Creating Motivated Readers, One Video at a Time
Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn Dash and Lily, 16, find themselves on their own in Manhattan at Christmas. Dash is alone by choice –he’s told each of his divorced parents that he’s spending the holiday with the other, leaving them both to take vacations out of town. Lily’s parents are taking the honeymoon they couldn’t afford when they got married. They think that Lily is in the capable hand...
Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry Mafatu, a Polynesian boy of 15 years old, has an intense fear of the ocean. At the age of three he was nearly killed when his mother drowned. Now he must conquer his fears. He goes off on his own and finds the courage within him. Mafatu decides to face his greatest and deepest fear and sets off on an adventure, ending up not only conquering his fear of the sea but successfully confronting such life-th...
Captain Awesome to the Rescue by Stan Kirby Eight-year-old Eugene McGillicudy is an imaginative boy who loves comic books and superheroes. Eugene also has his very own super secret superhero alter ego named Captain Awesome. When the McGillicudy family relocates to a new town called Sunnyview, Eugene starts a new school, finds a best friend, and even finds time to defend his toys from his two-year-old little sister, Molly! Luckily for Su...
The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe The story’s unreliable narrator, Montresor, tells the story of the day that he took his revenge on Fortunato, a fellow nobleman, to an unspecified person who knows him very well. Angry over some unspecified insult, he plots to murder his friend during Carnival when the man is drunk, dizzy, and wearing a jester’s motley. He baits Fortunato by telling him he has obtained what he belie...
Chasing the Falconers by Gordon Korman After their parents’ conviction for treason in a high-profile case, Aiden and Meg Falconer were given a different last name and placed at Sunnydale Farm, a juvenile corrections facility in Nebraska. Still, they remain convinced of their parents’ innocence. At the first opportunity, they escape and make their way across the country toward the family’s summer cottage in Vermont. With little cha...
Chasing Brooklyn by Lisa Schroeder Brooklyn can’t sleep. Her boyfriend, Lucca, died only a year ago, and now her friend Gabe has just died of an overdose. Every time she closes her eyes, Gabe’s ghost is there waiting for her. She has no idea what he wants or why it isn’t Lucca visiting her dreams. Nico can’t stop. He’s always running, trying to escape the pain of losing his brother, Lucca. But when Lucca...
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The Compound by S.A. Bodeen In a burst of panic about a nuclear attack, nine-year-old Eli, his sisters, and his parents move into an underground bunker built by Eli’s billionaire father. It is an enormous complex, with rooms similar to those in the family’s Seattle mansion. Only his grandmother and twin brother don’t make it in. The first six years of the planned 15 have been fairly routine, but now some food has spoiled, and cert...
Counterfeit Son by Elaine Marie Alphin Cameron Miller’s father was a serial killer who preyed on young boys; when he dies in a police shoot-out, Cameron takes on the identity of Neil Lacey, one of his father’s victims who was abducted and supposedly murdered six years earlier. The Lacey family accepts “Neil” into their home with few questions, but he lives in fear that old dental records and a suspicious police officer will expo...
Cromwell Dixon’s Fly Cycle by John Nez In 1907, a 14-year-old boy named Cromwell Dixon took to the sky in a flying bicycle that he designed and built with the help of his mother. Despite disappointment (an early prototype caught fire) and mistakes (a too-heavy vehicle), the teen persevered. He eventually made a glorious showing in his flying bicycle, soaring above the highest buildings in his hometown of Columbus, OH. Later that y...
