Teen Read Week 2009: Wilmington High School, October 19-23
Life As We Knew It and The Dead & the Gone, both by Susan Beth Pfeffer
An asteroid is bearing down on the moon—and the school is piling on extra assignments as a result. But then the moon gets knocked closer to the Earth. Tsunamis. Flooding. Volcanoes. Blizzards. Flu epidemics. With all the ash in the air from volcanoes, nothing is growing and outdoor game is starving. In Pennsylvania, Miranda’s family is making the best of a horrible situation. In New York City, Alex and his two little sisters are waiting for their parents to get home. And waiting. And waiting. There's literally nothing but canned and boxed goods, and when they run out, that's it.
Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson
Lia and Cassie were best friends, competing with each other in a contest to be the prettiest, the skinniest. They were close enough that on the night she died, Cassie called Lia 33 times. Now Lia is hearing Cassie’s voice, encouraging her to try harder to be thinner, to stay strong, to keep control, so she can join Cassie on the other side and they can be friends again. Ultimately, it will be Lia’s decision if she wants to heal herself—and whether “healing” means finally eating or reuniting with her best friend.
Paper Towns, by John Green
Just before graduation, Margo plucked Quentin from relative obscurity to help her execute a night of revenge-fueled pranks and then disappeared the next day. The pranks, the disappearance, the clues she left behind that she wants him to find, it's all part of who Margo is to Quentin. But who she is to Lacey, or Ben, or any of the others, is someone different. Everyone's got their own ideas, and in order to find her, everyone will have to put aside what they know of Margo to figure out who she actually is.
I Can't Keep My Own Secrets: Six-Word Memoirs By Teens Famous and Obscure
A never-ending series of marvelous misadventures.
We are banned from Wal-Mart forever.
Super powers would make everything easier.
Honestly, I hate all my friends.
What you leave out of a story can be just as fascinating as what you put in. What would your memoir say, if you only had six words to tell it?
Life at These Speeds, by Jeremy Jackson
Kevin is a mediocre half-miler for his school track team—and the only remaining member after the team bus slides off a bridge after a meet. In his grief, Kevin starts running. And winning. Despite his claims that he hates running, he finds peace in it, and genuinely misses it when he can’t compete. Kevin’s voice is just distant and distracted enough to make him as much of a mystery to the reader as he is to his family and classmates.
Burger Wuss, by MT Anderson
Anthony has always been something of a pushover. Until, that is, he finds his girlfriend Diana making out with another guy at a party. Suddenly, Anthony has A Plan for revenge—a plan that involves a fast-food job at O’Dermott’s (where girlfriend-stealing Turner is a star employee), an anarchist, and a condiment troll. Surely a plan this good can’t go wrong… right?
Desire Lines, by Jack Gantos
A high-school sophomore catches two of his female classmates secretly dating, and rather than tell them he saw them, he keeps the secret to himself—until the rest of the school, led by a creepy Preacher Kid moving in across the street, starts accusing him of being gay. Love shouldn’t have to mean courage or betrayal, but shouldn’t it at least mean acceptance?
Nation, by Terry Pratchett
Mau has just given up his boy's soul and is paddling back to the Nation, where he will be given his man's soul. That's when the wave hits, wiping out the entire Nation and killing everyone Mau knew and loved. Mau is alone on the island, but only temporarily--other refugees slowly row up to the Nation's shores. Mau feels responsible for all these new people, and has to defend the Nation from the raiders, protect the new refugees, and discover who he is without any idea of who he could have been.
Tender Morsels, by Margo Lanagan
Liga’s life before was not kind to her: an abusive father, hateful villagers, a handful of local boys who found her alone one night. Following the last of these abuses, Liga makes a deal with the Moon Baby to exchange her earthly life for a new life in her personal heaven, where pain and horror and ill will cannot touch her—or her two daughters. But the barrier is weakening, allowing bears and magic men to cross into Liga’s heaven and allowing Liga’s daughter to chase them back across into the real world.
I am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak
Ed Kennedy is the type of guy who could accidentally stop a bank robbery—and that’s exactly what happens to him. Soon after, he starts getting playing cards in the mail. Sometimes they have addresses, sometimes names, but it’s up to Ed to make sense of them—to discover who they’re coming from, why, and most importantly, what he’s supposed to do about them.
Rag and Bone Shop, by Robert Cormier
Jason doesn’t fit in with kids his own age, and in fact his closest friend may be a classmate’s seven-year-old sister, Alicia. But when Alicia is murdered, Jason—the last person to see her alive—is hauled in for questioning by a cold, calculating detective who
wants a confession. Jason is stunned, confused, and uncertain: what really did happen that day? And how much of it was Jason’s fault?
Mountain Man Dance Moves: the McSweeney’s Book of Lists
BAD NAMES FOR MURDER MYSTERIES:
It Was Me
The Butler Did It. No Joke
It Was Suicide, Actually
Think Every Agatha Christie Novel, Only With Squirrels
This is just one of the many (questionably) helpful lists you can find in Mountain Man Dance Moves: the McSweeney’s Book of Lists.
Wish You Were Dead, by Todd Strasser
When an anonymous blogger posts that she hates Lucy Cunningham and wishes she were dead, no one really takes it seriously--until a few days later, when Lucy disappears after a party. Madison Archer is particularly shaken by the disappearance, as she was the one who drove Lucy home and was the last to see her alive. Then the blogger gives another name, and a second student goes missing. And then a third. Madison needs to find her friends before it’s too late for them—and before she herself is on the list.
House of Stairs, by William Sleator
Five teenage orphans wake up to find themselves in a place without walls, floors, or ceilings—only stairs. Endless stairs, leading to landings and more stairs. On one landing is a machine that dispenses food, but only if the five do everything right—and what’s right one day isn’t necessarily what’s right the next. And sometimes, it was never right at all.
Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
Every year, the government selects two tributes from each district to compete in the Hunger Games, a televised battle to the death in an enclosed stadium. Katniss has to hope that the illegal hunting she’s been doing for years to feed her family is enough training, because it’s all she’s got. And the only ally she has inside the arena is her fellow District 12 tribute, who is the only one in the games who might retain his humanity by the end.
Bloody Jack, by LA Meyer
Mary Faber has been living in the streets of London with a gang of her fellow beggars for years. When the leader of her gang, Rooster Charlie, is killed, it’s time for Mary to strike out on her own. She takes his shirt and pants, cuts off her hair, calls herself Jacky, and lands herself a spot as a Ship’s Boy on the HMS Dolphin. What follows is a series of adventures on the high seas, including storms, pirate attacks, shipwrecks, and even a touch of romance—and every adventure is another opportunity for Jacky to blow her cover.
Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson
After the death of their owner, Isabel and her sister Ruth are sold to a Loyalist couple from New York City. The Locktons are working with the British on invasion plans, and Isabel is trying to stay out of it. But some new friends want her to spy on her owners, report back to the Patriots, and help foil the invasion, and Isabel isn’t sure that’s right, either. It’s not until Mrs. Lockton takes out her rage on Ruth that Isabel’s priorities come into focus—and her priorities are not to her cruel owners.
Love Curse of the Rumbaughs, by Jack Gantos
The Love Curse is an excessive, obsessive mother-love passed down through the generations. It's a dark, gothic story, involving taxidermy, identical twin brothers, their mother (from whom they can't bear to be parted), a young girl, and her mother. How all these elements combine will keep you turning pages late into the night.
Teen Angst? Naaaah… by Ned Vizzini
This all-too-true account of Ned’s academic career is laugh-out-loud funny, from his daily schedule of Nintendo-playing in his junior-high days straight through the senior prom. You might laugh, you might cry, but you’ll almost certainly cringe in recognition!
Zombie Haiku, by Ryan Mecum
Little old ladies
Speed away in their wheelchairs,
Frightened meals on wheels.
Everything I thought
Tasted a lot like chicken
Really tastes like man.
Brains, brains, brains, brains, brains
Brains, brains, brains, brains, brains, brains, brains
Brains, brains, brains, brains, brains
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