Adventure, power, survival, challenging life issues, the search for identity and a place to belong. Choose these young adult books for your summer reads.
THE KNOWLEDGE SEEKER
Rae Knightly
I NEVER ASKED TO BE THE SOLE BEARER OF THE ENTIRE KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR CIVILIZATION.
Yet, here I am, barely sixteen-years-old, and it has fallen upon my shoulders to save what remains of humanity from a second Dark Ages.
Your civilization is gone now, lost six hundred years ago in cataclysmic wars brought on by climate change. Your virtual information vanished along with electricity. Only your ancient printed books remain, and they have been scanned into a memory device hanging around my neck, to which only I have access.
For Knowledge is power, and the dreaded Wraith Lord knows this. He would keep the Knowledge for himself. He would hunt me down and force me to give it up, submitting humanity to infinite darkness and servitude.
Knowledge must belong to all, or to none. I must find a way to spread Knowledge back to the world, or die trying.
LOCKED UP
Cristy Watson
When he was fifteen, Kevin took a car for a joyride and got in an accident that seriously injured a pedestrian. Known inside juvenile detention as Strider, he has spent more than two years incarcerated, and has learned the hard way how to survive inside. Strider keeps his head down and continues his schoolwork, and another inmate called Wired gives Strider protection from the gangs in exchange for loans of money and helping Wired cheat on tests. When his parole officer suggests that he apply for early parole, Strider realizes that it would be hard for him to survive on the outside. All the kids he knew have moved on without him, and he has nothing to return to but life with his father since his mother left them.
When Strider sees Wired's sister Larkyn come to visit her brother, he is very attracted to her. Maybe with someone like her, Strider can learn how to get by when he gets out. But his hopes that there might be a life for him after juvie are dashed when it becomes clear that Larkyn is just bait to get Strider to bring in contraband for Wired to distribute. Riddled with guilt, Strider feels he doesn't deserve to ever be let out, because he ruined his own life and the life of the victim of the car accident. But then he gets a visit from Aisha, the daughter of the man who was injured in the accident. With Aisha's help, can Strider forgive himself and try to make a life on the outside?
SUMMER OF LIES
Barbara Baker
Fourteen-year-old Jillian has no idea who her dad is but uses her banishment from summer parties in Toronto to isolation in Banff National Park to track him down. But it’s not easy. A reclusive log cabin, a grumpy aunt, few trips to civilization and seriously—no cell phone reception?
When she’s not searching for her dad, Jillian pursues an elusive girl, Mika, who lives on her own in the wilderness. Together they track down a poacher and Jillian reunites Mika with her family. All should be well - but it isn’t. Big secrets in Jillian’s family surface, Jillian’s boyfriend ditches her, and her dad wants proof he’s her dad. Like she’d make this up?
Jillian swaps her English saddle for a western one as she unravels the truth about who she really is. What she learns changes everything she knows about herself and demands an inner strength she never knew she had.
THE LINES BETWEEN OUR STARS
Lyndi Allison
Exoplanet hopping to rescue alien children from formidable foes takes ingenuity but can you find your way home.
When a dragon-snake slithers into the lab where fifteen-year-old Jas volunteers, he and his artsy rival, Gloria, teleport to an exoplanet to rescue the life form’s son. Now, the Interplanetary Space Agency is determined to stop them. With water scarce and few comforts of home, the teens find themselves up against a formidable foe. They’ll have to overcome obstacles together or be stranded on this dusty planet light years from Earth.
NO ONE DIES IN THE GARDEN OF SYN
Michael Seidelman
No One Dies in the Garden of Syn...But some fates are worse than death.
Synthia (Syn) Wade is a teenage girl who struggles with cystic fibrosis, an incurable life-threatening disease. One day she is pushed into a pond by an unseen figure and wakes up in a new world – a mysterious garden where illness and death don’t exist.
Welcomed by the garden’s residents and now free of her symptoms, Syn decides to stay. But, before long, she realizes that this apparent utopia holds many dangers and dark secrets.
Surrounding the garden is a fog that Syn is warned never to enter. She encounters bizarre creatures that defy reason. And always lurking in the shadows is a masked woman - a woman who may have a connection to the disappearance of Syn’s parents many years ago. A woman whom no one will speak of, but whom everyone fears.
While No One Dies in the Garden of Syn, Syn will soon discover that some fates are worse than death.
RECYCLED WORLD
Julia Huni
When the world ends, where do you go?
Fifteen-year-old Peter Russell has waited all his life to escape a dying Earth and head for the stars. Days before his ship is scheduled to leave, the corporation in charge of the Exodus disappears, abandoning the rest of humanity.
The Exodus is over, with thousands left behind.
No messages.
No excuses.
No way out.
Left behind on a dying planet with no power and no food, Peter must find a refuge for himself, his mom, and his little brother.
Taking a chance on a rumor, the family begins the terrifying journey to the Dome, a self-sustaining colony located hundreds of miles away. Along the way, they must protect themselves from the desperate remains of humanity.
Even if they survive the journey, the Dome harbors secrets deep inside.
What do you do when there’s nowhere to go?
