Almost Forever

Author	Paul B. Janeczko
ISBN	0763622354

In his first full-length poetic work, celebrated poetry anthologist Paul B. Janeczko creates a stirring fictional account of the 1944 Hartford circus fire.

One summer afternoon in 1944, hundreds of circus lovers crowded under the big top in Hartford, Connecticut, breathlessly waiting...

Author	Thalia Chaltas
ISBN	0670011991

Home is supposed to be a place you belong. It's supposed to be parents who are there and siblings who bug you and a life that feels comfortable. It's not supposed to be an absentee mother or a drowned sister. But that's Vera's reality, and she can't stand it anymore. So she runs. She ends up in an old mining...

Author	Kirsten Smith
ISBN	0316017353

On her fourth birthday Penny received a globe from her mother: "If you ever need me . . . just remember I'll always be somewhere on here." Two weeks later her mother left, never to return. In a powerful verse novel, Penny charts the landscape of her high-school years--her older sister's wild ways, her best...

Author	Ching Yeung Russell
ISBN	1600604234

Growing up in Hong Kong in the 1960s, Yeung Ying is tired of hearing how important boys are. After all, she can write letters and recite poems as well as even better than her boy cousins.

Luckily, Yeung Ying's mother thinks "girls and boys are just the same." Despite protests from her husband s...

Author

Terri Fields

A look at the effects of one girl's suicide on her high school

"I can feel
The whispering of the hallway walls
Growing louder as the groups gather.
Each clique adding to its morning input.

"Did you hear?"
"Who told you?"
"Do you think it's really true?"

New...

Author	Marlene Carvell
ISBN	0525475478

In prose poetry and alternating voices, Marlene Carvell weaves a heartbreakingly beautiful story based on the real-life experiences of Native American children. Mattie and Sarah are two Mohawk sisters who are sent to an off-reservation school after the death of their mother. Subject to intimidation...

Author	April Halprin Wayland
ISBN	0440419034

You walk into class—
my head clears.

No kidding.
You are my aspirin.

One girl. One school year. All poems. From friends to first dates, school dances to family fights, this inspiring collection captures the emotional highs and lows of teen life with refreshing honesty...

Author	Helen Frost
ISBN	0374309620

Two sisters, Jeannie and Sarah, tell their separate yet tightly interwoven stories in alternating narrative poems. Each sister - Jeannie, who leaves Scotland during the Highland Clearances with her father, mother, and the younger children, and Sarah, who hides so she can stay behind with her grandmother...

Author	Susan Taylor Brown
ISBN	1582461805

When her mom runs away from home, Rachel is left behind with her emotionally distant father and many questions she cannot answer. Over time, she learns the truth about her mom. But it's only when she learns the truth about her dad, the rock- immoveable and always there for her to lean on-that Rachel can...

Author	Steven Herrick
ISBN	1932425721

Through rich, vivid poetry, Harry Hodby brings readers into his remote Australian town. He documents the mundane and unique qualities of daily life and the quirkiness of the townspeople, and gives a lively sense of locale. Three-dimensional characters come alive as Harry offers his insightful take...

Author	Tracie Vaughn Zimmer
ISBN	1599900378

Josie Wyatt knows what it means to be different. Her family's small farmhouse seems to shrink each time another mansion grows up behind it. She lives with her career-obsessed mom and opinionated Gran, but has never known her father. Then there's her cerebral palsy: even if Josie wants to forget that...

Author	Ron Koertge
ISBN	0763617423

In a startling, often poignant student journal, acclaimed poet and novelist Ron Koertge creates a suburban high school both familiar and terrifying.

The Branston High School Class of 2001 seems familiar enough on the surface: there’s the Smart One, the Fat Kid, Social Conscience, Bad...

Author	Jen Bryant
ISBN	0375827528

Imagine you are Bruno Richard Hauptmann, accused of murdering the son of the most famous man in America.

In a compelling, immediate voice, 12-year-old Katie Leigh Flynn takes us inside the courtroom of the most widely publicized criminal case of the 20th century: the kidnapping and murder...

Author	Margarita Engle
ISBN	0805089365

Daniel has escaped Nazi Germany with nothing but a desperate dream that he might one day find his parents again. But that golden land called New York has turned away his ship full of refugees, and Daniel finds himself in Cuba.

As the tropical island begins to work its magic on him, the young refugee...

Author	Robert Cormier
ISBN	0440228549

Eugene is remembering the summer of 1938 in Frenchtown, a time when he began to wonder “what I was doing here on the planet Earth.” Here in vibrant, exquisite detail are his lovely mother, his aunts and uncles, cousins and friends, and especially his beloved, enigmatic father. Here, too, is the world...

Author	Ann Clare LeZotte
ISBN	0547046847

To see this review and to learn more about T4 please visit www.readrantrockandroll.com

T4 by Ann Claremont Lezotte is a book about Hitler's Tiergartenstrasse 4 or better known as T4, a Nazi program that ordered the death of all disabled and mentally ill people.

The story follows a...

Author	Sally Murphy
ISBN	0763648213

At school, Pearl is a group of one, and at home her beloved granny is fading. A poignant gem of a tale about independence, grief, and finding your place.

Pearl likes to write poems, but despite the insistence of her teacher, Ms. Bruff, Pearl's poems don't rhyme, and neither does she. She wishes...

Author	Stephanie Hemphill
ISBN	0786837454

Sarah used to be the good girl. The one who always had her hand raised in class, always obeyed her parents.
Until she met Robin. Once Robin comes into the picture, Sarah's life changes. Her closet begins to fill with black clothes. Good grades become something to be studiously avoided. And maintaining...

Author	Mel Glenn
ISBN	0140385134

Nominated for the prestigious Edgar Allan Poe Award of the Mystery Writers of America

An ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults

Award-winning author and poet Mel Glenn presents a unique mystery told through a series of free verse poems.

When popular Tower High English teacher...

Author	Eileen Spinelli
ISBN	0375858709

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NEW GRAND OPENING!
 
The grand opening of the Dancing Pancake isn't the only new thing in Bindi's life: new friends, a new apartment, maybe even a cute new crush? But there are other changes, like her dad's move to a new...

Author	Wendy Phillips
ISBN	1550504118

Teen violence, bullying and the burning quest to fit in are presented in the poems of four unforgettable high school students: Natalie, Kyle, Tricia, Miguel. Their stories unfold in this explosive new book told in free verse. A story of teen angst like no other, it is based on fictional characters but...