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Onion John
Symeon Shimin, Joseph Krumgold
Synopsis:

The story of a friendship between a 12-year-old boy and an immigrant handyman, almost wrecked by the good intentions of the townspeople.

Publication Date: 04/04/84
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Flowers For Algeron
Daniel Keyes
Synopsis: Flowers For Algernon made its  first appearance as a short story which was  rapidly and widely anthologized, and translated  internationally. It received further acclaim as a  moderated television drama, and as a motional picture  production. Now, full bodied and richly-peopled,  Flowers For Algernon is the daring  novel of a starling human experiment!  
Publication Date: 04/01/84
Age Level: Mature Young Adult
Genre: Fiction
The Pigman
Paul Zindel
Synopsis: Meet Mr. Pignati, a lonely old man with a beer belly and an awful secret. He's the Pigman, and he's got a great big twinkling smile. When John and Lorraine, two high school sophomores, meet Mr. Pignati, they learn his whole sad, zany story. They tell it right here in this book -- the truth, and nothing but the truth -- no matter how many people it shocks or hurts.
Publication Date: 03/01/83
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Ratha's Creature
Clare Bell
Synopsis: Twenty-five million years ago, Ratha and her kind, the Named--a band of intelligent cats--are being pushed toward extinction by the UnNamed, until Ratha discovers, and masters, the terrifying power of fire
Publication Date: 02/01/83
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Kidnapped
Robert Louis Stevenson
Synopsis: Acclaimed by Henry James as Robert Louis Stevenson's best novel, Kidnapped achieves what Stevenson called, "the particular crown and triumph of the artist...not simply to convince, but to enchant."

Spirited, romantic, and full of danger, Kidnapped is Robert Louis Stevenson's classic of high adventure. Beloved by generations, it is the saga of David Balfour, a young heir whose greedy uncle connives to do him out of his inherited fortune and plots to have him seized and sold into slavery. But honor, loyalty, and courage are rewarded; the orphan and castaway survives kidnapping and shipwreck, is rescued by a daredevil of a rogue, and makes a thrilling escape to freedom across the wild highlands of Scotland.
Publication Date: 01/01/82
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Intern's Tale
Colin Douglas
Synopsis: By telling his corporate bosses to shove it, seventeen-year old intern Kip Pureweather may have pushed the Incorporated Realms of America into the third Dark Ages. Kip's first assignment away from Vassalcorp headquarters in York City sends him on mechanical horseback to the farmlands of Ohio. With feisty office-maiden Abbey Fairchild in tow, the two trade barbs as often as they do stolen glances. Just as Kip and Abbey are finding common ground, Kip learns the nature of his assignment - the foreclosure of the Fairchild farm. When faced with destroying a family to secure his future as a knight-executive, Kip defies the all-powerful corporations and changes his destiny forever. Kip's insubordination makes him an instant outlaw, and the only place out of the corporations' reach is the forbidden Empty Lands north of the Realms. But the Empty Lands hold a secret the corporations have kept since the time of the Generex, a war that brought them to power and ushered in the second Dark Ages. With knowledge of an imminent threat, Kip returns for Abbey, and with the help of a slave, a mailroom clerk, a tabloid princess, and the self-proclaimed greatest-mind-of-their-time, they take a stand against the corporations and the impending destruction of their world.
Publication Date: 05/23/82
Age Level: Mature Young Adult
Genre: Fiction
Silas Marner
George Eliot
Synopsis: Embittered by a false accusation, disappointed in friendship and love, the weaver Silas Marner retreats into a long twilight life alone with his loom. . . and his gold. Silas hoards a treasure that kills his spirit until fate steals it from him and replaces it with a golden-haired founding child. Where she came from, who her parents were, and who really stole the gold are the secrets that permeate this moving tale of guilt and innocence. A moral allegory of the redemptive power of love, it is also a finely drawn picture of early nineteenth-century England in the days when spinning wheels hummed busily in the farmhouses, and of a simple way of life that was soon to disappear.
Publication Date: 10/01/81
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Last of the Mohicans
James Fenimore Cooper
Synopsis: THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, JAMES FENIMORE COOPER.
Publication Date: 05/23/81
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Fat Men from Space
Daniel Manus Pinkwater
Synopsis: "While William is held captive in a spaceship, alien armies land and wipe out the earth's supply of junk foods. The boy escapes and humans learn to like what the departing scavengers have left: wholegrain bread, milk, greens, all the healthful foods. A wildly comic fantasy with a solid moral."--Publishers Weekly.
Publication Date: 07/15/80
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Fiction
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
John Sturrock, John Sturrock, Victor Hugo
Synopsis: More commonly known as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Victor Hugo's Romantic novel of dark passions and unrequited love

In the vaulted Gothic towers of Notre-Dame Cathedral lives Quasimodo, the hunchbacked bellringer. Mocked and shunned for his appearance, he is pitied only by Esmerelda, a beautiful gypsy dancer to whom he becomes completely devoted. Esmerelda, however, has also attracted the attention of the sinister archdeacon Claude Frollo, and when she rejects his lecherous approaches, Frollo hatches a plot to destroy her, that only Quasimodo can prevent. Victor Hugo's sensational, evocative novel brings life to the medieval Paris he loved, and mourns its passing in one of the greatest historical romances of the nineteenth century.

John Sturrock's clear, contemporary translation is accompanied by an introduction discussing it as a passionate novel of ideas, written in defence of Gothic architecture and of a burgeoning democracy, and demonstrating that an ugly exterior can conceal moral beauty. This revised edition also includes further reading and a chronology of Hugo's life.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Publication Date: 10/26/78
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweil
Synopsis: When Claudia decided to run away, she planned very carefully She would be gone just long enough to teach her parents a lesson in Claudia appreciation.  And she would live in comfort-at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  She invited her brother Jamie to go, too, mostly because he was a miser and would have money



The two took up residence in the museum right on schedule.  But once the fun of settling in was over, Claudia had two unexpected problems: She felt just the same, and she wanted to feel different; and she found a statue at the museum so beautiful she could not go home until she had discovered its maker, a question that baffled even the experts.  The former owner of the statue was Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler And without her help Claudia might never have found a way to go home.
Publication Date: 10/15/77
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
A Wrinkle in Time
Madeleine L'Engle
Synopsis: This special edition of A Wrinkle in Time includes a new essay that explores the science behind the fantasy.
Rediscover one of the most beloved children's books of all time: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle:

Meg Murray, her little brother Charles Wallace, and their mother are having a midnight snack on a dark and stormy night when an unearthly stranger appears at their door. He claims to have been blown off course, and goes on to tell them that there is such a thing as a "tesseract," which, if you didn't know, is a wrinkle in time.

Meg's father had been experimenting with time-travel when he suddenly disappeared. Will Meg, Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin outwit the forces of evil as they search through space for their father?
Publication Date: 02/15/76
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Cricket in Times Square
Synopsis: After Chester, a cricket, arrives in the Times Square subway station, he takes up residence in a newsstand. Between escapades in New York City, Chester and four new friends manage to bring success to the almost bankrupt newsstand.
Publication Date: 09/15/70
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The High King
Lloyd Alexander
Synopsis: When the sword of dyrnwyn, the most powerful weapon inthe kingdom of Prydain, falls into the hands of Arawn-Death-Lord, Taran, Assistant Pig-Keeper, and Prince Gwydion raise an army to march against Arawn's terrible cohorts.  After a winter expedition filled with danger, Taran's army arrives at Mount Dragon, Arawn's stronghold.  There, in a thrilling confrontation with Arawn and the evil enchantress Achren, Taran is forced to make the most crucial decision of his life.
Publication Date: 09/15/69
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
1984
Erich Fromm, George Orwell
Synopsis: Written in 1948, 1984 was George Orwell’s chilling prophecy about the future. And while 1984 has come and gone, his dystopian vision of a government that will do anything to control the narrative is timelier than ever...

•Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read•

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thoughtcrimes. But as he starts to think for himself, Winston can’t escape the fact that Big Brother is always watching...

A startling and haunting vision of the world, 1984 is so powerful that it is completely convincing from start to finish. No one can deny the influence of this novel, its hold on the imaginations of multiple generations of readers, or the resiliency of its admonitions—a legacy that seems only to grow with the passage of time.
Publication Date: 01/01/61
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Gorilla Dawn
Gill Lewis
Synopsis: Gorilla Dawn
Publication Date: 05/23/25
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Fiction

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