The Body Finder by Kristen Derting

Violet Ambrose is not just your average sixteen-year-old. She has a special ability that allows her to sense dead bodies, or at lease the bodies of those who have been murdered. Violet had been born with this ability, and ever since she was a little girl, the echoes of the mudered have called out to her, along with the imprints of those who are killers. This gift of hers has only led her mainly to minor things such as animals, until now.

Recently, there have been many abductions in Violet's small town and its surrounding areas. There are many echoes of young, murdered girls that are calling out to Violet. This serial killer seems to have covered his tracks pretty well, and the police have a difficult time finding any leads/connections to the crimes. Can Violet?

And now, not only does she have all this on her plate, but she has fallen for her best friend since childhood, Jay. Over the summer, Jay had grown up a bit, and all the girls in school can tell. Now, Violet isn't the only one secretly crushing on her best friend. She wishes that she could go back in time before this crush began, in order to preserve their friendship.

Can Violet catch the killer? And what will happen between Jay and Violet? Read to find out(;

Witch-Hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials by Marc Aronson

Some may think that the Salem Witch Trials are just a thing of the past, consisting a bunch of lies made up by young and silly girls, and have nothing to do with today. But is this really true? What really did happen in Salem?

Salem was supposed to be a great town in this new world. It derives from the Hebrew word "shalom," which means "peace." However, in 1692, the opposite occurred. Everything started with the Goodwin children a few years prior, and since then, mayhem was prevalent in everyday life. There had been a group of young girls and teenagers who learned that a few little lies go a long way. They began making accusations against the townspeople, accusing them of witches. These girls told haunting stories of spectors attacking them and puppets, or voodoo dolls, that allowed witches to attack from afar. They began telling tales of seeing residents of Salem making pacts with the Devil himself. Each story ended the same-these girls saw townspeople signing the Devil's book with their own blood, there by giving up their soul.

Many people have read/seen the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, which is a heartbreaking story of the Salem Witch Trials. But how much of this is true? For example, this story by Mark Aronson sheds some light on Tituba, the slave woman from Barbados. Miller writes that this black woman had preformed Barbados magic with the young girls, including Abigail Williams, Betty Paris, and Ann Putnam Jr. However, history later tells us that Tituba was not balck; she was an Indian. Also, any magic that Tituba may have learned came from the English, not from Barbados. At the time that Miller wrote his play, there was not that much uncovered about the Salem Witch Trials. So, could there be other new details that history has uncovered? What actually did happen in Salem in 1692? Read to find out(;

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

The Lovely Bones begins with the main character, fourteen year old Susie Salmon, who is already in her personal heaven. She grasps her readers by explaining that on December 6, 1973, she had been murdered on her way home from school by a neighbor, later known as George Harvey. He had encouraged her to come into an underground den that he had built in the cornfield, just to check it out. However, when Susie announces that it is time for her to leave, Mr. Harvey seemed to have other plans on his mind. He ends up raping and murdering her, and takes her charm bracelet as a momento. After her death, Susie enters her personal heaven. She tries to contact her family in any way possible to explain her murder to them. After some uncovered evidence, the police are certain that Susie Salmon is dead, but her family refuses to believe this. There was also no killer linked to the crime. However, Jack Salmon, Susie's father, does believe that Mr. Harvey is responsible for his daughter's murder. After no sufficient evidence, his family believes that he is crazy, and they suffer from this. the family falls apart, only united by the murder of their family member, Susie. So what's next? Will Mr. Salmon piece together this murder case? Will Mr. Harvey ever be caught? And what will happen to the family as Susie watches from heaven? Read to find out(:

The Freedom Writers Diary with Erin Gruwell

The Freedom Writers Diary is an amazing and true story that helps provoke change to racial discrimination. The story begins with the Freedom Writer's amazing leader Erin Gruwell. As a new teacher to the school system in Long Beach, she is looked down upon and is given the "at-risk" students to teach. On the first day of her student's freshmen year, they are not too excited to be in Ms. Gruwell's class, and they don't appreciate her enthusiasm whatsoever. As time went on, Ms. Gruwell soon learned that all the students are subjected to violence on a regular basis, and they all go through their own undeclared war. Many feel like outside their classroom walls, they are susceptible too danger, violence, and abuse. After realizing this, Ms. Gruwell introduced them to many books with stories similar to their own. This list included Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo. The students were able to connect to these young teenagers, and they created their own diaries to express the emotions that each one of them felt. The Freedom Writers grew to become an extended family that managed to stay in the same class with Ms. Gruwell all four years of high school. The kids who had been labeled "at-risk" and "unteachable" had some of the highest grade point averages come senior year. Everyone who wasn't in Ms. Gruwell's class wanted in because of all the fascinating things they did. The arranged for Miep Gies, the woman who helped hide Anne Frank in the secret annex, to come to their school. They paid for Zlata's trip to their school to meet this modern day Anne Frank. They went to Washington D.C. to spread their message of tolerance to adversity. The Freedom Writers even went to New York to accept The Spirit of Anne Frank Award. These teens had done what seemed to be the impossible. Each of the 150 Freedom Writers and their leader, Ms. Gruwell, learned that the first step of making change requires only one tool: a pen.

The Nature of Water and Air by Regina McBride

In The Nature of Water and Air Agatha, an Irish tinker girl, or a traveler, takes care of her twin daughters, Clodagh and Mare. Frank Sheehy, the girls' father, has died, so Agatha takes care of them with the help of a woman named Mrs. O'Dare. The girls require a lot of attention, with Mare being sick and Clodagh seeking her mother's attention. After six years, Mare passes, and Agatha grows away from Clodagh, going to tinker camps every night. Suspicious, Clodagh reveals that her mother is seeing another man, and after she tells her mother that she is aware of this, they fight from time to time. Agatha drifts away from life, eventually drowning, or returning, to the sea. Clodagh grows up, trying to find herself in school, in family, and in life. Trying to uncover her mother's past, which will ultimately will lead to her own, she starts to stay at the tinker camps. While there, she falls in love with a tinker man, learns a lot about where her mother and father came from, and what she really is. She finally finds her true identity. So...what is it? Read to find out(:

Looking for Alaska by John Green

In the story Looking for Alaska by John Green, a sixteen-year-old with an interset in last words, Miles Halter, makes his way to Culver Creek boarding school in Alabama to look for the "Great Perhaps" in life. While there, he meets Chip "the Colonel" Martin, his roomate who shows him around Culver Creek. Miles (nicknamed Pudge by the Colonel) meets Takumi, one of the Colonel's friends, Lara, the sweet Romanian girl, and his secret love, the beautiful and intelligent Alaska Young. With these new friends, Miles learns the ins-and-outs of Culver Creek: the Eagle's death stare, the Smoking Hole, and to NEVER rat on anybody, no matter what. The teens, especially Alaska, are known for their pranks, which they do quite a bit of at the school, along with drinking, smoking, etc.

On a typical night at the Creek, something changes their lives forever. The friends need to learn to deal with this situation, but it's so hard, considering the vagueness of the situation. While the friends try and step into this mystery, they learn a lot about each other. Their endeavor revolves around two things: 1. trying to figure out what happened that night, and by doing that, they need to learn 2. how to escape the labyrinth. Can it be done? Read to find out.

Go Ask Alice by Anonymous

Readers dive into the diary of a fifteen year old girl's life in the story Go Ask Alice. It takes place in the late 1960s, and explores a teenager's life while dealing with school, appearances, boys, peer pressure, sex, and even drugs. While this book follows the tumultuous life of "Alice," readers learn all about her history, her friends, her family, her crushes, and her problems. This story is very graphic when it comes to the issues that teenagers 40-50 years ago faced, but don't forget, they are actual diaries to which Alice poured her heart out in. Not much can be revealed about this story; it is a story of its own. So how does a teenager, like teens today, face these kind of issues? Well, you can go ask Alice.