The wESTING GAME - BY ELLEN RASKIN
When sixteen people are called together for the reading of wealthy Sam Westing's will, they are surprised to learn that the will is actually a contest in which they are all to participate. Working with partners, the potential heirs take their clues to try to find the elusive answer to the Westing game and thus take their shares of the two-hundred-million-dollar prize. - Scholastic summary
1979 Newbery Medal book 1978 Horn Book Award for Fiction |
THE CROWN GAME BY EVELYN SKYE
The Crown’s Game is a thrilling historical fantasy set in Imperial Russia about two teenagers who must compete for the right to become the Imperial Enchanter—or die in the process—from debut author Evelyn Skye.
Vika Andreyeva can summon the snow and turn ash into gold. Nikolai Karimov can see through walls and conjure bridges out of thin air. They are enchanters—the only two in Russia—and with the Ottoman Empire and the Kazakhs threatening, the tsar needs a powerful enchanter by his side. And so he initiates the Crown’s Game, an ancient duel of magical skill—the greatest test an enchanter will ever know. The victor becomes the Imperial Enchanter and the tsar’s most respected adviser. The defeated is sentenced to death. As long-buried secrets emerge, threatening the future of the empire, it becomes dangerously clear . . . the Crown’s Game is not one to lose. -Amazon summary |
Peak by Roland Smith
After fourteen-year-old Peak Marcello is arrested for scaling a New York City skyscraper, he's left with two choices: wither away in juvenile detention or go live with his long-lost father, who runs a climbing company in Thailand. But Peak quickly learns that his father's renewed interest in him has strings attached. Big strings. He wants Peak to be the youngest person to reach the Everest summit — and his motives are selfish at best. Even so, for a climbing addict like Peak, tackling Everest is the challenge of a lifetime. But it's also one that could cost him his life. He encounters the dangers of climbing, experiencing physical and emotional challenges that bring him to critical decisions testing his strength and maturity.
Roland Smith has created an action-packed adventure about friendship, sacrifice, family, and the drive to take on Everest, despite the incredible risk. -Scholastic summary National Outdoor Book Award Booklist Editor’s Choice, 2007 ALA 2008 Best books for Young Adults |
Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson
Deborah Hopkinson weaves together the voices and stories of real Titanic survivors and witnesses to the disaster -- from the stewardess Violet Jessop to Captain Arthur Rostron of the Carpathia, who came to the rescue of the sinking ship. Packed with heart-stopping action, devastating drama, fascinating historical details, loads of archival photographs on almost every page, quotes from primary sources, and painstaking back matter, this gripping story follows the Titanic and its passengers from the ship's celebrated launch at Belfast to her cataclysmic icy end.
-Barnes & Noble overview • 2016 Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award Nominee • 2013 Sibert Honor Book • 2013 YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction • 2013 ALA Notable Children's Book • IRA Teacher's Choice • Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult Book of the Year • Cybils Award Finalist |
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
Mare Barrow's world is divided by blood—those with common Red blood serve the Silver-blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities. Mare is a Red, scraping by as a thief in a poor, rural village, until a twist of fate throws her in front of the Silver court. Before the king, princes, and all the nobles, she discovers she has an ability of her own.
As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks everything and uses her new position to help the Scarlet Guard—a growing Red rebellion. -- Barnes and Noble overview 2015 Goodreads Choice Award for Debut Goodreads Author Nominated for the 2015 Goodreads Choice Award for Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction |
How They CRoaked by Georgia Bragg
Over the course of history, men and women have lived and died. In fact, getting sick and dying can be a big mess--especially before the modern medical care that we all enjoy today. From King Tut's ancient autopsy to Albert Einstein's great brain escape, How They Croaked contains the ends of nineteen awfully famous people. Readers will feel lucky to live in a world with painkillers, X-rays, soap, and 911.
-Google Books 2012 International Reading Association Best Non-fiction Award 2012 ALSC ALA Notable Children’s Books List 2012 YALSA ALA Quick Picks List for Nonfiction 2011 Cybils Awards Finalist (nonfiction) |
Resist by Alan Gratz
Allies by Alan Gratz
June 6, 1944
Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel to invade German-occupied France -- most of them from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Thousands more in France fought the Nazis at home. It was a day of unprecedented unity and cooperation. But many people played heroic roles on D-Day only to return to lives after the war filled with prejudice, segregation, and injustice. Algerian Muslim soldiers fought in the French Resistance and the Free French Army, only to have to wage a bloody war for independence after the war. Jewish soldiers fighting for the liberation of concentration camps dealt with anti-Semitism among the very men who fought alongside them. African-American soldiers fought on the beaches at D-Day but remained segregated from white soldiers throughout the war and returned home to find German prisoners of war treated better than they were in their hometowns. Their stories and others are told in Allies, a novel that, like D-Day itself, proves we are stronger together. -Scholastic summary 2019, TIME for Kids Recommended Books 2020, Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People 2020, Grateful American Book Prize Honorable Mention 2020, Junior Library Guild Selection |
Legend by Marie Lu
What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic's wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic's highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country's most wanted criminal, but his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.
From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths—until the day June's brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family's survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias's death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets. - Good Reads summary 2011 Booklist -- Starred Review 2011 Kirkus Reviews -- Starred Review 2012 ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults 2014 Young Reader's Choice Award -- Intermediate/Grades 7-9 (Nominee) 2015 Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award -- Grades 4-8 (Winner) |