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May 2008 Book Picks
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Right Behind You by Gail Giles
The most horrific moment comes at the beginning: distraught 10-year-old Kip kills another child by dousing him with gasoline and setting him afire. Traumatized, he’s sent to a mental ward for serious juvenile offenders (the Loon Platoon), where he’s encouraged to examine his feelings and memories. At 14, he reenters the world with a different identity, well aware that his fragile new self and the welfare of his family are built on a lie. Eventually, a girl with her own sad baggage walks into his life. Should he confess his past to her? Cynical and smart, Kip is also filled with self-reproach, and despite his crime, he’ll earn readers’ respect as he struggles to find out who he is and forge a path toward who he will eventually become.
Booklist October 15, 2007
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Hot Lunch by Alex Bradley
For Molly and Cassie, lunch is more troublesome than for most of the students at Sunshine Day High School, a school run by hippies and "peopled with an astonishing collection of freaks." Molly is a blue-haired loner and describes Cassie as, "too tall and too blond and too athletic." After being forced to work together on a class assignment, the two butt heads and their differences explode in a mountain of potatoes in the lunch room. A food fight between them results in the resignation of the lunch lady and a most unusual punishment. They must prepare lunch every day until the students decide their meals are satisfactory. Unfortunately, they have two very significant problems. They can't cook and they can't get along. Through many hilarious tries, the girls eventually find a recipe for success in the kitchen and in their friendship.
School Library Journal August 1, 2007
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Gym Candy by Carl Deuker
Having grown up in the shadow of his father’s failed NFL career, high-school football player Mick Johnson is determined not to make the same mistakes. But when he’s tackled just short of the goal in a pivotal game, he decides that vitamin supplements aren’t enough and begins purchasing “gym candy,” or steroids, from the trainer at his local gym. His performance starts breaking records and his father couldn’t be more proud, but along with gains in muscle, he suffers “’roid rage,” depression, and unsightly acne. When his secret finally comes out, he attempts suicide. Even after therapy, Mick is left wondering if he’ll continue to be tempted by steroids.
Booklist September 1, 2007 |
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The Liberation of Gabriel King by K.L. Going
It's the summer of 1976 in a small town in Georgia. Gabriel King has just finished fourth grade and is scared about fifth. In fact, he's scared of many things: spiders, alligators, falling into the toilet, killer robots, corpses, swinging off the rope swing, his neighbor Mr. Evans and bullies at school. His best friend Frita is out to liberate Gabriel from his fears. She has him make a list of them and work through them one at a time. However, Frita, who is African-American, has fears of her own and the story becomes a study of standing up to fears and to bullies, from the schoolyard to the Ku Klux Klan.
Kirkus Review May 15, 2005 |
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Quaking by Kathryn Erskine
"Families come in all varieties but with no warranties." Passed from one relative to another for years, Matt suppresses her feelings to avoid getting hurt. When she meets her latest caretakers, a Quaker couple with a severely disabled foster son, she barely speaks except for an occasional unpleasant utterance. Sam and Jessica, however, are kind and funny, patient with the aftereffects of her traumatic past (when Matt was six, her abusive father killed her mother). Gradually, Matt responds in small ways to their overtures, though at school she faces some frightening opponents. A bully targets her, even as she tries to remain invisible, and her war-mongering civics teacher is failing her for her "unpatriotic" views. Jessica and Sam are active peace workers, and their Meeting House and other churches are attacked by a pro-war group. With similarities to Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak -- Matt's sardonic commentary on high school, her wry wordplay ("I am not a Quaker...I am only quaking"), and parallels in storyline -- the novel will appeal to the same audience.
Horn Book July/August 2007 |
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