ENRICHMENT CORNER
"Experience is the teacher of all things." Julius Caesar
Enrichment Specialists:
Lisa Lesiak, Pathways to Excellence Coordinator
Kim Scutieri
Meghan Koddenberg
Rachel Kim
Pathways to Excellence Services 2013-2014
Interesting Articles
Lunch and Learn Sessions
In an effort to provide enrichment opportunities for all students, Lunch and Learn sessions are organized by the Pathways to Excellence Staff. The Lunch and Learn program is an alternative to the traditional lunch period. Guest speakers are invited to share their expertise on a particular topic and interested students may elect to participate during lunch hour. A variety of topics are explored throughout the year.
Do you have an interesting career, hobby or talent to share? Please contact Lisa Lesiak at [email protected] in order to learn more about becoming a Lunch and Learn presenter.
Do you have an interesting career, hobby or talent to share? Please contact Lisa Lesiak at [email protected] in order to learn more about becoming a Lunch and Learn presenter.
Fostering Critical and Creative Thinking
Food for the Brain
Strive to incorporate activities that encourage students to use higher level thinking. Help your child to "climb the ladder of thinking" as they go from knowledge and content based questions to being able to analyze, synthesize and self-assess their work.
Doing brain teasers, minute mysteries, and lateral thinking puzzles are fun ways to help students to stretch their imagination, use inference skills, and to problem-solve.
CHALLENGE QUESTIONS
Brainstorm as many possible answers as you can for each question. Remember that your answers should be logical and reasonable and fit all the information presented in the question.
What can go up a chimney down but not down a chimney up?
What is the shortest complete sentence in the English language?
If you have me, you want to share me. If you share me, you haven't got me. What am I?
The more there is, the less you see. What am I?
What can you catch that you can't throw?
What falls but doesn't break?
Remove the outside, cook the inside and eat! What am I?
The more you take, the more you leave behind. What is it?
I rhyme with wrestle, I have lots of ties; A bridge just for trains, What can you surmise? What am I ?
You are in a running race and you overtake third place. What place are you in?
What vehicle is spelled the same, forward, and backwards?
What goes up and down the stairs without moving?
30 SECOND MYSTERIES
Be a super sleuth and try to solve these mysteries!
Investigate the clues, discover a solution and reveal the evidence!
A man who hated politicians lobbied to have a "None of the above" box added to the ballot in an election. He was refused permission. What did he do instead?
A woman bought a newspaper to read. Why did it end up costing her over $20,000?
A boy taking an important math test was told that he could not bring an electronic calculator, computer, or book with him to the exam, but as a concession he was allowed anything else that would fit on a single standard letter-size sheet of paper. What did he do?
WEBSITES FOR CRITICAL THINKING ACTIVITIES
www.internet4classrooms.com/brain_teasers.htm
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/brainboosters/
http://kids.niehs.nih.gov
http://www.kenken.com/
FUN LINKS
National Geographic for Kids:
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/
Pascal's Triangle:
http://ptri1.tripod.com/
Exploring the Sky:
http://www.pbs.org/seeinginthedark/explore-the-sky/your-sky-tonight.html
Make-Your-Own Puzzles:
http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/
Trivia:
http://quizhub.com/quiz/quizhub.cfm
Fun Learning Games:
http://www.thekidzpage.com/learninggames/index.htm
Scholastic Games:
http://www.scholastic.com/kids/stacks/games/
Puzzle Choice:
http://www.puzzlechoice.com/pc/Kids_Choicex.html
Online Sudoku:
http://www.websudoku.com/
Towers of Hanoi:
http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=40
Interactive Spelling List:
http://spellingcity.com/
Estimate Shapes Eyeballing Game:
http://woodgears.ca/eyeball/
Strive to incorporate activities that encourage students to use higher level thinking. Help your child to "climb the ladder of thinking" as they go from knowledge and content based questions to being able to analyze, synthesize and self-assess their work.
Doing brain teasers, minute mysteries, and lateral thinking puzzles are fun ways to help students to stretch their imagination, use inference skills, and to problem-solve.
CHALLENGE QUESTIONS
Brainstorm as many possible answers as you can for each question. Remember that your answers should be logical and reasonable and fit all the information presented in the question.
What can go up a chimney down but not down a chimney up?
What is the shortest complete sentence in the English language?
If you have me, you want to share me. If you share me, you haven't got me. What am I?
The more there is, the less you see. What am I?
What can you catch that you can't throw?
What falls but doesn't break?
Remove the outside, cook the inside and eat! What am I?
The more you take, the more you leave behind. What is it?
I rhyme with wrestle, I have lots of ties; A bridge just for trains, What can you surmise? What am I ?
You are in a running race and you overtake third place. What place are you in?
What vehicle is spelled the same, forward, and backwards?
What goes up and down the stairs without moving?
30 SECOND MYSTERIES
Be a super sleuth and try to solve these mysteries!
Investigate the clues, discover a solution and reveal the evidence!
A man who hated politicians lobbied to have a "None of the above" box added to the ballot in an election. He was refused permission. What did he do instead?
A woman bought a newspaper to read. Why did it end up costing her over $20,000?
A boy taking an important math test was told that he could not bring an electronic calculator, computer, or book with him to the exam, but as a concession he was allowed anything else that would fit on a single standard letter-size sheet of paper. What did he do?
WEBSITES FOR CRITICAL THINKING ACTIVITIES
www.internet4classrooms.com/brain_teasers.htm
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/brainboosters/
http://kids.niehs.nih.gov
http://www.kenken.com/
FUN LINKS
National Geographic for Kids:
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/
Pascal's Triangle:
http://ptri1.tripod.com/
Exploring the Sky:
http://www.pbs.org/seeinginthedark/explore-the-sky/your-sky-tonight.html
Make-Your-Own Puzzles:
http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/
Trivia:
http://quizhub.com/quiz/quizhub.cfm
Fun Learning Games:
http://www.thekidzpage.com/learninggames/index.htm
Scholastic Games:
http://www.scholastic.com/kids/stacks/games/
Puzzle Choice:
http://www.puzzlechoice.com/pc/Kids_Choicex.html
Online Sudoku:
http://www.websudoku.com/
Towers of Hanoi:
http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=40
Interactive Spelling List:
http://spellingcity.com/
Estimate Shapes Eyeballing Game:
http://woodgears.ca/eyeball/
Math Enrichment
Writing Enrichment
coming soon!
coming soon!
Enrichment Packets
Book Recommendations
from Cranford Librarian, Fran Housten
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
Alternative history; science fiction Grade 7-12
The fate of many rests in the hands of an Austrian schoolboy and a British airman, both in disguise. Alek is the son of the recently assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, hiding from European nations hostile to his father. Midshipman Dylan is really Deryn, a girl passing as a boy in order to serve in the British Air Service. Alek has fled home in a steam-powered Stormwalker, one of the great manned war machines of the Central Powers. Meanwhile, Deryn's berth is on a massive airbeast, a genetically engineered hydrogen-breather, one of the Darwinist ships of the Allied Powers. The growing hostilities of what is soon to become the Great War throw the two together, and Darwinists and Clankers must work together if they all want to survive. This is the first book in a planned four-book series.
Shakespeare's Secret by Elise Broach
Mystery/Historical Grade 5+
Sixth-grader Hero Netherfield knows she's in trouble when, on her first day at her new school in Maryland, a classmate unthinkingly announces that Hero is her dog's name. Despite the inevitable humiliations that ensue, things look up for Hero when she discovers that her family (including her beautiful older sister Beatrice, graphic-designer mom, and Shakespeare-obsessed dad) has moved into the "Murphy Diamond House," where a centuries-old, million-dollar diamond might be hidden. Mrs. Roth, the kindly next-door neighbor, plies Hero with cinnamon toast and tantalizing information about said diamond, and they become fast friends with each other . . . and, interestingly, with the cutest, most popular boy in the eighth grade, Danny Cordova. The plot thickens as Mrs. Roth reveals that she is in possession of the Elizabethan necklace that once held the missing Murphy diamond, an artifact that may even help illuminate the much-debated identity of Shakespeare himself.
Troy by Adele Geras
Historical fiction; Mythology Grade 7-12
The Trojan War was the original miniseries - this story takes place in the last months of the 10-year conflict, and the author incorporates the back story by an ingenious means: describing tapestries, recounting gossips' chatter, and the revelations of visiting gods. Told from the point of view of the women of Troy, when they are sick of tending the wounded, men are tired of fighting, and bored gods and goddesses find ways to stir things up.
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Alternative history; Mystery Grade 7+
In a world where one can literally get lost in literature, Thursday Next, a Special Operative in literary detection, tries to stop the world's Third Most Wanted criminal from kidnapping characters, including Jane Eyre, from works of literature. A fun first book in a series set in alternative and offbeat Britain of 1985 - England is still fighting the Crimean War with Imperialist Russia, and the prevailing culture is based on literature. When the original manuscript of Charles Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit is stolen, it is a high crime indeed, and Next is called in to help catch the culprit. It is a mad tea party of a story.
Taken by Edward Bloor
Suspense Grade 6+
This thriller is set in Florida, 2035, in a world sharply divided by wealth and race. Kidnapping has become a "major growth industry," and everyone knows the rules: pay up within 24 hours, and the child is returned. Thirteen-year-old Charity's rich family lives in the Highlands, a tightly secured gated community; they have a butler who doubles as a heavily armed security guard. Even so, Charity is "taken". But for some reason, the payoff goes tragically wrong, and Charity is forced to step outside the rule book and fight for her life.
The Invention of Hugo Cabret: a novel in words and pictures by Brian Selznick
Historical Fiction Grade 5-12
Twelve-year-old orphan Hugo lives in the walls of a Paris train station at the turn of the 20th century, where he tends to the clocks and filches what he needs to survive. Hugo's recently deceased father, a clock maker, worked in a museum where he discovered an automaton, a human-like figure, seated at a desk, pen in hand, as if ready to deliver a message. After his father showed Hugo the robot, the boy became just as obsessed with getting the automaton to function as his father had been, and the man gave his son one of the notebooks he used to record the automaton's inner workings. When Hugo meets a mysterious toy seller and his goddaughter, his undercover life and his biggest secret are jeopardized.
Things I Know About Love by Kate Le Vann
Realistic fiction Grade 7-12
Livia, 17, is determined to find romance. She's fought leukemia most of her teen years and hasn't had much time for boys. Now she's flown from her native England to visit her older brother, an American Studies major at Princeton University, who is staying in the States over the summer. The expats of Princeton seem to adore her, particularly her brother's friend Adam. In her private blog, Livia chronicles her history of failed relationships and the thrill of finding what she believes to be true love with Adam. Near the end of the trip she falls ill, and upon returning to England she learns that her leukemia is back.
Lost by Jacqueline Davies
Historical Fiction Grade 7-12
It's the early 1900s and 16-year-old Essie Rosenfield works tirelessly at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Manhattan, but her meager wages are hardly her biggest problem. After she befriends the mysterious new girl, she learns that Harriet is a runaway and an heiress. Uncertain about revealing the girl's secret and thus losing a friend, Essie finds herself torn between what she believes is wrong and what she can't accept - the truth of her own sister's disappearance. When a devastating fire ravages the factory, Essie is too late in realizing that money isn't as important as family and friends.
Mare's War by Tanita S. Davis
Historical Fiction Grade 6-9
During a parent-mandated road trip from California to Florida with their unpredictable grandmother Mare, sisters Talitha and Octavia slowly hear about the story of her extraordinary history. In 1944, at age seventeen, Mare ran away from her backwater Alabama town and joined the Women's Army Corps. After lying about her age and passing a written exam, Mare went on to become a member of the 6,888th African American battalion. Her account of her war years is full of historical detail and lively personal anecdotes about the training, treatment, duties, and social life in her African-American regiment of the Women's Army Corps both on assignment in the U.S. and in the European Theater. Octavia and Tali write postcards home to family and friends revealing their adolescent reactions to what they see and hear. Their bickering subsides as they begin to understand the experiences, people, and decisions that shaped their grandmother and the family bond they all share.
The Big Field by Mike Lupica
Sports Grades 5-12
Keith Hutchinson, 14, plays in the American Legion 17-and-under league with the Boynton Beach Cardinals. His dream includes taking his team to the Florida state finals and sharing his passion with his father, a local shortstop legend whose failed major league career has left him aloof, despondent, and uncommunicative. After losing his beloved shortstop position to cocky, talented newcomer Darryl Williams, Hutch becomes a standout at second base and is elected team captain. However, when he finds his father working out with Darryl, jealousy and anger threaten to derail Hutch's dream, team, and family.
The Stolen One by Suzanne Crowley
Historical Fiction Grades 8-12
Set in Elizabethan England, this novel tells of 16-year-old Kat, who has grown up in a country cottage under the care of a foster mother. After her death, Kat goes to London in hopes of learning her parents' identities. There she is taken under the wing of Queen Elizabeth I, and soon a rumor swirls through court that Kat's mother is the queen herself. The mystery of Kat's past is intertwined with the ways-involving question of whether her heart lies with one of the handsome rogues at court or with a ung farmer back home. Interspersed with Kat's first-person narration are passages from a secret journal, written years before.
A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce
Historical fiction/fantasy Grades 7-12
After her father's death, Charlotte and her younger sister, Rosie, take over the family business, a mill shadowed by a curse that goes back generations. Charlotte gives little credence to superstition, but when they can't pay the mortgage on the mill, Rosie conjures up Jack Spinner, an odd little man who promises them that he will spin a roomful of straw into gold-for a price. Despite an uncle who apparently wants to help the girls and a suitor who will do anything he can for Charlotte, her secret agreement with Spinner creates a vortex that threatens to destroy everything she holds dear. Set in England during the early days of the Industrial Revolution, the novel combines elements of fantasy and historical fiction with a love story between two strong-minded individuals.
Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams
Mystery Grades 6-12
When Ingrid Levin-Hill, 13, decides to run to soccer practice rather than wait for her ride, she gets lost in a not-so-nice part of town. Luckily, Cracked-Up Katie, one of Echo Falls' oddballs, calls her a cab. Convinced that full disclosure will only cause a lecture, Ingrid keeps her secret. Imagine her shock when she learns that Katie has been murdered--and Ingrid's cleats are at the crime scene. It isn't long before Ingrid starts feeling like Alice in Wonderland plunging down the rabbit hole.
Behind the Curtain (sequel) by Peter Abrahams
Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Sports, Humorous Grades 7-12
Finally, a football book a girl can love. D.J. Schwenk narrates this story of her 15th summer. With her older brothers at college on football scholarships and her father nursing a bad hip, most of the grueling work necessary to keep a small dairy farm running has fallen on her broad shoulders. She had to quit basketball halfway through the season, and neglecting her homework earned her an F in sophomore English. Now, in addition to mucking out the barn and bringing in the hay, a family friend who coaches the rival high school's football team, has asked D.J. to train his talented but lazy starting quarterback, Brian Nelson
The Wizard, the Witch, and Two Girls from Jersey by Lisa Papademetriou
Fantasy, Humor Grade 7-12
When bookish Veronica and fashion-slave Heather scuffle over a copy of Queen of Twilight, which they both need for a high-school English assignment, they wind up inside its narrative. Locals in the novel's fantasy land believe Heather is Princess Arabelle (whom Heather accidentally shattered when she arrived in the story), and it falls to Veronica, who knows the book's plot, to figure out what to do about the situation. While Queen has elements recalling fantasies by Tolkien, Baum, Lewis, and Rowling, the girls' own adventure in literature is full of puns and allusions to contemporary culture (elves called Kiblar bake cookies). Not everything is cute or funny, though: horrible gargoyles fly through the air, and some creatures make a habit of chewing off rabbits' heads.
Last Shot by John Feinstein
Sports, Mystery Grades 7-12
When Stevie Thomas wins a sports writing contest and gets to cover the Final Four college basketball championship in New Orleans, he knows it's going to be the most unbelievable weekend of his life. And unbelievable it is, but in unexpected ways. Amidst the circus atmosphere at the Superdome-with the Blue Devils, Huskies, Coach K, Dick Vitale, and the clamor of hawkers, scalpers, and the best sportswriters in America, Stevie and his co-winner, Susan Carol, overhear a plot to throw the championship game.
The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry
Fantasy Grades 5-8
Lucinda lives with her uncle and step-aunt, her parents having been killed horribly in a coach accident after a royal ball. Her aunt is downright vicious, and when her uncle dies, Lucinda is on her own. Beryl, an otherworldly customer of her uncle's jewel shop, leads her to the house that belonged to her parents. She needs to return the large, pale jewel Beryl had brought to be set, but finds it missing from her pocket. Beryl, the jewel, an outrageous young pickpocket known all too well to the prince of the kingdom and all the wild threads that connect them to one other, and also to Lucinda's parents and past keeps the reader guessing.
A Step from Heaven by An Na
Grades 7-12
Young Ju and her family come to California from Korea and try against all odds to embrace the American dream. Young Ju's parents don't want her to become too American, and Young Ju is ashamed of them. It's the classic immigrant child conflict, told here in the present tense with the immediacy of the girl's voice, from the time she's a toddler in a small Korean village wondering why the adults talk about America as "heaven." Then there's her bewilderment as a first-grader in the U.S. trying to learn the rules and understand the words and the accents. Each chapter is a story in itself, with dramatic surprise or quiet reversal. The tales blend together into a beautiful first novel that takes Ju through her teenage years until she's an A-student ready to leave for college. The focus is on family and what happens at home. Her father, furious at having to work two laboring jobs and grief-stricken at his mother's death in Korea, becomes an increasingly violent alcoholic. He forbids Young Ju from seeing her best friend. She disobeys him, but she's careful never to bring her friends to her shabby home. Most moving is the chapter about her visit with her father to the Immigration Office. He's distrustful and too enraged that she's so helpless and that she's in control; she's embarrassed by his behavior even as she feels his anguish. Young Ju's mother is a strong figure in the background until the girl suddenly sees her as a person, who tells her, "In America, women have choices."
Something Rotten by Alan Gratz
Mystery Grades 7-12
This is a contemporary story based on Shakespeare's play, Hamlet. During a vacation from their academy, Horatio Wilkes accompanies his buddy Hamilton Prince to Denmark, Tenn. Just two months after his father passed away under suspicious circumstances, Hamilton's Uncle Claude has married Hamilton's mother. Claude now controls the Elsinore Paper Plant, a multi-billion dollar company blatantly polluting the Copenhagen River. Horatio, with a knack for investigating, is determined to expose Claude's corruption while Hamilton, dismayed by what he believes is his mother's betrayal, drowns himself in alcohol. Ultimately, Horatio relies on environmentalist protester Olivia to reveal secrets about Elsinore.
Something Wicked (sequel) by Alan Gratz
Mystery Grades 7-12
Horatio Wilkes, the teen sleuth from Something Rotten (Dial, 2007), takes on another case in this contemporary reworking of Macbeth. He's attending a Scottish Highland Fair atop a mountain in Tennessee with his old buddy Mac, Mac's controlling girlfriend (named Beth, no less), and their families. Horatio doesn't like Beth, and his friendship with Mac becomes even more strained after a palm reader predicts that Mac will win the Highland decathlon and become "king of the mountain." When Mac's grandfather Duncan, the mountain's owner, is murdered, Horatio gradually discovers that Mac has slipped into madness and resorted to violence to make the prophecy come true.
Wings by Aprilynne Pike
Fantasy Grades 6-12
Laurel Sewell, the new girl in town, discovers a strange "zit" on her back, which blooms into a flower. With the help of her friend and growing love interest, David, with whom she entrusts this information, Laurel finds out that she is a faerie, and that faeries are really highly evolved plants. Tamani, her faerie guardian, completes the love triangle, as he protects Laurel from encroaching dark forces and fills in the blanks about her past.
Feed by M. T. Anderson
Science Fiction Grades 7-12
For Titus and his teenaged friends, having transmitters implanted in their heads is as normal as going to the moon or Mars on vacation or as common as the lesions that have begun to appear on their bodies. Everyone's "feed" tells them everything they need to know - there's no need to read or write. All purchases are deducted from the credit account that's part of the feed. Talking out loud is rare because everyone "chats" over the feednets. Then Titus and his friends meet a girl named Violet at a party on the moon, and a hacker attacks them and damages their feeds. Everyone is OK except for Violet, who is told in secret that hers is so damaged that she is going to die.
Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse
Historical Fiction Grades 5-10
In 1919, Rifka's family flees from the persecution inflicted upon them as Jews in Russia for what they hope will be a better life in America. However, the steamship company refuses to allow 12-year-old Rifka passage because she has ringworm. After more than six months of treatment in Antwerp, she is finally cured and nearly reunited with her family, only to be detained at Ellis Island. Officials there feel she could become a burden to society because her disease has left her bald; without hair she is considered less attractive and therefore may never get married. Ultimately, Rifka and a young peasant boy, who is also in danger of being refused entry, help each other gain admittance to the country of their dreams. The story is told through her letters to her Russian cousin
2001 a Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
Science Fiction Grades 7 +
When a mysterious structure is found buried on the moon, scientists are amazed to discover that it's at least 3 million years old. Even more amazing after it's unearthed is that the artifact releases a powerful signal aimed at Saturn. What sort of alarm has been triggered? To find out, a manned spacecraft, the Discovery, is sent to investigate. Its crew is highly trained--the best--and they are assisted by a self-aware computer, the ultra-capable HAL 9000. But HAL's programming has been patterned after the human mind a little too well and begins to demonstrate disturbing behavior.
Non -Fiction:
The Green Teen by Jenn Savedge Grades 6-12
Lots of suggestions for ways in which teenagers can help the environment in their homes, schools, and throughout the community. It covers global warming, air pollution, deforestation, sweatshops, and includes profiles of individuals who are working to make a difference
The Cage by Ruth Minsky Sender Grades 6-12
A vivid memoir of a woman who lost her youth and family to the Nazis that is told in the first person and present tense. With hurtling immediacy, Sender takes us from herself as a mother trying to explain to her child why she has no grandparents to her own childhood in Lodz. When the Nazis come, old friends turn away and others are torn away as the Jews are rounded up. She loses a brother to illness, her mother to the roundups, and other siblings escape to Russia. She becomes the fierce guardian of her younger brothers. The harsh life in the ghetto is portrayed unsparingly, as are transports to Auschwitz and later a labor camp, where she finally loses her brothers. Maintaining her humanity and creating a family out of fellow prisoners, she survives believing "as long as there is life there is hope." This is painful to read, but not depressing. Sender writes clearly and well, even portraying an occasional irony--e.g., when she is taken to a hospital by an SS officer who is furious when she is denied treatment because she is Jewish. What shines through is Sender's courage and strength and that of her family and friends--their love and determination to stay together. Punctuated by her own poetry, Sender tells a story that will be long remembered.
Spies of Mississippi by Rick Bowers Grades 6-12
In the 1950s and 1960s, the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission compiled secret files on more than 87,000 private citizens in the most extensive state spying program in U.S. history. Its mission: to save segregation.
Graphic Novels:
Over the Hedge by Michael Fry and T Lewis
The Search by Anne Frank House
A Study in Scarlet: a Sherlock Holmes graphic novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
An adaptation of the book that introduced the famed detective duo or Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. . There are many elements to this tale: the meeting of Watson and Holmes; a murdered body in a bloodstained room with no obvious weapon; a lengthy exploration of the crime's whys and wherefores that takes readers to the American West and focuses on the Mormons.
Jane Eyre the Graphic Novel by Charlotte Bronte with adaptations Grades 7+
Presents in graphic novel format an adaptation of Bronte's story about an orphaned young English woman who accepts employment as a governess at Thornfield Hall, a country estate owned by the mysterious and remote Mr. Rochester.
from Cranford Librarian, Fran Housten
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
Alternative history; science fiction Grade 7-12
The fate of many rests in the hands of an Austrian schoolboy and a British airman, both in disguise. Alek is the son of the recently assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, hiding from European nations hostile to his father. Midshipman Dylan is really Deryn, a girl passing as a boy in order to serve in the British Air Service. Alek has fled home in a steam-powered Stormwalker, one of the great manned war machines of the Central Powers. Meanwhile, Deryn's berth is on a massive airbeast, a genetically engineered hydrogen-breather, one of the Darwinist ships of the Allied Powers. The growing hostilities of what is soon to become the Great War throw the two together, and Darwinists and Clankers must work together if they all want to survive. This is the first book in a planned four-book series.
Shakespeare's Secret by Elise Broach
Mystery/Historical Grade 5+
Sixth-grader Hero Netherfield knows she's in trouble when, on her first day at her new school in Maryland, a classmate unthinkingly announces that Hero is her dog's name. Despite the inevitable humiliations that ensue, things look up for Hero when she discovers that her family (including her beautiful older sister Beatrice, graphic-designer mom, and Shakespeare-obsessed dad) has moved into the "Murphy Diamond House," where a centuries-old, million-dollar diamond might be hidden. Mrs. Roth, the kindly next-door neighbor, plies Hero with cinnamon toast and tantalizing information about said diamond, and they become fast friends with each other . . . and, interestingly, with the cutest, most popular boy in the eighth grade, Danny Cordova. The plot thickens as Mrs. Roth reveals that she is in possession of the Elizabethan necklace that once held the missing Murphy diamond, an artifact that may even help illuminate the much-debated identity of Shakespeare himself.
Troy by Adele Geras
Historical fiction; Mythology Grade 7-12
The Trojan War was the original miniseries - this story takes place in the last months of the 10-year conflict, and the author incorporates the back story by an ingenious means: describing tapestries, recounting gossips' chatter, and the revelations of visiting gods. Told from the point of view of the women of Troy, when they are sick of tending the wounded, men are tired of fighting, and bored gods and goddesses find ways to stir things up.
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Alternative history; Mystery Grade 7+
In a world where one can literally get lost in literature, Thursday Next, a Special Operative in literary detection, tries to stop the world's Third Most Wanted criminal from kidnapping characters, including Jane Eyre, from works of literature. A fun first book in a series set in alternative and offbeat Britain of 1985 - England is still fighting the Crimean War with Imperialist Russia, and the prevailing culture is based on literature. When the original manuscript of Charles Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit is stolen, it is a high crime indeed, and Next is called in to help catch the culprit. It is a mad tea party of a story.
Taken by Edward Bloor
Suspense Grade 6+
This thriller is set in Florida, 2035, in a world sharply divided by wealth and race. Kidnapping has become a "major growth industry," and everyone knows the rules: pay up within 24 hours, and the child is returned. Thirteen-year-old Charity's rich family lives in the Highlands, a tightly secured gated community; they have a butler who doubles as a heavily armed security guard. Even so, Charity is "taken". But for some reason, the payoff goes tragically wrong, and Charity is forced to step outside the rule book and fight for her life.
The Invention of Hugo Cabret: a novel in words and pictures by Brian Selznick
Historical Fiction Grade 5-12
Twelve-year-old orphan Hugo lives in the walls of a Paris train station at the turn of the 20th century, where he tends to the clocks and filches what he needs to survive. Hugo's recently deceased father, a clock maker, worked in a museum where he discovered an automaton, a human-like figure, seated at a desk, pen in hand, as if ready to deliver a message. After his father showed Hugo the robot, the boy became just as obsessed with getting the automaton to function as his father had been, and the man gave his son one of the notebooks he used to record the automaton's inner workings. When Hugo meets a mysterious toy seller and his goddaughter, his undercover life and his biggest secret are jeopardized.
Things I Know About Love by Kate Le Vann
Realistic fiction Grade 7-12
Livia, 17, is determined to find romance. She's fought leukemia most of her teen years and hasn't had much time for boys. Now she's flown from her native England to visit her older brother, an American Studies major at Princeton University, who is staying in the States over the summer. The expats of Princeton seem to adore her, particularly her brother's friend Adam. In her private blog, Livia chronicles her history of failed relationships and the thrill of finding what she believes to be true love with Adam. Near the end of the trip she falls ill, and upon returning to England she learns that her leukemia is back.
Lost by Jacqueline Davies
Historical Fiction Grade 7-12
It's the early 1900s and 16-year-old Essie Rosenfield works tirelessly at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Manhattan, but her meager wages are hardly her biggest problem. After she befriends the mysterious new girl, she learns that Harriet is a runaway and an heiress. Uncertain about revealing the girl's secret and thus losing a friend, Essie finds herself torn between what she believes is wrong and what she can't accept - the truth of her own sister's disappearance. When a devastating fire ravages the factory, Essie is too late in realizing that money isn't as important as family and friends.
Mare's War by Tanita S. Davis
Historical Fiction Grade 6-9
During a parent-mandated road trip from California to Florida with their unpredictable grandmother Mare, sisters Talitha and Octavia slowly hear about the story of her extraordinary history. In 1944, at age seventeen, Mare ran away from her backwater Alabama town and joined the Women's Army Corps. After lying about her age and passing a written exam, Mare went on to become a member of the 6,888th African American battalion. Her account of her war years is full of historical detail and lively personal anecdotes about the training, treatment, duties, and social life in her African-American regiment of the Women's Army Corps both on assignment in the U.S. and in the European Theater. Octavia and Tali write postcards home to family and friends revealing their adolescent reactions to what they see and hear. Their bickering subsides as they begin to understand the experiences, people, and decisions that shaped their grandmother and the family bond they all share.
The Big Field by Mike Lupica
Sports Grades 5-12
Keith Hutchinson, 14, plays in the American Legion 17-and-under league with the Boynton Beach Cardinals. His dream includes taking his team to the Florida state finals and sharing his passion with his father, a local shortstop legend whose failed major league career has left him aloof, despondent, and uncommunicative. After losing his beloved shortstop position to cocky, talented newcomer Darryl Williams, Hutch becomes a standout at second base and is elected team captain. However, when he finds his father working out with Darryl, jealousy and anger threaten to derail Hutch's dream, team, and family.
The Stolen One by Suzanne Crowley
Historical Fiction Grades 8-12
Set in Elizabethan England, this novel tells of 16-year-old Kat, who has grown up in a country cottage under the care of a foster mother. After her death, Kat goes to London in hopes of learning her parents' identities. There she is taken under the wing of Queen Elizabeth I, and soon a rumor swirls through court that Kat's mother is the queen herself. The mystery of Kat's past is intertwined with the ways-involving question of whether her heart lies with one of the handsome rogues at court or with a ung farmer back home. Interspersed with Kat's first-person narration are passages from a secret journal, written years before.
A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce
Historical fiction/fantasy Grades 7-12
After her father's death, Charlotte and her younger sister, Rosie, take over the family business, a mill shadowed by a curse that goes back generations. Charlotte gives little credence to superstition, but when they can't pay the mortgage on the mill, Rosie conjures up Jack Spinner, an odd little man who promises them that he will spin a roomful of straw into gold-for a price. Despite an uncle who apparently wants to help the girls and a suitor who will do anything he can for Charlotte, her secret agreement with Spinner creates a vortex that threatens to destroy everything she holds dear. Set in England during the early days of the Industrial Revolution, the novel combines elements of fantasy and historical fiction with a love story between two strong-minded individuals.
Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams
Mystery Grades 6-12
When Ingrid Levin-Hill, 13, decides to run to soccer practice rather than wait for her ride, she gets lost in a not-so-nice part of town. Luckily, Cracked-Up Katie, one of Echo Falls' oddballs, calls her a cab. Convinced that full disclosure will only cause a lecture, Ingrid keeps her secret. Imagine her shock when she learns that Katie has been murdered--and Ingrid's cleats are at the crime scene. It isn't long before Ingrid starts feeling like Alice in Wonderland plunging down the rabbit hole.
Behind the Curtain (sequel) by Peter Abrahams
Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Sports, Humorous Grades 7-12
Finally, a football book a girl can love. D.J. Schwenk narrates this story of her 15th summer. With her older brothers at college on football scholarships and her father nursing a bad hip, most of the grueling work necessary to keep a small dairy farm running has fallen on her broad shoulders. She had to quit basketball halfway through the season, and neglecting her homework earned her an F in sophomore English. Now, in addition to mucking out the barn and bringing in the hay, a family friend who coaches the rival high school's football team, has asked D.J. to train his talented but lazy starting quarterback, Brian Nelson
The Wizard, the Witch, and Two Girls from Jersey by Lisa Papademetriou
Fantasy, Humor Grade 7-12
When bookish Veronica and fashion-slave Heather scuffle over a copy of Queen of Twilight, which they both need for a high-school English assignment, they wind up inside its narrative. Locals in the novel's fantasy land believe Heather is Princess Arabelle (whom Heather accidentally shattered when she arrived in the story), and it falls to Veronica, who knows the book's plot, to figure out what to do about the situation. While Queen has elements recalling fantasies by Tolkien, Baum, Lewis, and Rowling, the girls' own adventure in literature is full of puns and allusions to contemporary culture (elves called Kiblar bake cookies). Not everything is cute or funny, though: horrible gargoyles fly through the air, and some creatures make a habit of chewing off rabbits' heads.
Last Shot by John Feinstein
Sports, Mystery Grades 7-12
When Stevie Thomas wins a sports writing contest and gets to cover the Final Four college basketball championship in New Orleans, he knows it's going to be the most unbelievable weekend of his life. And unbelievable it is, but in unexpected ways. Amidst the circus atmosphere at the Superdome-with the Blue Devils, Huskies, Coach K, Dick Vitale, and the clamor of hawkers, scalpers, and the best sportswriters in America, Stevie and his co-winner, Susan Carol, overhear a plot to throw the championship game.
The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry
Fantasy Grades 5-8
Lucinda lives with her uncle and step-aunt, her parents having been killed horribly in a coach accident after a royal ball. Her aunt is downright vicious, and when her uncle dies, Lucinda is on her own. Beryl, an otherworldly customer of her uncle's jewel shop, leads her to the house that belonged to her parents. She needs to return the large, pale jewel Beryl had brought to be set, but finds it missing from her pocket. Beryl, the jewel, an outrageous young pickpocket known all too well to the prince of the kingdom and all the wild threads that connect them to one other, and also to Lucinda's parents and past keeps the reader guessing.
A Step from Heaven by An Na
Grades 7-12
Young Ju and her family come to California from Korea and try against all odds to embrace the American dream. Young Ju's parents don't want her to become too American, and Young Ju is ashamed of them. It's the classic immigrant child conflict, told here in the present tense with the immediacy of the girl's voice, from the time she's a toddler in a small Korean village wondering why the adults talk about America as "heaven." Then there's her bewilderment as a first-grader in the U.S. trying to learn the rules and understand the words and the accents. Each chapter is a story in itself, with dramatic surprise or quiet reversal. The tales blend together into a beautiful first novel that takes Ju through her teenage years until she's an A-student ready to leave for college. The focus is on family and what happens at home. Her father, furious at having to work two laboring jobs and grief-stricken at his mother's death in Korea, becomes an increasingly violent alcoholic. He forbids Young Ju from seeing her best friend. She disobeys him, but she's careful never to bring her friends to her shabby home. Most moving is the chapter about her visit with her father to the Immigration Office. He's distrustful and too enraged that she's so helpless and that she's in control; she's embarrassed by his behavior even as she feels his anguish. Young Ju's mother is a strong figure in the background until the girl suddenly sees her as a person, who tells her, "In America, women have choices."
Something Rotten by Alan Gratz
Mystery Grades 7-12
This is a contemporary story based on Shakespeare's play, Hamlet. During a vacation from their academy, Horatio Wilkes accompanies his buddy Hamilton Prince to Denmark, Tenn. Just two months after his father passed away under suspicious circumstances, Hamilton's Uncle Claude has married Hamilton's mother. Claude now controls the Elsinore Paper Plant, a multi-billion dollar company blatantly polluting the Copenhagen River. Horatio, with a knack for investigating, is determined to expose Claude's corruption while Hamilton, dismayed by what he believes is his mother's betrayal, drowns himself in alcohol. Ultimately, Horatio relies on environmentalist protester Olivia to reveal secrets about Elsinore.
Something Wicked (sequel) by Alan Gratz
Mystery Grades 7-12
Horatio Wilkes, the teen sleuth from Something Rotten (Dial, 2007), takes on another case in this contemporary reworking of Macbeth. He's attending a Scottish Highland Fair atop a mountain in Tennessee with his old buddy Mac, Mac's controlling girlfriend (named Beth, no less), and their families. Horatio doesn't like Beth, and his friendship with Mac becomes even more strained after a palm reader predicts that Mac will win the Highland decathlon and become "king of the mountain." When Mac's grandfather Duncan, the mountain's owner, is murdered, Horatio gradually discovers that Mac has slipped into madness and resorted to violence to make the prophecy come true.
Wings by Aprilynne Pike
Fantasy Grades 6-12
Laurel Sewell, the new girl in town, discovers a strange "zit" on her back, which blooms into a flower. With the help of her friend and growing love interest, David, with whom she entrusts this information, Laurel finds out that she is a faerie, and that faeries are really highly evolved plants. Tamani, her faerie guardian, completes the love triangle, as he protects Laurel from encroaching dark forces and fills in the blanks about her past.
Feed by M. T. Anderson
Science Fiction Grades 7-12
For Titus and his teenaged friends, having transmitters implanted in their heads is as normal as going to the moon or Mars on vacation or as common as the lesions that have begun to appear on their bodies. Everyone's "feed" tells them everything they need to know - there's no need to read or write. All purchases are deducted from the credit account that's part of the feed. Talking out loud is rare because everyone "chats" over the feednets. Then Titus and his friends meet a girl named Violet at a party on the moon, and a hacker attacks them and damages their feeds. Everyone is OK except for Violet, who is told in secret that hers is so damaged that she is going to die.
Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse
Historical Fiction Grades 5-10
In 1919, Rifka's family flees from the persecution inflicted upon them as Jews in Russia for what they hope will be a better life in America. However, the steamship company refuses to allow 12-year-old Rifka passage because she has ringworm. After more than six months of treatment in Antwerp, she is finally cured and nearly reunited with her family, only to be detained at Ellis Island. Officials there feel she could become a burden to society because her disease has left her bald; without hair she is considered less attractive and therefore may never get married. Ultimately, Rifka and a young peasant boy, who is also in danger of being refused entry, help each other gain admittance to the country of their dreams. The story is told through her letters to her Russian cousin
2001 a Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
Science Fiction Grades 7 +
When a mysterious structure is found buried on the moon, scientists are amazed to discover that it's at least 3 million years old. Even more amazing after it's unearthed is that the artifact releases a powerful signal aimed at Saturn. What sort of alarm has been triggered? To find out, a manned spacecraft, the Discovery, is sent to investigate. Its crew is highly trained--the best--and they are assisted by a self-aware computer, the ultra-capable HAL 9000. But HAL's programming has been patterned after the human mind a little too well and begins to demonstrate disturbing behavior.
Non -Fiction:
The Green Teen by Jenn Savedge Grades 6-12
Lots of suggestions for ways in which teenagers can help the environment in their homes, schools, and throughout the community. It covers global warming, air pollution, deforestation, sweatshops, and includes profiles of individuals who are working to make a difference
The Cage by Ruth Minsky Sender Grades 6-12
A vivid memoir of a woman who lost her youth and family to the Nazis that is told in the first person and present tense. With hurtling immediacy, Sender takes us from herself as a mother trying to explain to her child why she has no grandparents to her own childhood in Lodz. When the Nazis come, old friends turn away and others are torn away as the Jews are rounded up. She loses a brother to illness, her mother to the roundups, and other siblings escape to Russia. She becomes the fierce guardian of her younger brothers. The harsh life in the ghetto is portrayed unsparingly, as are transports to Auschwitz and later a labor camp, where she finally loses her brothers. Maintaining her humanity and creating a family out of fellow prisoners, she survives believing "as long as there is life there is hope." This is painful to read, but not depressing. Sender writes clearly and well, even portraying an occasional irony--e.g., when she is taken to a hospital by an SS officer who is furious when she is denied treatment because she is Jewish. What shines through is Sender's courage and strength and that of her family and friends--their love and determination to stay together. Punctuated by her own poetry, Sender tells a story that will be long remembered.
Spies of Mississippi by Rick Bowers Grades 6-12
In the 1950s and 1960s, the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission compiled secret files on more than 87,000 private citizens in the most extensive state spying program in U.S. history. Its mission: to save segregation.
Graphic Novels:
Over the Hedge by Michael Fry and T Lewis
The Search by Anne Frank House
A Study in Scarlet: a Sherlock Holmes graphic novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
An adaptation of the book that introduced the famed detective duo or Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. . There are many elements to this tale: the meeting of Watson and Holmes; a murdered body in a bloodstained room with no obvious weapon; a lengthy exploration of the crime's whys and wherefores that takes readers to the American West and focuses on the Mormons.
Jane Eyre the Graphic Novel by Charlotte Bronte with adaptations Grades 7+
Presents in graphic novel format an adaptation of Bronte's story about an orphaned young English woman who accepts employment as a governess at Thornfield Hall, a country estate owned by the mysterious and remote Mr. Rochester.