What’s My Genre? A Book Talk

A term used to classify literary works Genre: A term used to classify literary works novel, short story, poetry… (format of writing) 2. mystery, historical fiction, biography… (type of novel)

Romance Read books by: David Levithan John Green The Fault in Our Stars Looking for Alaska Nicholas Sparks The Notebook Message in a Bottle Sarah Dessen Rainbow Rowell Classics: Jane Eyre Gone With the Wind Emma Wuthering Heights For  years Annabel was known as "the girl who has everything." She was a model, had cool friends, and a perfect family. Then she went to a party that changed everything. At the party Annabel's best friend Sophie's boyfriend tries to rape her, but Sophie turns the story around and says that Annabel was sleeping with her boyfriend. The next fall at school everyone around her begins to hate her. Annabel often finds herself completely alone at school. She tries to tell her parents about it, but she does not know how to do it. Then, just when she thinks things can't get any worse, her sister is diagnosed with anorexia. Annabel then thinks, that with her sister's anorexia, her parents have enough on their mind,  and she decides that she is not going to tell them anything. Then she meets a boy named, Owen. Owen is an outcast who loves music and is completely honest with everyone and everything. He convinces her that it is okay to get help and that sometimes holding things in is harder than letting them. Annabel begins to question if she should get help. In this novel you can find out more about Annabel's story, whether she gets help, if she gets it on time, or if it is too late. 

Dystopias The Hunger Games Series, by Suzanne Collins The Selection Series, by Kiera Cass Divergent Series, by Veronica Roth Shipbreaker Series, by Paulo Bacigalupi Matched Series, by Ally Condie Unwind Series, by Neal Shusterman Maze Runner Series, by James Dashner The Giver, by Lois Lowry An excerpt from The Hunger Games. “Sixty seconds. That's how long we're required to stand on our metal circles before the sound of a gong releases us. Step off before the minute is up, and land mines blow your legs off. Sixty seconds to take in the ring of tributes all equidistant from the Cornucopia, a giant golden horn shaped like a cone with a curved tail, the mouth of which is at least twenty feet high, spilling over with the things that will give us life here in the arena. Food, containers of water, weapons, medicine, garments, fire starters. Strewn around the Cornucopia are other supplies, their value decreasing the farther they are from the horn. For instance, only a few steps from my feet lies a three-foot square of plastic. Certainly it could be of some use in a downpour. But there in the mouth, I can see a tent pack that would protect from almost any sort of weather. If I had the guts to go in and fight for it against the other twenty-three tributes. Which I have been instructed not to do.”

Historic Fiction Between Shades of Gray and Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers An excerpt from Between Shades of Gray Page 1 “THEY TOOK ME IN MY NIGHTGOWN. Thinking back, the signs were there—family photos burned in the fireplace, Mother sewing her best silver and jewelry into the lining of her coat late at night, and Papa not returning from work. My younger brother, Jonas, was asking questions. I asked questions, too, but perhaps I refused to acknowledge the signs. Only later did I realize that Mother and Father intended we escape. We did not escape. We were taken.”

Supernatural Books by: Neal Shusterman Cassandra Claire Andrea Cremer Melissa De La Cruz Michael Grant Maggie Steifvater Kami Garcia Excerpt from The Raven Boys by Maggie Steifvater The people who came to the little, bright blue house at 300 Fox Way didn’t mind the imprecise nature of their fortunes. It became a game, a challenge, to realize the exact moment that the predictions came true. When a van carrying six people wheeled into a client’s car two hours after his psychic reading, he could nod with a sense of accomplishment and release. When a neighbor offered to buy another client’s old lawn mower if she was looking for a bit of extra cash, she could recall the promise of money coming and sell it with the sense that the transaction had been foretold. Or when a third client heard his wife say This is a decision that has to be made, he could remember the same words being said by Maura Sargent over a spread of tarot cards and then leap decisively into action…. “I should tell you,” Maura always advised her new clients, “that this reading will be accurate, but not specific.”… But this was not what Blue was told. Again and again, she had her fingers spread wide, her palms examined, her cards plucked from velvet-edged decks and spread across the fuzz of a family friends’ living room carpet. Thumbs were pressed to the mystical, invisible third eye that was said to lie between everyone’s eyebrows. Runes were cast and dreams interpreted, tea leaves scrutinized and seances conducted. All the women came to the same conclusion, blunt and inexplicably specific. What they all agreed on, in many different clairvoyant languages, was this: If Blue was to kiss her true love, he would die.

Horror Popular Authors: Stephen King L.J. Smith Anne Rice R. L. Stine Amelia Atwater-Rhodes Ray Bradbury Lois Duncan P.C. Cast “You ever killed anything,” Roy asked. Colin frowned. “Like What?” “Anything,” Roy said. “You ever killed anything at all?” “I don’t know what you mean,” Colin said… “You must’ve killed something,” Roy said impatiently. “What about bugs?” Colin shrugged. “Sure. Mosquitoes. Ants. Flies. So what?” “How’d you like it?” “Like what?” “Killing ‘em.” Colin stared at him, finally shook his head. “Roy, sometimes you’re pretty weird.” Roy grinned. “…You like killing bugs?” Colin asked uneasily. “Sometimes.” “Why?” It’s a real popper.” Anything that Roy thought was fun, anything that thrilled him, he called a “popper.” “What’s to like?” Colin asked. The way they squish.” “Yech.” “Ever pull the legs off a praying mantis and watch it try to walk?” Roy asked. “Weird. Really weird.” …Colin sat on the crown of the hill, in the spare dry grass. He looked up admiringly at Roy. Without turning from the sea, Roy said, “Ever kill anything bigger than bugs?” “No.” “I did.”

Fantasy If you Liked Harry Potter Try: Ranger’s Apprentice series by John Flanagan All Series by Rick Riordan Nicolas Flamel series by Michael Scott The Game of Thrones Series by George R. R. Martin The Eragon Series by Christopher Paolini The Graceling Series by Kristen Cashore The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort." The hobbit-hole in question belongs to one Bilbo Baggins, an upstanding member of a "little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded dwarves." Certainly this particular hobbit is the last person one would expect to see set off on a hazardous journey; indeed, when Gandalf the Wizard stops by one morning, "looking for someone to share in an adventure," Baggins fervently wishes the wizard elsewhere. and before he can even grab his hat or an umbrella, Bilbo Baggins is swept out his door and into a dangerous adventure to the Lonely Mountains to reclaim a stolen fortune from the dragon Smaug. Along the way, Bilbo meets giant spiders, hostile elves, ravening wolves--and, most perilous of all, a subterranean creature named Gollum from whom Bilbo wins a magical ring in a riddling contest. It is from this life-or-death game in the dark that J.R.R. Tolkien's masterwork, The Lord of the Rings, would eventually spring. (Review from Amazon.com)

Science Fiction Ender’s Game Halo series by Nylund Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Matched Series by Ally Condie Maze Runner series by James Dashner Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Series Jenna Fox Series by Mary Pearson The Giver Left Behind Series Haddix, Margaret Peterson. AMONG THE HIDDEN New York : Simon and Schuster, 1998. Luke is a "Shadow Child". He hasn't heard the term yet but he will. Luke is living in a future time where the Population Police rule family life. It is the law that families can only have two children. Luke has two older brothers so he must remain hidden from everyone and everything. He doesn't quite know what would happen to him if he is found out but he is sure his parents would be punished. His life isn't too bad, though. He can work on his father's farm and get out into the sunshine. Until the woods are cut down to make room for some fancy new houses. Then, Luke is restricted to the house all the time. He finds that he can peek out of the attic vent and see the new houses. To his amazement, he sees movement in one of the homes long after the parents and two sons have left. Luke decides to risk going over to the house to find out if there is another third child in hiding. What he finds will change his life forever. To discover what Luke finds in the house of the Baron, read AMONG THE HIDDEN. http://nancykeane.com/booktalks/haddix_among.htm

Teen Issues Chicken Soup Books Go Ask Alice (drugs) Smack (drugs) Shadow of the Dragon (gangs) 8-Ball Chicks (gangs) Once a King, Always a King (gangs) Monster (gangs) Too Soon for Jeff (teen pregnancy) Detour for Emmy (teen pregnancy) Rainbow High (sexuality) Perfect Chemistry (gangs) Wintergirls (Anorexia) Alice…COULD BE ANYONE….Alice…COULD BE SOMEONE YOU KNOW….Alice USES DRUGS. A diary by an anonymous, addicted teen. Lonely, awkward, and under extreme pressure from her "perfect" parents, "Anonymous" swings madly between optimism and despair. When one of her new friends spikes her drink with LSD, this diarist begins a frightening journey into darkness. This powerful real-life diary of a teenager's struggle with the seductive -- often fatal -- world of drugs and addiction tells the truth about drugs.

Biography Biographies: Always Running Makes me Wanna Holler A Child Called It I know why the caged bird sings Alicia: My story In My Hands Diary of Anne Frank The Long Way Gone Following me, Ramiro was a second-generation gang member. My involvement was in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s in Los Angeles, the so-called gang capital of the country. My teen years were ones of drugs, shootings and beatings, and arrests. I was around when South Central Los Angeles gave birth to the Crips and the Bloods. By the time I turned 18 years old, 25 of my friends had been killed by rival gangs, police, drugs, car crashes, and suicides. If I had barely survived all this– to emerge eventually as a journalist, publisher, critic, and poet – it appeared unlikely my own son would make it. I had to begin the long, intense struggle to save his life from the gathering storm of street violence sweeping the country – some 20 years after I sneaked out of my ‘hood in the dark of night, hid out in an LA housing project, and removed myself from the death-fires of La Vida Loca. La Vida Loca or the Crazy Life is what we called the barrio gang experience.

Mystery Books by: Thirteen reasons Why by Jay Asher Ally Carter Mary Higgins Clark Agatha Christie Caroline Cooney Lois Duncan Cynthia Voigt Thirteen reasons Why by Jay Asher Paper Towns by John Green Ms Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs If you haven't heard the first in the Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mystery series - what are you waiting for?? Plenty of people in the picturesque town of Santa Teresa, California, wanted Laurence Fife, a ruthless divorce attorney, dead. Including, thought the cops, his young and beautiful wife, who was convicted of the crime. Now, eight years later and out on parole, Nikki Fife hires Kinsey Millhone to find out who really killer her husband. Kinsey must pursue a trail that's eight years old: one that leads from a young boy, born deaf, whose memory cannot be trusted; to a lawyer defensively loyal to his dead partner - and disarmingly attractive to Millhone; to a not-so-young secretary with too high a salary for far too few skills. This train will twist to include them all, with Kinsey following every turn until it finally twists back on itself and she fins herself face-to-face with a killer cunning enough to get away with murder.

Action/Adventure Books by Tom Clancy Into Thin Air (True Everest Story) Within Reach: My Everest Story Books by Michael Crichton: Andromeda Strain Books By John Grisham The Hot Zone or The Cobra Event by Richard Preston.

Poetry Classics: Walt Whitman Emily Dickinson Robert Frost Shel Silverstein Edgar Allan Poe Stories in Poetry Format: Foreign Exchange Heartbeat by Sharron Creech Books by Ellen Hopkins

Some of the 100 Most Frequently Banned Books of the Last Decade Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret Bless Me, Ultima Blubber Cujo Fade Go Ask Alice The Giver Forever Harry Potter series How to Eat Fried Worms Killing Mr. Griffin Lord of the Flies Catcher in the Rye Beloved Slaughterhouse-Five Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Chocolate War The Color Purple The Outsiders The Terrorist To Kill a Mockingbird The Pigman We All Fall Down Running Loose Julie of the Wolves Bridge to Tarabithia A Light in the Attic A Wrinkle in Time

Top Picks By Students Child Called It The Fault in Our Stars Divergent Thirteen reasons Why The Raven Boys Fangirl Ms. Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children The Book Thief Smoke The Perks of Being a Wallflower The Secret Life of Bees Life of Pi Excerpt from The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green I looked over at Augustus Waters, who looked back at me. You could almost see through his eyes they were so blue. "There will come a time," I said, "when all of us are dead. All of us. There will come a time when there are no human beings remaining to remember that anyone ever existed or that our species ever did anything. There will be no one left to remember Aristotle or Cleopatra, let alone you. Everything that we did and built and wrote and thought and discovered will be forgotten and all of this" — I gestured encompassingly — "will have been for naught. Maybe that time is coming soon and maybe it is millions of years away, but even if we survive the collapse of our sun, we will not survive forever. There was time before organisms experienced consciousness, and there will be time after. And if the inevitability of human oblivion worries you, I encourage you to ignore it. God knows that's what everyone else does." … After I finished, there was quite a long period of silence as I watched a smile spread all the way across Augustus's face — not the little crooked smile of the boy trying to be sexy while he stared at me, but his real smile, too big for his face. "Goddamn," Augustus said quietly. "Aren't you something else.“ From The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Copyright 2012 by John Green.

So How Do You Choose a Book Size Cover Back of the book First couple pages Author I like Genre I like Topic I’m interested in Recommendation from a friend, librarian, teacher… Difficulty (3-5 unknown or rarely used words per page) Book Lists (AP lists is a good place to start)

Where can I get a good book? Borrow from friend or family member Borrow from Ms. Wolfe’s book shelves Borrow from the RRHS Library Buy a book at The Book Spot 512-942-7323 or info@juliesbookspot.com Buy a book at the Half Price Book Store Buy a book at the Goodwill (the Hutto one is good for books) Last choice – buy a book at Barnes and Noble or Borders