Best of
Teen

1985

Six Months to Live


Lurlene McDaniel - 1985
    Dawn Rochelle is about to face the toughest fight of her life—a fight she has to win. Otherwise, she has only six months to live.

Singularity


William Sleator - 1985
    Barry's more athletic, more aggressive - and he's the one who suggests that they house-sit their great-uncle's farm. Harry hopes that it will bring the two of them closer. And it does, because there's something chilling about the farmhouse, something that makes the locals stay far away. The twins are sure that the locked shed on the property is the reason why, but what they find inside is far more horrible than their worst nightmare. They stumble across a gateway to another universe, where a distortion in time and space causes a dramatic change in their competitive relationship.

A Company of Swans


Eva Ibbotson - 1985
    Her stuffy father and her opressive aunt Louisa allow her only one outlet: ballet. When a Russian ballet master comes to class searching for dancers to fill the corps of his ballet company before their South American tour, Harriet's world changes. Defying her father's wishes and narrowly escaping the clutches of the man who wishes to marry her, Harriet sneaks off to join the ballet on their journey to the Amazon. There, in the wild, lush jungle, they perform Swan Lake in grand opera houses for the wealthy and culture-deprived rubber barons, and Harriet meets Rom Verney, the handsome and mysterious British exile who owns the most ornate opera house. Utterly enchanted by both the exotic surroundings and by Rom's affections, Harriet is swept away by her new life, completely unaware that her father and would-be fiancé have begun to track her down...

Children of the Dust


Louise Lawrence - 1985
    But the first bombs had fallen on Hamburg and Leningrad, the headmaster said, and a full-scale nuclear attack was imminent.It's a real-life nightmare. Sarah and her family have to stay cooped up in the tightly-sealed kitchen for days on end, dreading the inevitable radioactive fall-out and the subsequent slow, torturous death, which seems almost preferable to surviving in a grey, dead world, choked by dust.But then, from out of the dust and the ruins and the destruction, comes new life, a new future, and a whole brave new world.

If I Should Die Before I Wake


Lurlene McDaniel - 1985
    Fourteen-year-old Deanne decides to spend her summer vacation helping in the oncology ward of the hospital and risks having her heart broken when she befriends a young man dying of cancer.

Locked in Time


Lois Duncan - 1985
    When she meets her stepmother, Lisette, Nore is shocked by her youth and beauty that gives her chills- and a hint of something sinister. There's hope of becoming friends with her stepbrother and sister, until Nore realizes they're hiding something. When she begins to feel like the target of a deadly plan, Nore starts digging into her stepfamily's past. The skeletons in their closet are more real than she ever imagined. Can Nore expose her stepmother's dark secret before an old and evil magic swallows her up?

Ask Me If I Care


H.B. Gilmour - 1985
    It's hard starting over — new family, new school, new friends.Then Jenny meets Pete McCaffrey, the mysterious boy next door. Stay away from him, everyone warns her, he's trouble. He's already got a girlfriend. And he deals drugs.But Jenny needs someone to lean on, so she ignores their advice. Pretty soon, Pete's hooked on Jenny. And Jenny is hooked on drugs.She knows she's in over her head. The question is, can she get out?

Jackaroo


Cynthia Voigt - 1985
    Gwyn, the innkeeper's lively daughter, pays little attention to the tales. But when she is stranded during a snowstorm in a cabin with the lordling Gaderian, and finds a strange garment that resembles the costume Jackaroo is said to wear, she begins to wonder....

Goodbye Glamour Girl


Erika Tamar - 1985
    When Liesl, a Jewish refugee from Nazi-occupied Vienna, arrives in New York, she is determined to leave her European heritage behind and become as all-American, glamourous, and famous as her idol, the film star Rita Hayworth.

On That Dark Night


Carol Beach York - 1985
    Julie and her friend travel to another town to explore the eerie memories Julie has about a past life.

Straight Along a Crooked Road


Marilyn Cram Donahue - 1985
    It is 1850 and, for Luanna, Midford Falls, Vermont has everything she could ever want. She loves the covered bridge on the quarry road, the waterfall at the mill pond, the old schoolhouse, the taste of the cold cider. How can she leave all these things behind? Even more, how can she leave when it means not being able to enter the Essex Female Academy in the fall? Or, when it means leaving her best friend behind?Over the next two and one-half years, Luanna’s views on life change dramatically. Personal hardship, and the sheer magnitude of the journey west teach her to live each moment to the fullest. She learns that her life will only be as good as she makes it, regardless of where she might be.

Sylvester


A.C. Crispin - 1985
    Foster, a kindly horse trainer, sixteen-year-old Charlene breaks a wild horse named Sylvester and trains him for the rigors of competition on the Olympic dressage team.