Teen reading
We are planning to run a summer reading contest at our church library for kids and teens. We hope to increase use of the library through this event. To really do that, however, we need to have adequate materials for our young patrons to check out.

With the under 12 set, we have a pretty big collection, including some large series like Trailblazers, Sugar Creek Gang, Mandie, Heroes of the Faith. What concerns me is how little fiction we have for teens.

I don't want to fill the shelves with nothing but Christianized romance novels. I know we can reorganzie materials a little and point teens to some of the general fiction, which includes authors like George MacDonald, Stephen Lawhead, Walter Wangerin, Jan Karon, J.R.R. Tolkein and Charles Williams. Is there any other good fiction that's appropriate for 12-16 year olds that would be good to add to our collection?

I've begun compiling a list of books that kids could get from the public library that are not so explicitly Christian but still good. They include selected works from authors like Katherine Paterson and Madeline L'Engle. Suggestions for this list would also be appreciated.