msjamgochian'sinfinitebooklist

On a hot summer night in a small country town, local teen pariah Jasper Jones raps on book nerd-sensitive Charlie Bucktin's window, and leads him to a discovery that will change both of their lives. Laura Wishart, daughter of the town shire, and friend to Charlie, is found hung from a tree where she and Jasper used to meet in secret. Knowing that Jasper will be suspected of the murder, the boys hide her body in the river, and that is where the trouble, and their relationship, truly begins. As the summer progresses and Laura's disappearance is investigated, Charlie is faced with a host of hard truths: his parents' marriage isn't what it seems to be, his best friend Jeffrey Lu suffers at the hands of racists, and the local tendency to turn the other way rather than stand up for what is right has tragic results. The bitterness is balanced by the sweetness of Charlie's relationship with Laura's little sister Eliza; Mr. Silvey masterfully depicts the magic of first ...

A classic teen break-up book with a unique format. Arty Min and basketball King Ed meet at a party and fall in love as they play show and tell: Mina introduces Ed to her true love, foreign film, and Ed gives her a remedial course in basketball-captain's-girlfriend pageantry. Needless to say, things don't work out, and Min tells their story via a series of objects collected throughout their courtship that she puts in a box to return to Ed. Although the characters fit a bit too neatly into their stereotypical templates (Min comes complete with a boy who is 'just a friend,' aka Ducky), fans of teen relationship books will enjoy this young adult novel from the author of Lemony Snicket, and Maira Kalman's artwork turns the book into something special. The WWBU project provides readers with a chance to share their own break-up story. Grade 8+

I hope I haven't already said this in 2012, and if so, forgive me, but if you only read one YA novel this year , TFIOS should be it. Here are three pretty reasons why: "I disagree, but here's the rub: The dead are visible only in the terrible lidless eye of memory." "...and then we talked about Peter Van Houten's amazingly brilliant comment about the sluttiness of time, and even though I was in bed and he was in his basement, it really felt like we were back in that uncreated third space..." "There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set. But... I cannot tell you how thankful I am for out little infinity. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful." You will laugh through your tears. Don't miss the opportunity to meet two of the most brilliantly funny terminally ill teens ever to grace the page. Click here for a full review and here for John Green's website . Grade 8+

There are two things you need to know about 17-year-old Michael. 1/He is a boxman: he can break into any safe any where any time. 2/He never speaks. Ever. When Michael was just 8, a traumatic event resulted in the death of his mother, his father, and his voice. Ten years later, Michael is imprisoned when his talent for lockpicking is discovered by some unsavory classmates and he finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Thankfully, a bought (the guilty classmates aren't charged) yet lenient judge sentences Michael to do community service at the home of the man whose house was broken into. There, he meets the man's daughter, Amelia. She is a fellow artist, lost girl, and muse. Is there anything as sadly sweet as two people falling in love via surreptitiously and strategically placed hand-drawn comics that tell their respective tragic histories? Although TLA is billed as a thriller, for me, it is ultimately a story about the redemptive power of first love. Don't m...

When 56 year-old Chinese-American widower Henry Lee hears that the belongings of several Japanese-American families interred during WWII have been discovered in the basement of the Panama Hotel in Seattle's International District, he decides to confront his past and goes looking for a trunk that may contain links to Keiko, his first love and best childhood friend. Told in alternating chapters between 1986 and 1942-45, this story not only describes the injustice of the Japanese internment during WWII, it also takes on father-son relationships, family ties, first love, and grief. HOTCOBAS would complement a study of social justice and makes the perfect companion book for a trip to Seattle. Don't miss all of the extras, including a teacher's guide, on Jamie Ford's website. Grade 10+