Use this space to provide information on the quality Young Adult Literature you have read.  Include the title, your comments (such things as intended audience, the books to appeal, whether it would be for intervention classes or core, etc.), and your name/role.

My Thirteenth Winter by Samantha Abeel

This is a memoir of a girl's journey to discover that she suffers from a learning disability called dyscalculia which affects her ability to learn skills based on sequential processing. She struggles to tell and comprehend time, to calculate money, to understand grammar and spelling. During her middle school years, Samantha is finally diagnosed with her disability which brings her great relief in knowing that it's not that she doesn't want to understand or that she isn't trying hard enough, she simply can't grasp some concepts. The flip side is that Samantha is also gifted in the creative realm and is a strong writer. With the encouragement of her family, some key teachers, and some artists along the way, Sam is able to publish a book, finish school, and then go on to college and even spend a semester abroad in Israel. It was frustrating for me to try and understand Samantha's disability, but I learned a lot as she gave many real world examples of situations that she did not know how to manuever through (example: purchasing something when you can't understand money....and what kind of change to expect, and what does that look like?). She also suffered through bouts of anxiety attacks and depression before she was diagnosed and at other times when she wasn't grasping the reality of her disability. Perhaps the most striking comment I read was that she wishes she looked different somehow....so that people would KNOW she was disabled. It was tough to look normal, but not be able to function as so in society. Powerful thought!  Heather Domangue, LTE at Mann Middle School

Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.  It is about a teen-age boy who gets in trouble for beating up another kid.  His probation officer brings him through a procedure called Circle Justice, a Native American tradition.  Instead of jail time, Cole is banished to an desolate island.  The book is set on the island, with flashbacks throughout that narrate Cole's history.  It is fast-paced and raises interesting issues about how we respond to "juvenile offenders," as well as notions of empathy, redemption and forgiveness.  I think it's a great book for 8th or 9th graders, and especially for those really bright "at-risk" students who have been in trouble themselves.  The book has been around awhile (published in 2001).  Has anyone else read it?  Laura Stuckey, LRT, Wasson High School Go T-Birds! (See additional reviews.)

This is an old Battle of the Books Book.  It is phenomenal!  We put it through the approval process the year after it was on the list because everyone who read it, including my 65 year old father (who reads most of the books on the Middle School BOB list) loved it.  Our 8th grade reluctant readers really enjoy this book because it is something they can relate to and it hooks them in from the very beginning.  I would highly recommend this one!  Sara Pittenger, LRT, Irving Middle School

Stuck in Neutral  by Terry Trueman

This book is about a fourteen-year-old boy named Shawn McDaniel who has CP, a condition he's had since birth.  He can't walk, talk, or make any kind of eye contact.  He is literally trapped in his own body. The story is told through Shawn's point of view.  Shawn is a very bright young man who believes that his father is planning to kill him.  It is a very fast paced book and raises some moral and ethical questions regarding euthanesia.  It's a great book for middle school and "at risk" high school students and provides great insight to "physical disabilities".  Jari Sims, LRT, Mann Middle School (See additional editorial reviews.)

 Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

See reviews here.