Book Club

The Hatchet
by Gary Paulsen
Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is
on his way to visit his father when
the single-engine plane in which
he is flying crashes. Suddenly,
Brian finds himself alone in the
Canadian wilderness with nothing
but a tattered Windbreaker and
the hatchet his mother gave him
as a present -- and the dreadful
secret that has been tearing him
apart since his parent's divorce.
But now Brian has no time for
anger, self pity, or despair -- it will
take all his know-how and
determination, and more courage
than he knew he possessed, to
survive.
A Wrinkle in Time
by Madeleine LEngle
It was a dark and stormy night; Meg
Murry, her small brother Charles
Wallace, and her mother had come
down to the kitchen for a midnight
snack when they were upset by the
arrival of a most disturbing stranger.

"Wild nights are my glory," the
unearthly stranger told them. "I just
got caught in a downdraft and
blown off course. Let me sit down
for a moment, and then I'll be on my
way. Speaking of ways, by the way,
there is such a thing as a tesseract."

A tesseract (in case the reader
doesn't know) is a wrinkle in time.
Star Girl
by Jerry Spinelli
Stargirl. From the day she arrives at
quiet Mica High in a burst of color and
sound, the hallways hum with the
murmur of Stargirl, Stargirl. She
captures Leo Borlocks heart with just
one smile. She sparks a school-spirit
revolution with just one cheer. The
students of Mica High are enchanted.
At first.

Then they turn on her. Stargirl is
suddenly shunned for everything that
makes her different, and Leo, panicked
and desperate with love, urges her to
become the very thing that can
destroy her: normal.
Holes
by Louis Sachar
This winner of the Newbery Medal and the
National Book Award features Stanley
Yelnats, a kid who is under a curse. A curse
that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-
pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and
has since followed generations of Yelnats.
Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a
boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake,
where the warden makes the boys "build
character" by spending all day, every day,
digging holes five feet wide and five feet
deep. It doesn't take long for Stanley to
realize there's more than character
improvement going on at Camp Green Lake:
the warden is looking for something.
Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this
inventive and darkly humorous tale of
crime and punishmentand redemption.
The Outsiders
by S.E Hinton
No one ever said life was easy. But
Ponyboy is pretty sure that he's got
things figured out. He knows that he
can count on his brothers, Darry and
Sodapop. And he knows that he can
count on his friendstrue friends
who would do anything for him, like
Johnny and Two-Bit. And when it
comes to the Socsa vicious gang of
rich kids who enjoy beating up on
"greasers" like him and his friends
he knows that he can count on them
for trouble. But one night someone
takes things too far, and Ponyboy's
world is turned upside down...
The Last Summer (Of You & Me)
by Ann Brashares
The Last Summer (of You and Me) is the enchanting,
heartrending story of a beach-community friendship
triangle and summertime romance among three
young adults for whom summer and this place have
meant everything. Sisters Riley and Alice, now in their
twenties, have been returning to their parents
modest beach house every summer for their entire
lives. Petite, tenacious Riley is a tomboy and a
lifeguard, always ready for a midnight swim, a gale-
force sail, or a barefoot sprint down the beach.
Beautiful Alice is lithe, gentle, a reader and a thinker,
and worshipful of her older sister. And every summer
growing up, in the big house that overshadowed their
humble one, there was Paul, a friend as important to
both girls as the place itself, who has now finally
returned to the island after three years away. But his
return marks a season of tremendous change, and
when a simmering attraction, a serious illness, and a
deep secret all collide, the three friends are launched
into an unfamiliar adult world, a world from which
their summer haven can no longer protect them.