book review 2
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TRANSCRIPT
Book Review Day
Which book should you pick??
December 2012
White Day Titles
Trash by Andy MulliganLast Shot by John FeinsteinMillion-Dollar Throw by Mike LupicaThe Boy Who Saved Baseball by John RitterAl Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer CholdenkoThe Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline CooneyThe Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
The Face on the Milk CartonBy Caroline Cooney
5 Copies Available
No one ever really paid close attention to the faces of the missing children on the milk cartons. But as Janie Johnson glanced at the face of the ordinary little girl with her hair in tight pigtails, wearing a dress with a narrow white collar--a three-year-old who had been kidnapped twelve years before from a shopping mall in New Jersey--she felt overcome with shock. She recognized that little girl--it was she. How could it possibly be true?
Janie can't believe that her loving parents kidnapped her, but as she begins to piece things together, nothing makes sense. Something is terribly wrong. Are Mr. and Mrs. Johnson really Janie's parents? And if not, who is Janie Johnson, and what really happened
Total Pages = 184Total Chapters = 18Each Section = 6
chapters or 62 pages
TrashBy Andy Mulligan
5 Copies Available
In an unnamed Third World country, in the not-so-distant future, three “dumpsite boys” make a living picking through the mountains of garbage on the outskirts of a large city.
One unlucky-lucky day, Raphael finds something very special and very mysterious. So mysterious that he decides to keep it, even when the city police offer a handsome reward for its return. That decision brings with it terrifying consequences, and soon the dumpsite boys must use all of their cunning and courage to stay ahead of their pursuers. It’s up to Raphael, Gardo, and Rat—boys who have no education, no parents, no homes, and no money—to solve the mystery and right a terrible wrong.
Total Pages = 222
Total Chapters = 33
Each Section = 11 chapters or 74 pages
Last ShotBy John Feinstein
3 Copies Available
Steven Thomas is one of two lucky winners of the U.S. Basketball Writer’s Association’s contest for aspiring journalists. His prize? A trip to New Orleans and a coveted press pass for the Final Four. It’s a basketball junkie’s dream come true!But the games going on behind the scenes between the coaches, the players, the media, the money-men, and the fans turn out to be even more fiercely competitive than those on the court. Steven and his fellow winner, Susan Carol Anderson, are nosing around the Superdome and overhear what sounds like a threat to throw the championship game. Now they have just 48 hours to figure out who is blackmailing one of MSU’s star players . . . and why.
Total Pages = 251
Total Chapters = 19
Each Section = 6 chapters or 84 pages
Million-Dollar ThrowBy Mike Lupica
5 Copies Available
What would you do with a million dollars, if you were 13? Nate Brodie is nicknamed “Brady” not only for his arm, but also because he’s the biggest Tom Brady fan. He’s even saved up to buy an autographed football. And when he does, he wins the chance for something he’s never dreamed of—to throw a pass through a target at a Patriots game for one million dollars.
Nate should be excited. But things have been tough lately. His dad lost his job and his family is losing their home. It’s no secret that a million dollars would go a long way. So all Nate feels is pressure, and just when he needs it most, his golden arm begins to fail him. Even worse, his best friend Abby is going blind, slowly losing her ability to do the one thing she loves most—paint. Yet Abby never complains, and she is Nate’s inspiration. He knows she’ll be there when he makes the throw of a lifetime.
Total Pages = 224 Total Chapters = 34 Each Section = 11
chapters or 75 pages
The Boy Who Saved BaseballBy John Ritter
4 Copies Available
Tom Gallagher is in a tight spot. The fate of the Dillontown team rests on the outcome of one baseball game, winner take all. If Tom's team loses, they lose their field too. But how can they possibly win? Just when everything seems hopeless, a mysterious boy named Cruz de la Cruz rides into town and claims to know the secret of hitting. Not to mention the secrets of Dante Del Gato, Dillontown's greatest hitter ever. Since he walked away from the game years ago, Del Gato hasn't spoken a word to anyone. But now he might be Tom's only hope for saving his hometown. From the award-winning author of and comes this imaginative tale of one boy's struggle to preserve the spirit of the game he loves.
Total Pages = 216
Total Chapters = 30
Each Section = 10 chapters or 72 pages
The Westing GameBy Ellen Raskin
Unlimited
For over twenty-five years, Ellen Raskin's Newbery Medal-winning has been an enduring favorite. It has sold over one and a half million copies. This highly inventive mystery involves sixteen people who are invited to the reading of Samuel W. Westing's will. They could become millionaires-it all depends on how they play the tricky and dangerous Westing game, a game involving blizzards, burglaries, and bombings! Ellen Raskin has created a remarkable cast of characters in a puzzle-knotted, word-twisting plot filled with humor, intrigue, and suspense.
Total Pages = 182 Total Chapters = 30 Each Section = 10
chapters or 61 pages
Al Capone Does My ShirtsBy Gennifer Choldenko
Unlimited
Today I moved to a twelve-acre rock covered with cement, topped with bird turd and surrounded by water. I'm not the only kid who lives here. There's my sister, Natalie, except she doesn't count. And there are twenty-three other kids who live on the island because their dads work as guards or cook's or doctors or electricians for the prison, like my dad does. Plus, there are a ton of murderers, rapists, hit men, con men, stickup men, embezzlers, connivers, burglars, kidnappers and maybe even an innocent man or two, though I doubt it. The convicts we have are the kind other prisons don't want. I never knew prisons could be picky, but I guess they can. You get to Alcatraz by being the worst of the worst. Unless you're me. I came here because my mother said I had to.
Total Pages = 215
Total Chapters = 40
Each Section = 13 chapters or 72 pages
Blue Day Titles
Nobody’s Princess by Esther FriesnerDead End in Norvelt by Jack GantosTheodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John GrishamTravel Team by Mike LupicaHeat by Mike LupicaThe Contender by Robert LipsyteCryptid Hunters by Roland Smith Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer CholdenkoThe Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Dead End in NorveltBy Jack Gantos
5 Copies Available
Melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional, is a novel about an incredible two months for a kid named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation excitement are shot down when he is "grounded for life" by his feuding parents, and whose nose spews bad blood at every little shock he gets. But plenty of excitement (and shocks) are coming Jack's way once his mom loans him out to help a fiesty old neighbor with a most unusual chore—typewriting obituaries filled with stories about the people who founded his utopian town. As one obituary leads to another, Jack is launced on a strange adventure involving molten wax, Eleanor Roosevelt, twisted promises, a homemade airplane, Girl Scout cookies, a man on a trike, a dancing plague, voices from the past, Hells Angels . . . and possibly murder.
Total Pages =341
Total Chapters = 28
Each Section = 9 chapters or 114 pages
The ContenderBy Robert Lipsyte
4 Copies Available
This is a sports fiction novel that tells a story of Alfred Brooks, a seventeen-year-old high school drop-out, living in Harlem, finding his way in the world and in boxing. Alfred learns that getting to the top is not as important as how you get there, and that before you can be a champion, you have to be a contender with the will to get back on your feet after you have been knocked down
Total Pages = 227Total Chapters =
20Each section = 7
chapters or 76 pages
Michael Arroyo has a pitching arm that throws serious heat. But his firepower is nothing compared to the heat Michael faces in his day-to-day life. Newly orphaned after his father led the family’s escape from Cuba, Michael’s only family is his seventeen-year old brother Carlos. If Social Services hears of their situation, they will be separated in the foster-care system—or worse, sent back to Cuba.
Together, the boys carry on alone, dodging bills and anyone who asks too many questions. But then someone wonders how a twelve-year-old boy could possibly throw with as much power as Michael Arroyo throws. With no way to prove his age, no birth certificate, and no parent to fight for his cause, Michael’s secret world is blown wide open, and he discovers that family can come from the most unexpected sources.
Heat By Mike Lupica
5 Copies Available
Total Pages = 220
Total Chapters = 28
Each Section = 9 chapters or 74 pages
Travel TeamBy Mike Lupica
5 Copies Available
Twelve-year-old Danny Walker may be the smallest kid on the basketball court -- but don't tell him that. Because no one plays with more heart or court sense. But none of that matters when he is cut from his local travel team, the very same team his father led to national prominence as a boy. Danny's father, still smarting from his own troubles, knows Danny isn't the only kid who was cut for the wrong reason, and together, this washed-up former player and a bunch of never-say-die kids prove that the heart simply cannot be measured.
Total Pages = 274
Total Chapters = 39
Each Section = 13 chapters or 92 pages
Theodore Boone: Kid LawyerBy John Grisham
4 Copies Available
In the small city of Strattenburg, there are many lawyers, and though he's only thirteen years old, Theo Boone thinks he's one of them. Theo knows every judge, policeman, court clerk, and a lot about the law. He dreams of a life in the courtroom. But he finds himself in court much sooner than expected. Because he knows so much, maybe too much, he is suddenly dragged into the middle of a sensational murder trial. A cold-blooded killer is about to go free, and only Theo knows the truth. The stakes are high, but Theo won't stop until justice is served.
Total Pages = 263
Total Chapters = 22
Each Section = 7 chapters or 88 pages
Silent to the BoneE. L. Konigsburg
4 Copies Available
Connor is sure his best friend, Branwell, couldn't have hurt Branwell's baby half sister, Nikki. But Nikki lies in a coma, and Branwell is in a juvenile behavioral center, suspected of a horrible crime and unable to utter the words to tell what really happened. Connor is the only one who might be able to break through Branwell's wall of silence. But how can he prove Branwell didn't commit the unspeakable act of which he's accused when Branwell can't speak for himself?
Total Pages = 261
Total Chapters = 25
Each Section = 8 chapters or 87 pages
She is beautiful, she is a princess, and Aphrodite is her favorite goddess, but something in Helen of Sparta just itches for more out of life. Not one to count on the gods—or her looks—to take care of her, Helen sets out to get what she wants with steely determination and a sassy attitude. That same attitude makes Helen a few enemies—such as the self-proclaimed "son of Zeus" Theseus—but it also intrigues, charms, and amuses those who become her friends, from the famed huntress Atalanta to the young priestess who is the Oracle of Delphi.
In Nobody's Princess, author Esther Friesner deftly weaves together history and myth as she takes a new look at the girl who will become Helen of Troy. The resulting story offers up adventure, humor, and a fresh and engaging heroine you cannot help but root for.
Nobody’s PrincessBy Esther Friesner
3 Copies Available
Total Pages = 296
Total Chapters = 16
Each Section = 5 chapters or 99 pages
Cryptid HuntersBy Roland Smith
3 Copies Available
After their parents are lost in an accident, thirteen-year old twins Grace and Marty are whisked away to live with their Uncle Wolfe-an uncle that they didn't even know they had. The intimidating Uncle Wolfe is an anthropologist who has dedicated his life to finding cryptids, mysterious creatures believed to be long extinct. Through a series of perilous adventures, the pair uncover long-buried secrets about their own identities and that of their uncle. Now the twins must play a high-stakes game, where the prize is a dinosaur egg, and the penalty, death.
Total Pages = 348
Total Chapters = 33
Each Section = 11 chapters or 116 pages
Al Capone Does My ShirtsBy Gennifer Choldenko
Unlimited
Today I moved to a twelve-acre rock covered with cement, topped with bird turd and surrounded by water. I'm not the only kid who lives here. There's my sister, Natalie, except she doesn't count. And there are twenty-three other kids who live on the island because their dads work as guards or cook's or doctors or electricians for the prison, like my dad does. Plus, there are a ton of murderers, rapists, hit men, con men, stickup men, embezzlers, connivers, burglars, kidnappers and maybe even an innocent man or two, though I doubt it. The convicts we have are the kind other prisons don't want. I never knew prisons could be picky, but I guess they can. You get to Alcatraz by being the worst of the worst. Unless you're me. I came here because my mother said I had to.
Total Pages = 215
Total Chapters = 40
Each Section = 13 chapters or 72 pages
The Westing GameBy Ellen Raskin
Unlimited
For over twenty-five years, Ellen Raskin's Newbery Medal-winning has been an enduring favorite. It has sold over one and a half million copies. This highly inventive mystery involves sixteen people who are invited to the reading of Samuel W. Westing's will. They could become millionaires-it all depends on how they play the tricky and dangerous Westing game, a game involving blizzards, burglaries, and bombings! Ellen Raskin has created a remarkable cast of characters in a puzzle-knotted, word-twisting plot filled with humor, intrigue, and suspense.
Total Pages = 182 Total Chapters = 30 Each Section = 10
chapters or 61 pages