Reading Recommendations
# - B
Across the Nightingale Floor by
An international bestseller, Across the Nightingale Floor is the first book in the Tales of the Otori series by Lian Hearn. Don't miss the related series, The Tale of Shikanoko. In his black-walled fortress at Inuyama, the warlord Iida Sadamu surveys his famous nightingale floor. Constructed with exquisite skill, it sings at the tread of each human foot. No assassin can cross it unheard. The youth Takeo has been brought up in a remote mountain village among the Hidden, a reclusive and spiritual people who have taught him only the ways of peace. But unbeknownst to him, his father was a celebrated assassin and a member of the Tribe, an ancient network of families with extraordinary, preternatural skills. When Takeo's village is pillaged, he is rescued and adopted by the mysterious Lord Otori Shigeru. Under the tutelage of Shigeru, he learns that he too possesses the skills of the Tribe. And, with this knowledge, he embarks on a journey that will lead him across the famed nightingale floor--and to his own unimaginable destiny...
Call Number: Fantasy F HEA BK1ISBN: 9781573223324Publication Date: 2003-06-03
After the Shot Drops by
A powerful novel about friendship, basketball, and one teen's mission to create a better life for his family in the tradition of Jason Reynolds and Walter Dean Myers, from National Book Award Finalist Randy Ribay. "Belongs on the shelf alongside contemporary heavy-hitters like Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give, Brendan Kiely and Jason Reynolds's All-American Boys, and Nic Stone's Dear Martin." --School Library Journal, starred review Bunny and Nasir have been best friends forever, but when Bunny accepts an athletic scholarship across town, Nasir feels betrayed. While Bunny tries to fit in with his new, privileged peers, Nasir spends more time with his cousin, Wallace, who is being evicted. Nasir can't help but wonder why the neighborhood is falling over itself to help Bunny when Wallace is in trouble. When Wallace makes a bet against Bunny, Nasir is faced with an impossible decision--maybe a dangerous one. Told from alternating perspectives, After the Shot Drops is a heart-pounding story about the responsibilities of great talent and the importance of compassion.
Call Number: Sports F RIBISBN: 9780358108061Publication Date: 2020-01-21
All the Light We Cannot See by
Summary: Marie-Laure has been blind since the age of six. Her father builds a perfect miniature of their Paris neighbourhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. But when the Nazis invade, father and daughter flee with a dangerous secret. Werner is a German orphan, destined to labour in the same mine that claimed his father's life, until he discovers a knack for engineering. His talent wins him a place at a brutal military academy, but his way out of obscurity is built on suffering. At the same time, far away in a walled city by the sea, an old man discovers new worlds without ever setting foot outside his home. But all around him, impending danger closes in.
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780007548682Publication Date: 2014
Becoming Aurora by
Summary: Sixteen-year-old Rory is at a crossroads in her life. While her gang plans its next move in a racially motivated turf war, Rory is sentenced to spend her summer at an aged care facility. She's proud of taking the rap for a crime her gang committed and reading to a feisty old boxing champion isn't going to change that.But what happens when Rory's path intersects with migrant boxer Essam's and she becomes the victim, not the perpetrator? Can she find the courage to face her past and become the girl her dad called Aurora?
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780702255885Publication Date: 2016
The Book Thief by
Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel - a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbours.
Call Number: Historical F ZUSISBN: 9781743515860Publication Date: 2005
Bro by
Summary: Romeo Makhlouf knows the rules. Stick with your own kind. Don't dob on your mates or even on your enemies. Respect the family. But even unwritten rules are made for breaking. Fight clubs, first loves and family ties are pushed to the limit in this story that provides a unique insight into the beliefs and attitudes of teenage boys living in a multicultural urban world. Romeo's struggle to come to terms with his identity focuses a spotlight on cultural differences and the ways in which we are all human.
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781743583951Publication Date: 2016
C - P
City of Bones by
When 15-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder -- much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing -- not even a smear of blood -- to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?
Call Number: Fantasy F CLA BK1ISBN: 9781406307627Publication Date: 2007Dry by When the California drought escalates to catastrophic proportions, a group of teens is forced to make life and death decisions in this harrowing story of survival. The drought -- nor the Tap-Out, as everyone calls it -- has been going on for a while now. Everyone's lives have become an endless list of don'ts: don't water the lawn, don't take long showers, don't panic. Until the taps run dry. Suddenly, Alyssa's quiet suburban street spirals into a warzone of desperation; neighbours and families turned against each other on the hunt for water. And when her parents don't return, she and her younger brother must team up with an unlikely group in search of water. Each of them will need to make impossible choices to survive.
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781406387421Publication Date: 2018
Eon by
Eon is training to become a Dragoneye - a powerful lord able to master wind and water to protect the land. But Eon also harbours a desperate secret. Eon is, in fact, Eona, a young woman who has endured years of disguise as a boy for the chance to practice the Dragoneye's art. In a world where women are only hidden wives or servants, Eona's dangerous deception is punishable by death.
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781743095881Publication Date: 2011
The Help by
In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women - black and white, mothers and daughters - view one another.
Call Number: Historical F STOISBN: 9780241956533Publication Date: 2011The Lord of the Rings by Continuing the story begun in The hobbit, The lord of the rings. Sauron, the Dark Lord, has gathered to him all the Rings of Power - the means by which he intends to rule Middle-earth. All he lacks in his plans for dominion is the one ring - the ring that rules them all - which has fallen into the hands of the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780007322497Publication Date: 1954
The Complete MAUS by
'An epic story told in tiny pictures' - New York Times
Call Number: Graphic Novels GN F SPIISBN: 9780141014081Publication Date: 2003-10-02
Noughts & Crosses by
Callum and Sephy are teenagers living on different sides of a racial divide. Callum is from the despised group of noughts, Sephy belongs to the elite Crosses. Their childhood friendship turns to first love, but is threatened when strict racial and sexual taboos lead those around them to violent acts with tragic consequences. Suggested level: intermediate, secondary.
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781407047966Publication Date: 2012
The Protected by
I have three months left to call Katie my older sister. Then the gap will close and I will pass her. I will get older. But Katie will always be fifteen, eleven months and twenty-one days old. Hannah's world is in pieces and she doesn't need the school counsellor to tell her she has deep-seated psychological issues. With a seriously depressed mum, an injured dad and a dead sister, who wouldn't have problems? Hannah should feel terrible but for the first time in ages, she feels a glimmer of hope and isn't afraid anymore. Is it because the elusive Josh is taking an interest in her? Or does it run deeper than that? In a family torn apart by grief and guilt, one girl's struggle to come to terms with years of torment shows just how long old wounds can take to heal.
Call Number: Relationships F ZORISBN: 9780702250194Publication Date: 2015-04-01
Q - Z
The Recruit by
A terrorist doesn't let strangers into her flat because they might be undercover police or intelligence agents, but her children bring their mates home and they run all over the place. The terrorist doesn't know that one of these kids has bugged every room in her house, made copies of all her computer files and stolen her address book. This kid works for CHERUB.
Call Number: Action & Adventure F MUC BK1ISBN: 9780340881538Publication Date: 2004
Shift by
Olive, having recently suffered mental problems, is unsure whether to trust her instincts when a new student, rumoured to have killed her parents, develops a parasitic relationship with Olive's former best friend, Jubilee Park High School's "Queen Bee."
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781742736617Publication Date: 2011
The Shiny Guys by
"Wouldn't it be funny if they were real?" "Shiny red men?" "What if I were the sane one and everyone else was mad?" One night, the shiny guys visit 15-year-old Colin Lapsley. They don't speak, but Colin can read their thoughts. They want him to pay for the terrible thing that he has done. When the shiny guys won't go away, Colin is admitted to ward 44. There he discovers an alien world, a powerful weapon, a gentle giant, and a girl who may be able to see what he can see. The Shiny Guys is a dark, sometimes funny novel about how fantasy and reality can merge, especially when electricity is involved.
Call Number: Fantasy F MACISBN: 9780143565307Publication Date: 2012-03-01
Skin Deep by
An against-the-odds love story at the heart of a book for teens about prejudice, courage, and a dark, compelling mystery--shortlisted for a Romantic Novelists Association Award Ugly people don't have feelings. They're not like everyone else. They don't notice if you stare at them and turn away. And if they did notice, it wouldn't hurt them. They're not like real people. Or that's what I used to think. Before I learned . . . . After the car crash that leaves her best friend dead, Jenna is permanently scarred. She struggles to rebuild her life, but every stare in the street, every time she looks in the mirror, makes her want to retreat further from the world. Until she meets Ryan. Ryan's a traveler. When he and his mother moor their narrow boat on the outskirts of a village, she tells him this time it will be different. He doesn't believe her; he can't imagine why this place shouldn't be as unwelcoming as the rest. Until he meets Jenna. But as Jenna and Ryan grow closer, repercussions from the crash continue to reverberate through the community. And then a body is found.
Call Number: Relationships F JARISBN: 9781405256728Publication Date: 2015-04-01
Small Spaces by
Tash Carmody has been traumatised since childhood, when she witnessed her gruesome imaginary friend Sparrow lure young Mallory Fisher away from a carnival. At the time nobody believed Tash, and she has since come to accept that Sparrow wasn't real. Now fifteen and mute, Mallory's never spoken about the week she went missing. As disturbing memories resurface, Tash starts to see Sparrow again. And she realises Mallory is the key to unlocking the truth about a dark secret connecting them. Does Sparrow exist after all? Or is Tash more dangerous to others than she thinks?
Call Number: Mystery F EPSISBN: 9781921977381Publication Date: 2018
Turtles All the Way Down by
Summary: Sixteen-year-old Aza never intended to pursue the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there's a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her best and most fearless friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Russell Pickett's son, Davis. Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780241335444Publication Date: 2017
Tweet Cute by
Summary: Meet Pepper, swim team captain, chronic overachiever, and all-around perfectionist. Her family may be falling apart, but their massive fast-food chain is booming, mainly thanks to Pepper, who is barely managing to juggle real life while secretly running Big League Burger's massive Twitter account. Enter Jack, class clown and constant thorn in Pepper's side. When he isn't trying to duck out of his obscenely popular twin's shadow, he's busy working in his family's deli. His relationship with the business that holds his future might be love/hate, but when Big League Burger steals his grandma's iconic grilled cheese recipe, he'll do whatever it takes to take them down, one tweet at a time. All's fair in love and cheese, that is, until Pepper and Jack's spat turns into a viral Twitter war. Little do they know, while they're publicly duking it out with snarky memes and retweet battles, they're also falling for each other in real life, on an anonymous chat app Jack built. As their relationship deepens and their online shenanigans escalate, people on the internet are shipping them?? - their battle gets more and more personal, until even these two rivals can't ignore they were destined for the most unexpected, awkward, all-the-feels romance that neither of them expected.
Call Number: eBookISBN: 9781250262752Publication Date: 2020
