High School Summer Reading List (page 2)

Throughout the school year, your teen has used books as one of the primary ways of gathering information and understanding new concepts. Summer is your teen's chance to read what she wants to read, just for the joy it brings. And, while she might not realize it, she's also keeping her vocabulary skills and reading fluency in shape. We know getting kids to put down the phone and pick up a book can be a challenge, especially during the carefree summer months, so we've looked high and low for exciting new titles for young adults. Here's our list of favorites to exhilarate, fascinate, and yes, educate.

Our 2012 Summer Reading List

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. Fifteen-year-old Jacob is bored in his well-kept lifestyle, poised to take over the family drugstore chain, when his grandfather dies suddenly with Jacob on the scene. Armed with his grandfather’s cryptic last words, he sets sail for Europe, hoping to find out if the stories that his grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, told of growing up in a magical orphanage were true, or if they were just his way of coping with a traumatic past. Wisps of chilling secrecy cloud this creeping and ominous novel. Rumor has it there’s a movie in the works; encourage your teen to read this novel now, so that when the film version hits theaters she’ll have the chance to say, “I liked the book better.” (Quirk, $12.23) Where to buy

Guy Langman, Crime Scene Procrastinator by Josh Berk. Guy Langman is having trouble coping with the death of his father, or so his therapist says. In light of recent events, he doesn’t know if it’s a great idea for him to enroll in his school’s forensics team. He soon shows a knack for unraveling mysteries, which comes in handy when a family heirloom is stolen from his home and then he and the Berry Ridge High Forensics Squad stumble upon an actual dead body. Snark, sarcasm and slapstick humor pervade in this uproarious farce that takes a refreshingly silly approach to the typical coming-of-age melodrama. (Random House, $11.98) Where to buy

Legend by Marie Lu. With Hunger Games fever still running high, you might be looking for a follow-up to keep your teen reading this summer. Look no further than this dystopian fantasy. Set in the future where the former United States is now the Republic, a place where war is constant, you’ll recognize a lot of similarities with Hunger Games: wealthy and poor districts, military control, class warfare. But it’s the two extremely likeable main characters, one groomed for military greatness, the other born into poverty, that keep the fire going here, page after page. Watching their relationship transform and their suspicion for each other dissolve, makes for super-charged summer reading.  (Putnam, $11.98) Where to buy

Best Shot in the West: The Adventures of Nat Love by Patricia C. McKissack and Frederick L. McKissack, illustrated by Randy Duburke. Saddle up for a dusty ride through the Wild West! Nat Love, formerly known as “Deadwood Dick,” was one of the best cowboys in the West. But now he is retired, and the Old West is gone. Relive some of his wild adventures as he tells some of the tales of his glory days working as a cattle herder. This graphic novel is beautifully illustrated and will take you back to the time of outlaws and sharpshooters. Beware of mildly violent content and racial slurs of the era. (Chronicle, $13.59) Where to buy

Our 2009 High School Summer Reading Picks

Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji. Seventeen-year-old Pasha Shahed is enjoying one of his last summers at home in a middle-class neighborhood in Tehran. He is like many teens--gently spurning the worries of his overbearing mother, hanging out on the roof with his friend Ahmed, and thinking about his future. Except that it's 1973, and Iran is under the harsh reign of the Shah. Pasha's idyllic world begins to crumble when he falls in love with his next door neighbor, betrothed since birth to another man. All of a sudden he finds himself breaking centuries-old Persian traditions, and thrown into the middle of a dangerous revolution. A funny and heart-wrenching, sweet and dark, coming of age love story, set to the true-to-life backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. (Penguin Group, 2009, $10.20) Where to buy

The Compound by S. A. Bodeen. This boy-friendly thriller reads like a summer blockbuster, but has an emotional edge that gives it extra kick. When nuclear attack seems imminent, 15-year-old Eli's billionaire father rushes the family into "the compound", a lavish underground sanctuary where they are to wait out the 15 years before it's safe to come out. But while Eli, his parents, and his two sisters make it in time, Eli's grandmother and twin brother Eddy are stranded outside. Six years later, dulled by grief and the monotony of life underground, Eli encounters a horrible secret far worse than the family's dwindling food supply, as he must face hard truths about his father -- and himself -- in order to save his family. Equal parts dystopian fantasy, detective story, and family drama, this book makes up for its sometimes far-fetched conceits by delivering a rollicking ride to the very end. (Feiwel & Friends, 2008, $16.95) Where to buy

Impossible by Nany Zwerlin. It isn't until Lucy Scarborough is 17 years old that she realizes the full significance of the secret letter she found on her seventh birthday. The magical past Lucy never knew she had, quickly becomes the reality that she must fight to survive. This fast-paced fairy tale inspired by the song “Scarborough Fair” is set in contemporary times, with just enough interplay between magic and realism to plunge the reader headfirst into this romantic thriller. Mature issues such as teen pregnancy, date-rape and teen marriage run throughout the twists and turns of the storyline, but above all, the story communicates a theme that teens will find deeply satisfying: no destiny is unchangeable, especially where the magic of true love is concerned. (Speak, 2009, $9.99) Where to buy 

The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong. This teen thriller, the second book in the Darkest Powers series, is a mash-up of 1984 and Twilight. Chloe is a teenage necromancer who can raise the dead without even trying. She and her supernatural friends have discovered that they are part of an grand experiment: doctors at The Edison Group are altering their gene codes to suppress their supernatural abilities. Now, they are on the run to find someone who can help them, while Chloe begins to learn more about how to wield her own powers. The characters are realistic; each has flaws and insecurities which, when combined with their supernatural abilities, make for great drama! The pages of this suspenseful read will fly by, and your teen will be looking for the next book in the series before the summer is out. Unfortunately, she'll have to wait until "The Reckoning" is released in May of 2010. (HarperCollins Publishers, 2009, $17.99) Where to buy

Genesis by Bernard Beckett. In the not-so-distant future, young Anaximander is called to undergo the grueling oral entrance exam for The Academy. Through her narrative, she relates the history of her Orwellian civilization, the last outpost of a world decimated by a plague, and guides readers through an edge-of-your-seat exploration of humans and robots, consciousness and thought, morality and the meaning of humanity. At just 150 pages long, this book offers a short dive into a deep subject that's sure to engage cerebral readers with a thought-provoking and suspenseful exploration of complex issues. Although the philosophical subject matter is heavy, the book's tightly written narrative and nail-biting backstory will have readers rushing to the final shocking plot twist. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009, $20.00) Where to buy