The Last Book in the Universe

Philbreck, Rodman. (2000). The Last Book in the Universe. New York: Blue Sky Press.

Image credit: Goodreads.com

Annotation:

A young fourteen year-old boy sets off on a dangerous journey through a post-apocalyptic world to save his younger sister who is sick.

Booktalk:

What would you say if you had to write down the story of your life? Would you be happy with what you've done so far? 

After a major earthquake, people are now using probes, needles that inject memories into the brain, to face the reality of their world. Society is divided into two classes: the scientifically improved humans, Proovs, who live in Eden and the poor, imperfect people who live in run-down crypts in the Urb. Spaz, an epileptic young boy, is on his own in the Urb until he meets an strange old man named Ryter.

Spaz convinces Ryter to set out with him to find and save his sick younger sister. Along the way Spaz discovers that Ryter has a knowledge that few in their world possess. Will they save Spaz's sister? Will the story of Spaz's life become the Last Book in the Universe?

Awards:

• ALA Best Book for Young Adults, 2001
• Isinglass Teen Read Award, 2001-2002
• Maine Lupine Award Honor Book, 2000
• Maryland Readers Medal
• YALSA 100 Best of the Best Books for the 21st Century

The Hunger Games

Collins, Suzanne. (2008). The Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic.

Image credit: Wikipedia

Annotation: 

In order to prevent her sister from certain death, seventeen year-old Katniss must battle to the death at The Hunger Games, a life or death battle where winning means being the only one left alive.

Booktalk:

How far would you go for the ones you loved? Katniss Evergreen has just volunteered to take her little sister's place as one of District 12's tributes for the annual Hunger Games. In doing so she will spare her sister's life, but she will be putting hers on the line.

Accompany Katniss as she battles twenty-three other children in an arena that is an unpredictable killing field controlled by the Gamemakers. The only way to make it out alive is to be the last man standing. Who will survive and win this year's Hunger Games?

"Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The Hunger Games have begun..."

Check out the new film adaptation of the book out March 23, 2012

Awards:

• ALA Amelia Bloomer Project List, 2009
• ALA Notable Children’s Book
• ALA Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults
• Black-eyed Susan Award, 2010-2011
• Booklist Editors’ Choice, 2008
• CCBC Choices, 2009
• Children’s Choice Book Award, 2009
• Cybil Award for Fantasy & Science Fiction, 2008
• Horn Book Fanfare
• Indies Choice Best Indie Yung Adult Buzz Book Honor
• Isinglass Teen Read Award, 2009-2010
• Kirkus Best Book, 2008
• New York Times Bestseller
• New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
• New York Times Notable Children’s Book, 2008
• NYPL “Stuff for the Teen Age” List, 2009
• Publishers Weekly Bestseller
• Publishers Weekly’s Best Children’s Fiction Books, 2008
• School Library Journal Best Books, 2008
• Teen Choice Book of the Year Finalist
• USA Today Bestseller
• Wall Street Journal Bestseller
• YALSA'S Teens' Top Ten, 2009
• LA Times Favorite Children’s Book, 2008

The Adoration of Jenna Fox

Pearson, Mary. (2008). The Adoration of Jenna Fox. New York: Henry Holt.

Image credit: Tower.com

Annotation:

 A seventeen year-old girl awakes from a coma with no memory of who she is or what happened to her. Jenna Fox struggles to find her identity and realize her purpose in life.

Booktalk: 

 “Tell me who I am.” 

Who is Jenna Fox? Imagine waking up one day with no memory of who you were or how to do simple things like walk or talk. This is the reality of Jenna Fox's new life. She's constantly looking up words to understand their meanings and watching excessive, almost creepy childhood videos. She remembers things that she shouldn't- couldn't and there are also the crystal-clear voices that visit every night. 

“The dictionary says my identity should be all about being separate or distinct, and yet it feels like it is so wrapped up in others.” 

Jenna's mother is obsessive, controlling, and secretive. Her grandmother avoids her like the plague and always seems mad. Her father always masks his emotions with a smile and a sweetly spoken "It's alright, Angel." Yet it is these people who hold the keys to the closet of secrets that is Jenna's life. She must discover her past to understand who she has become.

Follow in the new Jenna's footsteps and surrender yourself to the mysterious Adoration of Jenna Fox.

Quote:

One small changed family doesn’t calculate into a world that has been spinning for a billion years. But one small change makes the world spin differently in a billion ways for one family.

Awards:     

• ALA Best Books for Young Adults, 2009
• Andre Norton Award Finalist, 2009
• Arkansas Teen Book Award, 2010
• Booklist 2009 Amazing Audiobooks
• Califonia Young Reader Medal nominee, 2010-2011
• Capitol Choices for Teens, 2009
• Cynsational Books of 2008
• Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award nominee, 2010-2011
• Evergreen Young Adult Book Award 2011 Master list, 201!
• Garden State Teen Book Award Finalist, 2011
• German Youth Literature Award Finalist, Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis, 2010
• Golden Kite Honor Award, 2008
• Heartland Award Honor Award for Excellence in Young Adult Fiction, 2010
• IndieBound "Top Ten" Summer 2008 Pick 
• International Reading Association Young Adult Choice Book, 2010
• Iowa High School Book Award master list, 2010-2011
• Isinglass Teen Reads Award Nominee, 2010-2011
• Kentucky Book Award Master List, 2010
• Kirkus Best Young Adult Books of 2008
• Librarians' Choices 2008
• Locus Magazine 2008 Recommended Read
• Maine Student Book Award Master List, 2010
• Missouri Truman Readers Award nominee, 2010-2011
• Never Jam Today Best of 2008
• Not Your Mother's Faves, 2008
• NYPL Best Books, 2009
• Oregon Reader's Choice nominee, 2010-2011
• Pennsylvania Young Readers Choice Award Master List, 2011
• Rhode Island Teen Book Award Master List, 2010
• School Library Journal Best Books, 2008
• Sequoyah Book Awards Master list, 2011
• South Carolina Young Adult Book Award Master List, 2009
• Tennessee Volunteer State Book Award Master List, 2010
• Texas Lone Star Reading List, 2008
• Texas Tayshas High School Reading List, 2008
• VOYA Top Shelf Fiction, 2008
• Westchester Fiction Award, 2009
• Winner Distinguished Work of Fiction CLCSC, 2009
• YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, 2010

A Contract with God

Eisner, Will. (2006). A Contract With God. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

Image Credit: Wikipedia

Annotation:  

Four short stories give readers insight into the lives of residents living in Bronx tenements.

Booktalk:

Meet some of the tenement's most colorful characters: Frimme Hersch, Diva Marta Maria, Mr. Scuggs, and Goldie. Each resident has their own life experiences and expectations, and each is trying to realize their own "American Dream." Discover the tragic beauty that is alive in the Bronx tenements of 1930's-1950's New York.

Will Eisner, the godfather of graphic novels, creates images that convey just as much emotion and reality as the text [open book to random page to show the style of illustrations]. Find out how A Contract with God changed literature forever and inspired generations by being the original graphic novel.

A Step From Heaven

Na, An. (2001). A Step From Heaven. New York: Penguin Group.

Image credit: Powells

Annotation:  

A five year-old Korean girl suddenly finds herself adjusting to a new life in America where not everything is what she imagined.

Booktalk:

"What are you singing, Uhmma?"
"Ah-me-ri-ka."
"What is that?"
"Mi Gook."
"This is a magic word."

Since moving to Mi Gook, America, from Korea, Young Ju Park is confused, disappointed, and unimpressed. Her parents swear that she will have more opportunities in America, but they have contradicting desires for Young Ju. One day Young Ju's mother forces her to curl her hair so she will "look just like a real Mi Gook girl." The next day she is scolded for speaking English at home. Torn between two cultures, Young Ju adjusts to life in America while enduring painful abuse from her alcoholic father. Join Young Ju on her journey to Mi Gook where she will finally decide if America is truly just A Step From Heaven.

Awards:

• ALA Best Book for Young Adults, 2002
• ALA Notable Children's Book, 2002
• Children's Book Award in YA Fiction – International Reading Association, 2002
• Michael L. Printz Award, 2002
• National Book Award Finalist, 2001

Saving Francesca

Marchetta, Melina. (2003). Saving Francesca. New York: Alfred A. Knopf

Image Credit: Tower.com

Annotation:  

Seemingly all at once everything in Francesca's life changes from the school she attends to her family dynamics.

Booktalk:

Meet Francesca: a seventeen year-old sophomore at a all-boys high school that just recently became co-ed. But that's a joke according to Francesca, who suggests that the only thing about the school that's co-ed is the restrooms. One of about thirty girls at St. Sebastian's, Francesca feels lost in the crowd and uncertain about her group of friends. After Francesca's regularly perky and overbearing mother succumbs to a bout of depression, her family begins to fall apart. 

As things at home begin to fall apart, Francesca relies more and more on her friends and a new love interest. However, even things at school are not a perfect as they seem. Will Francesca be able to put the pieces of her life back together? Will Saving Francesca be possible, or will she fall victim to a life of depression like her mother?

Quote:

 The truth doesn’t set you free, you know. It makes you feel awkward and embarrassed and defense-less and red in the face and horrified and petrified and vulnerable. But free? I don’t feel free. I feel like shit.

Awards:

• Children's Book Council Book of the Year Award: Older Readers, 2004
• South Australia Premier's Awards, Children's Literature Award, 2004

The Coldest Winter Ever

Souljah, Sister. (1999). The Coldest Winter Ever. New York: Atria Books.

Image credit: Wikipedia

Annotation:  

Seventeen year-old Winter's kush lifestyle changes dramatically after a series of bad events. Winter must do what she can to hustle and survive on the streets of Brooklyn.

Booktalk:

Do you remember New York's Coldest Winter Ever? Out of it a young urban princess, Winter, was born into a lavish lifestyle supported by her drug-dealing father, Ricky Santiaga, Santiaga took care of everything and everyone; he and his crew ran Brooklyn. Everything in Winter's life is perfect, her biggest concern being which outfit to floss or which diamond necklace to rock. Once her father is busted and her mom abandons her for a life of drugs Winter finds herself on her own for the first time ever. As Winter's life changes she finds new friends and new enemies, she learns who to trust and who will rat her out. Winter learns new shocking truths that shake her world as she thought she knew everything. 

But really we women don’t have to do anything to be beautiful. It’s a gift from God. The woman is. Somewhere along the line many of us as women are led to believe that being pretty is enough. And while we rely on that, we forget to strengthen our minds so that we can learn how to think, how to build. How to survive. We forget how to live our lives to protect our spirit, to be clean and decent. We forget that everything we do matters so much.

Winter proves true the old adage that whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. Her journey will change her and her life won't be what she expected. Will ever find someone who she can trust? Will her family ever be the same again? Will she survive another Coldest Winter Ever?

Awards:

•  YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, Hard Knock Life Category, 2010