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ILLINOIS
H.S. BOOK AWARD 2007
READING LIST |
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
ILLINOIS H.S. BOOK AWARD 2007
Read
four books by Feb 28th and vote for your favorite –
Votes need to be to one of the Media Center Staff by Feb 28th.
Acceleration
-- Graham
McNamee
Stuck working in the Lost and Found of the Toronto Transit
Authority for the summer, seventeen-year-old Duncan finds the
diary of a serial killer and sets out to stop him.
Across
the Nightingale Floor
-- Lian
Hearn
16-year-old Takeo is the only survivor when his village is
destroyed by an evil warlord.
Rescued by Lord Otori, he begins the journey which will
change him from an orphan boy into a warrior with extraordinary
powers.
All-American
Girl
-- Meg
Cabot
A sophomore girl stops a presidential assassination attempt, is
appointed Teen Ambassador to the United Nations, and catches the
eye of the very cute First Son.
The
Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
-- Terry
Pratchett
A talking cat, intelligent rats, and a strange boy cooperate in
a Pied Piper scam until they try to con the wrong town and are
confronted by a deadly evil rat king.
Between
a Rock and a Hard Place
-- Aron
Ralston
The extraordinary true story of a young hiker, trapped for 5
days by a rock fall in a Utah canyon, who amputated his own arm
with his pocketknife to escape and then walked out to safety.
Blood
Red Horse
-- K.M.
Grant
It takes three things to become a knight: a warhorse, a fair
maiden and a just cause. Will has a blood red horse named
Hosanna; Ellie is a fair maiden; and King Richard is calling for
a Crusade to the Holy Land. Will and his brother Gavin will
answer the King’s call.
The
Burn Journals
-- Brent
Runyon
Brent Runyon was fourteen years old when he set himself on fire.
In this book he describes that suicide attempt and his recovery
over the following year.
Darkly
Dreaming Dexter
-- Jeff
Lindsay
Dexter, a blood-spatter expert who works for the police, tries
to help his adopted sister, a police officer, catch a vicious
serial killer. That should be useful, since Dexter himself is
also a serial killer (but not the serial killer his sister is
trying to catch.)
Donorboy
-- Brendan
Halpin
Orphaned when her two moms die in a car accident, 14-year-old
Ros suddenly finds herself living with her clueless biological
father, whose only role in her life till now has been as a sperm
donor for her mother.
Fleshmarket
-- Nicola
Morgan
In 19th-century Scotland, surgery is agonizing and gruesome.
When Robbie’s
mother dies during an operation at the hands of
Dr. Robert Knox, the boy’s search for revenge leads him
into illegal dealings with the men who provide Knox with dead
bodies for his medical research.
Godless
-- Pete
Hautman
When sixteen-year-old Jason Bock and his friends create their
own religion to worship the town's water tower, what started out
as a joke begins to take on a power of its own.
A
Great and Terrible Beauty
-- Libba
Bray
After the suspicious death of her mother in 1895,
sixteen-year-old Gemma returns to England, after many years in
India, to attend a finishing school where she becomes aware of
her magical powers and ability to see into the spirit world.
Guts: The True Stories Behind Hatchet and the Brian Books
-- Gary
Paulsen
The author relates incidents in his life and how they inspired
parts of his books about the character, Brian Robeson.
High
Heat
-- Carl
Deuker
When sophomore Shane Hunter's father is arrested for money
laundering at his Lexus dealership, the star pitcher's life of
affluence and private school begins to fall apart.
A
Hole in My Life
-- Jack
Gantos
The author relates how, as a young adult, he became a drug user
and smuggler, was arrested, did time in prison, and eventually
got out and went to college, all the while hoping to become a
writer.
Jude
-- Kate
Morgenroth
Still reeling from his drug-dealing father's murder, moving in
with the wealthy mother he never knew, and transferring to a
private school, fifteen-year-old Jude is tricked into pleading
guilty to a crime he did not commit.
Redemption
-- Julie
Chibbaro
Chronicles the arduous journey of a twelve-year-old English girl
and her mother as they flee with other religious protesters to
the New World in the early 1500's, and the heartbreak and hope
they find when they arrive.
Shattering
Glass
-- Gail
Giles
When Rob, the charismatic leader of the senior class, turns the
school nerd into Prince Charming, his actions lead to unexpected
violence.
Sickened
-- Julie
Gregory
During Gregory's childhood, her abusive mother used a
combination of malnutrition, overwork, and prescription drugs to
keep the girl in a perpetual state of ill health, resulting in
an endless round of visits to doctors. Not until the young woman
moved away from her isolated family home and attended college
was she able to see what her mother had done to her.
The
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
-- Ann
Brashares
Four best girlfriends, about to spend their first summer apart,
keep in touch via a magical pair of thrift-store jeans which
each one wears, then sends on to another.
Uglies
-- Scott
Westerfeld
Tally lives in a futuristic society whose citizens believe that
they are ugly until age 16 when an operation changes them into
pleasure-seeking "pretties."
Tally can’t wait for her surgery, but then she meets
Shay, who scorns their society’s shallowness and urges Tally
to defect with her to a distant settlement of simple-living
conscientious objectors.
Who
Am I Without Him?: Short Stories About Girls and the Boys in
Their Lives --
Sharon G. Flake
10
stories with the universal theme of boy/girl relationships. Some
are funny and uplifting, others are disturbing and sad. Two of
the stories are told from a boy's point of view.
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