Personal Discovery

Natural

Posted on September 23, 2013 by webmaster

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The Natural
by Bernard Malamud

The book follows Roy Hobbs, a baseball prodigy whose career is sidetracked when he is shot by a socio-pathic serial killer. This story concerns itself with his attempts to return to baseball later in life, when he plays for the New York Knights with his legendary bat 'Wonderboy..
Nineteen-year-old Roy Hobbs, a country bumpkin with a great pitching arm, is on his way to Chicago to try out for the Chicago Cubs. He is on the train with the Cubs' scout, Sam Simpson. While on the train, Roy meets a woman named Harriet Bird, for whom he immediately develops a crush. He also meets a sports journalist, Max Mercy, who is on the train with a famous baseball hitter, the Whammer.

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Fifteen years later, Pop Fisher, the manager of the New York Knights, discovers he has a new “rookie” for his team—a thirty-four-year-old man named Roy Hobbs, whom the team’s owner, the stingy Judge Banner, has signed for a paltry $3,000.
The story recounts Roy’s ups and downs and tragedy in his personal life.

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
1060L	High School	248	Historical Fiction	2003	0374502005

Code Talker

Posted on September 21, 2013 by webmaster

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Code Talker
by Joseph Bruchac

Ned Begay is transplanted from his family’s home at the age of six, and sent to a boarding school to learn English and the American way of life. There he is given a new name and clothes and forbidden to speak his native language Navajo. When he is 16, he is recruited to join the Marines, and shortly afterwards he enlists and is sent to boot camp.

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He discovers that his Navajo language, which he has been using only in secret for years, is the secret weapon that the U.S. is using in their war against the Japanese. As a Navajo code talker, Ned is able to use his native language to save countless American lives, and his experiences in the Pacific – from Guadalcanal to Iwo Jima to Okinawa -change him forever.

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
910	Middle School	240	Historical Fiction	2005	9780439891004

Absolutely True Diary

Posted on September 20, 2013 by webmaster

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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
by Sherman Alexie

Arnold Spirit, a goofy-looking dork with a decent jumpshot, spends his time lamenting life on the “poor-ass” Spokane Indian reservation, drawing cartoons (which accompany, and often provide more insight than, the narrative), and, along with his aptly named pal Rowdy, laughing those laughs over anything and nothing that affix best friends so intricately together.

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When a teacher pleads with Arnold to want more, to escape the hopelessness of the rez, Arnold switches to a rich white school and immediately becomes as much an outcast in his own community as he is a curiosity in his new one. He weathers the typical teenage indignations and triumphs like a champ but soon faces far more trying ordeals as his home life begins to crumble and decay amidst the suffocating mire of alcoholism on the reservation.

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
600L	Middle School	288	Autobiography	2009	0316013692

Call It Courage

Posted on September 20, 2013 by webmaster

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Call It Courage
by Armstrong Sperry

Mafatu, a Polynesian boy of 15 years old, has an intense fear of the ocean. At the age of three he was nearly killed when his mother drowned. Now he must conquer his fears. He goes off on his own and finds the courage within him.

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Mafatu decides to face his greatest and deepest fear and sets off on an adventure, ending up not only conquering his fear of the sea but successfully confronting such life-threatening challenges as a hammerhead shark, a sharp-tusked wild boar and, finally, angry man-eating islanders. It is the kind of story where just when you think things can’t get worse, they do. But Mafatu finds out that he is able to overcome every challenge and returns to his home island in triumph.

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
830	High School	128	Adventure	2008	141695368

London Calling

Posted on September 18, 2013 by webmaster

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London Calling
by Edward Bloor

John Martin Conway feels out of place at his exclusive prep school, where he is constantly reminded that he is a scholarship kid. After a confrontation with Hank Lowery, the great-grandson of the schools founder, he requests to work at home on an independent study project. The World War II-era radio that his grandmother left him brings him into contact with Jimmy, a boy who lived during the war and who needs his help. He takes Martin back to the time of the London Blitz.

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In his own time, he focuses his research on the things Jimmy shows him and the people he encounters. Along the way he uncovers some new information about his grandfathers and General Hank Lowerys dealings during the war and discovers how he can help put Jimmys soul to rest. He also comes to terms with his alcoholic father and with his own depression.

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
890	Middle School	304	Fantasy	2008	0375843639

Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes

Posted on September 17, 2013 by webmaster

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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

Pretties

Posted on September 17, 2013 by webmaster

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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.”

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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

Click here to view The Uglies – Book One

Click here to view The Specials – Book Three

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

Who am I Without Him

Posted on September 16, 2013 by webmaster

Who Am I Without Him
by Sharon G. Flake

In the game of love, young men and women weigh what they need from the opposite sex against what they need to find in themselves. This popular short-story collection, including two never-before-published entries, gives teens a chance to witness the outcomes of twelve unique trysts.

As relationships go either right or wrong, with surprising, often funny, always on-point results, mindful readers will appreciate the warning signs and perhaps save themselves from the same fate as these fictional protagonists.

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You’ll find yourself consumed by fast-paced, intelligent writing that “just gets it” in Who I Am Without Him — a question you might ultimately choose to examine before diving headlong into the dangerous waters of romance.

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
670	High School	160	Drama	2005	0786815043

Alt Ed

Posted on September 15, 2013 by webmaster

Alt Ed
by Catherine Atkins

Susan Calloway, bullied and overweight, faces daily humiliation at the hands of her classmates and she’s had enough. With her anger about to reach the boiling point, Susan lands in an alternative education class, a sort of group therapy for the nearly expelled. School is bad enough, but facing off with five peers, including her cruelest tormentor, is worse.

Now Susan is being forced to do something she’s always avoided: talking about herself and listening to what other people have to say about her. She has two choices: find her voice, or be prepared to take the insults in silence.

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
490	Middle School	208	Realistic Fiction	2004	00142402354

Night

Posted on September 15, 2013 by webmaster

Night
by Ellie Wiesel

Born in the town of Sighet, Transylvania, Elie Wiesel was a teenager when he and his family were taken from their home in 1944 to the Auschwitz concentration camp, and then to Buchenwald. Night is the terrifying record of Elie Wiesel’s memories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence, and his despair as a deeply observant Jew confronting the absolute evil of man.e, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.

Lexile Level	Content Rating	Number of Pages	Genre	Date Published	ISBN Number
590L	High School	109	Historical Fiction	1960	0553272535

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