Marcelo in the Real World

Marcelo in the Real World

Fransisco X. Stork

Arthur A. Levine Books, 2009

Fiction

ISBN: 0545054745

320 pages

Synopsis

Marcelo Sandoval hears music no one else can hear–part of the autism-like impairment no doctor has been able to identify–and he’s always attended a special school where his differences have been protected. But the summer after his junior year, his father demands that Marcelo work in his law firm’s mailroom in order to experience “the real world.” There Marcelo meets Jasmine, his beautiful and surprising coworker, and Wendell, the son of another partner in the firm.

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Posted in 2009, Best Of, Classroom, English/Reading, Fiction (non-fantasy), Geography/Culture, Recommended, Religious/Mythology, Reviews, Social Commentary | No Comments »

Boys Without Names

Overall Rating: ★ Rating:94 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:4.7★ Rating:94 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:4.7★ Rating:94 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:4.7★ Rating:94 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:4.7½ Rating:94 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:4.794%
Boys Without Names
Kashmira Sheth
Balzer + Bray, 2010
Fiction
ISBN: 0061857602
320 pages

Synopsis

For eleven-year-old Gopal and his family, life in their rural Indian village is over: We stay, we starve, his baba has warned. With the darkness of night as cover, they flee to the big city of Mumbai in hopes of finding work and a brighter future. Gopal is eager to help support his struggling family until school starts, so when a stranger approaches him with the promise of a factory job, he jumps at the offer.

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Posted in 2010, Best Of, Classroom, English/Reading, Fiction (non-fantasy), Geography/Culture, Recommended, Reviews, Social Commentary | No Comments »

A Brief History of Montmaray

Overall Rating: ★ Rating:90 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:4.5★ Rating:90 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:4.5★ Rating:90 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:4.5★ Rating:90 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:4.5½ Rating:90 Star Piece:0.5 Fraction:4.590%
A Brief History of Montmaray
Michelle Cooper
Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2009
Historical Fiction
ISBN: 0375858644
304 pages

Synopsis

“There’s a fine line between gossip and history, when one is talking about kings.”

Sophie Fitzosborne lives in a crumbling castle in the tiny island kingdom of Montmaray with her eccentric and impoverished royal family. When she receives a journal for her sixteenth birthday, Sophie decides to chronicle day-to-day life on the island. But this is 1936, and the news that trickles in from the mainland reveals a world on the brink of war. The politics of Europe seem far away from their remote island—until two German officers land a boat on Montmaray. And then suddenly politics become very personal indeed.

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Posted in 2009, Best Of, Classroom, Geography/Culture, Historical Fiction, History/Period, Reviews | No Comments »

The Giant Slayer

Overall Rating: ★ Rating:96 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.8 Fraction:4.8★ Rating:96 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.8 Fraction:4.8★ Rating:96 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.8 Fraction:4.8★ Rating:96 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.8 Fraction:4.8½ Rating:96 Star Piece:0.8 Fraction:4.896%
The Giant Slayer
Iain Lawrence
Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2009
Historical Fiction/Fantasy
ISBN: 0385733763
304 pages

Synopsis

A girl’s imagination transports polio-afflicted kids into a fantastic world.

The spring of 1955 tests Laurie Valentine’s gifts as a storyteller. After her friend Dickie contracts polio and finds himself confined to an iron lung, Laurie visits him in the hospital. There she meets Carolyn and Chip, two other kids trapped inside the breathing machines. Laurie’s first impulse is to flee, but Dickie begs her to tell them a story. And so Laurie begins her tale of Collosso, a rampaging giant, and Jimmy, a tiny boy whose destiny is to become a slayer of giants.

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Posted in 2009, Best Of, Classroom, English/Reading, Geography/Culture, Historical Fiction, History/Period, Ignite Imagination, Nature/Biology, Recommended, Reviews, Science/Engineering | No Comments »

The New Policeman

Overall Rating: ★ Rating:83 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.15 Fraction:4.15★ Rating:83 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.15 Fraction:4.15★ Rating:83 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.15 Fraction:4.15★ Rating:83 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.15 Fraction:4.15½ Rating:83 Star Piece:0.15 Fraction:4.1583%
The New Policeman
Kate Thompson
Greenwillow Books, 2007
Fantasy Fiction
ISBN: 0061174270
448 pages

Synopsis

Who knows where the time goes?

There never seems to be enough time in Kinvara, or anywhere else in Ireland for that matter. When J.J.’s mother says time’s what she really wants for her birthday, J.J. decides to find her some. He’s set himself up for an impossible task . . . until a neighbor reveals a secret. There’s a place where time stands still—at least, it’s supposed to. J.J. can make the journey there, but he’ll have to vanish from his own life to do so. Can J.J. find the leak between the two worlds? Will a shocking rumor about his family’s past come back to haunt him? And what does it all have to do with the village’s new policeman . . . ?

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Posted in 2007, Best Of, Classroom, Fantasy/Science Fiction, Geography/Culture, History/Period, Ignite Imagination, Recommended, Religious/Mythology, Reviews | No Comments »

Choke Creek

Overall Rating: ★ Rating:94 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:4.7★ Rating:94 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:4.7★ Rating:94 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:4.7★ Rating:94 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:4.7½ Rating:94 Star Piece:0.7 Fraction:4.794%
Choke Creek
Lauren Small
Bridle Pass Press, 2008
Fiction/Historical Fiction
ISBN: 0615220118
299 pages

Synopsis

Set in the vivid, clear light of the West, Choke Creek tells the story of two families who trace their roots to the Indian Wars. Fifteen-year-old Evie Glauber is descended from the newspaperman who reported on the famous Battle of Choke Creek, while Eason Swale, the boy she loves, is the great-grandson of a cavalryman who fought in it. Eason enlists in the Army and goes to Vietnam, but when he comes back a deserter, everything Evie believes in is thrown into question—including the truth about what really happened on the banks of Choke Creek.

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Posted in Classroom, Excellent Underknown, Geography/Culture, History/Period, Recommended, Reviews | No Comments »

Bog Child

Overall Rating: ★ Rating:98 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.9 Fraction:4.9★ Rating:98 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.9 Fraction:4.9★ Rating:98 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.9 Fraction:4.9★ Rating:98 Fullstar:4 Star Piece:0.9 Fraction:4.9½ Rating:98 Star Piece:0.9 Fraction:4.998%
Bog Child
Siobhan Dowd
David Fickling Books, 2008
Historical Fiction
ISBN: 0385751699
336 pages
Carnegie Medal

Synopsis

Fergus is recently 18, and on what should be a normal run to get peat to sell to the locals, he discovers a child in the bog—the child that time forgot. Unbelievably well preserved, she becomes the focal point of many theories about who she was, where she came from, and why she ended up there. Riddled with dreams about the child he’s found, Fergus must negotiate the complex world around him as Northern Ireland fights for its independence from England.

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Posted in 2009, Award Winners, Best Of, Classroom, Geography/Culture, Historical Fiction, History/Period, Nature/Biology, Recommended, Reviews, Science/Engineering | No Comments »