So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld

SoYesterday 
by Scott Westerfeld

They’re all around you.

The trendsetters like me, Hunter Braque. We participate on product focus groups, or “cool tastings” as my boss Mandy calls them. We tell clients whether their products and commercials are cool or uncool.

Most people think they can spot cool but they really can’t. Most people are just consumers. What consumers think is cool is generally “so yesterday.” That is why I like being a trendsetter. Consumers depend on trendsetters to guide them to what is cool. Most people don’t see us. We don’t wear signs around our necks. Rather we work our magic from the shadows through the messages we help craft.

Trendsetters are number two on the cool pyramid. On top are the innovators. Every new product has a beginning and an innovator. What every trendsetter wants to find is an innovator with the next big idea. But innovators can be hard to spot. There is often just one thing that sets them apart, one little thing that is revolutionary.

I knew Jen was an innovator when I saw the shoelaces on her black runners.

Are you an innovator, a trendsetter, or a consumer?

Maybe you are not on the cool pyramid at all. Maybe you are one of the others. People who want to destroy this system. Most people think such groups don’t exist. But I know they do. They are called the Jammers, and they are all around you too. Their agenda is to make trendsetting obsolete. They want the cool system to become so yesterday.

Jen and I have met them. This is that story.

Booktalk by Tom Reynolds, Sno-Isle Library System

 

The Supernaturalist by Eoin Colfer

The Supernaturalist
 by Eoin Colfer

Imagine a not-so-distant future where corporations own cities. You could live in Nike Town, shop in Fruit Loopville, and party in Nintendo Park. But corporations expect to make money. So each city has to find a way to earn a profit. Satellite City has found a way make up the money they spend each day on housing “the parentally challenged.” Orphans can test all the latest products before real consumers buy them. So what if the products are dangerous? If a kid without family dies before he is 15, who’s gonna miss him?

Cosmo Hill is 14 and fed up. He knows if he’s going to survive he’s got to get away from the Clarissa Frayne Institute for the Parentally Challenged. A freak accident and a crazy marshal offer Cosmo a chance of escape, only to leave him near death on a rooftop.

Does an angel appear in Cosmo's final moments? No such luck: A strange blue parasite just landed on his chest. The pain and energy are being sucked away. It's killing him.

But wait, who are those three kids? And why are they carrying weapons? Cosmo is about to be saved by a renegade hunters called The Supernaturalists.

If you want non-stop action, lots of laughs, believable characters, and a solid mystery, check out Eoin Colfer’s science-fiction hit, The Supernaturalist.

Booktalk by Sarah Evans, Sno-Isle Library System

The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty

The Yearof Secret Assignments 
by Jaclyn Moriarty

[Just read the first page to the “money back guarantee” (don’t forget to include the *conditions apply footnote). ]

Lydia interacts with the “writer’s notebook” throughout the story, even though it began as a thoughtless gift from her absent father, not necessarily the way the notebook’s authors expect, but always with keen and hilarious observations.

[Then read starting with “Okay time for your first Quick Flick” and response.]

Lydia and her friends, Emma and Cassie, interact with a notebook, a diary, and ultimately, through letters they are forced to exchange with the neighboring public school. In fact, even Cassie’s dad interacts with the family through letters. Pranks are requested and pulled,; some people really click; some get stalked; and some get even. Finally, all correspondents come together to pull one last prank, making for hilarity, some really excellent kissing, and always laugh out loud funny!

A note to younger students: this book contains explicit language and some more mature situations!

The Yearof Secret Assignments 
by Jaclyn Moriarty

Note this contains bad language when read aloud.

Before the booktalk, create “letters” by copying from the book, then highlighting the parts you want to read.

Suggestions:

1. Emily’s first letter, reading from the beginning to just before chocolate, followed by the response from Charlie through the second paragraph, even though it is out of order.
1. Lydia’s first letter Dear Person at Brookfield, reading from the beginning to just before her birthday. Follow with the response from Seb through “Suggest a place to meet.” 
3. Cassie’s letter from the “You couldn’t believe it either,” skipping the teacher part, and of course, the whole response from Matthew.

Open the letters in front of the students and read the selected parts, cautioning students on the language and being able to handle this.

Then introduce the story:

Lydia and her friends, Emma and Cassie, interact with a notebook, a diary, and ultimately, through letters they are forced to exchange with the neighboring public school. In fact, even Cassie’s dad interacts with the family through letters. Pranks are requested and pulled; some people really click; some get stalked; and some get even. Finally, all correspondents come together to pull one last prank, making for hilarity, some really excellent kissing, and always laugh out loud funny!

Booktalks by Mary Jo Heller, Shoreline School District.

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel

Airborn
 by Kenneth Oppel

Matt Cruise didn’t believe in mysterious creatures. He was cabin boy on the Aurora, a nine hundred foot long dirigible-like airship that carried people long distances between cities. Matt loved being airborn. He could name all the constellations and he saw in the stars and on the bridge of the Aurora all the adventure he could imagine.

Matt’s dream was to become a sailmaker. Matt’s father had been a sailmaker. Sailmakers kept the huge hydrium filled airships ready for flying and repaired them if necessary in flight. Sailmakers had real dangers to deal with like pirates and weather.

Then one day Matt helped rescue a crippled balloon and heard the dying words of its pilot. The old man spoke of magnificent creatures, an undiscovered species, he had seen flying around an unknown island. Of course, he was delirious. Matt knew that, everybody knew that. Until a year later when his granddaughter, Kate, showed up as a passenger on the Aurora, carrying her grandfather’s log, and determined to see what he had seen.

When Matt examines the log he finds an amazing, unbelievable story. And he becomes involved in a search for creatures that may rival or surpass anything airborn in his world?

Booktalk by Tom Reynolds, Sno-Isle Regional Library System.


Airborn
 by Kenneth Oppel

Matt Cruse lives, breaths, and love his life on the airship Aurora…a giant blimp that travels the world, delivering cargo and entertaining wealthy passengers. Though Matt is a lowly cabin boy, he dreams of the day he can follow in his father's footsteps and become a full crewmember. While he is pretty sure he has what it takes to become a sailmaker, he secretly aspires to be Captain one day, leading a crew of his own. What Matt wants is a simple life, with good honest work, and to never have to sleep on the land. Little does Matt know the adventure in store for him, with mystery, murder, pirates, shipwrecks, romance, and a fantastic discovery in the skies.

Booktalk by Dawn Rutherford, KCLS