Although he is afraid of Andrew Aldie, twelve-year-old Chris Cooper agrees to help his friend Finn Lochlan look for a way to stop Andrew’s father from opening a gravel pit near their Scottish village.
Realistic Fiction
Realistic Fiction genre
Jack Tumor
Hector is being hectored by an unlikely bully: a talking brain tumor. And it’s not just a talking brain tumor. It’s a know-it-all, pain-in-the-arse, jibber-jabbering brain tumor that names itself Jack, and insists on coaching Hector through life even as it’s threatening to take his life away. It’s a pretty good coach, actually. With Jack in control of Hector’s speech and brain chemicals, Hector suddenly finds himself with a cool haircut, a new fashion sense, and tactics for snogging previously unattainable hottie Uma Upshaw. But when Jack begins to force increasingly questionable decisions and behavior, Hector has to find a way to turn the tables – before it’s too late for both of them. Delightfully twisted, desperately funny, and deeply moving, this novel is also the winner of the Booktrust Teenage Prize in the United Kingdom.
Gangsta Rap
School, what school? My name is X-Ray-X So be careful how you flex I used to freestyle in me bedroom But me daddy got me vex The teacher kicked me out of the classroom Now I’m rapping in The Rex.
Ray has trouble at home and trouble at school. It’s the last straw for everyone when Ray and his friends Prem and Tyrone are permanently suspended. But they know what they want, more than most, perhaps. Their headmaster decides to give them a second chance, a chance to live their dream of forming a rap group. Through a specialized social program, the boys are taught the business of the music industry, what it takes to record an album, and how to lay down a track. Within weeks they have become the Positive Negatives, and within a few months they have signed a record deal and are on their way to the top. But their dream soon becomes a nightmare as violence escalates around them. Suddenly, not only their careers but their very lives are at stake. The Positive Negatives are determined to prove that you don’t need to be a gangster to be a great rapper.
Teen’s Top 10 (Awards)
In Spite Of Killer Bees
In Spite of Killer Bees is a novel about not giving in and not giving up. Aggie and her two sisters have had to move to the small village that had been their father’s childhood home. Their mother is long gone, and their father – who’d been in and out of prison – has died. Although the village holds little charm for the girls, they have hopes. It seems that their late grandfather has made them heiresses.In the small, judgmental village, Aggie must fight to keep her diminishing family together. By refusing to abandon those she loves and comes to love, she risks more than her happiness.
What About Anna?
In Belgium in 1999, upon learning that her brother who was reported killed by a landmine in Bosnia may still be alive, sixteen-year-old Anna resents that she is the only one strong enough to try to uncover the truth.
Celebrating the Hero
Camilia Draper, an American teenager still feeling guilt and loss about her mother’s death, travels to her mother’s birthplace in Colombia for a ceremony celebrating her famous grandfather, about whom she will learn some disquieting and revelatory facts.
Against the Storm
When Mehmet and his family leave their small Turkish village to seek a better life in Ankara, they find themselves living in poverty, but an encounter with a streetwise orphan and his own determination give Mehmet the courage to find a way out.
The Snake-Stone
Fifteen-year-old James, a championship diver, finds himself torn between his dreams of Olympic glory, his love for his adoptive parents, and his desperate need to find his birth mother.
Ways to Live Forever
1. My name is Sam. 2. I am eleven years old. 3. I collect stories and fantastic facts. 4. I have leukemia. 5. By the time you read this, I will probably be dead. Living through the final stages of leukemia, Sam collects stories, questions, lists, and pictures that create a profoundly moving portrait of how a boy lives when he knows his time is almost up.
Dolphin Song
Martine is just getting used to her new life on the game reserve with her grandmother and the white giraffe, Jemmy, when she must go away. Her class is going on a trip—an ocean voyage to watch the sardine run, a spectacular natural phenomenon off the coast of South Africa. But the exciting adventure takes a dramatic turn when Martine and several of her classmates are thrown overboard into shark-infested waters! They are saved by a pod of dolphins and end up marooned on a deserted island. Now the castaways must learn to work together, not only to survive but to help the dolphins who are now in peril.