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

Paper Towns by John Green

Quentin, one of the high school nerds, has always been in love with his next door neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman, one of the cool kids. One night she appears at his window and convinces him to accompany her on a revenge motivated crime spree to get back at her ex-boyfriend. After their night together, Quentin expects to continue their friendship, but Margo disappears. Has she run away or committed suicide? Quentin and his geeky friends find clues to her disappearance and decide to find her, dead or alive. Some of their antics will make adult heads spin. I think teens will identify with Margo as having the guts to do what they would like to try. Older teens.

Shattering Glass by Gail Giles

Simon Glass is the typical nerd of the senior class of a high school in Houston. When popular Rob decides to transform him into the coolest kid in school (as a display of his power), his power trip gets out of hand. Characters in the novel have one-paragraph quotes (told five years later) at the beginning of every chapter, and through these, we learn that Simon will die, and Young Steward, our narrator, will be involved and jailed. Rob, Young, the athletic Coop, and flirtatious Bobster (try keeping those names straight) are each involved in Simon's transformation, pushing him to be class favorite and allowing him to manipulate student computer records to make them look good. After the "Favorites dance" results are manipulated by Simon as a trick on THEM, Rob flips out, taking a baseball bat to Simon, killing him, on the last page of the book. I didn't like this book, hard to put my finger on why...Rob was just a little too much of a caricature, the boys seemed TOO mature for high school.

Beanball by Gene Fehler

Luke "Wizard" Wallace is a great baseball player. He is popular, good looking, and talented. The team plays better when Luke is there. Life is good for him until the day he is hit in the face by a fastball. The ball crushes his eye and knocks him unconscious. He loses the sight in his left eye. This novel in verse relates how Luke's injury affects him and the people around him, his coach, the team, his friends, his family, the students at his school, the other team, the other coach, the players on the other team. It reads quickly and has a good ending. Luke decides he will try to play ball again. He becomes friends with a girl who cares about him and is an inspiration to his team.

Who Killed Mr. Chippendale? a mystery in poems by Mel Glenn

This mystery novel in verse begins with Mr. Chippendale, an English teacher at Tower High School bumping into a student as he gets ready for his morning run. A few minutes later, Mr. Chippendale is shot as he runs around the track. The rest of the novel/poems are written by different students and teachers, explaining how they feel about Mr. Chippendale. Some students felt like he was a great teacher, some hated him. Angela Falcone, the guidance counselor, is a major character as she interacts with students, teachers, the police detective, and the principal. The book climaxes in a memorial service for Mr. Chippendale after which one of the students confesses to Ms. Falcone that he was the murderer. There is an epilogue poem at the end telling where the characters are 13 years later as a new English teacher enters the building.

Schooled by Gordon Korman

Capricorn (Cap) Anderson - 13 year old boy raised on a commune and home schooled who knows nothing about today's life
Rain - Cap's hippie grandmother who has lived on a commune for 40 years and breaks her hip
Garland - the hippie commune where Cap and Rain live
Claverage Middle School - nicknamed C Average - the public school where Cap is sent when his grandmother goes to the hospital
Zach Powers - the most popular boy at Claverage (C Average) Middle School, who always nominates the biggest nerd for class president
Hugh Winkleman - the nerdiest kid at Claverage Middle School and target of all of Zach's jokes until Cap shows up
Lena Young - cheerleader and Zach's girl friend
Mrs. Donnelly - the social worker who takes Zach in while Rain is in the hospital. She used to live at the commune herself
Sophie - Mrs. Donnelly's beautiful daughter who hates Cap until she finds out what he is really like
Mr. Kasigi - principal of Claverage Middle School who gives Cap the check book for the student activity fund without explaining to him how money works
Naomi Erlanger - a girl who likes Zach and is helping him with his pranks until she discovers that she likes Cap
Darryl Pennyfield - best tackler on the football team who creams Cap during one of Zach's pranks and sends Cap to the hospital
Halloween - the night of the dance Cap has planned that becomes his memorial service, even though he's not dead

A funny story about a young man who jumps from the 1960s life style into the 21st century. Because of his caring about others, the students learn to respect him.