1. What’s Hot and What’s Not
What teens really read…and then tell their friends to read!
What bookclubs really read and tell their friends to read!
Karol Sacca
Retired -but never tired of reading
Parachute, CO 81635
Colorado Teacher of the Year Finalist 2004
Lucy Schweers
Excellence in Paralibrarianship 2012

4. Eleanor & Park Rainbow Rowell
1986
2 geeky narrators
Park: Korean/white
Eleanor “thinks she is fat” wild clothes-hair etc
School bus ride-first love
OK this one wins all my votes…must read!

5. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight Jennifer E. Smith
Incredible, near perfect clean love story
Takes place in a 24 hour period
Girl: misses plane to attend dad’s remarriage in London
Boy: meets girl while waiting at airport-sits next to her on plane
The apart then together? Forever?
This is a perfect “clean” love story

6. The Chosen One Carol Lynch Williams
“Your heart will race, teeth grind and the brow bead with sweat”
Young girl told she must marry her uncle
BUT she has fallen in love with a kind young man
Can she(they leave) leave the compound
I would have never selected this one..but it captured me!
Old one but a great girl’s read!
Need a got to get your reading..this is one of my 233 picks

7. Falling for You Lisa Schroeder
Terrible home life-stepfather ugh!
Great job at flower shop
Falls in “love” with very possessive boy-too much
Tension created by storytelling model

8. Love and Other Perishable Items Laura Buzo
Set in Australia
H.S. girl (16 years old) gets job at local grocery story
Falls crazy in love with at 20 something yr old
Of course he is on love with someone else
Great dialogue-fun read

9. Just One Day Gayle Foreman
High school grad gets dream tip to Europe
Meets Dutch actor
Slips away on an unplanned trip to Paris where he disappears.
She returns to U.S. to
Ugh! sequel…his story due fall 2013

10. Easy Tamara Webber
College age girl attends costume party-designated driver
Goes to leave and rape attempted-graphic
“Rescued” by a stranger
Great resource material at end
Consider pair to the true story

11. In Too Deep Amanda Grace
Rumor starts to snowball
Party-drinking…
Carter raped Sam(girl), when in fact it is a lie
BUT Issues with Carter…did he rape others?
Could be a great girls only book club

12. Rape Girl Alina Kline
Flip Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson and you have it
Girl tells of her rape!
Reactions: oh my

14. The Girl who was Suppose to Die by April Henry
“Take her out back and kill her off…”
Girl, Stolen: kidnapped in back of car
The Night She Disappeared-girl goes out to deliver pizza…never returns
One of my 233 go to reads

15. Shadowlands Kate Brian
Rory (girl) is in witness protection
New town, new friends until one is missing
The serial killer she turned in is hunting her
High school-graphic violence

16. If We Survive by Andrew Klavan
4 kids and sponsor go to Central America to rebuild a school
Community LOVES them…then
Revolution…oh my.. page 1
They are targeted to die
Can they get out?
Can they survive?

17. Boy Nobody by Allen Zadoff
New kid in school, no real friends then zap someone dies…
a Jason Bourne-like assassin
Get assignments from “The Program”
But is the program wearing off?
High action, quick start

19. Call the Shots Don Calame
Oh! the boys are back
Book 3 of their adventures.
This adventure: a low- budget horror film
Adventure #1: see and prove you have seen a full( frontal) in real life naked girl.
Adventure #2: safe sex and winning a band contest when no one plays an instrument.

20. realism

21. A Thousand Words By Jennifer Brown
Topic: Sextexting
The girl send nude photo to senior boyfriend…she is drunk
The ripple in the pond effect
Realistic

22. Boy 21 Matthew Quick All about high school basketball
Finley is the only white kid on his team
Coach says new kid “Boy 21” (super star was perfect until a family tragedy… ( Parents have been murdered)
Boy 21 claims he is extraterrestrial who parents are coming (from space) to get him
Goal: get the new kid back in the game!

23. 34 Pieces of You Carmen Rodrigues
Ellie is dead: drug overdose
34 strips of paper hidden in a box under Ellie’s bed
Secrets revealed when brother, best friend and sister look into her death

24. Crazy Dangerous Andrew Klavan
“Do Right -Fear Nothing”
Bully theme
Preacher’s kid gets into the wrong crowd
Strong bully theme-tried to rescue a girl
Not his best
Like Christian message?

25. My Book of Life by Angel Martine Leavitt
16 yr old girl caught up in drugs then prostitution
Gritty-real-she so longs for a home-to love her
Then “Call” (pimp)brings home an 11 year old girl
Girls go missing but why?
Free verse simple
High school and above

26. May B Caroline Starr Rose
Middle school and beyond
1800’s sod houses
Girl sent to aid another settler recently married to a “Mail-order” bride
Terror-survivor tale
Middle school

27. I Hunt Killers- Game Barry Lyga
Jazz’s father is a very famous serial killer..now in prison and has been 4 years.
Jazz was “trained” by dad…
Now there is a serial killer loose in his town
So…is he it? Did he do it?
Shivers…bodies etc

28. The Last Thing I Remember The Long Way Home – Truth of the Matter- The Final Hour by Andrew Klavan
Great opening
Charlie wants to go to Air Force, is skilled in karate finds himself tied to a chair surrounded with instruments of torture
Perfect for hard to please male readers
Series:“The Homelanders”
Easy go to series 4 boys

30. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Setting: WWII Britain
2 best girlfriends: one shot down over France
Interrogation (Nazi torture)that reveals an amazing friendship
Read it twice…second time you see the puzzle that was there all along
Easily an adult read

31. Once-Then –Now Morris Gleitzman
"This story is my imagination trying to grasp the unimaginable"
“Everyone needs a family, no matter where it’s found”
Holocaust tale-Poland 1942
Not necessary to read #1 but helpful
Felix and Zelda jump from a Nazi death train
All about survival
Meets Genia –character lives forever in my heart

32. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
Baltic States lost more than one-third of their populations during the Russian genocide.
1939
16 year old Lina, Mom and brother are deported to face labor camp in Siberia
Dad? Hopefully he is in another camp
Lina creates art in hopes it will reach him
Question age range of readability

33. Great adult or teen read Inspiring Both have adult and YA versions
I am a SEAL Team Six Warrior: memoirs of an American Solider by Howard Wasdin
Great adult or teen read
Inspiring
Both have adult and YA versions
Pair for The Alex Project

34. Never Fall Down Patricia McCormick
Arn is taken from his home by the Khmer Rouge
Becomes a child solider
What a way to learn history.

36. Blink Once Cylin Busby Young man paralyzed in hospital.
He is only able to blink of communicate
is encourages by a young woman..is she real or not
What happened?

37. Starters Lissa Price Enter the future Setting Beverly Hills
16 yr old Callie hires her body out to those who want to experience being young again-”inhabit her”
This works until her body will commit murder unless her mind can stop it!
Enders the sequel out end of 2013

38. Crash by Lisa McMann Start of a 4 book series “Visions”
Girls has reoccuring visions that are amazing clear -9 body bags, snow, accident
Visions are on TV, billboards
Knows one of the faces-boyfriend…can she stop ?
(Dead to You: Kid kidnapped year later returns)

39. Fracture Megan Miranda
Accident, underwater too long
Should be dead-should have brain injury
Perfect…. Except she is drawn to those who are going to die…
Easy hook book for boy male and female

40. Michael Vey- Prisoner of Cell –Rise of Elgen Richard Paul Evans
Oh my what an electrifying read.
9th grade Michael is being bullied- has one friend-also an outcast-genius”
Michael has a crush on the pretty high school cheer leader
Both Michael and the girl discover very special “gifts”
One of my 233 go to books

42. Ashfall –Winterfall Mike Mullen
Iowa Teen experiences explosion---attempts to find parents
Explosion due to Yellowstone eruption
Survival
2 of 3 released
Sunrise Book 3 of Ashfall (Mike Mullen) spring 2014

43. Classics (they and you just don’t know it yet)

44. The Liberation of Gabriel King by K. L. Going
Old one but a great one
2 5th graders have all summer to conquer their fears
Setting: the south- 1976
Great read aloud for young and old-Alex Project for middle school
Themes: bullying, race relations

45. Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
A classic in the making
Enter 10 year old Caitlyn’s mind as she processes her brother’s death.
(Asperger’s Syndrome)
Strong tie To Kill a Mockingbird
Listed as a “J” could/should be an adult read.
Tender-memorable- a must read
National Book Award winner
This is a MUST on your reading list, not sure teens will find it!

46. Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Richard Jacobson
Mom has always been unpredictable- odd
Go tent camping in Acadia National Park
With very little food, supplies and money he awakes to no mom, car gone
Perfect read aloud
Survival skills, who to tell-not to tell-how long to wait

48. Me before You by Jo Jo Moyes
Current day England
Wealth young man quadraplegic
Care giver (young lady)
More than a love story?
Ethical questions abound
Great audio

49. 29: a novel by Adena Halpern
A Birthday wish comes true …76 yr. old wants to be 29 again
Great LIGHT read
Great discussion for a ladies book club, might be fun for an intergenerational group

50. Frozen in Time by Michael Zuckoff
WWII and current day
Plan crashes in Greenland, attempted recovery missions then and now.
Great audio
If a book club selection the question has to be at what cost ?

51. One Shot at Forever by Chris Ballard
Alex Award winner
Baseball, small town and one magical season

52. Calling Me Home Julie Kibler
Oh my, oh my this is incredible! Grab it today!
One black hairdresser, one white 80 something on a road trip
Told in 2 addictive voices
Mix “Scout”, The Help, Driving Miss Daisy and you have a winner here.

53. Juliet in August by Dianne Warren
ADULT READ
Enter a small town in Canada
Fall in love with:
A banker, his wife, their daughter’s wedding plans
A farm family that can’t make it
Perfect!
If you love Ken Haruf (Plainsong)same style

54. Schroder Amity Gaige A “love”letter written from prison
Dad persuades you how much he loves his estranged wife and daughter
How incredible to appeal to the reader in this manner

55. Power of Habit Charles Duhigg
A must read or better listen!
Go in small doses
Take a peek at why you do what you do!
Starbucks, Fabreeze…

56. The Mountain between Us by Charles Martin
Set in Colorado
No award winner just a good story
Terrible storm in Colorado Springs, hire a private plane to skirt storm….