Mind of My Mind

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Butler, Octavia E. Mind of My Mind. New York: Doubleday & Company, 1977.

Annotation: A woman telepath who was created to be a part of a new human race realizes she is able to control people’s minds more than was excepted by her father, who has been controlling others for 4,000 years.

Book talk:

Doro, my father, has been in charge for 4,000 years. He created a breeding program to create a new race. People always have done what he wanted them to do. Hell, even me. Well not anymore. He told me I was special, but I guess he didn’t know how special I was going to be. After my transition when I learned to control my talent, I became powerful in a new way. Now I’m able to control others with my mind. Doro had better watch out. He no longer is in complete control with all of the power.

Awards: None

The House on Mango Street

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Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984.

Annotation: A young girl grows up in the Latino section of Chicago who works to reinvent her self as she interacts with people from her neighborhood.

Book talk:

The House on Mango Street is not the perfect house. Esperanza is a dreamer, so when her family finally decided to get a house instead of renting, she expected one more like what she saw on TV. But alas, the House on Mango Street wasn’t that. “It’s small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you’d think they were holding their breath.” But this is where her family is moving so this is where she has to stay. The book's series of stories shares many perspectives of Esperanza’s new neighborhood. At that house, there were some good times full of beauty, but there also were some bad times that breaks the heart. So now she has turned to writing and dreams of getting a new home, one where she can be herself. So what happens to Esperanza? How does Mango Street affect her? Does she ever leave The House on Mango Street?

Award: Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award

Award source: http://www.sandracisneros.com/bio.php

A Contract with God

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Eisner, Will. "Part I: A Contract With God." The Contract with God Trilogy. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006. 3-180.

Annotation: Eisner’s graphic novel shares short stories of Jewish life in the Bronx in the 1930s.

Book talk:

I thought we had a bargain, God. Then why did you let my daughter die? I upheld my end of the bargain. Why didn’t you uphold yours? 

"A Contract with God" is the first story of this collection of short stories. Considered to be one of the first graphic novels, find out what happens in the stories that started the form – when a man thinks God broke his contract, when a diva says she’ll nurture a drunk’s career, when the tenants fear the super and when families and gold diggers visit the country for a vacation. Eisner tells the tales like it was and  doesn’t hold anything back.

Award: Inspired the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

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Brashares, Ann. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. New York: Delacorte Press, 2001.

Annotation: A pair of pants magically fits four best friends well, so they decide to send the pants around to each other while they spend the summer apart for the first time.

Book talk:

It’s our first summer apart. Bridget the athlete is headed for a soccer camp in Mexico. Lena the beauty is visiting her grandparents in Greece. Tibby the rebel is working at a job here. And I, the one with the bad temper, is visiting my dad in South Carolina. Will we have fun and forget each other? It’s not possible because we formed a pact. We each are going to take turns wearing this pair of jeans that miraculously fits all of us and then send it on to the next Sister. This summer is going to be full of adventure, love, friendship and good times, though there might be some lessons learned and some disappointments, too. But the pants are going to witness it all and keep us connected. We made a pact and formed a sisterhood. It’s going to be an incredible summer for The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

Awards:

• ALA Best Books for Young Adults
• Indiana Young Hoosier Award
• Iowa Teen Book Award
• Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Award
• New Jersey Garden State Teen Book Award
• Rhode Island Children's Book Award
• Tennessee Volunteer State Book Award
• Texas TAYSHAS High School Reading List
• Washington Evergreen Young Adult Book Award
• Pacific Northwest Young Readers Choice Award
• Missouri Gateway Readers Award
• Book Sense Book of the Year
• Texas TAYSHAS High School Reading List

Awards source: http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385729338

Upstate

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Buckhanon, Kalisha. Upstate. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005.

Annotation: A boyfriend and girlfriend from Harlem correspond about their life challenges through letters after the guy is sent to jail for killing his father. 

Book talk:

Antonio writes, “Baby, the first thing I need to know from you is do you believe I killed my father? I need to know if you believe what everybody saying about me because I need to know if you go my back.” Natasha responds, “I got your back baby, cause I know you would do the same for me.” [Pass books around to show the format.] And so starts the letters of 17-year-old Antonio and 16-year-old Natasha when Antonio is sent to prison for killing his father. They exchange letters, vowing to stay together. But each have their own problems and start leading separate lives – Antonia with jail and Natasha with facing tough decisions on the outside. Will their relationship stay strong? Will the letters be enough to keep them together? Follow the course of their lives while Antonio is Upstate.

Awards:

• ALA Alex Awards Winner (Adult for Young Adults)
• Audie Award Winner, Literary Fiction

Award source: http://us.macmillan.com/upstate/KalishaBuckhanon

The Silver Kiss

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Klause, Annette Curtis. The Silver Kiss. New York: Delacorte Press, 1990.

Annotation: A mysterious young man with a dark secret shows up and helps a teenage girl dealing with a dying mother and an emotionally absent father in a town that recently had a string of strange murders.

Book talk:

Should I let him in? He had blood on his face the other day. He was eating something. A bird? But he seems lonely and full of despair. Like me and how my father is always with my mother at the hospital. It’s just me at this house alone all the time because they won’t let me see her. And now my best friend is moving away. Maybe he’ll understand about loneliness and the pain of death. But what about the blood? And the murders here recently? What if he is the killer? I believe he’s been watching me. But again his voice sounds like he’ll understand. Should I let him in?

Awards: 

• 1991 Locus Award for first novel
• Oklahoma Sequoyah Young Adult Book Award
• Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Award
• South Carolina Children's Book Award
• California Young Reader Medal
  

Awards source: http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/NomLit71.html#2881-1990 and http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780440213468

The Giver

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Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993.

Annotation: Sometime in the future, a 12-year-old boy is assigned the profession of receiving all of humanity’s memories. As he receives more memories, he realizes his world isn’t as perfect as it is intended to be.

Book talk:

What do you want to do when you are older? Well, Jonas has no choice. The elders of his community pick out everyone’s professions and assign them to the children at a Ceremony of Twelve. In fact, his community doesn’t have much choice at all or knowledge of anywhere else. It is a perfect world. There is no fear or pain. Children do not grow up with their birth mothers, but with assigned families. People who break rules and older adults are “released.” But Jonas is given a special profession – the receiver of memory. Now he is assigned to remember all the memories the Giver will pass on – all the memories for the entire community. He alone will now bear the burden of all the people’s memories so that the others won’t have to, including war and disease, but also freedom and love. What does Jonas do with his new knowledge? What should he do?

Awards:

• Newbery Medal Book
• ALA Notable Children’s Book
• ALA Best Book for Young Adults

Awards source: http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/guides/give.html