The Hunger Games

Collins, Suzanne.  The Hunger Games.  New York: Scholastic Press, 2008.  Print.

Awards

2008 New York Times Notable Children’s Book

2008 New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice

2008 Publisher’s Weekly Bestseller

2008 Publisher’s Weekly Best Books of 2008: Children’s Fiction

2008 Cybil Award for Fantasy & Science Fiction

2008 Kirkus Best Book

2008 School Library Journal Best Books

2008 Booklist Editors’ Choice

2008 LA Times Favorite Children’s Books

2008-2009 (Winter) #1 Children’s Indie Next List

2009 ALA Notable Children’s Book

2009 ALA Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults

2009 ALA Amelia Bloomer Project List

2009 Indies Choice for Best Indie Young Adult Buzz Book Honor

2009 Children’s Choice Book Award

2009 ALA YALSA Teens’ Top Ten

2009 New York Public Library Stuff for the Teen Age

2009 CCBC Choices

2010 USA Today Bestseller

Teen Choice Book of the Year Finalist

#1 New York Times Bestseller

Wall Street Journal Bestseller

Annotation

Selected to participate in the Hunger Games, Katniss knows that in order to win she has to survive the harsh environment of the arena and kill off all of the other players, regardless of whether they're friends or enemies.

Booktalk

It’s not enough that Katniss has to fight for her life everyday, risking death in order to sneak out of town so she can hunt and gather in the woods.  Now she’s in the biggest fight of her life: the Hunger Games.  Televised throughout the districts, Katniss knows everyone will be watching her and she also knows SHE HAS TO WIN.  Winning means ensuring her future and her family’s survival as well as helping out her town.  But winning also comes with a price: Katniss is pitted against someone else from her district, a boy named Peeta who once snuck her a loaf of bread when she had nothing to eat.

In order to win the Games and save her own life, will Katniss be able to kill the boy who may be in love with her…the boy who may be her only true ally…the boy who once saved her and her family from starvation?  Even if Katniss lives through the Games, can she live with her guilt?

“May the odds ever be in [her] favor!”

*This book was recommended to me by Nicole (19 years old) because it's "the best book in the series...there's more adventure and depth" in the first one compared to the others.  For her, the novel revolves around Katniss's decision, essentially "sacrificing everything for [her sister] Prim and then having the added burden of not letting her or the town down on top of simply trying to stay alive".*

Image credit:  http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/works.htm

Rapunzel's Revenge

Hale, Shannon and Dean Hale.  Rapunzel’s Revenge.  Illus. Nathan Hale.  New York: Bloomsbury U.S.A Children’s Books, 2008.  Print.

Awards

2009 YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens

2009 ALA Notable Children's Books

2009 ALA Popular Paperback

2009 Leah Adezio Award for Best Kid-Friendly Work

2010 ALA Amelia Bloomer Project Bibliography List

2011 Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Readers Choice Award

Utah Book Award for Children’s Literature

Cybil Award

Annotation

Rapunzel, along with her sidekick Jack, wants to free her mother and the townspeople of Gothel’s Reach from being under the control of evil Mother Gothel.

Booktalk

Rapunzel grows up inside Mother Gothel’s villa where there’s always food to eat and the garden is always green.  Curious about the outside world, though, Rapunzel decides to climb over the wall that guards her home and is shocked by what she sees.  Being on the outside reveals to Rapunzel Gothel’s evil ways: how she is starving the townspeople by drying up all their land and how she stole Rapunzel from her real mother years ago as punishment for a crime committed by her father.  In a race against time Rapunzel and a friend she meets along the way, Jack, are now on a mission to destroy Gothel and free everyone from the clutches of her evil magic. 

Gothel is powerful though and she has growth magic on her side.  Will Rapunzel and Jack be able to fight off her and her henchmen?  Will they be able to get to Gothel’s villa in time before she hurts Rapunzel’s mother?  And most importantly, will they be able to survive the journey to the villa, first having to fight off “a rampaging boar…a pack of outlaw kidnappers…a horde of blood-hungry coyotes…a sea serpent…[and] Tina’s Terrible Trio”?

If Rapunzel and Jack can’t solve the mystery and figure out where Gothel is getting all of her extraordinary power from, everyone’s lives will be in extreme danger…

Image credit:  http://www.squeetus.com/stage/books_rap.html

Along for the Ride

Dessen, Sarah.  Along for the Ride.  New York: Viking, 2009.  Print.

Awards

2010 ALA Teens’ Top Ten

#1 New York Times Bestseller

Annotation

Auden decides to spend the summer before her freshman year of college at her dad’s beach house with her step mom and the new baby.  She expects to use the time to prepare for the upcoming semester, but instead starts to learn the value of having fun, having friends and having a boyfriend.

Booktalk

Auden is serious about school, she’s serious about pleasing her parents and she’s serious about using the summer to prepare for her freshman year at college.  That’s why Auden surprises everyone by agreeing to spend the summer at her father’s beach house with her step mom and their new baby.  She plans on spending most of her time studying for the upcoming semester, but once in Colby Auden finds herself getting pulled into new experiences. 

Having missed out on social events while in high school and also having been afraid to disappoint her mother who’s a professor, Auden finally starts to learn over the course of the summer how important it is to have friends…and to fail sometimes, just as long as you get back on the bike.  She also finds herself on a quest to make up for her lost childhood and begins doing all the fun things she never had time for before – bowling, having a paper route, starting food fights and, of course, riding a bike.  It’s Eli, a champion bike rider, who is teaching her all of these new skills and it’s only when spending time with him that Auden begins to understand how important it is to enjoy life and to go along for the ride.

*Elle (16 years old) inspired me to read this book; she is an avid fan of the author and thinks "Sarah Dessen's books are great".  She also loves that Auden spends the summer at the beach "having fun and learning new things...even when she's scared", including how to ride a bicycle.  "Everyone loves the beach" she adds, pointing out how almost everyone can relate to Auden's experience.*

Image credit:  http://sarahdessen.com/book/along-for-the-ride/

Upstate

Buckhanon, Kalisha.  Upstate.  New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005.  Press.

Awards

2006 American Library Association ALEX Award

Annotation

Seventeen-year-old Antonio is accused of stabbing his father to death and is sent upstate to serve a ten-year sentence.  While locked up, he exchanges letters with his girlfriend, Natasha.

Booktalk

What would you do if you were locked up at seventeen?  If you were locked up for a crime you committed trying to protect your family?  If you had to leave your friends and family behind for ten years?  If you could never see your boyfriend or girlfriend again?  If you couldn’t go to prom?  If you couldn’t graduate from high school?

This is the situation Antonio is facing at seventeen years old.  He is arrested for stabbing his father in an attempt to stop him from beating his mother.  His lawyer insists he has a good chance of being acquitted at first, but as the trail drags on things get complicated and Antonio agrees to serve a ten-year sentence as part of a plea deal.  Unable to see his family and friends, except on visitation days, he misses out on the end of high school, going to college, getting a job and watching his brothers grow up.  The one thing Antonio doesn’t want to miss out on, though, is a chance to keep his relationship with his girlfriend, Natasha, alive.  Struggling to reach her Antonio begins writing Natasha letters, and is forced to ask her “ baby, the first thing I need to know from you is do you believe I killed my father?”

Image credit:  http://us.macmillan.com/Book.aspx?isbn=9780312332686

The Silver Kiss

Klause, Annette Curtis.  The Silver Kiss.  New York: Delacorte Press, 1990.  Print.

Awards

1990 School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

1990 Booklist Editor’s Choice

1991 Thumbs Up! Award

1991 ALA YALSA Best Book for Young Adults

1991 ALA YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers

1992 Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Award

1993 California Young Reader Metal Award

1993 Oklahoma Sequoyah Young Adult Book Award

1993 South Carolina Children's Book Award

1999, 2009 ALA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults

2001 ALA YALSA Best of the Best Revisited: 100 Best Books for Teens

Annotation

Zoe is trying to come to terms with her mother’s terminal cancer diagnosis when she meets a beautiful boy named Simon.  Simon, a vampire, has been on a mission for three hundred years and he needs Zoe’s help to finish it, just as much as she needs his.

Booktalk

Zoe wants to be in the hospital with her mother.  She hates that her parents are shutting her out; she doesn’t want to be in the house by herself all the time, waiting for the phone to ring, waiting for the news to come that the cancer has finally killed her mother.  She’s also scared to be alone at night because there’s a killer loose in her town, one who lures women into dark places and slashes their throats. 

When Zoe meets Simon she learns that he knows more about this killer than anyone else…and he has a plan to stop him.  The only problem is, Simon is a vampire and he’s been hunting this killer for hundreds of years.  In order to finally catch him, Simon needs Zoe’s help.  Will Zoe and Simon be able to catch the murderer before he kills more innocent women?  Will Simon be able to save Zoe’s mother from cancer?  Will Zoe herself turn into a vampire if she lets Simon get too close, if they exchange a silver kiss?

Image credit:  http://www.librarything.com/work/16249/covers/ 

Evermore (The Immortals #1)

Noel, Alyson.  Evermore.  New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2009.  Print.

Awards

2009 #1 New York Times Bestseller

2009 International Bestseller

2009 USA Today List of Top 100 Best-Selling Books of 2009

2009 Publishers Weekly Bestseller

2009 New York Public Library Stuff for the Teen Age 2010

2009 TeensReadToo Star Gold Award

Flamingnet Reviews Top Choice Award

Justine Page Turner Pick

Annotation

After a car crash kills her entire family, Ever is left with physic abilities and no way to control them until she meets Damen Auguste.  Ever thinks Damen might be able to help her deal with this unwanted “gift”, but she soon finds out he’s got secrets and mysterious powers of his own.

Booktalk

It was a mistake.  An accident.  Something that wasn’t supposed to happen.  Ever didn’t mean to linger; she desperately wanted to follow her family after the car crash as they crossed over from this life into the afterlife.  If only she hadn’t gotten distracted in that beautiful field with the pulsating trees and shimmering grass.  It’s too late now though because while her entire family has moved on, Ever is still stuck in this world, living with her aunt and trying to adjust at Bay View High.  She’s also stuck with something else – the ability to see people’s auras and hear their thoughts.

Ever is just starting to give up on the idea that she can get her old life back – until gorgeous Damen Auguste transfers from New Mexico.  Damen’s the only one who can silence the noise and turn off the random energy around her.  Damen’s the only one whose entire life story she can’t see just by accidentally brushing up against him in the hallway.  Except, how can she “explain that ever since the accident, the only people whose thoughts [she] can’t hear, whose lives [she] can’t know, and whose auras [she] can’t see, are already dead?” 

*This book was recommended to me by Chloe (15 years old).  She enjoys this series because "it's not like other fantasy books" she's read.  Also, the novel explores the ability to "see people's auras and thoughts, things that could be real to some people", if one chooses to believe it.*

Image credit:  http://www.alysonnoel.com/immortals/evermore.php 

Go Ask Alice

Anonymous.  Go Ask Alice.  New York: Simon & Schuster, 1971.  Print.

Awards

2003 Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults

Annotation

A teenage girl records her struggles to overcome her drug addiction and establish an identity.

Review

The diarist feels pressure to fit in at school and so accidentally tries drugs for the first time at a party.  From this point on, the girl struggles with her addiction – at times giving in and embracing it, while at others working hard to break free from the cycle.  She chronicles her journey of self-discovery and speaks to the process of growing into her own in this coming of age piece.

Her insightful and poignant entries call out to and draw readers in, reminding them that the unnamed diarist could be anyone.  Essentially, Go Ask Alice is the story of a girl grappling with life and the consequences of her decisions until her death three weeks after ending her diary.  It is at times frightening, overwhelming and sad, yet it also showcases the diarist’s courage and determination.

Image credit: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46799.Go_Ask_Alice