Check out some of the books we've discussed in our book talks!

East
by Edith Pattou
YA PATT

Magic, mystery, love, and sadness, this one has it all. East is a retelling of a fairy tale. The main character, Rose is the youngest, and wildest of several children in historic Norway. Her family falls on desperate times and when a white bear appears at her door and says he will make everything good again if Rose comes with him she agrees. After a long journey she finds herself in a castle hidden by a mountain, there she learns more about her captor and herself. Each night she is visited by a stranger who sleeps next to her but does not talk or acknowledge her, and is always gone by the time she is able to get a candle. When she does find out who it is, she regrets it, but not because of the reasons you would think... East is full of memorable characters, exciting voyages, and beautiful imagery of the frozen north. To find out what happens to Rose and her bear, check it out at your local library.

The Life of Pi  
by Yann Martel
YA MART

The Life of Pi is based on the true story of an account of lost at sea.  Pi, or Piscine Molitor Patel. The son of a zookeeper in Pondicherry India, was raised around animals and learned to respect them early on. His father taught him many things about animals, tigers in particular. His father graphically proved how dangerous tigers can be when Pi and his brother were small children. During the 70’s in India it was a dangerous time, so his family decided to leave and go to Canada to live. On June 21, 1977, they left on a cargo ship for Canada. Along with his family, many animals, including a tiger named Richard Parker, were also on board the ship, heading to a zoo in Canada. On the 4^th day out to sea, the ship sank, taking with it Pi’s family. He made it to a life boat, but only because some of the crew members threw him into a boat full of animals. Can you imagine being stuck on a boat with a tiger in the middle of the ocean for months? There are many hardships that Pi and Richard Parker face, read the book to find out if Pi makes it to land.

Boy Proof  
by Cecil Castellucci
YA CAST

The inside flap reads “ her name is Egg. She’s named herself after the kick-ass heroine of her favorite sci-fi movie, Terminal Earth. She always knows the right answers, she’s always in control, and she can’t be bothered with friends, much less members of the opposite sex. As far as she’s concerned she’s boy proof, and she likes it that way.” Egg, aka Victoria is a senior at a Hollywood high school. Her mother is an actress that just doesn’t understand why she doesn’t wear make up or do something with her hair besides shave it off. Her father is a famous special effects man. Her life is perfect, until a new guy shows up and changes everything for her. When she makes a mistake and loses the friends she thought she didn’t have, her life is miserable for a while. Eventually she learns to accept who she is, and through her photography, and her dad’s studio where she is a budding special effects genius, she decided what she wants to do with her life.  

Thura’s Diary, My Life In Wartime Iraq   
by Thura Al-Windawi
YA 956.7044 ALWI

Thura was 19 when the US went to war with Iraq in 2003. She tells a very different side than what we have all heard, she talks about her family in Baghdad, and the hard times she and her people go through during the war. She talks about the fear she feels for her people, and her country as the bombs fall in her home town, and about the future, will she live or die? She is astonished to see women fighting for the Americans and is very afraid of the soldiers. One thing she said that really stood out for me was this: “All these are innocent people who get involved in war. They die because of people with big egos who are looking for power. Innocent people have to kill each other for this reason; this stupid reason.” Check out this book today for a different look at what goes on in the world.

Whale Talk
by Chris Crutcher
YA PB CRUT

The Tao Jones… or TJ as he prefers to be called was adopted at the age of 2 by two great people in the north west US. His adopted parents are white, he is not. TJ is a great athlete in a school where athletics is the end all and be all, but he doesn’t contribute because he doesn’t like the jocks or how they treat the non athletic people. He’s smart and funny and likes to stand up for the people who don’t stand up for themselves. When his English teacher, one of his few friends in the school asks him to help start a swim team he thinks he must be joking… Cutter High doesn’t even have a pool and the local YMCA pool is tiny. He eventually accepts and decides to get back at the jocks who covet their athletic jackets by getting nobodies into the swim team and making them into an actual team good enough to get the honor of the jackets. He gets more than he bargains for with the team. This book has many twists and turns and surprises in store, to find out more about TJ and his team of swimmers, try it out.

Tiger
by Jeff Stone
YA STON

Tiger is set in the Henan Province in China in the year 1650 AD. Fu, the main character of this book, and his brothers were raised in a secret Shaolin temple called Cangzhen Temple. They were trained in different kung-fu arts. Fu is a master of Tiger Kung Fu. One night late, the leader of the temple, Grandmaster comes to Fu and his 4 brothers and hides them in an empty water barrel, one on top of the other. Outside the 5 boys hear fighting, shouting and a something that sounds like thunder but a little different. The temple is under attack… After what seems like ages the boys are freed from the barrel, by a shot from a kiang, a gun. Waiting for them is their older brother Ying who has turned into what can only be described as a monster. Wanting to fight but ordered to run by Grandmaster, they scatter into the nearby forest. Before Fu can get away completely he is caught. Now Fu and his brothers are homeless, they know nothing of the outside world and they are orphans. The first in the series, Tiger chronicles the hardships and adventures of Fu, as he struggles to find help for his temple and lost brothers. He meets many dangerous and intriguing characters along the way and gets into a lot of trouble when he attempts to save a tiger from what he sees as heartless poachers. Above all he seeks revenge, his temple is destroyed, everyone but he and his 4 brothers murdered at the hands of someone who they once called brother. The second in the series is called Monkey and is as fast paced and exciting as Tiger, as it tells about the youngest brother, Malao who is a master of Monkey Kung Fu.

Samurai Girl: The Book of the Sword
by Carrie Asai
YA ASAI

Heaven was adopted by a wealthy family, pampered and protected until her wedding day. “They say your life begins on your wedding day. Here’s what happened on mine: I lost the person I love most, I learned that everything I knew about my family was a lie, now I’m being hunted. I must fight back, or die. My life ended that day, the old Heaven is gone. I am Samurai Girl.” Forced into marriage by her father, Heaven is saved and damned when a ninja crashes her wedding before she can marry the terrible Teddy. Her brother comes to her rescue but is slain, while her father watches and does not help, but turns away while his son is murdered. Heaven is confused and hurt as she tries to save her dieing brother who whispers for her to find Hiro, a childhood friend of his. Heaven grabs the sword her brother drops and runs from her family who are strangers to her now. Eventually she finds Hiro and discovers more about who she really is. She decides that she must be able to protect herself from whoever is trying to kill her and begs Hiro to teach her the arts of the Samurai. This is the first book in a series about Heaven and her search to learn who she is and what her destiny is.

Twilight
by Stephanie Meyer
YA MEYE

Isabella (Bella) Swan is 17, clumsy, awkward and accident prone when she moves to Forks, Oregon to live with her father. Her mother has just remarried and Bella wants her to be happy and not be tied down by Bella. Bella hates Forks where it rains everyday and is always cold and dreary. Her first day goes ok until she gets to Biology where she has to sit next to a beautiful but cold boy named Edward. He seems to be revolted by her and sits on the very edge of his chair with his hands and jaw clenched. She doesn’t understand what she has done to him. The next day he is not in class, in fact he misses an entire week of school and just as she thinks he’s gone for good, he comes back. This time he is pleasant if not a little aloof to her in class. A few days later, Edward saves Bella’s life when she is almost pulverized by a speeding van. He moves so fast and is so strong Bella is at once curious of him. The next day in the lunch room, he surprises Bella and asks her to sit with him. There he tells her he is dangerous and she should leave and never come back but also that he can not stay away from her, and that he is giving up trying. “With his porcelain skin, golden eyes, mesmerizing voice, and supernatural gifts, Edward is both irresistible and impenetrable.“ Up until now he has managed to keep his true identity hidden, but Bella is determined to uncover his dark secret. Eventually Bella does find out who and what Edward is and it doesn’t frighten her. Bella says: About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him – and I didn’t know how dominant that part might be – that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.” A romance with a very unexpected twist, Twilight will have you sitting on edge until the very end.

Uglies
by Scott Westerfeld
YA WEST

Tally Youngblood lives in a society far in the future where anything she wants is provided, all she has to do is ask a wall in her dorm room. She is 15, and looking forward to her 16^th birthday when she can turn ‘Pretty.’ Tally’s world is built around an operation that everyone receives on their 16^th birthday when they go from being ugly normals to beautiful pretties. Uglies and Pretties do not live together or associate any more than is necessary, even as child and parent. When Tally meets a new friend in the weeks before her operation she learns some disturbing things. Shay, her new friend doesn’t want to be a pretty, she doesn’t want to act silly like the pretties do and she is planning on running away before her birthday.  At first Tally thinks Shay is joking, then when she does run away Tally finds out the truth. Forced to become a spy, Tally undergoes an awesome trek over hundreds of miles with only cryptic clues as a map to the “smokies” where other runaways and uglies who don’t want the operation live. Tally overcomes great obstacles and finds The Smoke, she also finds out much more goes on than the operation to make people pretty. While in the smoke she meets lots of new interesting people and several old people (according to Tally) who haven’t undergone the operation. There is also a library which in the pretty city doesn’t exist. This is an exciting book that starts a little slow but by the end you are ready for the next book. Uglies is the first in a trilogy.  The next book Pretties is due out soon.

The Wereling, Book One: Wounded 
by Stephen Cole
YA PB COLE

Tom Anderson is 16 and feels that he is being tortured by his parents when they make him go on vacation with them to the mountains, one last time. As it turns out it really is one last time for him… He goes off on his on for a walk in the woods and ends up being “rescued” from the river and cut off from civilization by a strange family. Tom has injuries all over his body that do not seem normal to him but the people who rescued him are nice enough, if a little strange. Eventually he learns just how strange they are but not until it is too late. Tom begins having odd dreams, dreams where he is no longer human but an animal on the hunt for fresh blood. Tom is at first afraid of the young lady of the family, Kate because she seems even weirder than the others. The truth is far scarier than he had imagined. Tom has become a werewolf, he was created to be Kate’s mate. After a terrible fight and daring escape, Tom and Kate travel all over the U.S. in this trilogy trying to find a cure for his condition, while at the same time trying to stay alive as Kate’s mother tries to kill them both.