Best Books for Young Adults: 1997

The list of books here in this article are from a draft list of the American Library Association (ALA) of recommendations for the best books for young adults for 1997.

Some of these books contain mature themes so you may wish to read them before your child does.

Atkin, S. Beth; Voices from the Streets: Young Former Gang Members Tell Their Stories

Avi; Beyond the Western Sea, Book One. The Escape from Home

Barron, T.A.; Lost Years of Merlin

Berry, Liz; The China Garden

Blum, Joshua & Bob Holman & Mark Pellington; The United States of Poetry

Bode, Janet & Stan Mack; Hard Time: A Real Life Look at Juvenile Crime

Card, Orson Scott; Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

Cart, Michael; My Father's Scar

Chambers, Veronica; Mama's Girl

Coles, Jr., William; Another Kind of Monday

Conly, Jane Leslie; Trout Summer

Cooney, Caroline B.; The Voice on the Radio

Dash, Joan; We Shall Not Be Moved

Denenberg, Barry; An American Hero: The True Story of Charles A. Lindbergh

Dessen, Sarah; That Summer

DeVries, Anke; Bruises

Farmer, Nancy; A Girl Named Disaster

Fleischman, Paul; Dateline: Troy

Fleischman, Sid; The Abracadabra Kid: A Writer's Life

Freedman, Russell; The Life and Death of Crazy Horse

Freeman, Suzanne; Cuckoo's Child

Gilstrap, John; Nathan's Run

Glenn, Mel; Who Killed Mr. Chippendale? A Mystery in Poems

Gould, Steven; Wildside

Haddix, Margaret Peterson; Don't You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey

Haddix, Margaret Peterson; Running Out of Time

Hanauer, Cathi; My Sister's Bones

Hautman, Pete; Mr. Was

Hesse, Karen; The Music of Dolphins

Hobbs, Will; Far North

Huth, Angela; Land Girls

Ingold, Jeanette; The Window

Keillor, Garrison and Jenny Lind Nilson; The Sandy Bottom Orchestra

Klass, David; Danger Zone

Kozol, Jonathan; Amazing Grace

Krakauer, Jon; Into the Wild

Lane, Dakota; Johnny Voodoo

Levy, Marilyn; Run for Your Life

Macy, Sue; Winning Ways: A Photohistory of American Women in Sports

Matas, Carol; After the War

McKissack, Patricia C. & Fredrick L. McKissack; Rebels Against Slavery: American Slave Revolts

Mead, Alice, Adem's Cross

Meyer, Carolyn; Gideon's People

Myers, Walter Dean; One More River to Cross: An African American Photograph Album

Myers, Walter Dean, Slam!

Napoli, Donna Jo; Song of the Magdalene

Nix, Garth; Sabriel

Nye, Naomi Shihab & Paul Janeczko; I Feel a Little Jumpy Around You

Paschen, Elise & Molly Peacock & Neil Neches (editors); Poetry in Motion: One Hundred Poems from the Subways and Buses

Patterson, Katherine; Jip, His Story

Paulsen, Gary; Puppies, Dogs, and Blue Northers: Reflections on Being Raised by a Pack of Sled Dogs

Pausewang, Gudrun; The Final Journey

Pennebaker, Ruth; Don't Think Twice

Pullman, Philip; The Golden Compass

Rinaldi, Ann; Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons: The Story of Phillis Wheatley

Salzman, Mark; Lost in Place

Savage, Candace; Cowgirls

Schmidt, Gary D.; The Sin Eater

Shevelev, Raphael & Karine Schomer; Liberating the Ghosts: Photographs and Text from the March of the Living

Southgate, Martha; Another Way to Dance

Spinelli, Jerry; Crash

Staples, Suzanne Fisher; Dangerous Skies

Thesman, Jean; The Ornament Tree

Thomas, Rob; Rats Saw God

Turner, Megan Whalen; The Thief

Wallace, Rich; Wrestling Sturbridge

Welter, John; I Want to Buy a Vowel

Westall, Robert; Gulf

White, Ruth; Belle Prater's Boy

Wilkomirski, Binjamin; Fragments

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