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The Best Books for Young Adults committee of the Young Adult Library Services Association, a division of the American Library Association, has chosen the following books as Top Ten Young Adult Books:
Bagdasarian, Adam Forgotten Fire $17.95 DK 0-7894-2627-7 A twelve to fifteen year old's account of the Armenian Massacres from 1915 to 1918 based on the author's great uncle's life.
Bauer, Joan Hope was Here $16.99 G. P. Putnam's Sons 0-399-23142-0 When sixteen year old Hope and the aunt who has raised her move from Brooklyn to Mulhoney, Wisconsin, to work as a waitress and cook in the Welcome Stairways Diner they become involved with the diner owner's political campaign to oust the towns corrupt mayor.
Chevalier, Tracy Girl with a Pearl Earring $21.95 Dutton, 052594527X In Holland in 1664, a girl named Griet leaves her family to become a maid in the household of the painter Vermeer, but the passion she inspires in him and the passion art inspires in her end in sorrow.
Katz, Jon Geeks: How two boys rode the Internet out of Idaho $22.95 Villard 0-375-50298-X Trapped in rural Idaho, two 19-year-old, self-proclaimed geeks use their computer skills to land jobs, an apartment, and a new lives in Chicago.
Konigsburg, E. L. Silent to the Bone $17.00 Jean Karl Book, Atheneum Books 0-689-83601-5 Thirteen year old Branwell becomes unable to speak when the au pair accuses him of hurting his baby step-sister.
Paulsen, Gary The Beet Fields $15.95 Delacorte Press 0-385-32647-5 Gary Paulsen tells the story of his sixteenth summer, running away from home to experience life by working in the beet fields, witnessing death, helping an old woman on her farm, and working in a carnival for two brothers.
Ryan, Pam Munoz Esperanza Rising $15.95 Scholastic Press 0-439-12041-1 Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go to work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression.
Spinelli, Jerry Stargirl $15.95 Alfred A. Knopf 0-679-88637-0 The eccentric new student, Stargirl, sees life differently than any of the students at Mica High School, and her non-conformist behavior changes her classmates and their perceptions of what it costs to be popular.
Whelan, Gloria Homeless Bird $15.95 HarperCollins 0-06-028454-4 Koly, a thirteen-year-old girl in modern India, is forced into an arranged marriage with a dying boy. As a teenaged widow, she finds herself abandoned by her mother-in-law in a strange city where she must make a life for herself or die.
White, Ruth Memories of Summer $16.00 Farrar Straus Giroux 0-374-34945-2 In 1955, thirteen year old Lyric finds her whole life changing when her family moves from the hills of Virginia to a town in Michigan and her older sister Summer.
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.