Books from Booktalk for Mr. Jensen's Reading Class
Hello, all! Here's a list of books (with brief annotations) that I presented this morning in Mr. Jensen's reading class. If any of these ring a bell or sound good, come up to the library to check them out.
NONFICTION
Madden, John. John Madden's Heroes of Football. A history of some of football's greatest players and teams, from the game's rough-and-tumble beginnings to the present day.
Morris, Deborah. Teens 911, Snowbound: Helicopter Crash and Other True Survival Stories. Fictionalized accounts of true incidents from across the United States in which teenagers used their knowledge and skills to save their own or someone else's life.
Schroeder, Andreas. Scams! ten stories that explore some of the most outrageous swindlers and tricksters of all time.
Schroeder, Andreas. Thieves! : ten stories of surprising heists, comical capers, and daring escapades.
Anderson, Wayne. The Chicago Black Sox Trial. Examines the 1920 trial of eight Chicago White Sox baseball players accused of conspiracy to throw the 1919 World Series.
Dunmore, Spencer. Lost Subs. Accounts of several submarines that have been lost underwater, from David Bushnell's Turtle in 1776 to the Russian Kursk in 2000.
FICTION
Trueman, Terry. Stuck in Neutral. Suffering from cerebral palsy and unable to communicate, Shawn fears that his father may not realize the joy he feels at being alive.
Abrahams, Peter. Behind the Curtain. Once again mixing Sherlock Holmes with Alice in Wonderland, Abrahams revisits heroine Ingrid Levin-Hill, who is kidnapped while investigating mysterious happenings in her home town.
Lisle, Janet Taylor. Black Duck. Years afterwards, Ruben Hart tells the story of how, in 1929 Newport, Rhode Island, his family and his best friend's family were caught up in the violent competition among groups trying to control the local rum-smuggling trade.
Preston, Douglas. Relic. A monster is on the loose in New York City's American Museum of Natural History, and it's not happy.
Nix, Garth. Sabriel. A lovely little tale in which Sabriel, daughter of the necromancer Abhorsen, must journey into the mysterious and magical Old Kingdom to rescue her father from the Land of the Dead.
Naylor, Phyllis R. Including Alice. Fifteen-year-old Alice finds it hard to adjust to the changes in her life when her father gets married and her brother moves to his own apartment. Another great title in a great series.
Dessen, Sarah. Keeping the Moon. Colie, a self-described "former fat girl," spends the summer working as a waitress in a beachside restaurant, staying with her overweight and eccentric Aunt Mira, and away from her fitness-crazed mom.
Draper, Sharon. Forged by Fire. Gerald, who has spent years protecting his fragile half-sister from their abusive father, faces the prospect of one final confrontation before the problem can be solved.
Gantos, Jack. Jack on the Tracks. Moving with his family to Miami, Florida, Jack tries to break some of his bad habits but finds himself irresistibly drawn to things disgusting, gross, and weird.
Sleator, William. Singularity. Ultra-competitive twins Harry and Barry stumble across a gateway to another universe, where a distortion in time and space causes a dramatic change in their relationship.
Griffin, Adele. My Almost Epic Summer. Stuck babysitting during the summer while her friends take glamorous vacations, Irene learns some lessons about life after meeting a beautiful, yet troubled, girl.
Reeve, Philip. Mortal Engines. In the distant future, when cities move about and consume smaller towns, a fifteen-year-old apprentice is pushed out of London by the man he most admires and must seek answers in the perilous Out-Country, aided by one girl and the memory of another. The first in a trilogy.
Feinstein, John. Vanishing Act. Eighth-grade sports reporters Susan Carol and Stevie reunite at the U.S. Open tennis championships where they investigate the mysterious disappearance of a top Russian player.
Shusterman, Neal. The Schwa Was Here. When Antsy befriends "The Schwa," what starts off as a fun way to make money turns into a deeper exploration of who we are.
Dowell, Francine O'Roark. Chicken Boy. Death, friendship, family --a boy can learn a lot from chickens, as Tobin discovers when he starts raising them with his friend Henry.
Hautman, Pete. Invisible. Doug and Andy are unlikely best friends--one a loner obsessed by his model trains, the other a popular student involved in football and theater--who grew up together and share a bond that nothing--not even death--can sever.
Kaaberbol, Lene. The Shamer's Daughter. After her mother, a Shamer, is summoned to Dunark for a mission, ten-year-old Dina is forced to use her own special powers as she is caught up in an adventure of political intrigue and survival. The first of four great books in this series.
NOVELS IN VERSE
Sones, Sonya. One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies. Ruby Milliken leaves her best friend, her boyfriend, her aunt, and her mother's grave in Boston and reluctantly flies to Los Angeles to live with her father, a famous movie star who divorced her mother before Ruby was born.
Sones, Sonya. Stop Pretending. A younger sister has a difficult time adjusting to life after her older sister has a mental breakdown.
Grover, Lori Ann. On Pointe. Clare and her grandfather must deal with changes in their lives when Clare's summer growth spurt threatens to end her dream of becoming a ballet dancer and her grandfather suffers a stroke.
