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Showing posts from June, 2016

The Last Star (The Final Book of the 5th Wave)

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by Rick Yancey Lexile:  670 Genre:  Science Fiction, Dystopia Who is the real enemy?  Is it the others? Or is it us?  They want the Earth.  Or do they? They came to destroy.  Or did they come to save?  For those who are left, there are no easy answers and no clear path that will save them.  Cassie, Ringer, Zombie, and Nugget are all who are left. It will be up to them to figure out the truth if they are able to save themselves or saves what makes them all human.

Game Seven

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by Paul Volponi Lexile:  770 Genre:  Realistic Fiction Julio's father left Cuba and his family to go and pitch for the Miami Marlins.  He is making millions, while Julio, his mother and his sister are barely making ends meet and branded as traitors.  Julio is becoming well known as a baseball player in his own right and he is hoping to become the shortstop for the Cuba's national team.  However, the fact that his father defected from Cuba, is calling into question whether or not Julio would be a good choice to represent his country.  Julio is going to have some tough decisions to make.  These decisions will ultimately shape the person he is today and the person he hopes to become tomorrow.

Booked

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by Kwame Alexander Lexile:  660 Genre:  Realistic Fiction, Novel in Verse Nick Hall is unstoppable on the soccer field so don't even bother to try.  He and his friend Coby have big plans to get to the World Cup and show the world what awesome soccer players they are.  But then Nick's world is shattered when his parents announce that they are separating.  His mom moves to Kentucky to continue a career she had put on hold, and now nothing is the same.  Can he figure out how to successfully navigate this change in his life?

Mosquitoland

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by David Arnold Lexile:  750 Genre:  Realistic Fiction Mim Malone is not okay.  But she's not exactly sure what is wrong with her either.  Her parents have divorced and her dad and his new wife have moved her all the way to Mississippi.  One day she overhears a conversation between her dad and her stepmom in which she learns that her mother is sick.  Mim is determined to save her, so she steals a coffee can full of money, and hops on a Greyhound bus to head to Cleveland to see her mother.  Mim has no idea what she will find there, or along the way, she just knows she has to get there.  Somehow.  And preferably before Labor Day.

The Way Back From Broken

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by Amber J. Keyser Lexile:  680 Genre:  Realistic Fiction Rakmen Cannon is trying to recover from the loss of his baby sister.  He and his parents are each grieving in different ways.  His mom forces him to go to a support group where he meets others who are recovering from loss.  As summer approaches, Rakmen learns that his parents are thinking about divorcing and he realizes that his grades and schoolwork are suffering.  He is no longer interested in hanging with the friends he had and doing the things that he used to enjoy doing.  So his parents make a drastic decision:  they are sending him away for the summer to live in the wilderness. They are hoping that this change of scenery will help him find his way back.

This is Where it Ends

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by Marieke Nijkamp Lexile:  630 Genre:  Realistic Fiction The students at Opportunity High School have gathered in the auditorium for the annual start of the new semester speech by the principal.  Everything goes according to plan until the speech is over and students are dismissed to head back to class.  The students in the back reach the doors first and discover that they are locked.  2 minutes later, someone starts shooting.  Opportunity High School will never be the same.

Side Effects May Vary

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by Julie Murphy Lexile:  760 Genre:  Realistic Fiction Sixteen year old Alice has been diagnosed with leukemia and her doctors don't have much hope that she will be able to beat the disease.  So Alice sets off on a journey to maximize the time that she has left.  She decides to enlist her best friend Harvey to help her seek revenge on a number of people she feels have wronged her in the past.  But it gets complicated because Harvey is in love with Alice and would do anything for her.  Alice is fine with that until she gets the news that she is in remission and is, in fact, not going to die.  Suddenly Harvey is looking to her to share his future and Alice isn't sure that is a future she wants to face.

The Way I Used to Be

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by Amber Smith Lexile:  ??? Genre:  Realistic Fiction Eden was looking forward to her freshman year of high school.  She plays in the band, loves books, and has some good friends.  But her life changes drastically one night when she is sexually assaulted by her brother's best friend.  He tells her that she better keep it a secret because no one would ever believe her.  So Eden does.  She buries the secret and tries to forge ahead.  Eventually she becomes someone that her family, her friends, and even herself, no longer recognize.  Eden is going to have to come to terms with what happened if she is going to get her life back.