Daughter of Smoke and Bone

by Laini Taylor

Call Number: F TAY Genre: Fantasy

Karou is an extraordinary high school girl. She draws unusual creatures, that turn out to be real. Her hair is also an unusual hair color. But when the creatures start becoming real, they start acting like a family to her, a really caring family. Such as Brimstone, the father figure of the creatures saying as long as Karou gives him teeth, she will get whatever she wants. But why should she do it? Why would she listen? Well, when she learned he was telling the truth, she immediately thought that even though it was a difficult task, it would be worth it in the end. So will you or will you not join Karou, for a very long mythical journey as she questions every secret she has remaining unanswered?

Matthew H.

Al Capone Does My Shirts

by: Gennifer Choldenko

Call Number: F CHO Genre: Historical Fiction

1935...Moose’s father gets a job transfer to be a guard at the Alcatraz prison and his sister has to start attending a special school in San Francisco. Moose has to leave everything behind including his friends and his winning baseball team. Hopefully with his sister getting the help she needs, their family can be normal. On Alcatraz, his father is constantly busy with work and his mother is constantly busy with his sister’s autistic-like condition. Moose is pretty much on his own to explore but one day he meets Piper, the warden’s daughter. He already knows she’s trouble but he can’t stay away from her. Moose just wants to be a good son, big brother and stay out of trouble. The only problem is that trouble is never very far away at Alcatraz…

Megan F.

Coraline

by Neil Gaiman

                     Call Number: F GAI Genre: horror & suspense

Coraline and her family moved to a new (but old) house. After she and her family moved all the stuff in the house she went exploring. She met her neighbors on the ground floor (or basement), two old ladies. They warned her not to go to a well that is somewhere in the yard. She met the other neighbor on the top floor (or attic). He was a tall crazy man with a big moustache and he trained mice to play in a circus. When it was dark out she explored the house and she found an old door but she can't get in it...only it can get her.  

- Justin B.

13 Reasons Why

by Jay Asher

Clay Jensen returns home to find a package for him. He never thought that it could be something life changing inside. Inside the package there were 13 cassette tapes created by Hannah Baker, who committed suicide two weeks earlier. On the first cassette she says, “ I hope you’re ready, because I’m about to tell you the story of my life. More specifically, why my life ended. And if you’re listening to these tapes, you’re one of the reasons why. “As Clay goes through every tape patiently waiting for his name, he learns secrets and horrors of other people that makes him question life. To others, Hannah Baker may seem as someone who is just a teen who couldn’t  get over life. She was a bratty liar but in the end she killed herself. She was in pain and no one could help her or no one tried. People believed or started rumors that caused her to doubt herself, to have no pride, to kill herself.

The book focuses on some people in everyday life but especially in high school. There is a clear meaning to everyone who is dealing with rumors and family problems and everything that could make anyone think that their better off being dead. This book would be an exceptional book for any teenager to adult to read.

Asher, Jay. Th1rteen reasons why: a novel. New York: Razorbill, 2011. Print.

• Shauncey T.

***Join the Gaston County Public Library and the Teen Community Read. Meet Jay Asher at the library, June 15 at 4 pm.***

Ranger's Apprentice Book 2: The Burning Bridge

by John Flanagan

Call Number: F FLA Genre: Fantasy

The dark lord could be arriving, but why? Why would he choose to come now? Will and his friend Horace are the ones who must stop the dark lord. They must train to get stronger than ever, if they even think that they can beat the lord. One time Gilan, who is another character, Will, and Horace start talking about how they already know how to use multiple weapons. We learn that the bow that they have is broken and that causes Gilan to think of another way to get past that current moment, which is to jump off the cliff. But what else could possibly happen in this amazing second book in the Ranger’s Apprentice series?

Matthew H.

Into The Dangerous World

by Julie Chibbaro

Call Number: F CHI Genre: Realistic Fiction

Ror has lived in a commune all her life, just using art as a way to express herself and learn. She’s never been to an actual school or seen much of the outside world. Her life comes crashing down one day when her father burns down the commune, forcing her, her mother and sister to go live in a homeless center in Manhattan. Here she meets a guy named Trey who brings trouble and love with him. Trey is the leader of a graffiti crew called Noise Ink. At this point, she’s being pulled in all different directions...her father wanted her to practice classical art; Trey wants her to stay within Noise Ink’s lines and her teacher wants her to go to college... Which road will she take?

Megan F.

The Face on the Milk Carton

by Caroline B. Cooney

Call Number: F COO                                                                     Genre: Suspense

“ She could hear herself shouting, yet her lips weren’t moving. she was making no sound at all.” Jaine Johnson is a regular girl who has a regular family and a regular life which includes, loving parents, caring friends and even a cute next door neighbor. But all that changes as one day at school something unusual happens, Jaine doesn’t drink milk, she’s allergic but for some reason that day she took a swig of milk from one of her friends. As she was drinking, she realized it’s her picture on a missing child poster on the back of a milk carton. What do you do when all you’ve known is destroyed in front of your eyes, do you try to let go or hold on? Is Jaine Johnson really not the person Jaine is?

Shauncey T

INVISIBLE SUN

by David Macinnis Gill

F GIL Genre: Science Fiction

Black Hole Sun, Book 2

Chapter 0 starts off with the protagonist(Durango) and his girlfriend/Fellow Ex Regulator/Vice Commander(Vienne) breaking into a regulator HQ, that Durango’s deceased father founded and owned until dismissed, looking for data they needed for their mission.

“Black Hole Sun grabbed me by the throat and didn’t let go until the last page, Invisible Sun was no exception… For readers who like their books fast-paced, intense, and relentless. Buy it, read it, pass it on!”

Kameron B

Taken

by Erin Bowman

Call Number: F BOW Genre: Science Fiction

How would it feel to live in a society with no men? There are boys, girls, and women but no men. On midnight of your 18th birthday, if you are a male you vanish. They call it the Heist and poor Gray is mere months away from being taken too. There’s a wall that surrounds their home but getting over it is suicide. What would you do? Be killed by the wall or wait for the Heist. Read the book to find out what Gray decides to do.

Taylor J

A Night Divided

by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Call Number: F NIE Genre: Historical Fiction

Imagine living during the creation of the Berlin Wall with the Soviets controlling the eastern side. That is what twelve year old Gerta must go through. Everyone is either to the eastern side or the western side of the wall. Gerta, her mother, and her brother, Fritz are on the eastern side. Gerta feel awful being separated from the rest of her family right? But now she has an opportunity to journey to the other side. What will be her challenges? Will she actually be able to go through with the plans? Or, will the Soviets catch Gerta and her family in time to stop them?

Matthew H.

Cryer's Cross REVIEW

by Lisa McMann

Cryer’s Cross is about a missing girl named Tiffany Quinn and a girl who is conflicted by Tiffany going missing. Her name is Kendall Fletcher. Kendall fears that she will lose her grip on reality when she starts hearing voices asking for help.

Kendall has OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) and when people start to vanish it really kicks into overdrive. She hears the voices of the people who have disappeared. One day when she goes to school, her friend Tiffany Quinn, is one of the people who disappeared she saw markings on her desk,

“We 35. 100. 35. 100. We know. The weight, the heart. There is life heavy against us again.

A heartbeat, a pulse through taut skin. PLEASE. HELP ME.”      

McMann, Lisa. Cryer's Cross. Simon & Schuster, 2011.

Justin B

The Host

by Stephenie Meyer

Call Number: F Mey                              Genre: Science Fiction

When an unknown species has taken over your world and has invaded everything in it including, your mind, body and your soul, what do you do to survive? Melanie Stryder is the one that got caught and now she is not in control or is she? Wanderer is the soul that has taken root in Melanie’s body; but she’s not the only one there, Melanie is not giving up her life so easily. She floods Wanderer’s (Wanda) head with images of Jared, a human in hiding. Wanda begins to fall for a man that she has never meet. But as both of them come together reluctantly to find the man that they both love they will go an adventure that will touch both of their hearts and maybe make them see each other not as other beings but as family.

Shauncey T

The Nazi Hunters

by Neal Bascomb

Genre: Non-fiction

Call Number: 364.15 BAS

Based on a true story, 15 years after WWll, a group of survivors from the camps are on a mission to find Adolf Eichmann and bring him to trial so he can pay the price for what he did to about 6 million Jews. Some of the Jews were family to part of the group, they would stop at nothing to find Eichmann and bring him to justice.

Eventually they do find him and capture him, bringing him to Israel, so he can hopefully be locked away. The main investigators are the group of survivors who went out of their way to capture a man that murdered millions of Jews. They were successful and brought joy to other Jews who survived the camps and have also been wanting Eichmann behind bars.

This book is really good and very interesting for people who are interested in the Holocaust; who want to know more about who was behind the tragedy besides Adolf Hitler and what happened to them. The author, Neal Bascomb made sure he went into etail on what happened giving tdhe readers a nice, informative story.

Bascomb, Neil. The Nazi hunters. Arthur A. Levine, 2013.

• Gabby B

The Rig

by Joe Ducie

Call Number: DUC

Genre: Realistic Fiction

The Rig, a juvenile prison in the middle of the Arctic Ocean holds a secret that just might change everything. Will Drake, a kid in the prison likes challenges and he is determined to escape from the Rig. This is the biggest challenge he will face. Everything the prisoners do is tracked and every door is locked, none of the kids know what dark secret the Rig is holding. Will, Will Drake be the one to figure it out while trying to escape or will he get caught and be stuck at the prison even longer?

Gabby B.

The tales of Beedle the bard

by J.K. Rowling

Call Number: F ROW Genre: Fantasy

Thanks to the Hermione Granger translation, the muggles can have an inside look at the wizardly world of Harry Potter. Would you like to read everything about the wizardly world?

• Justin B.

Eleanor & Park

by Rainbow Rowell

Call Number: F ROW Genre: Romance

Have you ever felt out of place like you didn’t belong? Eleanor felt this way. She had no friends. Then Eleanor meets Park. Set over the course of one school year this is the tale of 2 people who were destined to meet but smart enough to know first love never lasts. In the course of this book you will fall in love with the characters. Will there love last or will it crash?

Taylor J.

Marked

by P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast

Call Number: F CAS Genre: Horror & Suspense

Zoey Redbird thinks she has a normal life, right up until she sees a creepy vampire in the hallway at school. He tells her that she is marked as a fledgling and is in transition to becoming a vampire, just like himself. What’s a fledgling? What’s going on? She enrolls in a vampire school and learns exactly who she is and who she can be. When a group called the Dark Daughters at the school starts misusing her gifts, Zoey must find herself and take control of her gifts and powers, but how will she fight against the most elite vampire group at the school?

Megan F.