Saturday, February 24th

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Teen Lit Fest '07'
Autographs, Food Music
Authors, Book Sales
Saturday, February 24th Atascocita High School
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Emilys iPod (iRead) design will appear on black
t-shirts.
Lit Fest Theme and t-shirt design winner is Emily
Sewell Riverwood Student
iRead
Logo Artwork Winner is Nikki Zachary AHS
Student Her design will appear on book bags,
publicity materials and the Teen Lit Website
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iRead Chris Crutcher Scott Westerfeld Gale
Giles Justine Larbalestier Chris Yambar Benjamin
Saenz
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Chris Crutcher

• Scott Westerfeld
• Gail Giles
• Justine Larbalestier
• Chris Yambar
• Benjamin Saenz

Author Autographs
Book Sales
Food
Author Presentations
Entertainment
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Keynote Speaker
Chris Crutcher
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Chris Crutcher

• This guy has won too many awards to count for
  his writing, and most from teens like you around
  the nation. Crutcher lives in Spokane, Washington
  now but grew up in rural areas where the only
  entertainment was playing with Bee Bee Guns (See
  King of the Mild Frontier) and swimming without a
  pool (See Whaletalk). After working in education
  and counseling he started writing about the human
  condition, and that rings true with guys (and
  gals) like you and me.  Look a little closer and
  you will see how "real" this guy gets.

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(No Transcript)
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Chinese Handcuffs
Chinese Handcuffs by Chris Crutcher is a
gritty, realistic portrait of two high school
teenagers dealing with very destructive
secrets about themselves and their families.
Dillon is faced with the pain of his brothers
suicide and trains for Iron man triathlons to
keep his mind occupied. Jennifer is a star
basketball player and an A student who is trying
to protect her mother, her sister and herself
from her sexually abusive stepfather. Parts of
the book are letters that Dillon writes to his
dead brother, which gives us some interesting
first-person narrative, and also reminds us of
the depth to which Dillon is affected by his
circumstances. Both students must find the
courage to confront their demons before it is too
late. Read this shocking book and meet Chris
Crutcher at the Teen Lit Fest on February 24th.
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Whale Talk
The cast of characters in Whale Talk are adults,
children, and teenagers. Their lives are filled
with humor as well as heartache. The story takes
place in Spokane, Washington. It revolves around
the lives of some Cutter High School students who
decide to start up the first swim team in the
history of their high school. So what if the
school doesnt have a pool or a swim coach?
T.J. Jones, a senior who marches to the beat of
his own drum, decides to take on the challenge.
A gifted athlete and student, T.J. has resisted
organized sports since middle School. What makes
him decide to take on this challenge? Read the
book to find out!
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Buy a raffle ticket to win a dinner at a local
restaurant with Chris Crutcher.
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Tickets will be on sale at the AHS Library next
week!
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Dead Girls Dont Write Letters
Gail Giles
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Gail Giles...
writes fiction that reads fast, fast, because
it's so cliffhanging hot.  If you plan on doing
anything else on the day you open one of her
books, cancel it before you turn to page one. 
She is a Texan who lives in the Woodlands!  Oh,
and if you plan on giving one of her novels a
read-through like Shattering Glass, Playing in
Traffic, Dead Girls Don't Write Letters, or her
newest What Happened to Cass McBride, get them
now, because these titles don't stay on our
shelves.
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Shattering Glass by Gail Giles
Shattering Glass is a
riveting, disturbing and suspenseful read. The
book is told from the perspective of several
different characters and foreshadows the brutal
ending. Simon Glass is the typical school outcast
and nerd. In a diabolical scheme, the new school
leader, Rob plots with his crew including his
acolyte, Young, to make-over Simon and at the
same time, humiliate and denigrate the reining
Big Man on Campus, Lance Ansley. Simon turns out
to have more to him than Rob bargains for and
things turn ugly for the Crew and especially
Simon during the Senior Prom. Read this book and
meet Gail Giles at our Teen Lit Fest on February
24th.
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Gail Giles
Playing in Traffic is an intense
read and not for everyone but its gripping
narrative keeps readers turning the pages. This
psychological thriller keeps you guessing until
the very end. Matt is an invisible, nobody at
school and then he is noticed and targeted by the
sexy, tattooed, Goth girl, Skye. She lures him
in with all of her family problems. Matt has
family problems of his own and is enticed by the
excitement and especially by the sex. Matt finds
Skye impossible to resist, although he eventually
realizes that she's only using him in her attempt
to commit a terrible crime. The ending is violent
and shocking yet a logical outcome for a seeming
no-way-out problem.
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Justine Larbalestier
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Justine Larbalestier
Justine Larbalestier ...writes about magic, the
dark, powerful kind that can lead to madness. And
even though she is good at it (she was on the
list of Texas' Teens Favorite Titles last year
for Magic or Madness) she also likes to write
more than science fiction. In her blog she covers
everything from toilets to women in science
fiction, and she does a bang up job answering
questions on her site from would-be novelists. 
Oh, and if you've ever watched Buffy the Vampire
Slayer, she's written for that too...
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by Justine Larbalestier is and engaging
adventure set in
Australia and New York City. Fifteen-year-old
Reason Cansino has learned the painful truth
that she, like her mother and grandmother, must
make a choice to use the magic that lives in
her blood and die young, or refuse to use the
magic and lose her mind. Her new friendship with
magic teenagers Tom and Jay-Tee is helping Reason
deal with losing her mother to insanity. Now a
new threat leaves Reason stranded alone in New
York City, struggling to control a power she
barely understands. But could the danger she
faces also hold the key to saving her life. She
is slowly learning to trust her grandmother,
Esmerelda, who is teaching her both the reaches
and limitations of her power. Her grandmother
and friends in Australia want to help her, and
her grandfather in New York City wants to steal
her magic to lengthen his own lifespan.
Transported between two worlds, Reason must find
her own path. In this sequel to Magic and
Madness, Reason makes some life-altering choices
as she makes the transition from innocent child
to young adult, and becomes more determined than
ever to alter the direction of her life.
Justine Larbalestier
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Scott Westerfeld
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Scott Westerfeld
...is a master of young adult and adult science
fiction novels.  You might recognize his work if
you have read Midnighters, Uglies, Peeps or So
Yesterday.  And if you haven't read his novels or
his series novels already, get them before they
fly off the shelves here at AHS.  He can also be
credited with being a native-born Texan!  Now,
Westerfeld lives a nomadic existence, settling
only briefly between New York and Australia in
between his visits to come and see avid fans like
you and me. Website Link
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(No Transcript)
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Specials (Book 3 of the trilogy)

• The words have sent chills down Tally's spine
  since her days as a repellent, rebellious ugly.
  Back then Specials were a sinister rumor --
  frighteningly beautiful, dangerously strong,
  breathtakingly fast. Ordinary pretties might live
  their whole lives without meeting a Special. But
  Tally's never been ordinary.
• And now she's been turned into one of them a
  superamped fighting machine, engineered to keep
  the uglies down and the pretties stupid.
• The strength, the speed, and the clarity and
  focus of her thinking feel better than anything
  Tally can remember. Most of the time. One tiny
  corner of her heart still remembers something
  more.
• Still, it's easy to tune that out -- until
  Tally's offered a chance to stamp out the rebels
  of the New Smoke permanently. It all comes down
  to one last choice listen to that tiny, faint
  heartbeat, or carry out the mission she's
  programmed to complete. Either way, Tally's world
  will never be the same
  Review from a reader at
  Amazon.com

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MIDNIGHTERS SERIES

• Midnighters v. 1 The Secret Hour
• For one secret hour each night, the town
  of Bixby Oklahoma belongs to the dark creatures
  who haunt the shadows. Only a select number of
  teenagers know about the secret hour they call
  themselves the Midnighters Jessica, Rex,
  Jonathan, Dess, Melissa - each one has a secret
  power to stop the darklings.
• Midnighters v. 2 Touching Darkness
• As the Midnighters search for the
  truth about the secret hours, they uncover
  terrifying mysteries about Bixby and also a
  conspiracy that helps them understand their
  powers. Who is Madeleine?
• Midnighters v. 3 Blue Noon (End of the
  Midnighters Trilogy)
• The Midnighters can't understand what's
  happening, but
• as they scramble for answers, they discover
  that the walls
• between the secret hour and real time are
  crumbling. Soon the
• dark creatures will have a chance to feed
  after centuries of waiting,
• unless these five teenagers can find a way to
  stop them.

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Benjamin Saenz
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Benjamin Saenz
Benjamin Alíre Sáenz lives in El Paso, Texas . 
His success began with his collections of
award-winning poetry including Calendar of Dust,
Dark and Perfect Angels and Elegy in Blue. From
there, Sáenz went  on to writing adult fiction in
both English and Spanish, and, true to Sáenz
form, one of his novels, Carry Me Like Water, won
the Latino Literary Award for best novel.  His
first novel for young adults, Sammy Juliana in
Hollywood struck home for teens. The book
immediately received recognition as a finalist in
many national award competitions, and more
importantly made the American Library
Associations list of top ten young adult novels
for 2006.
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Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood
Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood by
Benjamin Alire Saenz is a moving,
coming-of-age story. The "Hollywood"
where Sammy Santos and Juliana Rios
live is not the West Coast one, the one with all
the glitter and glam. This Hollywood is a tough
barrio at the edge of a small town in southern
New Mexico. Sammy falls in love with a girl who
is living in a nightmare of domestic abuse. He
loses her when her alcoholic father murders the
entire family. Sammy and his friends, members of
the 1969 high school graduating class, face a
world of racism, dress codes, war in Vietnam and
barrio violence. Sammy is a smart kid, but he's
angry. He's angry about Juliana's death, he's
angry about the poverty his father and his sister
must endure, he's angry at his high school and
its racism, and he's angry he might not be able
to go to college. The relationship between Sammy
and his father is particularly poignant and we do
not often see teen books where kids genuinely
respect and love their parents. Benjamin Alire
Saenz captures the essence of what it meant to
grow up Mexican- American in small town American
in the late 1960s.
Benjamin Alire Saenz
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Chris Yambar
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Chris Yambar
"...one of the most prolific creative
forces in modern pop culture.  Unlike others
in the creative arts, YAMBAR has been able to
create an enormous catalog of work in the
following mediums painting, writing, cartooning
he was a contributing artist for the Simpsons!,
publishing, designing, and recording, all of
which have been met with staggering results."
Chris Yambars Website
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See you there! Saturday February 24,
2007 Atascocita High School