Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Frankie Landau-Banks at age 14: Debate Club. Her father's " bunny rabbit. " A mildly geeky girl attending a highly competitive boarding school. Frankie Landau-Banks at age 15: A knockout figure. A sharp tongue. A chip on her shoulder. And a gorgeous new senior boyfriend: the supremely goofy, word-obsessed Matthew Livingston. Frankie Landau-Banks. No longer the kind of girl to take " no" for an answer. Especially when " no" means she's excluded from her boyfriend's all-male secret society. Not when her ex-boyfriend shows up in the strangest of places. Not when she knows she's smarter than any of them. When she knows Matthew's lying to her. And when there are so many, many pranks to be done. Frankie Landau-Banks, at age 16: Possibly a criminal mastermind. This is the story of how she got that way.
-from Shelfari

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.