December reads, 9-12 grades

I know that seniors are busy with IB exams and college applications, juniors are tied down with Internal Assessment stuff, and grades 9 & 10 are just generally ready for a break, but a month is a long time to let your brains atrophy. Come into the Mabukwini and get a good book for the time off...you won't regret it! Here are some good titles with a short description:

1. The White Darkness By Geraldine McCaughrean. This Printz award winner takes place in Antarctica where the protagonist is on a strage trip with her explorer uncle. Things get even stranger with a diary and the accompnaying spirit to help narrate.

2. Storm Thief, Chris Wooding. Storm Thief is about a chaotic city continually battered by storms that rearrange streets, turn children to glass, and bring death. Two thiefs find a special object that involves them deeply in the events of the city...A very imaginative book from a popular English writer.

3. Flight, Sherman Alexie. National Book Award winner Alexie gives a stirring tale about a foster child bent on violence. At a critical moment, the protagonist finds himself transplanted into the civil rights era and viewing events involving Native Americans.

4. Looking for Alaska, John Green. Printz award winner Green offers a deep book about life and death. The story involves a 16 year old at a private school faced with difficult life situations.

5. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, M.T. Anderson. Anderson is a great writer who deals with complex social issues. In this volume, Anderson re-creates revolutionary America and the search for an indiviual identity.

All volumes are in the Mabukwini and may be circulated over the holiday break.