Digital Booktalk

Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson The Hopewell Hotel, 75 years ago a stylish Upper East Side haunt, has fallen on hard times. Its proprietors, the Martin family, have let the last remaining employee go, and now it is up to the four children, Spencer, Lola, Scarlett, and Marlene, to keep things afloat. Enter one Mrs. Amy Amberson, a flamboyant, mysterious guest, back in New York after a long absence, with some clandestine motives. Mrs. Amberson is to occupy the Empire Suite, just today entrusted to Scarlett as a ‘present’ on her fifteenth birthday (a family tradition), for the entire summer, and keeping her happy will test Scarlett’s ingenious mettle.

Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman Vince Luca, 17, has a problem. His wealthy family runs the, uh, vending machine business in New York, and Vince is determined not to be part of it. Especially after a hot date is ruined when he finds that his older brother Tommy has conducted some business with Jimmy the Rat and hidden the messy and temporarily unconscious body in the trunk of Vince’s car. His dad, the King of the Mob, is reasonable, sensible, lots of fun, gives great presents to his kids–and his name strikes the hearts of other mobsters to stone. Although Vince keeps a low profile at school, his family connection brings him unwanted advantages, like the birthday Porsche that gets him arrested on stolen vehicle charges, or the football game in which he makes touchdown after touchdown because word has gotten around and nobody is willing to tackle him. Even private conversations at home have to be carried on in the basement because the FBI has bugged the house and an agent is always listening. Vince’s life is inextricably tangled up with the family business, no matter how hard he tries to stay out of it. How can…

Tangerine by Edward Bloor Paul Fisher is in seventh grade when his family moves to Tangerine County, Florida, land of muck fires, koi-stealing ospreys, mosquito swarms, daily lightning strikes, and sinkholes.Paul feels like the outsider in his family. His mother quickly becomes absorbed in the homeowner’s association in their housing development at Lake Windsor Downs, and his father is fully occupied with older brother Erik’s football career the “Erik Fisher Football Dream,” as Paul says. Paul’s eyesight was damaged in a mysterious accident when he was five, and he wears “Coke-bottle” glasses, but he has clearer vision than the rest of his family and most of the people in Lake Windsor Downs. He sees through the “nice-guy” front his brother puts on and the snobbishness of his Lake Windsor Downs neighbors, especially after he transfers to the working-class Tangerine Middle School.

So Yesterday by Scott Westerfield What if it was your job to say what was cool? What if clothes and electronics companies gave you cash for your opinion, and lots of free stuff on top of it? You wouldn’t complain about that, would you? Hunter Braque is a professional cool-hunter. No ads go on TV without his approval, no new shoes hit the stores unless he’s down with them. It’s a pretty sweet deal, until he meets Jen –a rare Innovator, one of the people who actually creates cool at street-level. Real cool, not the corporate kind. Suddenly, strange things start to happen. First Hunter’s boss Mandy disappears. When he enlists Jen to help find her, the two begin to uncover a plot to end consumerism as we know it! Will the world change forever, or can Hunter save the sacred bond between brands and buyers? Does he even want to?

Stolen – Elise Leonard Series About Elise Leonard: Elise was a successful teacher of inner-city kids for over 20 years before starting her writing career. She now lives in Florida. About This Book: STOLEN is the third book of the Junkyard Dan series. Details: Published: 2008. All the books in this series are 100 pages (+/-). Contains approximately 11,600 words. ISBN: 978-0-9815694-2-0. All books are Lexile 1 & 2 Storyline: The VIN numbers are scratched off a car. Why? Where did this car come from? Was it stolen? Dan needs to find out before he can sell it!

Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald Tales of The Jazz Age is an anthology of classic short stories by the renowned 20th Century American author F. Scott Fitzgerald, who is best known for his enduring classic “The Great Gatsby”. Satirizing the selfishness of the wealthy, depicting revelry that escalates into a destructive mob, while offering a sharp look at the flaws of society, and enhanced with introductions to each story by the author.

Stitches: A Memoir by David Small The story starts when the narrator is six years old and follows him into adulthood, with most of the story spent during his early adolescence. The youngest member of a silent and unhappy family, David is subjected to repeated x-rays to monitor sinus problems. When he develops cancer as a result of this procedure, he is operated on without being told what is wrong with him. The operation results in the loss of his voice, cutting him off even further from the world around him. Small’s black and white pen and ink drawings are endlessly perceptive as they portray the layering of dream and imagination onto the real-life experiences of the young boy. Small’s intuitive morphing of images, as with the terrible post-surgery scar on the main character’s throat that becomes a dark staircase climbed by his mother, provide deep emotional echoes. Some understanding is gained as family secrets are unearthed, but for the most part David fends for himself in a family that is uncommunicative to a truly ghastly degree.

Ten Miles Past Normal by Frances O’Roark Dowell Janie Gorman strives to be a normal high school freshman, but the fact that she lives on a goat farm doesn’t help her much in her quest for “normal.” She hops on the school bus smelling of goat poop (thanks to her morning chore of milking the goats), and she eats lunch in the library, because none of her friends have the same lunch period as her. To make matters worse, Janie’s mom insists on writing an extremely embarrassing blog about “farm life.” None of these trials are made any easier by Janie’s knowledge that she was the one who recommended the move to the farm in the first place!

Sock ‘N Boots Share by D.K. Smith Sock ‘n Boots Share begins with a question…why should you share? Sock and Boots set off with two packed lunches to have a day of play at the park. After hours of summer fun in the sun, the hungry pair return to look for their lunch boxes on the picnic table where they left them. Surprise! Sock’s lunch has been finished off by birds, so only Boots’ lunch is left in his lunch box. In response to Socks’ tear

When in Rome – Elise Leonard Series About Elise Leonard: Elise was a successful teacher of inner-city kids for over 20 years before starting her writing career. She now lives in Florida. About This Book: WHEN IN ROME is the second book of The Smith Brothers series. Details: Published: 2008. All the books in this series are 100 pages (+/-). Contains approximately 8,400 words. ISBN: 978-1-935366-13-3. All books are Lexile 1 & 2 Storyline: The guys are headed to Rome. (Rome, NY, not Rome, Italy.) Find out what happens in the car. Find out what happens in the hotel. Find out what happens in Rome. Find out if Rome survives.