The Teen Summer Reading club begins Saturday, June 21! The theme this year is environmentalism so the program is called: Turn Over a New Leaf@Your Library. You can go to any Pickering Library to register and then read! If you want a great environmental book to read, check out these titles:
California Blue by David Klass
John Rodgers, has to face three troubling facts. First, his father has been diagnosed with leukemia. Second, John has discovered a new species of butterfly and wants to preserve it but is up against the opposition of his entire town, including his parents. And finally, John has fallen in love with his high school biology teacher, who does not entirely rebuff his attentions.
Phoenix Rising by Karen Hesse
Nyle Sumner, 13, and her grandmother are completely surrounded by the grotesque results of an accident at a nuclear-power plant. Because of the accident, Nyle's cousin Bethany has radiation poisoning. Then Gran does the unthinkable: she takes in two fugitives who were exposed to the worst of the radiation, Miriam Trent and her son, Ezra.
Z for Zacariah by Robert O’ Brian
Ann Burden is sixteen years old and the sole survivor of a nuclear war. For the past year, she has lived in a remote valley with no evidence of any other survivors. But the smoke from a distant campfire is shows that someone else is still alive and making his way toward the valley. Who is this man? What does he want? Can he be trusted? Both excited and terrified, Ann soon realizes there may be worse things than being the last person on Earth.
Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams
Adams has recorded the adventures of the most endangered animals in the world like the komodo dragon, northern white rhinoceros and the rodrigues fruit bat. He moves rapidly from informal, laugh-out-loud descriptions of his travels to serious pleas for awareness and conservation of all animals.
Watership Down by Richard Adams
The story follows a warren of Berkshire rabbits fleeing the destruction of their home by a land developer. As they search for a safe haven, skirting danger at every turn, we become acquainted with the band and its compelling culture and mythos.
Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat
The government’s Wildlife service believes that wolves are slaughtering the arctic caribou, and the assigns naturalist Farely Mowat to investigate. Mowat is dropped alone onto the frozen tundra, where he begins his mission to live among the howling wolf packs and study them. Mowat discovers not a den of marauding killers but a courageous family of skillful providers and devoted protectors of their young.
Dead Water Zone by Kenneth Oppel
16-year-old Paul tries to find his genetically stunted younger brother Sam in the polluted ruins of Watertown, where Sam is trying to cure himself with toxic "dead water" that alters the metabolism of those who drink it.
The Golden Aquarians by Monica Hughes
Walt Elliot goes with the father he hasn't seen for years to the planet Aqua, where he discovers that his father's project threatens the existence of a highly intelligent native species.
River Rats by Caroline Stevermer
Nearly twenty years after the holocaust called the Flash has destroyed modern civilization, Tomcat and a group of other orphans face danger as they steer an old steamboat over the toxic waters of the Mississippi River.
Eva by Peter Dickinson
After a terrible accident, a young girl wakes up to discover that she has been given the body of a chimpanzee.
Spud Sweetgrass by Brian Doyle
Torn between his mother's continuing grief over his late father and his own happiness about a new romance, Spud Sweetgrass becomes involved in a group endeavor to expose the person who is polluting the Ottawa River.
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki
Nausica, a young princess, has an empathic bond with the giant insects that evolved as a result of the ecosystem's destruction. Growing up in the Valley of the Wind, she learned to read the soul of the wind and navigates the skies in her glider. Nausica and her allies struggle to create peace between kingdoms torn apart by war, battling over the last of the world's natural resources.
The Beasties
When fifteen-year-old Doug and his younger sister Colette move with their parents to a forested wilderness area, they encounter some weird creatures whose lives are endangered.
Memory Boy by Will Weaver
Sixteen-year-old Miles and his family must flee their Minneapolis home and begin a new life in the wilderness after a chain of cataclysmic volcanic explosions creates dangerous conditions in their city.
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy's attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site.
The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in her decaying but beloved city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown Regions.
I think Zephaniah s a talented author and describes the characters that seek refuge from a real life experience. This is a touching and heart warming tale of a family that has been torn apart and forced to leave their country because of war and seeking shelter from an unusual place with different lifestyle and surroundings. I was impressed with the range of settings and backgrounds used in the novel like the new school Alem went to, the hotel he stayed in, the foster home, the court room and prison cell.
This book was written using creativity and had a lot of experience on refugees. The writing was easy to understand that anyone could read it without loosing interest because so many drastic and unspeakable events happen. Some are very sad others are very pleasing. Zephaniah has the power to create all the moods in any story and describe a tale without using any pictures but by using your imagination. This book had a lot of true meanings to it which I think gave a reaction to the readers and the author himself because he wrote this book using his own knowledge about seeking refuge.
Highly Recommended! This book is about Edith and her family that is running/hiding from the Nazi's because they will kill and hurt the jewish family's and they captured the father and the 2 younger kids were sent to mossic a place where jewish kids are safe. And so the mother and therse are staying at home and Gaton and Edith are at Mossic. Due to that the Nazi's were coming so the girls went for a couple days out in the woods. After that Sarah and Edith had to go to a Christian school and pretend that they were Christian.
Rash by Peter Hautman
Rash is a chilling satire of the year 2076 where it is illegal to litter or be obese in the newly named “Safer States of America”. Bo, a 16 year old with 5 family members in jail, allegedly spreads a rash through the school, then hits a classmate. As punishment Bo is sent to a remote jail-like work camp where he has to make fast-food pizza. He is given the option to reduce his sentence if he plays the illegal sport of football.
Check out the honour titles were selected by the 2007 Thumbs Up! Award committee:
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Previous Thumbs Up! Award Winners:
2006
Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie - David Lubar Scott hilariously documents in his journal (not a diary!) the trials and tribulations of his first year in high school—falling in love, drifting apart from his friends, dealing with his mothhttp://www.picnet.org/node/877/edit
Thumbs Up! Award for Best Teen Novel of 2007 Announced | picnet.orger's pregnancy, and learning more about himself than he expected.
2005
Airborn – Kenneth Oppel - Matt, a young cabin boy aboard an airship, and Kate, a wealthy young girl traveling with her chaperone, team up to search for the existence of mysterious winged creatures reportedly living hundreds of feet above the Earth's surface.
For more Thumbs Up! Award Winners and Nominees, visit their website:
http://www.mla.lib.mi.us/tsdpastthumbsup
This book is amazing! Its about Cyd Charisse (who's step father calls her a "recovering hellion") who got kicked out of boarding school, after getting caught with her ex-boyfriend Justin, and after getting in a fight with her mother (and new boyfriend, Shrimp) gets sent to stay with her "real dad" in New York. As you can probably guess she causes a lot of drama in NY and realizes the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. A really really really good read.
In this graphic novel, Brown shows us the life of one of Canada's most important historical figures, Louis Riel. I enjoyed this book because a comic book based on history is extremely rare. The plot is also very useful for History and even Geography class.
The White Pine Award winner for 2005, this is an incredible story of the struggle a young teen faces when she is diagnosed with anorexia. The book is well-written and the characters are easy to relate to. The plot is funny, sad, and almost creepy at times. "More than you can chew" has a gripping story which twists and turns all the way through.
Wally Lamb’s first novel chronicles the life of Delores Price, a wounded, angry, yet endearing young woman, as she navigates life’s ups and downs. In Delores’ case, the ups are few and far between, while the downs seem to occur on a regular basis. Beginning at age four, we follow Delores through a rocky childhood, a cringe-worthy high school career, and her ascent into adulthood. To cope with her problems, Delores turns to food. At one point she weighs in at an astonishing 257 pounds. Lamb writes from a woman’s point of view with surprising insight and grace. This often depressing story was also full of humour and hope. I couldn’t put it down. I passed this on to all my friends.
This is a moving story about a young Jewish boy named David who manages to escape a concentration camp during World War II. The only life he knows is life in prison; he knows nothing of the outside world, except from stories told by elders. All he knows is he has to keep moving to find his new life. Throughout the novel David experiences things for the first time taking nothing for granted. He tries to learn as much as he can while still avoiding detection by Germans knowing "they" could find him any minute. By the end of his journey he has discovered his identity and more about life, culture, and his beliefs. I highly recommend this book to anyone in need of a lift because it is a story of hope and innocence in a time when there was so much hatred and fear.
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