Sweethearts
by Sarah Zarr
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Sweethearts by Sarah Zarr
Knucklehead by Jon Scieszka
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
The Adoration of Jenna
Fox
by
Mary E. Pearson
Her
parents never talk with her about the accident. It happened when she was
sixteen. Now she is seventeen. She slept for over a year and now is
recuperating at a secluded cottage in California. Her mother pores over the
details of her before-the-accident life. But nothing seems to click. It is
clear her parents love her very much, that they would do anything for her. But
she remembers nothing. She feels nothing. Who is Jenna Fox she asks herself?
Who am I?
Then she has her first memory, a flash of falling off a pier and of
being saved by my grandmother as a little girl. But strangely her grandmother
now seems to dislike her. Why would she resent Jenna being alive? After being
in a coma for over a year the girl desperately wants a real life with friends
and a future. And the more she remembers the more questions she has. Why can
she remember so few personal details about her past live? Why did they move to
California when her doctors are in Boston? Why is she forbidden to travel and
return to school?
In a world changed, not always for the better, by the
advance of biotechnology, maybe it is better not to ask too many questions.
Because the answers might challenge your idea of what it means to be
human.
Her parents love Jenna Fox. They would do anything to keep her alive.
But what are they hiding?
The Adoration of Jenna Fox
(booktalk by
Tom Reynolds, librarian & author)
Last Exit to Normal by Michael Harmon
Last Exit to Normal
by Michael Harmon
Life was
going along just fine for Ben Campbell until he hit fourteen. That was the year
his father announced that he was gay and his mother left. His dad’s boyfriend
moved in, and Ben started counseling — and also misbehaving.
Now, after three
years of run-ins with the law, Ben’s dad has decided the only way to save Ben
is to leave Spokane. At age seventeen, city boy Ben finds himself living in
Rough Butte, Montana. Edward, who Ben calls Momdad, has agreed to take them
back to the hometown he left when he was Ben’s age. In Rough Butte, Ben is
surrounded by homophobic cowboys, Edward’s acid-tongued mother, Miss Mae, and
an abusive neighbor with a strange young son.
Used to doing whatever he wants,
whenever he wants, quickly ends for Ben as Miss Mae schools him in acceptable
country behavior. She expects respect and hard work, and she doesn’t hesitate
to use her wooden spoon as a weapon to encourage it. Ben reluctantly falls in
line and even finds it rewarding at times. His father and Edward seem pleased
for the most part, and his improved attitude and behavior are useful in his
quest to attract the attention of the beautiful girl living just four doors down
the street.
There are still frustrations for Ben. Completely forgiving his
father for trashing his life back in Spokane is proving harder than he
expected. Rough patches between father and son keep tensions high, and to
complicate matters, Ben becomes convinced that the young neighbor boy is the
victim of dangerous abuse. Ben’s efforts to seek justice for the boy create a
whole new set of problems.
(booktalk by Digital booktalk)
“There was a hand in
the darkness, and it held a knife.”
With loving
ghostly parents, teachers, friends, and protectors, Bod grows from age two to
fifteen in the graveyard. He learns to read and do numbers, and he also
learns some ghostly skills. But not all the residents of the graveyard
are friendly. There are witches, ghouls and creatures and let’s not
forget Jack – the fiend who is out to finish the job he started.
Filled with
great illustrations, this is a funny, exciting and suspenseful story. How
will Bod survive? Or will he? Can his loving family
and friends really protect him from the evil Jack? Read the Newbery Award
winning book, The Graveyard Book and find out!
(by Diane
Ferbrache, Hazen High School Librarian)
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Marcus
Yallow, high school student and computer genius, was at war with the Department
of Homeland Security. No he wasn’t a terrorist. He was a victim of the war on
terror..
Marcus and his best friend Darryl had ditched school that particular
afternoon, to be part of a four-person team playing the Alternate Reality Game
Harajuki Fun Madness. The team had just met up at the cable cars in downtown San
Francisco when terrorists blew up the Bay Bridge and the BART. In the chaos and
confusion that followed, Marcus and two other team members were captured and
mercilessly interrogated by the Department of Homeland Security.
After being
released Marcus found that San Francisco was being turned into a prison in the
name of security. The DHS had the power to spy on, detain, and interrogate
anyone they wanted. All the technology Marcus loved was being turned against
the public to invade their privacy and make them feel powerless. Even worse,
Marcus’s family was being torn apart by their differences over the crackdown.
The Department of Homeland Security had declared war on the privacy of
everyone in San Francisco, the guilty and the innocent. Marcus could see that
even if his father couldn’t.
What he also knew was that if you use it right,
technology could help you fight back. It was time for a counterattack.
Marcus
Yallow and a group of online rebels called the Xnetters are fighting back
against the privacy and civil rights violations that have turned San Francisco
into a prison. Their plans are risky, but they just might work.
Little
Brother by Cory Doctorow
(booktalk by Tom Reynolds, librarian and author)
Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen
Do you think you
could live alone, if your parents abandoned you? There you are in your
house: the bills need to be paid, you need to have food, you need to go to
school. How long could you get away with it before anyone noticed?
In her
little yellow house, Ruby does just that, after her mom takes off. It's almost
impossibly hard, but it's hers.
It doesn't
last. The authorities find out and soon she's halfway across the
country staying with her Aunt Cora Ruby wonders what's wrong with her, why
she can't stop aching for her old, difficult life, when everything is so
perfect now. Her new family is kind and caring and nice. She lives in a
beautiful new home, she's given nice clothes, good food. Her next door neighbor
Nate is this great new guy. What's wrong with Ruby?
And what's
wrong with Nate? He has secrets, too, and together Ruby and Nate might just be
able to unlock each other's hearts.
(booktalk by Kirsten Edwards, King County
Library System)
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The
Hunger Games
by
Suzanne Collins -
by Suzanne Collins
[Note: This is
a trilogy. The sequel is Catching Fire and the final installment
is The Mockingjay, due out in August, 2010]
In the
post-apocalyptic world of Panem, television dominates everything. The 12 districts
each must provide “tributes” for the entertainment of the residents. To
be chosen as a “tribute” means a trip to the Capital city, a more prosperous
life for your family, and the chance to star in the greatest reality show in
the universe! But there’s a catch – tributes must fight each other and
only one can survive!
When her
younger sister is chosen as a tribute, Katness Everdeen volunteers to take her
place. She finds herself in a literal fight for her life and in the odd
position of also fighting her emotions as she struggles to survive and not lose
her humanity.
This is a
real page-turner. The characters are very believable and the reader gets
sucked into a world that is both exciting and deadly. There are lots of
twists and turns and, yes, violence and death. Who will live to continue
the story?
(booktalk
by Diane Ferbrache, Hazen High School Librarian)
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
[At the start of your booktalks
leave two pieces of paper folded in half on the seats of some of the
chairs: in the center of each have a large red "X".]
Has anyone
got a lottery slip on their chair? [Invite the two up] Congratuations!
You've won the hunger games lottery for your district. You get to go to the
Capitol and play in the Hunger Games arena! It's going to be
on T.V. It's more popular than American Idol and Survivor combined: everyone in
the world watches! [Ask teens in turn] Do you know how to fight with a
knife? A gun? Do you know how to set traps? Handle explosives? How fast can you
run? Swim? Climb? [Wait for answers] That's too bad. The winners from
the rich districts have been training all their lives. They're Olympic-caliber
athletes who know how to shoot and fight. I don't suppose either of you
has much change of beating them.
In the
Hunger Games arena there is only one rule: kill or be killed. The last teenager
left alive wins the game.
In Suzanne
Collin's book The Hunger Games it's time for the lottery again.
When Kitness' baby sister wins, she decides to take her place; to die for her.
Kitness comes from the poorest district of all: she doesn't stand a
chance. Or does she? In the 12th district, she has to hunt for food for
her family; to set traps; to fight wild animals to survive. And the boy chosen
from her district is tough and strong, and her friend. Maybe she has a chance
after all.
But only
one person can survive the hunger games: so how far will Kitness go to
live? You won't want to miss The Hunger Games by Suzanne
Collins.
(booktalk by Kirsten Edwards)
The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins
It's the
day of the Reaping, an annual ritual, an annual punishment, an annual reminder
that rebelling against the Capitol is futile. This afternoon all the
residents of Panem will gather in the town square of each of its twelve
districts to watch the drawing. The names of all the children in every district
between the ages of 12 and 18 have been put into large bowls filled with slips
of paper. One boy's name will be drawn, and one girl's. They will
represent their district in the Hunger Games. All twenty-four will be
trained for a week, then herded into an arena, where they will be forced to
fight to the death, as the entire population watches on live television.
The winner is the last person left alive.
Kitness is from District 12, the
smallest and the most distant from the Capitol. She's 16, and the sole
support of her mother and younger sister. She hunts for food to feed
them, and to barter at the market for soap, or salt, or clothing.
That afternoon, she doesn't hear her own name called, but her little
sister's! Prim is only 12, this is her first Hunger Games, and as gentle
and fragile as she is, she won't live long. She wouldn't fight even if
she knew how. Kitness immediately fights her way through the crowd, and
volunteers to take Prim's place. She would be a part of this year's Hunger
Games.
The boy's name is drawn, and Peeta, the baker's son, walks toward the
stage, his face emotionless, stunned. He doesn't look like he's ever
missed a meal, muscular and strong. Everyone in the town likes him, even
Kitness. He helped her once, long ago, when she was alone and
desperate. She's never forgotten, and from the looks he's giving her, he
hasn't forgotten either.
In another world, they might have been friends, or
more. But in this world, they have to be enemies, prepared to kill each
other. In the Hunger Games, there is only one winner.
(Booktalk by Joni Richards Bodart for
Scholastic
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Identified
by her one green eye and one blue, Katsa is a graceling. She is one of the very
few born with a special gift, or “grace.”
The Compound by S.A. Bodeen
The Compound
by S.A. Bodeen
Eli's father is
a billionaire. He built the secret underground compound to protect his
family in the vent of nuclear war. It has everything: movies, video games,
clothing, food, heat, light and air.
Eli thinks
it might be better to take their chances with the irradiated world outside.
That's when he discovers that there's only one door out of the compound. It's
locked. His father has the only key--and he's hidden it. What other secrets is
this man hiding from his family?
Eli is
determined to beat his father and find a way out. But can he do it in time?
Read the
Compound by S.A. Bodeen: It's never what you expect...
(booktalk by Kirsten
Edwards, King County Library System)
Last
Updated: April 9, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)