7th Grade Booktalks
2020-2021
October 12, 2020: notable nonfiction
Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom: My Story of the 1965 Selma Voting Rights March by Lynda Blackmon Lowery
- 323.119 LOW. Narrative Nonfiction.
- This book tells the story of Lynda Blackmon Lowery, the youngest marcher on the historic 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
- book trailer
Fault Lines in the Constitution: the Framers, Their Fights, and the Flaws That Affect Us Today by Cynthia Levinson and Sanford Levinson
- 342.7302 LEV. Informational Nonfiction.
- "Does the government established by the Constitution meet the goals it set out to accomplish?" This is the question the authors grapple with in this book.
- They suggest that many of the issues our country struggles with actually have their roots in the Constitution and how it was written.
The Unabomber: Agent Kathy Puckett and the Hunt for a Serial Bomber by Bryan Denson
- 364.152 DEN. Narrative Nonfiction.
- The unabomber (short for university, airline, bombing) was an individual terrorist who, over the course of almost two decades, carried out fourteen bombings that left three people dead and another twenty three people injured. He did this through the mail, and was able to dodge the FBI, leaving Americans fearful all across the country.
- Agent Kathy Puckett, and spy hunter and highly trained psychologist, served as the turning point in the FBI's investigation. Her work helped to locate and arrest Theodore Kaczynski in a remote cabin in Montana in April of 1996.
- This is the story of the FBI's investigation of the Unabomber and the agents who solved the mystery.
Terribly Typhoid Mary: a True Story of the Deadliest Cook in America by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
- 614.5 BAR. Narrative Nonfiction.
- Imagine feeling perfectly healthy and having a stranger come up to you to say you are a danger to society and demand that you give him blood samples. This happened to Mary Mallon.
- Mary was a hard working cook for some of the wealthiest families in New York City in the early 1900s. She was neat, clean, and intelligent. But she was also a carrier of the dreaded disease typhoid. When several people died from what was later diagnosed as typhoid fever, sanitary engineer George Soper eventually tracked it to her.
- This is the true story of "Typhoid Mary," how she was treated, and what happened to her.
Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson
- 921 BOO. Narrative Nonfiction.
- "This story is true. All the characters are real and were alive during the great manhunt of April 1865. Their words are authentic. In fact, all text appearing within quotation marks comes from original sources: letters, manuscripts, trial transcripts, newspapers, government reports, pamphlets, books, and other documents. What happened in Washington D.C., in the spring of 1865, and in the swamps and rivers, forests and fields of Maryland and Virginia during the following twelve days, is far too incredible to have been made up."
- This is the very first paragraph of Chasing Lincoln's Killer. Most people know that President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Not everyone knows the incredible story that happened afterwards, though. This book tells that story.
Happy reading!
September 14, 2020: new(ish) books you should know about
Rising Water: the Story of the Thai Cave Rescue by Marc Aronson
- 796.52 ARO. Sports nonfiction.
- It all started after a 17th birthday party in Thailand; a boy and his group of friends that belonged to a soccer team decided to explore a popular cave near his town. People often did this for fun.
- During the rainy season, though, exploring became dangerous quickly, because the water inside the cave had nowhere to go.
- When the boys did not return that night of the party, their families knew something was wrong and they started the search.
- This book tells the story of the two week frantic search to find the boys inside the complex cave system inside the Thai mountains.
- BBC article describing the event: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44791998
I Can Make This Promise by Christine Day
- F DAY. Realistic fiction.
- book trailer
- What do you do when you discover something that makes you question everything you've ever been told?
96 Miles by J.L. Esplin
- F ESP. Adventure fiction.
- Ever since their mother died, 13 year old John Lockwood, and his 11 year old brother Stewart, have been trained by their father to survive. They live in a remote area of the Nevada desert, and they have spent months stockpiling necessary supplies to be prepared for the worst.
- When a massive power outage happens and something happens that completely depletes their supplies, John and Stewart are forced to walk 96 miles through the desert to find help.
- Along the way, they meet up with another set of siblings. Together, the four of them must deal with exhaustion, dehydration, and each other if they hope to survive the journey.
Dear Sweet Pea by Julie Murphy
- F MUR. Realistic fiction.
- Patricia "Sweet Pea" DiMarco wasn't sure what to expect when her parents told her they were getting a divorce, or when they had the "brilliant" idea to live in nearly identical houses on the same street. Between the two houses lives Sweet Pea's neighbor, Miss Flora Mae, the famous advice columnist that writes "Miss Flora Mae I?".
- Things aren't much better at school, where she has to sit next to her ex-best friend, Kiera. The only things keeping her going are her new best friend, Oscar, and her 15 pound cat, Cheese.
- Then one day Flora Mae leaves for a trip and asks Sweet Pea to forward her mail for the column. Sweet Pea happens to recognize the handwriting on one of the envelopes.
- When Sweet Pea makes a decision about what to do with that letter, it sets off a chain of events that changes her, her family, and the many readers of the "Miss Flora Mae I?" advice column.
Spy Runner by Eugene Yelchin
- F YEL. Historical/Suspense fiction.
- Jake McCauley is 12 years old and lives outside an air force base with his mother in the early 1950s. Jake's dad was listed as MIA during World War II, but Jake is still holding out hope his dad is alive somewhere.
- To make a little more money, his mom decides to rent out their attic to a boarder. Jake is immediately suspicious of the new boarder, Mr. Shubin, because he is Russian. And that must make him a Communist. Which makes him bad.
- Between the probable spy upstairs, Jake's next door neighbor, and kids at school, Jake's life has been turned upside down. Jake decides he needs to start trailing Mr. Shubin to find out if he really is a Russian spy, only following someone--spying on a maybe spy--is really confusing.
- Between the run-ins with the FBI and his (many) near death experiences, Jake is taking a beating. And all he really wants is to figure out the truth, but truth is complex.