rms booktalks 10/29/2010

• Collins, Suzanne. THE HUNGER GAMES

  Collins, Suzanne. THE HUNGER GAMESScholastic Press, 2008Maintaining control is never easy, but the government of Panem has discovered a way of subduing dissidents. Each year, two people from each of the twelve districts are chosen to participate in The Hunger Games – a fight to the death for all but one contestant. This year, Katniss steps up to take her younger sister’s place. Once the selection is made, Katniss and Peeta (the male participant from District 12) are caught in a whirlwind of preparation. There are lessons in defense, survival, and television appeal. The game requires each participant to outlast, outwit and out-maneuver the other contestants – while the entire country watches on their television screens each day. Brutal tasks, unbearable situations, and manipulated settings test each contestant to his or her breaking point. The only way out? Personal death or the murder of the rest of the group. What possible plan can Katniss and Peeta develop that guarantees their survival and their safe return home? Read The Hunger Games to see what happens to this pair of warriors.Prepared by: Beth Pace, Spartanburg School District One for South Carolina Young Adult Book Award Nominees, 2010-2011

  tags: podcasts stateawards southcarolina blueduke

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rms booktalks 10/27/2010

• Lockhart, E. THE DISREPUTABLE HISTORY OF FRANKIE LANDAU-BANKS

  Lockhart, E. THE DISREPUTABLE HISTORY OF FRANKIE LANDAU-BANKSHyperion, 2008Frankie Landau-Banks is a sophomore at the elite Alabaster school. She has a popular senior boyfriend, people seem to like her, she gets good grades, etc. She should be happy with her life, right? Well, not so much. Frankie is tired of accepting the roles society has chosen for her. When her boyfriend says she’s adorable, she wonders why he doesn’t say that she’s brilliant. Anyway, Frankie knows that her boyfriend and several other of the school’s most popular guys are members of the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, a secret all-male society in which her father was a member during his days at Alabaster. Frankie is tired of being left out of the club’s dealings, so she decides to infiltrate it and pose as their leader. It works, and these guys have no idea that she’s the one pulling their strings. Of course, as is the way of things, chaos inevitably ensues, and Frankie and the Bassets must face up to what has been going on. Will Frankie be exposed in her quest for power? Will she go back to being a docile little girl content with her place in the world? What will happen to the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds? Read The Disreputable History of Frankie-Landau Banks to discover the damage an ambitious, brilliant, angry high school sophomore can wreak on the unsuspecting world around her.Prepared by: Kelly L. Knight, Media Specialist, Woodmont High School for South Carolina Young Adult Book Award Nominees, 2010-2011

  tags: podcasts stateawards southcarolina blueduke

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rms booktalks 10/25/2010

• McKernan, Victoria. THE DEVIL'S PAINTBOX

  McKernan, Victoria. THE DEVIL'S PAINTBOXNew York : Knopf, p2009, c2009IL YAISBN 0375937501If you enjoyed playing the computer game Oregon Trail, The Devil’s Paintbox by Victoria McKernan is for you. It takes the grainy greenish picture of the old game and paints a vivid picture of what life on the Oregon Trail might have been like. The book chronicles a young man’s journey into adulthood in the Wild West, starting at age 15, poor and destitute, eating a grasshopper a day if lucky to stay alive- into turning into a man working off a debt to himself and others. Aiden relentlessly tries to protect and at the same time allow for his sister to grow up. Aiden, during the journey, befriends some unlikely candidates and in the end is forced to go against his white society in aid of his Native American friends in the struggle against smallpox -- the devil’s paint. Aiden and his younger sister Maddy endure hardships unknown to readers of today, all the while maintaining an ever-present desire to move onward and upward. The book is not so much uplifting as is it insightful, and even inspiring. The Devil’s Paintbox is a gripping historical fiction that does not gloss over events of old, rather tells of life as an everyday struggle to survive, and survive knowing that you did what you had to do.Prepared by: Jen Seay for South Carolina Young Adult Book Award Nominees, 2010-2011

  tags: podcasts stateawards southcarolina blueduke

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rms booktalks 10/23/2010

• Pfeffer, Susan Beth. THE DEAD AND THE GONE

  Pfeffer, Susan Beth. THE DEAD AND THE GONEHarcourt, 2008Alex Morales is a good kid. He’s seventeen, living in New York City, and works at a pizza parlor when he’s not attending school at St. Vincent de Paul Academy. He also looks out for his two younger sisters and studies hard so he can go to college. One especially overcast day, Alex and his sisters arrive to an empty apartment to find the power is out, along with the cable TV and radio. With his mother working at the hospital, his father in Puerto Rico attending a funeral, and older brother Carlos serving with the U. S. Army, it is up to Alex to assess the situation and reassure his sisters. Little does Alex know that his world is about to change forever. As in the author’s previous book, Life As We Knew It, an asteroid has hit the moon and knocked it off its orbit, wreaking havoc on the world. But in New York City, only those with money or connections will be able to escape the chaos. And Alex has neither money nor connections. He soon realizes that he will be the sole provider and caretaker for his siblings. As days roll by, and essentials for living are harder to come by, Alex will be forced to “bodyshop” – stealing warm clothing and other items he can trade for food from those unfortunate beings left lying in the streets. Throughout the nightmare, the Morales’ strong faith, and the faith and help of other survivors keep them going. But for how long? The Dead and the Gone is a terrifying tale, especially in the setting of New York City, the scene of other horrible tragedies. It is so realistic that you may find yourself re-thinking your own emergency survival plans.Prepared by: Karen Tisdale for South Carolina Young Adult Book Award Nominees, 2010-2011

  tags: podcasts stateawards southcarolina blueduke

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.