Teenreads.com - YALSA's 2008 Teens’ Top Ten

YALSA's 2008 Teens’ Top Ten

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), the fastest-growing division of the American Library Association (ALA), announced its 2008 Teens’ Top Ten. (link "2008 Teen's Top Ten" to www.ala.org/teenstopten)

Teens' Top Ten is a "teen choice" list, where teens nominate and choose their favorite books of the previous year. Nominators are members of teen book groups in 15 school and public libraries around the country. Nominations are posted in April during National Library Week, and teens across the country vote on their favorite titles each year during Teen Read Week. Readers aged 12 to 18 can vote on ALA’s website anytime that week.

More than 8,000 teens voted on this year's winners, which are below.

ECLIPSE
Stephenie Meyer
Little, Brown for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780316160209
Ages 12-up
640 pages

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Readers captivated by TWILIGHT and NEW MOON will eagerly devour ECLIPSE, the much anticipated third book in Stephenie Meyer's riveting vampire love saga. As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob --- knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella has one more decision to make: life or death. But which is which?

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS
J.K. Rowling
Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic
ISBN: 9780545010221
Ages 9-18
759 pages

• Harry Central
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It all comes down to this --- a final faceoff between good and evil. You plan to pull out all the stops, but every time you solve one mystery, three more evolve. Do you stay the course you started, despite your lack of progress? Do you detour and follow a new lead that may not help? Do you listen to your instincts, or your friends?

Lord Voldemort is preparing for battle and so must Harry. With Ron and Hermione at his side, he's trying to hunt down Voldemort's Horcruxes, escape danger at every turn, and find a way to defeat evil once and for all. How does it all end? Find out in HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS.

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID
Jeff Kinney
Amulet/Abrams Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780810993136
Ages 9-12
224 pages

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It’s a new school year, and Greg Heffley finds himself thrust into middle school, where undersized weaklings share the hallways with kids who are taller, meaner and already shaving. The hazards of growing up before you’re ready are uniquely revealed through words and drawings as Greg records them in his diary.

In book one of this debut series, Greg is happy to have Rowley, his sidekick, along for the ride. But when Rowley’s star starts to rise, Greg tries to use his best friend’s newfound popularity to his own advantage, kicking off a chain of events that will test their friendship in hilarious fashion.

VAMPIRE ACADEMY
Richelle Mead
Razborill/Penguin Young Readers Group
ISBN: 9781595141743
Ages 12-up
332 pages

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St. Vladimir’s Academy isn’t just any boarding school --- it’s a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They’ve been on the run, but now they’re being dragged back to St. Vladimir’s --- the very place where they’re most in danger…

Rose and Lissa become enmeshed in forbidden romance, the Academy’s ruthless social scene and unspeakable nighttime rituals. But they must be careful lest the Strigoi --- the world’s fiercest and most dangerous vampires --- make Lissa one of them forever.

MAXIMUM RIDE #3: SAVING THE WORLD AND OTHER EXTREME SPORTS
James Patterson
Vision
ISBN: 9780446194044
Ages 12-up
432 pages

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The time has arrived for Max and her winged "Flock" to face their ultimate enemy and discover their original purpose: to defeat the takeover of "Re-evolution," a sinister experiment to re-engineer a select population into a scientifically superior master race...and to terminate the rest. Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman and Angel have always worked together to defeat the forces working against them --- but can they save the world when they are torn apart, living in hiding and captivity, halfway across the globe from one another?

CITY OF BONES: The Mortal Instruments, Book One
Cassandra Clare
Simon Pulse
ISBN: 9781416955078
Ages 14-up
512 pages

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Fifteen-year-old Clary Fray witnesses a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and in possession of bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. Within 24 hours Clary is pulled into the world of Jace, a Shadowhunter, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary folks like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know the answers to these questions.

THE SWEET FAR THING
Libba Bray
Delacorte Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780385730303
Ages 14-up
832 pages

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It has been a year of change since Gemma Doyle arrived at the foreboding Spence Academy. Her mother murdered and her father a laudanum addict, Gemma has relied on an unsuspected strength and has discovered an ability to travel to an enchanted world called the realms, where dark magic runs wild. Despite certain peril, Gemma has bound the magic to herself and forged unlikely new alliances. Now, as Gemma approaches her London debut, the time has come to test these bonds.

The Order --- the mysterious group her mother was once part of --- is grappling for control of the realms, as is the Rakshana. Spence's burned East Wing is being rebuilt, but why now? Gemma and her friends see Pippa, but she is not the same. And their friendship faces its gravest trial as Gemma must decide once and for all what role she is meant for.

EXTRAS
Scott Westerfeld
Simon Pulse
ISBN: 9781416951179
Ages 12-up
432 pages

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It's a few years after rebel Tally Youngblood took down the uglies/pretties/specials regime. Without those strict roles and rules, the world is in a complete cultural renaissance. "Tech-heads" flaunt their latest gadgets, "kickers" spread gossip and trends and "surge monkeys" are hooked on extreme plastic surgery. And it's all monitored on countless different cameras. Whoever is getting the most buzz receives the most votes. Popularity rules.

Fifteen-year-old Aya Fuse's rank of 451,369 is so low, she's a total nobody. An extra. Then Aya meets a clique of girls who pull crazy tricks yet are deeply secretive of it. Aya wants desperately to kick their story, to show everyone how intensely cool the Sly Girls are. But doing so would propel her out of extra-land and into the world of fame, celebrity...and extreme danger.

BEFORE I DIE
Jenny Downham
David Fickling Books/Random House
ISBN: 9780385751551
Ages 14-up
330 pages

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Tessa has just months to live. Fighting back against hospital visits, endless tests and drugs with excruciating side-effects, Tessa compiles a list. It’s her To Do Before I Die list. And number one is Sex. Released from the constraints of “normal” life, Tessa tastes new experiences to make her feel alive while her failing body struggles to keep up. Tessa’s feelings, her relationships with her father and brother, her estranged mother, her best friend and her new boyfriend, all are painfully crystallised in the precious weeks before Tessa’s time finally runs out.

TWISTED
Laurie Halse Anderson
Speak/Penguin Young Readers Group
ISBN: 9780142411841
Ages 12-up
272 pages

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High school senior Tyler Miller used to be the kind of guy who faded into the background --- an average student with so-so looks and a typical dysfunctional family. But since getting in trouble for spray painting graffiti on the school and spending the summer doing outdoor work to pay for it, he stands out so much more than he ever did before this unfortunate incident. His new physique attracts the attention of queen bee Bethany Milbury, who just so happens to be his father's boss's daughter, the sister of his biggest enemy --- and Tyler's secret crush. And this sets off a string of events and changes that have Tyler questioning his place in the school, in his family and in the world.