Some Books I Read in 2001
Love That Dog (Sharon Creech, 2001. 86 p.)
Told in first person, blank verse. High interest/Low reading level.
A young student, who comes to love poetry through a personal understanding of what different famous poems mean to him (especially some by Walter Dean Myers), surprises himself by writing his own inspired poems.
The Exchange Student (Kate Gilmore, 1999. 217 p.)
When her mother arranges to host one of the young people coming to Earth from Chela, Daria is both pleased and intrigued by the keen interest shown by the Chelan in her work breeding endangered species.
· Wildlife conservation, Endangered species, Extraterrestrial beings
The Ghost Sitter (Peni R. Griffin, 2001. 131 p.)
Charlotte’s family’s new house is haunted by the ghost of a ten-year-old girl who used to live there, but who died on the 4th of July protecting her younger sister from an M-80 firework. The ghost helps care for Charlotte’s baby brother; meanwhile, Charlotte tries to help her understand that she is dead, so that she can leave and find peace. She ends up contacting the baby sister (now an adult) who can release the ghost from the promise that holds her there.
Notes From a Liar and Her Dog (Gennifer Choldenko, 2001. 216 p.)
“Eleven-year-old Ant, stuck in a family that she does not like, copes by pretending that her "real" parents are coming to rescue her, by loving her chihuahua Pistachio, by volunteering at the zoo, and by bending the truth and telling lies.”
The Happy Bottom Riding Club: The Life and Times of Pancho Barnes (Lauren Kessler, 2000. 305 p.)
1) Barnes, Pancho, 1901-
2) Women air pilots -- United States -- Biography.
3) Authors, American -- Northwest, Pacific
True Believer (Virginia Euwer Wolff, 2001. 264 p.)
**Sequel to Make Lemonade.
Living in the inner city amidst guns and poverty, fifteen-year-old LaVaughn learns from old and new friends, and inspiring mentors, that life is what you make it--an occasion to rise to.
Dolphin Luck (Hilary McKay, 1998. 153 p.)
**Companion novel to Dog Friday and The Amber Cat
Sent by their vacationing parents to visit Mad Aunt Mabel, Perry and Ant have an adventure, while their younger siblings Sun Dance and Beany stay at home making burglar traps and searching for a magic sword.
Love & Sex: ten stories of truth (Ed. Michael Cart, 2001)
Best stories: “Fine and Dandy” by Louise Hawes; “Secret Shelf” in verse by Sonya Sones; “The Cure for Curtis” by Chris Lynch; “The Acuteness of Desire” by Michael Lowenthal; “The Welcome” by Emma Donoghue
The sisterhood of the traveling pants (Ann Brashares, 2001. 294 p.)
“Four best girlfriends spend the biggest summer of their lives enchanted by a magical pair of pants.”
Blister (Susan Shreve, 2001. 153 p.)
When her baby sister is stillborn, ten-year-old Alyssa’s family falls apart. She changes her name to "Blister,” changes schools, moves to an apartment with her depressed mother while her father gets his own place, and tries to believe her grandmother, who tells her she is "elastic" and can handle it all.
I Was a Rat! (Phillip Pullman, 2000. 164 p.)
A little boy turns life in London upside down when he appears at the house of a lonely old couple and insists he was a rat. (Strange take-off on a minor Cinderella character.)
Suitcase (Mildred Pitts Walter, 1999. 107 p.)
Despite his love of drawing and his feelings of inadequacy as an athlete, sixth-grader Xander "Suitcase" Bingham works to become a baseball player to win the approval of his father.
Rainbow Boys (Alex Sanchez, 2001. 233 p.)
Three high school seniors, a jock with a girlfriend and an alcoholic father, a closeted gay, and a flamboyant gay rights advocate, struggle with family issues, gay bashers, first sex, and conflicting feelings about each other.
The Monsters of Morley Manor: a Madcap Adventure (by Bruce Coville, 2001. 224 p.)
Anthony and his younger sister discover that the monster figures he got in an unusual box at an estate sale are alive, but they
have no way of knowing that the "monsters" will lead them on
fantastical adventures to other worlds in an effort to try to
save Earth.
Artemis Fowl (Eoin Colfer, 2001. 277 p.)
“When a twelve-year-old evil genius tries to restore his family fortune by capturing a fairy and demanding a ransom in gold, the fairies fight back with magic, technology, and a particularly nasty troll.”
Bread-and-Butter Indian (Anne Colver, 1964. 96 p.)
1783, western Pennsylvania. In the tiny settlement of Burnt Cabins, a girl named Barbara secretly makes friends with an Indian by sharing her snack of bread-and-butter with him down by the creek. When a strange Indian kidnaps her (as part of ongoing fighting and kidnapping going on between the white settlers and the Indians), Barbara is rescued by her “bread-and-butter” Indian friend. Based on the true story of the author’s husband’s great-great-grandmother.
Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus (Barbara Park, 1992. EZ chapter book, 69 p.)
A bold young girl (who might be related to Eloise) describes her feelings about starting kindergarten. She is prone to comments like, “Yeah, only guess what? That’s not my name.” Contrary to what her mother claimed, riding the school bus is not fun—it’s scary. After her first day, Junie (“I’m a good hider”) hides in the supply closet to escape the bus. She has various solo adventures in the empty school building, and eventually calls 911—because she has to go to the bathroom, the doors are all locked, and it’s an emergency!
Amber was brave, Essie was smart : the story of Amber and Essie told here in poems and pictures (Vera B. Williams, 2001. 75 p.)
A series of poems tells how two sisters help each other deal with life while their mother is working and their father has been sent to jail.
Judy Moody (Megan McDonald, 2000. 160 p.)
“Third grader Judy Moody is in a first day of school bad mood until she gets an assignment to create a collage all about herself and begins creating her masterpiece, the Me collage.”
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