Junior High Summer Reading 2008

Click on a genre below to view corresponding titles.

	Action/Adventure	Realistic Fiction
	Fantasy/SciFi/Horror	Sports Fiction
	Historical Fiction	Nonfiction
	Mystery / Suspense

ACTION / ADVENTURE
Jacket	Title	Author	*Annotation*
	Kidnapped	Stevenson, Robert Louis	A Scottish lad is tricked out of his inheritance by an uncle and is kidnapped aboard a ship to endure the dangers of the high seas.
	The Mysterious Benedict Society	Stewart, Trenton Lee	After passing a series of mind-bending tests, four children are selected for a secret mission that requires them to go undercover at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, where the only rule is that there are no rules.
	Peak	Smith, Roland	Peak was born to be a climber. After getting caught and then arrested for scaling a New York City skyscraper, 14 year-old Peak is “rescued” by his previously absentee father. Peak’s father has an even grander plan for Peak; he wants Peak to be the youngest person to climb Mount Everest, no matter what it takes to make it happen.
	Point Blank	Horowitz, Anthony	Fourteen-year-old Alex continues his work as a spy for the British MI6, investigating an exclusive school for boys in the French Alps.
	White Fang	London, Jack	The adventures in the northern wilderness of a dog who is part wolf and who eventually makes his peace with man.

FANTASY / SCIENCE FICTION / HORROR
Jacket	Title	Author	*Annotation*
	Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal nicholas Flamel	Scott, Michael	Nicholas Flamel, the greatest Alchemyst of his day, supposedly died in 1418. In reality, he and his wife are still alive and well today. When the book that holds the secret to eternal life is stolen from Flamel, twins Sophie and Josh find themselves the subject of a prophecy giving them the power to save the world.
	Beastly	Flinn, Alex	Kyle Kingsbury has everything going for him - money, good looks, and charm - until the day he mocks the wrong girl (a witch in disguise) who transforms him into a terrifying beast. Kyle has two years to find true love before he becomes a monster forever in this very modern retelling of the classic Beauty and the Beast story.
	Beatnik Rutabagas From Beyond the Stars	Dodd, Quentin	Whisked away on space ships to serve as generals of opposing armies, best friends and sci-fi movie fans Walter Nutria and Yselle Meridian soon convince the aliens they must work together against the real menaces, Space Mice from Galaxy Four and their leader, The Boss.
	Breathe: A Ghost Story	McNish, Cliff	Jack is no stranger to death – he’s been close before when his asthma threatened to overpower him. When he and his mother move into an old farmhouse, Jack actually begins to see the spirits of the Ghost Mother and the four ghost children she is terrorizing. As the Ghost Mother decides she wants a real child to love, Jack is drawn into a struggle with the Other World to save not only his life and his mother’s, but also to reunite the ghost children’s souls with their loved ones.
	Epic	Kostick, Conor	On New Earth, a world based on a video role-playing game, fourteen-year-old Erik persuades his friends to challenge the system in order to save his father from exile and safeguard the futures of each of their families.
	First Light	Stead, Rebecca	When twelve-year-old Peter and his family arrive in Greenland for his father’s research, he stumbles upon a secret his mother has been hiding from him all his life and begins an adventure he never imagined possible.
	The Floating Island: The Lost Journals of Ven Polypheme	Haydon, Elizabeth	Attacked by pirates and saved by a mermaid, Ven’s amazing adventures include a talking cat, ghosts, and a quest for the magical waters of the mysterious floating island.
	Goddess of Yesterday	Cooney, Caroline	Anaxandra, daughter of the king of a small Greek island, becomes caught up in the events of the siege of Troy when, after spending most of her life as a hostage, she is taken into the palace of King Menalaus and ends up traveling to Troy as protector of Helen's infant son.
	The Hunting of the Last Dragon	Jordan, Sherryl	In England in 1356, as a monk records his every word, a young peasant tells of his journey with a young Chinese noblewoman to St. Alfric's Cove and the lair of a dragon.
	Rat Boys: A Dating Experiment	Eberhardt, Thom	Fourteen-year-olds Marci and Summer use a magic ring to turn two rats into cute boys so that they can have dates for the Spring Fling.
	The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney	Harper, Suzanne	Sparrow is the 7th and most powerful daughter in a family of psychics, but she wants nothing to do with her powers until a persistent ghost convinces her to help him out.
	Straw Into Gold	Schmidt, Gary	Pursued by greedy villains, two boys on a quest to save innocent lives meet the banished queen whose son was stolen by Rumpelstiltskin eleven years earlier, and she provides much more than the answer they seek.
	Things Not Seen	Clements, Andrew	When fifteen-year-old Bobby wakes up and finds himself invisible, he and his parents and his new blind friend Alicia try to find out what caused his condition and how to reverse it.

HISTORICAL FICTION
Jacket	Title	Author	*Annotation*
	Crispin: Cross of Lead	Avi	Falsely accused of theft and murder, an orphaned peasant boy in 14th-century England flees his village and meets a larger-than-life juggler who holds a dangerous secret.
	Dark Water Rising	Hale, Marian	Almost 8000 people died when a hurricane struck the Galveston coast in 1900. Sixteen-year old Seth survived the storm, found his way home and discovered his talents and strengths while helping to rebuild the island.
	The Edge on the Sword	Tingle, Rebecca	In ninth-century Britain, fifteen-year-old Aethelflaed, daughter of King Alfred of West Saxony, finds she must assume new responsibilities much sooner than expected when she is betrothed to Ethelred of Mercia in order to strengthen a strategic alliance against the Danes.
	Night of the Howling Dogs	Salisbury, Graham	Eleven Boy Scouts, their leaders, and some new friends camping at Halape, Hawaii in 1975 find their survival skills put to the test when a massive earthquake strikes followed by a tsunami.
	Summer of My German Soldier	Greene, Bette	Sheltering an escaped German prisoner of war is the beginning of some shattering experiences for a twelve-year-old Jewish girl in Arkansas.
	A Tree Grows in Brooklyn	Smith, Betty	Story of life in turn-of-the-century Brooklyn slums, as seen from the eyes of a bright young girl who is charmed by her drunken father.
	The Wednesday Wars	Schmidt, Gary	In a year filled with cream puff disasters, being forced to study Shakespeare, wearing yellow tights and the Vietnam War, Holling also meets the New York Yankees, makes the cross country track team and learns to stand up to his father.

MYSTERY / SUSPENSE
Jacket	Title	Author	*Annotation*
	How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found	Nickerson, Sara	With a swimming medal, the key to a mansion, and a comic book about a half-man/half-rat as her only clues, a twelve-year-old girl seeks the true story of her father's mysterious death four years earlier near an island in the Pacific Northwest.

REALISTIC FICTION
Jacket	Title	Author	*Annotation*
	All-American Girl	Cabot, Meg	Sophomore Samantha Madison stops a presidential assassination attempt, is appointed teen ambassador to the United Nations, and catches the eye of the very cute First Son.
	Black-Eyed Suzie	Shaw, Susan	After losing touch with reality, twelve-year-old Suzie enters a mental hospital where she finds the courage to talk about her abusive mother and break out of psychological prison she calls "the box."
	Brothers, Boyfriends, & Other Criminal Minds	Lurie, April	April Lundquist’s life has suddenly become very exciting. She lives on a street full of mafia bosses and accidentally becomes employed by Salvatore "Soft Sal" Luciano while her older brother Matt is secretly seeing another mobster’s daughter. April and her friend Brandi do all they can to save the sometimes annoying, yet over-protective Matt from his impending doom amidst their own hilarious boyfriend problems.
	Dunk	Lubar, David	While hoping to work as the clown in an amusement park dunk tank on the New Jersey shore the summer before his junior year in high school, Chad faces his best friend's serious illness, hassles with police, and the girl that got away.
	Esperanza Rising	Ryan, Pam Muñoz	Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the eve of the Great Depression.
	Middle School is Worse than Meatloaf	Holm, Jennifer	Ginny is ready for seventh grade. If she can just complete the ten items on her to-do list, everything will be perfect. But life gets in the way as she deals with family issues, problems with friends, and mishaps at school. What was supposed to be her greatest year is turning into the worst year ever!
	Pieces of Georgia: a Novel	Bryant, Jen	In journal entries to her mother, a gifted artist who died suddenly, thirteen-year-old Georgia McCoy reveals how her life changes after she receives an anonymous gift membership to a nearby art museum.
	Say Yes	Couloumbis, Audrey	In her efforts to hang on following the disappearance of her stepmother, Casey resorts to anything including robbery.
	What Every Girl (Except Me) Knows	Baskin, Nora Raleigh	Twelve-year-old Gabby feels that she needs a mother to help her grow into a woman, so when things between her father and his latest girlfriend do not work out, Gabby sets off for the last place she remembers seeing her own mother.
	What the Moon Saw: a Novel	Resau, Laura	Fourteen-year-old Clara Luna spends the summer with her grandparents in the tiny, remote village of Yucuyoo, Mexico, learning about her grandmother's life as a healer, her father's decision to leave home for the United States, and her own place in the world.
	Schooled	Korman, Gordon	Cap lives in isolation with his grandmother, a former hippie, but when she falls from a tree and breaks her hip, Cap is sent to a foster home where he has his first experience in a public school.
	Zen and the Art of Faking It	Sonnenblick, Jordan	When thirteen-year-old San Lee moves to a new town and school for the umpteenth time, he is looking for a way to stand out when his knowledge of Zen Buddhism, gained in his previous school, provides the answer--and the need to quickly become a convincing Zen master.

SPORTS FICTION
Jacket	Title	Author	*Annotation*
	Playing the Field	Rallison, Janette	Thirteen-year-old McKay tries to keep up his algebra grade to stay on the baseball team, while dealing with his attraction to a girl named Serena.

NONFICTION
Jacket	Title	Author
	Fields of Fury: The American Civil War	McPherson, James M.	Examines the events and effects of the American Civil War.
	Let Me Play, the History of Title IX: The Law That Changed the Future of Girls in America	Blumenthal, Karen	Of course they can...today. But just a few decades ago, opportunities for girls were far more limited, not because they weren't capable of playing or didn't want to become doctors or lawyers, but because they weren't allowed to. Then quietly, in 1972, something momentous happened: Congress passed a law called "Title IX," forever changing the lives of American girls.
	Oh, Rats! The Story of Rats and People	Marrin, Albert	Get ready to look at rats in a whole new way. These intelligent, compassionate creatures are greatly misunderstood.
	Oh, Yikes! History's Grossest, Wackiest Moments	Masoff, Joy	Provides facts about some of the grossest, messiest, and strangest moments in history, relating information about the disgusting habits of Attila and the Huns, the Aztecs, cavemen, circus performers, cowboys, gladiators, the Vikings, and many others.
	Tales of the Cryptids: Mysterious Creatures That May or May Not Exist	Halls, Kelly Milner	Get the scientific facts about Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, Chupacabra, the Mongolian Death Worm, and 50 other legendary creatures, and find out what is true, what is myth, and what just isn’t known (yet).
	Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion	Burns, Loree Griffin	Describes the work of a man who tracks trash as it travels great distances by way of ocean currents.

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