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 Have
you read any good books lately? Are you looking for something
interesting to read? We'd love to hear from you! Please end us to
webmaster@clubtnt.org
with your reflections, suggestions, comments, or ideas.
Here are some suggestions for popular
books that today's young adults are enjoying along with
information about some of our favorite authors. We're sure you can
find these books at local public libraries, school library media
centers, or many bookstores as inexpensive paperbacks.
Of course, participants of CLUB TNT live busy lives.
Reading is fun, but there are other things to do, places to go, and
people and things to see. Students often have a great deal to read
already. The TNT BOOK CLUB focuses are fun reads where the
story develops quickly and the plots move fast. We are not talking
about thousand page novels or even hundreds of pages.
Our readers enjoy books that feature people similar to themselves,
get to the point, entertain and inform, and allow readers to get on
with the rest of the day. Spend as little as 20 minutes to a
half-hour a day with these books and we are sure you will agree -- the
stories get your attention and make you want to read more.
The books we are suggesting include:
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Realistic Fiction, Problem Novels.
Realistic fiction for
attempts to treat candidly and with respect the problems that many
face in today's world. Many realistic fiction books are about coming of age
and the changes from teenage years to adulthood. |
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Humor.
Don't we all like to laugh? Even the most serious story can contain
humor. We can find humor in practically every situation. It can be
an effective tool to deal with problems. Writers of any
genres can use humor to develop situations and characters. |
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Adventure,
Sports, Mysteries, Supernatural, Horror. Looking to "get
away?" Adventure, sports, supernatural, horror, and mystery are all thought of as
fun books, escape literature. For example, sports can be a
metaphor for "the game of life." These books
take us out of our normal day-to-day existence and
put them in extraordinary circumstances. |
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Fantasy and
Science Fiction. Do you like to see an author create an
exciting world unlike anything anyone has seen? Fantasy writers get
to make up all the rules. Perhaps you prefer to stretch your
imagination within the world as it could be. Science fiction
writers stay
within reasonable boundaries. A precise definition of these two
types of books difficult. They are related.
Reasonable people can have different ideas how to classify some of
these books. They are just fun though! |
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Historical
Fiction. Historical fiction presents the past in a manner
that connects with us on a personal and emotional level. By
nature, it gets readers involved with history in exciting and
interesting ways. The characters, although not all real historical
figures, behave appropriately for the historical setting. |
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Nonfiction,
Biography. Is fiction "not your bag?" Biographies and autobiographies
tell the stories of real people. If you think about it, most
anything you would want to know is really about who has already
accomplished what you are interested in. When we read stories
about people's lives, we also are reading about their
accomplishments and the areas they are "experts" in. |
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Poetry, Drama,
Short Stories. Perhaps due to the popularity of spoken
word, rap, and hip hop,
poetry books have become very popular. If you enjoy theater and
movies, you might also enjoy reading scripts for plays. Short stories are "hot" now
too. For busy readers, short stories have
a lot to offer. |
Anderson, Laurie; Speak! A traumatic event near the
end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year
in high school.
Averill, Thomas Fox; Secrets of the Tsil Cafe. A
bittersweet and often funny coming-of-age story set in a
cross-cultural and extended family that lives between two kitchens-one
traditional, the other New World. Good book, includes great recipes!
Fitch, Janet; White Oleander. An only child of a
single mother and talented poet, Astrid watches her mother intimidate
and manipulate men with her beauty. Astrid loves her mother and the
world they share full of ritual and mystery, but this life is
shattered when Astrid's mother, upset with her lover, kills him and is
sentenced to life in prison.
Brooks, Martha; True Confessions of a Heartless Girl.
A confused seventeen-year-old girl, a single mother and her young son,
two elderly women, and a sad and lonely man, with their own individual
tragedies to bear, come together in a small Manitoba town and find a
way to a better future.
Crutcher, Chris; Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes. A
confused seventeen-year-old girl, a single mother and her young son,
two elderly women, and a sad and lonely man, with their own individual
tragedies to bear, come together in a small Manitoba town and find a
way to a better future.
Dessen, Sarah; Dreamland. After her older sister runs
away, sixteen-year-old Caitlin decides that she needs to make a major
change in her own life and begins an abusive relationship with a boy
who is mysterious, brilliant, and dangerous.
Draper, Sharon; Forged by Fire. Gerald and Angel,
brother and sister, grow up together as each other’s only hope,
through abuse, fire and unforgivable secrets.
Flake, Sharon; The Skin I’m In. Maleeka is teased
and bullied about what she wears and how she looks, but wins through
with the help of a teacher facing demons of her own.
Fleischman, Paul; Whirligig. While traveling to each
corner of the country to build a whirligig (merry-go-round) in memory
of the girl whose death he causes, sixteen-year-old Brian finds
forgiveness and atonement.
Fleischman, Paul; Seedfolks. One by one, a number of
people of varying ages and backgrounds transform a trash-filled
inner-city lot into a productive and beautiful garden, and in doing
so, the gardeners are themselves transformed.
Flinn, Alexandria; Breathing Underwater. Sent to
counseling for hitting his girlfriend, Caitlin, and ordered to keep a
journal, sixteen-year-old Nick recounts his relationship with Caitlin,
examines his controlling behavior and anger, and describes living with
his abusive father.
Grimes, Nikki; Jazmin’s Notebook. Jazmin shares her
thoughts and views of the world from the front stoop of her 1960’s
Harlem apartment building, a place shared by numbers runners, an
alcoholic mother and all the potential happiness possible in the mind
of a fourteen-year-old girl.
Going, K.L.; Fat Kid Rules the World.
Seventeen-year-old Troy, depressed, suicidal, and weighing nearly 300
pounds, gets a new perspective on life when a homeless teenager who is
a genius on guitar wants Troy to be the drummer in his rock band. ,
Henkes, Kevin; Olive's Ocean. On a summer visit to
her grandmother's cottage by the ocean, twelve-year-old Martha gains
perspective on the death of a classmate, on her relationship with her
grandmother, on her feelings for an older boy, and on her plans to be
a writer.
Hewett, Lorri; Lives of Our Own. When Shawna moves
from Denver to a small town in Georgia, she is unprepared for the
casual segregation existing within the school. Rather than accept it,
she challenges it and becomes a target.
Hewett, Lorri; Soulfire. What are your choices and
what do others have the right to expect from you? Todd Williams lives
in the projects and sees clearly, in his friends and family, what
choices he has.
Johnson, Angela; First Part Last. Bobby's carefree
teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care
for his adored baby daughter.
Johnson, Angela; Heaven. Fourteen-year-old Marley
suddenly discovers that the parents and brother she’s known all her
life are not what she thought, but that love makes a place for
everyone in her life.
Mackler, Carolyn; The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round
Things. Feeling like she does not fit in with the other
members of her family, who are all thin, brilliant, and good-looking,
fifteen-year-old Virginia tries to deal with her self-image, her first
physical relationship, and her disillusionment with some of the people
closest to her.
Mowry, Jess; Babylon Boyz. Three friends, including
one who requires an expensive heart operation, try to choose between
temptation and truth when they find money which appears to be missing
from a neighborhood drug dealer’s profits.
Myers, Walter Dean; Monster. While on trial as an
accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his
experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film
script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has
taken.
Mikaelsen, Ben; Petey. Petey's mind works just fine,
but cerebral palsy prevents anyone from knowing it and he is sent to a
mental institution. No one takes time to know him, until he is an old
man and meets Trevor.
Quarles, Heather; A Door Near Here.
Fifteen-year-old Katherine tries to keep her brothers and sisters
together, and the rest of the world from interfering, in the face of
her mother's alcoholism.
Randle, Kristen; The Only Alien on the Planet. Ginny
is new in town and finds she can fit in by focusing on the Alien, a
smart kid in her class who hasn't spoken since a mysterious accident
years before.
Rennison, Louise; Angus, Thongs,and Full-Frontal Snogging.
Presents the humorous journal of a year in the life of a
fourteen-year-old British girl who tries to reduce the size of her
nose, stop her mad cat from terrorizing the neighborhood animals, and
win the love of handsome hunk Robbie.
Rodowsky, Colby; Remembering Mog. It's time for
Annie to graduate but she can't get past the memory of her sister
Mog's death two years ago, on the eve of her own high school
graduation.
Rubio, Gwyn Hyman. Icy Sparks: A Novel. This sad,
yet funny tale revolves around young girl named Icy Sparks. Set in
the mountains of Eastern Kentucky during the 1950's, the story is
about a curious child orphaned as a baby but raised by adoring
grandparents. She begins to have strange experiences. Try as she
might, her "secrets"—verbal croaks, groans, and physical spasms—keep
afflicting her.
Shihab, Naomi Nye; Habibi. When
fourteen-year-old Liyanne Abboud, her younger brother, and her parents
move from St. Louis to a new home between Jerusalem and the
Palestinian village where her father was born, they face many changes
and must deal with the tensions between Jews and Palestinians.
Soto, Gary; Buried Onions. After the death of his
cousin, Eddie's aunt is pushing him to find and punish the people who
did it. Life expectancy isn't high in his neighborhood and all Eddie
really wants is a future.
Southgate, Martha; Another Way to Dance. Delacorte.
Vicki Harris is seeing her dream come true: a summer’s training at the
New York School of American Ballet. But the different in her vision
and the reality of being the "other chip in the cookie" quickly change
her perceptions of what she should strive to be.
Spinelli, Jerry; Stargirl. In this story about the
perils of popularity, the courage of nonconformity, and the thrill of
first love, an eccentric student named Stargirl changes Mica High
School forever.
Staples, Suzanne Fisher; Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind.
When eleven-year old Shabanu, the daughter of a nomad in the
Cholistan Desert of present-day Pakistan, is pledged in marriage to an
older man whose money will bring prestige to the family, she must
either accept the decision, as is the custom, or risk the consequences
of defying her father's wishes.
Staples, Suzanne Fisher; Haveli. Having relented to
the ways of her people in Pakistan and married the rich older man to
whom she was pledged against her will, Shabanu is now the victim of
his family's blood feud and the malice of his other wives. Sequel to "Shabanu,
Daughter of the Wind."
Trueman, Terry; Stuck in Neutral. Fourteen-year-old
Shawn McDaniel, who suffers from severe cerebral palsy and cannot
function, relates his perceptions of his life, his family, and his
condition, especially as he believes his father is planning to kill
him.
Wittlinger, Ellen; Hard Love. As she starts middle
school, Bess volunteers to work on the school musical in hopes of
fitting in, but when she and a friend get to know an elderly homeless
woman, Bess changes her mind about what is really important.
Woodson, Jacqueline; From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun.
In a world where acceptance is never easy, Melanin Sun must find a way
to forgive and accept his mother when she shares some long-held
secrets.
Woodson, Jacqueline; If You Come Softly. Love comes
unexpectedly, gently, and tragically, to teens Elisha and Jeremiah.
Wolff, Virginia Euwer; Make Lemonade. In small town,
post-World War Oregon, twenty-one 6th grade girls recount the story of
an annual softball game, during which one girl's bigotry comes to the
surface.
Bauer, Joan Rules of the Road. Jenna Boller’s new
Illinois driver’s license might help her get away from family
troubles, but she never thought it would mean a crazy road trip with
the Gladstone Shoe Company president and a chance to team up with the
world’s greatest shoe salesman to save an old lady’s company.
Creech, Sharon; Bloomability. Thirteen-year-old
Dinnie’s life becomes an eye-opening wonder when she moves to Lugano,
Switzerland, where she goes to an international school run by her
Uncle Max and Aunt Sandy.
Keller, Beverly; Amazon Papers. Fifteen-year-old Iris
finds first love and broken toes when her mother goes away for
vacation.
Koertge, Ron; Confess-O-Rama. Four weddings
and four funerals later, Tony and his mom are rebuilding their lives.
Again.
Korman, Gorman; Losing Joe's Place. Jason and his
two friends move into Jason's brother's apartment and manage to wreak
havoc in it during one funny and memorable summer.
Krisher, Trudy. Kinship. Pert Wilson wished hard for
her daddy to come back to Happy Trails, the trailer park where she
lives with her mom and brother. He appears, with presents and pocket
money, but all the neighbors are after him and it looks as though they
might be right.
Lynch, Chris; Slot Machine. Christian Brothers
Academy Retreat Center offers no summer break for Elvin Bishop, as he
finds himself ‘slotted’ into one sport after another in a futile (if
funny) attempt to fit in.
Lynch, Chris; Extreme Elvin. Elvin is at it again as
he moves into ninth grade and discovers first love, hemorrhoids and
the horrors of clothes shopping at Big & Tall.
Pevsner, Stella; Would My Fortune Cookie Lie?.
Alexis is having a tough year: her parents are separating; a stranger
seems to be following her friend Suzy; and there is talk of moving
from their cozy Chicago condo to a suburb somewhere.
Pinkwater, Daniel. The Education of Robert Nifkin.
Robert Nifkin’s college admissions essay spares no hilarious
detail of his adventures at Chicago’s Riverview High, where biology
teachers spend classes quaking in coat closets and a math teacher may
remind you of Boris Karloff.
Powell, Randy; Whistling Toilets. Stan’s best friend
tennis star Ginny is experiencing a slump and Stan is hired to get her
ready for an upcoming tournament. Frankly, Stan’s not feeling that
confident himself.
Smith, Roland; Sasquatch. Dylan’s father is always
getting over-involved in strange schemes, but this one involving a
millennium cult throws them both into a close relationship with a very
hairy stranger.
Thomas, Rob; Rats Saw God. Steve York commits
his four years of high school to paper; complete with his father (The
Famous Astronaut), the best and worst of love (Dear Dub), and a chance
to make the perfect statement.
Thomas, Rob; Satellite Down. Patrick Sheridan
never paid much attention to his good looks. When he gets a chance to
leave Doggert to work for a teen television news show in LA, he
discovers that his writing abilities had nothing to do with getting
the job and that news is the least of the show’s concerns.
Thompson, Julian; Philo Fortune’s Awesome Journey to His
Comfort Zone. After finishing high school, Philo
Fortune just hasn’t found the job that’s going to net him a cool
$500,000 a year. He takes to the road to see America and find the
answer to his fortune.
Trembath, Don; Tuesday Cafe. A judge orders
Harper Winslow to write a 2,000 word composition about turning his
life around, never thinking that the resulting writing practice will
put his life right back into jeopardy from a town bully who has been
lampooned in Harper’s high school newspaper column.
Adventure, Sports, Mysteries,
Supernatural, Horror
Adventure
Bunting, Eve; Jumping the Nail. When teenagers in a
California coastal community challenge each other to "Jump the
Nail"--leap from dangerous cliffs into the ocean--group pressure and
manipulative relationships quickly drive the game out of control.
Conney, Caroline E.; Flight #116 is Down. A teenage
girl in her isolated home and a struggling firefighter find their own
inner heroes when a plane crashes into the girl's backyard.
Cormier, Robert; Heros. A psychological thriller
told from the points of view of a teenage serial killer and the
runaway girl who falls in love with him.
Gordon, Donald R.; The Rock Candy Bandits. Moustapha
and his bandit band members kidnap Sergeant Patricia of the Royal
Prosperian Flying Desert Corps and their camel Sobersides and threaten
to turn Sobersides into camel stew for a feast if a ransom of rock
candies is not paid. Corps members hurry to Fort Mischief, the bandit
headquarters, on a rescue mission.
Hesse, Karen; Stowaway. A fictionalized journal
relates the experiences of a young stowaway from 1768 to 1771 aboard
the Endeavor which sailed around the world under Captain James Cook.
Horowitz, Alex; Scorpia. After being told that his
father was an assassin for a criminal organization, fourteen-year-old
Alex Rider goes to Italy to find out more and becomes involved in a
plan to kill thousands of English schoolchildren (Alex Rider adventure
series).
Horowitz, Alex; Eagle Strike. After a chance
encounter with assassin Yassen Gregorovich in the South of France,
teenage spy Alex Rider investigates international pop star and
philanthropist Damian Cray whose new video game venture hides sinister
motives involving Air Force One, nuclear missiles, and the
international drug trade. (Alex Rider adventure series).
Lawrence, Iain; The Wreckers. Shipwrecked after a
vicious storm, fourteen-year-old John Spencer attempts to save his
father and himself while also dealing with an evil secret about the
English coastal town where they are stranded.
Lloyd, Alexander. The Illyrian Adventure. On a visit
to a remote European kingdom in 1872, a fearless sixteen-year-old
orphan and her guardian research an ancient legend and become enmeshed
in a dangerous rebellion.
Myers, Walter Dean; The Nicholas Factor. College
freshman Gerald McQuillen is recruited by a government agent to
infiltrate an elitist international student society suspected of
right-wing extremist tendencies.
Sports
Crutcher, Chris; Whale Talk. Despite his
obvious talent for football and basketball, an athletic teenager
chooses to form school misfits into a swim team.
Dygard, Thomas J.; Tournament Upstart. Under
the leadership of their new young coach, a Class B high school
basketball team from the Ozark foothills challenges big-city schools
for the state championship. : Writes sports fiction. Popular with boys
Dygard, Thomas J.; Second Stringer. When Kevin
replaces the quarterback and football hero who suffers a knee injury,
the second stringer needs to prove that he can do the job and is not
just a substitute.
Lipsyte, Robert; The Contender. After a
successful start in a boxing career, a Harlem high school dropout
decides that competing in the ring isn't enough of life and resolves
to aim for different goals.
Lipsyte, Robert; Warrior Angel. Native
American boxer of the Moscondaga Nation, Sonny Bear must fight to
retain his heavyweight championship title.
Myers, Walter Dean; Slam. A coming-of-age story of
seventeen-year-old "Slam," aka Greg Harris, who looks upon his
basketball talent as a way to get out of Harlem.
Wallace, Rich; Wrestling Sturbridge. Stuck in a small
town where no one ever leaves and relegated by his wrestling coach to
sit on the bench while his best friend becomes state champion, Ben
decides he can't let his last high school wrestling season slip by
without challenging his friend and the future.
Wallace, Rich; Technical Foul. Jared, a high-scoring
member of the Hudson City Middle School basketball team, gets angry
when the point guard accuses him of being responsible for their string
of losses, but finally realizes they can win only if he becomes a team
player.
Mystery
Bennett, Jay; The Skeleton Man. When
his Uncle Ed commits suicide, after giving him $30,000 for his
eighteenth birthday, Ray receives mysterious death threats and becomes
involved in a dangerous sequence of events.
Bethancourt, T. Ernesto; Doris Fein, Legacy of Terror.
Having inherited fifteen million dollars, Doris goes to
Chicago to meet with a man who claims to be the real heir to the
fortune, only to be kidnapped and involved with the most sinister
members of organized crime.
Cormier, Robert; Tenderness. A psychological
thriller told from the points of view of a teenage serial killer and
the runaway girl who falls in love with him.
Giberga, Jane Sughrue; Friends to Die For.
Sixteen-year-old Cristina is forced to evaluate her sophisticated
world of elegant New York apartments, private schools, and rich
friends when a girl she knows is murdered after a party they both
attended.
MacGregor, Rob; Prophecy Rock. High school senior
Will Lansa plans on spending a quiet summer on the Hopi reservation
with his police chief father. A murder and a few questions later, Will
finds himself a possible victim. Sequel: Hawk Moon.
Nixon, Joan Lower; Who are You? Delacorte,
Wealthy recluse Douglas Merson is dead and the police come to see high
school student Kristi Evans and her family because Merson had a thick
file on Kristi. What, if anything, did she have to do with his
schemes?
Plum-Ucci, Carol; Creed. Torey Adams, a high
school junior with a seemingly perfect life, struggles with doubts and
questions surrounding the mysterious disappearance of the class
outcast.
Qualey, Marsha; Close to a Killer. Seventeen-year-old
Barrie finds herself involved in a string of murders that are somehow
connected to her mother's hair salon.
Qualey, Marsha; Thin Ice. Seventeen-year-old Arden
is suddenly an orphan when the police notify her that her brother’s
snowmobile has been found at the bottom of the river. Arden doesn’t
think he’s really dead at all.
St. George; Judith; Do You See What I See? A
seventeen-year-old, unhappy over his family's move to Cape Cod and
irritated by his classmates' attitude towards protecting the
environment, becomes convinced that a neighbor has murdered his wife.
Strasser, Todd; The Accident. After four of his
friends leave a beer party and suffer a fatal accident,
eighteen-year-old Matt senses something peculiar about the police
investigation and suspects a cover-up to hide the identity of who was
really responsible for the accident.
Vande-Velde, Vivian; Never Trust A Dead Man. Wrongly
convicted of murder and punished by being sealed in the tomb with the
dead man, seventeen-year-old Selwyn enlists the help of a witch and
the resurrected victim to find the true killer.
Werlin, Nancy; The Killer’s Cousin. After being
acquitted of murder, seventeen-year-old David goes to stay with
relatives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he finds himself forced
to face his past as he learns more about his strange young cousin
Lily.
Supernatural & Horror
Anderson, M.T.; Thirsty. From the moment he knows
that he is destined to be a vampire, Chris thirsts for the blood of
people around him while also struggling to remain human.
Atwater-Rhodes, Amelia; Demon in my View.
Seventeen-year-old Jessica Allodola discovers that the vampire world
of her fiction is real when she develops relationships with an
alluring vampire named Aubrey and the teenage witch who is trying to
save Jessica from his clutches.
Bradbury, Ray; Something Wicked This Way Comes. It
all begins when a lightning rod salesman appears one evening and
insists that Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade take one of his
contraptions covered with mystical protection symbols. Later, the boys
look on as an eerie carnival rolls into town, and mysterious and
sinister events take place. But what they witness on the carousel is
enough to send them running.
Bruchac, Joseph; The Dark Pond. A mysterious force
pulls Armie toward a dark, shadowy pond deep in the woods. Native
American tales offer clues about the monster lurking beneath the
surface.
Fleischman, Paul; A Fate Totally Worse Than Death.
In this horror novel parody, three self-centered members of Cliffside
High School's ruling clique, who are beginning to age rapidly, become
convinced that the beautiful new exchange student is the ghost of the
girl whose death they caused the year before.
Gaimon, Niel; Coraline. Looking for excitement,
Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is
similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must
challenge a gruesome entity in order to save herself, her parents, and
the souls of three others.
Hahn, Mary Downing; Look for Me by Moonlight. Lonely
and unsure of her place in her father's new family, Cynda is
responsive to the attentiveness of the mysterious and sophisticated
Vincent Morthanos, who turns out to be a vampire.
Jackson, Shirley; The Haunting. The four visitors at
Hill House - some there for knowledge, others for adventure - are
unaware that the old mansion will soon choose one of them to make its
own.
Klause, Annette Curtis; Blood and Chocolate. Having
fallen for a human boy, a beautiful teenage werewolf must battle both
her packmates and the fear of the townspeople to decide where she
belongs and with whom.
Smith, L.J.; Soulmate. Hannah's life is just fine
until she starts receiving notes threatening her, written in her own
handwriting. Thierry, Lord of the Night World, is hunting Hannah
because he believes she is his soulmate.
Sleater, William; The Boy Who Couldn't Die. When his
best friend dies in a plane crash, sixteen-year-old Ken has a ritual
performed that will make him invulnerable, but soon learns that he had
good reason to be suspicious of the woman he paid to lock his soul
away.
Sweeney, Joyce; Shadow. Despite her family's
disbelief, Sarah knows she senses and sees Shadow, her dead cat. Sarah
soon learns that she is right, and that she can see the future but can
not change it. Now she must watch her nightmares come true.
Wallace, Rich; Restless: A Ghost's Story. Frank, a
teenaged ghost who has not been able to move on to a higher realm in
the afterlife, tries to connect with his younger brother Herbie, a
high school senior who was eight years old when Frank died.
Westall, Robert; The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral.
Soon after steeplejack Joe Clarke begins work on one of the spires of
Muncaster's medieval cathedral, terrible things start to happen and
Joe realizes that there is a malevolent force connected to the spire's
gargoyle.
Windsor, Patricia; Blooding. While spending the
summer working as an au pair girl for a couple in England, Maris
discovers that the husband is a werewolf intent on blooding her and
making her one too.
Zindel, Paul; Reef of Death. In Australia, P.C.
McPhee and his uncle are in a fight for their lives against a sinister
geologist. All are trying to find buried treasure guarded by a vicious
reef monster. Winners take all, and the losers may die.
Fantasy
Almond, David; Skellig. Unhappy about his baby
sister's illness and the chaos of moving into a dilapidated old house,
Michael retreats to the garage and finds a mysterious stranger who is
something like a bird and something like an angel.
Bull, Emma; War for the Oaks. A fantasy classic in
which rock guitarist Edie McCandry is recruited to inject a bit of
humanity into the ancient war between the Fairie courts.
Duane, Diane; So You Want to be a Wizard.
Thirteen-year-old Nita, tormented by a gang of bullies because she
won't fight back, finds the help she needs in a library book on
wizardry which guides her into another dimension.
Ferris, Jean; Once Upon a Marigold. A young man with
a mysterious past and a penchant for inventing things leaves the troll
who raised him, meets an unhappy princess he has loved from afar, and
discovers a plot against her and her father.
Le Guin, Ursula K; A Wizard of Earthsea. The young
boy Sparrowhawk becomes apprentice to a Master Wizard and comes to
realize that his fate may be far more important than he ever dreamed
possible. Sequels: Tehanu and others.
Nix, Garth; Mister Monday. Arthur Penhaligon is
supposed to die at a young age, but is saved by a key that is shaped
like the minute hand of a clock. The key causes bizarre creatures to
come from another realm, bringing with them a plague. A man named
Mister Monday will stop at nothing to get the key back. Arthur goes to
a mysterious house that only he can see, so that he can learn the
truth about himself and the key.
Prachett, Terry; Guards! Guards! Long believed
extinct, a superb specimen of draco nobilis (noble dragon) has
appeared in Discworld's greatest city. Not only does this unwelcome
visitor have a nasty habit of charbroiling everything in its path, in
rather short order it is crowned King. Sequels: Moving
Pictures, The Truth: A Novel of Discworld and others.
Pullman, Philip; The Golden Compass. Accompanied by
her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and
other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome
experiments in the Far North.
Wrede, Patricia; Dealing with Dragons. Bored with
traditional palace life, a princess goes off to live with a group of
dragons and soon becomes involved with fighting against some
disreputable wizards who want to steal away the dragons' kingdom.
Yep, Laurence; Dragon War and Dragon of the Lost Seas.
Shimmer, a renegade dragon princess, tries to redeem herself by
capturing a witch with the help of a human boy.
Science Fiction
Anderson, M.T.; Feed. In a future where most people
have computer implants in their heads to control their environment, a
boy meets an unusual girl who is in serious trouble.
Bell, Hilari; A Matter of Profit. Sick of the
horrors of conquering beings on other planets, Ahvrem will end his
service as a soldier and save his sister from an unhappy marriage if
he can discover who is behind a rumored plot to assassinate the
Emperor.
Card, Orson Scott; Ender’s Game. Child-hero
Ender Wiggin must fight a desperate battle against a deadly alien race
if mankind is to survive.
Christopher, John; When the Tripods Came.
Fourteen-year-old Laurie and his family attempt to flee England when
the Tripods descend from outer space and begin brainwashing everyone
with their hypnotic Caps.
Colfer, Eoin; Armetis Fowl. When a twelve-year-old
evil genius tries to restore his family fortune by capturing a fairy
and demanding a ransom in gold, the fairies fight back with magic,
technology, and a particularly nasty troll. Sequels:
Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident, Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code,
and Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception.
Dickerson, Peter; Eva. A girl who wakes up from a
car accident to discover her brain has been transferred into a chimp's
body in order to keep her alive
Farmer, Nancy; The House of the Scorpion.
In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as
the young clone of El Patrón, the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt
drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson; Running Out of Time. When
a diphtheria epidemic hits her 1840 village, thirteen-year-old Jessie
discovers it is actually a 1995 tourist site under unseen observation
by heartless scientists, and it's up to Jessie to escape the village
and save the lives of the dying children.
Hautman, Peter; Mr. Was. After his dying grandfather
tries to strangle him, Jack Lund discovers a door that leads him fifty
years into the past and involves him in events that determine his own
future.
Lubar, David: Hidden Talents. Edgeview
Alternative School is the end of the line for kids who can't cut it in
regular schools because of behavioral problems. Martin Anderson has an
uncanny knack for irritating everyone he comes in contact with until
he hooks up with the misfits in a boarding school full of misfits.
They all have hidden talents.
Paulsen, Gary; The Time Hackers. When someone uses
futuristic technology to play pranks on twelve-year-old Dorso Clayman,
he and his best friend set off on a supposedly impossible journey
through space and time trying to stop the gamesters who are
endangering the universe.
Philbrick, W.R.; The Last Book In the Universe.
After an earthquake has destroyed much of the planet, an epileptic
teenager nicknamed Spaz begins the heroic fight to bring human
intelligence back to the Earth of a distant future.
Sleater, William; Parasite Pig. Sixteen-year-old
Barney, infected by an alien parasite, and his friend Katie are taken
to the planet J'koot by extraterrestrials intent on playing the
dangerous game known as Interstellar Pig.
Weaver, Will; Memory Boy: A Novel. 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.
Alvarez, Julia; Before We Were Free. In the early
1960s in the Dominican Republic, twelve-year-old Anita learns that her
family is involved in the underground movement to end the bloody rule
of the dictator, General Trujillo.
Anderson, Laurie Halse; Fever 1793. In 1793
Philadelphia, sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook, separated from her sick
mother, learns about perseverance and self-reliance when she is forced
to cope with the horrors of a yellow fever epidemic.
Bunting, Eve; S.O.S. Titanic. 15-year-old Barry
O’Neill is traveling from Ireland to New York to meet his parents,
unfortunately, he is traveling on the Titanic. Through Barry we see
the injustice of the class system that ultimately doomed most of the
steerage passengers.
Burks, Brian; Walks Alone. After a surprise attack
leaves many of her people dead, fifteen-year-old Walks Alone, an
Apache girl wounded in the massacre, struggles to survive and rejoin
the refugee band.
Calvert, Patricia; Bigger. When his father disappears
near the Mexican border at the end of the Civil War, twelve-year-old
Tyler decides to go after him and bring him home, acquiring on the
journey a strange dog which he names Bigger.
Crowe, Chris; Mississippi Trial. In Mississippi in
1955, a sixteen-year-old finds himself at odds with his grandfather
over issues surrounding the kidnapping and murder of a
fourteen-year-old African American from Chicago.
Cushman, Karen: Rodzina. A twelve-year-old Polish
American girl is boarded onto an orphan train in Chicago with fears
about traveling to the West and a life of unpaid slavery.
Kerr, M.E.; Slap Your Sides: A Novel. Life in
their Pennsylvania hometown changes for Jubal Shoemaker and his family
when his older brother witnesses to his Quaker beliefs by becoming a
conscientious objector during World War II.
Lasky, Kathryn; True North. Because of the strong
influence which her grandfather, an abolitionist, has in her life,
fourteen-year-old Lucy assists a fugitive slave girl in her escape.
Levitin, Sonia; The Cure. This book represents a
hybrid between historical fiction and science fiction. An interesting
and intriguing book. A sixteen-year-old boy living in 2407 collides
with the past when he finds himself in Strasbourg in 1348 confronting
the anti-Semitism that sweeps through Europe during the Black Plague.
Meyer, Carolyn; Where the Broken Heart Still Beats.
Having been taken as a child and raised by Comanche Indians,
thirty-four-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker is forcibly returned to her
white relatives, where she longs for her Indian life and her only
friend is her twelve-year-old cousin Lucy. This is a very emotional
book.
Myers, Walter Dean; Fallen Angels.
Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school,
enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a devastating
year on active duty in Vietnam.
Patterson, Katherine; Lyddie.
Impoverished Vermont farm girl Lyddie
Worthen is determined to gain her independence by becoming a factory
worker in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1840s
Peck, Richard; The River Between Us. During the
early days of the Civil War, the Pruitt family takes in two mysterious
young ladies who have fled New Orleans to come north to Illinois.
Pennebaker, Ruth; Don't Think Twice. Pregnant
eighteen-year-old Anne finds a different world when she comes to stay
at a home for unwed mothers in 1960's Texas.
Rall, Ted; To Afghanistan and Back: A Graphic Travelogue.
A politically liberal cartoonist/columnist creatively combines
narrative and graphics to detail his dangerous 2001 trip to
Afghanistan.
Rinaldi, Ann; Hang A Thousand Trees with Ribbons.
Keziah is pulled from her homeland and becomes a slave for the
Wheatley family in America. She is educated and encouraged to write
her poetry. Although she will die a free woman in a pauper’s grave at
age 30, she will also become America’s first published Black poet.
Taylor, Mildred; The Land.
After the Civil War Paul, the son of a
white father and a black mother, finds himself caught between the two
worlds of colored folks and white folks as he pursues his dream of
owning land of his own.
Taylor, Mildred; Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. A
black family living in the South during the 1930's are faced with
prejudice and discrimination which their children don't understand.
Westall, Robert; Blitzcat. During World War II, a
black cat journeys all across war-ravaged England in an effort to
track down her beloved master.
Alexander, Caroline; The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary
Antarctic Expedition. In the summer of 1914, explorer Ernest
Shackleton and a crew of 27 left England for the South Pole. An
unbelievable story of survival, they lost their ship, spent a winter
on the ice, and had to eat their dogs. They sailed hundreds of miles
of the most hostile seas on earth in small, open boats. All survived.
The Endurance uses the words and images of the expedition members
themselves to re-create the 22 months the men spent stranded in
Antarctica.
Allen, Thomas B.; George Washington, Spymaster: How the
Americans Outspied the British and Won the Revolutionary War.
Did you know that George Washington was the James Bond of his day? A
biography of Revolutionary War general and first President of the
United States, George Washington, focusing on his use of spies to
gather intelligence that helped the colonies win the war.
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell; Black Potatoes: The Story of the
Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850. In 1845, a mysterious blight
attacked Ireland's potato crops, turning the potatoes black and
destroying the only real food of nearly six million people. Black
Potatoes is the story of men, women, and children who defied landlords
and found ways to survive. It’s also the story of the heroes among
the Irish people and how they held on to hope.
Bausum, Ann; With Courage and Cloth: Winning the Fight for a
Woman's Right to Vote. The struggle for a woman's right to
vote is explained from the movement's roots to its outcomes, including
the movements it lead to.
Beals, Melba Pattillo. Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir
of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High. This
book tells the real-life stories of the high school students who
integrated Little Rock High School.
Bodanis, David; The Secret Family: Twenty-four Hours inside
the Mysterious Worlds of Our Minds and Bodies. The book
reveals the tiny, invisible components within us and our surroundings
that make us tick. By following the activities of a family through a
typical day, Bodanis shows us how our daily lives are full of
mysterious and fascinating science adventure.
Bradley, James; Flags of Our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima.
The famous scene of six men raising the flag on Iwo Jima during
World War II included Bradley's father. He presents the results of
his research into this even and the men that made it happen.
Bragg, Rick; All Over but the Shoutin'. A common
condition of being poor white trash," explains New York Times
correspondent Bragg on learning he won a Pulitzer Prize last year, is
that "you are always afraid that the good things in your life are
temporary, that someone can take them away." Having won that prize for
stories about others, he tells his own here in a mixture of moving
anecdotes and almost masochistic self-analysis.
Breashears, David; High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for
Everest and Unforgiving Places. Breashears, David;
High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Unforgiving Places.
Capuzzo, Michael; Close to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks
of 1916. In 1916, mass hysteria grips the Jersey coast when a
shark terrorizes the shoreline in this account of one of the first
documented shark attacks.
Carroll, Rebecca; Sugar in the Raw: Voices of Young Black Girls
in America. With raw candor, elicited by Rebecca Carroll's
perceptive questioning, 15 black women between the ages of 11 and 18,
from places as diverse as Brooklyn and Seattle, Alabama and Vermont,
speak out about their inner and outer lives. What they say about
identity, self-esteem, the role of race in their perceptions and
treatment, personal values, and their hopes for the future is both
enlightening and moving.
Colton, Larry; Counting Coup: A True Story of Basketball and
Honor on the Little Big Horn. Colton, Larry;
Counting Coup: A True Story of Basketball and Honor on the Little Big
Horn.
Conroy, Pat; My Losing Season. The author reflects on
the place of sports in his life, describing his love of basketball,
the role of the athlete for young men searching for their own
identity, his education at the Citadel, and his journey to
best-selling writer.
Codell, Esmé Raji; Educating Esmé: Diary of a Teacher's First
Year. Esme Raji Codell has come to teach. And she's not going
to let incompetent administrators, abusive parents, gang members,
weary teachers, angry children, dim-witted principals, or her own
insecurities get in the way of delivering the education her
fifth-grade students deserve. In Educating Esme, the uncensored
diary of her first year, we find this irrepressible teacher wearing
costumes in the classroom, dancing with the kids during rallies in the
auditorium, roller-skating down the hallways, and putting on rousing
performances with students in the library.
Crisp, Terri; Out of Harm’s Way: The Extraordinary True Story of
One Woman’s Lifelong Devotion to Animals. This is the story of
a woman, Ms. Crisp, that has saved the lives of thousands of animals.
Crowe, Chris; Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the
Emmett Till Case. The author of the historical fiction
book about the same murder case, Mississippi Trial, presents a
true account of the murder of fourteen-year-old, Emmett Till, in
Mississippi, in 1955.
Crutcher, Chris; King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised
Autobiography. The autobiography of the Margaret A. Edwards
Award-winning author tells about his life experiences that led to his
career writing honest and gritty young-adult books.
Defede, Jim; The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander,
Newfoundland. When the events of 911 closed U.S. airspace,
the community if Gander hosted 6,000 stranded passengers.
Doyle, William; An American Insurrection: The Battle of Oxford,
Mississippi, 1962. When first black man to enter the
University of Mississippi, he "forced America to face the
contradiction of second-class citizenship for multitudes of its black
citizens, not with speeches, boycotts, or sit-ins, but on a
battlefield." This book tells that man, James Meredith's story.
Duncan, Lois; Who Killed My Daughter. This book reads
like a "who-done-it" but is about the real life mystery of a murder.
Emert, Phyllis Raybin; Mysteries of People and Places: Strange
Unsolved Mysteries. These fascinating stories from the past
still haunt us with the unknown.
Ehrenreich, Barbara; Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in
Boom-Time America. Ehrenreich, Barbara; Nickel and
Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in Boom-Time America.
Ferris, Timothy; Seeing in the Dark: How Backyard Stargazers Are
Probing Deep Space and Guarding Earth from Interplanetary Peril.
Ferris, Timothy; Seeing in the Dark: How Backyard Stargazers
Are Probing Deep Space and Guarding Earth from Interplanetary Peril.
Fleischman, John; Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story about
Brain Science. This is the true story of a man that had a
metal rod enters his head at the chin and comes out his forehead.
Fradin, Dennis Brindell and Judith Bloom Fradin; Fight On! Mary
Church Terrell's Battle for Integration. This biography tells
about Mary Church's life and her fight against discrimination in
Washington, D.C.
Freedman, Russell; In Defense of Liberty: The Story of America's
Bill of Rights. Using court cases and social change, Freedman
reviews the Bill of Rights and each amendment and illustrates how they
have broadened our understanding of the individual freedoms listed in
the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution ratified in 1791.
Freese, Barbara; Coal: A Human History. This books
looks at the historic, scientific, economic, political, cultural, and
literary aspects of coal and includes issues about energy consumption,
developing nations, and global warming.
Gantos, Jack; Hole in My Life. An autobiography,
popular young adult author Jack Gantos talks about how his involvement
with drugs and his stint in prison led him to writing. This book was
recognized as a 2003 Printz Honor Book and a 2003 Sibert Honor Book.
Hampton, Wilborn; September 11, 2001: Attack on New York City.
A touching account of the terrible events of 911 and the destruction
of the World Trade Center as told by people who were there or closely
involved.
Hampton, Wilborn; Meltdown: A Race against Nuclear Disaster at
Three Mile Island: A Reporter's Story. A journalist's
eyewitness account of the 1979 disaster at the Three Mile Island
nuclear power plant. Hampton compares and contrasts it with the
bombing of Hiroshima and the Chernobyl power plant explosion.
Hart, Elva Trevino. Barefoot Heart: Stories of a Migrant Child.
This is the straight-forward story of growing up one of six children
in a migrant family that seasonally moved from Texas to Minnesota each
year. Hart writes about her family, her strict but caring father, and
about breaking away only to return home and the struggles of the
immigrant population.
Hoose, Phillip M.; The Race to Save the Lord God Bird.
The story of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker's extinction is used to
present the different ways man changes the environment and hence the
habitats of animals.
Krakauer, Jon.; Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt.
Everest Disaster. Krakauer was involved with the famous 1996
climbing disaster that resulted in the deaths of five people. He tells
his moving story of what happened and how it affected his life.
Kruger, Kobie; The Wilderness Family: At Home with Africa's
Wildlife. Life revolves around hippos, badgers and a starving
lion cub when Kobie's husband accepts an assignment to an African
ranger station.
Kubert, Joe; Yossel, April 19, 1943: A Story of the Warsaw
Ghetto Uprising. Fifteen-year-old Yossel illustrates the
horrific events of the Holocaust in the Warsaw Ghetto and an ill-fated
uprising with rough pencil sketches.
McPherson, James M.; Fields of Fury: The American Civil War.
McPherson presents a battle-by-battle recreation of America's
deadliest war.
McWhorter, Diane; A Dream of Freedom: The Civil Rights Movement
from 1954 to 1968. McWhorter, Diane; A Dream of
Freedom: The Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1968.
Murphy, Jim; An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story
of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793. This 2004 Robert F.
Sibert Medal winner and Newberry Honor Book tells about how yellow
fever disrupted the federal government, divided the medical community,
and destroyed the lives of thousands of Philadelphians.
Murphy, Jim; Inside the Alamo. Meticulously researched
and written to engage, this book outlines the events that led to
General Santa Anna’s victory at the battle of the Alamo.
Nelson, Peter; Left for Dead: A Young Man's Search for
Justice for the USS Indianapolis. Recalls the sinking of the
U.S.S. Indianapolis at the end of World War II, the navy cover-up and
unfair court martial of the ship's captain, and how a young boy helped
the survivors set the record straight fifty-five years later.
Roach, Mary; Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers.
A look inside the world of forensics examines the use of human
cadavers in a wide range of endeavors, including research into new
surgical procedures, space exploration, and a Tennessee human decay
research facility.
Robinson, Sharon; Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed
America. A biography of baseball legend Jackie Robinson, the
first African American to play in the major leagues, as told by his
daughter.
Partridge, Elizabeth; This Land Was Made for You and Me: The
Life & Songs of Woody Guthrie. This is the tragic story of the
folksinger Woody Guthrie, author of the popular song, "This Land Is
Your Land."
Philbrick, Nathaniel; Revenge of the Whale: The True Story of
the Whaleship Essex. Recounts the
1820 sinking of the whaleship "Essex" by an enraged sperm whale and
how the crew of young men survived against impossible odds. Based on
the author's adult book "In the Heart of the Sea."
Salzman, Mark; True Notebooks. Chronicles the
author's first years teaching at Central Juvenile Hall, a lockup for
Los Angeles's most violent teenage offenders.
Silverstein, Ken; The Radioactive Boy Scout: The True
Story of a Boy and His Backyard Nuclear Reactor. The
frightening true story of a whiz kid and his homemade nuclear reactor.
Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood.
In graphic novel format, the author describes her youth in
revolutionary Iran. From the overthrow of the Shah to the
establishment of the new regime, she witnesses heartbreak and struggle
as life changes in her country.
Steinberg, Jacques; The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions
Process of a Premier College. Steinberg reveals the
behind-the-scenes aspects of the admissions process—up close and
personal.
Thomas, Velma Maia; Lest We Forget: The Passage from Africa to
Slavery and Emancipation. A cleverly designed,
3-dimensional interactive book, it tells the story of slavery and the
struggle for freedom—from the African villages to the boats, from the
plantations to the end of the Civil War and Jubilee, the day of
freedom. Containing materials from the Black Holocaust Museum,
letters, newspaper clippings, personal stories and other documents,
the book involves readers in a hands-on way by allowing them to
explore the "artifacts" by pulling them from envelopes and pouches
attached to the pages.
Ung, Loung; First They Killed My Father. Memoir of a
young girl whose life and family was torn apart by the Khmer Rouge
regime in Cambodia.
Unger, Zac; Working Fire: The Making of an Accidental Fireman.
A young rookie provides a behind-the-firehouse doors look at what is
like to fight fire in a big city.
Van Der Vat, Dan; D-Day: The Greatest Invasion - A Peoples
History. A visually stunning overview of the pivotal invasion
of Europe that changed the course of World War II.
Walker, Rebecca; Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a
Shifting Self. Born in 1969 to civil rights activists who
defied convention, Walker was a "movement child." But when the
movement changed course, and her white father and black mother
divorced, Walker found herself without an identity--a misfit: too
black for some; not black enough for others.
Poetry, Drama, Short Stories
Poetry
Janeczko, Paul B.; Worlds Afire: The Hartford
Circus Fire of 1944. On July 6, 1944, 167 people were
killed and over 500 were injured in a fire during a circus
performance. Janeczko recreates this event in poetry.
Johnson, Angela; Gone from Home. A
collection of short stories in which young people extend help to those
around them while trying to find hopeful answers to life's problems.
Myers, Walter Dean; Here in Harlem: Poems in Many
Voices. The hopes, dreams, and disappointments of the iconic
African American community are explored in verse and vintage
photographs.
Nye, Naomi; Shihab. 19 Varieties of
Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East. In an exquisite poetry
collection, Nye draws on her Palestinian American heritage to see the
Middle East through the eyes of an American and the U.S. through the
eyes of a Palestinian.
Nye, Naomi ; What Have You Lost. This
collection of 140 poems reflect on the provocative question posed by
the title of this book, and includes poems by a shoe, a house, a
father, innocence, and more.
Drama
Stoppard, Paul; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are
Dead. This play retells the story of Hamlet from Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern's perspective. Affectionately known as Ros and Guil,
this drama follows the basic plot of the famous Shakespeare play, but
now Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are the lead characters.
Zindel, Paul; Let me Hear You Whisper.
Classis sci-fi animal experiments conducted at the American
Biological Association Development For the Advancement of Brain
Analysis (ABADABA). Located in Manhattan, the fictional laboratory
had just fired an assistant for being too emotionally involved with
the experiment's subjects. Helen, the new assistant, works with Dr.
Crocus further his scientific studies.
Short Stories
Blume, Judy; Places I Never Meant to Be.
A collection of twelve short stories
accompanied by short essays on censorship by twelve authors whose
works have been challenged in the past.
Colfer, Eoin; The Artemis Fowl Files.
Two original short stories, plus puzzles, interviews with characters,
and other writings that unlock secrets of the Artemis Fowl books,
which feature a twelve-year-old evil genius and his dealings with
fairies and other magical beings.
DeLint, Charles; Waifs and Strays 2002.
A collection of stories about the unseen magic just below the
surface of cities. Each story features a teenage protagonist.
Cart, Michael; Tomorrowland: Ten Stories about the
Future. A collection of ten stories about the future,
by such authors as Lois Lowry, Katherine Paterson, and Jon Scieszka.
Oates, Joyce Carol; Small Avalanches and Other
Stories. A collection of twelve short stories for young people
including "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been," "Life After High
School," and "How I Contemplated the World."
Wallace, Rich; Losing is not an Option.
Eleven episodes in the life of a young man, from sneaking into his
tenth football game in a row with his best friend in sixth grade to
running his last high school race, the Pennsylvania state
championships.
Here is a short list of some of our favorite authors.
It only scratches the surface, there are many good writers out there.
DID WE FORGET YOUR FAVORITE?
Please contact us at
webmaster@clubtnt.org if you would like to add an author and
some of the books you enjoy to our list -- Thanks!
Blume, Judy. Judy Blume spent her childhood in
Elizabeth, New Jersey, making up stories inside her head. She has
spent her adult years in many places, doing the same thing, only now
she writes her stories down on paper. More than 75 million copies of
her books have been sold, and her work has been translated into
twenty-something languages. Judy received a B.S. in education from New
York University in 1961, which named her a Distinguished Alumna in
1996, the same year the American Library Association honored her with
the Margaret A. Edwards Award for Lifetime Achievement. She has won
more than ninety awards.
She is the founder and trustee of The Kids Fund, a
charitable and educational foundation. She serves on the boards of the
Author's Guild; the Society of Children's Book Writers and
Illustrators, where she sponsors an award for contemporary fiction;
and the National Coalition Against Censorship, working to protect
intellectual freedom. Judy lives on islands up and down the East Coast
with her husband George Cooper, who writes nonfiction. They have three
grown children and one incredible grandchild (www.judyblume.com).
Selected Books By Judy Blume:
| Forever. Two high school seniors believe
their love to be so strong that it will last forever.
Here's to You, Rachel Robinson. Expelled from boarding school,
Charles' presence at home proves disruptive, especially for sister
Rachel, a gifted seventh grader juggling friendships and school
activities. |
| Places I Never Meant to Be. A collection of
twelve short stories accompanied by short essays on censorship by
twelve authors whose works have been challenged in the past.
Tiger Eyes. Resettled in the "Bomb City" with her mother and
brother, Davey Wexler recovers from the shock of her father's death
during a holdup of his 7-Eleven store in Atlantic City. |
Cabot, Meg. Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Meg spent her childhood in
pursuit of air conditioning, which she found at the Monroe County
Public Library. Here Meggin whiled away many hours, reading the
complete works of Jane Austen, Judy Blume, and Barbara Cartland. Armed
with a fine arts degree from Indiana University, she moved to New York
City intent on an illustration career, but when that failed to
materialize, got a job as the assistant manager of an undergraduate
dormitory at New York University instead, writing novels on the
weekends (and whenever her boss wasn’t looking).
After many years of rejection, she sold her first book, a historical
romance novel written under a pen name she would prefer her
grandmother didn't know about it. Meg has published over thirty novels
for younger readers as well as adults. When she is not reliving the
horrors of her high school experience through her fiction, Meg divides
her time between New York City and Key West with her husband and their
one-eyed cat, Henrietta (www.megcabot.com).
Selected Books By Meg Cabot:
| All American Girl. A
sophomore girl stops a presidential assassination attempt, is
appointed Teen Ambassador to the United Nations, and catches the eye
of the very cute First Son. |
| Bartholomew. But when
Nicola's natural curiosity gets the best of her, she begins to piece
together a few things for herself. |
| Nicola and the Viscount.
Nicola Sparks, sixteen and an orphan, is ready to dive headlong into
her first glittering London society season. She's also ready to dive
headlong into the arms of handsome and debonair Lord Sebastian |
| Princess in Pink (V. 5,
Princess Diaries Series). In a series of humorous diary entries, high
school freshman (and Genovian Princess) Mia tries to get her reluctant
boyfriend to take her to the prom. |
| Rogue Victoria and the Rogue.
Growing up in far-off India, wealthy young heiress Lady Victoria
Arbuthnot was accustomed to handling her own affairs — not to mention
everyone else's. But in her sixteenth year, Vicky is unceremoniously
shipped off to London to find a husband. |
| Teen Idol. When teenage
heartthrob Luke Stryker shows up at a small-town Indiana high school
to do research for a movie role, he persuades junior Jenny Greenley to
use her considerable talents to try to change things at school for the
better. |
| Twighlight: A Tale of the
Mediator (Mediator Series). Sixteen-year-old Carmel, California
teenager Suze Simon is a typical high school student except for the
fact that she is a "shifter" who can mediate between the living and
the dead, and she is in love with a ghost from the nineteenth century.
|
Colfer, Eoin. Born in Wexford, a large town on Ireland's south east
coast in 1965, he one of five brothers, so he always company and there
was never a shortage of things to do and places to go. His father was
a school teacher he developed an interest in writing stories. He
attended school in Dublin and in 1986 and qualified as a Primary
teacher, returning to work in Wexford.
After doing some international travel for a few years, returned
teaching by day and writing at night, but now had a whole array of new
experiences and influences to draw on. He loves Irish history and
traditional, magical Irish legends.
Following the success of Artemis Fowl, he was able to resign from
teaching and concentrate fully on He reports that he "will keep
writing until people stop reading or I run out of ideas. Hopefully
neither of these will happen anytime soon" (www.eoincolfer.com)
Selected Books By Eoin Colfer:
| Artemis Fowl. When a twelve-year-old evil genius tries to restore his
family fortune by capturing a fairy and demanding a ransom in gold,
the fairies fight back with magic, technology, and a particularly
nasty troll. |
| The Artic Incident (Artemis Fowl Series). Artemis is at boarding
school when he receives an urgent e-mail from Russia. It's from a man
Artemis never thought he'd see again: his father, who has been
kidnapped by the Russian mafia and pleads for help. |
| The Eternity Code (Artemis Fowl Series). After Artemis uses stolen
fairy technology to create a powerful microcomputer and it is snatched
by a dangerous American businessman, Artemis, Juliet, Mulch, and the
fairies join forces to try to retrieve it. |
| The Supernaturalist. In futuristic Satellite City, fourteen-year-old
Cosmo Hill escapes from his abusive orphanage and teams up with three
other people who share his unusual ability to see supernatural
creatures, and together they determine the nature and purpose of the
swarming blue Parasites that are invisible to most humans. |
| The Wish List. Meg Finn is in trouble. She's dead, but not at
peace--she's in limbo, her good deeds perfectly balanced against her
bad deeds; Heaven or Hell wait, a tip of the scale away. So she's back
on Earth trying to tip the scale to the good by helping her last
victim, and her former "partner" is also back, trying to force her to
tip the scale to the bad. |
Cormier, Robert. Many consider Robert Cormier the single most
important author of young adult literature. According to Michael Cart,
author of From Romance to Realism: 50 Years of Growth and Change in
Young Adult Literature (HarperCollins, 1996). "He was the first who
had the courage and the art to give us literature that offered readers
the plain unvarnished truth that there weren't always happy endings."
He passes away, at the age of 75, in December, 2000. In 1991, Cormier
won the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in young
adult literature. His work is still widely read, enjoyed today because
his work is relevant to our lives. His mature themes and realism have
made Cormier's books a frequent target of censors.
"He was as nice a guy as you could ever hope to meet," says Craig
Virden, president and publisher of Random House Children's Books,
Cormier's longtime publisher. George Nicholson, who worked with Mr.
Cormier, publishing some of his work, says "There was a moral core to
his work, in terms of asking the eternal questions of life and faith
and understanding the nature of evil," says Nicholson. "I think when
his work is looked at from a distance, that will be part of what's so
important about it and why people respond to it."
Selected Books By Robert Cormier:
| The Chocolate War. A high school freshman discovers the devastating
consequences of refusing to join in the school's annual fund raising
drive and arousing the wrath of the school bullies. |
| I am the Cheese. In this complicated, chilling novel of the savagery
of modern society, Adam mentally relives his past while facing the
interrogation and trauma of his present life as a guest of the
government. An ALA Notable Children's Book. |
| After the First Death. Events of the hijacking of a bus of children by
terrorists seeking the return of their homeland are described from the
perspectives of a hostage, a terrorist, an Army general involved in
the rescue operation, and his son, chosen as the go-between. |
| The Bumblebee Flies Away. Sixteen-year-old Barney has only fleeting
memories about his past but, as a voluntary patient at the institute
for experimental medicine, he knows he is different from the
terminally ill patients surrounding him. His involvement with the
bitter, slowly dying, Mazzo brings Barney hope, pain, and a moment of
heroic glory. |
| We All Fall Down. As The Avenger searches for the teenage boys who
trashed a house in his neighborhood, Buddy, one of the trashers,
increases his drinking in order to cope with his parents' separation
and his obsession with the daughter of the owner of the vandalized
house. |
| Tunes for Bears to Dance To. Eleven-year-old Henry escapes his
family's problems by watching the woodcarving of Mr. Levine, an
elderly Holocaust survivor, but when Henry is manipulated into
betraying his friend he comes to know true evil. |
| Tenderness. A psychological thriller told from the points of view of a
teenage serial killer and the runaway girl who falls in love with him. |
| Frenchtown Summer. A series of vignettes in free verse in which the
writer reminisces about his life as a twelve-year-old boy living in a
small town during the hot summer of 1938. |
| The Rag and Bone Shop. Trent, an ace interrogator from Vermont, works
to procure a confession from an introverted twelve-year-old accused of
murdering his seven-year-old friend in Monument, Massachusetts. |
Crutcher, Chris. Born in Dayton, Ohio, Chris Crutcher’s father was an
Air Force Bomber Pilot, gas station owner, and County Clerk. His
mother worked as a part-time bookkeeper and homemaker. He is the
middle child of three siblings. He grew up in Cascade, Idaho, a
logging town and has earned a BS in Psychology and Sociology from
Easter Washington State College and an Education degree.
He worked for 10 years as a teacher, mainly with troubled students and
has a consulting practice as a Specialist and Therapist in Family
Violence and Problems of teenagers. He writes primarily about sports
and issues that affect young adults. He is proud of that fact that
many of his books show up from time to time on banned book lists (www.aboutcrutcher.com)
Selected Books By Chris Crutcher:
| Athletic Shorts. A collection of short stories featuring characters
from earlier books by Chris Crutcher. |
| Chinese Handcuffs. Still troubled by his older brother's violent
suicide, eighteen- year-old Dillon becomes deeply involved in the
terrible secret of his friend Jennifer, who feels she can tell no one
what her stepfather is doing to her. |
| The Crazy Horse Electric Game. A high school athlete, frustrated at
being handicapped after an accident, runs away from home and is helped
back to mental and physical health by a black benefactor and the
people in a special school where he enrolls. |
| Ironman. While training for a triathlon, seventeen-year-old Bo attends
an anger management group at school which leads him to examine his
relationship with his father. |
| King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography. Chris Crutcher, author of young adult novels such as "Ironman" and "Whale
Talk," as well as short stories, tells of growing up in Cascade,
Idaho, and becoming a writer. |
| Running Loose. Louie, a high school senior in a small Idaho town,
learns about sportsmanship, love, and death as he matures into
manhood. |
| Stotan! A high school coach invites members of his swimming team to a
memorable week of rigorous training that tests their moral fiber as
well as their physical stamina. |
| The Deep End. The worst fears of therapist Wilson Cordercome true this
harrowing glimpse into child abuse. The father of kids hit hard by a
truculent divorce, Corder's immediate worry is the abduction of
Sabrina Parker, whose alcoholic mother is his patient. |
| Whale Talk. Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial,
adopted teenager, shuns organized sports and the gung-ho athletes at
his high school until he agrees to form a swimming team and recruits
some of the school's less popular students. |
Fleischman, Paul. The son of the well-known writer, Sid Fleischman,
Paul grew up in a literary family. His father regularly read his work
to his wife and children. They helped him with suggestions about how
the story should unfold. Paul describes this experience as, "We grew
up knowing that words felt good in the ears and on the tongue, that
they were as much fun to play with as toys."
Both Paul and his mother are piano players and his sisters play the
flute, his father played guitar and his sisters, the flute. Later in
life, Paul mastered the recorder, touring with a group. He believes
that his passion for music and language is what makes his writing
unique. Paul writes with special attention to the rhythm of his
sentences and the sounds of the words and has won awards for his
books, including the Newbury Medal in 1989 for Joyful Noise (www.paulfleischman.net).
Selected Books By Paul Fleischman:
| A Fate Totally Worse Than Death. In this horror novel parody, three
self-centered members of Cliffside High School's ruling clique, who
are beginning to age rapidly, become convinced that the beautiful new
exchange student is the ghost of the girl whose death they caused the
year before. |
| The Borning Room. Lying at the end of her life in the room where she
was born in 1851, Georgina remembers what it was like to grow up on
the Ohio frontier. |
| Breakout. A young woman presents a play based on her life as a
seventeen-year-old runaway whose escape from her foster home in Los
Angeles is thwarted by an all-day traffic jam, an event which provides
time for her to explore her free-floating identity, hunger for her
unknown mother, and yearning for human connection. |
| Bull Run. Northerners, Southerners, generals, couriers, dreaming boys,
and worried sisters describe the glory, the horror, the thrill, and
the disillusionment of the first battle of the Civil War. |
| Mind’s Eye. A novel in play form in which sixteen-year-old Courtney,
paralyzed in an accident, learns about the power of the mind from an
elderly blind woman who takes Courtney on an imaginary journey to
Italy using a 1910 guidebook. |
| Saturnalia. In 1681 in Boston, fourteen-year-old William, a Narraganset Indian captured in a raid six years earlier, leads a
productive and contented life as a printer's apprentice but is
increasingly anxious to make some connection with his Indian past.
|
| Seedfolks. One by one, a number of people of varying ages and
backgrounds transform a trash-filled inner-city lot into a productive
and beautiful garden, and in doing so, the gardeners are themselves
transformed. |
| Seek. One by one, a number of people of varying ages and backgrounds
transform a trash-filled inner-city lot into a productive and
beautiful garden, and in doing so, the gardeners are themselves
transformed. |
| Whirligig. While traveling to each corner of the country to build a
whirligig in memory of the girl whose death he causes,
sixteen-year-old Brian finds forgiveness and atonement. |
Johnson, Angela. A private person that shares little about herself,
Angela was born in 1961 in Tuskegee, Alabama, but moved to Cincinnati,
Ohio, where she currently lives. She credits here interest in writing
to a storyteller who visited her third grade classroom and encouraged
her to begin writing her thoughts down. This started her keeping a
diary and she has kept it up ever since. In high school, she wrote
"punk poetry," but she was uncomfortable sharing it with others.
She attended college at Kent State University majoring in special
education, but did not complete here degree. While in college, Angela
babysat for Cynthia Rylant, a famous author. Cynthia encouraged here
to write and secretly submitted a sample of Angela’s work to a
publisher who lived it. As a result, she started writing for young
children. She continues to write picture books for children as well as
novels for young adults. (www.angelajohnson.com)
Selected Books By Angela Johnson:
| The First Part Last. Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever
when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter. |
| Heaven. Fourteen-year-old Marley's seemingly perfect life in the small
town of Heaven is disrupted when she discovers that her father and
mother are not her real parents. |
| Toning the Sweep. On a visit to her grandmother Ola, who is dying of
cancer in her house in the desert, fourteen-year-old Emmie hears many
stories about the past and her family history and comes to a better
understanding of relatives both dead and living. |
| Gone from Home. A collection of short stories in which young people
extend help to those around them while trying to find hopeful answers
to life's problems. |
| Running Back to Ludie. A young woman has only vague recollections of
her mother, Ludie. When Ludie writes that she wants to see her
daughter again, the girl takes the chance to be whole--by running back
to Ludie. |
| Looking for Red. A thirteen-year-old girl struggles to cope with the
loss of her beloved older brother, who disappeared four months earlier
off the coast of Cape Cod. |
McKinley, Robin. A Newberry award-winning author of fantasy novels,
Robin was born in Warren, Ohio, and traveled throughout the world with
her father who was a Navy man. She recalls having a passion for
reading since she can remember and states that this probably started
here on her journey as a writer. She writes about characters that fit
how she felt as a young woman: clumsiness, plainness, bookishness, and
disinterest in the usual social games that involve flirting and
dating.
Robin attended a preparatory school in Bethel, Maine, and Dickinson
College from 1970-1972. She completed here formal education as an
honor student at Bowdon College in 1975. Since graduating from college
she has worked as a research assistant, bookstore clerk , teacher and
counselor, editorial assistant, barn manager, free-lance, and
full-time writer. She enjoys opera and long walks. She writes about
strong young women because she believes that fantasy literature tends
to leave girls out or presents them in limited roles
www.robinmckinley.com).
Selected Books By Robin McKinley:
| The Blue Sword. Harry, bored with her sheltered life in the remote
orange-growing colony of Daria, discovers magic in herself when she is
kidnapped by a native king with mysterious powers. |
| Deerskin. Heir to her late mother's legendary beauty, Princess Lissar
becomes the victim of her grief-maddened father's desire. Fleeing her
home, she seeks solace and solitude in a great forest--and discovers a
magic that leads her toward healing and justice. |
| Rose Daughter. Beauty grows to love the Beast at whose castle she is
compelled to stay, and through her love he is released from the curse
that had turned him from man to beast. |
| Spindle's End. The infant princess Briar Rose is cursed on her name
day by Pernicia, an evil fairy, and then whisked away by a young fairy
to be raised in a remote part of a magical country, unaware of her
real identity and hidden from Pernicia's vengeful powers. |
Myers, Walter Dean. Born in West Virginia in 1937, Walter Dean Myers
moved to Harlem as a boy after his mother’s death to live with his
father’s first wife and her husband. His fifth-grade teacher saw
something special in his poetry and introduced him to quality
literature and encouraged him to continue writing. A gifted youth, he
attended one of the top high schools in New York City, but did not
enjoy its emphasis on the sciences. As an African American, he did not
believe that he would enjoy the same opportunities as his white
classmates.
He skipped school a lot and spent time reading and writing. He
enlisted in the Army when he was 17 because he was in trouble with
gangs and saw few other options. After his three year stint, he
started writing again and found a job with a publishing company. His
first book (Where does the Day Go) was the winning entry in a contest
sponsored by the Council on Interracial Books for Children. He has
written a HUGE number of books across different subjects, formats, and
genres, mostly for young adults. Many of his books are about life in
Harlem. He presents urban, black youth in his stories because these
images were absent from literature in his childhood (www.walterdeanmyersbooks.com).
Selected Books By Walter Dean Myers:
| The Beast. A visit to his Harlem neighborhood and the discovery that
the girl he loves is using drugs give sixteen-year-old Anthony
Witherspoon a new perspective both on his home and on his life at a
Connecticut prep school. |
| The Dream Bearer. During a summer in Harlem, David relies on his
mother and a close friend and on an old man he meets in the park to
help him come to terms with his father's outbursts and unstable
behavior. |
| Fallen Angels. Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem
high school, enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a
devastating year on active duty in Vietnam. |
| The Journal of Joshua Loper: A Black Cowboy. In 1871 Joshua Loper, a
sixteen-year-old black cowboy, records in his journal his experiences
while making his first cattle drive under an unsympathetic trail boss.
|
| Monster. While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old
Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in
the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course
his life has taken. |
| Slam. Sixteen-year-old "Slam" Harris is counting on his noteworthy
basketball talents to get him out of the inner city and give him a
chance to succeed in life, but his coach sees things differently. |
| Somewhere in the Dark. A teenage boy accompanies his father, who has
recently escaped from prison, on a trip that turns out to be a time
of, often painful, discovery for them both. |
Oates, Joyce Carol. Born in Lockport, New York in 1938 to
working-class parents that had not graduated from high school, Joyce
Carol Oates was an honor student and avid writer as a youth.
Graduating as her high school’s valedictorian, she earned a
full-scholarship to attend college at Syracuse.
After earning a Bachelor of Arts in English, she enrolled in the
University of Wisconsin and earned a Masters of Arts degree in one
year. As one of this country’s most prolific and versatile
contemporary writers, she has won numerous awards and her work is well
represented in most libraries. Currently, she is the Roger S. Berlind
Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University (www.joycecaroloatesbooks.com).
Selected Books By Joyce Carol Oates:
| Big Mouth & Ugly Girl. When sixteen-year-old Matt is falsely accused
of threatening to blow up his high school and his friends turn against
him, an unlikely classmate comes to his aid. |
| Foxfire. Foxfire chronicles the life of five unforgettably real
teenage girls in upstate New York in the 1950s. This controversial,
topical tale captures the exhilaration of conspiracy, the blaze of
youth, and the inevitable end of violence. |
| Freaky Green Eyes. Fifteen-year-old Frankie relates the events of the
year leading up to her mother's mysterious disappearance and her own
struggle to discover and accept the truth about her parents'
relationship. |
| Sexy. Sixteen-year-old Darren Flynn, a popular, good-looking high
school athlete who lacks self-confidence, learns that his jock friends
are hatching a revenge act against their English teacher for failing a
member of the swim team. |
| Small Avalanches and Other Stories. A collection of twelve short
stories for young people including "Where Are You Going, Where Have
You Been," "Life After High School," and "How I Contemplated the
World." |
Paulsen, Gary. A Native of Minneapolis, Minnesota (1939), Gary
Paulsen
spent much of his youth living with his grandmother and other
relatives because his parents were alcoholics. The many experiences
this gave him and the variety of jobs he held developed a sense of
adventure. He writes about growing up and rites of passage.
Like his life, the main characters in his books are not from "perfect"
families. The themes of overcoming obstacles like alcoholism, death,
and survival in the wilderness provide a strong foundation for his
stories. He writes about things he knows about, which gives his work a
credible, meaningful feel. His books challenge readers to pursue
knowledge. In 1977, after being sued for libel, he almost gave up
writing. Readers all around the world are glad that he did not follow
through with that (www.garyPaulsen.com).
Selected Books By Gary Paulsen:
| Caught by the Sea: My Life on Boat. On the coattails of Guts (Delacorte,
2001) comes another collection of Paulsen's autobiographical
vignettes, this time about sailing. His love for the sea began at age
seven, aboard a troopship headed to the Philippine Islands. A plane
crashed into the water and Paulsen watched as sharks attacked the
women and children. Though gruesome, the account is typical of the
author's unaffected, matter-of-fact writing style. The rest of the
stories are dull in comparison, however, as Paulsen chronicles his
experiences with various sailboats over the years. |
| Father Water, Mother Woods: Essays on Fishing and Hunting in the North
Woods. Gary Paulsen, in a foreword to this collection of
autobiographical essays, identifies his youthful experiences in the
woods and rivers of northern Minnesota as the source for his Newbery
Honor novel Hatchet (about which he receives 30,000-40,000 letters a
year), and its sequel, The River. "In the normal course of things,''
he writes of himself and his companions, "our lives hurt. When we
were in the woods or fishing... our lives didn't hurt.'' |
| Guts: The True Stories Behind Hatchet and the Brian Book. The author
relates incidents in his life and how they inspired parts of his books
about the character, Brian Robeson. |
| Hatchet (Brian Stories Series). After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old
Brian spends fifty-four days in the wilderness, learning to survive
initially with only the aid of a hatchet given him by his mother, and
learning also to survive his parents' divorce. |
| The Quilt. During World War II, while his father is in Europe fighting
and his mother is working in Chicago, a six-year-old boy goes to live
with his grandmother in a rural Norwegian American community in
Minnesota. Based on events from the author's life. |
| Alida's Song. A fourteen-year-old boy who has been neglected by
irresponsible parents spends a wonderful summer on a farm where his
grandmother cooks for two elderly brothers. |
| Nightjohn. Twelve-year-old Sarny's brutal life as a slave becomes even
more dangerous when a newly arrived slave offers to teach her how to
read. |
| Sarny: A Life Remembered. Continues the adventures of Sarny, the slave
girl Nightjohn taught to read, through the aftermath of the Civil War
during which time she taught other Blacks and lived a full life until
age ninety-four. |
Soto, Gary. Having grown up in a Mexican-American in a Chicano
district of California, Gary Soto writes about his own life
experiences. His works reflect the adversities of his ethnicity,
poverty, and destitution throughout his youth. He has written poems,
novels, short stories, and there are many collections of his works.
When Soto was just five years of age, his father was killed in a
factory accident, thus leaving his widowed wife with three children:
Gary, his older brother, Rick, and his younger sister, Debra. His
family did not have books and was not expected or encouraged to read.
Soto's grandparents had emigrated from Mexico, making Soto roughly
half-Mexican.
Soto spent most of his childhood working for money to help support his
family. Still, he continued on through high school in California and
went on to attend California State University at Fresno. There, Soto
received his English Degree in 1974 and proceeded to attend the
University of California at Irvine, where he obtained his Master of
Fine Arts in Creative Writing.
During his transition from high school to college, Soto gradually
began writing, at first only for satisfaction. He wished to express
himself and to inform the world about his perspective: the life and
times of a poor Mexican-American growing up in a Chicano community in
California.
Selected Books By Gary Soto:
| The Afterlife. A senior at East Fresno High School lives on as a ghost
after his brutal murder in the restroom of a club where he had gone to
dance. |
| Chato and the Party Animal. Chato decides to throw a "pachanga" for
his friend Novio Boy, who has never had a birthday party. |
| Chato Goes Cruisin'. Chato and Novio win a cruise but are disappointed
to find that everyone else on board is a dog, and things go from bad
to worse when the dogs party themselves sick and it is up to the cats
to find help. |
| Jesse. Two Mexican American brothers hope that junior college will
help them excape their heritage of tedious physical labor. |
| If the Shoe Fits. After being teased about his brand new loafers, Rigo
puts them away for so long he grows out of them. |
| Marisol. Dancing is Marisol's life so when she finds out that her
family is moving to a neighborhood without a dance studio she has to
take action. With help from two new friends, Marisol must figure out
how to combine the best of her old Chicago neighborhood with her new
suburban neighborhood. |
Staples, Suzanne Fisher. The daughter of an engineer (father) and
business manager (mother) Suzanne Fisher Staples was born on August
27, 1945, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She describes her family as
being very "literal," that everyone communicated very directly and
saying only what they mean without embellishments – regardless of how
other’s felt or whether what they were saying made any sense.
Before becoming an author, she build a solid career in international
journalism. By combining her "reporter’s eye" with an accepting
attitude and ability to weave a captivating tale, Staples has "opened
the minds" of her readers alike. While she recognizes that she has a
gift for words and stories, she credits her success to her ability to
refrain from passing judgments.
Perhaps her interview with Teenread.com best summarizes her positive
impact on YA Lit when she says, "We’re born accepting, but we learn to
fear. The difficult thing is getting adults to give up their fears so
they don’t pass them on to their children. Literature, film, visual
arts, television, magazine articles, music – these express what we all
have in common. Art makes the differences among cultures appealing." (www.suzannefisherstaples.com)
Selected Books By Suzanne Fisher Staples:
| Dangerous Skies. A gripping, award-winning story about friendship and
betrayal. |
| Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind. The New Your Times called this book set
in modern Pakistan "a small miracle." |
| Haveli. In this sequel to the Newbery Honor book Shabanu: Daughter of
the Wind, a young woman walks a perilous line between tradition and
her fierce independence. |
| Shiva's Fire. A girl in India learns to use her magical powers wisely.
|
Taylor, Mildred. Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Mildred's family moved
to Toledo, Ohio, when she was young. She attended the public schools
and continued her education after graduating from high school at the
University of Toledo. After earning her degree, she joined the Peace
Corp and spent two years teaching English and history.
While living in Africa, she observed black pride and independence
which reminded her of stories her father told her. She returned to the
United States to teach and recruit for the Peace Corp. She then
studied journalism at the University of Colorado, where she received
her Master's degree.
While attending the university, she joined the Black Student Alliance
(BSA) and helped to create a black studies program at the school.
Selected Books by Mildred Taylor:
| Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. A black family living in the South
during the 1930's is faced with prejudice and discrimination which
their children don't understand. |
| Let the Circle Be Unbroken. Four black children growing up in rural
Mississippi during the Depression experience racial antagonisms and
hard times, but learn from their parents the pride and self-respect
they need to survive. |
| The Road to Memphis. Sadistically teased by two white boys in 1940's
rural Mississippi, a black youth severely injures one of the boys with
a tire iron and enlists Cassie's help in trying to flee the state. |
Voigt, Cynthia. The second of six children, Cynthia Voigt was born in
Boston, Massachusetts in 1942. She knew she wanted to be a writer by
the time she entered the ninth-grade. She attended college at Smith
College and majored in English.
Working as an elementary/junior high teacher, she began writing
part-time in 1972. She has won numerous honors and awards, including a
Newbery Medal (Dicey’s Song, 1983).
Selected Books By Cynthia Voight:
| Bad Girls. After meeting on the first day in Mrs. Chemsky's
fifth-grade class, Margalo and Mikey help each other in and out of
trouble, as they try to maintain a friendship while each asserts her
independence. |
| Bad Girls in Love. Now in the eighth grade, best friends Mikey and
Margalo try to figure out boys, crushes, and falling in love. |
| Callender Papers. In nineteenth-century Massachusetts, orphan Jean,
employed to sort out the family papers of a reclusive artist, becomes
curious about the mysterious, long-ago death of his wife and the
subsequent disappearance of their young child. |
| Dicey's Song (Sequel to Homecoming, Tillerman Series). Now that the
four abandoned Tillerman children are settled in with their
grandmother, Dicey finds that their new beginnings require love,
trust, humor, and courage. |
Woodson, Jacqueline. Born Columbus, Ohio, in 1963, Jacqueline Woodson
spent most of her youth in Greenville, South Carolina and Brooklyn,
New York. After high school, she earned a B.A. in English. While she
now writes full-time, she used to support herself as a drama therapist
for runaways and homeless children in New York City.
Her books take on tough issues like race, culture, teen pregnancy,
sexual abuse, lesbian parenting, parents that desert their children,
death, and jail. A prominent African American writer, she has received
The Kenyon Review Award for Literary Excellence in Fiction and most
recently, two Coretta Scott King Honor books (www.jacquelinewoodson.com).
Selected Books By Jacqueline Woodson:
| Behind You. After fifteen-year-old Jeremiah is mistakenly shot by
police, the people who love him struggle to cope with their loss as
they recall his life and death, unaware that Miah is watching over
them. |
| Coming On Home. After Mama takes a job in Chicago during World War II, Ada Ruth stays with Grandma but misses her mother who loves her more
than rain and snow. |
| I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This. Marie, the only black girl in the
eighth grade willing to befriend her white classmate Lena, discovers
that Lena's father is doing horrible things to her in private. |
| If You Come Softly. After meeting at their private school in New York,
fifteen-year-old Jeremiah, who is black and whose parents are
separated, and Ellie, who is white and whose mother has twice
abandoned her, fall in love and then try to cope with people's
reactions. |
| Other Side. Two girls, one white and one black, gradually get to know
each other as they sit on the fence that divides their town. |
|
Mr. B's Math Minutes: Video Tutorials 
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