Please enable JavaScript
All Books | Page 315 | LitPick Book Reviews
All Books
97 Things To Do Before You Finish High School
Steven Jenkins, Erika Stalder
Synopsis: Being in high school is about a lot more than going to high school. It’s about discovering new places, new hobbies, and new people—and opening your eyes to the world. This book is about the stuff they don’t teach you in high school, like how to host a film festival, plan your first road trip, make a podcast, or write a manifesto.

Want to make a time capsule? Spend a day in silence? Learn how to make beats like a DJ? Or shut down your house party before the police do? Whatever your creative, social, or academic inclinations, you’ll find 97 ways on these pages to amuse, educate, and interest yourself and your friends—helpfully organized into nine categories:For Your Personal DevelopmentWith/for FriendsWith/for FamilyFor Your BodyTo Get to Know the World Around YouTo Express YourselfTo Benefit Your Community and EnvironmentBecause You ShouldBecause You're Only Young Once Because your life doesn’t stop at 3 p.m. each day—it just gets started.
Publication Date: 05/01/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Educational
Blitzed
Robert Swindells
Synopsis: George is fascinated by World War II—even evacuation and rationing has got to be more exciting than living in dreary old Witchfield! He is looking forward to his school trip to Eden Camp, a World War II museum, but he never could have imagined how authentic this visit to wartime Britain will be. A hand reaching out of the fake rubble, a slip in time, and George has to survive something much worse than boredom. The rubble is now real—he has slipped through time into 1940s London. Imagine being alive before your parents were even born!  
Publication Date: 05/01/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Fashion 101
Erika Stalder
Synopsis: Each year, we spend hours shopping and getting dressed, but do we ever think about what we’re wearing? What’s the name of the style of your shirt? Who invented your favorite jeans cut? Who made your baby-doll nightie famous?

There is a story behind every piece of clothing and with Fashion 101 you’ll learn those stories and more: Where did the miniskirt come from? Why has the military had a stronger influence on fashion than Audrey Hepburn? How do denim makers work those perfect "whiskers" into your "worn-out" jeans?

Filled with tons of intriguing factoids about designers and celebrities, and more than 300 illustrations, Fashion 101 offers the total scoop on underwear, outerwear, accessories, and everything in between. With this crash course, you’ll learn not only how to put together smarter looks, but also how to become a fashion expert in the process.
Publication Date: 05/01/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Educational
The Compound
S.A. Bodeen
Synopsis:

Eli and his family have lived in the Compound for six years.

The world they knew is gone.

Eli's father built the Compound to keep them safe. Now, they can't get out.

He won't let them.

The Compound is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Publication Date: 04/30/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Hit Me With Your Best Shot
Michael Perry, Raina Lee
Synopsis: When karaoke calls, get ready to steal the show. Karaoke Queen Raina Lee helps beginners and veterans conquer stage fright, pick songs to showcase vocal talent (or disguise a lack thereof), and master their moves (mic twirls, Mick Jagger kicks, etc.). She turns what can be a terrifying social rite of passage into a party no one wants to miss. With lists of the best songs for all occasions, advice from World Karaoke Champions, awesome hand-drawn typography and illustrations, plus party scene snapshots of people singing their hearts out, this pocket-size resource will turn up the volume on happy hour. Rock on.
Publication Date: 04/30/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Educational
Forensics
Richard Platt
Synopsis:

Just like on CSI, readers will explore the crime lab and discover how detectives use scientific evidence to solve crimes. Find out how bloodstains, footprints, and fingerprints can lead police to catch criminals, and learn how specialists match trace evidence--such as a single hair found on a victim--to catch a murderer.

Publication Date: 04/29/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Nonfiction
Pirates and Smugglers
Moira Butterfield
Synopsis:

This is a swashbuckling introduction to the highwaymen--and women--of the seas from the Cilician pirates who terrorized the Mediterranean more than two thousand years ago to today's well-organized and ruthless buccaneers who target supertankers on the China Sea. The book examines the terror tactics of pirates throughout the ages and uncovers the secretive schemes of modern-day smugglers.

Publication Date: 04/29/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Newes From The Dead
Mary Hooper
Synopsis: "Intriguing and captivating."—Celia Rees, author of Witch Child WRONGED. HANGED. ALIVE? (AND TRUE!)Anne can't move a muscle, can't open her eyes, can't scream. She lies immobile in the darkness, unsure if she'd dead, terrified she's buried alive, haunted by her final memory—of being hanged. A maidservant falsely accused of infanticide in 1650 England and sent to the scaffold, Anne Green is trapped with her racing thoughts, her burning need to revisit the events—and the man—that led her to the gallows. Meanwhile, a shy 18-year-old medical student attends his first dissection and notices something strange as the doctors prepare their tools . . . Did her eyelids just flutter? Could this corpse be alive? Beautifully written, impossible to put down, and meticulously researched, Newes from the Dead is based on the true story of the real Anne Green, a servant who survived a hanging to awaken on the dissection table. Newes from the Dead concludes with scans of the original 1651 document that recounts this chilling medical phenomenon. Newes from the Dead is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.
Publication Date: 04/29/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Temptress Four
Gaby Triana
Synopsis:

Four best friends, one graduation cruise, a week of partying.

Eight days of strife and storms . . .

It's supposed to be the best eight days of their lives.

Bonds will be broken...

But when a fortune-teller predicts trouble the night before their trip,

One of you will not come home...

Fiona, Killian, Alma, and Yoli are left on edge, wondering what it could all mean.

Gaby Triana gets right to the heart of that thrilling, nerve-wracking, exhilarating, terrifying, amazing time that comes right after graduation, when the big question is: Where do we go from here?

Publication Date: 04/29/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Chick Lit
Little Vampire
Joann Sfar, Joann Sfar
Synopsis:

Living in a house filled with grown-up ghouls and monsters, Little Vampire is so lonely that he’s even willing to go to school if that’s what it takes to find friends.  Unfortunately, school seems to be filled with children who are still alive. . . .

Little Vampire finds friendship with a boy named Michael, and they embark on adventures in the three stories in this collection.  Included in this book are Little Vampire Goes to School (a New York Times Bestseller), Little Vampire Does Kung Fu, and Little Vampire and the Society of Canine Defenders (now published in the United States for the first time).  Insightful and inventive, Joann Sfar brings Little Vampire and Michael’s fantastical world to young readers in stories that both feed the imagination and resonate with emotional truth.

Publication Date: 04/29/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Dog Gone
Cynthia Chapman Willis
Synopsis: Twelve-year-old Dill (short for Dylan) is desperately trying to keep her family from falling apart. Her father is always at work, her mother is gone, and their dog, Dead End, seems to be here one moment and missing the next.     And big trouble is brewing. A wild pack of dogs is destroying local livestock and property, and the sheriff has ordered them to be shot. Is this where Dead End has been disappearing to? How far will Dill and her best friend, a boy nicknamed Cub, go to uncover the truth, and hold together the last strands of a family that seems to be unraveling?
Publication Date: 04/29/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Dark Power Collection
Synopsis: Some doors are better left unopened. Some doors, you don't want to find out what lies behind them. In the Forbidden Doors series by bestselling author Bill Myers, teenager Rebecca 'Becka' Williams, her younger brother Scott, and her friend Ryan Riordan are swept into heart-stopping encounters with an all-too-real invisible world---a world fraught with deception and spiritual adversaries that promise goodness and enlightenment but will stop at nothing to destroy life, sanity, and human souls. Witchcraft. Reincarnation. Ouija Boards. UFOs. Shamanism. Counterfeit spiritualities are widespread and popular with spiritually searching young adults such as Becka's peers. What's the harm? Find out. Join Becka, Scott, and Ryan as they head for mind-bending clashes between the forces of darkness and the kingdom of God. Combining meticulous research, realistic settings, and masterful storytelling, the Forbidden Doors novels take you from the mountains of New Mexico to the inner workings of a secret society---and into the truth of God's Word, which exposes lies and reveals the reality of spiritual warfare. Each volume in the series contains three books that center around a particular kind of Forbidden Door. Book One: Dark Powers contains The Society, The Deceived, and The Spell; Book Two: Invisible Terror contains The Haunting, The Guardian, and The Encounter; Book Three: Deadly Loyalty contains The Curse, The Undead, and The Scream; Book Four: Ancient Forces contains The Ancients, The Wiccan, and The Cards
Publication Date: 04/29/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Little Brother
Cory Doctorow
Synopsis: Marcus, a.k.a “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works–and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems.

But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days.

When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.
Publication Date: 04/29/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Physics: Why Matter Matters
Simon Basher, Simon Basher, Dan Green
Synopsis:

Basher Science: Physics, Why Matter Matters! created and illustrated by Simon Basher, Written by Dan Green:

Imagine physics as a community full of wacky characters--the building blocks of the universe each with a unique personality. This book throws open the doors and welcomes you into their amazing world. From gravity to the theory of relativity, this unique book provides visual interpretations of complex concepts, designed to make learning physics easier and a whole lot more fun!

Publication Date: 04/29/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Educational
The Fire Thief Fights Back
Synopsis: The final book in the critically acclaimed Fire Thief trilogy concludes the story of Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods. Forced to travel through time to escape Zeus's avenging eagle, Prometheus arrives in 1785 Eden City and befriends a boy named Sam. Together, Prometheus and Sam must defend Eden City from seven terrifying mythological monsters. Packed full of wry puns, wisecracking gods, and sarcastic footnotes, this action-packed story pokes fun at narrative tradition and takes readers on a wild ride through Greek mythology. Fans who have followed Prometheus's flight through the trilogy's first two adventures will be dazzled by the very surprising ending.
Publication Date: 04/29/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Series
The Religion
Tim Willocks
Synopsis: May 1565. Suleiman the Magnificent, emperor of the Ottomans, has declared a jihad against the Knights of Saint John the Baptist. The largest armada of all time approaches the Knights€™ Christian stronghold on the island of Malta. The Turks know the Knights as the €œThe Hounds of Hell.€ The Knights call themselves €œThe Religion.€ In Messina, Sicily, a French countess, Carla la Penautier, seeks a passage to Malta in a quest to find the son taken from her at his birth twelve years ago. The only man with the expertise and daring to help her is a Rabelaisian soldier of fortune, arms dealer, former janissary, and strapping Saxon adventurer by the name of Mattias Tannhauser. He agrees to accompany the lady to Malta, where, amidst the most spectacular siege in military history, they must try to find the boy - whose name they do not know and whose face they have never seen€“and pluck him from the jaws of Holy War.
Publication Date: 04/29/08
Age Level: Mature Young Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages



RECENT BOOK REVIEWS