Weekend Reads

Bystander by James Preller

Bystander begins with the protagonist, Eric Hayes, shooting a basketball by himself. He's the new kid - he and his mom just moved from Ohio to Long Island, NY - and he doesn't know anyone yet. He certainly doesn't know the name of the kid who comes running across the playground. This kid - curly-haired, not very athletic - is running for his life. When Eric looks more closely, he's covered in something dark red, and his clothes are torn. When the kid gets close enough, Eric asks him if it's blood, but the kid can't even respond to him before he takes off again. Moments later, four kids (Eric calls them the "hunters") come from the same direction as the boy. When Eric meets the "hunters" (all fellow seventh graders), he realizes that he can either make nice to make his life easier or take the hard road. But Eric learns that even taking the easy way out can have consequences.

Find it in F PRE

Taking Flight by Michaela DePrince

Born in Sierra Leone and orphaned at a young age, Michaela DePrince knows adversity. But it's also where she first fell in love with ballerinas. One day, while looking through the gate of her orphanage out to the town, a magazine came blowing across the street and hit her in the face. On the cover of that magazine was a white woman (which she'd never seen before) dressed in a tutu. DrPrince became obsessed with ballet. She loved to dance, and wanted to dance on her tippy-toes just like the woman on the magazine. Ballet became her life, and the difficulties she faced as a young child fed her passion. DePrince's story is at times heart-wrenching, but is always inspiring.

You can find it in nonfiction under 792.80 DEP

Guys Read: True Stories edited by Jon Scieszka

Sometimes a novel is just too long. Short stories can be a nice break from following the long plots and many characters a novel tends to present. Guys Read: True Stories is an especially enjoyable collection as the stories are "100% amazing, 100% adventurous, 100% unbelievable - and 100% true". Each story is written by a different author, and recalls real life events and situations that seem unbelieveable but aren't. Even better, the stories are told in a variety of formats - essays, graphic novellas and poetry can all be found within these pages. If you are looking to read about some crazy things that actually happened to real people, check out Guys Read: True stories!

You can find it in nonfiction under 818.60 SCI