Teachers, will you agree to pick a book for the summer reading chat? With the due date fast approaching,I have some new suggestions to help you decide which book is the book?
Secret Letters by Leah Scheier
This young adult novel will not be published to the public until June; however, I have personally read the book, and I found it completely amazing. Dora has a purpose to be visiting London. The excuse she told her Aunt? That she was debuting next season, and she wished to go to London to study the fashion of the current season. The real reason that Dora wants to go to London? In a letter left to her from her dying mother, Dora finds out that her father is the infamous Sherlock Holmes. Her whole life she suspected that she was the daughter of a detective, but she never thought it could be Sherlock Holmes. The moment Dora gets to London she steals away to try to speak to her alleged father. However, while on his doorstep, she finds Sherlock Holmes has just been killed. Will the secret of her true father be forever hidden away? Or will Dora take her life into her own hands, and even though she is a woman, solve a mystery herself? Well, you’ll have to read the story to find out. I personally am a fan of Sherlock Holmes, and Scheier does a great job of writing this novel as a true mystery. The fact that it is set in London in the 1830’s is just the icing on the cake of authenticity.
Insignia by S.J. Kincaid
In the future, wars between countries are not fought on Earth. The battling countries take their battles to space, where giant robots controlled by people on earth fight the battles. When a robot is defeated, that side is claimed victorious. Welcome to the United States in the future, and we are currently in World War Three. The nations have decided that risking human life by fighting war here on earth is pointless, so they fight in space and use robots.
Tom Raines is a typical high school student in the sense that at 14, he’s just trying to fit in. He’s still short because he has not hit his growth spurt, and his face is full of pubescent acne. His whole life he’s only been good at one thing, games. In the future there is a virtual world that includes casinos where people bet on the games. Tom is an expert at gaming. It’s his family’s only source of income since his father is a drunk who gambles for a living and often loses. Then Tom is given an opportunity of a lifetime: the elite military school, the Pentagonal Spire (which is ironically built on top of the Pentagon), is offering him a chance to leave his old life behind and go to school and work for the military. With the prospect of new, real friends, acceptance, success and even the possibility of a girlfriend can Tom Raines say no? This novel was phenomenal especially because it would appeal to both males and females. Insignia truly was an adventure novel that could appeal to all audiences. It was very worth the read. Insignia will be published in July.
Where It Began by Ann Redisch Stampler
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson was a novel that changed my life. It was about how miscommunication can ruin a person. Where It Began also was a novel that truly impacted me. If I had never read Speak, I am positive that this would have been the novel that changed my life. Gabby was a very average girl in a high school where everyone was above average. She was good at art, but only her art teacher noticed. That was all before her makeover. Before her junior year during that summer, while her best friends were away making a difference in the world, her mother was making a difference in her high school career. When she comes to school in the fall, not even her best friends can recognize her let alone the hottest guy in the school, Billy Nash. Billy Nash becomes Gabby’s boyfriend, and when she wakes up in a hospital bed with broken bones and a smashed face, he is the first thing she thinks about. Gabby doesn’t remember the crash. She doesn’t remember how the keys to Billy’s navy blue expensive sports car got into her hands. Gabby cannot remember anything about that night, and she thinks she caused all of the damage. Where It Began is a moving story of truth, real friends, and finding yourself. It was a beautiful book that I could not put down with a remarkable storyline and a terrific ending.
For more suggestions, see Searafina’s article Hot Off the Press.