•
In this book an 18 year old Jamie is lonely and
shy. She is overlooked by everyone. 18 year
old Landon is popular and handsome.
•
When Landon has to decide to take chemistry
or drama, he signs up for drama. He ends up
with the leading role in the spring play. And
oddly enough, Jamie ends up with the female
leading role.
•
When seeing her on the stage, Landon realizes
he's fallen head over heels for her. When they
fall in love, Jamie reveals that she has cancer.
•
Landon, being in love with her realizes he only
has one choice, but to ask for her hand in
marriage.
•Rooster is approaching the end of grade 12 in a high school in a small Alberta
town.
• He has friends and a girlfriend and enjoys his life of skipping classes, acting
smart with teachers, and partying.
•His teachers, guidance counselor and principal hold no hope for his future. But
one day, near the end of the school year, his principal and counselor give him
one last chance.
•He could volunteer at the nearby recreation centre for adults with mental
disabilities.
•If the group of four adults, called the Strikers, accept him, Rooster will
accompany them on their regular visits to a bowling alley.
•If he succeeds in this volunteer activity, the administration might find a way to
see him graduate, and, they think, he might also mature and discover he has a
future.
•Rooster’s first response is a flat “No.” but then, as seen in the excerpt, he is
pressured into giving it a try.
•Mrs. Helmsley [the principal] stared at Rooster for another moment, then she
looked at Mrs. Nixon [the guidance counselor], then back at Rooster. “All right,”
she said finally. “Get out.”
•
Rooster began to lift himself from off the chair. “Finally someone who
listens to me around here.”
•
“But if you go now, you leave this office, you leave this school, and you
never come back. Not this year, not next year, not the year after that.
You’re through.” She spoke with the power and clarity of a judge
sentencing a criminal. “We’ve broken our backs for you in here. We’ve
put up with your bad behaviour, your poor performance, your
disrespect. Not anymore. If you get off that chair and leave this office,
you’re done. That’s it.”
•
Rooster froze in mid-motion. The game had changed to hardball, as
his stepdad, Irving, would say, and he was woefully unprepared for it.
•
Mrs. Helmsley continued. “It’s not my wish to fill my hometown with
high-school dropouts. But I am not going to stand here and watch you
walk away from an opportunity to get it right, for the first time in your
life, and say nothing. That’s not my style. So go now and be done for
good ,or stick around and try to make something of yourself. Take your
pick.”
•
Rooster interacts with the bowlers at the recreation centre. It provides
Rooster with an occasion to which he may or may not rise. He goes
from resenting these unusual adult bowlers to becoming their
protector, resenting the way they are treated by the infantilizing staff at
the recreation centre and discovering that these adults are unusual
and OK just like he is. He begins to see that he is their equal.
•
Twilight, is about a pair of lovers who are
supremely star-crossed.
•
Meyer begins with a familiar YA premise (the new
kid in school), and lulls us into thinking this will be
just another teen novel. Bella has come to the small
town of Forks to be with her father.
•
At school, she wonders about a group of five
remarkably beautiful teens, who sit together in the
cafeteria but never eat.
•
As she grows to know, and then love, Edward, she
learns their secret. They are all rescued vampires,
part of a family headed by saintly Carlisle, who has
inspired them to renounce human prey.
•
Bella adores Edward, and he returns her love. But
Edward is having a hard time controlling the blood
lust she arouses in him, because--he's a vampire.
•
At any moment, the intensity of their passion could
drive him to kill her, and he agonizes over the
danger. But, Bella would rather be dead than part
from Edward, so she risks her life to stay near him,
and the novel burns with the erotic tension of their
dangerous and necessarily chaste relationship.
•
For Edward's sake they welcome Bella, but when a
roving group of tracker vampires fixates on her, the
family is drawn into a desperate pursuit to protect
the fragile human in their midst.
•Imagine you are 16 and trying to fit in. To do so, you
decide to help some people who are trying to commit a
crime. In Walter Dean Myers’ Monster, this is exactly what
happens to Steve Harmon.
•While on trial and in jail, Steve decides to record everything
that happens in his journal in movie format.
•How does he end up in jail? Well, he agrees to be the lookout for two guys robbing a convenience store but then he has
a change of heart and leaves the scene before anything
happens.
•The two guys go ahead with the robbery, however, and end
up killing the store owner. Now Steve is guilty by
association and on trial for a murder he had nothing to
do with.
• As Steve tells us about the trial in his journal, you start
rooting for him, but will the jury agree? Monster makes clear
that the choices you make can affect you for a very, very long
time.
• Fourteen-year-old Nick has two moms
who couldn't be more different.
• His biological mother, Mom, is
dependable and careful; Jo, Mom's
partner, is irresponsible and impulsive.
• As the only child in his class with gay
parents, he endures the taunts and
prejudices of classmates
• Nick tells their story in vignettes,
including little things, such as the
teasing he gets at school, as well as
big things, such as Mom's cancer and
Jo's alcoholism.
• Eventually these vignettes turn into a
divorce story: Mom finds a new
partner; Jo, who has no rights to Nick,
struggles on her own
•
Juli Baker devoutly believes in three things: the sanctity of
trees (especially her beloved sycamore), the
wholesomeness of the eggs she collects from her backyard
flock of chickens, and that someday she will kiss Bryce
Loski.
•
Ever since she saw Bryce's baby blue eyes back in second
grade, Juli has been smitten.
•
Unfortunately, Bryce has never felt the same. Frankly, he
thinks Juli Baker is a little weird--after all, what kind of freak
raises chickens and sits in trees for fun?
•
Then, in eighth grade, everything changes. Bryce begins to
see that Juli's unusual interests and pride in her family are,
well, kind of cool.
•
And Juli starts to think that maybe Bryce's brilliant blue eyes
are as empty as the rest of Bryce seems to be.
•
After all, what kind of jerk doesn't care about other people's
feelings about chickens and trees?
•
Bryce and Juli's rants and raves about each other ring so
true that teen readers will quickly identify with at least one of
these hilarious feuding egos
•
This is the actual diary of a fourteen-year-old girl
who finds herself pregnant. It details her thoughts
and feelings about her relationship with a boy two
years older than she and the decisions her
pregnancy forces her to make.
•
Edited by the same person who did Go Ask Alice,
this diary shows the emotional ups and downs of a
girl in Annie's situation.
Annie is a good girl. She is on the soccer team
and wants to please her single mom, but when
Danny is interested in her, he becomes her
whole world.
•
•
She starts to lie about where she is, who she is with,
and what she is doing. At first Danny treats her well,
but when he abuses her and even attempts to rape
her, she wants to be his girlfriend so badly that she
makes up excuses for him. She begs him to take
her back and then lets him run her life.
•
Even after he rejects her when she becomes
pregnant, she still says she loves him. Annie feels
that her diary is her only friend. She goes to a
school for unwed mothers, has her baby, and tries to
be a good mother.
•
It portrays a very realistic picture of what teenage
pregnancy and motherhood do to a young girl's life.
•
Raintree Rebellion : Heroine 18 year old Blake Raintree
•
Futuristic story set in Canada in the year 2370
•
Earth people living on another planet “Terra Nova”
•
Toronto experienced 16 years of the Technocaust (apartheid against
technology )
•
The technocaust banned many forms of technology - genetic
modification, nano-and bio technology, satellite tracking, and artifical
intelligence.
•
She returns to the city of her birth as an aide to a justice council
charged with trying to address the wrongs of the technocaust.
•
While there, Blake submits the ID code from the microchip that was
implanted in her arm by her parents in infancy, hoping to find out more
about her past, and especially her father.
•
What she learns will cause her to question everything she knows
about herself. Torn between a terrible anger and a search for the love
and acceptance she has been denied her entire life, Blake must face
a harsh choice.
•
Suburban, soccer-loving, 12-year-old Alex has everything
going for her: supportive parents and a nurturing alternative
school where her teacher, Simon, is also a friend.
•
The trouble starts when a new girl, Stacy, a drama queen,
points out that Simon is also a hottie.
•
Next, she suggests that Simon is hot for Alex, and vice
versa.
•
You'd think that, with all the resources available to her, Alex
could figure out a way to quash this.
•
She does make repeated, if vague, efforts to turn to her
parents for advice, but they try to joke her out of her
discomfort and suggest that Stacy is just "acting out" to cope
with the stress of being the new kid.
•
The situation soon gets worse—much worse. Stacy always
seems to be on hand to catch Simon with Alex in the
midst of a friendly gesture, and she rumor-mongers
relentlessly. And when these allegations come to naught
(although they do alienate Tim from Alex), she escalates her
campaign, claiming that Simon has molested her.
•
The author makes it subtly clear that Stacy's compulsion to
sexualize may have its roots in abuse. Frank, whose
profession as social worker lends psychological authenticity
to her writing. She provides no easy out for her characters.
Friction is a bold, perceptive and ultimately unnerving
account in which people get hurt.
•
Mole is a young boy who considers himself to be an intellectual,
he doesn’t have many friends, reads many of books and strives to
be as different as possible from his mother and father, who drink,
smoke and don’t do much in the way of earning a living.
•
The Moles are the typical dysfunctional family, and its great to
read about Adrian’s life, which he more or less lives from his
bedroom in the family home.
Adrian goes through a lot on his life, and notes down every last
detail. Episodes you'll encounter on your read include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
His parents splitting up when his mum runs off with Creep Lucas
from next door.
His mum coming back
Getting suspended from school for wearing the wrong colour
socks
His dad having an affair and an illegitimate child.
His parents splitting up again
His mum getting married to a much younger man
Finally getting to be with the love of his life, Pandora.
Breaking up with Pandora.
Spending his entire life trying to get back with Pandora.
Running away from home
A traumatic school trip to London
Being forced to care for a grumpy old man named Bert Baxter
when he joins his school volunteer service.
Having his home burnt down
Skate
•
Ian McDermott doesn't have much going for him. He
has basically raised himself and his young brother,
who has fetal alcohol syndrome.
•
Their mother is a deadbeat drug addict who makes
rare appearances in their lives.
•
At Morrison High School, things aren't much better;
the administration wants him out.
•
The thing is, Ian isn't going to take any guff from
anyone. But one day, he loses his cool and ends up
breaking Coach Florence's jaw.
•
The teen knows that he and Sammy have to get
away fast before the cops catch up with him. They
grab some meager supplies and skate out of
Spokane toward Walla Walla to search for their
estranged father
•
The brothers have high hopes that their father will
welcome them into his life, but things do not turn out
as planned.
•
They have to survive in the wilderness
• Sixteen-year-old Amal makes the
decision to start wearing the hijab fulltime and everyone has a reaction.
• Her parents, her teachers, her friends,
people on the street.
• But she stands by her decision to
embrace her faith and all that it is, even
if it does make her a little different from
everyone else.
Can she handle the taunts of "towel
head," the prejudice of her classmates,
and still attract the cutest boy in school?
• Brilliantly funny and poignant, Randa
Abdel-Fattah's debut novel will strike a
chord in all teenage readers, no matter
what their beliefs.
•
Raymond Dunne is in the 10th grade. He
can’t change the fact that he’s prone to
sneezing, getting nosebleeds, and fainting.
•
He can, however, change the fact that he’s
not popular — though it won’t be easy. In
this hilarious story about friendship, love,
and loyalty, Raymond transforms himself
from a lonely geek to the gatekeeper of an
underground social club.
•
In the process, he befriends one of the
most popular guys in school, sticks up for
his fellow nerds, and works up the courage
to approach the lovely Janice, his not-sosecret crush.
•
However, with the relentlessly strict
principal and the equally vigilant viceprincipal hot on his trail, how long will
Raymond’s underground club — and his
newfound friendships — last?
•
Grade 8-10-High school senior Corey Brennan is
looking forward to the start of a new basketball
season, hoping that his high school will have a
shot at the Miami all-city trophy.
•
As captain, Corey thinks of himself as the leader
of the team, but he finds that things start
unraveling as soon as the season starts.
•
After a lot of detective work, Corey discovers
that the problem is a transfer student, Noah
Travers, who will stop at nothing to make the
starting squad.
• His ambition leads
him to blackmail, tampering with a player's
medications, and planting a gun in a teammate's
locker.
•
Eventually, Corey tricks him into admitting his
crimes. The novel ends with one last act of
revenge, but Noah is foiled in these efforts as
well.
•
He is a deliciously nasty villain, with no
redeemable qualities
•
Fourteen-year-old Luke begins to realize how much
his views of the world and the people in it have
changed when he wakes up from a coma after having
meningitis.
•
Suddenly he’s seeing two worlds at once through a
computer
•
What’s worse is there’s a strange ugly creature on the
screen, who calls himself Dreeg. His voice oozes into
Luke’s brain, offering to guide him.
All Luke’s senses have changed: All senses are
blended. He associates days of the week with
different colors, and music evokes tastes.
He has a newfound way with words and begins
seeing his annoying older sister, Laura, as a series of
disgusting creatures.
•
•
Luke is left feeling frightened but intrigued. He seems
to be getting better, but his mind is slowly being
poisoned by Dreeg.
•
This creature offers him gifts of recovery, the return of
his athletic ability, a “dream” girlfriend, and even the
power to fly. In return, all Luke has to do is turn
against his friends and join in Dreeg’s evil plans.
•
Desert McGraw, daughter of aging rocker Flesh,
has moved from L.A. to begin 11th grade in a new
school in Miami.
•
She desperately tries to avoid her father's fans, who
have always used her (backstage passes), and to find
real friends, but is uncertain about whom to trust.
•
When she meets Becca, who claims she has "no
life," she tries to hide the truth. Eventually, though,
Desert tells her despite the risks. Becca worships
Flesh, but the girls get past it
•
Desert also becomes involved with Liam, a nice guy.
Becca and Liam help her through the difficult affair
between her father and her mother's personal
assistant.
•
As the school year progresses, Desert's character
grows and develops; she begins to write her own
songs and discovers her own gifts and comes to rely
on herself to solve her problems.
•
When Becca is in trouble and possibly on the brink of
suicide, Desert finally comes to terms with her selfcenteredness and starts to act like a true friend
•
Grade 7-9--Teased by bullies in his old school, Elliot
is determined to reinvent himself at his new high
school by having a cool, unflappable exterior.
•
Ironically, the 14-year-old's aloofness earns the
interest of an elite group of bullies, known as the
Guardians, whose members target school losers for
punishment in cruel and ritualistic ways.
•
In this psychological drama, the outwardly congenial
Guardian leaders recruit Elliot using control tactics
adopted from their favorite book, George Orwell's 1984.
•
With no way out, he passes the initiation test that
requires him to choose a punisher and a victim.
Elliot's outward voice alternates with an inner voice
written in italics, depicting a battle between right and
wrong.
•
Two valuable but tentative friendships disintegrate as
Elliot becomes more Guardianlike, and the struggles with
his conscience intensify. In an emotion-packed ending,
the teen realizes that the strength he had in choosing not
to be a victim is the same strength he needs to uncloak
the Guardians.
•
Elliot is an appealing protagonist, and his need to fit in
will strike a chord with most readers.
•
Elizabeth, Leeza, Hemming is left crippled after a
car accident when a rock is thrown down from an
overpass.
•
She spends months alone in the hospital for
rehabilitation. She finds an unlikely friend in a
hospital volunteer named Chad Kennedy (Reef to
his friends) who, surprisingly, like her has lost a
loved one to cancer.
•
Reef has do community service at the Halifax
Rehabilitation Centre because of a serious crime
he and his two friends, Jink and Bigger, committed
one night.
•
Aker's novel explores the world of random violence
and the toll such an act takes on the victim. A twist
of fate draws victim and perpetrator together in a
tenuous bond that could provide healing or deeper
hurt.
•
A funny thing happens to Novalee Nation on her way to
Bakersfield, California. Her deadbeat boyfriend, Willie Jack
Pickens, abandons her in an Oklahoma Wal-Mart and takes off
on his own, leaving her with just 10 dollars and the clothes on
her back. Not that hard luck is anything new to Novalee, who
is "seventeen, seven months pregnant, thirty-seven pounds
overweight--and superstitious about sevens....
•
Still, finding herself alone and penniless in Sequoyah,
Oklahoma is enough to make even someone as inured to ill
fortune as Novalee want to give up and die.
•
Fortunately, the Wal-Mart parking lot is the Sequoyah
equivalent of a town square, and within hours Novalee has
met three people who will change her life:
•
For the next two months, Novalee makes her home in the
Wal-Mart, sleeping there at night, exploring the town by day.
•
When she goes into labor and delivers her baby there,
however, Novalee learns that sometimes it's not so bad to
depend on the kindness of strangers--especially if one of them
happens to be Sam Walton, the superchain's founder.
•
Where the Heart Is oddly mixes heart-warming vignettes and
surprising, brutal violence. Novalee's story is juxtaposed with
occasional chapters chronicling Willy Jack's downward spiral
into prison, disappointment, and degradation
•
Sam Foster is entering Grade 9 with the usual worries: he's tall
and gawky, he's constantly embarrassed, he tends to fall in
love (or lust) with the nearest female.
Sam receives unwanted attention because of the flamedecalled crash helmet wedged on his head;
•
What he really wants to do is to attract Madison Dakota, an
attractive country pop singer he hears performing at the Hope
Springs Fall Fair talent show.
•
However, like Cinderella, Madison slips away before Sam can
connect with her, and he spends a good part of the novel
involved in Operation Babe Find before discovering that he
has actually known “Madison” for some time but under her real
name and without a wig and makeup.
•
Sam is the drummer in ADHD, an alternative/grunge trio
•
Sam’s situation in life is also not helped by his father’s being
Hope Springs High’s drama teacher.
•
Sam’s embarrassment increases when his father involves him
in a new band, one containing adults including a crossdressing male, a situation guaranteed to lead to new and
unflattering comments from the skids.
•
Sam also unwittingly becomes “a poster boy against
censorship” and finds himself before the school board
defending an English text he does not even like.
•
•
Born Confused features American-born Dimple Lala, the
child of Indian parents who firmly believe in the customs
and traditions of their father-land.
Dimple is not your typical heroine; she is slightly
overweight and battling low self-esteem stemming from her
perfect best friend Gwyn.
•
“Not quite Indian, ant not quite American,” Dimple
unsuccessfully tries to blend in riding on the coattails of her
blue-eyed, blonde best friend, Gwyn.
•
The plot thickens as Dimple’s parents pick a “suitable boy”
for her.
•
At first the boy, Karsh, seems boring and she is resigned
not to like him. As she gets to know him, though, Dimple
likes him more and views him as the artistic person he is.
•
Right on cue, Gwyn swoops in and tries to win Karsh,
making Dimple feel used and friendless.
•
Dimple learns more about herself and how special she is.
•
The author integrates descriptions of Indian food, dress,
and customs with Dimple’s sarcastic commentary
• Conception deception: When is your
dad not your dad? "You were conceived
under exceptional circumstances."
Sixteen-year-old Cassidy can hardly
believe it. Struggling to understand that
she is the product of a 'clean and
businesslike arrangement,' her
biological father nothing more than an
anonymous sperm donor, Cassidy is
doubly devastated.
• Not only has her father just been
diagnosed with a fatal disease, but he
has also confessed that he's not really
her father.
• Suddenly Cassidy's worries about
holding on to her popular boyfriend and
her geeky interest in birds no longer
seem important. Worse, she gets drunk
and blurts out the news of her
conception at a party and must face
some shocking consequences. On top
of it all, Cassidy realizes she may never
know who she really is.
•
1.
2.
3.
4.
Four different people find themselves on the same roof on
New Year's Eve, but they have one thing in common–
they're all there to jump to their deaths.
A scandal-plagued talk-show host
A single mom of a disabled young man,
A troubled teen,
An aging American musician soon unite in a common
cause, to find out why Jess (the teen) can't get her exboyfriend to return her calls.
•
Down the stairs they go, and thoughts of suicide gradually
subside.
•
Each character takes a turn telling the story in a distinctive
voice. Tough questions are asked–why do you want to kill
yourself, and why didn't you do it? Are adults any smarter
than adolescents? What defines friends and family?
•
Characters are alternately sympathetic and utterly
despicable, talk-show-host Martin, particularly. The
narrators are occasionally unreliable, with the truth coming
from the observers instead.
•
Obviously, a book about suicide is a dark read, but this
one is darkly humorous–as Hornby usually is. Teens will
identify with or loathe Jess and musician J. J., but they will
also find themselves in the shoes of Maureen and Martin.
This somewhat philosophical work will appeal to Hornby's
fans but has plenty to attract new audiences as well
•
Like any anxious parent awaiting the birth of their first
child, Ellen Schwartz and her husband Jeff were
overwhelmed with optimistic dreams and hopes about the
future.
•
Their future as a family. Jacob was perfect. Until at about
six months they noticed that Jacob seemed oddly
withdrawn and unresponsive. Not to worry they were told.
Give it some time. With time, however, Jacob seemed
only to get worse.
•
After a battery of tests doctors confirmed their worst
nightmare: their perfect baby boy had Canavan disease.
He would never see. He would never walk. Or talk, or sit
up on his own or feed himself. He would never go to
school or say mommy or daddy. Jacob would never be
able to do anything for himself. He is utterly helpless.
•
This this an alternately heartbreaking and exhilarating
portrait by a mother of her severely disabled son, Jacob
taught and continues to teach her and everyone around
him what it means to live each day to the fullest.
•
Brave and candid, it includes the highs and lows, the
buoyant hopes and shattering disappointments, the
sorrows and joys. Lessons from Jacob is finally an
unforgettably portrait of a courageous boy who sees past
his own disability to embrace the simple and everyday
beauty that if life.
• The message on the milk carton
reads, "Have you seen this child?"
• Three-year-old Jennie Spring was
kidnapped 12 years earlier, but Janie
Johnson, looking at the photo,
suddenly knows that she is that child.
•
Fragments of memory and evidence
accumulate, and when she demands
to know about her early childhood
years, her parents confess what they
believe to be true, that she is really
their grandchild, the child of their
long-missing daughter who had
joined a cult.
• Janie wants to accept this, but she
cannot forget Jennie's family and their
loss. Finally, almost against her will,
she seeks help and confides in her
parents.
One of the worst abuse cases in California's
history came to an end on March 5, 1973.
Dave Pelzer begins his incredible story as
an abused child with his rescue in part on
of a series, A Child Called It.
Easy to read, but difficult to comprehend
how any mother could treat her child this
way.
Horrific Abuse
• Besides being horribly beaten, Dave was
forced to eat his own vomit, swallow soap,
ammonia, and Clorox. This was just the
beginning of his mother's "games". Dave's
childhood wasn't always a nightmare. There
were the "good years" in the beginning and
Dave devotes a chapter describing the
feelings of warmth and safety provided by
his mother. By the age of 4 these feelings
were replaced with fear, starvation, and
lowliness.
•
In Promise Me, For the past six years
Myron has been leading a quiet life, in
Livingston, N.J.
•
A new girlfriend, Ali Wilder, a 9/11 widow,
is helping to bring him out of his shell.
Concerned that Ali's teenage daughter,
Erin, and Erin's friend, Aimee Biel, might
fall in with the wrong crowd, Myron gives
them his contact information in case
either of them feels she needs help.
•
Aimee later calls him in the middle of the
night for a lift to a friend's house, on
condition that her request remain a
secret.
•
When Aimee turns up missing in
circumstances mirroring those
surrounding another vanished girl, Bolitar
himself becomes a suspect in her
disappearance and must use his wits and
martial arts skills to uncover the truth.
•
Many twists!
•
Recommended by many Rideau students
•
•
•
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The narrator of this book is a 12-year-old named
Baby, who is hovering between childhood and the
temptations of the adult world. Her father, Jules, takes
better care of his heroin habit than he does of her,
and Baby learns not to depend on him.
Though they live in poverty, she collects the small
crumbs of happiness she finds as she navigates the
streets of Montreal's red-light district.
On the outside, Baby is whipsmart, wickedly funny
and has a genius for survival; on the inside, she's as
needy and as fragile as any girl entering puberty.
She experiences highs and lows during stints in
foster care and in a juvenile detention centre, all the
while craving love and stability in her life.
•
Baby grows to depend on the charismatic predator
Alphonse, a local pimp who is riveted by her
blossoming beauty.
•
At the same time, she nurtures a tender and naively
passionate friendship with Xavier, a classmate who is
clueless about his girlfriend's double life.
•
Lullabies for Little Criminals is a powerful novel, of a
young woman who learns to adapt to heartbreaking
circumstances, and about the young man who
became her parent too early.
•
After rescuing his baby brother from an
open window's ledge, 15-year-old David
Case concludes "just two seconds were
all that stood between normal everyday
life, and utter, total catastrophe."
•
Convinced that Fate is toying with him,
David tries to elude detection by
creating a new identity, starting with his
name and his wardrobe. Eventually, he
refuses to return home and plunges into
an affair with an older girl.
•
He thinks fate is out to get him.
This sequel to Holes focuses on Armpit, an
African-American
It's two years after his release, and the 16-year
old is still digging holes, although now getting
paid for it, working for a landscaper in his
hometown of Austin, TX.
He's trying to turn his life around, knowing that everyone
expects the worst of him and that he must take small
steps to keep
Then X-Ray, his friend and fellow former detainee at the
juvenile detention center, comes up with a get-rich-quick
scheme involving scalping tickets to a concert by
teenage pop star Kaira DeLeon, Armpit fronts X-Ray the
money. He takes his best friend and neighbor, Ginny, a
10-year-old with cerebral palsy, to the concert and ends
up meeting Kaira, getting romantically involved.
He becomes a hero by saving her life when her
stepfather tries to kill her and frame him.
Armpit's relationship with Ginny, the first person to care
for him, look up to him, and give his life meaning, is a
compassionate one.
• Janie Johnson first saw her face on a milk
carton one year ago.
•
Reeve Shields, her boyfriend, is now a
college freshman and dreams of being a
talk-show DJ. As he stares at the
microphone in the control room of the
campus radio station, the story of Janie's
kidnapping at the age of three begins to
slide out of his mouth and into the
airwaves of Boston.
• Janie, in the meantime, is trying to
recover from six months of nonstop
confusion in her life, having recently
learned about her past.
•
When she accompanies her newfound
sister and brother on a trip to visit
colleges (and see her boyfriend) in
Boston, Reeve's voice on the radio
makes their tumultuous lives veer in a
completely new direction.
•
Jeremy Heere, hopeless nerd, wants to date
beautiful Christine Caniglia. He knows she's way
out of his league, until he acquires a squip, which
guides him through a physical and mental
transformation.
•
Following the squip's instructions on how to
dress, speak, kiss, act and exercise, Jeremy rises
above his geek status and becomes --- dare he
say it --- popular.
•
This, of course, comes with a few problems.
Computers, for all their quantum mechanics, can't
quite get the hang of human emotions, like love
and friendship.
•
They can't understand why Jeremy wants to take
his geeky best friend Michael to a party featuring
the hottest girls in school.
•
And while they may tell Jeremy what to say to
Christine, they can only calculate so many
possible outcomes of the conversation. Jeremy's
squip eventually leads him to disaster, and he has
to figure out what he's going to do all on his own.
•
The larger-than-life characters fit in perfectly with
the idea of a pill-sized computer running Jeremy's
life at Leni Lenape High School.
• The controversial novel
about the murder of one
child by another
Looking for JJ is a fictional
novel about the murder of a
child by another child the same
age.
It's already won the Booktrust
Teenage Prize and has now
been shortlisted for this year's
Carnegie Children's Book
Award.
•
•
Why would a 10-year-old girl kill her best friend?
And how should the justice system treat such a child?
•
Moving from place to place in order to find modeling employment, often leaving Jennifer with
her Gram or even alone, Jennifer's beautiful mother Carol finally seems to settle down in
Berwick.
•
Jennifer begins an almost normal life, enjoying school and the friends (outgoing, bossy
Michelle and mouse-like Lucy.)
•
Jennifer's world unravels slowly as she realizes that her mother is modeling for pornographic
photos and may even be a prostitute. She and her two friends are determined to punish Lucy's
two brutish older brothers for their rude remarks about Jennifer's mother
•
Once there, however, they find incriminating photos of Carol, and, in an overwhelming rush of
loss and anger, Jennifer hits Michelle with a baseball bat and, assuming that she is dead,
covers her with branches before she returns home.
•
Of course, Jennifer’s actions are discovered, and the parents and police find Michelle dead,
perhaps the victim of the feral cats that live in the park.
•
In Looking for JJ, Jennifer, now 17, and estranged from her greedy, grasping mother, has been
released from prison to begin a new life.
•
Known as Alice, she lives in terror of being found out as the newspapers rehash the story
because of her supposed release, which actually happened six months earlier.
•
Betrayed by a newshound and her own mother, Alice is forced to move again to another safe
house. The story ends with her safe arrival at a university residence as Kate Rickman, where
she has to give up all her former supports (Rosie, Frankie and herself as Alice) to begin again.
•
Twelve-year-old Danny Walker is an average kid who
loves basketball. Despite his small stature he hopes
to someday play on the same travel team as his dad,
Richie Walker, who led the team to the national
championship when he was Danny's age.
•
Danny's hopes are dashed, however, when he is
deemed "too small" to play on the travel team by his
dad's childhood adversary, Mr. Ross, who seems to
want a winning team based mostly on physical
strength rather than wit.
•
Then his dad comes up with a great idea --- Danny
can have his own travel team! Danny is at first a little
skeptical that his dad can coach a seventh-grade
travel team, especially since he has had trouble
keeping jobs due to a near-fatal car accident that left
him unable to play pro basketball again.
•
Richie, however, is determined to prove that he can
help his son fulfill his goal and fight his own inner
demons. There's also the problem of finding enough
talented players, but with the help of Danny's friends
they are able to do just that.
•
Most of all though is the much-needed strength to
endure all the obstacles that seem to be keeping
them from their ultimate goal --- winning the state
championship.
•
Melinda Sordino, a student with good grades and
great friends, has made some mistakes.
•
At the end of a summer party she calls the cops,
yet when they arrive she doesn’t tell them
anything.
•
Back at school the next year, her friends won’t
speak to her, and people she doesn’t even know
hate her as the fink who wrecked everybody’s
party, and her grades start dropping.
•
Her relationship with her parents (which is
characterized by post it notes) deteriorates quickly.
She becomes sullen, and withdrawn. However this
picture is not the whole story.
•
Her parents know something is wrong but cannot
get her to open up. Her only hope is her art
teacher; he realizes something is very wrong and
through the assignments he gives her tries to draw
her out.
•
This is a story of a girl who is abused (she was
raped by a senior at the summer party), and who
doesn’t know how to talk about it, but in keeping it
inside she is self -destructing.
•
Can Melinda find her voice and speak of her
sorrow, or will her silence destroy her?
•
Prom. Most teenagers spend months, maybe even years,
dreaming about this magical night. The dresses! The limos!
The dates! Ashley Hannigan, however, is not like most teens.
She couldn't care less about prom.
•
Ashley is a self-described "normal kid."
•
Instead of focusing on prom, Ashley is trying to get through
her senior year at Carceras High School. She juggles work,
family, a boyfriend, and friendships in addition to schoolwork
and never-ending detentions.
•
It's not easy. Work involves dressing up in a rat costume and
serving pizza to screaming kids at the EZ-CHEEZ-E
restaurant. Ashley's boyfriend, TJ, has a habit of
mysteriously disappearing. And her family is made up of
three rowdy, younger brothers, a father who's always
involved with home projects that are never completed, and a
mother who always seems to be pregnant!
Ashley's world sounds as hectic as it is, but she also has a
lot of friends at Carceras High School who are obsessed with
prom. At the center of the obsession is Ashley's best friend
and next-door neighbor, Natalia Shulmensky.
•
Natalia, the head of the prom committee, is crushed when
the faculty advisor is busted for stealing the prom money.
•
In a strange twist of events, Ashley, the "anti-prom queen,"
finds herself at the helm of a last-minute attempt to pull off
the prom on a low budget. T
•
hrough her efforts to help her best friend, Ashley starts to
look at things in her life differently and learns more about
herself than she can imagine.
•
Imogene Yeck, former gang member and current fairy
butt-kicker, is the cool "blue girl" at the center of Charles
de Lint's latest urban fantasy novel.
•
Seventeen-year-old Imogene jumps at the chance to lose
her bad girl reputation when her family moves to a new
town. She purposely lays low at Redding High, only
making friends with Maxine, a shy, studious girl who is
Imogene's opposite in every way.
•
Despite a few run-ins with the ruling football jock and his
cheerleader girlfriend, Imogene keeps her temper in check
and even lends some of her bravado to Maxine, who
begins to come out of her straight-A shell.
•
Things are going well for the new friends--until the day
Imogene meets Adrian, the benign ghost of a boy who
died in the school's parking lot. Adrian and Imogene's
unusual connection attracts the unwelcome attention of
Redding High's resident Little People, or fairies.
•
Affronted by streetwise Imogene's lack of belief in them,
the fairies set into motion a malevolent prank that will not
only turn Imogene completely blue from head to toe, but
pit her, Adrian and Maxine against some of the most
frightening beings of the Otherworld--the soul-sucking
Anamithims.
•
Although the action builds slowly, the final scene,
involving a bucket of blue paint, a knife fight, and green
monster blood, is absolutely worth it.
•
Sequel to Rules of the Road
•
The 17-year-old still likes to be in control is
thrown for a loop when her elderly employer,
Mrs. Gladstone, hires a young man caught
stealing from the shoe store where she works
•
She appoints Jenna as his supervisor. The
teen is still dealing with many issues in her own
life, including an alcoholic father and a beloved
grandmother whose Alzheimer's disease is
progressing.
•
Just as it seems that her life is as complicated
as she can handle, she discovers that Mrs.
Gladstone's son has been secretly utilizing
unethical overseas labor tactics to cut costs
and downgrade the quality of the shoes.
•
Bauer's strength in characterization is amply
evident here.
•
Eleven-year-old Peter finds out he is adopted,
strives to gain glimmers of affection from his stoic,
insensitive parents
•
He is killed by a car when he runs out of their
home in a tearful rage. "Peter always acted
without thinking," says his mother at his funeral.
But life is not over yet; Peter is granted three
chances to get it right before he is permanently
dead.
•
•
In the process he learns to make friends,
communicate clearly with his parents about his
anxieties and follow his dream of being an artist
even though his mother finds it a "waste of time"
and his father thinks he should do something
more manly.
•
Peter is likable, creative and admirable in his
ability to change his behavior.
•
The author examines the idea of time travel and
of consciously tampering with the future.
•
When a silly conflict arises because Peter
thoughtlessly predicts the future (having lived
through the same days several times), its
resolution is simple and emotionally truthful.
•
Thirteen-year-old Jules can't believe that her
loving father would simply walk out after a
particularly angry fight with her mother and not
even leave a way for Jules to reach him.
•
In between landing the role of Lyra in a
theatrical production and having troubles with
her best friend at school, Jules slowly learns
the truth.
•
Shortly before Jules's parents' wedding, her
mother had had a one-night stand, resulting in
Jules's conception, and her father has only
just found out.
•
Furious, he sues for damages, including the
costs, with interest, that he has incurred in
bringing up Jules. The case appears in the
paper with Jules's identity masked as "Child
X"; shortly thereafter, a newspaper reporter
interviews Jules about her role as Lyra, and
Jules improbably reveals that she is Child X.
•
Soon Jules is at the center of a media circus,
and her plight only worsens when she flips on
a TV talk show just in time to watch a guest
inform viewers that Jules's natural father is in
fact her uncle.
•
This is the story of Charley, a child of divorce who is
always forced to choose between his mother and his
father.
•
He grows into a man and starts a family of his own.
But one fateful weekend, he leaves his mother to
secretly be with his father and she dies while he is
gone.
•
This haunts him for years. It unravels his own young
family. It leads him to depression and drunkenness.
One night, he decides to take his life.
•
But somewhere between this world and the next, he
encounters his mother again, in their hometown,
and gets to spend one last day with her the day he
missed and always wished he had.
•
He asks the questions many of us yearn to ask, the
questions we never ask while our parents are alive.
•
By the end of this magical day, Charley discovers
how little he really knew about his mother, the secret
of how her love saved their family, and how deeply
he wants the second chance to save his own.
•
Simone, 16, has always known she was adopted but has
never had any real desire to meet her birth mother despite the
fact that she knows her parents keep in touch.
•
Her family is perfect - Sure, she looks different and has
different talents from her parents and younger brother, but that
has never mattered. That all changes when Rivka calls and
wants to meet her.
•
What had begun as a normal school year changes as Simone
must come to terms with who she is and how she fits into both
families.
•
When she then learns that Rivka is dying, it becomes a year
that challenges her belief in God, a belief she did not know
she had.
•
It becomes a year that strains the bonds of friendships and
family ties, both old and new. It becomes a year of her first
boyfriend, and a year in an impossible life.
•
It also has strong subplots that deal with friendship; with
boyfriend/girlfriend relationships, both good and bad; with
standing up for what one believes is right; and with struggling
to keep up with academics and fit in at school when things
seem to be falling apart on a personal level.
•
•
•
12-year-old Nicky Dillon, while snowshoeing hear a small cry that they
presume is from a cat. It is followed by the sounds of a car door
slamming and then an engine revving along a road in the distance.
A moment later they discover that what they had thought was a cat is
actually a newborn baby, left in a sleeping bag to die in the woods in the
cold.
•
Nicky's mom and baby sister died together in a car accident two years
earlier. Dad gave up his job with a prestigious architectural firm in
Manhattan, and moved with Nicky to a secluded house in an obscure
village where they knew absolutely no one.
•
There he has built furniture, some of which he occasionally sells, while
sleepwalking through the tasks of being a father.
•
Father and daughter rescue the baby, deliver the child to the nearby
hospital and then settle in for what Nicky expects will be another
incredibly pathetic Christmas in their clunky old house in the woods.
•
A 19-year-old stranger appears at the secluded homestead - a young
woman who claims to be interested in purchasing a table as a
Christmas present. She faints, and it becomes clear that she is the
infant's mom.
•
The storm continues, and soon she will be snowbound in the Dillons'
small house with Nicky and dad
•
Will dad, who loathes the young mother for her role in the attempted
infanticide, turn her in to the police as soon as the roads are clear? Will
Nicky, who is desperate for a female role model in her life, see the older
teen as someone to emulate or scorn?
At First Sight
•
37-year-old Jeremy Marsh ended up falling in love with Lexie
Darnell, the 30-year-old town librarian. Now Lexie is
pregnant—but it's true love (and a portable job) that's allowing
divorcé Jeremy to move down so they can marry and build a
life together.
•
The book centers on the tension-filled runup to the wedding.
Sparks pulls out all the smalltown stops—psychic
grandmother, meddling mayor, sullen townie ex, jealous best
•
•
Jeremy starts to experience writer's block (he is a columnist)
More compelling are the mysterious e-mails Jeremy receives
that suggest Lexie may not be telling the truth (about who the
father is, for one thing), and the character of Lexie's psychic
grandmother, Doris, who has correctly predicted the sex of
every child born in the town.
•
As the wedding gets closer (and house renovations suck
more and more money from Jeremy's dwindling savings),
Jeremy and Lexie have some serious talking to do.
•
Sparks throws in a substantial zinger at the end. It's majorly
manipulative and totally effective. Have plenty of tissues on
hand.