Author: csempowich

Bacigalupi, Paolo. Ship Breaker. 2010. 10th Grade.
In a futuristic world, teenaged Nailer scavenges copper wiring from grounded oil tankers for a living, but when he finds a beached clipper ship with a girl in the wreckage, he has to decide if he should strip the ship for its wealth or rescue the girl.
Ties in with: 10th Grade English
2011 Printz winner – read Bacigalupi’s award speech here.
Winner of the 2011 Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book, Finalist for the 2010 National Book Award, 2011 Top Ten Best Fiction For Young Adults, nominee for the 2010 Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Johnson, Angela. The First Part Last. 2010. 10th Grade
Bobby is your classic urban teenaged boy – impulsive, eager, restless. On his sixteenth birthday he gets some news from his girlfriend, Nia, that changes his life forever. She’s pregnant. Bobby is the father. Suddenly things like school and house parties and hanging with friends no longer seem important as they’re replaced by visits to Nia’s obstetrician and a social worker who says that the only way for Nia and Bobby to lead a normal life is to put their baby up for adoption.
Ties in with: 10th Grade English, Health, Biology
Winner of the 2004 Michael L. Printz Award, 2004 Coretta Scott King Award.

Kelly, Jacqueline. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate. 2009. 7th Grade.
Curious about the grasshoppers in her backyard in rural Texas, eleven-year-old Calpurnia turns to her grandfather, an avid naturalist, for information and ends up with a new-found respect for the natural world, the way is operates, and the similarities it shares with her own ife as the only daughter in a family with six brothers, in this coming-of-age tale set in 1899.
Ties in with: 7th Grade English, Science, Social Studies
2010 Newbery Honor Book, 2009 Junior Library Guild selection.

Voorhoeve, Anne C. My Family for the War. 2012. 10th Grade.
Before the start of World War II, ten-year-old Ziska Mangold, who has Jewish ancestors but has been raised as a Protestant, is taken out of Nazi Germany on one of the Kindertransport trains, to live in London with a Jewish family, where she learns about Judaism and endures the hardships of war while attempting to keep in touch with her parents, who are trying to survive in Holland.
Ties in with: 10th Grade English, Social Studies
Winner of the 2013 Mildred L. Batchelder Award

Do you ever want to just learn, you know, stuff? Have a thing for nonfiction? Curious as to how things work and why they work the way they do? Then you’re sure to enjoy these nonfiction selections. Don’t let the recommended grades fool you – if you’re interested in a certain topic, you’re bound to love the book.

Myers, Walter Dean. Just write: here’s how! 2012. 9th Grade.
The award-winning author guides readers through the writing process, and includes examples from his own works, outlines for writing fiction and nonfiction, and excerpted pages from the author’s writing notebooks.
Ties in with: 9th Grade English

Powers, J.L., editor. That mad game: growing up in a war zone: an anthology of essays from around the globe. 2012. 12th Grade.
What’s it like to grow up during war? This collection of personal and narrative essays explores both the universal and particular experiences of children and teenagers who came of age during a time of war.
Ties in with: 12th Grade Social Studies, Psychology

Laskas, Jeanne Marie. Hidden America: from coal miners to cowboys, an extraordinary exploration of the unseen people who make this country work. 2012. 12th Grade
Looks at the remarkable men and women whose low-profile accomplishments contribute to the running of the nation, from coal miners and oil rig workers to migrant laborers and air traffic controllers.
Ties in with: 12th Grade Economics

Marrin, Albert. Flesh & Blood So Cheap: the Triangle Fire and its legacy. 2011. 8th Grade.
On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City burst into flames. The factory was crowded. The doors were locked to ensure workers stayed inside. One hundred forty-six people – mostly women – perished; it was one of the most lethal workplace fires in American history until September 11, 2001. But the story of the fire is not the story of one accidental moment in time. It is a story of immigration and hard work to make it in a new country, as Italians and Jews and others traveled to America to find a better life. It is the story of poor working conditions and greedy bosses, as garment workers discovered the endless sacrifices required to make ends meet. It is the story of unimaginable, but avoidable, disaster. And is it the story of the unquenchable pride and activism of fearless immigrants and women who stood up to business, got America on their side, and finally changed working conditions for our entire nation, initiating radical new laws we take for granted today.
Ties in with: 8th Grade Social Studies, Labor History

Impress your friends and enemies alike with the crazy things you’ll wind up learning. Don’t let the recommended grades fool you – if you’re interested in a certain topic, you’re bound to love the book.

Aamodt, Sandra and Sam Wang. Welcome to your brain: why you lose your car keys but never forget how to drive and other puzzles of everyday life. 2008. 12th Grade
Aamodt and Wang challenge popular myths while drawing on recent findings in neuroscience to offer insight into how the human brain actually works, sharing additional information on a wide variety of topics, from the brain’s role in religious beliefs and ways of coping with jet lag to the differences between male and female brains.
Ties in with: 12th Grade Psychology, Neuroscience

Global Weirdness: severe storms, deadly heat waves, relentless drought, rising seas, and the weather of the future. 2012. 12th Grade
An accessible explanation of climate change summarizes its science while sharing insights into its implications for the future, answering key questions from the role of fossil fuels to the economic costs of reducing carbon emissions.
Ties in with: 12th Grade Environmental Science

Kean, Sam. The disappearing spoon: and other true tales of madness, love, and the history of the world from the periodic table of the elements. 2010. 11th Grade.
In The Disappearing Spoon, Kean guides readers through the periodic table, recounting compelling, strange, charming, and humorous tales all revolving around the elements.
Ties in with: 11th Grade Chemistry, History of Science

Pierson, D.C. The Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep and Never Had To. 2010. 12th Grade.
When fifteen-year-old Darren Bennett meets Eric Lederer, there’s an instant connection. They share a love of drawing, the bottom rung on the cruel high school social ladder and a pathological fear of girls. Then Eric reveals a secret: he doesn’t sleep. Ever. When word leaks out about Eric’s condition, he and Darren find themselves on the run. Is it the government trying to tap into Eric’s mind, or something far darker? It could be that not sleeping is only part of what Eric’s capable of, and the truth is both better and worse than they could ever imagine.
Ties in with: 12th Grade English, Science
Of note: 2011 Alex Award winner

Welcome to another installment of our suggested summer reading for teens! Here is a selection of quality books. This week it’s another genre grab bag – we have historical fiction, horror, fantasy, sci-fi, even a non-fiction book that you don’t want to read while eating. Don’t let the recommended grades fool you – if you’re interested in a certain topic, you’re bound to love the book. The grade just refers to where it will fit nicely with the Common Core curriculum.

Brooks, Martha. Queen of Hearts: coming of age in a hospital bed. 2011, 2010. 8th Grade
Shortly after her first kiss but before her sixteenth birthday in December, 1941, Marie-Claire and her younger brother and sister are sent to a tuberculosis sanatorium near their Manitoba farm.
Ties in with: 8th Grade English, Social Studies, Science

Meyer, L.A. Bloody Jack: being an account of the curious adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber, Ship’s Boy. 2002. 7th Grade
Life as a ship’s boy aboard HMS Dolphin is a dream come true for Jacky Faber. Gone are the days of scavenging for food and fighting for survival on the streets of eighteenth-century London. Instead, Jacky is becoming a skilled and respected sailor as the crew pursues pirates on the high seas. There’s only one problem: Jacky is a girl. And she will have to use every bit of her spirit, wit, and courage to keep the crew from discovering her secret. This could be the adventure of her life – if only she doesn’t get caught.
Ties in with: 7th Grade English and Social Studies
Great for: anyone who wanted to run away and sail the seven seas

Lanagan, Margo. The Brides of Rollrock Island. 2012. 9th Grade
Lured by the witch Misskaella, who possesses secrets for luring beautiful sea-wives from their underwater homes and transforming them out of their seal skins, the fishermen on remote Rollrock Island become the witch’s victimes when they fall desperately in love with the women she has captured for them.
Ties in with: 9th Grade English

Perkins, John. Confessions of an economic hit man. 2004. 12th Grade
A former consultant to the U.S. government reveals the inner workings of the high-stakes economic game that encourages Third World corporations like Halliburton end up getting the contracts.
Ties in with: classes on Government, Economics

Price, Lissa. Starters. 2012. 8th Grade
To support herself and her younger brother in a future Beverly Hills, sixteen-year-old Callie hires her body out to seniors who want to experience being young again, and she lives a fairy-tale life until she learns that her body will commit murder, unless her mind can stop it. You will definitely be on the edge of your seat.
Ties in with: 8th Grade English and Science

Reichs, Kathy. Virals. 2010. 8th Grade
Tory Brennan, niece of acclaimed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, is the leader of a ragtag band of teenage “sci-philes,” who live on a secluded island off the coast of South Carolina. When the group rescues a dog caged for medical testing on a nearby island, they are exposed to an experimental strain of canine parvovirus that changes their lives forever. As the friends discover their heightened senses and animal-quick reflexes, they must combine their scientific curiosity with their new-found physical gifts to solve a cold-case murder that has suddenly become very hot – if they can stay alive long enough to catch the killer’s scent.
Ties in with: 8th Grade English and Science
Great for: fans of the TV show “Bones.”

Roach, Mary. Stiff: the curious lives of human cadavers. 2003. 12th Grade
Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange postmortem lives of our bodies. For two thousand years, cadavers – some willingly, some unwittingly – have been involved in science’s boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They’ve tested France’s first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. In this fascinating, ennobling account, Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries – from the anatomy labs and human-sourced pharmacies of medieval and nineteenth-century Europe to a human decay research facility in Tennessee, to a plastic surgery practice lab, to a Scandinavian funeral directors’ conference on human composting. In her droll, inimitable voice, Roach tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them.
Ties in with: Psychology, SCIENCE!, Economics

Woodson, Jacqueline. Beneath a meth moon: an elegy. 2012. 11th Grade
After losing her mother and grandmother to Hurricane Katrina, Laurel Daneau begins a new life in a new town, but when her boyfriend T-Boom introduces her to meth, her future begins to look as bleak as her past.
Ties in with: 11th Grade English, Social Studies, Science, Health

Yovanoff, Brenna. The Replacement. 2010. 9th Grade
Sixteen-year-old Mackie Doyle knows that he replaced a human child when he was just an infant, and when a friend’s sister disappears he goes against his family’s and town’s deliberate denial of the problem to confront the beings that dwell under the town, tampering with human lives.
Ties in with: 9th Grade English

Zevin, Gabrielle. All These Things I’ve Done. 2011. 10th Grade
In a future where chocolate and caffeine are contraband, teenage cell phone use is illegal, and water and paper are carefully rationed, sixteen-year-old Anya Balanchine finds herself thrust unwillingly into the spotlight as heir apparent to an important New York City crime family. This story is so gripping, you’ll read it in one sitting.
Ties in with: 10th Grade English, Science