Book Summaries

Here are some short descriptions of the books chosen yesterday. Again, it's going to be tough!

Th1rteen r3asons why : a novel
Asher, Jay.
When high school student Clay Jenkins receives a box in the mail containing thirteen cassette tapes recorded by his classmate Hannah, who committed suicide, he spends a bewildering and heartbreaking night crisscrossing their town, listening to Hannah's voice recounting the events leading up to her death. ~OPAC

Twilight
Meyer, Stephenie.
When seventeen-year-old Bella leaves Phoenix to live with her father in Forks, Washington, she meets an exquisitely handsome boy at school for whom she feels an overwhelming attraction and who she comes to realize is not wholly human. ~OPAC

Nobody's Princess
Friesner, Esther M.
Determined to fend for herself in a world where only men have real freedom, headstrong Helen,who will be called queen of Sparta and Helen of Troy one day, learns to fight, hunt, and ride horses while disguised as a boy, and goes on an adventure throughout the Mediterranean world. ~OPAC

Side Effects
Koss, Amy Goldman.
Everything changes for Isabelle, not quite fifteen, when she is diagnosed with lymphoma--but eventually she survives and even thrives. ~OPAC

Anne Frank and Me
Bennett, Cherie.
After suffering a concussion while on a class trip to a Holocaust exhibit, Nicole finds herself living the life of a Jewish teenager in Paris during the Nazi occupation. ~OPAC

Story of a Girl
Zarr, Sara.
In the three years since her father caught her in the back seat of a car with an older boy, sixteen-year-old Deanna's life at home and school has been a nightmare, but while dreaming of escaping with her brother and his family, she discovers the power of forgiveness. ~OPAC

Sloppy Firsts : a novel
McCafferty, Megan.
When her best friend, Hope, moves away from Pineville, New Jersey, 16-year-old Jessica Darling is devastated. Jessica is a fish out of water at school, a stranger at home, and now -- with the only person with whom she could really communicate gone -- more lost than ever. How is she supposed to deal with the boy-and-shopping-crazy girls at school, her dad's obsession with her track meets, and her nonexistent love life? Sloppy Firsts is an insightful, true-to-life look at Jessica's predicament, from the dark days following Hope's departure to her hopelessly mixed-up feelings about the intelligent and mysterious bad-boy who works his way into her life. Sloppy Firsts is right in line with some of the great teen crossover works of popular culture, like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and is sure to appeal to readers of all ages who appreciate the inherent humor of high school angst. ~OPAC

The Seeing Stone
Crossley-Holland, Kevin.
In late twelfth-century England, a thirteen-year-old boy named Arthur recounts how Merlin gives him a magical seeing stone which shows him images of the legendary King Arthur, the events of whose life seem to have many parallels to his own.~OPAC

At the Crossing-places
Crossley-Holland, Kevin.
In late twelfth-century England, the thirteen-year-old Arthur goes to begin his new life as squire to Lord Stephen at Holt, where crusaders ready themselves. ~OPAC

The Zero Game
Meltzer, Brad.
Wanna-be Washington power brokers devise a game in which staffers bet on which bills will become law and where money will be spent. The game turns deadly as its players become pawns, with the fate of the hero and the world resting in the hands of a teenaged intern. ~Amazon

If I Should Die Before I Wake
Nolan, Han.
As Hilary, a Neo-Nazi initiate, lies in a coma, she is transported back to Poland at the onset of World War II into the life of a Jewish teenager. ~OPAC

Having Our Say : the Delany Sisters' First 100 Years
Delany, Sarah Louise.
In this remarkable and charming oral history, two lively and perspicacious sisters, aged 101 and 103, reflect on their rich family life and their careers as pioneering African American professionals. Brief chapters capture Sadie's warm voice ("Now, I was a 'mama's child' ") and Bessie's fiestiness ("I'm alive out of sheer determination, honey!"). The unmarried sisters, who live together, tell of growing up on the campus of a black college in Raleigh, N.C., where their father was an Episcopal priest, and of being too independent for the men who courted them. With parental influence far stronger than that of Jim Crow, they joined professions--Sadie teaching domestic science, Bessie practicing dentistry. In 1920s Harlem they mixed with black activists and later were among the first to integrate the New York City suburb of Mount Vernon. While their account of the last 40 years is sketchy, their observations about everything from black identity to their yoga exercises make them worthwhile company. ~Publisher’s Weekly