The Eleventh Plague, by Jeff Hirsch (2011)

I was sitting at the edge of the clearing, trying not to stare at the body on the ground in front of me. 

Fifteen year-old Stephen Quinn has only known what life is like after the war, the Collapse, and the chaos that followed.  The war with China had started five years before Stephen was born.  Reacting to what should have been a minor incident with American students, the United States launched nuclear weapons at China and its allies; China responded with P11H3, the Eleventh Plague.

The last reliable news anyone heard before the stations went off the air said it had killed hundreds of millions in the United States alone.

The Collapse quickly followed P11; everything just shut down.

Stephen, his father, and his grandfather have survived by scavenging for items to trade, avoiding other people, and staying on the trail.  Danger lurks everywhere.

After Grandfather dies, Stephen and his father run into slavers.  In an effort to save others, Stephen's father makes a decision that will change their lives forever.

Stephen finds himself in the safety and security of Settlers Landing, a place where people live in houses, kids attend school, play baseball and have real friendships. 

"Who are you people?" My voice sounded strange and distant, like pieces of wreckage bobbing along on dark water.  "What is this place?"

Stephen meets Jenny, a Chinese-American girl who is a defiant prankster.

"Jenny, I don't know.  If we get caught - "

Suddenly Jenny and Stephen find themselves in the center of a battle that will change their lives, and the lives of everyone they love, forever.

The Eleventh Plague is an exciting read for students who haven't read many futuristic dystopian books. 

Rating:  7 out of 10 stars

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

Slob, by Ellen Potter (2009)

My name is Owen Birnbaum, and I am probably fatter than you are.  This isn't my low self-esteem talking.  This is pure statistics.  I'm five foot two and I weigh 156 pounds.  That's 57 percent fatter than the national average for a twelve-year-old boy.

In addition, Owen is very intelligent.

They had my IQ tested in the second grade.  I won't tell you my score.  Actually, I can't tell you my score because I promised my mother I wouldn't do that anymore.  I used to tell everyone.

Owen faces humiliation and bullying at school every day, but things get out of hand when someone steals his beloved three Oreo cookies from his lunch box.  And he thinks it was Mason Riggs, one of the scariest kids at his school.

In his attempt to find the culprit, Owen has to come to terms with other losses in his life. 

Most of us would probably like Owen.  Most of us probably knew someone who was similar to Owen.  Slob is a great read to help teens learn how important it is to take time to not judge someone by the way he or she looks.  They're probably a really great person.

Rating:  8 out of 10 stars

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

How to Save a Life, by Sara Zarr (January 2012)

I am writing in response to your Love Grows post from Christmas Day.

I think I might have what you're looking for.

It should be available on March 1.  Or around March 1.

Six weeks ago Jill's mom announced she was going to participate in an open adoption.  It hasn't been quite one year since Jill's dad was killed in a car accident. 

I've tried convincing myself it has nothing to do with me.  It's Mom's right to do this.  Yet I can't help thinking, Am I not enough?  Mom and I have had our issues...It has occurred to me that she sees the baby as a do-over.  A chance to correct my failings and to finally have a child that's all hers.

Eighteen year old Mandy Madison Kalinowski is eight months pregnant.  She knows she can't ever return to her mom.  She met Jill's mom on an adoption website and agreed to the open adoption.  The only communication they had was through email.  Now that Mandy is in Denver, she's not sure what she should do.

Maybe I should tell her that I have doubts, too, that there are small moments when I remember July and feel sure what this baby is evidence of and want to keep it.  That it's the only evidence I have.  And that's why, in the end, even though there are those small moments, I want to protect it by keeping it far from me and where I've come from.

How to Save a Life eloquently describes how Mandy and Jill arrived at this very moment, which will affect how they deal with this life-changing situation.  I think it's a delicious read that teens should read with a parent to have some important conversations.

Rating:  9 out of 10 stars
*teenage pregnancy, language, issues of sexual abuse

Not available at NOLS...yet!

The Scorpio Races, by Maggie Stiefvater (October 2011)

It is the first day of November and so, today, someone will die.

Life on Thisby Island, population 4,000 is quiet, except in November.  The closer it gets to November, the more capaill uisce - water horses - the sea spits out. 

These are not ordinary horses.  Drape them with charms, hide them from the sea, but today, on the beach: Do not turn your back.

During the month of October, until the first of November, the island becomes a map of safe areas and unsafe areas. 

Puck Connolly understands too well what the capaill uisce ("copple ooshka") are capable of.  Her parents were killed at sea.  Puck lives with her older brother, Gabe, and younger brother, Finn.  Gabe works at the hotel to keep the family together, and Puck and Finn work odd jobs to earn some money.

Suddenly Gabe tells Puck that he's leaving the island.  To make him change his mind, Puck tells him she's going to enter in the annual Scorpio Races - races with the unpredictable capaill uisce.  Gabe finally admits that he'll stay on the island until after the races.  To enter the races, though, Puck needs to find a capall uisce.  Forced to make a choice, she decides to ride her beloved horse, Dove.

Sean Kendrick has worked in Malvern Yard since he was 10 years old.  He has a way with the capaill uisce, he understands their magic.  The capaill uisce can play tricks on the rider, coaxing him to trust and to join the beast in the sea.  Sean knows how to tie knots in the horse's mane, use threes in sevens, track iron counterclockwise on the horse's withers, and make circles in the sand and spit in the center.  Sean and his favorite capall uisce, Corr, have won the Scorpio Races four times.  But Corr belongs to Mr. Malvern, and more than anything, Sean wants to own Corr.

Mr. Malvern is a powerful man on Thisby.  He owns most everything on the island, including Puck's house.  Equally as cold, his son, Mutt, hates Sean and will do anything to hurt him.

Both Sean and Puck must win the races to save what they love the most.  But can they survive?

Even if you don't know anything about horses, The Scorpio Races is an exciting read, full of lovely imagery and strong characters.  And there's even some romance in unexpected places.

Rating:  10 out of 10 stars
*mild language, some crude British humor, mild violence

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

Cuss, by Kristine L. Franklin (2003)

The grape train pulled into Roslyn on a hot August day in 1925.  The air felt like the devil's breath.

Slava Petrovich is 12-years old.  A small coal mining town, Roslyn, Washington, is a melting pot of cultures and languages.  Cuss picks up languages quickly.

I told them if I knew enough cuss words in other languages, no kid would ever be able to pull a fast one in Old Country talk. 

Prohibition started five years ago and once a year the grape train comes to Roslyn.  Since people couldn't buy alcohol, many Roslyn families decided to make their own wine; California grape farmers were happy to supply the grapes.  Every year boys strategize how to steal some delicious grapes.

Boys drop out of school all of the time to work in the coal mines.  Life in Roslyn can be tough, and Cuss's family struggles to survive.  Cuss's two older brothers work in the mine, and it's only a matter of time before Cuss has to join them.  Even his seven-year old brother wants to quit school to start working.  More than anything, Cuss wants to stay in school.

     "You can't stay in school forever," she said.  "That's the fact of the matter."
     "I'm no miner," I said.
     "Put a pickax in your hands and you will be," she said.  "If Ma needs you to, you will right?"

On the day the grape train arrived, Cuss's older sister, Mary invited a gentleman to dinner.  Later that evening, Cuss's older brothers confronted Mary's gentleman caller.

"It's him," said Joey.  "I'm sure."

Suddenly Cuss's brothers, Matt and Joey, are mixed up in something big, and Cuss witnessed everything.  He knew rumors would swirl around his brothers, rumors about bootlegging and mobsters.

In the middle of the night, Joey and Matt leave Roslyn.

"There's talk, Cuss...I hear things," he said, "as in your brothers went to the sheriff, told him the whole thing, and he told 'em to get outta town for fear of the mobsters."

With Joey and Matt gone, money is tight.  After his younger brother gets sick, the family may even lose their house. 

Will Cuss be able to stay in school?  Could Cuss even get a job in the mines now that fuel oil has become more popular?  What will happen to the coal mining town of Roslyn?  Will everyone have to move back to the Old Country?

Cuss is an excellent read if you like realistic fiction, historical fiction, or fiction with strong characters.  It gives great glimpse into what life looked like in 1925 Roslyn. 

Rating:  10 out of 10 stars

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!
(Formerly titled The Grape Thief)