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Reading Level: Grade 7-10
Nothing has ever been the same since Pierce died. When the 15-year-old opened her eyes she was no longer drowning in her backyard pool, she was in a cold, dank cavern where a frightening man directs her to a line. Then Pierce sees someone she knows, a man all in black astride a gigantic stallion. She had seen John many years ago when her grandfather died. Pierce runs to the man and asks him to take her away from the cavern. He does. To his luxurious lair. He announces she will stay with him forever and gives her a necklace to keep her safe. Pierce throws her hot tea in his face and runs down a passageway...she opens her eyes in the emergency room.
Pierce was revived, but she is not the same person. Nothing seems important to her, not with John hovering near. Every time John appears in her life, something horrible happens and Pierce gets blamed. When she is expelled from her latest school 17-year-old Pierce and her mother retreat to her mother's hometown Isla Huesos to live near family. Pierce would never have agreed to go if she had known who else lived there.
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If you enjoy this tale of a teens brush with the underworld you may also enjoy:
Reading Level: Ages 12 and up
Every night, 16-year-old London Lane's memory is erased. She needs her notebook and notes to enable her to prepare for the coming day. While she can't remember the past, she can "remember" the future. Once the events actually happen, they, too, are erased. Only her mom and her best friend know of her strange condition. London meets and begins to date the gorgeous new boy in school, but she's disturbed that she has no future memories of him. Then strange dreams begin to surface. Are they about the future or the past?
There are people who are unable to make new memories. The story combines that with the fantasy element of remembering the future. This is an engrossing pageturner that the reader won't want to put down.Yes, there are some inconsistencies in the storyline, but the book is so enjoyable that few will care.
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Reading Level: Grade 6-8
It has always been just Willow and her Nana. 15-year-old Willow has grown up listening to her grandmother's fairy tales about a magical realm called Mistolear. Willow used to enjoy the stories but as her grandmother slips further and further into Alzheimer's, hearing Nana talk of a fantasy world as if IT is the reality hurts.
One of her grandmother's fantasies was the "summoning spell" game where you could touch a special crystal and travel to another world. Willow had believed in the game with all her heart...when she was seven.
As her grandmother's illness progresses, Nana insists Willow carry the crystal at all times so they will be ready to travel to Mistolear when the time is right. On the night her Nana died, Willow touched the crystal and wished to be in another world. She woke up in Mistolear where she is greeted as the long lost royal princess who will save the land.
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For another tale of a teen thrust into another world try:
Reading Level: Grade 6-8
When Mrs. Abbott went into the gas station to pay for the gas, her eight-year-old daughter Wren asked to stay in the car to listen to music. It was the biggest mistake either of them would ever make.
When shots rang out, Wren hid under a blanket on the floor of the van. She was relieved when her mother came back and started the car until she smelled the smoke...her mother didn't smoke cigarettes. Wren froze. She stayed under the blanket during the long drive. She remained under the blanket for when the man left the car. Later, she cautiously sat up and discovered that she was locked in a garage with no way out.
When the Amber Alert came on the T.V. Darra's mother started yelling. Darra's father insisted he had only taken the van, not a child. When they check the van, it is empty. But Darra is observant. She suspects the missing child is hidden somewhere in the garage. She has to get her away from the house before Darra's father gets in big trouble. Her plan doesn't work.
Six years later, at Camp Oakwood, the paths of the two girls cross again and once more their lives are changed forever.
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If you enjoy this gripping novel in verse try:
Reading Level: Grade 7-9
16-year-old Lady Victoria Mansfield is looking forward to being presented at court and beginning her life as an eligible young lady. She already has her eyes on Edmond Harford, the heir to a large estate. Yes, Victoria has a wonderful future ahead of her...if she can keep her newly emerged ability to fly a secret.
Victoria's world crashes around her when her two-year-old nephew Jamie falls off the edge of a cliff during a large party on her family's estate. Caught half way down the cliff in a loosely rooted tree, Jamie dangles between life and death. Tory doesn't have a choice. She flies down and saves her nephew. Victoria's father immediately banishes her to Lackland Abbey where nobility's defective magical offspring have a chance to be "reformed." Of course, her magical "taint" will make marriage almost impossible. But at least she can hope to return home.
Victoria is determined to suppress her magic until she stumbles upon a secret society of students who insist that only their magic can save England from disaster.
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If you enjoyed this historical fantasy try:
Reading Level: Grades 6+
Eagan has been figure-skating practically since she could walk, and she's good. Really good. It's just not feasible that she could ever hurt herself while skating. But she does. Coming down from a triple axel, Eagan lands too close to the boards, smacking her head.
Amelia has lived the past few years of her life quietly, without moving much or making too much of a fuss about anything. Amelia has a heart defect, and needs a transplant. One morning, she gets a phone call. The hospital has a heart for her.
Eagan's heart.
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More books by Loretta Ellsworth
Other books dealing with death and the afterlife:
For older readers:
Reading Level: Grades 7+
Ann Michelle has a quiet life, living with her grandma, going to school, hanging with her friends, listening to hip hop music and lusting after the artists. Everything changes when Rachel, who insists everyone call her Raq to acknowledge the rock star that she is, crashes into Ann Michelle’s life. Raq is everything Ann Michelle isn’t – she’s sassy, loud, confident, boisterous, and (according to Ann Michelle’s grandma) dangerous. But Ann Michelle likes the person Raq brings out of her, and one night, she sneaks out to go to a concert with her new friend. True to her rock star lifestyle, Raq scores the girls backstage passes, and soon Ann Michelle finds herself face to face with her favorite hip hop artist, Piper. Ann Michelle introduces herself to him as Glitz, and with that first simple lie, her personality whirlwinds into a sexy, confident, bold girl. When Piper and his entourage invite Raq and Glitz to the recording studio with them, the old Ann Michelle’s propriety and adherence to rules are squashed. Before she realizes it, the girls are on their way to New York City with Piper and his crew to record a big demo, which Raq hopes she will push her way onto. The further she gets from home, the more Glitz realizes the mistake she’s made.
Reading Level: Grades 8+
When 17-year-old Ginny's eccentric aunt died she sent her niece $1,000 and some numbered envelopes with the instruction that Ginny fly to Europe by herself and follow the directions in the envelopes, never opening the next envelope until the tasks in the previous envelope were completed.
WARNING: If you have not read 13 Little Blue Envelopes read no more!
It was a summer Ginny would never forget. She worked her way through twelve of the envelopes before her backpack (which held the thirteenth envelope) was stolen in Greece. Resigning herself to never finishing the adventure, Ginny returns home to New York.
Months later she receives an e-mail from someone she doesn't know. The e-mail contains the first page of the thirteenth letter. When she answers the e-mail, the sender tells her the rest of the e-mail contains clues to another of her aunt's paintings. Clues that only Ginny can solve. The sender will not share the instructions in the letter unless Ginny agrees to accompany him on the hunt for the pieces of the work, sell the painting and split the proceeds with him 50/50.
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Other foreign adventures include:
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
Reading Level: Grades 3-6
Be careful what you wish for.
After her older half-sister reads her part of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland but refuses to tell why Alice followed the rabbit down the hole, nine-year-old Olemaun nags her parents to send her to the school of the white outsiders. Even though her father warns her that they will cut her hair, give her a new name and not allow her to speak their language , Olemaun so desperately wants to read that she persists until she gets her way.
Once in the clutches of the dark-cloaked nuns, Olemaun realizes what a horrible mistake she has made. Somehow she must hold onto who she is until she can finally return to her people.
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More books by Christy Jordan-Fenton
More narratives of Indian boarding schools include:
Sweetgrass Basket by Marlene Carvell and
Indian School: Teaching the White Man's Way by Michael Cooper
Reading Level: Grades 4-6
Quiet Calli Gold feels out of place in her family of achievers. Her older brother Alex is the star of his school's basketball team. Her older sister Becca is an ice skater. The family calender is loaded with post-it notes, blue for Alex's games and practices, pink for Becca. Calli's color is yellow. There only two yellow post-its up for the whole month, appointments for the dentist and a haircut.
Calli's parents are sure if Calli would just be willing to try she would find her place to shine. Calli HAS tried. So far she has tried and failed gymnastics, ballet, soccer, baton twirling, violin and origami. Now her father has signed her up for acting.
Can Calli ever be appreciated for who she is in this high octane family?
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More books by Michele Weber Hurwitz
For other stories of a kid feeling out of place in their family try::
Our Only May Amelia by Jennifer Holm
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