Booktalk presented to a 5th grade class in Utah

Booktalk presented to a 5th grade class in Texas

BOOKTALK: Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls by Meg Cabot

Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls: Moving Day by Meg Cabot

Allie Finkle is at war! She's at war with the idea of moving to a new house. Her family's old house is just fine. Her best friend lives just down the street, and she has the best teacher at her school. And school's already started. Moving after school starts is against the rules… And Allie is ALL about rules.

She likes science and math because they have rules. Allie also makes up rules, so many that she can't always remember them, and has to write them down in her notebook, Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls. Some are rules somebody told her, like "What goes up, must come down," or "Treat your friends like you'd like to be treated." Other rules are ones she makes up herself, like "Never eat anything red," or "If someone is yelling from excitement, the polite thing to do is yell back," or "Never put a cat in a suitcase." But the most important rule is "Never let your family move into a haunted house."

That rule is the reason why Allie's at war-but is it a war she has even any chance of winning? And what will she do if she loses?

*Written by Joni Bodart. Retrieved from Scholastic.com

BOOKTALK: The Roar by Emma Clayton

The Roar by Emma Clayton

Everyone on Earth lived inside the Wall. Fifty feet of concrete, topped with three rows of electrified razor wire, it made a loop around the top one-third of the planet, and Earth’s entire population was jammed inside. It had been built during the Animal Plague, when every animal on Earth went insane and started attacking and killing humans. The Wall kept the animals out. But with only one-third of the space they used to have, humans were packed in on top of each other, living in tiny fifteen foot square fold up apartments. Babies were forbidden for 30 years, and twins Mika and Ellie were part of the first generation born inside the Wall.

They never got along, always fighting over something. But they were connected at a level far deeper than who got to sleep in the top bunk. That’s why Mika was so angry and upset when Ellie disappeared, and the police told them she’d fallen off a walkway and drowned. He knew she was alive—his connection with her was stretched so tightly that it almost hurt. She was far away, but alive. And no one was looking for her!

Ellie was determined to get away from Mal Gorman. He’d kidnapped her a year ago, and had been training her to be a warrior ever since. She smart, and learned quickly. And what she’d learned made it possible for her to escape.

When he found out she was gone, Gorman went after her with everything he had. She knew the Secret, and she was a ticking time bomb that could blow up in his face and ruin all his plans, perhaps even reveal the secret of what was really behind the wall.

BOOKTALK: The Candy Bomber by Michael Tunnell

The Candy bomber: The Story of the Berlin Aircraft’s “Chocolate Bomber”

By Michael Tunnell

It is Berlin, Germany, 1948. WWII is just over. The country of Germany has been divided up between Russia, the United States, Britain and France. But everyone wants to be involved in Berlin, the capital of Germany. But Berlin is located right in the middle of Russia’s piece of Germany. Russia does not want to share. They do not allow anyone to travel to Berlin by water or land. They hope to starve the Berlin people so they will all agree to become Russians.

So the only way into Berlin is by airplane. But winter is coming. The city is hunger and cold. Britain and the United States decide to airlift everything the Berlin people need. “The cargo planes drop out of the sky to land every few minutes, twenty-four hours a day.”

But what about the children? Their country has been at war for years. And now they are being starved by the Russians. Basic food has been hard to find and candy or sweets impossible. One American pilot, Lt. Halvorsen, wanted to provide more for these German children. What could he do? Could he get candy to the children of Berlin?

To learn more about Lt. Halvorsen’s plans read The Candy Bomber.

Written by Tami Austin

BOOKTALK: Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

Things just aren't going Moose Flanagan’s way. He has to leave his friends and winning baseball team behind. He never sees his Dad because he’s always working on his new job, and his Mom is acting just plain weird. Mom tries to make everyone believe Moose’s sister Natalie is ten, when she's really fifteen, going on sixteen. But Natalie is a little different. She has autism and sometimes her strange behavior gets Moose into trouble, especially now that he’s watching her. What’s a twelve-year-old guy to do? Having to move with your family isn't that unusual, unless you're moving to the “Rock”…Devil’s Island…ALCATRAZ.

It’s 1935, and Moose’s Dad has just started working as a prison guard on Alcatraz Island. Moose isn't too sure about this “twelve-acre rock covered with cement, topped with bird turd and surrounded by water”. And on Alcatraz, trouble is never very far away. Other kids live here with their families, and most of them seem all right…except for Piper. She’s the Warden’s daughter and sure, she's cute…but she's bad news. Piper has a scheme going all the time and nobody’s safe. She lies to her Dad, takes her classmates to the cleaners, and is determined to involve Moose in her plans. And let’s not even talk about the prisoners. Alcatraz gets the worst of the worst…the convicts other prisons don’t want. One of them is even famous. Alcatraz is home to the notorious gangster, Al Capone.

When the Flanagan family has a crisis and there’s nowhere to turn, will Moose break the most important rule on the Island: Never interact with or contact a convict? Would Moose dare to ask the most famous prisoner of all, Al Capone, for help? Find out in Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko.

Written by Patricia Jansen (graduate student)

BOOKTALK: Smile by Raina Telgemeier

Smile by Raina Telgemeier

Aah, hanging out with your friends. You laugh. You go shopping. You have sleepovers and you always have fun. Well, imagine this: you and your friends are chasing each other one day and you trip. When you fall, you hit the cement. You hit the cement so hard that you knock out your two front teeth! This is exactly what happens to the character of Raina in the graphic novel Smile by Raina Telgemeier.

After an emergency trip to Dr. Golden's office, the dentist glues Raina's teeth back into her mouth. He covers them in gauze. When Raina takes off the gauze, she discovers that the teeth have been inserted too far. Now she looks like a vampire! Going to school looking like a vampire will definitely make boys notice her, but not in a good way.

Luckily, Raina's dentist can fix her teeth, but there is one problem - it's going to take years! So many trips to the dentist's office to get fake teeth, braces and even head gear! How would you like to be called your dentist's star patient and see him more than you see some of your friends? It's no fun at all. And while suffering from this dental humiliation, she still has to find time to do all the things that normal middle school girls do. She needs to do homework, attend dances, try out for the school basketball team and secretly stalk Sean, the boy she has a huge crush on.

Will Raina's teeth ever grow back? Will she ever look "normal" again? Or is she doomed to a lifetime of surgery, all because she tripped?

BOOKTALK: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The Graveyard Book Neil Gaiman

“There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.”

So begins the story of Nobody Owens, known as Bod. On the night his parents are brutally murdered, 2 year old Bod calmly climbs out of his crib and toddles out of the house and into a nearby cemetery. There he is adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Owens (childless and dead for 250 years!) who gladly care for the child and protect him from harm.

With loving ghostly parents, teachers, friends, and protectors, Bod grows from age two to fifteen in the graveyard. He learns to read and do numbers, and he also learns some ghostly skills. But not all the residents of the graveyard are friendly. There are witches, ghouls and creatures and let’s not forget Jack – the fiend who is out to finish the job he started.

How will Bod survive? Or will he? Can his loving family and friends really protect him from the evil Jack? Read the Newbery Award winning book, The Graveyard Book and find out!

written by Diana Ferbrache, Hazen High School Librarian

BOOKTALK: Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

Billy was eleven and he yearned for a dog. But not just any dog. He wanted a coon dog and not just one but two coon dogs for hunting. Billy’s family did not have much money. They lived out in the backwoods of the Appalachian Mountains. Billy’s mom wanted to move to town but they did not have enough money even for that. So they certainly could not afford to get Billy the dogs he really wanted.

Billy found an ad in a hunting magazine at an abandoned fisherman’s campsite. It read, “Registered redbone coon hound pups – twenty-five dollars each.” Now more than ever all Billy can see, hear, smell, think about were coon dogs. He must have these pups. But Billy knew he would not be able to get any help from his parents. So Billy started working. He sold vegetables, picked berries, caught minnows to sell to the fisherman as bait. He worked hard for 2 longs years. And finally he saved $50.

But now what? Will there still be dogs for sale? What will he name his new pups? Can he train them to be the hunting dogs he has always wanted?

If you like dogs, adventure or just a darn good story, read Where the Red Fern Grows.

Written by Tami Austin

BOOKTALK: Downsiders by Neal Schusterman

Downsiders by Neal Schusterman

Have you ever thought about what could be running around underground, in the sewers of a big city, especially a city like New York? You’ve heard tales of large rats and urban legends about alligators, but what if there really was something down there? What it there were another whole city far below the subway tunnels and the sewer pipes? An entirely different culture with a different way of dressing, and talking, and living? What would it be like? Can you imagine it? Lindsay meets Talon when he breaks into her house looking for medicine to help his sick sister. Break-in isn’t really the right word for it. Talon just climbs up out of a hole in the floor of the apartment where Lindsay lives with her father and step-brother. Talon is not like any of the boys Lindsay’s met, and she soon finds out why. Who is Talon? Where did he come from? To find the answers to these puzzling questions, read Downsiders by Neal Shusterman