Little Brother

Doctrow, Cory.  Little Brother. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2008.

ISBN 9780765319852 | Hardcover | 384 p. | $17.95 USD

Annotation: Seventeen year old Marcus Yallow is arrested after a terrorist attack and grilled by the Department of Homeland Security.  After he is released, his home city of San Francisco has been turned into a police state.  Marcus uses his computer skills to fight the police state and struggles to set things right.

Awards/Honors:

- Booklist Editors' Choice - Books for Youth - Older Readers Category: 2008

- John W. Campbell Memorial Award

- New York Times Notable Books - Children's Books: 2008

- School Library Journal Best Books: 2008

- Texas Tayshas Reading Lists: 2009

- White Pine Award (Ontario)

- YALSA Best Books for Young Adults: 2009

- YALSA Outstanding Books for the College Bound - Science and Technology: 2009

Open End Booktalk: How would your life change if your city was attacked by terrorists? Marcus is a 17 year old computer whiz living in San Francisco it the very near future and when the city is attacked by terrorists, Marcus is arrested by Homeland Security and cruelly questioned.  Once he's released, he uses his computer skills to create an underground network to fight back against the cruel government.  But the plans he makes to high back don't always have the results he hopes.  Security keeps getting stepped up in the city.  Can Marcus keep up his crusade  against the police and government? Or will he be arrested because everyone thinks he's the terrorist?

Listen as author Cory Doctrow describes the book:

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Alexie, Sherman.  The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian. New York: Little, Brown and Co., 2009.

ISBN: 9780316013680 | Paperback | 230 p. | $9.99 USD

Annotation: Sherman Alexie chronicles the struggles of Junior, a teen growing up on an Indian reservation near Spokane, Washington.  When Junior decided to go to a school off of the reservation, he struggles to find his place in two very different worlds.

Awards / Honors:

- Amazon.com Best Book of the Year

- Boston Globe Horn Book Award: Fiction and Poetry

- California Young Reader Medal: Young Adult

- Kirkus Reviews Best YA Book

- National Book Award for Young People's Literature

- New York Times Bestseller

- Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year

- School Library Journal Best Books: 2007

- YALSA Best Books for Young Adults: 2008

- YALSA Outstanding Books for the College Bound - HIstory and Cultures: 2009

Snap and Read Booktalk:  Junior lives on an Indian reservation, in world thats very segregated from the towns just beyond the borders.  He's smart, way too smart for the schools on the rez, so he decides he wants to go to a better school, twenty-two miles away.  He knows he'll get a better education in Rearden, but being the only Indian boy isn't going to be easy:

"Then the white kids began arriving for school.  They surrounded me.  Those kids weren't just white.  They were translucent.  I could see the blue veins running through their skin like rivers.  Most of the kids were my size or smaller, but there were ten or twelve monster dudes.  Giant white guys. The looked like men, not boys.  They had to be seniors. Some of them looked like they had to shave two or three times a day.  They stared at me, the Indian boy with a black eye and swollen nose, my going away gifts from Rowdy. Those white kids couldn't believe their eyes.  They stared at me like I was Bigfoot or a UFO.  What was I doing at Reardan, whose mascot was an Indian, thereby making me the only other Indian in town?" (p. 56)

Will Junior manage to make his way at this new school? Learn what happens to Junior as he ventures off the reservation in search of a better life.

Find out more about the The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian from Priscilla, a vlogger who reviews tons of YA books on YouTube:

The Contract With God Trilogy

Eisner, Will. The Contract With God Trilogy: Life on Dropsie Avenue.  New York: W.W. Norton, 2006.

ISBN: 0393061051 | Hardcover | 498 p. | $29.95 USD

Annotation: This trilogy combines three major works by comic legend Will Eisner, all centered around New York City Jewish life.  The Contact with God is a collection of graphic short stories following the residents of a 1930's Bronx neighborhood.  A Life Force explores the Depression era struggles and the rise of Nazism.  Lastly, Dropsie Avenue: The Neighborhood tells the story of the neighborhood as it changes over the course of more than 100 years.

Awards / Honors:

The Contract With God is credited with launching the popularity of graphic novels as a literary form.

Index Card Booktalk:

Short stories

Detailed drawings [graphic form - show pages to audience]

Life in a New York City tenement neightborhood

Russian immigrant, street singer, superintendent, summer vacationers

The "original" graphic novel

Learn more about Will Eisner's life and work on his website: http://www.willeisner.com or watch this conversation between Eisner and legendary comic creator Stan Lee:

"Nope. I don't read. Except graphic novels, but thats different from reading. I like manga and that kind of stuff...it different from reading regular books."  - Talia P.

The Coldest Winter Ever

Souljah, Sister. The Coldest Winter Ever. New York: Pocket Books, 1999.

ISBN: 0-671-02536-8 | Trade Paperback | 413 p. | $7.99 USD

Annotation: Winter Santiaga leads a privileged life as the daughter of a wealthy drug lord, until her father's arrest causes her whole world to come crashing down.  This brutally honest novel describes Winter's vain efforts to recapture her once luxurious lifestyle while trying to survive on the streets of Brooklyn.

Awards/Honors:

- YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults: Hard Knock Life - 2010

Index Card Booktalk:

Money / Clothes / Cars 

Life of privilege 

Drug dealing

Family

Prison

Street Life

Survival

Read more about author, hip hop artists and speaker Sister Souljah on her website: http://www.sistersouljah.com

The Last Full Measure

Rinaldi, Ann.  The Last Full Measure. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010.

ISBN: 978-0547389806 | Hardcover | 224 p. | $17.00 USD

Annotation: The Last Full Measure follows the life of Tacy, a 14-year old living in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania during the Civil War.  The story focuses on the challenges she faces with her family off at war, and the aftermath of the terrible battle.

Awards / Honors:

- N/A

Wrap Back Booktalk: While her hometown of Gettysburg attempts to prepare for one of the most difficult and defining battles of the Civil War, 14-year old Tacy just attempts to keep her life a little bit normal. With her Father and two eldest brothers already off to war, she is stuck at home with her ever-optimistic but naïve mother and moody older brother David, and things are never easy. Since David was wounded as a child, he is unable to fight with his brothers and neighbors, and he hates not being able to help almost as much as he hates being in charge of the rebellious and strong-willed Tacy. He often takes his resentment out on Tacy, and she struggles to deal with this while still finding her way through an incredibly difficult time. Tacy and David discover just how much they also must sacrifice at home, as the soldiers on the battlefield give The Last Full Measure.

The Real Real

Kraus, Nicola and McLaughlin, Emma.  The Real Real.  New York: Harper Collins, 2009.

ISBN: 9780061720406 | Hardcover | 310 p. |  $16.99 USD

Annotation: Hampton High senior Jesse is cast in a reality show about the "real" lives of high school students.  Jesse's normal life gets turned upside down as the producers manufacture drama among her friends for the sake of entertaining television.

Awards / Honors: 

N/A

Wrap Back Booktalk:  Jesse O'Rourke gets a chance of a lifetime when she is picked to be one of the stars of a reality show about high school students.  TV crews follow her around trying to find glamor in her everyday life.  When Jesse's life seems to average for TV producers, they try to add some glamour and drama.  Jesse gets wrapped up in a whirlwind of dates, drama, filming and flirting.  Before she knows it, she can't figure out the difference between TV real and The Real Real.

Watch an interview with authors Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin about The Real Real and hear why they love writing for teens:

The Summoning

Armstrong, Kelley.  The Summoning.  New York: Harper Collins, 2008.  

ISBN-13: 9780061662690 | Hardcover | 390 p. | $12.06 USD

Annotation: When Chloe Saunders starts seeing ghosts trying to communicate with her, she is sent to the Lyle House, a group home for mentally disturbed teens.  She realizes strange things are happening to her and the other residents of the house and fights to figure out what is going on in this first installment of the Darkest Powers horror series.

Awards/Honors: 

- Stellar Awards (British Columbia)

- Texas Tayshas Reading Lists: 2009

Open End Booktalk:  When Chloe Saunders turns around one day at school and sees a ghost, her family and teachers ship her off to a group home for mentally ill teenagers.  Is she crazy? Or is Chloe really contacting the dead?  Everyone in the house seems to be hiding something.  Chloe knows the ghost are real, but who can she trust with her secrets? 

Watch the book trailer and read about the other books in Kelley Armstrong's Darkest Powers series: http://www.harperteen.com/contests/kelleyarmstrong/