The Gilbert School Library
Mrs. Pillar’s Picks for Summer Reading 2007
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------Adams, Douglas, 1952-.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
New York: Harmony Books, 1980. ALA Notable Books
Seconds before Earth is demolished to make room for a galactic
freeway, an earthman is saved by his friend. Together they
journey through the galaxy.
Andrews, V. C. (Virginia C.).
1979.
Flowers in the Attic.
New York: Pocket Books,
School Library Journal
Chris, Cathy, and the twins are to be kept hidden until their
grandfather dies so that heir mother will receive a sizeable
inheritance, however, years pass and terrifying things occur
as the four children grow up in their one room prison.
Brashares, Ann.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.
Press, 2001.
New York:
Delacorte
Junior Library Guild
Carmen decides to discard an old pair of jeans, but Tibby,
Lena, and Bridget think they are great and decide that whoever
the pants fit best will get them. When the jeans fit everyone
perfectly, a sisterhood and a memorable summer begin.
Brashares, Ann.
The Second Summer of the Sisterhood.
Delacorte Press, 2003.
New York:
Junior Library Guild
Four teenage girls are on their second summer apart, but the
magic of the jeans keep them together.
Brashares, Ann.
Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood.
Delacorte Press, c2005.
New York:
Junior Library Guild
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants graduates from high
school and spends their last summer before college learning
about life and themselves.
Brooks, Martha.
True Confessions of a Heartless Girl.
Giroux, 2003.
New York: Farrar Straus
School Library Journal; Governor General’s Literary Award
A confused seventeen-year-old girl, a single mother and her young
son, two elderly women, and a sad and lonely man, with their own
individual tragedies to bear, come together in a small Manitoba town
and find a way to a better future.
Burgess, Melvin.
Smack.
New York: Avon Tempest, 1999. School Library Journal
After running away from their troubled homes, two English
teenagers move in with a group of squatters in the port city
of Bristol and try to find ways to support their growing
addiction to heroin.
Cabot, Meg.
Teen Idol. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.
School Library Journal
When teenage heartthrob Luke Stryker shows up at a small-town
Indiana high school to do research for a movie role, he persuades
junior Jenny Greenley to use her considerable talents to try to
change things at school for the better.
Coban, Harlan.
Tell No One.
New York: Delacorte Press, 2001. School Library Journal
Eight years after the disappearance of his wife--presumed dead--Dr.
David Beck receives an email message containing hints that Elizabeth
is alive, prompting him to leave everyone he knows and trusts to
chase after that possibility. Little does he know he is being
hunted.
Coman, Carolyn.
Many Stones.
Asheville, NC: Front Street, 2000.
Printz Award
After her sister Laura is murdered in South
Africa, Berry and her estranged father travel there to
participate in the dedication of a memorial in her name.
Cooney, Caroline B.
The Terrorist.
New York : Scholastic, 1997.
Publishers Weekly
Sixteen-year-old Laura, an American living in London, tries
to find the person responsible for the death of her younger
brother Billy, who has been killed by a terrorist bomb
Cooney, Caroline B.
Code Orange.
New York: Delacorte Press, 2005. School Library Journal
While conducting research for a school paper on smallpox,
Mitty finds an envelope containing 100-year-old smallpox scabs
and fears that he has infected himself and all of New York.
Cormier, Robert.
Fade.
New York: Delacorte Press, 1988. ALA Notable Books
Paul Moreaux, the thirteen-year-old son of French Canadian
immigrants, inherits the ability to become invisible, but
this power soon leads to death and destruction.
Cormier, Robert.
Heroes.
New York: Dell Laurel-Leaf, 1998. School Library Journal
After joining the army at fifteen and having his face blown
away by a grenade in a battle in France, Francis returns
home to Frenchtown hoping to find--and kill--the former
childhood hero he feels betrayed him.
Cormier, Robert.
The Rag and Bone Shop. New York: Delacorte Press, 2001. SLJournal
Trent, an ace interrogator from Vermont, works to procure a
confession from an introverted twelve-year-old accused of
murdering his seven-year-old friend.
Cormier, Robert.
Tenderness.
New York: Bantam Doubleday, 1997. ALA Notable Books
A psychological thriller told from the points of view of a
teenage serial killer and the runaway girl who falls in love
with him.
Dessen, Sarah.
Someone Like You.
New York: Puffin Books, 2000. ALA Best Book for YA
Halley's junior year of high school includes the death of her best
friend Scarlett's boyfriend, the discovery that Scarlett is
pregnant, and Halley's own first serious relationship.
Draper, Sharon.
Battle of Jericho.
New York: Atheneum Books, 2003.
Coretta Scott King Honor Book
A high school junior and his cousin suffer the ramifications of
joining what seems to be a "reputable" school club.
Fleischman, Paul.
Seek. Chicago: Cricket Books, 2001. Publishers Weekly
Rob becomes obsessed with searching the airwaves for his
long-gone father, a radio announcer.
Frank, E.R.
America.
New York: Atheneum Books, 2002.
NY Times Notable Children’s Book
America, a runaway boy who is being treated at Ridgeway, a New York
hospital, finds himself opening up to one of the doctors on staff
and revealing things about himself that he had always vowed to keep
secret.
Giles, Gail.
Dead Girls Don't Write Letters. Brookfield, CT: Roaring Brook
Press, 2003. Kirkus Starred Review
Fourteen-year-old Sunny is stunned when a total stranger
shows up at her house posing as her older sister Jazz, who
supposedly died out of town in a fire months earlier.
Going, Kelly.
Fat Kid Rules the World.
New York: Putnam, 2003.
Printz Honor Book
Seventeen-year-old Troy, depressed, suicidal, and weighing nearly
300 pounds, gets a new perspective on life when a homeless teenager
who is a genius on guitar wants Troy to be the drummer in his rock
band.
Graham, Rosemary. My Not-So-Terrible Time at Hippie Hotel. New York, Viking, 2003.
Forced to go with her father to a house on Cape Cod where divorced
parents spend "Together Time" with their kids, teenaged Tracy finds
the experience bearable after meeting a local boy named Kevin.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson.
Young Readers, 2000.
Turnabout.
New York: Simon & Schuster Books for
YALSA Best Book for Young Adults
Melly and AnnyBeth agree to participate in Project Turnabout,
a scientific experiment in which they are given a shot that
will make them grow younger, until they receive a second
injection that will stop the aging process. When other
participants die after receiving the second shot, Melly and
Anny Beth refuse to have the shot and set out to find
someone to care for them when they are too young to do it
themselves.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Among the Hidden.
1998.
New York: Aladdin Paperbacks,
Nutmeg Book Award Nominee
In a future where the Population Police enforce the law
limiting a family to only two children, Luke has lived all his
twelve years in isolation and fear on his family's farm, until
another "third" convinces him that the government is wrong.
Hinton, S. E. The Outsiders.
New York: Viking Press, 1967.
ALA Best Young Adult Books
The struggle of three brothers to stay together after their
parent's death and their quest for identity among the
conflicting values of their adolescent society.
Johnson, Angela.
First Part Last.
New York:
Simon & Schuster, 2003.
Coretta Scott King Award Winner
Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes
a father and must care for his adored baby daughter.
Kelworth, The Electric Kid.
New York: Avon Books, 1994.
School Library Journal
Set in the year 2061, two children support themselves in a city dump
and are pressed into the service of he criminal underworld until
their unique talents foster their escape.
King, Stephen.
Misery.
New York: New American Library, 1987.
Bram Stoker Award
A writer is held captive by a deranged nurse.
King, Stephen.
The Stand. New York: New American Library, 1990. New York Times
This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer
error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual
contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death.
King, Stephen. The Green Mile.
New York: Pocket, 1999.
Bram Stoker Award
The story of John Coffey, a giant, preternaturally gentle
inmate condemned to death for the rape and murder of twin
nine-year-old girls.
Limb, Sue.
Girl 15, Charming, but Insane.
New York: Delacorte Press, 2004.
SLJ
Fifteen-year-old Jess, living with her mum, separated from her
father in Cornwall, and with a best friend who seems to do
everything perfectly, finds her own assets through humor.
McCormick, Patricia.
Sold.
New York: Hyperion, 2006. 2006 National Book Award Finalist
Thirteen-year-old Lakshmi leaves her poor mountain home in Nepal
thinking that she is to work in the city as a maid only to find that
she has been sold into the sex slave trade in India and that there
is no hope of escape.
Meyer, L.A.
Bloody Jack.
San Diego: Harcourt, 2002. ALA Best Book for Young Adults
Reduced to begging and thievery in the streets of London, a
thirteen-year-old orphan disguises herself as a boy and connives her
way onto a British warship set for high sea adventure in search of
pirates.
Napoli, Donna Jo.
The Magic Circle.
New York: Dutton Children's Books, 1993.
YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers
After learning sorcery to become a healer, a good-hearted
woman is turned into a witch by evil spirits and she fights
their power until her encounter with Hansel and Gretel years
later.
Read If You Dare : Twelve Twisted Tales From the Editors of Read Magazine.
Brookfield, CT.: Millbrook Press, 1997. School Library Journal
A collection of stories by such authors as Nathaniel Hawthorne,
Ambrose Bierce, and Stephen King, exploring the notions of fate,
destiny, and coincidence.
Ritter, John.
The Boy Who Saved Baseball.
New York: Philomel Books, 2003.
Caudill Young Readers' Book Award
The fate of a small California town rests on the outcome of one
baseball game, and Tom Gallagher hopes to lead his team to victory
with the secrets of the now disgraced player, Dante Del Gato.
Sachar, Louis.
Holes.
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.
National Book Award for Young People's Literature
As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they
attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is
sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert where
he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of
himself.
Sebold, Alice.
The Lovely Bones.
Boston : Little, Brown, 2002. ABA Book of the Year
Susie Salmon is in heaven because she was murdered, and she
watches her family, the killer, and her friends as they handle
their guilt and grief and move on with their lives as she
learns to cope with heaven.
Shan, Darren.
Cirque du Freak.
Boston : Little, Brown, 2001.
School Library Journal
Two boys who are best friends visit an
Illegal freak show, where an encounter with a vampire and a
deadly spider forces them to make life-changing choices.
Sleater, William.
Parasite Pig.
New York: Dutton, 2002.
School Library Journal
Sixteen-year-old Barney, infected by an alien parasite, and his
friend Katie are taken to the planet J'koot by extraterrestrials
intent on playing the dangerous game known as Interstellar Pig.
Trueman, Terry.
Stuck in Neutral.
New York : HarperCollinsPublishers, 2000.
Printz Honor Book
Fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel, who suffers from severe
cerebral palsy and cannot function, relates his perceptions of
his life, his family, and his condition, especially as he
believes his father is planning to kill him.
Trueman, Terry.
Cruise Control.
New York: HarperTempest, 2004.
Junior Library Guild
A talented basketball player struggles to deal with the
helplessness and anger that come with having a brother
rendered completely dysfunctional by severe cerebral palsy and
a father who deserted the family.
Truth & Lies: An Anthology of Poems.
New York: Henry Holt, 2000. School Library Journal
Poems from Walt Whitman, Margaret Atwood, and others capture the
emotions and feelings associated with truth and lies and the
consequences that can occur from one's decision at crucial times in
their lives.
Williams-Garcia, Rita.
Publishers, 2001.
Every Time a Rainbow Dies.
New York: HarperCollins
ALA Best Book for Young Adults
After seeing a girl raped and becoming obsessed with her,
sixteen-year-old Thulani finds motivation to move beyond his
interest in his pigeons and his grief over his mother's death.
Williams-Garcia, Rita.
No Laughter Here.
New York: HarperCollins, 2004.
Kirkus Starred Review
In Queens, New York, ten-year-old Akilah is determined to find
out why her closest friend, Victoria, is silent and withdrawn
after returning from a trip to her homeland, Nigeria.
Yoo, David.
Girls for Breakfast.
New York: Delacorte Press, 2005. School Library Journal
As he reflects back on his life in upscale Renfield, Connecticut, on
his high school graduation day, Nick Park wonders how much being the
only Asian American in school affected his thwarted quest for
popularity and a girlfriend.