Summaries

Out of my mind- Eleven-year-old Melody has a photographic

memory. Her head is like a video camera that is always recording.
Always. And there's no delete button. She's the smartest kid in
her whole school-but NO ONE knows it. Most people-her teachers
and doctors included-don't think she's capable of learning, and up
until recently her school days consisted of listening to the same
preschool-level alphabet lessons again and again and again. If
only she could speak up, if only she could tell people what she
thinks and knows. But she can't. She can't talk. She can't walk.
She can't write. Being stuck inside her head is making Melody go
out of her mind-that is, until she discovers something that will
allow her to speak for the first time ever. At last Melody has a
voice . . . but not everyone around her is ready to hear it. From
multiple Coretta Scott King Award winner Sharon M. Draper comes
a story full of heartache and hope. Get ready to meet a girl whose
voice you'll never, ever forget. www.shanondraper.com
Wonder- Ten-year-old Auggie is just a normal kid--on the inside.
As for the outside, well, that is a different story. August was born
with an extreme facial abnormality and was not even expected to
survive. Homeschooled his whole life by his nurturing and loving
family, August's life changes as he bravely enters fifth grade at a
private school in Manhattan. Will his new classmates see beyond
Auggie's unique exterior and discover the terrific kid inside, or will
they shun him, like so many kids have before?
www.storysnoops.com
The Lottery Rose- A young boy is beaten severely by his
mothers boyfriend and then taken from his home and placed at a
private boys school. His most prized possession is a rose bush
that he won at the local grocery stores lottery the day of his final
beating. He learns through his bush and his mentors that he can
trust again. He befriends a neighboring family, who has also

undergone hardships and learns to forgive and to make friends.

When Robin, the neighbors small son, drowns in the nearby lake,
Georgie becomes closer to the mother and they bond. Georgie
learnt to trust and to love. www.novelinks.org
Drums Girls and Dangerous Pies- Steven is a gifted junior high
school drummer with an imagination that takes him some
distance from his writing assignments into musing on his own life.
The book chronicles his experience of the year his five-year-old
brother, Jeffrey, was diagnosed with leukemia. The shift from
consuming preoccupation with preparation for a drumming
contest and competition for a particular girl's attention to radical
concern about a brother he has primarily regarded as a pest takes
him through ruminations both profound and hilarious. Jeffrey's
illness oddly makes Steven an object of his friends' admiration
and pity, neither of which he thinks he wants or deserves. His
priorities and plans begin to take a back seat to working with his
parents to get Jeffrey through treatments, in the course of which
he meets a girl at the hospital who teaches him a new level of
friendship before her own disease gets the better of her and she
dies. The story ends with Jeffrey's return home, an uncertain
future, and an altered perspective on life for Steven who finds
himself able to love in ways he hadn't imagined. Check out the
second book as well. After Ever After. www.nyu.edu
Maze Runner- Thomas (Dylan O'Brien), a teenager, arrives in a
glade at the center of a giant labyrinth. Like the other youths
dumped there before him, he has no memory of his previous life.
Thomas quickly becomes part of the group and soon after
demonstrates a unique perspective that scores him a promotion
to Runner status -- those who patrol the always-changing maze to
find an escape route. Together with Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), the
only female, Thomas tries to convince his cohorts that he knows a
way out. Google film synopsis.

Unwind- After Americas Second Civil War between the pro-life

and pro-choice factions, a compromise was reached and called
The Bill of Life. In this bill any teens between the ages of 13-18
who are troublemakers, a ward of the state, or a tithe could be
unwound. In other words, their bodies could be harvested for
organ donation in order to give others the opportunity for a better
quality of life. To be unwound was to continue living through
another human being. Connor, Risa, and Lev are three teens who
are scheduled to be unwound. Connor is seventeen and
according to his parents a troublemaker. Risa is sixteen, a
talented pianist and a ward of the state, but she isn't talented
enough for them to keep her alive. Lev is thirteen and the tenth
child of a religious family. He is proud to be a Tithe until an
opportunity to runaway is presented and his church pastor tells
him to run. Through unusual circumstances the three teens find
one another, but Connor and Risa are separated from Lev and are
taken to the Graveyard, a hiding place for teens on the run.
www.about.com