by Walter Dean Myers
Monster
Published 1999 by Amistad Press

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While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, 16-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the terrible course his life has taken.

by David Almond
Kit's Wilderness
Published 2000 by Delacorte Press

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"It was very deep, Kit. Very dark. And every one of us was scared of it. As a lad I'd wake up trembling, knowing that as a Watson born in Stoneygate I'd soon be following my ancestors into the pit," so Kit's grandfather tells him.

The Watson family moves to Stoneygate, an old coal-mining town, to care for Kit's recently widowed grandfather. When Kit meets John Askew, another boy whose family had both worked and died in the mines, Askew invites Kit to join him to play a game called Death. As Kit's grandfather provides stories of the mine's past and the history of the Watson family, the boys search the mines to find the childhood ghosts of their long-gone ancestors.

Written in haunting prose and lyrical language, "Kit's Wilderness explores the bonds of family from one generation to the next, and how from the depths of darkness, meaning and beauty can be revealed.

by An Na
A Step from Heaven
Published 2003 by Speak

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The winner of the 2002 Michael L. Printz Award is now available in paperback. When her family moves to California from Korea, Young Ju Park grows from a child to adolescence in her new home, and finds a surprising new voice that's neither Korean nor American but uniquely her own.

by Aidan Chambers
Postcards from No Man's Land
Published 2002 by Dutton Books

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By turns wrenching and playful, thrilling and meditative, this Carnegie Medal-winning novel, told in dual narratives, takes the reader on a memorable voyage of discovery in a foreign city in the midst of war.

by Angela Johnson
The First Part Last
Published 2003 by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

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With powerful language and keen insight, Johnson tells the story of a teen father's struggle to figure out what "the right thing" is and then to do it.

by Meg Rosoff
How I Live Now
Published 2004 by Wendy Lamb Books

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""EVERY WAR HAS turning points and every person too."

Fifteen-year-old Daisy is sent from Manhattan to England to visit her aunt and cousins she's never met: three boys near her age, and their little sister. Her aunt goes away on business soon after Daisy arrives. The next day bombs go off as London is attacked and occupied by an unnamed enemy.

As power fails, and systems fail, the farm becomes more isolated. Despite the war, it's a kind of Eden, with no adults in charge and no rules, a place where Daisy's uncanny bond with her cousins grows into something rare and extraordinary. But the war is everywhere, and Daisy and her cousins must lead each other into a world that is unknown in the scariest, most elemental way.

A riveting and astonishing story.

by John Green
Looking for Alaska
Published 2005 by Dutton Books

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In a stunning debut novel, Miles "Pudge" Halter befriends some fellow boarding school students whose lives are everything but boring. Pudge falls in love with Alaska, the razor-sharp and self-destructive nucleus. But when tragedy strikes, Pudge discovers the value of loving unconditionally.

by Gene Luen Yang
American Born Chinese
Published 2006 by First Second

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"As an Asian American, "American Born Chinese" is the book I've been waiting for all my life."--Derek Kirk Kim A tour-de-force by rising indy comics star Gene Yang, "American Born Chinese" tells the story of three apparently unrelated characters: Jin Wang, who moves to a new neighborhood with his family only to discover that he's the only Chinese-American student at his new school; the powerful Monkey King, subject of one of the oldest and greatest Chinese fables; and Chin-Kee, a personification of the ultimate negative Chinese stereotype, who is ruining his cousin Danny's life with his yearly visits. Their lives and stories come together with an unexpected twist in this action-packed modern fable. "American Born Chinese" is an amazing ride, all the way up to the astonishing climax.