cheering! The tale is pure fantasy -- yet based on a real place, in a real war, involving real

people: the Solomon Islands in 1943. Fear, courage, cynicism, lust and adrenalin propel this

imaginary two-week episode in the young JFK's life...the story is so gripping, you will have to

know what happens."

It's 1943 and the Americans and Japanese are fighting a deadly war in the hot, junglecovered

volcanic islands of the South Pacific. The outcome is in doubt and a terrible blow

has fallen on American morale. Lieutenant David Armistead, a Marine Corps hero and cousin

of the President of the United States, is missing and some say he's gone over to the enemy.

Coast Guard Captain Josh Thurlow and his ragtag crew are given the assignment to find

Armistead, though not necessarily to bring him back alive. Recruited in the hunt is a

tormented and frail PT-boat skipper nicknamed "Shafty" who is also known by another name:

John F. Kennedy. When Josh is stranded in the jungles of New Georgia with a mysterious,

sensual woman who has a tendency to chop off men's heads, it's up to Kennedy to come to

the rescue and complete the mission. But to procure a gunboat, he first has to play highstakes

poker with a young naval supply officer called Nick who happens to be the best

gambler in the South Pacific. Nick has another name, too: Richard M. Nixon. Based solidly on

the South Pacific and adventure fiction at its finest.

Thirteen-year-old Sophie, her two cousins, and three uncles sail across the Atlantic

Ocean to England to visit the ailing patriarch of the family, Bompie. Sophie conveys

her fascination with the sea in journal entries and retellings of Bompie's stories, "The

sea, the sea, the sea. It rolled and rolled and called to me. Come in, it said, come in."

Cousin Cody writes his own journal entries and reveals that Sophie is an unreliable

narrator and not always telling the truth. What happened in her past? Why does

Sophie tell us things that Cody says are not true? These questions will motivate

readers to keep reading to discover the answers to Sophie's secrets. 305 pages, 5th

grade and up

person by Esperanza, a daughter in an urban Latino family. The "About the Author" section

at the end of the book notes that Cisneros was born in Chicago, the daughter of a Mexican

father and a Mexican-American mother. Cisneros tells Esperanza's story in a series of 44

short vignettes. Cisneros' writing is really beautiful--full of wonderfully vivid imagery. Many

of the short chapters are less than a full page in length and read like prose poems. Along

the way we learn of Esperanza's family, neighbors, school, rites of passage, and dreams of

the future. Cisneros writes with a moving appreciation of beauty, hope, and tragedy; "Mango

Street" is a richly realized world.

Salamanca's mother has left without explanation and not returned. Now 13 year old Sal is

traveling across the country with her grandparents following the route her mother took.

Along the way her kind and fun-loving grandparents ask her to tell them a story. She shares

a long tale about herself and her best friend whose mother has also left her family.

Throughout the book the cross-country trip and the story Sal tells are interwoven. There is

comedy in the grandparents' eccentricity and poignancy in the story Sal tells to her

attentive grandparents.

We get well-developed characters, humor and plot twists. You'll find a lot here about Sal's

relationship with her friend, her father, and her grandparents. Her relationship with her

mother is complex and Sal's refusal to accept the reality of her mother's disappearance

creates affective tension throughout the book. You'll also find mystery and intrigue in Sal's

quest for her mother and the mysterious notes leading to her friend's mother.

At the beginning of the book there is a quote:

"Don't judge a man until you've walked two moons in his moccasins."

Separated from her family in the confusion and horror of World War II, seven-year-old

Tomiko Higa struggles to survive on the battlefield of Okinawa, Japan. There, as some of

the fiercest fighting of the war rages around her, she must live alone, with nothing to fall

back on but her own wits and daring. Fleeing from encroaching enemy forces, searching

desperately for her lost sisters, taking scraps of food from the knapsacks of dead soldiers,

risking death at every turn, Tomiko somehow finds the strength and courage to survive.

Many years later she decided to tell this story. Originally intended for juvenile readers, it

is sure to move adults as well, because it is such a vivid portrait of the unintended civilian

casualties of any war.

“Raw and Raked, Wild and Free..."

...that was the way Jack London saw life, and the more he lived it the more enamored of it

he became. "All I saw," he once wrote, "was glamour of conquest, of scarlet adventure and

yellow gold. ...The life was brave and wild, and I was living the adventure I had read so much

about." Brilliant, poetic, swift with violence and action, his stories clearly illustrate the

unique spirit of his unbridled genius. Critics admitted that the young firebrand -- "while

frightfully primitive" -- was challenging Poe, Kipling and Melville as a one-in-a-million

storyteller. The tales in this volume have been thrilling readers for nearly half a century.

A coming of age tale for young adults set in the trenches of the Vietnam War in the

late 1960s, Fallen Angels is the story of Perry, a Harlem teenager who volunteers

for the service when his dream of attending college falls through. Sent to the front

lines, Perry and his platoon come face-to-face with the Vietcong and the real horror

of warfare. But violence and death aren't the only hardships. As Perry struggles to

find virtue in himself and his comrades, he questions why black troops are given the

most dangerous assignments, and why the U.S. is there at all. Fallen Angels won

Blue is for Nightmares by Laurie Stolarz

Local Marblehead new author who has visited English High School and shared her books and

ideas about writing.

Stolarz's pitch-perfect dialog and fast-paced storytelling have made these four suspense

thrillers into huge hits for teens, with over 200,000 sold collectively.

The engaging heroine of this remarkable series is Stacey Brown. A typical teenager, Stacey

has the usual worries, like getting good grades and falling in love. But she is also a

hereditary witch who is blessed-or cursed-with a gift for prophetic dreams. When danger

strikes, Stacey depends on folk magic, good friends, and her wits to escape the peril

foretold in her nightmares.

This classic was reviewed by the student critic below for Barnes and Noble.

Maria, A reviewer, 11/06/2006

adventures of a boy who becomes kidnapped by his uncle and then sent off on a ship that

becomes shipwrecked. It is a story of sacrifice, harsh conditions, and bravery. Although

sometimes eerie and a bit gory, it makes the reader feel like they are experiencing this

boy's journey themselves. If you are considering reading this, be sure to read carefully and

to be looking for clues and foreshadowing along the way as to what will happen. Over all, it is

a novel that keeps you interested.

Reviewed by a student for Barnes and Noble

I thought October Sky, by Homer Hickam was a great novel and very intriguing. It was an

easy book to read and it taught me a lot about life. It is a story of a young boy following his

dream which was building rockets with his friends so he one day could be like Werhner von

Braun, a scientist who was his hero. Homer Hickam also known as “Sonny” lived in Coalwood,

Virginia which was a small town that produced mass amounts of coal. This small town was all

about football and the coal mine but that was all about to change. You could not live there

unless you worked in the mine and if you played football you were popular at school and

considered a star in town that everyone looked up to. No one liked in the beginning the fact

of Sonny building rockets with his friends until one day a young woman Miss Riley who

became a teacher at Sonny’s school, inspired these boys to work hard and not let what other

people think stop them from following their dreams. This book inspired me to never give up

on things I truly want in life. I would recommend this book to anyone of all ages. It’s a great

book to get into and it will make you laugh, cry and be full of excitement! Once you read this

book you will not want to put it down and I guarantee you will learn a great life.

From the Publisher

Peter Moss had sworn off malpractice suits after losing a case against Dr. Wallace

Bondurant over a young patient's death. Then Terry Winter told her story of breast cancer

neglected three years - by Wallace Bondurant. Moss had been burning out, not from too

much work but from work with too little meaning. Terry Winter was his most difficult client:

headstrong and undependable, a rebel cowgirl with a sociopath husband stalking her and her

daughter - and Moss. The closer Moss got to the answer the more elusive it became, and the

more ruthless his adversaries in the medical and insurance establishments. His skeptical

partners began to abandon him. Then, it seemed, his client did, too. Harmful Intent is an

absorbing examination of breast cancer in the warring worlds of medicine and law, and of a

mother's transcendent courage.