"Extreme" Sports
Skateboarders, Surfers, Snowboarders and Dirt Bikers

Amaryllis by Craig Crist-Evans.
Jimmy and his older brother Frank share a love of surfing and their problems with a drunken father, until Frank turns eighteen and goes to Vietnam.

 

Birdland by Tracy Mack. 
Fourteen-year-old, tongue-tied Jed spends Christmas break working on a school project filming a documentary about his East Village, New York City, neighborhood, where he is continually reminded of his older brother, Zeke, a promising poet who died the year before.

Death Wind by William Bell. 
As Allie finally decides to head home after running away with a professional skateboarding friend, she finds herself tested in new ways as they are forced to deal with an unexpected tornado.

 

The Edge by Ben Bo. 
A teenaged gang member accused of various crimes finds redemption working and snowboarding at a ski lodge in the mountains surrounding Canada's Glacier National Park.

Gidget by Frederick Kohner.   
Before the movies and the TV series, there was the book, based on the real experiences of the author's teen-aged daughter.

 

Gingerbread by Rachel Cohn. 
After being expelled from a fancy boarding school, Cyd Charisse's problems with her mother escalate after Cyd falls in love with a sensitive surfer and is subsequently sent from San Francisco to New York City to spend time with her biological father.

How Angel Peterson Got His Name: And Other Outrageous Tales About Extreme Sports
by Gary Paulsen.  
Author Gary Paulsen relates tales from his youth in a small town in northwestern Minnesota in the late 1940s and early 1950s, such as skiing behind a souped-up car and imitating daredevil Evel Knievel.
 

How I Spent My Last Night On Earth by Todd Strasser. 
When a rumor appears on the Internet that a giant asteroid is about to destroy Earth, Allegra “Legs” Hanover scrambles to meet the boy of her dreams, elusive surfer Andros Bliss.

 

Kissing Tennessee And Other Stories From The Stardust Dance by Kathi Appelt. 
Graduating eighth graders relate their stories of love and heartbreak that have brought them to Dogwood Junior High's magical Stardust Dance.

 

LBD: It's A Girl Thing by Grace Dent. 
Barred by their overprotective parents from attending a rock music festival, fourteen-year-olds Ronnie, Fleur, and Claude, also known as "Les Bambinos Dangereuses," decide to stage their own music festival at Blackwell School.
 

Memory Boy by Will Weaver. 
Sixteen-year-old Miles and his family must flee their Minneapolis home and begin a new life in the wilderness after a chain of cataclysmic volcanic explosions creates dangerous conditions in their city.

 

My Not-So-Terrible Time At The Hippie Hotel by Rosemary Graham. 
Forced to go with her father to a house on Cape Cod where divorced parents spend "Together Time" with their kids, teenaged Tracy finds the experience bearable after meeting a local boy named Kevin.

 

Peter by Kate Walker. 
An ordinary fifteen-year-old Australian kid, who enjoys riding his dirt bike and wants to be a photographer, becomes confused about his sexuality when he finds he is attracted to a gay friend of his older brother.

 

Skeleton Key by Anthony Horowitz. 
Reluctant teenage-spy Alex Rider, on a routine mission at the Wimbledon tennis championships, gets caught up in Chinese gangs, illegal nuclear weapons, and the suspect plans of his Russian host, General Sarov.
 

Skullcrack by Ben Bo. 
Jonah, a troubled boy who escapes from his dreary life with an alcoholic father by surfing on the coast of Ireland, discovers that he has a twin sister with whom he has an unusual mental link.

 

The Surfer by Linda Cargill. 
Meeting a mysterious and daring surfer who appears to enjoy surfing on stormy seas, Jessie is horrified when she witnesses the girl drown and further confused when a familiar-looking stranger with no memory appears in town.

Surfers of Snow by Kim Askew. 
Tanner, a snowboarder is helping to organize a secret, out-of-bounds snowboarding contest in the resort town where he lives in British Columbia's Coastal Mountains. But everything seems to go wrong. Then, one of his friends is killed on the slopes. Tanner suspects sabotage, and knows that he'd better find some answers quick before the killers track him down.

The Tribes Of Palos Verdes by Joy Nicholson. 
Medina Mason is a defiant, awkward newcomer to the affluent beach community of Palos Verdes, California. As her parents' marriage disintegrates and her beloved brother falls prey to the temptations of drugs and the lunacy of their mother, Medina surfs to survive, finding a bitter solace in the rough comfort of the waves. This is the moving story of growing up "different," of the love between siblings, and of one girl's power to save herself.
 

Tribute To Another Dead Rock Star by Randy Powell.  
For a tribute to his mother, a dead rock star, fifteen-year-old Grady returns to Seattle, where he faces his mixed feelings for his retarded younger half-brother Louie while pondering his own future.

Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block. 
Follows the wild adventures of Weetzie Bat and her Los Angeles punk friends, Dirk, Duck-Man, and Secret-Agent-Lover-Man.

 

 

 

 

Researched and complied by E. Burns.