Downloaded straight to your brain

Feed by M.T. Anderson

Anderson, M. T. 2002. Feed. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press. 0763617261. $16.99. Alkaline Paper.

Annotation:
In the future, people have chips in their heads that connect them to technology, knowledge, entertainment and advertising. A teenager named Titus meets a girl named Violet who makes him question the world he lives in.

Awards
Booklist Editors' Choice, Books for Youth: Older Readers Category, 2002
Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, Young Adult Fiction
New York Times Notable Books: Children's Books, 2002
YALSA Best Books for Young Adults, 2003
YALSA Outstanding Books for the College Bound, 2004

What if your cell phone, computer, ipod, television, gaming system and GPS could all be implanted in your head. How convenient would that be? Wherever you go, you’d always be connected. You can chat with your friends, look up information and shop instantly and effortlessly. It’s called the Feed.

Great deals at Weatherbee and Crotch! We know you’ll love the latest trim shirts with pockets, on sale now! Colors available: persimmon, sand and vetch.

The drawback is that corporations and advertisers have figured out how to insert themselves into the Feed, right into your thoughts.

Titus has always had the Feed, it’s part of his existence. On Spring Break to the moon he meets a beautiful girl named Violet who is the most unique person he’s ever met. She’s got some funny ideas about the world they live in, like fighting the Feed, and she’s going to take Titus along for the ride. “We enter a time of calamity!”

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Part-Time Indian

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Alexie, Sherman, and Ellen Forney. 2007. The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian. New York: Little, Brown. 0316013684, 9780316013680. Hard cover. $16.99.

Annotation:
Arnold Spirit, Jr. leaves the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white high school. He finds success, but alienates his best friend and other members of his tribe.

Awards:
National Book Award for Young People's Literature
New York Times Notable Books, Children's Books, 2007
Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards

School Library Journal Best Books, 2007
YALSA Best Books for Young Adults, 2008

Hi, I’m Arnold Spirit, Jr. and
I’m a poor-ass reservation kid living with his poor-ass family on the poor-ass Spokane Indian Reservation.
I draw cartoons and I’m pretty good at it. I’d like to become a rich and famous cartoonist someday.
But we reservation Indians don’t get to realize our dreams. We don’t get those chances. Or choices. We’re just poor. That’s all we are.
I had just started high school (I admit, I like school and I was excited to start learning new things) when my teacher handed out our geometry textbooks and my copy had my mother’s name printed in it. That textbook was at least 30 years old! I was so angry and sad and horrified about what that textbook said about my tribe and our poverty that I took that book and hurled it! Too bad it hit my teacher, Mr. P and I got expelled.

Can you believe Mr. P. came to my house and apologized to me? He said all this stuff about how in his many years of teaching he had participated in oppressing the Indian people. He told me that I was the smartest kid in the school and that I refuse to give up (which is true because I get beat up all the time, but I just keep picking myself back up) but all they ever teach you on the reservation is how to give up. Mr. P begged me to leave the reservation and go somewhere where people have hope. I mean he cried, it was crazy! It blew my mind!

After he left, I asked my parents “Who has the most hope?” and they said, “White people.”
So you know what I decided? To go to Reardon, the really good school in the white town 20 miles from the reservation.
The kids in Reardon are the smartest and most athletic kids anywhere. They are the best.
“You’ll be the first one to ever leave the rez this way,” Mom said. “The Indians around here are going to be angry with you.”
Even my best and only friend, Rowdy, punched me in the face when I told him I was going. And I’m afraid some of those huge jock boys at Reardon might kill me if they decide to pick a fight with the only Indian in school. But I’m going to do it. Because I want to become somebody. I want the world to pay attention to me and remember me. This is my story: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. My cartoons are in here. too, so take a look if you want.

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Mysteries of the Chinese Zodiac

Fruits Basket #1 by Natsuki Takaya

Takaya, Natsuki. 2004. Fruits basket. Volume 1. Los Angeles: Tokyopop. 1591826039. $9.99. Paperback.

Annotation:
Orphan Tohru Honda is taken in by the Sohma family and discovers their secret. They are possessed by the spirits of the animals in the Chinese Zodiac.

Awards:
YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, 2005

Library Journal Review (May 1, 2004)

Publishers Weekly Review (March 8, 2004)

Orphan Tohru Honda is on her own. After her mother died, her grandfather took her in, but he asked her to stay somewhere else while his house was being remodeled. She’s been living in a tent in the woods, yet still managing to make it to high school and her job every day. Tohru’s secret is discovered by Yuki Sohma, or “the Prince” as the girls at school call him, because he’s handsome, charming and aloof. Not to mention mysterious. Yuki and his cousin Shigure Sohma offer to let Tohru stay with them if she’ll take care of the household chores. They’re a couple of messy guys and can’t cook. Tohru agrees, but she’s about to discover that the Sohmas have a secret too. There’s an ancient curse on their family, one that changes them in bizarre ways.

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Upstate

Upstate by Kalisha Buckhanon

Buckhanon, Kalisha. 2005. Upstate. New York: St. Martin's Press. 0312332688. $19.95. Trade Cloth.

Annotation:
After Antonio is sent to prison for murdering his father, he and his girlfriend Natasha write to each other about their lives and dreams for a ten year period.

Awards:
YALSA Best Books for Young Adults, 2006

Alex Award, 2006

What if your true love with got sent away to prison for ten years? Would you try to stay with him and support him all that time? Sixteen year old, Harlem-resident Natasha is planning to. Her boyfriend Antonio has been locked up for murdering his abusive father. She knows that Antonio is a “wonderful, smart, beautiful, brave person” and that their love is something special, worth waiting for. Natasha’s letters to Antonio lift him up, help him get through the ordeal he has to face. She’s not going to let him fade into becoming the number stamped on his uniform. After Antonio gets into a bad argument with the teacher who comes to the prison, she writes to him:

Well, I’m telling you this, Antonio, I’ll stick with you and be your woman and support you and all that, but I ain’t marrying no bum… I’m going places with my life and I love you and want to be with you, but you gotta keep it together. Like everybody told me after my father died and I started acting up, this ain’t the time to be feeling sorry for yourself. Now the first thing you need to do is apologize to Ms. Harris. You need to write her a letter and see if you can come back. You need that GED Antonio, and anything else they gonna give you so when you get out we can both have our [stuff] together. Don’t write or call me until you write that letter to Ms. Harris. I mean it Antonio.

Upstate is Antonio and Natasha’s letters to each other over a period of ten years. Read it to see what the future holds for these two, and what happens to their love as they get hit by the harsh blows of circumstance.

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You know you love me!

Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar

Von Ziegesar, Cecily. 2002. Gossip girl. New York, NY: Warner Books. 0446613150. Paperback. $5.99.

Annotation:
An anonymous blogger details the scandalous lives of rich teenagers in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

Awards:
YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers, 2003
YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults: Fame and Fortune, 2009

Sneak into the world of the teens you wish you were: the rich, beautiful, smart, dressed in designer fashions, and left alone by their parents to do whatever they want, inhabitants of New York City’s Upper East Side. Gossip Girl blogs all of the saucy details. (Some of them might even be true!)

-beautiful, blonde, charming Serena back from boarding school
-best friend/biggest rival Blair, now queen bee of the social scene, threatened
-scandalous rumors, Serena loses her place
-boys still love her: Blair’s boyfriend for one
-Serena is an “it girl”, don’t count her out!

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The Giver by Lowis Lowry

Lowry, Lois. 1993. The Giver. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 0395645662. $13.95. Trade cloth.

Annotation:
Jonas lives in an ideal society. When he is assigned to become the receiver of memory for his community, he begins to understand what they have sacrificed in order to achieve peace and prosperity.

Awards:
WINNER 1994 - Newbery Medal Winner
WINNER 1994 - ALA Best Books for Young Adults
WINNER 1994 - ALA Notable Children's Book
WINNER 1996 - New Jersey Garden State Teen Book Award
WINNER 1995 - Virginia Young Readers Program Award
WINNER 1995 - Arkansas Charlie May Simon Master List
WINNER 1996 - Illinois Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Award
WINNER 1996 - Kansas William White Award
WINNER 1995 - Kentucky Bluegrass Master List
WINNER 1994 - Maine Student Book Award

Jonas lives in a community where everyone is happy and satisfied with their lives. There aren’t rich or poor people, everyone has just what they need. No one knows what war or starvation or prejudice are. At the end of every day, young people can sort out their feelings openly with their parents and they won’t be judged or punished.

At a special ceremony, 12 year olds are assigned a career they are suited for by the community Elders. Jonas is shocked and frightened when he hears that he has been selected to be the next Receiver of Memory by the current Receiver. The Chief Elder tells him:

“…the training required of you involves pain. Physical pain.… You have never experienced that. Yes, you have scraped your knees in falls from your bicycle. Yes you crushed your finger in a door last year… But you will be faced now with pain of a magnitude that none of us here can comprehend because it is beyond our experience.”

Jonas discovers that the peace and happiness of the community comes with a price, and that terrible price must be paid by him.

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I'm not guilty!

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Myers, Walter Dean. Monster. 1999. New York: Harper Collins. $21,Trade Cloth. 0060280778.

Annotation:
16 year old Steve Harmon is in prison and on trial for felony murder. He writes up his experience as a screenplay.

Awards:
Coretta Scott King Honor Book, 2000

Michael L. Printz Award, 2000

Kentucky Bluegrass Award, 2002

Booklist Editors' Choice (Books for Youth: Older Readers Category), 1999

Imagine a movie is just beginning:
Behind the bars of a grim, gray prison cell sits a thin, brown skinned,16 year old boy wearing a prison uniform. His head is in his hands. There is a suit and tie next to him that he will wear to court tomorrow.

This is the movie of Steve Harmon’s life while he is on trial for felony murder. He’s a good kid whose passion is making movies in his film class. The State of New York aims to prove that he was involved in a drugstore store robbery where a man was killed. The other people involved say he was the lookout for them. If he’s convicted he will have to serve 25 years to life. The minimum sentence is longer than he’s ever even lived yet. Steve hates prison so much; he is afraid all of the time. To cope with this awful situation Steve writes it up as a screenplay. It gives him some distance; allows him to see things more clearly. Being in prison has a way of making you feel guilty even if you are innocent. But, did Steve do it? Like a good movie, it isn’t spelled out for you. See for yourself if you think Steve deserves to be called a Monster.

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Friendship insurance policy

Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.

Cohn, Rachel, and David Levithan. Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List. 2007. New York: Knopf, $16.99 Trade Paperback. 978-0-375-84440-9.

Annotation:
Naomi, a straight girl, and Ely, a gay guy, have grown up in the same apartment building and are best friends. Their friendship is broken after Ely begins a relationship with Naomi’s (former) boyfriend.

Awards:
ALA Rainbow Lists, 2009

Ely (who is a guy) kissed Naomi’s boyfriend Bruce! He violated the number one rule of their everlasting friendship, The No Kiss List,the list of people neither of them could kiss, started back in the 9th grade when they were both in love with Donnie Weisberg. It was was supposed to save them from breakup-by-jealousy, and now their friendship is OVER! (Although technically, Naomi never bothered to put Bruce on the list.)

You see, Naomi’s not really upset that Ely kissed Bruce, she’s more upset that Ely didn’t kiss her. Even though she’s known for a long time that Ely is gay, she’s never really accepted that it means they won’t be together and get married, just like they’ve planned all their years growing up together. It’s time for her to face reality. Can Naomi survive without her best friend? And can Ely get by without her? And then there’s kinda-dull Bruce, who didn’t know he liked boys until now. Will he be able to last with fabulous, center-of-attention Ely? Naomi, Ely, Bruce and a few of their friends will tell you all about it as they struggle with the craziness of friendship and love.

Check out the playlist in the book as well!

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Strong boats upon a stormy sea

The Braid by Helen Frost

Frost, Helen. The Braid. New York: Frances Foster Books, 2006. 9780374309626. Trade cloth. $19.95.

Annotation:

Two sisters, in 1850, are separated when their family is forced to leave their home in Scotland. The sister's stories alternate with poems that bind together both of their experiences.

Awards:

School Library Journal Best Books, 2006

YALSA Best Books for Young Adults, 2007

Texas Tayshas Reading Lists, 2008

In the days before airplanes and transatlantic phone cables, when you separated from your family for a journey across the ocean, you knew you might never see or hear from them again. In Scotland, in 1850, sisters Sarah, Jeannie, and the rest of their family are forced out of their home by their landlord. Their father decides they will sail to Canada and start over there. Grandma won’t be going.

Sarah, the oldest, can’t leave Grandma or the land that she feels tied to, but how can she bear to separate from her mother and father, her little brother and sisters, and her dearest sister Jeannie? The night before the journey, Sarah braids her hair with Jeannie’s before they go to bed. Jeannie wakes to find her hair cut and Sarah gone. Sarah left half of the braid on the pillow for Jeannie and took the other half with her.

Their intertwined hair is a token of their sisterhood as they begin their new lives apart from one another, Jeannie to Canada and Sarah to the Scottish island where her grandmother was born. The book alternates between Sarah and Jeannie’s stories. They experience their difficulties and triumphs alone, but like the braid that connects them in spirit, the book connects them through language. There are poems in between the sister’s turns at telling their stories and the imagery of the poems weaves the two girls’ experiences together.

Sarah is plucky and strong, not afraid to go against convention. Jeannie must take Sarah’s place as the oldest child and develops her own strength and resourcefulness. Apart, but parallel, they grow up, choose paths and create new lives for themselves. Each wondering about the sister she parted from, with nothing to connect them but The Braid.

Image from the Novelist Plus database.