Room One: A Mystery or Two

Anthem

My One Hundred Adventures

This Is Not a Valentine

Love Like Sky

The Hot List

Confessions of a So-Called Middle Child

Hannah's Winter

Never date your best friend.

Always be original.

Sometimes rules are meant to be broken.

Best friends Dave and Julia were determined to never be cliché high school kids—the ones who sit at the same lunch table every day, dissecting the drama from homeroom and plotting their campaigns for prom king and queen. They even wrote their own Never List of everything they vowed they’d never, ever do in high school.

Some of the rules have been easy to follow, like #5, never dye your hair a color of the rainbow, or #7, never hook up with a teacher. But Dave has a secret: he’s broken rule #8, never pine silently after someone for the entirety of high school. It’s either that or break rule #10, never date your best friend. Dave has loved Julia for as long as he can remember.

Julia is beautiful, wild and impetuous. So when she suggests they do every Never on the list, Dave is happy to play along. He even dyes his hair an unfortunate shade of green. It starts as a joke, but then a funny thing happens: Dave and Julia discover that by skipping the clichés, they’ve actually been missing out on high school. And maybe even on love.

Discover Your Child's Next Read

Room One: A Mystery or Two

Mark Elliott, Andrew Clements, 2006

Anthem

Deborah Wiles, 2010

My One Hundred Adventures

Polly Horvath, 2008

This Is Not a Valentine

Carter Higgins, A Arter, Lucy Ruth Cummins, 2017

Love Like Sky

Leslie C. Youngblood, 2018

The Hot List

Hillary Homzie, 2011

Confessions of a So-Called Middle Child

Maria T. Lennon, 2013

Hannah's Winter

Kierin Meehan, 2001