1. Short month, short books!
8th grade February booktalks

2. Orchards by Holly Thompson
Powerfully heavy story told in verse (poetry) centered on teenage Kana Goldberg, a half-Japanese, half-Jewish American
She and her friends engage in some thoughtless behavior towards a classmate, Ruth, never understanding the true impact their words can truly have
When Ruth takes her own life, details surface about reasons why, but who is to blame?
Kana is sent to Japan for the summer to reflect on her behavior and finds connection in the place her mother left behind
But when news of another tragedy reaches her across the world she must come home and find a way to make things right

3. I heart you, you haunt me Lisa Schroeder
Another novel told in verse
Tells the story of Ava and Jackson, high school sweethearts
The novel begins at a funeral…Jackson’s. He has died tragically and his girlfriend carries the weight of guilt over his untimely death
Though he is physically gone, Jackson starts haunting Ava whenever she is home
At first she is happy with the connection, but how can she live life in love with a ghost?

4. Inventing Elliot by Graham gardner
main character is Elliot Sutton, a fourteen-year-old high school freshman, new student at Holminster High
He was the victim of brutal bullying in his last school and all he cares about is not being noticed for the wrong reasons
Things are going okay until he is forced to witness someone else being bullied---someone that isn’t him
He is introduced to the Guardians, upperclassmen obsessed with George Orwell’s 1984 and power.
They don’t want to terrorize Elliot though, they want him to join them…and eventually replace them.
What happens when the bullied becomes the bully?
Can you ever truly reinvent yourself?

5. Trapped Michael northrup
What would you do if you were snowed in at school for days with just a handful of classmates?
Takes place in a small, rural town in CT (not completely unlike EW)
Main characters are high school students who decide to stay after to work in the shop on a snowy, early release day (picture the cast from The Breakfast Club)
Unfortunately, it is not a normal storm…the snow never stops…
No cell reception, no heat, no power, and frozen pipes (no flushing!) are the least of their worries…
Would you survive being ‘Trapped’???

6. The Secret Language of birthdays Alicia Thompson
Discover what your day of birth “says” about you including:
Best hobby
Style inspiration
Best pet
Best accessory
Power color
Star match
Theme song
And more!