Anderson, Laurie Halse.  Fever 1793.  Simon & Schuster, 2002. 

ISBN:  0689848919

From Amazon.com - Fever 1793 is based on an actual epidemic of yellow fever in Philadelphia that wiped out 5,000 people--or 10 percent of the city's population--in three months.  During the hot mosquito-infested summer of 1793, the dreaded yellow fever spread like wildfire, killing people overnight. The rich fled to the country, abandoning the city to looters, forsaken corpses, and frightened survivors. In the foreground of this story is 16-year-old Mattie Cook, whose mother and grandfather own a popular coffee house on High Street. Mattie's comfortable and interesting life is shattered by the epidemic, as her mother is felled and the girl and her grandfather must flee for their lives. As first frost arrives and the epidemic ends, Mattie's sufferings have changed her from a willful child to a strong, capable young woman able to manage her family's business on her own.

Anderson, Laurie Halse.  Speak.  Puffin, 2001.

ISBN:  0142407321

From Publishers Weekly - In a stunning first novel, Anderson uses keen observations and vivid imagery to pull readers into the head of an isolated teenager.  Divided into the four marking periods of an academic year, the novel, narrated by Melinda Sordino, begins on her first day as a high school freshman.  No one will sit with Melinda on the bus.  At school, students call her names and harass her; her best friends from junior high scatter to different cliques and abandon her.  Yet, Anderson infuses the narrative with a wit that sustains the heroine through her pain and holds readers’ empathy.  Only through her work in art class, and with the support of a compassionate teacher there does she begin to reach out to others and eventually find her voice. 

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Horowitz, Anthony. Eagle Strike, An Alex Rider Adventure.  Puffin, 2005. 

ISBN:  0142402923

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Deuker, Carl.  Painting The Black.  Trade Paperback, Harper Collins Publishers, March 1999

ISBN:  0380731045

From Borders.com - When a hard ball is coming at you fast, and when it's dancing, too, every single nerve in your body is alert and ready.  Your eyes are wide open, and the adrenaline is pumping.  It's not a feeling you want to give up any more than you want to get off a roller coaster.  In his senior year of high school, late-bloomer Ryan Ward has just begun to feel the magic of baseball:  the magic of catching a wicked slider, of throwing a runner out, of training hard and pushing his limits.  But when one of his teammates clearly pushes the limits too far, Ryan is faced with a heartbreaking dilemma:  he must choose between his love for the game and his integrity.

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McCormick, Patricia.  My Brother's Keeper.  Trade Paperback, Hyperion Press, Sept. 2006

ISBN:  0786851740

From Borders.com - From the acclaimed author of "Cut" comes this new novel that explores the anguish of living with divided loyalties and the cost of keeping family secrets, as a young teen struggles to keep his family together when his father abandons them.

King, Stephen.  The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.  Simon & Schuster, 2000. 

ISBN:  0671042858

From Amazon.com - Trisha McFarland is a plucky 9-year-old hiking with her brother and mom, who is grimly determined to give the kids a good time on their weekends together. Trisha's mom is recently divorced, and her brother is feuding with her for moving from Boston to small-town Maine, where classmates razz him. Trisha steps off the trail for a respite from the bickering and gets lost. King renders her consciousness of increasing peril beautifully, from the "first minnowy flutter of disquiet" in her guts to her into-the-wild tumbles to her descent into hallucinations, the nicest being her beloved Red Sox baseball pitcher Tom Gordon, whose exploits she listens to on her Walkman. The personal associations triggered by a full moon, the running monologue with which she stays sane--we who have been lost in woods will recognize these things.

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Randle, Kristen.  Breaking Rank.  New York:  Harper Collins, 2002.

ISBN:  0380732815

From Amazon.com - The Clan, as the clique is called, is a highly nontraditional gang.  While they disavow participation in school, these enigmatic boys don’t believe in drugs or violence, and are advocates of self-education—older members tutor younger apprentices in everything from car mechanics to Latin.  But the comfort and acceptance of the Clan is no longer enough for Thomas, or “Baby” as he is known by his family.  Once school administrators are aware of Baby’s intelligence, the principal pairs him with honor student Casey Willardson to help him catch up in the gifted program. As the two work together—dark, handsome rebel and beautiful, popular schoolgirl—the preconceptions and misunderstandings they have about each other are slowly stripped away.  But Baby and Casey discover that even though they don’t care about superficial differences, their friends do.  Their relationship provokes a showdown between the Clan and the varsity football team that promises to end in disaster.

Kidd, Sue Monk.  The Secret Life of Bees.  Trade Paperback, Penguin Group, Jan. 2003. 

ISBN:  0142001740

From Publishers Weekly - It's 1964, the year of the Civil Rights Act, in Sylvan, S.C.  Fourteen-year-old Lily is on the lam with motherly servant.  Rosaleen fleeing both Lily's abusive father T. Ray and the police who battered Rosaleen for defending her night to vote.  Lily is also fleeing memories, particularly her jumbled recollection of how, as a frightened four-year-old, she accidentally shot and killed her mother during a fight with T. Ray.  Among her mother's possessions, Lily finds a picture of a black Virgin Mary with "Tiburon, S.C." on the back so, blindly, she and Rosaleen head there.  It turns out that the town is headquarters of Black Madonna Honey, produced by three middle-aged black sisters, August, June and May Boatwright.  The "Calendar sisters" take in the fugitives, putting Lily to work in the honey house, where for the first time in years she's happy.  But August, clearly the queen bee of the Boatwrights, keeps asking Lily searching questions.  Faced with so ideally maternal a figure as August, most girls would babble uncontrollably.  But Lily is a budding writer, desperate to connect yet fiercely protective of her secret interior life.  Kidd's success at capturing the moody adolescent girl's voice makes her ambivalence comprehensible and charming.

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Werlin, Nancy.  Double Helix.  Trade Paperback, Penguin Group, May 2005. 

ISBN:  014240327X

From the Publisher - Eli Samuels, barely out of high school, is offered a job at prestigious Wyatt Transgenics by its founder, a legendary molecular biologist. The salary's amazing, the work is interesting, and Dr. Wyatt seems to want to mentor him. It's almost too good to be true. But Mr. Samuels is vehemently against Eli's taking the job, and he won't explain why. Eli knows that there's some connection between Dr. Wyatt and his parents—something painful for his father. Something to do with his mother, now debilitated by Huntington's disease. As Eli works at the lab and spends time with Dr. Wyatt, he begins to uncover some disconcerting information—about himself.

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Anderson, Laurie Halse.  Catalyst.  Trade Paperback, Penguin Group, September 2003. 

ISBN:  0142400017

From the Publisher - Meet Kate Malone-straight-A science and math geek, minister's daughter, ace long-distance runner, new girlfriend (to Mitchell "Early Decision Harvard" Pangborn III), unwilling family caretaker, and emotional avoidance champion. Kate manages her life by organizing it as logically as the periodic table. She can handle it all-or so she thinks. Then, things change as suddenly as a string of chemical reactions; first, the Malones' neighbors get burned out of their own home and move in. Kate has to share her room with her nemesis, Teri Litch, and Teri's little brother. The days are ticking down and she's still waiting to hear from the only college she applied to: MIT. Kate feels that her life is spinning out of her control-and then, something happens that truly blows it all apart. Set in the same community as the remarkable Speak, Catalyst is a novel that will change the way you look at the world.

ISBN:  0374430896

From Publishers Weekly - Gantos offers a riveting autobiographical account of his teen years and the events may well penetrate the comfort zone of even the most complacent young adults. This memoir begins with the dramatic image of the author as a young convict ("When I look at my face in the photo I see nothing but the pocked mask I was hiding behind"). Inspired by the words and lives of some of his favorite American authors, Gantos sought adventure after leaving high school. He eagerly agreed to help smuggle a shipment of hashish from Florida to New York without giving thought of the possible consequences. Knowing that the narrator is destined to land in jail keeps suspense at a high pitch, but this book's remarkable achievement is the multiple points of view that emerge, as experiences force a fledgling writer to continually revise his perspective of himself and the world around him.

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Patterson, James.  Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment.  Little Brown & Company, May 2006.

ISBN:  0446617792

From Borders.com - From Death Valley, California, to the bowels of the New York City subway system, 14-year-old Max leads her feisty "family" on a journey of action, adventure, and soul-seeking in this #1 "New York Times" bestselling series debut.

From School Library Journal - Nathaniel has been apprenticed to Mr. Underwood for several years. At the age of 12, he has finally been Named and is on his way to becoming a real magician. Suddenly, London is in an uproar. The Amulet of Samarkand has been stolen from the powerful magician Simon Lovelace. Only Nathaniel knows what really happened because it was he who commanded the 5000-year-old djinni Bartimaeus to steal it for him. Now, with a rebellious demon under his control and all of London searching for the thief, he must figure out a way to keep the amulet hidden. Stroud has woven an intricate fantasy set in an alternative London where the most influential members of society, and even the Prime Minister himself, are magicians. The richly rewarding story unfolds in chapters that alternate between Bartimaeus's first-person narration, which includes arcane and very funny footnotes, and Nathaniel's account, told in third person. There is plenty of action, mystery, and humor to keep readers turning the pages.

ISBN:  0440221471

From Borders.com - "He has waited for this moment.  "He has planned his every move.  "He has made it onto the jury in the most explosive trial of the century.  "Now the verdict belongs to him. . . .   They are at the center of a multimillion dollar legal hurricane: twelve men and women who have been investigated, watched, manipulated, and harassed by high-priced lawyers and consultants who will stop at nothing to secure a verdict. Now that the jury must make a decision in the most explosive trial of the century, a precedent-setting lawsuit against a giant tobacco company. But only a handful of people know the truth: that this jury has a leader, and the verdict belongs to him...   He is known only as Juror #2. But he has a name, a past, and he has planned his every move with the help of a beautiful woman on the outside. Now, while a corporate empire hands in the balance, while a grieving family waits, and while lawyers are plunged into a battle for their careers, the truth about Juror #2 is about to explode, in a cross fire of greed and corruption--and with justice fighting for its life..

ISBN:  0345391802

From Borders.com - Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.
Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide ("A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have") and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox--the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod's girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years.
Where are these pens? Why are we born? Why do we die? Why do we spend so much time between wearing digital watches? For all the answers stick your thumb to the stars. And don't forget to bring a towel.

NOTE:  American Studies Required reading to be graded in American Studies class

Honors - Huckleberry Finn and The Scarlet Letter

Level One - Huckleberry Finn

Haddon, Mark.  The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.  Knopf Publishing Group, 2004.   

ISBN: 1400032717 

From Publishers Weekly - Christopher Boone, the autistic 15-year-old narrator of this revelatory novel, relaxes by groaning and doing math problems in his head, eats red-but not yellow or brown-foods and screams when he is touched. Strange as he may seem, other people are far more of a conundrum to him, for he lacks the intuitive "theory of mind" by which most of us sense what's going on in other people's heads. When his neighbor's poodle is killed and Christopher is falsely accused of the crime, he decides that he will take a page from Sherlock Holmes (one of his favorite characters) and track down the killer. As the mystery leads him to the secrets of his parents' broken marriage and then into an odyssey to find his place in the world, he must fall back on deductive logic to navigate the emotional complexities of a social world that remains a closed book to him. His literal-minded observations make for a kind of poetic sensibility and a poignant evocation of character. Though Christopher insists, "This will not be a funny book. I cannot tell jokes because I do not understand them," the novel brims with touching, ironic humor.  

Sparks, Nicholas.  The Guardian.  Warner Books Incorporated, 2004.  

ISBN:  0446613436 

From Publishers Weekly - On Christmas Eve, Julie Barenson, 25 years old and newly widowed, finds an unexpected present-a Great Dane pup that her late husband, Jim, had arranged for her to receive after he died from a brain tumor. On that melodramatic note, bestselling author Sparks begins his latest love story, one in which he combines elements of romance with those of a thriller. Julie's new dog, Singer, turns out to be a better judge of character than she, which is unfortunate because the dog nearly gives away the book's ending when he growls warily at Richard Franklin, the new man in Julie's life. On the other hand, the pooch loves to be around Mike Harris, Jim's best friend, who has grown to love Julie. Richard's increasingly bizarre behavior causes Julie to break up with him, and his subsequent stalker tactics make for compelling action, especially when he plots to destroy the budding romance between Julie and Mike.

Picoult, Jodi.  My Sister’s Keeper:  A Novel.  Washington Square Press, Reprint edition 2005. 

From School Library Journal - Anna was genetically engineered to be a perfect match for her cancer-ridden older sister.  Since birth, the 13-year-old has donated platelets, blood, her umbilical cord, and bone marrow as part of her family’s struggle to lengthen Kate’s life.  Anna is now being considered as a kidney donor in a last-ditch attempt to save her 16-year-old sister.  As this compelling story opens, Anna has hired a lawyer to represent her in a medical emancipation suit to allow her to have control over her own body.  Picoult skillfully relates the ensuing drama from the points of view of the parents; Anna; Campbell, the self-absorbed lawyer; Julia, the court-appointed guardian ad litem; and Jesse, the troubled oldest child in the family. There seems to be no easy answer, and readers are likely to be sympathetic to all sides of the case. 

Grisham, John.  The Street Lawyer.  Dell Publishing, January 1999.   

ISBN:  0440225701

From Borders.com - Michael was in a hurry.  He was scrambling up the ladder at Drake & Sweeney, a giant D.C firm with eight hundred lawyers.  The money was good and getting better; a partnership was three years away.  He was a rising star with no time to waste, no time to stop, no time to toss a few coins into the cups of panhandlers.  No time for a conscience.  But a violent encounter with a homeless man stopped him cold.  Michael survived; his assailant did not.  Who was this man?  Michael did some digging, and learned that he was a mentally ill veteran who’d been in and out of shelters for many years.  Then Michael dug a little deeper, and found a dirty secret, and the secret involved Drake & Sweeney.  He landed in the streets, an advocate for the homeless, a street lawyer.  And a thief.

ISBN:  0380818604

From Borders.com - Returning to the noble household where he once served as page, Cazaril is named as secretary-tutor to the sister of the heir. It's an assignment Cazaril dreads, for it will lead him to the place he most fears: the royal court of Cadegoss. But a curse hangs over the entire blighted House of Chalion, and only with the most forbidden magic can Cazaril hope to protect his royal charge