2017 Complete Fiction ITM List

Abram, Christy Lynn. Little Miss Somebody. 259p. Humble Bee Publishing. July 2015. PB $9.99. ISBN 9780692386224. Nikki is desperate. At 14, she is often left alone without food, clean clothes or money. Her alcoholic mother never wanted her and when she does come home is abusive both physically and emotionally. Thrown back and forth between family members, all Nikki wants is to belong and be loved. Will she ever find anyone who truly wants her?

Anonymous. Calling Maggie May. 272p. Simon Pulse. June 2015. PB $10.99. ISBN 9781481439015. How do you live with overbearing parents? Maggie rebels when she makes friends with a flashy classmate who gets her involved with sex trafficking. As her grades fail and pressure from her parents mounting, Maggie’s world is falling apart and she has no idea how to save herself.

Davis, Tanita S. Peas and Carrots. 288p. Knopf Books for Young Readers. February 2016. Tr. $17.99. ISBN 9780553512816. Dess moves from a group home to a foster home with one goal – to check on Baby, her four-year old half-brother. What she finds is a warm and loving African-American family with a daughter her own age. Dess and Hope, opposite in almost every way including race, struggle to find a way to live together and discover the true meaning of family.

Desire, C. Other Broken Things. 256p. Simon Pulse. January 2016. Tr. $17.99. ISBN 9781481437394. Natalie’s life is out of control as she is forced to a 6 month stint with AA after driving drunk. It is there that she is taken under the wing of Joe–an older man who spent years in prison and is now a recovered alcoholic. But as both of them become increasingly attracted to each other the romance is inevitable. Natalie has had a history of sleeping with young men when she was drunk and now she faces this new romance sober. But the consequences of this new relationship has even more repercussions.

Deutsch, Debbie Winnekins. Throw Away Sisters. 234p. Debbie Winnekins Deutsch. April 2016. PB $12.95. ISBN 9781530730704. A gripping tale of two sisters (fifteen and eleven), who are being raised in tumultuous environs. Between a mother who doesn’t seem to care about them to the mom’s boyfriends who are paraded in and out of their lives,the girls turn to each other for mutual support and a source of refuge. But the most recent boyfriend throws them into cliffhanger peril that will keep readers on edge.

Florence, Melanie. The Missing. 160p. Lorimer. August 2016. Tr. $27.00. ISBN 9781459410886. When two First Nations girls go missing the police don’t take it seriously. Their good friend, Feather, starts her own investigation. But what she doesn’t know is that her search is leading her into terrible danger.

Glasgow, Kathleen. Girl in Pieces. 416p. Delacorte Press. August 2016. Tr. $18.99. ISBN 9781780749457. Charlie’s life is in pieces. Her story is littered with tragedy–the loss of her best friend, abandonment, and sexual and physical abuse. She escapes into the world of self-harm–cutting. When she finds herself in a new town she seeks solace in the arms of a deadbeat junkie. But where there is so much desperation, there is also hope.

Hepperman, Christine. Ask Me How I Got Here. 240p. Greenwillow . May 2016. Tr. $17.99. ISBN 9780062387950. Addie’s life seems to be perfect–great boyfriend, good grades and star of the cross-country team. But when faced with an unwanted pregnancy she has to make a life-alternating decision. Written in free verse, this novel follows Addie’s journey as she seeks to rebuild her life and find herself again.

Hopkins, Ellen. Traffic. 528p. Margaret McElderry. November 2015. Tr. $18.99. ISBN 9781442482876. What do a preacher’s daughter, a spoiled rich girl, a farm boy, a runaway, and a gambling addict have in common? All are teen victims of the sex trafficking industry, sharing their emotional and disturbing stories through free verse.

Johnston, Jeffry W. Truth. 256 p. Sourcebooks Fire. February 2016. PB $9.99. ISBN 9781492623205. Chris Russo wakes up in a dark basement tied to a chair. He is being held captive by Derek Brannick, who demands the truth about the shooting death of his younger brother Caleb at Chris’s hands. He threatens to cut all of Chris’s fingers off with garden shears if not told the truth.

LaMarche, Una. Don’t Fail Me Now. 288p. Razorbill. September 2015. Tr. $17.99. ISBN 9781595148186. Five young people drive cross-country seeking to reconnect with the father that had abandoned three of them. Buck Devereaux—the long-absent father that Michelle, her siblings, and Leah all share—is dying, and he wants to see them. They set out in Michelle’s broken-down station wagon to travel from Baltimore to California. Buck’s abandonment is the number one thread running through the complicated getting-to-know-you conversations that happen along the way, helping everyone bond them as they face major obstacles on the road.

Marquardt, Marie F. Dream Things True. 352p. St. Martin’s Press. September 2015. $18.99. ISBN 9781250070456. Having spent 15 years living in the same town, Evan and Alma have always known each other from a distance. But when Evan jumps into her dad’s truck and slams the brakes, their attraction is immediate and undeniable. But can their bond withstand the obstacles pulling them apart?

McLellan, Michael. American Flowers. 296p. CreateSpace Independent Publishing. August 2015. PB. $11.99 ISBN 9781516830695. Desperate love and drugs can be an escape when you are unwanted. Chris and Allie find themselves on a downward roller coaster ride of addiction. Friends quickly turn on them and a foiled bank robbery with a drug-induced maniac leave them on the run with no one to turn to and nowhere to go. This is a story about being out of control of one’s life and being haunted by the bad choices you made.

Medina, Meg. Burn Baby Burn. 320p. Candlewick Press. March 2016. Tr. $17.99 ISBN 9780763674670. A city on edge–New York in 1977 is haunted by a serial killer named Son of Sam. Seventeen-year old Nora has two parallel dangers–that of the elusive Son of Sam, and also of her brother Hector, who is becoming more violent every day. Will the handsome young fellow working alongside her at the deli be her salvation?

Moore, Wes. This Way Home. 256p. Delacorte. November 2015. TR $17.99. ISBN 9780385741699. Elijah, a basketball phenom dreams of having his absent father see how far he’s come. But when the local gang pressures him to wear gang colors at a tournament, Elijah has to make choices or face retaliation.

Rollins, Danielle. Burning. 352p. Bloomsbury USA Childrens. April 2016. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9781619637382. Trapped in Brunesfield, a juvenile correctional prison in the deep forests of upstate New York, Angela is faced with a new warden with evil intentions.As girls go missing and with the introduction of a young inmate who starts fires telepathically, Angela is desperate to escape. But can she get away before it is too late?

Simone, Ni-Ni. Dear Yvette. 288p. Dafina. November 2016. PB $9.95. ISBN 9780758287762. At sixteen, Yvette is a mother with anger and self-control issues living in Newark with her step-siblings and grandmother. When she attacks one of her friends for calling her a snitch, she is sentenced to a parenting house in Virginia. This is her last chance to get her life together or lose her daughter to foster care. Starting over and changing is hard, but when she meets handsome Brooklyn, her life becomes even more complicated.

Spears, Kat. The Boy Who Killed Grant Parker. 320p. St. Martin’s Griffin. September 2016. TR $18.99. ISBN 9781250088864. Luke is a trouble-maker. But now he has been sent to live with his pastor father in small-town Tennessee. Luke is an immediate target of the football team’s captain, Grant. But when Grant is seriously injured, Luke finds himself worshiped by his peers and especially, the beautiful Penny–Grant’s girlfriend. How does the bad-boy, Luke, withstand this idolizing–especially when it isn’t deserved?

Van Diepen, Allison. Light of Day. 320p. Harper Teen. November 2015. Tr. $17.99. ISBN 9780062303479. Gabby is under a lot of pressure from her parents to fit in with the upper class crowd at school, but she wants to reach out and help others through her work as a DJ. When a friend goes missing and sexy X steps in to help, can Gabby look past his affiliation with the Destinos gang and trust him with her heart?