Some of These Books Will NOT Work for the Contemporary Issues Paper

Books for Guys*

[Some of these books will NOT work for the Contemporary Issues paper.]

/ Bullet Point
Abrahams, Peter
The only thing seventeen-year-old Wyatt knew about his biological father was that he was serving a life sentence, but circumstances and a new girlfriend bring them together and soon Wyatt is working to prove his father's innocence.
/ The Death of Jayson Porter
Adoff, Jaime
In the Florida projects, sixteen-year-old Jayson struggles with the harsh realities of his life which include an abusive mother, a drug-addicted father, and not fitting in at his predominately white school, and bring him to the brink of suicide.
/ Border Crossing
Anderson, Jessica Lee
Manz, a troubled fifteen-year-old, ruminates over his Mexican father's death, his mother's drinking, and his stillborn stepbrother until the voices he hears in his head take over and he cannot tell reality from delusion.
/ Forge
Anderson, Laurie Halse
Curzon, having matured from boy to man over the course of the winter with the army at Valley Forge, worries that someone will learn he is a runaway slave passing for free, and tries to figure out the meaning of his friendship with Isabel.
/ Twisted
Anderson, Laurie Halse
After finally getting noticed by someone other than school bullies and his ever-angry father, seventeen-year-old Tyler enjoys his tough new reputation and the attentions of a popular girl, but when life starts to go bad again, he must choose between transforming himself or giving in to his destructive thoughts.
/ Feed
Anderson, M.T.
In a future where most people have computer implants in their heads to control their environment, a boy meets an unusual girl who is in serious trouble.
/ Me and Earl and the Dying Girl: a novel
Andrews, Jesse
Seventeen-year-old Greg has managed to become part of every social group at his Pittsburgh high school without having any friends, but his life changes when his mother forces him to befriend Rachel, a girl he once knew in Hebrew school who has leukemia.
/ Thirteen Reasons Why
Asher, Jay
High school student Clay Jenkins receives a box in the mail containing seven cassette tapes recorded by his crush, Hannah Baker, who committed suicide, and spends a bewildering and heartbreaking night crisscrossing their town, listening to Hannah's voice recounting the events leading up to her death.
/ One-Handed Catch
Auch, MJ
After losing his hand in an accident in his father's butcher shop in 1946, sixth-grader Norman uses hard work and humor to learn to live with his disability and to succeed at baseball, art, and other activities.
/ We Could Be Brothers
Barnes, Derrick
Two eighth-graders from very different backgrounds, Robeson "Crease" Battlefield and Pacino Clapton, discover in afterschool detention that they have a great deal in common.
/ Gil Marsh
Bauer, A.C.E.
High school track star Gil Marsh comes to terms with the loss of his close friend and teammate Enko and his own mortality while on a journey to find Enko's grave in this modern retelling of the ancient Sumerian tale of Gilgamesh.
/ Pull
Binns, B.A.
After his father kills his mother, seventeen-year-old David struggles to take care of his two sisters--and himself--while dealing with his grief, guilt, and trying to fit in at a tough new school while hiding his past.
/ Dear Life, You Suck
Blagden, Scott
Irreverent, foul-mouthed, seventeen-year-old Cricket Cherpin, living under the watchful eye of Mother Mary at a Catholic boys' home in Maine, has such bleak prospects he is considering suicide when Wynona Bidaban steps into his world.
/ Tangerine
Bloor, Edward
Twelve-year-old Paul, who lives in the shadow of his football hero brother Erik, fights for the right to play soccer despite his near blindness and slowly begins to remember the incident that damaged his eyesight.
/ The Edge
Bo, Ben
A teenaged gang member accused of various crimes finds redemption working and snowboarding at a ski lodge in the mountains surrounding Canada's Glacier National Park.
/ Flash
Cadnum, Michael
Relates one momentous day in the lives of five young people in the San Francisco Bay Area, including two teenaged bank robbers, a witness, and a wounded military policeman recently returned from duty in Iraq.
/ Thirteen Days to Midnight
Carman, Patrick
After surviving the accident that killed his father, high school student Jacob Fielding discovers he is indestructible, a burden that soon weighs heavy on Jacob's shoulders.
/ WalkawayCarter, Aiden R.
Fifteen-year-old Andy, fed up with his alcoholic father and annoying older brother, leaves their northern Wisconsin cabin on his version of a walkabout, leaving his medications to combat depression, anxiety, and delusions behind.
/ The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Chbosky, Stephen
Charlie, a freshman in high school, explores the dilemmas of growing up through a collection of letters he sends to an unknown receiver.
/ Shelter: a Mickey Bolitar novel
Coben, Harlan
After Mickey witnesses his father's death and his mother's admission into rehab, he is sent to live with his estranged uncle and change high schools, but when Mickey's new girlfriend, Ashley, suddenly disappears Mickey refuses to let another person walk out of his life and follows clues that reveal truths about both Ashley and Mickey's father.
/ Leverage
Cohen, Joshua
High school sophomore Danny excels at gymnastics but is bullied, like the rest of the gymnasts, by members of the football team, until an emotionally and physically scarred new student joins the football team and forms an unlikely friendship with Danny.
Other Topics: Steroids
/ Airman
Colfer, Eoin
In the 1890s on an island off the Irish coast, ConorBroekhart is falsely imprisoned and passes the solitary months by scratching designs of flying machines into the walls, including one for a glider with which he dreams of escape.
/ The Hunger Games
Collins, Suzanne
Sixteen-year-old KatnissEverdeen accidentally becomes a contender in the annual Hunger Games, a grave competition hosted by the Capitol where young boys and girls are pitted against one another in a televised fight to the death.
/ Crackback
Coy, John
Miles barely recalls when football was fun after being sidelined by a new coach, constantly criticized by his father, and pressured by his best friend to take performance-enhancing drugs.
/ Deadline
Crutcher, Chris
Given the medical diagnosis of one year to live, high school senior Ben Wolf decides to fulfill his greatest fantasies, ponders his life's purpose and legacy, and converses through dreams with a spiritual guide known as "Hey-Soos."
Other Topics: Death and Dying
/ Period.8
Crutcher, Chris
Period 8 has always been a safe haven and high school senior Paulie "The Bomb" Baum a constant attendee, but as Paulie, Hannah, their friends, and a sympathetic teacher try to unravel the mystery of a missing classmate, the ultimate bully takes aim at the school.
/ Whale Talk
Crutcher, Chris
Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial, adopted teenager, shuns organized sports and the gung-ho athletes at his high school until he agrees to form a swimming team and recruits some of the school's less popular students.
/ When I Was Joe
David, Keren
Ty is forced to change his identity after he witnesses a murder and is put into a witness protection program, but his new popular image appeals to a girl at his new school who has a secret of her own and his accomplishments as a runner draw unwanted attention.
/ Heart of a Champion
Deuker, Carl
Seth faces a strain on his friendship with Jimmy, who is both a baseball champion and something of an irresponsible fool, when Jimmy is kicked off the team.
/ Night Hoops
Deuker, Carl
While trying to prove that he is good enough to play on his high school's varsity basketball team, Nick must also deal with his parents' divorce and erratic behavior of a troubled classmate who lives across the street.
/ On the Devil’s Court
Deuker, Carl
Struggling with his feelings of inadequacy and his failure to make the basketball team in his new school, seventeen-year-old Joe Faust finds himself willing to trade his soul for one perfect season of basketball.
/ Payback Time
Deuker, Carl
Overweight, somewhat timid Mitch reluctantly agrees to be the sports reporter for the Lincoln High newspaper because he is determined to be a writer, but he senses a real story in Angel, a talented football player who refuses to stand out on the field--or to discuss his past.
/ Runner
Deuker, Carl
Living with his alcoholic father on a broken-down sailboat on Puget Sound has been hard on seventeen-year-old Chance Taylor, but when his love of running leads to a high-paying job, he quickly learns that the money is not worth the risk.
/ Swagger
Deuker, Carl
High school senior point guard Jonas Dolan is on the fast track to a basketball career until an unthinkable choice puts his future on the line.
/ Tap Out
Devine, Eric
Seventeen-year-old Tony Antioch finds an escape from his troubled home life in his Mixed Martial Arts classes.
/ Some-thing Like Normal
Doller, Trish
When Travis returns home from Afghanistan, his parents are splitting up, his brother has stolen his girlfriend and car, and he has nightmares of his best friend getting killed but when he runs into Harper, a girl who has despised him since middle school, life actually starts looking up.
/ Phantoms in the Snow
Duble, Kathleen Benner
Fifteen-year-old Noah Garrett, sent to live with his uncle in Camp Hale, Colorado, following the death of his parents in 1944, finds himself struggling between his upbringing as a pacifist, and life on a military base in the middle of World War II.
/ Rules of Attraction
Elkeles, Simone
Living on the University of Colorado-Boulder campus with his older brother Alex, a college student and ex-gang member, high school senior Carlos is not ready to give up his wild ways until he meets a shy classmate named Kiara and becomes unwillingly involved in a drug ring.
/ Less Than Zero
Ellis, Bret Easton
Clay comes home from an Eastern college for Christmas vacation and finds himself caught up in a spiral of desperation as he renews old ties.
/ Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25
Evans, Richard Paul
Fourteen-year-old Michael discovers he has special electrical powers and, with the help of his best friends, becomes aware that there are other teens with similar powers, but something or someone is hunting them and, after Michael's mother is kidnapped, he will need to rely on his powers and his friends to rescue his mom, protect himself, and save the others.
/ Foul Trouble
Feinstein, John
College recruiters are clambering to sign up Terrell Jamerson, the #1 high school basketball player in the country. But not all of these recruiters are straight shooters, and Terrell will have to think fast if he wants to stay in the game.
/ Last Shot:a Final Four Mystery
Feinstein, John
After winning a basketball reporting contest, eighth graders Stevie and Susan Carol are sent to cover the Final Four tournament, where they discover that a talented player is being blackmailed into throwing the final game.
/ The Morgue and Me
Ford, John C.
Eighteen-year-old Christopher, who plans to be a spy, learns of a murder cover-up through his summer job as a morgue assistant and teams up with Tina, a gorgeous newspaper reporter, to investigate, despite great danger.
/ Where She Went
Forman, Gayle
Adam, now a rising rock star, and Mia, a successful cellist studying at Juilliard, are reunited in New York City and reconnect for the first time since Mia's near-fatal car accident three years earlier drove them apart.
/ From Norvelt to Nowhere
Gantos, Jack
After an explosion, a new crime by an old murderer, and the sad passing of the founder of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Jack accompanies his slightly mental elderly mentor, Miss Volker, on a cross-country run as she pursues the oddest of outlaws.
/ Fat Kid Rules the World
Going, K.L.
Seventeen-year-old Troy, depressed, suicidal, and weighing nearly three hundred pounds, gets a new perspective on life when Curt, a semi-homeless teen who is a genius on guitar, asks Troy to be the drummer in a rock band.
/ Looking for Alaska
Green, John
Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash.
/ Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Green, John and David Levithan
When two teens, one gay and one straight, meet accidentally and discover that they share the same name, their lives become intertwined as one begins dating the other's best friend, who produces a play revealing his relationship with them both.
/ Baseball Great
Green, Tim
All twelve-year-old Josh wants to do is play baseball but when his father, a minor league pitcher, signs him up for a youth championship team, Josh finds himself embroiled in a situation with potentially illegal consequences.
/ The Heart and the Fist
Greitens, Eric
A memoir in which Eric Greitens discusses how his desire to make a difference led him to the world's trouble spots where he worked to serve and sick, poor, and displaced, explains his decision to join the Navy SEALS to protect the weak, and discusses how the lessons he learned in humanitarianism affected his missions in Kenya, Thailand, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
/ The Orange Houses
Griffin, Paul
Tamika, a fifteen-year-old hearing-impaired girl, Jimmi, an eighteen-year-old veteran who stopped taking his antipsychotic medication, and sixteen-year-old Fatima, an illegal immigrant from Africa, meet and connect in their Bronx, New York, neighborhood, with devastating results.
/ Bleachers
Grisham, John
When his old coach dies, high school football star Neely Crenshaw returns to his hometown after fifteen years, reunites with his former teammates, and struggles to resolve his mixed feelings about the man.
/ Calico Joe
Grisham, John
The careers of a golden boy rookie hitter for the Cubs and a hard-hitting Mets pitcher take very different paths.
/ Playing for Pizza
Grisham, John
After losing an important game for his team, NFL backup quarterback Rick Dockery is fired, but his agent finds him an opportunity to play for the Panthers of Parma, and even though he has never been to Europe, he moves to Italy hoping for a second chance.
/ Blood Brothers
Harazin, S.A.
With his best friend on life-support after taking drugs at a party, seventeen-year-old Clay, a medical technician, recalls their long friendship, future plans, and recent disagreement, and tries to figure out who is responsible for the accidental overdose.
/ Crash and Burn
Hassan, Michael
Steven "Crash" Crashinsky relates his sordid ten-year relationship with David "Burn" Burnett, the boy he stopped from taking their high school hostage at gunpoint.
/ I'm With Stupid
Herbach, Geoff
It's nerd-turned-jock Felton Reinstein's last year before college, and the choices he makes now will affect the rest of his life. That's a lot of pressure. Before leaving home forever, Felton will have to figure out just who he is, even if, sometimes, it sucks to be him.
/ Stupid Fast
Herbach, Geoff
Just before his sixteenth birthday, Felton Reinstein has a sudden growth spurt that turns him from a small, jumpy, picked-on boy with the nickname of "Squirrel Nut" to a powerful athlete, leading to new friends, his first love, and the courage to confront his family's past and current problems.
/ Suckerpunch
Hernandez, David
Shy, seventeen-year-old Marcus and his sixteen-year-old brother, Enrique, accompanied by two friends, drive from their home in southern California to Monterey to confront the abusive father who walked out a year earlier, and who now wants to return home.
/ Do Not Pass Go
Hill, Kirkpatrick
When Deet's father is jailed for using drugs, Deet learns that prison is not what he expected, nor are other people necessarily the way he thought they were.
/ Slam