Friday, September 30, 2011

All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin


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In 2083, chocolate and coffee are illegal, paper is hard to find, water is carefully rationed, and New York City is rife with crime and poverty. And yet, for Anya Balanchine, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the city's most notorious (and dead) crime boss, life is fairly routine. It consists of going to school, taking care of her siblings and her dying grandmother, trying to avoid falling in love with the new assistant D.A.'s son, and avoiding her loser ex-boyfriend. That is until her ex is accidently poisoned by the chocolate her family manufactures and the police think she's to blame. Suddenly, Anya finds herself thrust unwillingly into the spotlight--at school, in the news, and most importantly, within her mafia family.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

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I've been wanting to read this since June.  Finally had a chance to start it  waiting for a soccer game to begin!

In rural Ohio, friendships and a beautiful girl prove distracting to a fifteen-year-old who has hidden on Earth for ten years waiting to develop the Legacies, or powers, he will need to rejoin the other six surviving Garde members and fight the Mogadorians who destroyed their planet, Lorien.



Friday, September 16, 2011

Forever by Maggie Stiefvater


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If you liked the Twilight trilogy, this series is for you!  Check out Shiver the first of the series...

What do you do when the market is glutted with vampire tales? You write a werewolf story instead. Shiver spins a story on par with Twilight (Little, Brown and Company, 2005) only a different monster emerges as the hero. Grace was taken from her backyard by a pack of wolves when she was a little girl, but one, lone wolf refused to let the rest of the pack eat her. From that point on, Grace considered him ?her? wolf and watched for him at the edge of the trees during the cold winters. Sam has been a werewolf for as long as he can remember. Until he met Grace, he lived a silent existence with his pack. But now, something has changed. Told from both Grace and Sam?s perspectives, each chapter takes us into the complexities of their relationship. In these pages we learn how Sam became a werewolf, why Grace was spared and isn?t a werewolf herself, and how love can conquer immense relational chasms. Read Shiver and enjoy a twist on the current vampire/werewolf frenzy. Highly Recommended. Michelle Hudiburg, Instructional Resource Center Director, Pittsburg (Kansas) State University


Monday, September 12, 2011

Bagels and Books is Back!

Hi All,  


The next Bagels and Books Club will be combined with the Freshman English Classes.  First Quarter's selection is Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.  Parents and students are welcome to attend the discussion which will be held on Wednesday, October 19th 6:30-7:30 pm in the High School MP Room.




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Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

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This has been on my reading list and side table forever.  It's time I cracked this award winner open.




Slaves Isabel and Ruth are shipped to New York in May 1776. Isabel, overhearing her Loyalist master's scheme to kill George Washington, helps foil the plot. Her role forgotten by the Patriots, Isabel realizes it's up to her alone to find freedom. Anderson's novel is remarkable for its strong sense of place and nuanced portrait of slavery during the Revolutionary War

The Heist Society by Ally Carter



Fifteen-year-old Kat schemes her way into the best boarding school, hoping to leave the thieving antics of her family behind her, but Hal, a former co-conspirator, appears on campus to tell Kat that a powerful mobster believes her father stole art from a priceless collection, and in order to save him, Kat will have to recover the paintings.