STORM: the Infinity Code by E.L. Young

Will and his friend Gaia attend a special school in England. They are both extremely bright. One day Gaia invites Will to join STORM, a group hoping to combat global strife. The group is headed by Andrew, a teen software designer, and millionaire. Another friend Caspian also belongs to the group. After rescuing a plane load of passengers during a solar explosion or CME, the three find out that a new weapon is being developed to create a black hole in space and destroy the new space hotel. Caspian's father has been kidnapped and has asked for Caspian's help with the project. By following him, Will, Gaia, and Andrew go to St. Petersburg, Russia and discover a secret missile launching site. They only have minutes to destroy the launcher before the new weapon explodes. Will discovers that his mother, an astrophysicist, has also been forced to work on the project. The three teenagers manage to destroy the device and Caspian and Roden Cutler, the man behind the plan are captured. This science fiction novel is packed with action and adventure. Will is an expert inventor, coming up with James Bond type gadgets to help with their quest. Gaia is a strong female character who creates bombs. All of the students are gifted. This would appeal to science fiction fans, gifted students, and those interested in science.

42 Miles by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer

Jo Ellen lives 42 miles from her father's farm. She and her mother live in Cincinnati during the week. She lives with her father on the farm during the weekends. She has two very different lives, even two names, Joey on the farm and Ellen in the city. She feels like she has two personalities and doesn't know who she really is. She decides she is going to become her own person. She takes the best of both worlds and combines them to become JoEllen. This book is a novel in verse.

Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

Auden decides to spend the summer with her father and new stepmother, Heidi, at the beach. They have just had a new baby, Thisbe, who is very fussy. Auden has always lived with her mother in the world of academia. She only concentrates on her studies, books, learning, classes. She walks into a totally different world of fun, relaxation, biking, babies. She meets Eli, whose best friend was killed. Together they spend their sleepless nights making up for all of the things Auden has missed in her lifetime - food fights, parties, making friends, beer joints, riding bicycles, prom. She gets scared when things get serious with Eli and at the same time, her father and Heidi separate. With the help of her new friends, she gets things back to normal and improves the relationships with both her father and her mother. She gets back with Eli and she, Eli, and her new friend Maggie go off to college in the fall.

The Letter Writer by Ann Rinaldi

Harriet Whitehead, 11, lives with her half-brother Richard, his wife Pleasant, their baby William, sister Margaret, and Mother Whitehead on a plantation in the South in 1831. Her best friend is Violet, who is her slave. Her brother is a Methodist minister and is very strict with her upbringing. Since Mother Whitehead is going blind, Harriet becomes her letter writer. She begins correspondence with her Uncle Arthur in England and writes all of Mother Whitehead's letters about the running of the plantation. She and Violet hear about a slave preacher named Nat Turner who baptizes in the river. They go to see him. Nat ends up working at their plantation and tells Harriet about a loving and forgiving God - very different from the vengeful God that Richard preaches about. Nat asks Harriet to draw a map for him of the surrounding area so that he can go to different plantations to preach to the slaves. What he ends up doing is leading a slave rebellion and killing 57 people on the surrounding plantations, including all of Harriet's family. Harriet and Violet are the only ones left. Harriet contacts her Uncle Arthur in England and tells him that everyone is dead. Harriet runs the plantation until Uncle Arthur can get there. She feels responsible for giving Nat the map. When Nat is captured, she is afraid that she will be blamed for the map. She and Violet find the map and Harriet wants to destroy it, but Uncle Arthur arrives and insists that they turn it in to the sheriff. Harriet finds out that Uncle Arthur is actually her father and that Violet is her half-sister.

The book contains graphic descriptions of the killings done by Nat Turner. Uncle Arthur also explains about his affairs with a slave resulting in Violet's birth and also with a writer in England, who was Harriet's mother. Ann Rinaldi explains in notes at the end that Nat Turner is a great mystery to historians because they don't know why he revolted and killed all the people that he did. All of his previous life he had been a minister who preached peace and love. The author presents both sides of his personality without painting him as either a hero or a villain.

Ways to Live Forever by Sally Nicholls

Sam, 11, is dying of leukemia. He is being home schooled with his friend, Felix, who also has cancer. He lives with his mum, dad, and younger sister, Ella, who is 8. He decides to write a book about himself. Some of the book is lists that he makes to include in his book.
Things I want to Do -
1. Be a a famous scientist. Find things out and write books about them.
2. Break a world record. Not an athletic one, obviously. A silly one.
3. Watch all the horror films I'm not allowed to watch. Rs or NC-17s.
4. Go up down-escalators and down up-escalators.
5. See a ghost
6. Be a teenager. Do teenage things like drink and smoke and have girlfriends.
7. Ride in an airship.
8. Go up in a spaceship and see the earth from space.
In one way or another he fulfills his wish list. His friend Felix dies and he has many questions about death and dying and what it will be like. The book describes his treatment, his feelings about his illness and death, and he does die at the end of the book.
My only problem with the book is that it is English. There are many English words and phrases used. I don't know if students will understand all of them.
It's a tearjerker.

Pretty Like Us by Carol Lynch Williams

Beauty McElwarth lives in Florida and is starting 6th grade. Jamie Borget, her new teacher is dating her mom. Cody Nelson used to be her best friend, but now doesn't want to play with her any more because she is turning into a "girl". She is dreading her coming year at Green River School because she has no friends and is very shy. The teacher announces that they will have a new student in their class who has progeria, a disease that causes advanced aging. When Beauty returns from lunch she finds Mr. Borget talking to somebody's grandmother, who turns out to be Alane Shriver, the new student. Beauty wants so much to be a part of the in crowd that she runs out to recess to tell them all about Alane and calls her a freakoid. Eventually, Beauty and Alane become friends and Beauty realizes that her grandmother's favorite saying - "pretty is as pretty diz" - is true. The girls take Beauty's mother's restored Cadillac out one night after midnight and get rammed by a wild boar. Alane falls out of a swing and almost drowns. Beauty is so good for Alane because she treats her like a normal kid. She doesn't realize that Alane is going to die soon. When she finds out, she knows she must help Alane. Alane has always wanted to write a book and with Beauty's help, she writes Pretty Like Us.

Double-click for Trouble by Chris Woodworth

Eddie McCall and his mom live in Chicago. His best friend Jared (Whip - he puts Miracle Whip on everything) lives in the same building. One day Jared finds a picture of a naked girl on the computer and talks Eddie into signing up for an online dating service. Eddie's mom, Linda, finds out and ships him off for vacation to Uncle Peaveys. Uncle Peavey is an old bachelor with some very strange habits. He eats standing up, out of the pan, puts newspapers on the floor so he doesn't have to sweep, and fixes lawn mowers and tractors for a living. He has no computer and lives in the little town of Sheldon, Indiana, which has a Corn Festival. Ronnie (Veronica) helps Uncle Peavey fix things and is a real tomboy. Her sister Erin works at the convenience store and is beautiful. Eddie falls for Erin, but is embarrassed around her. He finds out that the library has internet access and goes there to check out his online dating service. When he prints a picture of a topless girl, he gets into trouble and Uncle Peavey finds out. Ordella Mae (Della), Peavey's friend, brings food over for them and becomes Eddie friend. When Old Mrs. Daly dies, her family comes back to town. Erin falls for Isaac, the oldest son, and Eddie finds out who his father is - not someone he is proud of. Eddie learns that although Uncle Peavey is strange, he is a very special person and cares more for his mother and him than he realized. He and Ronnie become better friends and decide to get Uncle Peavey together with his old girlfriend - who is not who they think she is.

This is a light hearted romance that deals with first love, teen curiosity, internet safety; told from a boys point of view.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The story of Liesel Meminger, a nine-year-old girl in Nazi Germany during World War II. Death is the narrator. Her younger brother Werner dies on a train in 1939. Her mother gives her up for adoption and she is adopted by Rosa and Hans Hubermann. The first book she steals is The Gravediggers Handbook, which she picks up in the snow at her brother's funeral. She can't read it, but it reminds her of him. Hans (Papa) teaches her to read at night when she can't sleep because of nightmares of her brother. Her best friend is Rudy, who lives down the street. He always wants to kiss her, but she refuses. Her mother does laundry and Liesel delivers it. One day the mayor's wife invites her into their home and shows her the library. She begins to read in the library and borrow the books one at a time. One day, a Jewish man, who knew Hans as a boy, shows up at their house. They hide him in the basement and Max and Liesel become friends. The Gestapo examine the basement at one point, but do not find Max. Max writes two books for Liesel, before he leaves and ends up in Dachau concentration camp. The air raids eventually begin and Liesel reads to the other people in the shelter during the raids. Her father, Hans, and Rudy's father, Alex, are drafted into the German army and Hans is assigned to the LSE who clean up the dead bodies after an air raid. He is sent there because he tried to give a Jewish man a piece of bread. He breaks his leg and is returned home. Liesel and Rudy also try to help the Jewish prisoners as they are marched through town and are whipped because of their efforts. Liesel and Rudy steal several books from Ilse Hermann's house (the mayor's wife). She knows they are doing it and leaves the window open and one time, cookies on the desk. One night Himmel Street is bombed and the air raid sirens don't go off in time. Everyone Liesel knows and loves is killed. She survives because she is down in the basement writing. The mayor's wife adopts her. She lives to an old age, marries and has children. When death comes to get her, he gives her The Book Thief, the book she has written about her life in Germany.
This was a marvelous book. Told from the viewpoint of the German people you see a different side of the war. With Death as the narrator, you also get a philosophical viewpoint of death and war. Words and books and writing are key concepts throughout the book and you realize the power of words in people's lives, especially during this time when radio and television were not available to everyone. The book is richly written with many similies, metaphors, personification. I found myself rereading sentences and paragraphs to absorb the richness of the language.

p. 9 - personification
p. 23 - conveyor belt of eternity
p. 26 - irony
p. 29 - grey - the color of Europe
p. 29 - similes and personification in bold print