Recommended Reads - Summer Reading @ Point - Going Places - LibGuides at Prairie Point Middle School & 9th Grade Academy

Fantasy, Science Fiction, & Horror

Ashfall by Mike Mullin
ISBN: 1933718552
Publication Date: 2011-09-27
Many visitors to Yellowstone National Park don't realize that the boiling hot springs and spraying geysers are caused by an underlying supervolcano, so large that the caldera can only be seen by plane or satellite. And by some scientific measurements, it could be overdue for an eruption. For Alex, being left alone for the weekend means having the freedom to play computer games and hang out with his friends without hassle from his mother. Then the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts, plunging his hometown into a nightmare of darkness, ash, and violence. Alex begins a harrowing trek to seach for his family and finds help in Darla, a travel partner he meets along the way. Together they must find the strength and skills to survive and outlast an epic disaster.
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
ISBN: 9780142425831
Publication Date: 2015-02-10
Cassie Sullivan, the survivor of an alien invasion, must rescue her young brother from the enemy with help from a boy who may be one of them. A 2015-2016 Iowa High School Book Award book.
The Eye of Minds by James Dashner
ISBN: 9780375990014
Publication Date: 2013-10-08
Michael is a skilled internet gamer in a world of advanced technology. When a cyber-terrorist begins to threaten players, Michael is called upon to seek him and his secrets out. A 2015-2016 Iowa High School Book Award book.
The Young Elites by Marie Lu
ISBN: 0399167838
Publication Date: 2014-10-07
Adelina Amouteru survived the blood fever, a deadly illness that killed many, but left others with strange markings and supernatural powers. Cast out by her family, Adelina joins the secret society of the Young Elites and discovers her own dangerous abilities.
The Apprentices by Maile Meloy; Ian Schoenherr (Illustrator)
ISBN: 0399162453
Publication Date: 2013-06-04
Sequel to The Apothecary. Two years after parting from Benjamin, Janie reunites via magical communication to prevent a global catastrophe.
The Boundless by Kenneth Oppel; Jim Tierney (Illustrator)
ISBN: 144247288X
Publication Date: 2014-04-22
Steampunk fans - check this out! Aboard "The Boundless," the greatest train ever built, on its maiden voyage across Canada, teenaged Will enlists the aid of a traveling circus to save the train from villains.

Books are Adventures!

Action, Adventure, & Mystery

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
ISBN: 0385512104
Publication Date: 2003-07-31
Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother.
Those Who Wish Me Dead by Michael Koryta
ISBN: 9780316122559
Publication Date: 2014-06-03
When 13-year-old Jace Wilson witnesses a brutal murder, he's plunged into a new life, issued a false identity and hidden in a wilderness skills program for troubled teens. The plan is to get Jace off the grid while police find the two killers. The result is the start of a nightmare. The killers, known as the Blackwell Brothers, are slaughtering anyone who gets in their way in a methodical quest to reach him. Now all that remains between them and the boy are Ethanand Allison Serbin, who run the wilderness survival program, Hannah Faber, who occupies a lonely fire lookout tower, and endless miles of desolate Montana mountains. The clock is ticking, the mountains are burning, and those who wish Jace Wilson dead are no longer far behind.
Monster by Walter Dean Myers; Christopher A. Myers (Illustrator)
ISBN: 0060280778
Publication Date: 1999-04-21
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.
Trash by Andy Mulligan
ISBN: 0385752148
Publication Date: 2010-10-12
Fourteen-year-olds Raphael and Gardo team up with a younger boy, Rat, to figure out the mysteries surrounding a bag Raphael finds during their daily life of sorting through trash in a third-world country's dump.

New Worlds through Steampunk

What is Steampunk? One way to think about it is this (from Jeff Vandermeer, author of The Steampunk Bible) is with this formula:

STEAMPUNK = Mad Scientist Inventor [invention (steam x airship or metal man/baroque stylings) + (pseudo) Victorian setting] + progressive or reactionary politics x adventure plot.

That formula may be limiting, but it does get at 3 important aspects of Steampunk:

Retro and forward-looking at the same time
Evokes a sense of adventure and discover, and
Embraces divergent and extinct technologies as a way of talking about the future.

You can explore new AND old worlds, brave new worlds, without even leaving Cedar Rapids just by reading a little steampunk. Check out this video and then choose from some of the titles listed below.

Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger
ISBN: 031619008X
Publication Date: 2013-02-05
In an alternate England of 1851, spirited fourteen-year-old Sophronia is enrolled in a finishing school where, she is surprised to learn, lessons include not only the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but also diversion, deceit, and espionage.
Magic under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore
ISBN: 1599905876
Publication Date: 2011-05-24
A wealthy sorcerer's invitation to sing with his automaton leads seventeen-year-old Nimira, whose family's disgrace brought her from a palace to poverty, into political intrigue, enchantments, and a friendship with a fairy prince who needs her help.
The Iron Thorn by Caitlin Kittredge
ISBN: 0385738307
Publication Date: 2012-02-14
In an alternate 1950s, mechanically gifted fifteen-year-old Aoife Grayson, whose family has a history of going mad at sixteen, must leave the totalitarian city of Lovecraft and venture into the world of magic to solve the mystery of her brother's disappearance and the mysteries surrounding her father and the Land of Thorn.
Steampunk! by Kelly Link (Editor); Gavin J. Grant (Editor)
ISBN: 0763648434
Publication Date: 2011-10-11
A collection of fourteen fantasy stories by well-known authors, set in an alternate universe where romance and technology reign and featuring automatons, clockworks, calculating machines, and other marvels that never existed.
Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
ISBN: 0060531827
Publication Date: 2005-05-24
Matt, a young cabin boy aboard an airship, and Kate, a wealthy young girl traveling with her chaperone, team up to search for the existence of mysterious winged creatures reportedly living hundreds of feet above the Earth's surface.
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
ISBN: 037582345X
Publication Date: 2002-09-10
Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.
Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
ISBN: 0060082097
Publication Date: 2005-12-13
Tom, a third class apprentice in a distant future in which technology has been lost and tiered cities move about the Earth on caterpillar tracks, often absorbing smaller locales, has many dangerous adventures after being pushed off London by Thaddeus Valentine, a historian who is trying to resurrect an ancient atomic weapon.
The Hunchback Assignments by Arthur G. Slade
ISBN: 038573784X
Publication Date: 2009-09-22
In Victorian London, fourteen-year-old Modo, a shape-changing hunchback, becomes a secret agent for the Permanent Association, which strives to protect the world from the evil machinations of the Clockwork Guild.
Extracted by Sherry D. Ficklin; Tyler H. Jolley
ISBN: 1937053687
Publication Date: 2013-11-12
Two siblings stolen from history fight on opposing sides of a war to control time and space while never knowing who they were until they meet in a battle and the past comes rushing back. Now, they must decide which side they are going to fight for or risk losing each other again.
The Dark Unwinding by Sharon Cameron
ISBN: 0545327865
Publication Date: 2012-09-01
In 1852, when seventeen-year-old Katharine is sent to her family's estate to prove that her uncle is insane, she finds he is an inventor whose work creating ingenious clockwork figures supports hundreds of families, but strange occurrences soon have her doubting her own sanity.

Non-Fiction

The Boys Who Challenged Hitler by Phillip Hoose
ISBN: 0374300224
Publication Date: 2015-05-12
At the outset of World War II, Denmark did not resist German occupation. Deeply ashamed of his nation's leaders, fifteen-year-old Knud Pedersen resolved with his brother and a handful of schoolmates to take action against the Nazis if the adults would not. Naming their secret club after the fiery British leader, the young patriots in the Churchill Club committed countless acts of sabotage, infuriating the Germans, who eventually had the boys tracked down and arrested. But their efforts were not in vain: the boys' exploits and eventual imprisonment helped spark a full-blown Danish resistance. Interweaving his own narrative with the recollections of Knud himself, here is Phillip Hoose's inspiring story of these young war heroes.
Marshall Brain's MORE How STUFF Works by Marshall Brain
Call Number: 600 BRA
ISBN: 076456711x
Publication Date: 2002-10-17
Presents step-by-step explanations and color diagrams of how 125 machines, structures, and technologies--such as snowmakers, skyscrapers, instant messaging, and night vision--work, and includes "Did You Know?" and "Cool Facts" sidebars.
Friends and Family by John Meyer; Stephanie H. Meyer
Call Number: 810.8 MEY
ISBN: 1558749314
Publication Date: 2001-10-01
A collection of prose, poetry, and artwork created by teens in which they express their feelings, both good and bad, about their relationships with friends and family members.
An Uncommon History of Common Things by Bethanne Kelly Patrick; John M. Thompson; Henry Petroski (Foreword by)
Call Number: 973 NAT
ISBN: 9781426204203
Publication Date: 2009-11-17
Offers odd and extraordinary details about the histories of everday things, arranged by themes such as food and drink, seasons and holidays, ceremony and customs, symbols and markings, health and home, garments and accessories, medications and potions, toys and games, and tools and innovations.
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
ISBN: 0399252517
Publication Date: 2014-08-28
The author shares her childhood memories and reveals the first sparks that ignited her writing career in free-verse poems about growing up in the North and South.
The Family Romanov by Candace Fleming
ISBN: 9780375867828
Publication Date: 2014-07-08
[A] superb history.... In these thrilling, highly readable pages, we meet Rasputin, the shaggy, lecherous mystic...; we visit the gilded ballrooms of the doomed aristocracy; and we pause in the sickroom of little Alexei, the hemophiliac heir who, with his parents and four sisters, would be murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918.

Graphic Novels

Little Fish by Ramsey Beyer
ISBN: 1936976188
Publication Date: 2013-09-03
Told through real-life journals, collages, lists, and drawings, this coming-of-age story illustrates the transformation of an 18-year-old girl from a small-town teenager into an independent city-dwelling college student. Written in an autobiographical style with beautiful artwork, Little Fish shows the challenges of being a young person facing the world on her own for the very first time and the unease—as well as excitement—that comes along with that challenge.
Target Practice by Mike Maihack
ISBN: 9780545528429
Publication Date: 2014-04-29
When a young Cleopatra (yes, THAT Cleopatra) finds a mysterious tablet that zaps her to the far, REALLY far future, she learns of an ancient prophecy that says she is destined to save the galaxy from the tyrannical rule of the evil Xaius Octavian. She enrolls in Yasiro Academy, a high-tech school with classes like algebra, biology, and alien languages (which Cleo could do without), and combat training (which is more Cleo's style). With help from her teacher Khensu, Cleo learns what it takes to be a great leader, while trying to figure out how she's going to get her homework done, make friends, and avoid detention!
El Deafo by Cece Bell; David Lasky (Illustrator)
ISBN: 9781419712173
Publication Date: 2014-09-02
Starting at a new school is scary, even more so with a giant hearing aid strapped to your chest! At her old school, everyone in Cece's class was deaf. Here she is different. She is sure the kids are staring at the Phonic Ear, the powerful aid that will help her hear her teacher. Too bad it also seems certain to repel potential friends.

Books to Movies

There are lots of good movies based on books coming out this summer. Be sure to read these books before you see the movie! Movie release dates are listed with each book.

We'll see you at the library AND at the movies!

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy; Suzanne Keen
ISBN: 0451528565
Publication Date: 2002-10-01
May 1 Movie Release Date - Independent and spirited Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her bold presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy and the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Each, in contrasting ways, unsettles her decisions and complicates her life, and tragedy ensues, threatening the stability of the whole community. The first of his works set in Wessex, Hardy's novel of swift passion and slow courtship is imbued with his evocative descriptions of rural life and landscapes, and with unflinching honesty about sexual relationships.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
ISBN: 1419701762
Publication Date: 2012-03-01
Movie Release Date June 12 - Seventeen-year-old Greg has managed to become part of every social group at his Pittsburgh high school without having any friends, but his life changes when his mother forces him to befriend Rachel, a girl he once knew in Hebrew school who has leukemia.
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
ISBN: 0345538986
Publication Date: 2012-09-25
Movie Release Date June 12 - Now at last in one volume, Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park and The Lost World--the two incomparably suspenseful, supremely scary, utterly unputdownable, worldwide best-selling return-of-the-dinosaurs novels, which together constitute Jurassic World.
Paper Towns by John Green
ISBN: 0525478183
Publication Date: 2008-10-16
Movie Release Date July 24 - One month before graduating from his Central Florida high school, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen basks in the predictable boringness of his life until the beautiful and exciting Margo Roth Spiegelman, Q's neighbor and classmate, takes him on a midnight adventure and then mysteriously disappears.
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
ISBN: 0767902521
Publication Date: 1999-05-04
Movie Release Date September 2 - Author Bill Bryson provides an account of his experiences hiking the Appalachian Trail with a childhood friend, telling of how they survived a blizzard, got lost, and had encounters with eccentric characters, and rude yuppies along the way.
The Scorch Trials by James Dashner
ISBN: 0385738765
Publication Date: 2011-09-13
Movie Release Date September 18 - Thomas and the Gladers, having solved the Maze, plan on returning to their lives, but instead find the earth a wasteland with Cranks roaming the desert in search of their next meal and they are faced with the challenge of crossing the Scorch in two weeks in order to arrive at a safe haven.
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
ISBN: 0385494785
Publication Date: 1999-10-19
Movie (called Everest) Release Date September 18 - The author relates his experience of climbing Mount Everest during its deadliest season and examines what it is about the mountain that makes people willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship, and expense.

Realistic Fiction

Unstoppable by Tim Green
ISBN: 0062089579
Publication Date: 2013-09-17
Foster child Harrison, who dreams of playing in the NFL, is happy when he is put into a home with loving parents and a foster father who is a football coach, but, after becoming the star running back and suffering an injury, a cancer diagnosis threatens to ruin his future.
The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen
Call Number: REALISTIC FIC-DES
ISBN: 9780670785605
Publication Date: 2013-06-04
During her last summer at home before leaving for college, Emaline begins a whirlwind romance with Theo, an assistant documentary filmmaker who is in town to make a movie. A 2015-2016 Iowa High School Book Award book.
The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson
Call Number: REALISTIC FIC-AND
ISBN: 9780670012091
Publication Date: 2014-01-07
Hayley Kincaid and her father move back to their hometown to try a 'normal' life, but the horrors he saw in the war threaten to destroy their lives. A 2015-2016 Iowa High School Book Award book.
Butter by Erin Jade Lange
Call Number: REALISTIC FIC-LAN
ISBN: 9781619631212
Publication Date: 2013-09-03
Unable to control his binge eating, a morbidly obese teenager nicknamed Butter decides to make a live webcast of his last meal as he attempts to eat himself to death. A 2015-2016 Iowa Teen Award book.
See You at Harry's by Jo Knowles
Call Number: REALISTIC FIC-KNO
ISBN: 9780763664558
Publication Date: 2013-08-06
Twelve-year-old Fern feels invisible in her family, where grumpy eighteen-year-old Sarah is working at the family restaurant, fourteen-year-old Holden is struggling with school bullies and his emerging homosexuality, and adorable, three-year-old Charlie is always the center of attention, and when tragedy strikes, the fragile bond holding the family together is stretched almost to the breaking point.
Skinny by Donna Cooner
Call Number: REALISTIC FIC-COO
ISBN: 9780545427630
Publication Date: 2012-10-01
After undergoing gastric-bypass surgery, a self-loathing, obese teenaged girl loses weight and makes the brave decision to start participating in high school life, including pursuing her dream of becoming a singer and finding love. A 2015-2016 Iowa Teen Award book.
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick
Call Number: REALISTIC FIC-QUI
ISBN: 9780316221337
Publication Date: 2013-08-13
A day in the life of a suicidal teen boy saying good-bye to the four people who matter most to him. A 2015-2016 Iowa Teen Award book.
Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen
ISBN: 9780451474704
Publication Date: 2015-05-05
Sydney's charismatic older brother, Peyton, has always been the center of attention in the family but when he is sent to jail, Sydney struggles to find her place at home and the world until she meets the Chathams, including gentle, protective Mac, who makes her feel seen for the first time.
The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
ISBN: 0544107713
Publication Date: 2014-03-18
Fourteen-year-old twin basketball stars Josh and Jordan wrestle with highs and lows on and off the court as their father ignores his declining health.

AudioBooks

Go places with a good (audio)book or 2 this summer!

SYNC is a free summer audiobook program for young adults. Starting again May 7th 2015, SYNC will give away two complete audiobook downloads a week - a current young adult title along with a thematically paired classic or required summer reading title. Sign up for email or text alerts and be first to know when new titles are available to download at www.audiobooksync.com.

Click below to listen to a clip of each of the free books.

Summer Reading @ Point - Going Places: Recommended Reads