Author: Jaleigh Johnson
Published: 2014 Piper lives in Scrap Town Number Sixteen. She is known as an expert mechanic and can fix almost anything that's broken. She also helps make a living by becoming a scrapper. On each full moon, there are meteor storms that bring in debris from other worlds. Scrappers come out after the storms looking for treasures or trinkets to sell or trade. Most of the things that fall are completely broken, but every once in awhile there is something worthwhile. There are safety rules to living in a scrap town. When the meteor storm hits, everyone must take shelter together so that nobody gets injured or breathes in the dangerous air. Piper's friend Micah, however, decides to break the rule, so Piper must leave the shelter to try to save his life. She discovers that there are other people out there too. When the storm is over, Piper has to get Micah help because he was injured int eh storm. She also discovers a young, unconscious girl in the debris where the strangers were. Piper brings the girl back to her house, and she soon wakes up, scared. Soon a man shows up at the house looking for the girl. The way that the girl reacts tells Piper that this man does not have her best interests in mind, and suddenly Piper finds herself on the run with this young girl with no memory of who she is besides her name--Anna. Piper can't abandon Anna and hopes that if she can find where she belongs, maybe there will be a reward in it for her. They find themselves as unwelcome guests on a train where a mysterious boy named Gee is determined to find out their secrets. This is a great start to a book series. Readers are trying to figure out the puzzle of Anna, along with Piper and her mysterious abilities. This is a great book for readers who like fantasy and mystery genres. The Mark of the Dragonfly is an Iowa Teen Award book for the 2017-2018 school year.
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Author: Luanne Rice
Published: 2016 Tilly and Roo have always been very close as sisters. They are each other's best friends. Roo, the older sister, is out one day taking pictures. She is extremely passionate about photography. Roo is supposed to be on her way to pick up Tilly. Tilly texts Roo, asking where she is. Roo, who is distracted by her pictures, ignores her phone for a little while. Eventually she gets in the car to go get Roo. On the way, her phone keeps buzzing and buzzing and buzzing. Tilly is impatient and texting her each second, asking where she is. Roo knows she shouldn't text and drive, but she thinks it will only take a few seconds to respond. She texts "5 mins away" and then suddenly notices that she has drifted onto the shoulder of the road and she is about to hit a person with a dog. She jerks the car to try to keep them safe, and the car flips. Roo is taken to the hospital where she soon has a seizure and goes into a coma. She can't talk, move, or even breathe on her own. Tilly feels so much guilt when she finds out that her texting was what distracted Roo while she was driving. She looks at her sister in that hospital bed and hardly recognizes her. Roo soon wakes up to find that she can't move her body and she can't talk. She can hear and see everything going on around her, but there is no way she can communicate with the doctors, nurses, or her family. She has locked-in syndrome, and nobody seems to believe that she is completely aware of what is going on. This book was a good book about relationships between sisters. Roo and Tilly have to go through this extremely difficult and seemingly impossible time together. They have to count on each other to make it through. It also talks about an extremely relevant and important issue--texting while driving. The Secret Language of Sisters is an Iowa Teen Award book for the 2017-2018 school year. Author: Delia Ray
Published: 2015 Ren's parents are taking a break from each other. Her father is currently in Afghanistan and is expected to come home very soon. Ren has hopes that her mom and dad will have a sweet reunion and they will get back together, and everything will go back to normal... Which is why she hates Rick Littleton, the man who constantly is hanging around her mom and trying to become buddies with Ren and her older sister. Ren decides to take a little break from her mother and Rick by running away (just a few miles) to the tiny little ghost town called Fortune, population 12. She is fascinated by an old school that someone named Hildy had recently purchased and is renting rooms out to visitors. While there, she meets a boy named Hugh who is living there with his mom. The two explore the huge old school and meet many interesting tenants along the way. Hildy is trying to open up a pearl button museum in the old school. Before plastic came around, the town of Fortune was known for their production of buttons made out of clam shells, known as pearl buttons. Ren gets pulled into the history of the town and begins to help Hildy with her giant project. Hildy, though, seems to have secrets. Why is she wandering around the old school at night? What is she looking for? This book was an excellent mystery and I was fascinated to discover that the author is from Iowa. The book is inspired by Muscatine, Iowa, where these pearl buttons were produced in the early 1900s. Finding Fortune is an Iowa Children's Choice Award book for the 2017-2018 school year. Author: Marilyn Hilton
Published: 2015 Full Cicada Moon takes place in 1969 in Vermont. Mimi is half black, half Japanese. Vermont is mostly white. She and her family just moved, and she is now the new girl and the girl who looks different from everyone else. She has problems fitting in with her classmates. Mimi is smart. She loves science and wants to be an astronaut when she grows up. This is a problem though because Mimi is a girl, so people laugh at her dream. At school, all the girls have to take Home Ec, while the boys take Shop class. There is never any discussion as to which one you want to take. If you are a girl, you take Home Ec with the rest of the girls, and if you are a boy you take Shop with the rest of the boys. Mimi wants to take Shop. She already knows everything they're learning in Home Ec, but the principal refuses to allow her to be in the class because she's a girl. This novel, written in verse, takes place during the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. It is great to see the perspective of this huge event from a young girl who wants to be an astronaut when she gets older. This book really looks at the sexism and racism during this time period in the United States. Mimi is a strong character who knows what she wants and stands up for what she believes in, no matter the cost. Full Cicada Moon is an Iowa Children's Choice Award book for the 2017-2018 school year. Author: Ruta Sepetys
Published: 2016 This book follows the stories of four different teenagers during World War II in the winter of 1945. Joana is from Lithuania. She is in a group of refugees who are looking to find freedom. She feels immense guilt towards something from her past. Florian is a mysterious boy who is on a secret mission and is very set on completing it. Emilia is a pregnant Polish girl with a sad story. Alfred is loyal to the Fuhrer. He believes he is doing important work that will make the world a better place. These four strangers somehow find themselves connected as they try to gain passage on the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that they believe will bring them to freedom and safety. This story was absolutely amazing. Not only are these characters running from the pain and the tortures of war, but they are also running from their own secrets and guilt. I was shocked and heartbroken many times throughout this book. The things these characters went through are awful, but there are also many tender and hopeful moments. This book is great for readers who enjoyed Ruta Sepetys' other book, Between Shades of Gray or readers who like historical fiction, books about tragedies, and even mysteries. Salt to the Sea is an Iowa Teen Award book for the 2017-2018 school year. Author: Angie Thomas
Published: 2017 Starr and her best friend Khalil leave a party together in Khalil's car. They get pulled over, and Starr quickly recalls the talk she was given by her parents. Not the birds-and-the-bees talk, but the what-to-do-if-you-get-pulled-over-by-a-cop-when-black talk. She remembers how her dad told her to do whatever they say, "Keep your hands visible. Don't make any sudden moves. Only speak when they speak to you" (p. 20). But when this cop pulls them over, Khalil breaks one of the rules. He starts asking the cop questions about why they were pulled over. When the cop gets tired of the questions, he orders Khalil to get out of the car and starts getting rough with him. All Starr can do is watch. Suddenly, when Khalil moves to check on Starr in the car, the cop shoots Khalil in the back three times, no questions asked. The rest of the book is about how Starr deals with the unfair death of her best friend. She tells her side of the story to the cops, but they don't listen to her. They just view Khalil as a drug dealer and they say that the cop thought Khalil was reaching for a gun. Starr goes to a school in a different neighborhood, one where there are only two black students. Her parents wanted her to have a better chance at life, so they tried to give her a better education. She has to go to school and pretend like nothing happened. She feels like she has to hide her true self when she's at this school because she's scared to act too black. This was a heartbreaking book at the injustice in our world. The Hate U Give really looks at the issues our society still has with racism and police violence. This is a great book for people who enjoyed All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely. |
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