Texas Authors
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The Big Burn Three teenagers battle the flames of the Big Burn of 1910, one of the century's biggest wildfires. award: Texas: Tayshas Reading List: 2004 subjects: Forest Fires, Idaho, Montana, Frontier and Pioneer Life (West U.S.) |
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Brothers, Boyfriends, and Other Criminal Minds Life in a neighborhood populated by the Mafia is never dull. When April Lundquist and her brother get romantically involved with Mafia offspring, exciting trouble stirs. award: Texas Lone Star Reading List 2008-2009 subjects: Families |
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Comfort Fourteen-year-old Kenny Roy Willson fantasizes about escape from his hometown of Comfort, Texas, following his alcoholic father's release from prison. awards: Texas: Tayshas Reading List: 2004, ALA Popular Paperbacks: 2005 subjects: High Schools, Alcoholism, Poetry, Family Problems, Texas |
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Crazy Loco: Stories This collection features nine stories about Mexican-American kids growing up in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas. award: ALA Best Books for Young Adults- 2002 subjects: Mexican Americans, Texas, Short Stories |
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Cures for Heartbreak As she navigates adolescence, ninth-grader Mia must deal with her mother' s recent death and her father's illness while she searches for friendship and love in the world around her.
subjects: Parent and child, Death, New York (NY) |
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Derby Girl When sixteen-year-old rebel Bliss Cavendar, who is miserable living in a small Texas town with her beauty pageant-obsessed mother, secretly joins a roller derby team under the name "Babe Ruthless," her life gets better, although infinitely more confusing. award: YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers-2008 subjects: Roller derbies, Identities, High schools |
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Drift At sixteen, Robert Lomos has lost his family. His father, a Latin jazz musician, has left San Antonio for life on the road as a cool-hand playboy. His mother, shattered by a complete emotional and psychological breakdown, has moved to Los Angeles and taken Robert’s little brother with her. Only his iron-willed grandmother, worn down by years of hard work, is left. But Robert’s got a plan: Duck trouble, save his money, and head to California to put the family back together. Trouble is, no one believes a delinquent Mexican American kid has a chance—least of all, Robert himself. award: ALA Best Books for Young Adults: 2004 subjects: Mexican American teenagers, San Antonio (Tex.); Teenage Boys, Los Angeles (Calif.), Loss (psychology) |
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Going Going In San Antonio, Texas, sixteen-year-old Florrie leads her friends and a new boyfriend in a campaign which supports small businesses and protests the effects of chain stores. subjects: Political activists, Small business, San Antonio (Tex.) |
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A Great and Terrible Beauty It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma’s reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she’s been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence’s most powerful girls—and their foray into the spiritual world—lead to? Sequel: Rebel Angels, The Sweet Far Thing subjects: Magic, Boarding schools, Supernatural, England—Social life and customs—19th century |
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Holes As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute
to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish
correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend,
a treasure, and a new sense of himself. Sequel: Small Steps awards: John Newbery Medal: 1999 subjects: Juvenile Delinquency, Homeless Persons, Friendship, Buried Treasure |
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How Not to Be Popular Seventeen-year-old Sugar Magnolia Dempsey is tired of leaving friends behind every time her hippie parents decide to move, but her plan to be unpopular at her new Austin, Texas, school backfires when other students join her on the path to "supreme dorkdom." subjects: popularity, high schools, moving-household, family life, Hippies, Austin (Tex) |
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Keeper of the Night Isabel, a thirteen-year-old girl living on the island of Guam, and her family try to cope with the death of Isabel's mother who committed suicide. awards: ALA Notable Children's Books: 2004, ALA Best Books for Young Adults: 2004 subjects: Grief, Death, Family Problems, Guam |
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Kid B Barely making it through high school, Breslin--known as Kid B--longs to escape from Beaumont, Texas, and pursue his talents as a break dancer. subjects: Break dancing, Conduct of life, Dance |
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Kissing Tennessee: and other stories from the Stardust Dance Graduating eighth graders relate their stories of love and heartbreak that have brought them to Dogwood Junior High's magical Stardust Dance. subjects: Schools, Interpersonal Relations, Dance |
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The Lightning Thief After learning that he is the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon, god of the sea, twelve-year-old Percy is sent to a summer camp for demigods like himself, and joins his new friends on a quest to prevent a war between the gods. Sequels: The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, The Last Olympian awards: SLJ Best Books for Children: 2005, ALA Notable Children's Books: 2006, ALA Best Books for Young Adults: 2006, Texas Bluebonnet List subjects: Mythology-Greek, Camps, Friendship, Fathers and sons |
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Long Gone Daddy Young Harlan Q. Stank gets a taste of life in the fast lane when he accompanies his preacher father on a road trip to Las Vegas to bury his grandfather and to fulfill the terms of the old man's will. subjects: Fathers and sons, Grandfathers, Christian life |
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Lorenzo's Secret Mission Two historical figures, Bernardo de Gálvez and George Gibson, appear prominently in the book. In 1776, fifteen-year-old Lorenzo Bannister leaves Texas and his father's new grave to carry a letter to the Virginia grandfather he has never known, and becomes involved with the struggle of the American Continental Army and its Spanish supporters. subjects: United States—History—Revolution, 1775-1783, Orphans, Slavery, Identity |
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My Life as a Rhombus When the classmate she is tutoring in trigonometry admits she is pregnant, high school junior Rhonda must finally come to terms with the abortion her father insisted she undergo three years earlier and examine how it has changed her life. subjects: Pregnancy, Abortion, Self-actualization (Psychology), Single-parent families, family problems, South Carolina |
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My Road Trip to the Pretty Girl Capital of the World In 1979 when his life in Mansfield, Iowa, seems to fall apart, seventeen-year-old Simon takes his father's car and sets out for Texas, looking for his birth parents and picking up a man claiming to be Elvis, two bums, and an abused young wife along the way. subjects: Identity, Adoption, Automobile Travel |
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Ninjas, Piranhas and Galileo Honoria, Shohei, and Elias, who are "united together against That Which Is The Peshtigo School," face conflict over their budding romantic interest and a science project gone awry. Sequel: awards: Georgia: Children's Book Award Nominees: 2006 subjects: Science Projects, Japanese Americans, Family Life, Chicago (Ill), Schools |
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Peeps Cal Thompson is a carrier of a parasite that causes vampirism, and must hunt down all of the girlfriends he has unknowingly infected. Sequel: The Last Days awards: ALA Best Books for Young Adults 2006 subjects: Vampires, Parasites |
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Rats Saw God 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 promising student to troubled teen. award: ALA Popular Paperbacks: 2002 subjects: Fathers and sons, High schools, Divorce |
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Repossessed A fallen angel, tired of being unappreciated while doing his pointless, demeaning job, leaves Hell, enters the body of a seventeen-year-old boy, and tries to experience the full range of human feelings before being caught and punished, while the boy's family and friends puzzle over his changed behavior. award: Michael L. Printz Honor for Excellence in Young Adult Literature-2008 subjects: Spirit possession, Conduct of life, High schools, Devil |
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Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood As a Chicano boy living in the unglamorous town of Hollywood, New Mexico, and a member of the graduating class of 1969, Sammy Santos faces the challenges of "gringo" racism, unpopular dress codes, the Vietnam War, barrio violence, and poverty. awards: ALA Best Books for Young Adults: 2005, Americas Book Award: 2005, Texas: Tayshas Reading List: 2006 subjects: Death, Grief, Violence, Mexican Americans |
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Scrambled Eggs at Midnight Calliope and Eliot, two fifteen-year-olds in Asheville, North Carolina, begin to acknowledge some unpleasant truths about their parents and form their own ideas about love. subjects: Family problems, Love, Fairs |
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The Secret Prince Informed at the age of twelve that he is the long-awaited prince of Kelhadden, Thorn sets off on a quest to find the magical amulet that will enable him to dethrone the evil usurper, Ranulf. subjects: Adventure, Princes, Magic, Twins, Fairy tales |
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Skin Deep and other Teenage Reflections: poems An insightful collection of poems about the problems and frustrations of being a teenager. subjects: Teenagers, Young Adult Poetry, Adolescence, American Poetry |
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So Hard to Say Thirteen-year-old Xio, a Mexican American girl, and Frederick, who has just moved to California from Wisconsin, quickly become close friends, but when Xio starts thinking of Frederick as her boyfriend, he must confront his feelings of confusion and face the fear that he might be gay. award: Washington, D.C.: Capitol Choices List: 2005 subjects: Homosexuality, Mexican Americans, Schools |
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Steady Beat "Love Jessica"--That's what Leah finds on the back of a love letter to her sister--but who is this Jessica? When more letters, flowers and gifts start popping up, Leah goes undercover to discover her sister's secret. What she doesn't expect is to find is love of her own, and in some very unexpected places! Sequel: Volume 2 subjects: Lesbians, Sisters, Graphic Novels |
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Tantalize When multiple murders in Austin, Texas, threaten the grand re-opening of her family's vampire-themed restaurant, seventeen-year-old, orphaned Quincie worries that her best friend-turned-love interest, Keiren, a werewolf-in-training, may be the prime suspect. Sequel: Eternal award: Texas Tayshas High School Reading List 2008-2009 subjects: Supernatural, Restaurants, Werewolves, Vampires, Orphans, Austin (Tex) |
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Teresa's Journey When widowed, nineteen-year-old Teresa and her infant son leave their Mexican Aztec village, they find many perils along their journey and confront challenges once they join her brother and cousin in Texas. Includes related explanatory notes. award: Washington, D.C.: Capitol Choices List: 2005 subjects: Mother and child, Aztecs, Indians of Mexico, Texas |
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Tequila Worm Sofia grows up in the close-knit community of the barrio in McAllen, Texas, then finds that her experiences as a scholarship student at an Episcopal boarding school in Austin only strengthen her ties to family and her "comadres." awards: Texas Tayshas List 2006-2007, 2006 Pura Belpré Award subjects: Mexican American Families, Catholics, Boarding schools, Family life, Texas |
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Trino's Choice Frustrated by his poor financial situation and hoping to impress a smart girl, seventh grader Trino falls in with a bad crowd led by an older teen with a vicious streak. award: Texas: Lone Star Reading List: 2002 subjects: Crime, Mexican Americans |
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Trouble In My Way Coming of age in Texas, sixteen-year-old Karis shares her thoughts in a series of diary entries. subjects: Coming of age, Mothers and daughters, African Americans, Christian life, Diaries |
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What Happened to Cass McBride? After his younger brother commits suicide, Kyle Kirby decides to exact revenge on the person he holds responsible. awards: ALA Best Books for Young Adults: 2007, ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers: 2007, Texas Tayshas High School Reading List subjects: Revenge, Suicide, Crime, Family problems |
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When Kambia Elaine Flew in from Neptune Shayla, an aspiring writer growing up in a poor section of Houston, can't figure out the new girl next door, Kambia Elaine, who tells fantastic stories. She slowly realizes that Kambia Elaine needs help, but Shayla doesn't know where to find it. Sequel: Shayla's Double Brown Baby Blues awards: ALA Popular Paperbacks: 2005, ALA Best Books for Young Adults: 2001, Texas: Tayshas Reading List: 2002 subjects: African American Neighborhoods, African American Girls, Houston (Tex.) |
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White Bread Competition When Luz, a ninth-grade Latina student in San Antonio, wins a spelling competition, her success triggers a variety of emotions among family, friends, and the broader community. subjects: Mexican Americans, English Language—Spelling |
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The Whole Sky Full of Stars Eighteen-year-old Barry competes in a non-sanctioned boxing match in hopes of helping his recently-widowed mother, unaware that his best friend and manager, Alby, has his own desperate need for a share of the purse that may put their friendship on the line. subjects: Boxing, Gambling, Friendship, Mexican Americans, Fathers and sons, Single-parent families, Texas |
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Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories A collection of short stories from the author of The House on Mango Street. subjects: Mexican Americans, Mexican American Border Region |
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Writing Austin's Lives: a community portrait A collection of stories (English and Spanish) written by the people of Austin. award: Mayor's Book Club selection for Austin 2005 subjects: Austin (Tex.) Biography, Austin (Tex.) History, Austin (Tex.) Social Life and Customs, Anecdotes |
List updated August 2009—Joanna Nigrelli
