Chick Lit
Winter 2008

High school junior D. J. Schwenk staggers under the weight of caring for her badly injured brother, her responsibilities on the dairy farm, a changing relationship with her friend Brian, and her own athletic aspirations.

A terminally ill teenaged girl makes and carries out a list of things to do before she dies.

Fifteen-year-old Regan's life, which has always revolved around keeping her older brother Liam's transsexuality a secret, changes when Liam decides to start the process of "transitioning" by first telling his family and friends that he is a girl who was born in a boy's body.

While vacationing with her family in Las Vegas, seventeen-year-old Jasmine stumbles upon a murder mystery that she attempts to solve with the help of her friends, recently arrived from California.

Still moping months after being dumped by her Arizona boyfriend Leo, fifteen-year-old Stargirl, a home-schooled free spirit, writes "the world's longest letter" to Leo, describing her new life in Pennsylvania.

The story of Peekay, an English boy living in South Africa during World War II who learns about prejudice and slavery through friendship.

Pearl, Moz, and Zahler team up with a vampire lead singer and a drummer who can foresee future events when a bizarre epidemic hits New York City that threatens total annihilation.

Kristina is determined to break her addiction to drugs in order to keep her newborn child; but when she fails and the pull becomes too strong, her greatest fears are quickly realized.

Three teens who meet at Reno, Nevada's Aspen Springs mental hospital after each has attempted suicide connect with each other in a way they never have with their parents or anyone else in their lives.

A modern retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" from the point of view of the Beast, a vain Manhattan private school student who is turned into a monster and must find true love before he can return to his human form.

A poetry memoir in which the author tells of the pressures that led her to suffer debilitating anxiety attacks, and the path she took to coping and recovery.

Carlton Dunne IV, an outcast boarding school student with a secret identity as a graphic novelist, teams up with a beautiful Scottish girl who yearns to be an American police officer, to resolve an ancient feud and rescue Carlton's kidnapped father.

In an alternative civilization where the social status of each person is monitored and rated and anyone can drop from celebrity to nobody, fifteen-year-old Aya Fuse's popularity ranking is so low her only chance of moving up is to find a good story, so when she meets a group of girls who hide an explosive secret, Aya decides to expose the group and unknowingly puts her own life in danger.

The time has come for Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman, and Angel to face their ultimate enemy and, despite many obstacles, try to save the world from a sinister plan to re-engineer a select population into a scientifically superior master race.

When someone steals her purse and her identity, high-school junior and reluctant girl sleuth Lulu Dark investigates.

Seventeen-year-old Aislinn, who has the rare ability to see fairies, is drawn against her will into a centuries-old battle by Keenan, the terrifying but alluring Summer King, who determines that she must become his queen and save summer from perishing.

During the Spanish Inquisition, sixteen-year-old Estrella, brought up a Catholic, discovers her family's true Jewish identity, and when their secret is betrayed by Estrella's best friend, the consequences are tragic.

As a sophomore at a secret spy school and the daughter of a former CIA operative, Cammie is sheltered from "normal teenage life" until she meets a local boy while on a class surveillance mission.

Mina's fantasy has finally come true. Craig Simpson-the hottest guy at Del Rio Bay High-has just invited her to the biggest bash of the year. There's just one hitch: her parents aren't down with letting Mina date a boy they know nothing about. Now she has thirteen days to give her parents a crash course in Craig, or else figure out how to get her fine self to the soiree-without alerting mom and pops.

When Mina's sociology teacher asks the class to "make a conscious choice either to embrace prejudice or eliminate it from your life," Mina begins to figure out what really matters to her.

In a series of diary entries, British teenager Georgia Nicolson describes her continuing romantic woes as she is pushed toward a decision about the three boys in her life.

After a nasty fall, Naomi realizes that she has no memory of the last four years and finds herself reassessing every aspect of her life.

Grady, a transgendered high school student, yearns for acceptance by his classmates and family as he struggles to adjust to his new identity as a male.

With the thread of family that connects them through the generations, Jim born in 1931, Cathy in 1942, Jill in 1969, and Mona in 2006 each find "sixteen" to be the pivotal age in their lives.

Serena van der Woodsen, Blair Waldorf, and Nate Archibald have been best friends for years, but their friendship is tested when both girls fall for Nate and he is forced to choose between, even if it means losing his best friends forever.

Vivienne Valentine, known as V to her friends, has a history of hooking up with a new guy every few days, but her latest boyfriend, Sam, seems to be different from her past relationships and when her feelings start to scare her, V makes a stupid mistake that destroys their relationship and sends V on a cross-country journey of self discovery.

Fifteen interrelated stories explore different aspects of love, including a dying father's determination to help start a family business--a beauty salon--and the relationship of two teens who plan to remain celibate until they marry.

Shortly after her boyfriend Josh is killed in a pledging accident, November Nelson learns she is pregnant and fears she has no one to turn to, until she finds solace in the arms of Josh's cousin Jericho.

After spending over four years in a mental institution for murdering a friend in Alaska, fourteen-year-old Kip begins a completely new life in Indiana with his father and stepmother under a different name, but has trouble fitting in and finds there are still problems to deal with from his childhood.

High school sophomore Elisa is used to observing and going unnoticed except when classmates ask her to write love notes for them, but a teacher's recognition of her talent, a "client's" desire for her friendship, a love of ice skating, and her parents' marital problems draw her out of herself.

In India in the 1940s, thirteen-year-old Leela's happy, spoiled childhood ends when her husband since age nine, whom she barely knows, dies, leaving her a widow whose only hope of happiness could come from Mahatma Ghandi's social and political reforms.

A novel in vignettes, in which Lakshmi, a thirteen-year-old girl from Nepal, is sold into prostitution in India.

Three alienated teenagers are drawn to a strange outdoor concert in the woods outside of Seattle, where they discover that they possess magical powers and that their destinies are intertwined.

This is a newer series now available at West and can be found on the 'New Books/Series' cart by the front desk.

Having fallen for a human boy, a beautiful teenage werewolf must battle both her packmates and the fear of the townspeople to decide where she belongs and with whom.

During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker's classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns much of value about the world he lives in.

After Odella's mother leaves her, her sisters, and their father in Manitoba and moves to Iceland with another man, she then dies there, and the family finally learns some of the many secrets that have haunted them for two generations.

In England in 1995, fifteen-year-old Tamar, grief-stricken by the puzzling death of her beloved grandfather, slowly begins to uncover the secrets of his life in the Dutch resistance during the last year of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, and the climactic events that forever cast a shadow on his life and that of his family.

Alexis, fearing her parents' impending divorce, and Jasmine, who escaped the pressure of holding her mother and siblings together by moving in with her father, are tempted to do something rash for attention, but the fallout may leave them unable to win back the trust of their friends in the church youth group, Camille and Angel.

During fall semester of her junior year of high school, Alice decides to change her good girl image, while major remodeling begins at home and some important relationships begin to change.

Sixteen-year-old Sophie has been frail and delicate since her premature birth, but discovers her true strength during a journey through Mexico, where the six-year-old orphan her family hopes to adopt was born, and to Guatemala, where her would-be boyfriend hopes to find his mother and plans to remain.

Year Eleven at an exclusive prep school in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, would be tough enough, but it is further complicated for Amal when she decides to wear the hijab, the Muslim head scarf, full-time as a badge of her faith--without losing her identity or sense of style.

Three years after the death of his father in a coal mining accident, thirteen-year-old Lucas Lessar's mother disappears without a trace, prompting the young man to leave his home in search of her and giving him the chance to learn about his immigrant roots and how he has been shaped by his experiences.

A collection of ten short stories about the supernatural and interpersonal relationships written by Australian author Margo Lanagan.

Twelve-year-old Zanna and her friend Deeba discover an entrance to a strange world where they encounter killer giraffes, animated umbrellas, ghost children, and flying double-decker buses.

As she navigates adolescence, ninth-grader Mia must deal with her mother' s recent death and her father's illness while she searches for friendship and love in the world around her.

Andy and Glory, two fifteen-year-olds from Ocean Beach, California, pursue their respective dreams of becoming a famous musician and a professional softball player.

After realizing she has a crush on Perry, the boy next door, ninth-grader Ruthie Bayer calls her aunt, who is a New York romance columnist, for advice on how to change her image to get his attention away from the new girl and on her.

Child prodigy Cadel Piggot, an antisocial computer hacker, discovers his true identity when he enrolls as a first-year student at an advanced crime academy.

Fifteen-year-old musician J.J. Liddy leaves his small, Irish town and travels to the land of the fairies to search for time so he can give it to his busy mother, but when he gets there, he discovers that the inhabitants are in trouble and learns about his family's secret history.

Examines comics as an art form by detailing the process of how comics are created by combining writing, art, genre, trends, subject matter, and themes.

Four best friends begin to experience some changes in their lives that challenge their relationship as they go into their junior year of high school.

Four girls from different backgrounds--one with a police record, one with a frightening secret, one with a tough exterior, and one from high society--meet at a church youth group and learn firsthand the value of honoring their parents.

Having established friendships with each other and an easy relationship with their group leader, Camille, Angel, Alexis, and Jasmine are reluctant to accept the two new girls who join their after school church youth group.