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Book Talks for 2009 Award Nominees
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
It all started my freshman year in High School on the day I hit Mr. P in the head with my geometry book. Okay, maybe it all really started when I was born with water on the brain. Well actually with excess cerebral spinal fluid inside my skull which is sort of like brain grease that we all need, but I had too much and my brain was like drowning in grease.
I wasn’t supposed to survive the surgery I had at 6 months old, and should have lived all my life as a vegetable, but apparently even then I was a fighter. Oh, I have all sorts of physical problems, like ten extra teeth that had to be removed and thick ugly black plastic framed eyeglasses and huge feet, and a huge skull, and brain seizures for years, but I got through it all and hadn’t had a seizure in seven years.
And, of course, I belong to the Black-Eye-of-the-Month club because everyone on the rez (yep, you got it, I’m an Indian) calls me a retard about twice a day and retards on the rez get beat up at least once a month.
I draw a lot because words are tool limited and unpredictable and it’s safer to stay at home and read and draw. It’s my way of talking to the world. To have dreams of growing up to be somebody important.
I’m smart too, and that had something to do with it. You see Mr. P, the geometry teacher, the one who sometimes forgets to come to school, had just handed out our new geometry books for the year. But inside the front cover it said;
THIS BOOK BELONGS TO AGNES ADAMS.
Agnes is my mother’s first name, and Adams is her last name. I couldn’t believe it. Our tribe is so poor that we had to use the same books our parents did. I was so upset I just threw the book as hard as I could. I wanted to hit something, and Mr. P happened to be in the way.
Of course I got suspended, but a week into my suspension, Mr. P walked up our driveway and had a talk with me. He had a bit bandage on his face and He apologized to ME!!! He felt he had left us all (us Indians) down and had taught us to give up, which most of us had. But that he felt I had a chance. That the reason I threw the book was because somewhere inside I refused to give up. Just like when I was a baby and should have died. I needed to get off the reservation and find hope. I could do it, he said.
And, that’s how I decided to leave the reservation school and go to the all white rich school at Reardan. That’s how I, in the eyes of all my friends at the rez, became a traitor. And how I . . . well, that’s another story
Sam Marsh
Absolutely true? As readers share Junior’s experiences on the reservation and at the all-white high school in the nearby town, they might wonder how much worse adolescence could possibly be. Is this really the true story of Sherman Alexie’s high school life? Or does Alexie use fiction to depict the miseries of his own teen years and achieve control over the unexaggerated painful memories? Ironic humor and wit allow Junior to tell the tales of his struggle to rise above his life’s circumstances and even to draw strength from his misfortune. The skillful writing allows readers to the hardships and empathize with Junior and his friend.
Although Alexie’s previous books were directed to adult audiences, the short story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist-fight in Heaven, and Smoke Signals, the film derived from it, have had many teen fans. Alexie has given his readers a realistic view of some of the challenges he faced as a Native American teen, and a glimpse into the successful life he has achieved through his introspective and powerful story-telling.
Marge Erickson Freeburn
Junior has grown up on the Rez and has always known he’s smarter than his peers. Of course, the natives on the Rez are dying left and right and ruining their lives when they do live. Junior has the opportunity to attend high school at an all-white school just outside the Rez and takes it. This is the story of how he deals with the differences in his two worlds and finds his own way.
Alexie says this is semi-autobiographical. He did open his text book in 8th grade and realize his mother had used the same book when she was in school. He did escape to a different high school. The result is a very humorous look at what it’s like to be a Native American teen living on the Rez and knowing your potential may not be met.
Jenna Obee
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
I only met the book thief three times, yet she was one of the few who intrigued me to the state that I keep her story to retell to myself.
The first time it was white, blindingly so, and I had come to harvest the soul of her brother who had died on the train while her mother was taking the two of them to be raised by someone else. When one of the men who buried her brother dropped a book, the girl picked it up and took it with her. It would be the book from which she learned to read, the grave digger’s handbook.
The second time was black, the darkest moment before the dawn when I arrived early (or he hung on longer than expected and died late) to harvest the soul of the pilot. A boy arrived and took a teddy bear from a box he carried and placed it on the pilot’s chest. The book thief arrived about a half minute later.
The third and last time I saw the book thief, the sky was red and the sirens came too late for the bombs. Bodies everywhere like driftwood after the flood. I was just about to leave when I saw the book thief there clutching a book, her diary. She dropped the book, knelt and howled.
The book, her journal, was thrown aboard a garbage truck at which time I retrieved it for future viewing. One of a handful. Come with me and I will tell you the story. It is set in Nazi Germany before, and during the Second World War. It is happy and sad. It is tragedy and hope. It is a life and an attempt to prove that human existence is worth it.
Sam Marsh
Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Set in Red Bird, Wisconsin. The main character is 15 year old D.J. Schwenk, the only daughter in a dairy farming family that produced two older sons, Win and Bill, high school and college football all stars, and a quiet, smart, but un-athletic younger son, Curtis, D.J. seems to be the only healthy, mature, strong, and hardworking member of the family. Her father is recovering from surgery, and her mother escapes to her job as an elementary school principal, Her three brothers are distant and non-communicating. A close family friend, the football coach in a neighboring small town, sends his star quarterback to the farm to help out, but primarily to develop a work ethic.
After a summer of training Brian in dairy farming and football fundamentals learned as she worked with her brothers, D.J. decides to go out for her high school’s football team. She is a terrific athlete, although her own sport is really basketball. She makes the football team, and plays well. She and Brian become more involved personally, until she realizes that he does not want his friends to see him with a “dairy queen”. D.J.’s football career ends with an injury as she realizes that rehabilitating for basketball is more important in her life than football---or Brian. And she still has all the farm work to do as well as figure out what her younger brother Curtis is up to when he “borrows” the pick-up and then calls her from the city to help him out.
This book comes to a satisfying conclusion, but only introduces a compelling sequel, The Off Season.
Marge Erickson Freeburn
None of it would have happened except for dad and his hip. And, if Jimmy Ott hadn’t gotten involved. Dad couldn’t work the farm much until his new hip healed, and my older brothers were gone off after a big fight and trying to get into the NFL. So, it was up to me and my younger brother Curtis to run the farm. But Curtis was often gone to little league practice. Which left . . . ME to run the farm and do all the chores.
So Jimmy Ott, who is like an uncle to me even though he is the coach of our fiercest rival, decides to send his ex-backup, soon to be starting quarterback Brian Nelson over to our farm to help out. Spoiled, rich, lazy, blame the other guys on the team if something goes wrong, Brian Nelson. Good arm, beautiful spiral, everything you need to be the perfect high school quarterback (and not bad to look at either) . . . except for the motivation.
Turns out Jimmy decided that he felt I could do Brian some good by being his trainer. Despite the fact that the history between Brian and out family left a bit to be desired.
And, in the end, Jimmy got his wish. I do, after all, know quite a bit about football and what it takes to succeed what with growing up with my almost NFL brothers. And, in the end, I couldn’t turn down the lure of seeing if there was anything I could do to make Brian better, even if he was the enemy.
It worked too. He turned out to be not so bad, and even had a sense of humor. And, he made me feel like someone with something to say, not just a cow that did what she was told all the time. ‘Course neither he nor Jimmy, nor even I, realized that I would decide that I had gotten myself in enough shape to decide that I could play football too. Even if I am just a girl.
Sam Marsh
DJ’s family is falling apart. Her mother has a stressful job, her father is recovering from surgery, her two older brothers are away at college (and there’s some sort of issue between them and her father which is not discussed), her younger brother is quiet and smart and does not talk. That leaves only DJ to handle the responsibility of running the family’s dairy farm. But the whole family is into football in a big way, including the older boys having football scholarships and the possibility of playing pro in a few years. A family friend who happens to be the coach of the rival high school’s football team sends over his new quarterback to help - and to learn a work ethic.
DJ spends the summer helping Brian train for his role on the team and, of course, falling completely in love with him. He seems to like her too, but not when his other friends are around? And at the end of the summer? She goes out for her own high school’s football team. And is now fighting across the field against Brian.
Jenna Obee
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
Things were way too complicated. Having Jacob, a werewolf, for a best friend. Being in love with Edward, a vampire. Werewolves and Vampires being mortal enemies who would rather kill each other than work things out. Edward wouldn’t even let me visit Jacob. If he left town, he had his sister and my best friend, Alice, baby-sit (i.e. kidnap) me. After all, there was an enemy werewolf, Victoria, who swore she would kill me in retaliation for Edward having killed the vampire she loved, despite the fact that he had tried to kill me first.
So, I had to take things in to my own hands and sneak off to La Push to see Jacob. At first Edward was beside himself with worry and almost broke the treaty and trespassed to make sure I was safe. But, eventually, Edward came around to my point of view. Being in the midst of a bunch of protective werewolves was just about as safe as anywhere, and he quit hassling me.
Then there was the problem in Seattle. A string of mysterious killings that the Cullens knew was the work of new, uncontrolled vampires. Soon, they would have to do something about the problem or risk a visit by the Volturi, the vampire enforcers from Europe. And, if the Volturi visited, they would begin to question why I was still human and not yet turned into a vampire…a state that Edward was still trying to dissuade me from.
But, Edward had promised to change me himself once I graduated from high school, and that was just weeks away. If, I first married him. I HATE marriage.
Sam Marsh
This is the third book in a trilogy, but a fourth book is coming, and rumor has it that this will be a series of seven books. "A riveting vampire saga" promises the blurb. Edward Cullen and Bella are the main characters, high school seniors in the small and isolated town of Forks Washington.
Many complications in their romance result from the distance in their ages and personal history, Bella’s father Charlie’s opposition to the relationship, and Bella’s friendship with Jacob Jacob’s family, native to the Forks area embodies the historical enmity between vampires and werewolves. The uneasy peace established in the first two novels is threatened by horribly violent murders attributed to a gang of newborn vampire outlaws rampaging in the Seattle area and supported by a European branch of the vampire community. Jealousy, unusual family relationships, and Bella’s impending conversion to vampirism complicate the unfolding of their senior year. (Who could concentrate on the mundane reality of high school life?) The suspense, romance, and other-worldly dangers make this a must read for the series fans.
Marge Erickson Freeburn
So in Twilight, Bella and Edward (the vampire) fall in love. In New Moon, Edward abandons Bella for a few months and she falls in love with Jacob (the werewolf). Now all the vampires are back and the werewolves are out in force - and they don’t get along. Meanwhile Bella has angered a European branch of the vampire world and they decide she needs to be killed. Both Edward and Jacob want to protect her but how can they do it when they can’t even be in the same room together? And Bella is going to have to choose between her vampire and her werewolf soon.
The fourth book, Breaking Dawn, comes out in August. This series really is the next Harry Potter because everyone is reading it, but one would hope that she finishes it with book four! There is a planned fifth book which is Twilight from Edward’s point of view.
Jenna Obee
Flush by Carl Hiaasen
Okay, so my dad’s not the most normal dad in the world. So maybe he’s a hero of lost causes. And maybe he has a temper and doesn’t always think things through. Like the consequences and how it will affect his family, and like how evidence might be nice to have. But, he always takes responsibility for what he has done. When he sank Dusty Muleman’s casino boat because he found out that Dusty had been having the crew flush the sewage directly into the bay where we all swim to save money, dad calmly waited on shore in a deck chair for the police to arrest him. He wanted the publicity. He wanted an investigation and for Dusty to get his due. That’s when mom started using the d-word, divorce. And that’s when my sister Abbey and I decided that we’d have to do something to prove dad was right and Dusty was the scumbag he was. Operation Royal Flush. Of course we were too young to realize just how much money talks in politics and government.
Sam Marsh
Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares
Carmen: acting, a false friend, Julia, low self esteem, drifting----
Lena: art school, Greek family, heart breaker Kostos, new love-Leo?
Tibby: mother’s death, self-isolated Dad and brother, sex, regrets, fear, heart breaker?
Bee: archaeological dig, Eric-out of sight and mind? Dangerous attraction to professorIn the Fourth Summer the four friends are apart again, not even able to get together for the annual ritual of the traveling pants. Each is going her own post-high school way. Can even the magical pants connect them as they make their separate lives? Fans of the series will enjoy this finale which brings each young woman critical life and love decisions. Each develops a greater understanding of her self, her power, and potential. Each has her values tested and reaffirmed. Happy endings? Or promising but painful steps toward maturity?
Recommend to the readers of the previous three volumes among middle school readers, but it is probably of greater interest to older girls who want to learn how to establish and maintain positive personal relationships.
Marge Erickson Freeburn
This is the fourth book of the traveling pants series. Now the four girls have just completed their first year of college and are finding it hard to spend time together. Maybe it is because each is struggling with an issue that will force them to grow up and continue to learn more about themselves. Bridget is spending her summer in Turkey at an archeological dig. There, she meets a man who will force her into a moral crises and lead her to some tough realizations that just might change her life. Lena, in art school, is trying to get over Kostas and move on with her life. Tibby is dealing with her boyfriend Brian and a major crisis which is sure to rock their relationship. Finally, Carmen is struggling to find herself. With her mother moving and no sense of home, she is isolating herself from the group as she struggles to find a place where she fits in. With all of these adult challenges, the pants are still there. But are they as important as they once were? What else could possibly keep these girls together? This is what they discover as they continue to move toward adulthood.
Kari Hagman
Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
Remember those sayings about living in glass houses and beauty is only skin deep and don’t judge a book by its cover and . . .
Our dad designed our house, and the front is all of glass. We always see people slow down and look in as they drive by, watching our perfect family at the dining table. But, all they are seeing is the surface. They don’t really know what goes on behind the scenes.
They don’t know about Whitney’s eating disorder, or how stressed out my mom gets when things don’t go wrong. Or how both of our parents try to pretend that everything is perfect. They don’t know how much it hurt her that both Whitney and talkative Kirsten are both out of the modeling business or that I, Annabel, the youngest, am the only one left for our mom’s obsession with fashion.
Nor do they see that I have nothing left ever since the night of the end of year party and what happened between me and Sophie, my supposed best friend, and her boyfriend Will Cash. I have no voice. I can’t tell anyone, even though it wasn’t my fault. Who would believe me? Sophie? Hah! She always was able to control me. I have NO courage. Now, I’m almost nonexistent. Except for the times that Sophie happens to cross my path, and then it’s a one word curse she hurls at me.
Then, I start sitting at lunch on the same bench as Owen Armstrong. Owen, who always has his ipod along and his earphones on. Owen, who hardly ever speaks. Owen, who is in Anger Management for punching out another kid. Owen, who helps me through one of the roughest times with Sophie. Owen who always tells the truth. Owen, my lifeline.
Sam Marsh
Annabel Green is having a bad year. Last spring she lost her best friend in a scandal that rocked the entire school. Now she is an outcast, forced to eat alone with only the weird kid Owen willing to sit next to her. It is a far cry from the popularity she had always enjoyed. Her family is also a mess. With one sister suffering from anorexia, her mother’s depression a constant worry, and her father living in seeming denial about it all, what can she do? As she befriends Owen, she starts to see the world through his eyes—or his music rather. He opens her eyes to a new way of seeing and expressing her emotions. In order to get her life back, she will need to learn to tell her mother her wishes and be honest with her former friends as well as herself. She will also need to deal with the scandal of the past in order to begin to move forward. Can she do it? It is her journey to battle the silences that make up her life that forces her to just listen to her own heart.
Kari Hagman
Maximum Ride: School’s Out-- Forever by James Patterson
Well, we had escaped from the lab where we had been raised and given wings and various other assorted powers. Not only that, but we’d been hunted by Erasers time after time, and managed to escape, although sometimes barely. Finally, I had (by accident) killed the worst of the Erasers (mutant wolf-human hybrids), their leader and the son of Jeb, the traitor. It was a mistake, but Jeb’s last words to me as we escaped were; “You killed your own brother.”
Of course, knowing Jeb, we couldn’t tell if that was the truth or simply another of his lies meant to ‘test’ us/me which seemed to be his sole goal in life. Now, we were headed to D.C. to try to find the Institute which just might provide some answers that all of us were searching for. Like about our parents and who we should have been.
Then, we saw a weird dark cloud heading right towards us. Too fast for a storm cloud. “Flying Monkeys?” asked the Gasman. Worse, Fyling Erasers!
And even worse, one of them was Ari, back from the dead and with wings. Couldn’t anything ever be simple, just once?
Sam Marsh
Midnight (Warriors: The New Prophecy, bk 1) by Erin Hunter
Star Clan has sent a vision to Bramblestar. And to three other cats in the three other clans. One is his sister, Tawnypelt who is now a member of ShadowClan. They must travel to the sundrown place and listen to Midnight in order to save the clans from the coming danger. But, Squirrelpaw, an outspoken, upstart apprentice and one of the leader, Firestar’s, daughters, is always at odds and finds out about the prophecy.
She, and Cloudpaw, the brother of another of the vision recipients, join the quartet in their perilous search for the sundrown place. During their travels, they encounter and conquer a variety of dangers, all the time growing closer together.
But will their discovery at Midnight be the end, or simply the beginning?
Sam Marsh
The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau
Torren was the one who saw them first. The people from the town of Ember. More than 400 of them. More than there were in the entire town of Sparks: a town that was just now getting to the place that it was self-sustaining and even a bit prosperous, just recovering from the disaster that had almost wiped out the human race. They claimed to have come from an underground city and knew nothing of the world on the surface. They had no food or supplies of any kind. They were totally dependent upon the people of Sparks for food, shelter, and knowledge of how to live. So, the people of Sparks agreed to take them in, share their food, and teach them skills that would help them survive. For six months. Then, the people from Ember would be on their own. But Torren, who was never the most well-mannered boy, and who missed his brother, a roamer, started a feud by blaming Doon, the hero of Ember, for wasting food when it was really Torren himself who had been the culprit. Tick, a power hungry youth from Ember, fed the fireof discord between the people of Ember and those of Sparks. Soon, there was open animosity and threatening violence between the two factions. Could Doon and Lina, his fellow champion in initially rescuing the people of Ember, once again save the day?
Sam Marsh
In City of Ember, two teens find a way out of their dying city and on to the surface of their planet. It’s Earth, a very far off post-apocalyptic Earth. The people of Ember find their way into the city of Sparks which has really just managed to get ahead in the struggle to make a life. The Sparks people have been taught about the three wars and the four plagues and are wary not to repeat the mistakes of their ancestors. But adding the people of Ember to their struggling city more than doubles the number of people they need to support and that causes problems. Then there is an incident with some tomatoes and stories differ but… the people of Ember and the people of Sparks are about to learn beyond the theory of war to the real thing.
Jenna Obee
Physik by Angie Sage
Silas Heap, Ordinary Wizard, decided to UnSeal a Sealed room in the attic of the palace to keep his Counters in. He had decided it was the best way to keep his precious newfound Counters from escaping despite the protestations of gatekeeper Gringe who knew that Sealed rooms were Sealed for a reason and best left alone. Silas chants the Lock Incantation backwards three times and then finishes with the UnSeal. Nothing happens for a few seconds and Gringe is ready to return to his duties when: BANG! the door slams open and a gust of stale are rushes past Silas and Gringe. The room is tiny with a bricked up window and, in the shadows, a large life-size oil painting of a Queen wearing the True Crown, and an Aie-Aie, a horrible ratty faced critter with sharp claws, a long snakelike tale, and one long, needle-sharp tooth.
What Silas doesn’t know is that as soon as he UnSealed the room, the ghost of Queen Etheldredda and her companion stepped out of the portrait, opened the door and walked right past Silas and Gringe and out of the room. Not quite dead, they were now free to try to reclaim the world of the living for their own ends.
It would be up to Silas’ youngest children, the adopted Princess Jenna and Septimus, the apprentice to the Extra-Ordinary Wizard, to try to set things right and prevent the ancient and ill-tempered Queen from reclaiming her throne.
Sam Marsh
Playing for Pizza by John Grisham
Take a grip to Italy with Rick, a 3rd string quaterback who joins the Parma Panthers football team there. Surprisingly they play American football, not European football which is soccer. He helps to build the team and his character at the same time.
Grisham went to Italy to do some of the research for the book, so you'll enjoy discovering the culture and the descriptions of delicious food and you won't be too surprised when Rick falls in love.
A short and fun read.
Karen Kargel
Pretties by Scott Westerfeld
Once upon a time in the very far future there was a beautiful princess. She lived in a land where everyone was as beautiful as she. This land was known as New Pretty Town. Upon the event of one's sixteenth birthday, everyone received an operation that allowed them to be no longer ugly. Not only did they become physically beautiful, but they became stronger and healthier as well. And no one ever fought or disagreed with each other. Like everyone else, this princess lived in buildings that had smart walls whose clever holes in them could give her anything: food, a clique of fantastic friends, wonderful clothes. And best of all, there was a mirror on the wall, so the princess could look at herself all day long. The princess and the other people around her lived a life in which their primary goal was to have fun. There were non stop parties, high tech luxury and complete freedom. One day, the princess realized she was bored. The view from her building-gentle hills, fields of white flowers, and a deep dark forest that fascinated her. She started spending more time looking out the window than at her own reflection, as is often the case with troublesome girls. It was clear that no prince was showing up. Sure, she met a couple of guys that seemed like prince material and whose kisses left her head spinning. But something seemed dreadfully wrong in the life she was leading. She had always wished ever since she was a littlle that she could be here. Couldn't wait until her sixteenth birthday to receive the operation. But it felt like something in her life was…missing. There were hints that other people felt this way too, and there were clues from her past, from the time before. And then one day, she found a letter she wrote to herself when she was still ugly, along with two little white pills. The letter told her that her body wasn't the only thing that became pretty when she had surgery, that the doctors made her mind pretty as well. When that happened, people's thoughts didn't progress much beyond the next party or whatever pleasure they could seek. So the princess took one of the little white pills, and she began to feel bubbly, and look at things differently, and she knew, that something had to change, not only for her, but for everyone around her.
By Susi Bonato, http://booktalkingcolorado.ppld.org
I was finally a Pretty and it was time for the bash where the Crims would vote on whether or not I would be a member of their group. The bash was in the oldest building in New Pretty Town, one with walls of real stone, so the rooms couldn’t talk-or monitor. But, at the last minute, or at least the last day, the bash was changed to costumes.
Being one of the most famous crims, I decided to wear the old real-life Smokey sweater that I had worn when I was a criminal Ugly. Even though it scratched, it would at least be authentic, and not something spit out by the hole in the wall like everyone else would be wearing.
At the party though, I kept getting glimpses of what looked like a member of Special Circumstances shadowing me. Always just out of reach. Fading in and out of my sight. Finally, I chased him into the stairwell.
It wasn’t a member of Special Circumstances, it was Croy, an Ugly I had known from the Smoke. But then we heard and saw real Specials on their way up the stairs. I ran into the crowd following Croy. He leaped over the rail into the night, I ran over and grabbed Peris around the shoulders and pushed him over the balcony, not even wondering if the bungee jacket would be able to catch both of us. It did, but as I dropped onto the grass, Peris shot back into the air, his knee catching my brow and bloodying it.
Croy glided up on his hoverboard and said they would leave something of me at Valentino 317. Then he left as wardens began to show up.
It was a totally crim move I had made, and only added to my reputation. I was overwhelmingly voted into the Crims.
Sam Marsh
The Quillan Games by DJ MacHale
Bobby has traveled to the territory of Quillan, a territory where a corporation controls everything and Quillan Games are used to keep the people in line. In order to get ahead, the people of Quillan must bet on the games to win extra food, clothing, etc. If they lose their bets, they become indebted to the corporation and often are put in jobs where their lives are in serious jeopardy.
As for the participants in the games, those that win are treated as royalty. However to lose is often to die. Further, they have not choice in the matter. Once they are chosen to participate, they are forced to play or die. And, someone has chosen Bobby to be a participant in the games.
Then Bobby finds out that the game masters, Veego and LaBerge, are from another territory. Saint Dane has upped the stakes, intermixing not only people but also technology from the various territories, a recipe for disaster. And, there is a traitor in the ranks of the underground.
Sam Marsh
Scorpia by Anthony Horowitz
Alex was trying to figure out the meaning of Yassen Gregorovich’s last words. He said, "Go to Venice. Find Scorpia. And you will find your destiny." The trouble was that Alex had no idea what Yassen had meant. Scorpia could be a person, or a business or a building or a street. It could be almost anything. As Alex walked with Tom, something out of the corner of his eye caught a flash of silver. He turned his head. There was nothing. A canal leading away. Another canal crossing it. A single motor cruiser sliding underneath a bridge. The usual façade of ancient brown walls, A church dome rising above the red roof tiles. Then the cruiser turned and Alex saw it a second time a silver scorpion decorating the side of the boat. He started running and dodging in and out of alleys, trying to find the cruiser. After a long chase, he finally found it. It was a typical Venetian palace, pink and white. The place was unforgettable. It faced the grand Canal, but it was sinking into it. It was impossible to say where the water ended and the palace floor began. One side was reached by land, and there were lots of men carrying boxes and crates, Champagne bottles, fireworks, and different kinds of food. They were preparing for some kind of party. Alex asked and it was a masked ball for the birthday celebration of Signora Rothman. Alex hadn’t been invited, but he had already decided that he had to go. He had to see if this was Scorpia. Alex dressed as a Turkish slave, and with Tom’s help he managed to get inside the pink and white palace. Alex knew he couldn’t linger too long. He was the only teenager in the place, and it was only a matter of time before someone noticed him. He saw a gallery and went through a door. He heard muffled voices and there was nowhere to hide. He stood against a wardrobe and he hoped that he wouldn’t be noticed. They went by and after they left Alex went through the same door. He was in a huge room at least thirty yards long. The floor was polished wood, and everything was white. There was a massive fireplace made of white marble with a white tiger-skin rug spread out in front of it. Alex could think of nothing more disgusting. White bookshelves lined the far wall, a white antique table with a TV and a remote device. Opposite the fireplace stood a solid walnut desk, Alex went over to it. He looked for security cameras and then tried one of the drawers. It was open but only contained some writing papers. The next drawer had a brochure with a yellow cover and the name Consanto Enterprises. There was an address of Via Nuova, Amalfi. As he was thinking about what he had heard in the hall, something moved. Alex was sure that he was alone. He was surprised that there had been no sign of security, particularly if this was Mrs. Rothman’s office. Alex was suddenly aware that something had changed. It took him a few seconds to realize what it was and at once he felt the hairs on the back of hiss neck stand on end. What he had taken for a tiger skin rug had just stood up. It was a tiger, angry and alive. It was the largest living cat in the world. A Siberian Tiger! Alex tried to move but found that he was terrified. Rooted to the spot. The tiger growled, a low rumbling noise, more terrible than anything Alex had ever heard. He tried to move again, to put something between the two of them. But there was nothing. The tiger took a step forward. It was preparing to leap. Its eyes had darkened. It growled a second time, louder, and it leaped. What happens to Alex? Read Scorpia by Anthony Horowitz Sabotage, Corruption, Intelligence and Assassination
By Marilyn Bunker, http://booktalkingcolorado.ppld.org
Finally Alex Rider might be about to find some answers. He has been told he looks just like his father, but he never knew his dad. Then he learns about an organization named Scorpia. Scorpia for Sabotage, Corruption, Intelligence, and Assassination. A secret, world wide organization for hire to do any dirty work for anyone willing to pay enough. Responsible for 10% of the world’s terrorism. All on contract. An organization that lived on its reputation for success.
Now Alex finds out that his father used to work for Scorpia. And, despite his tender age, the organization wants Alex to join them as well. Julia Rothman, one of the nine, no make that eight, executives of Scorpia (she eliminates one who wants to retire), tells Alex that she can tell him all about his father and how he died. If only he will join Scorpia.
From Julia, Alex learns that everything he has heard about his father from M16, the British spy agency that has utilized him is the past, is a lie. That they were the ones responsible for his father’s death. He is enlisted to assassinate the deputy head of M16, Mrs. Jones, while Scorpia plans a secret mission that will kill hundreds of thousands of British children, operation Invisible Sword.
Alex finds he is unable to kill, even the person that has killed his father. And then he learns that it was Scorpia who lied, and that his father was a double agent for M16, planted in Scorpia to help blunt their powers. In order to save the children of England, however, Alex must return to Scorpia, convince them that he is still on their side, and somehow foil their plans. After all, he is fourteen years old.
Sam Marsh
Alex Rider is done with MI6. He is not doing any more missions for them. He has been given a clue to finding out the mysteries of his past and his parents and off he goes to Venice to dig out the truth. There is an organization there named Scorpia that has a very specific mission. Scorpia itself stands for Sabotage, Corruption, Intelligence, and Assassination. Turns out it’s responsible for 10% of the terrorism world wide. So Alex gets inside and starts working for Scorpia. And they have plenty to tell him about his father and who killed him (hint – it’s an MI6 person!). In the meantime, though, Scorpia is working on their best terrorist event yet. They have informed England that it must end its relationship with America (thereby breaking the power of the west) or every 14 year old in England will die.
And Alex? He’s 14.
Jenna Obee
The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
I’d made it through an entire school year without being kicked out. Until the last day of school. That’s when coach Nunley set us up to play dodge ball. What he didn’t realize was that the other team was NOT students at the school. Nope, were monsters, and they were throwing fiery metal balls at us. My new friend Tyson, however, actually caught two of them and sent them back towards their owners. Then he knocked one aside into the bleachers.
Suddenly Annabeth appeared out of nowhere and told us to meet her outside. Of course, WE, Tyson and I, got blamed for all the destruction. I don’t think I’ll be invited back.
We escaped and returned to Camp Half-Blood with Tyson in tow to discover that the Tree, Thalia, had been poisoned and was dying, the border was weakening, Chiron had been fired and replaced by a creep named Tantalus, and that Tyson was a Cyclops and my half-brother. Oh, and that someone had to enter the Sea of Monsters and recover the Golden Fleece to save the Camp and prevent war among the Gods.
Sam Marsh
Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar
Welcome to Scott Hudson''s freshman year of high school. He isn''t the handsomest or most popular guy around and he doesn''t have a clue as to how to talk to Julia who once shared his peanut butter crackers and has morphed into the hot chick over the summer. Seniors smack him on the head on the bus. He doesn''t have classes with his best friends. His Spanish teacher has a thick French accent. His gym teacher is seriously demented and is surely out to kill him. And his homework load is enormous. Then, in trying to get Julia’s attention, he finds himself covering sports for the school newspaper, working on the school play and running for the student council. And on top of all of this, his parents have announced that they''re having a baby. He may be in way over his head. Will Scott eventually find his place in the confusing world of high school? Will he ever win Julia’s heart? And most importantly, will he ever get enough shut-eye?
By Amy Rodda, http://booktalkingcolorado.ppld.org
So B. It by Sarah Weeks
Do you ever think your mom is retarded? Well, in So B. It, the mother really is. 12-year-old Heidi lives with her mother in an apartment that joins Bernadette’s -- their neighbor. Bernie has been taking care of her practically since she was born, since her mom is mentally disabled & can hardly even take care of herself. As a matter of fact, her mom only knows 23 words, including her name, which she says is So B. It. The mystery is: how is it that Heidi & her mom came to live in the apartment in the 1st place, & why doesn’t anyone ever bother them for rent? One day when Heidi is cleaning out a closet, she finds an old camera with film still in it. She has the film developed, & there are pictures of her mother w/someone who is probably her grandmother. They’re standing outside a building that says “Hilltop Home, Liberty, New York.” Bernie & Heidi keep calling Hilltop Home, but aren’t able to get any information. By now, Heidi is obsessed with finding out who her mother really is. She decides to take a bus from her home in Reno, Nevada to New York. When she gets there, she finds that Hilltop Home is for the mentally disabled. Turns out that her mother used to live there, & got pregnant by the owner’s son, who is also mentally disabled & still lives there. So immediately she found her father & grandfather. Her grandfather tells her that when her mom got pregnant, he gave her grandmother (who was the person in the pictures) a monthly allowance (which is how their apartment has been paid for all these years) on condition that she go away. So he’s curious what happened to her grandmother, & searches Reno records to find out that she was killed by a bus almost 13 years before – the same day that Heidi & her mother showed up on Bernie’s doorstep. Heidi is so excited & happy to finally find out about her past. Until she talks to Bernie & finds out that her mother has died while she was gone. It was so sad that I almost cried. But life became a whole lot easier for Heidi after she found her family.
By Cathy Genato, http://booktalkingcolorado.ppld.org
Heidi, the 13 year old main character, knows that her mother is severely disabled and dependent on their neighbor and caretaker Bernadette. Mama knows only 23 words, and slearns new skills only through simple directions and repeated guided practice over long periods of time. Heidi’s curiosity about her own history is sparked by a word that Mama says but cannot explain: soof. Heidi discovers a few clues in the twenty mysterious photographs from a long forgotten camera that she finds in the back of a drawer. These clues lead Heidi on a cross-country trip to Hilltop Farm where she learns the hidden secrets of another life and another family. All the pieces of the puzzle come together in this story of human kindness, acceptance, and eventual justice.
Marge Erickkson Freeburn
Terrier by Tamora Pierce
Beka Cooper is a Puppy, a trainee, in the Provost’s Guard. But, she is different from the other trainee’s. For one thing, she has a purple-eyed talking cat, Pounce, with an attitude. For another, she is shy, so shy it is hard for her to talk at all to strangers. And, of course, there is her magical listening talent.
She gets assigned to Tunstall and Goodwin, the best pair of Dogs on the Guard who are none too pleased to be stuck with her. But, on her first night, she gets too overconfident. When Goodwin sends her after a cutpurse, she is in such a hurry to prove how good she is that she forgets her training and doesn’t keep an eye out for his lookout partner who sticks out a foot and sends her flying into a pile of fish heads, guts and tails.
Chagrined, she is sent to rinse off under the barrels they keep for the fishermen to wash and then home to care for her uniform. She is determined to run off to sea, but Pounce will have none of it and chides her for sulking. Eventually, her mood improves.
But, she has learned a valuable lesson in humility which will be invaluable in her future on the Guard. When the power structure of the underworld is overturned and the citizens there thrown into terror and submission, it will be Beka and her unique talent that will be relied upon to find the identity of the perpetrator and stop his wave of crime.
Sam Marsh
This is the first in a new Tortall series. Tortall is the world that Pierce sets all her stories in. Beka Cooper grew up the Lower City, think inner city with crime and filth and a world where the police are called Dogs and carry batons to beat up the criminals, called Rats. Beka is a Puppy, a Dog in training, and assigned to Tunstall and Goodwin who have a reputation for being at the top of the Dog world. They are none to pleased to be assigned a Puppy, but Beka is special. She knows the Lower City and has the ability to hear ghosts. If only she wasn’t so shy!
Once Beka earns Tunstall and Goodwin’s trust, she and her Dogs chase after the worst of the worst - a man taking the name of a childhood threat and using it to get people’s most prized possessions – by kidnapping their children and murdering them if the ransom isn’t paid.
Watch for more in this series, and expect your Alanna and Ali fans to be drooling for more.
Jenna Obee
Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett
Witching was really short of magic of the fancy, glittery variety. Not, it was mostly just plain hard work, and you needed help to learn, especially if you had a natural talent like Tiffany did. ‘Course sometimes Tiffany felt her talent was being a magnet for trouble.
She’d been learning from Miss Treason who, at 113 was about 100 years older than Tiffany. Then, Miss Treason had taken Tiffany to the Morris Dance, the dance that brought in Summer. Oh, she had told Tiffany not to move or talk during the dance, but Tiffany, after all, was only 13. And, she was somewhat musically inclined. And, she realized the dance was out of time. There was a space in it where she should be, she knew it. The dance was in her bones, calling to her.
She ran forward and jumped in, ignoring the glares of the six dancing men, being where they weren’t. Then a voice said “Who are You?” The beat came back, and six men crashed into Tiffany.
Next thing she knew, the Wintersmith, the elemental who WAS Winter, was in love with Tiffany thinking she was the Summer Lady, the elemental who WAS Summer and had somehow been able to transform into winter. He wanted her to be his Queen and live with him in the land of Winter forever. He made each snowflake into a miniature Tiffany, winter got colder and colder. He made icebergs in the shape of Tiffany. Things had to be fixed.
As for the Summer Lady, she was miffed at Tiffany for taking her role. She retired to the underground. Things were not looking well.
It was definitely a job for a witch, especially since the witch had been the one who changed the story, and of course, a job for the Mac Nac Feegles!
Sam Marsh
Tiffany has come to terms with being a witch and is learning, slowly, the drudgery of just doing the work. But being only 13, she doesn’t always think before she acts, and soon she’s dancing in the middle of the Morris Dance, the dance that brings in summer. Next thing she knows, the Wintersmith, the guy who *is* winter, has a crush on her and is following her around. He makes snowflakes in her image, which thankfully no one notices. And then iceburgs to match, which they do. And meanwhile, the summer lady is mad because *she* was the one who was supposed to catch the Wintersmith’s eye. And summer isn’t happening! Time for one fledgling witch and some Mac Nac Feegles to save the day!
Jenna Obee
©2008 Colorado Blue Spruce Book Award
Last updated: February 27, 2008