Friendship

Mattie Gokey has a word for everything. She collects words, stores them up as a way of fending off the hard truths of her life, the truths that she can't write down in stories.

Acclaimed author Walter Dean Myers presents a compelling novel that looks at America's occupation of Iraq through the eyes of those who live it first hand. Charged with building up relations between the U.S. military and the Iraqi people, a team of soldiers strives to make real connections and bridge the divide between two very different cultures.

High school senior Ashley Hannigan doesn't care about prom, but she's the exception. It's pretty much the only good thing at her urban Philadelphia high school, and everyone plans to make the most of it, especially Ash's best friend, Natalia, who's the head of the committee.

Now a modern classic, this story of two boys' friendship at an exclusive New Hampshire prep school as it parallels the inescapable and escalating atmosphere of World War II, is intense and engaging to the last word.

Tally Youngblood never felt like the other Pretties - she almost didn't become one. But Tally isn't the only one who feels like she's missing a part of herself. After uncovering sinister clues about the Pretty surgery, she stumbles upon a possible cure for Pretty-mindedness and a possible escape from the city. But the cure could have deadly consequences.

Tally Youngblood is quickly approaching her 16th birthday and the mandatory pretty-making surgery that accompanies it. But Tally isn't sure if she wants to be a placidly happy Pretty. When a top secret organization threatens her with remaining Ugly forever, she reluctantly spies on the rebels who have refused the surgery. They think it changes more than just looks and are working on a cure.

Tally never wanted to be Special, but some talents cannot be denied. Specials keep the Pretties happy and naive, keep the Uglies wishing to be Pretty and - most importantly - keep the Smokies powerless.

Eddie is a grizzled war veteran who feels trapped in a meaningless life of fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. His days are a dull routine of work, loneliness, and regret.

Clare and Henry have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was 36. They were married when Clare was 23 and Henry was 31. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity from his life, past and future.

Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of its monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable and beautifully told story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul.

High-school senior Tyler Miller used to be the kind of guy who faded into the background: average student, average looks, average dysfunctional family. But ever since he got busted for spraying graffiti on the school, and spent the summer doing outdoor work to pay for it, he stands out like you wouldn't believe.

Charlie Gordon knows that he isn't very bright. At 32, he mops floors in a bakery and earns just enough to get by. Three evenings a week, he studies at a center for mentally challenged adults. But all of this is about to change for Charlie. As part of a daring experiment, doctors are going to perform surgery on Charlie's brain.

The magic is out of control!

On a journey to Gold Ridge, the four young mages-in-training, Daja, Sandry, Tris, and Briar, find their special magics overlapping, sometimes in frightening and destructive ways. One burst of this combined magic leads Daja to create an astonishing vine made of living metal.

"Is this my hidden Mutant Power, the ability to screw up absolutely any decent situation?"

Clear-eyed and spirited, Taylor Greer grew up poor in rural Kentucky with the goals of avoiding pregnancy and getting away.