Frenchie is on the run. Frenchie is one of the few Indigenous people of North America left and he is being hunted. Civilization has been devastated by war, climate change and disease. All but the Indigenous people have lost their ability to dream and because of that people have been slowly losing their minds. People are desperate to find a cure and have turned to rounding up Indigenous people; testing them, torturing them and collecting their marrow in hope of a cure. Frenchie and his small crew are heading north hoping to escape the recruiters, but with desperate people at every turn death is always lurking around the corner.
Tag: high school
The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco
In another world where there are witches of all kinds; Tea finds that she is a rare bone witch, a witch that can raise creatures good and bad from the dead. Tea is confronted with what she is, when she accidentally raises her brother from the dead. Now her and her brother must head to an unfamiliar city, so Tea can train with another bone witch. As Tea trains her skills grow quickly and the whole city become curious about her and her powers. Tea realizes there’s a fine line between good and evil that her powers allow her to tread, but there forces out there wanting to pull her into the darkness.
Warcross by Marie Lu
Hacker and bounty hunter Emika Chen is short on cash and options. When she hacks into the world championship game of Warcross, an online game everybody plays, she can’t pass up an opportunity to grab a power up equal to her monthly rent payment. It was grand opportunity, but once she grabbed the power up the whole world, including Warcross founder Hideo Tanaka, knew she had hacked in. Instead of finding the police banging on her door the next morning, she instead has a phone call from Hideo asking her to come to Tokyo for a meeting. Turns out someone else is hacking into Warcross and Hideo needs Emika to track that person down. As part of her cover Emika is drafted on to a Warcross team, and has to dig into her team mates personal lives. As she digs Emika begins to realize that the Warcross plot goes far deeper and is more dangerous than she dreamed.
Tiny Pretty Things
Drama, romance, back stabbing and ballet fill the intriguing pages of Tiny Pretty Things. Told from three points of view, you see the rise of Gigi, the fall of Bette, the insight of June and all of their dirty secrets. Everyone’s hiding something. Gigi is sweet and authentic, scoring the lead role in the Nutcracker and Bette’s man. Bette will do anything to stay on top; she’s been known to end young ballerina’s careers. June is trying to earn a place in the spotlight and uncover her mother’s past. A great juicy read and guilty pleasure complete with a sequel, Shiny Broken Pieces , you can devour.
It All Comes Down to This by Karen English
It’s the summer before her freshmen year in high school in 1965. Sophie is planning on writing, hanging out with friends and just having a good time, but life and the rest of the world starts to get in the way her plans. First, the reality of racism really starts to set in for Sophie as she continually encounters prejudice in her almost all-white community; from being uninvited to pool parties to being accused of stealing. Her parents aren’t much help because they’re busy with their own lives and trying to salvage their marriage. Luckily, her older sister has always has her back, but that will change at the end of the summer when her sister leaves for college. Suddenly life isn’t as clear cut as she thought it was and once a close friend is arrested for no reason Sophie finds herself questioning things even more. An excellent piece of historical fiction that rings very true in today’s world.
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
Rashad is a boy trying to navigate high school. He’s clean cut, an ROTC kid, and he has mad art skills. Quinn is also a boy trying to navigate high school: he’s on the basketball team and he’s really focused on impressing all those college recruiters. Rashad is black and Quinn is white. They have mutual friends, but don’t really know each other; it’s a big school. Rashad has an older brother, a very strict father, and a warm, loving mother. Quinn’s mom takes care of him and his younger brother because his dad died while serving in the army. Quinn is on the basketball team with his best friend, Guzzo. And although Quinn didn’t witness what happened inside the corner store, he was outside and witnessed when Rashad was taken down by a white cop and dragged out of the and brutally beaten. This police officer just so happens to be Guzzo’s brother, and is like a second father to Quinn.
This story is told from two different perspectives with alternating chapters, and the incident is portrayed through both the point of view of victim and bystander. It will bring up many significant questions: How do you choose sides––especially when someone you once respected is in the wrong? And if we want the violence to stop, how do we end it? This is a hard-hitting contemporary, realistic novel and it forces you to question what it means to be all American. It also makes you ask: Why is Rashad absent again today? And what does that mean?
The Emperor of Any Place by Tim Wynne-Jones
Evan’s father died with a yellow bound book in his hand. The yellow book contains the journal of a Japanese soldier, who was stranded on a small island in the Pacific during WWII. As Evan cracks the journal open he realizes that it was recovered by his estranged grandfather, a U.S. Marine and that the stranded Japanese soldier never made it off the island. Now this grandfather (Griff), who Evan’s never met, is coming to help put Evan’s father’s estate in order.
The arrival of his grandfather and the information contained in the yellow book send Evan down the rabbit’s hole. If his father hated Griff so much, why was he reading this journal? The night before he died Evan’s father said that Griff may have been a murderer. What did he mean? Did his father read something in the journal? Evan has to get to the truth and is seems like Griff is actively hiding something from him. The Emperor of Any Place blends Evan story and the story of the Japanese soldier seamlessly. The tension between Evan and his grandfather, Griff keeps the reader engaged the whole story. This is a great blend of historical fiction and realistic fiction.
“Up the Down Staircase” Author Celebrates 100th Birthday
May 14, 2011
People of a certain age will remember 
when Up the Down Staircase, a novel about teaching in a large public high school came out in 1965. It became a bestseller and was subsequently made into a very popular movie. Bel Kaufman, the author of this classic, has just turned 100 and is still as feisty and good-humored as she was when she taught in New York City schools, as a recent New York Times article attests.
Mary B., Reader’s Services