A small sample of our library's newest realistic fiction. (Nov. 2010)

1. Slide Show Prepared By: Paula Trapani-Wiener, Librarian Lawrence Road Middle School November 2010

2. Cold as Ice (Drama High series) By L. Divine Jayd knows she cannot have any distractions as she prepares for the Advanced Placement exams, but when her boyfriend Rah's ex-girlfriend shows up, the stress causes her to fail her pre-test and forces her to join a study group, even though none of Jayd's friends are happy with her new activities.

3. Sweet 15 By Emily Adler Shortly before her fifteenth birthday, Destiny Lozada's traditional Puerto Rican mother and feminist older sister hijack her quinceañera, each pushing her own agenda and ignoring the possibility that Destiny, a skateboarding tomboy, might have her own ideas about the coming-of-age ritual she is about to participate in.

4. Bad Girls Club By Judy Gregerson As her mother spirals deeper into madness and her father denies there is a serious problem, seventeen-year-old Destiny struggles to keep herself and her five-year-old sister from being overcome by the darkness that dwells in their house.

5. Bystander By James Preller Thirteen-year-old Eric discovers there are consequences to not standing by and watching as the bully at his new school hurts people, but although school officials are aware of the problem, Eric may be the one with a solution.

6. Endgame By Nancy Garden Fifteen-year-old Gray Wilton, bullied at school and ridiculed by an unfeeling father for preferring drums to hunting, goes on a shooting rampage at his high school.

7. Fabulous (Kimani Tru series) By Simone Bryant Three elite students enrolled at Pace Academy— Starr, Dionne, and Marisol—think nothing of their wealth and fame until they have individual experiences that show them what popularity can cost.

8. Flawless (Pretty Little Liars series) By Sara Shepard After their friend Alison, missing for more than three years, turns up dead, four former best friends, each of whom had a secret known only by Alison, begin receiving frightening messages from someone identified by the letter "A."

9. Forever Princess (Princess Diaries series) By Meg Cabot Mia, who is finally a senior at Albert Einstein High, faces difficult choices about boys and her status as princess while her future, and Genovia's, hang in the balance.

10. Lockdown By Walter Dean Myers Teenage Reese, serving time at a juvenile detention facility, gets a lesson in making it through hard times from an unlikely friend with a harrowing past.

11. Lost for Words By Alice Kuipers Sixteen-year-old Sophie struggles to find normalcy after an incident she chooses not to remember took her sister's life, and by keeping a journal, making a new friend, and seeing a therapist, she finally begins to recover.

12. Luv Ya Bunches By Lauren Myracle Four friends, who are each named after a flower, navigate the ups and downs of fifth grade through text messages, blog posts, screenplay, and straight narrative.

13. Messed Up By Janet Nichols Lynch Fifteen-year-old RD is repeating the eighth grade, planning to have an easy year, but after his grandmother walks out her boyfriend is no longer able to care for him, which leaves RD to fend for himself while avoiding being caught.

14. Out of My Mind By Sharon M. Draper Considered by many to be mentally retarded, a brilliant, impatient fifth-grader with cerebral palsy discovers a technological device that will allow her to speak for the first time.

15. Muchacho By LouAnne Johnson Living in a neighborhood of drug dealers and gangs in New Mexico, high school junior Eddie Corazon, a juvenile delinquent-in-training, falls in love with a girl who inspires him to rethink his life and his choices.