News & Articles

Attucks!: Oscar Robertson and the Basketball Team That Awakened a City by Phillip M. Hoose tells the story of the basketball team at Crispus Attucks High School in Indiana. While the school was originally intended to segregate African American students from their Western counterparts, ten promising athletes on the basketball team went on, despite all odds, to compete in the state tournament of Indiana. They shattered previous records and rose to fame instantly; their fame was so great that coaches from other schools began taking in African American basketball players.

Catching Fire was a sequel to the original Hunger Games, and it continued the series in a very interesting way. In the last book, Katniss and Peeta had just become the first co-winners of the Hunger games. However, Snow and other leaders in the capital saw this as an act of rebellion and needed a way to stop the uprisings caused by the results of the games. So, the Capitol decides the next Hunger Games will be a special one, composed of previous winners. Since the games required male and female winners from each district, Katniss was automatically in the next Hunger Games.

Left Out by Tim Green is a realistic fiction novel about a new kid moving into a new school with cochlear implants. The kid’s name is Landon Dorch, he is in the seventh grade, and he is one of the tallest and biggest kids in his grade, so he joins the football team. However, the kids on the team make him feel unwanted because of his hearing problems. He also has little to no football knowledge and doesn’t play in the games. Then, he makes a surprising friend named Brett.

The book The Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian is an adventurous dystopian novel about a 16 year old girl that has more experience with danger than most other girls her age would. Theodosia was once an Astrean princess. That however, was before the kalovaxians captured the astreans and started used them as slaves. At the start of the siege, Theodosia’s mother, the queen was murdered when Theo was only 6. The war continued harshly after that. Thousands of astreans had died every day fighting against the Kaiser/King’s army but they didn’t give up.

Girls Like Us by Gail Giles tells the story of two special education students who initially dislike each other. When their guidance counselor mandates that they stay together for the predictable future, they are not overjoyed. After all, they barely got along during their first encounter and it seems like they won’t get along in the future either. Soon, however, they see past their differences and into the persons they have really become. They realize that their situation is mutually advantageous: Biddy needs help as a Russian immigrant and Quincy has her own secret to hide.

This novel is a great read. Its a great book that will keep you wondering what will happen to young Stanley Yelnats. Full of friendships, mystery, treasure, and more. I highly recommend this novel for young teen readers. After reading you can also watch the movie that corresponds with the novel. I think that the characters in this book are great role models in all different ways. They each represent a different struggle they have been through and how that has shaped their personality. 

The Hunger Game story is broken up into three books. The first book is The Hunger Games and takes place in a different universe where the United States of America is broken up into thirteen districts which all have different jobs to provide for the capital. Some of these include mining and farming. Each year for the entertainment of the rich in the capital, the Hunger Games takes place. From each of the thirteen districts, one female and one male is chosen to represent their district and have to fight to be the last one alive in a rural environment.

Unslut: A Diary and a Memoir by Emily Lindin tells the life story of Emily Lindin, a Boston Native who was branded a “slut” in sixth grade. For the next few school years, she had to learn to navigate her new reputation and cope with her shame. At that point in her life, she was not very interested in her own sexual orientation or the lives of others; rather, she was more interested in “impressing” those around her, even if such impressing required activities considered raunchy.

On a Clear Day by Walter Dean Myers is a dystopian novel that tells the story of Dahlia, a sixteen year old who lives in the Bronx in the year 2035. Her society is divided into classes based on wealth. At the top are the big corporations that control much of the world’s access to essential resources. Meanwhile, the people at the other classes have no hope of moving up the social ladder. While Dahlia doesn’t have the courage to work to dismantle the social structure at first, she is eventually contacted by a secret American group that aims to free the world from corporate hegemony.

We Were Liars is an amazing fictional story written by E. Lockhart. The book takes place in Massachusetts with the main protagonist who is a seventeen-year-old teenage girl. Her grandfather owns a private island where her whole extended family always spends the summers away from everything. Cadence has been going there since she was a little kid and has a very close bond with three others there. She even ends up falling in love with a friend of her cousin who recently started going there with her.

Endurance, Young Readers Edition: My Year in Space and How I Got There by Scott Kelly tells the story of Scott Kelly’s own life in space. In the book, Kelly details the conditions he had to make do with on board the International Space Station. While he was sent on the mission as part of a study that wanted to determine the impact of space on aging bodies, he made good use of his time aboard the space shuttle. For example, he helped grow the first plants in space and chatted with top-ranking officials on his experiences, which was invaluable to the legacy he would create for himself.

VIRAL: The Fight Against AIDS in America by Ann Bausum tells the story of the decades-long struggle for AIDS recognition in America. The AIDS pandemic started in the mid-1970s, mostly among gay men. As the pandemic became more widespread, individuals realized the devastating nature of the disease. Individuals who were once healthy would be reduced to skin and bones in a matter of months, if not weeks. The federal government offered little to no help; federal funding was not allocated to AIDS research.

Malcolm X: Fighting for Human Rights by Jeff Burlingame tells the life story of Malcolm X, an African-American whose family was frequently harassed by the Ku Klux Klan during his childhood. Malcolm knew this harassment was unfair and began to channel his anger and resentment into systematic activism. His father was killed in 1931, so Malcolm had to quit school to help his family. Eventually, he was able to live in Boston with the help of his sister, but he spent a significant amount of time in prison for street crime.

Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzalez tells the story of Ollie, the protagonist of the novel, who experiences a family emergency and thus has to move from sunny California to North Carolina. When Ollie is in North Carolina, he meets a person named Will and often hangs out with him over the summer. But, when school begins, he finds out that Will is a different person. The likable fellow he previously knew is now a jock, basketball player, and Ollie is unsure how to act around him.

Captured: An American Prisoner of War in North Vietnam by Alvin Townley tells the story of Jeremiah Denton, an United States Prisoner-of-War in a North Vietnamese prison. While on a mission to drop bombs in North Vietnam, the plane that Jeremiah Denton was piloting exploded, giving Denton no choice but to eject from his plane. While on the ground, he was spotted by North Vietnamese soldiers, who accused him of relaying secrets to the enemy. He was placed in solitary confinement and refused to provide any identifying information even though his oppressors frequently tortured him.