Check 'em out! Awesome teen literature from bestselling authors

The young adult fiction genres have exploded in popularity these last few years and it's not uncommon these days for bestselling authors to set aside their adult-level fiction writing to instead author fresh, sophisticated stories for younger audiences.

Even if your teenage years are well behind you, after checking out any of the following titles, you might just decide to permanently include our teen and upper-level children's literature collections in your search for exciting new reads!

Haters by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez

This hot new novel by the bestselling author of The Dirty Girls Social Club presents a unique perspective on life as a latina teen at one of our own South Orange County high schools. When Pasquala (Paski) Rumalda Quintana de Archuleta's father returns to Taos from a business trip wearing a velour Juicy men's track suit, she knows her life is taking a turn for the worse. Paski and her father move to Southern California where his comic strip has been optioned for a movie. At her new school, Aliso Niguel High, money is everything and the haters rule-- especially beautiful, cruel Jessica Nguyen. While Paski tries to concentrate on mountain biking and not thinking too much about ultra-hot Chris Cabrera, she is troubled by visions. Her psychic grandmother warned that ignoring her gift would lead to trouble . . .

While discovering whether Paski will find a home in the land of the glamorous haters, readers should appreciate the author's excellent insight on various issues facing our local teens.

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Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson

Patterson, best known for his dark, gritty thrillers here aims at a mature youth readership by reworking ideas and characters that appeared first in his adult novels When the Wind Blows (1998) and The Lake House (2003). In this action-packed cross between Gertrude Chandler Warner's Boxcar Children and Marvel Comics' X-Men, readers are introduced to a likeable group of genetically enhanced kids who can fly and have other unique talents. Max, 14, and her adopted family–- Fang and Iggy, both 13, Nudge, 11, Gazzy, 8, and Angel, 6–- were all created as experiments in a lab called the School before a sympathetic scientist helped them escape. Now, living on their own, the bird-kids are on the run from part-human, part-wolf predators called Erasers who have orders to kill them so the world will never find out they exist. When young Angel is caught and transported back to 'School' to live like a lab rat again, Max and her flock must use their special talents to rescue the girl and attempt to learn about their pasts and their destinies. The novel ends with the promise that this journey will continue in the sequel.

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Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever by James Patterson

Patterson shifts high action into overdrive in this eagerly awaited follow-up to The Angel Experiment, a #1 bestseller for young adults. Taking up where we left off, we find brave bird-kid Max and her flock flying south on a perilous quest to find their parents, after having rescued Angel and recovered secret documents about their origins. But just when they think they've finally escaped the hungry claws of evil Erasers, they're discovered by an FBI agent and forced to face perhaps an even worse nightmare when Anne Walker, the lead FBI agent, takes the flock home to her Virginia farm, where she tries to mother the kids and enrolls them in a nearby school! Living a somewhat normal life for the first time, Max, 14, manages a date and a first kiss, and others in the flock begin the quest to find their birth parents. But there's no such thing as an ordinary day when Max's "homework" includes decoding documents, deciphering when (and how) she's supposed to save the world, and learning to face what may be her greatest enemy . . . herself. A clone: Max II.

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Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

"It may seem unlikely that the master of noir-tinged, surrealistic black humor would write a novel for young readers. And, yet, there has always been something delightfully juvenile about Hiaasen's imagination; beneath the bent cynicism lurks a distinctly 12-year-old cackle. In this thoroughly engaging tale of how middle-schooler Roy Eberhardt, new kid in Coconut Cove, learns to love South Florida, Hiaasen lets his inner kid run rampant. When Roy teams up with some fellow outsiders to save the home of some tiny burrowing owls, the stage is set for a confrontation between right-thinking kids and slow-witted, wrongheaded civic boosters. But Hiaasen never lets the formula get in his way; the story is full of offbeat humor, buffoonish yet charming supporting characters, and genuinely touching scenes of children enjoying the wildness of nature." --Bill Ott, Booklist.

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Flush by Carl Hiaasen

In Hiaasen's second environmental novel for young adults, we meet Noah who quickly discovers that a rough summer awaits him after spending Father's Day visiting his dad in the local lockup . . . Noah's dad is sure that the owner of the Coral Queen casino boat is illegally flushing raw sewage into the harbor--which has made taking a dip at the local beach like swimming in a toilet. He can't prove it though, and so he decides that sinking the boat will make an effective statement. Right. The boat is pumped out and back in business within days and Noah's dad is stuck in the clink. Now Noah is determined to succeed where his dad failed. His allies may not add up to much--his sister Abbey, an unreformed childhood biter; Lice Peeking, a greedy sot with poor hygiene; Shelly, a bartender and a woman scorned; and a mysterious pirate-- but Noah's got a plan to flush this crook out into the open. A plan that should sink the crooked little casino, once and for all.

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