Truman Reader’s Award 2017-18

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  Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
Mare Barrow’s world is divided by blood—those with common, Red blood serve the Silver- blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities. Mare is a Red, scraping by as a thief in a rural village, until she discovers she has an ability of her own. To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. She is now in position to help the Scarlet Guard—a growing Red rebellion—but one wrong move could lead to her death, but in the dangerous game she plays, the only certainty is betrayal.
  The Fixer by Jennifer Barnes
When sixteen-year-old Tess Kendrick is sent to live with her older sister, Ivy, she has no idea that the infamous Ivy Kendrick is Washington D.C.’s #1 “fixer” known for making politicians’ scandals go away for a price. No sooner does Tess enroll at Hardwicke Academy than she unwittingly follows in her sister’s footsteps and becomes D.C.’s premier high school fixer, solving problems for elite teens. Tess finds herself in the middle of a conspiracy with one of her classmates and a client of Ivy’s. Suddenly, there is much more on the line than good grades, money, or politics, and the price for this fix might be more than Tess is willing to pay.
  All Fall Down by Ally Carter
Everybody wants Grace to put on a pretty dress and a pretty smile, blocking out all her unpretty thoughts. But they can’t control Grace—no more than Grace can control what she knows or what she needs to do. Her past has come back to hunt her . . . and if she doesn’t stop it, Grace isn’t the only one who will get hurt. Because on Embassy Row, the countries of the world stand like dominoes, and one wrong move can make them all fall down.
  Forget Tomorrow by Pintip Dunn
It’s Callie’s seventeenth birthday and, like everyone else, she’s eagerly awaiting her vision— a memory sent back in time to sculpt each citizen into the person they’re meant to be. In her vision, she sees herself murdering her gifted younger sister. Before she can process what it means, Callie is arrested and placed in prison. Logan, a boy she hasn’t spoken to in five years, breaks her free, but can she trust him? Now, Callie’s on the run not only from the government, but also from her fate. If she wants any hope of a future with Logan, she must find a way to protect her sister from the biggest threat of all—herself.
  The Leveller by Julia Durango
Nixy is a bounty hunter in a virtual-reality gaming world. Kids in the MEEP, as they call it, play entirely with their minds, while their bodies languish in a sleeplike state on the couch. Irritated parents, looking to wrench their kids back to reality, hire Nixy to jump into the game and retrieve them. But when the game’s billionaire developer loses track of his own son in the MEEP, Nixy is in for the biggest challenge of her bounty-hunting career: Wyn’s not hiding—he’s being held inside the game against his will. But who is holding him captive, and why?
  The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart
In all the ways that matter, Mark is a normal kid. He’s got a dog named Beau and a best friend, Jessie. He likes to take photos and write haiku poems in his notebook. He dreams of climbing a mountain one day. But in one important way, Mark is not like other kids at all. Mark is sick. The kind of sick that means hospitals. And treatments. The kind of sick some people never get better from. So Mark runs away. He leaves home with his camera, his notebook, his dog, and a plan to reach the top of Mount Rainier—even if it’s the last thing he ever does.
  Code of Honor by Alan Gratz
Kamran Smith is the star of the football team, dates the most popular girl in school, and can’t wait to enlist in the Army like his big brother, Darius. Then his brother is accused of being a terrorist. Kamran refuses to believe it, but the evidence is there—Darius has been filmed making threats against his country, hinting at an upcoming deadly attack. Kamran’s friends turn on him—suddenly, in their eyes, he’s a terrorist, too. Kamran knows it’s up to him to clear his brother’s name. In a race against time, Kamran must piece together a series of clues and codes that will lead him to Darius—and the truth.
  A Night Divided by Jennifer A Nielsen
With the rise of the Berlin Wall, twelve-year-old Gerta finds her family suddenly divided. She, her mother, and her brother Fritz live on the eastern side, controlled by the Soviets. Her father and middle brother, who had gone west in search of work, cannot return home. Gerta knows it is dangerous to watch the wall, to think forbidden thoughts of freedom, yet she can’t help herself. She sees the East German soldiers with their guns trained on their own citizens; she, her family, her neighbors and friends are prisoners in their own city. Will Gerta and her family find their way to freedom?
  I am Princess X by Cherie Priest and Kali Ciesemier
Once upon a time, two best friends created a princess together. Libby drew the pictures, May wrote the tales, and their heroine, Princess X, slayed all the dragons and scaled all the mountains their imaginations could conjure. When Libby dies in a car crash, Princess X dies with her. Once upon a now: May is wandering the streets of Seattle when she sees a Princess X sticker in a corner window. Suddenly, she is seeing the Princess everywhere: Stickers. Patches. Graffiti. There’s an entire underground culture, focused around a webcomic at IAmPrincessX.com. The more May explores the webcomic, the more she sees disturbing similarities between Libby’s story and Princess X online. And that means that only one person could have started this phenomenon—her best friend, Libby.
  Orbiting Jupiter by Gary Schmidt
Joseph, a father at thirteen, has never seen his daughter, Jupiter. After spending time in a juvenile facility, he’s placed with a foster family on a farm in rural Maine. Here Joseph, damaged and withdrawn, meets twelve-year-old Jack, who narrates the account of the troubled, passionate teen who wants to find his baby at any cost. In this riveting novel, two boys discover the true meaning of family and the sacrifices it requires.
  What Waits in the Woods by Kieran Scott
For city girl Callie Velasquez, nothing sounds more terrifying than a night out in the wilderness. But, wanting to bond with her popular new friends, Lissa and Penelope, she agrees to join them on a camping trip. But nothing goes as planned. The group loses half their food supply. Then they lose their way. And with strange sounds all around her–the snap of a twig, a sinister laugh–Callie wonders if she’s losing her mind. Tensions swirl among the group, with dark secrets suddenly revealed. And then, things take a fatal turn: Callie stumbles upon a cold dead body in the woods.
  Rebel Mechanics: All Is Fair in Love and Revolution by Shanna Swendson
It’s 1888, and seventeen-year-old Verity Newton lands a job in New York as a governess to a wealthy, Magister family. Magisters have always ruled the colonies, but now an underground society of mechanics and engineers are developing non-magical sources of power via steam engines that they hope will help them gain freedom from British rule. As Verity falls for a charming rebel inventor and agrees to become a spy, she also becomes more and more enmeshed in the magister family’s life.
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