Book Picks from AdLit.org’s Boys of Summer

Books to keep you awake at night

Lots of us have nightmares and then think about them the next morning, while dreading sleep that night. But, imagine your nightmares becoming a reality and haunting you during the day. In The Nightmarys(opens in a new window) by Dan Poblocki two classmates, Timothy and Abigail, share this experience with one another and can’t understand why. As the story unfolds, a creepy man begins to follow Timothy, Abigail’s past comes back to her, and they both try to solve the town’s secret that could have started this haunting. As the two of them get deeper into the mystery, they discover Abigail’s grandmother has something to do with the old secret. Questions pile up and explanations are askew but the ending isn’t what you would think. So, the question is can these Nightmarys go away forever?

When we last left Cal Ormond, his sister had been kidnapped. In Conspiracy 365 October(opens in a new window) he’s found her, but she cannot recall a thing and is now being secretive about her brother’s situation as well. Flash forward a few months and Cal’s still in the same pickle, but he’s one step closer to finding the Ormond Singularity. As usual, there are bad guys who Cal and his friends must battle with for the final answers to the riddle. What will become of him and the riddle? He has 365 days and time is running out in the Conspiracy 365 series. Once again any second could be his last, he was warned once.

Nick (August 23, 2010)

Required reading isn’t all bad

Summer reading is usually on everyone’s list, whether it be for school, work, or just for fun. The two books I had as summer reading for school are Slaughterhouse-Five(opens in a new window) by Kurt Vonnegut and Boy’s Life(opens in a new window) by Robert McCammon. Those who like crazy, funny stories will love Slaughterhouse-Five and those who like a mystery and comic relief novel will like Boy’s Life.

The title Slaughterhouse-Five refers to five innocent people in the story who died for idiotic reasons. Billy is the main character and he tells his story of WWII, his capture by aliens, and his normal life before and after the war. The book goes back and forth between Billy’s accounts of his adventures. Eventually, his daughter calls him crazy for making up all of the stories and threatens to send him away. But nothing stops Billy from pursuing his beliefs that he was captured by aliens or is still stuck in the war. Near the end of the story, everything starts to unfold according to Billy’s description of events. This book is a great read and an attention-grabber as soon as you read the first paragraph.

You thought that the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew were the youngest detectives out there? In Boy’s Life, there are even younger teen mystery solvers.

In Zephyr, Alabama, in 1964, Cory, an 11-year-old boy, witnesses a man tied in a car drown in the river as his dad tries to save the man. Cory and his friends each have there own opinion about what happened to the man. Did the town thugs kill him? Was it the old Lady of Bruton who people say is an ancient witch? Or is there some outside force that the town doesn’t know about? Of course there’s nothing to worry about since these 11-year-olds are so imaginative. Right? Travel with Cory as he learns and experiences new things and comes to understand the secrets of the old town. Once you’re in this book, there’s no putting it down, unless you want to check to make you’re still in the present day.

Well, I’ve been not doing much but my usual, which is camp, computer, and bike riding. The camp I’ve been going to is a ninja camp and we started training. Finally, I learned some basic karate and stuff about crossbows and nunchucks, blow darts, sword, and catapult. Computer is my favorite thing to do in the day and I have been working on a little game clan site and making games for it like the “Gilded Sword”, “Action Sword”, and a “Bash” game with three mini games or the cavern game where you can scavenge through caves to get the treasure.

I’ve been biking a lot more than usual, sometimes just to Bluemont Park and once all the way to the airport.I read a lot at night now — sometimes from 9:00 to midnight. In the past three weeks or so I’ve read five books and one my dad is also reading one to me. The books are:

• The Mortal Engines(opens in a new window) series by Philip Reeve. The books are about the bad future after the big sixty minute war and the adventures of Tom and Hester. The future they live in has giant cities that move and attack each other.
• Everwild(opens in a new window) by Neal Shusterman. This is the sequel to Everlost(opens in a new window) which follows the adventures of two Afterlights, a skin jacker named Allie who can take over living bodies and Nick who was killed with a chocolate smudge on his face and turned to chocolate in his afterlife. Allie is trying to find out what happened to her family and Nick is trying to stop another Afterlight named Mary Hightower from keeping the truth about Everlost from other Afterlights.
• My Rotten Life(opens in a new window) series by David Lubar. These books are about a kid named Nathan who was splashed by a hurt-be-gone substance that turned him into a zombie. Except Goop Soup I’ve read all of them, even the one that hasn’t come out called The Big Stink(opens in a new window). It was exciting and a good read, but the climax was kind of a let down.

My dad has been reading me The Hobbit(opens in a new window) which is about a little man who goes on adventures with dwarves and is becoming more and more of a burglar.

I’ll probably finish the Mortal Engines series on my vacation in Maine. It’s going to be a long drive.

I just got back from a trip to the West!

I went on a trip to Boise, Idaho with my grandparents. On my trip I went to many states including Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming and finally Idaho!

On my trip, I got see lots of things, like the Buffalo Bill Ranch in Nebraska. I even got to go in his barn and house. I tried out one of his saddles. In Iowa City, I got to see another interesting house. It was the house that my mom lived in when she was a baby.

When we would make stops at parks and other places, I would navigate our walk or tour by reading the different maps. I also had to read the manual for the car when we had a flat tire in Wyoming. I helped my Grandpa change the tire. It was very exciting.

There wasn’t a lot of time for reading (but there’s always time to read) with sightseeing and visiting with family, but I did read The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System with my cousin. I also read Otis Spofford by Beverly Cleary. I read the Ramona books also by Beverly Cleary last year. Otis gets into as much trouble as Ramona.

The thing I most liked reading on my trip was the Sky Mall magazine. I got to read it on my flight to Chicago to meet my grandparents and on my flight home from Boise. It was entertaining to look at all the interesting things to buy like the wireless fence, a juicer, and the R2-D2 miniature robot.

When I got home, I had a lot of reading to do. For my birthday I got an Acer netbook!

Once a month at my middle school we have something called TAB. TAB is the Teen Advisory Board and we advise about books. We met at lunchtime in the school library to talk about the books we’ve read. Students who are in TAB get to read new library books before anyone else in the school does.

At TAB meetings we give reviews of new books, but also talk about books we’ve been reading. At one of our last meetings before school ended, there was a lot of talk about vampire books, especially Twilight(opens in a new window). Girls seem to like Twilight and how romantic it is. The boys cringing in their seats disagreed with the girls.

Someone else at TAB reviewed 11 Birthdays(opens in a new window) by Wendy Mass and it sounded really good. A lot of people must have thought that because I wasn’t able to check it out until the end of school. It’s about these two friends who have the same birthday and they always celebrate together until their 11th birthday. When they don’t have their party together, nothing seems to go right. The next day isn’t any better because it turns out to be the birthday again and that happens again and again and again.

What I liked about 11 Birthdays is how at first they are so confused and they think time repeating is a trick, then start figuring out how to have fun with it and make things better. It’s kind of funny and kind of a mystery in one book.

Since it’s summer, I have more time to read. So besides 11 Birthdays, in the first six days of my summer vacation I’ve also already read Lord Sunday(opens in a new window) by Garth Nix. This is the last book in The Keys to the Kingdom series. I’d been waiting for awhile to read it. The book before it, Superior Saturday(opens in a new window) came out like two years ago. But Lord Sunday wasn’t as exciting as some of the other books in the series. Even though there were lots of battles and action, after all the other things Arthur (the main character) and his friends had been through in the other books, it didn’t seem as creative. I thought the ending was kind of sad too.

I’ve also read A Practical Guide to Vampires(opens in a new window) by Lisa Trutkoff Trumbauer. I guess the TAB meeting talk about vampires did get me a little interested and this books wasn’t romantic at all. It really just explains all about vampires, like who are stronger, vampires or werewolves. The pictures in this book are very good.

I just finished Everlost(opens in a new window) by Neal Shusterman. I liked this book a lot and was excited when I found out that he’s making it a trilogy. It’s about what happens when kids die but aren’t ready to go “into the light.” Instead, they hang out in Everlost and the story focuses on Allie and Nick — two kids who are killed in a car accident — and learn about this new world they’re in. It’s like a really cool ghost story told from the point of view of the ghosts. What is interesting is that the ghosts all have their own points of view, just like the living.

My mom picked up a lot of new books from publishers at the American Library Association convention that she thought I would like. We’ll see if I do.

For many years I have been an avid reader of fantasy, science-fiction, young adult novels with contemporary settings and characters, and more. Reading, for me, started a very young age and continued to develop overtime. I know many people around my age dislike reading and would rather play Xbox or something else. Being sixteen I am also an addicted Xbox gamer and play it in my spare time. But, much of the time my escape, or “chill” time, is reading. As of now I am reading a number of books, but I also have recently finished a couple that held my attention and are worth sharing.

The first book is The Seventh Level(opens in a new window) by Jody Feldman, it deals with normal middle school mischief and a secret school society called The Legend. The main character gets mysterious envelopes which say to follow The Legend’s rules in order to become part of the society. He deals with bullies, teachers, and other obstacles that seem to get him in trouble every time. It is an enthralling story for any type of reader. And the reason I chose to read it is because it has a bit of mystery with adventure, and many comical moments throughout.

I’m also reading a series that comes out each month called Conspiracy 365(opens in a new window) by Gabrielle Lord. The story is about a 15-year-old boy who is accused of hurting his family and is wanted for it. He is forced to flee and camp out in different places all the time. But, the police are not the only people who are looking for him. A group of thugs want his mysterious drawings in order to solve the Ormond Riddle. So Cal, the main character, with the help of his friend must protect the drawings and avoid the police at all costs. I read this series because it is sort of a thriller with an interesting plot and twists in every chapter. There are six more books to go and any one could be Cal’s last; he has 365 days to complete the Riddle or it is his end.

Even if you are as intense a gamer as I am, there is always time to read. I have learned that books last a whole lot longer than games and they usually stay in your mind longer. Plus, reading, like video games, brings you into a whole new world with capturing stories. So never disregard a book because even when you are bored a book is always there, waiting to be picked up and read while bring you into another world.