1. COUNTY HOME SCHOOL
BOOKTALKING PROGRAM
MOST POPULAR TITLES
2010 – 2011

2. Adoration of Jenna Fox
 In the not-too-distant
future, when
biotechnological
advances have made
synthetic bodies and
brains possible but
illegal, a seventeen-year-
old girl, recovering from
a serious accident and
suffering from memory
lapses, learns a startling
secret about her
existence.

3. Anthology of rap
 This pioneering anthology
brings together more than
three hundred lyrics
written over thirty years,
from the "old school" to the
"golden age" to the present
day. They feature classic
lyrics that helped define
the genre as well as lesser
known gems. Both a fan's
guide and a resource for
the uninitiated, this book
showcases the
inventiveness and vitality
of rap's lyrical art.

4. Becoming Chloe
 A gay teenage boy and a
fragile teenage girl meet
while living on the
streets of New York City
and eventually decide to
take a road trip across
America to discover
whether or not the world
is a beautiful place.

5. Before I fall
 After she dies in a car
crash, teenage Samantha
relives the day of her
death over and over
again until, on the
seventh day, she finally
discovers a way to save
herself.

6. Blade : playing dead
 A fourteen-year-old
British street person with
extraordinary powers of
observation and self-
control must face
murderous thugs
connected with a past he
has tried to forget, when
his skills with a knife
earned him the
nickname, Blade.

7. Cheated
 Fifteen-year-old Mick
recalls a series of
betrayals and other life-
changing events in his
broken home, during the
break-up with his
girlfriend, and at
school, that led to his
arrest for murder.

8. Crazy School
 . Madeline Dare has finally
escaped rust-belt for the
lush Berkshire Mountains.
Maddie signs on as a
teacher at the Santangelo
Academy, a boarding
school for disturbed
teenagers. Behind the
academy's ornate gates, she
discovers a disturbing
realm where students and
teachers alike must submit
to the founder's bizarre
therapeutic regimen.

9. Death of innocence
 The heart-wrenching,
inspiring, and award-
winning memoir by
Mamie Till-Mobley, the
mother of Emmett Till,
an innocent 14-year-old
boy who was in the
wrong place at the wrong
time and paid for it with
his life. High school &
older.

10. Dirt Road Home
 At Hellenweiler, a
reformatory for second-
offenders, fourteen-year-
old Hal Mitchell will
soon be free if he can
avoid the gang violence
of his fellow inmates, but
the real enemy may lie
elsewhere.

11. Enemy, The
 After a disease turns
everyone over sixteen
into
brainless, decomposing, f
lesh-eating creatures, a
group of teenagers leave
their shelter and set out
of a harrowing journey
across London to the safe
haven of Buckingham
Palace.

12. Fallen
 Suspected in the death of
her boyfriend, seventeen-
year-old Luce is sent to a
Savannah, Georgia,
reform school where she
meets two intriguing
boys and learns the truth
about the strange
shadows that have
always haunted her.

13. Falling hard : 100 love poems by teenagers
 The teen poets in this lively
anthology knock greeting-
card clichés even as they
celebrate their romance
and their passion (“I want
to wrap around you / I
want to get inside you”)
and vent their
hurt, anger, and longing.
From the pain of breakup
and denial to affection and
desire, the feelings in these
poems will ring true to gay
and straight teens alike.

14. I am not a serial killer
 John Wayne Cleaver is
dangerous, and he knows
it. He's spent his life
doing his best not to live
up to his potential. He's
obsessed with serial
killers, but really doesn't
want to become one.

15. Identical
 Sixteen-year-old
identical twin daughters
of a district court judge
and a candidate for the
United States House of
Representatives,
Kaeleigh and Raeanne
Gardella desperately
struggle with secrets that
have already torn them
and their family apart.

16. If I Grow Up
 Growing up in the inner-
city projects, DeShawn is
reluctantly forced into
the gang world by
circumstances beyond
his control.

17. Juvie three
 Gecko, Arjay, and
Terence, all in trouble
with the law, must find a
way to keep their halfway
house open in order to
stay out of juvenile
detention.

18. Lock artist
 Traumatized at the age of
eight and pushed into a
life of crime by reason of
his unforgiveable talent--
lock picking--Michael
sees his chance to escape,
and with one desperate
gamble risks everything
to come back home to
the only person he ever
loved, and to unlock the
secret that has kept him
silent for so long.

19. Lockdown
 Teenage Reese, serving
time at a juvenile
detention facility, gets a
lesson in making it
through hard times from
an unlikely friend with a
harrowing past.

20. Lockdown
 When fourteen-year-old
Alex is framed for
murder, he becomes an
inmate in the Furnace
Penitentiary, where
brutal inmates and
sadistic guards
reign, boys who
disappear in the middle
of the night sometimes
return weirdly
altered, and escape
might just be possible.

21. Morgue and Me
 Eighteen-year-old
Christopher, who plans
to be a spy, learns of a
murder cover-up through
his summer job as a
morgue assistant and
teams up with Tina, a
gorgeous newspaper
reporter, to investigate,
despite great danger.

22. Night Runner
 Fifteen-year-old Zach is
quite content living in a
mental ward because of
his unusual allergies
until dark secrets about
his past, his parents, and
his strange sickness
slowly surface, placing
him in great danger.

23. Oblivion road
 After a car accident, a
group of teenagers are left
stranded on an isolated
mountain road during a
blizzard. Their search for
help leads them to an
abandoned prison van, a
dead guard, and an escaped
inmate named J.G. J.G.
claims it was not he but
another prisoner who killed
the guard, and he offers to
help the teens get to safety.
But can he be trusted?

24. Project 17
 When six high school
students sneak into an
abandoned mental
institution to make a film
about their night there,
they do not expect the
inexplicable and terrifying
events that keep occurring
within the crumbling,
maze-like building, causing
them to question
themselves and, ultimately,
to make different choices
about the course of their
lives.

25. Pull
 After his father kills his
mother, seventeen-year-
old David struggles to
take care of his two
sisters--and himself--
while dealing with his
grief, guilt, and trying to
fit in at a tough new
school while hiding his
past.

26. Retaliation
 When a popular high
school girl is badly
beaten in a fight borne
from jealousy, the
girl, her family, and her
DC community must
choose whether to stay in
the violent, dangerous
status quo or rise above
the violence and its
deadly consequences that
permeates every crevice
of their community.

27. Rucker Park Set-up
 While playing in a crucial
basketball game on the
very court where his best
friend was murdered,
Mackey tries to come to
terms with his own part
in that murder and
decide whether to
maintain his silence or
tell J.R.'s father and the
police what really
happened.

28. Sleepless
 Terrified by the gruesome
nightmares and
unexplained bouts of
sleepwalking that seem to
be affecting her and many
other students at Saint
Opportuna High, Emma
and her friends become
even more unnerved
when, after several
deaths, they begin to
suspect that something is
causing them to kill in their
sleep.

29. Through the wire
 Through the Wire is a
book of compelling lyrics
selected from West’s
award-winning
songs, personal
commentary on his
inspirational and
entertaining themes, and
original art from the two-
time Oscar Award-
nominated animator and
graphic artist Bill
Plympton.

30. Two the Hard Way
 With an authentic voice
that reflects the reality of
urban life, Hunter
provides a compelling,
vividly realistic look into
life in the housing
projects as seen through
the eyes of two brothers
trying to get by.

31. Unspoken
 Six teens are drawn back
to the small, North
Carolina town where
they once lived and, one
by one, begin to die of
their worst fears, as
prophesied by the cult
leader they killed five
years earlier, and who
they believe poisoned
their parents.

32. Why I fight
 After his house burns
down, twelve-year-old
Wyatt Reaves takes off
with his uncle, and the
two of them drive from
town to town for six
years, earning money
mostly by fighting, until
Wyatt finally confronts
his parents one last time.

33. Wish You Were Dead
 Madison, a senior at a
suburban New York high
school, tries to uncover
who is responsible for
the disappearance of her
friends, popular students
mentioned in the posts of
an anonymous blogger,
while she herself is being
stalked online and in-
person.

34. Yummy : the last days of a Southside Shorty
 "A graphic novel based
on the true story of
Robert "Yummy"
Sandifer, an eleven-year
old African American
gang member from
Chicago who shot a
young girl and was then
shot by his own gang
members."--Provided by
publisher.

35. Power Point compiled by Step-
Up Intern Marilyn Johnson