Blood and Chocolate

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Klause, Annette. Blood and Chocolate. New York: Laurel-Leaf Books/Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1999.

Annotation:  A young female werewolf finds love in the arms of a human.  She must choose between her desires and what is right for the good of all her wolf pack. 

Awards: 

ALA Best Books for Young Adults - Winner 1998

ALA Quick Pick for Young Adult Reluctant Readers – Winner 1998 
Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Award – Nominee 1999
South Carolina Children's Book Award - Winner 1998

Texas TAYSHAS High School Reading List – Winner 1998

Book Talk:  Vivian Gandillon is young, beautiful and a werewolf.  The men within her wolf pack want her, desire her, but she is disgusted by their very presence.  She finds a human boyfriend that is “open” to the unknown and unlike her fellow werewolves, he is gentle and kind.  Will this human accept Vivian for all that she is or will her wolf pack decide otherwise?

The Giver

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Lowry, Lois. The giver. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993.

Annotation:  In a society where people have their entire lives planned from birth to death, a boy about to turn 12 receives a responsibility that will shake the very foundation in which he was brought up believing. 

Awards: 

ALA Best Book for Young Adults

ALA Notable Book for Children

A Booklist Editors’ Choice

A Boston Glove-Horn Book Honor Book

Newbery Medal, 1994

William Allen White Award, 1996.

Winner of the Regina Medal

Book Talk:  What if the society you lived in had no color, animals or seasons?  What if you lived among people that were void of emotion, sense of history, and the value of life?  Within this society, all knowledge of good, evil, right and wrong is guarded by one man. Young Jonas is about to receive that knowledge and responsibility.  He has been selected to take on this burden but, can he protect society from what they are forbidden to know or will he break them free and expose their ignorance? Before he becomes the receiver of all this knowledge he must first meet…The Giver.

the first part last

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Angela, Johnson. the first part last. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003. Print.

Annotation:  On his sixteen birthday, Bobby receives big news from his girlfriend Nia that they are going to have a child together.  Bobby takes us through before and after scenarios of how his life has changed as result of this news and what he must do as a young father raising a newborn daughter. 

Awards:

Corretta Scott King Award (2004)

Michael L. Printz Award (2004)

Book Talk:  Can you live the first part last?  Bobby and Nia are your average teenagers.  They are in love, they are very social, and they dream of their lives together once they get to college.  However, nature as other plans once Nia finds out she’s pregnant.  Now Bobby must shed the skin of his old life and accept the change of being a father to his newborn baby.  As Bobby raises his daughter and realizes the importance of always being there for her, he wishes that people lived in reverse.  They would start out “all knowing” and end innocent, protected by their parents.  Can Bobby provide the life he wants for his daughter and embrace the change, or will he be stuck searching for how to live the first part last?

Annie on My Mind

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Garden, Nancy. Annie on My Mind. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1982. Print.

Annotation:  Liza Winthrop, a senior in private school, discovers more about herself than she ever knew when she meets Annie Kenyon.  The two girls form a friendship and a sacred bond that can never be broken.   

Awards: 

Booklist Reviewers' choice

Nominated for Gay Book Award and Golden Kite Award

1982 ALA Best Books

1983 ALA Best of the Best 1970-1983 

Best of the Best renewed, (1987?)

Booklist Best Books of the 1980s

Booksellers' Choice list, 1993 

ALA Best Books for YAs for past 25 Years, 1994

One of the Best of the Best Books for YAs of the last 4 decades of the 20th Century, ALA, 2000.

Won Mock Printz Award for 1982 in contest held at ALA Midwinter in 2002.

Book Talk: Does true love exist for everybody?  Some people say that you do not find love, but love finds you.  Some also say when two people are meant to be together, there is nothing in this world that can tear them apart.  For young Liza Winthrop and Annie Kenyon, love brings them together while other’s fears try to drive them apart.  With her spirit on trial, Liza has many things on her mind but only Annie stands out among them all.  Can they continue within their true love that many consider forbidden? 

Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway

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Currie, Cherie, and Tony O'Neill.Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2010. Print.

Annotation: Cherie Currie, lead singer of the once famous all girl band , The Runaways, tells us the trials and tribulations of being a teenager while trying to deal with fame, family, friends and relationships.

Review:  Cherie Currie was your average 15 year old girl living in California during the mid 70’s.  Although having to deal with her parents splitting apart, she lived a teenager’s life of partying, listening to rock and roll and experimenting with drugs and sex. She dreamed of a bigger life, but lived a very average one. 

All of that changed when famous (or infamous) record producer Kim Fowley and not so famous Joan Jett discovered and asked her to be the lead singer of the all girl band, The Runaways.  From dreaming of stardom to finally getting stardom, Cherie Currie  takes great courage in explaining the underbelly of the male dominated rock scene as well as exposing the hardships of dealing with drugs, rape, abusive record producers, and trying to hold onto relationships with friends and family. 

Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway is a gripping account how much abuse female rock musicians had to endure to try and make it big.  Cherie Currie gives us and in depth look at an experience and a band that helped open the door for future female rock artists.