Transcript New Books
New Books New Books Next Slide Next Slide Next Slide Bonechiller by Graham McNamee Danny, the new kid in town, hangs out with the other transients in a Canadian back-of-the-beyond: Army brats Ash, and psycho brothers Pike and Howie. Like most teenagers, they spend a certain amount of time cruising in Pike's jalopy. Looking for trouble? Actually, looking for anything in this "Big Empty"—besides the subzero cold, of course. Graham McNamee does not keep either his characters or his readers waiting for long. Before you can say "Big Foot" (or "Sasquatch," or "Windigo"), Danny and his pals are in very serious trouble in this fast paced horror tale. Before they can overcome the ice monster, each of his characters must deal with the deep freeze within themselves, whether it be Danny's mourning for his dead mother, Howie's agoraphobia, Pike's manic random violence, or Ash's fear of femininity. Still, past the symbolism there lies a chillingly cool story. Brrrr. Return to previous slide New Books Looks By Madeleine George Meghan and Aimee are complete opposites, at least physically. Meghan is obese, while Aimee is painfully anorexic. Meghan notices Aimee on one of the first days of school and is drawn to her, convinced that the two of them could be friends. Meghan's used to being invisible- because of her size, most people ignore her and don't fully consider her a person, making it easy for her to slip in and out of tricky spots and to know everything about everyone. The only time she is noticed, however, it's by the popular boys in school, especially J-Bar, the filthy-mouthed star of the basketball team. But things don't go quite as Meghan had planned. Aimee, who writes brilliant poetry and is dealing her mother's breakup with a boyfriend Aimee considered a mentor, is approached by Cara, a cute preppy girl in charge of the high school literary magazine. Meghan knows nothing good will come of this; she has a history with Cara. When things go bad for Aimee, Meghan knows exactly what to do. Return to previous slide Peace, Love, and Baby Ducks by Lauren Myracle Growing up in a world of wealth and pastel-tinted entitlement, fifteen-year-old Carly has always relied on the constancy— and authenticity—of her sister, Anna. But when fourteenyear-old Anna turns plastic-perfect-pretty over the course of a single summer, everything starts to change. And there are boys involved, complicating things as boys always do. With warmth, insight, and an unparalleled gift for finding humor even in stormy situations, beloved author Lauren Myracle dives into the tumultuous waters of sisterhood and shows that even very different sisters can learn to help each other stay afloat. Return to previous slide Someone Named Eva by Joan M. Wolf Like the Diary of Anne Frank and Number the Stars, the book is about events of the Holocaust. It’s about a chapter of the Holocaust that is not widely known - the destruction of the town of Lidice. This was a small village that Hitler tried to literally wipe off the map. Wolf's book takes you there through the eyes of Milada, a little girl taken from her Czech family and "adopted" into a Nazi family. Return to previous slide I am Scout: the biography of Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the most widely read novels in American literature. It’s also a perennial favorite in high school English classrooms across the nation. Yet one time author Harper Lee is a mysterious figure who leads a very private life in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, refusing to give interviews or talk about the novel that made her a household name. Lee’s life is as rich as her fiction, from her girlhood as a rebellious tomboy to her days at the University of Alabama and early years as a struggling writer in New York City. Return to previous slide Daniel X: Watch the Skies by James Patterson and Ned Rust LIGHTS All's quiet in the small town of Holliswood. Television sets, computers, and portable devices are aglow in every home, classroom, and store. Yet not all is perfect. Evil is lurking, just out of sight, behind the screen. CAMERA Residing in this sleepy town is a villain with more ambition than the world can withstand. Twisted beyond reason, he is dead set on throwing Holliswood into chaos and documenting the destruction of every person in it, including Daniel X. EXTERMINATION The only person who can stop this made-for-TV tyrant, Daniel must use his extraordinary power to save the town. But this devilish director has assembled an allstar team of his own creation and vows to stage the most spectacular finale the world has ever seen. Can Daniel X stop this deranged outlaw--or will he find himself on the cutting room floor? Return to previous slide Rhymes with Witches by Lauren Myracle From the author of the break-out hit ttyl, a dark and utterly readable take on the hierarchy of high school girls. No one notices Jane--not the jocks, the stoners, the debaters, the drama geeks, the cheerleaders, and especially not the Popular girls, the school royalty made up of one girl from each class who's so transcendently beautiful and fascinating that no one can help but worship her. Imagine Jane's surprise when one of the popular girls approaches her to be their freshman member. She wants this kind of popularity more than anything, but when she discovers the sinister secret of the Popular Girls’ power, she's forced to make the toughest choice of her life. This savagely funny book will be the talk of the season. Return to previous slide THE DISREPUTABLE HISTORY OF FRANKIE LANDAU-BANKS Frankie Landau-Banks at age 14: Debate Club. Her father's "bunny rabbit." A mildly geeky girl attending a highly competitive boarding school. Frankie Landau-Banks at age 15: A knockout figure. A sharp tongue. A chip on her shoulder. And a gorgeous new senior boyfriend: the supremely goofy, wordobsessed Matthew Livingston. Frankie Landau-Banks. No longer the kind of girl to take "no" for an answer. Especially when "no" means she's excluded from her boyfriend's all-male secret society. Not when her ex-boyfriend shows up in the strangest of places. Not when she knows she's smarter than any of them. When she knows Matthew's lying to her. And when there are so many, many pranks to be done. Frankie Landau-Banks, at age 16: Possibly a criminal mastermind. This is the story of how she got that way. Return to Previous Page. The Last Exit to Normal by Michael Harmon It’s true: After 17-year-old Ben’s father announces he’s gay and the family splits apart, Ben does everything he can to tick him off: skip school, smoke pot, skateboard nonstop, get arrested. But he never thinks he’ll end up yanked out of his city life and plunked down into a small Montana town with his dad and Edward, The Boyfriend. As if it’s not painful enough living in a hick town with spiked hair, a skateboard habit, and two dads, he soon realizes something’s not quite right with Billy, the boy next door. He’s hiding a secret about his family, and Ben is determined to uncover it and set things right. In an authentic, unaffected, and mordantly funny voice, Michael Harmon tells the wrenching story of an uprooted and uncomfortable teenaged guy trying to fix the lives around him–while figuring out his own. Return to Previous Page. Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher Ruby's family used to be pretty well off until her father died. Then her mother worked long hours in the factory to make ends meet. When Ruby's mother can no longer work in the factory, Ruby must quit school and start earning money for the family. Factory work is not the future that Ruby envisioned for herself, so when bad boy Paulie Suelze suggests that Ruby work as a taxi dancer, she jumps at the chance. Pretty soon, she's working at the Starlight Dance Academy, teaching boys the Lindy Hop for ten cents a dance and lying to her mom about her job. Return to previous slide. Kendra by Coe Booth Kendra's mom, Renee, had her when she was only 14 years old. Renee and her mom made a deal- Renee could get an education, and Kendra would live with her grandmother. But now Renee's out of grad school and Kendra's in high school... and getting into some trouble herself. Kendra's grandmother lays down the law: It's time for Renee to take care of her daughter. Kendra wants this badly- even though Renee keeps disappointing her. Being a mother isn't easy, but being a daughter can be just as hard. Now it's up to Kendra and Renee to make it work. Return to previous slide. Jumper: Griffin’s Story by Steven Gould David Rice, age 17, first "jumps" spontaneously in order to escape his abusive father. Having run away, he learns to control his strange talent, using it first to survive on the street and then to set himself up comfortably via bank robbery. Gould does not focus on moral implications so much as keep the plot moving quickly. David searches for his long-lost mother, meets a girl, enjoys the pleasures of a leisurely life in New York and (despite his best efforts) eventually runs afoul of the authorities, who of course want to understand his powers and then put him to work for them. Return to Previous Page. London Calling by Edward Bloor Martin Conway comes from a family filled with heroes and disgraces. His grandfather was a statesman who worked at the US Embassy in London during WWII. His father is an alcoholic who left his family. His sister is an overachieving Ivy League graduate. And Martin? Martin is stuck in between-floundering. But during the summer after 7th grade, Martin meets a boy who will change his life forever. Jimmy Harker appears one night with a deceptively simple question: Will you help? Return to previous page. Shift by Jennifer Bradbury The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Sometimes, life takes a detour. Shortly after graduating from high school, Chris and his best friend Win set out on their bicycles, determined to travel across the country before college. Like all good road trip, this trek is bumpy, memorable, and metaphoric. Towards the end of their journey, Win unexpectedly takes off by himself. Feeling abandoned and upset, Chris finishes the trip alone. When Chris comes home without Win, he has to answer to his parents, Win's parents, and the police. Where did his best friend go? Why? What really happened between Point A and B? As close as he thought they were after ten years of friendship, Chris found himself surprised by some of the things his best friend did during their trip. He learns even more as he unravels the mystery of Win's disappearance. Return to previous page. Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd The book opens in 1981. Sixteen-year-old Fergus and his Uncle Tally have crossed the border from Northern Ireland to pilfer turf in the south. What they dig up on their illicit mission is not merely a truckload of valuable peat, but the half-buried body of a child. At first Fergus thinks that the child has been murdered by the IRA. This opening scene sets the tone for a complex series of misunderstandings that unfold throughout Bog Child, a book in which nothing is quite what it appears to be at first glance. The Provo murder victim turns out to have lived 2,000 years ago, and may not be a child after all. The rope around her neck could be a necklace or a noose. Fergus believes that the sealed packages he smuggles across the border each morning contain semtex, and implicate him in an IRA murder. The border guard is both his enemy and his friend. Meanwhile, his brother Joe languishes in Maze prison, half-dead on hunger strike in order to free Northern Ireland from "the misery of it. The mourning and the weeping. The vale of tears." But will his death further the political agenda or is that, too, an illusion? Return to Previous Page. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow Marcus is one of the decades most promising hackers. Too bad he can't come up with anything more interesting than jamming the school so he can play his favorite game with friends. But that all changes when his beloved city, San Francisco, is attacked by terrorists and Marcus and crew are found in the wrong place at the wrong time. They are rounded up by the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) and taken away to a secret headquarters, where they are brutally questioned and their rights are violated. When our hero is once again released into the city, everything has changed. Everyone is a potential terrorist and subject to a loss of privacy. Marcus realizes the power of the DHS as corrupt and must struggle with the complete faith of some citizens as well as the mindless rebellion of others. Finally putting his skills to good use, Marcus constructs an entire society using a version of an X-Box Live. In the new underground resistance, M1k3y (Marcus) begins to take down the DHS from the inside out. And soon, he has started something that will change all the people involved forever. Return to previous slide. Debbie Harry Sings in French by Meagan Brothers When Johnny completes an alcohol rehabilitation program and his mother sends him to live with his uncle in North Carolina, he meets Maria, who seems to understand his fascination with the new wave band Blondie. He learns about his deceased father's youthful forays into "glam rock," which gives him perspective on himself, his past, and his current life. Return to previous page. Airman by Eoin Colfer Conor Broekhart was born to fly. In fact, legend has it that he was born flying in a hot air balloon at the world's fair. In the 1890's Conor and his family live on the sovereign Saltee Islands, off the Irish coast. Conor spends his days studying the science of flight with his tutor and exploring the castle with the king's daughter, Princess Isabella. But the boy's idyllic life changes forever the day he discovers a conspiracy to overthrow the king. When Conor tries to expose the plot, he is branded a traitor and thrown into jail on the prison island of Little Saltee. There, he has to fight for his life as he and the other prisoners are forced to mine for diamonds in inhumane conditions. There is only one way to escape Little Saltee, and that is to fly. So he passes the solitary months by scratching drawings of flying machines into the prison walls. The months turn into years, but eventually the day comes when Conor must find the courage to trust his revolutionary designs and take to the skies. Return to previous slide. Audrey Wait by Robin Benway California high school student Audrey Cuttler dumps self-involved Evan, the lead singer of a little band called The Do-Gooders. Evan writes, "Audrey, Wait!," a break-up song that's so good it rockets up the billboard charts. And Audrey is suddenly famous! Now rabid fans are invading her school. People is running articles about her arm-warmers. The lead singer of the Lolitas wants her as his muse. (And the Internet is documenting her every move!) Audrey can't hang out with her best friend or get with her new crush without being mobbed by fans and paparazzi. Take a wild ride with Audrey as she makes headlines, has outrageous amounts of fun, confronts her ex on MTV, and gets the chance to show the world who she really is. Return to Previous Slide.