unRequired Reading Blog

Here are some other books with
strong characters and family relationships/issues that I think you may
like.

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton.

The struggle of three brothers to stay together after their parent's
death and their quest for identity among the conflicting values of their
peers.

Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going.

You may want to read some other books by Tamora Pierce, if
you haven't already. Here are some other suggestions:

The Edge of the Sword by Rebecca Tingle.

In ninth-century Britain, fifteen-year-old Aethelflaed, daughter of King
Alfred of West Saxony, finds she must assume new responsibilities much
sooner than expected when she is betrothed to Ethelred of Mercia in
order to strengthen a strategic alliance against the Danes.

Bella at Midnight by Diane Stanley.

Here are some other
books with a mix of magic, fantasy, family, adventure, and/or mythology
that I think you may like:

Pirate Curse (Wave Walkers, book 1) by Kai Meyer.

In a place similar to the 1706 Caribbean, two fourteen-year-old
"polliwogs"--humans who can walk on water--rely on a mysterious figure
known as the Ghost Trader and a band of pirates to help them escape from
the evil that is chasing them.

The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh.

Here are a few other suggestions of books that I think you might like:

The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot.
Fourteen-year-old Mia, who is trying to lead a normal life as a teenage girl in New York City, is shocked to learn that her father is the Prince of Genovia, a small European principality, and that she is a princess and the heir to the throne. (This is the first in the Princess series by Meg Cabot, who has written lots of other books that you may enjoy as well).

I hope you enjoy reading some of these books:

Doppelganger / Pete Hautman and Mary Logue.

Summary: High school newspaper reporter Roni finds an age-progressed
photograph on a missing children's website of a boy that looks just like
her sidekick Brian, throwing the pair into an investigation of Brian's
past and family heritage.

Good enough / Paula Yoo.

Here are some other romance titles you might enjoy reading.

Peaches by Jodi Lynn Anderson.
Three teenaged girls from very different backgrounds, thrown together to
pick peaches in a Georgia orchard, spend a summer in pursuit of the
right boy, the truest of friends, and the perfect peach.

Honey, Baby, Sweetheart by Deb Caletti

Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louise Rennison.
Presents the humorous journal of a year in the life of a fourteen-year-old British girl who tries to reduce the size of her nose, stop her mad cat from terrorizing the neighborhood animals, and win the love of handsome hunk Robbie. [first in a series]

My Life And Hard Times by James Thurber.
His story, "The Night the Bed Fell on Father," never fails to make me laugh.

Here are some other books that I think
you may like.

A Bad Boy Can be Good for a Girl by Tanya Lee Stone.

Josie, Nicolette, and Aviva all get mixed up with a senior boy who can
talk them into doing almost anything he wants. In a blur of high school
hormones and personal doubt, each girl struggles with how much to give
up and what ultimately to keep for herself.

What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones.

Sophie describes her relationships with a series of boys as she searches
for Mr. Right.

Here are some other books you may enjoy—some are a bit creepy, some adventurous and a few with orphans and evil relatives!

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke.

Escaping the aunt who wants to adopt only one of them, two orphaned brothers run away from Hamburg to Venice, finding shelter with a gang of street children and their leader, the thirteen-year-old “Thief Lord," while also eluding the detective hired to return them to Germany.

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart.

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse.

In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.

Witness by Karen Hesse.
A series of poems express the views of various people in a small Vermont town, including a young black girl and a young Jewish girl, during the early 1920s when the Ku Klux Klan is trying to infiltrate the town.

Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy.