Kissing the Bee

Author	Mary Hershey
ISBN	1595141502

“Mom didn’t think it was funny when I took off my leg at school, put it in my locker, and then tied a rag around my stump with fake blood on it. After that, though, the kids at school pretty much knew if anyone was going to be cracking jokes about my leg, it was gonna be me.” So says thirteen-year-old Alastair...

Author	Laura Resau
ISBN	0385734662

ONE NIGHT SOPHIE and her parents are called to a hospital where Pedro, 6-year-old Mexican boy, is recovering from dehydration. Crossing the border into Arizona with a group of Mexicans and a coyote, or guide, Pedro and his parents faced such harsh conditions that the boy is the only survivor. Pedro comes...

Author	Jessica Lee Anderson
ISBN	1571316892

The mixed-race son of apple pickers, Manz lives with his hard-drinking mother and her truck-driver boyfriend in the hardscrabble world of dusty Rockhill, Texas. Forced to take a summer job rebuilding fence of a cattle ranch, Manz works alongside his friend Jed and meets a girl named Vanessa — but...

Author	David Hernandez
ISBN	0061173304

Numerous reasons exist to prompt a reader into picking up this book for National Hispanic Heritage Month. The reader should pay attention to the development of masculinity. Hernandez cleverly unravels the danger of macho-bullshit. Enrique, the character who is most abused, embraces a tough guy...

Author	Autumn Cornwell
ISBN	0312367929

“I’ve got my entire life planned out for the next ten years — including my PhD and Pulitzer Prize,” claims 16-year-old overachiever Vassar Spore, daughter of overachiever parents, who in true overachiever fashion named her after an elite women’s college. Vassar expects her sophomore...

Author	Christopher Paul Curtis
ISBN	0440413311

Luther T. Farrell has got to get out of Flint, Michigan.

As his best friend Sparky says, “Flint’s nothing but the Titanic.”

And his mother, a.k.a. the Sarge, says, “Take my advice and stay off the sucker path.”

The Sarge milked the system to build an empire of slum...

Author	Ron Koertge
ISBN	0763629391

"This funny and poignant novel celebrates the power of writing to help young people make sense of their lives and unlock and confront their problems." - SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL (starred review)

When MVP Kevin Boland gets the news that he has mono and won't be seeing a baseball field for a while,...

Author	Garret Keizer
ISBN	1611689155

In the remote mill town of Salmon Falls, Vermont, the dead of winter can feel like death itself. Jobs are scarce, kids are bored, and it sometimes seems there’s nothing better to do than drink. But when eighteen-year-old Kyle Nelson and a motley group of friends decide to challenge both the legal drinking...

Author	Geert Spillebeen
ISBN	0618800352

As a young man, Rudyard Kipling was devastated when his military application was rejected because of poor eyesight. Although Rudyard would go on to win England’s highest accolades, he never got over this lost opportunity to serve his country.

When World War I broke out, John, like his father...

Author	Alison McGhee
ISBN	0763626171

"Children will come away thinking they have heard something quite profound about love, fear, and hope for the future."
- Booklist (starred review)

Eddie Beckey makes lists for just about everything and everyone in her life. And for matters of real importance, she wears (and snaps) an...

Author	Kate Morgenroth
ISBN	1416914382

How can I know what's going to happen?

But somehow he did know. The feeling was like déjà vu but stronger...and scarier. It told him that without a doubt something was going to happen. And it was going to be bad.

***

In the year since Justin's younger brother, Mark, died in a...

Author	Julie Gonzalez
ISBN	0385732287

The character Will is such a bully! But he got what he deserved by being put in jail. He pressured all his friends (Ryan,Daniel,and Connor) in to playing the game russian roulet. He finally got Connor and Ryan to take a turn, but he thought Daniel was to chicken (which he was). Then Will decided to make daniel...

Author	Graham Salisbury
ISBN	0440229111

Fishing. This is it, the big time. Mikey's 13, a deckhand working on a charter boat in Hawaii. Working for the best skipper anywhere, his stepdad, Bill. Before Bill came along, it was just Mikey and his mom. Now they're a real family, and Mikey has a little brother. He can't believe how lucky he is. And now...

Author	Lisa Levchuk
ISBN	0374322384

Lately I feel like an astronaut out on a space walk – constantly praying the tube attaching me to the ship doesn’t snap and send me flying into outer darkness.
 
The only good thing about having a mother with cancer is that people are willing to let you get away with pretty much anything. Like...

Author	Susan Shaw
ISBN	1416961291

24 DEAD, 2 SURVIVORS
HOW CAN YOU FIX THAT?
TELL ME HOW!

Anger. Sadness. Rage. Grief. Guilt.

Joey Campbell experiences them all, even though he knows what he should really feel is lucky. Lucky to have survived the fire that burned Village Park High School to the ground. Lucky...

Author	Will Weaver
ISBN	0374317259

Maybe it was bad karma. Maybe it was just bad luck. Whatever the reason, fifteen-year-old David was born defective. His bug eyes, pinched face, and hearing aids are obvious, but there is a secret David keeps from everyone, even his foster parents. Because of a thin layer of skin hidden under each arm,...

Author	Arthur Slade
ISBN	0440229758

Percy’s father, a famous anthropologist, died in Africa four years ago; and Percy has taken on his father’s eyes to see the world as a brilliant Observer. He and his friend Elissa are fascinated by the ritualistic world called Grade Twelve: the Jock tribe; the Teacher tribe; the Born Again tribe;...

Author	Linda Oatman High
ISBN	1590785843

For sixteen-year-old Sahara, "life and death and everything in between" depends on the color of a little stick in this YALSA/ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant YA Readers. She waits three long minutes, praying to Jesus, Mary, and all the saints that the stick will turn blue, meaning she isn't pregnant. Instead,...

Author	Jacquelyn Wheeler
ISBN	0982516061

Ashlyn Woods can't wait to put her past behind her and start her life over as a normal college student. But her plans take an unexpected turn when she discovers that she is a Soterian: a person who develops amazing powers when the balance of good and evil shifts too far in evil's favor. Soon she and the other...

Author	Blake Nelson
ISBN	0765314231

Seventeen-year-old Emily and her best friend Reese can't wait for summer vacation on Cape Cod. Every year, it's the same thing: high hopes that they may finally hook up with some cool guys...and it never happens. But this year, they're sure it's going to be different. So it's totally amazing when out...

Author	Timothy Carter
ISBN	0738715395

Book of Stuart, Chapter 1:10. 10 And, yea verily, Stuart did commit the Sin of Onan in the shower. And this was witnessed by his own brother who did cry out unto their mother. And there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. 11 And the townspeople rose up against him and all Onaners, calling upon one another...

Author	Marcella Pixley
ISBN	0374324530

For Miriam Fisher, a budding poet who reads the Oxford English Dictionary for fun, seventh grade is a year etched in her memory "clear as pain." That's the year her older sister, Deborah, once her best buddy and fellow "alien," bloomed like a beautiful flower and joined the high school in-crowd. That's...

Author	Sara Lewis Holmes
ISBN	0545107954

No one in her sixth-grade class knows quite what to make of Ms. Loupe, with her short hair, her taped square "stage" on the floor, and the interest in improvisational theatre. After all, their school is on an Air Force base--a place that values discipline more than improv. But her students soon come to...

Author	Julia Baskin
ISBN	0446578622

Everyone likes to think they started the notebook. Sophie claims she stole the idea from two girls in her math class. Courtney still has a death grip on the theory that the notebook was her invention. Lindsey doesn't really care; she's just along for the ride. And Julia never knows what's going on anyway.What...

Author	Raymond Bean
ISBN	1439201307

Book #1 in the Sweet Farts Series. Check out book # 2 Sweet Farts: Rippin' It Old SchoolSomeone has been farting up a storm at school and everyone thinks Keith Emerson is to blame. Unfortunately for Keith, it has earned him the nickname "S.B.D." (silent but deadly). To make matters worse, Keith's dad is...