Get Real!
A Booklist for Teen Read Week 2005

Novels Based on True Stories

A Northern Light

In 1906, sixteen-year-old Mattie, determined to attend college and be a writer against the wishes of her father and fiance, takes a job at a summer inn where she discovers the truth about the death of a guest. The real life murder depicted in A Northern Light was the basis for Dreiser’s An American Tragedy.

389 p.; c2003. Teen, Fiction DONNELLY, JEN

Escape from Botany Bay : The True Story of Mary Bryant

In 1791, after being transported to Australia in the first shipment of convicts, Mary Bryant, her husband, two children, and seven other convicts, unable to endure the terrible conditions of the penal colony, organize a daring escape in an open boat.

220 p.; c2003 Teen, Fiction HAUSMAN, GER

Isaacs, Anne.

Torn Thread

In an attempt to save his daughter's life, Eva's father sends her from Poland to a labor camp in Czechoslovakia where she and her sister survive the war.

188 p.; c2000. Teen, Fiction ISAACS, ANN

Lester, Julius.

When Dad Killed Mom

When Jenna and Jeremy's father shoots and kills their artist mother, they struggle to slowly rebuild a functioning family.

Levitan, Sonya.  

Room in the Heart

After German forces occupy Denmark during World War II, fifteen-year-old Julie Weinstein and fifteen-year-old Niels Nelson and their friends and families try to cope with their daily lives, finding various ways to resist the Nazis and, ultimately, to survive.

290 p.; c2003. Teen, Fiction LEVITIN, SON

Lyons, Mary E.

The Poison Place

A former slave named Moses reminisces about his famous owner, Charles Willson Peale, and the intrigue surrounding Peale's son's suspicious death.

178 p.; c1997 Teen, Fiction LYONS, MAR

Meyer, L.J.

Bloody Jack

Reduced to begging and thievery in the streets of London, a thirteen-year-old orphan disguises herself as a boy and connives her way onto a British warship set for high sea adventure in search of pirates.

278 p.; c2002. Teen, Fiction MEYER, L.A.

Olsen, Sylvia.

The Girl With a Baby

Jane has always been the good Williams. Her brothers might be high school dropouts and late-night rowdy partiers, but never Jane. Now she's one of those: the teenage mothers packing diaper bags with their knapsacks, wheeling strollers into the high school daycare, tired and grumpy.

203 p.; c2003. Teen, Fiction OLSEN, SYL

Ryan, Pam Munoz.

Esperanza Rising

Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go 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.

262 p.; c2000. Teen, Fiction RYAN, PAM

Skurzynski, Gloria.

Spider's Voice

Because he is a young mute person who can hear, Aran becomes involved in the adventures of Eloise and Abelard, France's most famous lovers, who lived during the twelfth century.

200 p.; c1999 Teen, Fiction SKURZYNSKI, GLO

Strasser, Todd.

Give a Boy a Gun

Events leading up to a night of terror at a high school dance are told from the point of view of various people involved.

146 p.; c2000. Teen, Fiction STRASSER, TOD

Yolen, Jane, and Bruce Colville

Armageddon Summer

Fourteen-year-old Marina and sixteen-year-old Jed accompany their parents' religious cult, the Believers, to await the end of the world atop a remote mountain, where they try to decide what they themselves believe.

266 p.; c1998 Teen, Fiction YOLEN, JAN

Nonfiction that Reads Like a Novel

Aronson, Marc and Stephanie Anderson.

Witch Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials

An acclaimed young adult historian sifts through the facts, myths, half-truths, misinterpretations, and theories around the Salem witch trials to present readers with a vivid, nonfiction narrative of one of the most compelling mysteries in American history.

272 p.; c2003. Teen, Non-fiction 133.43 ARO

Almond, Steve.

Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America

After confessing to being a lifelong chocoholic, the aptly named Almond traces the history and bittersweet business practices of the companies producing those addictive candy bars.

266 p.; c2004. TEEN 338.4766 ALM

Wiatt, Carrie Latt.

Fleischman, John.

Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story about Brain Science

Phineas Gage was truly a man with a hole in his head. Phineas, a railroad construction foreman, was blasting rock near Cavendish, Vermont, in 1848 when a thirteen-pound iron rod was shot through his brain. Miraculously, he survived to live another eleven years and become a textbook case in brain science.

86 p.; c2002. Teen, Non-fiction 362.1974 FLE

Owen, David.

Hidden Evidence: Forty True Crimes and How Forensic Science Helped Solve Them

Hidden Evidence takes you to the scenes of 40 infamous crimes and into the heart of the forensic investigations. These are the true crime shockers that have grabbed headlines and aroused public passions. David Owen explains the scientific procedures that helped crack every one of these cases -- from the gathering of elusive physical clues to the examination of weapons and bodies, to the use of sophisticated scientific analysis.

240 p.; c 2000. TEEN 363.25 OWE

Benchley, Peter.

Shark Life: True Stories About Sharks and the Sea

Master storyteller Peter Benchley combines high adventure with practical information in Shark Trouble, a book that is at once a thriller and a valuable guide to being safe in, on, under, and around the sea. The bestselling author of Jaws, The Deep, and other works draws on more than three decades of experience to share information about sharks and other marine animals.

193 p.; c2005. TEEN 597.3 WOJ

Capuzzo, Michael.

Close to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916

In the summer of 1916, a rogue great white shark terrorized the New Jersey shore. Now adapted for young readers, this nonfiction book recounts the events of that summer and provides information about shark physiology and behavior.

140 p.; c2003. TEEN 597.3156 CAP

Hoose, Phillip M.

The Race to Save the Lord God Bird

Tells the story of the ivory-billed woodpecker's extinction in the United States, describing the encounters between this species and humans, and discussing what these encounters have taught us about preserving endangered creatures.

196 p.; c2004. Teen, Non-fiction 598.72 HOO

Sullivan, Robert.

Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants

Love them or loathe them, rats are here to stay-they are city dwellers as much as (or more than) we are, surviving on the effluvia of our society. In Rats, the critically acclaimed bestseller, Robert Sullivan spends a year investigating a rat-infested alley just a few blocks away from Wall Street.

242 p.; c2004. TEEN 599.35 SUL

Wiatt, Carrie Latt.

The Diet for Teenagers Only

A breakthrough diet plan specifically designed with teenagers in mind-with recipes, tips, inspiration, and all the information teens need to make smart food choices.

244 p.; c2005 Teen, Non-fiction 613.2082 WIA

Dendy, Leslie.

Guinea Pig Scientists

Stories of ten men and women, from the 1770s to the present, who devoted their lives, and sometimes risked them, to answer some of the big questions in science and medicine.

213 p.; c2005. Teen, Non-fiction 616.027 DEN

Greenberg, Jan and Sandra Jordan.

Andy Warhol: Prince of Pop

Andy Warhol, the Pittsburgh-bred son of Eastern European immigrants, is well known for his Pop Art masterpieces. But there is more to Warhol than that: he also made films, launched 'Interview' magazine, and foresaw the convergence of art, Hollywood fashion and business as the trend of the future.

193 p.; c2004. Teen, Non-fiction 700.92 Warhol, A GRE

Krakauer, Jon.

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster

Heroism and sacrifice triumph over foolishness, fatal error, and human frailty in this bone-chilling narrative in which the author recounts his experiences on last year's ill-fated, deadly climb.

293 p.; c1997. Teen, Non-fiction 796.522 KRA

Hillenbrand, Laura.

Seabiscuit: An American Legend

He didn't look like much. With his smallish stature, knobby knees, and slightly crooked forelegs, he looked more like a cow pony than a thoroughbred. But looks aren't everything; his quality, an admirer once wrote, "was mostly in his heart." Laura Hillenbrand tells the story of the horse who became a cultural icon in Seabiscuit: An American Legend.

399 p.; c2001. Teen, Non-fiction 798.4 HIL

Gantos, Jack.

Hole in My Life

The author relates how, as a young adult, he became a drug user and smuggler, was arrested, did time in prison, and eventually got out and went to college, all the while hoping to become a writer.

199 p.; c2002. Teen, Non-fiction 813 Gantos, J GAN

Krakauer, Jon.

Into the Wild

In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley . His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter.

207 p.; c1996. Teen, Non-fiction 917.98 KRA

Nelson, Peter.

Left for Dead: A Young Man's Search for Justice for the USS Indianapolis

201 p.; c2002. Teen, Non-fiction 940.5459 NEL

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell.

Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow

The story of a generation of German young people who devoted all their energy to the Hitler Youth and the propaganda that brought gave Hitler his power, and the youths that resisted the Nazi movement.

176 p.; c2005. Teen, Non-fiction 943.086 BAR

Bowden, Mark

Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War

The riveting, close-up account of a 1993 firefight in Mogadishu , Somalia , "Black Hawk Down" is one of the most vivid and thorough reports of modern combat ever written.

386 p.; c1999.Teen, Non-fiction 967.7305 BOW

Armstrong, Jennifer.

Photo By Brady: A Picture of the Civil War

The award-winning author of "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" tells the story of the Civil War as seen through the lenses of the field photographers hired by Matthew Brady, who traveled with troops and made visual records of what they saw.

147 p.; c2005. Teen, Non-fiction 973.73 ARM

Junger, Sebastian

The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea

Meteorologists called the storm that hit North America 's eastern seaboard in October 1991 a "perfect storm" because of the rare combination of factors that created it. For everyone else, it was perfect hell. In The Perfect Storm, author Sebastian Junger conjures for the reader the meteorological conditions that created the "storm of the century" and the impact the storm had on many of the people caught in it.

301 p.; c1997. Teen, Non-fiction 974.45 JUN