Young Adult (ages 14-18)

Material appropriate for young adults

The Science of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials

Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy is renowned for its mystery and magic. What’s the truth behind it all? Is the golden compass actually based in science? How does the subtle knife cut through anything? Could there be a bomb like the one made with Lyra’s hair? How do the Gallivespians’ lodestone resonators really work? And, of course, what are the Dark Materials? Drawing on string theory and spacetime, quantum physics and chaos theory, award-winning science writers Mary and John Gribbin reveal the real science behind Philip Pullman’s bestselling fantasy trilogy in entertaining and crystal-clear prose.

You & You & You

Anon is a twelve-year-old loner. Zarah is a beautiful seventeen-year-old caught up in a sexual relationship. Nils is a twenty-year-old college student searching for the meaning of life and death. Each character’s obsessive fantasy overwhelms their everyday lives.These three are catalysts in each others’ lives and when they finally meet, each begins to draw the others into the real world, but things are still left uncertain at the end of the novel.

Feed the Children First: Irish Memories of the Great Hunger

The great Irish potato famine — the Great Hunger — was one of the worst disasters of the nineteenth century. Within seven years of the onset of a fungus that wiped out Ireland’s staple potato crop, more than a quarter of the country’s eight million people had either starved to death, died of disease, or emigrated to other lands. Photographs have documented the horrors of other cataclysmic times in history, but there are no known photographs of the Great Hunger. Mary E. Lyons combines first-person accounts of those who remembered the Great Hunger with artwork that evokes the times and places and voices themselves. The result is a close-up look at incredible suffering, but also a celebration of joy the Irish took in stories and music and helping one another — all factors that helped them endure.

Angel Isle

Once the 24 most powerful magicians in the Empire pledged to use their magic only to protect the people. But the promise that bound them has now corrupted them. They have become a single terrible entity with a limitless desire for domination. Only the Ropemaker may be able to stop them, but he has not been seen for over 200 years. Into this dangerous world come Saranja, Maja, and Ribek. They seek the Ropemaker so that he might restore the ancient magic that protects their valley.

Being

It was just supposed to be a routine exam. But when the doctors snake the fiber-optic tube down Robert Smith’s throat, what they discover doesn’t make medical sense. Plastic casings. Silver filaments. Moving metal parts. In his naked, anesthetized state on the operating table, Robert hears the surgeons’ shocked comments: “What the hell is that?” “It’s me,” Robert thinks, “and I’ve got to get out of here.” Armed with a stolen automatic and the videotape of his strange organs, he manages to escape, and to embark on an orphan’s violent odyssey to find out exactly who–exactly what–he is.

Born For Adventure

When young Tom Ormsby cons his way onto the great explorer Henry Morton Stanley’s “Relief of Emin Pasha Expedition” in 1887, he’s looking for adventure. But he has no idea what lies ahead of him. From the exotic bazaars of Zanzibar to the mouth of the Congo River and beyond, Tom soon learns he’s signed on for more than the rescue of the mysterious Pasha. He’s on a journey through the ravishing beauty and brutality of a jungle world peopled by slavers, warring tribes, cannibals, and colonial masters – all jockeying for survival in 19th-century Africa. As Karr follows Tom’s remarkable three-year trek, she raised some provocative questions about slavery, the right of one country to impose its cultural imperatives on another, and the arrogance that can prevent a man from achieving his ultimate goal. Startling, scary, and surprising, this true story takes the reader deep into the heart of the African past.

Dingo

High school senior Miguel’s life is turned upside down when he meets new girl Lainey, whose family has just moved from Australia. With her tumbled red-gold hair, her instant understanding of who he is, and her unusual dog—a real Australian dingo—she’s unforgettable. And, as he quickly learns, she is on the run from an ancient bargain made by her ancestors. There’s no question that Miguel will do whatever he can to help her—but what price will each of them have to pay? Dingo is quintessential Charles de Lint, set close to his beloved, invented city of Newford—a mixture of darkness and hope, humor and mystery, and the friendship within love.

Frozen Fire

A paranormal thriller from Carnegie Medal–winner Tim Bowler! It starts with a phone call. “I’m dying,” a voice tells Dusty. Who is he and how has he gotten her cell number? Dusty wants no part of this strange boy . . . until he begins saying things that only someone who knows her intimately could say—things that lead her to think he knows the whereabouts of her brother, who disappeared over a year ago. Suddenly drawn in, Dusty very much wants to save this boy. Trouble is, she cannot find him. Part human, part spirit, he won’t let himself be found. He is too dangerous, he says. There are mobs of people who agree and who want to see this boy dead . . . and who will hurt anyone who stands in their way. A gripping, hair-raising mystery about a boy not of this world, and a girl determined to protect him.