Akbar, Said Hyder.  Come Back to Afghanistan: a California Teenager’s Story.  2005.  339p.  (CA setting). More>

• On 9/11, Akbar, who was born in Peshawar in 1984 but grew up in the U.S., was living near Oakland, Calif., where his father ran a clothing store. After the attack, the elder Akbar, a descendant of an Afghan political family, returned to his country to take a job as President Hamid Karzai's chief spokesman and, later, as governor of Kunar, a rural province. The author visited his father for three successive summers, and the result is this account, a closeup view of the creation of the country's post-Taliban democratic government, told from a perspective that's impressively both insider and objective. Akbar reports on chats with cabinet ministers and warlords, and sketches the lay of the land, visiting both sumptuous Kabul palaces as well as bombed-out villages. His youth and curiosity send him on some dangerous adventures (he retraces a mountain route between Afghanistan and Pakistan used by fleeing members of al-Qaeda and the Taliban)… (from Publisher’s Weekly review)

Block, Francesca Lia.  Dangerous Angels.  1998.  478p.   (CA setting and author). More>

• This volume is a compilation of the Weetzie Bat books (Weetzie Bat, Witch Baby, Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys, Missing Angel Juan, and Baby Be-Bop). Ghosts, fairies and genies happen to live alongside this world where young women and men struggle to grow up, find love and learn to let go.

Choldenko, Gennifer.  Al Capone Does My Shirts.  2004.  215p.  Gr. 5 and up (CA setting). More>

• Young people may first be drawn by the eye-catching title, however, they are lured further into this novel by the compelling issues of growing up, a sister with autism, and the peculiarities of living next to the infamous prison, Alcatraz. Newbery Honor.

Craig, Peter.  Blood Father: A Novel.  2005.  308p.  (CA setting). More>

• John Link is a former Hell's Angel, an ex-con, trying to stay clean and sober while running a tattoo parlor from the kitchen of his trailer home. He's also Lydia's long-estranged father, and when both the police and her boyfriend's thugs are hot on Lydia's trail, Link becomes Lydia's only hope. He seizes the chance to rescue his daughter. (from book jacket)

Dickey, Eric Jerome.  Thieves’ Paradise.  2002.  310p. (CA setting). More>

• Stuck in a recurring nightmare of stunting childhood memories and a history with the juvenile justice system, Dante goes crooked when he is downsized by his computer company and is left without prospects or rent money. Bad luck dogs him until it seems that the only choices he has left are scamming and stealing to survive. Threatened with bodily harm by the brutish Nazario for a gambling debt, hassled by a friend with woman trouble, and in hot pursuit of an older woman with an attitude, Dante hooks up with Scamz, his old boss from his criminal past, to make some quick money off Hollywood socialites who should know better. Dante soon finds himself on the downhill slope to an early burial. (from Library Journal review)

Farmer, Nancy.  The House of Scorpion.  2002.  380p.  Gr. 6-10 (CA author). More>

• A futuristic tale of a 14 year old boy, the clone of El Patron, a powerful drug lord, and one of the most powerful and feared men on Earth. This novel raises questions of what it means to be human, what is the value of life, and what are the responsibilities of a society. National Book Award, Newbery Honor Award, Printz Honor Award

Farmer, Nancy.  The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm.  1994.  311p.  (CA author). More>

• In 2194 in Zimbabwe, General Matsika's three children are kidnapped and put to work in a plastic mine, while three mutant detectives use their special powers to search for them. Newbery Honor Award.

Fleischman, Paul.  Breakout.  2003.  124p.  Gr. 7 and up (CA setting). More>

• A young woman presents a play based on her life as a seventeen-year-old runaway whose escape from her foster home in Los Angeles is thwarted by an all-day traffic jam, an event which provides time for her to explore her free-floating identity, hunger for her unknown mother, and yearning for human connection. This novel combines two narratives, photos and interesting time-line hopping.

Gaslin, Glenn.  Beemer: A Novel.  2003.  261p. (CA setting). More>

• "Beemer Minutia lives (and works) in his tricked-out Honda Civic. Like every young person out for conquest, he intends to make it very big very fast, turning his name into a cash magnet - a trademark that will festoon tubes of toothpaste that makes your teeth grow larger and whiter, or bottles of soda packed with vitamins and cocaine, products splashed across billboards amid eighty-story ghettoplexes in Sao Paolo: Beemer." (from book jacket)

Newman, Sandra.  The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done.  2003.  389p. (CA setting). More>

• Chrysalis Moffat, a South American orphan, has grown into a psychologically unstable young woman living alone in the California mansion of her adopted parents, both dead. Her brother, Eddie, "five foot seven inches of sheer depravity," returns from a slacker trip around the world towing a fake Buddhist guru named Ralph, and together they open the Tibetan School of Miracles in the run-down mansion, selling enlightenment to spiritually destitute Californians.

Patterson, James.  Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment.  2005.  422p.  (CA setting to NYC). More>

• After the mutant Erasers abduct the youngest member of their group, the "birdkids," who are the result of genetic experimentation, take off in pursuit and find themselves struggling to understand their own origins and purpose.

Portman, Frank.  King Dork.  2006.  352p.  (CA author). More>

• Tom Henderson (a.k.a. King Dork, Chi-mo, Hender-fag, and Sheepie) is a typical American high school loser until he discovers the book, The Catcher in the Rye, that will change the world as he knows it. When Tom discovers his deceased father’s copy of the Salinger classic, he finds himself in the middle of several interlocking conspiracies and at least half a dozen mysteries involving dead people, naked people, fake people, ESP, blood, a secret code, guitars, monks, witchcraft, the Bible, girls, the Crusades, a devil head, and rock and roll. And it all looks like it’s just the tip of a very odd iceberg of clues that may very well unravel the puzzle of his father’s death and–oddly–reveal the secret to attracting semihot girls. Being in a band could possibly be the secret to the girl thing–but good luck finding a drummer who can count to four. (from School Library Journal review)

Roley, Brian Ascalon.  American Son: A Novel.  2001.  217p. (CA setting). More>

• Hard-hitting and brash, this debut novel takes a cold, clear-eyed look at the American immigrant experience. Come home, urges Uncle Betino in a letter from Manila at the beginning of Roley's tale. But Betino's sister Ika, divorced from her American husband and living in the U.S. with her two sons born in the Philippines, believes even the harsh struggle to survive in California is better than living under the strict caste system of her homeland. One of her boys, Tomas, has assumed the persona of a young Mexican street thug and is helping her make ends meet by raising and selling guard dogs to rich clients. His brother, Gabe, the story's narrator and the good son, seeks to understand the mysteries of his adopted country. (from Publisher’s Weekly review)

Sitomer, Alan Lawrence.  The Hoopster.  2006 (pbk).  224p. Gr. 8-10 (CA author). More>

• Andre Anderson spends his summer playing basketball with his pals and working at a magazine, where he is assigned to write an article dealing with race. As an African American, the teen is reluctant to take on this subject as his first assignment, but he comes to think about it more deeply and writes an explosive piece.

Smith, D. James.  Boys of San Joaquin.  2005.  231p.  Gr. 5-8 (CA setting). More>

• In a small California town in 1951, twelve-year-old Paolo and his deaf cousin Billy get caught up in a search for money missing from the church collection, leading them to complicated discoveries about themselves, other family members, and townspeople they thought they knew.

Snicket, Lemony.  A Series of Unfortunate Events.  1999-2006. (CA author). More>

• “If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book. In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle…” (from The Bad Beginning, page 1)
  (1st) The Bad Beginning, (2nd) The Reptile Room, (3rd) The Wide Window, (4th) The Miserable Mill, (5th) The Austere Academy, (6th) The Ersatz Elevator, (7th) The Vile Village, (8th) The Hostile Hospital, (9th) The Carnivorous Carnival, (10th) The Slippery Slope, (11th) The Grim Grotto, (12th) The Penultimate Peril, (13th) The End

Vaughan, Brian K.  Runaways.   Graphic novel series.  (CA author). More>

• (Includes Pride and Joy, Teenage Wasteland, The Good Die Young, and True Believers) Six teenagers discover that their parents are all super-powered villains belonging to a secret group called The Pride. Shocked at this discovery, the teens run away together, vowing to turn the tables on their evil legacy.

compiled by Dorcas Wong