High School Boys: Realistic Fiction
Avi. Nothing But the Truth: A Documentary Novel. (Orchard Books, 1991)
Don Calame. Beat the Band. (Candlewick, 2010)
Calame's follow-up to Swim the Fly is both darker and funnier, the angst more crushing, the
humor more edgy. The antidote to any book with a girl writing in her diary on the cover.
Don Calame. Swim the Fly. (Candlewick, 2009)
All right, I only recommend about one teen angst novel a year, because this is not a format
with a great deal of boy appeal. So when I do recommend a book with the old standbys -
dorky guy who doesn't have a chance with the way too hot girl with the big gorilla-ish
boyfriend who is sure to beat the snot out of the dorky guy - well, you know it is special.
Swim the Fly is unapologetically a teen angst novel that is just so over the top funny it has to
be experienced. And it is guy humor, too; bathroom and bodily function jokes, stupid pranks,
and insanely complex schemes that go horribly wrong. So laugh it up with three loser friends
who have vowed that this is the summer they will see...
Barbara Snow Gilbert. Paper Trail. (Front Street, 2000)
"The distinctive crack of a Sako TRG-21 sniper rifle shattered the glossy stillness of the
April morning...
Silence. Worse than sounds...
He should look. Sometimes even Soldiers of God missed."
A hair-raising thriller of a boy caught up in the web of the Patriot Movement of anti-
government militias.
John Green. An Abundance of Katherines. (Dutton Juvenile, 2006)
Pete Hautman. Godless. (Simon & Schuster, 2004)
Gordon Korman. Jake Reinvented. (Hyperion, 2003)
Gordon Korman. The Juvie Three. (Hyperion, 2008)
Kris Kroatin. Heavy Metal and You. (Push, 2005)
Laura Langston. Last Ride. [Orca Soundings] (Orca Books, 2011)
Five thousand pounds of roaring, customized, racing machine. That's all Tom Shields has
between him and the ghost of his dead friend, tens of thousands of dollars of debt, and the
despair of the only girl he cares about. It isn't enough. Last Ride is raw, gutsy, and full of
street-level reality.
Walter Dean Myers. Dope Sick. (Amistad, 2009) [Magical Realism]
Why would the acknowledged master of realistic fiction for guys turn his hand to magical
realism? Maybe because he finally found a story that was too real to handle. Lil'J is strung
out, he's been shot, he is hiding on the scariest streets of New York City, wanted for shooting
a cop. Lil'J just flat needs a miracle.
Walter Dean Myers. Handbook for Boys. (Amistad, 2002)
Walter Dean Myers. Monster. (Amistad, 1999)
Walter Dean Myers. Shooter. (Amistad, 2004)
Walter Dean Myers. Sunrise Over Fallujah. (Scholastic, 2008)
Gary Paulsen. The Car. (Harcourt Brace & Company, 1994)
Matthew Quick. Boy21. (Little, Brown, 2012)
Everybody has secrets. Nobody talks. So when Boy21, the greatest basketball prospect
since Koby Bryant shows up in a mob infested New Jersey slum, claiming to be from outer
space, all you really know for sure is that the truth is more explosive than the lies.
Neal Shusterman. The Schwa Was Here. (Dutton, 2004)
Neal Shusterman. Antsy Does Time. (Dutton, 2008)
Jerry Spinelli. Maniac Magee. (Little, Brown, 1990)
Todd Strasser. Boot Camp. (Simon & Schuster, 2007)
Todd Strasser. Give a Boy a Gun. (Simon Pulse, 2002)
Todd Strasser. If I Grow Up. (Simon & Schuster, 2009)
Todd Strasser. The Wave. (Laurel Leaf, 1981)
Todd Strasser. Wish You Were Dead. (Egmont, 2009)
When queen bee Lucy Cunningham dissappears from a well-to-do, and supposedly safe,
community there are plenty of suspects. Cyber-stalkers, loners, goths, losers, cheating
boyfriends, even Lucy herself might have orchestrated the dissappearance. All the
undercurrents of modern teen life bubble to the surface as fear grips a community that
maybe wanted to believe those kinds of things wouldn't happen to THEIR kids.
Greg Trine. The Second Base Club. (Henry Holt, 2010)
The perfect next title for those who loved Don Calame's Swim the Fly, a lighter, more
whimsical look at the high school jungle through a boy's eye.
Richard Uhlig. Boy Minus Girl. (Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2008)
Ned Vizzini. It's Kind of a Funny Story. (Hyperion, 2006)
Jake Wizner. Spanking Shakespeare. (Random House Books for Young Readers, 2007)
Avi. Nothing But the Truth: A Documentary Novel. (Orchard Books, 1991)
Don Calame. Beat the Band. (Candlewick, 2010)
Calame's follow-up to Swim the Fly is both darker and funnier, the angst more crushing, the
humor more edgy. The antidote to any book with a girl writing in her diary on the cover.
Don Calame. Swim the Fly. (Candlewick, 2009)
All right, I only recommend about one teen angst novel a year, because this is not a format
with a great deal of boy appeal. So when I do recommend a book with the old standbys -
dorky guy who doesn't have a chance with the way too hot girl with the big gorilla-ish
boyfriend who is sure to beat the snot out of the dorky guy - well, you know it is special.
Swim the Fly is unapologetically a teen angst novel that is just so over the top funny it has to
be experienced. And it is guy humor, too; bathroom and bodily function jokes, stupid pranks,
and insanely complex schemes that go horribly wrong. So laugh it up with three loser friends
who have vowed that this is the summer they will see...
Barbara Snow Gilbert. Paper Trail. (Front Street, 2000)
"The distinctive crack of a Sako TRG-21 sniper rifle shattered the glossy stillness of the
April morning...
Silence. Worse than sounds...
He should look. Sometimes even Soldiers of God missed."
A hair-raising thriller of a boy caught up in the web of the Patriot Movement of anti-
government militias.
John Green. An Abundance of Katherines. (Dutton Juvenile, 2006)
Pete Hautman. Godless. (Simon & Schuster, 2004)
Gordon Korman. Jake Reinvented. (Hyperion, 2003)
Gordon Korman. The Juvie Three. (Hyperion, 2008)
Kris Kroatin. Heavy Metal and You. (Push, 2005)
Laura Langston. Last Ride. [Orca Soundings] (Orca Books, 2011)
Five thousand pounds of roaring, customized, racing machine. That's all Tom Shields has
between him and the ghost of his dead friend, tens of thousands of dollars of debt, and the
despair of the only girl he cares about. It isn't enough. Last Ride is raw, gutsy, and full of
street-level reality.
Walter Dean Myers. Dope Sick. (Amistad, 2009) [Magical Realism]
Why would the acknowledged master of realistic fiction for guys turn his hand to magical
realism? Maybe because he finally found a story that was too real to handle. Lil'J is strung
out, he's been shot, he is hiding on the scariest streets of New York City, wanted for shooting
a cop. Lil'J just flat needs a miracle.
Walter Dean Myers. Handbook for Boys. (Amistad, 2002)
Walter Dean Myers. Monster. (Amistad, 1999)
Walter Dean Myers. Shooter. (Amistad, 2004)
Walter Dean Myers. Sunrise Over Fallujah. (Scholastic, 2008)
Gary Paulsen. The Car. (Harcourt Brace & Company, 1994)
Matthew Quick. Boy21. (Little, Brown, 2012)
Everybody has secrets. Nobody talks. So when Boy21, the greatest basketball prospect
since Koby Bryant shows up in a mob infested New Jersey slum, claiming to be from outer
space, all you really know for sure is that the truth is more explosive than the lies.
Neal Shusterman. The Schwa Was Here. (Dutton, 2004)
Neal Shusterman. Antsy Does Time. (Dutton, 2008)
Jerry Spinelli. Maniac Magee. (Little, Brown, 1990)
Todd Strasser. Boot Camp. (Simon & Schuster, 2007)
Todd Strasser. Give a Boy a Gun. (Simon Pulse, 2002)
Todd Strasser. If I Grow Up. (Simon & Schuster, 2009)
Todd Strasser. The Wave. (Laurel Leaf, 1981)
Todd Strasser. Wish You Were Dead. (Egmont, 2009)
When queen bee Lucy Cunningham dissappears from a well-to-do, and supposedly safe,
community there are plenty of suspects. Cyber-stalkers, loners, goths, losers, cheating
boyfriends, even Lucy herself might have orchestrated the dissappearance. All the
undercurrents of modern teen life bubble to the surface as fear grips a community that
maybe wanted to believe those kinds of things wouldn't happen to THEIR kids.
Greg Trine. The Second Base Club. (Henry Holt, 2010)
The perfect next title for those who loved Don Calame's Swim the Fly, a lighter, more
whimsical look at the high school jungle through a boy's eye.
Richard Uhlig. Boy Minus Girl. (Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2008)
Ned Vizzini. It's Kind of a Funny Story. (Hyperion, 2006)
Jake Wizner. Spanking Shakespeare. (Random House Books for Young Readers, 2007)
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