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Lone Star List 2004-2005
A N N O T A T I O N S
Alphin,
Elaine. Picture
Perfect. Carolrhoda,
2003.
Fifteen-year-old
Ian was the last person to see his friend Teddy before he was
officially missing. People
are looking to Ian for answers that he does not have. Why can’t he
remember what happened? Where
did that bruise on his face come from?
To find his best friend, Ian must face his fears and discover
just who his father really is.
Baker,
E.D. The Frog
Princess. Bloomsbury,
2002.
Kissing
an enchanted frog prince backfires when a 14-year-old princess finds
herself magically transformed into a frog.
Together the enchanted teens make a perilous and zany journey
to seek the aid of a witch to return them to human form.
Cohn,
Rachel. The Steps.
Simon & Schuster, 2003.
Seventh-grader
Annabel Schubert is part of a blended family.
Jack, her father, has moved to Australia with his new family,
leaving Annabel behind. As the
book opens, Annabel is traveling to Australia to meet her new
“steps” whom she resents for “stealing” her father.
Can she persuade him to return home with her?
Can she find her place in this large blend?
Go along on this humorous journey with her to find out.
Deuker,
Carl. High Heat.
Houghton Mifflin, 2003.
High
school baseball star Shane Hunter’s life shatters when his father is
arrested for laundering money for organized crime.
Now living in public housing, starting over at a new public
school, Shane falls in with the wrong crowd.
With the help of his new baseball coach, Shane struggles with
his game and his new life.
DuPrau,
Jeanne. The City of
Ember. Random
House, 2003.
Ember,
an underground city of the future, is dying as the source of
electricity is almost used up. Lina
gets a job as a messenger in order to try to find a way to save her
city.
Ehrenhaft,
Daniel. The Last Dog
on Earth. Delacorte
Press, 2003
To
learn responsibility, Logan gets to choose a dog from the pound.
While his choice of a wild dog does not please his parents,
the two learn to trust
and care for each other. But
after a deadly disease strikes, which causes dogs to turn on their
owners before dying, Logan must run away to protect his new pet from
quarantine – or worse.
Ferris,
Jean. Once Upon a
Marigold. Harcourt,
2002.
Christian,
an inventive, strong-willed young man, becomes a part of the castle
life he has watched through a telescope just to be near Princess
Marigold whom he has p-mailed (pigeon mailed) over the years.
Not able to reveal who he really is, Chris has to save Marigold
from her evil mother, Queen Olympia, who would rather see her dead.
Flake,
Sharon. Begging For
Change. Hyperion,
2003.
Raspberry’s
obsession with money has
only gotten worse since we last saw her in Money Hungry.
Now her problems have doubled: her mother is
hospitalized after she survives a brutal beating and her father shows
up begging for money. How will
Raspberry handle these new pressures? Will
stealing money from her friend Zora solve her problems, or only create
new ones?
Friesen,
Gayle. Losing
Forever. Kids Can
Press, 2002.
Jes
has learned the hard way that nothing lasts forever.
Her parents’ marriage ended not long after her baby
sister’s death; now she faces a new stepfather and stepsister,
Angela. Jes learns before
anyone else that Angela is no angel – can she make room in her life
for a new family? Does she want
to? Does she even have a
choice?
Hale,
Shannon. The Goose
Girl. Bloomsbury,
2003.
While
on her way to get married, Princess Anidori’s lady-in-waiting leads
a rebellion, killing all of her guards in order to pretend to be the
princess. Ever resourceful,
Princess Anidori becomes a goose girl while trying to survive until
she can figure out how to find a way to regain her crown.
Hoeye,
Michael. The Sands of
Time. G.P.
Putnam’s Sons, 2002.
C-A-T-S
never existed and they are not discussed in polite rodent society.
These beliefs are challenged by an exhibition of cat paintings
and an ancient want ad for a librarian with a map directing applicants
to a cat king’s library. Hermux
Tantamoq and his friends follow this map to the desert, but they have
enemies who don’t want them to succeed.
Horowitz,
Anthony. Skeleton
Key. Philomel,
2002.
British
teen spy Alex Rider, armed with his high-tech gadgets, goes undercover
to an island to match wits with a retired Russian general to save the
world from a nuclear catastrophe. His adventure, which begins at the Wimbledon tennis championships,
include escaping from a Chinese gang, facing a great white shark, and
dodging bullets off a burning boat.
Koertge,
Ron. Shakespeare Bats
Cleanup. Candlewick,
2003.
When
eat-sleep-and breath baseball player, Kevin Boland, finds himself
stuck in bed for months with mononucleosis, he turns to writing to
keep himself from going crazy. Using
his father’s poetry guide, he experiments with different
forms - writing about life in junior high, first girlfriends, dreams
of baseball glory, and the recent death of his mother.
Paolini,
Christopher. Eragon.
Knopf, 2003.
How
can a young boy help his poor family buy meat to make it through the
winter? Maybe be selling a
beautiful blue stone he finds in the forest.
Or maybe by accepting the challenge to restore the legendary
Dragon Riders to honor and power with the help of his dragon friend
Saphira and an ancient storyteller.
Paulsen,
Gary. How Angel
Peterson Got His Name. Random
House, 2003.
Before
the fad of daredevil reality TV shows, there was a 13 year-old Gary
Paulsen and his friends. Without
the aid of TV to give them ideas for outrageous stunts, they allowed
their natural curiosity and sense of adventure to get them into some
wild situations. So come along
and crash over waterfalls in a barrel, snow ski behind a car, wrestle
a bear, and laugh until your sides hurt.
Ritter,
John H. The Boy Who
Saved Baseball. Philomel,
2003.
The
fate of the town’s baseball field falls to young Tom Gallagher and
the outcome of a single game. Should
the town lose to its rich, suburban rival, the baseball field will be
sold to developers. Into town
rides mysterious Cruz de la Cruz, a baseball phenom who raises the
hopes of the townies, rallies
his teammates, and brings a pro baseball hermit out of hiding to help.
Seidler,
Tor. Brainboy and the
Deathmaster. HarperCollins,
2003.
Recently
orphaned, Darryl Kirby lives at the Masterly Children’s Shelter.
He excels at computer games, including StarMaster, an online
game created by Keith Masterly that asks: “Want to play?”
What Darryl wants is to be part of a family again, but when he
is suddenly adopted by Masterly, Darryl finds himself forced to play a
game with life or death consequences.
Shusterman,
Neal. Full Tilt.
Simon & Schuster, 2003.
What
is the one amusement park ride you absolutely would not take?
What if you had to? Blake is drawn into a fantastic carnival
where he must survive seven nightmare rides before dawn. Ride along
with Blake as he faces his deepest fears in order to save his reckless
little brother.
Tolan,
Stephanie S. Surviving
the Applewhites. HarperCollins,
2002.
Jake,
with spiked hair and multiple body-piercings, is headed for juvenile
detention, but instead ends up with the eccentric Applewhite family at
their Creative Academy – the “homeschool” for the Applewhite
offspring. Actually they do
what they please so “homeschool” is meant in the loosest of ways.
Who prevails, Jake or the Applewhites?
You will laugh all the way to the end!
Vande
Velde, Vivian. Heir Apparent.
Harcourt, 2002.
Giannine
celebrates her 14th birthday by using the gift certificate her father
gave her to play a total immersion virtual reality game. Demonstrators
from the group CPOC (Citizens to Protect Our Children) damage the
building and game in which Giannine is playing. Now she must win the game or die trying – literally!
The Texas Lone Star Reading List is a recommended reading
list developed by public and school librarians from the
Young Adult Round Table. The purpose of the list is to
encourage students in grades 6, 7, or 8 to explore a variety
of current books. The Lone Star List is intended for recreational
reading, not to support a specific curriculum. Due to
the diversity of this age range, Texas librarians should
purchase titles on this list according to their individual
collection policies. Each book on the list has been favorably
reviewed for grades 6, 7, or 8 in a professional review
source. The Texas Library Association
sponsors reading lists solely to encourage free voluntary
reading.
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