City of Thieves by David Benioff

City of Thieves, written for an adult audience, won a 2009 Alex award as a best adult book that appeals to a teen audience. It is the story of Lev Beniov, a 17-year old boy living in Leningrad while it is under siege during World War II. Lev is caught looting a dead German paratrooper's corpse and is taken to the Crosses, the infamous prison where he is sure he will be executed in the morning. Instead, he finds himself taken, along with his entertaining cellmate, Kolya, to a General whose beuatiful daughter is soon to be married. The General offers to spare the prisoners' lives on the condition that they bring him a dozen eggs for his daughter's wedding cake. The adventure that ensues takes Lev and Kolya around and outside of the frozen, starving city, confronting cannibals, Nazi death squads, and other horrors of war. While this story is not for the queasy or sensitive reader because of violence, sexuality, and profanity, the author does find a great deal of humor and warmth among the icy, grizzly wartime circumstances.

Sonny's War by Valerie Hobbs - reviewed by Teen Reviewer Kendall J.

Corin is fourteen years old and living in Ojala, California. It's a sleepy town where all there is to do is "cruise" Main Street and watch her brother drag race. She is growing into young womanhood during the exciting, idealistic, confusing and tumultuous 1960s. In one year, her father dies, her brother is drafted and sent to Vietnam, her favorite history teacher (on whom she has a crush) is a conscientious objector, and she and her mother are forced to learn to live independently.

Set during the Vietnam Conflict, the reader "experiences" the effects of the war on those persons left at home. Valerie Hobbs eloquently depicts the turmoil and bittersweet humor of a young girl who deals simultaneously with loss, betrayal, and love within her own life and the lives of people she holds most dear. The story is gripping, memorable, and readable.