A mysterious package arrives on Clay Jensen’s front porch. Within it he finds cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker. Hannah was Clay’s classmate, co-worker and crush. That is until she committed suicide two weeks ago. Clay finds a cassette player and listens in anguish as Hannah’s voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay spends the evening and night following with Hannah’s map all over town listening to Hannah’s voice and learning about events that brought her such hopelessness.
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Behemoth is a sequel to Westerfeld’s Levithan. Rescued by the crew of the Leviathan, Alek and his men save the floating air ship from an attack by Clanker ships. Ships that have a Tesla cannon as a weapon! However, the captain of the Levithan feels that the order to turn the airship out of way of the lightning strike may be a mutinous act and places Alek’s men under arrest. Deryn has managed to keep her secret and continues to serve as Dylan Sharp in the British Air Service aboard the Levithan. She assists Alek and his men in escaping when the Leviathan touches down in Istanbul where Alek hopes he will find allies or at least disappear until the war is over. But it just so happens that Istanbul is crawling with Clankers!
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The Underneath is a magical story set deep in the Bayou Tartine that twists the story of a calico cat and Ranger, a bloodhound, with the Native American legend of Grandmother Moccasin and the Alligator King. Ranger, alone and sad, is chained to Gar Face’s porch. Gar Face, a hard cruel man, is disgusted with Ranger, no longer uses him to hunt and neglects him. It’s Ranger’s mournful howl that attracts the calico cat to the Underneath where she becomes Ranger’s dear friend. The calico cat gives birth to two kittens. Ranger and the mother cat begin to raise Sabine and Puck together keeping them safe from Gar. Meanwhile, Grandmother Moccasin waits imprisoned in a clay jar buried under an old tree that has been struck by lightning. She has waited a thousand years for her freedom and she knows it is near. She is bitter and angry. While she waits to escape her underground prison, she shares her sorrowful story. Like Grandmother Moccasin, Gar is bitter and angry but he is also mean and cruel. He has is sights set on catching the Alligator King.
If you enjoyed classic stories, like Sounder and The Yearling, or Where the Red Fern Grows and Shiloh, The Underneath is a must read.
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The Land of Silver Apples is Farmer’s sequel to The Sea of Trolls. Back from his adventure with the Vikings, Jack is continuing his training as a bard. Lucy is even more spoiled by their father, and nearly brings the whole village bad luck during the Need-Fire ceremony by wearing a metal necklace. At the last minute, she is replaced by Pega, a slave girl. When his father, Giles Crookleg, tries to buy Pega for Lucy, Jack purchases Pega’s freedom. Giles kicks Jack out of the house. Lucy’s behavior further deterioates leaving the Bard to believe that she has been possessed. But then Giles reveals that one day when Lucy was a baby, she was switched by small, misshapened men while he picked hazelnuts. These men took the real Crookleg baby and left Lucy in her place. Mother insists that Giles find these little men that took their daughter and bring her home. Giles, the Bard, Father Aiden, Pega, Lucy and Jack set off on another adventure that will take some of them into the world of hobgoblins, kelpies and elves.
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Percy Jackson is back! Although, he is not quite sure who exactly he is since Juno has stolen his memory. He finds himself battling gorgon sisters all the way from Napa to the Berkeley HIlls where Juno leads him to Camp Jupiter, a Roman camp for demigods. Here Percy meets Hazel Levesque and Frank Zhang. Hazel is daughter of Pluto, and formerly of New Orleans and the year 1942. Hazel has a big heart and a big secret. Frank has yet to be claimed by his godly parent. He’s klutzy and his only friend in camp is Hazel. Oh, and Frank also has a secret. Frank and Hazel are members of the disgraced Fifth Cohort and have yet to win at war games. These two unlikely heroes are chosen by the camp’s praetor, Reyna, to accompany Percy on an impossible quest to the north to save Camp Jupiter.
Tags:Rick Riordan; The Heroes of Olympus
Dayven wants with all his heart to become a Guardian but then he passes the Wizard Test. Wizards are distrusted by the Guardians, the protectors of Tharn. Dayven’s cousin and best friend, Soren, will soon take the Guardian’s oath. Dayen is told he has a choice as long as he doesn’t heal a person with his magic, he can take the Guardian’s oath. But first he is sent on a mission for the Guardians to spy on his newly appointed wizard teacher, Reddick.
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Linger, the second book in the Wolves of Mercy Falls and sequel to Shiver, finds Sam surviving the winter on his own without his pack. Sam and Grace are inseparable. When the temperature warms, Cole and Victor shift from wolves to humans. Victor is unable to maintain either form leaving an unfeeling Cole, who wants desparately to escape the human world and remain a wolf forever, to wonder is there more to shifting than temperature. Sam, the leader of the pack in Beck’s absence, must find a way to keep everything under control especially as Grace’s fever continues to linger and her symptoms escalate.
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Roots and Blues is a poetry book that celebrates the roots of American blues. Adoff creates a narrative of rhythm from the drum beats of African ancestors to the red dirt of the plantation fields. Feel the sadness and misery. Feel the hope and faith. Follow the beat of the words as they shape into the unique American music of The Blues.
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Written in the prose style of authors like Karen Hesse and Sonya Sones, Thanhha Lai weaves the story of a family’s life and journey from Vietnam to Alabama after the fall of Saigon. Ha along with her mother and three older brothers live in Saigon in 1975. Their father is serving in the Navy and has been missing in action for nine years. Ten-year-old Ha’s mother does her best to keep her family together in the tough times after the United States pulls out of Vietnam and the communists of North Vietnam move closer to their city. The family decides to flee Vietnam on a navy ship when Saigon collapses and through Ha’s eyes we learn about life on the ship, in refugee camps and finally about adjusting to life in Alabama in 1976. If you found Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl interesting, then you would should find Inside Out and Back Again just as interesting for it deals with the strength and courage families find to survive in the chaotic times of war.
Tags:Anne Frank:The Diary of a Young Girl; Vietnam War: refugees
Westerfeld’s latested series goes steam punk (a blending of future and past). World War I is on the horizon. Clankers (Austrian-Hungarians and Germans) versus the Darwinists (British). The Clankers have machines that walk and zepplins. The Darwinists have genetically altered beasts for every kind of job. Leviathan tells the story of Alek, a young prince, on the run with his men from the Germans, and Deryn Sharp who has disguised herself as Mr. Dylan Sharp to join the British Air Service. In alternating dual chapters, readers follow Alex’s escape and Dylan’s rise to a middie on the Leviathan, an ecosystem airship made of all kinds of “beasties.” Their paths cross unexpectedly, throwing these “boys” from different belief systems into a situation where they will need to trust each other. Leviathan is an interesting mesh of machines and beasts. A great adventure!
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