Quick Reads
Party Girl
Ewing, Lynne
Kata and Ana have been friends since they were little. But after Ana is murdered in a drive-by shooting by a rival L.A. gang, Kata must choose between a promise of revenge on her friend’s killers and her desire to leave gang life forever.
Pages: 110
Invisible
Hautman, Pete
Doug and Andy are best friends. But Doug is a bullied, obsessive loner and Andy is a popular football star. As Doug escapes further and further from reality, Andy remains his only link to the outside world. But could their unlikely connection be something other than the usual teenage friendship?
Pages: 149
Aquamarine
Hoffman, Alice
Hailey and Claire are life-long friends spending their last summer together. They help Aquamarine, a love-struck mermaid, find romance with a human before sending her back to her ocean home.
Pages: 105
The Sub
Jazz, Jimmy
Written by a former lead singer of a Sand Diego punk band (Doi-oi-oi-oi-oing) this book describes the good, the bad, the funny and the ugly experiences of a substitute teacher working in urban schools. The short, fast-paced sentences sound like song lyrics.
Pages: 106
Freewill
Lynch, Chris
Will has been placed in a special school he calls “Hopeless High” in order to recover from the deaths of his father and stepmother. But when a rash of suicides plagues his classmates, Will begins to wonder if all of the deaths surrounding him are somehow connected.
Pages: 148
Nightjohn
Paulsen, Gary
In the Old South, slaves were punished with dismemberment for learning to read. Young Sarney trades tobacco to Nightjohn in exchange for her first reading lesson. But learning to read comes at a high cost when the cruel plantation owner finds out.
Pages: 92
I Had Seen Castles
Rylant, Cynthia
It is 1942 and John Dante is ready to enlist in the Army to fight the Second World War. As he looks back on those days he is haunted by memories of enlisting to fight--a decision that forced him to face the horrors of war and changed his life.
Pages: 97
Other great authors to read:
Francesca Lia BlockS. E. Hinton
Gary Soto
John Steinbeck
More copies may be available at your local library.
Please call individual agency for availability.