Say her name
by James Dawson
Language: English
London : Hot Key Books, 2014.
284 p. ; 20 cm.
ISBN: 9781471402449 ; 1471402444
Summary: Roberta 'Bobbie' Rowe is not the kind of person who believes in ghosts. A Halloween dare at her ridiculously spooky boarding school is no big deal, especially when her best friend Naya and cute local boy Caine agree to join in too. They are ordered to summon the legendary ghost of 'Bloody Mary': say her name five times in front of a candlelit mirror, and she shall appear...But, surprise surprise, nothing happens. Or does it? Next morning, Bobbie finds a message on her bathroom mirror...five days...but what does it mean? And who left it there? Things get increasingly weird and more terrifying for Bobbie and Naya, until it becomes all too clear that Bloody Mary was indeed called from the afterlife that night, and she is definitely not a friendly ghost. Bobbie, Naya and Caine are now in a race against time before their five days are up and Mary comes for them, as she has come for countless others before...This is a truly spine-chilling yet witty horror from shortlisted 'Queen of Teen' author James Dawson.
Available: http://www.amazon.com/Say-Her-Name-James-Dawson/dp/1471402444
Diary Of A Teen Prodigy: The College Life - Taming The Golden Boys: Volume 3
by Alm Hlgh
Language: English
Summary: I am a normal 15 year old girl entrapped with a mind comparative to Einstein with a fondness and flair for fighting. I think someone described me as the great-granddaughter of Al Capone and Albert Einstein? Yup that’s me. Daisy (that’s my mom) wasn’t fond of traditional marriage and relationships just weren’t working for her, so she decided to pay a visit to a sperm bank; only it wasn’t a regular sperm bank. It was a repository made up of strictly sperm that had been donated by Nobel Prize Laureates and thus I was born: Nevada Tate child prodigy and martial arts extraordinaire.
Available: http://www.publicbookshelf.com/contemporary/teen-prodigy/
Flawless
by Lara Chapman
Language: English
New York : Bloomsbury, 2011.
258 pages ; 22 cm.
ISBN: 9781599905969 1599905965
Summary: In this modern take on the Cyrano story, brilliant and witty high school student Sarah Burke, who is cursed with an enormous nose, helps her beautiful best friend try to win the heart of a handsome and smart new student, even though Sarah wants him for herself.
Available: http://www.amazon.com/Flawless-Lara-Chapman/dp/1599905965
Chromo kids
by Lynsey Lore
Language: English
Summary: This is a brief description of some of the thoughts that go through the mind of someone who found out that they weren't traditionally conceived, but rather are a product of a fertility clinic and a sperm donation.
Available: http://www.amazon.com/Chromo-Kids-Lynsey-Lore-ebook/dp/B00UJGSZIO
Archie Nolan: family detective
by Beverley Ward
Language: English
DC Network, 2015.
p. ; cm.
ISBN:
Summary: Science geek Archie Nolan tries to keep a low profile, but when his class are told to research their family tree, he is terrified twin sister and school swot Jemima is going to reveal that they are donor conceived. Archie’s in turmoil. The only person who understands is his donor conceived friend Cameron, but he seems to have unearthed a village vampire…..and Archie's far more interested in investigating that!
Available: http://www.dcnetwork.org/products/product/archie-nolan-family-detective-story-8-12yr-olds
Silence is Goldfish
by Annabel Pitcher
Language: English
London : Indigo , 2015.
384 p. ; 216 x 135mm
ISBN: 9781510100435 1510100431
Summary: What happens to a fifteen-year-old girl when she finds out for the first time that her own father feels revulsion toward her, finds her peculiar, and doesn't even consider her to be his daughter? That's what Tess discovers one night when, during an emergency, she had to go to the nearest computer in the house to find out how to put out a kitchen fire. Glancing at what her father had on the screen, she discovers a blog post he wrote for the Donor Conception Network, where he admits to not loving the "ugly red thing gnawing" at his wife's breast on his daughter's first day of life. This is how in fact Tess discovers that she was actually conceived via sperm donor, and that the only father she has ever known is not really her father. This truth completely unmoors her. At first Tess runs away from home, but decides against it after four hours on her own in the middle of the night, only to wonder how she is to live with this man and this new knowledge. She returns home but within 24 hours, Tess becomes mute as a protest against her parents for a lifetime of lies. The book is told in the first person and though mute, Tess has a lot to say, but all of the dialogue stays in her head as she communicates only with a plastic goldfish she bought when she ran away and that she now keeps in her pocket. Meanwhile, finding out the truth about her conception is just one of her problems. Tess is brutally bullied both online and at school for being fat and for her large frame, which she now knows she mustn't have gotten from her father, and she loses her best friend when she can no longer confide in her about what she found out on her father's computer that night. Tess also becomes fixated on the substitute math teacher who has the same blonde hair, brown eyes, and fat fingers that she has. Convinced they share the same DNA, she becomes obsessed with learning more about him, and what she does is so shocking that it finally leads her out of her mutism. This book explores what happens when parents keep the truth from their children in cases where they had to use donor sperm to conceive. It is not so much this fact that causes Tess's problems as much as it is the fact that the truth has been kept from her her entire life. Except for scenes of cruel bullying, there is no violence, sex, or foul language in this book. Recommended for ages 12 and up.
Available: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silence-Goldfish-Annabel-Pitcher/dp/1780620004
I heart robot
by Suzanne Van Rooyen
Language: English
Month9Books, LLC, [2014] ©2014.
ISBN: 9781942664109 ; 1942664109
Summary: Sixteen-year-old Tyri wants to be a musician and wants to be with someone who won't belittle her musical aspirations. Q-I-99 aka 'Quinn' lives in a scrap metal sanctuary with other rogue droids. While some use violence to make their voices heard, demanding equal rights for AI enhanced robots, Quinn just wants a moment on stage with his violin to show the humans that androids like him have more to offer than their processing power. Tyri and Quinn's worlds collide when they're accepted by the Baldur Junior Philharmonic Orchestra. As the rift between robots and humans deepens, Tyri and Quinn's love of music brings them closer together, making Tyri question where her loyalties lie and Quinn question his place in the world. With the city on the brink of civil war, Tyri and Quinn make a shocking discovery that turns their world inside out. Will their passion for music be enough to hold them together while everything else crumbles down around them, or will the truth of who they are tear them apart?
Available: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0692337334?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_2&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
Spirit level
by Sarah N. Harvey
Language: English
Victoria, British Columbia : Orca Book Publishers, 2016.
233 pages ; 21 cm.
ISBN: 9781459808164 ; 1459808169
Summary: An only child, Harriet (also known as Harry), has also never had a dad. Born to a “single mother by choice,” she was donor-conceived because her mother always wanted a child but did not want a relationship. This Harriet has always known. Never having been even slightly curious to find out if she had any donor siblings or even to try to contact her donor father, Harriet, now in high school, comes across a magazine article one day about a guy who sired 500 kids through sperm donation. It suddenly occurs to Harriet that she could be one of his kids. Having known about the Donor Sibling Registry, a service that matches donors, offspring, and siblings, since “before she could read” (because her mother purchased a lifetime membership when Harriet was young), Harriet decides to finally take a look to see if she has any half-siblings. She registers her information on the DSR and when she begins to receive emails from some of her half-siblings, she is excited to meet them, especially fifteen-year-old Lucy who also lives in Seattle and who, being the child of two moms, has also always known she was donor-conceived. One other half-sibling ends up in the picture though and that is eighteen-year-old Meredith who has come all the way to Seattle from Missoula, Montana in search of her sperm donor father. She has a hunch he is still in the city in which he donated sperm and she is hell-bent on finding him and she wants Lucy and Harriet to experience the quest with her. But Lucy and Harriet are not ready to find (or meet) their sperm donor father, instead content with having just met each other. Tensions begin to build between Harriet and Meredith, especially when Meredith’s best friend Alex, who has left Montana to accompany Meredith on her journey, starts to like Harriet and the two develop a relationship outside of the one each has with Meredith. When Meredith, despite being Harriet’s “sister” catches wind of Harriet's budding relationship with her best friend Alex, she takes out her jealousy on Harriet physically, landing Harriet severely hurt. It turns out that Meredith is deeply troubled, mostly because of the fact that, unlike Harriet and Lucy who have always known, she did not find out that she was donor-conceived until she was twelve years old. Feeling betrayed and lied to by her parents, she is profoundly hurt and acutely angry and now feels betrayed again by her half-sister Harriet. Is it better to have always known, like Harriet and Lucy have? Is it not painful to find out later in life that you are donor-conceived and that the father you always thought was your father was not your father at all? These are just some of the issues explored in this novel. There is no sex, violence, or foul language used in the book and it is recommended for ages twelve and up.
Subject headings:
- Children of sperm donors -- Juvenile fiction
- Seattle (Wash.) -- Juvenile fiction
- Sisters -- Juvenile fiction
Available: http://www.orcabook.com/Spirit-Level-P1091.aspx
A big dose of lucky
by Marthe Jocelyn
Language: English
Victoria, British Columbia : Orca Book Publishers, 2015.
249 pages ; 21 cm.
ISBN: 9781459806689 ; 1459806689
Summary: Since she was a day old, the only world Malou Gillis has ever known is the 16 years she spent living in the Benevolent Home. When a fire breaks out one night, completely burning the home to the ground, Malou is told it is time for her and all the other teenage girls living there to leave to make their way in the world. Before she goes though, Mrs. Hazelton gives Malou two clues to her past - a baby bracelet with the words "Baby Fox" inscribed on it and the town of Parry Sound, about 5 hours from the orphanage where she grew up. Having nothing except the $138.00 that was given to her, Malou sets off to see if she can find out who her parents are. A series of unusual coincidences lead her to a job at the hospital where she is pretty sure she was born, a piece of paper with seven names on it, which she finds in the hospital's record room, one of whom she suspects is her mother's, and an encounter with several young people who all share her brown skin color. But it isn't until Malou shows up in town that they will all learn how they are connected. It turns out they were all donor-conceived at that same hospital. Does that mean they are all siblings and that Malou was donor-conceived as well? And if so, how do two parents go through all that trouble to have a baby only for that baby to end up in an orphanage? Except for one graphic description of how exactly men make deposits in the case of sperm donation, there is no sex, violence, or foul language in this book. Recommended for ages 12 and up.
Available: http://www.amazon.com/A-Big-Dose-Lucky-Secrets/dp/1459806689
How I fell in love & learned to shoot free throws
by Jon Ripslinger
Language: English
Brookfield, Conn. : Roaring Brook Press, ©2003.
170 pages ; 22 cm.
ISBN: 0761327479 ; 9780761327479
Summary: Seventeen-year-old Danny Henderson, an indifferent basketball player, has his eye on Angel McPherson, star of the girls' team in their Iowa high school.
Available: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0761318925/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Sorta like a rock star : a novel
by Matthew Quick
Language: English
New York : Little, Brown, 2010.
355 p. ; 22 cm.
ISBN: 9780316043526 ; 0316043524
Summary: Although seventeen-year-old Amber Appleton is homeless, living in a school bus with her unfit mother, she is a relentless optimist who visits the elderly at a nursing home, teaches English to Korean Catholic women with the use of rhythm and blues music, and befriends a solitary Vietnam veteran and his dog, but eventually she experiences one burden more than she can bear and slips into a deep depression.
Available: http://www.amazon.com/Sorta-Like-Rock-Matthew-Quick/dp/0316043532/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1431256509&sr=8-1&keywords=sorta+like+a+rock+star
The friendship riddle
by Megan Frazer Blakemore
Language: English
New York : Bloomsbury, 2015.
368 p.
ISBN: 9781619636309 ; 1619636301
Summary: With nods to classic fantasy expertly woven into this surprising and emotionally-charged journey through the ups and downs of middle school, Megan Frazer Blakemore proves that even the bravest heroes need true friends by their side.
Ruth Mudd-O'Flaherty has been a lone wolf at her new middle school ever since her best friend, Charlotte, ditched her for "cooler" friends. Who needs friends when you have fantasy novels? Roaming the stacks of her town's library is enough for Ruth. Until she finds a note in an old book...and in that note is a riddle, one that Ruth can't solve alone. With a tantalizing set of clues before her, Ruth must admit she needs help, the kind that usually comes from friends. Lena and Coco, two kids in her class could be an option, but allowing them in will require courage, and Ruth must decide: Is embarking on this quest worth opening herself up again?
Available: http://www.amazon.com/Friendship-Riddle-Megan-Frazer-Blakemore/dp/1619636301
Whose Eyes are These?
by Marcia Byalick
Language: English
Black Rose Writing, 2015.
118 p.
ISBN: 161296463X ; 9781612964638
Summary: Sloane, the best hip hop dancer in Lakeview Middle School, discovers her dad is not her biological father after he's diagnosed with leukemia, and doctors hopscotch over her to get the compatible, life-saving bone marrow he needs from her eight-year-old sister. The fallout from this news... anger at her parents for their secrecy, jealousy toward Emma, (their "real" child)... and most of all, intense curiosity about the mystery man responsible for her blue eyes... leads Sloane to make questionable alliances and take uncomfortable risks. Sloane's unhappiness infects how she handles the job she's most proud of... choreographer of the seventh grade talent show. As she figures out exactly how important what's inherited is in creating who she is, she moves from assigning blame and regains confidence in her role as a daughter. Along the way she gains a better understanding of forgiveness, loyalty and the unbreakable bonds of love.
Available: http://www.amazon.com/Whose-Eyes-These-Marcia-Byalick/dp/161296463X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425559653&sr=8-1&keywords=marcia+byalick
