Lists and Suggestions for Teens
List: Teen Winter Reads: Set in Illinois
Divergent
Roth, Veronica.
In a future Chicago, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions ...
Love, Hate & Other Filters
Ahmed, Samira
American-born seventeen-year-old Maya Aziz is torn between worlds. There's the proper one her p...
Steelheart
Sanderson, Brandon
At age eight, David watched as his father was killed by an Epic, a human with superhuman powers, an...
The Life and (Medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly
Pacton, Jamie
Working as a Wench--i.e., waitress--at a cheesy medieval-themed restaurant in the Chicago suburbs, K...
I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
Sánchez, Erika L.
Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents'...
Relative Strangers
Garner, Paula
Why is there a gap in Jules's baby album? A wry and poignant coming-of-age novel about finding ...
Famous in a Small Town
Mills, Emma
For Sophie, small-town life has never felt small. With her four best friends, she can weather any s...
The Testing
Charbonneau, Joelle
Sixteen-year-old Malencia (Cia) Vale is chosen to participate in The Testing to attend the Universi...
In the After
Lunetta, Demitria
Amy Harris's life changed forever when They took over. Her parents--vanished. The government--o...
Perfect Chemistry
Elkeles, Simone
When wealthy, seemingly perfect Brittany and Alex Fuentes, a gang member from the other side of tow...
Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Green, John
When two teens, one gay and one straight, meet accidentally and discover that they share the same n...
The Rock and the River
Magoon, Kekla.
In 1968 Chicago, fourteen-year-old Sam Childs is caught in a conflict between his father's non...
The Shadow Society
Rutkoski, Marie
Sixteen-year-old Darcy Jones knows little about her past except that she was abandoned outside a Ch...
A Long Way from Chicago : a novel in stories
Peck, Richard
A boy recounts his annual summer trips to rural Illinois with his sister during the Great Depressio...
Chasing Vermeer
Balliett, Blue
When seemingly unrelated and strange events start to happen and a precious Vermeer painting disappe...
The House on Mango Street
Cisneros, Sandra
This book tells the story of Esperanza Cordero, a young girl growing up in the Hispanic quarter of C...
Chasing Shadows
Avasthi, Swati.
Chasing Shadows is a searing look at the impact of one random act of violence. Before: Corey, Holly,...
Yummy : the Last Days of a Southside Shorty
Neri, Greg
A graphic novel based on the true story of Robert "Yummy" Sandifer, an eleven-year old Afr...
The Sixty-Eight Rooms
Malone, Marianne
Ruthie thinks nothing exciting will ever happen to her until her sixth-grade class visits the Art In...
An Abundance of Katherines
Green, John
Having been recently dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine, recent high school g...