Friendship

The House of the Scorpion

The House of the Scorpion By Nancy Farmer is about Matthew who is a clone of El Patrón, a powerful drug lord of the land of Opium, which is located between the United States and Mexico. For six years, he has lived in a tiny cottage in the poppy fields with Celia, a kind and deeply religious servant woman who is charged with his care and safety. He knows little about his existence until he is discovered by a group of children playing in the fields and wonders why he isn’t like them. Though Matt has been spared the fate of most clones, who have their intelligence destroyed at birth, the evil inhabitants of El Patrón’s empire consider him a “beast” and an “eejit.” When El Patrón dies at the age of 146, fourteen-year-old Matt escapes Opium with the help of Celia and Tam Lin, his devoted bodyguard who wants to right his own wrongs. After a near misadventure in his escape, Matt makes his way back home and begins to rid the country of its evils.

Inside the Walls of Troy

Helen is renowned as the most beautiful woman in the world. Her divine beauty will lead her to a lifetime of adventure–from her kidnapping at age 12, through an arranged marriage, to a passionate affair that will ultimately bring about the Trojan War. Cassandra, the sister of Helen’s true love, has the gift, or curse, to predict the future. When she foresees the ruin of her family and city, caused by Helen’s arrival in Troy, she is outraged. Yet Cassandra cannot help being drawn to Helen, and as the war rages around them, the two young women develop a deep friendship. Through their eyes, the classic tale of the Trojan War is retold in an immediate and fascinating way.

Mines of the Minotaur

When an unknown entity forces Connie to create destructive storms, the head of the Chartmouth Chapter for the Society for the Protection of Mythical Creatures rescinds Connie’s membership, leaving her on her own to discover what is happening.

The Good Liar

The year is 1940 and France has fallen to the German army. In the village of Mont-Saint-Martin, brothers Pierre, René, and Fat Marcel enjoy an idyllic childhood-stealing berry tarts, playing soldiers, and holding contests to determine who of the three is the biggest and best liar. As the small community, especially its Jewish members, begins to feel the effects of the war, René and Marcel form a warm but secret friendship with one of the German soldiers occupying their village. The boys know no good can come of this friendship, but they don’t realize the extent to which they have put the lives of their family and friends in jeopardy . . . until they discover that they are not the only experts at lying. This poignant and thoughtful story is told in the form of letters to a group of schoolchildren by the now-adult Marcel.  First published in Ireland.

Epic

Generations ago, violence was banned on New Earth. Society is governed and conflicts are resolved in the arena of a fantasy computer game, Epic. Everyone plays. If you win, you have the chance to go to university, get more supplies for your community, and fulfill your dreams; if you lose, your life both in and out of the game is worth nothing. When Erik, seeking revenge for the unjust treatment of his parents, dares to subvert the rules of Epic, he and his friends find themselves up against with the ultimate masters of the game: the Committee. If Erik and his friends win, they may have the key to destroying Epic’s tyranny over New Earth. But if they lose . . .

The Year Nick Mcgowan Came To Stay

Seventeen-year-old Rachel Hill is the girl most likely to succeed. And the girl most likely to have everything under control . . . that is, until her dad invites Nick McGowan, the cutest boy at school, to live with them. Rachel worries that this could only be a recipe for disaster, but her best friend Zoe thinks it’s the perfect opportunity for lurve. Sparks start to fly for all the wrong reasons. Nick finds Rachel spoiled and uptight and Rachel dismisses Nick as lazy and directionless. But a secret from Nick’s past draws them together and makes the year Nick McGowan came to stay one that Rachel will never forget.

Fire Star

In this thrilling final installment of Chris d’Lacey’s popular trilogy, David Rain is faced with a perilous task. ICEFIRE’s evil sibyl Gwilanna is back, this time determined to resurrect the dragon Gawain on the ice cap of the Tooth of Ragnar. Can David and his friends stop her before it’s too late?

Tales from the Waterhole

Morris the crocodile and his best friend, Billy, a tortoise, like nothing better than messing around at the waterhole with their animal friends. In five amusing stories, Morris and company do just what kids do during a hot summer —- perform ill-timed stunts on the diving board, get beaten in soccer by a team of moms, and see their wildebeest friends off on vacation (aka their annual migration). By turns wry and laugh-out-loud funny, Bob Graham’s whimsical waterhole gang pays tribute to the merriment and mishaps of young friendships everywhere.

The Silver Cup

It’s the year 1095, and fifteen-year-old Anna longs for a different life in her small German village. But as the seasons turn, the year proves anything but ordinary. Her beloved youngest cousin disappears, and another cousin, Martin, runs away to join a murderous army of renegade Crusaders. When Anna risks everything to rescue Leah, an orphaned Jewish girl whose only connection to her former life is a silver cup, the two girls forge a friendship that defies the intolerance of their time. Filling her story with fascinating period details, debut novelist Constance Leeds paints a rich, colorful picture of an eleventh-century life marked by courage, will, and most of all-hope.Winner of the 2008 IRA Children’s and Young Adult Book Award in the Intermediate Fiction Category.

Hunted

Brind, who was raised with Sir Edmund’s pack of hunting dogs, is the huntsman of Dowe Manor. Together with his best friend, the mastiff Glaive, and the rest of the pack, he protects Sir Edmund, Lady Beatrice, and their foster daughter, Aurélie. But suddenly a tragedy strikes, one that Brind cannot prevent. In a fit of grief, Sir Edmund throws Brind, Glaive, and Aurélie—and her puppy, Gabion—out of the manor. Everywhere they turn, the vicious and lethal Black Death closely follows, as though they are bringing it with them. Can they evade this invisible enemy, as well as the angry mobs, the rogue soldiers, and the other sinister figures now threatening them? Glaive and Gabion—born to hunt, not to be hunted—may be their only chance for survival. Plague-bringers or not, Brind and Aurélie will never stop fighting to keep themselves—and their small family—alive.