The kids aren't alright

FUTUREPROOF
N. Frank Daniels

   Forget Go Ask Alice. N. Frank Daniels’ debut novel is the new anti-drug authority. Drawing from personal experience, Daniels paints a picture of Gen-X junkie teens so vivid and jarring it will make you want to become a DARE advocate.

PRETTY LITTLE DIRTY
Amanda Boyden

   Lisa and Celeste have managed to skip the uncomfortable phase after childhood and become whip-smart teenagers. Delving into a world of rock and roll, curious naiveté and self-destructive promiscuity, the girls stick together until the painful end.

YOUTH IN REVOLT

C.D. Payne

   Nick Twisp is a teenage dirt bag. Awkward and ugly, all he wants is a hot girl on his arm and the zits off his face, but his plans go to hell when he almost burns down half of Berkeley. Look out for a film version starring alterna-nerd Michael Cera.

THE TORN SKIRT
Rebecca Godfrey

   Abandoned by both parents and forced to fend for herself, Sara Shaw falls in with the ultimate bad crowd of runaways, druggie skaters and teen prostitutes. She sums up her own predicament with this: “Call it riot, revenge, ricochet and roulette. Live it. Love it. Call it life.”

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE
J.D. Salinger

   Holden Caulfield is the Godfather of all fictional mentally unbalanced bad boys. Booted from prep school and not ready to go home, he roams New York only to realize how lonely he has become. Like This Side of Paradise for the hipsters of the 1950s, Salinger’s timeless debut is still inspiring the nerds, the outcasts and the hipsters to shun social norms.

GINGERBREAD
Rachel Cohn

   Cyd Charisse, named after the Broadway legend, just moved back in with her parents – Sid and Nancy. After being grounded in her room, Alcatraz, and being dumped by her boyfriend, Shrimp, she decides to take time off in New York and get her priorities straight. Cyd shares her travels with her childhood doll, best friend and confidante: Gingerbread.

BRAVE NEW GIRL
Louisa Luna

   Flannel-wearing, ever-cussing and Pixies-obsessed, Doreen hates everyone. Unconcerned with the in-crowd, she’s the girl in high school everyone is afraid of. As tough talking as she may be, she’s still only 14 and coming into her own, just like the rest of her schoolmates. Luna conveys the wide-eyed wonder of burgeoning adolescence.

EATING THE CHESHIRE CAT
Helen Ellis

   Sarina is the blonde beauty queen with a cut-throat attitude and blinding smile. Nicole is always second best and always self-mutilating. Bitty Jack is the girl with coke bottle glasses and without a mean bone in her body. The girls’ worlds converge in a heartbreaking and horrifying Southern Gothic that encapsulates the feminine mystique of sorority girls.

MY FIRST TIME

Edited by Chris Duncan

   Stories from musicians, authors and fans, each one narrates the tale of their first punk rock show. From sneaking out of the house to standing in the crowd, each story makes you want to bust out those old Dead Kennedys LPs and reminisce about the shows you always wished you could have been at. Too bad they happened before you were even born.

FREAKSHOW
James St. James

   Billy Bloom is so sick of the names being yelled at him — Words like “queer,” “homo” and “butt pirate.” So he decides to start calling himself a TRANSVISIONARY.  He also decides to be the first boy at the blatantly homophobic Eisenhower Academy to run for homecoming queen. Written by the author of Party Monster, Freakshow is an anthem for the sexually confused misfits and just plain weirdoes looking for something or someone to look up to.