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Hogan, Mary. Pretty Face. New York: HarperTeen, 2008.
[Book cover credit: www.alibris.com]
Genre: Realistic/Issues
Annotation:
Hayley is a frustrated, overweight girl living in Santa Monica. She feels out of place until she takes a trip to Italy.
Booktalk Review:
Hayley lives in sunny, beautiful Santa Monica and is always surrounded by equally as beautiful people. Not exactly the perfect place for a teenage girl! Hayley is constantly reminded that she is overweight, her mom nags her and she always feels uncomfortable. As the story develops, you are feeling her pain and laughing because of her self-deprecating wit. Hayley is always the funny girl and everybody's friend, but never anyone's girlfriend. As Hayley dips to new lows, she is given the opportunity to spend time in Italy. Will this experience help her to grow and learn that beauty is not just what you see in the mirror? Or will she always feel like just a Pretty Face?
Teen Review:
Hayley is so funny! It's weird that she feels the same way I do about not having a boyfriend and stuff. Julia, 14
Author's Website:
http://www.maryhogan.com/
Ishiguro, Kazuo. Never Let Me Go. New York: Vintage International, 2006.
[Book cover credit: www.alibris.com]
Genre: Science Fiction
Annotation:
This is a narrative from the point of view of Kathy, a graduate of an exclusive boarding school in England. She questions her alma mater and later finds that her concerns grow deeper than she had ever imagined.
Booktalk Review:
As an adult, Kathy looks back on her childhood at an exclusive boarding school. She wonders what makes her and her friends, Ruth and Tommy, so special.
"If you believed yourself special, you should have at least asked. You should have gone to Madame and asked."
As soon as I said this--as soon as I mentioned Madame--I realised I'd made a mistake. Ruth looked up at me and I saw something like triumph flash across her face. You see it in films sometimes, when one person's pointing a gun at another person, and the one with the gun's making the other one do all kinds of things. Then suddenly there's a mistake, a tussle, and the gun's with the second person. And the second person looks at the first person with a gleam, a kind of can't-believe-my-luck expression that promises all kinds of vengeance. Well, that was how suddenly Ruth was looking at me, and though I'd said nothing about deferrals, I'd mentioned Madame, and I knew we'd stumbled into some new territory altogether. [p.231]
Read it to find out more about this mysterious circumstance and if she is on to something.
Awards, Recognitions, Honors, etc.:
- Shortlisted for the 2005 Booker Prize
- Shortlisted for the 2006 Arthur C. Clarke Award
- Shortlisted for the 2005 National Book Critics Circle Award
- A New York Times Notable Book
- Time magazine named it the best fiction novel of 2005
- One of TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005
- ALA Alex Award in 2006
Check out Kazuo Ishiguro speaking about Never Let Me Go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SmuYqKeTTs
Guibert, Emmanuel, and Joann Sfar. The professor's daughter. New York: First Second, 2007.
[Book cover credit: www.alibris.com]
Genre: Graphic Novel
Annotation:
This is a graphic novel about a woman who falls in love with Imhotep IV, one of her father's most prized mummies. They take on quite the adventure in an effort to be together.
Booktalk Review:
Picture it...19th century England. You won't have any trouble doing that with these beautiful illustrations! Imhotep IV is a mummy who has not been awake in 30 centuries, but it sure does not take long for him to become smitten with the professor's daughter. As if being a mummy wouldn't complicate this affair enough, the professor happens to own Imhotep...and he is one of his most prized possesions! Imhotep and his new love travel through time, experience murder, kidnapping, jail and any number of adventures that will leave you wanting more. Will Imhotep ever find a place where he can share his love eternally for The Professor's Daughter?
Check out this website for more information about the book and the authors:
http://www.firstsecondbooks.com/professorsDaughter.html
Sasakura, Kou, Ray Yoshimoto, and Jeremy Black. Castlevania. Vol. 1, Curse of Darkness. Los Angeles, CA: Tokyopop, 2008.
[Book cover credit: www.worldcat.org]
Genre: Graphic Novel/Manga
Annotation:
In this manga, Ted, a young boy, becomes invloved in Dracula's war on humanity. It is based on the Castlevania video game.
Booktalk Review:
This manga truly takes you to a dark and scary place where Count Dracula has a demon army and bad guys have spindley, pointy fingers. The artistic style and detail in the pictures successfully evoke the characters' nature and feelings in the reader. Read it for a bone-chilling experience.
Na, An. A Step from Heaven. Asheville, NC: Front Street, 2001.
[Book cover credit: www.worldcat.org]
Genre: Multicultural
Annotation:
This is a story of a Korean family who left their homeland for a better life in America. Told from the point of view of the daughter, Young Ju, this novel exposes the difficulty of making and sustaining a new life in a different country.
Booktalk Review:
Surrender yourself to this powerful story of a Korean family who is trying to make a better life in America and you will feel like you are living it with them. They make sacrifices and find it increasingly harder to assimilate into the culture and all of this takes a toll on the family. The father strikes the mother and makes many sexist comments that attempt to hold the females back. Find out if this new life in America is really only A Step From Heaven.
Awards, Recognitions, Honors, etc.:
- The 2002 Michael L. Printz Award
- Nominated for a 2001 National Book Award in the Young People's Literature category
- 2002 Children's Book Award in YA Fiction - International Reading Association
- 2005 California Collections Selection
- 2005 Asian American Booklist, Grades 9 and Up, Read Across America, National Educational Association
- 2001 - 2003 Asian Pacific American Award for Literature, Text in Children and Young Adult Fiction – Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association
- 2004 Reading List – Women's Division Reading Program Committee, General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church
- 2003 - 2004 Gateway Readers Award Nominee, Missouri Association of School Libraries
- 2003 - 2004 William Allen White Children's Book Award master list
- 2002 Notable Books for a Global Society – International Reading Association
- 2002 Notable Children's Book – American Library Association
- 2002 Best Book for Young Adults – American Library Association
- 2002 Children's Books of Distinction Award – Riverbank Review
- 2002 Fanfare Book – The Horn Book Honor List
- 2002 Bay Area Book Reviewers Association Award
- 2002 CCBC Choices
- 2002 Children's Literature Choice List
- 2002 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award Master List
- 2002 Amelia Bloomer Project List
- 2002 White Ravens – International Youth Library of Munich
- 2002 Notable Books for the Language Arts – NCTE
- 2002 Notable Books for a Global Society, Children's Literature and Reading Special Interest group of the IRA
- 2001 Editor's Choice – Booklist
- 2001 New York Times Book Review Notable Book
- 2001 Best Books – School Library Journal
- 2001 Kiriyama Prize Notable Book Shortlist
- 2001 Best Children's Books – Publishers Weekly
- 2001 Best Book – teenreads.com
- 2001 Book LInks Lasting Connections
- 2001 Capitol Choices: Noteworthy Books for Children
- 2001 Top 10 Youth First Novels – Booklist
Author's Website:
http://www.anwriting.com/
Lowry, Lois. The Giver. New York, N.Y.: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1994.
[Book cover credit: www.alibris.com]
Genre: Fantasy
Annotation:
Everyone has a place and everything seems so right, but when Jonas is assigned his role in his community, he receives training that makes him question his world as he knows it.
Booktalk Review:
How wonderful would it be? To live in a world where everything is under control and there is no fear and no pain. When children turn twelve, they are each assigned a role in their community. Jonas' role is very special and his training is unlike anyone else's. Find out what's in store for Jonas as he receives his special training from The Giver.
Awards, Recognitions, Honors, etc.:
- The 1994 Newberry Medal
- The 1996 William Allen White Award
- American Library Association listings for "Best Book for Young Adults", "Notable Children's Book," and "100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000."
- A Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book
- Winner of the Regina Medal
- Booklist Editors' Choice
- A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
Author's Website:
http://www.loislowry.com/
Klause, Annette Curtis. The Silver Kiss. New York: Delacorte Press, 2007.
[Book cover credit: www.alibris.com]
Genre: Horror
Annotation:
Simon, a vampire, helps Zoe deal with her life as her mother loses her battle to a terminal illness.
Booktalk Review:
How do you handle your mother dying in a hospital and feeling ostracized from the family by your father? Zoe has a lot to deal with no one to understand how she feels, until she meets Simon. He is handsome, mysterious and kind of scary, which makes him all the more interesting. Simon totally gets Zoe and even helps her, but does he want anything in return?
Awards, Rocognitions, Honors, etc.:
- An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
- An ALA Quick Pick
- A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
- A Booklist Children’s Editors’ Choice
- Winner of the California Young Readers Medal
- A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age
Check out this website for more information about the author:
http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/catalog/author.pperl?authorid=48104
