Copper Sun
by Sharon Draper
Winner of the 2007
Coretta Scott King
Award
Two fifteen-year-old girls–one a slave and the
other an indentured servant–escape their
Carolina plantation and try to make their way to
Fort Moses, Florida, a Spanish colony that gives
sanctuary to slaves.
Touching Spirit Bear
by Ben Mikaelsen
•
Within Cole Matthews lies anger, rage and hate.
Cole has been stealing and fighting for years.
This time he caught Peter Driscal in the parking
lot and smashed his head against the sidewalk.
Now, Peter may have permanent brain damage
and Cole is in the biggest trouble of his life. Cole
is offered Circle Justice: a system based on
Native American traditions that attempts to
provide healing for the criminal offender, the
victim, and the community. With prison as his only
alternative, Cole plays along. He says he wants to
repent, but in his heart, Cole blames his alcoholic
mom, his abusive dad, wimpy Peter- everyone
but himself- for his situation. Cole receives a oneyear banishment to a remote Alaskan island.
There, he is mauled by a mysterious white bear of
Native American legend. Hideously injured, Cole
waits for death. His thoughts shift from anger to
humility. To survive, he must stop blaming others
and take responsibility for his life. Rescuers arrive
to save Cole's body, but it is the attack of the
Spirit Bear that may save his soul.
Raven’s Gate by Anthony Horowitz
• Raven’s Gate is the first in the
Gatekeepers series about five
young people who must save the
world from evil. 14-year-old
Matt, a troubled orphan who is in
with the wrong crowd. As
punishment for being present
during an assault, Matt must
choose between life with offputting Mrs. Deverill in a remote
Yorkshire village, or jail. As Matt
soon learns, Lesser Malling is
much worse than jail, because
strange and dangerous things
are occurring there. Raven's
Gate, an ancient portal to the
world of evil, is about to be
opened, and Matt is to be the
blood sacrifice.
Lightning Thief
by Rick Riordan
•
This is the first book in the Percy
Jackson and the Olympians series,
about a contemporary 12-year-old
New Yorker who learns he's a
demigod. Perseus, aka Percy Jackson,
thinks he has big problems. His father
left before he was born, he's been
kicked out of six schools in six years,
he's dyslexic, and he has ADHD. What
a surprise when he finds out that
that's only the tip of the iceberg: he
vaporizes his pre-algebra teacher,
learns his best friend is a satyr, and is
almost killed by a minotaur before his
mother manages to get him to the
safety of Camp Half-Blood--where he
discovers that Poseidon is his father.
But that's a problem, too. Poseidon
has been accused of stealing Zeus'
lightning bolt, and unless Percy can
return the bolt,humankind is doomed.
Uglies
by Scott Westerfeld
• Tally Youngblood lives in a futuristic society
that acculturates its citizens to believe that
they are ugly until age 16 when they'll
undergo an operation that will change them
into pleasure-seeking "pretties."
Anticipating this happy transformation, Tally
meets Shay, another female ugly, who
shares her enjoyment of hoverboarding and
risky pranks. But Shay also disdains the
false values and programmed conformity of
the society and urges Tally to defect with
her to the Smoke, a distant settlement of
simple-living conscientious objectors. Tally
declines, yet when Shay is found missing by
the authorities, Tally is coerced by the cruel
Dr. Cable to find her and her compatriots–or
remain forever "ugly." Tally's
adventuresome spirit helps her locate Shay
and the Smoke. It also attracts the eye of
David, the aptly named youthful rebel
leader. Who can Tally trust?
Twilight
There are three things that Isabella
knows.
1. Edward is a vampire
2. There's a part of him—how big a part,
she isn't sure—that truly thirsts for her
blood
3. She is unconditionally and irrevocably
in love with him.
Of course, Isabella never planned on
falling in love with a vampire. It's not the
kind of thing you put in your dayplanner.
Tuesday, 4pm, fall in love with bloodsucking undead monster. Nope.
Imagine going to your boyfriend's house
for dinner to meet his parents knowing
that under other circumstances you'd be
the main course.
Isabella knows that loving Edward is
dangerous. She even suspects that she
may be putting her family—everyone
else she cares about—at risk.
But what Isabella doesn't realize is that
Edward and his family aren't the only
vampires in town.
Among the Hidden
by Margaret Peterson Haddix
•
•
Luke has never been to school.
He's never had a birthday party, or
gone to a friend's house for an
overnight. In fact, Luke has never
had a friend. Luke is one of the
shadow children, a third child
forbidden by the Population
Police. He's lived his entire life in
hiding, and now, with a new
housing development replacing
the woods next to his family's
farm, he is no longer even allowed
to go outside.
Then, one day Luke sees a girl's
face in the window of a house
where he knows two other
children already live. Finally, he's
met a shadow child like himself.
Jen is willing to risk everything to
come out of the shadows — does
Luke dare to become involved in
her dangerous plan? Can he
afford not to?
Code Orange
by Caroline B. Cooney
• Mitty Blake is a talented but
underachieving student in advanced
biology at a New York City private high
school. He is more interested in his
friend Olivia than in completing his
infectious-disease report, which could
keep him from flunking. When he
discovers a smallpox scab in an
envelope in an old medical book, his
research takes an urgent turn as he
tries to determine whether he has
contracted the disease. Searching for
information on the Internet (thankfully,
the high-achieving Olivia knows how to
use a library), he inadvertently alerts a
terrorist group to his situation. They
kidnap Mitty with the intention of using
him as a human biological weapon
against the people of New York.
Rules
by Cynthia Lord
2007 Middle School Award
Some rules keep us safe, some don’t always seem
necessary, and some can usually go without saying
Rules like…
“Keep your pants on in public,” and “If the bathroom
door is locked, KNOCK! (especially if Catherine has a
friend over!)” Catherine takes care of her little brother
who’s autistic, by writing down important rules like these
ones and protecting him when other kids make fun of
him. Still, she wants to be a normal kid; make friends
with the girl next door and go with a boy to the summer
dance. NOT necessarily go with her brother to his
occupational therapy appointments. But, while she’d
there she finds an unlikely friend. Jason can only
communicate by pointing to word cards in a notebook,
but he doesn’t really have useful words like “whatever”
and “sucks a big one,” so Catherine makes him more.
She enjoys getting to know Jason, but would it ruin her
chances of being a “normal” 12-year-old if she tells
other people about him?
(Stella Shafer, MLIS student, iSchool, University of Washington)
Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie
by David Lubar
•
Ah, 9th grade. Freshmen year. New
beginnings. Scott is looking forward
to it and yet he is a bit nervous. As he
readies himself for his big year, his
home life seems to get complicated by
the return of his older brother and the
announcement that his mother is
having another baby. Scott's year
doesn't go as planned and through a
series of hilarious misadventures, we
see him change and
grow. Throughout it all, he writes a
series of letters to his yet unborn
sibling as a manual for how to survive
your freshmen year. These include
lessons in lost friends, unattainable
girls, new friends and unexpected
secrets from the family.
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
by Brian Selznick
• Orphan, clock keeper, and
thief, Hugo lives in the walls of
a busy Paris train station,
where his survival depends on
secrets and anonymity. But
when his world suddenly
interlocks with an eccentric,
bookish girl and a bitter old
man who runs a toy booth in
the station, Hugo's undercover
life, and his most precious
secret, are put in jeopardy. A
cryptic drawing, a treasured
notebook, a stolen key, a
mechanical man, and a hidden
message from Hugo's dead
father form the backbone of
this intricate, tender, and
spellbinding mystery.
•
Stargirl
by Jerry Spinelli
• Stargirl, a strange girl,
went to a regular school. No
one except two people liked
her. Stargirl becomes
popular, then she is not.
Stargirl is strange because
she sings Happy Birthday
on her ukulele. How does
she know everyone's
birthday? At the beginning
Leo (a boy) gets a
porcupine necktie. It does
not have a name on the
box! Who is it from?
House of the Scorpion
by Nancy Farmer
• At his coming-of-age party, Matteo
Alacrán asks El Patrón's bodyguard,
"How old am I?...I know I don't have a
birthday like humans, but I was born."
"You were harvested," Tam Lin reminds
him. "You were grown in that poor cow for
nine months and then you were cut out of
her." To most people around him, Matt is
not a boy, but a beast. But for El Patrón,
lord of a country called Opium -- a strip of
poppy fields lying between the U.S. and
what was once called Mexico -- Matt is a
guarantee of eternal life. El Patrón loves
Matt as he loves himself for Matt is
himself. They share identical DNA.
Life As We Knew It
When scientists predict that an asteroid will
collide with the moon, Miranda and her
neighbors break out their lawn chairs to watch
the spectacular show. But when the collision
pushes the moon closer to the Earth, it sets off
devastating tsunamis, earthquakes, and
storms. Through her daily journal entries,
Miranda recounts her family’s struggle to
survive. While the book falls firmly into the
science fiction genre, it will also appeal to
readers who enjoyed Anne Frank’s diary, as the
focus of the narrative is on a girl facing grim
circumstances and ultimately learning about
herself and the nature of hope.
(New Hampshire Isinglass Teen Read Award committee)
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