hours to forestall a catastrophe that would propel the United States into a devastating war, and her only hope for success is Agent Jonathan Westford.

Face of Deception
By Iris Johansen
MYSTERY JOHANSEN
Forensic sculptor Eve Duncan is persuaded by billionaire magnate John Logan to reconstruct the face of an adult murder victim. It turns out to be a very dangerous job. Surveillance cameras are everywhere, the phones are tapped and Logan's behavior is suspicious as he acts simultaneously ruthless, charming, and desperate.

Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas
By James Patterson
F PATTERSON
Kate Wilkerson found her perfect man at last, then one day, without explanation, he disappears leaving behind only a diary for her to read. The diary is written by a new mother for her baby son, Nicholas. Soon it becomes clear to Kate that the man who left is the husband and father in this young family.

Odd Thomas
By Dean Koontz
F KOONTZ
Over the course of two days, Odd Thomas, his soulmate Stormy Llewellyn, and an assortment of allies make their way through a dark, terrifying world in which past and present, and life and death collide as they try to avert a cataclysm.