Battle of the Books

KLO Grade 8 Titles 2014-2015

Ender’s Game

• • • In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers.

A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.

The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Is Ender the general Earth needs? If, that is, the world survives.

TAGS: science fiction, fantasy, war (First of 5; also has a parallel series)

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Raven’s Gate

• • • Matt is being punished for a crime he saw, but didn't commit. Instead of being locked up, he is being sent to the middle of nowhere to live with a new foster mom, as part of a government scheme called The Leaf Project.

But Matt's new home provides anything but peace and quiet. His new guardian is involved in very sinister things . . . and the whole town seems to be on her side. Everybody who tries to help Matt winds up disappearing . . . or dead.

The truth is much bigger than Matt, or the town — but Matt is the only person who can stop the ultimate evil from being unleashed.

TAGS: fantasy, supernatural, horror (First of 5)

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Maze Runner

• • • • When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he's not alone. When the lift's doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade – a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls.

Just like Thomas, the Gladers don't know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night they've closed tight. And every thirty days a new boy has been delivered in the lift.

Thomas was expected. But the next day, a girl is sent up – the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers.

Thomas might be more important than he could ever guess. If only he could unlock the dark secrets buried within his mind.

TAGS: dystopia, science fiction, survival (First in trilogy, also has a prequel)

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Death Cloud

• • In 1868, with his army officer father suddenly posted to India, and his mother mysteriously "unwell," fourteen-year-old Sherlock Holmes is sent to stay with his eccentric uncle and aunt in their vast house in Hampshire.

There he uncovers his first murder and a diabolical villain.

TAGS: mystery, suspense, historical fiction (First of 5)

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Camp 30

• • Jack and George have barely recovered from their ordeal in Camp X when they are relocated to Bowmanville, Ontario, where their mother has been offered a job in a prisoner of war camp holding the highest ranking German officers.

Soon the boys are offered the after-school job of delivering the camp's mail, and Canadian agents ask them to keep their eyes and ears open for possible escape plans. For it is a matter of loyalty to their homeland that the German prisoners must try to escape, even if it costs them their lives – and the lives of two boys in the wrong place at the wrong time.

TAGS: historical fiction, Canada, Second World War, espionage (2 nd of 6 books in Camp X series)

Boot Camp

• • • In the middle of the night Garrett is taken from his home to Harmony Lake, a boot camp for troubled teens. Maybe some kids deserve to be sent there, but Garrett knows he doesn't. Subjected to brutal physical and psychological abuse, he tries to fight back, but the battle is futile. He won't be allowed to leave until he's admitted his "mistakes" and conformed to Harmony Lake's standards of behavior. And there's no way to fake it.

Beaten, humiliated, and stripped of his pride, Garrett's spirit is slowly ebbing away. Then he hears whispers of an escape plot. It's incredibly risky – if he's caught, the consequences will be unthinkable – but it may be his only way out.

TAGS: realistic fiction, adventure

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Daniel X

• • • • Daniel X was born with the world's most extraordinary power: the power to create.

With his secret ability, he can conjure anything and everything, from inanimate objects to living, breathing people. This talent has helped him survive – but couldn't save his parents from being brutally murdered.

Discovering a strange list of names, Daniel vows to complete his father's mysterious mission and hunt down his family's assassin.

Now, on his own, he must uncover the dark truth behind an apocalyptic struggle that will determine the fate of all mankind. But hot on his trail is a cunning killer – one who knows exactly what Daniel X can do.

TAGS: science fiction, adventure, paranormal (First of 5)

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Divergent

• • • • In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue – Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent).

On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives.

For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

But Beatrice also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, Beatrice learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

TAGS: dystopia, romance, adventure, social classes (First in trilogy)

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Lost Cause

• • • • Steve thinks a trip to Europe is out of the question—until he hears his grandfather's will.

Suddenly he's off to Spain, armed with only a letter from his grandfather that sends him to a specific address in Barcelona.

There he meets a girl named Laia and finds a trunk containing some of his grandfather's possessions, including a journal he kept during the time he fought with the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War.

Steve decides to trace his grandfather's footsteps through Spain during which time he learns about his late grandfather's involvement with the Spanish Civil War.

TAGS: realistic fiction, war (One of 7 books in Seven series, Note: books do not have to be read in any particular order)

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The Singing Stone

• • • • Eighteen year old Kay, a Canadian orphan, has always been haunted by dreams and visions of a past she knows nothing about.

Then Kay receives a parcel of books about legends of an ancient Celtic stone that sings. Suspecting that the key to her past lies in Ireland, Kay travels to that country and is drawn into a heroic quest for the four lost treasures of the Tuatha De Danaan: the Sword, the Spear, the Cauldron, and – most important of all – the Stone of Destiny.

Druids plot and invaders threaten as Kay is caught up in a web of danger and romance.

TAGS: fantasy, mythology

The Other Side of Truth

• • • Will the truth harm them – or save them? When Nigeria's corrupt military government kills their mother, twelve-year-old Sade and her brother Femi think their lives are over. Out of fear for their safety, their father, an outspoken journalist, decides to smuggle the children out of Nigeria and into London, where their uncle lives.

But when they get to the cold and massive city, they find themselves lost and alone, with no one to trust and no idea when – or if – they will ever see their father again.

TAGS: realistic fiction, refugees Sequel: Web of Lies (2006)

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The Keeper of the Isis Light

• • • It was her tenth birthday on Isis. By Earth years, she would be sixteen. But Olwen Pendennis had never been to Earth. She had been born on Isis. Since her parents' death, Olwen had lived there alone, manning the Isis Light – a "lighthouse" in space designed to aid ships, and to bring settlers from Earth.

And now, on the day of her tenth year, the settlers are coming at last. Olwen is ready to welcome them, but are they ready for her? She was once human, like them. But the harsh climate of the alien planet has changed her, transformed her into something else – something the settlers could never be prepared for...

TAGS: science fiction, fantasy (First of trilogy)