Ashfall
by Mike Mullin
•
•
Under the bubbling hot springs and
geysers of Yellowstone National Park is
a supervolcano. Most people don't
know it's there. The caldera is so large
that it can only be seen from a plane or
satellite. It just could be overdue for an
eruption, which would change the
landscape and climate of our planet.
For Alex, being left alone for the
weekend means having the freedom to
play computer games and hang out
with his friends without hassle from his
mother. Then the Yellowstone
supervolcano erupts, plunging his
hometown into a nightmare of
darkness, ash, and violence. Alex begins
a harrowing trek to seach for his family
and finds help in Darla, a travel partner
he meets along the way. Together they
must find the strength and skills to
survive and outlast an epic disaster.
Boy 21
by Mattew Quick
•
•
You can lose yourself in repetition—quiet
your thoughts; I learned the value of this at a
very young age.
Basketball has always been an escape for
Finley. He lives in broken-down Bellmont, a
town ruled by the Irish mob, drugs, violence,
and racially charged rivalries. At home, his
dad works nights, and Finley is left to take
care of his disabled grandfather alone. He's
always dreamed of getting out someday, but
until he can, putting on that number 21 jersey
makes everything seem okay.
Russ has just moved to the neighborhood,
and the life of this teen basketball phenom
has been turned upside down by tragedy. Cut
off from everyone he knows, he won't pick up
a basketball, but answers only to the name
Boy21—taken from his former jersey number.
As their final year of high school brings these
two boys together, a unique friendship may
turn out to be the answer they both need.
Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip
by Jordan Sonnenblick
•
Sometimes, the greatest comebacks
take place far away from the ball field.
Meet Peter Friedman, high school
freshman. Talented photographer.
Former baseball star. When a freakish
injury ends his pitching career, Peter
has some major things to figure out. Is
there life after sports? Why has his
grandfather suddenly given him
thousands of dollars worth of camera
equipment? And is it his imagination,
or is the super-hot star of the girls'
swim team flirting with him, right in
front of the amazing new girl in his
photography class? In his new novel,
teen author Jordan Sonnenblick
performs his usual miraculous feat:
exploring deep themes of friendship,
romance, family, and tragedy, while
still managing to be hilariously funny.
The Disenchantments
by Nina LaCour
• Colby and Bev have a long-standing
pact: graduate, hit the road with Bev's
band, and then spend the year
wandering around Europe. But
moments after the tour kicks off, Bev
makes a shocking announcement: she's
abandoning their plans - and Colby - to
start college in the fall. But the show
must go on and The Disenchantments
weave through the Pacific Northwest,
playing in small towns and dingy
venues, while roadie- Colby struggles to
deal with Bev's already-growing
distance and the most important
question of all: what's next?
• Morris Award—finalist Nina LaCour
draws together the beauty and
influences of music and art to brilliantly
capture a group of friends on the brink
of the rest of their lives.
Erebos
by Ursula Poznanski
•
•
•
•
An intelligent computer game with a
disturbing agenda.
When 16-year-old Nick gets a package, he
wonders if it will explain the behavior of
his classmates, who have been secretive
lately. The package contains the mysterious
computer game Erebos. Players must obey
strict rules: always play alone, never talk
about the game, and never tell anyone
your nickname.
Curious, Nick joins the game and quickly
becomes addicted. But Erebos knows a lot
about the players and begins to manipulate
their lives. When it sends Nick on a deadly
assignment, he refuses and is banished
from the game.
Now unable to play, Nick turns to a friend
for help in finding out who controls the
game. The two set off on a dangerous
mission in which the border between
reality and the virtual world begins to blur.
Every Day
by David Levithan
•
•
A has no friends. No parents. No family. No
possessions. No home, even. Because every day, A
wakes up in the body of a different person. Every
morning, a different bed. A different room. A
different house. A different life. A is able to access
each person's memory, enough to be able to get
through the day without parents, friends, and
teachers realizing this is not their child, not their
friend, not their student. Because it isn't. It's A.
Inhabiting each person's body. Seeing the world
through their eyes. Thinking with their brain.
Speaking with their voice.
It's a lonely existence—until, one day, it isn't. A
meets a girl named Rhiannon. And, in an instant, A
falls for her, after a perfect day together. But when
night falls, it's over. Because A can never be the
same person twice. But yet, A can't stop thinking
about her. She becomes A's reason for existing. So
each day, in different bodies—of all shapes, sizes,
backgrounds, walks of life—A tries to get back to
her. And convince her of their love. But can their
love transcend such an obstacle?
The Fault in Our Stars
by John Green
• Despite the tumor-shrinking medical
miracle that has bought her a few
years, Hazel has never been anything
but terminal, her final chapter
inscribed upon diagnosis. But when
a gorgeous plot twist named
Augustus Waters suddenly appears
at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's
story is about to be completely
rewritten.
• Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw,
The Fault in Our Stars is awardwinning-author John Green's most
ambitious and heartbreaking work
yet, brilliantly exploring the funny,
thrilling, and tragic business of being
alive and in love.
•
•
•
Once a century, one person is chosen
for greatness.
Elisa has always felt powerless,
useless. Now, on her sixteenth
birthday, she has become the secret
wife of a handsome and worldly king—
a king who needs her to be the chosen
one, not a failure of a princess. And
he's not the only one who seeks her.
Savage enemies, seething with dark
magic, are hunting her. A daring,
determined revolutionary thinks she
could save his people. And he looks at
her in a way no man has ever looked
at her before. Elisa could be
everything to those who need her
most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she
finds the power deep within herself. If
she doesn't die young.
Most of the chosen do.
The Good Braider
by Terry Farish
•
Viola is a South Sudanese teenager faced
with fleeing the war-torn country she calls
home with her mother and younger
brother in hopes of immigrating to
America. Tragedy strikes before her family
even reaches Cairo, where they must stay
for many months while waiting for their
paperwork to go through. Once in
America, Viola is suddenly faced with the
completely foreign prospect of becoming
an "American Teenager." Her mother's
unyielding desire for Viola to remain
faithfully Sudanese clashes violently with
Viola's hunger to enjoy her newfound
freedom. Viola must weave together the
disparate pieces of both her past and her
present before she can envision herself as
a whole, both Sudanese and American, in
the future.
Grave Mercy
by R. L. LaFevers
• When 17-year-old Ismae entered
the convent at St. Mortain, it was
less a chosen destination than an
escape. Repulsed by the prospect
of an arranged marriage, she
entered the sanctuary, nor
knowing that her decision to
remain there comes with a
condition: She must serve as the
handmaiden of the God of Death
and become an assassin. After
she trains in the art of devious
killing, she embarks on her first
mission. Before long, she makes a
discovery: Destroying another life
is painful; destroying someone
you love is almost impossible.
The Hunt
by Andrew Xia Fukuda
•
•
Gene is different from everyone else around
him. He can’t run with lightning speed, sunlight
doesn’t hurt him and he doesn’t have an
unquenchable lust for blood. Gene is a human, and
he knows the rules. Keep the truth a secret. It’s
the only way to stay alive in a world of night—a
world where humans are considered a delicacy and
hunted for their blood.
When he’s chosen for a once in a lifetime
opportunity to hunt the last remaining humans,
Gene’s carefully constructed life begins to crumble
around him. He’s thrust into the path of a girl who
makes him feel things he never thought possible—
and into a ruthless pack of hunters whose
suspicions about his true nature are growing. Now
that Gene has finally found something worth
fighting for, his need to survive is stronger than
ever—but is it worth the cost of his humanity?
I Hunt Killers
by Barry Lyga
• It was a beautiful day. It was a
beautiful field. Except for the body.
Jazz is a likable teenager. A charmer,
some might say.
But he's also the son of the world's
most infamous serial killer, and for
Dear Old Dad, "Take Your Son to Work
Day" was year-round. Jazz has
witnessed crime scenes the way cops
wish they could--from the criminals'
point of view.
And now, even though Dad has been
in jail for years, bodies are piling up in
the sleepy town of Lobo's Nod. Again.
In an effort to prove murder doesn't
run in the family, Jazz joins the police
in the hunt for this new serial killer.
But Jazz has a secret--could he be
more like his father than anyone
knows?
The Language of Flowers
by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
•
•
The Victorian language of flowers was used
to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle
for devotion, asters for patience, and red
roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it’s
been more useful in communicating grief,
mistrust, and solitude. After a childhood
spent in the foster-care system, she is unable
to get close to anybody, and her only
connection to the world is through flowers
and their meanings.
Now eighteen and emancipated from the
system, Victoria has nowhere to go and
sleeps in a public park, where she plants a
small garden of her own. Soon a local florist
discovers her talents, and Victoria realizes
she has a gift for helping others through the
flowers she chooses for them. But a
mysterious vendor at the flower market has
her questioning what’s been missing in her
life, and when she’s forced to confront a
painful secret from her past, she must
decide whether it’s worth risking everything
for a second chance at happiness.
Leverage
by Joshua Cohen
•
•
•
The football field is a battlefield There's an
extraordinary price for victory at Oregrove
High. It is paid on and of the football field.
And it claims its victims without mercy,
including the most innocent bystanders.
When a violent, steroid-infused, everescalating prank war has devastating
consequences, an unlikely friendship
between a talented but emotionally
damaged fullback and a promising gymnast
might hold the key to a school’s salvation.
Told in alternating voices and with
unapologetic truth, Leverage illuminates the
fierce loyalty, flawed justice, and hard-won
optimism of two young athletes.
My Book of Life by Angel
by Martine Leavitt
• When sixteen-year-old Angel meets
Call at the mall, he buys her meals and
says he loves her, and he gives her
some candy that makes her feel like
she can fly. Pretty soon she's addicted
to his candy, and she moves in with
him. As a favor, he asks her to hook up
with a couple of friends of his, and
then a couple more. Now Angel is
stuck working the streets at Hastings
and Main, a notorious spot in
Vancouver, Canada, where the girls
turn tricks until they disappear without
a trace, and the authorities don't care.
But after her friend Serena disappears,
and when Call brings home a girl who
is even younger and more vulnerable
than her to learn the trade, Angel
knows that she and the new girl have
got to find a way out.
by Huntley Fitpatrick
• The Garretts are everything the
Reeds are not. Loud, numerous,
messy, affectionate. And every
day from her balcony perch,
seventeen-year-old Samantha
Reed wishes she was one of
them . . . until one summer
evening, Jase Garrett climbs her
terrace and changes everything.
As the two fall fiercely in love,
Jase's family makes Samantha
one of their own. Then in an
instant, the bottom drops out of
her world and she is suddenly
faced with an impossible
decision. Which perfect family
will save her? Or is it time she
saved herself?
Never Fall Down
by J J Johnson
•
•
•
When soldiers arrive at his hometown in Cambodia, Arn
is just a kid, dancing to rock 'n' roll, hustling for spare
change, and selling ice cream with his brother. But after
the soldiers march the entire population into the
countryside, his life is changed forever. Arn is separated
from his family and assigned to a labor camp: working in
the rice paddies under a blazing sun, he sees the other
children, weak from hunger, malaria, or sheer
exhaustion, dying before his eyes. He sees prisoners
marched to a nearby mango grove, never to return. And
he learns to be invisible to the sadistic Khmer Rouge,
who can give or take away life on a whim.
One day, the soldiers ask if any of the kids can play an
instrument. Arn's never played a note in his life, but he
volunteers. In order to survive, he must quickly master
the strange revolutionary songs the soldiers demand—
and steal food to keep the other kids alive. This decision
will save his life, but it will pull him into the very center
of what we know today as the Killing Fields. And just as
the country is about to be liberated from the Khmer
Rouge, Arn is handed a gun and forced to become a
soldier. He lives by the simple credo: Over and over I
tell myself one thing: never fall down.
Based on the true story of Arn Chorn-Pond, this is an
achingly raw and powerful novel about a child of war
who becomes a man of peace, from National Book
Award finalist Patricia McCormick.
Pink
by Geoff Herbach
•
•
•
•
Ava has a secret. She is tired of her ultracool
attitude, ultra-radical politics, and ultrablack
clothing. She's ready to try something new—she's
even ready to be someone new. Someone who fits
in, someone with a gorgeous boyfriend, someone
who wears pink.
Transferring to Billy Hughes School for Academic
Excellence is the perfect chance to try on a new
identity. But just in case things don't work out, Ava
is hiding her new interests from her parents, and
especially from her old girlfriend.
Secrets have a way of being hard to keep, though,
and Ava finds that changing herself is more
complicated than changing her wardrobe. Even
getting involved in the school musical raises issues
she never imagined. As she faces surprising choices
and unforeseen consequences, Ava wonders if she
will ever figure out who she really wants to be.
Humor, heart, and the joys of drama—on- and
offstage—combine in Ava's delight-fully colorful
journey of self-discovery.
Raven Boys
by Maggie Stiefvater
• It is freezing in the churchyard, even
before the dead arrive.
Every year, Blue Sargent stands next
to her clairvoyant mother as the
soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue
herself never sees them-not until this
year, when a boy emerges from the
dark and speaks directly to her.
His name is Gansey, and Blue soon
discovers that he is a rich student at
Aglionby, the local private school.
Blue has a policy of staying away
from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven
Boys, they can only mean trouble.
But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way
she can't entirely explain. He has it
all-family money, good looks,
devoted friends-but he's looking for
much more than that. He is on a
quest .
UnWholly
by Neal Shusterman
•
•
•
Thanks to Connor, Lev, and Risa—and their high-profile
revolt at Happy Jack Harvest Camp—people can no
longer turn a blind eye to unwinding. Ridding society of
troublesome teens while simltaneously providing muchneeded tissues for transplant might be convenient, but
its morality has finally been brought into question.
However, unwinding has become big business, and there
are powerful political and corporate interests that want
to see it not only continue, but also expand to the
unwinding of prisoners and the impoverished.
Cam is a product of unwinding; made entirely out of the
parts of other unwinds, he is a teen who does not
technically exist. A futuristic Frankenstein, Cam struggles
with a search for identity and meaning and wonders if a
rewound being can have a soul. And when the actions of
a sadistic bounty hunter cause Cam’s fate to become
inextricably bound with the fates of Connor, Risa, and
Lev, he’ll have to question humanity itself.
Rife with action and suspense, this riveting companion to
the perennially popular Unwind challenges assumptions
about where life begins and ends—and what it means to
live.
Georgia Peach Book Award for
2013-2014
Pick a Peach to feed your brain!
Information and pictures from the Barnes and Nobles website
(www.bn.com)
CREATED BY DR. VICKI COUCH AT DACULA HIGH SCHOOL