From the back cover: In America's Gulf Coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts, Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota—and hopefully live to see another day. But when, by luck or by chance, he discovers an exquisite ship beached during a recent hurricane, Nailer faces the most important … [Read more...] about Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
Printz Award
I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak: B+
From the back cover: Ed Kennedy is an underage cabdriver without much of a future. He's pathetic at playing cards, hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey, and utterly devoted to his coffee-drinking dog, the Doorman. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery. That's when the first ace arrives in the … [Read more...] about I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak: B+
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff: B+
From the front flap: This is a story about love. It's also a story about hate, which is why I left New York in the first place. You don't fly halfway across the world to live with a bunch of people you never met, just for a laugh. I guess if I'd known where it was all going to lead, I might have thought twice about stepping onto that plane. I might have worried a … [Read more...] about How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff: B+
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson: A-
From the back cover: From her first moment at Merryweather High, MJ Sordino knows she's an outcast. She busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops—a major infraction in high-school society—so her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't know glare at her. She retreats into her head, where the lies and hypocrisies of high school stand in stark relief to … [Read more...] about Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson: A-