Category: Hi-Low/Quick Read


Bluford series: Five new titles are here!

Filed under: Controversial Issue/Debate, Family Problems, Fiction, Hi-Low/Quick Read, Young Adult Literature by Ms. Waddle — 1 Comment
December 2, 2011

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The popular Bluford series  is here! We’ve got all 15 titles now. And there are 5 copies of each one, so come on over and check them out!

If you want to know which of the Bluford books are sequels or what order you might want to read them in, click here for a list of all 15 books and see which ones are related to others.

Newest five in the Bluford series:

No Way Out by Peggy Kern

Bluford High freshman Harold Davis is trapped. Medical bills for his sick grandmother are piling up, and a social worker has threatened to put him in a foster home. Desperate for money, he reluctantly agrees to work for Londell James, a neighborhood drug dealer. Will Harold escape the violence that surrounds him?

The Test by Peggy Kern

Liselle Mason is in trouble. For weeks, she ignored the changes in her body and tried to forget her brief relationship with Oscar Price, her moody classmate at Bluford High. But when Liselle’s clothes stop fitting, and her brother notices her growing belly, she panics. A pregnancy test confirms her biggest fears. Unwilling to admit the truth, Liselle suddenly faces a world with no easy answers. Where will she turn? Who will she tell? What will she do?–From back cover.

Breaking Point by Karyn Langhorne Folan

Vicky Fallon can’t take it. Her father has lost his job. Her parents are constantly fighting, and her troubled little brother is out of control. Once an honor student, Vicky is quickly falling behind in her classes at Bluford High. Now her teachers, friends, and new boyfriend, Martin Luna, want answers. Pressured from all sides, Vicky knows something is about to snap. But the explosion that hits her home is worse than anything she could image.–Book back cover.

Pretty Ugly (sequel to Breaking Point)by Karyn Langhorne Folan

Jamee Wills never expected Vanessa Pierce and her friends to go this far. The trouble starts at cheerleading practice when Vanessa begins teasing Angel McAllister, a shy new girl at Bluford High. When the insults turn nasty, Jamee tries to stop them. She wins Angel’s friendship but makes many enemies. Now Jamee is a target, and someone is texting lies and pictures of her all over school. Unwilling to tell her family or snitch on her fellow cheerleaders, Jamee is cornered. Will her next move solve her problems–or make them worse?–From back cover.

Schooled by Paul Langan

There’s no backing down for Lionel Shepard. With a dream of joining the NBA, all he wants to do at Bluford High is play Basketball. But everyone’s trying to stop him. Bad grades, bad advice from family members and friends. Will he pursue his dream or get caught in a nightmare?

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Horror: Night Fall series

Filed under: Fiction, Hi-Low/Quick Read, Horror/Mystery/Suspense, Multicultural, Young Adult Literature by Ms. Waddle — Leave a comment
December 1, 2011

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More interesting books for high school students who are learning to read or improving their reading skills. Today we’re looking at Night Fall, a horror series.

At Colony High, we’ve created a section in the book stacks just for these new books. Look under the call number 372.41. (Don’t be shy about asking for help if you need it. That’s what we’re here for!)

Night Fall titles:

Unthinkable by Shirley Duke

Omar Phillips is Bridgewater High’s favorite local teen author. His Facebook fans can’t wait for his next horror story. Lately, though, Omar’s imagination has turned against him, presenting him with horrifying visions of death and destruction. The only way to stop the visions is to write them down, until they start coming true. Sophie Minax, the mysterious Goth girl who’s been following Omar at school, tells him how to end the visions, but the only thing worse than Sophie’s cure may be what happens if he ignores it.

Thaw by Rick Jasper

“A July storm caused a major power outage inBridgewater. Now a research project at the Institute for Cryogenic Experimentation has been ruined and the thawed-out bodies of twenty-seven federal inmates are missing. At first, Dani Kraft didn’t think much of the breaking news. But after her best friend Jake disappears, a mysterious visitor connects the dots for Dani. Jake has been taken in by an infamous cult leader. To get him back, Dani must enter a dangerous, alternate reality where a defrosted cult leader is beginning to act like some kind of god.”–Amazon.com.

The Protectors by Val Karlsson

“Luke’s life has never been ‘normal.’ How could it be, with his mother holding seances and his half-crazy stepfather working asBridgewater’s mortician?”–P. [4] of cover.

The Club by Stephanie Watson

Bored after school, Josh and his friends try out an old game called “Black Magic” that promises the players good fortune at the expense of those who have wronged them. As the club members’ luck starts skyrocketing and horror befalls their enemies, the game stops being a joke. How can they end the power they’ve unleashed? Answers lie in an old diary, but ending the game may be deadlier than any curse.

Skin by Rick Jasper

Nick’s face is breaking out. The symptoms, besides his complexion, include an abiding coldness and nightmares. As his face worsens, a neighbor sends over a priest. The priest remembers a teenager who had a similar attack. He has the teen’s journal. Another teen comes into the clinic with a similar case. Does the resolution lie in the old journal?

Messages from Beyond by Stephanie Watson

Some guy named Ethan Davis has been texting Cassie. He seems to know all about her– but she can’t place him. He’s not in Bridgewater High’s yearbook either. Cassie thinks one of her friends is punking her. But she can’t ignore the strange coincidences– like how Ethan looks just like the guy in her nightmares. Cassie’s search for Ethan leads her to a shocking discovery, and a struggle for her life. Will Cassie be able to break free from her mysterious stalker?”–P. [4] of cover.

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Surviving Southside

Filed under: Controversial Issue/Debate, Family Problems, Fiction, Hi-Low/Quick Read, Multicultural, Sports, Young Adult Literature by Ms. Waddle — Leave a comment
November 30, 2011

 

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Finally!

Some good, interesting books for high school students who are learning to read or improving their reading skills. I’ve mentioned that we’ve been buying these books. Well, now most of them are here. I plan to post about different series. See which series sounds good to you and then come check out a book.

At Colony High, we’ve created a section in the book stacks just for these new books. Look under the call number 372.41. (Don’t be shy about asking for help if you need it. That’s what we’re here for!) You’ll find a few hundred choices.

The first series up is Surviving Southside. Here are five titles:

Shattered Star by Charnan Simon

Cassie is the best singer in Southside High’s Glee Club and dreams of being famous. She skips school to try out for a national talent competition, but her hopes sink when she sees the line. Then a talent agent shows up out of nowhere, flattering her and saying she has “the look” he wants. Soon, she is lying and missing rehearsals to meet with him, and he’s asking her for more each time. How far will Cassie go for her shot at fame?

Recruited by Suzanne Weyn

Kadeem Jones is a star quarterback for Southside High. He is thrilled when college scouts seek him out. His visit toTellerCollegeis amazing, but then NCAA officials accuse Teller’s staff of illegally recruiting top talent. Will Kadeem decide to help their investigation, even though it means the end of the good times? What will it do to his chances of playing college football?

Bad Deal by Susan J. Korman

Fish hates having to take ADHD medication. It helps him concentrate, but it also makes him feel weird. When his crush, Ella, needs a boost to study for tests, Fish offers her one of his pills. Soon, more kids want pills, and Fish is enjoying the profits. To keep from running out, Fish finds a doctor who sells phony prescriptions, but suddenly the doctor is arrested. Fish realizes he needs to tell the truth, but will that cost him his friends?

Benito Runs by Justine Fontes

Benito’s father, Xavier, returns fromIraqafter more than a year suffering from PTSD–post-traumatic stress disorder–and yells constantly. He causes such a scene at a school function that Benny is embarrassed to go back to Southside High. Benny can’t handle seeing his dad so crazy, so he decides to run away. Will Benny find a new life, or will he learn how to deal with his dad–through good times and bad?

Plan B by Charnan Simon

Lucy has her life planned out: she’ll graduate and then join her boyfriend, Luke, at college inAustin. She’ll become a Spanish teacher, and they’ll get married. Deciding there’s no reason to wait, and despite trying to be careful, Lucy gets pregnant. Now, none of Lucy’s options are part of her picture-perfect plan. Together, she and Luke will have to make the most difficult decision of their lives.

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“Story of a Girl”

Filed under: Controversial Issue/Debate, Family Problems, Fiction, Hi-Low/Quick Read, Mature Readers, Young Adult Literature by Ms. Waddle — Leave a comment
November 16, 2011

       When Deanna was only thirteen years old, her father caught her having sex in the back of a car with Tommy, a seventeen-year-old friend of Deanna’s brother.

Bad, yes. Embarrassing, yes. But what ruins Deanna’s reputation is that Tommy—who, after all, is much closer to adulthood—goes to school and tells everyone, making a joke of Deanna. With her reputation, Deanna’s school and social life are also destroyed. She is tagged as the school slut, and just about every comment directed at her is a nasty joke or sexual innuendo. There’s no escape for her, though she hangs on by writing in a journal.

Fortunately, Deanna has two friends, but the relationship among the three is complicated, and, in anger and jealousy, she even alienates them. Meanwhile, her brother has become a father far too early and is living in the family basement with his girlfriend and their baby daughter. Three years after the event, Deanna’s father is still angry and cannot forgive her. The family is a wreck.

  When Deanna decides to get a job at a pizza place, she finds Tommy working there as well. What could be worse? And yet having to face Tommy forces the two to actually talk about what happened and why. And in that, there is healing.

This is a super-short, super-quick, and super-good read about life-changing events and how to move on into forgiveness. I recommend it to all. But be advised that it has some profanity and explicit discussion of teen sexuality.

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New Series–Quick Reads

Filed under: Controversial Issue/Debate, Fiction, Hi-Low/Quick Read, Horror/Mystery/Suspense, Romance, Sports, Supernatural, Young Adult Literature by Ms. Waddle — Leave a comment
November 2, 2011

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Two New Series 

I’m always on the lookout for books that appeal to teens who are English learners. Unfortunately, they aren’t always easy to find. Most books written at a reading level that challenges you and pushes your reading skills are boring—they don’t discuss teen issues.

I found two new book series that I think may work for English learners. The first is called Night Fall. It’s horror fiction. The second is called Surviving Southside. It’s about urban (inner-city) teens at Southside High School. We now have some of the titles in our library and others are on the way. Come on over to the library and check one out—if you like it, check back for new titles. Let me know what you think!

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“Trapped”

Filed under: Adventure Stories, Hi-Low/Quick Read, Non-fiction, Young Adult Literature by Ms. Waddle — Leave a comment
November 1, 2011

Trapped: How the World Rescued 33 Miners from 2,000 Feet below the Chilean Desert by Marc Aronson

You’ve heard about the Chilean (and one Bolivian) miners trapped 2,300 feet underground from August 5 until October 13, 2010–more than two months–after 708,000 tons of rock sealed them in complete darkness. But what do you know about how the rescue played out?

I thought I knew this story from the news reports, but Trapped showed me how little I really knew. It moves back and forth between what happened above ground and what happening underground for that two months.

The lives of the men show their real heroism: how they decided they would not resort to cannibalism (they were slowly starving before above-ground contact was made); how they worked and found leaders. Meanwhile, they could hear drills and knew that people were trying to find them, but the maps of the mine were so bad and so far off from reality that rescuers were hitting the wrong places. With each failed attempt, the men had to keep themselves from despair.

The many problems above ground—drills that worked too slowly and that broke against metal underground, wildly inaccurate maps of the mine shafts—show us why it took folks from all over the world to save the men. The stories of NASA scientists, Center Rock (a drilling company), the ‘paloma (dove) shafts, just wide enough to carry food and necessities and working around the clock—all the details—will give you faith in humankind. Knowing what happened affirms the resilience of the human spirit.

This is also a cautionary tale, as noted in the afterword. Though the miners lived because they behaved so well in the first 17 days when they had no contact from above ground and were rescued with the benefit of great technology, a big reason they were trapped is because the San Jose Mine, where they were working, had no escape routes. Mining is always very dangerous, but the mines are required to have two escape routes. In addition, the mine owners never updated their maps of the mine shafts, making rescue very difficult, ‘a shot in the dark.’ The author cautions us to also be people who ‘behave well,’ just as the miners did—and that means valuing miners and being alert to companies that have good mining practices.

This easy reading, tiny book—a little over a hundred pages—has lots of bonus material: diagrams, charts, color photos, a glossary, a timeline, and useful websites. In addition, the couple of pages on “How I wrote this book” discuss “What I learned that could be useful for students writing research reports.” It’s both powerful and succinct. I recommend this book to all our teachers and students, including those who are working on their reading skills. Check it out!

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“Want to Go Private?”

Filed under: Controversial Issue/Debate, Family Problems, Fiction, Hi-Low/Quick Read, Mature Readers, Young Adult Literature by Ms. Waddle — 2 Comments
August 31, 2011

    Want to Go Private? By Sarah Darer Littman

I want all of you to read this. Really.

Abby is worried about beginning high school because she thinks that life will be even worse than middle school now that there with be more Clique Queens to make her feel bad about herself. Her BFF, Faith, is looking forward to ninth grade as a chance to meet new people who attended the other middle school in town. But when Faith meets Grace and starts hanging out with her—and then finds a love interest with Ted—Abby realizes she was right.

High school sucks.

And home is just as bad. Abby’s dad recently started his own business and he’s never around. Her sister, Lily, is in 7th grade and lives to irritate Abby and fight with her. What Abby does have is her ‘second life’ on ChezTeen.com. It’s just like Second Life, but for teens only. Avatars get in groups, meet up, hang out, go to concerts. And Abby only talks to people she knows. Until she meets BlueSkyBoi.

BlueSkyBoi has the same favorite music as Abby. He thinks they are soul mates. When he asks Abby if she wants to go private, she decides it can’t hurt anything. After all, she’s not giving him her real name or her address. Plus, it feels great to talk to him, even though he is twenty-seven. He always supports her, agrees wither that Faith is being a jerk and not a very good best friend. He’s sweetly jealous, so that when Abby goes on her first date with a guy in her science class, BlueSkyBoi—whose name is Luke—convinces her that she is his girl.

Want to Go Private? does a great job at showing that academic intelligence (Abby is a straight A student) isn’t the same as emotional intelligence. She’s sweet and a bit nerdy even, but she’s very naïve. It also does a great job at showing how an Internet predator grooms his victims. He doesn’t ask her to do crazy things all of a sudden. Luke builds Abby’s trust over months. Even when he starts to ask her to do weird things (“What is your bra size?”), she knows that she wouldn’t put up with that in class from a boy at school. But in her own bedroom, wearing her pajamas, she feels safe.

How Abby progresses from telling Luke her bra size through the many online sexual behaviors he gets her to do is a gripping story. And when she agrees to meet him and gets into that car, the next page of the book is black. Just black. And the next chapters are narrated by her sister Lily, her BBF Faith and the science class guy, Billy, who’s been crushing on her. What happens to Abby then isn’t the whole story. Luke—and that isn’t his real name—isn’t done with her, and has the opportunity to ruin her life, with all the explicit videos he has of her.

I had a nightmare about this after I read it, something that just doesn’t happen to someone like me, who’s read so many YA books. But it’s better to have nightmares about a character in a book that about a real-life student. So even though there are some explicit scenes of online sexual behavior, I hope you’ll read Want to Go Private? Because you’ll get an idea of how a predator can make someone really smart do something really dumb. And you’ll learn without getting hurt.

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“Heat” (on Ms. W’s summer reading list)

Filed under: Family Problems, Fiction, Hi-Low/Quick Read, Multicultural, Sports, Young Adult Literature by Ms. Waddle — Leave a comment
June 18, 2011

   Heat by Mike Lupica

Michael was born to play baseball. At twelve, he can pitch a fastball at 80 mph. His Bronx Little League All-Star team, the Clippers, is a contender for league champions and hopes to make it all the way to the Little League World Series. But fate is intervening for Michael, in all the wrong ways.

His father had died of a heart attack a few months earlier. As an immigrant from Cuba without a mom, he has only his older brother, Carlos, to depend on. The two are afraid that they will be separated, and so are trying to make it on their own, with a bit of help from a kindly neighbor woman who lives in their apartment building.

While he is still grieving over his father in secret—only Michael’s good friend Manny knows the truth—a rival team, also with hopes of a district championship—accuses Michael of being older than twelve, thus violating Little League rules. Michael has used his baptismal certificate as proof of his age. Locating his birth certificate, back in Cuba, is almost impossible, and Michael can’t play until it’s produced. Through this experience, Michael gets a hard lesson about human nature. The only reason he is accused of being older than twelve is so that inferior teams will have a better chance at the district championship. When he asks himself why a rival team player, Justin, hates him, the reader knows the sad answer: simply because Michael is better at something that Justin does.

I worry that students might dismiss Heat because Michael is only twelve. But his problems are certainly serious; and his brother, Carlos, is sixteen. Several chapters are about Carlos’s heroic efforts and serious mistakes made to keep his brother with him; to provide food and shelter; to make sure that Michael can continue to play baseball, furthering his opportunity to make it to the Little League World Series. Plus, if you like baseball, there’s a lot of exciting description of the action. And one of the big lessons of the book will follow you into adulthood: certain people will try to hurt you when they figure out that you can do something they can’t. You won’t be able to stop them from trying. You’ll just have to take the higher ground.

 

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‘Perfect Chemistry”

Filed under: Family Problems, Fiction, Hi-Low/Quick Read, Literary Read Alike, Romance, Young Adult Literature by Ms. Waddle — 1 Comment
June 9, 2011

   Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles

Perfect Chemistry is neither new nor unknown to students—and even though those are the two reasons I usually review books, I wanted to find out about this novel because it’s wildly popular at Chaffey High. I thought I might ‘sell’ it at Colony. Since it’s not on my summer reading list, I tried to get my son to have a go at it and then tell me about it, but he just said, “Is this a parody?” and that was it for him.

Now that I’ve read it, I know exactly why he made that comment. The characters are pretty one-dimensional. Super popular pom-pom girl Brittany Ellis dates the super popular star football player. Alex Fuentes, a Mexican gang member can’t find his way out of his life—one he’s only chosen into order to protect his family from the Latino Bloods. Brittany’s mom is utterly superficial, wants Brittany to be perfect in order to make up for the fact that Brittany’s sister, Shelley, has cerebral palsy and is also mentally slow. Her dad is pretty much absent, always at work, making lots of money. Alex’s mom is a loving, overprotective stereotype of the Hispanic mama. Brittany’s friends are pretty much shallow, and Alex’s friends are pretty much gang bangers.

Brittany and Alex fall for one another when they are forced to be partners in chemistry class—a subject they are both good at when they aren’t too busy dealing with personal issues. Should Brit break up with her hot boyfriend—also in the same chem class—and go for Alex? Should Alex try to straighten out his life for Brit? Well, of course they should! If they do, they can strive for those things that really matter to them. Alex secretly wants to go to college. Brit is sick of being seen as half of the ‘golden couple’ on campus. She can become ‘real.’

So, yeah—it’s an old story, not told very well. BUT, let’s face it—if you like stories about star-crossed lovers, if you’d like to read a modern, suburban version of the Romeo and Juliet story, you are going to love this book. And it does deal with the choices teens have to make when life isn’t offering them what they want. Romance fans, this is your novel.

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“Where She Went” (on Ms. W’s summer reading list)

Filed under: Fiction, Hi-Low/Quick Read, Romance, Young Adult Literature by Ms. Waddle — Leave a comment
May 30, 2011

Where She Went by Gayle Forman 

I loved If I Stay, so I had to jump into Where She Went. This time, Adam, Mia’s guitar-playing boyfriend, is the narrator. And in the three plus years since Mia’s accident, Adam has become a rock star—a real one. And since Mia has cut off all communication with him, he now has a fabulous movie-star/perfectly beautiful girlfriend who is several years older than he is (but still only in her late twenties).

Adam does a great job of narrating all the difficulties of being way too famous. It’s hard not to be able to walk outside without everyone flipping open cell phones for a picture, without the paparazzi tagging along trying to catch him in a compromising position, the tabloids always looking for a ‘baby bump’ on his girlfriend.  Add to this the fact that his band is coming apart because his band mates are starting to see him as a prima dona—interviewers want to talk only to him because Adam writes the songs.

And then there’s the irony. Adam and his band, (same one as in If I Stay—Shooting Star) became famous because Adam’s creativity exploded when Mia left him. In his anguish over her desertion, song after song poured out of him, culminating in the ultra-platinum album Collateral Damage. Now the fame is inhibiting his creativity. And though he once thought that rock stars who were hooked on drugs were pathetic and weak, he finds that he needs anti-anxiety medication to deal with the fans and sleep meds to get any shut eye. In short, at only twenty years old, Adam is falling apart.

Mia chose to go to Julliard as she had planned to do before the accident. She worked hard to regain her competence as a cello player, and she became the virtuoso that she was destined to be. In the smaller world of classical music, Mia is also a star.

One day, when Adam is in New York and decides that he is too stressed out to join his band mates on a flight to London to kick off a 67-stop tour (he doesn’t want to tour at all), his manager suggests that he stay over an extra day to rest. Adam sees Mia’s photo on a poster for a classical concert in Carnegie Hall and decides to go.

Getting an opportunity to talk to Mia, Adam also gets that rare chance that almost none of us ever have, but that all of us crave—closure. He gets to ask those angry questions—‘Why the hell did you dump me? Wasn’t I good enough for you? Do you have any idea how much I loved you?’

While I think the novel has too jolly an ending, I did love the way Mia and Adam negotiated the minefield of their relationship.  Mia’s reasons for doing what she did are surprising, but make good sense in the context of her tragedy.

Warning: This is one of those sequels that I wouldn’t read until I read the first book—If I Stay. Both are short and absolutely worth the trouble.

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