A Long Way From Chicago

“Creating a community of avid readers, one video at a time©


A Long Way From Chicago
by Richard Peck

Joey and his younger sister, Mary Alice, live in the Windy city during the reign of Al Capone and Bugs Moran. Most of their adventures occur during their annual down-state visits with Grandma Dowdel, a woman as “old as the hills,” “tough as an old boot,” and larger than life. Grandma continually astounds her citified grandchildren by stretching the boundaries of truth.

Click for More
In eight episodes spanning the years 1929-1942, she plots outlandish schemes to even the score with various colorful members of her community, including a teenaged vandal, a drunken sheriff and a well-to-do banker. Grandma, Joey and Mary Alice’s adventures include such escapes as preparing an impressive funeral for Shotgun Cheatham, catching fish from a stolen boat and arranging the elopement of Vandalia Eubanks and Junior Stubbs.


Lexile
Level
Content
Rating
Number of
Pages
Genre
Date
Published
ISBN
Number
750L High School 160 Adventure 2006 0142401102

A Long Way From Chicago

Digital Book Talk is a Registered Trademark of Learning Thru Fantasy, LLC. All Rights reserved

Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes

“Creating a community of avid readers, one video at a time©


13 Little Blue Envelopes
by Maureen Johnson

Ginny, 17, reads a letter from her free-spirited, unpredictable Aunt Peg, who has recently passed away. She is given several destinations, four rules, and the instruction to open one envelope upon her arrival at each place. Thus begins a rapid tour of Europe as the teen struggles to accomplish the tasks established by her aunt. Ginny wants to understand the woman’s wanderlust and, possibly, she just wants a connection to her beloved relative. Throughout her adventures in Rome, Paris, Greece, England, and the Netherlands, the teen collects pieces of Peg’s past and learns more about her rapid departure. She also learns much about herself.


Lexile
Level
Content
Rating
Number of
Pages
Genre
Date
Published
ISBN
Number
770L High School 252 Adventure 2006 0060541431

13_Little_Blue_Envelopes_by_flaishansml

Digital Book Talk is a Registered Trademark of Learning Thru Fantasy, LLC. All Rights reserved

Alibi Junior High

“Creating a community of avid readers, one video at a time©

sc_work

Alibi Junior High
by Greg Logsted

Thirteen-year-old Cody doesn’t know much about normal life. He’s been living and traveling all over the world with his father, who works for the CIA. Together, they’ve formed a research team responsible for tracking the bad guys.

Click for More
But, someone’s caught on. An explosion outside a cafe in France, where they barely escape with their lives, leaves the team shaken. Cody’s father puts him on a plane and tells him to become invisible until he reaches his destination. Cody’s headed somewhere safe from danger: his aunt’s house. He’s infiltrating junior high, where he must assume his most challenging role ever – himself. Cody’s used to being home-schooled by his father, wearing suits every day, and defending himself against anyone who looks at him funny.


Lexile
Level
Content
Rating
Number of
Pages
Genre
Date
Published
ISBN
Number
570 Middle School 256 Thriller/Suspense 2009 1416979593

alibi

Digital Book Talk is a Registered Trademark of Learning Thru Fantasy, LLC. All Rights reserved

How Angel Peterson Got His Name

“Creating a community of avid readers, one video at a time©


How Angel Peterson Got His Name
by Gary Paulsen

Angel and his friends try to shoot a waterfall in a barrel, break the world record for speed on skis, hang glide with an Army surplus parachute, and perform other daredevil stunts. A friend borrows a quarter to wrestle a bear at the carnival to get the attention of a girl, only to be swept out of the ring by a giant paw, like “a hockey puck with legs.”

Click for More
The action takes place 50 or so years ago, this group of adventures can be quite funny. Although the book doesn’t explain why boys like to do crazy things, it does give an insight into how the minds of teenagers who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s worked. Paulson shows boys moving into adolescence believing they can do anything: wrestle with bears; shoot waterfalls in a barrel; fly eight-by-twelve-foot Army surplus kites–and hang on, even as they land in the chicken coop.


Lexile
Level
Content
Rating
Number of
Pages
Genre
Date
Published
ISBN
Number
1110L High School 128 Comedy 2004 0440229359

angel_peterson

Digital Book Talk is a Registered Trademark of Learning Thru Fantasy, LLC. All Rights reserved

Runner

“Creating a community of avid readers, one video at a time©


Runner
by Carl Deuker

When his alcoholic Gulf War veteran father is fired from the first steady job he has held in years, Chance Taylor is understandably glum. He has no idea where they’ll get the money to pay the moorage fees for the run-down sailboat they call home. Since his parents’ divorce, Chance has tried to keep a low profile in school, and his only pleasure is running by himself along the Seattle waterfront.

Click for More
When a marina office employee offers to pay him $250 a week to pick up occasional packages at a tree along his running route, Chance is deeply suspicious of what they may contain but desperate enough to accept this opportunity to pay the bills. As this new job gradually becomes more dangerous and more clearly illegal, Chance’s father is able to rise above his personal problems to help extricate his son. In a gripping climax complete with SWAT teams swarming throughout the marina as Coast Guard patrol boats close in on terrorists, Chance is afforded a final glimpse of the heroic man his father once was.


Lexile
Level
Content
Rating
Number of
Pages
Genre
Date
Published
ISBN
Number
770 High School 224 Thriller/Suspense 2007 0618735054

runner

Digital Book Talk is a Registered Trademark of Learning Thru Fantasy, LLC. All Rights reserved

Husband

“Creating a community of avid readers, one video at a time©


The Husband
by Dean Koonz

One morning, Southern California gardener Mitchell Rafferty gets a call on his cellphone from a stranger saying that Mitch’s beloved wife, Holly, has been kidnapped and that he has less than three days to come up with $2 million in cash. Of course, he’s warned not to involve the police. While Mitch is still on the phone, the kidnapper proves his seriousness by directing Mitch’s attention to a man walking a dog across the street. A moment later the man is shot dead. Mitch must walk a fine line –cooperating with the police inquiry into this murder without revealing Holly’s plight.


Lexile
Level
Content
Rating
Number of
Pages
Genre
Date
Published
ISBN
Number
910 Middle School 432 Thriller/Suspense 2012 034553333X

husband

Digital Book Talk is a Registered Trademark of Learning Thru Fantasy, LLC. All Rights reserved

Specials

“Creating a community of avid readers, one video at a time©


The Specials (The Uglies Trilogy – Book 3)
by Scott Westerfield

Tally Youngblood lives in a futuristic society that acculturates its citizens to believe that they are ugly until age 16 when they’ll undergo an operation that will change them into pleasure-seeking “pretties.” Anticipating this happy transformation, Tally meets Shay, another female ugly, who shares her enjoyment of hover-boarding and risky pranks. But Shay also disdains the false values and programmed conformity of the society and urges Tally to defect with her to the Smoke, a distant settlement of simple-living conscientious objectors. Tally declines, yet when Shay is found missing by the authorities, Tally is coerced by the cruel Dr. Cable to find her and her compatriots –or remain forever “ugly.”

Click for More
Tally’s adventuresome spirit helps her locate Shay and the Smoke. It also attracts the eye of David, the aptly named youthful rebel leader to whose attentions Tally warms. However, she knows she is living a lie, for she is a spy who wears an eye-activated locator pendant that threatens to blow the rebels’ cover.


Other Books in the Trilogy


Lexile
Level
Content
Rating
Number of
Pages
Genre
Date
Published
ISBN
Number
770L Middle School 448 Science Fiction 2005 0689865384

uglies

Digital Book Talk is a Registered Trademark of Learning Thru Fantasy, LLC. All Rights reserved

Pretties

“Creating a community of avid readers, one video at a time©


The Pretties (The Uglies Trilogy – Book 2)
by Scott Westerfield

Tally Youngblood lives in a futuristic society that acculturates its citizens to believe that they are ugly until age 16 when they’ll undergo an operation that will change them into pleasure-seeking “pretties.” Anticipating this happy transformation, Tally meets Shay, another female ugly, who shares her enjoyment of hover-boarding and risky pranks. But Shay also disdains the false values and programmed conformity of the society and urges Tally to defect with her to the Smoke, a distant settlement of simple-living conscientious objectors. Tally declines, yet when Shay is found missing by the authorities, Tally is coerced by the cruel Dr. Cable to find her and her compatriots –or remain forever “ugly.”

Click for More
Tally’s adventuresome spirit helps her locate Shay and the Smoke. It also attracts the eye of David, the aptly named youthful rebel leader to whose attentions Tally warms. However, she knows she is living a lie, for she is a spy who wears an eye-activated locator pendant that threatens to blow the rebels’ cover.


Other Books in the Trilogy


Lexile
Level
Content
Rating
Number of
Pages
Genre
Date
Published
ISBN
Number
770L Middle School 448 Science Fiction 2005 0689865384

uglies

Digital Book Talk is a Registered Trademark of Learning Thru Fantasy, LLC. All Rights reserved

Uglies

“Creating a community of avid readers, one video at a time©


The Uglies (The Uglies Trilogy – Book 1)
by Scott Westerfield

Tally Youngblood lives in a futuristic society that acculturates its citizens to believe that they are ugly until age 16 when they’ll undergo an operation that will change them into pleasure-seeking “pretties.” Anticipating this happy transformation, Tally meets Shay, another female ugly, who shares her enjoyment of hover-boarding and risky pranks. But Shay also disdains the false values and programmed conformity of the society and urges Tally to defect with her to the Smoke, a distant settlement of simple-living conscientious objectors. Tally declines, yet when Shay is found missing by the authorities, Tally is coerced by the cruel Dr. Cable to find her and her compatriots –or remain forever “ugly.”

Click for More
Tally’s adventuresome spirit helps her locate Shay and the Smoke. It also attracts the eye of David, the aptly named youthful rebel leader to whose attentions Tally warms. However, she knows she is living a lie, for she is a spy who wears an eye-activated locator pendant that threatens to blow the rebels’ cover.


Other Books in the Trilogy


Lexile
Level
Content
Rating
Number of
Pages
Genre
Date
Published
ISBN
Number
770L Middle School 448 Science Fiction 2005 0786856297

uglies

Digital Book Talk is a Registered Trademark of Learning Thru Fantasy, LLC. All Rights reserved

Lightning Thief

“Creating a community of avid readers, one video at a time©

sc_work


Lightning Thief
by Rick Riordan

It would seem that Percy Jackson is just another New York kid diagnosed with ADHD, who has good intentions, a nasty stepfather, and a long line of schools that have rejected him. The revelation of his status as half-blood offspring of one of the Greek gods is nicely packaged, and it’s easy to believe that Mount Olympus, in modern times, has migrated to the 600th floor of the Empire State Building (the center of Western civilization) while the door to Hades can be found at DOA Recording Studio, somewhere in LA. With his new friends, a disguised satyr, and the half-blood daughter of Athena, Percy sets out across the country to rectify a feud between Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon. Along the way they must cope with the Furies, Medusa, Aires (a motorcycle thug), and various other immortals.


Lexile
Level
Content
Rating
Number of
Pages
Genre
Date
Published
ISBN
Number
740L Middle School 327 Thriller/Suspense 2006 0786856297

lighteningthief

Digital Book Talk is a Registered Trademark of Learning Thru Fantasy, LLC. All Rights reserved