A Family Secret

Written by: Anne Frank House

First line: Jeroen only has a few days left to gather up some old things for the Queen's Day flea market.

Why you should read this book: This plot-heavy piece of historical fiction uses a modern day frame and a graphic format to tell the interlinking stories of several young people's experiences in the Netherlands during World War II. Jeroen finds an old scrapbook in his grandmother's attic, and his grandmother tells him about her childhood best friend, her brothers, her own work for the resistance, and the effect the Nazi invasion had on the people of the Netherlands. Jeroen comes away with a new understanding of what Memorial Days means for people of his grandmother's generation and manages to bring unimaginable joy to the lives of two elderly women.

Why you should read this book: You haven't yet read the Diary of Anne Frank.

Dr. Oblivion's Guide to Teenage Dating Volume 1

Written by: Jeff Pina

First line: Being a single father these days isn't an easy task.

Why you should read this book: Dr. Oblivion is an evil supervillain, intent on taking over the world, because he knows that he can make it a better place for her his teenage daughter, Callie, who is not wildly enthusiastic about his work, or his plans to bioengineer a genetically perfect man for her eighteenth birthday present. Instead. Callie falls for a guy she meets at school, who just happens to have an alter-ego: he's Dr. Oblivion's newest nemesis. Dr. Oblivion finds he must toe the line between his daughter's love and his own hatred, with comical result.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're just keeping your teenage daughter locked in a closet where she can't look at handsome boys.

The Kidney Hypothetical or How to Ruin Your Life in Seven Days

Written by: Lisa Yee

First line: It was supposed to be the best week of my life, but then everything went terribly wrong.

Why you should read this book: On the surface, Higgs Boson Bing has a perfect life--perfect family,  perfect friends, perfect girlfriend, perfect grades, perfect college prospects--but a week before his high school graduation, he says the wrong thing, and suddenly, everything starts to unravel. Someone is obviously out to get him, and all the good fortune he thought he had begins to slip from his grasp. There's a campaign going on to ruin his life, and he needs to get to the bottom of it before his perfect future disappears, too.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You don't know you're actually a jerk.

Fat Angie

Written by: E.E. Charlton-Trujillo

First line: This was the beginning.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Fat Angie hasn't recovered from her big sister's decision to enlist in the Air Force, let alone her sister's public capture by the enemy shortly thereafter, or her own public freak out slash suicide attempt at a school pep rally last year, and she's definitely not prepared to deal with her second attempt at finishing the school year. The popular girls seem determined to make her reentry into society rough, and Angie doesn't even know how to feel about the beautiful newcomer, KC Romance, a girl who inexplicably wants to be friends, and maybe more, with her. Angie and KC's relationship never does run smooth, but in the end, Angie will find a path through her own disconnection and make her own way in the world.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You don't need help mourning the death of your sister.

A Separate Peace

Written by: John Knowles

First line: I went back to the Devon School not long ago, and found it looking oddly newer than when I was a student there fifteen years before.

Why you should read this book: Like many people, I first read this book in a high school English class, but I decided to reread it after seeing it mentioned a few other places, and it really is a kind of monumental story about adolescence and war. Gene, bookish and serious, and Finny, athletic and irreverent, are roommates and best friends at a New England boarding school during World War II, but the world that seemed so knowable to Gene begins to shift as the war becomes more real to him. In the book, Gene reexamines the events of that year through an adult's eye.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's a quiet and nuanced story, less about action and more about motivation, and it's full of profound sadness.

Forget Me Not

Written by: Nancy Van Laan and Stephanie Graegin

First line: I remember when Grandma was still her old sweet self, doing the things she had always done, exactly the way she had always done them.

Why you should read this book: This is a little girl's perspective on her grandmother's descent into Alzheimer's, which becomes gradually terrifying as her loved one slips further and further away from her. It's a fairly accurate portrayal, with the early memory loss being laughed off, until suddenly the situation is dire and the family must intervene. It's a good story for explaining the condition to young people and helping them understand this horrible disease, while letting them know how to best continue loving the person who is disappearing before their eyes.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's a book for children about Alzheimer's.

Jane, the Fox, and Me

Written by: Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault

First line: There was no possibility of hiding anywhere today.

Why you should read this book: Helene is in the midst of that most middle-school of misadventures: for reasons she doesn't understand, all her former friends have cut her, so that so is completely lonely at school, where she is constantly subject to rude graffiti that makes untrue assertions about her weight. Her only respite is the novel Jane Eyre, but when the school decides to send her entire class to camp for four days, there is no escape. This fast and friendly graphic novel illustrates both the depths of despair and the heights of hope with love and accuracy.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're terrified of camping.

The Thing about Luck

Written by: Cynthia Kadohata

First line: Kouun is "good luck" in Japanese, and one year my family had none of it.

Why you should this book: After nearly dying of malaria, Summer has become obsessed with mosquitoes, drenching herself in DEET whenever she steps outside and compulsively drawing and sculpting the insect whose bite caused her so much pain, but even if she can keep the bugs away, everything else in life seems beyond her control. Her unusual brother can't make any friends and her parents have to fly back to Japan, leaving the children to go harvesting with their strict grandparents. A quiet story filled with the realistic moment of a girl's development, this book is a delightful slice of life.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You did die of malaria.

Indian Killer

Written by: Sherman Alexie

First line: The sheets are dirty.

Why you should read this book: A complex murder mystery with a large cast of suspects, this smart, fast-paced novel develops along a perfect timeline, bringing its characters to life, investigating the killings, and exposing the never ending experience of microaggression and unseen racism experienced by Native Americans. Throughout the novel we return again and again to the character of John Smith, a mentally ill Indian man raised by his adoptive white parents, to Marie, the angry Indian activist student, and to the white men who, in their desire to embrace native culture, inadvertently fan the flames of racism even higher. Well written and lovingly constructed, this novel performs both its function--solving the murder and exposing racism--with fluency and grace.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're one sixty-fourth Cherokee on your mother's side, which is why you have such a special connection to the earth.

Sing-Along Song

Written by: JoAnn Early Macken Lellyen Pham

First line: Robin greets the morning from the sycamore tree, Chirpin' to the risin' sun, her babies, and me.

Why you should read this book: A little boy experiences joy as he hears the special song of all the people and animals he encounters in his day. Everything he does is accompanied by its own music, inspiring the child to sing along. Written in rhyme and warmly illustrated with happy and loving scenes.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You hate music, children, and animals.