Members Only

Reading Circle Program

2009-10 TRUMAN READERS AWARD NOMINEES (Grades 9-12)

The Adoration of Jenna Fox, by Mary Pearson. Macmillan, ©2008. Seventeen-year-old Jenna Fox wakes up from a coma with no memory of the accident that put her there, or the girl she was before it happened. Her memories return bit by bit, but she still has questions that no one wants to answer.

Boost, by Kathryn Mackel. Penguin, ©2008. Sisters Savvy and Callie each rely on their own special talents when they move from Arizona to Rhode Island. Callie expects her cheerleading talent to help her adjust to her new school, but unexpected weight gain leads her to use unhealthy behaviors. Meanwhile, Savvy's basketball career is threatened when steroids turn up in her locker.

Chains, by Laurie Anderson. Simon and Schuster, ©2008. Teenage slaves Isabel and her sister Ruth are sold to ruthless British loyalists in 1776 New York City. Isabel encounters a group of rebels who promise her freedom if she uses her invisibility as a slave to spy on her owners.

The Compound,by Stephanie Bodeen. Macmillan, ©2008. Eli and his family have lived in an underground compound for six years. They moved there to be safe from the outside world, but Eli is beginning to wonder if he should take his chances on the outside.

Gone, by Michael Grant. HarperCollins, ©2008. On an otherwise average day, everyone over age 14 suddenly disappears from a California town. Chaos ensues as some of the children work to establish a civil society and others develop new and disturbing powers. Book one of the Gone series.

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. Scholastic, ©2008. Katniss lives with her mother and sister in the poorest area of what used to be the United States. When her sister is summoned to fight to the death in the televised Hunger Games, Kat arranges to go in her place. Book one of the Hunger Games series.

Jump The Cracks, by Stacy DeKeyser. FLUX, ©2008. Fifteen-year-old Victoria means well when she rescues a toddler from an abusive situation on a summer train trip. Without thinking through her actions, she takes the boy with her, but later realizes she must face the consequences of what she's done.

The Other Side of the Island, by Allegra Goodman. Penguin, ©2008. Honor and her parents have been forcibly moved to live in a precarious seaside shanty in this futuristic version of North America run by an evil corporation. Honor's parents refuse to conform to the established rules, and Honor must rescue them when they are captured for their rebellion.

The Otherworldlies, by Jennifer Anne Kogler. HarperCollins, ©2008. Fern seems like a normal 12-year-old, except that she blisters after minutes in the sun, communicates with her dog and has an impressive ability to predict the weather. Things grow more bizarre, and dangerous, when she discovers a new superpower and attracts the attention of a vampire new to town.

Suck it Up, by Brian Meehl. Random House, ©2008. Morning McCobb is an IVLeague graduate — International Vampire League, that is. The academy teaches vampires to live peacefully with humans by consuming only animal blood. Morning's fellow IVLeaguers determine he's the perfect vampire to come out of the coffin and show the rest of the world that vampires are simply a special-needs minority.

The White Gates, by Bonnie Ramthun. Random House, ©2008. When Torin Sinclair's mother finishes medical school, she gets a job in a Colorado town where snowboarding reigns supreme. Torin is excited for his new adventure until his mother is the target of hostility when a patient dies. Suspecting there's more to the case, Torin uncovers a curse on the town's doctors that dates back to the 1950s.

The Youngest Templar: Keeper of the Grail, by Michael Spradlin. Penguin, ©2008. A member of the Knights Templar orders a young orphan named Tristan to carry the Holy Grail to safety during the Crusades. Book one of The Youngest Templar series.