Please enable JavaScript
Fiction | Page 95 | LitPick Book Reviews
Fiction
The Year We Disappeared: A Father - Daughter Memoir
The Year We Disappeared
John Busby, Cylin Busby
The extraordinary true crime story of a family, a brutal shooting, and the year that would change their lives forever. When Cylin Busby was nine years old, she was obsessed with Izod clothing, the Muppets, and a box turtle she kept in a shoebox. Then everything changed overnight. Her police officer father, John, was driving to his shift when someone leveled a shotgun at his window. The blasts that followed left John's jaw on the passenger seat of his car-literally. While clinging to life, he managed to write down the name of the only person he thought could have pulled the trigger. The suspect? A local ex-con with rumored mob connections. The motive? Officer Busby was scheduled to testify against the suspect's family in an upcoming trial. Overnight, the Busbys went from being the "family next door" to one under 24-hour armed guard, with police escorts to school, and no contact with friends. Worse, the shooter was still on the loose, and it seemed only a matter of time before he'd come after John-or someone else in the family-again. With few choices left to them, the Busby family went into hiding, severing all ties to the only life they had known.

Book Details

Forever Changes
Forever Changes
Brendan Halpin
5:30 a.m., Brianna Pelletier gets ready for her daily pounding. As she lies on the couch, her dad beats her chest, then her back, coaxing the mucus out of her lungs. The pounding doesn’t take care of everything. Brianna’s held out for a long time, but a body with cystic fibrosis doesn’t last forever. It doesn’t matter that Brianna has a brilliant mathematical mind or that she’s a shoo-in for MIT. Or even that her two best friends are beautiful, popular, and loyal. In the grand scheme of things, none of that stuff matters at all. The standard life, lasting maybe seventy-five years, is no more than a speck in the sum total of the universe. At eighteen, and doubting she’ll make nineteen, Brianna is practically a nonentity. Of course she’s done the math. But in her senior year of high school, Brianna learns of another kind of math, in which an infinitely small, near-zero quantity can have profound effects on an entire system. If these tiny quantities didn’t exist, things wouldn’t make the same sense. Funny, tear-jerking, and memorable, the author’s second novel for teens introduces readers to an extraordinary girl who learns that the meaning of forever can change, and that life – and death – is filled with infinite possibilities.  Forever Changes is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Book Details

Songs for a Teenage Nomad
Songs For a Teenage Nomad
Kim Culbertson
"So engrossing, so transporting, so moving, I didn't want it to end! A beautiful, lyrical read-I loved every last word of it!" -Alyson Noël, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of The Immortals series What is the soundtrack of your life? After living in twelve places in eight years, Calle Smith finds herself in Andreas Bay, California, at the start of ninth grade. Another new home, another new school...Calle knows better than to put down roots. Her song journal keeps her moving to her own soundtrack, bouncing through a world best kept at a distance. Yet before she knows it, friends creep in-as does an unlikely boy with a secret. Calle is torn over what may be her first chance at love. With all that she's hiding and all that she wants, can she find something lasting beyond music? And will she ever discover why she and her mother have been running in the first place? "Songs for a Teenage Nomad will send you searching for songs with meaning for the major events of your own life." -Cindy Hudson, author of Book by Book: The Complete Guide to Creating Mother-Daughter Book Clubs. "The best kind of song takes you on a roller coaster ride of emotions. It makes you think. You find yourself humming and pondering it for days. Songs for a Teenage Nomad does the book version of this. It's an unforgettable story that music lovers in particular will appreciate, but every teenager trying to find their place in the world should read." -Stephanie Kuehnert, author of I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramoneand Ballads of Suburbia

Book Details

Meeting Lizzy
Meeting Lizzy
SarahBeth Carter
If you heard a strange noise from the apartment upstairs, would you make an effort to find out what happened? What if something happened, but the victim begged you to leave it alone? What if there was obvious evidence of violence, but the denials were adamant? Would you forget about it and walk away? What if you were only 17? I'm Cy McEntire. I wouldn't call myself a typical teenager. I'm only average in the smarts department. Meeting Lizzy was an accident, but one I'd never be able to forget. I was just sitting at home watching Law & Order reruns when I heard a girl in the apartment upstairs. She was hurt. I was breaking the golden rule of being a successful hermit, but I couldn't help it. If what I thought was happening in that upstairs apartment was actually happening, I had to find out. I was so sure that I would be wrong that when I wasn't, I had no idea what to do. So I didn't do anything. It was obvious the girl was being abused, but she adamantly denied anything was wrong. What was I supposed to do? I'm not all-knowing, so I just left. But I couldn't get the girl out of my head.

Book Details

Score!: Sports Stories
Score! Sports Stories
Alan Durant
This collection of championship stories features a broad cast of characters, including cyclists, swimmers, runners, and ballplayers. From a fast-paced hockey story by Matt Christopher to a dramatic basketball tale by Walter Dean Myers, the collection includes contributions from the best writers of contemporary sports fiction. There are also extracts from classic works such as National Velvet and Tom Brown's Schooldays. Gripping stories take readers through all the highs and lows of competition, from the thrill of victory to the heartbreak of defeat. Both boys and girls will be hooked until the final whistle.

Book Details

Generation Dead (A Generation Dead Novel)
Generation Dead
Daniel Waters
Phoebe Kendall is just your typical Goth girl with a crush.  He’s strong and silent…and dead.  All over the country, a strange phenomenon is occurring.  Some teenagers who die aren't staying dead.  But when they come back to life, they are no longer the same. Feared and misunderstood, they are doing their best to blend into a society that doesn’t want them.              The administration at Oakvale High attempts to be more welcoming of the “differently biotic."  But the students don’t want to take classes or eat in the cafeteria next to someone who isn’t breathing.  And there are no laws that exist to protect the “living impaired” from the people who want them to disappear—for good.              When Phoebe falls for Tommy Williams, the leader of the dead kids, no one can believe it; not her best friend, Margi, and especially not her neighbor, Adam, the star of the football team.  Adam has feelings for Phoebe that run much deeper than just friendship; he would do anything for her.  But what if protecting Tommy is the one thing that would make her happy? 

Book Details

The Schoolboy
The Schoolboy
Tony Rosa
Fourteen-year-old Sam Parma plays more baseball than golf, so when his mother urges him to play in a junior golf tournament, he protests but reluctantly agrees. Learning that his uncle was a two time winner of The Schoolboy Championship, Sam feels pressure to perform as well as excitement for potential success. Dropped off at the municipal golf course with a hodgepodge set of clubs, limited skills, and the added responsibility to look after his younger brother, Sam ventures to the sign-up table. There he meets his three playing partners: a well-equipped rich kid, a profanity-spraying cheater, and an oversized neighborhood bully. Getting to the first tee is the easy part for Sam. Making it past unexpected obstacles, squaring off in conflict, and conquering his fears are only some of the challenges he faces on the course. Sam makes lasting memories and learns a number of lessons about honesty, sportsmanship, and courtesy-lessons that will guide him throughout his life.

Book Details

Likely Story!
Likely Story
David Van Etten
Meet Mallory Hayden, sixteen-year-old producer and creator of her own soap opera. Can she survive life with her backstabbing soap-star mother, keep her friends close and her enemies closer (and tell the difference between them), find true love (supersweet boyfriend-or the show's supercute male lead?), and make her show a hit in this world of high-stakes drama and sudsy sabotage?Originally published as separate hardcover novels, here are all three Likely Story novels in one sizzling volume!"A fresh, hip glimpse into the life of daytime soaps and everyday teens. . . . Soapdish meets Sweet Valley High. . . . If you are a soap fan, YA novel fan or simply looking for a good, dishy, well-written read, Likely Story is a must-have." -Daytime Confidential"More twists, turns, and intrigue than a daytime soap. . . . Sure to be a hit." -School Library Journal

Book Details

Neptune's Children
Neptune's Children
Bonnie Dobkin
A day at the fabled amusement park Isles of Wonder turns deadly when a world-wide biological attack kills every adult, leaving behind only the kids to fend for themselves. Isolated from the world, unsure of what lies ahead, the young survivors assemble under the statue of King Neptune, the mythical ruler of the Isles, to form a new society. Led by the children of the park workers, they choose to remain closed off from the outside world living relatively comfortably inside the self-contained park. But when violence from the infested outside world appears to infiltrate their safe zone, one small group discovers a secret society and a hidden system of underground tunnels, and the stage is set for a war that will determine the future of everyone on the Isles. As alliances are formed and broken, readers will find themselves taking sides in this suspenseful adventure story that addresses the duality of human nature.

Book Details

How to Build a House
How To Build A House
Dana Reinhardt
HARPER’S DAD IS getting a divorce from her beloved stepmother, Jane. Even worse, Harper has lost her stepsister, Tess; the divorce divides them. Harper decides to escape by joining a volunteer program to build a house for a family in Tennessee who lost their home in a tornado. Not that she knows a thing about construction.Soon she’s living in a funky motel and working long days in blazing heat with a group of kids from all over the country. At the site, she works alongside Teddy, the son of the family for whom they are building the house. Their partnership turns into a summer romance, complete with power tools. Learning to trust and love Teddy isn’t easy for Harper, but it’s the first step toward finding her way back home.From the Hardcover edition.

Book Details

Pages



RECENT BOOK REVIEWS