The Silver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause
It’s just a kiss - but oh, what a kiss! A little pressure, a little more, the breath gets
shorter, faster, the kiss a little harder. Then a prick, a fang, a drop of blood, and you’re
lost. A vampire’s kiss has that effect. It’s like really really hot sex, but then you never
wake up (or go to sleep, I guess, either).
I read a lot of vampire books way back in the day (yes, long long ago I was in high
school too) and I got kind of burnt out on them. I mean, there’s only so many ways to
suck face then die, right? Well, I figured I’d give Silver Kiss a try because one, it had
silver in the title and I have to admit it’s one of my favorite colors (go raiders?)!, and two,
well, it seemed short enough that if it wasn’t any good, I wouldn’t waste a lot of time
reading it!
I’m glad I tried it - it’s not ‘another old vampire’ story. It’s really a story about Zoe. Her
mom’s dying and she’s alone a lot and angry and hurt. Her best friend Lorraine is
moving away to Oregon (might as well be Venus) in just a couple of weeks, and Zoe is
lost.
Simon finds her, and follows her home - but can’t come in unless he’s invited. Will she
let him in? Will she let anyone be close to her ever again? And what’s that about a kiss?
The Silver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause
Playing in Traffic by Gail Giles
Matt’s invisible. Not in the “I’m right here but you can’t see me” kind of invisible, but
close. He’s one of those senior high school guys who makes it through all four years of
school and people only vaguely remember his face. Nothing that he did. Nothing that he
said. Matt likes invisibility, but he finds it hard to keep his once Skye starts playing up to
him.
Skye is bad…bad in all the ways Matt would never dream of being. But when she
teased the tip of her tongue out from between her “come-kiss-me-lips,” he was lost.
She shows up at school wearing black tights and a skirt made of duct tape. The bottom
is cut into fringe high on her fabulous thighs. The waistband is a man’s tie. White lace
top over a black lace bra. She’s a neon sign screaming SEX.
Matt didn’t mind licking the hollow of her throat in the park late last night after he snuck
out of the house, but talking to her looking like that in the bright light of the school was
out of the question.
Matt’s torn between his lust and alarm bells in his head screaming “she’s dangerous!”
It’s like Playing in Traffic…by Gail Giles.
The Crimes and Punishments of Miss Payne by Barry Jonsberg
The new teacher was young, inexperienced. She thought she could get through to the
kids - bless her - and make a difference to the dumbells in my Year 10 class. She is
frighteningly cheerful, smiling at everyone all of the time and generally spooking us out.
She over-prepares her lessons. You can tell she spends hours putting them together
and finding materials she thinks are interesting. In short? She's a disaster waiting to
happen.
She asks Jaryd to put the ball down. She asks Jaryd to get his feet off the desk. The
infinite patience in her voice makes you want to poke her eye out with a stick.
Amazingly, Jaryd does what she asks, but she pushes it, just a little further.
"Now get your books out and put that football away, Jaryd Kiffing."
We watched the ball arc slowly over the desks. I knew, I swear to God, that his aim was
perfect. It might not have been so bad, just being smacked on the back of the head, but
she was writing on the blackboard and the force shoved her head forward so that she
head-butted the board.
One minute Miss Leanyer was the small, quiet, timid teacher, the next, she was a raving
lunatic. She leaped over desks to get to the back of the room and fell on Kiffo like an
avenging harpy. Face twisted into a mad grimace, she was banging his head on the wall
when Mr. Brewer came in and dragged her away. The last we ever saw of Miss Leanyer
were her wild, raging eyes and fingers still clawing the air for Kiffo's throat.
Kiffo had a few weeks of fame, but then Miss Payne appeared...and Jaryd Kiffing was a
marked man.
If Miss Leanyer was the Snow White of the educational world, Miss Payne was the
slash-em up homicidal maniac. And Kiffo was home alone, and the phone lines had
been cut.
Find out what happens in Calma’s 10th grade English class when they have to break in
a new teacher…who might just break them.
The Crimes and Punishments of Miss Payne by Barry Jonsberg
Pay the Piper by Jane Yolen & Adam Stemple
On the 26th day of June, in 1284, came a colorful piper to Hamelin. Hamelin had rats:
many many rats, and the town elders hired the piper to lead the rats away. He did, but
the town council did not pay...so the piper led all of their children away.
Come away o human child!
To the water and the wild
With a fairy hand in hand
For the world’s more full weeping
Than you can understand
Callie lives in the Valley with her strict, wish-they-were-hippy parents and her
little brother Nick. The hot band Brass Rat is doing a show the night before Halloween
and everyone’s excited. Except Callie - who only gets to go if she takes her brother with
her when she goes backstage to interview the band.
Gringras, the lead singer, tells a story about how the band got its name. All of the
other high school reporters are jotting notes furiously, but Callie isn’t sold. Later she
overhears him fighting with the concert hall owner about payment…and Callie starts to
get scared.
What’s up with this band and the weird rat story? Callie wonders how she is
going to write an article about what she’s thinking of the band without sounding
insane…I mean - everyone knows the Pied Piper is a fairy tale, right? And that in
today’s world, no one could walk off with all of the children of the town…right?
Pay the Piper by Jane Yolen & Adam Stemple
Kissing Doorknobs by Terry Spencer Hesser
(note - move/circle each time "step on a crack, break your mother's back")
You've probably heard the children's rhyme - "step on a crack, break your mother's
back." Maybe you've even said it out loud! The first time Tara hears it (she's 10) - she
thinks it's cute. But then, it won't go away. It plays in her head, over and over and over
again.
While brushing her teeth
step on a crack, break your mother's back
While watching TV
step on a crack, break your mother's back
While doing homework
step on a crack, break your mother's back
While walking to school
step on a crack, break your mother's back
It gets so bad that even though she doesn't believe it will happen, she must try not to do
it. And then it gets worse. She needs (not wants, needs) to count the number of cracks
on the way to school. The many opportunities for her mother's back to be broken.
step on a crack, break your mother's back
She walks to school alone now
step on a crack, break your mother's back
Her friends won't even talk to her
step on a crack, break your mother's back
Her parents argue over whether she's gone nuts
step on a crack, break your mother's back
And Tara? Tara thinks the tyrants in her head are getting worse. It's not even just the
cracks and the counting anymore - it's praying every time she hears a swear, it's
arranging rice in neat little rows on her plate before she can eat it, it's playing over and
over in her head and she can't make it go away.
step on a crack, break your mother's back
And then, then a new thought pops up: the doorknobs. And how to open them just right.
Just perfectly. With all ten fingers, with kisses. With care.
Tyrants, thinks Tara. There are tyrants in my head and I know it's not right but I just
can't stop...kissing doorknobs. By Terry Spencer Hesser.
This Gum for Hire by Bruce Hale.
Chet Gecko’s a smart mouth - and smart - but he doesn’t know how to avoid Herman the Gila monster. The Big Bad Wolf could’ve learned something from Herman - his
breath was stinky enough to melt a brick house.
Herman corners Chet between classes. Chet’s life flashes before him - it wasn’t pretty,
but darnit, it was his life. He wanted to live to graduate.
“Gecko - I got problem,” Herman said.
“You know, I’ve been meaning to mention that - you know, with a little mouthwash…”
“Not funny,” Herman rumbled, “Problem big.”
“What’s on your mind? And I use that term loosely,”
“Team in trouble. Coach blame me.”
Their school took sports seriously - a monster on the front line is hard to find, so there
must really be trouble if Herman - the best monster on the field - was in danger of losing
his place on the team.
“So why tell me?” Gecko asked.
“Players go bye-bye. Not my fault. Gecko can find players.”
Herman puffed himself up and almost doubled in size while he smacked his fist into his
hand - showing Gecko what would happen if he didn’t help.
“Herman will pay - one chocolate cake for every player you find.”
Gecko gets excited - “should’ve been the first thing you said - tell the nice detective all
about it.”
Can Gecko find out what’s happening to the mysteriously disappearing football players?
Will he survive Herman’s wrath if he doesn’t? Solve the mystery in - This gum for hire by
Bruce Hale.
Sticks and Stones by Beth Goobie
At first she hears the word whispered
(slut)
and then it’s written on a locker
(slut)
and then, on the bathroom wall
(slut)
in the girls rooms, in the boys room
(slut)
Forget the fact it isn’t even true,
forget the fact that names aren’t supposed to hurt you.
Forget the fact that every time Jujube hears or sees it she feels more and more dirty.
(slut)
How do you fight a rumor?
Sticks and Stones by Beth Goobie
Shooter by Walter Dean Myers
Leonard: I have bought a gaw-juss weapon. It lies beneath my bed like a secret lover,
quiet, powerful, waiting to work my magic.
If I say the words “Columbine” it probably brings some images to mind: long, dark coats,
teens who were maybe known as the “quiet ones.” Blood. Death. Bullets. Guns.
Statement of fact: 17 year-old white male found dead in the aftermath of a shooting
incident at Madison High School in Harrison County.
Conclusion: Death by self-inflicted wound.
Shooter let’s us meet, through interviews and police reports, real people, everyday
people, teens, Friends.
Madison High School Incident Report. Interview with Cameron Porter. Submitted by Dr.
Richard Ewings, Senior County Psychologist.
Dr. Ewing: You want to tell me about he depression and how the medication helped - or
didn’t?
Cameron: It all started with the church…
Shooter by Walter Dean Myers