Girls! These titles are for you!

Gutsy girls standing up for themselves, not conforming to society's norm, surviving in the midst of chaos, and making better lives for themselves. If these girls sound like teens that you would like to know, check out the reviews below for some great reads.

Rats
by Paul Zindel
(Horror)
Sarah had been terrified of rats when her family had moved to Springville Gardens on the very edge of the last open garbage dump in New York. But then her father sat down with her and explained all about the history of rats. He told her that rats do not usually attack humans unless they have no other options.

Sarah even got a baby white rat as a pet; she named him Surfer. She no longer feared rats. But then the dump closed down. It was covered over by cement with just a few vents left in the cement to let the gases from the dump escape. But those vents quickly became escape routes for the rats who lived inside the dump. Remember that when rats are cornered they will attack humans, and that is exactly what happened when their environment was shut down. Rats, in swimming pools, in toilets, in sinks, even in a baby's crib, attacking anyone they came in contact with. Can Sarah figure out how to kill the never-ending stream of rats leaving the dump before it is too late?

Stargirl
by Jerry Spinelli
(Realistic Fiction)

At the Mica Area High School (MAHS), students pretty much conform to the norm. Of course, there are a few rebels, but for the most part, they all wear the same clothes, talk the same way, eat the same food, and listen to the same music.

That is until Stargirl enrolls at MAHS.
"Several times in those early weeks of September, she showed up in something outrageous.

"1920s flapper dress. An Indian buckskin. A kimono. One day she wore a denim miniskirt with green stockings, and crawling up one leg was a parade of enamel ladybug and butterfly pins. 'Normal' for her were floor-brushing pioneer dresses and skirts.

Every few days in the lunchroom she serenaded someone new with 'Happy Birthday.' I was glad my birthday was in the summer. . . She made up a song about isosceles triangles. She sang it to her Plane Geometry class. It was called 'Three Sides Have I, But Only Two Are Equal.' . . .

One day a girl screamed in the hallway. She had seen a tiny brown face pop up from Stargirl's sunflower canvas bag. It was her pet rat. It rode to school in the bag every day. . .

We wanted to define her, to wrap her up as we did each other, but we could not seem to get past 'weird' and 'strange' and 'goofy.' Her ways knocked us off balance. A single word seemed to hover in the cloudless sky over the school:

HUH?"

Battle Dress
by Amy Efaw
(Realistic Fiction)
Andi Davis has just graduated from high school, and she is looking for a way to escape her disorganized, dysfunctional family. West Point seems like the perfect opportunity, but even her family has not prepared her for the first six weeks of cadet training, better known as The Beast.
She quickly discovers her mistake as she hears the following in her first couple minutes of training. "You are no longer in kindergarten, moron! You have Four Responses here, and Four Responses only: 'Yes, Sir;' 'No, Sir;' 'No excuse, Sir,' and 'Sir, I do not understand.'' Then he stepped back and yelled, "DO YOU PEA-BRAINED, SCUM-SUCKING, LOW-LIFE GRUB BALLS UNDERSTAND?"

Night Flying
by Rita Murphy
(Fantasy)

Wouldn't it be great if you could fly? You could go anywhere you wanted anytime. You wouldn't have to worry about getting a driver's license or whether your parents would let you borrow their car. Fifteen-year-old Georgia has this ability just like all the other women in her family. But her domineering grandmother has more rules and regulations about flying than your parents could ever think up. ? She cannot tell anyone about her ability to fly. ?
She may never fly during the day. ? She must never fly without an adult, until after her ceremonial first solo flight at the age of 16. But then she loses control of her temper and goes flying off (literally) during the day and by herself. Now what should she do? Tell her family that she broke the rules and face her consequences? Or just keep quiet and hope that no one notices? What would you do?

Executioner's Daughter
by Laura Williams
(Historical Fiction)

Lily lives a very isolated life-no brothers or sisters, no friends. Her only human interaction is with her mother and father. Her parents are the reason for her self-imposed isolation. Her father is Lord Dunsmore's executioner, and her mother helps with her husband's duties. Lily doesn't mind her solitary life much though as she is often walking in the woods, tending injured animals, and learning herbal medicine.
But everything changes in Lily's life when her mother dies, and Lily has to take over her mother's duties, including those of the executioner's wife. Lily never visits town if she can help it because of the unmerciful teasing by her peers when she does. But that cannot be avoided now that she must accompany the executioner into town. This is Lily's first execution, but to her way of thinking, it must be her last. But where can the daughter of the executioner run or hide?