These titles involve male protagonists who find themselves in interesting and sometimes, bizarre situations.

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Forge (Seeds of America)
Laurie Halse Anderson

Separated from his friend Isabel after their daring escape from slavery, fifteen-year-old Curzon serves as a free man in the Continental Army at Valley Forge until he and Isabel are thrown together again, as slaves once more.


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Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes
Jonathan Auxier

Raised to be a thief, blind orphan Peter Nimble, age ten, steals from a mysterious stranger three pairs of magical eyes, that lead him to a hidden island where he must decide to become a hero or resume his life of crime.


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Ship Breaker
Paolo Bacigalupi

In a futuristic world, teenaged Nailer scavenges copper wiring from grounded oil tankers for a living, but when he finds a beached clipper ship with a girl in the wreckage, he has to decide if he should strip the ship for its wealth or rescue the girl.


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The Mostly True Story of Jack
Kelly Barnhill

Jack is practically invisible at home, but when his parents send him to Hazelwood, Iowa, to spend a summer with his odd aunt and uncle, he suddenly makes friends, is beaten up by the town bully, and is plotted against by the richest man in town.


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Anything But Typical
Nora Raleigh Baskin

Jason, a twelve-year-old autistic boy who wants to become a writer, relates what his life is like as he tries to make sense of his world.


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The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin
Josh Berk

When Will Halpin transfers from his all-deaf school into a mainstream Pennsylvania high school, he faces discrimination and bullying, but still manages to solve a mystery surrounding the death of a popular football player in his class.


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Going Bovine
Libba Bray

Cameron Smith, a disaffected sixteen year-old who, after being diagnosed with Creutzfeld Jakob’s (aka mad cow) disease, sets off on a road trip with a death-obsessed video gaming dwarf he meets in the hospital in an attempt to find a cure.


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The Rise of Renegade X
Chelsea M. Campbell

Expecting to become a supervillain on his sixteenth birthday, Damien Locke, son of one of Golden City’s most notorious supervillains, is horrified to discover that he may instead be destined to become a superhero.


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The 10 PM Question
Kate De Goldi

Twelve-year-old Frankie Parsons has a quirky family, a wonderful best friend, and a head full of worrying questions that he shares with his mother each night, but when free-spirited Sydney arrives at school with questions of her own, Frankie is forced to face the ultimate ten p.m. question.


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Happyface
Stephen Emond

After going through traumatic times, a troubled, socially awkward teenager moves to a new school where he tries to reinvent himself.


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Dead End in Norvelt
Jack Gantos

In the historic town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Jack Gantos spends the summer of 1962 grounded for various offenses until he is assigned to help an elderly neighbor with a most unusual chore involving the newly dead, molten wax, twisted promises, Girl Scout cookies, underage driving, lessons from history, typewriting, and countless bloody noses.


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Will Grayson, Will Grayson
John Green,David Levithan

When two teens, one gay and one straight, meet accidentally and discover that they share the same name, their lives become intertwined as one begins dating the other’s best friend, who produces a play revealing his relationship with them both.


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Rotters
Daniel Kraus

Sixteen-year-old Joey’s life takes a very strange turn when his mother’s tragic death forces him to move from Chicago to rural Iowa with the father he’s never known, and who’s the town pariah.


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Death Cloud (Sherlock Holmes: the Legend Begins)
Andrew Lane

In 1868, with his army officer father suddenly posted to India, and his mother mysteriously “unwell,” fourteen-year-old Sherlock Holmes is sent to stay with his eccentric uncle and aunt in their vast house in Hampshire, where he uncovers his first murder and a diabolical villain.


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A Monster Calls: Inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd
Patrick Ness

Thirteen-year-old Conor awakens one night to find a monster outside his bedroom window, but not the one from the recurring nightmare that began when his mother became ill—an ancient, wild creature that wants him to face truth and loss.


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Okay for Now
Gary D. Schmidt

As a fourteen-year-old who just moved to a new town, with no friends, an abusive father and a louse for an older brother, Doug Swieteck has all the stats stacked against him until he finds an ally in Lil Spicer. Together they find a safe haven in the local library, inspiration in learning about the plates of John James Audubon’s birds and a hilarious adventure on a Broadway stage.


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Scrawl
Mark Shulman

When eighth-grade school bully Tod and his friends get caught committing a crime on school property, his penalty reveals aspects of himself that he prefers to keep hidden.


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Blink & Caution
Tim Wynne-Jones

Two teenagers who are living on the streets and barely getting by become involved in a complicated criminal plot, and make an unexpected connection with each other.


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