BOOKTALK

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BOOKTALK 1 FOR HIGH SCHOOL READERS

• DECEMBER 2007

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Untitled Inheritance 3

• Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers to
  publish book three of Christopher Paolini's 1
  bestselling Inheritance series September 23,
  2008. Series will be expanded to include a fourth
  full-length novel.
• Christopher Paolini, the 1 New York Times
  bestselling author of Eragon and Eldest, the
  first two books in his Inheritance series, will
  write an additional, fourth novel about his hero
  Eragon, it was announced today by Nancy Hinkel,
  Publishing Director of Alfred A. Knopf Books for
  Young Readers, an imprint of Random House
  Children's Books. Originally planned as a
  trilogy, Inheritance will now include four
  complete novels written by Paolini and be named
  the Inheritance Cycle.

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I just read
Lauren Myracle
Stephenie Meyer
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National Book Award 2007

• Young people's literature Sherman Alexie's
  semi-autobiographical novel, The Absolutely True
  Diary of a Part-Time Indian, about a young
  Spokane Indian who abandons his impoverished
  reservation. The judges called it "disturbing,
  uplifting, tragic, and laugh-out funny."

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• BOOK SELECTIONS FROM JUNIOR LITERARY GUILD
• AUGUST 2007
• SEPTEMBER 2007
• OCTOBER 2007
• http//www.juniorlibraryguild.com/books.htm

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A Swift Pure Cry

• The Coolbar fields floated away, hedgerows
  trammeled on either side. She didn't know where
  they were taking her. The only thing she could
  hear was the word dead clanging in her brain,
  over and over like an Angelus bell." Two newborn
  infants are found dead in a small village, and
  fifteen-year-old Shell Talent is caught up in a
  scandal that shocks all of Ireland. Inspired by a
  true story.

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Off Season
D.J. Schwenk, the first female linebacker ever to
play for Red Bend High School's football team, is
at the top of her game. The season is off to a
great start, and Brian Nelson finally seems to be
paying her the right kind of attention. But after
a suspension and an injury sideline D.J. for the
season, many of the things she values most start
slipping away. Soon, D.J. discovers that she's
got much bigger problems to tackle than the ones
on the football field.
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Come Juneteenth

• Luli Holcomb, fourteen, hopes that the
  end of the Civil War means better times ahead for
  her family and their plantation. Instead, Luli's
  favorite brother, Gabe, leaves to fight Indians
  in a border dispute. Union soldiers occupy the
  plantation's big house, forcing the Holcombs to
  live in an old shack. And Sis Goose, a slave
  raised as Luli's beloved sister, is pregnant with
  Gabe's child. Luli can't imagine things getting
  any worse-until Sis Goose runs away.

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The Break-up Bible
As if getting dumped isn't embarrassing enough,
Jen also has to deal with a humiliating gift from
her grandmother The Breakup Bible, a
cliché-ridden heap of self-help nonsense. It
might be fine for getting over an arrogant,
thoughtless slob, but Max is wonderful. So
wonderful that Jen can't stop thinking about him,
especially since he's her editor at the school
paper. When Jen sees him with another girl, will
she finally be reduced to following The Breakup
Bible's advice?
Ask for "HOLD"
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Rucker Park Set-Up

• J.R. always knew what I was thinking on the
  court. It was like he could see the moves being
  born in my mind at the same time I did. Only J.R.
  couldn't see everything inside of me. He didn't
  know what I got myself into, or how it got him
  killed." Mackey and J.R. grew up playing
  basketball together and dreamed of winning the
  legendary tournament at Rucker Park. Now Mackey
  must play the championship game hiding a terrible
  secret-and knowing that his best friend's killer
  is watching his every move.

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Open Court
Everyone is good at something. For Hall Braxton,
it's tennis. She's so good, in fact, that her
parents and coach want her to leave behind her
life in Colorado for a tennisacademy in Florida.
On the outside, Hall looks unstoppable. But
inside, Hall isn't sure she can handle the
expectations that "creep under my skin like
soldiers, taking my brain hostage, demanding I
conquer or crumble." She's already seen her
doubles partner suffer a nervous breakdown on the
court. Will Hall choose to stay in the game?
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Jango
Seeker has grown more powerful than he ever
dreamed possible-perhaps too powerful. Some of
the Nomana want to "cleanse" him and erase all
that he has learned. Others believe he is the
last and only hope to save their one true god. As
an old enemy and a fearsome new warlord team up
to launch a final assault on the Nomana's home of
Anacrea, Seeker is not sure where the real threat
lies. Is it from the outside or from within
Anacrea itself?
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Hurricane Force

• "They are among the most powerful, most
  mysterious forces on Earth." Joseph B. Treaster
  survived his first hurricane when he was six
  years old. Since then he has covered many storms
  as a reporter for the New York Times. In August
  2005, he made his way to New Orleans to write
  about one of the deadliest and costliest
  hurricanes in history. This book gives a
  riveting, first-person account of Treaster's
  experience covering Hurricane Katrina and
  examines the history and nature of hurricanes.

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All-In
Denn has been on a hot streak playing poker with
Vegas's highest rollers and winning every time.
But that all changes when he gets involved with a
redheaded card dealer named Cattie. Soon, his
bankroll's down to almost nothing, he's playing
in games with little old ladies, and a powerful
rival has shown up. Denn is left with doubts
about just whose side Cattie is on. He'll bet
everything on one final game to learn the truth.
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wAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST A REPORTER'S STORY BLACK
SEPTEMBER AND THE YOM KIPPUR WARby Wilboun
Hampton
In 1970, when the Jordanian civil war known as
Black September began, U.P.I. correspondent
Wilborn Hampton was sent to report on unfolding
events. Holed up in the InterContinental Hotel
and caught in the crossfire, he managed to get
the story out. Three years later, dispatched to
Israel to cover the Yom Kippur War, the reporter
took it on himself to drive to the front lines.
Ask for "HOLD"
Ask for "HOLD"
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The Restless Dead

• What's to be done when the dearly departed
  refuse to depart? In these ten stories, which
  take place in a variety of historical and
  contemporary settings, the dead refuse to stay
  buried. They return to haunt the living, deliver
  warnings, and settle scores from beyond the
  grave.

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Number 8
Jackson has just moved to the suburbs with his
mother, Valerie, an aspiring singer. They no
longer live in a rough part of the city, and
Valerie has escaped from her drug-dealing boss.
Soon Jackson has a best friend and a potential
girlfriend, and Valerie has a decent new job.
Though life isn't perfect, it seems nice and
normal. However, when Valerie starts receiving
creepy phone calls and a mysterious blue Mustang
appears in the neighborhood, Jackson wonders if
everything is normal after all.
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Knife Edge

• After Callum dies, Sephy is left to raise their
  mixed-race baby alone-a daunting task in a
  society where naughts and Crosses are deeply
  divided. What's worse, many people blame her for
  Callum's death-especially Jude, Callum's brother.
  Jude is part of an underground naught militia and
  is obsessed with getting revenge "I only have
  one desire, one ambition left. I'm going to make
  them all suffer. I'm going to make them all
  pay."

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I Want to Live
Like a lot of teenage girls, Nina kept a diary.
Mostly, Nina wrote about typical teenage
issues-her looks, romance, school. But amid these
standard entries, Nina expressed her hatred of
Stalin's regime "Those bloody Bolsheviks, how I
hate them! All hypocrites, liars, and
scoundrels" It was these "counter-revolutionary"
passages that got Nina (and the rest of her
family) arrested and exiled to a Siberian gulag.
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The Coyote Road
In mythologies from around the world, the
Trickster figure plays many roles at once joker,
thief, prophet, and troublemaker. These
twenty-six original stories by contemporary
authors show some tricksters who help the
innocent and others who make sure the guilty get
their comeuppance tricksters who disrupt
peoples' everyday lives and those who open doors
to entirely new experiences.
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The Titanic
You are a passenger on the Titanic's maiden
voyage, and you choose what happens next. Will
you travel as a wealthy first-class passenger, or
will you experience a modest third-class voyage?
Will you chat with your friends the Astors in the
grand dining room, or will you make new societal
acquaintances? Will you stay up and dance in the
general room, or will you go to bed early? And
when the captain's warning sounds, will you head
for the lifeboats? Or will you be locked below
decks?
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Eye of the Crow
A man accused of murder professes his innocence
to teenager Sherlock Holmes, who's been intrigued
by the case ever since reading about it in the
daily police newspaper. Sherlock is happy to skip
school to investigate the murder, even though he
has promised his parents he'll stop playing
truant. Using keen observation and deduction,
Sherlock amasses enough evidence to convince the
police they may have the wrong man. Then they
arrest a new suspect-Sherlock!
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Love, Stargirl

• "I love beginnings. If I were in charge of
  calendars, every day would be January 1." After a
  wild, heartbreaking semester at Mica High in
  Arizona, Stargirl needs to start over in her new
  home, far away. Hoping to get over her feelings
  for her "once (and future?) boyfriend" Leo, she
  begins writing him "the world's longest letter,"
  explaining her feelings and keeping track of her
  daily life. But even her writing and all her new
  friends can't get Stargirl's heart to recuperate.
  Then she meets Perry Delloplane. . . .

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Cover Up
Stevie Thomas swears to his dad that his days of
solving international mysteries at major sporting
events are over. But then he and fellow teen
reporter (and girlfriend) Susan Carol Anderson
are hired to work at the Super Bowl. At first,
the only problem Stevie has is figuring out which
sports celebrity he'll interview next. Then Susan
Carol gets word of a doping scandal that's being
kept under wraps by cutthroat team owner Don
Meeker. Stevie can't help himself-he and Susan
Carol are on the case again.
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Useful Fools

• When Alonso's mother is assassinated by leftist
  revolutionaries, his whole life falls apart. His
  father begins drinking too much and Alonso,
  confused and full of rage, must care for his
  young siblings alone. He needs help-and the only
  people offering to lend a hand are the terrorists
  of the Shining Path, the very people who killed
  his mother. Alonso is faced with an impossible
  choice he cannot possibly join the Shining Path,
  but how will his family survive if he doesn't?

Ask for "HOLD"
Ask for "HOLD"
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Beowolf
Night after night, the ogre Grendel, who lives
"in the dragon marshes of Denmark," breaks into
King Hrothgar's hall and eats his fill of men. A
bold young man hears of the ogre and sails to
Denmark to help the king. Hrothgar's guards stop
him as he approaches "Who are you to come
helmet-and-spear to the great king's hall?"
"Beowulf is my name," he responds. This retelling
of the classic poem was written using only words
of Anglo-Saxon origin.
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GOLDEN COMPASS
Trailer