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Walkers Crossing
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Synopsis: TAKING SIDES
Ryan Walker has always known what he wants to be -- a cowboy, like his father was before being injured in a riding accident. But when Ryan's older brother, Gil, becomes a member of the Mountain Patriots Association, a militia group that wants to keep Wyoming free from immigrants, minorities, and government interference, Ryan finds himself questioning things he's taken for granted all his life. As tensions in the community build to inevitable violence, Ryan is torn between his love for the world in which he grew up and his sense of fairness and decency. How can he stand up for what is right when he's not sure what that is?
Publication Date: 06/01/01
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Golden Compass
Philip Pullman
Synopsis: ***** Includes a preview of THE BOOK OF DUST, the long-awaited new novel from Philip Pullman set in the world of His Dark Materials, and hailed by the New York Times as "a stunning achievement."*****

The modern fantasy classic that Entertainment Weekly named an “All-Time Greatest Novel” and Newsweek hailed as a “Top 100 Book of All Time.” Philip Pullman takes readers to a world where humans have animal familiars and where parallel universes are within reach.

Lyra is rushing to the cold, far North, where witch clans and armored bears rule. North, where the Gobblers take the children they steal--including her friend Roger. North, where her fearsome uncle Asriel is trying to build a bridge to a parallel world.

Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want.

But what Lyra doesn't know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other...

A masterwork of storytelling and suspense, Philip Pullman's award-winning The Golden Compass is the first in the His Dark Materials series, which continues with The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.

A #1 New York Times Bestseller
Winner of the Guardian Prize for Children's Fiction
Published in 40 Countries

"Arguably the best juvenile fantasy novel of the past twenty years." —The Washington Post

"Very grand indeed."—The New York Times

"Pullman is quite possibly a genius." —Newsweek
Publication Date: 05/22/01
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn
Thomas Hoobler, Dorothy Hoobler
Synopsis: Teenaged Seikei dreams of being one of Japan's legendary warriors, a samurai-but samurai are born, not made, and Seikei is a tea merchant's son. Then a ruby intended for the shogun is stolen. Seikei is the only witness, and the famous samurai magistrate, Judge Ooka, needs his help. Soon they are hot on the trail of the ruby-and an unforgettable adventure.

"An unusual and satisfying mystery that will be enjoyed by a wide audience."
-School Library Journal, starred review

"Employs suspense, action, superstition, and mystery to entrance readers with this tale of 18th-century Japan and a boy's search for honor...This is a remarkable novel."
-Kirkus Reviews, pointer review
Publication Date: 05/21/01
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Air Raid - Pearl Harbor!
Theodore Taylor
Synopsis: On December 7, 1941, Americans were stunned to learn that Japanese forces had launched an attack on Pearl Harbor. In this engrossing and extensively researched account, Theodore Taylor examines both sides of the battle, taking a close look at the events leading up to it and providing compelling insight into the motives and operations of the brave men and women swept up in the fight.
Publication Date: 05/01/01
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Historical Fiction
Don't You Know There's a War On
Synopsis:

Brooklyn, New York, 1943: a time and place so remarkable that a mere five years later, Howie Crispers, wise at sixteen, can look back to record its fleeting intensity, already long behind him in memory.

In 1943, Howie's pop is in the merchant marine, dodging Nazi U-boat wolf packs an the brutal North Atlantic sea. Denny, Howie's best friend, has a father in the Eighth Army, battling Nazi general Rommel in North Africa. Every day the boys face reminders of war -- scary headlines, blackouts, scrap collections, warstamp drives.

Saturday mornings, Denny and Howie both leave their worries and responsibilities behind at the 25-cent kid movies. During the week, they depend on Miss Rolanda Gossim, their teacher. She may be strict, but she's kind and a lot prettier than any movie pinup. She occupies the boys' fantasies and makes the war bearable for Class Five-B at Brooklyn's P.S. 8. When Howie discovers she's about to be fired, he needs to find out why, and -- with the help of Denny and the rest of their class -- he makes plans to keep her on the job.

By turns hilarious, sad, and surprising, Avi's latest tale is a touching story of innocent love and yearning that's rich with authentic Brooklyn voices and poignant memories of the early 1940s -- days when unexpected, even shocking events took place without warning, days when, no matter what happened, you could explain it all with a simple phrase: "Don't you know there's a war on?"

Publication Date: 04/01/01
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Historical Fiction
Why Not Lafayette
Ronald Himler, Jean Fritz
Synopsis: A young Frenchman of nineteen traveling across the sea to help a struggling nation fight for its independence? Why not? To Lafayette, anything was possible. A man who threw off the boundaries imposed on him to stand up for what he believed, the Marquis de Lafayette grew from an idealistic young man searching for honor and glory, into an idealistic statesman with rock-solid principles of liberty. Here, Jean Fritz brings to life the exciting story of the brave and appealing man known as "The Hero of the New World."
Publication Date: 03/19/01
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Nonfiction
Damage Done
Anne Magill, Linda Newbery
Synopsis: Kirsty's father has no interest in her whatsoever, and her horses are her sole source of affection. Until she meets Dally, a teenager living rough after running from his demanding parents.
Publication Date: 02/28/01
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Rewind
William Sleator
Synopsis: When Peter is hit by a car, he is given the ultimate do-over: go back to any point in time before that fateful moment, and alter the events leading up to his death. If he fails, he will die again--this time, for good. Now Peter's racing against time to save his own life, but what should he change? His adoptive parents don't understand him, the school jock is out to get him, and no one appreciates his own talents. This may be his last chance--can Peter cheat death, or will he be lost forever?
Publication Date: 02/19/01
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Dragon's Gate
Laurence Yep
Synopsis:

In 1867, Otter travels from Three Willows Village in China to California -- the Land of the Golden Mountain. There he will join his father and uncle.

In spite of the presence of family, Otter is a stranger among the other Chinese in this new land. And where he expected to see a land of goldfields, he sees only vast, cold whiteness. But Otter's dream is to learn all he can, take the technology back to the Middle Kingdom, and free China from the Manchu invaders.

Otter and the others board a machine that will change his life -- a train for which he would open the Dragon's Gate.

Publication Date: 01/23/01
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Dragonwings
Laurence Yep
Synopsis:

Newbery Honor Book Dragonwings by Lawrence Yep takes readers on an adventure-filled journey across the world.

Inspired by the story of a Chinese immigrant who created a flying machine in 1909, Dragonwings touches on the struggles and dreams of Chinese immigrants navigating opportunity and prejudice in San Francisco.

Moon Shadow only knows two things about his father, Windrider: he lives in San Francisco and used to craft beautiful kites.

One day shortly after his eighth birthday, Cousin Hand Clap arrives with a letter from Windrider asking Moon Shadow to join him in San Francisco. When Moon Rider arrives in America he learns that his father makes a living doing laundry and dreams of building a flying machine just like the Wright Brothers. But making this fantastical dream a reality proves to be no easy task, as intolerance, poverty, and even an earthquake stand in their way.

Publication Date: 01/23/01
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Burning Up
Caroline B. Cooney
Synopsis: This bestselling author explores the destructive nature of hatred, the crime of indifference, and the power of accepting love and responsibility.

Fifteen-year-old Macey Clare has always loved her quiet, beautiful Connecticut hometown. It's the place where her grandparents live, the place where her mother grew up. Macey is looking forward to the summer to come. She's hoping for fun and romance with her neighbor's perfect grandson Austin. But when Macey wants to research the facts behind who set fire to a barn across the street from her grandparent's home, she is shocked no one wants to answer questions about the place that burned down 38 years ago. And when a tragedy strikes a new friend who lives in the inner city, something clicks in Macey. She must discover her own true colors and face whatever it is she is going to find. Can she stand alone and take responsibility for the present while uncovering the past?
Publication Date: 01/09/01
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Ender's Shadow
Orson Scott Card
Synopsis:

The novel that launched the bestselling Ender's Shadow series.

The human race is at War with the "Buggers," an insect-like alien race. As Earth prepares to defend itself from total destruction at the hands of an inscrutable enemy, all focus is on the development of military geniuses who can fight such a war, and win. The long distances of interstellar space have given hope to the defenders of Earth--they have time to train these future commanders up from childhood, forging them into an irresistible force in the high orbital facility called the Battle School. Andrew "Ender" Wiggin was not the only child in the Battle School; he was just the best of the best. In Ender's Shadow, Card tells the story of another of those precocious generals, the one they called Bean--the one who became Ender's right hand, part of his team, in the final battle against the Buggers. Bean's past was a battle just to survive. His success brought him to the attention of the Battle School's recruiters, those people scouring the planet for leaders, tacticians, and generals to save Earth from the threat of alien invasion. Bean was sent into orbit, to the Battle School. And there he met Ender....

THE ENDER UNIVERSE

Ender series
Ender’s Game / Ender in Exile / Speaker for the Dead / Xenocide / Children of the Mind

Ender’s Shadow series
Ender’s Shadow / Shadow of the Hegemon / Shadow Puppets / Shadow of the Giant / Shadows in Flight

Children of the Fleet

The First Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)
Earth Unaware / Earth Afire / Earth Awakens

The Second Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)
The Swarm /The Hive

Ender novellas
A War of Gifts /First Meetings

Publication Date: 12/15/00
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Hidden Talents
David Lubar
Synopsis: Martin Anderson and his friends don’t like being called losers. But they’ve been called that for so long even they start to believe it. Until Martin makes an incredible discovery: each of his friends has a special hidden talent.

Edgeview Alternative School was supposed to be end of the road. But for Martin and his friends, it just might be a new beginning.
Publication Date: 11/15/00
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Anna Karenina
Mona Simpson, Constance Garnett, Nina Berberova, Leonard J. Kent, Leo Tolstoy
Synopsis: Considered by some to be the greatest novel ever written, Anna Karenina is Tolstoy's classic tale of love and adultery set against the backdrop of high society in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. A rich and complex masterpiece, the novel charts the disastrous course of a love affair between Anna, a beautiful married woman, and Count Vronsky, a wealthy army officer. Tolstoy seamlessly weaves together the lives of dozens of characters, and in doing so captures a breathtaking tapestry of late-nineteenth-century Russian society. As Matthew Arnold wrote in his celebrated essay on Tolstoy, "We are not to take Anna Karenina as a work of art; we are to take it as a piece of life."
Publication Date: 10/10/00
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Romance
Jason's Gold
Will Hobbs
Synopsis:

"Gold!" Jason shouted at the top of his lungs. "Read all about it! Gold discovered in Alaska!"

Within hours of hearing the thrilling news, fifteen-year-old Jason Hawthorn jumps a train for Seattle, stow away on a ship bound for the goldfields, and joins thousands of fellow prospectors attempting the difficult journey to the Klondike. The Dead Horse Trail, the infamous Chilkott Pass, and a five-hundred-mile trip by canoe down the Yukon River lie ahead. With help from a young writer named Jack London, Jason and his dog face moose, bears, and the terrors of a subartic winter in this bone-chilling survival story.

00-01 Tayshas High School Reading List, 01-02 Young Hoosier Book Award Masterlist (Gr 4-6), 01-02 Young Hoosier Book Award Masterlist (Gr 6-8), 01-02 William Allen White Children's Book Award Masterlist, and 01 Heartland Award for Excellence in YA Lit Finalist

Notable Children's Trade Books in the Field of Social Studies 2000, National Council for SS & Child. Book Council, 2000 Best Books for Young Adults (ALA), and 2000 Quick Picks for Young Adults (Recomm. Books for Reluctant Young Readers)

Publication Date: 10/03/00
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Historical Fiction
Ivanhoe
Graham Tulloch, Sir Walter Scott
Synopsis: "Fight on, brave knights! Man dies, but glory lives!"

Banished from England for seeking to marry against his father's wishes, Ivanhoe joins Richard the Lion Heart on a crusade in the Holy Land. On his return, his passionate desire is to be reunited with the beautiful but forbidden lady Rowena, but he soon finds himself playing a more dangerous game as he is drawn into a bitter power struggle between the noble King Richard and his evil and scheming brother John. The first of Scott's novels to address a purely English subject, Ivanhoe is set in a highly romanticized medieval world of tournaments and sieges, chivalry and adventure where dispossessed Saxons are pitted against their Norman overlords, and where the historical and fictional seamlessly merge.

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: 10/01/00
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Historical Fiction

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