Best Books for Young Adults

Seventy-six books were chosen as Best Books for Young Adults by the Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association. The list of titles includes fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and biography recommended for young adults ages 12-18. Five titles received a unanimous votes from the 15 member committee: Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier, a novel set in the household of the Dutch painter Vermeer; 145th Street: Short Stories, a collection set on a single block in Harlem by Walter Dean Myers; The Beet Fields, an autobiographical coming-of-age novel by Gary Paulsen; Homeless Bird, a novel by Gloria Whelan about a teenage widow in India struggling to make a life for herself; and Miracle's Boys by Jacqueline Woodson, which explores how three brothers cope with the death of their mother.

Committee members were Alice F. Stern, Chair, The Winsor School, Boston, MA; Margaret Butzler, Bethel Park Public Library, Bethel Park, PA; Valerie Diamond, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, MD; Katherine Fitch, Rachel Carson Middle School, Herndon, VA; Susan Geye, Crowley Ninth Grade Campus, Crowley, TX; Donna Gilliland, University of St. Thomas Minnesota, MN; Nancy Maltby Henkel, Maple Valley Library, King County Library System, Maple Valley, WA; Jan Hoberecht, Newton High School, Newton, KS; Andrea Howe, Albuquerque Academy, Albuquerque, NM; Susan Hunter, Riverside Middle School, Springfield, VT; Donna McMillen, Algona-Pacific Pacific, WA; Diane Monnier, Bethesda Regional Montgomery County, MD; Rosemary Moran,Tulsa City-County Library Tulsa, OK; Andrew Parson, Packer Collegiate Institute, Brooklyn, NY; Sandra Schultheis, Evansville-Vanderburgh County, Evansville, IN; Stephanie Zvirin, Consultant, American Library Association,Chicago, IL; Douglas Uhlmann, Administrative Assistant, William Penn Charter School, Philadelphia, PA.

Fiction

Almond, David
Kit's Wilderness $15.95 Random House- Delacorte Press 0-385-32665-3

Anderson, Laurie Halse
Fever 1793 $16.00 Simon and Schuster 0-689-83858-1

Appelt, Kathi
Kissing Tennessee and Other Stories from the Stardust Dance $15.00 Harcourt 0-15-202249-X

Bagdasarian, Adam
Forgotten Fire $17.95 DK 0-7894-2627-7

Bauer, Cat
Harley, Like a Person $16.95 Winslow Press 1-890817-48-1 (hc)1-890817-49-x (sc)

Bauer, Joan
Hope was Here $16.99 G. P. Putnam's Sons 0-399-23142-0

Blackwood, Gary
Shakespeare's Scribe $15.99 Dutton 0-525-46444-1

Brooks, Martha
Being with Henry $17.95 DK Publishing, Inc 0-7894-2588-2

Cabot, Meg
The Princess Diaries $15.95 HarperCollins 0-380-97848-2

Calhoun, Dia
Aria of the Sea 15.95 Winslow Press 1-890-817-25-2

Chevalier, Tracy
Girl with a Pearl Earring $21.95 Dutton, 052594527X

Coman, Carolyn
Many Stones $15.95 Front Street 1-886910-55-3

Creech, Sharon The
Wanderer $15.95 trade, $15.89 library HarperCollins: Joanna Cotler Books 0-06-02773-0 trade, 0-06-027731-9

Crichton, Michael
Timeline $26.95 Knopf 0-679-44481-5

Cross, Gillian
Tightrope $16.95 Holiday House 0-8234-1512-0

Dessen, Sarah
Dreamland 15.99 Viking 0-670-89122-0

Deuker, Carl
Night Hoops $15.00 Houghton Mifflin 0-395-97936-6

Fienberg, Anna
Borrowed Light $14.95 Delacorte 0-385-32758-7

Fogelin, Adrian
Crossing Jordan $14.95 Peachtree 1-56145-215-7

Giff, Patricia Reilly
Nory Ryan's Song $15.95 Delacorte 0-385-32141-4

Glenn, Mel
Split Image $15.95 HarperCollins 0-688-16249-5

Gray, Dianne E.
Holding up the Earth $15.00 Houghton Mifflin 0-618-00703-2

Haruf, Kent
Plainsong $24.00 Alfred A. Knopf, 0-375-40618-2

Hyde, Catherine Ryan
Pay It Forward $23.00 Simon and Schuster 0-684-86271-9

Isaacs, Anne
Torn Thread $15.95 Scholastic Press 0-590-60353-9

Karr, Kathleen
The Boxer $16.00 Farrar Straus Giroux 0-374-30921-3

Kessler, Cristina
No Condition is Permanent $17.99 Philomel 0-399-23486-1

Konigsburg, E. L.
Silent to the Bone $17.00 Jean Karl Book, Atheneum Books 0-689-83601-5

Koss, Amy Goldman
The Girls $16.99 Dial 0-8037-2494-2

Lawrence, Iain
Ghost Boy $15.95 Delacorte Press 0-385-32739-0

Lebert, Benjamin
Crazy $17.95 Knopf 0-375-40913-0

Logue, Mary
Dancing with an Alien 14.95 Trade/14.89 Library HarperCollins 0-06--028319-X

Lynch, Chris
Gold Dust $15.95 HarperCollins 0-06-028174-X

Marillier, Juliet
Daughter of the Forest $25.95 TOR 0-312-84879-x

Morris, Gerald The
Savage Damsel and the Dwarf $15.00 Houghton Mifflin Company 0-395-97126-8

Murphy, Rita
Night Flying $14.95 Delacorte Press 0-385-32748-X

Myers, Walter Dean
145th Street Short Stories $15.95 Delacorte Press 0-385-321376

Oughton, Jerrie
Perfect Family $15.00 Houghton Mifflin 0-395-98668-0

Peck, Richard
A Year Down Yonder $16.99 Dial 0-80372518-3

Peters, Julie Anne
Define "Normal" $14.95 Little, Brown and Company 0-316-70631-0

Philbrick, Rodman
The Last Book in the Universe $16.95 Blue Sky Press, an Imprint of Scholastic Inc. 0-439-08758-9

Platt, Randall Beth
The Likes of Me $15.95 Delacorte Press 0-385-32692-0

Plum-Ucci, Carol
The Body of Christopher Creed $17.00 Harcourt 0-15-202388-7

Plummer, Louise
A Dance for Three $15.95 Delacorte Press 0-385-32511-8

Rennison, Louise
Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson $15.95 Trade/$15.89 Library HarperCollins, 0-06-028814-0/0-06-028871-X

Ryan, Pam Munoz
Esperanza Rising $15.95 Scholastic Press 0-439-12041-1

Schwartz, Virginia Frances
Send One Angel Down $15.95 Holiday House 0-8234-1484-1

Spinelli, Jerry
Stargirl $15.95 Alfred A. Knopf 0-679-88637-0

Trueman, Terry
Stuck in Neutral $14.95 HarperCollins 0-06-028519-2

Wallace, Rich
Playing Without a Ball $15.95 Knopf 0-679-88672-9

Wells, Ken
Meely LaBauve $19.95 Random House 0-3755-0311-0

Whelan, Gloria
Homeless Bird $15.95 HarperCollins 0-06-028454-4

White, Ruth
Memories of Summer $16.00 Farrar Straus Giroux 0-374-34945-2

Williams, Lori Aurelia
When Kambia Elaine Flew in from Neptune $17.00 Simon & Schuster 0-689-82468-8

Wittlinger, Ellen
What's in a Name $16.00 Simon & Schuster 0-689-82551-X

Woodson, Jacqueline
Miracle's Boys $15.99 Putnam 0-399-23113-7

Yolen, Jane and Robert J. Harris
Queen's Own Fool $19.99 Philomel Books 0-399-23380-6

Nonfiction

Armstrong, Lance with Sally Jenkins
It's Not About the Bike..My Journey Back to Life $24.95 G.P. Putnam 0-399-14611-3

Bachrach, Susan D.
The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936 21.95 Little Brown 0-316-07086-6 0316070874p

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell
Kids on Strike! $20.00 Houghton Mifflin Company 0-395-88892-1

Beckett, Wendy
My Favorite Things: 75 Works of Art from Around the World $29.95 Harry Abrams, Inc. 0-8109-4387-5

Fradin, Dennis Brindell, and Judith Bloom Fradin
Ida B. Wells: Mother of the Civil Rights Movement $18.00 Clarion Books 0-395-89898-6

Franco, Betsy (editor)
You Hear Me?: Poems and Writings by Teenage Boys $14.99 Candlewick Press 0-7636-1158-1

Freedman, Russell
Give me Liberty!: The Story of the Declaration of Independence 24.95 Holiday House 0-8234-1448-5

Glover, Savion and Bruce Weber
Savion: My Life in Tap $19.95 Morrow 0688156290

Gottlieb, Lori
Stick Figure: A Diary of My Former Self $22.00 Simon & Schuster 0-684-86358-8

Katz, Jon
Geeks: How two boys rode the Internet out of Idaho $22.95 Villard 0-375-50298-X

Lalicki, Tom
Spellbinder:The Life of Harry Houdini $18.95 Publsiher: Holiday House 0-8234-1499-X

Lanier, Shannon and Jane Feldman
Jefferson's children: The story of One American Family 19.95 Random House 0-375-80597-4

Levine, Ellen
Darkness over Denmark : The Danish Resistance and the Rescue of the Jews $18.95 Holiday House 0-8234-1447-7

Marrin, Albert
Sitting Bull and his world $27.50 Dutton 0-525-45944-8

Paulsen, Gary
The Beet Fields $15.95 Delacorte Press 0-385-32647-5

St. George, Judith
In the Line of Fire: Presidents' Lives at Stake $18.95 Holiday House 0-8234-1428-0

Turner, Ann
Learning to Swim 14.95 Scholastic Press 0-439-15309-3

Ung, Loung
First They Killed My Father : A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers $23.00 HarperCollins 0-06-019332-8

Winick, Judd
Pedro and Me $15.00 Henry Holt and Co. 0-8050-6403-6