Summer Reading List

Let's keep reading this summer. Now's the time to get into a new series, try an audiobook or discover new authors.

"Thirteen-year old Bina has a long summer ahead of her. She and her best fiend, Austin, usually do everything together, but he's off to soccer camp for a month, and he's been acting kind of weird lately anyway. So it's up to Bina to see how much fun she can have on her own. At first, it's a lot of boredom, bad TV and guitar practice. Things look up when Bina finds an un-likely companion in Austin's older sister, Charlie - they like the same music, and Charile actually seems to think Bina is cool. But then Austin comes home from camp acting weirder than when he left"--Back cover.

Book Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTa04ET1yOk&list=PLMTE0sBH93CjW56_RQlmxWq8zh9jMhwx_&index=8

Website: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/herocomplex/la-et-hc-hope-larson-all-summer-long-20180501-htmlstory.html

From the Publisher

A timely, crucial, and empowering exploration of racism--and antiracism--in America

This is NOT a history book.
This is a book about the here and now.
A book to help us better understand why we are where we are.
A book about race.

Website: https://youtu.be/hgluNlZxpfc

Having sold 35 million copies since 2002, Eragon is an epic take of destiny and magic written by a 15 year old Paolini. Eragon is a poor farm boy who discovers a mysterious blue stone. The stone holds his future as it hatches Saphira, a dragon, his dragon. With the help of the village elder, Eragon discovers he is to be the first Dragon Rider in over 100 years. King Galbatorix will not let this be. (Fantasy)

Interview on Writing Eragon at 15: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJjA8609J30 (2006)

Website: http://www.alagaesia.com/

Running, her world. Taken away when the school bus returning from a meet is in an accident. Jessica takes us through her days in the hospital, her return home and each step of her recovery. With friends, family, coaches and teachers by her side, Jessica not only overcomes but champions others along the way. (Realistic fiction)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAV5ActuNUU&list=PLMTE0sBH93CjW56_RQlmxWq8zh9jMhwx_&index=13

Interview with author https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Revi1nl4dg (~7 minutes)

Website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAV5ActuNUU

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth's fate hinges on one girl. . . . Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She's a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister's illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai's, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world's future. With high-stakes action and a smart, resourceful heroine, Cinder is a Cinderella retelling that is at once classic and strikingly original.

Book Trailer: https://www.marissameyer.com/extras/book-trailers/

Website: https://www.marissameyer.com/book/book-one/

For fourteen-year-old budding artist Minoru Ito, his two brothers, his friends, and the other members of the Japanese-American community in southern California, the three months since Pearl Harbor was attacked have become a waking nightmare: attacked, spat on, and abused with no way to retaliate--and now things are about to get worse, their lives forever changed by the mass incarcerations in the relocation camps.

Website: http://www.tracichee.com/we-are-not-free-extras.html

After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC-Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape--until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.

Website: https://soundcloud.com/simonschuster/legendborn-audiobook-excerpt-1

In a world where disease has been eliminated, the only way to die is to be randomly killed ('gleaned') by professional reapers ('scythes'). Two teens must compete with each other to become a scythe--a position neither of them wants. The one who becomes a scythe must kill the one who doesn't.

Website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYPiWDEiVvU

Stewart, a socially-challenged genius, and his father move in with the beautifully, popular Ashley and her mother. As Stewart works to hold memories of his mother close and Ashley confronts her boyfriend's bullying and bigotry, the two form a family full of trust, respect and friendship. (Realistic Fiction)

Website: http://susinnielsen.com/books/we-are-all-made-of-molecules/

When a Connecticut teenager inherits vast wealth and an eccentric estate from the richest man in Texas, she must also live with his surviving family and solve a series of puzzles to discover how she earned her inheritance.

Website: https://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/blogs/lapl/interview-author-jennifer-lynne-barnes

In a small border town of Texas, plagued by drugs and gang violence, Maya van Wagenen challenged herself to become popular. Maya is, for all intents and purposes, an outcast in her school. But when she discovers a book about popularity written sixty years ago, she decides to see if the advice written then still rings true today. Her social experiment, both laugh-out-loud funny and awkwardly heartbreaking, has surprising results. Destined to be a source of inspiration for many teens, Popular is a fast, fun read (Memoir).

Discussion with Author and Panelist about representation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A17Cl86e79s

Website: https://www.usatoday.com/videos/life/books/2014/04/23/7869429/

"Omar and his younger brother Hassan live in a refugee camp, and when an opportunity for Omar to get an education comes along, he must decide between going to school every day or caring for his nonverbal brother in this intimate and touching portrayal of family and daily life in a refugee camp"--Provided by publisher.

Website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=111ztD-2QaU

When he and his mother move into an old farmhouse in the English countryside, asthmatic, twelve-year-old Jack discovers that he can communicate with the ghosts inhabiting the house and inadvertently establishes a relationship with a tormented, malevolent spirit that threatens to destroy both his mother and himself.

Anthem is a dystopian fiction novella by Russian-American writer Ayn Rand, written in 1937 and first published in 1938 in the United Kingdom. The story takes place at an unspecified future date when mankind has entered another Dark Age. Technological advancement is now carefully planned and the concept of individuality has been eliminated. A young man known as Equality 7-2521 rebels by doing secret scientific research. When his activity is discovered, he flees into the wilderness with the girl he loves. Together they plan to establish a new society based on rediscovered individualism.

Ayn Rand's Philosophy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asery3UeBj4

Website: https://aynrand.org/novels/anthem/

Shy twelve-year old Nisha, forced to flee her home with her Hindu family during the 1947 partition of India, tries to find her voice and make sense of the world falling apart around her by writing to her deceased Muslim mother in the pages of her diary.

Author/Editor Discussion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q5Tzyjl8iU&disable_polymer=true (~6 minutes)