Teens and Tweens Reads with Natasha: Back to School

Summer is almost over and kids are going back to school. I know..I know...Here we go again! Parents are rejoicing and some kids are miserable, but we can fix it by reading some good books, right?

Here are some titles to get you back into the swing of things.

Tweens

Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson
This is the first book to, Middle School: Get Me out of Here!. I think it is appropriate to write about, Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life, because of the start of the school year. There are a lot of tweens who are going to start middle school this year and they may feel the anxiety and excitement of starting a new school. 
Rafe Khatchadorian is feeling the same way on his first year at middle school. Rafe wants the best year of his life, so to do so, he along with his friend, Leo, tries to break every rule in the Hills Village Middle School Code of Conduct book. They can gain points from running in the halls to pulling fire alarms. But once he finds success with misbehaving, Rafe gets in trouble with the principal. He gets in so much trouble that the principal is considering suspending Rafe from school. Now he has to decided if getting in trouble is worth having the best school year ever.

Liar, liar : the theory, practice, and destructive properties of deception by Gary Paulsen
Kevin is a 14 year old boy who is really good at lying and he never got caught. Lying makes life easy for this eighth grader, and he believes that lying is his second language. But when his lying catches up with him, Kevin gets in trouble with everyone at school. He doesn't mean to get in trouble for his lies, so he tries to find away to make things better. 

Troublemaker by Andrew Clements
Clayton Hensley is Principal Kelling’s #1 nuisance, and the principal has a folder of Clay's information thicker than anyone else in the school.
But when Clayton gets in serious trouble in his art class by drawing a picture of his principal as a donkey, he soon realizes that his troubling actions is making a spectacle of himself. And when his big brother, Mitchell, gets in serious trouble, Clay tries to change his ways. Can he change is ways of being a troublemaker?



Lunch Lady and the Mutant Mathletes by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

Even though this book was written for a younger audience, it fits the theme for these reviews, plus, the Lunch Lady series is awesome! Everyone can get a good read before going back to school. 

When Hector, Terrence, and Dee (The Breakfast Bunch) gets in trouble for skipping out on a museum tour (from book #6), the principal punished them by making them join the school's math team. When the kids are up against Willowby Thompson Academy in a competition, Lunch Lady notices something strange about the other school and their coach and she begins her investigation along with her sidekick, Betty. Will they uncover something awful before the other school tries to snatch victory from the Breakfast Bunch and the rest of the Thompson Brook Elementary School math team?

Also, keep a look out next month for, Lunch Lady and the Picture Day Peril. It is book #8 in this graphic novel series.

Teens 

New Boy by Julian Houston
Rob Garrett is a fifteen year old boy who leaves his segregated town in Virginia to be the first person of color to attend an elite Connecticut boarding school because his parents wanted to shield him from the prejudice that was going on in the south. He first encountered bullies picking on an Italian kid and another boy for being Jewish. A lot has change and there is a Civil Rights Moment going on back home.
When Rob return home during spring break, he has to decided if he is going to join his friend for a sit-in at the lunch counter of the local department store, which refuses to serve African-Americans. Can Rob make a difference?




Circle of Silence by Carol Tanzman
The book, Circle of Silence, is the sequel to, Dancegirl. RPL does not have copies of the two books, but we will get both copies soon. Keep a look out!
Valerie Gaines is part of the Campus News crew at Washington Irving High School and she is looking for the biggest story of her life to report. Valerie is in charge of the news crew and she is feeling the stress of running things. 
Then mysteriously things started happening to the students at the school and it is up to Valerie and her crew to find out what is going on.