Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. Scholastic, 2008. ISBN 978-0439023481. Ages 12-14.

In the future, the United States has been replaced by Panem, a collection of 12 different districts ruled over by the Capitol. As punishment for districts rebelling in the past, Panem holds an annual televised reality show called the Hunger Games. Here, each district must send one boy and one girl to compete to the death, for only one teen can survive and win the game. District 12’s Katniss finds herself competing after volunteering to take her little sister’s place, and things get complicated when Peeta, District 12’s other competitor, confesses his love for her.

Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki, and Houston, James D. Farewell to Manzanar. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1973. ISBN 0913374040. Ages 9-14.

The true story of one spirited Japanese American family's attempt to survive the indignities of forced detention, and of a native-born American child who discovered what it was like to grow up behind barbed wire in the United States. This true story offers a real look at Japanese Internment during World War II, but does so through a child's eyes, simplifying the experience in some ways. The content can be more appropriate for older tweens at times, dealing with issues like death and alcoholism. Tweens will identify with Jeanne's struggle to be herself when her family tells her it’s one thing and society tells her it’s another.

Crutcher, Chris. Whale Talk. Greenwillow Books, 2001. ISBN 0688180191. Ages 12-14.

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. TJ embodies many different aspects of everyday older tweens--he is multiracial, athletic, adopted, angry, and suffers from issues of abandonment. However, he takes all of these things with stride, and uses the best of them to try and save others. Many tweens will find aspects of his character that they can relate to, as well as the band of outcasts he forms his swim team with. Tweens will also be intrigued by the unconditional support of TJ's adopted, hippy parents.

Barker, Clive. Abarat. Joanna Cotler Books, 2002. ISBN 0060280921. Ages 9-14.

Candy Quackenbush of Chickentown, Minnesota, one day finds herself on the edge of a foreign world that is populated by strange creatures, and her life is forever changed. Candy's story is like many other fantasy novels involving young children--it is a story of a young girl desperate to escape the cruel realities of her world and submerge herself into another world that is the complete opposite. Tweens will relate to Candy because of this as she flees an alcoholic father and depressed mother, striking out on her own in a strange world in order to make some kind of difference.

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Little, Brown and Company, 2007. ISBN 978-0316013680. Ages 12-14.

Amateur cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Though his intent is to get a better education, he endures prejudice and bullying both from the kids in the new school where he sticks out like a sore thumb and from the reservation he has chosen to abandon. Despite suffering through these circumstances as well as other personal tragedies, Junior finds solace and humor in his artwork, as well as basketball, and begins to make a life for himself. And in turn, he learns what it means to define his culture, instead of letting it define him.

Bloor, Edward. London Calling. Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. ISBN 978-0375836350. Ages 10-14.

If anyone has something to be depressed about, it’s Martin Conway. His father is a drunk and a disgrace to the family. His family worships his late grandfather, whom he was named after. And his mother insists on making him attend All Souls Preparatory in order to live up to that namesake. But all Martin really wants to do is sleep. So when he receives his grandmother’s old radio and through it a young boy reaches out to him from the past, Martin is sure he’s going crazy. But fact by fact, every “dream” he experiences checks out. And as the story unfolds, he is asked the all-important question—What did you do to help?

This powerful and moving book not only chronicles a heartbreaking story set in WWII London, but also the story of a young boy who is battling his own demons on several fronts. Besides suffering through the everyday battles of being in middle school, he is dealing with real issues of alcoholism and depression in his family, and surviving a war in his dreams. Martin is a dynamic character, struggling to make sense of the world around him. Bloor does so by illustrating his struggles through vivid flashbacks, where you can almost feel the bombs dropping and smell the fires burning. Together with Martin, tweens will struggle to figure out his purpose, and perhaps walk away from the book wondering what they can do to help as well.

Balliett, Blue. The Danger Box. Scholastic, 2010. ISBN 978-0439852098. Ages 9-12.

Zoomy Chamberlain is not your ordinary name, and with his pathological myopia (he's legally blind, you see) and coke bottle lenses, he's not your average twelve year old either. But he does live a pretty ordinary life with his grandparents in the small town of Three Oaks, Michigan. That is, until his good-for-nothing drunk of a father returns to town and stirs up trouble with a mysterious, stolen box that he leaves behind. Soon Zoomy and his friend Lorrol are plunged into a mystery involving a missing book and a dangerous stranger who will stop at nothing to get his hands on it. Whose book is it, you ask? Well, Zoomy, Lorrol and their new friend Gas would love to tell you, but you’ll just have to read it first to find out.