HATE LIST by Jennifer Brown

 

Sixteen-year-old Valerie, whose boyfriend Nick committed a school shooting at the end of their junior year, struggles to cope with integrating herself back into high school life, unsure herself whether she was a hero or a villain.



Subjects:
School shootings -- Fiction. Juvenile fiction.
High schools -- Fiction.
Schools -- Juvenile fiction.
Emotional problems of teenagers -- Juvenile fiction.
Forgiveness -- Juvenile fiction.
Emotional problems -- Fiction.
Family problems -- Fiction.
Forgiveness -- Fiction.

Flight of Shadows by Sigmund Brouwer

I enjoyed this series with a strong female protaganist.  Mr. Brouwer was almost a guest speaker at Metro Tech in December of 2010 but poor weather trapped him in Montana and he never made it to Phoenix.  We look forward to his visit sometime in the future.
In a future world where the fundamentalist government distorts true Christianity, a winged girl named Caitlyn escapes to the Outside, but she soon finds herself on the run from an organizationseeking her body's genetic information.  Copyright 2010.
Sequel to: Broken angel.
Subjects:
Christian life -- Fiction.
Genetic engineering -- Fiction.
Survival -- Fiction.
Science-Fiction.
Christian fiction.

Planting the Trees of Kenya by C. Nivola

A children's books tells the story of Wangari Maathai, a native Kenyan who taught the people living in the highlands how to plant trees and care for the land.
Subjects:
Maathai, Wangari.
Biography -- Juvenile literature.
Women conservationists.
Kenya.
Kenyans.
Women politicians.
Conservationists.

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

Murakami's latest novel is powerfully intriguing with all the fantasy and mystery of a novel written within the genre of magical realism. He is my most favorite author- capturing all the elements that make reading novels worthwhile.

BOOKLIST: Murakami writes two kinds of novels: short, intimate, crystalline portraits of lovers, often trapped in alternate worlds or struggling between secret selves that submerge the reader in a tidal wave of story. When Murakami melds fantasy and realism, mystery and epic, it is no simple genre-bending exercise; rather, it is literary alchemy of the highest order. This foray into what is unquestionably Murakami's most vividly imagined parallel world begins simply, with two seemingly ordinary events: two lonely 10-year-olds, a boy and a girl, Tengo and Aomame, hold hands in an empty classroom, and for the next 20 years, while never seeing one another, they dream of meeting but are strangely paralyzed to make it happen.
Then Aomame, a 30-year-old woman in 1984 and an assassin who kills men who abuse women walks down an emergency exit from a Tokyo expressway and finds herself in another world, which she calls 1Q84, a world overseen by two moons and ruled, apparently, by the quixotic little people.
Meanwhile, Tengo has rewritten a novel by an enigmatic 17-year-old girl that accurately describes the world of 1Q84. As the lives of Tengo, Aomame, and a Dostoyevskian private investigator, who works for a religious cult that worships the little people, swirl closer and closer together, Murakami draws the reader deeper and deeper into this utterly baffling universe, switching narration between the three principal characters, each of whom grasps only a small part of their two-mooned world. Gradually but inexorably, the tension builds, as we root passionately for Tengo and Aomame to find one another and hold hands again, so simple a human connection offering a kind of oasis in the midst of the unexplainable and the terrifying.
Subject:
Love story.
Mystery -- Fiction.
Fantasy -- Fiction.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia

Don't be fooled by the pretty cover- this is a book for guys!! 
Living in a small South Carolina town, sixteen-year-old Ethan is powerfully drawn to Lena, a new classmate with whom he shares a psychic connection and whose family hides a dark secret that may be revealed on her sixteenth birthday.  Copyright 2009.

Subject:
Supernatural -- Fiction.
Psychic ability -- Fiction.
Love -- Fiction.
High schools -- Fiction.
Dreams -- Fiction.
Recluses -- Fiction.
Psychics -- Fiction.
Love -- Fiction.
High schools -- Fiction.
Dreams -- Fiction.
Hermits -- Fiction.
South Carolina -- Fiction.
South Carolina -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction.

DIVERGENT by Veronica Roth 2011

In a future Chicago, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomoly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.

Subject:
Identity -- Fiction.
Families -- Fiction.
Courage -- Fiction.
Social classes -- Fiction.
Science fiction.

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

NIX PIX-
This is a book that is accessible and will appeal to many. Narrated and told from the dog’s perspective, it has elements of suspense, action, love, major family drama, and deals with life and death in an inspirational manner. While the subject headings say dogs and race car drivers, it is so much more. I loved it and highly recommend to all. Please give yourself a special treat and read this book.

Subjects:
Dogs Fiction.
Automobile racing drivers Fiction.

Summary from book: Enzo, the dog of professional race car driver Denny Swift, recalls the memories of his life and shares his insight into the human condition that he learned from observing his owner.

Lexile Measure: 850

Reviews & Awards
Booklist 03/15/08 Teacher Librarian 02/01/10
Kirkus Review 03/01/08 Wilson's Fiction 03/01/09
Library Journal 04/01/08