September Recommendations for Teens

Fiction

August Moon: A Murder-by-the Month Mystery by Jess Lourey - Furious after being stood up by local hottie Johnny Leeson, Mira decides to abandon Battle Lake, Minnesota, where the women are churchgoers, the men like to hunt, and the body count is above average. But when a cheerleader bites the dust, Mira loiters long enough to snoop. Mira is highly suspicious of the New Millennium Bible Camp, a disturbing place with a Stepford Wives meets Hee Haw vibe. Before ditching Battle Lake, Mira is hell-bent on confronting her own demons and catching a killer.

The Last Exit to Normal by Michael Harmon - After 17-year-old Ben's father announces he's gay and the family splits apart, Ben does everything he can to tick him off: skip school, smoke pot, skateboard nonstop, get arrested. But he never thinks he'll end up yanked out of his city life and plunked down into a small Montana town with his dad and Edward, The Boyfriend. He soon realizes something's not quite right with Billy, the boy next door. He's hiding a secret about his family, and Ben is determined to uncover it and set things right. In an authentic, unaffected, and mordantly funny voice, Michael Harmon tells the wrenching story of an uprooted and uncomfortable teenaged guy trying to fix the lives around him–while figuring out his own.

Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks - At age seven, child prodigy Cadel Piggott is sent to a shrink for illegal computer hacking. His psychologist Thaddeus Roth is an agent of Cadel's real father, a brilliant crook who, from behind bars, manages with the help of Roth to place Cadel at the secretive Axis Institute for World Domination. By 13, Cadel is earnestly studying the high-tech spy manual "Infiltration, Misinformation, and Embezzlement," while secretly plotting to extricate himself from master manipulator, his father.

The Gypsy Morph by Terry Brooks - An epic saga of a world in flux as the mortal realm yields to a magical one; as the champions of the Word and the Void clash for the last time to decide what will be and what must cease; and as, from the remnants of a doomed age, something altogether extraordinary rises.

Identical by Ellen Hopkins - Kaeleigh and Raeanne are identical down to the dimple. As daughters of a district-court judge father and a politician mother, they are an all-American family—on the surface. Behind the facade each sister has her own dark secret, and that's where their differences begin.


Nonfiction

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—and How It Can Renew America by Thomas Friedman - In vivid, entertaining chapters, Friedman makes it clear that going green will be the biggest innovation project in American history; it will be hard and it will change everything from what you put into your car to what you see on your electric bill. But the payoff for America will be more than just cleaner air. It will inspire Americans to something we haven't seen in a long time—nation-building in America—by summoning the intelligence, creativity, boldness, and concern for the common good that are our nation's greatest natural resources. Fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the challenge—and the promise—of the future.

Kiss My Math by Danica McKellar - Last year, actress and math genius Danica McKellar made waves nationwide, challenging the "math nerd" stereotype—and giving girls the tools to ace tests and homework in her unique just-us-girls style. Kiss My Math takes on pre-Algebra, and will help math-phobic teenagers everywhere finally "get" negative numbers, variables, absolute values, exponents, and more.

The Way We'll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream by John Zogby - At the center of this optimistic future is a group he labels the "First Globals," consisting of the current 18- to 29-year-olds across the United States. This group, he finds, is "the most outward-looking and accepting generation in American history." Yes, many of them are self-absorbed and materialistic. But, Zogby says, the majority of First Globals are "far more likely than their elders to accept gays and lesbians. For all practical purposes, they're the first color-blind Americans and the first to bring a consistently global perspective to everything from foreign policy to environmental issues to the coffee they buy, the music they listen to and the clothes they wear." ~excerpt of a review by Steve Weinberg, The Washington Post.

What Really Sank the Titanic: New Forensic Discoveries by J. H. McCarty - Grippingly written, illustrated with fascinating period photographs and modern scientific evidence, McCarty presents little-known Titanic facts and lore, colorful portraits of the ship's designers, builders, and crew, eyewitness accounts, and a dramatic timeline of the ship's last hours. In an age when forensics can catch killers, this book does what no other book has before: fingers the culprit in one of the greatest tragedies ever.

The World in Six Songs by Daniel Levitin - Blending cutting-edge scientific findings with his own sometimes hilarious experiences as a musician and music-industry professional, Levitinas sweeping study also incorporates wisdom gleaned from interviews with icons ranging from Sting and Paul Simon to Joni Mitchell, Willie Nelson, and David Byrne, along with classical musicians and conductors, historians, anthropologists, and evolutionary biologists. The result is a brilliant revelation of the prehistoric yet elegant systems at play when we sing and dance at a wedding, cheer at a concert, or tune out quietly with an iPod.