The Michael L. Printz Award, sponsored by Booklist, honors the best book written for teens each year.  It's the Oscars for Teen Literature.  If you haven't read some of these titles, give them a try.  There's a huge variety, so you'll be sure to find something you like.

Publisher: Bloomsbury
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/17/2012
ISBN-13: 9781599907437
ISBN-10: 1599907437

Trapped in the ruins of a Haitian hospital after a devastating earthquake, young Shorty is terrified by the bodies of victims and dwindling supplies before finding inspiration to rescue himself through the example of revolutionary leader Toussaint L'Ouverture.

Publisher: Simon & Schuster BFYR
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/21/2012
ISBN-13: 9781442408920
ISBN-10: 1442408928

Fifteen-year-old Ari Mendoza is an angry loner with a brother in prison, but when he meets Dante and they become friends, Ari starts to ask questions about himself, his parents and his family that he has never asked before.

First Chapter  

Publisher: HarperCollins
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/25/2012
ISBN-13: 9780062009500
ISBN-10: 0062009508

Surviving by his wits in an alternative-universe London ruled by a young Queen Victoria, the intrepid young Dodger inadvertently foils a murderous Sweeney Todd's operation and encounters numerous fictional and historical characters, including Darwin, Disraeli and Dickens. By the award-winning author of A Hat Full of Sky.

Publisher: Hyperion
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/15/2012
ISBN-13: 9781423152194
ISBN-10: 1423152190

In 1943, a British fighter plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France and the survivor tells a tale of friendship, war, espionage and great courage as she relates what she must do to survive while keeping secret all that she can.

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 07/24/2012
ISBN-13: 9781442413344
ISBN-10: 1442413344

Losing touch with everything he believes in the wake of a cousin's overdose, his younger brother's disappearance and his Arkansas community's obsession with an extinct bird, high school senior Cullen struggles to hold his family together, while a disillusioned missionary searches for meaning. A first novel.

First Chapter  Table of Contents  

Publisher: Little, Brown
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 12/27/2011
ISBN-13: 9780316127257
ISBN-10: 0316127256

Writing a letter to her ex-boyfriend about the reasons for their breakup, Min Green assembles items from their relationship to put into a box of mementos including a movie ticket from their first date, an old cookbook and a comb from a motel room. By the author of A Series of Unfortunate Events titles.

Publisher: Scholastic Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/18/2011
ISBN-13: 9780545224901
ISBN-10: 054522490X

The best-selling author of Shiver follows the experiences of a pair of youths who are swept up by a fantastical horse race across a treacherous cliff that makes them feel supremely alive and threatens dire consequences. 150,000 first printing. $150,000 ad/promo.

Publisher: Little, Brown
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/01/2010
ISBN-13: 9780316056212
ISBN-10: 0316056219

A tale set in a Gulf Coast shanty town 100 years in the future finds teen Nailer dreaming of a better life on the sea before discovering a beached clipper ship and lone survivor. By the Nebula- and Hugo-nominated author of Pump Six and Other Stories.

First Chapter  

Publisher: Chicken House
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/01/2010
ISBN-13: 9780545170932
ISBN-10: 0545170931

Kidnapped from a Bangkok airport by an oddly familiar man, Gemma is carried away to the Australian Outback, where in the sand, heat and isolation she learns that she has been the object of her abductor's long obsession and that he expects her to now fall in love with him.

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/12/2010
ISBN-13: 9780375865862
ISBN-10: 0375865861

Years after the boy she always loved ruined her life in a cruel betrayal, Vera, who is hiding a discovery she made about her mother, wonders what to do when the boy dies under suspicious circumstances that could be explained by the secrets she has kept for him. By the author of The Dust of 100 Dogs.

Publisher: Delacorte Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/22/2009
ISBN-13: 9780385733977
ISBN-10: 0385733976

Dealing with an illness that will soon result in his death, 16-year-old Cam is intrigued by the stories told by an eccentric girl named Dulcie and so is encouraged to go on a wild road trip across America where their search for a special cure will lead them to the strangest places on the map. Simultaneous.

First Chapter  

Publisher: Hyperion
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 03/25/2008
ISBN-13: 9780786838189
ISBN-10: 0786838183

Tells of the life and transformation of Frankie Landau-Banks who began her teenage years as a quiet member of the Debate Club and grew to become a sixteen-year-old criminal mastermind with an attitude to match.

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/14/2008
ISBN-13: 9780375848117
ISBN-10: 0375848118

After giving up her earthly life to live in a magical place where she and her two daughters are protected from violence, the time has come for Liga to make an important decision when beings from the real world break down the borders of her peaceful refuge.

First Chapter  

Publisher: Speak
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/16/2008
ISBN-13: 9780142410707
ISBN-10: 0142410705

Always being dumped by girls named Katherine, Colin Singleton, a washed-up child prodigy with a Judge-Judy obsessed best friend, embarks on a quest to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which will impact all of his future relationships and change his life. An ALA Best Book for Young Adults. Reprint.

Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 08/01/2004
ISBN-13: 9780385746779
ISBN-10: 0385746776

Soon after fifteen year old Daisy arrives at her aunt's farm in England her aunt goes away on business, leaving Daisy with four cousins she's never met--the next day when London is attacked by an unnamed enemy, power fails, systems fail, the farm becomes more isolated with no adults in charge and no rules, and yet the cousins' uncanny bond grows into something extraordinary as time passes.

First Chapter  

Publisher: EOS
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 05/01/2004
ISBN-13: 9780060531812
ISBN-10: 0060531819

Set in the early twentieth century in a world where the airplane hasn't been invented, a young boy takes to the skies aboard an airship where he plays an important role in fierce battles that are fought high in the sky.

First Chapter  Table of Contents  

Publisher: Speak
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 08/14/2008
ISBN-13: 9780142412213
ISBN-10: 014241221X

Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash. An ALA Best book for Young Adults. Reissue.

Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 10/22/1999
ISBN-13: 9780374371524
ISBN-10: 0374371520

Melinda finds herself an outcast at her high school for calling the cops on an end of summer party, and, although she finds comfort in her art class, she still holds a terrible secret.

First Chapter  

Publisher: HarperTeen
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/01/2008
ISBN-13: 9780061431838
ISBN-10: 0061431834

Abandoned by her drug-addicted mother at the age of eleven, high school student Taylor Markham struggles with her identity and family history at a boarding school in Australia.

First Chapter  

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 02/08/2005
ISBN-13: 9780375830990
ISBN-10: 0375830995

The dull and drab life of Ed, an underage cab driver with a coffee-addicted dog, takes an unexpected turn when he accidentally stops a bank robbery and finds himself being placed in charge of watching out for the entire town per a visit from the mysterious Ace.

First Chapter  

Publisher: Front Street
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 04/01/2001
ISBN-13: 9781886910584
ISBN-10: 1886910588

Young Ju Park is unhappy with her journey to America as her family suffers with financial difficulties and hard times upon their arrival, yet when her father suddenly becomes violent, Young Ju is thankful when he leaves so that their family can start over and make their dream a reality.

Publisher: Simon Pulse
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 09/01/2002
ISBN-13: 9780689852220
ISBN-10: 0689852223

In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patrón, the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.

First Chapter  Table of Contents  

Publisher: Candlewick Press
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 01/22/2008
ISBN-13: 9780763636791
ISBN-10: 0763636797

Various diaries, letters, and other manuscripts chronicle the experiences of Octavian, a young African-American, from birth to age sixteen, as he is brought up as part of a science experiment in the years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War. An ALA Best Book for Young Adults. Reprint.

First Chapter  

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Check Library Catalog Pub Date: 06/01/1999
ISBN-13: 9780689821349
ISBN-10: 0689821344

John and Marisol, two young 'zine writers, fall in love amid the bohemian life of Boston and, in the process, learn how exciting and difficult first love can be.