The Wrap-Up List by Steven Arnston

In this modern-day suburban town, one percent of all fatalities come about in the most peculiar way. Deaths—eight-foot-tall, silver-gray creatures—send a letter (“Dear So-and-So, your days are numbered”) to whomever is chosen for a departure, telling them to wrap up their lives and do the things they always wanted to do before they have to “depart.” When sixteen-year-old Gabriela receives her notice, she is, of course devastated. Will she kiss her crush Sylvester before it’s too late? Can she win a pardon? She only has 7 days. What would you do?

Video Booktalk

Lexile HL740L
238 pages

The Giver and its Companions by Lois Lowry

   

Remember when you had to read The Giver for class? Some of you liked it, others did not.I think you should give it and it's companion books another try.  I recently reread it and think it was a very interesting book. It makes you think a lot about life and how we treat each other. Lois Lowry did not stop with The Giver, she wrote other books that are similar, but different. Get caught up in a different world. Which is better? Ours or theirs?
Author Talk about the books

The Giver Video Book Talk

Gathering Blue- A Companion to The Giver

Left orphaned and physically flawed in a civilization that shuns and discards the weak, Kira faces a frighteningly uncertain future. Her neighbors are hostile and no one but a small boy offers to help. When she is summoned to judgement by The Council of Guardians, Kira prepares to fight for her life. But the Council, to her surprise, has plans for her. Blessed with an almost magical talent that keeps her alive, the young girl faces new responsibilities and a set of mysteries deep within the only world she has ever known. On her quest for truth, Kira discovers things that will change her life and world forever.

Gathering Video Book Talk

Messenger- A Companion to The Giver

For the past six years, Matty has lived in Village and flourished under the guidance of Seer, a blind man, known for his special sight. Village was a place that welcomed newcomers, but something sinister has seeped into Village and the people have voted to close it to outsiders. Matty has been invaluable as a messenger. Now he must make one last journey through the treacherous forest with his only weapon, a power he unexpectedly discovers within himself.

Messenger Video Book Talk

Son- The Thrilling Conclusion

Fifteen-year-old Claire has never questioned life within her calm, predictable Community. Her family unit — a mother, a father, and a brother — was kind and supportive while she was growing up. And then, when she turned 12, the Committee of Elders gave her the assignment of Birthmother, and she left her family unit to join the other Vessels who were given the job of birthing young. But something goes wrong the day Claire gives birth. Surgery is required and Claire is decertified as Birthmother. Even after she's reassigned to the Community's fish hatchery, Claire can't stop thinking about the son she birthed…and never saw. What are these emotions? And could the yearnings she feels destroy her?

Son Video Book Talk

Try them out this summer-
They are available from the Wonewoc Public Library.

Body of Water by Sarah Dooley

Twelve-year-old Ember’s trailer home has been burned in a fire set most likely by her best friend, a boy whose father believes Ember’s family are witches. Yes, Ember’s mom reads Tarot cards as a business. Ember’s friend set the fire to warn the family before his dad did something worse to them. The friend never intended to do so much damage.

Now the family is homeless, and living in a campground. They have no money. Ember’s beloved dog is missing. School is going to start, and Ember and her sister have no clean clothes, no notebooks. The only place Ember feels at peace is floating in the middle of the lake at the campground. She has to make a fresh start. Can she?

A great book to check out this summer-

Available from the Wonewoc Public Library.

Struck by Lightning by Chris Colfer

 "Like having a great idea, life comes at you fast. It hits you and tries to escape and be expressed in any way possible. In a way, it's a lot like...lightning."

Book Review and Video Booktalk

A great book to check out this summer-

Available from the Wonewoc Public Library.

Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Not Reading by Tommy Greenwald

Charlie Joe Jackson may be the most reluctant reader ever born. And so far, he's managed to get through life without ever reading an entire book from cover to cover. But now that he's in middle school, avoiding reading isn't as easy as it used to be. And when his friend Timmy McGibney decides that he's tired of covering for him, Charlie Joe finds himself resorting to desperate measures to keep his perfect record intact.
Charlie supports the library?
Video Booktalk

Homesick by Kate Klise

Benny’s parents are splitting up. His mom leaves home after a fight about a mysterious splinter that is rumored to be part of an important relic. Benny’s dad has always liked clutter, but now, he begins hoarding everything from pizza boxes to old motorcycle parts.

As his house grows more cluttered and his father grows more distant, Benny tries to sort out whether he can change anything at all. Meanwhile, a local teacher enters their quiet Missouri town in America’s Most Charming Small Town contest, and the pressure is on to clean up the area, especially Benny’s ramshackle of a house, before the out-of-town guests arrive.

Is it possible to feel homesick in your own home? That's what Benny wonders after his mom leaves and his dad begins filling the house with junk. Fortunately, a new radio station has just opened where Benny is able to find refuge. But what he really wants to find is a cure for homesickness. Set back when phones still had cords and clocks had hands, Homesick is a story about the end of a marriage, the beginning of a friendship, and those complicated days when life can seem like one big mess for a boy who’s no longer a child but not yet a man.

The Bully Book: A Novel by Eric Kahn Gale

The rules governing sixth grade are often a mystery, but for Eric Haskins, it's a mystery he needs to solve, and fast. He's a normal, average kid, until sixth grade starts. For some inexplicable reason, the class bully and his pack make Eric the Grunt. Even his best friend since first grade turns on him. Eric can't figure out why he's the grunt until he hears about the Bully Book, a mysterious guide with shocking insights about the Bully's M.O.

Eric Haskins, the new sixth-grade bully target, is searching for answers.
And unlike many of us who experienced something awful growing up, he finds them.
Though they may not be what he expected.

What is The Bully Book? Part mystery, part tragedy, part comedy.

When the author was eleven, he was bullied. This book is loosely based on incidents that happened to him in sixth grade.

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