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KOR |
Schooled
(age 10+) by Gordon Korman realistic ... humor ... adventure ... brilliant protagonist ... school Publisher comments: Capricorn "Cap" Anderson has never watched television. He's never tasted a pizza. Never even heard of a wedgie. Since he was little, his only experience has been living on a farm commune and being home schooled by his hippie grandmother, Rain. But when Rain falls out of a tree while picking plums, and has to stay in the hospital, Cap is forced to move in with a guidance counselor and her cranky teen daughter and attend the local middle school. While Cap knows a lot about tie-dyeing and Zen Buddhism, no education could prepare him for the politics of public school. |
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HOR |
Alex Rider: the Gadgets
(age 10+) by Anthony Horowitz brilliant protagonist ... math/science/technology ... mystery ... action ... adventure As fans of teen spy Alex Rider know, nothing is more fun or mind-boggling than the gadgets that time and again help free him from tight spots. Such as the Game Boy that doubled as a Geiger counter in Skeleton Key. Or the CD player with the fast-spinning saw blade in Point Blank that helped free Alex from a steel-barred window. Now, for the first time, readers everywhere can glimpse the secret files and blueprints that detail each gadget. It's almost as much fun as actually owning these techno-toys... |
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HOR |
The Alex Rider Series (age 10+) by Anthony Horowitz brilliant protagonist ... math/science/technology ... mystery ... action ... adventure They told him his uncle died in a car accident. Fourteen-year-old Alex knows that's a lie, and the bullet holes in his uncle's windshield confirm his suspicions. But nothing prepares him for the news that the uncle he always thought he knew was really a spy for MI6 ... Britain's top secret intelligence agency. Recruited to find his uncle's killers and complete his final mission, Alex suddenly finds himself caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse. title: Stormbreaker title: Point Blank: An Alex Rider Adventure title: Skeleton Key title: Eagle Strike title: Scorpia title: Ark Angel title: Snakehead title: Crocodile Tears |
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KON |
The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place
(age 10+) by E. L. Konigsburg realistic ... brilliant protagonist ... humor ... the arts ... identity Publisher comments: "I Prefer Not To...." That's Margaret Rose Kane's response to every activity she's asked to participate in at the summer camp to which she's been exiled while her parents are in Peru. So Margaret Rose is delighted when her beloved uncles rescue her from Camp Talequa, with its uptight camp director and cruel cabinmates, and bring her to stay with them at their wonderful house at 19 Schuyler Place. But Margaret Rose soon discovers that something is terribly wrong at 19 Schuyler Place. People in their newly gentrified neighborhood want to get rid of the three magnificent towers the uncles have spent forty-five years lovingly constructing of scrap metal and shards of glass and porcelain. Margaret Rose is outraged, and determined to strike a blow for art, for history, and for individuality...and no one is more surprised than Margaret Rose at the allies she finds for her mission. |
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COL |
Airman
(age 10+) by Eoin Colfer historical ... adventure ... action ... brilliant protagonist ... math/science/technology Airman is set in the 1890's on the sovereign Saltee Islands, off the Irish coast. It is the story of Conor Broekhart, a young Saltee Islander whose father, Declan, is the King's bodyguard. When Conor discovers that the power hungry Marshall Hugo Bonvilain is organizing a military coup, the king is murdered and Conor is blamed for the crime and thrown into prison. In prison, Conor passes the solitary months by scratching designs for flying machines into the walls. This has always been his dream, to win the race for flight. After two years, Conor now sixteen, plans and executes a daring escape to the mainland. Initially he plans to return home, but realizes that this would put his entire family in danger, so instead he builds a glider to fly to the prison island and reclaim the diamonds he buried there from the prison mine. Eight bags of diamonds, means eight trips. Conor' s father is beginning to question Bonvilain's rule, and so the marshall decides to use his son to blackmail him. This is when he realizes that Conor has escaped. He also finds Conor's drawings and realizes that he is the mysterious Airman who has been flying around the prison island. Bonvilain arrests Conor's whole family to trap him. To save them, Conor will have to build the flying machine that he has been dreaming of all these years. |
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STE |
The Mysterious Benedict Society Series (age 10+) by Trenton Lee Stewart friendship ... science fiction ... brilliant protagonist ... adventure ... school "Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?" When this peculiar ad appears in the newspaper, dozens of children enroll to take a series of mysterious, mind-bending tests. (And you, dear reader, can test your wits right alongside them.) But in the end just four very special children will succeed. Their challenge: to go on a secret mission that only the most intelligent and resourceful children could complete. To accomplish it they will have to go undercover at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, where the only rule is that there are no rules. As our heroes face physical and mental trials beyond their wildest imaginations, they have no choice but to turn to each other for support. But with their newfound friendship at stake, will they be able to pass the most important test of all? title: The Mysterious Benedict Society |
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LAT |
Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
(age 10+) by Jean Lee Latham brilliant protagonist ... voyages/journeys ... math/science/technology ... historical Readers today are still fascinated by "Nat," an eighteenth-century nautical wonder and mathematical wizard. Nathaniel Bowditch grew up in a sailor's world ... Salem in the early days, when tall-masted ships from foreign ports crowded the wharves. But Nat didn't promise to have the makings of a sailor; he was too physically small. Nat may have been slight of build, but no one guessed that he had the persistence and determination to master sea navigation in the days when men sailed only by "log, lead, and lookout." Nat's long hours of study and observation, collected in his famous work, The American Practical Navigator (also known as the "Sailors' Bible"), stunned the sailing community and made him a New England hero. |