The Summoning (2008) - Kelley Armstrong

The Summoning (2008) – Kelley Armstrong

(Darkest Powers Trilogy #1)

Harper Teen, 390 pages, 9780061662690

Awards:

Texas Library Association Tayshas High School Reading List

Young Reader’s Choice Award, Senior Division – Pacific Northwest Library Association

Annotation: When puberty hits Chloe Saunders, she starts seeing ghosts.

Booktalk: You’re a fifteen-year old girl who has her first period, then sees a ghost, which freaks you out so bad that you accidentally attack a teacher and get sent to a group home. 

Which sucks. 

To make things even worse, everyone at Lyle House is either obnoxious, rude, weird, or all three. Nobody understands you. They don’t even try. You still see ghosts, but you also see other kids secretly doing things just as weird, maybe weirder. You decide to find out what’s going on, why Lyle House is so messed up and what secrets are being kept hidden.But be careful: you might not like what you find....

Pretty Monsters: Stories (2008) - Kelly Link

Pretty Monsters: Stories (2008) – Kelly Link 

Viking Juvenile, 390 pages, ISBN 9780670010905

(photo credit: www.openlibrary.org)

Awards: 

2008 World Fantasy Award

2009 Locus Award Finalist

Individual Story Awards:

"Pretty Monsters": 2009  Locus Award for Best Novella

"Magic for Beginners": 2005  Nebula Award for Best Novella

"The Faery Handbag”: 2005 Hugo Award and Nebula Award for Best Novelette, Locus Award winner

"The Specialist's Hat": 1999  World Fantasy Award

Annotation: Kelly Link’s first YA short story collection, strange things happen, weirdness rules and nothing is quite what it seems.  

Booktalk: Miles digs up the grave of his dead girlfriend to retrieve the poems he placed in her casket. Jeremy inherits a phone booth in Las Vegas. At summer camp, James (while wearing a dress) comes face-to-face with a human-eating monster. A girl’s 200-year-old grandmother owns a people-swallowing handbag. A teen soccer star stranded in Costa Rica is quarantined during a flu epidemic, waiting for the return of aliens. 

Link’s stories combine wizards, ghosts, talking corpses, monsters, aliens and more, yet all the while focusing on the weirdness of growing up in a strange world with parents who don’t always make sense.

America (2002) - E.R. Frank

America (2002) – E.R. Frank

Simon & Schuster Pulse, 242 pages, ISBN 9780689857720

(photo credit: www.goodreads.com)

Awards:

Michigan Library Association Thumbs Up! Award (2003) 

ALA’s Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults (2003) 

Garden State Teen Book Award Nominee (NJ)

German Youth Literature Award Nominee

 Annotation: 15-year-old America, bi-racial son of a crack addict, has fallen through the cracks of a state system that is supposed to help turn him from a juvenile delinquent into a normal member of society. Moving through a revolving door of foster homes, state agencies, therapists, and friends, America desperately seeks to understand who he is before he becomes just another statistic. 

Booktalk: What do you do when no one wants you? Who do you trust when everyone close to you hurts you? If you’re 15-year-old America, it’s tough to know who to trust. You can’t trust your parents when you don’t have them. You can’t trust your siblings and half-siblings who steal and vandalize. You can’t trust your therapist Dr. B. because he wants to talk about things you'd rather keep hidden. You can’t trust your friends who are encouraging you to do things you know you shouldn’t. You can’t even trust your feelings, a mixture of turn-ons including fantasies of both men and women. You’re not even sure you want to be alive. What do you do?

The God Box (2007) - Alex Sanchez

The God Box (2007) – Alex Sanchez

Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing

224 pages, ISBN 9781416908999

Awards

New York Public Library 2008 “Book for the Teen Age”

Annotation: High school senior Paul’s faith is challenged when a new student arrives, Manuel, who claims to be both a Christian and gay.

Booktalk: “‘Sex and religion don’t mix,’ my Grandma once told me. ‘The church should stay out of people’s pants.’ That random memory flashed through my mind the first morning of senior year, as I tugged my red rubber WHAT WOULD JESUS DO? wristband - snap! - against my wrist. I hoped the sting would help me forget the sex dream that had woken me. But it didn’t.”

The opening of The God Box sets the stage for all sorts of dilemmas for Paul. Not only is he beginning to question his long-term relationship with his girlfriend Angie, he’s also trying to figure out Manuel, the new kid in school. Manuel claims to be both gay and a Christian, but Paul knows that just can’t be right. Or can it?

The Chocolate War (1974) - Robert Cormier

The Chocolate War (1974) - Robert Cormier

Knopf Books for Young Readers, 272 pages, ISBN 9780375829871

(photo credit www.goodreads.com)

Awards:

An ALA Best Books for Young Adults

A School Library Journal Best Books of the Year

A Kirkus Reviews Choice

A New York Times Outstanding Books of the Year

Margaret A Edwards Award 

Annotation: Cormier’s tale of student-led brutality and cruelty at an all boys’ Catholic school packs just as much punch today as it did when it was first released. 

Booktalk: All hell breaks loose when Jerry, a loner freshman at Trinity High School, refuses to cower to the student-run Vigils, a sadistic club of bullies with plenty of influence. When Brother Leon, Trinity’s headmaster, makes a foolish decision to double the number of boxes of chocolate sold by each student for school’s annual fundraiser, the Vigils come ready to enforce the new rule by any means necessary. Jerry’s refusal is seen by many of his classmates as heroic and brave, but the Vigils do not take disobedience lightly. On the receiving end of a series of cruel pranks, humiliating acts and physical abuse, Jerry begins to rethink his choices, wishing he had never started his rebellion, but realizes too late that he can’t stop The Chocolate War.  

I am Scout: The Biography of Harper Lee (2008) - Charles J. Shields

I am Scout: The Biography of Harper Lee (2008) – Charles J. Shields

Henry Holt and Co., 212 pages, ISBN 9780805083347

(photo credit: www.goodreads.com)

Awards: 

American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults

Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year

Arizona Grand Canyon Young Readers Master List

Annotation: Shields chronicles the life and literary career of one of America’s most famous novelists, Harper Lee.

Review: She only wrote one book, but in over 50 years it’s never gone out of print. It also won the Pulitzer Prize and has been a mainstay on high school reading lists for decades. The book is, of course, Harper Lee’s To Kill and Mockingbird, and I am Scout is Lee’s story. 

Shields paints the young Nelle Lee, from Monroeville, Alabama, as wild, rebellious, and set apart from other girls. This rebelliousness led not only to a close (but tenuous) friendship with fellow writer Truman Capote, but also provided the impetus to write a stunning novel which forced the world to take notice about the racial injustices in America. Lee, a fiercely private person, was completely unprepared for the non-stop media attention caused by the success of her novel. Did she ever write another novel? Did she ever embrace the media limelight? What did she really think about the successes of her friend Truman Capote? To find the answers, read I am Scout.