The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks E. Lockhart, 2008

Frankie, daughter of "Senior" an alum of Alabaster Prep, has heard story after story of the antics of the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, a secret society only open to the male gender. As Frankie begins her sophomore year she catches the attention of Matthew, a popular senior, who also happens to be a member of the Bassetts. The unspoken rules of Alabaster and the Bassetts intrigue and frustrate Frankie to the point at which she must act. Frankie, who will never be allowed membership simply because she is a girl, single handedly, takes the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds on a wild ride. Her intentions are simple; she will have the Bassetts pull elaborate pranks meant to make a political statement about the male-dominated and classist nature of the school. Easy enough…right? Frankie is clever, doesn't like to take "no" for an answer, and is possibly the greatest criminal mastermind Alabaster Prep has ever seen. This Printz Honor Book is a great blend of an engaging story and a smart read and the audio version pulls the listener into the inside jokes and boarding school ways. – Tricia Suellentrop

After Amy Efaw, 2009

This book will be released on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009.

Devon is scared. She is in Tacoma's Juvenile Detention Center and she can't quite remember why. She remembers that a few days before she was home alone, which she always is as her mom works two jobs with graveyard shifts. She feels a pain in her stomach and in the bathroom hours later, she gives birth to a baby, not even realizing that she is pregnant. Panicked, Devon puts the baby in the dumpster outside her apartment building. The next morning the cops show up at her door and once they figure out that she is the mother of the baby they arrest her and take her for the hospital for postpartum treatment.

Now Devon is in the detention center, she hasn't seen her mom in a week (no one knows where she is or how to reach her and she hasn't come to visit). And the prosecution wants to try Devon as an adult, with a maximum sentence of life in prison. Devon and her lawyer have to struggle to try and keep her case in the juvenile court.

Amy Efaw spent a lot of time in the Tacoma Juvenile Detention Center and it shows. I think she does a great job describing, without judgment what life is like in a detention center and the harsher truths of court with POs you never see, and court appointed lawyers who don't seem to care. Although Devon has done something that most of us consider horrifying you can really identify with her and realize that she is just a teen and when things got out of control she wasn't sure what to do. Although this book is about a difficult topic for some people I think that Efaw has handled it in a very delicate way. She approaches a tough topic in a way that opens it up for discussion for almost any age group. This would be great in a book group or in the classroom. – Kate Pickett

Hunger Games Suzanne Collins, 2008

Hunger Games is a cruel reality TV show, in which, 24 teens, chosen by lottery, fight each other to the death. The only rule: you can’t eat the dead, and the winner goes on to live a life of luxury and ease. This all takes place in the former North America, now Panem, divided into twelve districts run by a dictatorship in a city called the Capitol.

There is the typical love triangle, and a strong heroine provides the constant suspense that keeps the reader from putting the book down.  An unsettling book with parallels that can be made to today’s society and the first in a trilogy. - Linda Kautzi

Catching Fire Suzanne Collins, 2008

Catching Fire is the second book in a trilogy continuing the story of Katniss and as difficult to put down as Hunger Games. Katniss finds it difficult to adjust to life back home and the President of Panem believes the country’s unrest is her fault. Her acts of defiance place her in a precarious position with the government and their Peacekeepers.  In this book our heroine must face challenges in love, of survival, and questions her decisions of the past which affect not only her, but also those she loves. The love triangle is not resolved in this book, and with many unanswered questions the reader will be looking forward to the third book. - Linda Kautzi

The Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation Cokie Roberts, 2004

In 1780, in the throes of the American Revolution, Abigail Adams wrote in a letter to her son John Quincy Adams, "These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed." In The Founding Mothers, Cokie Roberts shares colorful, humorous and heart-wrenching stories of many of those great characters—the brave and patriotic women who helped to give birth to a nation.

Roberts’s book is not a detailed history of revolutionary events, but rather many short tales of women whose strength, intellect, hard work, and grace were fundamental to the new nation’s success. Women such as Abigail Adams and Martha Washington who managed farms and families while encouraging their husbands’ political and military efforts. Women who have been largely overlooked by history such as  Mercy Otis Warren, American’s first female playwright and revolutionary instigator, Sally Jay, wife of John Jay and charmer of American and European society, and Kitty Greene, widow of Nathanael Greene, who helped Eli Whitney invent the cotton gin.

The Founding Mothers is a pleasurable and quick read, and is a terrific book to listen to on audiobook. Without these women managing their husbands’ businesses, tending to their families, and providing savvy political advice, America as we know it would not exist. It is gratifying to hear the previously untold stories of the women to whom Americans owe so much. - Erica Reynolds

Where Did You Sleep Last Night?: A Personal History Danzy Senna, 2009

Senna’s narrative is very much in the vein of Walls' The Glass Castle or Bragg’s All Over But the Shoutin. It surpasses both for its examination, not only of Senna’s parents relationship, but for its exploration of identity today, yesterday and tomorrow.

Carl Senna is a black man born in the south when Jim Crow was alive and well. Fanny Howe, on the other hand, was born of eminent Bostonians whose histories are traceable back to the Mayflower. Of her parents' divorce Senna says "The divorce was so ugly because the marriage was so unequivocally beautiful. My parents' marriage had been steeped from the start in symbolism. Together they were going to snub the history that divided them and create an ahistorical utopia in our home. When their marriage failed so drastically – when history seemed to catch up with them – it must have seemed to them and those who witnessed that rupture like the death of a promise far larger than their wedding vows."

Senna has distilled her writing to a precise and beautiful account of her search for her father’s past. While her mother's family history is well documented, she was only aware of vague snippets of her father's southern roots. "As [her] father says, one side is unusually – even compulsively - documented, and the other is a black hole that when you call into it – who are you? – only swallows back the very question."

Senna begins her story by sharing a time when her father asks a five-year-old Danzy "Don’t you know who I am?" This recurring theme gave this reader chills as Senna comes closer and closer to answering this most searching of questions. – Helen Hokanson

Out Stealing Horses Per Petterson, 2008 After the accidental death of his second wife, Trond Sander moves into a remote cabin on the eastern edge of Norway. He stubbornly plans to spend the rest of his life alone, without a telephone, without visitors. But visitors arrive anyway. Early into his self-imposed exile, he recognizes a neighbor who reminds him of an event from his childhood. Remembering how at that moment his perception of the world changed, he begins focusing upon the past, examining the ways in which it has shaped his life. Trond narrates a compelling story of a childhood shaped by an unusual family situation and unavoidable wartime turmoil, and he captures in vivid detail the rural landscape and daily activities that characterize country life. Petterson’s book is a thought-provoking novel that is certain to give book group goers something to talk about and reflective readers a memorable way to spend an afternoon. – Michelle Holden reviews (0) Location: FICTION Petterso Per

Suite Scarlett Maureen Johnson, 2008

Scarlett's family runs the once illustrious and now dilapidated Hopewell Hotel in New York City. On her fifteenth birthday, in the Martin family tradition, Scarlett is given a room in the hotel that will be her responsibility to manage and take care of the guests that stay there. That same day her parents also drop the bomb that the hotel isn't doing well, Scarlett won't be able to get a summer job, instead she will have to help out around the hotel. They have had to fire their last employee, the cook, so even Scarlett's birthday breakfast is a letdown. Her parents also give the ultimatum that Spencer, Scarlett's beloved older brother, will have to either find a paying acting gig or go to culinary school. Can Scarlett help herself and her brother, and could the eccentric Mrs. Amberson, staying in Scarlett's Empire Suite, be the answer to their problems?

Like all of Maureen Johnson's books, Suite Scarlett is written in such an approachable way, that any reader is sure to enjoy it. Scarlett is a lovable character, especially in her relationship with her older brother who is a bit of a goof ball. Scarlett has a lot of firsts that summer, first real crush, first kind-of relationship, first time being accused of shoplifting, first time telling a lie to her brother, first time sneaking an entire troupe of actors into her home... – Kate Pickett