Please enable JavaScript
All Books | Page 330 | LitPick Book Reviews
All Books
November Blues
Sharon M. Draper
Synopsis: In this second novel in Sharon M. Draper’s Jericho Trilogy and Coretta Scott King Honor Book, Jericho and November are locked together in pain from the past and fear for the future, and it feels as though there’s no way to escape either.

When November Nelson loses her boyfriend, Josh, to a pledge stunt gone horribly wrong, she thinks her life can’t possibly get any worse. But Josh left something behind that will change November’s life forever. She’s pregnant and now she’s faced with the biggest decision of her life. How in the world will she tell her mom? And how will Josh’s parents take the news? She’s never needed a friend more.

Jericho Prescott lost his best friend when he lost his cousin, Josh, and the pain is almost more than he can bear. His world becomes divided into “before” and “after” Josh’s death. He finds the only way he can escape the emptiness he feels is to quit doing the things that made him happy when his cousin was alive, such as playing his beloved trumpet. At the same time, he begins playing football, where he hopes the physical pain will suppress the emotional agony. But will hiding behind shoulder pads really help? And will his gridiron obsession prevent him from being there for his cousin’s girlfriend when she needs him most?
Publication Date: 10/23/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Dinosaurs
Luis V. Rey, Dr. Thomas R. Holtz Jr.
Synopsis:

The one book every dinosaur fan needs!
 
Written by one of the world’s foremost experts on dinosaurs, this award-winning title—honored by the NSTA and the AAAS—is an essential addition to any dinophile’s library, regardless of age! Using casual language aimed at young people and non-scientists, it's a guide to all aspects of dinosaur science: how we figure out what dinosaurs looked like, how they lived, how they evolved, how they continue to live among us as birds, and much, much more. 

It also includes brief entries on all 800+ "named" species of Mesozoic dinosaurs, as well as sidebars by 33 world-famous paleontologists—among them Robert T. Bakker, Jack Horner, Mark Norell, Scott Sampson, and Philip Currie. With 428-pages of lavish, museum-quality illustrations, and an exhaustive Web site maintained by the author of supplemental chapter updates, this the perfect gift that will educate AND entertain for many, many, MANY hours! (And if that isn’t enough, the jacket has a spectacular poster printed on the inside.)
 
“Written in a casual language both young and adult paleo-nerds will find readable and enjoyable, this volume is seen as the "Dinosaur Bible" by many enthusiasts of the subject, for its sheer completeness and scienciness.” —tvtropes.org

Publication Date: 10/23/07
Age Level: Any Age
Genre: Educational
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Synopsis: “Powerful and unsettling. . . . As memorable an introduction to the subject as The Diary of Anne Frank.” —USA Today
 
Berlin, 1942: When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move to a new house far, far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people in the distance.
 
But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different from his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.


From the Hardcover edition.
Publication Date: 10/23/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Historical Fiction
Thirteen Reasons Why
Synopsis: THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES AND INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

**THE BOOK THAT STARTED IT ALL, NOW A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES**

“Eerie, beautiful, and devastating.” —Chicago Tribune

“A stealthy hit with staying power. . . . thriller-like pacing.” —The New York Times

“Thirteen Reasons Why will leave you with chills long after you have finished reading.” —Amber Gibson, NPR’s “All Things Considered”

You can’t stop the future. 
You can’t rewind the past.
The only way to learn the secret . . . is to press play.

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker—his classmate and crush—who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah's voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out why.
               
Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah's pain, and as he follows Hannah’s recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever.

Need to talk? Call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) anytime if you are in the United States. It’s free and confidential.

Find more resources at 13reasonswhy.info.
 
Find out how you can help someone in crisis at bethe1to.com.
Publication Date: 10/18/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Mystery
Slam
Nick Hornby
Synopsis: At the age of fifteen, Sam Jones's girlfriend Alicia gets pregnant and Sam's life of skateboarding and daydreaming about Tony Hawk changes drastically, so Sam turns to Hawk's autobiography for answers.
Publication Date: 10/16/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Indiscretion
Jude Morgan
Synopsis:

When your father is a man of expensive tastes and schemes but very little money, you soon learn to make do. So when Captain Fortune, a well-meaning but profligate ex-soldier in Regency England, tells his daughter Caroline that they are ruined, she automatically starts seeking employment as a governess. Her father, however, has far grander designs for Miss Fortune.…
Caro is to become the companion of Mrs. Catling, the rich, fierce widow of her father's old colonel. As Mrs. Catling amuses herself by tormenting her relatives and servants, Caro resolves to make the best of the situation, and soon her beauty and intelligence attract the attentions of male admirers.
Surrounded by people with an alarming readiness to reveal each other's confidences, Caroline is exasperated to find herself implicated in their indiscretions. But will Miss Fortune be able to avoid losing her reputation without losing her head? And will she find at least one good man amongst the genteel set who will take her side, and, indeed, her fancy?

Publication Date: 10/16/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Calligraphy of the Witch
Alicia Gaspar de Alba
Synopsis:

Mexico, 1683. When Concepción Benavidez flees her indenture from the convent of San Jerónimo in Mexico City and sets out to join a band of refugee slaves along with her friend Aléndula, the two are captured by buccaneers in Vera Cruz led by the famed Laurens-Cornille de Graaf, who is running a slave- and provisions ship headed for New England. Aléndula dies on the journey, but Concepción, upon arrival, is renamed Thankful Seagraves and sold to a Boston merchant, Nathaniel Greenwood, who plans to have her care for his crippled father-in-law and manage the Old Man’s chicken farm. Delirious, half-starved, and terrified by her ordeal on board the Neptune, during which the Captain raped her repeatedly, Thankful Seagraves gives birth to a daughter, coveted by Rebecca, Nathaniel's fallow wife, and over the next eight years struggles to adapt herself into English colonial life. With great difficulty she attempts to raise her daughter in the faith and language of New Spain and thus forge a connection between herself and the girl even while Rebecca slowly turns Hanna against her. Like her friend, Tituba Indian, Concepción is a perpetual outsider—her mixed-race looks as well as her accent and her Catholic background set her apart—and before long she gets swept up in the hysteria of the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692, culminating in a shocking accusation by her own daughter, who renounces her mother and declares her a witch.

Publication Date: 10/16/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Teens and The Job Game
Beverly Slomka MS Ed
Synopsis: Every teen has the ability to succeed when they have the right skills and begin developing a positive work image. In the competitive business world we live in today you must stand out from everyone else. With Teens and the Job Game, you will learn what it takes to become a unique, whole person and be a success in the work world.

Taking you to a new level of preparation for entering the workforce, Beverly Slomka will help you meet head-on the challenges you will face when approaching the job market. Learn practical guidelines for how to begin molding your work image, how to approach your studies, how to choose your career, how to search for your first job and approach employers, and how to ultimately succeed in the workplace.

Whether you want a part-time or summer job, or you want to find your ultimate dream job, Teens and the Job Game is an essential, comprehensive guide to prepare your whole person for future work opportunities.

Publication Date: 10/16/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Educational
Young Arcan  and the Garden of Loc
Synopsis: Young Arcan and the Garden of Loc is the story of Arcan, an eleven-year-old boy who befriends a talking tree named Arborgast. When Loc, one of the creators of the world, begins to steal the spirit of life from the lands, Arcan is compelled to save his dying friend and all of Emberthel. Journeying to Loc's Garden, Arcan seeks to free the world's stolen life essence.
Publication Date: 10/15/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
The Third Eye
Mahtab Narsimhan
Synopsis:

For Tara and her brother, Suraj, the year their mother and grandfather fled the village of Morni in the middle of the night has been a nightmare. Their new stepmother is cruel and deceptive, and the village itself is lacking a healer. What's more, men of the village have been disappearing, often returning in a strange, altered form.

When a new healer, Zarku, a mysterious man with a third eye possessing strange power, suddenly appears in Morni, all are mesmerized by his magic -- all except Tara, who sees through his evil disguise.

With nothing but her own courage and wit, Tara tries to find her missing mother and grandfather, the true healer, in time to save her village. But along the way she must enlist the help of the god Ganesh and the lord of death, Yama, or she, like others before her, will fall victim to Zarku's third eye.

Publication Date: 10/15/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Taken
Edward Bloor
Synopsis: BY 2035 THE RICH have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer, and kidnapping has become a major growth industry in the United States. The children of privilege live in secure, gated communities and are escorted to and from school by armed guards.

But the security around Charity Meyers has broken down. On New Year's morning, she wakes and finds herself alone, strapped to a stretcher, in an ambulance that's not moving. She is amazingly calm - kids in her neighborhood have been well trained in kidnapping protocol. If this were a normal kidnapping, Charity would be fine. But as the hours of her imprisonment tick by, Charity realizes there is nothing normal about what's going on here. No training could prepare her for what her kidnappers really want . . . and worse, for who they turn out to be.
Publication Date: 10/09/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
One Butt Cheek at a Time
Synopsis: GERT GARIBALDI ISN'T ONE OF those people who believe high school is the best part of life. She has a whole notebook full of rants about high school, and she's fully aware of how ridiculous the experience is, thank you very much. Gert just wants to survive the next three years, one butt cheek at a time, with her best friend, Adam, by her side - and maybe Luscious Luke attached to her lips. With a stapler. Or something. But muddling through isn't even as easy as it seems - there are geriatric parents to deal with, Homecoming festivities (admit itÑthose words just sent a little chill down your spine), crushes, ed (both sex and driving), and potential new boyfriends - for both Gert and Adam. Frank, funny, and totally unique, Gert's ready to pull on the Pants of Life and start dancing.
Publication Date: 10/09/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Humor
My Swordhand is Singing
Marcus Sedgwick
Synopsis: WHEN TOMAS AND HIS SON, Peter, settle in Chust as woodcutters, Tomas digs a channel of fast-flowing waters around their hut, so they have their own little island kingdom. Peter doesn't understand why his father has done this, nor why his father carries a long, battered box, whose mysterious contents he is forbidden to know.

But Tomas is a man with a past: a past that is tracking him with deadly intent, and when the dead of Chust begin to rise from their graves, both father and son must face a soulless enemy and a terrifying destiny.
Publication Date: 10/09/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Snapshots
Paul W. Buchanan
Synopsis:

Even before Jen disappeared, Jimmy knew his best friend was leaving him behind. While she attracts stares from boys and men, fifteen-year-old Jimmy still passes for a child at the movies. He takes refuge in the past, before their friendship and life became so complicated. She’s his favorite subject―in front of the camera and otherwise―but photos can’t capture what he really wants. Yet Jimmy remains devoted, even lying for her when she runs off with strangers―men―she’s met online.

Jimmy feels that Jen’s disappearance is his fault, just like the twelve-acre blaze he starts in the canyon near their trailer park. And he’s holding on to a secret that no one can drag out of him―not the taunting kids at school, an apathetic psychologist, or his despairing mother.

Revolving between past and present, Paul W. Buchanan’s vivid “snapshot” vignettes evoke a young man’s struggle with oncoming adulthood, heartbreak, and incredible loss.

Publication Date: 10/08/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Last Kiss
Jon Ripslinger
Synopsis:

Billy O’Reilly, a farm boy in rural Iowa, has been secretly dating Lisa Wells, the popular, wealthy daughter of the president of the local college. It’s a complicated relationship: people of HER class don’t associate with people of HIS class. Her controlling father does not approve of the relationship, her “real” boyfriend is growing suspicious, and her troubled stepbrother is adding to the drama by stirring up trouble. Billy’s life is thrown into turmoil when Lisa breaks up with him and then is found murdered the next morning. A series of circumstantial evidence points directly to Billy who, along with his best friend, Windy, launches his own investigation to clear his name and find out what really happened to the girl he loved.

This gritty, fast-paced teen mystery will appeal to both reluctant and dedicated readers.

Publication Date: 10/08/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Romance
Or Not
Brian Mandabach
Synopsis:

When 14 year-old Cassie Sullivan-smart, sensitive, and perceptive-stands up for her beliefs, the flagpole Christian majority decides she's the school Antichrist.  Cassie had no idea defending Darwin and refusing to sing "Proud to be an American" would be such a big deal.  But it's a brave new world of post-9/11 paranoia in her über-conservative Colorado school.  Trying to stay cool while the torments increase, Cassie wonders if anything is really worth it. Taking solace in her journal, she begins to question if simply being is what she really wants. Or Not?

Publication Date: 10/08/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction

Pages



RECENT BOOK REVIEWS