The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

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Sixteen-year-old Tess Kendrick has spent her entire life on her grandfather’s ranch. But when her estranged sister Ivy uproots her to D.C., Tess is thrown into a world that revolves around politics and power. She also starts at Hardwicke Academy, the D.C. school for the children of the rich and powerful, where she unwittingly becomes a fixer for the high school set, fixing teens’ problems the way her sister fixes their parents’ problems.

And when a conspiracy surfaces that involves the family member of one of Tess’s classmates, love triangles and unbelievable family secrets come to light and life gets even more interesting—and complicated—for Tess.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22929578-the-fixer

Excellent Book

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The Six by Mark Alpert

Avatar meets The Terminator in this thrilling cyber-tech adventure
Crippled by muscular dystrophy, Adam spends his days playing virtual reality games, until a dangerously advanced artificial intelligence program that can control other machines tries to kill him.

Created by Adam’s father, Sigma has escaped its cyber prison and is threatening world domination. In order to stop Sigma, Adam and five other terminally ill teens sacrifice their bodies and upload their minds into weaponized robots. Together, The Six must learn how to manipulate their new mechanical forms—and prepare for epic combat—before Sigma destroys humanity.

from https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Six.html?id=z7XprQEACAAJ&hl=en

Excellent Book

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The Raft by S.A. Bodeen

Robie is an experienced traveler. She’s taken the flight from Honolulu to the Midway Atoll, a group of Pacific islands where her parents live, many times. When she has to get to Midway in a hurry after a visit with her aunt in Hawaii, she gets on the next cargo flight at the last minute. She knows the pilot, but on this flight, there’s a new co-pilot named Max. All systems are go until a storm hits during the flight. The only passenger, Robie doesn’t panic until the engine suddenly cuts out and Max shouts at her to put on a life jacket. They are over miles of Pacific Ocean. She sees Max struggle with a raft.

And then . . . she’s in the water. Fighting for her life. Max pulls her onto the raft, and that’s when the real terror begins. They have no water. Their only food is a bag of Skittles. There are sharks. There is an island. But there’s no sign of help on the way.

Excellent Book

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Revived by Cat Patrick

It started with a bus crash.

 Daisy Appleby was a little girl when it happened, and she barely remembers the accident or being brought back to life. At that moment, though, she became one of the first subjects in a covert government program that tests a drug called Revive.

Now fifteen, Daisy has died and been Revived five times. Each death means a new name, a new city, a new identity. The only constant in Daisy’s life is constant change.

Then Daisy meets Matt and Audrey McKean, charismatic siblings who quickly become her first real friends. But if she’s ever to have a normal life, Daisy must escape from an experiment that’s much larger–and more sinister–than she ever imagined.

Excellent Book

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The Giver by Lois Lowry

Somewhere in the not too distant future, there is a society ruled by sameness. There is no rich or poor, no racism or prejudice, no inequality of any kind. The people grow up without feelings, physical sensations and color; hot and cold, pain and relief, red and green are words with no meaning. There is no music to sing and dance to, no animals to keep as pets, no rain or sunshine to show the changing seasons. The freedom to choose is unheard of. But despite the endless sameness, there is one person who holds the memories of the past-the Receiver of Memory. Jonas is assigned this most honored job. The Giver, a very old man who was once the Receiver of Memory, passes all the memories of the past onto Jonas. Jonas must learn physical pain, as well as haunting emotions—fear, anger, and loneliness. Jonas soon realizes that a life without choice, feelings and pain is wrong. But how can he make a difference when only he and the Giver know what they’re missing?

Very Good Book

From: http://www.kidzworld.com/article/16160-the-giver-book-review#ixzz22hy9SjWW

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Divergent by Veronica Roth

In a future Chicago, 16-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomaly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.

Excellent Book

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Book Club Receives The Running Dream

I met with the Book Club this past week to give them their third book of the year….Wendelin Van Draanen’s The Running Dream. The selection is realistic fiction and I hope they like it as much as I do.

Jessica thinks her life is over when she loses a leg in a car accident. She’s not comforted by the news that she’ll be able to walk with the help of a prosthetic leg. Who cares about walking when you live to run?

As she struggles to cope with crutches and a first cyborg-like prosthetic, Jessica feels oddly both in the spotlight and invisible. People who don’t know what to say, act like she’s not there. Which she could handle better if she weren’t now keenly aware that she’d done the same thing herself to a girl with CP named Rosa. A girl who is going to tutor her through all the math she’s missed. A girl who sees right into the heart of her.

With the support of family, friends, a coach, and her track teammates, Jessica may actually be able to run again. But that’s not enough for her now. She doesn’t just want to cross finish lines herself—she wants to take Rosa with her.

Excellent Book

I couldn’t find a book trailer that I liked for this one so I decided to create my own.

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So B. It by Sarah Weeks

So B. It by Sarah Weeks

After spending her life with her mentally retarded mother and agoraphobic neighbor, twelve-year-old Heidi sets out from Reno, Nevada, to New York to find out who she is.

Very good book

from www.nancykeane.com

Discussion Questions

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Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

What if everyone automatically became “pretty” when they turned 16?  Scott Westerfeld explores this concept in his book Uglies.  Listen to the booktalk below.

Excellent book

from http://www.nancykeane.com

Can’t see the video below? Try this link.

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City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in her decaying but beloved city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown Regions.

from www.nancykeane.com

Excellent book

Can’t see the video below? Try this link.

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Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

India Opal’s lonely when she moves to Florida. Her mom’s left, her father’s busy and won’t talk about her mother, and she has no friends. But you don’t have a chance to feel sorry for her because her entire life changes when she goes to the grocery store one day. At the Winn-Dixie she meets a scruffy, stray dog with bald patches. A dog that wags his tail so hard, India knows he’s looking for a home. A dog that has a face so expressive that he can smile. A dog that needs love and guess what? India’s the perfect person to give it to him. She bathes him, shampoos him, names him Winn-Dixie, shares all her problems with him and begins to love him. And when India starts loving Winn-Dixie, amazing things happen.

Can’t see the video below? Try this link.

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The Gadget by Paul Zindel

In 1945, Stephen moves from London to Los Alamos, New Mexico to live with his scientist father who is working on a secret project. Stephen’s curiosity is piqued regarding the high level of security and mystery shrouding the military base and its occupants. Dr. Soifer, a hospitalized scientist, alerts Stephen to the dangers involved in the secret experiments, but Stephen does not fully comprehend the horrific consequences of “the Gadget” until the dramatic climax of this fast-paced historical fiction novel. http://www.nancykeane.com

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