Testimony

Testimony
By Anita Shreve
Library Standing: We have this in book form!

Four teenagers - one dead, three with their futures in tatters. This is the opening promise of Testimony, with two or more ruined marriages and a school's disgraced reputation thrown in.

All this drama spools out of a video cassette handed to Avery Academy's headmaster, Mike, which shows four students - three male, one female - engaged in sexual acts. The boys are aged between 17 and 19; the girl is 14, which makes the boys' actions sexual assault according to the laws of the State of Vermont.

Nothing in the tape suggests the girl is unwilling; if anything, she seems to be in control. This is not a story of a group of boys coercing a girl into sex. It is the story of how very young lives can be hurled off course - and in one case, ended - by an alcohol-fuelled evening of bad choices, immaturity and hormones.

Sold

Sold
By Patricia McCormick
Library Standing: We don’t have this book but we could ILL it for you!

Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut in the mountains of Nepal. Her family is desperately poor, but her life is full of simple pleasures like raising her pet goat and doing her schoolwork by lamplight. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family's crops, Lakshmi's stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family.

He introduces her to a glamorous stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid working for a wealthy family in the city. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi undertakes the long journey to India and arrives at "Happiness House" full of hope. But she soon learns the unthinkable truth: she has been sold into prostitution.

An old woman named Mumtaz rules the brothel with cunning and cruelty. She tells Lakshmi that she is trapped there until she can pay off her family's debt – then cheats Lakshmi of her meager earnings so she can never leave.

Lakshmi becomes a nightmare from which she cannot escape. Still, she lives by her mother's words – "Simply to endure is to triumph" – and gradually she forms friendships with the other girls that enable her to survive in this terrifying new world. Then the day comes when she must make a decision – will she risk everything for a chance to reclaim her life?

The Pride of Baghdad

The Pride of Baghdad
By Brian Vaughn
Library Standing: We don’t have this book but we could ILL it for you!

In the spring of 2003, a pride of lions escaped from the Baghdad Zoo during an American bombing raid. Lost and confused, hungry but finally free, the four lions roamed the decimated streets of Baghdad in a desperate struggle for their lives. In documenting the plight of the lions, PRIDE OF BAGHDAD raises questions about the true meaning of liberation — can it be given, or is it earned only through self-determination and sacrifice? And in the end, is it truly better to die free than to live life in captivity?

Little Brother

Little Brother
By Cory Doctorow
Library Standing: We have this book in book form!

Marcus Yallow, also known as w1n5t0n (using the leet alphabet), though later in the book he changes to M1k3Y, and three of his friends are truant from high school and find themselves near a terrorist bombing of The San Francisco Bay bridge. The foursome are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and held as enemy combatants because of their suspicious behavior, including having encryption on Marcus' cell phone. Marcus is eventually released to find that San Francisco has become a police state. He fights back against the DHS using technology and guile.

The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture
By Randy Pausch
Library Standing: We have this in book and audio form!

On September 18, 2007, computer science professor Randy Pausch stepped in front of an audience of 400 people at Carnegie Mellon University to deliver a last lecture called “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” With slides of his CT scans beaming out to the audience, Randy told his audience about the cancer that is devouring his pancreas and that will claim his life in a matter of months. On the stage that day, Randy was youthful, energetic, handsome, often cheerfully, darkly funny. He seemed invincible. But this was a brief moment, as he himself acknowledged.

I Heart You, You Haunt Me

I Heart You, You Haunt Me
By Lisa Schroeder
Library Status: We don’t have this book but we could ILL it for you!

Girl meets boy.
Girl loses boy.
Girl gets boy back...
...sort of.

Ava can't see him or touch him, unless she's dreaming. She can't hear hisvoice, except for the faint whispers in her mind. Most would think she'scrazy, but she knows he's here.
Jackson. The boy Ava thought she'd spend the rest of her life with. He's back from the dead, as proof that love truly knows no bounds.

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games
By Suzanne Collins
Library Status: We have this in book form!

Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When her sister is chosen by lottery, Katniss steps up to go in her place.