March Madness is in full swing, and there are only four teams left in the NCAA basketball championship. The heavily-favored Michigan Spartans meet the Troy Trojans first game in the semifinals.
Malcolm wants to get to the NBA ASAP. Roko wants to be the pride of his native Croatia. Crispin wants the girl of his dreams. M.J. just wants a chance. Four players with one thing in common: the will to win.
“Moon smoke so thick around me, like a blanket, like an arm…and me there on the ground in the bright morning, staring out through it—not knowing anything else anymore but this new thing, this wanting nothing, needing nothing, feeling nothing…but moon.”
Laurel has begun a new life since Hurricane Katrina--new friends, a spot on the cheerleading squad, a boyfriend who is co-captain of the basketball team. Then her boyfriend introduces her to meth, and Laurel loves how it makes her forget the sadness of losing her mother and grandmother to Katrina. Her friend Kaylee and a street artist named Moses try to help her, “but the moon’s pull is strong.” (from www.Readingrants.org ; 4/23/2012)
The son of a Vietnamese woman and an American
soldier, Matt was airlifted out of Vietnam
and adopted by a loving American family. The star of his school baseball team,
Matt is still haunted by memories of bombs and bodies; memories of the younger
brother who “followed him everywhere and follows him still.” (paraphrased from
book jacket.)
Fifteen-year-old Billy Ballard is the kid everyone picks on. But when he is made to stand in as Pestilence, the White Rider of the Apocalypse, Billy lashes out at his tormentors...and accidentally causes an outbreak of meningitis. To remedy the situation, Billy must track down the real White Rider, and stop him from unleashing something worse—something that could make the Black Plague look like a summer cold. Does one bullied teenager have the strength to stand his ground—and the courage to save the world? (Paraphrased from the book cover)
“Cecily’s father [is] moving them to occupied Wales, where the
king needs good strong Englishmen to keep down the vicious Welshmen. At least Cecily will finally be the lady of the house.
Gwenhwyfar once dreamed of being the lady there herself, until the English destroyed the lives of everyone she knows. Now she must wait hand and foot on this bratty English girl.
While Cecily struggles to find her place amongst the snobby English landowners, Gwenhwyfar struggles just to survive. And outside the city walls, tensions are rising ever higher—until finally they must reach the breaking point.” (from Amazon.com ;4/23/2012)
“The proud possessor of possibly the worst case of bedhead in history, Albert Einstein was not a conventional scientist. He rarely did experiments to back up his theories and had trouble working out mathematical proofs. What he excelled at was thinking, and by endlessly pondering what he called “thought experiments”, he managed to lay bare the limits of Newtonian physics and bring about a new understanding of “givens” such as time and space. The author’s use of imagery, like Einstein's own thought pictures, gives readers a reasonable idea of his theorems. The final chapter explains why he was important, and how modern experiments continue to prove his theories.” (from the book jacket and Amazon.com ; 4/23/2012)
"Explorer: The Mystery Boxes
is a collection of graphic stories, each featuring a mysterious box that changes the
life of the person who handles it. [The stories are] bittersweet, hopeful,
charming, and creepy.
- A girl finds a box with a wax doll inside. But while the doll initially helps
her with her chores, it also begins to cause trouble... and refuses to leave.
- Oliver finds a strange puzzle box -- and is immediately swamped
by greedy wizards who want to buy it from him. However, Oliver has his own
plans for the box.
- A young treasure-hunter ventures into a vast labyrinth, and finds a mysterious box with the help of a horned creature.
What is inside? And can it match the horned creature's dreams?
- After her grandmother claims to have caught a butter-stealing spirit in a
box, a curious girl digs it up and checks inside... and ends up being
transformed into a teeny-tiny spirit herself. How can she get back?
-
Clara sets out for vengeance against the man who killed her father. But when
she meets a stranger with a glowing box, she learns the true price of war.
- Alien worker Deets is assigned to organize thousands of boxes... only to
discover that something very destructive is inside one. Will it ever come in
handy?
- While James is hiking, he is drawn up into a vast floating box. Inside, an
alien tells him that the Earth is doomed, and that he has been chosen out of
all humans to be taken to another world.” (from Amazon.com ; 4/23/2012)
“This book
describes the Japanese nuclear disaster of March 2011, explaining the basics of
reactor science and technology so readers can understand what went wrong at the
Fukushima plant. The text explores the risks and benefits of nuclear power in
comparison with other means of generating electricity.” (from Amazon.com ; 4/23/2012)
