Hunger Games

"May the odds be ever in your favor."- President Snow


    • Age Range: 12 and up
    • Grade Level: 8 and up
    • Lexile: 810
    • Series: The Hunger Games #1
    • Pages: 374
    • Publisher: Scholastic Press September 14th 2008
    • Language: English
    • ISBN-10:  0439023483
    • ISBN-13:  9780439023481
  • Reviewed by: goodreads.com
The nation of Panem, formed from a post-apocalyptic North America, is a country that consists of a wealthy Capitol region surrounded by 12 poorer districts. Early in its history, a rebellion led by a 13th district against the Capitol resulted in its destruction and the creation of an annual televised event known as the Hunger Games. In punishment, and as a reminder of the power and grace of the Capitol, each district must yield one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 through a lottery system to participate in the games. The 'tributes' are chosen during the annual Reaping and are forced to fight to the death, leaving only one survivor to claim victory.

When 16-year-old Katniss's young sister, Prim, is selected as District 12's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart Peeta, are pitted against bigger, stronger representatives, some of whom have trained for this their whole lives. , she sees it as a death sentence. But Katniss has been close to death before. For her, survival is second nature.


literary awards
Georgia Peach Book Award (2009), Buxtehuder Bulle (2009), School Library Journal Best Book of the Year (2008), Golden Duck Award for Hal Clement Award for Young Adult (2009), Books I Loved Best Yearly (BILBY) Awards for Older Readers (2012) West Australian Young Readers' Book Award (WAYRBA) for Older Readers (2010), Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award (2011), Red House Children's Book Award for Older Readers & Overall (2010), South Carolina Book Award for Junior and Young Adult Book Awards (2011), Charlotte Award (2010), Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award (2010), Teen Buckeye Book Award (2009), Rhode Island Teen Book Award (2010), Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award (2010), Evergreen Teen Book Award (2011), Milwaukee County Teen Book Award Nominee (2010), Sakura Medal for Middle School Book (2010), Michigan Library Association Thumbs Up! Award (2009), Florida Teens Read (2009), Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis for Preis der Jugendjury (2010), Iowa High School Book Award (2011), Boston Globe-Horn Book Award (2008), Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award (2010), The Inky Awards for Silver Inky (2009), Abraham Lincoln Award (2011), Kinderboekwinkelprijs (2010), Cybils Award for Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction (2008), Literaturpreis der Jury der jungen Leser for Jugendbuch (2010), The Inky Awards

Other books in the series:

Hunger Games Book #2
Hunger Games Book #3

 Actors: , ,
Director:
Rating: PG-13

Length: 142 Minutes
Reviewed by: Suzanne Collins

In a dystopian future, the totalitarian nation of Panem is divided into 12 districts and the Capitol. Each year two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal retribution for a past rebellion, the televised games are broadcast throughout Panem. The 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors while the citizens of Panem are required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss' young sister, Prim, is selected as District 12's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart, Peeta, are pitted against bigger, stronger representatives, some of whom have trained for this their whole lives.

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Maze Runner

“Wonderful action writing—fast-paced…but smart and well observed.”—Newsday


  • Author: James Dashner
  • Age Range: 12 and up
  • Grade Level: 7 and up
  • Lexile Measure: 770L (What's this?)
  • Series: The Maze Runner Series (Book 1)
  • Paperback: 375 pages
  • Publisher: Delacorte Press; Reprint edition (August 24, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0385737955
  • ISBN-13: 978-0385737951

When the doors of the lift crank open, the only thing Thomas remembers is his first name. But he's not alone. He's surrounded by boys who welcome him to the Glade - a walled encampment at the centre of a bizarre and terrible stone maze. Like Thomas, the Gladers don't know why or how they came to be there - or what's happened to the world outside. All they know is that every morning when the walls slide back, they will risk everything - even the Grievers, half-machine, half-animal horror that patrols its corridors, to find out.

"The Maze Runner - by James Dashner." The Maze Runner - by James Dashner. Web. 27 Nov. 2015. 

Literary Awards

 
Director:
Rating: PG-13
Length: 118 Minutes
Review By:  Marc Price 

If you’re one who thinks that the sudden free-for-all of young adult novels being turned into movies is a scourge on theaters I doubt this review is going to change your mind. The Maze Runner, as it stands, follows all the same tropes that make these films so scrutinized. Yet it also does just enough differently, and has enough pretty visuals, to make itself stand out from the pack and be worth watching, at least until the third act. But we’ll get to that part later.

Price, Marc. "Movie Review: The Maze Runner." HBO Watch Movie Review The Maze Runner Comments. 18 July 2015. Web. 27 Nov. 2015.
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Friday Night Lights

"Clear Eyes. Full Hearts. Can't Lose."-Friday Night Lights


  • Author: H. G. Bissinger
  • Paperback: 375 pages
  • Lexile: 760
  • Publisher: Da Capo Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group, 2015
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10:  0306814250
  • ISBN-13: 9780306814259
  • Book Review: goodreads.com
Return once again to the enduring account of life in the Mojo lane, to the Permian Panthers of Odessa -- the winningest high school football team in Texas history. Odessa is not known to be a town big on dreams, but the Panthers help keep the hopes and dreams of this small, dusty town going. Socially and racially divided, its fragile economy follows the treacherous boom-bust path of the oil business.In bad times, the unemployment rate barrels out of control; in good times, its murder rate skyrockets. But every Friday night from September to December, when the Permian High School Panthers play football, this West Texas town becomes a place where dreams can come true. With frankness and compassion, Bissinger chronicles one of the Panthers' dramatic seasons and shows how single-minded devotion to the team shapes the community and inspires-and sometimes shatters-the teenagers who wear the Panthers' uniforms. Includes Reader's Group Guide inside.Now a major motion picture starring Billy Bob Thorton.

Actors: , ,
Director:
Rating: PG-13

Length: 118 Minutes
Reviewed by: Zac Abrams

Odessa, Texas, is a small, town in Texas. Racially divided and economically dying, there is one night that gives the town something to live for: Friday Night. The Permian Panthers have a big winning tradition in Texas high school football, led by QB Mike Winchell and superstar tailback Boobie Miles, but all is not well, as Boobie suffers a career-ending injury in the first game of the season. Hope is lost among citizens in Odessa, and for the team, but Coach Gary Gaines, who believes that "Perfection is being able to look your friends in the eye and know you did everything you could not to let them down", is somehow able to help the team rise up from the ashes and make a huge season comeback. Now on their way to state, the Panthers must go out and be perfect, because they may never matter this much for the rest of their lives.
"Friday Night LIghts: Plot Summary." IMDb. IMDb.com. Web. 1 Dec. 2015.

Director: 
Length: 44 Minutes
Reviewed by: Zac Abrams
Aired from: 2006-2011

In the small town of Dillon, Texas, one night matters: Friday Night. Eric Taylor has recently been hired as the head football coach for the Dillon High School Panthers, the town's pride and joy. Friday Night Lights displays the stress that the town gives the high school players to win, and the hope that the team gives to a small town, and how a team has its low 
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Pretty Little Liars

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLING AUTHOR SARA SHEPARD

  • Author: Sara Shepard
  • Age Range:
  • Grade Level: 7 and up
  • Lexile Measure: 760
  • Series: Pretty Little Liars (Book 1)
  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: HarperTeen; Reprint edition (August 21, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 006088732X
  • ISBN-13:  978-0060887322
  • Book Review: goodreads.com
Three years ago, Alison disappeared after a slumber party, not to be seen since. Her friends at the elite Pennsylvania school mourned her, but they also breathed secret sighs of relief. Each of them guarded a secret that only Alison had known. Now they have other dirty little secrets, secrets that could sink them in their gossip-hungry world. When each of them begins receiving anonymous emails and text messages, panic sets in. Are they being betrayed by some one in their circle? Worse yet: Is Alison back? A strong launch for a suspenseful series.

Actors:, , Lucy Hale
Creator:   
Review By: Anonymous

 A clique of teenage girls drift apart after the group's leader, Alison DiLaurentis, goes missing. Her body is found and the girls are reunited at her funeral. All four begin receiving text messages from the mysterious 'A', who seems to know many of the group's deepest secrets, some of which only the late Alison had knowledge of. The girls join forces against A's scheming and try to uncover the mystery of Alison's death. 

"Pretty Little Liars: Plot Summary." IMDb. IMDb.com. Web. 1 Dec. 2015. 



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Girl, Interrupted


  • Author: Susanna Kaysen
  • Paperback: 192 pages
  • Lexile: 760
  • Publisher: Vintage (April 19, 1994)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0679746048
  • ISBN-13: 978-0679746041
  • Book Review: goodreads.com
In 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist she'd never seen before, eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to McLean Hospital. She spent most of the next two years on the ward for teenage girls in a psychiatric hospital as renowned for its famous clientele -- Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor, and Ray Charles -- as for its progressive methods of treating those who could afford its sanctuary.

Kaysen's memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perception while providing vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers. It is a brilliant evocation of a "parallel universe" set within the kaleidoscopically shifting landscape of the late sixties. Girl, Interrupted is a clear-sighted, unflinching document that gives lasting and specific dimension to our definitions of sane and insane, mental illness and recovery.

Susanna is rushed to the hospital. Afterwards she discusses this with a psychiatrist. She had been having some delusions. She had also been having an affair with the husband of her parents' friend. The doctor suggests that combining a bottle of aspirin and a bottle of vodka was a suicide attempt. This she denies. He recommends a short period of rest at Claymoore. Claymoore is a private mental hospital full of noisy, crazy people. Georgina is a pathological liar. Polly has been badly scarred by fire. Daisy won't eat in the presence of other people. Lisa is a sociopath, the biggest exasperation for the staff - like Nurse Valerie - and the biggest influence on the other girls in the hospital. Lisa has a history of escapes, so gaining access to personal medical files is not a problem... Susanna's boyfriend Toby is concerned that she seems too comfortable living with her institutionalized friends...

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    The Lightening Thief

    header
    • Age Range: 10-14
    • Grade Level: 6 and up 
    • Lexile: 740
    • Series: Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1
    • Pages: 396
    • Publisher: Disney Hyperion Books  June 28th 2005
    • Language: English
    • ISBN-10: 0-7868-5629-7
    • ISBN-13: 978-0-7868-5629-9
    • Book Review: Booklist (September 15, 2005 (Vol. 102, No. 2))
    The escapades of the Greek gods and heroes get a fresh spin in the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, about a contemporary 12-year-old New Yorker who learns he's a demigod. Perseus, aka Percy Jackson, thinks he has big problems. His father left before he was born, he's been kicked out of six schools in six years, he's dyslexic, and he has ADHD. What a surprise when he finds out that that's only the tip of the iceberg: he vaporizes his pre-algebra teacher, learns his best friend is a satyr, and is almost killed by a minotaur before his mother manages to get him to the safety of Camp Half-Blood--where he discovers that Poseidon is his father. But that's a problem, too. Poseidon has been accused of stealing Zeus'lightning bolt, and unless Percy can return the bolt, humankind is doomed. Riordan's fast-paced adventure is fresh, dangerous, and funny. Percy is an appealing, but reluctant hero, the modernized gods are hilarious, and the parallels to Harry Potter are frequent and obvious. Because Riordan is faithful to the original myths, librarians should be prepared for a rush of readers wanting the classic stories.


    Literary Awards
    School Library Journal Best Book of the Year (2005), Young Readers' Choice Award (2008), Books I Loved Best Yearly (BILBY) Awards for Older Readers (2011), Rebecca Caudill Young Reader's Book Award (2009), Askews Torchlight Award South Carolina Book Award for Junior Book Award (2008), Grand Canyon Reader Award for Tween Book (2008), Nene Award (2008), Massachusetts Children's Book Award (2008), Sunshine State Young Readers Award for Grades 6-8 (2007), Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Reader's Choice Award for Intermediate (2008), Iowa Teen Award (2009), Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee (2009)

    • Actors: Logan Lerman, ,
    • Director: Chris Columbus
    • Film Company:
    • Rating: 
    • Review By: 21st Century Fox 
    It's the 21st century, but the gods of Mount Olympus and assorted monsters have walked out of the pages of high school student Percy Jackson's Greek mythology texts and into his life. And they're not happy: Zeus's lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect. Even more troubling is the sudden disappearance of Percy's mother. As Percy finds himself caught between angry and battling gods, he and his friends embark on a cross-country adventure to catch the true lightning thief, save Percy's mom, and unravel a mystery more powerful than the gods themselves.  
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    Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

    "Funny, perceptive, and moving" -USA Today



    • Author: Ann Brashares
    • Age Range: 12 and up
    • Grade Level: 7 and up
    • Lexile Measure: 600
    • Series: Sisterhood 
    • Pages: 320
    • Publisher:
    • Language: English
    • ISBN-10: 0385729332
    • ISBN-13: 9780385729338
    •  Book Review: Horn Book Magazine (November/December, 2001)
    Four teenagers-best friends since babyhood-have different destinations for the summer and are distressed about disbanding. When they find a pair of "magic pants"-secondhand jeans that fit each girl perfectly, despite their different body types-they take a solemn vow that the Pants "will travel to all the places we're going, and they will keep us together when we are apart." Rules for how to pass the Pants among them are devised, along with a list of general usage rules ("You must never say the word 'phat' while wearing the pants. You must also never think 'I am fat' while wearing the pants"). Sources for the quotes separating chapters range from Tolkien to Seinfeld; a quote from Winston Churchill states the book's theme: "You will make all kinds of mistakes: but as long as you are generous and true and also fierce you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her." The girls make some big mistakes in the Pants, but wrongs are eventually righted, and the friends learn some life lessons: look beyond appearances, be honest about feelings, have some self-control, and have the courage to love. This first novel has the same foolproof formula as bestseller adult books about intense lifelong friendships (i.e., Rebecca Wells's Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood). A posse of loyal girlfriends has enormous appeal; add in the dream-come-true perfect pair of jeans and you can't lose. Good friends, like good pants, should make you feel fabulous; Brasheres takes the two and creates a breezy feel-good book

    Literary Awards
    Book Sense Book of the Year Award for Children's Literature (2002), South Carolina Book Award Nominee for Young Adult Book Award (2004), Sequoyah Book Award (2004), Evergreen Teen Book Award (2004), Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Reader's Choice Award for Senior (2004) Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis Nominee for Preis der Jugendjury (2003), Iowa Teen Award (2004), Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee (2007)


    Actors:, ,
    Director:
    Rating: PG
    Length: 119 Minutes
    Reviewed By:Stephanie

    The movie is based on the young adult book, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, by Anne Brashares. As four best friends spend their first summer apart from one another, they share a magical pair of jeans. Despite being of various shapes and sizes, each one of them fits perfectly into the pants. To keep in touch they pass these pants to each other as well as the adventures they are going through while apart.


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    Divergent

    Header

    • Author: Veronica Roth
    • Age Range: 14-18
    • Grade Level: 7 and up
    • Lexile Measure: 700
    • Series: Divergent (Book #1)
    • Paperback: 501 pages
    • Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books; Collectors edition (October 21, 2014)
    • Language: English
    • ISBN-10: 0062024035
    • ISBN-13: 9780062024039
    • Book Review: goodreads.com
    In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

    During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

    Literary Awards:
    Evergreen Teen Book Award (2014),
    Milwaukee County Teen Book Award Nominee (2012),
    Children's Choice Book Award Nominee for Teen Choice Book of the Year (2012),
    Sakura Medal,
    Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee (2014)
     DABWAHA Romance Tournament for Best Young Adult Romance (2012),
    Goodreads Choice Award for Favorite Book of 2011 and for Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction (2011),
    Green Mountain Book Award (2013),
     The Magnolia Award for 6-8 (2014)


    Rated: PG-13
    Length: 139
    Reviewed By: Alex Mitchell

    As a reader, I could easily sit and nitpick what was missing from the film.  But truthfully, the film holds the story very well and is delightful to watch if you enjoy young adult dystopia.  That being said, many people are sick of that genre.  Quite a few people asked me if it was any different from The Hunger Games.  A dystopia where a young female is attempting to overthrow a government movement to control people, yes in that sense it is like The Hunger Games.  But if you boil it down to just that, you will miss the many beautiful and interesting subtleties between the two.


    Mitchell, Alexandra. "Movie Review: Divergent." HBO Watch Movie Review Divergent Comments. 19 Dec. 2014. Web. 27 Nov. 2015.

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    Twilight

    Header
    • Author: Stephenie Myer
    • Age Range:
    • Grade Level:
    • Lexile Measure: 720
    • Series: The Twilight Saga, Book 1 (Book 1)
    • Paperback: 544 pages
    • Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (September 6, 2006)
    • Language: English
    • ISBN-10:  0316015849
    • ISBN-13:  978-0316015844
    • Book Review: goodreads.com
    About three things I was absolutely positive.

    First, Edward was a vampire.

    Second, there was a part of him—and I didn't know how dominant that part might be—that thirsted for my blood.

    And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.
    In the first book of the Twilight Saga, internationally bestselling author Stephenie Meyer introduces Bella Swan and Edward Cullen, a pair of star-crossed lovers whose forbidden relationship ripens against the backdrop of small-town suspicion and a mysterious coven of vampires. This is a love story with bite.

    Literary Awards:
    Georgia Peach Book Award (2007), Buxtehuder Bulle (2006), Kentucky Bluegrass Award for 9-12 (2007), Prijs van de Kinder- en Jeugdjury Vlaanderen (2008), Books I Loved Best Yearly (BILBY) Awards for Older Readers (2009) West Australian Young Readers' Book Award (WAYRBA) for Older Readers (2008), Garden State Book Award for Fiction (Grades 9-12) (2008), South Carolina Book Award for Young Adult Book Award (2008), Grand Canyon Reader Award for Teen Book (2008), Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Book Award for High School (2007), Gateway Awards (2007), Golden Sower Award for Young Adult (2009), Nevada Young Readers' Award for Young Adult Category (2007), The Flume: New Hampshire Teen Reader's Choice Award (2007), Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award for Young Adult (2008), Rhode Island Teen Book Award (2007), Evergreen Teen Book Award (2008), Michigan Library Association Thumbs Up! Award Nominee (2006), Teen Read Award Nominee for Best All-Time-Fave (2010), Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis Nominee for Preis der Jugendjury (2007), Iowa High School Book Award (2008), Abraham Lincoln Award (2008), Literaturpreis der Jury der jungen Leser for Cover (2007)





    Filming Company:
     Rating: PG-13
    Length: 122 Minutes
    Review By: Summit entertainment

    Bella Swan has always been a little bit different. Never one to run with the crowd, Bella never cared about fitting in with the trendy, plastic girls at her Phoenix, Arizona high school. When her mother remarried and Bella chooses to live with her father in the rainy little town of Forks, Washington, she didn't expect much of anything to change. But things do change when she meets the mysterious and dazzlingly beautiful Edward Cullen. For Edward is nothing like any boy she's ever met. He's nothing like anyone she's ever met, period. He's intelligent and witty, and he seems to see straight into her soul. In no time at all, they are swept up in a passionate and decidedly unorthodox romance - unorthodox because Edward really isn't like the other boys. He can run faster than a mountain lion. He can stop a moving car with his bare hands. Oh, and he hasn't aged since 1918. Like all vampires, he's immortal. That's right - vampire. But he doesn't have fangs - that's just in the movies. And he doesn't drink human blood, though Edward and his family are unique among vampires in that lifestyle choice. To Edward, Bella is that thing he has waited 90 years for - a soul mate. But the closer they get, the more Edward must struggle to resist the primal pull of her scent, which could send him into an uncontrollable frenzy. Somehow or other, they will have to manage their unmanageable love. But when unexpected visitors come to town and realize that there is a human among them Edward must fight to save Bella? A modern, visual, and visceral Romeo and Juliet story of the ultimate forbidden love affair - between vampire and mortal.
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    The Walking Dead

    Header
    • Author: 
    • Series: The Walking Dead (Book 1)
    • Hardback: 304 pages
    • Publisher: Image Comics; 1st edition (July 2006)
    • Language: English
    • ISBN-10: 1582406197
    • ISBN-13:  978-1582406190
    • Book Review: 

    Summary






     Image Comics; 1st edition (July 2006)e

    • Can be seen on: AMC, Netflix



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