1. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic, 2008)
The Hunger Games is the story of a 16 year-old girl named Katniss who lives with her mother and younger sister in the poorest section of what was once the United States. When her younger sister is chosen, by lottery, as a sacrificial participant in the annual Hunger Games, a deadly competition hosted by the Capitol where young boys and girls are pitted against one another in a televised fight to the death, Kat decides to take her place. Soon Kat is fighting for both of their survival.
2. Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins, 2008)
When his family is murdered by a mysterious stranger, Bod (short for Nobody) Owens is taken in by the inhabitants of a nearby graveyard. Though only eighteen months old when orphaned, Bod is raised lovingly and carefully to the age of eighteen years by the community of ghosts and otherworldly creatures who swore to protect him from the person who, not only killed his parents, but who is also still on the hunt for him.
3. Book of Time by Guillaume (Scholastic, 2008)
In search of his missing father, young Sam Faulkner discovers a statue, a coin and an old book, which allow him to travel through time in order to find his dad. Along the way, Sam’s journey lands him in medieval Ireland, ancient Egypt and Renaissance Bruges. Finally, Sam receives a message from his father, sent across 6 centuries letting Sam know that his father has been imprisoned in the castle of Vlad Tepes (a.k.a. Dracula) and that it’s up to Sam to save him.
4. I, Q: Independence Hall by Roland Smith (Sleeping Bear Press, 2008)
When Q’s new step sister, Angela, realizes she’s being followed, both she and Q are plunged into the most dangerous situation of their lives in which they become important players in the work of both the U.S. Secret Service and the Israeli Mossad. The plot thickens and becomes even more dangerous when Q learns the secret about Angela's real mother, a former Secret Service agent who was supposedly killed by a terrorist group. Soon everyone Q thinks he can trust turns out to be an agent for the other side and it’s up to Q and Angela to figure out the truth.
5. The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (Little, Brown Young Readers, 2007)
After Reynie Muldoon responds to an advertisement seeking for "gifted children looking for special opportunities," he completes a series of mind bending tests and is selected, as one of four children, for a secret mission to go under cover at an isolated school where other children are being trained by a criminal mastermind (Mr. Curtain) to help him take over the world. Then, it’s up to the four members of the “Mysterious Benedict Society” to use their special talents and abilities to stop Mr. Curtain before it’s “curtains” for us all.
6. Tunnels by Brian Williams and Roderick Gordon (Scholastic, 2008)
When 14 year old Will Burrows embarks on a quest to find his archaeologist father, (who has inexplicably disappeared), he discovers the unbelievable: a secret subterranean society, a labyrinthine world underneath London called the Colony, which is full of sinister inhabitants with evil intentions toward "Topsoilers" like Will and his father. But before Will can locate his dad, the Colony locates him.
7. The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod: 8th Grade Bites by Heather Brewer (Dutton Children's Books, 2008)
Thirteen-year-old Vladimir Tod despises 8th grade. And who can blame him? Not only is he harassed by both bullies and the principal, but the girl Vlad likes, likes Vlad’s best friend. To top it all off, Vlad is a vampire. With a human mother and a vampire father, Vlad doesn’t truly understand the extent of his powers, but he does know that subduing his craving for blood and hiding his enlarged fangs are both daily struggles. However, the trouble really begins when Vlad realizes he’s got a much bigger problem: He’s being hunted by a vampire killer.
8. Zombie Blondes by Brian James (Feiwel & Friends, 2009)
Even though Hannah Sanders is used to being the new kid in town, from the moment she arrives in Maplecrest, VT., she knows something isn’t right. A lot of the houses are for sale and the town seems strangely quiet. Then, on her first day of classes, Hannah encounters a group of cheerleaders who are not only the most popular girls in school, but they all look nearly identical in appearance: blonde, beautiful, and deathly pale. Despite warnings from another student, Hannah soon finds it hard to resist when the girls want to recruit her as part of their pale pep squad. But, of course, there’s a catch. As Hannah soon learns, the Maplecrest cheerleaders aren’t just blonde and popular… they’re also dead.
9. The Disreputable History of Landau Banks by E. Lockheart (Hyperion, 2008)
Sixteen year old Frankie Landau-Banks’ world is turned upside down as she begins her sophomore year of high school and the most popular boy in school, Mathew Livingston, takes an interest in her. Soon, the once awkward and nearly invisible Frankie, finds herself a member of the school’s most popular cliques, only to learn that Matthew is a member of one group that Frankie will never be allowed to be a part of: The Loyal Order of the Bassett Hounds – an all male, secret society to which Frankie’s own father had once belonged. Determined to infiltrate this forbidden clan, Frankie assumes an online identity and begins her quest to shake up the “all boys club” at her school.
10. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan (Delacorte Press, 2009)
Mary lives in a small, convent-like, village in the middle of the forest where she, and the rest of the villagers, are governed by a strict religious order known as the Sisterhood. Surrounded by a fence, to keep out the Unconsecrated: the flesh eating zombies that inhabit the Forest of Hands and Teeth, and protected by the Guardians, Mary’s focus is primarily on her betrothal to man she doesn’t love. However, this quickly changes when the fence and breached and Mary, along with several others, must flee into the forbidden forest in order to escape.