Spotlight On... Grand Canyon Reader Nominees (Part 3)
--by Hanje Richards
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The Grand Canyon Reader Award (GCRA) is a reader award program for students in Arizona. Students vote annually on their favorite book in the following categories: Picture, Non-Fiction, Intermediate, ‘Tween, and Teen. This blog post features the Young Adult ("Teen") Fiction Nominees for the 2011 GCRA that are available at the Copper Queen Library. Past posts have featured “Easy Fiction,” “Easy Nonfiction,” "'Tween" and "Intermediate" nominees available at the Copper Queen Library.
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Beastly (Ale
x Flinn) - Privileged, popular, and proud, high school student Kyle Kingsbury knows he can get away with virtually anything because of his good looks and his father's money. But Kyle goes too far when he sets out to humiliate a mysterious and unpopular girl at the school dance. The girl turns out to be a witch who casts a spell on Kyle, turning him into a beast who is now as ugly on the outside as he is on the inside. The only way for Kyle to break the curse is to fall in love with someone who will look past his appearance and love him in return. Modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
Beastly (Ale
x Flinn) - Privileged, popular, and proud, high school student Kyle Kingsbury knows he can get away with virtually anything because of his good looks and his father's money. But Kyle goes too far when he sets out to humiliate a mysterious and unpopular girl at the school dance. The girl turns out to be a witch who casts a spell on Kyle, turning him into a beast who is now as ugly on the outside as he is on the inside. The only way for Kyle to break the curse is to fall in love with someone who will look past his appearance and love him in return. Modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast..
Disreputabl
e History of Frankie Landau-Banks (E. Lockhart) - Frankie Landau-Banks has developed into a 15-year-old with an attention-grabbing figure, a new attitude, and sights set on making changes at her elite boarding school. She has a new boyfriend, a gorgeous senior who belongs to a long-standing secret society on campus — The Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, known mostly for silly pranks and a history of male-only membership. Frankie manipulates the Loyal Order to do her bidding with pranks meant to make a political statement about the male-dominated and classist nature of the school.
e History of Frankie Landau-Banks (E. Lockhart) - Frankie Landau-Banks has developed into a 15-year-old with an attention-grabbing figure, a new attitude, and sights set on making changes at her elite boarding school. She has a new boyfriend, a gorgeous senior who belongs to a long-standing secret society on campus — The Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, known mostly for silly pranks and a history of male-only membership. Frankie manipulates the Loyal Order to do her bidding with pranks meant to make a political statement about the male-dominated and classist nature of the school.Graceling (
Kristin Cashore) - Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight – she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug. When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change. She never expects to become Po’s friend. She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace — or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away... a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.
Kristin Cashore) - Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight – she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug. When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change. She never expects to become Po’s friend. She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace — or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away... a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone. .
The Hun
ger Games (Suzanne Collins) - In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one girl and one boy between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she takes her sister’s place to represent her district in the Games. But Katniss has also resolved to outwit the creators of the games. To do that, she will have to be the last person standing at the end of the deadly ordeal, and that will take every ounce of strength and cunning she has.
ger Games (Suzanne Collins) - In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one girl and one boy between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she takes her sister’s place to represent her district in the Games. But Katniss has also resolved to outwit the creators of the games. To do that, she will have to be the last person standing at the end of the deadly ordeal, and that will take every ounce of strength and cunning she has..
I Am Scout: The Biography of Harper Lee (Charles J. Shields) - Harper Lee is a mysterious figure who leads a very private life in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, refusing to give interviews or talk about the novel that made her a household name. Lee’s life is as rich as her fiction, from her girlhood as a rebellious tomboy to her days at the University of Alabama and early years as a struggling writer in New York City.
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Little Brother (Cory D
octorow) - Marcus is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works — and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems. But, his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days. When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.
Little Brother (Cory D
octorow) - Marcus is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works — and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems. But, his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days. When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself..
Me, the Mi
ssing and the Dead (Jenny Valentine) - Lucas feels surrounded by the missing: his sister avoids home, his mother is absorbed in a midlife crisis, his grandfather has dementia, and his journalist father went missing years ago. With so many ghostlike family members, it’s not surprising that Lucas begins to sense a connection with the dead. While waiting in a London office lobby, a funeral urn draws his attention, and he feels an overpowering urge to know the person inside. A string of ensuing coincidences tie him — and his father — to the deceased, Violet, a famous pianist.
ssing and the Dead (Jenny Valentine) - Lucas feels surrounded by the missing: his sister avoids home, his mother is absorbed in a midlife crisis, his grandfather has dementia, and his journalist father went missing years ago. With so many ghostlike family members, it’s not surprising that Lucas begins to sense a connection with the dead. While waiting in a London office lobby, a funeral urn draws his attention, and he feels an overpowering urge to know the person inside. A string of ensuing coincidences tie him — and his father — to the deceased, Violet, a famous pianist..
Mexica
n White Boy (Matt de la Peña) - Danny's tall and skinny. Even though he’s not built, his arms are long enough to give his pitch a power so fierce any college scout would sign him on the spot. Ninety-five mile per hour fastball, but the boy’s not even on a team. Every time he gets up on the mound he loses it.
n White Boy (Matt de la Peña) - Danny's tall and skinny. Even though he’s not built, his arms are long enough to give his pitch a power so fierce any college scout would sign him on the spot. Ninety-five mile per hour fastball, but the boy’s not even on a team. Every time he gets up on the mound he loses it.But at his private school, they don’t expect much from him. Danny’s half Mexican. And growing up in San Diego means everyone else knows exactly who he is before they find out he can’t speak Spanish, and before they realize his mom has blond hair and blue eyes. And that’s why he’s spending the summer with his dad’s family. To find himself, he might just have to face the demons he refuses to see right in front of his face.
My Mother th
e Cheerleader (Robert Sharenow) - Louise Collins was pretty certain that nothing all that exciting would happen in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, where she lived with her mother in their boarding house. Every day was almost the same. But when desegregation begins, Louise is pulled out of school and her mother joins the Cheerleaders, a group of local women who gather every morning to heckle six-year-old Ruby Bridges, William Frantz Elementary's first African-American student. Then one day, a Chevy Bel Air with a New York license plate pulls up to the house and out steps Morgan Miller, a man with a mysterious past. For the first time, Louise feels as if someone cares about what she thinks. But when the reason for Morgan's visit comes to light, everything Louise thinks she knows about her mother, her world, and herself changes, abruptly and irrevocably.
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..Nation (Terry Prachett) - When a giant wave destroys his village, Mau is the only one left. Daphne – a traveler from the other side of the globe — is the sole survivor of a shipwreck. Separated by language and customs, the two are united by catastrophe. Slowly, they are joined by other refugees. And as they struggle to protect the small band, Mau and Daphne defy ancestral spirits, challenge death himself, and uncover a long-hidden secret that literally turns the world upside down.
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Paper Town
s (John Green) - Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life — dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge — he follows. After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues — and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.
s (John Green) - Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life — dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge — he follows. After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues — and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew..
Sight
(Adrienne Maria Vrettos) - Fifteen-year-old Dylan has horrific visions of the last moments of a child's life — a child who has been abducted, kidnapped, or worse. Dylan gives the police valuable clues that help them to find children's bodies, but she keeps the most personal information about these young victims to herself. Dylan has become used to withholding her sight abilities — even from her best friend, Pilar — but the weight of that secret is becoming almost more than she can bear.
Sight
(Adrienne Maria Vrettos) - Fifteen-year-old Dylan has horrific visions of the last moments of a child's life — a child who has been abducted, kidnapped, or worse. Dylan gives the police valuable clues that help them to find children's bodies, but she keeps the most personal information about these young victims to herself. Dylan has become used to withholding her sight abilities — even from her best friend, Pilar — but the weight of that secret is becoming almost more than she can bear..
Sunr
ise Over Fallujah (Walter Dean Myers) - Robin "Birdy" Perry, a new Army recruit from Harlem, isn't quite sure why he joined, but he's sure where he's headed: Iraq. Birdy and the others in the Civilian Affairs Battalion are supposed to help secure and stabilize the country and successfully interact with the Iraqi people. Officially, the code name for their maneuvers is Operation Iraqi Freedom. But the young men and women in the CA unit have a simpler name for it: WAR
Sunr
ise Over Fallujah (Walter Dean Myers) - Robin "Birdy" Perry, a new Army recruit from Harlem, isn't quite sure why he joined, but he's sure where he's headed: Iraq. Birdy and the others in the Civilian Affairs Battalion are supposed to help secure and stabilize the country and successfully interact with the Iraqi people. Officially, the code name for their maneuvers is Operation Iraqi Freedom. But the young men and women in the CA unit have a simpler name for it: WAR .
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Three Cups 
of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace… One School at a Time (Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin) - A homeless mountaineer, following a 1993 climb of Pakistan’s treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he built fifty-five schools — especially for girls — that offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on Earth.
of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace… One School at a Time (Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin) - A homeless mountaineer, following a 1993 climb of Pakistan’s treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he built fifty-five schools — especially for girls — that offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on Earth. .
Wi
ntergirls (Laurie Halse Anderson) - Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in fragile bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the thinnest. But then, Cassie suffers the ultimate loss — her life — and Lia is left behind, haunted by her friend's memory and racked with guilt for not being able to help save her. Explores Lia's struggle, her painful path to recovery, and her desperate attempts to hold on to the most important thing of all — hope.
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ntergirls (Laurie Halse Anderson) - Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in fragile bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the thinnest. But then, Cassie suffers the ultimate loss — her life — and Lia is left behind, haunted by her friend's memory and racked with guilt for not being able to help save her. Explores Lia's struggle, her painful path to recovery, and her desperate attempts to hold on to the most important thing of all — hope..
World War 
Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (Max Brooks) - The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women and, sometimes, children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result.
Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (Max Brooks) - The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women and, sometimes, children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result.
posted by msbw @ 10:11 PM
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