Youth+Literature



Things to Know: We need to plan refreshments!
 1. Fallen Angels- Walter Dean Myers I read this book because it is an optional novel for me to teach to my sophomores. I wasn't expecting much. I had it labelled in my mind as a "Vietnam War" book, a "boy's" book, and a "Black experience" book. What I found was a gripping novel about war and compassion, humanity and the humane. It was so great I read the whole book in one five hour sitting. Meyers uses humor at the exact moments it is needed, deftly manipulating the reader's emotions, and the character portrayals are so vivid I had the entire book cast with popular actors within a few pages! This is one of the best books I've read all year, and I'm definitely going to use it in the classroom  

 2. Maximum Ride - The Angel Experiment- James Patterson Thriller-writing sensation James Patterson, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller [|//When the Wind Blows//], invites you on a quest full of nonstop action, adrenaline, mystery, and suspense. Want to come along for the ride?  3. Catching Fire- Suzanne Collins From Booksmatk Magazine- Reviewers were happy to report that the //Hunger Games// trilogy is alive and well, and all looked forward to the third book in the series after this one's stunning conclusion. But they disagreed over whether //Catching Fire// was as good as the original book //Hunger Games// or should be viewed as somewhat of a "sophomore slump." Several critics who remained unconvinced by Katniss's romantic dilemma made unfavorable comparisons to the human-vampire-werewolf love triangle in Stephenie Meyer's //Twilight// series. But most reviewers felt that //Catching Fire// was still a thrill because Collins replicated her initial success at balancing action, violence, and heroism in a way that will enthrall young readers without giving them (too many) nightmares.  4. Tricks- Ellen Hopkins "When all choice is taken from you, life becomes a game of survival." Five teenagers from different parts of the country. Three girls. Two guys. Four straight. One gay. Some rich. Some poor. Some from great families. Some with no one at all. All living their lives as best they can, but all searching...for freedom, safety, community, family, love. What they don't expect, though, is all that can happen when those powerful little words "I love you" are said for all the wrong reasons. Five moving stories remain separate at first, then interweave to tell a larger, powerful story -- a story about making choices, taking leaps of faith, falling down, and growing up. A story about kids figuring out what sex and love are all about, at all costs, while asking themselves, "Can I ever feel okay about myself?" <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <span style="color: #c0504d; font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; mso-themecolor: accent2; msobidifontfamily: 'Kristen ITC'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Kristen ITC'; msolist: Ignore; msothemecolor: accent2;">5. <span style="color: #c0504d; font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-themecolor: accent2;">Fire- Kristin Cashore <span style="color: #c0504d; font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-themecolor: accent2;">She is the last of her kind... It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. In King City, the young King Nash is clinging to the throne, while rebel lords in the north and south build armies to unseat him. War is coming. And the mountains and forest are filled with spies and thieves. This is where Fire lives, a girl whose beauty is impossibly irresistible and who can control the minds of everyone around her. Exquisitely romantic, this companion to the highly praised //Graceling// has an entirely new cast of characters, save for one person who plays a pivotal role in both books. You don't need to have read //Graceling// to love //Fire//. But if you haven't, you'll be dying to read it next.

<span style="color: #76923c; font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; mso-themecolor: accent3; mso-themeshade: 191; msobidifontfamily: 'Kristen ITC'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Kristen ITC'; msolist: Ignore; msothemecolor: accent3; msothemeshade: 191;"> 6. <span style="color: #76923c; font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-themecolor: accent3; mso-themeshade: 191;">The Book Thief- Markus Zusak //<span style="color: #76923c; font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-themecolor: accent3; mso-themeshade: 191;">Starred Review. //<span style="color: #76923c; font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-themecolor: accent3; mso-themeshade: 191;"> Grade 9 Up–Zusak has created a work that deserves the attention of sophisticated teen and adult readers. Death himself narrates the World War II-era story of Liesel Meminger from the time she is taken, at age nine, to live in Molching, Germany, with a foster family in a working-class neighborhood of tough kids, acid-tongued mothers, and loving fathers who earn their living by the work of their hands. The child arrives having just stolen her first book–although she has not yet learned how to read–and her foster father uses it, //The Gravediggers Handbook//, to lull her to sleep when shes roused by regular nightmares about her younger brothers death. Across the ensuing years of the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Liesel collects more stolen books as well as a peculiar set of friends: the boy Rudy, the Jewish refugee Max, the mayors reclusive wife (who has a whole library from which she allows Liesel to steal), and especially her foster parents. Zusak not only creates a mesmerizing and original story but also writes with poetic syntax, causing readers to deliberate over phrases and lines, even as the action impels them forward. Death is not a sentimental storyteller, but he does attend to an array of satisfying details, giving Liesels story all the nuances of chance, folly, and fulfilled expectation that it deserves. An extraordinary narrative.//–Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA //Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. <span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153; msobidifontfamily: 'Kristen ITC'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Kristen ITC'; msolist: Ignore; msothemecolor: text2; msothemetint: 153;">

7. <span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153;">Shiver- Maggie Stiefvater <span style="color: #548dd4; font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-themecolor: text2; mso-themetint: 153;">For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf--her wolf--is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human. . . until the cold makes him shift back again. Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human--or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever. <span style="color: #984806; font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 128; msobidifontfamily: 'Kristen ITC'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Kristen ITC'; msolist: Ignore; msothemecolor: accent6; msothemeshade: 128;">

8. <span style="color: #984806; font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 128;">The Hunger Games- Suzanne Collins <span style="color: #984806; font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 128;">Life in District 12 isn't easy for Katniss and her family. Ever since her father died the girl has spent her time saving her mother and little sister Prim from starvation by hunting on forbidden land. But worst of all is reaping day. Once a year the government chooses two children from each of the twelve districts to compete against one another in a live and televised reality show. Twenty-four kids and teens enter, and only one survives. When Prim's name is called, Katniss exchanges herself without hesitation to compete alongside the baker's boy Peeta. To survive in this game you need to win the heart of your audience, and so District 12's trainers come up with a plan. Why not make it as if Peeta and Katniss were in love with one another? But in a game where only one person can live, Katniss will have to use all her brains, wits, and instincts to determine who to trust and how to outwit the game's creators. <span style="color: #00b050; font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; msobidifontfamily: 'Kristen ITC'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Kristen ITC'; msolist: Ignore;"> 9. <span style="color: #00b050; font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Nineteen Minutes- Jodi Picoult // Starred Review. // Bestseller Picoult (//My Sister's Keeper//) takes on another contemporary hot-button issue in her brilliantly told new thriller, about a high school shooting. Peter Houghton, an alienated teen who has been bullied for years by the popular crowd, brings weapons to his high school in Sterling, N.H., one day and opens fire, killing 10 people. Flashbacks reveal how bullying caused Peter to retreat into a world of violent computer games. Alex Cormier, the judge assigned to Peter's case, tries to maintain her objectivity as she struggles to understand her daughter, Josie, one of the surviving witnesses of the shooting. The author's insights into her characters' deep-seated emotions brings this ripped-from-the-headlines read chillingly alive. //(Mar.)// Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. // --This text refers to the //[|**//Hardcover//**]// edition. // <span style="font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; msobidifontfamily: 'Kristen ITC'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Kristen ITC'; msolist: Ignore;"> 10. <span style="font-family: 'Kristen ITC'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The Kite Runner- Khaled Hosseini The Kite Runner has the distinction of being the first English-language fiction written about Afghanistan, by Hosseini, a former Afghan doctor who fled his native country in 1980 as it became immersed in civil war. Bookclub-in-a-Box offers insight into the world so movingly described by Hosseini in his first novel. The novel tells of relationship of two boys who are born, live and play side by side, Yet there is no equality in their connection. Hosseini takes his story through three decades which includes Communism and Soviet occupation, as well as the arrival of the Mujahideen and the reign of terror that followed. Bookclub-in-a-Box reviews the following topics: An examination of the complex relationship of Amir and Hassan, especially juxtaposed against the political and cultural backdrop of their times. Through the relationship of the two boys with each other and with others, the reader will reflect on how those personal and political realities can be intertwined. There will be references to the concepts of master and bully. The images of the kite and the kite-runner are appropriate symbols for Afghanistan and will be considered in that light