West Bend Community Memorial Library

ya_1OObest

At the Best of the Best preconference, held during the Annual ALA Conference, librarians selected the one hundred titles they consider to be the best books for young adults from the last half of the twentieth century. Titles were chosen from the Best Books for Young Adults Booklists published from 1966 to 2000. The following titles are those selected as the top 100.

                       

Fiction

Adams, Douglas, 1980
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The hilarious journey of Arthur Dent and his friend Ford Prefect, a space hitchhiker, who escape from earth seconds before it is demolished and travel to a variety of galactic civilizations while gathering information for a hitchhiker's guidebook.

Adams, Richard, 1974
Watership Down
Follow the epic Tolkienesque adventures of Fiver, Hazel, and a ragtag lapin band. Rabbits will never seem the same again.

Anonymous, 1971,
Go Ask Alice
The painful diary of a young girl when she accidentally falls into the contemporary drug scene.

Atwood, Margaret,1986
Handmaid's Tale
Offred, a handmaid living in a near-future time, endures life in a society in which women able to bear children are used for procreation.

Avi, 1993
Blue Heron
A solitary blue heron becomes a symbol of strength and peace for 13-year-old Maggie when she discovers a change has come over her father and his new family.

Avi, 1992
Nothing but the Truth
It's against regulations to hum the national anthem in school. Philip decides to disobey the rule, and the whole nation watches what happens.

Bachman, Richard, 1979
Long Walk
Of the 100 boys who begin a grueling marathon walk, 99 will die--and one will have his every wish granted. Or will he?

Bauer, Joan, 1999
Rules of the Road
Seventeen-year-old Jenna's job at crusty Mrs. Gladstone's shoe store leads to her driving Mrs. Gladstone across country to Texas to prevent a company takeover.

Block, Francesca Lia, 1990
Weetzie Bat
Lanky lizards! Punk teens Weetzie and Dirk search for love in a modern fairy tale that is funny, moving, and unlike any book you've read before.

Bloor, Edward, 1998
Tangerine
Is Tangerine, Florida, like the Bermuda Triangle? A sinkhole swallows the middle school, lightning strikes repeatedly, underground fires burn endlessly--and all newcomer Paul Fisher wants to do is play soccer, despite his thick glasses, his parents' indifference, and his evil brother.

Brooks, Bruce, 1985
The Moves Make the Man
As Jerome, a black athlete, shares his skills and interest in basketball with Bix, a white baseball player, their friendship grows and the game becomes a reflection of both their lives.

Brooks, Terry, 1986
Magic Kingdom for Sale--Sold!
In a funny fantasy adventure, disillusioned sorrowing widower Ben buys a magic kingdom for $1,000,000 only to find a run-down castle operated by a motley group of inept courtiers.

Card, Orson Scott, 1985
Ender's Game
Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, a young genius in Battle School, where he is training to fight the alien Buggers, has to put his skills to the ultimate test much sooner than he expected.

Childress, Alice, 1973
Hero Ain't Nothin but a Sandwich
Benjie, a 13-year-old in Harlem, cannot face the reality of his drug addiction or the realization that someone cares for him.

Cooney, Caroline B. 1993
Flight #116 Is Down
A 747 crashes on the grounds of her family's estate, and 16-year-old Heidi, alone and terrified, pulls herself together to help rescue the survivors.

Cormier, Robert, 1979
After the First Death
Ben tries unsuccessfully to balance his father's betrayal and his own failure after a busload of children is hijacked by a group of ruthless terrorists.

Cormier, Robert, 1988
Fade
One boy in each generation of the Moreaux family inherits the power--and the curse--of invisibility.

Cormier, Robert, 1977
I Am the Cheese
A victim of amnesia, and under the influence of drugs administered by mysterious and unidentified questioners, teenager Adam searches through haunting memories that must not be recalled or revealed if he is to survive.

Cormier, Robert, 1974
The Chocolate War
"Sweets" abound at Trinity High while a schoolmaster feasts on his students' fear--a bitter story of one student's resistance and the high price he pays.

Crutcher, Chris, 1992
Athletic Shorts: 6 Short Stories
Tales of love, death, bigotry and heroism are of real people with the courage to stand up to a world that often puts them down.

Crutcher, Chris, 1990
Chinese Handcuffs
A winning triathlete's need to understand his older brother's suicide is complicated by memories and daring challenges.

Crutcher, Chris, 1996
Ironman
When he calls his teacher an asshole in class, Bo is forced to attend an anger management program, where he learns to deal with his real problem--his cruel father.

Crutcher, Chris, 1983
Running Loose
Louie takes a stand against his coach and playing dirty football, falls in love, and loses his girlfriend in a fatal accident--all in his senior year.

Crutcher, Chris, 1994
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
When the horrific truth about Sarah's past is revealed, only her true friend Eric ("Moby") Calhoun can help her come to terms with her family and plan for her future.

Cushman, Karen, 1995
Catherine, Called Birdy
Fighting fleas, unsuitable suitors, and her mother's attempts to make a lady of her, Catherine writes in her diary about her frustrations with her life as a young noblewoman in medieval times.

Cushman, Karen, 1996
The Midwife's Apprentice
Beetle, a homeless girl, is found in a dung heap and apprenticed to the village midwife in this sensitive 14th-century tale set in England.

Deuker, Carl, 1990
On the Devil's Court
Seventeen-year-old Joe Faust must decide if it's worth selling his soul to the devil for one perfect season of basketball.

Dickinson, Peter, 1990
Eva
After a violent auto accident, 13-year-old Eva wakes up in a hospital to find she must learn how to live as a chimpanzee.

Draper, Sharon M., 1996
Tears of a Tiger
High-school senior Andy Jackson is overcome by guilt after his best friend dies in an automobile accident that happened when Andy was driving drunk.

Farmer, Nancy, 1997
A Girl Named Disaster
When her family arranges her marriage to a cruel man with three wives, Nhamo escapes by canoe to seek a better future.

Farmer, Nancy, 1995
The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm
When General Matsika's three children are kidnapped after they leave the safety of their armed compound, their mother hires the best detective team available in 2194 Zimbabwe--the appropriately named mutant partners--the Ear, the Eye, and the Arm.

Fleischman, Paul, 1994
Bull Run
Sixteen individuals voice their hopes and fears in this interwoven collage of "snapshots" set during the first battle of the Civil War.

Fleischman, Paul, 1999
Whirligig
After killing a girl when driving drunk, Brent Bishop learns a lot about himself and life when he's forced to pay for his crime by traveling to the four corners of the U.S. to build whirligigs in her memory.

Gallo, Donald (ed.), 1984
Sixteen: Short Stories by Outstanding Writers for Young Adults
School, friendship, family, and love are all found within this unusual collection of humorous and serious short stories.

Garden, Nancy, 1982
Annie on My Mind
Lisa and Annie meet at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, fall in love, and then find that a public declaration is too threatening to their friends and relatives.

Gurney, James, 1993
Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time
A newly discovered, illustrated journal reveals life on the lost island of Dinotopia, where shipwrecked human survivors work and play in harmony with dinosaurs.

Guy, Rosa, 1979
Disappearance
Released from jail in the custody of the Aimsley Family, Imamu Jones immediately becomes a prime suspect when Perk, their youngest daughter, disappears.

Guy, Rosa, 1973
The Friends
Rejected by her classmates because she "talks funny," Phyllisia Cathy, a young West Indian girl, is forced to become friends with poor, frazzled Edith, the only one who will
accept her.

Hesser, Terry Spencer, 1999
Kissing Doorknobs
Tara struggles to live with her obsessive-compulsive behavior, but before her condition is diagnosed, her relationships with family and friends begin to crumble.

Hobbs, Will, 1992
Downriver
Fifteen-year-old Jesse and other rebellious teenage members of a wilderness survival team abandon their adult leader, steal his van and rafts, and run the dangerous whitewaters of the Grand Canyon.

Hobbs, Will, 1997
Far North
Stranded in the Canadian wilderness, two boys endure a brutal sub arctic winter of bear, wolf, and moose attacks while they repeatedly struggle to escape.

Hurwin, Davida Wills, 1996
A Time for Dancing
Seventeen-year-old best friends Juliana and Samantha share a passion for dance, for life, and for each other--then Jules is diagnosed with cancer and must travel a path Sam cannot follow.

Kindl, Patrice, 1995
Owl in Love
Girl by day, owl by night, 14-year-old Owl Tycho finds life is complicated--not only by a crush on her science teacher, but also by the presence of a deranged boy in the woods.

Klause, Annette Curtis, 1991
The Silver Kiss
Feeling alienated from everyone during her mother's terminal illness, Zoe comes under the spell of Simon, a vampire doomed to live until he avenges the death of his mother 300 years earlier.

Koertge, Ron, 1988
The Arizona Kid
Working one summer at a racetrack, living with his gay uncle, and falling madly in love make wimpy, short, tenth-grader Billy Kennedy more self-confident and wiser in the ways of the world.

Laird, Elizabeth, 1993
Kiss the Dust
It's Iraq, and Tara's family are Kurds. "He" has put out the word, and they must flee for their lives.

Lowry, Lois, 1994
The Giver
When he turns 12, Jonas is given his life assignment from the committee of elders--to become the receiver of memories from far-past times--and discovers the horrible secret that his society has hidden for the "safety and happiness" of its citizens.

Magorian, Michelle, 1982
Good Night, Mr. Tom
A badly battered and frightened young boy evacuated from London during World War II fills an empty void in the heart of a dour old man.

Mahy, Margaret, 1984
The Changeover: A Supernatural Romance
With the help of an older boy who loves her, Laura "changes over" into a witch to fight the evil forces that are attacking her little brother.

Marsden, John, 1996
Tomorrow, When the War Began
When they return from a wilderness camping trip, Ellie and her friends are shocked to discover Australia has been invaded and soon find fighting and surviving have become their way of life.

McCaffrey, Anne, 1977
Dragonsinger
With the help of Master-harper, Menolly and her fire lizards overcome the prejudice against a woman's becoming a harper the planet Pern.

McDonald, Joyce,1998
Swallowing Stones
Depression, guilt, and fear plague Michael's dreams after a stray bullet from his rifle kills a man.

McKinley, Robin, 1978
Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast
Fantasy and romance are beautifully blended in an evocative, much-expanded version of the classic fairy tale.

McKinley, Robin, 1982
Blue Sword
Harry Crewe, bored with her dull and sheltered life, finds new magic, love, and her destiny as a woman warrior when kidnapped by a handsome king who has mysterious powers.

Myers, Walter Dean, 1988
Fallen Angels
Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry's stint in Vietnam brings home to him the agony and futility of war as he learns to kill and watches his comrades die.

Myers, Walter Dean,1981
Hoops
Lonnie and the rest of his Harlem ghetto basketball team learn the fine art of playing and winning like pros from Cal, who once was one.

Myers, Walter Dean,1997
Slam
"Slam" Harris is a talented basketball player whose dreams of fame and fortune in the NBA can come true--if he can control his anger.

Myers, Walter Dean, 1993
Somewhere in the Darkness
Jimmy is shocked when an unexpected visitor turns out to be his father, who has been in prison for eight years and now wants Jimmy to drive with him to Chicago.

Nelson, Theresa, 1995
Earthshine
Twelve-year-old Slim must face the truth that her beloved, irreplaceable father is dying from AIDS.

Nix, Garth, 1997
Sabriel
Sabriel makes a desperate quest through the Gates of Death to free her necromancer father from the strengthening powers of the spirits of the dead.

O'Brien, Robert C., 1975
Z for Zachariah
In a peaceful valley, two survivors of an atomic holocaust are brought together--one a self-sufficient young girl, the other a killer bent on killing again.

O'Brien, Tim, 1991
The Things They Carried
In these candid short stories based on O'Brien's Vietnam experiences, pictures, heartaches, dreams and terror are the things soldiers in Vietnam carry.

Orr, Wendy, 1998
Peeling the Onion
Anna struggles to recover her health and her life after a car accident shatters her body and leaves her brain damaged.

Paterson, Katherine, 1980
Jacob Have I Loved
While growing up among the "water people" on an island off the coast of eastern Maryland during the 1940s, Louise searches for her identity and fights the jealousy she feels toward her talented, fragile, and beautiful twin sister.

Paterson, Katherine,1992
Lyddie
Unable to pay off the debt on the family farm, feisty, single-minded Lyddie survives the dangers of the textile mills in 1840s Massachusetts, determined not to forfeit her dreams.

Paulsen, Gary, 1999
Soldier's Heart
After facing the reality of fighting in the Civil War, Charlie realizes that war is hell on earth--both mentally and physically.

Plath, Sylvia, 1971
The Bell Jar
During a queer, sultry summer in New York, Esther Greenwood works as a junior editor on MADEMOISELLE, quarrels with her mother and boy friend, and is gradually aware of her descent into madness.

Potok, Chaim, 1967
The Chosen
Two Jewish boys growing to manhood in Brooklyn discover that differences can strengthen friendship and understanding.

Pullman, Philip, 1997
The Golden Compass
With the aid of friends, witches, and armored polar bears, 12-year-old Lyra fights the evil that is stealing children and conducting horrible experiments on them.

Pullman, Philip, 1987
The Ruby in the Smoke
Sally, 16 and an orphan, must find her way through a maze of 19th-century villains to claim her inheritance and her independence.

Rowling, J.K.,1999
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
With only a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead as a clue to his true identity, Harry Potter, by a twist of fate, leaves his unloving foster family for a life of wizardry and celebrity.

Sachar, Louis, 1999
Holes
Stanley Yelnats is sentenced to Camp Green Lake, where he finds a treasure and puts an end to a long-running curse on his family.

Sleator, William, 1974
House of Stairs
Five 16-year-old orphans find themselves alone in an experimental nightmare where stairs and landings stretch as far as the eye can see and a weird red light trains them to dance for their food.

Staples, Suzanne Fisher, 1990
Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind
Torn between allegiance to her family and her growing independence and strength, Shabanu tells the story of her life as a member of a nomadic tribe in the Pakistani desert.

Stewart, Mary, 1970
The Crystal Cave
Merlin, the base-born son of royalty in 5th-century Britain, uses magic to outwit his enemies until he sets the stage for the birth of Arthur, the future king.

Tan, Amy, 1990
The Joy Luck Club
Chinese American daughters find conflict, love and connection with their mothers, who are haunted by their early lives in China.

Voigt, Cynthia, 1985
Runner
Bullet, a 17-year-old cross country runner, finds that compromise is sometimes necessary if an athlete is going to be the best.

White, Robb, 1972
Deathwatch
Ben's hunting expedition for bighorn sheep becomes a deathwatch in the desert -- with hope of survival 45 minutes away.

Wolff, Virginia Euwer, 1994
Make Lemonade
High-school student LaVaughn, determined to earn money for college, baby-sits for Jolly, an unwed teenage mother of two, and matures in the process.

Woodson, Jacqueline, 1999
If You Come Softly
Jeremiah, who is white, and Ellie, who is African American, feel an immediate connection and then must cope with the reactions to their relationship by the people
around them.

Wrede, Patricia C, 1991
Dealing with Dragons
Unconventional Cimorene, fed up with her dull life as a princess, runs away to join the dragons in this fun book that turns fairy tales upside down.

Yolen, Jane, 1993
Briar Rose
Grandmother Gemma always told the story of Briar Rose, and after she dies, her granddaughter discovers that Gemma was a real-life Sleeping Beauty--a Holocaust survivor.
 

Non-Fiction
Angelou, Maya, 1970
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
This remarkable, poetic and frank autobiography of a black girl who grew up in Arkansas, St. Louis and San Francisco is for mature readers.

Ashabranner, Brent, 1988
Always to Remember: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial
The story of Vietnam veteran Jan C. Scruggs's struggle to build a national monument honoring Americans who died or are missing in the Vietnam War.

Boas, Jacob, 1996
We Are Witnesses: The Diaries of Five Teenagers Who Died in the Holocaust
The compelling and poignant diaries of five teenagers who died during the Holocaust tell their tragic, courageous stories.

Bodanis, David, 1986
Secret House: 24 Hours in the Strange and Unexpected World in Which We Spend Our Nights and Days
The microbiological drama found within a house is explored from early-morning to late- evening.

Brooks, Polly Schoyer, 1991
Beyond the Myth: The Story of Joan of Arc
Condemned as a witch but later canonized as a saint, young Joan, inspired by her love of France, leads her countrymen in their battle against the English.

Cleary, Beverly, 1988
Girl from Yamhill: A Memoir
An honest and humorous account of the Depression-era childhood and adolescence of Beverly Cleary in Oregon, where she encountered many of the same situations that teens do today.

Edelman, Bernard, 1985
Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam
In their personal letters, soldiers and civilians reveal the pain, frustration, confusion, and anger that were part of their daily lives in Vietnam.

Freedman, Russell, 1994
Eleanor Roosevelt: A Life of Discovery
A compelling photo-biography of Eleanor Roosevelt relates the remarkable story of a shy, lonely girl who grows up to be a powerful force in the fight for world peace and equality and an inspiration to millions of people.

Freedman, Russell, 1988
Lincoln: A Photobiography
This skillfully written, appealing overview of Lincoln's life from boyhood to death, is accompanied by carefully chosen photographs and prints.

Freedman, Russell, 1992
Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane
Freedman tells the fascinating story of how two self-taught bicycle mechanics solve the problems that had baffled generations of scientists and engineers.

Janeczko, Paul B, 1991
Place My Words Are Looking For: What Poets Say About and Through Their Work
Writers share their poems and give insights into their craft and life.

McCall, Nathan, 1995
Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America
McCall remembers his journey from a working-class African American neighborhood to prison to a prestigious position on the WASHINGTON POST.

McKissack, Patricia C. and McKissack, Fredrick L.,1997
Rebels against Slavery: American Slave Revolts
Exciting profiles of heroic men and women tell accounts of those who rebelled against slavery in North America.

Paulsen, Gary, 1991
Woodsong
Through his dogsledding adventures in the Minnesota wilderness where there are wolves, deep snow, and minus-30-degree temperatures, the author comes to understand nature's ways and harrowing surprises.

Spiegelman, Art, 1986
Maus: A Survivor's Tale
In a comic book of revolutionary graphic design, a cartoonist juxtaposes his frustration with his father's insensitivity today and his father's desperate struggle to stay alive 40 years earlier during the Holocaust.

Spiegelman, Art, 1992
Maus: A Survivor's Tale II: And Here My Troubles Began
This graphic novel, the sequel to MAUS, recreates Vladek and Anja's agonizing struggles to survive in the concentration camp.

Stoll, Cliff, 1991
The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy through the Maze of Computer Espionage
A young astrophysicist turns detective as he embarks on the trail of an elusive computer hacker who has managed to break into top-secret government and military data banks.

Zindel, Paul, 1993
The Pigman and Me
Zindel recounts his bizarre adventures growing up on Staten Island, when his neighbor's father becomes his personal "pigman" and teaches him to cope with his rootless family.
 

~Young Adult Librarian ~
Kristin Lade
klade@west-bendlibrary.org
262.335.5151 x128

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