Much has already been written about the eating disorders anorexia and bulimia, but none in such an intensely vivid and personal way as Wintergirls. 18-year-old Lia tells her story in journal format with heartbreaking honesty. The book begins with the death of her former best friend Cassie, whose many calls for help went unanswered - and we feel Lia's guilt, despair, and loss throughout. Her compulsive quest for the perfect size zero and her self-punishment push her further and further into a nightmarish world that we experience too. We hear the pain and sorrow resonating in her poetry:

"Dead girl walking, the boys say in the halls./Tell us your secret, the girls whisper./I am that girl./I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through./I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame."

This book will stay with you long after you've finished reading it. For young adult and adult readers.

The summer after graduating from an Iowa high school, eighteen-year-old Dade Hamilton watches his parents' marriage disintegrate, ends his long-term, secret relationship, comes out of the closet, and savors first love. Casting a dream-like spell and lingering long after you’ve finished it, “The Vast Fields of Ordinary” is anything but ordinary.

Burg, Ann E.. All The Broken Pieces : A Novel In Verse. 2009. (YA Fiction Burg.A)

Seventh grader Matt Pin is a child of war. Airlifted out of Vietnam by American soldiers and adopted by a loving American family, he carries within him inescapable visions of chaos: “the smell and the smoke and the sound of someone crying,” his mother’s “thin, shrill staccato” voice when she urged him away from her to safety “through sounds of whirring helicopters and open prayers,” and his 3 yr. old brother’s burned, dismembered body. At the center of these visions is a dark secret, one Matt keeps tightly wound up inside. Luckily, he has baseball, a talent for the piano, and a new, supportive family to see him through. This is an exceptionally beautiful novel that captures the physical and emotional wreckage left in the wake of the Vietnam War. Written in free verse form, the novel moves at a quick pace through sharp, disarmingly poetic fragments that fit Matt’s intense feelings of confusion. Everyone in this story has been disfigured in some way by the war. But, remarkably, many of the characters also reveal their persistent good hearts and act out of love towards one another in quiet, unexpected ways.

In a kingdom called the Dells, Fire is the last human-shaped monster, with unimaginable beauty and the ability to control the minds of those around her, but even with these gifts she cannot escape the strife that overcomes her world. Warring kingdoms, politics, intrigue, romance, well-drawn characters, and the uses and abuses of power keep you turning the pages in this exciting fantasy.

This sequel has enough action to please "Hunger Games" fans and ends with an edge-of-your-seat cliffhanger that leaves readers desperate for the next installment. We won't say any more than that, because we don't want to give anything away!

While in a coma following an automobile accident that killed her parents and younger brother, seventeen-year-old Mia, a gifted cellist, weighs whether to live with her grief or join her family in death. Not a word is wasted in this stunning and life-affirming novel.

Tamika, a fifteen-year-old hearing-impaired girl, Jimmi, an eighteen-year-old veteran, and sixteen-year-old Fatima, an illegal immigrant from Africa, meet in their Bronx, New York, neighborhood and form a friendship that shines right through the orange houses that are not really orange but "beaten brick the color of the sky this drizzly dusk." Their friendship has both beautiful and devastating consequences.

Mapmaking runs in 17-year-old Terra’s family. Her father is a failed and bitter cartographer who is verbally abusive. Terra, on the other hand, makes collaged maps, expressing a different kind of landscape, finding beauty in stories and experience. Self described as stunning from afar, extremely fit with long golden tresses, Terra tries to cover as much of her facial birthmark (referred to as a port-wine stain) as she can under heavy makeup. Until she meets Jacob (one of our favorite guy characters). Then her internal compass begins to point in a different direction, one just north of beautiful. Geocaching, a trip to China, and romance also give her life a new and exciting direction.

Hiassen, Carl. Scat. 2009. (YA Fiction Hiaas.C)

In 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated city bus, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin did the same. Hoose’s nuanced narrative alternates with the unclouded memories of the adult Colvin and affecting black-and-white photographs, police reports, bus and other signs that take you right to 1950s Montgomery, Alabama.

In 2015, England becomes the first nation to introduce carbon dioxide rationing in a drastic bid to combat climate change. Sixteen-year-old rock musician Laura Brown desperately needs her band to survive, but that, of course, requires energy as in electricity, and she’s already used up her meager allowance of that. Meanwhile, her family is falling apart and she keeps a diary of it all. And even though times are really tough, Laura’s wit keeps you hooked and her music keeps you rocking.

Lyga, Barry. Worst Day Ever. 2009. (YA 741.5973 Lyga.B)

Welcome to the world of Harry Dresden. He's the only wizard listed in the Chicago phone book. Any time something happens that seems slightly supernatural, the police call in Harry Dresden. This is the graphic novel adaptation of the first book in a fantastic series.

Stead, Rebecca. When You Reach Me. 2009. (YA Fiction Stead.R & eAudiobook)

Marcelo Sandoval, a seventeen-year-old boy on the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum, faces new challenges, including romance and injustice, when he goes to work for his father in the mailroom of a corporate law firm.

Loz has the best intentions. Okay so she forgot to deliver the invitations to her mom's party. But she's going to do it. When she does, Loz and her friends start to uncover a mystery, one that involves their detestable English teacher. Sharp, quick, and funny.