Choat, Beth. SOCCERLAND

Choat, Beth. SOCCERLAND 
New York : Amazon Children's Pub, 2012 
IL YA 
ISBN 076146249X 

Flora’s school is at the top of Northern Maine - Acadia High School, to be precise. She has the honor of being the top player on the team, as her mother was before her. After a disappointing no-show by the Androscoggin team, Flora arrives home to discover her coach has an amazing offer for her - she has been given a tryout slot at the International Sports Academy for the United States U-15 National Women’s Soccer Team - the opportunity of a lifetime! She’s going to be the first Dupre to trade the potato fields for a soccer pitch and a chance to follow-thru on her dream. Flora’s size and strong accent make her stand out among the girls and discovers following a dream may be more work than she had anticipated. (NH Isinglass Teen Award nominee, 2013)

Leavitt, Lindsey. SEAN GRISWOLD’S HEAD

Leavitt, Lindsey. SEAN GRISWOLD'S HEAD 
New York : Bloomsbury, 2011 
IL YA 
ISBN 1599904985 

Payton Gritas discovered quite accidentally her family had been hiding something from her - her father's case of multiple sclerosis. Her feeling of betrayal and impending loss drive her mother to send Payton to see her guidance counselor. The guidance counselor recommends Payton find a focus object upon which to journal to her help center her emotions. Payton chooses Sean Griswold's head, the boy who has sat in front of her for many classes, but whom she has never gotten to know. Payton finds she and Sean have a mutual attraction, but she fears Sean will no longer want to be around her if he learns the real reason she has gotten close to him. Payton must decide which path she needs to take - does she tell or hide her secret. (NH Isinglass Teen Award nominee, 2013)

Kittle, Katrina. REASONS TO BE HAPPY

Kittle, Katrina. REASONS TO BE HAPPY 
New York : Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2011 
IL YA 
ISBN 1402260202 

Hannah is an adventurous spirit who delights in making lists of reasons to be happy from "sand under your bare feet" to "getting yourself all freaked out after a scary movie". When her parents who are both actors become movie stars the family moves to LA. The day before school starts Hannah makes a little list of all the great adventures she is going to seek out that first day, but as soon as she enters the building she is met by one of the stylish clicky B-Squad. They want to own the friendship of the new girl whose father is a hot star. Hannah's slightly plump, easygoing presence doesn't make the grade. Increasingly her days are about hiding who she is, and fitting the B-Squad expectations. 

Meanwhile at home her beautiful mother has been diagnosed with cancer, and Hannah feels she must not worry her mother with her own problems. She becomes overwhelmed by it all, and one day she gets so tense she throws up; but afterwords she feels really good. Ahhh, she's discovered a secret remedy! At first everyone thinks her weight loss looks good, but her secret remedy is also compulsive. Soon there are side effects which she must also hide. Her mother is too sick, and her father too distracted with grief and work to see what is happening to their daughter. 

Then her aunt comes to visit. She was once bulimic, and she sees it all. She is a documentary filmmaker and is heading out to film the plight of orphans in Africa. She convinces Hannah's father to let her bring Hannah with her. There, Hannah reawakens as she befriends a girl her age who is struggling with her own over-whelming problems, and yet brings Hannah a fresh offering of friendship and self worth. It is not a fix, but it is a strong start, and a reaffirmation of who she really is. And that gives Hannah the will to fight back. (NH Isinglass Teen Award nominee, 2013)

Lu, Marie. LEGEND

Lu, Marie. LEGEND

Set in a Dystopian future, and told in two voices. 

The western half of the United States has seceded and is ruled by The Republic, an oppressive totalitarian regime. 15 yr-old Day, who lives off the streets, is one of their most wanted criminals, but to others he's a kind of Robin Hood. When his younger brother is infected with a deadly virus, Day breaks into the regime hospital for the needed medicine. He is discovered on his way out and has to fight a Regime soldier to escape. 

That soldier dies before morning, and that soldier has a younger sister in the forces, 15 yr-old June. She is one of their brightest prodigies, and she is now committed to hunting down Day and avenging her brother's death. But when the two meet, they are both undercover and neither knows the other's true identity. As they work together, each one is drawn to the other, for they are much alike. They both are young heroes. 

As June begins to experience the darker side of the Republic, and learn more about that fateful night, she becomes convinced that her brother's death may involve some inside treachery. She has to solve this, and, she now is also committed to somehow saving Day from execution. In desperation she devises a plan, but can she make it work? 

When the story ends, you want more. Thank heavens it's the 1st of a series! (NH Isinglass Teen Award nominee, 2013)

Perera, Anna. GUANTANAMO BOY

Perera, Anna. GUANTANAMO BOY 
New York : Albert Whitman, 2011 
IL YA 
ISBN 0807530778 

Khalid is normal English 15-year-old-boy. He loves soccer and video games, school is not his favorite place to be, and he thinks his parents are know-nothings and way out of touch. He and his father see eye-to-eye on very little. He definitely does not want to follow in his father’s footsteps as a cook in their own little restaurant. Unfortunately, Khalid’s grandmother in Pakistan has passed away and the family must make a trip to the country to check on Khalid’s aunts and cousins. While out in the city, Khalid is mistaken for a Muslim insurgent, kidnapped, and sent to a prison where no teen should ever go, accused of crimes he does not understand. Innocent until proven guilty has no place at Guantanamo Bay. (NH Isinglass Teen Award nominee, 2013)

Bedford, Martyn. FLIP

Bedford, Martyn.  FLIP
New York : Wendy Lamb Books, 2011
IL YA
ISBN 0385739907
Ever wake up a bit groggy? 14-year-old Alex, a somewhat geeky aspiring clarinetist wakes up
and finds himself in someone else's body. While he's trying to really wake up - this must be a
weird dream - that someone else's mother tells him to get up and get ready for school! Who is
that? What school?! Soon he is bumbling through Philip Garamond's life, for that's who
everyone thinks he is now, trying to fake it till he can figure out what's going on. And they are
such different people! Philip is a buff athlete and one of the "in crowd", and knows nothing
about music.

Days become weeks. Alex learns that his own body is lying in a coma after a car accident and
that what seemed like one night was actually 3 months.
One of the things I liked about this story is you only learn the answers as to what's happened
through Alex. The tension of the confusion works. You get drawn in and want to know - how is
this going to be resolved? Surely Alex can get his own life back, right? And, if Alex is in
Philip's body, is Philip locked in Alex's body?  Along the way he meets Ron, a person with the
same condition, it's called psychic evacuation. Ron tells Alex to adjust to his new life and get
on with it. That's not what Alex wants.   How is this going to be resolved? You'll have to read it
to find out.

Falkner, Brian. BRAIN JACK

Falkner, Brian. BRAIN JACK 
New York : Random House, 2009 
IL YA 
ISBN 0375843663 

When the story opens Sam is hacking into the White House Security system, well it's there and supposed to be impenetrable, but when he tries to cover his tracks on the way out he accidentally crashes the international computer grid, and that gets him busted. Not long after he is incarcerated, he gets recruited to work for the government in their super secret cyber defense force. As such he essentially joins a select group of elite hackers as they work to track down and outwit cyber terrorists. “Use your skills to keep the world and our country safe!” 

In not too long evidence of a deadly neuro-virus surfaces on the web; however, their newest and best weapon, a neuro headset that connects your brainwaves directly to the internet thus ramping up response time, skills, and range, also creates an open door that could expose your very mind to the terrorists you are hunting. So, have fun, and buckle your headset! (NH Isinglass Teen Award nominee, 2013)