Quick Picks for Teens
High interest books for teens, with 250 pages or less.

• Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson. 2007. 250 pages.
  After finally getting noticed by someone other than school bullies and his angry father, seventeen-year-old Tyler enjoys his tough new reputation and the attentions of a popular girl until life starts to go bad again.
  
  
• Head Case by Sarah Aronson. 2007. 173 pages.
  Seventeen-year-old Frank Marder struggles to deal with the aftermath of an accident he had while driving drunk that killed two people, including his girlfriend, and left him paralyzed from the neck down.
  
  
• Derby Girl by Shauna Cross. 2007. 234 pages.
  When sixteen-year-old rebel Bliss Cavendar, who is miserable living in a small Texas town, joins a roller derby team under the name "Babe Ruthless," her life gets better, although infinitely more confusing.
  
  
• Holdup by Terri Fields. 2007. 163 pages.
  Diverse teens each react differently to a busy shift at a Phoenix, Arizona, Burger Haven on a hectic Saturday night that culminates in a show-down with two armed robbers.
  
  
• Falling Hard: 100 Love Poems by Teenagers edited by Betsy Franco. 2008. 144 pages.
  The vertigo-inducing realm of romantic love is captured in an unforgettable collection of one hundred poems by teens.
  
  
• Ricochet by Julie Gonzalez. 2007. 199 pages.
  When his best friend is killed in a game with a loaded gun, fifteen-year-old Connor finds his perceptions of himself and his relationships with other people changed more than he could have imagined.
  
  
• Schooled by Gordon Korman. 2007. 208 pages.
  Homeschooled by his hippie grandmother, Capricorn (Cap) Anderson has never watched television or tasted a pizza until his grandmother lands in the hospital and Cap is forced to attend public school.
  
  
• No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, and Teenagers on Death Row by Susan Kuklin. 2008. 212 pages.
  Inmates sentenced to death as teenagers talk about their lives in prison, and share their thoughts and feelings about how they ended up there.
  
  
• Gamer Girl by Mari Mancusi. 2008. 248 pages.
  Struggling to fit in after her parents' divorce sends her from Boston to her grandmother's house in the country, sixteen-year-old Maddy forms a manga club at school and falls in love through an online fantasy game.
  
  
• Wake by Lisa McMann. 2008. 210 pages.
  Ever since she was eight years old, Janie has been drawn into other people's dreams, but when she befriends a nursing home patient and becomes involved with a fellow student she discovers her true power.
  
  
• Dead is the New Black by Marlene Perez. 2008. 190 pages.
  Seventeen-year-old Daisy, daughter and sister of psychics but herself a "normal," attempts to help her mother discover who is behind a series of bizarre attacks on teenage girls in their little town in California.
  
  
• Black Box by Julie Schumacher. 2008. 168 pages.
  When her sixteen-year-old sister is hospitalized for depression and her parents want to keep it a secret, fourteen-year-old Elena tries to cope with her own anxiety and feelings of guilt.
  
  
• Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott. 2008. 170 pages.
  Alice, kidnapped by Ray when she was ten, is now fifteen and too old to please him so now she must find Ray a replacement for her.
  
  
• Project 17 by Laurie Faria Stolarz. 2007. 248 pages.
  Six high school students sneak into an abandoned mental institution to make a film about their night there and experience inexplicable and terrifying events within the crumbling building.
  
  
• Appetite for Detention by Sloane Tanen. 2008. Unpaged.
  Pipe-cleaner chickens are used to illustrate a cross-section of typical teenage experiences, including coping with out-of-control parents, stress pimples, weight problems, and trying to fit in.