AJH Library Ladybug

Bootalk-Scat

2009-04-14T08:34:00.000-07:00

Scat

By
Carl Hiaasen

Help! Mrs. Starch is missing! When their biology teacher disappears on a class field trip to Black Vine Swamp in the Florida Everglades, Nick and Marta have to find out what’s happened. Everyone thinks the class troublemaker, Smoke, had something to do with it, and he does-just not in the way they think.
There is way more going on in the swamp than anyone knows! Nick and Marta have to deal with an eccentric eco-avenger,a stuffed rat named Chelsea, a wannabe Texas oilman, a singing substitute teacher, and why is that Florida panther in the swamp so ticked off? Nick and Marta find out a company is doing some illegal activity in the swamp that will destroy part of the natural environment and home for so many wild creatures there. Can they stop them in time? Does this have anything to do with Mrs. Starch’s disappearance? To find the answers, read Scat by Carl Hiaasen.

Booktalk-Unwind

2009-04-14T08:32:00.001-07:00

UNWIND
By
Neal Shusterman

It’s a world gone mad! Unwanted teenagers are being harvested for body parts. The government and other adults are calling it being “unwound,” which sounds much nicer. Conner, Risa, and Lev are all from different backgrounds and are being unwound for different reasons. They are brought together by chance, and must help each other to escape their fate. If they can survive till age 18, they can’t be unwound. They make a harrowing cross country journey to a safe place only to be betrayed and taken to a harvest camp where they will be unwound.
What is it like to be unwound? No one knows the answer to this medical mystery because the harvesters aren’t telling! Will they really still be alive through their body parts helping other people? Will Connor and his friends survive? To find the answers, read the thought provoking story, Unwind by Neal Shusterman.

Book Talk: Suck It up

2009-02-25T07:21:00.000-08:00

Suck It Up
By Brian Meehl

Morning McCobb just wants to grow up to be some kind of superhero. The problem is that he not only is he the scrawniest, least superhero looking boy around, he won’t ever grow up past the age of sixteen because that’s how old he was when he became a vampire. However, he is not your average vampire. Morning has never tasted human blood. He’s kind of a vegetarian vampire and drinks a soy based blood substitute called blood-lite.
Morning is the teenage vampire at school whom people make fun of and pick on all the time. Then one day Morning is picked to be the first vampire to “out” himself and show us mortals that vampires are just another minority with special needs. The Vampire League wants to have a Worldwide Out Day, but they need Morning to be an ambassador first so that everyone will believe there are really vampires, but no one needs to be afraid of them. To make things even more complicated, a group of old-school vampires who want to keep things the old way where they scare and feed off of human mortals. Morning has to survive attacks from them and pass the most difficult test of all-Portia. If he can withstand the temptation to bite and drain the girl he sees all the time and likes, it will prove to the world that vampires can be the harmless creatures Morning says. Will morning be the ambassador who gets vampires and humans to live peaceably with each other? Will he pass the ultimate test with Portia and be the superhero vampire he wants to be? To find out read Suck It Up by Brian Meehl.

Book Talk: The Adoration of Jenna Fox

2009-02-25T07:17:00.000-08:00

The Adoration of Jenna Fox

By Mary Pearson

Jenna is in the middle of the ultimate identity crisis. She just woke from a year long coma after a terrible car accident. Why did her parents move to a place where no one would find them? Slowly she remembers bits and pieces of her life, and she hears the voices of her friends calling to her for help. She doesn’t understand why she hears their voices, especially after she learns they died in the accident! Why didn’t she die too? What did Jenna’s scientist father do to keep his daughter? As Jenna slowly unravels the story of not only who she was and is now, but “what” she is, she’s not sure she wants to be that. Will she live two more years or two hundred? To find out read The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson.

Book Talk-Brothers, Boyfriends & Other Criminal Minds

2009-01-12T07:51:00.000-08:00

Brothers, Boyfriends & Other Criminal Minds

By
April Lurie

What if you lived between and across from three members of the mafia? April and her family lived there quietly minding their own business, until one day, things started to happen. April and her friend were asked to walk with the son of one of the mafia members to school every morning, and they are finding money hidden in their books-lots of money! Once you take money from the mafia, they own you! To make matters worse, April’s brother is in love with the daughter of one of the mafia members-a big mistake if you want to stay alive and in one piece! Besides the mafia, April likes a boy her parents and even her best friend don’t approve of. How will April get all this straightened out? Will her brother survive? Will things work out with the boyfriend? To find out, read Brothers, Boyfriends & Other Criminal Minds by April Lurie.

Book Talk-I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

2009-01-05T11:10:00.000-08:00

I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You

By Ally Carter

Imagine if you went to a school that taught you how to be a spy! Cammie Morgan is fluent in fourteen languages and is capable of killing a man in seven different ways (one of which includes a piece of uncooked spaghetti!) Cammie attends the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, but the one thing they haven’t taught her is what to do when she falls for a boy who thinks she’s an ordinary girl. He likes her too, but he can never know the truth about her, or will she have to kill him? She can tap his phone, hack into his computer, and track him through town without him knowing, but can she have a relationship with a normal guy who can never know the truth about her? Will Cammie pass her Covert Operatives exam where she is kidnapped, and her classmates have to rescue her and capture a disk? What will happen when the school (where her own mother is the headmaster) finds out about Josh? To find out, read I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You, by Ally Carter.

Book Talk-The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney

2009-01-05T11:02:00.000-08:00

The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney
By
Suzanne Harper

Fifteen year-old Sparrow Delaney has a deep dark secret. She doesn’t want to even let her family know about it, and she’s afraid everyone at school will think she’s a freak if they find out. When Sparrow starts tenth grade at a new school, she thinks finally she has a chance to start over. Will it be easier to keep her secret? Sparrow just wants to be normal and live an every day teenage life. You see, since she was five years old, Sparrow has been able to see, hear, and talk to ghosts. This is a normal thing for her family and even the town where she lives, but it is not normal for everyone. Even her family pressures her to try to “serve spirit” because they know she should have special abilities. Sparrow is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. She has six older sisters and a grandmother living with them who does jujitsu in the back yard next to the grave stones of her four dead husbands. What friends would you want to bring home?
Just as Sparrow has made a new best friend in her new school, and also has her eye on Jack, a mysterious cool guy in her class, another boy wants Sparrow’s attention. Luke happens to be a dead boy who just won’t leave her alone until she helps him contact his family to right a wrong so he can Move On in the after life. In order to help him, Sparrow will have to give up her secret that she’s worked so hard all her life not to let anyone know. Will she help Luke, or let his family wonder what happened to him, and everyone else think the worst about his father? To find out read The Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney by Suzanne Harper.

Book Talk-The Ruins of Gorlin

2009-01-05T10:48:00.000-08:00

The Ruins of Gorlan
By John Flanagan

Will’s greatest dream is to go to Battle school to be a knight and warrior, but he is told he is too small. He is not only disappointed about that, but now he must be a Ranger’s apprentice. He has always been a little afraid of the mysterious Rangers who help protect the people of the kingdom, but Will possesses the skills to be a Ranger. He is a natural and learns very quickly. He can move silent as a shadow, climb, and he is brave. Before Will can even finish his apprenticeship, Will must help fight the evil Kalkara, creatures sent by the evil Morgarath, Lord of the Mountains of Rain and Night. When he saves the Baron’s life, Will is given the choice to continue as a Ranger or become a warrior knight. Which will he choose? If you like knights, spies, and Lord of the Rings, you’ll like reading The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan.

BookTalk: Zen and the Art of Faking It

2008-11-04T13:48:00.001-08:00

Zen and the Art of Faking It
By Jordan Sonnenblick

Have you ever pretended to be somebody you’re not?
San Lee decides that blending in is impossible, so he might as well stand out! San Lee has to move to a new town and decides to invent a new past which makes him sort of popular. In fact, the whole school sort of worships him because he sort of accidentally gave the impression that he’s a reincarnated mystic who practices the Zen Buddist religion. In reality, he knows nothing about it. He looks Asian, but was adopted as a baby by Caucasian American parents. The problems come when all the lies he’s told start to unravel, and he has to come up with the cover stories, or get caught being the biggest fake ever. Can he continue to hide his secret about his dad? Can he make things right with his family, save himself from bodily harm, stop being an outcast, and not lose the coolest girlfriend ever? If he tells the truth, everyone is going to hate him, but now he has to “fess up” to everyone. San Lee has to decide whether to keep trying to be a fake and maybe an outcast, or just be San Lee, himself. To read about San Lee’s hilarious (for us), and traumatic (for him) school year, read Zen and the Art of Faking It
by Jordan Sonnenblick.

Book Talk-Beastly

2008-09-09T12:35:00.000-07:00

Beastly

By Alex Flinn

Kyle is the best looking, coolest guy at Tuttle, an exclusive private school for snobby rich kids in today’s New York City. He is the guy you wished you were, with money, perfect looks, any girl he wants, and the perfect life, or so everyone thinks. Actually, Kyle is a beast and only loves himself. He and his friends are mean to anyone who isn’t good looking with money. Maybe this could be the reason the witch in his English class turns him into this creature that has to hide by day and prowls by night! Kyle is still the same inside, but can’t go to school or see anyone but his maid and his tutor. To break this witch’s spell, within two years, he must truly love someone and have them love him back enough to kiss him even when he looks like a beast! Yeah, like that’s going to happen! Will Kyle break the spell, or will he have to remain a beast forever? To find out, read Beastly, by Alex Flinn. (If the story sounds familiar, yes, it is a modern day variation of the classic fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast.)

Book Talk-Dark Water Rising

2008-09-09T12:24:00.000-07:00

Dark Water Rising
By
Marian Hale

Seventeen year-old Seth didn’t want to move to Galveston in the first place. For him it was the end of a dream. All he ever wanted was to be a carpenter like his dad, but his dad wanted him to be a doctor. Seth’s family moved to Galveston in the summer of 1900 so that it would be possible for Seth to go to med-school when the time came. How could Seth convince his father that he wanted to build things with his hands? Some things about the move weren’t so bad-like the beach and the girl who lived by his cousin! Seth also had a summer job doing what he loved-helping build houses! Then, in September, the terrible storm came. Seth was separated from his family when the storm hit. Would he find them? Would they be O.K.? How will he ever put the terrible things he saw and smelled out of his mind? Will Seth be able to show his father he can be a good carpenter-if they all survive? To find out read Dark Water Rising by Marian Hale.