Booktalk: The Odd Egg (Virginia Readers' Choice, 2011-2012)

[Hold up cover.] This is you. You’re duck. You found the coolest egg _ever_. It’s huge, white, and covered with green spots. You’ve never seen anything like it.

 [Turn to the first page.] All the other birds have laid their own eggs. Parrot clearly _loves_ hers. Owl is sitting on hers, reading a book at the same time. And then there’s sparrow, who appears to be talking to her egg.

 [Turn to next page.] But you know that your egg, as huge and weird as it is, is the most beautiful egg in the whole wide world. So what if they’re laughing at you? I mean, who cares?

 But seriously. What happens to an egg this huge? Does it hatch? Does it erupt? Is it real? And can you, a small duck, really take care of such an odd egg?

 The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett. 2008: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers. Unpaged picture book. Booktalk to primary grades.

Booktalk: The Knife of Never Letting Go (Virginia Readers' Choice, 2011-2012)

It can be really embarrassing if you inadvertently think out loud. Much of the time, you really don’t want other people knowing your private thoughts. But for Todd Hewitt, a young teen, everyone else is privy to your thoughts: all the time. Your thoughts are broadcast out loud, in what’s called Noise. It’s almost as if you have speakers broadcasting what you’re thinking. Zero privacy: try keeping a secret.

Todd lives in a settlement called Prentisstown, which is part of the New World, a world without women, all of whom died. Todd has never seen a woman when we first meet him. His parents are dead, and he’s been raised by two of their male friends. Todd’s closest friend is his dog, Manchee, with whom goes on walks. In one of his walks, Todd encounters a physical presence: silence – an absence of Noise, a freedom from it. It has a powerful effect on him, and when he goes back to town, he leaks his secret about what he experienced through his Noise. Todd’s adopted parents are scared to death for him and urge him to leave Prentisstown immediately. From reading their Noise, Todd can tell that he is very grave danger. All he’s got is his dog, his knife, and a book of his mother’s which he can barely read. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. 479 p. Candlewick Press: 2008. Booktalk to high school. Virginia Readers' Choice, 2011-2012.

Booktalk: Hold Still by Nina LaCour (Virginia Readers' Choice, 2011-2012)

Ingrid and Caitlin are best friends. Ingrid is really, really obsessed with photography – she’s good at it, too – and she keeps these wonderful, quirky journals which are a composite of her drawings, feelings, and questions. The two are inseparable, and although they have other acquaintances (crushes, friends, etc.), they sort of make up their own world. Caitlin’s the more practical, pragmatic of the two. But then Caitlin’s world changes completely. The worst happens. Ingrid commits suicide.

How do you live your life when your best friend dies? How do you go to school and face the people who knew you primarily as part of a pair? How do you survive? Why do you survive? Now that people just pity you, will anyone your age like you just for you? How do you make sense of the way in which life changes?

There are different ways in which Caitlin survives. Some of these ways she’s aware of, and some she may not be. No one can ever take Ingrid’s place, but there are people out there who are kind, interesting, and forgiving; some of them are well camouflaged, but they’re right there, hiding in plain sight.

The subject matter of this novel may be painful, but it’s a fascinating read, for many reasons. Ingrid foresaw that Caitlin would be alone and in tremendous pain, and she did something really nice for Caitlin to help her. Find out what it was in Hold Still by Nina LaCour.

Hold Still by Nina LaCour. 229 p. Dutton Books: 2009. Virginia Readers’ Choice 2011-2012 for high school. Booktalk to high school. Contains sensitive subject matter.

Booktalk: Marcelo in the Real World (Virginia Readers' Choice, 2011-2012)

If you were to see Marcelo just walking down the street, you wouldn’t think there was anything different or special about him. He’s tall, healthy, dresses normally, and has a summer job working for his dad’s law firm. Normal, right? Well, yes, he is normal. However, he also can hear musically internally in his head (no ipod required), can memorize long passages of scriptures from different traditions, can bond with animals (especially ponies), and has a very hard time figuring out human beings and their motives. Marcelo really wanted to spend his summer working with animals – and he would have – except that his dad, a big shot lawyer, wants Marcelo to experience what life in the “real world” is like. Uh oh, the real world. We know what that’s like, right?

Marcelo has Asperger’s syndrome, which is on the autism spectrum, and he can function pretty well in society, but he’s not as good at reading people. For example, there’s a guy at work, Wendell, who’s a real jerk. Wendell has an agenda, and Marcelo is about to fall victim to it. There’s also a girl at work, Jasmine, who can be pretty tough and blunt but seems to understand and like Marcelo. Wendell has the hots for Jasmine, by the way. Yeah. And perhaps Marcelo does, too, but he’s at a real disadvantage here. You know how it’s hard for Marcelo to figure people out? That means that they can take advantage him: manipulate him, use him, con him. And it’s unfair, because he’s such a cool person, and innocent, too. Will Marcelo be able to figure out people in the “real world” before he gets burned? Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork.

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork. 2009: Scholastic. 312 p. Booktalk to high school. Virginia Readers’ Choice: 2011-2012.

Booktalk: The Red Necklace (Virginia Readers' Choice for 2011-2012)

A good horror movie keeps you on the edge of your seat. Although this book is not a horror movie – in fact, it’s set during the French Revolution – it’s got a character named Count Kalliovski who would fit in fine to any horror movie.

There are signs that the Count is the devil in human form. The count is incredibly wealthy, seems ageless, lends people money, and in exchange, gets their deepest, darkest secrets. In other words, he’s extremely powerful. He can get people to do virtually whatever he wants. His private motto is, “Have no mercy, show no mercy.” This is a dangerous sentiment to have during the French Revolution, a time of great upheaval, violence, murder and instability in France.

And the Count is going after a young gypsy boy named Yann who can read people’s minds. The Count is pretty relentless, too, when he wants someone dead. His victims are found wearing a red necklace which resembles drops of blood. It’s sort of his own personal way of saying, “I did this.” Can the devil be successfully evaded?

The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner. 378 p. Dial Books: 2007. Booktalk to high school. Virginia Readers' Choice for 2011-2012.

Booktalk: The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez (Virginia Readers' Choice for 2011-2012)

Some people are actually really funny when they’re making fun of themselves and their families, and Sonia Rodriguez is no exception. Sonia and her family are Mexican-Americans: in the eyes of the law, Sonia’s here legally, but her parents are not.

Her dad works two (sometimes three) jobs to support the family, and he rarely gets any time off. Sonia’s mom is addicted to sitting on her butt and watching telenovelas; for someone who has been in this country for 16 years, Sonia’s mom speaks virtually no English. Sonia’s a witty, smart, loyal teenager, and like many of us, she has some … interesting … relatives. Her uncle, whom she calls her drunkle, is always drunk and lying around or freaking Sonia out completely. Her aunt is extremely religious and often tells people to their faces that they’re going to hell. This is normal in Sonia’s family.

And family loyalty and discretion – keeping one’s dirty laundry inside the family and not leaking it – are paramount within the family code. The adults in Sonia’s family know this code extremely well. Familia es todo. You protect family members at all costs: right? But Sonia is starting to question this code: find out what her secret is in The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez by Alan Lawrence Sitomer.

The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez by Alan Lawrence Sitomer. Hyperion: 2008. 312 p. Booktalk to high school. Virginia Readers’ Choice 2011-2012.

Booktalk: The Orange Houses (Virginia Readers' Choice for 2011-2012)

There are 7 things I want you to know about Mik, also known as Tamika.

1). When Mik was five, she got meningitis and lost a lot of her hearing. She’s 15 now, and she’s not completely deaf, but deaf enough that she really needs hearing aids.

2). She turns off her hearing aids, which she hates, an awful lot. Especially in school.

3). Mik lives in public housing for the poor, called ‘the orange houses.’ They are jail-like towers. It goes without saying that you have to be tough to live in the orange houses.

4). Mik’s sworn enemy, Shanelle, is a vicious gang leader who’d like to beat the living daylights out of Mik. Shanelle can do it, too, no problem. She’s crazy bad and hates Mik’s guts.

5). Mik has no close friends.

6). Until one day Mik sees a girl wearing a headscarf signing to Mik in sign language. The girl signs, “Hello. Goodbye. I love you.” She hands Mik a paper angel which she has made. Mik is stunned.

7). This girl is just as unique as Mik as.

I’ve given you a little character study on Mik, but there are some other surprising things about her and the other characters which I’ve had to leave out. The Orange Houses by Paul Griffin.

The Orange Houses by Paul Griffin. 147 p. Dial Books, 2009. Booktalk to high school. Virginia Readers’ Choice (h.s.) for 2011-2012.