It was a banner literary year and so SLJ's Adult Books for High School Students Committee decided on 30 titles, published between September 2007 and November 2008 (with reviews published in 2008), to recognize as the best for high school readers. The list includes realistic and historical novels as well as some genre-blending titles. Biography, history, and books about the environment are well represented. Outstanding graphic novels and nonfiction also appear. The committee members are from public and school libraries across the United States and Canada, working with teens in urban, rural, and suburban settings. We are convinced that these titles will appeal to high school readers and provide a bridge into the vast world of adult publishing.

Fiction

BLOCK, Stefan Merrill. The Story of Forgetting. Random House. Tr $24.95. ISBN 978-1-4000-6679-7. Elements of historical fiction, scientific inquiry, fantasy, reminiscence, and coming-of-age narrative are successfully combined to tell the story, in alternating voices, of the effects of Alzheimer's disease on an elderly man and a teenage boy. BROOKS, Geraldine. People of the Book. Viking. Tr $25.95. ISBN 978-0-6700182-1-5. Romance as well as deep character study and compelling forensic work are brought together in this engrossing, fact-based literary novel that spans such trenchant times and places in Jewish history as the Inquisition and contemporary Sarajevo. BUCKHANON, Kalisha. Conception: A Novel. St. Martin's. Tr $21.95. ISBN 978-0-312-33270-9. Alternating narrations by an African-American teen and her unborn child use authentic language to explore the possibility of hope against realistic and probable destiny. DAVID, Peter. Tigerheart: A Tale of the Anyplace. Del Rey. Tr. $22. ISBN 978-0-345-50159-2. In a James Barrie-inspired world of suspense, swashbuckling adventure, tenderness, anguish, and wit and sarcasm, the appealing characters peopling Anyplace will draw in many teen readers. DREW, Alan. Gardens of Water. Random. Tr $25. ISBN 978-1-4000-6687-2. The complex relationships within and between American and Kurdish families united by two teens speak to readers interested in forbidden romance, self-definition, and exploring cultural, political, and religious boundaries. HILL, Lawrence. Someone Knows My Name: A Novel. W. W. Norton. Tr $24.95. ISBN 978-0-393-06578-7. Hill's meticulously researched historical novel gives teens access to the life story of an 18th-century African woman kidnapped into slavery, sent to America, and “rewarded” by the British as a Black Loyalist. KENT, Kathleen. The Heretic's Daughter. Little, Brown. Tr $24.99. ISBN 978-0-316-02448-8. History is brought to life in this beautifully written account of Puritan America's obsession with witches and its thirst for punishing women, giving teens excellent insight into 17th-century family love, repression, intolerance, and persecution. NYEMBEZI, Sibusiso. The Rich Man of Pietermaritzburg. Aflame Bks. Tr $15.95. ISBN 978-0-9552339-9-9. Colorful storytelling reflects humor, warmth, and compassion that will appeal to teens as it immerses them in a world in which some village youth, with the help of a tribal chief, devise a plan to out-con a con man. Written in Zulu in 1961, and now available in English for the first time. O'FLYNN, Catherine. What Was Lost. Henry Holt. Tr $14. ISBN 978-0-8050-8833-5. An ensemble cast of fully developed and engaging characters is caught in a 20-year-old mystery involving a girl who disappeared, a teenage boy, and a shopping mall. PROULX, Joanne. Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet. Soho Press. Tr $14. ISBN 978-1-56947-487-7. Fine characterization, an evocation of realistic youth culture, and deeper issues related to friendship, ethics, mortality, and self preservation are at play in this redemptive story that celebrates adolescence with compassionate understanding. ROSOFF, Meg. What I Was. Viking. Tr $23.95. ISBN 978-0-670-01844-4. Love and friendship during a boy's 16th year, in 1962, as recalled in old age, are carefully revealed in rich, evocative language that will appeal to contemporary youth. SCHUTT, Christine. All Souls: A Novel. Harcourt. Tr $22. ISBN 978-0-15-101449-1. Style and depth of character ably compete against formulaic novels in the Manhattan private school genre to offer teens a truly captivating and insightful story of relationships influenced by health, family dynamics, and the crucible of school life. VACHANI, Nilita. HomeSpun. Other Press. Tr $24.95. ISBN 978-1-59051-285-2. An engaging introduction to modern India and a gem of contemporary Indian fiction. Teens will readily enter this family story in which plotlines crisscross through romance, tragedy, the Indian Revolution, the speeches of Malcolm X, the war with Pakistan, and media propaganda.

Nonfiction

CHAMBERS, Paul. Jumbo: This Being the True Story of the Greatest Elephant in the World. Steerforth Press. Tr $23.95. ISBN 978-1-58642-141-0. The life of the 19th-century elephant that gave rise to animal-rights activism, an image for the world's most famous circus, and the seed for an animated Disney movie is recounted with energy and accessibility. CHEN, Joanne. The Taste of Sweet: Our Complicated Love Affair with Our Favorite Treats. Crown. Tr $24.95. ISBN 978-0-307-35190-6. Sugar's agricultural history, culinary uses, and medical and social realities are woven into an exploration of taste, kitchen science, economics, and studies about health that is sure to appeal to teens who crave candy while wondering whether it's really an essential food group. GEORGE, Rose. The Big Necessity. Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt. Tr $26. ISBN 978-0-8050-8271-5. The wealth of scientific and political intrigue involved in disposing of human waste in a variety of world cultures will intrigue teens who pick this book up for its potential gross-out factor. GILLESPIE, Marcia Ann, Rosa Johnson Butler & Richard A. Long. Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration. Doubleday. Tr $30. ISBN 978-0-38551-108-7. This biography of the activist and poet laureate provides an intimate experience with Angelou, offering readers original letters and photographs of her family and friends. HEIDLER, Scott. Women of Courage: Intimate Stories from Afghanistan. photos by Katherine Kiviat. Gibbs Smith. Tr $19.95. ISBN 978-1-4236-0253-8. A journalist and a photographer profile 40 Afghan women working to transform their lives since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, giving American teens an immediate and compelling window into life as it is forced to be lived elsewhere. MCKIBBEN, Bill, ed. American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau. Library of America. Tr $40. ISBN 978-1-59853-020-9. This definitive anthology of American environmental writing brings together essays, selections from longer prose works, poems, song lyrics, photographs, and cartoons, and bridges the American environmentalist movement from Thoreau through Al Gore. SCHRAND, Brandon R. The Enders Hotel: A Memoir. University of Nebraska Press/Bison Books. Tr $17.95. ISBN 978-0-8032-1769-0. Memories of life at a family-owned hotel in Idaho resonate with youthful enthusiasm tempered by the sober vision of hindsight. This book will appeal to any teen boy who has ever felt out of place or out of step with his world. SICELOFF, John & Jason Maloney. Your America: Democracy's Local Heroes. Palgrave Macmillan. Tr $24.95. ISBN 978-0-230-60533-6. The power of grassroots activism is illustrated with photo and word portraits of Americans involved with environmental issues, education and literacy, human rights, and politics, offering teens authentic and engaging role models. VENKATESH, Sudhir. Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets. Penguin. Tr $25.95. ISBN 978-1-59420-150-9. A young sociologist apprentices himself to a gang leader in Chicago, learning street smarts and then showing fans of urban fiction the root causes of the posturing rap culture seems to espouse.

Graphic Novels

TRONDHEIM, Lewis & Olivier Appollodorus. Bourbon Island, 1730. illus. by Lewis Trondheim. First Second. Tr $17.95. ISBN 978-1-59643-258-1. In this fine and complex pirate story, the political and natural history of Réunion Island's settlement by former slaves is told through fablelike images and historically researched detail. BARRY, Lynda. What It Is. Drawn & Quarterly. Tr $24.95. ISBN 978-1-897299-35-7. Barry depicts the struggles she faced on the path to becoming an artist and writer, presenting challenging questions to ponder and allowing readers to believe in the possibility of seeing themselves as artists and thinkers. HELFER, Andrew. Ronald Reagan, A Graphic Biography. Hill and Wang. Tr $16.95. ISBN 978-0-8090-9507-0. The facts of Reagan's life and times offer insight as well as wit, making this a welcome choice for both researchers and casual readers. HIRAMOTO, Akira. Me and the Devil Blues, 1: The Unreal Life of Robert Johnson. Del Rey. Tr $19.95. ISBN 978-0-345-49926-4. Successfully stretching manga beyond what most American teens know, the father of the modern blues guitar stars in a fantastically haunting tale of music, self-discovery, and redemption. JOHNSON, Mat. Incognegro. Vertigo. Tr $19.99. ISBN 978-1-4012-1097-7. This cinematic portrayal of the deep South during the early years of the 20th century gives teens a front-row seat on racist politics, mob mentality, and an individual's efforts to live a satisfying life in spite of cultural forces and personal choices. MATHIEU, Marc-Antoine. The Museum Vaults: Excerpts from the Journal of an Expert. NBM ComicsLit and the Louvre Museum. Tr $14.95. ISBN 978-1-56163-514-6. Set inside the usually nonpublic rooms of the Louvre, and combining mystery with art history, this story has visual puns as well as real insight on art-preservation efforts, resulting in an inspiring and inspired tale. WILSON, Willow G. Cairo. Vertigo. Tr $24.99. ISBN 978-1-4012-1140-0. Contemporary magic realism involving ethnic identity for an American of Middle Eastern descent and fast-paced action are beautifully combined in a compelling tale that spans cultures and eras, while offering consistently finely detailed art. ZINN, Howard & Paul Buhle. A People's History of American Empire. Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt. Tr $30. ISBN 978-0-8050-7779-7. This study of empire-building by established politicians and big businesses, from the Massacre at Wounded Knee through the current Iraqi War, serves both as historical interpretation and you-are-there observation during many eras and in many areas of U.S. intervention, showing teens the role of narrator and personal bias in creating any historical record.