High School Reads!

by Erin Johnson Lexile:  690 Genre:  Western Grace has just watched her entire family be killed by the wild Guiltless Gang that is terrorizing the settlers around the city of Tombstone.  They think they are above the law because they have paid off the sheriff and have been aloud to roam the countryside taking whatever they want.  Grace is out for revenge, but she is going to need some help if she is to be the sole survivor of her family.  She meets Joe, who was adopted by the Ndeh, and he teaches her their ways of hunting so that she can survive. Joe urges her to let her thirst for revenge go as he thinks it will help her heal faster.  But Grace believes that the Guiltless Gang must be brought to justice and she is the one who must see it through.

by Andrew Smith Lexile:  830 Genre:  Western Troy Stotts has had a rough life and he is only 17.  His 10 year old brother died when he was 4 and now his mother is gone too.  Troy and his dad have to figure out what their life will look like now that it is just the two of them. But the reader does not know which 3.  Troy, his friends, his enemies, and his girlfriend set out on many adventures in and around the ranch on which they live and work. Troy doesn't want to think about the past or the future.  He just wants to have a good time in the present.  From the very beginning of the book, the reader knows that more sadness is going to come to Troy's life, as the reader learns in the opening paragraph that 3 boys will die during the summer that the story takes place.  But the reader does not know which 3.