SUMMER OF MY GERMAN SOLDIER

Greene, Bette. Summer of My German Soldier. NY: Bantam Books, 1973.

ISBN: 0-553-27247-0; $3.50 US; Paperback.

(Image Credit: http://www.marshall.edu/)

AWARDS/HONORS/REVIEWS

ALA Notable Book of the Year

New York Times Book Review: "An exceptionally fine novel!"

Publishers Weekly: "Courageous and compelling!"

ANNOTATION:

Patty Bergen defies her family and the town of Jenkinsville, Arkansas, when she refuses to give in to hate by helping a German prisoner escape.


BOOKTALK:

This isn't one of those happily ever after stories where the brave stand up against injustice and win. In fact, Summer of My German Soldier is considered controversial for its offensive topic of racism. Yet, Patty Bergen's story must be read in order to catch a glimpse of the emotions boiling under the surface of America during World War II. There was the obvious hatred of Germany, yet there also prejudice againsts African-Americans; many willing to enlist in the army and fight for the country that mocked them.

Many World War II books focus on the persecution of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis, yet Bette Green shows us the flip side of war by portraying a young Jewish girl befriending a German soldier. The moral of the story? Hate blinds us all, and the Germans suffered as well.

You will laugh, cry, and even pound your fist on the table, when reading Summer of My German Soldier. You will discover that Frederick Anton Reiker, a young German boy forced to fight for Hitler, is not the enemy.

THE MIDWIFE'S APPRENTICE

Cushman, Karen. The Midwife's Apprentice. NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 1995.
ISBN: 978-0-06-440630-7; $5.99 US; Paperback.
(Image Credit: http://www.libraryvoice.wordpress.com/)


AWARDS/HONORS/REVIEWS


Newbery Medal, 1996
ALA Notable Children's Book
ALA Best of the Best Books for Young Adults
New York Public Library List of Recommended Books
ALA Booklist Editors' Choice
School Library Journal Best Book

ANNOTATION:

A young girl, with no name or past, discovers herself as she becomes the apprentice to a midwife.

BOOKTALK:

"Tonight she settled for the warm rotting of a dung heap, where she dreamed of nothing, for she hoped for nothing, and expected nothing."

This is Brat's world. Or Beetle, as she is called by the villagers because she was found sleeping in a dung pile. With no real name, education, or remembrance of her parents, Beetle takes on the task of being a midwife's apprentice only because she will get fed and have a floor to sleep on. Yet, within the magical world of medicine where new life is brought into the world, Beetle begins to feel something stirring inside her. Could she possibly become a midwife herself?

Karen Cushman shows us how with a little determination and courage, one can change the course their life is set on. And Beetle decides to dream big. First step, change your name to Alyce. Second step, never look back.

Find out what happens when Alyce stands up to fate which would have kept her in the dung heap, in The Midwife's Apprentice.

A RIDE INTO MORNING

Rinaldi, Ann. A Ride into Morning: The Story of Tempe Wick. NY: Harcourt, 1991.

ISBN: 0-15-200573-0; $15.95 US; Hardback.

(Image Credit: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/)

AWARDS/HONORS/REVIEWS

Booklist Reviews: "A suspenseful read with enough everyday detail to make it realistic and enough adventure to make it exciting."

"A suspenseful read, realistic and exciting."

Children's Literature Review: "This is an exciting, adventurous story...entertaining and historically accurate."

ANNOTATION:

Based on real historical events during the Revolutionary War, two young women are caught up in the throes of a mutiny while sheltering soldiers on their farm.

BOOKTALK:

Tempe Wick. The officers camped outside their front door just say her name and start to swoon. Yet, 14 year old Mary Cooper can't stand her older cousin, Tempe, who acts like she is too high and mighty to care about the war going on outside their front door. While Mary secretly takes food to her soldier friends in camp and learns about the heroic actions of General Washington, Tempe just spends her days complaining and riding her beautiful horse, Colonel, for hours. Why can't the officers see the mean side of Tempe that Mary sees everyday, instead of falling head over heels in love with her as soon as she looks at them?

Yet, the hushed whisper of the word, mutiny, is about to change everything; including the real feelings raging inside Tempe. Is Tempe going to allow the mutinous soldiers to borrow Colonel for one night, in order to make their demands in front of the generals? If so, how can Mary put a stop to it?

Ann Rinaldi has won numerous awards for her historical fiction, and once again shows readers that history can have excitement and intrigue. You will never look at the Revolutionary War with the same eyes as you saddle up for A Ride into Morning.

NOBODY'S PRINCESS

Friesner, Esther. Nobody's Princess. NY: Random House, 2007.
ISBN: 978-0-375-87528-I; $16.99 US; Hardback.
(Image Credit: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/)


AWARDS/HONORS/REVIEWS

Starred Review, School Library Journal, July 2007:

"Fans of mythology or historical fiction will enjoy this lively tale."

Publishers Weekly: "Friesner's rendering of a vivacious and nervy Helen should easily win fans."

Booklist: "It's a rollicking good story all the way to the abrupt conclusion, which will leave readers crying out for a sequel."

ANNOTATION:

Helen of Sparta, the beautiful woman who caused the mythology Trojan War, is depicted as a young girl torn between her royal duty and wanting to be independent.

BOOKTALK:

Remember learning about the mythology Greek Gods: Zeus, Aphrodite, Apollo, and Artemis?
Or what about the daring kidnap of Helen of Sparta, which launched the Trojan War? Well, put aside those stale lectures from class, cuz this mythology story is anything but boring.

Helen of Sparta might have been the most beautiful woman in Greece at the time, but what was she like as a teenager? Did she always want to be a queen, confined to her rooms to spin cloth while the men got to hunt and practice with swords? Not in this story!

Friesner makes mythology fun and exciting as she shows what it was like being a young girl in early Greece, and how Helen asserted her independence by demanding to learn how to fight just like her brothers. Her parents might have scoffed at her demands, yet don't you think those fighting skills would help her as she grew up to be a queen?

Find out why Helen considers herself Nobody's Princess. And then pick up the sequel to read why Helen is Nobody's Prize!

THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND

Speare, Elizabeth George. The Witch of Blackbird Pond. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1958.

ISBN: 0-395-913-67-5; $22.00 US; Illustrated American Classics Hardcover edition.

(Image Credit: http://www.angusrobertson.com.au/)

AWARDS/HONORS/REVIEWS

Newbery Award, 1959

ALA Notable Children's Book

Booklist: "Strong plot, fully realized characters and convincing atmostphere distinguish this historical narrative."

The New York Times: "This book has a lively plot and excellent characterizations. The background has every dimension of reality."

ANNOTATION:

Kit Tyler, newly arrived from the island of Barbados, causes a stir in the Puritan town of Wethersfield when she befriends the "witch" of Blackbird Pond.

BOOKTALK:

Ever felt like everyone in the entire world was staring at you? As if you are walking down the hall to class in just your underwear! Well, Kit Tyler gets those stares everyday. And all she did was travel from an island in the Carribean to stay with her relatives in Conneticut. The problem is people aren't normal on those islands Why, the women alone wear fancy dresses, actually talk to black men, and heaven forbid, learn how to read.

Welcome to the Puritan town of Wethersfield, where everyone walks the same walk and talks the same talk. Kit tries her best to fit in and help her cousins with the daily housework, but she can't help it if she longs to escape to the beautiful meadow near Blackbird Pond and remember the taste of the Carribean sea on her lips. Yet, Kit finally brings down the wrath of the Puritans when she befriends the crazy widow, Hannah Tupper, who keeps to herself in a shack by Blackbird Pond.

Locked in jail, Kit Tyler wonders herself why she ever left Barbados. Did she do right by sticking to her beliefs and not giving into hate and prejudice? Or did she become The Witch of Blackbird Pond?

A WRINKLE IN TIME

L'Engle, Madeleine. A Wrinkle In Time. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1962.

ISBN: 0-374-38613-7; $17.00 US; Hardcover.

(Image Credit: http://www.mashadutoit.wordpresscom/)

AWARDS/HONORS/REVIEWS

Newbery Medal Winner, 1963

Sequoyah Book Award, 1963

Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, 1965

Hans Christian Andersen Award-Runner up

ALA Notable Children's Book

ANNOTATION:

Awkward Meg Murry, her kid brother Charles Wallace, and the most popular boy in school, Calvin O'Keefe, set out on a journey through time and space to save her father, and ultimately planet Earth, from the forces of evil.

BOOKTALK:

Meg Murry isn't a normal teenage girl. Despite being smart, she can't focus in school and might have to drop down to the bottom of her class. Her baby brother, Charles Wallace, appears to be an idiot to the rest of the world, yet to her he talks as if he is a hundred years old. And then there is the part about her father having disappeared a year ago after doing a top secret project for the government.

Now things are starting to get even more weird! Calvin O'Keefe, the most popular boy in school shows up outside their house and miraculously can understand what Charles Wallace is talking about. And then three strange women, Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit, and Mrs. Which, magically appear at the Murry's house and speak one word that transforms the lives of the Murry's forever: tesseract.

With that one word, Meg's life is about to change forever. A dark shadow threatens not only the safety of her father, but the entire solar system as well, unless Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin can use their strengths and weaknesses to battle an unknown enemy. Be whisked off to other planets and follow an incredible journey through A Wrinkle in Time!

ANNE FRANK: THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL

Frank, Anne. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. NY: Doubleday & Company, 1967.

ISBN: 0671617605; $5.99 US; Enriched Classics paperback edition with Reader's Supplement.

(Image Credit: http://www.factmonster.com/)

AWARDS/HONORS/REVIEWS

Waterstones Book of the Century (1997, No. 26)

New York Times Bestseller (General, 1952)

New York Times Bestseller (Nonfiction, 1995)
ALA Best Books for Young Adults (1996)

ANNOTATION:

Anne Frank, a forteen-year-old girl, documents her life as a jew hiding in Amsterdam, Holland during World War II. Although the eight members of the "Secret Annexe" are eventually found by the Nazis, Anne, with her parents and older sister Margot, the Van Daan family, and Albert Dussel the dentist, embarks on a journey to womanhood that will forever impact her readers.

BOOKTALK:

Imagine being told you have to leave your friends without saying goodbye. You aren't sure where you are going, but you are only allowed a few belongings, the ones you consider the most important. You discover you and your family are in hiding, and overnight your entire world changes. You have to whisper and tiptoe during the day, block the window with curtains at night, never step outside to breathe in fresh air; all in an effort to not be discovered by people eager to turn you in to the authorities.

Anne Frank was a girl who lived such a life during World War II. In cramped quarters, Anne learned the true meaning of being hated because she was a Jew. There were days she wanted to scream, days where she dreamed of her friends in concentration camps in horror, days where she watched the moon through the slip of a curtain and imagined a better world where she could be an author.

Through her diary one is whisked away to a world of sadness, yet optimism, as Anne comes to learn who she is and who she wants to become. We can all relate to the emotions in Anne's diary as she recieves her first kiss, argues with her parents, becomes friends with her sister.



The Diary of Anne Frank is a classic novel depicting one of the most important periods in world history. We will forever be indebted to Anne for her courage and willingness to chronicle her life. Pick up The Diary of Anne Frank and let her words speak for themselves from the past: even in extreme conditions there is still hope.

KEESHA'S HOUSE

Frost, Helen. Keesha's House. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.

ISBN: 0-374-34064-1; $16.00 US; Hardcover

(Image Credit: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/)

AWARDS/HONORS/REVIEWS

Printz Honor Book, 2004

ALA Best Books for Young Adults

ALA Popular Paperbacks for Young Readers

Books for the Teen Age, New York Public Library

ANNOTATION:

The everyday struggles of seven teenagers are chronicled in poetic form.

BOOKTALK:

"I'm still trying to hold my own life together."

"Dad said if I didn't have enough respect for him to act normal, how could I expect him to keep supporting me?"

"It's not safe for me as long as he's there."

"Instead of sleepin' off the hours and days, I find some corner of my mind to keep alive."

"I need some money now, but somethin' tells me, run."

"I wish I could forget about this baby. But I can't forget the night it happened."

"My parents still think I'm their little girl."

These are the voices of seven teens struggling to stay afloat amid the hard knocks life keeps throwing at them. Whether it is because of violence, drugs, alcohol, or pregnancy, the teens find themselves living in cars, waiting time in a juvenile detention center, trying to run from their personal demons.

Frost portrays different backgrounds and family situations that help us relate to teens all around the world, and remind us that nobody is perfect; no teenager is immune to problems and adversity.


Keesha's house becomes a safe haven for these seven teens because Joe recognized their struggles; he knew he couldn't give them everything they needed, but he could give them space. And in that space would come the healing.


For any young adult who has felt alone, abandoned or lost in the sea of demands life is constantly placing, this is the book for you; for everyone will feel safe and comfortable in Keesha's House.

RAPUNZEL'S REVENGE

Hale, Shannon, Dean Hale, and Nathan Hale. Rapunzel's Revenge. NY: Bloomsbury, 2008.

ISBN-10: 1-59990-070-X; $18.99 US; Hardcover

(Image Credit: http://www.everead.blogspot.com/)

AWARDS/HONORS/REVIEWS

ALA Notable Children's Book-2009 (Middle Readers)

ALA Great Graphic Novels for Teens (Fiction, 2009)

Booklist's Top 10 Graphic Novels for Youth (2009)

Cybils Award (Graphic Novels-Elementary/Middle Grade, 2008)

Eisner Award nominee (Best Publication for Teens/Tweens, 2009)

ANNOTATION:

A modern telling of a classic fairy tale, set in the Wild West.


BOOKTALK:


All fairy tale princesses have loving parents, spend their days talking to animals (who actually talk back!), and eventually fall in love with a handsome rescuer. And hey, what do you know, he happens to be a prince too.


Well, not in this story. Rapunzel is in the clutches of her "mother" Gothel; that name alone gives one the creeps. In anger, Gothel shuts up Rapunzel in a tree, where quick as lightening Rapunzel's hair grows faster then it would take you to jump out of your seat. And boy does she discover what she can do with that hair.


Whether it is wild coyotes, monstrous boars, a gang of thieves, you name it, Punzie, as her friends call her, is stopping anything blocking her way. It's time to put an end to Gothel's reign, and find out where Rapunzel's real mother is.


Saddle up and join the ride! You will never look at fairy tales the same way again after reading Rapunzel's Revenge.

UPSTATE

Buckhanon, Kalisha. Upstate. NY: St. Martin's Press, 2005.

ISBN: 0-312-33268-8; $19.95 US; Hardcover.

(Image Credit: http://www.barnesnandnoble.com/)

AWARDS/HONORS/REVIEWS

2006 ALA Alex Award

AUDIE Award in Literary Fictin (audiobook)

Nominated for a 2006 Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award in Debut Fiction

ANNOTATION:

Seventeen-year-old Antonio exchanges letters with his girlfriend, Natasha, after going to prison; accused of killing his father.

BOOKTALK:

The written word. A letter from Natasha. There was a time those letters were the only thing keeping Antonio from going insane. Others in prison were fighting, committing suicide, willingly sitting in solitary confinement in order to shut out God and the world that labeled them criminals. Not Antonio. Those letters and that love "made me feel like a human being in my darkest hours."

Yet, why are those letters now ripped into shreds, a million pieces of paper floating down into the river? Why is Antonio cutting the cord that kept him human for five lonely years behind bars? Antonio says he is "finally letting go"; "its all about the present." His life as a teenager on the streets of Harlem is in the past and it's time to grow up. As if going to prison didn't make him grow up enough.

Read the letters exchanged between Antonio and Natasha that over ten years harbored a deep secret under the surface; a secret that if told would have written a different ending for two families.

Yet, readers you already know the ending; for nothing can be same after Antonio is shipped Upstate.

GOSSIP GIRL

Ziegesar, Cicily. Gossip Girl. NY: Little, Brown and Company, 2002.

ISBN: 0-316-91033-3, $9.99 US; Paperback.

(Image Credit: www.tweenscene.wordpress.com/)

AWARDS/HONORS/REVIEWS

Publishers Weekly: "The book has the effect of gossip itself once you enter it's hard to extract yourself; teens will devour this whole."

School Library Journal: "High appeal for older teens...everything is at one's fingertips in Gossip Girl's world."

New York Magazine: "The books have a been-there-done-that honesty...Von Ziegesar takes seriously the inner lives of characters."

ANNOTATION:

Gossip reigns supreme in a world of sex, drugs, and alcohol as high school students in New York's Upper East Side live to have fun; even if it means betraying your best friend.

BOOKTALK:

Everything at the moment is going absolutely perfect for Blair Waldorf; her ultra-sexy boyfriend, Nate, can't keep his hands off her, and finally she has become the prettiest, smartest, hippest girl in the room at Constance Billard School. Yet, everything comes to a halt when Serena van derWoodsen, her childhood best friend, comes back into town.

Serena van derWoodsen. You can't even say her name without thinking of her perfect body and gorgeous hair; her ability to make everyone fall in love with her, including Nate. Why, Blair is in the middle of taking her clothes off for him, when the sound of Serena's voice sends him running out the room. Who does Serena think she is? The supreme goddess of New York City!?!

Well, not if Blair Waldorf has anything to do with it. Enter a world of jealousy and betrayal, where the "chosen ones" reign supreme: those who have "everything anyone could possibly wish for and who take it all completely for granted."

The Gossip Girl (whoever she may be) doesn't live by any rules. No one is telling her life is more than one big, drunk party. And you know you are dying to read why.

TWILIGHT

Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company, 2005.
ISBN: 978-0-316-01584-4; $10.99; Paperback.
(Image Credit: http://www.tonicgossip.com/)


AWARDS/HONORS/REVIEWS

A New York Times Editor's Choice

Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year

ALA "Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults"

ALA "Top Ten Books for Reluctant Readers"

New York Times Bestseller

ANNOTATION:

Isabella Swan, or Bella as she likes to be called, no longer finds the rain and loneliness of Forks, Washington. a burden when she meets Edward Cullen and his mysterious family.

BOOKTALK:

Twilight, that brief moment before the sun sets, is a vampire's favorite time of day. Night, their constant companion is approaching, yet the sun is still visible, allowing them to walk among humans without being noticed.

Yet, the Cullens and their perfection in every way, couldn't help but be noticed by Bella Swan. One look into Edward Cullen's dreamy eyes, one faint kiss on her neck, and she was doomed. Now, if only that kiss could become something more; if only those lips could leave a lasting impression on her neck that would stop time forever at seventeen.

But what about her father, Charlie, or her mother, Renee? What about living a full life like every normal person on earth that wasn't cursed with immortality?

Bella can't resist Edward Cullen; the question is can you? Read Stephenie Meyer's bestselling novel to find out what happens at twilight.