Dystopian and Post-Apocalyptic Fiction for Young Readers

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By M. T. Anderson

In a future where most people have computer implants in their heads to control their environment, a boy meets an unusual girl who is in serious trouble.

Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.

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Z for Zachariah

By Robert C. O'Brien

A Newbery Medalist presents a gripping, thought-provoking story about life after a nuclear holocaust.

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Phoenix Rising

By Karen Hesse

An accident at a nuclear power plant ignites a story of loss, love, and courage.

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The Carbon Diaries 2015

By Saci Lloyd

In 2015, when England becomes the first nation to introduce carbon dioxide rationing in a drastic bid to combat climate change, sixteen-year-old Laura documents the first year of rationing as her family spirals out of control.

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Vulture's Wake

By Kirsty Murray

In a future Australia, Callum and Bo, perhaps the only female survivor of a bird virus, travel through a lawless, battle-ridden landscape as Callum seeks his fathers and Bo tries to find a place to belong.

This Time of Darkness

By H. M. Hoover

Although both know it is forbidden, Amy and Axel hope that by following the countless ramps leading upward they can escape from their filthy subterranean world.

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Among the Hidden

By Margaret Peterson Haddix

Luke has never been to school. He's never had a birthday party, or gone to a friend's house for an overnight. In fact, Luke has never had a friend. Luke is one of the shadow children, a third child forbidden by the Population Police. He's lived his entire life in hiding, and now, with a new housing development replacing the woods next to his family's farm, he is no longer even allowed to go outside. Then, one day Luke sees a girl's face in the window of a house where he knows two other children already live. Finally, he's met a shadow child like himself. Jen is willing to risk everything to come out of the shadows—does Luke dare to become involved in her dangerous plan? Can he afford not to?

Shade's Children (rack)

By Garth Nix

The Key to Survival Rests in the Hands of Shade's Children In a futuristic urban wasteland, evil Overlords have decreed that no child shall live a day past his fourteenth birthday. On that Sad Birthday, the child is the object of an obscene harvest resulting in the construction of a machinelike creature whose sole purpose is to kill. The mysterious Shade -- once a man, but now more like the machines he fights -- recruits the few children fortunate enough to escape. With luck, cunning, and skill, four of Shade's children come closer than any to discovering the source of the Overlords' power -- and the key to their downfall. But the closer the children get, the more ruthless Shade seems to become ...

The Last Book in the Universe

By W. Rodman Philbrick

This fast-paced action novel is set in a future where the world has been almost destroyed. Like the award-winning novel Freak the Mighty, this is Philbrick at his very best. It's the story of an epileptic teenager nicknamed Spaz, who begins the heroic fight to bring human intelligence back to the planet. In a world where most people are plugged into brain-drain entertainment systems, Spaz is the rare human being who can see life as it really is. When he meets an old man called Ryter, he begins to learn about Earth and its past. With Ryter as his companion, Spaz sets off an unlikely quest to save his dying sister -- and in the process, perhaps the world.

The House of the Scorpion

By Nancy Farmer

A National Book Award Winner-A Newbery Honor Book-Some see Matt as a beast. But for El Patrn, Matt is a guarantee of eternal life, for they share the same DNA. Matt tries to understand his existence while facing sinister characters. An Accelerated Reader-title for Ages 11 to 14.

Journey Outside

By Mary Q. Steele

A Newbery Honor book This fast-paced story is more than an adventure—it is a search for answers in a bewildering world that is as terrifying as it is beautiful. Grandfather said they were headed for the Better Place, but Dilar suspected they were headed nowhere, simply following the dark underground river blindly. And so one night he leaped onto a shelf of rock and watched the flotilla of the Raft People disappear. And from there he found his way Outside, into a world so beautiful and strange he could only suppose he had died—a world of day, and sun, of trees and sky. “A highly successful work that can be read as an adventure story, a fantasy, or as allegory”—School Library Journal

The Clone Codes

By Pat McKissack

Acclaimed authors Patricia C. McKissack and Frederick L. McKissack have collaborated with their son, John, to deliver a novel that is as suspenseful as it is searing. "The Clone Codes" is the first installment of a sci-fi trilogy that blends a futuristic society with events in world history.

Test

By William Sleator

Now in paperback! Pass, and have it made. Fail, and suffer the consequences. A master of teen thrillers tests readers’ courage in an edge-of-your-seat novel that echoes the fears of exam-takers everywhere. Ann, a teenage girl living in the security-obsessed, elitist United States of the very near future, is threatened on her way home from school by a mysterious man on a black motorcycle. Soon she and a new friend are caught up in a vast conspiracy of greed involving the mega-wealthy owner of a school testing company. Students who pass his test have it made; those who don’t, disappear . . . or worse. Will Ann be next? For all those who suspect standardized tests are an evil conspiracy, here’s a thriller that really satisfies! Praise for Test “Fast-paced with short chapters that end in cliff-hangers . . . good read for moderately reluctant readers. Teens will be able to draw comparisons to contemporary society’s shift toward standardized testing and ecological concerns, and are sure to appreciate the spoofs on NCLB.” —School Library Journal “Part mystery, part action thriller, part romance . . . environmental and political overtones . . . fast pace and unique blend of genres holds attraction for younger teen readers.” —Booklist

The Other Side of the Island

By Allegra Goodman

Born in the eighth year of Enclosure, ten-year-old Honor lives in a highly regulated colony with her defiant parents, but when they have an illegal second child and are taken away, it is up to Honor and her friend Helix, another "Unpredictable," to uncover a terrible secret about their Island and the Corporation that runs everything.

The Owl Keeper

By Chris Brodien-Jones

Eleven-year-old Max partners with an unusual girl, Rose, who shares his appreciation of the silver owls that the High Echelon wants to destroy, and together they make a perilous journey seeking to fulfill a prophecy.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

By Carrie Ryan

In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power. And, when the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. Now, she must choose between her village and her future, between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death? [STAR] "A bleak but gripping story...Poignant and powerful."-Publishers Weekly, Starred "A postapocalyptic romance of the first order, elegantly written from title to last line."-Scott Westerfeld, author of the Uglies series and Leviathan "Intelligent, dark, and bewitching, The Forest of Hands and Teeth transitions effortlessly between horror and beauty. Mary's world is one that readers will not soon forget."-Cassandra Clare, bestselling author of City of Bones "Opening The Forest of Hands and Teeth is like cracking Pandora's box: a blur of darkness and a precious bit of hope pour out. This is a beautifully crafted, page-turning, powerful novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it."-Melissa Marr, bestselling author of Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange "Dark and sexy and scary. Only one of the Unconsecrated could put this book down."-Justine Larbalestier, author of How to Ditch Your Fairy

The Gardener

By S. A. Bodeen

Mason has never known his father, but longs to. All he has of him is a DVD of a man whose face is never seen, reading a children's book. One day, on a whim, he plays the DVD for a group of comatose teens at the nursing home where his mother works. One of them, a beautiful girl, responds. Mason learns she is part of a horrible experiment intended to render teenagers into autotrophs--genetically engineered, self-sustaining life-forms who don't need food or water to survive. And before he knows it, Mason is on the run with the girl, and wanted, dead or alive, by the mysterious mastermind of this gruesome plan, who is simply called the Gardener. Will Mason be forced to destroy the thing he's longed for most? The Gardener is a 2011 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Nomansland

By Lesley Hauge

Sometime in the future, after devastating wars and fires, a lonely, windswept island in the north is populated solely by women. Among these women is a group of teenaged Trackers—expert equestrians and archers—whose job is to protect their shores from the enemy. The enemy, they’ve been told, is men. When these girls come upon a partially buried home from the distant past, they are fascinated by the strange objects—high-heeled shoes, teen magazines, make-up—found there. What are they to make of these mysterious things, which introduce a world they have never known? And what does it mean for their strict society where friendship is forbidden and rules must be obeyed—at all costs? Reminiscent of The Giver but with a feminist twist, Nomansland is a powerful, shocking story that will challenge young readers’ perspectives and provoke much discussion over the timely and controversial issues presented.

Restoring Harmony

By Joëlle Anthony

Having lived an existence of relative quiet on an isolated farming island, 16-year-old Molly of 2041 Canada is sent to find and rescue her grandparents from a U.S. suburb devastated by global economic collapse and organized crime. A first novel.

Dark Life

By Kat Falls

Sixteen-year-old Ty, first child born to the pioneers who live in the depths of the ocean, has little patience for topsiders (land dwellers) until he meets feisty Gemma, who immediately enlists his help to locate her missing older brother. Their search is interrupted by pirate attacks of the notorious Seablite Gang and an ultimatum from the Commonwealth Government (located topside) that makes the pioneers responsible for stopping the raids. Ty and Gemma uncover connections between the pirates, illicit medical experiments, and Gemma's missing sibling, who happens to have secret supernatural gifts-like Ty. Although set in an undersea future, this rousing adventure has all the hallmarks of a western, including outlaws, homesteaders, and plenty of shoot-'em-up action (only with harpoonlike weapons). Good guys and bad guys are fairly obvious, as is the outcome, but the exotic setting and well-conceived details about undersea living, along with likable characters and a minor surprise at the end, will keep readers turning the pages. Try this with the ecofiction of David Klass. Welch, Cindy.

Inside Out

By Maria V. Snyder

Keep Your Head Down. Don't Get Noticed. Or Else. I'm Trella. I'm a scrub. A nobody. One of thousands who work the lower levels, keeping Inside clean for the Uppers. I've got one friend, do my job and try to avoid the Pop Cops. So what if I occasionally use the pipes to sneak around the Upper levels? The only neck at risk is my own…until I accidentally start a rebellion and become the go-to girl to lead a revolution.

The Maze Runner

By James Dashner

THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING MAZE RUNNER SERIES • A teenager with no memory must navigate a deadly maze to survive in book one of this post-apocalyptic phenomenon. “[A] mysterious survival saga that passionate fans describe as a fusion of Lord of the Flies [and] The Hunger Games” (Entertainment Weekly) When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone. Outside the towering stone walls that surround them is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive. Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying: Remember. Survive. Run. Look for more books in the blockbuster Maze Runner series: THE MAZE RUNNER • THE SCORCH TRIALS • THE DEATH CURE • THE KILL ORDER • THE FEVER CODE