What Teachers Are ReadingMrs. Reed: The Magician's LandQuentin Coldwater has lost everything. He has been cast out of Fillory, the secret magical land of his childhood dreams that he once ruled. Everything he had fought so hard for, not to mention his closest friends, is sealed away in a land Quentin may never again visit. With nothing left to lose he returns to where his story began, the Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic. But he can’t hide from his past, and it’s not long before it comes looking for him. Meanwhile, the magical barriers that keep Fillory safe are failing, and barbarians from the north have invaded. Eliot and Janet, the rulers of Fillory, embark on a final quest to save their beloved world, only to discover a situation far more complex—and far more dire—than anyone had envisioned.
Along with Plum, a brilliant young magician with a dark secret of her own, Quentin sets out on a crooked path through a magical demimonde of gray magic and desperate characters. His new life takes him back to old haunts, like Antarctica and the Neitherlands, and old friends he thought were lost forever. He uncovers buried secrets and hidden evils and ultimately the key to a sorcerous masterwork, a spell that could create a magical utopia. But all roads lead back to Fillory, where Quentin must face his fears and put things right or die trying. The Magician’s Land is an intricate and fantastical thriller, and an epic of love and redemption that brings the Magicians trilogy to a magnificent conclusion, confirming it as one of the great achievements in modern fantasy. It’s the story of a boy becoming a man, an apprentice becoming a master, and a broken land finally becoming whole. Mr. Reilly: Monstrous RegimentWar has come to Discworld ... again. And, to no one's great surprise, the conflict centers around the small, arrogantly fundamentalist duchy of Borogravia, which has long prided itself on its unrelenting aggressiveness. A year ago, Polly Perks's brother marched off to battle, and Polly's willing to resort to drastic measures to find him. So she cuts off her hair, dons masculine garb, and -- aided by a well-placed pair of socks -- sets out to join this man's army. Since a nation in such dire need of cannon fodder can't afford to be too picky, Polly is eagerly welcomed into the fighting fold—along with a vampire, a troll, an Igor, a religious fanatic, and two uncommonly close "friends." It would appear that Polly "Ozzer" Perks isn't the only grunt with a secret. But duty calls, the battlefield beckons. And now is the time for all good ... er ... "men" to come to the aid of their country. Ms. Carless: A Walk in the WoodsThe Appalachian Trail trail stretches from Georgia to Maine and covers some of the most breathtaking terrain in America–majestic mountains, silent forests, sparking lakes. If you’re going to take a hike, it’s probably the place to go. And Bill Bryson is surely the most entertaing guide you’ll find. He introduces us to the history and ecology of the trail and to some of the other hardy (or just foolhardy) folks he meets along the way–and a couple of bears. Already a classic, A Walk in the Woods will make you long for the great outdoors (or at least a comfortable chair to sit and read in).
(Description taken from Amazon.com) Mr. Kelley: Oryx and CrakeSnowman (a man once known as Jimmy) sleeps in a tree and just might be the only human left on our devastated planet. He is not entirely alone, however, as he considers himself the shepherd of a group of experimental, human-like creatures called the Children of Crake. As he scavenges and tends to his insect bites, Snowman recalls in flashbacks how the world fell apart.While the story begins with a rather ponderous set-up of what has become a clichéd landscape of the human endgame, littered with smashed computers and abandoned buildings, it takes on life when Snowman recalls his boyhood meeting with his best friend Crake: "Crake had a thing about him even then.... He generated awe ... in his dark laconic clothing." A dangerous genius, Crake is the book's most intriguing character. Crake and Jimmy live with all the other smart, rich people in the Compounds--gated company towns owned by biotech corporations. (Ordinary folks are kept outside the gates in the chaotic "pleeblands.") Meanwhile, beautiful Oryx, raised as a child prostitute in Southeast Asia, finds her way to the West and meets Crake and Jimmy, setting up an inevitable love triangle. Eventually Crake's experiments in bioengineering cause humanity's shockingly quick demise (with uncanny echoes of SARS, ebola, and mad cow disease), leaving Snowman to try to pick up the pieces. ~Mark Frutkin, Amazon.ca
Ms. Tella: Game of ThronesLong ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.
Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones. (Description taken from Amazon.com) Mr. Tighe: Kings of the RoadIt was 1978. Jimmy Carter was President; gas prices were soaring; and Americans were hunkering down to weather the economic crisis. But in bookstores Jim Fixx’s The Complete Book of Running was a bestseller. Frank Shorter’s gold medal in the 1972 Olympic marathon had put distance running in the mind of a public enamored of baseball and football. Suddenly, the odd activity of "jogging" became "running," and America was in love.
That summer, a junior from the University of Oregon named Alberto Salazar went head to head with Olympic champion Frank Shorter and Boston Marathon champion Bill Rodgers at the Falmouth Road Race, losing in the last mile to Rodgers's record-setting 32:21, nearly dying in the process, and setting the stage for a great rivalry. In Shorter, Rodgers, and Salazar, running had its conflict and drama like boxing had Ali and Foreman, like basketball had Russell and Chamberlain. Each man built on what the other achieved, and each pushed the other to succeed. Their successes, in turn, fueled a nation of coach potatoes to put down the remote and lace up their sneakers. Kings of the Road tells the story of running during that golden period from 1972 to 1981 when Shorter, Rodgers, and Salazar captured the imagination of the American public as they passed their figurative baton from one to the other. These three men were American running during those years, while the sport enjoyed a popularity never equaled. As America now experiences a similar running boom, Kings of the Road is a stirring, inspiring narrative of three men pushing themselves toward greatness and taking their country along for the ride. Mr. Bradley: World War ZThe Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. "World War Z" is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.
Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War. Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, "By excluding the human factor, aren't we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn't the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as 'the living dead'?" (Description taken from Goodreads.com) |
What Students Are ReadingHigh Interest Reading for Young Adults
Attleboro Big Read: When the Emperor was DivineBy Julie OtsukaThis heartbreaking, bracingly unsentimental debut describes in poetic detail the travails of a Japanese family living in an internment camp during World War II, raising the specter of wartime injustice in bone-chilling fashion. After a woman whose husband was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy sees notices posted around her neighborhood in Berkeley instructing Japanese residents to evacuate, she moves with her son and daughter to an internment camp, abruptly severing her ties with her community. The next three years are spent in filthy, cramped and impersonal lodgings as the family is shuttled from one camp to another. They return to Berkeley after the war to a home that has been ravaged by vandals; it takes time for them to adjust to life outside the camps and to come to terms with the hostility they face. When the children's father re-enters the book, he is more of a symbol than a character, reduced to a husk by interrogation and abuse. The novel never strays into melodrama-Otsuka describes the family's everyday life in Berkeley and the pitiful objects that define their world in the camp with admirable restraint and modesty. Events are viewed from numerous characters' points of view, and the different perspectives are defined by distinctive, lyrically simple observations. The novel's honesty and matter-of-fact tone in the face of inconceivable injustice are the source of its power. Anger only comes to the fore during the last segment, when the father is allowed to tell his story-but even here, Otsuka keeps rage neatly bound up, luminous beneath the dazzling surface of her novel.
Looking For Books? Check Out These Top 100 Teen Reads!1. Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling
2. The Hunger Games (series), by Suzanne Collins 3. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee 4. The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green 5. The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien 6. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger 7. The Lord of the Rings (series), by J.R.R. Tolkien 8. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury 9. Looking for Alaska, by John Green 10. The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak 11. The Giver (series), by Lois Lowry 12. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (series), by Douglas Adams 13. The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton 14. Anne of Green Gables (series), by Lucy Maud Montgomery 15. His Dark Materials (series), by Philip Pullman 16. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky 17. The Princess Bride, by William Goldman 18. Lord of the Flies, by William Golding 19. Divergent (series), by Veronica Roth 20. Paper Towns, by John Green 21. The Mortal Instruments (series), by Cassandra Clare 22. An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green 23. Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes 24. Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher 25. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon 26. Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson 27. Twilight (series), by Stephenie Meyer 28. Uglies (series), by Scott Westerfeld 29. The Infernal Devices (series), by Cassandra Clare 30. Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt 31. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie 32. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (series), by Anne Brashares 33. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London 34. Will Grayson, Will Grayson, by John Green, David Levithan 35. Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous 36. Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones 37. Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli 38. A Separate Peace, by John Knowles 39. Vampire Academy (series), by Richelle Mead 40. Abhorsen Trilogy / Old Kingdom Trilogy (series), by Garth Nix 41. Dune, by Frank Herbert 42. Discworld / Tiffany Aching (series, by Terry Pratchett 43. My Sister's Keeper, by Jodi Picoult 44. The Dark is Rising (series), by Susan Cooper 45. Graceling (series), Kristin Cashore 46. Forever..., by Judy Blume 47. Earthsea (series), by Ursula K. Le Guin 48. Inheritance Cycle (series), by Christopher Paolini 49. The Princess Diaries (series), by Meg Cabot 50. The Song of the Lioness (series), by Tamora Pierce 51. Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson 52. Delirium (series), by Lauren Oliver 53. Anna and the French Kiss, by Stephanie Perkins 54. Hush, Hush Saga (series), by Stephanie Perkins 55. 13 Little Blue Envelopes, by Maureen Johnson 56. It's Kind of a Funny Story, by Ned Vizzini 57. The Gemma Doyle Trilogy (series), by Libba Bray 58. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs 59. The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros 60. Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury 61. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier 62. Just Listen, by Sarah Dessen 63. A Ring of Endless Light, by Madeleine L'Engle 64. The Truth About Forever, by Sarah Dessen 65. The Bartimaeus Trilogy (series), by Jonathan Stroud 66. Bloodlines (series), by Richelle Mead 67. Fallen (series), by Lauren Kate 68. House of Night (series), by P.C. Cast, Kristin Cast 69. I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith 70. Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlsit, by Rachel Cohn, David Levithan 71. Before I Fall, by Lauren Oliver 72. Unwind, by Neal Shusterman 73. The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle 74. The Maze Runner Trilogy (series), by James Dashner 75. If I Stay, by Gayle Forman 76. The Blue Sword, by Robin McKinley 77. Crank (series), by Ellen Hopkins 78. Matched (series), by Allie Condie 79. Gallagher Girls (series), by Ally Carter 80. The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale 81. Daughter of the Lioness / Tricksters (series), by Tamora Pierce 82. I Am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak 83. The Immortals (series), by Tamora Pierce 84. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles (series), by Patricia C. Wrede 85. Chaos Walking (series), by Patrick Ness 86. Circle of Magic (series), by Tamora Pierce 87. Daughter of Smoke & Bone, by Laini Taylor 88. Feed, by M.T. Anderson 89. Weetzie Bat (series), by Francesca Lia Block 90. Along for the Ride, by Sarah Dessen 91. Confessions of Georgia Nicolson (series), by Louise Rennison 92. Leviathan (series), by Scott Westerfeld 93. The House of the Scorpion, by Scott Westerfeld 94. The Chronicles of Chrestomanci (series), by Diana Wynne Jones 95. The Lullaby, by Sarah Dessen 96. Gone (series), by Michael Grant 97. The Shiver Trilogy (series), by Maggie Stiefvater 98. The Hero and the Crown, by Robin McKinley 99. Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson 100. Betsy-Tacy Books (series), by Maud Hart Lovelace http://www.npr.org/2012/08/07/157847723/top-100-teen-books |