AHS+Summer+2009

A painted picture of what life is like as a teenager. 16-year-old Emily wanted to enjoy her summer tanning with her friends, but once her best friend has a boyfriend, things changed, they feel weird. Once Emily gets a prestigious scholarship to an art school in Philadelphia, it takes more than a new place and new people to help her discover herself. After finding out he isn’t all human, 16-year-old Robert Smith runs away from the government agents trying to pin murder to him. With his new friend, a criminal, 19-year-old Eddi, they try to figure out where Robert //really// came from. As the only member left of the Volson clan, 15-year-old Sigurd takes a sword given to her father and embarks on a mission to reunite his country. While Jimmy is in France with his family and friends, he is also running from NJ7, a British army that designed and programmed him. Jimmy then finds out that there is another genetically altered person, whose mission it is to bring Jimmy back to London. Gull, a supposed oracle who counsels kings must choose between Destiny and Adventure, when the arrival of a Trojan Prince and nine black ships promised her to take her back to her mother’s people. . ** BIOGRAPHY/AUTOBIOGRAPHY ** Author describes his childhood, and his fight with his addiction to crystal meth and heroin at a young age, his relapse after being sober for 18 months, and the path he took to recovery. After living in a homeless shelter for teens for twenty years, the author goes back to volunteer in the shelter she lived in when she was homeless. Recounts the experience of Grace Akallo, who was forced to enter the Lord’s Resistance Army in northern Uganda at just fifteen. Fadumo recollects the experience of undergoing female genital mutilation at age 7. She discusses the complications that led to her many different countries. ** FAMILY MATTERS ** High school student, Kendra longs to live with her mother who, unprepared for motherhood at age fourteen, left Kendra in the care of her grandmother. When she is abandoned by her alcoholic mother, high school senior Ruby winds up living with Cora, the sister she has not seen for ten years, and learns about Cora's new life, what makes a family, how to allow people to help her when she needs it, and that she too has something to offer others. Fourteen-year-old Henry, wishing to honor his brother, Franklin's dying wish, sets out to hike Maine's Mount Katahdin with his best friend and dog, but fate adds another companion--the Cambodian refugee accused of fatally injuring Franklin--and reveals troubles that predate the accident. ** HISTORICAL FICTION/MULTICULTURAL FICTION ** During the 1967 school year, on  Wednesday   afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker's classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns much of value about the world he lives in. Chandra Kabelo, a teenaged African girl, must save her younger siblings after they are kidnapped and forced to serve as child soldiers in General Mandiki's rebel army. This epic story of a mute boy, his loyal dog, and his family’s betrayal at the hands of his bitter uncle. Miles Shaw goes to live with his father, a jazz musician, in New Orleans, and together they survive the horrors of Hurricane Katrina in the Superdome, learning about each other and growing closer through their painful experiences. ** HUMOR ** ** Frankie ** Landau-Banks attempts to take over a secret, all-male society at her exclusive prep school, and her antics with the group soon draw some unlikely attention and have unexpected consequences that could change her life forever. After being assigned to perform community service at a nursing home, sixteen-year-old Alex befriends a cantankerous old man who has some lessons to impart about jazz guitar playing, love, and forgiveness. After a nasty fall, Naomi realizes that she has no memory of the last four years and finds herself reassessing every aspect of her life. Fourteen-year-old San, an ethnic Chinese adopted by an Anglo-American couple as an infant, is as culturally American as apple pie, but he reinvents himself as a mysterious Zen Buddhist when "the thing" with his dad gets "ugly," and he and his mom leave Houston for a new life in Pennsylvania. ** MYSTERY/THRILLER ** Sixteen-year-old Londoner Lucas Swain, left in possession of the ashes of Violet Park, becomes convinced that Violent is communicating with him, initiating a voyage of self-discovery that forces him to finally confront the events surrounding his father's sudden disappearance. In Mallory, New York, as five sisters, aged eleven to seventeen, deal with assorted problems, conflicts, fears, and yearnings, a mysterious middle-aged man watches them, fascinated, deciding which one he likes the best. One month before graduating from his Central Florida high school, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen basks in the predictable boringness of his life until the beautiful and exciting Margo Roth Spiegelman, Q's neighbor and classmate, takes him on a midnight adventure and then mysteriously disappears. ** LIVING TODAY ** Julia DiVino has vowed never to join a gang, but she faces some difficult decisions when her dream guy, Eric Valiente, becomes a gang member. When an African American high school student is beaten with a baseball bat in a white neighborhood, three boys are charged with a hate crime. It’s summertime in Bed-Stuy “Do or Die” Brooklyn, and Kate is feeling down in the dumps. Not only is she tired of her raggedy, tomboy image, but she’s also missing her best friend, Felicia, who’s away for the summer. Lonely and not exactly getting along with her new foster mother, Lynn, Kate so badly wants to be out and about, twirling pretty, and partying---and maybe catching the attention of her longtime crush, Charles. Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the skinniest. But what comes after size zero and size double-zero? When Cassie succumbs to the demons within, Lia feels she is being haunted by her friend's restless spirit. ** NON-FICTION ** Greg Mortenson recounts the experiences he had while trying to help impoverished villages in Pakistan's Karakoram Himalaya build schools for their children. An overview of post-traumatic stress disorder that discusses the history, causes, and treatments of the disorder and explores research and how the United States is helping soldiers deal with stress on the frontlines. Fadumo Korn recalls her experiences after undergoing female genital mutilation at the age of seven, a common ritual in her Somali tribe, discusses the complications that led her to Mogadishu, Rome, and Germany where she had reconstructive surgery, and urges anti-FGM activists to be sensitive to traditional practices. The author provides an account of life in Sierra Leona at the end of the civil war that raged in the country for eleven years, told from his viewpoint as an outsider who had spent some time in the country years earlier, as well as the perspective of Sewa Bockarie Marah, a leader in the People's Party. Swanson has penned a gripping young adult version of the 12-day hunt for the President Abraham Lincoln’s killer, John Wilkes Booth. ** SCI-FI/FANTASY ** Meet Nobody Owens. He hasn’t had a haircut in well, ever, his usual uniform is a gray winding sheet, and his best friends are a vampire named Silas and a long-dead girl named Liza. That’s because Nobody (or Bod for short) has been raised in graveyard with ghosts (Mr. and Mrs. Owens, to be specific) Will le Fey, an orphan of uncertain parentage defeats an evil mechanical war dragon who has enslaved him and his village. Will finds himself displaced by war, imprisoned in an internment camp and then transported to the many-miles-high city of Babel. On the way, he falls in with Esme, an immortal child with no memory, and Nat Whilk, a donkey-eared confidence man of superhuman abilities. Continues the story of the human Bella and the vampire Edward whose love is threatened by their differences, a werewolf named Jacob, and other outside influences. In the latest episode of Oppel’s Victorian steampunk fantasy, young pilot-in-training Matt Cruse and scientific wunderkind Kate DeVries go back up, up, up into the wild blue yonder, only this time they continue on—into the black maw of space. ** SPORTS ** High school senior Drew Lawson has dreams. Drew can hardly ignore his dream, as it runs in his blood, fills his heart and soul, and consumes his every waking moment. His dream is all about one sport --- basketball! When David is confronted by angry gang members and malicious teammates, he finds out what it really means to run for your life. As the city of San Juan pulses to summer’s sluggish beat, its teenage soccer prodigy, El Brujito, the Little Magician, vanishes without a trace — right after he misses a penalty kick and loses a big game for his team. Paul Faustino, South America’s top sports reporter, is reluctantly drawn into the mystery of the athlete’s disappearance. A deftly woven mystery flush with soccer and suspense. ** GRAPHIC NOVEL ** A graphic novel adaptation of Eoin Colfer's novel in which a twelve-year-old evil genius tries to restore his family fortune by capturing a fairy and demanding a ransom in gold; but the fairies fight back with magic, technology, and a particularly nasty troll. Alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese Americans trying to participate in popular culture and high school. After a bombing in the city, Jane's parents move to a suburb where she befriends a three outcasts--all named Jane--and starts a group called People Loving Art in Neighborhoods which tries to enrich their community with art but instead is viewed as a threat. ** ADVENTURE ** A painted picture of what life is like as a teenager. 16-year-old Emily wanted to enjoy her summer tanning with her friends, but once her best friend has a boyfriend, things changed, they feel weird. Once Emily gets a prestigious scholarship to an art school in Philadelphia, it takes more than a new place and new people to help her discover herself. After finding out he isn’t all human, 16-year-old Robert Smith runs away from the government agents trying to pin murder to him. With his new friend, a criminal, 19-year-old Eddi, they try to figure out where Robert //really// came from. As the only member left of the Volson clan, 15-year-old Sigurd takes a sword given to her father and embarks on a mission to reunite his country. While Jimmy is in France with his family and friends, he is also running from NJ7, a British army that designed and programmed him. Jimmy then finds out that there is another genetically altered person, whose mission it is to bring Jimmy back to London. Gull, a supposed oracle who counsels kings must choose between Destiny and Adventure, when the arrival of a Trojan Prince and nine black ships promised her to take her back to her mother’s people. . ** BIOGRAPHY/AUTOBIOGRAPHY ** Author describes his childhood, and his fight with his addiction to crystal meth and heroin at a young age, his relapse after being sober for 18 months, and the path he took to recovery. After living in a homeless shelter for teens for twenty years, the author goes back to volunteer in the shelter she lived in when she was homeless. Recounts the experience of Grace Akallo, who was forced to enter the Lord’s Resistance Army in northern Uganda at just fifteen. Fadumo recollects the experience of undergoing female genital mutilation at age 7. She discusses the complications that led to her many different countries. ** FAMILY MATTERS ** High school student, Kendra longs to live with her mother who, unprepared for motherhood at age fourteen, left Kendra in the care of her grandmother. When she is abandoned by her alcoholic mother, high school senior Ruby winds up living with Cora, the sister she has not seen for ten years, and learns about Cora's new life, what makes a family, how to allow people to help her when she needs it, and that she too has something to offer others. Fourteen-year-old Henry, wishing to honor his brother, Franklin's dying wish, sets out to hike Maine's Mount Katahdin with his best friend and dog, but fate adds another companion--the Cambodian refugee accused of fatally injuring Franklin--and reveals troubles that predate the accident. ** HISTORICAL FICTION/MULTICULTURAL FICTION ** During the 1967 school year, on  Wednesday   afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker's classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns much of value about the world he lives in. Chandra Kabelo, a teenaged African girl, must save her younger siblings after they are kidnapped and forced to serve as child soldiers in General Mandiki's rebel army. This epic story of a mute boy, his loyal dog, and his family’s betrayal at the hands of his bitter uncle. Miles Shaw goes to live with his father, a jazz musician, in New Orleans, and together they survive the horrors of Hurricane Katrina in the Superdome, learning about each other and growing closer through their painful experiences. ** HUMOR ** ** Frankie ** Landau-Banks attempts to take over a secret, all-male society at her exclusive prep school, and her antics with the group soon draw some unlikely attention and have unexpected consequences that could change her life forever. After being assigned to perform community service at a nursing home, sixteen-year-old Alex befriends a cantankerous old man who has some lessons to impart about jazz guitar playing, love, and forgiveness. After a nasty fall, Naomi realizes that she has no memory of the last four years and finds herself reassessing every aspect of her life. Fourteen-year-old San, an ethnic Chinese adopted by an Anglo-American couple as an infant, is as culturally American as apple pie, but he reinvents himself as a mysterious Zen Buddhist when "the thing" with his dad gets "ugly," and he and his mom leave Houston for a new life in Pennsylvania. ** MYSTERY/THRILLER ** Sixteen-year-old Londoner Lucas Swain, left in possession of the ashes of Violet Park, becomes convinced that Violent is communicating with him, initiating a voyage of self-discovery that forces him to finally confront the events surrounding his father's sudden disappearance. In Mallory, New York, as five sisters, aged eleven to seventeen, deal with assorted problems, conflicts, fears, and yearnings, a mysterious middle-aged man watches them, fascinated, deciding which one he likes the best. One month before graduating from his Central Florida high school, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen basks in the predictable boringness of his life until the beautiful and exciting Margo Roth Spiegelman, Q's neighbor and classmate, takes him on a midnight adventure and then mysteriously disappears. ** LIVING TODAY ** Julia DiVino has vowed never to join a gang, but she faces some difficult decisions when her dream guy, Eric Valiente, becomes a gang member. When an African American high school student is beaten with a baseball bat in a white neighborhood, three boys are charged with a hate crime. It’s summertime in Bed-Stuy “Do or Die” Brooklyn, and Kate is feeling down in the dumps. Not only is she tired of her raggedy, tomboy image, but she’s also missing her best friend, Felicia, who’s away for the summer. Lonely and not exactly getting along with her new foster mother, Lynn, Kate so badly wants to be out and about, twirling pretty, and partying---and maybe catching the attention of her longtime crush, Charles. Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the skinniest. But what comes after size zero and size double-zero? When Cassie succumbs to the demons within, Lia feels she is being haunted by her friend's restless spirit. ** NON-FICTION ** Greg Mortenson recounts the experiences he had while trying to help impoverished villages in Pakistan's Karakoram Himalaya build schools for their children. An overview of post-traumatic stress disorder that discusses the history, causes, and treatments of the disorder and explores research and how the United States is helping soldiers deal with stress on the frontlines. Fadumo Korn recalls her experiences after undergoing female genital mutilation at the age of seven, a common ritual in her Somali tribe, discusses the complications that led her to Mogadishu, Rome, and Germany where she had reconstructive surgery, and urges anti-FGM activists to be sensitive to traditional practices. The author provides an account of life in Sierra Leona at the end of the civil war that raged in the country for eleven years, told from his viewpoint as an outsider who had spent some time in the country years earlier, as well as the perspective of Sewa Bockarie Marah, a leader in the People's Party. Swanson has penned a gripping young adult version of the 12-day hunt for the President Abraham Lincoln’s killer, John Wilkes Booth. ** SCI-FI/FANTASY ** Meet Nobody Owens. He hasn’t had a haircut in well, ever, his usual uniform is a gray winding sheet, and his best friends are a vampire named Silas and a long-dead girl named Liza. That’s because Nobody (or Bod for short) has been raised in graveyard with ghosts (Mr. and Mrs. Owens, to be specific) Will le Fey, an orphan of uncertain parentage defeats an evil mechanical war dragon who has enslaved him and his village. Will finds himself displaced by war, imprisoned in an internment camp and then transported to the many-miles-high city of Babel. On the way, he falls in with Esme, an immortal child with no memory, and Nat Whilk, a donkey-eared confidence man of superhuman abilities. Continues the story of the human Bella and the vampire Edward whose love is threatened by their differences, a werewolf named Jacob, and other outside influences. In the latest episode of Oppel’s Victorian steampunk fantasy, young pilot-in-training Matt Cruse and scientific wunderkind Kate DeVries go back up, up, up into the wild blue yonder, only this time they continue on—into the black maw of space. ** SPORTS ** High school senior Drew Lawson has dreams. Drew can hardly ignore his dream, as it runs in his blood, fills his heart and soul, and consumes his every waking moment. His dream is all about one sport --- basketball! When David is confronted by angry gang members and malicious teammates, he finds out what it really means to run for your life. As the city of San Juan pulses to summer’s sluggish beat, its teenage soccer prodigy, El Brujito, the Little Magician, vanishes without a trace — right after he misses a penalty kick and loses a big game for his team. Paul Faustino, South America’s top sports reporter, is reluctantly drawn into the mystery of the athlete’s disappearance. A deftly woven mystery flush with soccer and suspense. ** GRAPHIC NOVEL ** A graphic novel adaptation of Eoin Colfer's novel in which a twelve-year-old evil genius tries to restore his family fortune by capturing a fairy and demanding a ransom in gold; but the fairies fight back with magic, technology, and a particularly nasty troll. Alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese Americans trying to participate in popular culture and high school. After a bombing in the city, Jane's parents move to a suburb where she befriends a three outcasts--all named Jane--and starts a group called People Loving Art in Neighborhoods which tries to enrich their community with art but instead is viewed as a threat.
 * ADVENTURE **
 * Same Difference- Siobhan Vivian **
 * Being- Kevin Brooks **
 * Bloodsong- Melvin Burgess **
 * Jimmy Coates: Target- Joe Craig **
 * Black Ships: a novel- Jo Graham **
 * Tweak - Nic Sheff **
 * Have you found her - Janice Earlbaum **
 * Girl Soldier - Faith J.H. McDonnell **
 * Born in the Big Rains: A Memoir of Somalia and Survival - Fadumo Korn **
 * Kendra- Coe Booth **
 * Lock and Key- Sarah Dessen **
 * Trouble- Gary D. Schmidt **
 * The Wednesday Wars- Gary D. Schmidt **
 * Chanda’s Wars- Allan Stratton **
 * The Story of Edgar Sawtelle A Novel- David Wroblewski **
 * Hurricane Song- Paul Volponi **
 * The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks: A Novel- E. Lockhart **
 * Notes From the Midnight Driver- Jordan Sonnenblick **
 * Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac- Gabrielle Zevin **
 * Zen and the Art of Faking It- Jordan Sonnenblick **
 * Me, the Missing, and the Dead- Jenny Valentine **
 * The Missing Girl- Norma Fox Mazer **
 * Paper Towns- John Green **
 * Snitch- Allison Van Diepen **
 * Response-Paul Volponi **
 * Hot Girl- Dream Jordan **
 * Wintergirls- Laurie Halse Anderson **
 * 3 Cups of Tea- Greg Mortenson **
 * Post Traumatic Stress Disorder- Peggy Thomas **
 * Born in the Big Rains: A Memoir of Somalia and Survival- Fadumo Korn **
 * In Sierra Leone- Michael Jackson **
 * Chasing Lincoln’s Killer- James Swanson **
 * The Graveyard Book- Neil Gaman **
 * The Dragons of Babel- Michael Swanwick **
 * Breaking Dawn- Stephanie Meyer **
 * Starclimber- Kenneth Oppel **
 * Game- Walter Dean Myers **
 * Hurricane Power- Sigmund Brouwer **
 * The Penalty – Mal Peet **
 * Aretmis Fowl- The Graphic Novel **
 * American Born Chinese- Gene Luen Yang **
 * The Plain Janes – Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg **
 * Same Difference- Siobhan Vivian **
 * Being- Kevin Brooks **
 * Bloodsong- Melvin Burgess **
 * Jimmy Coates: Target- Joe Craig **
 * Black Ships: a novel- Jo Graham **
 * Tweak - Nic Sheff **
 * Have you found her - Janice Earlbaum **
 * Girl Soldier - Faith J.H. McDonnell **
 * Born in the Big Rains: A Memoir of Somalia and Survival - Fadumo Korn **
 * Kendra- Coe Booth **
 * Lock and Key- Sarah Dessen **
 * Trouble- Gary D. Schmidt **
 * The Wednesday Wars- Gary D. Schmidt **
 * Chanda’s Wars- Allan Stratton **
 * The Story of Edgar Sawtelle A Novel- David Wroblewski **
 * Hurricane Song- Paul Volponi **
 * The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks: A Novel- E. Lockhart **
 * Notes From the Midnight Driver- Jordan Sonnenblick **
 * Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac- Gabrielle Zevin **
 * Zen and the Art of Faking It- Jordan Sonnenblick **
 * Me, the Missing, and the Dead- Jenny Valentine **
 * The Missing Girl- Norma Fox Mazer **
 * Paper Towns- John Green **
 * Snitch- Allison Van Diepen **
 * Response-Paul Volponi **
 * Hot Girl- Dream Jordan **
 * Wintergirls- Laurie Halse Anderson **
 * 3 Cups of Tea- Greg Mortenson **
 * Post Traumatic Stress Disorder- Peggy Thomas **
 * Born in the Big Rains: A Memoir of Somalia and Survival- Fadumo Korn **
 * In Sierra Leone- Michael Jackson **
 * Chasing Lincoln’s Killer- James Swanson **
 * The Graveyard Book- Neil Gaman **
 * The Dragons of Babel- Michael Swanwick **
 * Breaking Dawn- Stephanie Meyer **
 * Starclimber- Kenneth Oppel **
 * Game- Walter Dean Myers **
 * Hurricane Power- Sigmund Brouwer **
 * The Penalty – Mal Peet **
 * Aretmis Fowl- The Graphic Novel **
 * American Born Chinese- Gene Luen Yang **
 * The Plain Janes – Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg **