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YA Stars 1999

YA Stars of 1999: A Selected List
For Teens & Older Others (Young Adult Literature)

The list includes both fiction and nonfiction books. Titles are arranged alphabetically by author. Titles received starred reviews from Booklist, School Library Journal, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly. Books are suggested for ages 12 and older. Age designations are approximate, parental judgement should be used.

Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine or
Library of Congress CIP description.

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• Saying It Out Loud
  Abelove, Joan
  Booklist PW SLJ
  With the help of her best friend, sixteen-year-old Mindy sorts through her relationships with her solicitous mother and her detached father as she tries to come to terms with the fact that her mother is dying from a brain tumor. (LC description).
• Hear These Voices: Youth at the Edge of the Millenniumn
  Allison, Anthony
  Booklist
  Here is an extraordinary journey into the hearts and minds of teenagers at risk. In these eight remarkable interviews, photographer and documentarian Anthony Allison invites readers to share in the life experiences of his subjects through in-depth, first-person narration and startling reverent black-and-white portraits.
• Speak
  Anderson, Laurie Halse
  PW SLJ
  A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect of Melinda's freshman year in high school.
• Burger Wuss
  Anderson, M.T.
  Kirkus
  
• The Search for Senna
  Applegate, K.A.
  PW
  Senna was the oddest aspect of David's otherwise normal life. She was beautiful and smart, but there was something very strange about her. One day, she was kissing him, the next day she was swallowed by the earth. David and his friends go searching for her in a world they never imagined. Now they have to find Senna and get home without losing their lives - or their minds.
  1st title in the Everworld Series.
• Land of Loss
  Applegate, K.A.
  PW
  2nd title in the Everworld Series.
• Kids on Strike
  Bartoletti, Susan Campbell
  PW Kirkus SLJ
  Describes the conditions and treatment that drove workers, including many children, to various strikes, from the mill workers strikes in 1828 and 1836 and the coal strikes at the turn of the century to the work of Mother Jones on behalf of child workers.
• Violet & Claire
  Block, Francesca Lia
  PW
  In search of material for a screenplay they are developing, 17-year-old Violet and her new friend, Claire, try to make life into a movie as they chase their dreams through Los Angeles.
• Crusader
  Bloor, Edward
  PW
  
• The Fated Sky
  Branford, Henrietta
  Booklist PW
  Ran, a sixteen-year-old Viking girl, struggles to control the events of her life and escape from the death that is supposed to be her destiney. (LC description).
• The Perilous Journey of the Donner Party
  Calabro, Marian
  Booklist PW
  Uses materials from letters and diaries written by survivors of the Donner Party to relate the experiences of that ill-fated group as they endured horrific circumstances on their way to California in 1846-47. (LC description).
• Firegold
  Calhoun, Dia
  Booklist
  
• Tomorrowland: 10 Stories About the Future
  Cart, Michael (ed)
  SLJ
  A collection of ten stories about the future, by such authors as Lois Lowry, Katherine Paterson, and Jon Scieszka. (LC description).
• Getting Near to Baby
  Couloumbis, Audrey
  PW Kirkus SLJ
  Although thirteen-year-old Willa Jo and her Aunt Patty seem to be constantly at odds, staying with her and Uncle Hob helps Willa Jo and her mute younger sister come to terms with the death of their family's baby.(LC description).
• Odder Than Ever: Stories
  Coville, Bruce
  SLJ
  A collection of nine short stories featuring a ghost, a goblin, a giant, and other unusual creatures. (LC description).
• Tightrope
  Cross, Gillian
  PW
  When she begins receiving bizarre threatening messages from someone who seems to know her every move, teenage Ashley, after seeking help from the neighborhood tough guy, comes to realize that she alone can end the stalker's reign of terror. (LC description).
• Bud, Not Buddy
  Curtis, Christopher Paul
  PW SLJ
  After his mother's death in 1936, 10-year-old Bud can't squelch a yearning to find his father's identity. Bud has a hunch from clues his mother left. The fearless fellow takes off on a journey to find his father and himself.
• The Teenage Guy's Survival guide
  Daldry, Jeremy
  Booklist
  A humorous guide for boys ages ten to fourteen, offering advice on dating, sex, body changes, and social life. (LC description).
• Keeping the Moon
  Dessen, Sarah
  Kirkus SLJ
  
• Wintering
  Durbin, William
  Booklist
  Pierre, the 14-year-old hero of The Broken Blade, spends a winter with the North West Company in the wilderness of French Canada. The canoe-men build a camp beside an Ojibwa village, and Pierre learns the deep winter survival skills and secrets of the fur traders and trappers. But it's his friendship with an Ojibwa brave that opens up a rich new world to Pierre.
• Mind's Eye
  Fleishman, Paul
  SLJ
  Sixteen-year-old Courtney, paralyzed in an accident, learns about the power of the mind from an elderly blind woman who takes her on an imaginary journey to Italy using a 1910 guidebook.
• Oy, Joy!
  Frank, Lucy
  Booklist
  Although her ailing uncle creates problems for her whole family when he moves in with them, Joy survives his bungling attempts at matchmaking even as she plays the game herself. (LC description).
• Babe Didrikson Zaharias: The Making of a Champion
  Freedman, Russell
  PW SLJ
  Babe Didrikson, who broke records in golf, track and field, and other sports, at a time when there were few opportunities for female athletes, is profiled.
• Time Capsule: Short Stories About Teenagers Throughout the Twentieth Century
  Gallo, Donald R. (ed)
  PW
  
• Eleanor's Story: An American Girl in Hitler's Germany
  Garner, Eleanor Ramrath
  Booklist
  
• What Are You?: Voices of Mixed-Race Young People
  Gaskins, Pearlfuyo (ed)
  Booklist
  Many young people of racially mixed backgrounds discuss their feelings about family relationships, prejudice, dating, personal identity, and other issues. (LC description).
• Dive
  Griffin, Adele
  Kirkus
  Young Ben finds that he is happy in the stable life provided by his stepfather despite his uncertain relationship with his moody and troubled stepbrother and his mother's growing restlessness in her new marriage. (LC description).
• The Starplace
  Grove, Vicki
  SLJ
  Frannie always thought her town was a wonderful place to grow up. But then she becomes friends with Celeste, the first black girl to go to Quiver Junior High, when they are both chosen to be in a special singing ensemble from the very beginning, but when she's cut from the ensemble just before a very important competition, the trust can't be ignored. Quiver is not as great as Frannie thought, and the two find evidence proving it used to be much worse.
• Unbroken
  Haas, Jessie
  PW SLJ
  Following her mother's death in the early 1900s, thirteen-year-old Harry lives on Aunt Sarah's farm where an accident with her spirited colt leaves her a changed young woman. (LC description).
• Middle Ages: An Illustrated History
  Hanawalt, Barbara
  Kirkus
  Beginning with the merger of Roman, Christian, and Germanic cultures, this history of the Middle Ages covers a vast array of subjects, including Byzantium and the Islamic world, feudalism, the Crusades, the Magna Carta, and much more. Author Barbara A. Hanawalt uses a lively and anecdotal writing style to breathe life into earlier times.
• When Zachary Beaver Came to Town
  Holt, Kimberly Willis
  Booklist PW Kirkus SLJ
  During the summer of 1971, in a small Texas town, 13-year-old Toby and his best friend Cal meet the star of a sideshow act: 600-pound Zachary, the fattest boy in the world.
  
• Asphalt Angels
  Holtwijl, Ineke
  PW
  Asphalt Angels centers around a boy named Alex, a street child of 13 in Brazil, who has been kicked onto the streets by his stepfather after his mother dies. Alone and scared, Alex quickly adapts to life in the streets with a group of other children. A raw, poignant story of a band of Brazilian street kids who survive - if they can - by their wits alone.
• The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn
  Hoobler, Dorothy
  SLJ
  Samurai fear nothing, not even death. They are loyal and brave, 14-year-old Seikel has studied the way of the samurai, and would like nothing more than to be one. But a samurai is born, not made; Seikei was born the son of a tea merchant, so a merchant he must be. But when a priceless ruby intended for the shogun - the military governor of Japan - is stolen by a ghost, Seikei finds himself having to display all the courage of a samurai. Seikei is the only person to have seen the thief, and now the famous magistrate, Judge Ooka, needs the boy's help to solve this mystery. Can the son of a merchant prove himself worthy to the shogun himself?
• The Adventures of Blue Avenger
  Howe, Norma
  PW Kirkus SLJ
  On his sixteenth birthday, still trying to cope with the unexpected death of his father, David Schumacher decides - or does he - to change his name to Blue Avenger, hoping to find a way to make a difference in his Oakland neighborhood and in the world.
• Safe at Second
  Johnson, Scott
  SLJ
  Todd Bannister's future is as bright as a new baseball. With a fastball destined for the major leagues, a shelf overflowing with trophies, college and pro scouts lined up at his door - not to mention Melissa, his beautiful girlfriend, and Paulie, his best friend and number one fan - Todd has it all. Then comes the line drive off a bat that strikes Todd square in the face. Now things are different. Life looks a lot darker when viewed through a glass eye.
• The First Horse I See
  Keehn, Sally M.
  SLJ
  A promise is a promise, and before she died. Willo's mother made her father promise Willo could finally have a horse. Her grandfather, her best friend during those difficult days, warns her: don't fall in love with the first horse that you see. But Willo does - with a feisty ex-racehorse who has been mistreated by her former owners. Willo is convinced she can train her, despite her father's deadline. After all, she has the trainer Diana by her side, and the strikingly handsome Colin, but even she knows that in the end it is she who will take on the wild Tess.
• The Smugglers
  Lawrence, Iain
  Booklist PW
  In 18-century England, after his father buys a schooner called the Dragon, 16-year-old John sets out to sail it from Kent to London and becomes involved in a dangerous smuggling scheme.
• Whitechurch
  Lynch, Chris
  PW Kirkus
  In the sleepy town of Whitechurch, three friends reach a crossroads that will change their lives - and their relationships - forever. Lynch's tautly written collection of stories explains what happens when an intense triangular friendship begins to break apart.
• Extreme Elvin
  Lynch, Chris
  PW SLJ
  As he enters high school, fourteen-year-old Elvin continues to deal with his weight problem as he tries to find his place among his peers.
• The Good Liar
  Maguire, Gregory
  Booklist
  Now an old man living in the United States, Marcel recalls his childhood in German-occupied France, especially the summer that he and his older brother Rene befriended a young German soldier. (LC description).
• Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter
  Mah, Adeline Yan
  PW
  This powerful memoir about a girl growing up in a wealthy but dysfunctional Chinese family during the 1940s evokes the classic fairy tale, Cinderella.
• Terror of the Spanish Main: Sir Henry Morgan and His Buccaneers
  Marrin, Albert
  PW SLJ
  Henry Morgan (1635-1688) was an unusual sort of leader--a leader of thieves, a "prince" among a group of outcasts and failed gentlemen known as buccaneers. Vividly outlining the political economic circumstances that allowed the buccaneers to flourish, and evoking both life at sea and in the colonies in the 17th century, Marrin shows how Morgan was a particular response to forces that are still with us.
• The Wild Colorado: The True Adventures of Fred Dellenbaugh, Age 17, on the Second Powell Expedition into the Grand Canyon
  Maurer, Richard
  SLJ
  In 1871 at the age of 17, Fred Dellabaugh joined Major John Wesley Powell's second expedition to explore the mighty Colorado and the Grand Canyon. Once believed lost, his drawings of the river are published here along with dramatic archival photos.
• The Dancer Who Flew: A Memoir of Rudolf Nureyev
  Maybarduk, Linda
  PW
  
• Good Night, Maman
  Mazer, Norma Fox
  Booklist
  In May of 1940, no one in France believes that the German army will threaten them, but soon the Nazis are heading for Paris. Nine-year-old Karin's life is mined upside down - her father is arrested, and she goes into hiding with her mother and her older brother, Marc. Soon Maman is too sick to travel, so Karin and Marc escape to Italy alone. Finally, Marc obtains places for them on a ship headed for the United States.
• Hate You
  McNamee, Graham
  SLJ
  Alice Silvers writes songs she can never sing, because she has a broken Frankenstein voice. Her father choked her years before when she got in his way while he was fighting with her mother. After that night, her mother threw him out. Alice hasn't seen him since. Now she's 17. Alice has her songs, her words, her mother, her boyfriend, her life. Everything but her voice. Years have passed since that terrifying night, but Alice burns with a hate stronger that anything she's ever known.
• Missing Girls
  Metzger, Lois
  SLJ
  Since her mother died four years ago, Carrie Schmidt has been like a sleepwalker. When she moves in with her grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, she wakes up - and then she meets Mona Brockner. Mona knows about "lucid dreaming", being awake inside your dreams. Mona's friendship, and her "dream lesson", lead Carrie back to her mother--and her own future.
• Mary, Bloody Mary
  Meyer, Carolyn
  Kirkus
  In this piece of historic fiction, Mary Tudor, who reigned briefly as Queen of England during the mid 16th century, tells the story of her troubled childhood as daughter of King Henry VIII.
• The Squire, His Knight and His Lady
  Morris, Gerald
  SLJ
  After several years at King Arthur's court, Terence, as Sir Gawain's squire and friend, accompanies him on a perilous quest that tests all their skills and whose successful completion could mean certain death for Gawain. (LC description).
• Monster
  Myers, Walter Dean
  PW
  While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, 16-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the terrible course his life has taken.
• Ties That Bind, Ties That Break
  Namioka, Lensey
  Booklist PW
  Set in the pivotal period in Chinese history when the empire fell and the Republic of China was created, this moving story tells of Ailin, a young girl who refuses to follow the tradition of having her feet bound - and pays the price for her choice when her intended husband breaks the marriage agreement and her family is no longer willing to support her.
• Forbidden Love: The Secret History of Mixed Race America
  Nash, Gary B.
  SLJ
  Starting with Pocahontas and John Rolfe, Professor Nash reveals the blending of peoples and cultures that runs through all of American history. At the same time, using cartoons, paintings, and songs, this accomplished historian shows how desperately people have tried to separate the races and to deny who they really are. This book connects our multicultural moment with our true history and our hidden mixed-race heritage.
• A Face in Every Window
  Nolan, Han
  Booklist PW SLJ
  
• What Have You Lost?
  Nye, Naomi Shihab (ed)
  SLJ
  Brimming with electricity and featuring astonishing photographs, this groundbreaking anthology for young adults features inspiring poems by 140 beloved, international, and never-before published poets.
• Alida's Song
  Paulson, Gary
  Kirkus
  In this touching companion to The Cookcamp, a 14-year-old boy who has been neglected by irresponsible parents spends a wonderful summer on a farm where his grandmother cooks for two elderly brothers. Life with Alida gives the boy strength and faith in himself, drawing him away from the edge and into the center of life.
• Brian's Return
  Paulson, Gary
  PW Kirkus
  The gripping conclusion to the story begun in Hatchet and continued in The River and Brian's Winter finds Brian feeling isolated and alienated now that he's back in civilization. The only answer is to "go back in", for only in the wilderness can he discover his true path in life and learn where he belongs.
• All Alone in the Universe
  Perkins, Lynne Rae
  Booklist SLJ
  Debbie is dismayed when her best friend Maureen starts spending time with ordinary, boring Glenna. (LC description).
• Tribute to Another Dead Rock Star
  Powell, Randy
  PW
  For a tribute to his mother, a dead rock star, fifteen-year-old Grady returns to Seattle, where he faces his mixed feelings for his retarded younger half-brother Louie while pondering his own future. (LC description).
• The Baboon King
  Quintana, Anton
  Kirkus SLJ
  Morengaru the young hunter is cast out by both his mother's people, the Kikuyu, and his father's people, the Masai, Morengaru is alone in the wilderness. He soon realizes that his arrows and his wits aren't enough to protect him. He must take the place he wins as head of the baboon troop to assure his own survival in the harsh African plains. But what does it take for a man to live as an animal? Can he hold on to the shreds of his humanity that will allow him to reclaim his place among his own people?
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
  Rowling, J.K.
  Booklist PW
  When the Chamber of Secrets is opened again at the Hogswart School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, second-year student Harry Potter finds himself in danger from a dark power that has once more been unleashed on the school.
• Summer Hawk
  Savage, Deborah
  SLJ
  When her rescue of a baby hawk takes fifteen-year-old Taylor to a raptor rehabilitation center in rural Pennsylvania, their offer of a summer public relations job seems a step toward her dream of becoming a journalist. (LC description).
• Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen
  Sheldon, Dyan
  Booklist
  
• Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy
  Sones, Sonya
  Booklist
  A younger sister has a difficult time adjusting to life after her older sister has a mental breakdown. (LC description).
• A Beautiful Place on Yonge Street
  Trembath, Don
  Booklist
  
• Never Trust a Dead Man
  Vande Velde, Vivian
  SLJ
  Wrongly convicted of murder and punished by being sealed in the tomb with the dead man, seventeen-year-old Selwyn enlists the help of a witch and the resurrected victim to find the true killer.
• About Face
  Wood, June Rae
  SLJ
  Both Glory Bea Goode, who lives with her grandmother over a second-hand store in Turnback, Missouri, and Marvalene Zulig, who travels with her parents with Shuroffs' Spectacular carnival, are unhappy with their lives until their friendship gives them a new perspective.
• Thunderwoman: A Mythic Novel of the Pueblos
  Wood, Nancy
  Booklist
  Follows the Pueblo Indians from creation and prehistory, to bloody massacres by the Spanish and others, and ending with the testing of the atomic bomb. (LC description).
• Lena
  Woodson, Jacqueline
  PW
  At the end of I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This, Marie's friend Lena and her little sister Dion ran away to escape their abusive father, leaving Marie full of longing and readers full of questions. Now Lena tells what happened to the two girls out in the world, and of their search for a place to belong and the home they dream of and deserve.

Best Books Links:

Booklist Editors' Choice 1999 - Adult Books for Young Adults
Booklist Editors' Choice 1999 - Books for Youth - Older Readers
School Library Journal Best Books
School Library Journal - 100 Books that Shaped the Century
YALSA Best Books
YALSA Quick Picks

More Overbooked Best Books Reading Lists:

• Young Adult/Teen Stars Lists