Whangdoodles

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The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles
by Julie Andrews Edwards

What on earth is a Whangdoodle? A “fanciful creature of undefined nature,” it was also once the wisest, kindest, most fun-loving living thing in the world–until people stopped believing in it.

When that lack of faith became widespread, the last of the really great Whangdoodles created a special land full of extraordinary creatures: furry Flukes, the sly High-Behind Splintercat, and the wonderful Whiffle Bird. But when an open-minded professor–the one adult who still believes in the Whangdoodle–joins forces with three children with active imaginations, they become an unstoppable team on a fantastic and sometimes terrifying journey to Whangdoodleland.


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620l Middle School 224 Adventure 1999 0060218053

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Kite Runner

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The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini

Amir is the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul, and Hassan, the son of Amir’s father’s servant are best friends. As children in the relatively stable Afghanistan of the early 1970s, the boys are inseparable. They spend idyllic days running kites and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever, and eventually cements their bond in ways neither boy could have ever predicted.

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Even after Amir and his father flee to America, Amir remains haunted by his cowardly actions and disloyalty. In part, it is these demons and the sometimes impossible quest for forgiveness that bring him back to his war-torn native land after it comes under Taliban rule.


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840 Middle School 32 Adventure 2004 1594480001

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Compound

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The Compound
by S.A. Bodeen

In a burst of panic about a nuclear attack, nine-year-old Eli, his sisters, and his parents move into an underground bunker built by Eli’s billionaire father. It is an enormous complex, with rooms similar to those in the family’s Seattle mansion. Only his grandmother and twin brother don’t make it in.

The first six years of the planned 15 have been fairly routine, but now some food has spoiled, and certain things just don’t seem right, or even possible. Eli is starting to have doubts about his father’s motives, explanations, and sanity.

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Eli’s father has a solution… provided they jettison all morals and ethics. Repulsed and already suspicious, Eli begins investigating his father’s claims, and sets up a family death match against a man who grows increasingly irrational and sinister but no less powerful.


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570L Middle School 272 Thriller/Suspense 2009 0312578601

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Unidentified

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The Unidentified
by Rae Mariz

In a startlingly plausible dystopian society, the school system has failed to the point that the government gives over control of national education to corporations. These conglomerates have banded together to create what are known as Game Centers. Here students like Katey Dade, or Kid, go to “school” in refurbished shopping malls. They swipe cards to get in and out, they carry issued cell phones with GPS trackers, they post continuously to profile pages and status feeds (similar to Facebook and Twitter), while administrators and corporate officials monitor their every move.

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Students who achieve the highest scores in games, set the coolest fashion trends, and gain the utmost popularity are “Branded”, instantly assisting the corporations to plug their wares. Kid coasts, never looking to become Branded, but then she is taken up by not just one corporate sponsor, but two, as a “trendspotter”.

As she tries to balance new expectations with betrayals by lifelong friends and new relationships, Kid also begins to question the societal structure around her. Drawn to the prank-pulling group calling themselves The Unidentified, she longs for her previous anonymity and blissful ignorance of the shady dealings all around her.


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780 High School 304 Fantasy 2010 0061802085

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Giver

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The Giver
by Lois Lowrey

In the ‘ideal’ world into which Jonas was born, everybody has sensibly agreed that well-matched married couples will raise exactly two offspring, one boy and one girl. These children’s adolescent, sexual impulses will be stifled with specially prescribed drugs; at age 12 they will receive an appropriate career assignment, sensibly chosen by the community’s Elders. This is a world in which the old live in group homes and are ‘released’ –to great celebration– at the proper time; the few infants who do not develop according to schedule are also ‘released’, but with no fanfare.

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Until the time that Jonah begins training for his job assignment: the rigorous and prestigious position of Receiver of Memory he, too, is a complacent model citizen. But as his near-mystical training progresses, and he is weighed down and enriched with society’s collective memories of a world as stimulating as it was flawed, Jonas grows increasingly aware of the hypocrisy that rules his world.


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660L Middle School 192 Science Fiction 2002 00440237688

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Blizzard

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The Blizzard
by John Nez

Melanie Hondel is the all-American high school student. She is popular, pretty, and attracts the attention of more than a few boys. One of them is Chet, who Melanie thinks is handsome enough, but whose determined self-reliance she has always found a bit strange and hardly romantic. When Melanie refuses the advances of a classmate, Tommy, and is beaten by him, she flees into a blizzard, where she falls through the ice. Her cries for help are heard by Chet, who is able to save her.

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They find refuge in an isolated cabin, where they shed their icy clothing and huddle together for warmth…in a bed. Rescuers arrive the next day, followed closely by Melanie’s father, and there is confusion and anger. Mr. Hondel insists that Chet be arrested and refuses to accept his daughter’s explanation, thereby leaving everyone convinced that Chet is dangerous.


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NA High School 188 Drama 2010 0984568069

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Cromwell Dixon’s Sky Cycle

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Cromwell Dixon’s Fly Cycle
by John Nez

In 1907, a 14-year-old boy named Cromwell Dixon took to the sky in a flying bicycle that he designed and built with the help of his mother.

Despite disappointment (an early prototype caught fire) and mistakes (a too-heavy vehicle), the teen persevered. He eventually made a glorious showing in his flying bicycle, soaring above the highest buildings in his hometown of Columbus, OH. Later that year, Dixon entered his Sky-Cycle in the St. Louis Airship Carnival, taking home a prize.


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780 Elementary School 32 Adventure 2009 0399250417

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Sock n Boots

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Sock ‘N Boots Share
by D.K. Smith

Sock ‘n Boots Share begins with a question…why should you share? Sock and Boots set off with two packed lunches to have a day of play at the park. After hours of summer fun in the sun, the hungry pair return to look for their lunch boxes on the picnic table where they left them. Surprise! Sock’s lunch has been finished off by birds, so only Boots’ lunch is left in his lunch box. In response to Socks’ tears, Boots says cheerfully, “

Don’t worry … I have a bunch, we can both share my lunch.”

Sharing makes both friends happy.


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NA Elementary School 32 Moral Lesson 2010 0557526140

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Girl Who Could Fly

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The Girl Who Could Fly
by Victoria Forester

Somewhere in the U.S., in a small farming community called Lowland County, a girl named Piper McCloud is born to a simple, God-fearing farmer and his wife. Piper has a special talent: she can fly.

When her talent for flying is discovered, a charismatic director of a special school takes Piper under her wing. She arrives at an amazing place with multiple floors and discovers a lot of other kids with extraordinary powers, too – as well as a nefarious plot to remove their special talents by altering their DNA.


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830 Middle School 352 Science Fiction 2010 0312602383

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If I Stay

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If I Stay
by Gayle Foreman

The last normal moment that Mia, a talented cellist, can remember is being in the car with her family. Then she is standing outside her body beside their mangled Buick and her parents’ corpses, watching herself and her little brother being tended by paramedics. As she ponders her state (Am I dead? I actually have to ask myself this), Mia is whisked away to a hospital, where, her body in a coma, she reflects on the past and tries to decide whether to fight to live. Via Mia’s thoughts and flashbacks explores her life, her passion for classical music and her strong relationships with her family, friends and boyfriend, Adam.

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Mia’s singular perspective also allows for powerful portraits of her friends and family as they cope: Please don’t die. If you die, there’s going to be one of those cheesy Princess Diana memorials at school, prays Mia’s friend Kim. I know you’d hate that kind of thing.


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830 High School 272 Drama 2010 014241543

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