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We Are Not Eaten By Yaks
Reading Level: Grade 4-6
The Navel twins have an exciting life. As the children of two world famous explorers, they spend their vacations trekking through jungles, riding Mongolian ponies and exploring cursed graveyards.
The Navel twins do not WANT an exciting life. All they want to do is eat cheese puffs while watching television...lots and lots of television...preferable cable. Alas, it is not to be.
When their father enters a foolish wager with the evil Sir Edmund, the twins are forced to accompany him to the frozen heights of the Himalayas in search of the Lost Tablets of Alexandria. While there they encounter many dangers including a Yeti, the Poison Witches and the Demon Fortress of the Oracle King.
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More books by C. Alexander London
Other wacky adventures include:
A Whole Nother Story by Cuthbert Soup
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Tags: 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, Adventure, Family, Humor, Mysteries, J Fiction, SJS
The Unidentified
Reading Level: Grade 7-9
15-year-old Kid is a student in the Game, a franchised high school that occupies an old mall. The students at the school spend their days playing "games" that are closely monitored by corporate sponsors. Almost every kid in the Game hopes to stand out enough to get "Branded."
Kit is horrified when someone is pushed over the fifth floor railing into "the Pit" where most of the kids hang out. The person turns out to be a dummy with the sign "Unidentified. Choose your suicide" taped to its sweater.
When Kid begins an investigation to discover the perpetrators of the hoax, she triggers a series of events that will change her life, and possibly her society, forever.
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Other dystopian adventures include:
The Gardener by S.A. Bodeen
Matched by Allyson Braithwaite Condie and
Login or register to post comments | Printer-friendly version | Send to friend | PDF version | Tags: 7th Grade, 8th Grade, Books for Girls, Dystopias, Fantasy, Friends, School, Social Issues, JY Fiction, SJS
Hothouse
Reading Level: Grade 8+
Russell was named for DJ's father. DJ was named for Russell's. Their dads were neighbors, best friends and coworkers. Both were firemen. They did everything together...including dying in the same fire.
When their small town hails both men as heroes, both their sons and widows are expected to attend function after function honoring the men. Although Russell is intensely proud of his father, he and DJ both wish the attention would end.
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Login or register to post comments | Printer-friendly version | Send to friend | PDF version | Tags: 8th Grade, High Schoolers, Books for Boys, Family, Friends, Realistic Fiction, Self Image, JY Fiction, SJS
The Book of Spells: A Private Prequel
Reading Level: Grades 8+
Kate Brian expands the back story of her Private series in this gripping prequel.
16-year-old Eliza is delighted when her mother decides to send Eliza away to the Billings School for Girls. Finally, she will have a chance to spread her wings away from her mother's eagle eye. But the expectations for upper class girls at the beginning of the 20th century are stifling whether enforced by her mother or the teachers at the school.
When a forbidden moonlight excursion lands Eliza and three friends in trouble, they are sentenced to weeding the school garden. There Eliza uncovers a buried cache of dangerous books that lead the girls into supernatural danger.
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Other eerie boarding school tales include :
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
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Tutored
Reading Level: Grades 8+
"Are you a minority? Unemployed, underemployed, or economically disadvantaged? We serve the entire West Side, and we have services that can assist you to a new FUTURE! Stop by today."
Hakiam didn't believe the lame sign. He just stopped by to get extra credit for his GED class. He went back the second time because of the girl behind the desk. Even with her rich girl clothes and fancy way of talking...there was something about her.
Wendy couldn't believe the guy's attitude. She volunteered to help guys like him. Where did he get off judging her, making fun of her just because she spoke like an educated person? He might be cute but she could never hook up with someone like him, her father would kill her.
When the lives of these two African American teens cross, sparks fly between them and cause ripples in the relationships with the other people in their lives.
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More books Allison Whittenberg
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Girl Overboard
Reading Level: Grades 8+
To the outside observer, Syrah Cheng, daughter of billionaire Ethan Cheng, lives a charmed life. If only it were so. Between her critical, distant parents, her hateful adult half brother and sister and her sycophantic classmates, Syrah feels besieged and alone. Life has been even worse since the snowboarding accident that almost took her life and brought her under the unfavorable scrutiny of the press.
When her life long friend Age turns his back on her, Syrah realizes that her happiness lies within herself.
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More books Justina Chen Headley
Other stories of the extremely rich and famous include :
The Daughters by Johanna Philbin
Likely Story by David Van Etten
My Double Life by Janette Rallison
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Deadly
Reading Level: Grades 7-9
16-year-old Prudence Galewski knows she should be grateful to be a scholarship student at Mrs. Browning's School for Girls but she finds her lessons in typing, literature and deportment oppressive. Prudence doesn't want to be a wife and mother or a secretary at a bank. She wants to know what causes diseases and how to prevent them even though girls in the early 19th century were not supposed to be interested in such unladylike things.
Prudence gets her chance when she is hired as Mr. Soper's assistant at the New York Department of Health and Sanitation. But soon Prudence has reason to doubt the wisdom of her career path when an investigation of a string of typhoid cases leads her and Mr. Soper down a path of controversy and danger.
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Other historical stories of strong young women include:
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
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Orchards: A Novel
Reading Level: Grades 8-10
Kana Goldberg gains a deeper understanding of herself and others when she is sent to Japan to spend the summer with her mother's relatives after a bullied 8th grade classmate takes her own life.
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Other engrossing novels told in verse are:
Shark Girl by Kelly L. Bingham
Kaleidoscope Eyes by Jennifer Bryant
You Are Not Here by Samantha Schultz and
After the Kiss by Terra Elan McVoy
Other tales of American kids adjusting to life in foreign lands include:
Hannah's Winter by Kierin Meehan
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Johnny Swanson
Reading Level: Grades 4-6
When 11-year-old Johnny, the very shortest boy in his class, steals money from his mother and answers an ad promising to give him the "secret to instant height", he is dismayed to receive a note advising him to "stand on a box." Angry and ashamed, Johnny begins his own mail order scam thus setting a series of events in motion which may lead to his own mother's death.
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Other stories of questionable young entrepreneurs include:
The Great Brain by John Dennis Fitzgerald
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A Tale Dark and Grimm
Reading Level: Grades 5-8
Gidwitz chronicles Hansel and Gretel's adventures through some of the Grimm Brothers most blood-thirsty stories in this hilarious, terrifying fairy tale send-up.
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If you enjoyed this terrifyingly funny fairy tale adventure try:
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