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Sharp Teethby Toby Barlow Anthony Silvo has just gotten a job as a dogcatcher in East L.A. He doesn’t really want to send the dogs to the pound, but he needs the money. Then he meets a mysterious woman who gets him caught in the middle of a big supernatural mess. Werewolves are alive and well in East L.A. Well, not exactly werewolves. More weredogs, who can shift back and forth between human and dog whenever they want. There are a number of things going on in the story. Lark, the leader of one pack, is betrayed by one of his followers. He decides to hide out in an animal shelter and is eventually adopted. When his owners are out, he organizes a new pack, but he slowly realizes that he likes the quiet life. Meanwhile, Anthony’s mysterious girlfriend is killing off certain weredogs. A couple of people from Lark’s pack end up playing in a bridge (not poker!) tournament that may have a connection to the L.A. drug trade. Finally, a detective named Peabody (probably a reference to Mister Peabody) is investigating a series of murders that relate to the weredog packs. This is a werewolf story, so you can expect a fair amount of violence. The author also sneaks in a lot of dog-related humor, as you can see from the bridge-playing dogs and Peabody. The unusual thing is that this story is told in verse, sort of. Why? I’m not sure, but a couple of recent authors have tried it, so I guess it must be trendy. The book looks like a giant poem, but once you start reading, it’s basically a novel with very short lines. If you want to give the book a try, you can browse it for free at the publisher’s website. Where to Find ItYou can get it from the school library.
You can get it from the public library.
This list was last updated May 18, 2012 at 1:10 am UTC. Click here to see newer information. June 21st, 2009
 Tags: action, alex award winner, crime, drugs, murder, shapechangers |  Category: Contemporary Fantasy, Fantasy
|  Write a comment | The Good Thiefby Hannah Tinti Ren is an orphan living in a monastery in New England. He doesn’t remember who his parents are, what life was like before the orphanage, or why he is missing one hand. Like all the other children there, though, he hopes somebody will adopt him, but this is 19th century New England. Most people who want to adopt a boy want one they can put to work in a farm or a factory, and that means they are looking for someone with two hands. One day a young man named Benjamin shows up who is not looking for someone with two hands. In fact, he seems to be looking for Ren. Benjamin explains that their parents are dead and that Ren lost his hand in the same incident. However, Ren soon finds out that his brother is a thief, part-time body snatcher and grave robber, and con artist. Benjamin and his fellow criminals are pleased to discover that Ren seems to be a natural born thief, but Ren just wants friends and a family, and he starts looking for them in the strangest places. You can read some of it online at Google Books. Where to Find ItYou can get it from the school library.
You can get it from the public library.
This list was last updated May 18, 2012 at 7:41 am UTC. Click here to see newer information. June 20th, 2009
Tags: alex award winner, con artists, crime, thieves | Category: Fiction
| Write a comment | Finding NoufSixteen-year-old Nouf ash-Shrawi, a member of a wealthy family in Saudia Arabia, goes missing three days before her wedding. Her brother, Othman, hires Nayir al-Sharqi to find her. Nayir usually works as a guide, leading the rich and famous through the desert, but he accepts this job. He never finds Nouf, but a week and a half later, someone else finds her body in the desert. According to the medical examiner, Nouf drowned in the desert. Nayir finds this a little suspicious, so he decides to continue his investigation. He ends up working with Othman’s fiancee, who is a lab technician in the medical examiner’s office. Nayir has a traditional view on how men and women should interact, and working with a female lab technician makes him very uncomfortable at first. As the story continues, though, Nayir’s views change, and the two work together as a team. If you want, you can read some of this online through Google Books. Where to Find ItYou can get it from the school library.
You can get it from the public library.
This list was last updated May 13, 2012 at 12:45 pm UTC. Click here to see newer information. June 19th, 2009
Tags: alex award winner, crime, family, medical, saudia arabia | Category: mystery
| Write a comment | Black and Whiteby Paul Volponi Marcus and Eddie, also know as Black and White, are two local high school basketball aces who will probably make it to the NBA. However, their families are both kind of poor, and the NBA seems like a long way off. They can’t get part-time jobs, since they need that time to practice, so they decided to commit armed robberies instead. Things go terribly wrong during one robbery, and Eddie accidentally shoots somebody. The story focuses on how Marcus and Eddie deal with the situation, what happens to their friendship and their families, and how they are treated by the legal system. Despite having been friends for many years and spending a lot of time together, Marcus’s and Eddie’s lives go in two very different directions after the shooting. Black and White takes a serious look at racism in modern American society, and it manages to combine a good story with lots of issues to think about. You might want to have your friends read this, too, so you can have somebody to talk about it with. You can read some of it online at the author’s website. Where to Find ItYou can get it from the public library.
This list was last updated May 14, 2012 at 12:48 am UTC. Click here to see newer information. June 17th, 2009
Tags: african-american, crime, family, friendship, psychological, school, sports | Category: Fiction
| Write a comment | City of Thievesby David Benioff The siege of Leningrad lasted for 872 days and was one of the bloodiest battles in World War II. Over a million people died, but David Benioff’s grandfather survived and had a lot of interesting stories to tell. City of Thieves is based on tape recordings of these stories. Lev, David’s grandfather, is a Russian firefighter who gets arrested by the Russian army for looting a German corpse. He is thrown in jail with Kolya, who was arrested for deserting the army to hang out with some of his girlfriends. Lev and Kolya are going to be executed, but the Russian colonel makes a deal with them. His daughter wants to get married, but they don’t have enough eggs to make a cake. Remember, this is Russia during World War II, and the Germans have completely surrounded the city. If Lev and Kolya can find enough eggs for the cake, they won’t be executed. Lev and Kolya hunt for eggs in war-torn Leningrad, but have no luck at all. On their way, they talk about literature, life in the city, the horrors of war, and romance/sex. After they find the last living chicken in Leningrad, who can’t possibly lay all the eggs they need in time for the wedding, they hear about a chicken farm, but it’s out past the German lines. After a nice dinner of chicken soup, they leave the city and sneak into German territory. During their search they encounter all kinds of strange and disturbing people and situations. This story is often funny, but it takes place during a horrible battle. Things are not pretty. People are eating rats and boiling the glue from books and doing much worse things just to keep from starving to death. Things don’t get any better when they leave the city, either. This is war, and neither side is playing fair. The Russians are desperate and willing to do anything to defend their homeland, and the Nazis are, as you might guess, even worse. There are a couple of scenes that I could have done without, so if you don’t like horrible things happening to people or animals, you might want to skip this one. You can read an excerpt online at the publisher’s website. Where to Find ItYou can get it from the school library.
You can get it from the public library.
This list was last updated May 14, 2012 at 1:51 am UTC. Click here to see newer information. June 16th, 2009
Tags: alex award winner, crime, friendship, funny, morbid, real people, war | Category: Historical Fiction
| Write a comment | What Happened to Cass McBride?by Gail Giles What happened to Cass McBride? Well, the short version is that she’s buried in a box with a crude air supply and a walkie-talkie so that Kyle, the guy who put her there, can keep taunting her. Why did Kyle put her in a box? The simple answer is that she may have had something to do with his brother David’s suicide. The real story, of course, is more complicated. Kyle seems to hold all the cards, since he’s not in a box, but the police are looking for Cass, and as long as she can keep Kyle talking, she has a chance. Where to Find ItYou can get it from the public library.
This list was last updated May 4, 2012 at 12:40 pm UTC. Click here to see newer information. Street PharmTy Johnson is trying to go to school and hold the family business together. The catch is that the family business is dealing drugs. When things get rough, Ty has to decide who he is and how he wants to live his life. You can read some of it online at Google Books. Where to Find ItYou can get it from the public library.
This list was last updated May 3, 2012 at 1:18 pm UTC. Click here to see newer information. June 11th, 2009
Tags: african-american, crime, drugs, friendship, school | Category: Fiction
| Write a comment | From Pieces to Weight: Once Upon a Time in Southside Queensby 50 Cent and Kris Ex This is one of 50 Cent’s autobiographies. He grew up in a rough part of Queens and started selling drugs before he was a teenager, but his life changed dramatically after he met Jam Master Jay. You can read some of it online at Google Books. Where to Find ItYou can get it from the public library.
This list was last updated May 17, 2012 at 11:24 am UTC. Click here to see newer information. June 10th, 2009
Tags: african-american, celebrities, crime, drugs, music, real people | Category: Biography
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