Digital Booktalk

Flip by Martyn Bedford Alex Gray, a clarinet and chess-playing sensitive kid from a London suburb, wakes up one day in a much more muscular and athletic body known as Philip “Flip” Garamond. Alex struggles with the disadvantages and begins to enjoy a few advantages of being someone he is not. Should he try to find his way back? Can he? Where is his own body? And is it even alive? About the only one who recognizes Alex to NOT be Flip is the Garamond family retriever, Beagle, who gives him a growl each time he sees him. Soon, though, Alex finds friends on the web — folks who have experienced something called PE (no, not physical education — psychic evacuation) like him. It’s when a soul jumps the rails and lands in another body due to extreme physical duress or death of its own. Is it any wonder why Alex hesitates to type his own name in the Google search box? How would you like to read your own obit? Flip begins to perplex family and friends alike with some “new” habits (really his old ones).

Found (The Missing-Book 1) by Margaret Peterson Haddix A plane arrives at an airline gate unnoticed by radar and most personnel. There are no flight attendants, no pilot, in fact no adults at all, but there are 36 passengers. Each seat is inhabited by an infant. Thirteen years later in Ohio, teenage adoptees Jonah and his friend Chip begin receiving ominous messages declaring that they are among “the missing” and that someone is coming to find them. Frightened yet intrigued, the boys begin a search for their real identities with the help of Jonah’s younger sister. Their search leads them to a discovery that strains credulity and leads them into danger greater than they ever imagined possible. Thirteen-year-old Jonah has always known that he was adopted, and he’s never thought it was any big deal. Then he and a new friend, Chip, who’s also adopted, begin receiving mysterious letters. The first one says, “You are one of the missing.” The second one says, “Beware! They’re coming back to get you. “Jonah, Chip, and Jonah’s sister, Katherine, are plunged into a mystery that involves the FBI, a vast smuggling operation, an airplane that appeared out of nowhere — and people who…

Geeks Guide to Unrequited Love by Sarvenaz Tash Graham and Roxana have been best friends for eight years, ever since Roxy asked Graham what Hogwarts house he would be sorted into. They have grown together through various ‘fandoms’ and into a love of comic books… so much so that they have teamed together to write their own comic. Once Graham learns that the creator of their favorite comic will make his first public appearance in 20 years at the New York Comic Con, Graham knows they have to go. He also decides this is the perfect opportunity to tell Roxy he loves her. But once Comic Con actually starts, nothing goes as planned, and Graham is left questioning his decision to confess his feelings.

The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die by April Henry Cady, 16, wakes up on the floor of a cabin. Two of her fingernails have been yanked out. A man says, “Take her out back and finish her off.” Worst of all, she has total amnesia. To her shock, she discovers that she knows how to fight—she beats up her captor and flees, and what follows is 28 hours of outfoxing an unknown enemy who wants her, and apparently her family, dead. Cady’s accomplice is Ty, a McDonald’s cashier who risks his own skin to help her to safety.

The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester Somewhere in the U.S., in a small farming community called Lowland County, a girl named Piper McCloud is born to a simple, God-fearing farmer and his wife. Piper has a special talent: she can fly. When her talent for flying is discovered, a charismatic director of a special school takes Piper under her wing. She arrives at an amazing place with multiple floors and discovers a lot of other kids with extraordinary powers, too – as well as a nefarious plot to remove their special talents by altering their DNA.

A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler This book is a collection of 17 anthologies, all written in the first person that blend Vietnamese folklore, the terrible, lingering memories of war, American pop culture and family drama into a woven fabric that tells the stories of those who actually served in the Vietnamese War.

The Gospel According to Larry by Janet Tashjian Josh Swensen isn’t your average teenager – when he observes America, he sees a powerhouse of consumerism and waste. He’s even tried to do something about it, with his start-up controversial website. But when Josh rises to messiah status of the internet world, he discovers that greed and superficiality are not easily escaped. Trapped inside his own creation, Josh feels his only way out is to stage his death and be free of his internet alter-ego, “Larry.” But this plan comes with danger, and soon Josh finds himself cut off from the world, with no one to turn to for help.

George Washington’s Socks by Elvira Woodruff A mysterious rowboat transports five adventurous kids back in time to the eve of the Battle at Trenton where they experience the American Revolution. Through encounters with Hessian soldiers, revolutionaries, and even George Washington himself, Matthew, Quentin, Hooter, Tony, and Katie watch history unfold before their eyes as they see first-hand, the grim realities of war and the cost of freedom.

Handmaiden’s Tale by Margaret Atwood This is a fable of the near future. In the Republic of Gilead, formerly the United States, far-right ideals have been carried to extremes in a mono-theocratic government. The resulting society is a feminist’s nightmare: women are strictly controlled, unable to have jobs or money and assigned to various classes: the chaste, childless Wives; the housekeeping Marthas; and the reproductive Handmaids, who turn their offspring over to the “morally fit” Wives. The tale is told by Offred (read: ‘of Fred’), a Handmaid who recalls the past and tells how the chilling society came to be.

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen Brian Robeson, 13, is the only passenger on a small plane flying him to visit his father in the Canadian wilderness when the pilot has a heart attack and dies. The plane drifts off course and finally crashes into a small lake. Miraculously Brian is able to swim free of the plane, arriving on a sandy tree-lined shore with only his clothing, a tattered windbreaker, and the hatchet his mother had given him as a present.