Mrs. Bishop YACs
Young Adults' Choices 2017-18
YAC is BACK!!
We are sent BRAND NEW books directly from publishers and your job is to read the books and fill out the surveys. The ILA then compiles the information from all the sites and publishes our top choices for teachers and parents around the world to use as guides for the best new books.
Here's the 2017 Reading List (which includes work from our very own Mrs. Evans)
In case you were wondering about the Children's Choices books that you voted on last year, here is the 2017 Reading List for that program too.
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You need to KNOW that your choices and opinions matter on an international scale!
What we need you to DO:
READ
REVIEW as many books as possible
SHARE your opinions
Here's the kicker, none of the teachers are allowed to check out these books. I'm not even allowed to check out these books from our library. They are ONLY for 7th - 12th graders and TA is participating too.
So...I've prepared a few book talks for you but I can only tell you what I have researched about the books, you have to be the ones to decide what you think after reading it.
YACS OF THE WEEK
These awards are given annually by the National Book Foundation. There are four categories, one of which is Young People's Literature. The awards are given to American authors who have had books published by American publishers between December 1st of the previous year and November 30 of the current year. The winners are determined by a panel of judges. A long list of ten finalists is released in September, it is narrowed down to five finalists in November, and a single winner in each category is announced in November at an award ceremony. Each finalist receives $1000 and each winner receives $10,000 and a bronze statue.
2016 National Book Award Finalists and Winner
Young People's Literature
Long Way Down
Written by the same author as Ghost and Patina.
Fifteen-year-old Will, immobilized with grief when his older brother Shawn is shot and killed, slowly comes to mull The Rules in his head. There are three: don’t cry, don’t snitch, and “if someone you love / gets killed, / find the person / who killed / them and / kill them.” So Will locates Shawn’s gun, leaves his family’s eighth-floor apartment, and--well, here is where this intense verse novel becomes a gripping drama, as on each floor of the descending elevator Will is joined by yet another victim or perpetrator in the chain of violence that took his brother’s life. Shawn’s best friend Buck gets into the elevator on seven; Dani, Will’s friend from childhood, gets in on six; Will and Shawn’s uncle Mark gets in on five, in a cloud of cigarette smoke. And so it goes, each stop of the elevator adding to the chorus of ghosts (including Will and Shawn’s father), each one with his or her perspective on The Rules. The poetry is stark, fluently using line breaks and page-turns for dramatic effect; the last of these reveals the best closing line of a novel this season. Read alone (though best aloud), the novel is a high-stakes moral thriller; it’s also a perfect if daring choice for readers’ theater. Roger Sutton (Horn Book Magazine July/August, 2017)
Realistic Fiction
Verse
If you like this then you might like:
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
Patina
Listed as Track 2, this is the second book in the series. The first was Ghost.
A newbie to the track team, Patina must learn to rely on her teammates as she tries to outrun her personal demons in this follow-up to the National Book Award finalist Ghost by New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds.
Ghost. Lu. Patina. Sunny. Four kids from wildly different backgrounds with personalities that are explosive when they clash. But they are also four kids chosen for an elite middle school track team--a team that could qualify them for the Junior Olympics if they can get their acts together. They all have a lot to lose, but they also have a lot to prove, not only to each other, but to themselves.
Patina, or Patty, runs like a flash. She runs for many reasons--to escape the taunts from the kids at the fancy-schmancy new school she's been sent to since she and her little sister had to stop living with their mom. She runs from the reason WHY she's not able to live with her "real" mom any more: her mom has The Sugar, and Patty is terrified that the disease that took her mom's legs will one day take her away forever. So Patty's also running for her mom, who can't. But can you ever really run away from any of this? As the stress builds up, it's building up a pretty bad attitude as well. Coach won't tolerate bad attitude. No day, no way. And now he wants Patty to run relay...where you have to depend on other people? How's she going to do THAT?
If you like this book you might like:
P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Garcia-Williams
Towers Falling by Jewell Parker Rhodes
The Last Magician
Stop the Magician.
Steal the book.
Save the future.
In modern day New York, magic is all but extinct. The remaining few who have an affinity for magic—the Mageus—live in the shadows, hiding who they are from the Brink, a dark energy barrier that confines them to the island. Crossing it means losing their power—and often their lives. Esta is a talented thief. And all of Esta’s training has been for one final job: traveling back to 1902 to steal an ancient book containing the secrets of the Order—and the Brink—before the Magician can destroy it and doom the Mageus to a hopeless future.
High Fantasy
Historical Fantasy
Multiple Perspectives
Alex & Eliza
As battle cries of the American Revolution echo in the distance, servants flutter about preparing for one of New York society's biggest events: the Schuylers' grand ball. Descended from two of the oldest and most distinguished bloodlines in New York, the Schuylers are proud to be one of their fledgling country's founding families, and even prouder still of their three daughters--Angelica, with her razor-sharp wit; Peggy, with her dazzling looks; and Eliza, whose beauty and charm rival those of both her sisters, though she'd rather be aiding the colonists' cause than dressing up for some silly ball.
Still, Eliza can barely contain her excitement when she hears of the arrival of one Alexander Hamilton, a mysterious, rakish young colonel and General George Washington's right-hand man. Though Alex has arrived as the bearer of bad news for the Schuylers, he can't believe his luck--as an orphan, and a bastard one at that--to be in such esteemed company. And when Alex and Eliza meet that fateful night, so begins an epic love story that would forever change the course of American history.
Romance
The Girl In Between
Realistic Fiction
If you like this one you might like:
Sarah Dessen's Lock & Key
Carl Deuker's Runner
History's Worst: Adolf Hitler
On a list of the worst people ever, Adolf Hitler is certainly at or near the top.
Born the son of a low-ranking government official, no one would have predicted that the young Adolf would grow up and become the leader of millions of Germans as well as one of the most despised figures of the twentieth century.
Hitler himself wanted to be an artist, but he couldn't get into art school. The rejection was just one more thing in a long chain of events that made him angry. Angry at the world. Angry at specific groups of people. As his anger grew, so did his hatred until eventually there was very little else left.
When Hitler entered politics, he found himself surrounded by people who agreed with him. Who would listen to his rants and would happily follow his every decree and cheer his every word.
But why did people let him do that? Why did they follow him? What made his policies so attractive? And what made Adolf Hitler so popular? Find out with this biography that takes a deeper look at Hitler...because history isn't just about the heroes.
Mrs. Bishop YACs
Share your reviews, I'd love to share them with our community!
Email: jbishop@sacoschools.org
Website: www.sacomiddleschoollibrary.weebly.com
Location: 40 Buxton Rd, Saco, ME
Phone: 207-282-4181
Twitter: @MrsBishopSMS