F TAY	The Bomb (age 12+) by Theodore Taylor historical ... realistic ... nature ... war Publisher comments: Shortly after the first atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, World War II came to and, and the terrible reality of the atomic age began. Sixteen-year-old Sorry Rinamu has lived on the Bikini Atoll in the western Pacific all his life. Now the United States government wants to use his home as a site for atomic weapons tests. The islanders are told that they must leave weapon tests. The islanders are told that they must leave the island in the interest of world peace but can return when the island in the interest of world peace but can return when the land is safe again. Sorry doesn't believe the story. He is sure that radioactive fallout will poison the warm blue waters and beautiful white sand beaches, and Bikini Atoll will be lost to its people forever. Sorry knows that he has no choice but stop this disaster before it starts — even if it means standing alone against the U.S. military, and risking his own life to save his ancestral land.
F HIL	The Icemark Chronicles (age 12+) by Stuart Hill adventure ... action ... war ... princesses ... fantasy After the death of her beloved father, headstrong princess Thirrin Freer Strong-In-The-Arm becomes warrior queen of her homeland, Icemark, defending it from a formidable invader. Despite Thirrin's bravery and the support of Oskan, the Witch's son, the task proves more difficult than Thirrin ever dreamed. She must assemble a force to rival her opponent. And, in the chill winter of Icemark, she only has until spring to unite the strange beasts and frightening creatures who live just outside her country. Ultimately, it is Thirrin's vision and determination that will see her through to victory. title: The Cry of the Icemark title: Blade of Fire title: Last Battle of the Icemark
F BEL	Farsala Trilogy (age 12+) by Hilari Bell war ... folklore ... adventure ... fantasy Publisher comments: Three young people watch as their world is torn apart. An enemy approaches Farsala's borders, but the rulers of Farsala believe that they cannot be beaten. Three young people are less sure of Farsala's invincibility. Jiaan, Soraya, and Kavi see Farsala headed toward the Flames of Destruction. But what they cannot see is how inextricably their own lives are linked to Farsala's destiny--until it's too late. As their world crumbles around them, the only thing left for them to do is look to the future and hope that somehow they can rebuild all that has been lost. In Flame, the first volume of The Book of Sorahb and the Farsala Trilogy, Hilari Bell introduces readers to a world of honor, danger, and magic in a spellbinding tale of self-discovery. title: Flame title: Fall of a Kingdom title: Rise of a Hero title: Forging the Sword
F FOO	Longlight Legacy Series (age 12+) by Dennis Foon war ... science fiction ... fantasy ... growing up Publisher comments: It's a struggle to survive on post-apocalyptic earth. The wars have transformed the world, and 16-year-old Roan is about to discover a terrible truth. When Roan's parents and the people of Longlight perish in a raid, Roan is filled with rage. Torn between his desire for revenge and the legacy of peace he has inherited, he is taken in by a sect of warriors. With them he learns he has exceptional talent as a fighter. But Roan is haunted by visions he can't understand. When he commits his first act of violence, he flees in disgust into the most wasted lands of all, the Devastation. He meets friends and allies in unexpected places, as his enemies hunt him down. But it is only when Roan meets Alandra that he begins to understand his life's purpose and why his village, Longlight, was destroyed. Dennis Foon has created an immensely powerful and disturbing look at a wasted world. Through the character of Roan, hope and the promise of renewed life seem possible. title: The Dirt Eaters title: Freewalker title: The Keeper's Shadow
F YOL	Briar Rose (age 12+) by Jane Yolen war ... historical ... family ... fantasy Publisher comments: It is an old, old tale, the German story of Briar Rose, the Sleeping Beauty. Now one of America's most celebrated writers tells it afresh, set this time in the forests patrolled by the German army during World War II. A tale of castles, of mists and thorns, of a beautiful sleeping princess, and an astonishing revelation of death and rebirth. A tale that will leave you changed forever. The tale of Briar Rose.
F RIC	Friedrich (age 12+) by Hans Peter Richter bigotry ... war ... survival ... historical Catalog: A young German boy recounts the fate of his best friend, a Jew, during the Nazi regime.
F SER	Escape from Warsaw (age 12+) by Ian Serraillier bigotry ... war ... survival ... historical Publisher comments: In 1942 Warsaw, World War II is raging, and people live in fear from day to day. Ruth, Bronia, and Edek have to fend for themselves when both of their parents are taken by the Nazis. Can they survive? A gripping story based on true accounts.
F PRE	Malka (age 12+) by Mirjam Pressler adventure ... bigotry ... war ... survival ... historical Publisher comments: When the round-ups start in the Polish village, Malka's mother knows she must get her daughters across the Hungarian border to safety-a place where Jews can live in peace. But escape proves harder than they could have ever imagined. Raw and bleeding feet, bad weather, fear and homesickness fill their nights, until little Malka falls very ill, and must be left behind to be brought across when the threat has passed. But the threat doesn't pass. Separated from her family, Malka finds herself in a terrifying world full of strangers, starvation, and constant fear of Nazi round-ups. Completely alone, she struggles to stay hidden in alleyways and old cellars, unaware that miles away, a broken-hearted mother is searching frantically for her lost little girl . . . A shocking and unforgettable story of a child's heroic fight to stay alive during one of the most intense moments in human history.
F ORL	The Lady with the Hat (age 12+) by Uri Orlev bigotry ... war ... survival ... historical ... family Publisher comments: Yulek, a seventeen-year-old Holocaust survivor, finds himself tragically alone at war's end. Hoping to begin again, he makes his way to Palestine, where he meets a sad and beautiful Jewish girl named Theresa. Saved from the Nazis by Catholic nuns, Theresa, like Yulek, is uncertain about her place in the postwar world. Together they struggle to rediscover the joy of living. Meanwhile, a mysterious English woman sets out on her own search for the long-lost nephew that she has spotted in a newspaper photo of Jewish refugees. Perhaps by finding him, she will also find some long-hidden part of herself.
F MAT	After the War (age 12+) by Carol Matas bigotry ... war ... survival ... historical Publisher comments: After World War II, Ruth, a 15-year-old survivor of Buchenwald has nowhere to turn. Recruited by Brichah, an underground organization that helps people get to Palestine, Ruth risks her life to lead a group of children there, using secret routes and forged documents.
F LEV	Room in the Heart (age 12+) by Sonia Levitin bigotry ... war ... survival ... historical Catalog: After German forces occupy Denmark during World War II, fifteen-year-old Julie Weinstein and fifteen-year-old Niels Nelson and their friends and families try to cope with their daily lives, finding various ways to resist the Nazis and, ultimately, to survive.
F KOS	The Thought of High Windows (age 12+) by Lynne Kositsky bigotry ... war ... survival ... historical ... growing up Publisher comments: Young, Jewish and on the run from the Nazis, Esther is one of a group of children who manage to flee Germany at the beginning of World War II. But as the war rages on and Esther bears witness to its horrors, her pain and isolation grow, until only the highest windows bring the promise of release.
F ISA	Torn Thread (age 12+) by Anne Isaacs bigotry ... war ... survival ... historical Publisher comments: Twelve-year-old Eva and her sister have been forced to leave their home in Poland and are imprisoned in a Nazi labor camp. There they must spin thread on treacherous machinery to make clothing and blankets for the German Army. As Eva struggles amid ever worsening dangers to save her life and that of her sick sister, readers witness how two teenagers strive to create home and family amidst inhumanity and chaos. Written in exquisite prose, this story of heartbreak and hope that is rich in detail and symbolism will deeply move readers of all ages.
F GRE	Summer of My German Soldier (age 12+) by Bette Greene bigotry ... war ... historical Publisher comments: When her small Arkansas hometown becomes the site of a prison camp during WW II, 12-year-old Patty risks losing her family by dating a German soldier who has escaped in a moving tale about young love.
F GRA	Resistance (age 12+) by Janet Graber bigotry ... war ... survival ... historical Catalog: In German-occupied Normandy, France, fifteen-year-old Marianne worries that her mother is exposing the family, especially Marianne's deaf younger brother, to great danger by volunteering for more perilous assignments in the resistance movement.
F FRI	Escaping Into the Night (age 12+) by Dina D. Friedman bigotry ... war ... survival ... historical Publisher comments: Halina Rudowski is on the run. When the Polish ghetto where she lives is evacuated, she narrowly escapes, but her mother is not as lucky. Along with her friend Batya, Halina makes her way to a secret encampment in the woods where Jews survive by living underground. As the group struggles for food, handles infighting, and attempts to protect themselves from the advancing Germans, Halina must face the reality of life without her mother. Based on historical events, this gripping tale sheds light on a little-known aspect of the Holocaust: the underground forest encampments that saved several thousand Jews from the Nazis.
F CHO	Daniel Half Human and the Good Nazi (age 12+) by David Chotjewitz bigotry ... identity ... friendship ... war ... survival ... historical Publisher comments: All his life, Daniel has been hiding. He just doesn't know it. Until the spring of 1933, he's enjoyed a comfortable German boyhood with his well-to-do family, in school, at soccer. Daniel's even enjoyed jail...for one exciting night...with his best friend, Armin, after they've been caught painting a swastika on a wall in the hated Communist section of Hamburg. In their cell, the boys cut their wrists, mingle blood, and swear lasting brotherhood. Then, a thunderclap: Daniel learns to his horror that his mother is Jewish, that he is therefore half-Jewish and, in Aryan eyes, half-human. Daniel keeps the truth a secret. He and Armin still talk of joining the Hitler Youth. But Armin's father, an out-of-work longshoreman and a Socialist, forbids it. Armin joins anyway, with fateful consequences for Daniel's family. Throughout World War II, and until the story's haunting final scene, each friend holds the life of the other in his hands.
F BOY	The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: A Fable (age 12+) by John Boyne war ... survival ... historical ... friendship Publisher comments: Berlin 1942. When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance. But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.
F BEN	Anne Frank and Me (age 12+) by Cherie Bennett war ... survival ... historical Publisher comments: In one moment Nicole Burns's life changes forever. The sound of gunfire at an Anne Frank exhibit, the panic, the crowd, and Nicole is no longer Nicole. Whiplashed through time and space, she wakes to find herself a privileged Jewish girl living in Nazi-occupied Paris during World War II. No more Internet diaries and boy troubles for Nicole-now she's a carefree Jewish girl, with wonderful friends and a charming boyfriend. But when the Nazi death grip tightens over France, Nicole is forced into hiding, and begins a struggle for survival that brings her face to face with Anne Frank.
F BAT	Two Suns in the Sky (age 12+) by Miriam Bat-Ami war ... survival ... friendship ... historical Publisher comments: During World War II, a 15-year-old girl meets a young Jewish refugee in a New York shelter and soon learns the history behind her city through interaction with her new friend, as well as the barriers that exist when different cultures unite.
F CAR	Bloodline: A Novel (age 12+) by Kate Cary war ... letters/journal ... fantasy Publisher comments: Nineteen-year-old John Shaw returns from World War One and is haunted by nightmares of not only the battles but the horrifying discovery that his regimental commander is descended from Count Dracula.
F ATW	The Kiesha'ra Series (age 12+) by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes adventure ... war ... fantasy Publisher comments: Danica Shardae is an avian shapeshifter, and the golden hawk's form in which she takes to the sky is as natural to her as the human one that graces her on land. The only thing more familiar to her is war: It has raged between her people and the serpiente for so long, no one can remember how the fighting began. As heir to the avian throne, she'll do anything in her power to stop this war...even accept Zane Cobriana, the terrifying leader of her kind's greatest enemy, as her pair bond and make the two royal families one. Trust. It is all Zane asks of Danica, and all they ask of their people, but it may be more than she can give. title: Hawksong title: Snakecharm title: Falcondance title: Wolfcry title: Wyvernhail
F HOF	The Foretelling (age 12+) by Alice Hoffman fantasy ... war ... family ... growing up Publisher comments: A coming-of-age story that pierces the soul and heals the spirit, this is the tale of the future leader of the Amazon women warriors. Rain must hold fast to her inner warrior, but she is startled and mystified by the first stirrings of mercy towards the enemy.
F AND	Chains (age 12+) by Laurie Halse Anderson war ... historical Publisher comments: If an entire nation could seek its freedom, why not a girl? As the Revolutionary War begins, 13-year-old Isabel wages her own fight... for freedom. Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate become the property of a malicious New York City couple, the Locktons, who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for Ruth and Isabel. When Isabel meets Curzon, a slave with ties to the Patriots, he encourages her to spy on her owners, who know details of British plans for invasion. She is reluctant at first, but when the unthinkable happens to Ruth, Isabel realizes her loyalty is available to the bidder who can provide her with freedom.
F BAR	The Boy Who Dared (age 12+) by Susan Campbell Bartoletti growing up ... war ... historical Publisher comments: When 16-year-old Helmuth Hubner listens to the BBC news on an illegal short-wave radio, he quickly discovers Germany is lying to the people. But when he tries to expose the truth with leaflets, he's tried for treason. Sentenced to death and waiting in a jail cell, Helmuth's story emerges in a series of flashbacks that show his growth from a naive child caught up in the patriotism of the times, to a sensitive and mature young man who thinks for himself.
F MAR	The Tomorrow Series (age 12+) by John Marsden adventure ... action ... friendship ... survival ... war Publisher comments: When Ellie and six of her friends return home from a camping trip deep in the bush, they find things hideously wrong: their families gone, houses empty and abandoned, pets and stock dead. Gradually they begin to comprehend that their country has been invaded and everyone in the town has been taken prisoner. As the horrible reality of the situation becomes evident they have to make a life-and-death decision: to run back into the bush and hide, to give themselves up to be with their families, or to stay and try to fight. This reveting, tautly-drawn novel seems at times to be only a step away from today's headlines. title: Tomorrow, When the War Began title: The Dead of Night title: A Killing Frost title: Darkness Be My Friend title: Burning For Revenge title: The Night is For Hunting title: The Other Side of Dawn
F MYE	Sunrise Over Fallujah (age 12+) by Walter Dean Myers realistic ... adventure ... action ... survival ... war Publisher comments: Operation Iraqi Freedom, that's the code name. But the young men and women in the military's Civil Affairs Battalion have a simpler name for it: war. In this novel, Walter Dean Myers looks at a contemporary war with the same power and searing insight he brought to the Vietnam war of his classic, Fallen Angels. He creates memorable characters like the book's narrator, Birdy, a young recruit from Harlem who's questioning why he even enlisted; Marla, a blond, tough-talking, wisecracking gunner; Jonesy, a guitar-playing bluesman who just wants to make it back to Georgia and open a club; and a whole unit of other young men and women and drops them incountry in Iraq, where they are supposed to help secure and stabilize Iraq and successfully interact with the Iraqi people. The young civil affairs soldiers soon find their definition of "winning" ever more elusive and their good intentions being replaced by terms like "survival" and "despair." Caught in the crossfire, Myers' richly rendered characters are just beginning to understand the meaning of war in this powerful, realistic novel of our times.
F ZUC	A Taste For Rabbit (age 12+) by Linda Zuckerman war ... family ... friendship Publisher comments: Imagine a world in which there are no people, but foxes are civilized. They eat lower orders with limited brainpower, like rabbits. Now imagine that one day the rabbits disappear, and slowly develop their "own" society away from the foxes. What happens when the two societies once again collide?
F BUR	Runs With Horses (age 12+) by Brian Burks war ... growing up ... adventure ... action ... historical Publisher comments: Sixteen years old in 1886, Runs With Horses is a member of the last small band of Apaches continuing to resist the U.S. Army. His training for manhood as a Chiricahua Apache has been difficult but thrilling, and he is eager to accomplish the final two of the four raids required to be-come a warrior. Sadly, this is not possible when they at last surrender to the U.S. Army.
F ROB	I Am the Great Horse (age 12+) by Katherine Roberts war ... action ... adventure ... historical ... animals "I am the dark horse, Bucephalus. I am no black beauty. I am a stallion trained for war." From the moment they dare sit on his back, the fates of Alexander, 12-year-old heir to the Macedonian throne, and Charm, a kind stable girl, are bound to the battle-ready steed. When the boy becomes king, Bucephalus helps his young master transform into a conquering hero. In a hard-won, nearly blind blaze of glory, they gallop from Greece to the golden sands of Persia to the edge of the known world. At their side, as ever, is Charm. This is their epic. Through the eyes of a horse, history unfolds.
F BLO	London Calling (age 12+) by Edward Bloor war ... historical ... science fiction ... adventure ... action Martin Conway comes from a family filled with heroes and disgraces. His grandfather was a statesman who worked at the US Embassy in London during WWII. His father is an alcoholic who left his family. His sister is an overachieving Ivy League graduate. And Martin? Martin is stuck in between--floundering. But during the summer after 7th grade, Martin meets a boy who will change his life forever. Jimmy Harker appears one night with a deceptively simple question: Will you help? Where did this boy come from, with his strange accent and urgent request? Is he a dream? It's the most vivid dream Martin's ever had. And he meets Jimmy again and again--but how can his dreams be set in London during the Blitz? The people and the scenes Martin witnesses have a profound effect on him. And he begins to believe that maybe he can help Jimmy. Or maybe that he must help Jimmy, precisely because all logic and reason argue against it. This is a truly remarkable and deeply affecting novel about fathers and sons, heroes and scapegoats. About finding a way to live with faith and honor and integrity. And about having an answer to the question: What did you do to help?
F SAN	Song of the Sparrow (age 12+) by Lisa Ann Sandell growing up ... war ... folklore ... historical Since the days of King Arthur, there have been poems and paintings created in her name. She is Elaine of Ascolat, the Lady of Shalott, and now there is a book all her own. The year is 490 A.D. and 16-year-old Elaine has a temperament to match her fiery red hair. Living on a military base with her father, brothers, and the rest of Arthur's army, Elaine pines for the handsome Lancelot, and longs for a female friend. But when the cruel, beautiful Gwynivere arrives, Elaine is confronted with startling emotions of jealousy and rivalry. Can Elaine find the strength to survive the birth of a kingdom?
F KEI	Rifles For Watie (age 12+) by Harold Keith war ... historical Sixteen-year-old Jefferson Davis Bussey cannot wait to join the Army and defend the Union against the dreaded Colonel Watie, but when he is assigned to infiltrate the enemy camp as a spy, he discovers the rebels are boys and men just like him, and he must then decide whether to betray his enemies or join them.
F O'D	Sarah Bishop (age 12+) by Scott O'Dell war ... survival ... family ... historical Left alone after the deaths of her father and brother who take opposite sides in the War for Independence, and fleeing from the British who seek to arrest her, Sarah Bishop struggles to shape a new life for herself in the wilderness.

Sat Aug 25 11:55:25 2012 Other themes and genres