White Cat

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Black, Holly. White Cat. NY: Simon and Schuster, 2010.

ISBN:  9781416963974. 336 pages. $8.99

Awards & Honors:

Locus Recommended Reading for Young Adults 2010
Andre Norton Award Finalist 2010
ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults 2011
 

Annotation:

Cassel is a normal kid in a family of curse workers, but he begins to question his normalcy when he starts sleepwalking and dreaming about a white cat that wants to talk to him. White Cat is a completely original tale of a society where people can't even show their hands due to curse workers and their power, and Black tells it is an exquisite and humorous style.

Book Talk Technique:  The Index Card Trick

• Curses
• Crime
• The Mob
• Murder
• Dreams
• Nightmares
• Cats
• Family
• Brothers
• Jail
• Fear
• Love
• School
• Secrets

White Cat is the first book in the Curse Worker's Series.  If you like it, you should also read Red Glove and Black Heart.

Find the NOOK version here.

Find the Kindle version here.

Read Holly Black's journal or visit her website.

A Great and Terrible Beauty

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Bray, Libba.  A Great and Terrible Beauty. New York: Random House Children's Books, 2003.  Print. ISBN: 9780385732314. $16.99. 432 pages.

Awards & Honors:

Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award Nominee 2007
ALA Best Book for Young Adults 2004
New York Times Bestseller 2004

Annotation:

Gemma Doyle is sixteen, grew up in India, and watched her mom die, so now that she has moved to a boarding school in England, she is hoping for a calmer life, but soon she starts having visions and is led into a world of secrets.  A Great and Terrible Beauty is an impressive first book by author Libba Bray and should find a place in every library.

Book Talk Technique:  The Index Card Trick

• Victorian
• Murder
• Forbidden Love
• Boarding School
• Gypsies
• Fairies
• Paranormal
• Friendship
• Magic
• New Worlds
• India
• Visions
• Beauty
• Mystery

Find the Kindle version here.

Find the NOOK version here.

Read Libba Bray's hilarous blog here.

A Great and Terrible Beauty is the first book in the Gemma Doyle Trilogy.  If you like it, you should also read Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing.

Twilight

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Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2005. Print. ISBN: 9780316015844. $10.99. 513 pages.

Awards:

One of Publishers Weekly’s “Best Children’s Books of 2005″One of School Library Journal’s “Best Books of 2005″

Annotation: Bella Swan knows there is something dangerous about Edward, but she can't stop herself from loving him, even if it means he won't be able to keep himself from drinking her blood.  Twilight is a perfect teen romance novel, with just the right amount of fantasy and fear mixed in. 

Booktalk Technique: "Wrap Back to the Title"

"There are three things that Bella knows.

1. Edward is a vampire

2. There's a part of him—how big a part, she isn't sure—that truly thirsts for her blood

3. She is unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him."

Bella is clumsy and awkward.  Edward is perfect, but dangerous.  Together they are magnetic and cannot be torn apart. Bella knows that being in love with a vampire is dangerous. She worries that she could die and wonders if she even wants to (at least mortally). She fears that she is putting everyone she knows at risk, but what Isabella doesn't realize is that Edward and his family aren't the only vampires in town and nothing will ever be the same after Twilight?

Find the NOOK version here.

Find the Kindle version here.

Like the Twilight page on Facebook.

 

 

Watch the film version of the book.

 

If you like Twilight, read the rest of the series.  New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn are available in paperback at bookstores.