When Jesse and Emily pass in the halls of their high school, they don’t make eye contact, and why would they? Emily is student body vice president, an intern at an important company with a loyal boyfriend and, it must be said, incredibly perfect hair. Jesse keeps her locks cut short with a pocketknife, favors outsize rubber boots over ballet flats and is the sole member of a radical flyer-posting political organization called NOLAW. The Difference Between You and Me would seem to be an understatement, yet every Tuesday afternoon finds these two together in the bathroom at the public library for what Emily calls their “special time,” where those barriers dissolve in the face of an amazing physical connection.

In this smart, funny novel, two girls who couldn't be more different share a physical connection they can't deny.

Jesse wants to go public with their relationship while Emily feels the need to compartmentalize it with her other extracurricular activities, and that works for a while. But when the school is divided by a big-box store’s plans to build in town, currying political favor by sponsoring school activities, a divide is created that forces the two to re-evaluate where they stand. Ideology competes with affection, and who wins is anything but clear.

Author Madeleine George (Looks) tells this story with humor and wisdom. Jesse is so embarrassed to tell her left-wing activist parents she’s involved with a “normal” girl that they suspect she’s on drugs; she denies it, then realizes the relationship is itself a form of addiction. Emily is genuine and earnest about school, her hometown and her boyfriend, but feels seen by Jesse on a deeper level, and that vulnerability is intoxicating. There’s also a clear and fair-minded look at the positive and negative impacts of urban sprawl on communities.

The Difference Between You and Me will prompt heated discussions, and maybe the next wave of photocopied manifestos that challenge the norm. Let’s hope.

All through eighth-grade baseball season Peter Friedman hid his mounting, searing pain so that he and his best friend, AJ, could be star pitchers. After finally wearing out his elbow joint and permanently ending his baseball career, Peter enters his freshman year by keeping this crushing news a secret from AJ and wondering if he’ll ever enjoy anything as much as baseball again.

Because of his close relationship with his grandfather, a professional photographer, and his mother’s persistent urging, he signs up for one of his high school’s photography classes, where he meets fellow budding photographer Angelika. When the class becomes the yearbook’s default photographers, Angelika volunteers Peter to cover none other than the school’s sports scene.

Peter’s biting humor and flirtatious banter with Angelika keep the story both realistic and fresh as he faces his debilitating injury and AJ’s constant reminders about the upcoming spring training, along with one more secret: After noticing his grandfather’s increasing forgetfulness, he can’t help but wonder if his beloved hero is showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease. He swears not to divulge his grandfather’s condition, until a life-threatening accident forces him to confront the truth.

As Peter learns how to be honest with his friends, family and, most importantly, himself, he also begins to appreciate life’s gifts amidst tragedy. Jordan Sonnenblick scores a home run with Curveball as he continues what he does best: getting to the core of issues that resonate with teens in a style that’s direct and witty. New readers, start lining up Sonnenblick’s previous hits!

The year is 1938 and German Jews are losing their jobs; their children are being forced out of school and harassed on the street. But, 11-year-old Ziska wonders, why should this affect her? Her family converted to Protestantism two generations ago. If her mother loves her, why is she putting Ziska on a children’s train—a kindertransport—to live with strangers in England?

Life in England brings many surprises for Ziska. Her host family practices Orthodox Judaism, and Ziska becomes intrigued by their rituals. The family’s son welcomes her immediately, and she also finds friends in a fellow kindertransport passenger and an elderly professor. And although Ziska and her host mother get off to a rocky start, they soon begin to develop a bond that will prove to be tremendously meaningful for both of them.

As Ziska’s relationship with her host family develops, so does the war, including bombings and blackouts in London, further evacuations to the countryside and rumors of unspeakable horrors against Jews in German-occupied lands. By the time peace is declared in 1945, Ziska is 18 years old, and both her world and her perspective have changed in ways she could never have imagined.

Anne C. Voorhoeve’s historical novel, first published in Germany, raises many questions: What does it mean to be a friend, a daughter, a German or a Jew? Reflecting its wartime setting, the events in My Family for the War are at times harsh and unforgiving. But ultimately, Ziska’s story is about the persistent love of a family . . . and a generation’s hope for better times to come.

Piper Paisley’s birthday is on Valentine’s Day. But despite her friends’ best efforts to hatch a plan for romance, Piper isn’t feeling the love.

And why should she? Her mother’s second husband, Beau, left not long ago, leaving Piper and her mom with young kids Lucy and Dom. Piper barely talks to Beau, who adopted her, or to her biological father, Jack, her mother’s first husband. To make things worse, with Valentine’s Day approaching, her mother is busier than ever with her floral shop, leaving Piper to put a kindergartner and preschooler to bed each night. Not an easy task, and especially stressful when the plumbing in their old house explodes!

Piper’s busy life doesn’t leave much time for homework, swim practice or volunteer work in the candy shop, let alone some fantasy plan for romance. Besides, Piper’s ideal boyfriend, Ben Donovan, seems totally unattainable. She can’t imagine talking to him, and she certainly won’t be revealing her secret feelings to her best friend and next door neighbor, Charlie.

Given Piper’s rather cynical attitude toward all things romantic, it’s no surprise that she’s the mastermind behind one of Jan the Candy Man’s most popular Valentine’s Day creations: Consternation Hearts. Their wry, cynical sayings reflect her own experience: Falling in love may be sweet, but staying in love is something else entirely.

In Love? Maybe. author Heather Hepler, who also wrote The Cupcake Queen, has concocted a realistic, but warmhearted look at love as well as the complexities of commitment. Piper and her friends are engaging characters who balance multiple responsibilities. And luckily for Piper, the promise of love is within her reach, just as sweet as candy.

Ed is a high school dropout whose future goals have narrowed only to a search for the perfect shade of blue paint. Lucy is a glassblowing artist who’s just finished year 12 and is perpetually just barely missing the guy she wants to meet, a graffiti artist who signs his name as Shadow. Shadow, Lucy thinks, will be the sort of sensitive, artistic boy who’ll dazzle her with static electricity—a far cry from her most recent attempt at dating, which ended with her breaking her date’s nose.

When Lucy and her friends Jazz and Daisy decide to celebrate their graduation with a night on the town, Jazz pairs them each with a date, and Ed and Lucy are matched with each other. Lucy has no interest in Ed, but agrees to join the group if they’ll spend the evening trying to find the mysterious Shadow, whom Ed and his friends Leo and Dylan claim to know. As Ed and Lucy learn more about each other and each other’s artwork, they begin to realize that they have more in common than they first thought. And maybe, with or without Shadow, they can help each other rethink their pasts, navigate their present situations and plan for their futures.

Set in present-day Australia, Graffiti Moon alternates between Ed’s and Lucy’s points of view, interspersed with lyrical interludes by Shadow’s equally secretive partner, Poet. The book’s format, an all-night escapade told from intersecting male and female perspectives, is reminiscent of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. Fans of Nick and Norah—and readers seeking an uplifting story about art, identity and hope—won’t want to miss Cath Crowley’s latest offering.

“Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?”

For Hadley Sullivan, heading from JFK to London as a reluctant bridesmaid in her father’s (second) wedding to a woman she hasn’t met, four minutes means she misses her flight. It means that she may not make it to the ceremony in time. Most of all, it means being rebooked on the next flight and sitting next to a boy named Oliver, a Yale freshman headed home to London.

Jennifer E. Smith’s delightful new novel, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, takes place over a period of just 24 hours. And while the eventual outcome of the teens’ chance encounter is never in doubt, Smith’s insightful chronicling of Hadley’s emotional life brings a power and sensitivity to this story of first love.

Hadley is dreading the plane ride (she suffers from claustrophobia) and, even more, the wedding itself. She hasn’t recovered from her father’s abrupt departure, and doesn’t believe his story that he wasn’t looking for love when he became a visiting professor in England. And even though her mother has rebuilt her life and is seeing someone new, Hadley refuses to trust her mom’s recovery, or her philosophical view that things turned out for the best.

But then Hadley meets Oliver, and experiences “a kind of unfamiliar electricity at the nearness of him.” After the long night flight together, and an unexpected turn of events the next day in London, Hadley comes to new realizations about her family, and about love itself. “The idea that their paths might have just as easily not crossed leaves her breathless . . . and she can’t help marveling at the sheer randomness of it all.”

For 17-year-old Tess, growing up in a medieval English village has always meant keeping her power of fire-sight—and her trips to the forbidden Dragonswood sanctuary—a secret, especially from her abusive blacksmith father. But when a witch hunter funded by the absent prince's regent comes to her village, Tess finds that her clandestine actions have been noticed after all. Accused of witchcraft, she escapes her violent trial and flees into the nearby forest with two childhood friends. The group of runaways are soon taken in by a mysterious woodward named Garth, who harbors secrets of his own.

As Tess attempts to rebuild her friends' shattered lives, she finds herself developing startling and unfamiliar feelings of affection for their host. At the same time, fairy voices begin to call to her in her ruined left ear. The voices draw her northward toward the fey kingdom of DunGarrow, nestled deep in Dragonswood. Once in DunGarrow, Tess becomes entangled in a complex political plot designed to help the fairies and dragons protect their sanctuary from the regent's destructive campaign. This plot, prophesized in a troubadour's song, involves marrying a fairy maiden to a member of the part-dragon, part-human royal family, combining the three races into a powerful alliance.

But how will this be accomplished—especially when the regent has other plans? And what role will Tess, with her fire-inspired visions, play in the fairies' scheme? In Dragonswood, author Janet Lee Carey blends fantasy, mystery and romance into a carefully researched medieval tale that will entrance readers and draw them fully into Tess' world.

Shorty, a young teenage boy, is trapped under the rubble of a hospital during the aftermath of the 2010 Haitian earthquake. Desperate for water and unsure of his survival, Shorty keeps himself alert by narrating his harrowing childhood growing up in the violent Haitian slums. Born a twin, he and his sister Marguerite live in dire poverty and witness unspeakable crimes that affect not just their neighborhood, but their own family. Then a bullet lands him in the hospital, which is where he is when the earthquake hits.

Overlapping Shorty’s story is that of Toussaint L’Ouverture, the slave who, centuries ago, ignited a rebellion that freed the Haitians from the French. Their lives are linked by violence and bondage; even Shorty’s liberty is restricted by the UN guards who patrol the slums. As Toussaint hoped for a free Haiti, Shorty hopes that his life won’t end in darkness beneath the rubble.

In Darkness is a harrowing and compelling read because, as mentioned in the author’s note, much of it is true. While Shorty’s tale is fictional, the political violence and poverty surrounding his upbringing is based on fact, and Toussaint was a real man who witnessed unspeakable inhumanity and who rose up against it, only to die tragically. Readers will be affected by Nick Lake’s skillful juxtaposition of Haiti’s tragic history with its beautiful culture and strong people who continue to survive despite insurmountable odds. Let this incredible novel initiate a call for action.

Colby is about to embark on a year he’s been dreaming of forever: Once he graduates, he’s both driver and roadie for his best friend Bev’s band as they tour the Pacific Northwest, after which he and Bev will take off and spend a year exploring Europe. So it’s a major surprise when, before the rubber has even hit the road, Bev tells Colby she’s bailing on him as soon as the tour is done. That squall of feedback you heard wasn’t just Colby’s life screeching to a halt; meet The Disenchantments.

There are many reasons this book should be on your radar. Author Nina LaCour (Hold Still) has created a road trip so realistic you’ll end up with leg cramps from sitting in the van so long. Each stop along the way has its own side trips, cruddy motel rooms and wonderfully odd local characters. Also tattoos, impromptu dance parties, nude hot tubbing and epic graffiti. The excitement of live shows comes through, along with the boredom of hours on the road and time spent simply waiting.

While they travel, Colby presses Bev for an explanation. She does ultimately reveal an event from her past that shaped her decision to plan the trip, and also to abandon it . . . but did she really understand what she was seeing? With his plans in chaos, will Colby be able to regroup and reconsider his future without Bev in it? And when she told him, “You have to find something to love,” did she mean “besides me”?

While navigating these hard questions, Colby, Bev and their fellow travelers have lots of conversations about art and music; they’re a pleasure to eavesdrop on, and it’s inspiring to observe the way they each take details from their environment and turn them into a work of art, a sculpture, drawing or song, that captures a better moment than the one that really was. It’s not giving anything away to say the story resolves on an inspiring note, too—when life gives you so much raw material, sometimes it’s possible to make inspired, and brave, decisions. The Disenchantments’ music may make your ears bleed, but their story is beautiful and full of heart. Don’t miss it.

Sometimes being God has its benefits. The whole “creating and naming everything on earth” gig was kind of a blast, and so is engineering the occasional cosmic miracle. And, of course, being able to seduce any woman on the planet is not a bad perk. Just ask Bob. Since being appointed God, he’s had his share of beautiful girls—and he’s also created his share of natural disasters, when (like any teenage boy in the throes of lust and heartbreak) he reacts badly if things don’t quite turn out according to plan.

Bob may have met his match in the form of Lucy, a voluptuous young zoo employee who’s eager to settle down, although maybe not with the Creator of the Universe. Bob’s petulance during his courtship of Lucy wreaks some serious havoc worldwide (is it global warming or a pouting God?). Meanwhile, Bob’s provocative mother has gambled away the only creature who loves Bob more than he loves himself, and Bob’s sidekick, Mr. B., is plugging away at the less glamorous godly work of answering prayers and making sure the world doesn’t fall apart entirely.

The idea of gods behaving badly is at least as old as Greek and Roman myth; envisioning a hormone-addled modern-day Judeo-Christian God, however, is a provocative premise, and one that Meg Rosoff is more than capable of handling. In the past, she’s been known for dark, evocative, apocalyptic work, like the Printz Award-winning How I Live Now; in this, her first foray into satire, she also reveals herself to be irreverent, insightful and very, very funny.

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Read our interview with Meg Rosoff for There Is No Dog.

Seventeen-year-old Aria is a Dweller, a girl of privilege who lives in a sheltered city with no disease, conflict or threat of starvation. She spends most of her time in Realms, multidimensional virtual environments that surpass the imagination, whose motto is “Better than real.” Aria explains, “If you go to a party, you feel the people dancing around you, and you can smell them and hear the music. And you can change things, like choose more comfortable shoes to dance in. You can do anything you want.” Thus, Aria has never needed to rely on (or even develop) survival skills until she’s banished and thrown out into the wild.

Eighteen-year-old Perry is an Outsider. He is a hunter and second in line to lead his tribe, but he too is unwanted by his people. When Perry’s young nephew is kidnapped by the same people who betray Aria, the two become allies and embark on a treacherous journey in search of answers. As they fight off cannibals and dodge deadly electrical storms, they begin a desperate romance. But the answers they seek lead to larger questions, particularly involving Aria’s mother, that thrust them apart.

The first in a trilogy, Under the Never Sky is a captivating and atmospheric read. Debut author Veronica Rossi has created compelling, multifaceted characters—from Aria’s ambitious mother to Perry’s audacious best friend to the heart-wrenching Cinder, an orphan who holds more power in his body than the swirling skies above them—whose relationships to each other are complex and dynamic. Comparisons to The Hunger Games are inevitable; like Suzanne Collins’ groundbreaking novel, this well-written and well-plotted story is intense, dark and hopeful. Set to be published in more than 20 countries, Under the Never Sky will capture fans and hold them until the next installment is released.

When 15-year-old Phillip hurts his foot on a cross-country run, he hides to avoid sadistic Coach Farragut, aka “Ferret,” and meets the most amazing girl. Rebekah seems to like him back, and so he ends up at her church youth group, an activity he hides from his atheist dad. Not that Dad would notice, having finally decided to clean out a basement full of emergency supplies laid in by Phillip's mother, who has since died. The entire family has raised not talking about that to an art form. Lucas Klauss titled his first novel Everything You Need to Survive the Apocalypse; the way things pile up on Phillip, it seems like it might come at any time.

As Phillip gets more involved in Rebekah's church, his relationships with everyone around him change. His best friends are beginning to branch out, one into new friendships with a couple of Grade-A jerks. The other is into girls . . . possibly including Rebekah. Things get ugly. Punches are thrown. And some things are damaged that can never be repaired.

Phillip is a likable guy, smart and funny, and it's easy to root for him to do the right thing. Much harder is figuring out exactly what that is. Does he really believe the things in the pamphlets he's been handing out, which would alienate almost everyone in his life? Is he truly seeking God, or just trying to win over a hot girl? And what does she think about all this? Everything You Need to Survive the Apocalypse is wise about the misunderstandings we hang onto and the ways we fail to understand one another in both friendship and love.

When he loses his best friend to a drive-by shooting, Anthony “Ant” Jones realizes he needs to get away from his dangerous school in East Cleveland. He decides to take advantage of the offer of a scholarship to attend elite prep school Belton Academy, in Maine. There he discovers a world he doesn’t really understand, where he feels completely misunderstood and alone.

As Ant struggles to find a place in the new school, where the kids assume he’s from Brooklyn and automatically call him “Tony,” he learns a lot about himself—and how to be true to himself even as he is faced with all new surroundings and people. Ant must come to terms with the fact that he is now a part of a world that he does not fully understand, and he has to find a way to survive there. How much is he willing to adapt? His home is now a place where he does not feel he belongs, but it is, nonetheless, home.

Debut author Brian F. Walker’s background as a tough kid running the streets of East Cleveland, only to move to an elite boarding school at the age of 14, is clearly the inspiration for this highly autobiographical novel. His prose rings true and the story is engrossing. Ant is a very realistic character whom readers will love, in spite of his idiosyncrasies. Black Boy White School poses compelling questions: How far should anyone go to “fit in,” and how can that be done while remaining true to oneself?