Awesome Books for Middle Schoolers 2014

Each year, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (CLP) celebrates Teen Read Week. This popular, annual initiative, established by the Young Adult Library Services Association and the American Library Association, encourages middle school students to read for the fun of it!

The 2014 Teen Read Week booklist includes diverse books in a variety of formats and genres selected by CLP Teen Specialists. These books are great for middle schoolers.

Zombie Baseball Beatdown

While practicing for their next baseball game, thirteen-year-old friends Rabi, Miguel, and Joe discover that the nefarious activities of the Delbe, Iowa, meatpacking plant have caused cows to turn into zombies.



Doll Bones

Zach, Alice, and Poppy, friends from a Pennsylvania middle school who have long enjoyed acting out imaginary adventures with dolls and action figures, embark on a real-life quest to Ohio to bury a doll made from the ashes of a dead girl. 

This title is also available for checkout as an eBook on Libby and in eAudio on Libby. 


Foul Trouble

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.


Jumped In

In the two years since his mother left him with his grandparents in Des Moines, Washington, Sam has avoided making friends and perfected the art of being a slacker, but being paired with a frightening new student for a slam poetry unit transforms his life.


The Dumbest Idea Ever!

Jimmy Gownley shares his experiences as he grows into a teenage comic book artist in this graphic novel memoir.


The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet

She’s a Capulet and he’s a Montague, but when Romeo and Juliet first meet they don’t know they’re from rival families, and when they find out, they don’t care. Their love is honest and raw and all-consuming. But it’s also dangerous. How much will they have to sacrifice before they can be together?


Every Body's Talking: What We Say Without Words

Discover what is really being expressed when people stand, sit, or move in certain ways and learn how you can use your body and facial expressions to communicate more effectively in a variety of situations.


Silhouetted by the Blue

After the death of her mother in an automobile accident, seventh-grader Serena, who has gotten the lead in her middle school play, is left to handle the day-to-day challenges of caring for herself and her younger brother when their father cannot pull himself out of his depression.



Son

Unlike the other Birthmothers in her utopian community, teenaged Claire forms an attachment to her baby, feeling a great loss when he is taken to the Nurturing Center to be adopted by a family unit.


Adventure Time Vol. 1

The Lich, a super scary skeleton dude, has returned to the Land of Ooo, and he’s bent on total destruction. Luckily, Finn and Jake are on the case, but can they succeed against their most destructive foe yet? Includes cover gallery.



Picture Me Gone

Twelve-year-old Mila travels with her father to upstate New York to visit friends and family, who may lead them to clues to the whereabouts of her father’s best friend, who has gone missing.


Steelheart

At age eight, David watched as his father was killed by an Epic, a human with superhuman powers, and now, ten years later, he joins the Reckoners–the only people who are trying to kill the Epics and end their tyranny.



One Came Home

In 1871 Wisconsin, thirteen-year-old Georgia sets out to find her sister Agatha, presumed dead when remains are found wearing the dress she was last seen in, and before the end of the year gains fame as a sharpshooter and an expert on counterfeiters.


Twinmaker

When her best friend, Libby, misuses instant transportation technology to alter her appearance, seventeeen-year-old Clair is drawn into a shadowy world of conspiracies and cover-ups as she attempts to save Libby from the hidden consequences of her actions.