MIDDLE SCHOOL NEW BOOK LIST
APRIL 2004

FICTION

Al Capone does my shirts. Gennifer Choldenko. A twelve-year-old named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards' families were housed there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister.

The Amulet of Samarkand. Jonathan Stroud. Nathaniel, a magician's apprentice, summons up the djinni Bartimaeus and instructs him to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from the powerful magician Simon Lovelace.

The Best of Ray Bradbury. Ray Bradbury. Here's a collection that will have graphic novel (comics) fans and die-hard Bradbury readers scrambling for the shelves. Some of the best artists in the business have adapted the author's short stories for the comics page. Each adaptation is accompanied by a preface by Bradbury, offering insight into the inspiration for the story, and each artist is paired with a story that suits his artwork.

Blue fingers : a ninja's tale. Cheryl Aylward Whitesel. Having failed apprenticeship as a dye maker, Koji is captured and forced to train as a ninja, where he remains disloyal until he discovers samurai have burned his former village.

Boston Jane: the claim. Jennifer L. Holm. The arrival from Philadelphia of her spiteful nemesis Sally Biddle and the return of her corrupt ex-finance Richard Baldt spell trouble for seventeen-year-old Miss Jane Peck, who has survived on her own in Shoalwater Bay, a community of white settlers and Chinook Indians in 1850s Washington Territory.

Brian's hunt. Gary Paulsen. Two years after having survived a plane crash into the Canadian wilderness, a sixteen-year-old returns to the wild to befriend a wounded dog and hunt a rogue bear.

Can't get there from here. Todd Strasser. Tired of being hungry, cold, and dirty from living on the streets of New York City with a tribe of other homeless teenagers who are dying one by one, a girl named Maybe ponders her future and longs for someone to care about her.

Cuba 15. Nancy Osa. Violet Paz, a Chicago high school student, reluctantly prepares for her upcoming "quince," a Spanish nickname for the celebration of an Hispanic girl's fifteenth birthday.

The Dirt eaters. Dennis Foon. When Roan's parents and the people of Longlight perish in a raid, Roan is torn between a desire for revenge and the pledge of peace that rules his village.

Double sin and other stories. Agatha Christie. Eight stories conceived by the Queen of Crime and solved by the inimitable sleuths Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.

Escape from memory. Margaret Peterson Haddix. Allowing herself to be hypnotized, fifteen-year-old Kira reveals memories of another time and place that may eventually cost her and her mother their lives.

The Five people you meet in heaven. Mitch Albom. From the author of the bestseller Tuesdays with Morrie, a novel that explores the unexpected connections of our lives, and the idea that heaven is more than a place, it's an answer.

Full tilt : a novel. Neal Shusterman. When sixteen-year-old Blake goes to a mysterious, by-invitaiton-only carnival he somehow knows that it could save his comatose brother, but soon learns that much more is at stake if he fails to meet the challenge presented there by the beautiful Cassandra.

Kira-kira. Cynthia Kadohata. Chronicles the close friendship between Japanese-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the despair when one sister becomes terminally ill.

The Labors of Hercules : a Hercule Poirot novel. Hercule Poirot is rumored to be on the verge of retirement. Yet how can the brillant Belgian sleuth resist the most intricate and clever criminal challenges of his career? And so, from the apparently innocent matter of a lost Pekinese to a gentleman whose reputation is poisoned by gossip, from a magnificent specimen of a man spiraling into madness to a Russian countess who blinds the detective's reason with love-our hero follows the lure of a seemingly unsolvable sereis of ingenius crimes.

The Last chance Teaxco. Brent Hartinger. Troubled teen Lucy Pit struggles to fit in as a new tenant at a last-chance foster home.

The Lord of the rings official movie guide. Brian Sibley. Follows the making of the blockbuster movie.

The Lord of the rings, the return of the king : photo guide. David Brawn. More Lord of the Rings.

The Lord of the rings : the two towers: creatures. David Brawn. Lord of the Rings stuff, yet again.

The Lord of the rings : the two towers : photo guide. David Brawn. You guessed it.

A Mango--shaped space : a novel. Wendy Mass. Afraid that she is crazy, thirteen-year-old Mia, who sees a special color with every letter, number, and sound, keeps this a secret until she becomes overwhelmed by school, changing relationships, and the loss of something important to her.

Messenger. Lois Lowry. In this novel that unites characters from The Giver and Gathering Blue, Matty, a young member of a utopian community that values honesty, conceals an emerging healing power that he cannot explain or understand.

Milkweed : a novel. Jerry Spinelli. A vivid novel about a young boy living in the Warsaw ghetto during World War ll, whose only memory lies in a yellow stone on a necklace around his neck.

Montmorency : thief, liar, gentleman? Eleanor Updale. In Victorian London, after his life is saved by a young physician, a thief utilizes the knnowledge he gains in prison and from the scientific lectures he attends as the physician's case study exhibit to create a new, highly successul, double life for himself.

Mortal engines : a novel. Philip Reeve. In the distant future, when cities move about and consume smaller towns, a fifteen-year-old apprentice is pushed out of London by the man he most admires and must seek answers in the perilous Out-Country, aided by one girl and the memory of another.

Pagan in exile. Catherine Jinks. After fighting the infidels in Jerusalem in 1188, Lord Roland and his squire Pagan return to Roland's castle in France where they encounter viloent family feuds and religious heretics.

Pocahontas. Joseph Bruchac. Told from the viewpoints of Pocahontas and John Smith, the book describes their lives in the context of the encounter between the Powhatan Indians and the English colonists of seventeenth-century Jamestown.

Poirot investigates. Agatha Christie. What do a movie star, an archaaeologist, a French maid, a prime minister, a wealth dowager, and an Italian count have in common? They must all count on Hercule Poirot to investigate a crime.

The Regatta Mystery and other stories. Agatha Christie. Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple and Parker Pyne all spring into action to solve a collection of crimes.

Sahara special. Esmae Raji Codell. Struggling with school and her feelings since her father left, Sahara gets a fresh start with a new and unique teacher who supports her writing talents and the individuality of each of her classmates.

Secrets in the fire. Mankell Henning. The book is based on the true story of an indomitable young girl living in war-torn Mozambique and the maiming and killing of innocent people by landmines.

Sign of the Qin. L. G. Bass. This book, the beginning of a trilogy, is teeming with monsters, dragons, dieties, tricksters, and demons--drawn largely from Chinese myth plus an array of larger-than-life heroes and villians of both sexes. Lots of wild and wolly action make this a novel to be read and a series to be looked forward to reading.

The Unseen. Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Feeling angry and out-of-place in her large family, twelve-year-old Xandra finds a magical key to a world of ghostly, sometimes frightening phantoms that help her see herself and her siblings more clearly.

Vampire High. Douglas Rees. When his family moves from California to New Sodom, Mass. and Cody enters Vlad Dracul Magnet School, many things seem strange, from the dark-haired, pale-skinned, supernaturally strong students to Charon, the wolf who guides him around campus on the first day.

Vermeer's daughter. Barbara Shoup. In this outstanding novel, the author tells the story of Carlina Vermeer who is determined to be her own person, independent, and a painter like her father, Johannes Vermeer.

White midnight. Dia Calhoun. While barbarians threaten the land, mysterious visions help guide fifteen-year-old Rose when she is given the chance to free her family from servitude, if only she will provide a wicked old man an heir fathered by his deformed grandson, "the Thing."

The Wish list. Eoin Colfer. Meg Finn is in trouble. She's dead, but not at peace--she's in limbo, her good deeds balanced against her bad deeds. Heaven or Hell wait so she's back on Earth to try and do some good deeds to tip the scale in the favor of Heaven.

Worlds afire : the Hartford circus fire of 1944. Paul B. Janeczko. In this collection of "eyewitness" poems, the excitement and anticipation of attending the circus on July 6, 1944 in Hartford, Connecticut, turns to horror when a fire engulfs the circus tent, killing nearly 180 people.

The Year of secret assignments. Jaclyn Moriarty. Three female students from Ashbury High write to three male students from rival Brookfield High as part of a pen pal program, leading to romance, humilitation, revenge, and war between the schools.

BIOGRAPHY

NON-FICTION