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Ellen Bachert
Library Media Specialist
ebachert@rpsd.org
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Linda Califano
Library Assistant

Library Resources

Mission Statement
The mission of the Roselle Park High School library media program is
to ensure that all students and staff have the skills and opportunity to
access, evaluate, and use information. The library, as the information
center of the school, is committed to supporting the curriculum and
to develop each student into an independent seeker of information by
providing the guidance and the necessary resources. This mission
encourages all students and staff to become lifelong and responsible
users of ideas and information.

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What is literary criticism?

Literary criticism is the evaluation, analysis, description, or interpretation of literary works. It is usually in the form of
a critical essay, but in-depth book reviews can sometimes be considered literary criticism. Criticism may examine a
particular literary work, or may look at an author's writings as a whole.

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LOOKING FOR A GOOD BOOK?

Best YA Novels

(According to New Jersey Librarians)

New Jersey Librarians on the NJYAC listserv were polled for their top ten young adult novels. Titles listed below are available in the RPHS Library.  A complete list is available on the shelf in the fiction section.

Adams, Douglas. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Pan Books, 1979. (Adult)
The book begins as the Earth explodes, and Arthur Dent is taken off the planet by his friend, Fordrefect, who unbeknownst to
Arthur works as a researcher for the revised edition of TheHitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Together they begin a journey through the galaxy aided byquotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Anonymous. Go Ask Alice. (ed. by Beatrice Sparks) Prentice-Hall, 1971. (Gr. 8+)
A novel based on the diary of a fictional fifteen-year-old drug user chronicling her struggle toescape the pull of the drug world.

 Bauer, Joan. Hope Was Here. Putnam, 2000. (Gr. 8+)
When sixteen-year-old Hope and the aunt who has raised her move from Brooklyn to Mulhoney,
Wisconsin to work as waitress and cook in the Welcome Stairways diner, they become involved with the diner owner's political campaign to oust the town's corrupt mayor.

Bauer, Joan. Rules of the Road. Putman's, 1998. (Gr. 7+)
Sixteen-year-old Jenna gets a job driving the elderly owner of a chain of successful shoe stores from Chicago to Texas to confront the son who is trying to force her to retire, and along the way Jenna hones her talents as a saleswoman and finds the strength to face her alcoholic father.

Bauer, Joan. Squashed. Delacorte Press, 1992. (Gr. 7-10)
As a sixteen-year-old pursues her two goals--growing the biggest pumpkin in Iowaand losing twenty pounds herself--she strengthens her relationship with her father and meets a young man with interests similar to her own.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. Ballantine Books, 1953. (Adult)
In this dystopia, firemen don't put out the flames; they set them to piles of books. That is, until Fireman Guy Montag meets a girl who tells him of a past when people were not afraid, and a professor who tells him of a future where people can think.

Brashares, Ann. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants . Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2001. (Gr. 9+)
Four best girlfriends spend the biggest summer of their lives enchanted by a magical pair of pants.

Burgess, Melvin. Smack . Holt, 1998. (Gr. 10+)
After running away from their troubled homes, two English teenagers move in with a group of squatters in the port city of Bristol and try to find ways to support their growing addiction to heroin.

Card, Orson Scott.Ender's Game. T. Doherty Associates, 1985. (A/YA)
This award winning novel follows the story of Ender, after he is sent to Battle School , who becomes Earth's best hope to defeat the alien invaders who nearly destroyed the planet. Ender must withstand the pressures of training in order to become the world's hero.

Cisneros, Sandra.The House on Mango Street. Vintage Books, 1989. (Adult)
A young girl living in a Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago ponders the advantages and disadvantages of her environment and evaluates her relationships with family and friends.

Cormier, Robert.The Chocolate War. Pantheon, 1974. (Gr. 8+)
A young man arouses the wrath of school bullies and discovers othe devastating consequences of defying a long, mindless tradition centered around the school's annual fund raising drive.

Crutcher, Chris. Whale Talk. (and others by him) Greenwillow Books, 2001. (Gr. 8+)
Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial, adopted teenager, shuns organized sports and the gung-ho athletes at his high school until he agrees to form a swimming team and recruits some of the school's less popular students.

Dessen, Sarah. Someone Like You, Viking, 1998. (Gr. 8+)
Halley's junior year of high school includes the death of her best friend Scarlett's boyfriend, the discovery that Scarlett is pregnant, and Halley's own first serious relationship.

Farmer, Nancy. The House of the Scorpion. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2002. (Gr. 7-10)
In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patrón, the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.

Gibbons, Kaye. Ellen Foster. Algonquin Books, 1987. (Adult)
An abused child finally gets a chance at a better life when she lives in the home of a loving woman who has several foster children.

Going, K. L. Fat Kid Rules the World. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2003. (Gr. 8+)
Seventeen-year-old Troy, depressed, suicidal, and weighing nearly 300 pounds, gets a new perspective on life when a homeless teenager who is a genius on guitar wants Troy to be the drummer in his rock band.

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. Faber and Faber, 1954. (Gr. 9+)
A group of young boys try to survive after they are abandoned on a desert island.

Greene, Bette. Summer of My German Soldier. Dial Press, 1973. (Gr. 6+)
When German prisoners of war are brought to her Arkansas town during World War II, twelve year-old Patty, a Jewish girl, befriends one of them and must deal with the consequences of that friendship.

Grimes, Nikki. Bronx Masquerade. Dial Books, 2002. (Gr. 8+)
While studying the Harlem Renaissance, students at a Bronx high school read aloud poems they've written, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears to their formerly clueless classmates.

Hamilton, Virginia. Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush. Philomel Books, 1982. (Gr. 7+)
Fourteen-year-old Tree, resentful of her working mother who leaves her in charge of a retarded brother, encounters the ghost of her dead uncle and comes to a deeper understanding of her family's problems.

Hautzig, Esther. The Endless Steppe. HarperCollins Children's Book Group, 1968. (Gr. 6+)
Arressted in Poland and exiled to Siberia, Ester and her family must struggle to find enough food and clothing to stay alive. It is only the family's strength that will allow them to survive.

Howe, James. The Watcher. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1997. (Gr. 7-9)
As she sits watching a seemingly perfect family and a handsome lifeguard on the beach, a lonely, troubled girl projects herself into the fantasy lives she has created for them.

Jackson, Shirley. We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Viking Penguin, 1962. (Gr. 8+)
After a murder takes place on their family's land, Merricat Blackwood tries to protect her sister, Constance from the nearby villagers.

Jimenez, Francisco. Breaking Through. (Sequel to The Circuit) Houghton Mifflin, 2001. (Gr.5-8)
Having come from Mexico to California ten years ago, fourteen-year-old Francisco is still working in the fields but fighting to improve his life and complete his education.

Johnson, Angela. The First Part Last. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2003.(Gr. 8+)
Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter.

Kerr, M. E. Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack. Harper & Row, 1972. (Gr. 7+)
Fifteen-year-old Tucker's life changes in many ways when he meets the unusual overweight girl who gives his cat a home.

Kidd, Sue Monk. The Secret Life of Bees. Viking, 2001. (A/YA)
When Rosaleen, the African-American woman who has taken care of Lily for the past ten years, is victimized by racist police officers, they must leave their home.

Kingsolver, Barbara. The Poisonwood Bible. Perrenial, 1999. (Adult)
The story of Nathan Price and his family after they move to the Belgian Congo in 1959.

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins , 1961. (Gr. 8+)
In this classic work, Scout Finch tells the story of her father's defense of an African-American man charged with the rape of a white girl.

Lipsyte, Robert. The Contender. Bantam Books, 1967. (Gr. 8+)
A Harlem high school dropout at the beginning of a successful boxing career changes his goals.

Mackler, Carolyn. The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things. Candlewick Press, 2003. (Gr. 7-10)
Feeling like she does not fit in with the other members of her family, who are all thin, brilliant, and good-looking, fifteen-year-old Virginia tries to deal with her self-image, her first physical relationship, and her disillusionment with some of the people closest to her.

Mahy, Margaret. Memory. M.K. McElderry Books, 1988. (Gr. 7+)
On the fifth anniversary of his older sister's death, nineteen- year-old Jonny Dart, troubled by feelings of guilt and an imperfect memory of the event, goes in search of the only other witness to the fatal accident and, through a chance meeting with a senile old woman, finds a way to free himself of the past.

McKinley, Robin. Beauty. Harper & Row, 1978. (Gr. 6+)
Kind Beauty grows to love the Beast at whose castle she is compelled to stay and through her love releases him from the spell which had turned him from a handsome prince into an ugly beast.

McKinley, Robin. The Blue Sword. Greenwillow Books, 1982. (Gr. 6+)
Harry, bored with her sheltered life in the remote orange-growing colony of Daria, discovers magic in herself when she is kidnapped by a native king with mysterious powers.

Myers, Walter Dean. Fallen Angels. Scholastic Inc., 1988. (Gr. 10+)
Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school, enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.

Myers, Walter Dean. Monster. HarperCollins , 1999. (Gr. 7+)
While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken.

Na, An. A Step from Heaven. Front Street, c2001. (Gr. 8+)
A young Korean girl and her family find it difficult to learn English and adjust to life in America.

Napoli, Donna Jo. The Magic Circle. Dutton Children's Books, 1993. (Gr. 7-10)
After learning sorcery to become a healer, a good-hearted woman is turned into a witch by evil spirits and she fights their power until her encounter with Hansel and Gretel years later.

Nix, Garth. Sabriel. (and sequels) HarperCollins, 1995. (Gr. 7+)
Sabriel, daughter of the necromancer Abhorsen, must journey into the mysterious and magical Old Kingdom to rescue her father from the Land of the Dead.

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. (and sequels) Arthur A. Levine, 1998.(Gr. 5+)
11 year old Harry Potter is surprised to learn that he is a wizard and has his first year of adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Sachar, Louis. Holes. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998. (Gr. 6-9)
As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself.

Salinger, J. D. Catcher in the Rye. Little, Brown and Company, 1951. (Gr. 7+)
Cynical seventeen year old Holden Caulfield has an eventful 24 journey around New York City.

Sleator, William. House of Stairs. Dutton, 1974. (Gr. 7+)
Five fifteen-year-old orphans of widely varying personality characteristics are involuntarily placed in a house of endless stairs as subjects for a psychological experiment on conditioned human response.

Smith, Betty. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Perennial, 1968. (Adult)
Francie Nolan grows up in a Brooklyn, New York slum.

Speare, Elizabeth George. The Witch of Blackbird Pond. Houghton Mifflin, 1958. (Gr. 6+)
In 1687 in Connecticut, Kit Tyler becomes friends with old woman considered a witch by the community and suddenly is on trial for witchcraft.

Spinelli, Jerry. Stargirl. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2000. (Gr. 6-10)
In this story about the perils of popularity, the courage of nonconformity, and the thrill of first love,an eccentric student named Stargirl changes Mica High School forever.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings. Houghton Mifflin, 1955. (A/YA)
This trilogy tells the story of Frodo Baggins and the fellowship who journeys to Mordor to destroy the ring and save Middle Earth.

Wolff, Virginia Euwer. Make Lemonade. (and sequel) Henry Holt, 1993. (Gr. 7-10)
A young single mother and her fourteen year old babysitting help each other in this powerful story

Zindel, Paul. The Pigman. Harper & Row, 1968. (Gr. 7+)
A teenage boy and girl, high school sophomores from unhappy homes, tell of their bizarre relationship with an old man.