Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman

This is the story of a very smart boy. He can remember everything he hears - conversations, TV shows, advertisements, everything. But, no one knows that he understands anything because he has cerebral palsy. He can't talk or use his hands or even blink his eyes when he wants to. He has no control over his muscles. He has seizures very often and his father thinks he is in great pain when he has the seizures. Actually his seizures free him from the prison of his body and allow him to experience life like other teenagers. Because of the pain he is suffering, he thinks his father is going to kill him so that he won't be in misery. His father doesn't realize that he is intelligent and caring. This book really made me stop and think about students with cerebral palsy that we treat like children. They may be more intelligent than we are.

Identical by Ellen Hopkins

Kaleigh and Raeanne are twins who live in California with their father, who is a judge, and their mother, who is running for Congress. Their home life appears to be perfect, but is just the opposite. Daddy is sexually molesting Kaeleigh. Raeanne does drugs, is sexually promiscous and bulemic. Mother is never home and Daddy is controlling. It is not until Kaeleigh tries to commit suicide that the reader discovers what really happened one night that changed all of their lives. Very mature.

Ways to Live Forever by Sally Nicholls

Sam, 11, is dying of leukemia. He is being home schooled with his friend, Felix, who also has cancer. He lives with his mum, dad, and younger sister, Ella, who is 8. He decides to write a book about himself. Some of the book is lists that he makes to include in his book.
Things I want to Do -
1. Be a a famous scientist. Find things out and write books about them.
2. Break a world record. Not an athletic one, obviously. A silly one.
3. Watch all the horror films I'm not allowed to watch. Rs or NC-17s.
4. Go up down-escalators and down up-escalators.
5. See a ghost
6. Be a teenager. Do teenage things like drink and smoke and have girlfriends.
7. Ride in an airship.
8. Go up in a spaceship and see the earth from space.
In one way or another he fulfills his wish list. His friend Felix dies and he has many questions about death and dying and what it will be like. The book describes his treatment, his feelings about his illness and death, and he does die at the end of the book.
My only problem with the book is that it is English. There are many English words and phrases used. I don't know if students will understand all of them.
It's a tearjerker.

Pretty Like Us by Carol Lynch Williams

Beauty McElwarth lives in Florida and is starting 6th grade. Jamie Borget, her new teacher is dating her mom. Cody Nelson used to be her best friend, but now doesn't want to play with her any more because she is turning into a "girl". She is dreading her coming year at Green River School because she has no friends and is very shy. The teacher announces that they will have a new student in their class who has progeria, a disease that causes advanced aging. When Beauty returns from lunch she finds Mr. Borget talking to somebody's grandmother, who turns out to be Alane Shriver, the new student. Beauty wants so much to be a part of the in crowd that she runs out to recess to tell them all about Alane and calls her a freakoid. Eventually, Beauty and Alane become friends and Beauty realizes that her grandmother's favorite saying - "pretty is as pretty diz" - is true. The girls take Beauty's mother's restored Cadillac out one night after midnight and get rammed by a wild boar. Alane falls out of a swing and almost drowns. Beauty is so good for Alane because she treats her like a normal kid. She doesn't realize that Alane is going to die soon. When she finds out, she knows she must help Alane. Alane has always wanted to write a book and with Beauty's help, she writes Pretty Like Us.

Before I Die by Jenny Downham

Seventeen year old Tess is dying from Leukemia. She has started a list of things she wants to do before she dies.
1. Have sex
2. Say “Yes” to everything
3. Do drugs
4. Break the law
5. Drive
6. Have fame
7. Travel the World - traded for Getting Mom and Dad back together again
8. Love
9. Adam moving in
10. Lauren Tessa Walker - Zoey’s baby
11. A cup of tea
12. Instructions to Dad
13. To hold my brother as dusk settles on the window ledge
14. A joke
15. To get out of bed and go downstairs and its all a joke
Tessa does get to do the things on her list. She meets the young man next door and they fall in love. She helps her friend Zoey who is pregnant and gets to hold her baby. Her parents get back together and she loves her brother. All but her last wish - it’s not a joke. She dies peacefully at the end of the story.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

In a science fiction novel that takes place in the future, Jenna Fox has been in a very severe car accident. She has just awakened from a coma and has no memory. Her parents start showing her movies of her life to help her remember. As her memory starts to return she learns that her body is not her own. She is a robot made of bio-gel, a substance created by her father. Only 10 percent of her brain remains. All the rest of her body is artificial. The bio-gel contains chemical neurotransmitters. They learn from her brain and become smarter. Her memories have all been uploaded from her brain. She and the other two teenagers who were in the car with her have all had their memories stored in computers for future use. The FSEB, which controls all medical procedures, has outlawed the overuse of antibiotics and human organ reproduction. Jenna is illegal. If anyone finds out that she exists, her parents and the scientists who have helped them will be in trouble. Jenna must remain hidden, but she wants her freedom. She wants to be human. She wants friends and the human part of being a terminal being.

This is a great thought provoking science fiction book. It could lead to discussions about what makes us human and how far scientists and doctors should go in saving human life. It would be good to compare to Jules Verne and other classic science fiction novels that were written about things that actually later came to pass, like submarines. Will medical science eventually be able to create human beings from very small particles of actual human beings and what will be the repercussions of these advances? Would you really want to live forever?

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Winner of the Newbery Award 2009. As a toddler, Bod's entire family is murdered. He wanders out of the house and escapes. He ends up in a nearby graveyard where he is adopted and protected by the ghosts and witches buried there. He is adopted by a husband and wife ghost who always wanted to have children. A vampire becomes his guardian and a werewolf his tutor. He is educated by the entire graveyard and learns the ways of the dead. He meets only one other human, a girl named Scarlett, who becomes his friend. He is captured by ghouls and makes friends with a witch. As he gets older, he wants to attend school, but finds that his life is in danger. The man Jack who killed his family is still after him. Eventually, Jack finds him and tracks him to the graveyard where the ghosts and witches help him to destroy Jack and his friends. When he becomes 15, he loses his powers to converse with the dead and enters the world of the living.