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The Morton High

School Book Club highly recommends

the following reading selections…

HOMEBOYZ BY ALAN LAWRENCE SITOMER

When Teddy Anderson's little sister Tina is

gunned down randomly in a drive-by shooting, the

“gangstas” who rule the streets in the Anderson

family's rapidly deteriorating neighborhood

dismiss the incident as just another case of RP, RT

(wrong place, wrong time.) According to gangsta

logic, Tina doesn't even count as a statistic.

Each member of the Anderson family took the

news of Tina’s murder in a different way, but they

were all devastated. Teddy, however, the youngest

brother in the family, shared none of his parents’

or siblings’ emotions. At 17, sadness wasn’t his

style. T-Bear, Teddy’s a.k.a. on the streets, only

cared about one thing: revenge.

RED RIDING HOOD

BY SARAH BLAKELY-CARTWRIGHT

Valerie's sister was kind and sweet. Now she is

dead. Henry, the handsome son of the blacksmith,

tries to console Valerie, but her wild heart beats fast

for another: the outcast woodcutter, Peter, who offers

Valerie another life far from home.

After her sister's death, Valerie's world begins to

unravel. For generations, the Wolf has been kept at

bay with a monthly sacrifice. But now no one is safe.

When a Wolf hunter arrives, the villagers learn that

the creature lives among them. Valerie is the only one

who can hear the voice of the creature. The Wolf says

she must surrender herself before the blood moon

wanes...or everyone she loves will die.

SON OF THE MOB BY GORDON KORMAN

Vince Luca is just like any other high school guy. His

best friend, Alex, is trying to score vicariously through

him; his brother is a giant pain; and his father keeps

bugging him to get motivated. There is just one thing

that really sets him apart from other kids. His father

happens to be the head of a powerful crime

organization.

While Vince's family's connections can be handy for

certain things, how is he supposed to explain to a girl

what his father does for a living? When Vince finally

meets one girl who seems to be worth the trouble, her

family turns out to be the biggest problem of all. Because

her father is an FBI agent—the one who wants to put

his father away for good.

THE HUNGER GAMES TRILOGY

BY SUZANNE COLLINS

Follow the adventures of Katniss

Everdeen, Peeta Mellark, and Gale

Hawthorne as they fight for their lives in

this exciting futuristic trilogy. Panem’s

Hunger Games, an annual competition in

which young people between the ages of

twelve and eighteen engage in a

televised fight to the death, set the stage

for some serious, page-turning action.

Who will survive the deadly match and

live to take on the Capitol? And just

how does victory change the victor?

CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN

THE NIGHT-TIME BY MARK HADDON

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the

countries of the world and their capitals and

every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well

to animals but has no understanding of human

emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And

he detests the color yellow.

This improbable story of Christopher's quest

to investigate the suspicious death of a

neighborhood dog makes for one of the most

captivating, unusual, and widely heralded novels in

recent years.

GLASS CASTLE BY JEANNETTE WALLS Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and

nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and

Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like

nomads. Rex was a charismatic man who, when sober, captured his

children’s imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to

embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary painted and wrote, yet couldn’t

stand the responsibility of providing for her family. Cooking a meal

that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when

she could make a painting that might last forever.

Astonishingly, Jeannette Walls not only had the tenacity and

intelligence to get out, but she also describes her parents with

deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all

odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a

family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery

determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.

STITCHES BY DAVID SMALL

One day David Small awoke from a supposedly harmless operation to discover that he had been transformed into a virtual mute. A vocal cord removed, his throat slashed and stitched together like a bloody boot, the fourteen-year-old boy had not been told that he had cancer and was expected to die.

In Stitches, the author re-creates this terrifying event in a life story that might have been imagined by Kafka. As the images painfully tumble out, one by one, we gain a ringside seat at a gothic family drama where David—a highly anxious, yet supremely talented child—all too often became the unwitting object of his parents’ buried frustration and rage.

WHEN YOU REACH ME BY REBECCA STEAD By sixth grade, Miranda and her best friend, Sal, know how to

navigate their New York City neighborhood. They know where

it’s safe to go, like the local grocery store, and they know whom

to avoid, like the crazy guy on the corner.

But then, Sal gets punched by a new kid for what seems like no

reason, and he shuts Miranda out of his life. The apartment key

that Miranda’s mom keeps hidden for emergencies is stolen.

And then Miranda finds a mysterious note:

I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own.

I must ask two favors. First, you must write me a letter.

The notes keep coming, and Miranda slowly realizes that whoever is leaving them

knows all about her, including things that have not even happened yet. Each

message brings her closer to believing that only she can prevent a tragic death.

Until the final note makes her think she’s too late.

THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO

BY PATRICK NESS

Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone can

hear everyone else's thoughts in an overwhelming,

never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from

the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog,

Manchee (whose thoughts Todd can hear too, whether

he wants to or not) stumble upon an area of complete

silence. They find that, in a town where privacy is

impossible, something terrible has been hidden—a

secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for

their lives.

But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear

your every thought?

THE MONSTRUMOLOGIST

BY RICK YANCEY

These are the secrets I have kept. This is the trust I never betrayed.

But he is dead now and has been for more than forty years, the one

who gave me his trust, the one for whom I kept these secrets. The one

who saved me . . . and the one who cursed me.

So starts the diary of Will Henry, orphaned assistant to

Dr. Pellinore Warthorpe, a man with a most unusual specialty:

monstrumology, the study of monsters. In his time with the

doctor, Will has met many a mysterious late-night visitor and

seen things he never imagined were real. But when a grave

robber comes calling in the middle of the night with a gruesome

find, he brings with him their most deadly case yet.

A gothic tour de force that explores the darkest heart of man

and monster and asks the question: When does man become

the very thing he hunts?

MEMOIRS OF A TEENAGE AMNESIAC

BY GABRIELLE ZEVIN If Naomi had picked tails, she would have won the coin toss.

She wouldn’t have had to go back for the yearbook camera,

and she wouldn’t have hit her head on the steps. She wouldn’t

have woken up in an ambulance with amnesia. She certainly

would have remembered her boyfriend, Ace. She might even

have remembered why she fell in love with him in the first

place. She would understand why her best friend, Will, keeps

calling her “Chief.” She’d know about her mom’s new family.

She’d know about her dad’s fiancée. She never would have met

James, the boy with the questionable past and the even fuzzier

future, who tells her he once wanted to kiss her. She wouldn’t

have wanted to kiss him back.

But Naomi picked heads.

THE MAZE RUNNER BY JAMES DASHNER

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can

remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he’s

not alone. When the lift’s doors open, Thomas finds

himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the

Glade—a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls.

Just like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know why or how

they got to the Glade. All they know is that every

morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds

them have opened. Every night they’ve closed tight. And

every thirty days a new boy has been delivered in the lift.

Thomas was expected. But the next day, a girl is sent

up—the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more

surprising yet is the message she delivers. Thomas might

be more important than he could ever guess. If only he

could unlock the dark secrets buried within his mind.

PERFECT CHEMISTRY BY SIMONE ELKELES

When Brittany Ellis walks into chemistry class on the first

day of senior year, she has no clue that her carefully created

“perfect” life is about to unravel before her eyes. She's

forced to be lab partners with Alex Fuentes, a gang member

from the other side of town, and he is about to threaten

everything she's worked so hard for: her flawless reputation,

her relationship with her boyfriend, and the secret that her

home life is anything but perfect.

Alex is a bad boy and he knows it. So, when he makes a

bet with his friends to lure Brittany into his life, he thinks

nothing of it. But soon Alex realizes Brittany is a real person

with real problems, and suddenly the bet he made in

arrogance turns into something much more.

In a passionate story about looking beneath the surface,

Simone Elkeles breaks through the stereotypes and barriers

that threaten to keep Brittany and Alex apart.

WINTER’S BONE BY DANIEL WOODRELL

The sheriff's deputy at the front door brings hard news to

Ree Dolly. Her father has skipped bail on charges that he ran

a meth lab, and the Dollys will lose their house if he doesn't

show up for his next court date. Ree's father has disappeared

before. The Dolly clan has worked the shadowy side of the

law for generations, and arrests (and attempts to avoid them)

are part of life in Rathlin Valley.

With two young brothers depending on her and a mother

who's entered a kind of second childhood, sixteen-year-old

Ree knows she has to bring her father back, dead or alive.

She has grown up in the harsh poverty of the Ozarks and

learns quickly that asking questions of the rough Dolly clan

can be a fatal mistake. But along the way to a shocking

revelation, Ree discovers unforeseen depths in herself and in

a family network that protects its own at any cost.

THE OTHER WES MOORE BY WES MOORE

Two kids with the same name lived in the same decaying city. One went on to be a Rhodes Scholar, decorated combat veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison. Here is the story of two boys and the journey of a generation.

FEED BY M.T. ANDERSON

For Titus and his friends, it started out like

any ordinary trip to the moon—a chance to

party during spring break and play with some

stupid “low-grav” at the Ricochet Lounge. But

that was before the crazy hacker caused all

their feeds to malfunction, sending them to the

hospital to lie around with nothing inside their

heads for days. And it was before Titus met

Violet, a beautiful, brainy teenage girl who has

decided to fight the feed and its omnipresent

ability to categorize human thoughts and

desires.

THE CITY OF EMBER BY JEANNE DUPRAU

Many hundreds of years ago, the city of Ember

was created by the Builders to contain everything

needed for human survival. It worked…but now

the storerooms are almost out of food, crops are

blighted, corruption is spreading through the city

and worst of all—the lights are failing. Soon

Ember could be engulfed by darkness….

But when two children, Lina and Doon, discover

fragments of an ancient parchment, they begin to

wonder if there could be a way out of Ember.

Can they decipher the words from long ago and

find a new future for everyone? Will the people of

Ember listen to them?

DRUMS, GIRLS & DANGEROUS PIE

BY JORDAN SONNENBLICK

Thirteen-year-old Steven has a totally normal

life: he plays drums in the All-Star Jazz band, has

a crush on the hottest girl in the school, and is

constantly annoyed by his five-year-old brother

Jeffrey. But when Jeffrey is diagnosed with

leukemia, Steven's world is turned upside down.

He is forced to deal with his brother's illness

and his parents' attempts to keep the family in

one piece.

Salted with humor and peppered with

devastating realities, Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie

is a heartwarming journey through a year in the

life of a family in crisis.

HEIST SOCIETY BY ALLY CARTER

When Katarina Bishop was three, her parents

took her on a trip to the Louvre…to case it.

For her seventh birthday, Katarina and her Uncle

Eddie traveled to Austria…to steal the crown

jewels. When Kat turned fifteen, she planned a

con of her own—scamming her way into the

best boarding school in the country, determined

to leave the family business behind.

Unfortunately, leaving “the life” for a normal life

proves harder than she’d expected.

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any of these books.

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Book summaries are adapted from www.goodreads.com