Open Book: January 18, 2013

OPEN BOOK: AN EMAIL NEWSLETTER FOR TEENS
from the Weston Public Library

Open Book is an email newsletter of book recommendations for teens. It is sent twice a month and includes book excerpts in six teen fiction categories (realistic fiction, historical fiction, action/ adventure/fantasy/science fiction, romance, the buzz: middle school, and the buzz: high school). If you wish to subscribe to Open Book, please email smatathia@minlib.net or sign up in person at the Youth Services desk at the Library. Open Book email newsletters are also archived here on our blog.

Here are the picks for this week…

Don’t forget to click on the title to be connected to our catalog where you can

–Request the book

–Read reviews of the book from multiple sources

Realistic Fiction

Endangered by Eliot Schrefer

Sophie is not happy to be back in the Congo for the summer, but when she rescues an abused baby bonobo she becomes more involved in her mother’s sanctuary–and when fighting breaks out and the sanctuary is attacked, it is up to Sophie to rescue the apes and somehow survive in the jungle.

Read an excerpt

Watch a video from the author

Historical Fiction

Hattie Ever After by Kirby Larson

In 1919, seventeen-year-old Hattie leaves the Montana prairie–and her sweetheart Charlie–to become a female reporter in San Francisco.

Read an excerpt

Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Fever Crumb by Phillip Reeve

Foundling Fever Crumb has been raised as an engineer although females in the future London, England, are not believed capable of rational thought, but at age fourteen she leaves her sheltered world and begins to learn startling truths about her past while facing danger in the present.

Watch the trailer and read an excerpt from all the books in the series

Romance

Just One Day by Gayle Forman

Sparks fly when American good girl Allyson encounters laid-back Dutch actor Willem, so she follows him on a whirlwind trip to Paris, upending her life in just one day and prompting a year of self-discovery and the search for true love.

Read an excerpt

Buzz: Middle School

Kiss Me Again by Rachel Vail

Having once shared a kiss with her best friend’s boyfriend, Kevin, fourteen-year-old Charlie finds life even more awkward when their parents marry, making Kevin, still her crush, now her stepbrother.

Read an excerpt

Buzz:  High School

Girl with Borrowed Wings by Rinsai Rossetti

Seventeen-year-old Frenenqer lives a controlled and restricted life in the desert, like everyone else there, but when she meets Sangris, a Free, winged shape-shifter, everything changes.

Read an excerpt

Open Book: December 28, 2012

OPEN BOOK: AN EMAIL NEWSLETTER FOR TEENS
from the Weston Public Library

Open Book is an email newsletter of book recommendations for teens. It is sent twice a month and includes book excerpts in six teen fiction categories (realistic fiction, historical fiction, action/ adventure/fantasy/science fiction, romance, the buzz: middle school, and the buzz: high school). If you wish to subscribe to Open Book, please email smitchill@minlib.net or sign up in person at the Youth Services desk at the Library. Open Book email newsletters are also archived here on our blog.

Here are the picks for this week…

Don’t forget to click on the title to be connected to our catalog where you can

–Request the book

–Read reviews of the book from multiple sources

Realistic Fiction

Janie Face by Face by Carolyn B. Cooney

At college in New York City, Janie Johnson, aka Jennie Spring, seems to have successfully left behind her past as “The face on the milk carton,” but soon she, her families, and friends are pursued by a true-crime writer who wants their help in telling her kidnapper’s tale.

Watch the book trailer

Read an excerpt from the first book: The Face on the Milk Carton

Historical Fiction

The Musician’s Daughter by Suzanne Dunlap

In eighteenth-century Vienna, Austria, fifteen-year-old Theresa seeks a way to help her mother and brother financially while investigating the murder of her father, a renowned violinist in Haydn’s orchestra at the court of Prince Esterhazy, after his body is found near a gypsy camp.

Read an excerpt

Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to share in an adventure from which he may never return.

Read an excerpt

Romance

Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo

A fifteen-year-old Australian girl gets her first job and first crush on her unattainable university-aged coworker, as both search for meaning in their lives.

Read an excerpt

Buzz: Middle School

Memory Boy by Will Weaver

Sixteen-year-old Miles and his family must flee their Minneapolis home and begin a new life in the wilderness after a chain of cataclysmic volcanic explosions creates dangerous conditions in their city.

Read an excerpt

Buzz:  High School

What We Remember, What We Forget: The Best Young Writers and Artists in America: A PUSH Anthology edited by David Levithan

Every year, the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards receive thousands of entries from all over the country. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the PUSH anthologies, here are the best of the best, from 2008 through 2011. Every one has a story to tell, captured on film or translated into poetry. And every one has a vision to share, smoothed on a canvas or scribbled on paper. This must-read offers a glimpse into the future of art and literature, as only the creators of that future could share.

Read an excerpt

Open Book: December 7, 2012

OPEN BOOK: AN EMAIL NEWSLETTER FOR TEENS
from the Weston Public Library

Open Book is an email newsletter of book recommendations for teens. It is sent twice a month and includes book excerpts in six teen fiction categories (realistic fiction, historical fiction, action/ adventure/fantasy/science fiction, romance, the buzz: middle school, and the buzz: high school). If you wish to subscribe to Open Book, please email smatathia@minlib.net or sign up in person at the Youth Services desk at the Library. Open Book email newsletters are also archived here on our blog.

Here are the picks for this week…

Don’t forget to click on the title to be connected to our catalog where you can

–Request the book

–Read reviews of the book from multiple sources

Realistic Fiction

Rush for the Gold:  Mystery at the Olympics by John Feinstein

Two teenaged aspiring journalists who are dating solve a mystery at the 2012 Olympic Games, while one simultaneously competes for a gold medal in swimming.

Read excerpt

Historical Fiction

Come August, Come Freedom:  The Bellows, The Gallows, and The Black General Gabriel by Gigi Amateau

Imagines the childhood and youth of “Prosser’s Gabriel”, a courageous and intelligent blacksmith in post-Revolutionary Richmond, Virginia, who roused thousands of African-Americans slaves like himself to rebel.

Read excerpt

Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Shelter:  A Mickey Bolitar Novel by Harlan Coben

After tragic events tear Mickey Bolitar away from his parents, he is forced to live with his estranged Uncle Myron and switch high schools, where he finds both friends and enemies, but when his new new girlfriend, Ashley, vanishes, he follows her trail into a seedy underworld that reveals she is not what she seems to be.

Read excerpt

Romance

Not Exactly a Love Story by Audrey Couloumbis

After his parents divorce, high school junior Vinnie Gold moves to Long Island with his mother and new stepfather and must negotiate a secret crush and a rather complicated connection with the popular girl next door.

Read excerpt

Buzz: Middle School

Lia’s Guide to Winning the Lottery by Keren David

When Lia wins eight million in the lottery, her life suddenly changes. But Lia wonders if her fortune creates more problems than it solves.

Read excerpt

Buzz:  High School

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

A 16 year-old Indian boy’s passage to a new life in America aboard a freighter ends in a shipwreck in the Pacific. He is left to fend for himself on a life raft with an orangutan, a zebra, a hyena and a Bengal tiger.

Read excerpt

 

 

Open Book: November 2, 2012

OPEN BOOK: AN EMAIL NEWSLETTER FOR TEENS
from the Weston Public Library

Open Book is an email newsletter of book recommendations for teens. It is sent twice a month and includes book excerpts in six teen fiction categories (realistic fiction, historical fiction, action/ adventure/fantasy/science fiction, romance, the buzz: middle school, and the buzz: high school). If you wish to subscribe to Open Book, please email smatathia@minlib.net or sign up in person at the Youth Services desk at the Library. Open Book email newsletters are also archived here on our blog.

Here are the picks for this week…

Don’t forget to click on the title to be connected to our catalog where you can

–Request the book

–Read reviews of the book from multiple sources

Realistic Fiction

Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson

Tandy Angel is, along with her brothers, a suspect in their parents’ murder but having grown up under Malcolm and Maud Angel’s perfectionist demands, Tandy decides she must clear the family name no matter what.

Read an excerpt or listen to audio excerpts

Historical Fiction

A Beautiful Lie by Irfan Master

In the days leading up to the partition of India in 1947, thirteen-year-old Bilal devises an elaborate scheme to keep his dying father from hearing the news about the country’s division.

Read an excerpt

Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction

The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George

When her mother abandons her on Whidbey Island, Washington, a fourteen-year-old girl with psychic abilities meets a Ugandan orphan with a secret.

Read an excerpt

Romance

Guitar Notes by Mary Amato

Tripp, who plays guitar only for himself, and Lyla, a cellist whose talent has already made her famous but not happy, form an unlikely friendship when they are forced to share a practice room at their high school.

Read an excerpt

Buzz: Middle School

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde

Fifteen-year-old Jennifer Strange runs an agency for underemployed magicians in a world where magic is fading away, but when visions of the death of the world’s last dragon begin, all signs point to Jennifer–and Big Magic.

Read an excerpt

Buzz:  High School

Ask the Passengers by A.S. King

Astrid Jones copes with her small town’s gossip and narrow-mindedness by staring at the sky and imagining that she’s sending love to the passengers in the airplanes flying high over her backyard. Maybe they’ll know what to do with it. Maybe it’ll make them happy. Maybe they’ll need it. Her mother doesn’t want it, her father’s always stoned, her perfect sister’s too busy trying to fit in, and the people in her small town would never allow her to love the person she really wants to: another girl named Dee. There’s no one Astrid feels she can talk to about this deep secret or the profound questions that she’s trying to answer. But little does she know just how much sending her love–and asking the right questions–will affect the passengers’ lives, and her own, for the better.

Read an excerpt

Open Book: October 19, 2012

OPEN BOOK: AN EMAIL NEWSLETTER FOR TEENS
from the Weston Public Library

Open Book is an email newsletter of book recommendations for teens. It is sent twice a month and includes book excerpts in six teen fiction categories (realistic fiction, historical fiction, action/ adventure/fantasy/science fiction, romance, the buzz: middle school, and the buzz: high school). If you wish to subscribe to Open Book, please email smatathia@minlib.net or sign up in person at the Youth Services desk at the Library. Open Book email newsletters are also archived here on our blog.

Here are the picks for this week…

Don’t forget to click on the title to be connected to our catalog where you can

–Request the book

–Read reviews of the book from multiple sources

Fiction

Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow

In a dystopian, near-future Britain, sixteen-year-old Trent, obsessed with making movies on his computer, joins a group of artists and activists who are trying to fight a new bill that will criminalize even more harmless internet creativity.

See excerpt

Historical Fiction

The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon

In 1968 Chicago, fourteen-year-old Sam Childs is caught in a conflict between his father’s nonviolent approach to seeking civil rights for African Americans and his older brother, who has joined the Black Panther Party.

See excerpt

Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction

This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel

When his twin brother falls ill in the family’s chateau in the independent republic of Geneva in the eighteenth century, sixteen-year-old Victor Frankenstein embarks on a dangerous and uncertain quest to create the forbidden Elixir of Life described in an ancient text in the family’s secret Biblioteka Obscura.

See excerpt

Romance

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. For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

See excerpt

Buzz: Middle School

True Legend by Mike Lupica

Fifteen-year-old Drew “True” Robinson loves being the best point-guard prospect in high school basketball, but learns the consequences of fame through a former player, as well as through the man who expects to be his manager when True reaches the NBA.

See excerpt

Buzz:  High School

Personal Effects by E. M. Kokie

Matt has been sleepwalking through life while seeking answers about his brother T.J.’s death in Iraq, but after discovering that he may not have known his brother as well as he thought he did, Matt is able to stand up to his father, honor T.J.’s memory, and take charge of his own life.

See excerpt

Open Book: September 21, 2012

OPEN BOOK: AN EMAIL NEWSLETTER FOR TEENS
from the Weston Public Library

Open Book is an email newsletter of book recommendations for teens. It is sent twice a month and includes book excerpts in six teen fiction categories (realistic fiction, historical fiction, action/ adventure/fantasy/science fiction, romance, the buzz: middle school, and the buzz: high school). If you wish to subscribe to Open Book, please email smatathia@minlib.net or sign up in person at the Youth Services desk at the Library. Open Book email newsletters are also archived here on our blog.

Here are the picks for this week…

Don’t forget to click on the title to be connected to our catalog where you can

–Request the book

–Read reviews of the book from multiple sources

Realistic Fiction

Son by Lois Lowry

Unlike the other Birthmothers in her utopian community, teenaged Claire forms an attachment to her baby, feeling a great loss when he is taken to the Nurturing Center to be adopted by a family unit.

Listen to excerpt

Historical Fiction

Dodger by Terry Pratchett

In an alternative version of Victorian London, a seventeen-year-old Dodger, a cunning and cheeky street urchin, unexpectedly rises in life when he saves a mysterious girl, meets Charles Dickens, and unintentionally puts a stop to the murders of Sweeney Todd.

See excerpt

Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Safekeeping by Karen Hesse

Radley’s parents had warned her that all hell would break loose if the American People’s Party took power. And now, with the president assassinated and the government cracking down on citizens, the news is filled with images of vigilante groups, frenzied looting, and police raids. It seems as if all hell has broken loose.  Coming back from volunteering abroad, Radley just wants to get home to Vermont, and the comfort and safety of her parents. Travel restrictions and delays are worse than ever, and by the time Radley’s plane lands in New Hampshire, she’s been traveling for over twenty-four hours. Exhausted, she heads outside to find her parents—who always come, day or night, no matter when or where she lands—aren’t there.  Her cell phone is dead, her credit cards are worthless, and she doesn’t have the proper travel papers to cross state lines. Out of money and options, Radley starts walking. . . .

See excerpt

Romance

Everyday by David Levithan

Every morning A wakes in a different person’s body, in a different person’s life, learning over the years to never get too attached, until he wakes up in the body of Justin and falls in love with Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon.

See excerpt

Buzz: Middle School

Keeping the Castle by Patrice Kindl

In order to support her family and maintain their ancient castle in Lesser Hoo, seventeen-year-old Althea bears the burden of finding a wealthy suitor who can remedy their financial problems.

See excerpt

Buzz:  High School

Diviners by Libba Bray

Seventeen-year-old Evie O’Neill is thrilled when she is exiled from small-town Ohio to New York City in 1926, even when a rash of occult-based murders thrusts Evie and her uncle, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult, into the thick of the investigation.

See excerpt

Open Book: July 20, 2012

OPEN BOOK: AN EMAIL NEWSLETTER FOR TEENS
from the Weston Public Library

Open Book is an email newsletter of book recommendations for teens. It is sent twice a month and includes book excerpts in six teen fiction categories (realistic fiction, historical fiction, action/ adventure/fantasy/science fiction, romance, the buzz: middle school, and the buzz: high school). If you wish to subscribe to Open Book, please email smatathia@minlib.net or sign up in person at the Youth Services desk at the Library. Open Book email newsletters are also archived here on our blog.

Here are the picks for this week…

Don’t forget to click on the title to be connected to our catalog where you can

–Request the book

–Read reviews of the book from multiple sources

Realistic Fiction

Fall From Grace by Charles Benoit

Inspired by an intriguing girl who is nothing like his shallow girlfriend, a high school senior whose life has been mapped out by his parents makes some surprising decisions that lead him to take dangerous–but exhilarating–risks.

See excerpt

Historical Fiction

In Darkness by Nick Lake

In the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake, fifteen-year-old Shorty, a poor gang member from the slums of Site Soleil, is trapped in the rubble of a ruined hospital, and as he grows weaker he has visions and memories of his life of violence, his lost twin sister, and of Toussaint L’Ouverture, who liberated Haiti from French rule in the 1804.

See excerpt

Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer

Told in their separate voices, sixteen-year-old Prince Oliver, who wants to break free of his fairy tale existence, and fifteen-year-old Delilah, a loner obsessed with Prince Oliver and the book in which he exists, work together to seek his freedom.

See excerpt

Romance

Undercover by Beth Kephart

High school sophomore Elisa is used to observing while going unnoticed except when classmates ask her to write love notes for them, but a teacher’s recognition of her talent, a “client’s” desire for her friendship, a love of ice skating, and her parent’s marital problems draw her out of herself.

See excerpt

Buzz: Middle School

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty’s anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.  Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen’s Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.

See excerpt

Buzz:  High School

BZRK by Michael Grant

In the near future, the conjoined Armstrong twins, under the guise of the Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation, plot to create their own version of utopia using nanobots, while a guerilla group known as BZRK develops a DNA-based biot that can stop bots, but at risk of the host’s brain.

See excerpt

 

Open Book Newsletter

OPEN BOOK: AN EMAIL NEWSLETTER FOR TEENS
from the Weston Public Library

Open Book is an email newsletter of book recommendations for teens. It is sent twice a month and includes book excerpts in six teen fiction categories (realistic fiction, historical fiction, action/ adventure/fantasy/science fiction, romance, the buzz: middle school, and the buzz: high school). If you wish to subscribe to Open Book, please email smatathia@minlib.net or sign up in person at the Youth Services desk at the Library. Open Book email newsletters are also archived here on our blog.

Here are the picks for this week…

Don’t forget to click on the title to be connected to our catalog where you can

–Request the book

–Read reviews of the book from multiple sources

Realistic Fiction

The List by Siobhan Vivian

Every year at Mount Washington High School somebody posts a list of the prettiest and ugliest girls from each grade–this is the story of eight girls, freshman to senior, and how they are affected by the list.See excerpt

Historical Fiction

Stolen Into Slavery:  The True Story of Solomon Northup, Free Black Man

The true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man living in upstate New York, who was kidnapped in 1841 and spent 12 years as a slave on deadly Louisiana coastal plantations.

See excerpt

Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Nevermore:  The Final Maximum Ride Adventure by James Patterson

One last chance…for Max, Fang, and Dylan…before it all ends.  Are you ready for the final chapter? Are you ready for the ultimate flight? Because THIS IS IT. One last incredible, explosive adventure with an astonishing ending that no one could have seen coming.See excerpt

Romance

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily receives special protections from the spiritual forces of Neverland, but then she meets her tribe’s most dangerous enemy–Peter Pan–and falls in love with him.

See excerpt

Buzz:  Middle School

Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different by Karen Blumenthal

From the start, his path was never predictable. Steve Jobs was given up for adoption at birth, dropped out of college after one semester, and at the age of twenty, created Apple in his parents’ garage with his friend Steve Wozniack. Then came the core and hallmark of his genius–his exacting moderation for perfection, his counterculture life approach, and his level of taste and style that pushed all boundaries. A devoted husband, father, and Buddhist, he battled cancer for over a decade, became the ultimate CEO, and made the world want every product he touched

See excerpt

Buzz:  High School

Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers

Robin Perry, from Harlem, is sent to Iraq in 2003 as a member of the Civilian Affairs Battalion, and his time there profoundly changes him.

See excerpt

Open Book: June 22, 2012

OPEN BOOK: AN EMAIL NEWSLETTER FOR TEENS
from the Weston Public Library

Open Book is an email newsletter of book recommendations for teens. It is sent twice a month and includes book excerpts in six teen fiction categories (realistic fiction, historical fiction, action/ adventure/fantasy/science fiction, romance, the buzz: middle school, and the buzz: high school). If you wish to subscribe to Open Book, please email smatathia@minlib.net or sign up in person at the Youth Services desk at the Library. Open Book email newsletters are also archived here on our blog.

Here are the picks for this week…

Don’t forget to click on the title to be connected to our catalog where you can

–Request the book

–Read reviews of the book from multiple sources

Realistic Fiction

Irises by Francisco X.  Stork

Kate, eighteen, and Mary, sixteen, must make some adult decisions about the course their lives should take when their loving but old-fashioned father dies suddenly, leaving them with their mother, who has been in a persistant vegetative state since an accident four years earlier.

See excerpt

Historical Fiction

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

In 1943, a British fighter plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France and the survivor tells a tale of friendship, war, espionage, and great courage as she relates what she must to survive while keeping secret all that she can.

Listen to an excerpt

Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction

The Enemy by Charlie Higson

After a disease turns everyone over sixteen into brainless, decomposing, flesh-eating creatures, a group of teenagers leave their shelter and set out of a harrowing journey across London to the safe haven of Buckingham Palace.

See excerpt

Romance

Wisdom’s Kiss by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Princess Wisdom, who yearns for a life of adventure beyond the kingdom of Montagne, Tips, a soldier keeping his true life secret from his family, Fortitude, an orphaned maid who longs for Tips, and Magic the cat form an uneasy alliance as they try to save the kingdom from certain destruction. Told through diaries, memoirs, encyclopedia entries, letters, biographies, and a stage play.

See excerpt

Buzz: Middle School

Master of Deceit:  J. Edgar Hoover and America in the Age of Lies by Marc Aronson

Nothing in this book matters until you care about communism — The war of images — The turning point: subversive activities — The fighting war — The war of shadows — The age of fear — The land of lies — Epilogue: master of deceit, then and now.

Listen to excerpt

Buzz:  High School

A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix

Battling aliens, space pirates, and competitors, Prince Khemri meets a young woman, named Raine, and learns more than he expected about the hidden workings of a vast, intergalactic Empire, and about himself.

See excerpt

Open Book: May 4, 2012

OPEN BOOK: AN EMAIL NEWSLETTER FOR TEENS
from the Weston Public Library

Open Book is an email newsletter of book recommendations for teens. It is sent twice a month and includes book excerpts in six teen fiction categories (realistic fiction, historical fiction, action/ adventure/fantasy/science fiction, romance, the buzz: middle school, and the buzz: high school). If you wish to subscribe to Open Book, please email smatathia@minlib.net or sign up in person at the Youth Services desk at the Library. Open Book email newsletters are also archived here on our blog.

Here are the picks for this week…

Don’t forget to click on the title to be connected to our catalog where you can

–Request the book

–Read reviews of the book from multiple sources

Realistic Fiction

Dying to Know You by Aidan Chambers

In this contemporary love story, a teenage boy named Karl enlists a famous writer to help him impress his girlfriend, Fiorella. She has asked him to write her a letter in which he reveals his true self. But Karl isn’t convinced he’s good enough with words, so he tracks down Fiorella’s favorite author and begs him to take up the task. The writer reluctantly assents, on the condition that Karl agree to a series of interviews, so that the letter will be based on an authentic portrait of Karl. The letter, though effective, has unexpected consequences for Karl, Fiorella, and the writer.

See excerpt

Historical Fiction

Never Fall Down:  A Boy Soldier’s Story of Survival by Patricia McCormick

Cambodian child soldier Arn Chorn-Pond defied the odds and used all of his courage and wits to survive the murderous regime of the Khmer Rouge

See reviews and watch author video

Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta

Now on the cusp of manhood, Finnikin, who was a child when the royal family of Lumatere was brutally murdered and replaced by an imposter, reluctantly joins forces with an enigmatic young novice and fellow-exile, who claims that her dark dreams will lead them to a surviving royal child and a way to regain the throne of Lumatere.

See excerpt

Romance

The Indigo Notebook by Laura Resau

Fifteen-year-old Zeeta lives in a different country every year with her flighty English-teaching mom, Layla. The wandering life suits Layla, who lives in the moment, quotes mystical poetry, and hangs out with penniless artists and scraggly-haired clowns. But Zeeta yearns for the normal life she sees in American magazine ads. This year, Zeeta finds herself in the Ecuadoran Andes, where sacred waterfalls grant wishes and old Incan gods dwell in mountains. In the colorful marketplace of Otavalo, an American teenager, Wendell, asks Zeeta to help him search for his birth parents…

See excerpt

Buzz:  Middle School

Finding Somewhere by Joseph Monniger

Sixteen-year-old Hattie and eighteen-year-old Delores set off on a road trip that takes unexpected turns as they discover the healing power of friendship and confront what each of them is fleeing from.

See excerpt

Buzz:  High School

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga

Seventeen-year-old Jazz learned all about being a serial killer from his notorious “Dear Old Dad,” but believes he has a conscience that will help fight his own urges and right some of his father’s wrongs, so he secretly helps the police apprehend the town’s newest murderer, “The Impressionist.”

See excerpt