Pardon Me, You're Stepping on My Eyeball

Author: Paul Zindel

First line: "Marsh" Mellow was fifteen years old and hated almost everything about Curtis Lee High School.

Why you should read this book: In a story that doesn't seem to have lost any of its power or relevancy in the thirty years since its original publication, we meet Marsh and Edna, two outcasts from the society of Curtis Lee High, placed in a special class of kids with social difficulties. Edna, always on the defensive, can't seem to stop crying, while Marsh is a compulsive liar who carries a live baby raccoon in his pocket wherever he goes. Drawn to one another, they have the chance to change their lives, if they can only drop their defense mechanisms long enough to be honest with themselves.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You think you can prevent teen drinking, drug use, and sexual behavior by preventing teens from reading about drinking, drugs, and sex.

I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This

Author: Jacqueline Woodson

First line: There was always the Hocking River running a red mud trail through Chauncy, Ohio.

Why you should read this book: In a hard, sad, coming-of-age piece, Marie, a well-off, popular girl in a predominantly black suburb, is drawn to Lena, a poor white girl who lives by the dump. The girls share the common sorrows of absent mothers (Lena's dead and Marie's on permanent "walkabout") and secret disappointment in their fathers (Marie's father hasn't touched her since the night her mother left; Lena's father touches her in ways she can't discuss). In the face of racial and class discrimination, Marie tries to ease Lena's pain and understand a world larger than her insulated middle-class community.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You believe father always knows best.

Andrew's Loose Tooth

Author: Robert Munsch

First line: When Andrew came downstairs there were three big red apples in the middle of the table.

Why you should read this book: Andrew's loose tooth prevents him from eating apples without excruciating pain, but neither his mother's hands, nor his father's pliers, his dentist's car, or the tooth fairy's hammer can remove the stubborn thing from his face. Kids like the wild solutions and cartoonish illustrations, as well as the ultimate finale. A silly, accessible book on a topic close to every little kid's heart.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're a dentist.

Missing Abby

Author: Lee Weatherly

First line: The Force is strong in this one.

Why you should read this book: Emma's managed to shake off the stigma of her junior high reputation as a freak by transferring to a private school, making new "normal" friends, and cutting off her best friend from childhood, Abby. When Abby's disappearance makes front page news, Emma realizes she was the last to see her former friend alive, and joins the effort to learn Abby's fate, despite her misgivings about Abby's weird proclivities. A story about identity and truth, this book doesn't offer easy answers or sugarcoat the pain of reality.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You still think D&D leads to ritual Satanic abuse, every time.

The Man Who Caught Fish

Author: Walter Lyon Krudop

First line: One day, a stranger came to the village carrying only a pole with a string attached.

Why you should read this book: Most of the city is pleased with the odd charity of a strange man who catches a fish every time his line falls into water, distributing them evenly with the motto, "One person, one fish," but the king feels it's his divine right to receive more fish than anyone else. No matter what he does, he cannot persuade the stranger to pay him his due, until everyone learns a lesson in greed. An original fairy tale, set in Thailand, that appeals to a child's sense of fairness.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Possessed by the ghost of Joseph McCarthy, you fear any philosophy that advocates equal distribution of resources.

Odd Velvet

Author: Mary E. Whitcomb

First line: On the first day of schook, Velvet's classmates brought their teacher cinnamon tea, lace handkerchiefs, and heart-shaped boxes of potpourri.

Why you should read this book: A loving and believable examination of conformity and acceptance. Velvet is an odd girl who dresses, thinks, and talks differently from the rest of the class, but her words and imagination end up inspiring the other kids. By the end of the year, her classmates find themselves becoming a little more like odd Velvet.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You sent your kid to an exclusive boarding school with a dress code for a reason.

Today I Will Fly

Author: Mo Willems

First line: Today I will fly!

Why you should read this book: Accessible to any reading level, it's a simple conversation between a pig determined to conquer gravity and the reality-based elephant determined to destroy her fantasies. The pig makes several attempts to achieve lift-off before persuading her elephant friend that dreams can come true. A real crowd-pleaser.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It chafes you to see folks with unbounded hope.

Alec's Primer

Author: Mildred Pitts Walter

First line: Near the Rappahannock River in Port Royal, Virginia, the Gouldin tobacco plantation spread over many acres.

Why you should read this book: Born into slavery, Alec tries to keep his head down and follow the rules, but the Mistress's rebellious granddaughter insists on teaching him to read, and Alec begins to dream of freedom. Saving his pennies in a secret jar and studying from the primer she gives him, he protects his knowledge and imagines life in Vermont, until he can join the Northern soldiers and fight in the civil war. A true story, based on Alec's daughter's recollections, this book features a short historical blurb, as well as a photograph of the real Alec at his wedding.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're waiting for the South to rise again.

Happy Birthday, Wanda June

Author: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

First line: How do you do. My name is Penelope Ryan. This is a simple-minded play about men who enjoy killing--and those who don't.

Why you should read this book: Balancing on the razor's edge between comedy and tragedy, in Vonnegut's inimitable way, this play pitches readers into the dark world of Harold Ryan, a man who makes killing both his business and his pleasure. Declared dead after eight years in Africa, he returns home to find his wife engaged to one of her two suitors, a peace-loving doctor. With darkest humor, Harold's journey takes him from volatile expression of aggressive machismo to an anachronism unfit for the modern world.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Nothing makes you feel manlier than taking the life of a creature weaker than yourself, preferably with your bare hands.

Ignis

Author: Gina Wilson

First line: Ignis lived with his sister, Flamma, and Grandragon.

Why you should read this book: Here's your standard finding-your-talent, heading-onto-the-open-road, making-new-friends, coming-of-age story, with the title role played by a dragon, supported by a cast of dragons, one hippopotamus, one parrot, and one little girl. Little Ignis, who can't breathe fire, feels like he's not a real dragon, so he leaves Dragonland to find himself, trying out the lifestyles of other creatures before returning home, an integrated and fully flammable dragon. With luscious, breathtaking artwork that almost overshadows the somewhat loquacious text.

Why you shouldn't read this book: The combination of fire and the young of any species makes you nervous.