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Two teenaged girls meet at the high school in Crystal City Internment Camp in Texas during World War II. Haruko is Japanese American, Margot is German American. Their fathers have been arrested for suspected collusion with the enemy. The girls are polar opposites, but are drawn together in this dusty land. Are they lovers? Are they betrayors?
Author/Illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka tells his story of growing up among a family of addicts, trying to find normalcy in his not-very-normal existence. His loud and loving grandparents raise him and pay for his comic-making classes—thank heavens. Art is how he survived. And his art is remarkable. Hey, Kiddo is a National Book Award Finalist.
Learning disabled 7th grader, Mason Buttle is suffering grief over his mother’s recent death and the mysterious death of his best friend Benny. With all that’s gone wrong for Mason, he still feels hope and inspires the reader with his open and honest character and his winning outlook on life. Check out this award-winning heart-lifting story.
Afro-Latino heroine, Xiomara Batista, doesn’t feel that she’s being heard in her Harlem barrio, what with her Dominican mother making Catholic demands and men disrespecting her. So she pores out all her frustrations into her little leather notebook. And then she starts speaking the poems. Everything changes.
From sharecropping in South Carolina, 1858, twelve-year-old Charlie is coerced into journeying north do catch “fugitives” up in Michigan and beyond. Turns out those fugitives are long-ago-escaped slaves and their grown offspring. Master storyteller Curtis keeps the humor flowing throughout the harrowing story.
If you love animals, you’ll love this book (published as an adult book) which is perfect for young adults. If you don’t love animals, you really should read this book. The naturalist and adventuring author rights about her relationship to three border collies over a life time, emus in Australia, an enormous spider, an octopus and others.
Gretchen Whipple bargains with the Vickery twins, Lee and Felix. If they help her solve the death of Essie Hastings, she’ll help them break the Agreement. That means that Felix won’t have to apprentice Death, nor will Lee apprentice Memory. They discover that things in town have gone very wrong and Death is running rampant.
Around the clock news coverage descends on Makersville, Indiana, when a private zookeeper releases his collection of wild animals (cheetah, wolf, python, etc.) then shoots himself. Fifteen year old Ronney is already taking care of his kid sister, repairing the damaged house because his depressed father sure isn’t. His Mom is just barely hanging on, going to work, popping prescription drugs to stay calm.
A psychological thriller has a teen boy hiding in his ex-girlfriend’s house, unknown to her or anyone in the family. What will happen if he’s discovered? Why is he here? He starts in the basement and ends up in her bedroom. Will the surveillance cameras see him? Should they?
Two Stories. Nadja’s in war-torn Bosnia during the 1990s. Zara’s in present-day Rhode Island. Both are teenagers. Nadja is Zara’s mother. Nadja’s teenaged years were spent surviving. Zara is an aspiring artist—a photographer. How can they communicate? Can a terrorist attack unite them?
Jake Liddell doesn’t think he’s a hero, but everyone else does. He’s just returned home from war in Iraq. He doubts the army, the draft, and JROTC. Should he get the Silver Star? He’s got six months left of his tour of duty—could he not return after his rehab at Walter Reed? His life in action was unbearable and he’s lost so many comrades.
This novel-in-verse pulls the reader along with an emotional tug that can’t be ignored. The story delves into big questions. And just maybe a tragedy is necessary to make the point about the death penalty.
