Tag Archives: High school

by | August 26, 2011 · 4:29 pm

Steve Watkins. What Comes After. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2011.

Iris Wight knew that moving to Craven County, North Carolina, from her lifelong home in Maine would come with many changes, but she had no choice. Her father had just passed away, and her best friend’s family who was supposed to take care of the sixteen year old backed out of their promise. Iris’s only option was to start over in a new land where she would stand out with her Northern accent, attend a high school that did not offer the AP (Advanced Placement) classes she was used to, and would be without the comfort of her best friend and softball teammates.

What Iris could not have anticipated, though, was just how different her life in Craven County would be. Her Aunt Sue and cousin Book, both of whom she met briefly as a young child, do not welcome her with open arms (although Aunt Sue is more than happy to take Iris’s inheritance). Instead, they treat her as if she is a nuisance and give her the chores of milking the goats and pasteurizing the milk for cheese that will be sold at the farmers market. Iris does not mind these responsibilities; playing with the goats is the only form of warmth she receives in North Carolina. The way Aunt Sue and Book treat the farm animals and the family dog, however, deeply troubles Iris. Their cruelties are in stark contrast to the way her veterinarian father taught her. When she tries to protect the four-legged friends she has grown to adore, Aunt Sue and Book beat her. This violent act puts Iris in the hospital, then into foster care, and Aunt Sue and Book in jail. Over the next few months, Iris must prove to herself and to others that she is worthy of independence, trust, and affection.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2010-2019, 2011, Children & Young Adults, Coast, Craven, Watkins, Steve

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by | August 4, 2011 · 5:13 pm

Therese Fowler. Exposure. New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 2011.

Therese Fowler’s powerful novel, based loosely on the real-life experiences of one of her children, reminds us of the horrifying way that a community can lose its head. The story begins simply: Amelia Wilkes and Anthony Winter are in love. She is 17, he is 18, and together they have built a fairytale world of their entwined dreams. Together they will attend NYU’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, living together in an apartment in New York City, and starring together on Broadway. Always together. But Amelia’s father, Harlan Wilkes, has different plans. Having clawed his way from the very bottom of life to the very top, he is as determined as any loving father would be to see that his precious baby, his little girl, never has to experience the poverty and deprivation that was once his lot. She will attend Duke University, only a few miles from the Wilkes’ Raleigh mansion, where she will major in something financially sound. One day, far off in the future, she will marry a wealthy, charming husband who will take care of her for the rest of her life.

Then, in a moment, that vision shatters when he finds nude photographs of an unknown young man on her computer.

What follows is a tragedy, and very nearly worse, in the most heart-stopping of ways. With a deft hand and the voice of personal experience, Fowler explores the depth of emotion and consequences that occur when two teenagers are publicly criminalized nearly beyond recognition. This novel does, and should, provoke conversations about the abuse of justice, the power of fear, and the difficulty of allowing a child to become an adult in a society that is both predatory and cruel. Therese Fowler’s novel suggests that, while placing trust in an adolescent to choose rightly is terrifying, withholding that trust can be more damaging than we think.

Check for this title’s availability in the UNC Chapel Hill Library’s catalog.

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Filed under 2010-2019, 2011, Fowler, Therese, Piedmont, Romance/Relationship, Wake

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by | June 29, 2011 · 10:46 am

Frances O’Roark Dowell. Ten Miles Past Normal. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2011.

High school is a period of change – awkward, confusing change.  Most people hope to fit in and to just be normal, a desire that Janie Gorman knows all too well.  As the resident “Farm Girl” of Manneville High School, Janie’s debut to the ninth grade comes with a reputation for having hay stuck in her hair and the smell of goat dung on her shoes (cute ballet flats, unfortunately).  Living on a farm used to be cool, but now most people would rather Janie stay far away.  To make matters worse, no one in her circle of friends has the same lunch as she does, so Janie ends up spending the lunch period in the library.  She has never felt so lonely and confused.

Fortunately, Janie is still best friends with Sarah, and they share everything together – encouragement in this new phase of their lives, a crush on Jeremy Fitch, and a project for their “Great Girls and Women” class.  The project, which focuses on inspirational female figures, introduces the girls to Manneville history.  During the 1960s, three local citizens established a Freedom School that taught individuals how to read and write so that they could vote.  This act was extremely dangerous but also incredibly meaningful, and it inspires Janie and Sarah.  Janie realizes that being called “Farm Girl” is better than other names.  In the meantime, she makes friends with some unlikely schoolmates, finds that Jeremy Fitch is not Prince Charming, and even gets thrown in jail.  No, Janie’s nowhere near normal – she’s extraordinary!

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2010-2019, 2011, Children & Young Adults, Dowell, Frances O'Roark, Novels Set in Fictional Places, Piedmont

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by | May 6, 2011 · 10:40 am

Big Adam. Kill. New York: iUniverse, 2007.

Most teenagers who have grown up in a small community dream of moving away and seeing the world. Leaving rural Cherokee in western North Carolina is all that Amy, Carmen, Fred, Jason, and Mike think about. In a few months they will graduate from high school, move west, and leave their parents’ strict rules behind.

This desire becomes more of a reality when Mike reveals to the group that he is the sole beneficiary of a friend’s life insurance policy. If they agree to help him murder Joseph, a youth pastor, Mike will split the $50,000 policy with his accomplices. Although the two were close when Mike was a freshman and Joseph was a senior, they eventually went their separate ways. Mike resents Joseph’s encouragement to live a Christian life. Seeing this as their best way out, Mike’s friends eagerly agree to assist him. Carmen, an atheist, dislikes Joseph for pushing his views on others; Amy, Mike’s girlfriend, only wants to please him; and Fred and Jason are simply bored and looking for action. They meticulously plan the brutal torture that they will commit, buying weapons and staking out an appropriate place. They also prepare a camera so that they can record the horrific scene.

Although the group feels pleased in the days after the attack, their scheme soon begins to unravel. They learn that upon becoming engaged, Joseph removed Mike’s name from his policy; the murder was in vain. A classmate inadvertently witnessed the crime. And Amy’s mother found the tape that documented the gruesome episode and she turned it into the police. The pressure of these developments lead the five begin to turn against each other. As the cops close in on them, it becomes clear that more than one life was ruined as a result of their plot.

The torture scene, described a few different times throughout the novel, is especially graphic.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2007, Big Adam, Mountains, Suspense/Thriller, Swain

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by | December 14, 2010 · 3:00 pm

Roger Saltsman. Agony Hill. Bloomington, IN: Authorhouse, 2009.

Running is Eric Roberts’ passion. He admires runners, enjoys the sport, and excels to the point of setting records in his Brevard, North Carolina, high school. His dream is to run in college, and he is delighted to have been courted by some big schools. Sadly, that all disintegrates when he is injured in an accident that kills a friend. Eric, blaming himself for the tragedy, distances himself from his friends, his family, and even his obsession.

After spending two years away in Charleston, Eric decides to return home. He rekindles his friendship with Mary, a favorite running partner, and she challenges him to get back into the sport. By a matter of chance, his landlord is a former running coach who agrees to train Eric. Although he has not run in two years and has put on considerable weight, Eric is determined to be a great athlete. Months of careful training lead him to a race in which he defeats his high school nemesis and qualifies to join the North Carolina State University track team. Three years after his life changed course considerably, Eric puts himself back on track.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2009, Mountains, Saltsman, Roger, Transylvania

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by | July 9, 2010 · 10:52 am

Bart Bare. Girl. Vilas, NC: Canterbury House Publishing, 2010.

Loren Creek has been described as “precocious.” At fourteen, she wants people – specifically Judge Tilson and the foster care authorities – to take her maturity and independence seriously. The death of her mother has put Loren in danger of being forced to leave her home to live with strangers. When the judge rules that Loren must live with guardians until she becomes an adult, she and two surprising accomplices hatch a plan for Loren to leave Piney Flat, Tennessee and move to Boone, North Carolina, where she can blend in with Appalachian State University students. Dressing as a boy to evade the social worker who is searching for her in an effort to save his reputation, Loren starts anew as “Lorne.” Although she finds acceptance from an unlikely landlord, Loren must walk a fine line to protect her story. With interest from the football team, advances from smitten girls, and a dangerous confrontation from a friend’s angry ex-boyfriend, Loren’s task is more complicated than she ever imagined.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2010, 2010-2019, Bare, Bart, Children & Young Adults, Mountains, Watauga

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by | April 22, 2010 · 9:26 am

Patti O’Donoghue. Celia: The Adventures and Misadventures of Two Misplaced Southern Girls. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2006.

Celia Stanhope loved her life at Stanhope Mill. She swam and canoed on the lake with her parents, learned how to take newspaper-worthy pictures with her camera, and danced with her father at her parents’ frequent, lavish parties.

But when Celia’s parents died in a plane crash, everything changed. Now she’s under the guardianship of her aunt Anita, a military officer who called Celia “a frizzy-haired ball of arrogant petulance” and who tried to auction off Celia’s camera and canoe at the Stanhope Mill estate sale. As if that weren’t bad enough, she’s taking Celia away from North Carolina to live with her at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany!

Life at the base improves once Celia befriends rebellious Goldie O’Brien, but their escapades get Celia into serious trouble with her aunt. Celia’s forbidden friendship and struggles to live with her strict aunt make for engaging reading in this first novel of the Stanhope Trilogy.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2006, Children & Young Adults, Coastal Plain, Novels in Series, O'Donoghue, Patti, Wayne

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by | May 26, 2009 · 2:07 pm

Thomas Fahy. The Unspoken. New York: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, 2008

Jacob Crawley, leader of the Divine Path cult in Meridian, North Carolina, was an evil man who tormented six of the group’s children and prophesied that they would each be killed by the thing they feared the most.  Five years later epileptic Allison begins having seizure-induced visions of death and Harold–who was afraid of drowning–is found drowned in a tobacco field, far from any source of water.  Creepy!  The survivors, now teenagers, reunite to try to escape death.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2008, Children & Young Adults, Fahy, Thomas, Horror, Mountains, Novels Set in Fictional Places

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by | May 8, 2009 · 4:13 pm

Wendy Alexia Rountree. Lost Soul. Baltimore, MD: PublishAmerica, 2003.

The teenage years are hard for everyone, but they are especially tough for Elisa Matthews.  Her family is comfortably middle class, she has good grades, and she has dreams for future.  These things set her apart from many of the other African American teens in her small home town. When her best friend, Rachel, joins the clique that calls her an “Oreo”, Elisa  starts to feel that she doesn’t have a friend in the world. But she does. Jen has had Elisa’s back when the clique has mocked her, but when Elisa starts spending time with a new boy, Scott, it’s Jen who feels vulnerable.  The novel is in Elisa’s voice; the technique nicely captures her thought processes and her growth.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2003, Children & Young Adults, Coastal Plain, Rountree, Wendy Alexia

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by | April 14, 2009 · 10:37 am

Kathleen Ernst. Highland Fling. Chicago: Cricket Books, 2006.

Isn’t moving during high school about the worst thing that can happen to a teenager? For Tanya Zeshonski, it’s adding insult to injury. When Tanya’s parents divorced, her mom moved with her two girls from Wisconsin back to North Carolina. Mrs. Zeshonski (born a MacDonald) supplements her librarian’s salary by doing genealogical research for her kin, and she encourages the girls to embrace their Scottish heritage. Younger sister Nan does that through dance, but when Nan comes to idolize the accomplished local dancer Christina Campbell, Tanya has one more grievance to nurse. Only when her family attends the Cross Creek Highland Games and Tanya’s father comes for a visit, does Tanya learn to accept the past and move on.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2006, Children & Young Adults, Ernst, Kathleen

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