Posts tagged with: friends

When Jeff Comes Home by Catherine Atkins

At thirteen, Jeff was kidnapped at knifepoint by a man he knows only as Ray, who holds him prisoner and sexually and emotionally abuses him for two and a half years before returning him to his family. Now Jeff is left to pick up the pieces of his life, all the while questioning how his …read more…

My Dad’s A Punk edited by Tony Bradman

Again, this book was another one of those lucky finds as I wandered around in the library: a book of short stories for reluctant readers, and a book about things boys think and wonder about written just for boys (many of whom are reluctant readers). The title story, by Sean Taylor, is probably my favorite, …read more…

Guys Write for Guys Read edited by Jon Scieszka

  What I love about books like Guys Write is that they remind me of those assortments of little boxes of cereal: you get a little bit of everything. Like those assortments, there’s no need to read a book like this straight through, or even to read all of it. You can dip in and …read more…

Atherton: The House of Power by Patrick Carman

The only world eleven-year-old Edgar has ever known is that of Tabletop. In the center of Tabletop are the cliffs that lead to the Highlands, but climbing those cliffs is strictly forbidden. At the outer edge, sheer cliffs descend to the unknown Flatlands. As an orphan, Edgar has always had to work for Mr. Ratikan, …read more…

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Update as of 26 October 2011: This book continues to be controversial. Only this past spring, I was asked to help fight a push to not just remove this book from the twelfth grade curriculum of a public high school, but to remove the book from the school library, as well. The irony is that …read more…

The Bumblebee Flies Anyway by Robert Cormier

Sixteen-year-old Barney Snow is the only patient in his hospital ward who isn’t dying. Unlike the other kids however, most of his memory is gone; he has only vague recollections of a car accident, and the knowledge that he is at the hospital as a service to others. At the heart of this story is …read more…

By the River by Steven Herrick

The year is 1962, and fourteen-year-old Harry Hodby lives in a small town in Australia. His mother died when he was seven, his friend (and potential girlfriend) Linda was swept away in a flood, and he, along with his father and younger brother Keith, are left to sort out their hardscrabble lives, coping with poverty, …read more…

My Name is Brain Brian by Jeanne Betancourt

If you’ve read my posts up to now, you’ll know how strongly I feel about what makes a book work or not. And if you’ve read my “10+ Rules” page (see the link above) and I tell you that the first chapter of this book is called “The Jokers Club” (sic) you can pretty much …read more…