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Heist Society

Posted on September 30, 2013 by webmaster

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Heist Society
by Ally Carter

After a childhood spent assisting her father, one of the world’s most talented art thieves, Katarina Bishop tries to leave the family business behind when she forges her way into a New England boarding school.

She quickly discovers, though, that her past is inescapable. Her father has been accused of stealing already stolen masterpieces from a dangerous Italian billionaire.

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Certain that her father is innocent, Kat resolves to find the missing paintings and return them to their unsavory owner, who has given her a two-week deadline. Carter, the author of the Gallagher Girls series, skillfully maintains suspense as Kat assembles a team of teen accomplices, travels across Europe, and plots an impossible art heist to save her dad.

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
1060	High School	304	Adventure	2011	1423116615

Orange Houses

Posted on September 30, 2013 by webmaster

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The Orange Houses
by Paul Griffin

This story follows three kids through the pressure cooker of inner-city teenage life as it moves toward its crushing conclusion.

Tamika Sykes is a partially deaf student agonizing over whether she really wants to hear all the noise surrounding her.

Fatima Esperer is a 16-year-old refugee who fled the violence and poverty of her unspecified African country to live in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty.

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Jimmy Sixes, already a disturbed veteran at age 18, is either a street poet or a junkie. The three form an unusual friendship, connecting both artistically and emotionally. All this is set in a city that has become a powder keg of anti-immigration sentiment (thanks to a recently passed law that rewards citizens for reporting illegals) and is perilously close to the ever-present spark of gang violence.

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
750L	High School	176	Adventure	2011	0142419826

Catcher in the Rye

Posted on September 23, 2013 by webmaster

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The Catcher in the Rye

by J. D. Salinger

Holden Caulfield, a seventeen year old prep school adolescent relates his lonely, life-changing twenty-four hour stay in New York City as he experiences the phoniness of the adult world while attempting to deal with the death of his younger brother, an overwhelming compulsion to lie and troubling sexual experiences.

How to Access the Lesson:

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Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
790L	High School	288	Adventure	2001	0316769177

Suite Scarlett

Posted on September 21, 2013 by webmaster

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Suite Scarlett
by Maureen Johnson

The Hopewell Hotel, 75 years ago a stylish Upper East Side haunt, has fallen on hard times. Its proprietors, the Martin family, have let the last remaining employee go, and now it is up to the four children, Spencer, Lola, Scarlett, and Marlene, to keep things afloat. Enter one Mrs. Amy Amberson, a flamboyant, mysterious guest, back in New York after a long absence, with some clandestine motives. Mrs. Amberson is to occupy the Empire Suite, just today entrusted to Scarlett as a ‘present’ on her fifteenth birthday (a family tradition), for the entire summer, and keeping her happy will test Scarlett’s ingenious mettle.

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
690L	Middle School	368	Adventure	2009	0545096324

When in Rome

Posted on September 21, 2013 by webmaster

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When in Rome – Elise Leonard Series

About Elise Leonard:

Elise was a successful teacher of inner-city kids for over 20 years before starting her writing career. She now lives in Florida.

About This Book:

WHEN IN ROME is the second book of The Smith Brothers series.

Details:

Published: 2008. All the books in this series are 100 pages (+/-). Contains approximately 8,400 words. ISBN: 978-1-935366-13-3. All books are Lexile 1 & 2

Storyline:

The guys are headed to Rome. (Rome, NY, not Rome, Italy.) Find out what happens in the car. Find out what happens in the hotel. Find out what happens in Rome. Find out if Rome survives.

Market

Posted on September 17, 2013 by webmaster

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The Market
by J.M. Steele

After stumbling across the Millbank Social Stock Market, Kate is horrified to discover that out of the 140 girls in her class, she’s ranked a bleak 71. Sure, she’s not drop-dead gorgeous, and her “fashion” choices leave a bit to be desired…but 71?! Determined not to accept her fate as a “junk bond,” she and her best friends quickly set out to make her the fastest rising stock on the Market.

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Armed with a sexy new haircut and killer wardrobe, Kate puts her plan into effect — and the analysts take note. In a matter of weeks, her stock value soars, and “Blue Chip” status is within reach. But what begins as a fun social experiment quickly turns into an obsession, one that threatens to ruin her reputation, friendships, and a chance at first love.

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
890L	High School	336	Drama	2009	1423100164

So Yesterday

Posted on September 16, 2013 by webmaster

So Yesterday
by Scott Westerfield

What if it was your job to say what was cool? What if clothes and electronics companies gave you cash for your opinion, and lots of free stuff on top of it? You wouldn’t complain about that, would you?

Hunter Braque is a professional cool-hunter. No ads go on TV without his approval, no new shoes hit the stores unless he’s down with them. It’s a pretty sweet deal, until he meets Jen –a rare Innovator, one of the people who actually creates cool at street-level. Real cool, not the corporate kind. Suddenly, strange things start to happen.

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First Hunter’s boss Mandy disappears. When he enlists Jen to help find her, the two begin to uncover a plot to end consumerism as we know it! Will the world change forever, or can Hunter save the sacred bond between brands and buyers? Does he even want to?

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
770	Middle School	240	Thriller/Suspense	2004	159514000X

Hole in My Life

Posted on September 14, 2013 by webmaster

Hole in My Life
by Jack Gantos

In the summer of 1971, Jack Gantos was an aspiring writer desperate for adventure, college cash, and a way out of a dead-end job.

For ten thousand dollars, he recklessly agreed to help sail a sixty-foot yacht loaded with hashish from the Virgin Islands to New York City, where he and his partners sold the drug until federal agents finally caught up to them in a bust at the Chelsea Hotel. For his part in the conspiracy, the twenty-year-old Gantos was sentenced to serve up to six years in prison.

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On the surface, the narrative tumbles from one intense moment to the next as Gantos pieces together the story of his restless final year of high school, his short-lived career as a smuggler, and his time in prison. But running just beneath the action is the story of how Gantos –once he found himself locked up in a small, yellow-walled cell– moved from wanting to be a writer to writing, and how this newly found dedication helped him endure the worst experience of his life.

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
840L	High School	200	Autobiography	2002	0374399883