Theme: Self-Discovery

Carpe Diem

By Yoo Kyung Sung | Published: December 1, 2008

16-year-old overachiever Vassar Spore, daughter of overachiever parents, who in true overachiever fashion named her after an elite women’s college. Vassar expects her sophomore summer to include AP and AAP (Advanced Advanced Placement) classes. Enter a world-traveling relative who sends her plans into a tailspin when she blackmails Vassar’s parents into forcing their only child [...]

Descriptors: Asia, Cambodia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Realistic Fiction, Young Adult (ages 14-18) » Other Themes: , , , , , , , » Leave a comment

Emily Goldberg Learns to Salsa

By Yoo Kyung Sung | Published: December 1, 2008

Emily is a Jewish girl from the suburbs of New York, end of story. Her mother has family in Puerto Rico, but Emily has never had any contact with them–not until she’s forced to go to the Caribbean for her grandmother’s funeral. Pampered Emily wants nothing to do with her Puerto Rican heritage– until a [...]

Descriptors: Puerto Rico, Realistic Fiction, United States of America, Young Adult (ages 14-18) » Other Themes: , , , , , , » 1 Comment

Looking for X

By Rebecca Ballenger | Published: October 29, 2008

Smart and independent, 11-year-old Khyber lives with her mom, Tammy, a former stripper, and her autistic twin brothers in a poor Toronto neighborhood. Though she doesn’t have a lot in common with her classmates, Khyber does have wonderfully eccentric friends: Valerie, Toronto’s meanest waitress, and X, a homeless woman in hiding from “the secret police.” [...]

Descriptors: Canada, Intermediate (ages 9-14), Realistic Fiction » Other Themes: , , , , » Leave a comment

Notes from the Teenage Underground

By Rebecca Ballenger | Published: October 29, 2008

Seventeen-year-old Gem loves movies, her feminist mom, and Dodgy, her coworker in a video store (at least she thinks she loves Dodgy).  When a school trip inspires Gem to make an underground film, her best friends Lo and Mira are quick to join the project, taking on the roles of producer and star. The film [...]

Descriptors: Australia, Realistic Fiction, Young Adult (ages 14-18) » Other Themes: , , , » Leave a comment

Half Of An Elephant

By Yoo Kyung Sung | Published: June 13, 2007

One night, all of a sudden, the world split in two. An elephant woke up to find that half of him was missing. So he set off to look for it.

Descriptors: Americas, Fantasy, Mexico, Primary (ages 6-9) » Other Themes: » Comments closed