Loudoun County Public Schools
Battle of the Books!
2015-2016 Book Selections
Brotherhood
Author: A. B. Westrick
Description: The year is 1867, the South has been defeated, and the American Civil
War is over. But the conflict goes on. Yankees now patrol the streets of Richmond,
Virginia, and its citizens, both black and white, are struggling to redefine their roles
and relationships. By day, fourteen-year-old Shadrach apprentices with a tailor and
sneaks off for reading lessons with Rachel, a freed slave, at her school for AfricanAmerican children. By night he follows his older brother Jeremiah to the meetings of
a group whose stated mission is to protect Confederate widows like their mother.
But as the true murderous intentions of the group, now known as the Ku Klux Klan,
are revealed, Shad finds himself trapped between old loyalties and what he knows is
right. In this powerful and unflinching story of a family caught in the period of
Reconstruction, A.B. Westrick provides a glimpse into the enormous social and
political upheaval of the time.
– Amazon.com
Dead End in Norvelt
Author: Jack Gantos
Description: The town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania was founded in 1934 to provide
out-of-work miners with affordable housing. By 1962, when this story takes place,
the town is in decline. Jack’s summer plans are thwarted when his mother places
him under “house arrest,” allowing him only to help arthritic Miss Volker. She
dictates obituaries and historical facts to Jack who types them up and takes
them to the newspaper office. When Miss Volker is accused of poisoning the
women who died that summer, Jack sets out to clear her name. This is an
interesting coming of age story. The town of Norvelt does exist, and author
Jack Gantos did live there as a child. The town is populated by a series of
eccentric characters who contribute to the humor of the story, and the
relationship that develops between Jack and Miss Volker rings true. Gantos fans
will find this one of his best works.
- Amazon.com
C.M. Rush/PVHS Library/May 2015
The Death Class; A True Story About Life
Author: Erika Hayasaki
Description: In this brisk, journalistic endeavor, full of case studies of violent
death, a Los Angeles Times reporter chronicles her years shadowing Dr.
Norma Bowe, the “professor of death” at Kean University in Union, N.J.
Bowe’s class, Death in Perspective, had a three-year waiting list. Journalist
Hayasaki was drawn to Bowe’s class as a way of making sense of “death’s
mercilessness and meaning,” and in memory of her own dear friend who was
shot and killed by a jealous boyfriend when they attended high school in the
mid-1990s in Lynnwood, Wash. In the course of dogging the professor over the
semester, involving visits to cemeteries, a hospice, death row at a state prison,
mortuary, and psych hospital, as well as thoughtful writing assignments such as
composing a goodbye letter to her dead friend, Hayasaki unearths the wrenching personal stories of these
traumatized students—and that of Bowe herself.
– Mackin.com
Endangered
Author: Eliot Schrefer
Description: The compelling tale of a girl who must save a group of bonobos -and herself -- from a violent coup. Congo is a dangerous place, even for people
who are trying to do good. When Sophie has to visit her mother at her sanctuary
for bonobos, she’s not thrilled to be there. Then Otto, an infant bonobo, comes
into her life, and for the first time she feels responsible for another creature.
But peace does not last long for Sophie and Otto. When an armed revolution
breaks out in the country, the sanctuary is attacked, and the two of them must
escape unprepared into the jungle. Caught in the crosshairs of a lethal conflict,
they must struggle to keep safe, to eat, and to live.
– Amazon.com
Orphan Train
Author: Christina Baker Kline
Description: Penobscot Indian Molly Ayer is close to “aging out” out of the
foster care system. A community service position helping an elderly woman
clean out her home is the only thing keeping Molly out of juvie and worse... As
she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly learns that
she and Vivian aren’t as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant
orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with
hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and
chance. Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to
mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life—answers that will ultimately
free them both.
- Amazon.com
CM. Rush/PVHS Library/May 2015
Popular: Vintage Wisdom for the Modern Geek
Author: Maya Van Wagenen
Description: Maya Van Wagenen is not popular—in fact, her biggest aspiration
is to be invisible to other students, in the hope of avoiding their relentless
teasing. But just before Maya starts eighth grade, she finds a 1950s popularity
guide written by a former teen model and decides to follow it in an effort to
raise her social status. Thinking it will be an interesting writing experiment, if
nothing else, Maya devotes a month to each chapter, humorously chronicling
her successes and mishaps as she familiarizes herself with Vaseline eye
treatments, girdles, and clique-defying lunch room behavior. School Library
Journal says this about Maya, bravely visiting all the various cliques in the
lunchroom and making conversation with her secret Sunday school crush, she
becomes even more sensitive and aware—and yes, more popular.” - Mackin.com
The Pregnancy Project
Author: Gaby Rodriguez with Jenna Glatzer
Description: Growing up, Gaby Rodriguez was often told she would end up a teen
mom. After all, her mother and her older sisters had gotten pregnant as teenagers;
from an outsider’s perspective, it was practically a family tradition. Gaby had
ambitions that didn’t include teen motherhood. But she wondered: how would she
be treated if she “lived down” to others’ expectations? Would everyone ignore the
years she put into being a good student and see her as just another pregnant teen
statistic with no future? These questions sparked Gaby’s high school senior
project: faking her own pregnancy to see how her family, friends, and community
would react. What she learned changed her life forever—and made international
headlines in the process. . . . Gaby’s story is about fighting stereotypes, and how
one girl found the strength to come out from the shadow of low expectations to
forge a bright future for herself.
– Amazon.com
Starters
Author: Lissa Price
Description: Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone
between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the
run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who
would kill them for a cookie. Callie’s only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing
place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man. He hires
teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie,
desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be
a donor. But the neurochip placed in Callie’s head malfunctions and she wakes up
in the life of her renter. Callie soon discovers that her renter intends to do more than party —and that
Prime Destinations’ plans are more evil than she could ever have imagined. . . .… -Amazon.com
CM. Rush/PVHS Library/May 2015
This is What Happy Looks Like
Author: Jennifer E. Smith
Description:
When 17-year-old Graham Larkin from Hollywood accidentally
sends 17-year-old Ellie O'Neill—who lives across the country in Maine—an
email about his pet pig, Wilbur, it sparks a humorous string of
correspondence that lasts throughout one crazy summer. Ellie and Graham
share much, but not all, about their lives, until one day Graham has the
opportunity to travel to Ellie's hometown, with the chance to take their
relationship into the personal world. The problem is that Graham is a movie
star, and a bona fide teenage heartthrob—can someone so famous be with
someone like Ellie, a nobody? “A sweet, chaste romance for almost-strangers”
(VOYA).
– Mackin.com
We Were Liars
Author: e. lockhart
Description: Cadence Sinclair Eastman, along with her cousins Mirren and
Johnny, and her aunt's longtime boyfriend's nephew Gat Patil, are the Liars.
They are the third generation growing up in the privileged family of Harris
Sinclaire, the grandfather from whom all the wealth comes, including
Beechwood island off the coast of Cape Cod. It is Cadence's 17th summer on
the isle, and she has just returned after two years of recovering from an
accident which left her with chronic migraines and memory loss. Which is just
as well, because her family refuses to talk about her accident, and the secret
that Cadence slowly remembers throughout the course of “summer 17” on
Beechwood is horrific. Author “Lockhart spins a tragic family drama, the
roots of which go back generations. And the ending? Shhhh. Not telling” (BL).
– Mackin.com
CM. Rush/PVHS Library/May 2015