MORE LIKE. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

MORE LIKE…

The Absolutely

True Diary of a

Part-Time Indian

"Junior is a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian reserva on. Born

with a variety of medical problems, he is picked on by everyone but his best friend.

Determined to receive a good educa on, Junior leaves the rez to a"end an all-white

school in the neighboring farm town where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Despite being condemned as a traitor to his people and enduring great tragedies,

Junior a"acks life with wit and humor and discovers a strength inside of himself that

he never knew existed. Wri"en by Sherman Alexie,

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part

-Time Indian

, his first novel for young adults, chronicles the contemporary adolescence

of one unlucky boy trying to rise above the life everyone expects him to live."

--BOOK

JACKET

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

by Sherman Alexie

THEMES

Iden ty and self-esteem

Poverty

Racism and discrimina on

Family rela ons

Friendship

Role models

Hopes and dreams

Bullying

Alcoholism and violence

Living between two cultures

MORE LIKE…

The Absolutely

True Diary of a

Part-Time Indian

"Junior is a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian reserva on. Born

with a variety of medical problems, he is picked on by everyone but his best friend.

Determined to receive a good educa on, Junior leaves the rez to a"end an all-white

school in the neighboring farm town where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Despite being condemned as a traitor to his people and enduring great tragedies,

Junior a"acks life with wit and humor and discovers a strength inside of himself that

he never knew existed. Wri"en by Sherman Alexie,

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part

-Time Indian

, his first novel for young adults, chronicles the contemporary adolescence

of one unlucky boy trying to rise above the life everyone expects him to live."

--BOOK

JACKET

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

by Sherman Alexie

THEMES

Iden ty and self-esteem

Poverty

Racism and discrimina on

Family rela ons

Friendship

Role models

Hopes and dreams

Bullying

Alcoholism and violence

Living between two cultures

TITLE

AUTHOR

SUMMARY

Speak

Laurie Halse

Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe.

Because there's something she's trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth.

The

Chocolate

War

COR_MIER,

Robert

Part of his universe is Archie Costello, leader of a secret school society-the Virgils-and master of intimidation. Archie himself is intimidated by a cool, ambitious teacher into having the Virgils spearhead the annual fund-raising event-a chocolate

sale. When Jerry refuses to be bullied into selling chocolates, he becomes a hero, but his defiance is a threat to Archie, the Virgils, and the school. In the inevitable showdown, Archie's skill at intimidation turns Jerry from hero to outcast, to victim, leaving him alone and terribly vulnerable.

Whale Talk

Chris

A high-school bus provides surprising sanctuary for seven unlikely swim teammates who are, in the words of their coach, "A perennial road team. Mermen without a pond." These invisible kids resonate because of how the author sees them, believes in them, and lets them speak.

When I Was

Joe

DAV_{ID, Keren}

When Ty witnesses a stabbing, his own life is in danger from the criminals he's named, and he and his mum have to go into police protection. Ty has a new name, a new look and a cool new image - life as Joe is good, especially when he gets talent spotted as a potential athletics star, special training from an attractive local celebrity and a lot of female attention. But his mum can't cope with her new life, and the gangsters will stop at nothing to flush them from hiding. Joe's cracking under extreme pressure, and then he meets a girl with dark secrets of her own.

Bifocal

A student arrested on suspicions of terrorism. A high school torn apart by racism. Two boys from two different sets of circumstances forced to choose sides. The story is told from two different points of view. Haroon is a serious student devoted to his family. His grandparents emigrated from Afghanistan. Jay is a football star devoted to his team. He is white. The entire student body fragments along racial lines and both Haroon and Jay find that their differences initially put them at odds. The Muslim students become targets and a smoke-bomb is set off near their lockers while Jay and his teammates believe they've been set-up to look like racists.

If I Ever Get

Out of Here

GAN_sworth,

Eric

Seventh-grader Lewis "Shoe" Blake from the Tuscarora Reservation has a new friend, George Haddonfield from the local Air Force base, but in 1975 upstate New York there is a lot of tension and hatred between Native Americans and Whites--and Lewis is not sure that he can rely on friendship.

Fat Kid

Rules the

World

GOI_{NG, K. L.}

Troy Billings at 6'1", 296 pounds, is standing at the edge of a subway platform seriously contemplating suicide when he meets Curt MacCrae -a sage-like, semi-homeless punk guitar genius who also happens to be a drop-out legend at Troy's school on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. K. L. Going presents two unlikely friends who ultimately save each other.

TITLE

AUTHOR

SUMMARY

Waiting for

the Rain

GOR_DON,

Sheila

This novel shows the bonds of friendship under the strain of apartheid as two lifelong friends, Tengo and Frikkie, come of age amidst the tragedy of South Africa.

The

Outsiders

Two rival gangs-the "haves" and "have-nots"-fight it out on the streets of an Oklahoma city. The struggle of three brothers to stay together after their parent's death and their quest for identity among the conflicting values of their adolescent society.

Stoner &

Spaz

KOE_RTGE,

Ronald

For sixteen-year-old Ben Bancroft — a kid with cerebral palsy, no parents, and an overprotective grandmother — the closest thing to happiness is hunkering alone in the back of the Rialto Theatre and watching Bride of Frankenstein for the umpteenth time. The last person he wants to run into is drugged-up Colleen Minou, resplendent in ripped tights, neon miniskirt, and an impressive array of tattoos. But when Colleen climbs into the seat beside him and rests a woozy head on his shoulder, Ben has that unmistakable feeling that his life is about to change. With unsparing humor and a keen flair for dialogue, Ron Koertge captures the rare repartee between two lonely teenagers on opposite sides of the social divide. His smart, self-deprecating protagonist learns that kindred spirits may be found for the looking — and that the resolve to follow your passion can be strengthened by something as simple as a human touch.

Son of the

Mob

KOR_MAN,

Gordon

It would seem that Vince Luca is just like any other high school guy, but there is one thing that sets him apart from other kids – his father happens to be the head of a powerful crime organization. Sure, Vince's family connections come in handy for certain things (like when teachers are afraid to give him a bad grade), but it can put a serious crimp in your dating life! How do you explain to your girlfriend what your father does for a living? When Vince finally meets a girl who seems worth the trouble, her father turns out to be the FBI agent who has been watching Vince's family for years and wants to put his father away for good.

Every Day

David

A has no friends. No parents. No family. No possessions. No home, even. Because every day, A wakes up in the body of a different person. A is able to access each person's memory, enough to be able to get through the day without parents, friends, and teachers realizing this is not their child, not their friend, not their student. Because it isn't. It's A. It's a lonely existence—until, one day, it isn't. A meets a girl named Rhiannon. And A falls for her after a perfect day together. But when night falls, it's over. Because A can never be the same person twice. But yet, A can't stop thinking about Rhiannon. She becomes A's reason for existing. So every day, in different bodies—of all shapes, sizes, backgrounds, and walks of life—A tries to get back to her and convince her of their love. But can their love transcend such an obstacle?

TITLE

AUTHOR

SUMMARY

Jellicoe Road

Melina

At age eleven, Taylor Markham was abandoned by her mother. At fourteen, she ran away from boarding school, only to be tracked down and brought back by a mysterious stranger. Now seventeen, Taylor's the reluctant leader of her school's underground community, whose annual territory war with the Townies and visiting Cadets has just begun. This year, though, the Cadets are led by Jonah Griggs, and Taylor can't avoid his intense gaze for long. To make matters worse, Hannah, the one adult Taylor trusts, has disappeared. But if Taylor can piece together the clues Hannah left behind, the truth she uncovers might not just settle her past, but also change her future.

Auto-biography of

My Dead

Brother

MYE_{RS, Walter}

Dean

The thing was that me and Rise were blood brothers, but sometimes I really didn't know him. . . .As Jesse fills his sketchbook with drawings and portraits of Rise, he tries to make sense of the complexities of friendship, loyalty, and loss in a neighborhood plagued by drive-bys, vicious gangs, and abusive cops.

Monster

Dean

While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken.

Riot

Dean

During a long hot July in 1863, the worst race riots the United States has ever seen erupt in New York City. Fifteen-year-old Claire, the beloved daughter of a black father and Irish mother, finds herself torn between the two warring sides. Faced with the breakdown of the city–the home–she has loved, Claire must discover the strength and resilience to address the new world in which she finds herself, and to begin the hard journey of remaking herself and her identity.

The Ask and

the Answer

Reaching the end of their flight in The Knife of Never Letting Go, Todd and Viola did not find healing and hope in Haven. They found instead their worst enemy, Mayor Prentiss, waiting to welcome them to New Prentisstown. There they are forced into separate lives: Todd to prison, and Viola to a house of healing where her wounds are treated. Soon Viola is swept into the ruthless activities of the Answer, while Todd faces impossible choices when forced to join the mayor’s oppressive new regime. In alternating narratives the two struggle to reconcile their own dubious actions with their deepest beliefs. Torn by confusion and compromise, suspicion and betrayal, can their trust in each other possibly survive?

The Knife of

Never Letting

Go

NES_{S, Patrick}

Pursued by power-hungry Prentiss and mad minister Aaron, young Todd and Viola set out across New World searching for answers about his colony's true past and seeking a way to warn the ship bringing hopeful settlers from Old World.

TITLE

AUTHOR

SUMMARY

Monsters of

Men

In the riveting conclusion to the acclaimed dystopian series, a boy and girl caught in the chaos of war face devastating choices that will decide the fate of a world.

More Than

This

A boy named Seth drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments, losing his life as the pounding sea claims him. But then he wakes. He is naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. How is that possible? He remembers dying, his bones breaking, his skull dashed upon the rocks. So how is he here? And where is this place? It looks like the suburban English town where he lived as a child, before an unthinkable tragedy happened and his family moved to America. But the neighborhood around his old house is

overgrown, covered in dust, and completely abandoned. What’s going on? And why is it that whenever he closes his eyes, he falls prey to vivid, agonizing memories that seem more real than the world around him? Seth begins a search for answers, hoping that he might not be alone, that this might not be the hell he fears it to be, that there might be more than just this. . . .

The Rest of

Us Just Live

Here

NES_{S, Patrick}

What if you aren’t the Chosen One? The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death? Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life.

Ball Don't

Lie

PEN_{A, Matt de}

la

Sticky is a beat-around-the-head foster kid with nowhere to call home but the street, and an outer shell so tough that no one will take him in. But Sticky can ball. And basketball might just be his ticket out . . . if he can only realize that he doesn't have to be the person everyone else expects him to be.

Holes

As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, treasure, and a new sense of himself.

TITLE

AUTHOR

SUMMARY

The

Lynching of

Louie Sam

The year is 1884, and 15-year-old George Gillies lives in the Washington Territory, near the border with British Columbia. In this newly settled land, white immigrants have an uneasy relationship with the Native Indians. When George and his siblings discover the murdered body of a local white man, suspicion immediately falls on a young Indian named Louie Sam. George and his best friend, Pete, follow a lynch mob north into Canada, where the terrified boy is seized and hung. But even before the deed is done, George begins to have doubts. Louie Sam was a boy, only 14--could he really be a vicious murderer? Were the mob leaders motivated by justice, or were they hiding their own guilt? As George uncovers the truth--implicating Pete's father and other prominent locals--tensions in the town rise, and he must face his own part in the tragedy. But standing up for justice has devastating consequences for George and his family.

Response

Noah and his friends go to a predominantly all-white neighborhood with a plan: steal a car, sell it to a chop shop, and make some fast cash. But that never happens. Instead, Noah, a teen father, becomes the victim of a vicious beating that leaves him with a fractured skull. The question is, was the attacker protecting his turf, or did he target Noah just because he's black?

Black Boy

White School

WAL_{KER, Brian}

F.

Anthony Ant Jones has never been outside his rough East Cleveland neighborhood when he’s given a scholarship to Belton Academy, an elite prep school in Maine. But at Belton things are far from perfect. As Anthony tries to adapt to a world that will never fully accept him, he’s in for a rude awakening: Home is becoming a place where he no longer belongs. Everyone calls him Tony, assumes he’s from Brooklyn, expects him to play basketball, and yet acts shocked when he fights back.

Muckers

Sandra Neil

Felix “Red” O’Sullivan’s world is crumbling around him: the mine that employs most of town is on the brink of closing, threatening to shutter the entire town and his high school with it. But Red’s got his own burdens to bear: his older brother, Bobby, died in the war, and he’s been struggling to follow in his footsteps ever since. That means assuming Bobby’s old position as quarterback and leading the last-ever Muckers team to the championship.

Motorcycles

& Sweetgrass

TAY_{lor, Drew}

Hayden

Otter Lake is a sleepy Anishnawbe community where little happens. Until the day a handsome stranger pulls up astride a 1953 Indian Chief motorcycle – and turns Otter Lake completely upside down. Maggie, the Reserve’s chief, is swept off her feet, but Virgil, her teenage son, is less than enchanted. Suspicious of the stranger’s intentions, he teams up with his uncle Wayne – a master of aboriginal martial arts – to drive the stranger from the Reserve. And it turns out that the raccoons are willing to lend a hand.

Shattered

In order to pass social studies, fifteen-year-old Ian must complete community volunteer service. Choosing to work at The Club sounds like fun, until he arrives at what turns out to be a soup kitchen for the homeless in an unsafe part of the city.

TITLE

AUTHOR

SUMMARY

The Outside

Circle

LaBoucane-Benson, Patti

GR 741.5 LAB

In this important graphic novel, two Aboriginal brothers -- both gang members -- surrounded by poverty and drug abuse, try to overcome centuries of historic trauma in very different ways to bring about positive change in their lives. Pete, a young Aboriginal man wrapped up in gang violence, lives with his younger brother, Joey, and his mother who is a heroin addict. After returning home one evening, Pete and his mother's boyfriend, Dennis, get into a violent struggle, which sends Dennis to the morgue and Pete to jail. Initially maintaining his gang ties, a jail brawl forces Pete to realize the negative influence he has become on Joey and encourages him to begin a process of rehabilitation through a traditional Native healing circle. Powerful, courageous, and deeply moving, "The Outside Circle" is drawn from the author's twenty years of work and research on healing and reconciliation of Aboriginal men who are gang-affiliated or incarcerated.

American

Born Chinese

YANG, Gene Luen

GR 741.5 YAN

American Born Chinese tells the story of three apparently unrelated characters: Jin Wang, who moves to a new neighborhood with his family only to discover that he's the only Chinese-American student at his new school; the powerful Monkey King, subject of one of the oldest and greatest Chinese fables; and Chin-Kee, a

personification of the ultimate negative Chinese stereotype, who is ruining his cousin Danny's life with his yearly visits. Their lives and stories come together with an unexpected twist in this action-packed modern fable. American Born Chinese is an amazing ride, all the way up to the astonishing climax.

The Perfect

Gentleman

AHMAD,

Imran

921 AHM

Pakistan-born Ahmad grew up in England embracing debonair dressing, the British concept of justice, and the Jaguar XJS. A schoolmates efforts at conversion led him to investigate his faith.

©2016 Winnipeg School Division A. Osborne, Teacher-Librarian