Duquesne English Festival: May 9, 2013
The Postcard by Tony Abbott
One phone call changes Jason's summer vacation-and life-forever.
When Jason's grandmother dies, he's sent down to her home in
Florida to help his father clean out her things. At first he gripes about
spending his summer miles away from his best friend, doing chores,
and sweating in the Florida heat, but he soon discovers a mystery
surrounding his grandmother's murky past. An old, yellowed
postcard...a creepy phone call with a raspy voice at the other end
asking, "So how smart are you?"...an entourage of freakish funeral
goers....a bizarre magazine story. All contain clues that will send him
on a thrilling journey to uncover family secrets.
The Big Game of Everythiing by Chris Lynch
Thirteen-year-old Jock thinks his family is incredibly weird. His hippy,
vegetarian parents named him Union Jack (though at age six he
wanted it to be pronounced Onion Jock). They insist that everyone -- including their own kids --- call them by their first names. Despite
his eccentric family, Jock looks forward to the approaching summer
vacation as he and Egon will work at the golf course. Jock loves the
compound, as they call it, and thinks it’s the greatest place in the
world, owned and managed by the greatest person in the world.
Even though the pay isn’t very consistent, and he sometimes has to
clean the public restrooms, Jock is happiest when at the golf course.
He doesn’t even like to play the sport, though he enjoys hitting balls
at the driving range. But then something happens that changes
everything.
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
American Born Chinese tells the story of three apparently unrelated
characters: Jin Wang, who moves to a new neighborhood with his family
only to discover that he’s the only Chinese-American student at his new
school; the powerful Monkey King, subject of one of the oldest and greatest
Chinese fables; and Chin-Kee, a personification of the ultimate negative
Chinese stereotype, who is ruining his cousin Danny’s life with his yearly
visits. Their lives and stories come together with an unexpected twist in this
action-packed modern fable. This is an amazing ride, all the way up to the
astonishing climax
Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli
He's a boy who lives in the streets of Warsaw. He's a boy who steals
food for himself and the other orphans. He's a boy who believes in
bread, and mothers, and angels. He's a boy who wants to be a Nazi
some day, with tall shiny jackboots and a gleaming Eagle hat of his
own. Until the day that suddenly makes him change his mind. And
when the trains come to empty the Jews from the ghetto of the
damned, he's a boy who realizes it's safest of all to be nobody. Jerry
Spinelli takes us to one of the most devastating settings imaginableNazi-occupied Warsaw of World War II-and tells a tale of heartbreak,
hope, and survival.
Lily B. on the Brink of Love by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel
Lily B., the protagonist, is an 8th grader who writes an advice column
for the Mulgrew Sentintel, her middle school's paper. This book
centers around a crush that she has on a "boy who is the center of
her universe," named Colter Hendricks. Although she is painfully
nervous and awkward around him, she is determined to make him
notice her….no matter what!!
Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye
Fourteen-year-old Liyana Abboud would rather not have to change
her life.... But when her parents announce that Liyana's family is
moving from St. Louis, Missouri, to Jerusalem -- to the land where
her father was born -- Liyana's whole world shifts. What does
Jerusalem hold for Liyana? A grandmother, a Sitti, she has never
met, for one. A history much bigger than she is. Visits to the West
Bank village where her aunts and uncles live. Mischief. Old stone
streets that wind through time and trouble. Opening doors, dark jail
cells, a new feeling for peace, and so much more