Cool Books for a Hot Summer Day
Fiction
*Castellucci, Cecil. BEIGE. Katy, a quiet French Canadian teenager, reluctantly leaves
Montréal to spend time with her estranged father, an aging Los Angeles punk rock legend.
**Dessen, Sarah. THE TRUTH ABOUT FOREVER. The summer following her father’s death, Macy plans to work at the library and wait for her brainy boyfriend to return from camp, but instead she goes to work at a catering business where she makes new friends and finally faces her grief.
Ellis, Ann Dee. THIS IS WHAT I DID: Bullied because of an incident in his past, Logan is unhappy at his new school and has difficulty relating to others until he meets a quirky girl and a counselor who believe in him.
Felin, M. Sindy. TOUCHING SNOW. After her stepfather is arrested for child abuse, and the near death of her older sister from the brutal beating she received, thirteen-year-old Karina struggles to build a safe life for her family.
*Green, John. AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES. Recently dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine, high school graduate and former child prodigy Colin sets off on a road trip with his best friend to try to find some new direction in life while also trying to create a mathematical formula to explain his relationships.
Hornby, Nick. SLAM. At the age of fifteen, Sam Jones’s girlfriend gets pregnant and Sam’s life of skateboarding and daydreaming about Tony Hawk changes drastically.
*Hopkins, Ellen. CRANK. Kristina Snow’s life is turned upside-down, when she visits her father, gets turned on to the drug “crank”, becomes addicted, and is led down a desperate path that threatens her mind, soul, and her life.
*Johnson, Maureen. 13 LITTLE BLUE ENVELOPES. When seventeen-year-old Ginny receives mysterious envelopes from her favorite aunt, she leaves New Jersey to criss-cross Europe on a sort of scavenger hunt that transforms her life.
*Lynch, Chris. INEXCUSABLE. High school senior and football player Keir sets out to enjoy himself on graduation night, but when he attempts to comfort a friend whose date has left her stranded, things go terribly wrong.
Key, Watt. ALABAMA MOON. After the death of his father, Moon Blake is removed from the Alabama forest where he was raised and sent to a boy’s home, where, for the first time, he has contact with the outside world and learns about friendship, love, and humanity.
MacCready, Robin. BURIED. When her alcoholic mother goes missing, seventeen-year-old Claudine begins to spin out of control, despite her attempts to impose order on every aspect of her life.
*Murdock, Catherine Gilbert. DAIRY QUEEN. After spending her summer running the family farm and training the quarterback for her school’s rival football team, sixteen-year-old D.J. decides to go out for the sport herself, not anticipating the reactions of those around her.
*Novik, Namoi. HIS MAJESTY’S DRAGON. The first of three fantasy novels set during the Napoleonic Wars when a British captain befriends the dragon Temeraire, and uses him to help defend his country from other airborne dragon forces.
Sharenow, Robert. MY MOTHER THE CHEERLEADER. Thirteen-year-old Louise uncovers secrets about her family and her neighborhood during the violent protests over school desegregation in 1960 New Orleans.
Smith, Roland. PEAK. An adventure tale of a fourteen-year-old boy who attempts to be the youngest person to reach the top of Mount Everest.
Kate Thompson, THE NEW POLICEMAN. Fifteen-year-old musician J.J. Liddy leaves his small, Irish town and travels to the land of the fairies, to a place where time stands still. When he gets there, he discovers that the inhabitants are in trouble and learns about his family’s secret history.
*Volponi, Paul. BLACK AND WHITE. Two star high school basketball players, one black and one white, experience the justice system differently after committing a crime together and getting caught.
**Whitcomb, Laura. A CERTAIN SLANT OF LIGHT. After benignly haunting a series of people for 130 years, Helen meets a teenage boy who can see her and together they unlock the mysteries of their pasts.
Non-fiction
Boese, Alex, ELEPHANTS ON ACID AND OTHER BIZARRE EXPERIMENTS. Describes a variety of bizarre scientific and sociological experiments including tests on the effects of LSD on an elephant, the validity of scratch-n-sniff paper, sleep learning, and many more.
Grogan, John. MARLEY & ME: LIFE AND LOVE WITH THE WORLD’S WORST DOG. The author presents a tender story of his family’s love for their golden retriever, Marley, and recalls how he grew from a mischievous puppy into a nearly impossible adult that no amount of obedience school training could correct, and of the love they felt for him.
Raddatz, Martha. THE LONG ROAD HOME. Chronicles the events of an April 2004 surprise attack on American troops in Sadr City, Iraq; and provides personal accounts of soldiers in battle and their families and friends waiting for news at home.
Rodriguez, Deborah. KABUL BEAUTY SCHOOL. This is the memoir of an American woman who travels to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban. This is a funny and moving story of the beauty school she establishes and the amazing group of women who share hairdressing skills, friendship, and their newly found freedom.
*Parrado, Nando. MIRACLE IN THE ANDES. In 1972 a plane carrying the Uruguayan rugby team crashed in a remote area of the Andes Mountains where the author’s mother, sister, and many teammates perished. With a fractured skull, and resorting to cannibalism to survive, Parrado led a 45-mile expedition resulting in their rescue.
Tammet, Daniel. BORN ON A BLUE DAY: INSIDE THE EXTRAORDINARY MIND OF AN AUTISTIC SAVANT. This is the memoir of 27-year old Daniel Tammet, a high functioning autistic savant, with extraordinary mental powers like the character Dustin Hoffman portrayed in the film, Rain Man.
*Vowell, Sarah. ASSASSINATION VACATION. The author takes us on a humorous exploration of the historical events surrounding the assassinations of three United States presidents–McKinley, Garfield, Lincoln–and travels to various sites, monuments, and museums, examining the role of death and violence in popular culture.
**Walls, Jeannette. THE GLASS CASTLE: A MEMOIR. The author recalls her life growing up in a dysfunctional family with an alcohol father and distant mother and describes how she and her siblings had to fend for themselves until they finally found the resources and will to leave home.
Graphic Novels
*Castellucci, Cecil & Rugg, Jim. THE PLAIN JANES. Jane thinks life is over when she moves from a cool city to the boring suburbs, but at the reject table in the cafeteria, Jane finds three other outcasts (named Jane) who band together in a secret art club. Can these funny, edgy girls make a difference?
Lutes, Jason & Bertozzi, Nick. HOUDINI: THE HANDCUFF KING. Told in bold gray-scale illustrations, the authors provide a story of the most famous escape-artist of his time.
Gipi. NOTES FOR A WAR STORY. Master, Italian graphic artist, Gipi, tells the bleak story of three teenage drifters struggling to survive in a war torn European country.
