Mama's Girl by Veronica Chambers (Riverhead Books, 1997)� This is a memoir of the author's life growing up as an overachiever in an underprivileged family. The story chronicles the relationship which was forged between the author and her mother after her father deserted the family.

The Taking of Room 114 : a Hostage Drama in Poems� by Mel Glenn (Lodestar, 1997)� A series of poems reflect the thoughts of school officials, parents, police, and especially a class of seniors who have been taken hostage by their high school history teacher.

Leaving Fishers� by Margaret Peterson Haddix (Simon & Schuster, 1997)� After joining her new friends in the religious group called Fishers of Men, Dorry finds herself immersed in a cult from which she must struggle to extricate herself.

Danger Zone by David Klass� (Scholastic, 1996) When he joins a predominantly African-American "Teen Dream Team" that will be representing the United States in an international basketball tournament in Rome, Jimmy Doyle makes some unexpected discoveries about prejudice, racism, and politics.

Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause� (Delacorte Press, 1997) Having fallen for a human boy, a beautiful teenage werewolf must battle both her� packmates and the fear of the townspeople to decide where she belongs and with whom.

Into Thin Air: a Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer (Villard, 1997)� The author relates his experience of climbing Mount Everest during its deadliest season and examines what it is about the mountain that makes people willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship and expense.

Swallowing Stones by Joyce McDonald� (Delacorte Press, 1997) Dual perspectives reveal the aftermath of seventeen-year-old Michael MacKenzie's birthday celebration during which he discharges an antique Winchester rifle and unknowingly kills the father of high school classmate Jenna Ward.

Soldier's Heart: a Novel of the Civil War by Gary Paulsen� (Delacorte Press, 1998) "Being the story of the enlistment and due service of the boy Charley Goddard in the First Minnesota Volunteers."� Eager to enlist, fifteen-year-old Charley has a change of heart after experiencing both the physical horrors and mental anguish of Civil War combat.

The Final Journey by Gundrun Pausewang ; translated by Patricia Crampton (Viking, 1996)� While on a cattle truck to an unknown destination, Alice, a young Jewish girl, begins to piece together the meaning of events that were never fully explained to her as her family hid in their basement from the Germans during World War II.

Rats saw God by Rob Thomas (Aladdin Paperbacks, 1996)�� In hopes of graduating, Steve York agrees to complete a hundred-page writing assignment which helps him to sort out his relationship with his famous astronaut father and the events that changed him from a promising student into a troubled teen.