Representative  Deals Laura Rennert Senior Agent ljrennert AT mac DOT com CONTEMPORARY YA WITH EMOTIONAL POWER: Jay Asher's THIRTEEN REASONS WHY, a debut about a high school student who receives a box of mysterious audiotapes from his first love, and follows her recorded voice on a strange night journey to discover why she committed suicide two weeks before. (Razorbill, 2007) PARANORMAL WITH LITERARY BENT: Maggie Stiefvater's SHIVER, a darkly romantic young adult novel about the searing first love between a 16-year-old girl and a mysterious boy who spends his winters as a wolf, and who is fighting to stay human as the temperature drops. (Scholastic, 2009) SOPHISTICATED YA / CROSSOVER: Christina Meldrum's debut MADAPPLE, alternating between the isolated existence of a 16-year-old girl, for whom mythology, virgin births, and runic symbols are more real than modern life, and her trial for murder. (Knopf, 2008) MULTICULTURAL MIDDLEGRADE: Picture book author Ying Chang Compestine's REVOLUTION IS NOT A DINNER PARTY, an "Anne Frank in the Cultural Revolution." (Holt, 2007) MG SERIES: Jeff Stone's THE FIVE ANCESTORS series, set in China 350 years ago, following the adventures of five young monks, each of whom specializes in a different style of 'animal' kung fu, who alone manage to escape a brutal attack on their secret Shaolin Temple that is led by a renegade 'dragon' brother monk. (Random House, 2005-2010) CHAPTER BOOK FANTASY SERIES: Kathleen Duey's THE FAERIES' PROMISE, Expanding on the world created in The Unicorn's Secret, about the escape of a young Faerie girl who has been imprisoned by the Lord who rules the land and her efforts to bring faeries and magic back into a world where they've long been viewed as dangerous and untrustworthy. (Aladdin/S&S, 2010-2011) CONTEMPORARY YA WITH EMOTIONAL POWER: Catherine Ryan Hyde's JUMPSTART, a teen girl moves into an apartment and falls in love with the guy next door, only to have her view of herself and of love challenged when she discovers he's transgendered. (Knopf, 2010) INNOVATIVE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE: Ellen Hopkins' PERFECT, which explores the drive among teens to attain perfection through surgery, self-regulated eating and extreme exercise. (S&S/McElderry Books, 2011)