Spring 2015
Ms. Sillin
Seventh Grade
Some people won’t believe
any of this story. You might
be one of them. But every
single word is true. Tony
DiMarco does catch a
murderer, solve a mystery,
and find a treasure—all in
the first few days he moves,
unexpectedly, to 13
Hangman’s Court in Boston.
The fact that he also turns
thirteen at the same time is
not a coincidence.
Some people won’t believe any of this story. You might be one of them. But every single
word is true. Tony DiMarco does catch a murderer, solve a mystery, and find a
treasure—all in the first few days he moves, unexpectedly, to 13 Hangman’s Court in
Boston. The fact that he also turns thirteen at the same time is not a coincidence.
Peculiar things are going on in the town of
Medley over the summer of 1963, but it's
hard for twelve-year-old Cully Pennyacre to
figure out what it all means. His father has
disappeared mysteriously, people don't seem
like themselves, and his apprenticeship at
Betty's Attic antique store gets stranger each
day. The owner has a disturbing hobby of
collecting people's shadows with a weird
projectorlike machine and foul-smelling
chemicals. He claims the process is
harmless, but it leaves his victims listless
and passive. Odd happenings become the
norm as Cully, Batty's granddaughter Isabel,
and Cully's best friend band together to get
to the bottom of a secret black market in
human shadows.
Tyrone "Li'l T" Roberts meets
Buddy when his family's car
accidentally hits the stray dog
on their way to church. Buddy
turns out to be the dog Li'l T's
always wished for--until
Hurricane Katrina comes to
New Orleans and he must leave
Buddy behind. After the storm,
Li'l T and his father return home
to find a community struggling
to rebuild their lives--and
Buddy gone. But Li'l T refuses
to give up his quest to find his
best friend.
A moving debut novel about a foster child
learning to open her heart to a family's
love.Carley uses humor and street
smarts to keep her emotional walls high
and thick. But the day she becomes a
foster child, and moves in with the
Murphys, she's blindsided. This loving,
bustling family shows Carley the stable
family life she never thought existed,
and she feels like an alien in their
cookie-cutter-perfect household.
Despite her resistance, the Murphys
eventually show her what it feels like to
belong--until her mother wants her back
and Carley has to decide where and
how to live. She's not really a Murphy,
but the gifts they've given her have
opened up a new future.
From #1 New York Times bestselling
author Gordon Korman comes a
hilarious and heartfelt novel in which
one middle-school troublemaker
accidentally moves into the gifted and
talented program—and changes
everything. For fans of Louis Sachar
and Jack Gantos, this funny and
touching underdog story is a lovable
and goofy adventure with robot fights,
middle-school dances, live experiments,
and statue-toppling pranks!
As twelve-year-old Marlee starts middle
school in 1958 Little Rock, it feels like her
whole world is falling apart. Until she meets
Liz, the new girl at school. Liz is everything
Marlee wishes she could be: she's brave,
brash and always knows the right thing to
say. But when Liz leaves school without
even a good-bye, the rumor is that Liz was
caught passing for white. Marlee decides
that doesn't matter. She just wants her friend
back. And to stay friends, Marlee and Liz
are even willing to take on segregation and
the dangers their friendship could bring to
both their families.
Katerina has a dream. It’s her papa’s dream,
too. Her family came to America to buy their own farm.
But a year later, Papa is still working in the dangerous coal
mine. Each day, the farm seems farther away.Then
Katerina is reminded of the carp that granted three
wishes in an old folktale. When her younger sisters
hear the story, they immediately make wishes. Trina
doesn’t believe in such silliness—but what is she to
think when her sisters’ wishes come true?A farm is
still too big to wish for. But, with the help of the
neighbor’s handsome son, Trina starts building her
dream with hard work and good sense. Then tragedy
strikes, and it seems that nothing Trina wishes for will
ever come true again.With warmth and gentle humor,
Jeannie Mobley tells the story of a girl whose
determination is as inspiring as her dreams.
Temple Grandin may be the most famous person with autism, a condition that affects 1 in 88 children.
Since her birth in 1947, our understanding of it has undergone a great transformation, leading to more
hope than ever before that we may finally learn the causes of and treatments for autism.
Weaving her own experience with remarkable new discoveries, Grandin introduces the advances in
neuroimaging and genetic research that link brain science to behavior, even sharing her own brain scan
to show which anomalies might explain common symptoms. Most excitingly, she argues that raising
and educating kids on the autism spectrum must focus on their long-overlooked strengths to foster their
unique contributions. The Autistic Brain brings Grandin’s singular perspective into the heart of the
autism revolution.
In this first book in a remarkable trilogy, an orphan is
forced into a twisted game with deadly stakes.
Choose to lie...or choose to die.
In a discontent kingdom, civil war is brewing. To unify
the divided people, Conner, a nobleman of the court,
devises a cunning plan to find an impersonator of the
king's long-lost son and install him as a puppet prince.
Four orphans are recruited to compete for the role,
including a defiant boy named Sage. Sage knows that
Conner's motives are more than questionable, yet his life
balances on a sword's point -- he must be chosen to play
the prince or he will certainly be killed. But Sage's rivals
have their own agendas as well.
As Sage moves from a rundown orphanage to Conner's
sumptuous palace, layer upon layer of treachery and
deceit unfold, until finally, a truth is revealed that, in the
end, may very well prove more dangerous than all of the
lies taken together.
An extraordinary adventure filled with danger and action,
lies and deadly truths that will have readers clinging to
the edge of their seats.
Based on a true story!
When Ivan's mother disappears, he's abandoned on the
streets of Moscow, with little chance to make it through
the harsh winter. But help comes in an unexpected
form: Ivan is adopted by a pack of dogs, and the dogs
quickly become more than just his street companions:
They become his family. Soon Ivan, who used to love
reading fairytales, is practically living in one, as he and
his pack roam the city and countryside, using their wits
to find food and shelter, dodging danger, begging for
coins. But Ivan can't stay hidden from the world of
people forever. When help is finally offered to him, will
he be able to accept it? Will he even want to?
A heart-pounding tale of survival and a moving look at
what makes us human.
In December of 1938, a chemist in a German
laboratory made a shocking discovery: When
placed next to radioactive material, a
Uranium atom split in two. That simple
discovery launched a scientific race that
spanned 3 continents. In Great Britain and
the United States, Soviet spies worked their
way into the scientific community; in
Norway, a commando force slipped behind
enemy lines to attack German heavy-water
manufacturing; and deep in the desert, one
brilliant group of scientists was hidden away
at a remote site at Los Alamos. This is the
story of the plotting, the risk-taking, the
deceit, and genius that created the world's
most formidable weapon. This is the story of
the atomic bomb.
I come from a country that was created at midnight.
When I almost died it was just after midday."
When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in
Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to
be silenced and fought for her right to an education.
On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she
almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head
at point-blank range while riding the bus home from
school, and few expected her to survive.
Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on
an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in
northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in
New York. At sixteen, she became a global symbol of
peaceful protest and the youngest nominee ever for the
Nobel Peace Prize.
I AM MALALA is the remarkable tale of a family
uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls'
education, of a father who, himself a school owner,
championed and encouraged his daughter to write and
attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce
love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons.
I AM MALALA will make you believe in the power of
one person's voice to inspire change in the world.Text
The Giver, the 1994 Newbery Medal
winner, has become one of the most
influential novels of our time. The
haunting story centers on twelve-yearold Jonas, who lives in a seemingly
ideal, if colorless, world of conformity
and contentment. Not until he is given
his life assignment as the Receiver of
Memory does he begin to understand
the dark, complex secrets behind his
fragile community. Lois Lowry has
written three companion novels to The
Giver, including Gathering Blue,
Messenger, and Son.
When twelve-year-old Dana Shannon starts to
strip away wallpaper in her family's old house,
she's unprepared for the surprise that awaits her.
A hidden room -- containing a human skeleton!
How did such a thing get there? And why was
the tiny room sealed up? With the help of a
diary found in the room, Dana learns her
house was once a station on the
Underground Railroad. The young woman
whose remains Dana discovered was
Lizbet Charles, a conductor and former
slave. As the scene shifts between Dana's
world and 1856, the story of the families
that lived in the house unfolds. But as
pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place,
one haunting question remains -- why did
Lizbet Charles die?
Award-winning author Andrea Warren
presents a life-changing story of a young
boy's struggle for survival in a Nazi-run
concentration camp. In this Robert F. Silbert
Honor Book, narrated in the voice of
Holocaust survivor Jack Mandelbaum, readers
will glimpse the dark reality of life during the
Holocaust, and how one boy made it out
alive.
When twelve-year-old Jack Mandelbaum is
separated from his family and shipped off to
the Blechhammer concentration camp, his life
becomes a never-ending nightmare. With
minimal food to eat and harsh living
conditions threatening his health, Jack
manages to survive by thinking of his family.
Doomed to—or blessed
with—eternal life after
drinking from a magic spring,
the Tuck family wanders
about trying to live as
inconspicuously and
comfortably as they can.
When ten-year-old Winnie
Foster stumbles on their
secret, the Tucks take her
home and explain why living
forever at one age is less a
blessing that it might seem.
Complications arise when
Winnie is followed by a
stranger who wants to market
the spring water for a fortune.