| Jaffe, Michele |
Bad Kitty |
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While vacationing with her family in Las Vegas, seventeen-year-old Jasmine stumbles upon a murder mystery that she attempts to solve with the help of her friends, recently arrived from California. |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
2 |
Really good. Slow in some parts. Worth it in the end. Name is really deceiving. Don't judge by title. - MNHS |
2 |
This is a fast read book. The main character is very funny. - MNHS |
2 |
I really enjoyed this book. - MNHS |
1 |
I liked the book because it was exciting and entertaining. The book was jumpy and switched back an forth quite a bit. - MNHS |
2 |
It was very suspenseful and entertaining! - MNHS |
2 |
I thought it was pretty funny all in all. Not much of a mystery, really - but a good read none-the-less. - MNHSb |
| James, Brian | Dirty Liar |
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When his mother's boyfriend crosses the line, Benji flees his home, leaving behind everything he has known to live with his father in Portland, where he realizes he cannot run from his problems and must face them like a man. |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
1 |
I like the story line in this story, but I hate the book because it has so many cuss words. - BMS |
2 |
This book ws great even though it has a lot of bad words. I love the part when he decribes the rain. Very beautiful. - BMS |
2 |
I enjoyed the book. This is one of the best books I've read so far. Girl lied to all her friends, and when they found out, she was afraid to go to school. - BMS |
1 |
It was typical teen abuse story. MNHS |
| Jansen, Hanna |
Over a Thousand Hills I Walk with You |
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Jeanne, the only member of her family not murdered in the Rwandan genocide, struggles to start a new life without her family while coping with the violent memories that haunt her. |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
2 |
This is a beautiful and moving book. I highly recommend it. - MNHSt |
2 |
Written by an adopted German mother, this is the story of a Tutsi family during the Rwandan genocide. All the other members of daughter Jeanne's family were killed. This puts a real face on this tradgedy. - MWHS |
| Jennings, Kevin |
Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son |
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A memoir in which Kevin Jennings, founder of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, describes his experiences growing up in North Carolina as the gay son of a fundamentalist preacher. |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
2 |
This is a sensitive protrayal of a gay boy coming out in the 1970's. The conflicts with parents were told with feeling as well as stereotypes and prejudices in the work place. - MNHSs |
| Johansen, K.V. |
Nightwalker: The Warlocks of Talverdin |
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After being sentenced to death for being a Nightwalker, Maurey is rescued by Annot, a young baroness, and the two set out to learn about his descendants. |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
2 |
I really liked this book. It was excellent and interesting. - MNHS |
2 |
This book was an exciting and epic story about knights and wizards. - MNHS |
1 |
It was confusing, but it was good. This kid's guardian died, and he found out he was a sorcerer also called a nightwalker. He was going to get Ishnt to death. - MNHSv |
2 |
#2 Comes out in March. - MNHS |
1 |
It was confusing, but it was good. This kid's guardian died, and he found out he was a sorcerer also called a nightwalker. He was going to get Ishnt to death. - BMS |
| Johnson, Catherine | Face Value |
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| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
2 |
I liked this book a lot and it was very interesting. I couldn't put it down. - MNHS |
| Johnson, Harriet McBryde |
Accidents of Nature |
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Having always prided herself on blending in with "normal" people despite her cerebral palsy, seventeen-year-old Jean begins to question her role in the world while attending a summer camp for children with disabilities |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
1 |
I liked the way it protrayed the life of a CP girl going to camp, finding out who she is, and meeting new friends. - MNHS |
1 |
The book was just okay. I thought the content and how it was written was really good. Also I liked how it portrayed a real person's disability. It allowed me to watch someone else's life. - MNHS |
0 |
It was an interesting read, but it was really boring and I didn't really think there was an overall point. It liked the point of view of how it is to be a crippled person but the story had no excitement and it didn't keep my attention. Good idea - but a bad story. - MNHS |
0 |
This book was just alright. I didn't care for it too much. - MNHS |
2 |
I really enjoyed this book but some of the characters were very out there and I honestly don't think mentally disabled kids really act like that. - MNHS |
1 |
This was a good book. It showed how real kids feel. - MNHS |
| Jones, Jami |
Bouncing Back |
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Offers advice to teens on how to handle stress, discussing the importance of developing resiliency, describing strategies designed to help teens manage, or even escape their problems for short periods of time, and including personal stories in which teens tell how they dealt with difficult situations. |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
2 |
This book was really helpful in solving some problems in life. It had many solutions and real stories about teens just like us. This book was also very easy to read. - NMS |
| Jones, Kimberly |
Sand Dollar Summer |
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When twelve-year-old Lise spends the summer on an island in Maine with her self-reliant mother and bright--but oddly mute--younger brother, her formerly safe world is complicated by an aged Indian neighbor, her mother's childhood friend, and a hurricane. |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
2 |
I really enjoyed this book. - MNHS |
1 |
I loved the characters in this book; they were so realistic. The reading was very organized and easy to follow. Something that I didn't like was the middle of the story. It seemed that the author dragged it too much. - MNHS |
2 |
It was an awesome book, and it was sad when Ben died. It was a happy ending. - BMS |
| Jones, Patrick | Nailed |
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An outcast in a school full of jocks, sixteen-year-old Bret struggles to keep his individuality through his interest in drama and music, while trying to reconnect with his father. |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
2 |
Brett Hendricks is a boy with many talents. He can sing, act, and he's in a band. Yet, he doesn't know who he is. His father always hassles him for his long hair, carzy style and stubborness. He thinks thinkgs might come toghether for him when he gets his first 'real' girlfriend. He believes he's in love with her and does many things for her. But when that gets him in trouble things get tough for him again. Dealing with bullies at school, band problems, and the girl problem, Brett thinks he's going to go carzy. Soon his girlfriend cheats on him with his band member. Things go crashing down. Brett decided to fight back. Things get heated and there is a lot of drama. But in the end, Brett's father lightens up and things are straightening up for Brett and he's finally discovering who he is. - MNHS |
2 |
It's very well written and had a very realistic view of teen life. - MNHS |
1 |
I thought the book was alright. I enjoyed some parts more than others. There were some very funny parts - but also some very serious parts. Overall, it was pretty good. - MNHS |
1 |
This book was just okay! - MNHS |
1 |
This book was just okay. - KMS |
2 |
I really enjoyed this book. - KMS |
| Jones, Traci |
Standing Against the Wind |
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After her mother is sent to jail, eighth-grader Patrice Williams moves to Chicago to live with her aunt Mae where she attends a school filled with gangs and drug runners, applies for a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school, and learns there is hope for her future. |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
| Jubert, Herve |
Devil's Tango |
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A witch/detective and her young associate try to track a serial killer known as the Baron of the Mists in a city where crime should be impossible. |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
2 |
Fascinating! Full of excitement, keeps ya turning pages. - MNHS |
| Kadohata, Cynthia |
Weedflower |
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After twelve-year-old Sumiko and her Japanese-American family are relocated from their flower farm in southern California to an internment camp on a Mojave Indian reservation in Arizona, she helps her family and neighbors, becomes friends with a local Indian boy, and tries to hold on to her dream of owning a flower shop. |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
2 |
Very emotional but great story line. Has some Japanese words that you can learn from it. - BMS |
2 |
I liked this book. It was easy to follow and very interesting. This author uses very good word choice and makes it easy to get a vivid mental image. The topic of this book in Japanese Internment. I wanted to learn more about this. - CMS |
2 |
I think this book is very good but may prove to be difficult to read for Americans. I fell that the book is difficult for Americans because they have a few Japanese words but only tell the meaning for each one once. They use the words several times but give no clues to what the words mean. I think the book was good because I understood what was happening and the book is about what a person like that's life may have been like during that time. - CMS |
2 |
I really liked how this was historical fiction, yet it was intersting. I even learned some Japanese. - KMS |
2 |
I liked reading about the culture and life in the story. - KMS |
2 |
It expressed the intter thoughts of what people felt. - KMS |
1 |
This book was just okay. - KMS |
2 |
This book definitely tells you what are rewards and obstacles of life. It really does make you feel like you're right there going through the life-changing incidents of Pearl Harbor. - NMS |
| Kaslik, Ibi | Skinny |
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After the death of their father, two sisters struggle with various issues, including their family history, personal relationships, and an extreme eating disorder. |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
2 |
This was a good book because you get to view both girls points of view and there are also multiple story lines that keep you interested. - MNHS |
2 |
I really liked this book. - MNHS |
1 |
The book was a good book. It wasn't really "my genre," but it was pretty intriguing. - MNHS |
| Kennen, Ally | Beast |
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Foster teen Stephen has secretly kept a crocodile (a gift from his real father) caged in the city reservoir for years. Now he struggles to contain the fully grown beast behind bars even as he tries to keep his own trouble-making self outside of them. Though the pace drags at times, vivid, complex characters coping with difficult situations will hold readers' interest. |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
2 |
This was an exciting book with lots of action. - MNHS |
2 |
It was a good and suspenseful book. - MNHS |
1 |
Interesting. Bit short but parts of it more slowly. Plot-line follows a bad luck story. - MNHS |
2 |
It was full of exciting action and had good suspense. - MNHS |
2 |
It was a really good book. - MNHS |
2 |
It was a fantastic and suspenseful book. - MNHS |
2 |
It was awesome. It made me feel as if I was inside the book. Some parts were scary and funny. It's awesome. I would like another book like this. - BMS |
2 |
It'd be kind of scary to know that a man-eating crocodile that is 12 feet long is out of its cage. This kid keeps a crocodile, and it's a secret. He finally tells his dad. Dad talks about it in the pub and almost sells it. It is finally released. - BMS |
2 |
A really great book, full of suspense and fear of the beast. - BMS |
| Kerr, M.E. |
Your Eyes in Stars |
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In their small New York town, two teenaged girls become friends while helping each other make sense of their families, neighbors, and selves as they approach adulthood in the years preceding World War II. |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
1 |
It was okay, but not an attention-grabber. - MNHS |
1 |
This book is set in New York state in a prison town during the Great Depression. - MWHS |
2 |
The last part of the book is in letter form. It is a very good book. - NMS |
2 |
Sush a surprising but satifsying ending! I love how she wrote about the Holocaust before it happened. - NMS |
| Kessler, Liz |
Emily Windsnap and the Monster of the Deep |
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Young mermaid Emily Windsnap must turn for help to someone she hoped to never see again when she awakes the huge and terrifying octopus-like monster known as the kraken. |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
1 |
I like how it involves the Bermuda Triangle. - BMS |
2 |
I really enjoyed this book. - KMS |
2 |
I really enjoyed this book. It was very interesting. - KMS |
| Kidd, Ronald |
Monkey Town |
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Kidd fictionalizes the 1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial," re-creating it through the eyes of 15-year-old Frances Robinson. It is her father, the owner of the town's drugstore, who convinces John Scopes to admit that he has taught evolution in order to bring publicity to sleepy Dayton, Tennessee |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
0 |
It was confusing. It had too much lovey dovey scenes. I don't like that many love books. - BMS |
| Killgore, James |
Passage |
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Fifteen-year-old Mississippi schoolboy Sam Wood learns about honor, courage, and friendship while serving on a Confederate ironclad gunboat, the CSS Arkansas, in the early days of the Civil War |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
2 |
It was a very good book. The only part I did not like was when the main character loses his leg. In the end he is made a teacher. - MNHS |
1 |
I thought the book went slow and did not think it was one that I would read again. - MNHS |
2 |
Great book! It was a great history book. - MNHS |
2 |
Has history mixed with a great taste of adventure and action. - BMS |
| Klass, David |
Firestorm |
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After learning that he has been sent from the future for a special purpose, eighteen-year-old Jack receives help from an unusual dog and a shape-shifting female fighter. |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
1 |
I liked the book until the end because it just left you hanging and there wasn't an ending, it just stopped. - MNHS |
2 |
Very interesting read. - MNHS |
2 |
It was very good but doesn't sound like a trilogy. - MNHS |
2 |
Great cliff-hanger. - MNHS |
2 |
The book kept me involved through the entire book. This was the only book I have ever read that I could sit at home and read for hours. Highly recommended. - MNHS |
2 |
This book keeps you happy. I can't wait to read the next book. - MNHS |
2 |
It was a very good book. Also very hard to put down. - MNHS |
2 |
Very interesting sci-fi book. The beginning was great - but the ending was not so good. - MNHS |
1 |
For the most part, I liked this book. There were parts in the book I could relate to. The ending left too many questions and ended at a bad spot. - MNHS |
2 |
Sci-fi, earth warming brought global concern to mind. Very up-to-date and connectable. - MNHS |
2 |
This book was packed with action-filled pages and lots of fighting. It had a very good story behind it and I enjoyed reading it. - MNHS |
2 |
I don't really like sci-fi books, but this one was an exception. It was really good and more age-appropriate for us in hihg school. The book was organized and was easily followed. I loved Bizmo. - MNHS |
2 |
Klass is always good. The only downside is waiting for the next book. - MNHSs |
1 |
I enjoyed the action parts, but it was just a bit too common. You can find a similar fantasy book anywhere. Unoriginal, but not bad. - MWHS |
| Klein, Lisa | Ophelia |
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In a story based on Shakespeare's Hamlet, Ophelia tells of her life in the court at Elsinore, her love for Prince Hamlet, and her escape from the violence in Denmark. |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
2 |
I must give congratulations to Lisa Klein and thank her for this novel. This novel has diminished my thoughts of reading being "pointless and stupid." It made me grip for what would happen next and made me steal every chance I could to read it. This intriguing and romantic book has made me someone who desires to see what other tales are out there that are a great as this one. And imagine, before you would never see me with a book! I hope that you come out with a sequel to Opheila, Lisa Klein. I really want to see what young Pince Hamelot, Ophelia, Horatio & Denman comes to be. Please don't end your story! - MWHS |
2 |
Captivated me from the first page. Fantastic! - MNHS |
| Knox, Elizabeth |
Dreamhunter |
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In a world where select people can enter "The Place" and find dreams of every kind to share with others for a fee, a fifteen-year-old girl is training to be a dreamhunter when her father disappears, leaving her to carry on his mysterious mission. |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
2 |
I really enjoyed this book. It is an excellent start to a very, very good series. - MNHS |
2 |
Weird, kinda slow, and extremely confusing - but somehow - really good! - MNHS |
| Knox, Elizabeth | Dreamquake |
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While investigating the government's involvement in the disappearance of her father, Tziga Hame, and the decline of the art of projecting dreams, dreamhunter Laura learns more about "The Place." |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
2 |
This book ended the duet well. The story was really good and the ending fit well with the first book and it made sense. It was filled with drama and the not quite understanding sense throughout the book was there in the 1st and 2nd and in the end it is finally clear. If you have read the first one, read this. It was a really good read. - MNHS |
| Koja, Kathe |
Going Under |
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Alternating passages that draw on the myths of Persephone and Narcissus juxtapose the differing viewpoints of a teenaged girl and her older brother as she tries to prevent a manipulative psychotherapist from using her journal as material in a book. |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
0 |
I disliked this book! - MWHS |
| Krech, Bob |
Rebound |
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Determined to make the varsity basketball team, seventeen-year-old Ray finds his efforts to play both hindered and helped by the atmosphere of racism in his town. |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
2 |
It was good because it had a lot of controversy with racial issues & basketball. - MNHS |
2 |
This was great! There was never a dull moment. - MNHS |
2 |
I really liked the book and would like to read more of this author. - MNHS |
1 |
Reading about this book was fun because basketball is my favorite sport. This show that perseverance pays off. - MNHS |
1 |
It was good because I like basketball and sports. The racism in the story was very real and sad to see people are like that. - MNHS |
2 |
Poor Ray! I absolutely despised the coach who wouldn't let him play his sophomore or junior year. Rudy disgusted me, but overall - it was a fun read. I liked Ray - who truly wouldn't give up. - MWHS |
| Krisher, Trudy |
Fallout |
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The move of an unconventional Hollywood family to a coastal North Carolina town in the early 1950s results not only in an unlikely friendship between high school age Genevieve and newcomer Brenda but also in a challenge to traditional ways of thinking. |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
1 |
This book was dull at times, but overall it was a good story. - MNHS |
1 |
It was pretty good. It was slow at some spots. - MNHS |
2 |
Genevieve is a strong hearted girl, and I respect that. At first she's scared of what people might think, but then she gets over it and finds out who her real friend is. - BMS |
1 |
This book is mainly about a friendship that may or may not last. The author was great about keeping the friendship alive. - NMS |
| Kujer, Gus | The Book of Everything |
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Nine-year-old Thomas receives encouragement from many sources, including candid talks with Jesus, to help him tolerate the strict family life dictated by his deeply-religious father. |
| Student Rating: | Student Comments: |
1 |
It was weird. It had some Beethoven in it, but he's dead. It had so many different things, but nothing really went together. It was just all thrown together.- BMS |
1 |
This book was okay because it was sad that the father kept hitting the mother. I didn't like it, because I didn’t get the point of this book. - BMS |
2 |
It is a great book because it's neat how Thomas can see Jesus and other things no one else can see like fish swimming deep in the canal. - BMS |