12 Days of Teen Lit: An Arrow to the Knee

It's here!  The last day of the 12 Days of Teen Lit: 

On the First Day of Teen Lit my Librarian Gave to me:

  An Arrow to the Knee!  

The Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan. The series follows the adventures of Will, an orphan who is taken as an apprentice Ranger, as he strives to keep the Kingdom of Araluen safe from invaders, traitors, and threats. He is joined on his adventures by his mentor Halt and his best friend Horace.


Book 1: The Ruins of Gorlan. When fifteen-year-old Will is rejected by battleschool, he becomes the reluctant apprenticeto the mysterious Ranger Halt, and winds up protecting the kingdom from danger.


Book 2:The Burning Bridge. Will is forced to overcome his fear of Wargals, the foot soldiers of rebel warlord Morgarath, as Araluen's army prepares to battle Morgarath's forces.


Book 3: The Icebound Land. Chasing the Skandian slave-traders who kidnapped Will and Evanlyn, Ranger Halt and warrior student Horace find themselves in the frozen northern islands, where they battle a ruthless black-clad knight as they attempt to rescue their friends.

Book 4: The Battle for Skandria. After Ranger's apprentice Will battles Temujai warriors to rescue Evanlyn, Will's kingdom of Skandia joins forces with rival kingdom Araluen to defeat a common enemy.

Book 5: The Sorcerer of the North. Now a full-fledged Ranger responsible for a sleepy fief, Will finds a new adventure seeking the traitors who poisoned the king, investigating rumors of sorcery, and trying to rescue his friend Alyss, who is taken hostage.

Book 6: The Seige of Macindaw. Now a full-fledged Ranger, Will must rescue his friend Alyss from a rogue knight and uncover vital information needed to ward off a Scotti invasion.

Book 7: Erak's Ransom. On a mission to pay the ransom of a new ally, apprentice Will and his friends find themselves in a desert wasteland awash with enemies.

Book 8: Kings of Clonmel. Halt, Will, and Horace set out for Hibernia, where a quasi-religious group, theOutsiders, is sowing confusion and sedition, and they find that secrets from Halt's past may hold the key to restoring order before the last kingdom is undermined.

Book 9: Halt's Peril. Tennyson, the false prophet of the Outsider cult, has escaped and Halt is determined to stop him before he crosses the border into Araluen, but Genovesan assassins put Will and Halt's extraordinary archery skills to the test.

Book 10: Emperor of Nihon-ja. In a faraway land, a young warrior must protect an emperor from an uprising and train an inexperienced army, with assistance from his Ranger friends.

12 Days of Teen Lit: Two Dueling Dragons!

Just 2 Days to Go!  And so, for the almost last day of the 12 Days of Teen Lit we presents: 

Two Dueling Dragons! 

Firelight by Sophie Jordan. When sixteen-year-old Jacinda, who can change into a dragon, is forced to move away from her community of shapeshifters and start a more normal life, she falls in love with a boy who proves to be her most dangerous enemy.

Seraphina : a novel by Rachel Hartman. In a world where dragons and humans coexist in an uneasy truce and dragons can assume human form, Seraphina, whose mother died giving birth to her, grapples with her own identity amid magical secrets and royal scandals, while she struggles to accept and develop her extraordinary musical talents.

12 Days of Teen Lit: 3 French Adventures!

Because they don't write much YA fiction about Hens, 12 Days of Teen Lit presents: 

3 French Adventures!

Anna and the French kiss by Stephanie Perkins. When Anna's romance-novelist father sends her to an elite American boarding school in Paris for her senior year of high school, she reluctantly goes, and meets an amazing boy who becomes her best friend, in spite of the fact that they both want something more.

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly  An angry, grieving seventeen-year-old musician facing expulsion from her prestigious Brooklyn private school travels to Paris to complete a school assignment and uncovers a diary written during the French revolution by a young actress attempting to help a tortured, imprisoned little boy--Louis Charles, the lost king of France.

How I stole Johnny Depp's alien girlfriend by Gary Ghislain.  Fourteen-year-old David, the son of a famous French psychologist, falls in love with Zelda, a new patient who believes she is from outer space, and soon they are tearing through Paris in search of her chosen one, Johnny Depp, so that she can take him to her home planet, Vahalal.

12 Days of Teen Lit: 4 Struggling Artists

12 Days of Teen Lit hits the home stretch with: 

4 Struggling Artists

Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral. In a love story told in photographs and drawings, Glory, a brilliant piano prodigy, is drawn to Frank, an artistic new boy, and the farther she falls, the deeper she spirals into madness until the only song she is able to play is "Chopsticks."

Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge. When Paige Turner and her family move to New York City from rural Virginia, she tries to make sense of her new life through her sketchbook, and it helps bring her true personality into the open, a process that is equal parts terrifying and rewarding

Wanderlove by  Kirsten Hubbard. Bria, an aspiring artist just graduated from high school, takes off for Central America's La Ruta Maya, rediscovering her talents and finding love.

Zero by Tom Leveen. After graduating from a Phoenix, Arizona, high school, aspiring artist Amanda "Zero" Walsh unexpectedly begins a relationship with a drummer in a punk rock band, which helps her come to terms with her feelings about herself, her falling out with her best friend, and her parents' personal problems.

12 Days of Teen Lit: 5 Alien Beings!

Try Singing it.  Just once.  Really Loud: 

5 Alien Beings 

(Wasn't that Awesome?)

Now, on to the list! 

Adaptation by Malinda Lo. In the aftermath of a series of plane crashes caused by birds, seventeen-year-old Reese and her debate-team partner, David, receive medical treatment at a secret government facility and become tangled in a conspiracy that is, according to Reese's friend, Julian, connected with aliens and UFOs.

Alien invasion and other inconveniences by Brian Yansky. When a race of aliens quickly takes over the earth, leaving most people dead, high-schooler Jesse finds himself a slave to an inept alien leader--a situation that brightens as Jesse develops telepathic powers and attracts the attention of two beautiful girls.

The dangerous days of Daniel X  by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge. 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 Earth and another planet are at stake.

First day on earth by Cecil Castellucci. A novel about the true meaning of being an alien in an equally alien world.

Stuck on Earth . On a secret mission to evaluate whether the human race should be annihilated, a space alien inhabits the body of a bullied fourteen-year-old boy.

12 Days of Teen Lit: Six Rotting Corpses

The 12 Days of Teen Lit takes a turn for the Macabre with

6 Rotting Corpses

The Body Finder. High school junior Violet uses her uncanny ability to sense murderers and their victims to try to stop a serial killer who is terrorizing her town, and although her best friend and would-be boyfriend Jay promises to keep her safe, she becomes a target.

Burried Thunder. Just after fourteen-year-old Maya's family acquires the Rowan Tree Hotel she is drawn into the nearby woods, where she finds three bodies that disappear before police arrive, and soon Maya feels hunted by both human and supernatural forces.

Jack: Secret Histories. Teenaged Jack, later to be known as Repairman Jack, begins to uncover some unsuspected talents in himself after he and his friends, the clever, imaginative Weezy and her brother Eddie, discover a corpse deep in the mysterious Pine Barrens near their New Jersey town.

Revolver. Finland, 1910: Fifteen-year-old Sig is shocked to see a hole in the frozen lake outside his family's cabin and to find his father's corpse nearby. Why did Einar steer his dog sled across the lake instead of taking the safer land route? Sig's sister and stepmother go for help, leaving Sig alone with Einar's body in the cabin. Soon after, an armed stranger barges in, demanding a share of Einar's stolen gold.

Rot and Ruin.  In a post-apocalyptic world where fences and border patrols guard the few people left from the zombies that have overtaken civilization, fifteen-year-old Benny Imura is finally convinced that he must follow in his older brother's footsteps and become a bounty hunter.

Soulless. The attempt of three powerful mediums to open up communication between the living and the dead has disastrous consequences when every corpse within a three-hundred-mile radius of New York City is animated and begins to prey on the living.



12 Days of Teen Lit: 7 Evil Exes!

Oh -- come on!  You knew we were going to go there! 

Glendale Public Library's 12 Days of Teen Lit is proud to present

7 Evil Exes! 

Audrey, Wait! While trying to score a date with her cute co-worker at the Scooper Dooper, sixteen-year-old Audrey gains unwanted fame and celebrity status when her ex-boyfriend, a rock musician, records a breakup song about her that soars to the top of the Billboard charts.

Friend is Not A Verb. While sixteen-year-old Hen's family and friends try to make his supposed dreams of becoming a rock star come true, he deals with the reality of being in a band with an ex-girlfriend, a friendship that may become love, and his older sister's mysterious disappearance and reappearance.

Girls Don't Fly. Myra, a high school senior, will do almost anything to win a contest and earn money for a study trip to the Galapagos Islands, which would mean getting away from her demanding family life in Utah and ex-boyfriend Erik, but Erik is set on winning the same contest.

No Fear. While Naomi struggles with her abusive ex-boyfriend returning to school, Ernesto hopes she will see him as more than a friend.

One Night That Changes Everything. A shy high school junior spends a frenzied night trying to retrieve her private notebook from a vengeful ex-boyfriend.

Scott Pilgrim (series).  Toronto slacker and bass player Scott Pilgrim must defeat the Seven Evil Exes of his would-be girlfriend, Ramona.  

Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before.  Albert Kim seems destined to be a social outcast until he begins dating Mia Stone, a co-worker at Albert's summer job and part of the in-crowd at his school. Unfortunately, Mia is also the ex-girlfriend of Ryan Stackhouse, the reigning king of the Bern High and a big-time jerk. When Ryan is diagnosed with cancer, the entire school rallies behind him, and Albert is faced with losing both his girlfriend and whatever shot at popularity he may have had.

12 Days of Teen Lit: 8 Dudes in Danger

Because, really, when was the last time you saw a milk-maid?

The 12 Days of Teen Lit is proud to present: 

8 Dudes in Danger

Above. When insane exile Corner and his army of mindless, whispering shadows invade Safe, a secret, underground community of freaks and disabled outcasts, Matthew, traumatized shapeshifter Ariel, and other misfits go to the dangerous place known as Above, where Matthew makes a shocking discovery about the histories entrusted to him.

The abused werewolf rescue group. When Tobias wakes up in a hospital with no memory of the night before, a mysterious man tells him he has a dangerous condition, and he finds himself involved with a group of werewolves convinced he needs their help.

Dangerous boy. In this modern twist on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Harper is surprised by tumbling into an intense romance with Logan, a newcomer to her Enumclaw, Washington, high school, but soon Logan's sinister twin is pulling them apart.

Erebos : it's a game : it watches you. When sixteen-year-old Nick Dunmore receives a package with a mysterious computer game called Erebos, he hopes it will explain his classmates' strange behavior. He is quickly drawn into the cryptic world of the game, where players must obey a strict code. Erebos watches its players and begins to manipulate their lives in frightening ways. It soon becomes clear the game has a deadly agenda. When Nick sets out on a dangerous mission, reality and the virtual world begin to blur.

Fall from Grace. Inspired by an intriguing girl who is nothing like his shallow girlfriend, a high school senior whose life has been mapped out by his parents makes some surprising decisions that lead him to take dangerous--but exhilarating--risks.

Hold me closer, necromancer. Sam LaCroix, a Seattle fast-food worker and college dropout, discovers that he is a necromancer, part of a world of harbingers, werewolves, satyrs, and one particular necromancer who sees Sam as a threat to his lucrative business of raising the dead.

Infernal devices. When sixteen-year-old orphan Tessa Fell's older brother suddenly vanishes, her search for him leads her into Victorian-era London's dangerous supernatural underworld, and when she discovers that she herself is a Downworlder, she must learn to trust the demon-killing Shadowhunters if she ever wants to learn to control her powers and find her brother.

Where things come back. Seventeen-year-old Cullen's summer in Lily, Arkansas, is marked by his cousin's death by overdose, an alleged spotting of a woodpecker thought to be extinct, failed romances, and his younger brother's sudden disappearance.

12 Days of Teen Lit: 9 Girls in Dresses!

What is it with girls in fancy dresses on teen book covers?  It seems like there are more every day!

In celebration of 12 Days of Teen Lit, we give you

9 Girls in Dresses!

Entwined.  Confined to their dreary castle while mourning their mother's death, Princess Azalea and her eleven sisters join The Keeper, who is trapped in a magic passageway, in a nightly dance that soon becomes nightmarish.

Fury. When high school junior Emily hooks up with her best friend's boyfriend and football quarterback Chase's life spirals out of control, three mysterious Furies--paranormal creatures that often assume the form of beautiful women--come to town to make sure that Emily and Chase get what they deserve.

The Girl in the Clockwork Collar.  Sixteen-year-old Finley Jayne and her "straynge band of mysfits" have journeyed from London to America to rescue their friend Jasper, hauled off by bounty hunters. But Jasper is in the clutches of a devious former friend demanding a trade ; the dangerous device Jasper stole from him for the life of the girl Jasper loves. One false move from Jasper and the strange clockwork collar around Mei's neck tightens. And tightens. From the rough streets of lower Manhattan to elegant Fifth Avenue, the motley crew of teens with supernatural abilities is on Jasper's elusive trail. And they're about to discover how far they'll go for friendship.

Grave Mercy. In the fifteenth-century kingdom of Brittany, seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where she learns that the god of Death has blessed her with dangerous gifts--and a violent destiny.

The Luxe.  In Manhattan in 1899, five teens of different social classes lead dangerously scandalous lives, despite the strict rules of society and the best-laid plans of parents and others.

Paranormalacy.  When a dark prophecy begins to come true, sixteen-year-old Evie of the International Paranormal Containment Agency must not only try to stop it, she must also uncover its connection to herself and the alluring shapeshifter, Lend.

Princess of the Midnight Ball.  A retelling of the tale of twelve princesses who wear out their shoes dancing every night, and of Galen, a former soldier now working in the king's gardens, who follows them in hopes of breaking the curse.

The Selection.  Sixteen-year-old America Singer is living in the caste-divided nation of Illéa, which formed after the war that destroyed the United States. America is chosen to compete in the Selection--a contest to see which girl can win the heart of Illéa's prince--but all she really wants is a chance for a future with her secret love, Aspen, who is a caste below her.

Vixen.  In 1923 Chicago, seventeen-year-old Gloria Carmody rebels against her upcoming society wedding by visiting a speakeasy, while her Pennsylvania cousin, Clara, hides similar tastes and her best friend, Lorraine, makes plans of her own.

12 Days of Teen Lit: 10 Brooding Loners!

Another day, Another 12 Days of Teen Lit post.

Today we are happy to bring you

10 Brooding Loners!

Arisotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe.

Fifteen-year-old Ari Mendoza is an angry loner with a brother in prison, but when he meets Dante and they become friends, Ari starts to ask questions about himself, his parents, and his family that he has never asked before.

Crazy. Fifteen-year-old loner Jason struggles to hide father's declining mental condition after his mother's death, but when his father disappears he must confide in the other members of a therapy group he has been forced to join at school

Gemini Bites. When their parents announce they are taking in a fellow student for a month, 16-year-old twins Kyle and Judy sit up and take notice. Kyle has just come out of the closet to his family and fears he'll never know what it is like to date a guy. Judy is pretending to be born-again to attract a boy who heads a Bible study group. And Garret Johnson is new in town-- a mysterious loner who claims to be a vampire. Both twins are intrigued.

How to Say Goodbye in Robot.  After moving to Baltimore and enrolling in a private school, high school senior Beatrice befriends a quiet loner with a troubled family history.

 Invisible.  Doug and Andy are unlikely best friends--one a loner obsessed by his model trains, the other a popular student involved in football and theater--who grew up together and share a bond that nothing can sever.

The Knife that Killed Me. Paul Varderman, a secondary student in an English Catholic School, is a loner until, just as he is becoming friends with "the freaks," the school bully encourages Paul to join his gang and gives him a knife to carry as an incentive

My Sister's Stalker. When fifteen-year-old Rig, a loner, discovers that his popular older sister is being stalked while away at college, he sets out to save her, with unexpected help from his divorced parents.

The Night Road.  Battling his own memories and fears, Cole, an extraordinarily conscientious vampire, and Sandor, a more impulsive acquaintance, spend a few months on the road, trying to train a young man who recently joined their ranks.

Narc. When his little sister is caught with a bag of weed, seventeen-year-old Aaron Foster takes the fall. To keep the cops from tearing his family apart, Aaron agrees to go undercover and help bust the dealer who's funneling drugs into his Miami high school. But making friends with the school's biggest players isn't easy for a waste-case loner from the wrong part of town.

TWOC: Taken Without Owner's Concent.  Ever since the joyriding accident that killed his brother Jake and left Jake’s girlfriend Jools hideously scarred, Matt has been tortured by his inability to remember exactly what happened. He decides to reconstruct the events of that tragic day—but can he survive the accident a second time?

12 Days of Teen Lit: 11 Teens in Bands!

For the second 12 Days of Teen Lit post, we give you:

11 Teens in Bands

(some may even be pipers!) 

 Adios to My Old Life.  As a talented singer-guitarist with a dream of going pro, Alegría Montero is getting fed up with the endless, boring parade of quinceañeras and other family party gigs. She's longing for something bigger. And Oye Mi Canto -- a new reality TV show that's searching for the next Latin superstar -- is definitely that. Ali figures she'll never make the cut, but it seems like a good way to get her overprotective father to take her seriously.

The Disenchantments. Colby's post-high school plans have long been that he and his best friend Beth would tour with her band, then spend a year in Europe, but when she announces that she will start college just after the tour, Colby struggles to understand why she changed her mind and what losing her means for his future.

Fat Kid Rules the World.  Seventeen-year-old Troy, depressed, suicidal, and weighing nearly 300 pounds, gets a new perspective on life when a homeless teenager who is a genius on guitar wants Troy to be the drummer in his rock band.






The Five Flavors of Dumb.  Eighteen-year-old Piper becomes the manager for her classmates' popular rock band, called Dumb, giving her the chance to prove her capabilities to her parents and others, if only she can get the band members to get along.


I Am (Not) The Walrus.  As the singer and bass player for a Beatles cover band, Toby embarks on a quest to increase his sex appeal, a plan that derails when he finds a mysterious note inside his old bass guitar.

I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone.  Punk rock is in Emily Black's blood. Her mother, Louisa, hit the road to follow the incendiary music scene when Emily was four months old and never came back. Now Emily's all grown up with a punk band of her own. Determined to find the tune that will bring her mother home. Because if Louisa really is following the music, shouldn't it lead her right back to Emily?

Lemonade Mouth. A disparate group of high school students thrown together in detention form a band to play at a school talent show and end up competing with a wildly popular local rock band. 

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.  High school student Nick O'Leary, member of a rock band, meets college-bound Norah Silverberg and asks her to be his girlfriend for five minutes in order to avoid his ex-sweetheart.






The Piper's Son.  After his favorite uncle's violent death, Tom Mackee watches his family implode, quits school, and turns his back on music and everyone who matters, and while he is in no shape to mend what is broken, he fears  that no one else is, either.

Sister Mischief. Esme Rockett, also known as MC Ferocious, rocks her suburban Minnesota Christian high school with more than the hip-hop music she makes with best friends Marcy ( DJ SheStorm) and Tess (The ConTessa) when she develops feelings for her co-MC, Rowie (MC Rohini).

Ten Miles Past Normal.  Because living with "modern-hippy" parents on a goat farm means fourteen-year-old Janie Gorman cannot have a normal high school life, she tries joining Jam Band, making friends with Monster, and spending time with elderly former civil rights workers.