Punkzilla

Punkzilla
Author: Adam Rapp
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2010-03-16
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 076365258X

An award-winning writer and playwright hits the open road for a searing novel-in-letters about a street kid on a highstakes trek across America. For a runaway boy who goes by the name "Punkzilla," kicking a meth habit and a life of petty crime in Portland, Oregon, is a prelude to a mission: reconnecting with his older brother, a gay man dying of cancer in Memphis. Against a backdrop of seedy motels, dicey bus stations, and hitched rides, the desperate fourteen-year-old meets a colorful, sometimes dangerous cast of characters. And in letters to his sibling, he catalogs them all -- from an abusive stranger and a ghostly girl to a kind transsexual and an old woman with an oozing eye. The language is raw and revealing, crackling with visceral details and dark humor, yet with each interstate exit Punkzilla’s journey grows more urgent: will he make it to Tennessee in time? This daring novel offers a narrative worthy of Kerouac and a keen insight into the power of chance encounters.

Fum

Fum
Author: Adam Rapp
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2018-03-20
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 0763679534

What is it like to be a giant? Meet Corinthia Bledsoe, a seven-foot tall high-school junior who can predict the future. Over seven feet tall and with a newfound ability to sense future events, Corinthia Bledsoe is far more than just another Midwestern high-school junior; she’s a force of nature. When she predicts with terrifying accuracy the outcome of a tornado that will hit her high school, leaving a cow standing midcourt in the Lugo Memorial field house, Corinthia finds herself at the epicenter of another kind of storm entirely. And as things get stranger and stranger — both in her small town and her own home — lives start to intersect in ways even Corinthia can’t foresee.

The Children and the Wolves

The Children and the Wolves
Author: Adam Rapp
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2012-02-28
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0763653373

Abducted by teen genius Bounce and her drifter friends Wiggins and Orange, four-year-old Frog seems content to eat cereal and play a video game about wolves all day--a game that parallels the reality around her--until Wiggins is overcome by guilt and tension and brings Frog to safety.

33 Snowfish

33 Snowfish
Author: Adam Rapp
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2011-04-12
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 0763654248

"Adam Rapp’s brilliant and haunting story will break your heart. But then his words will mend it. . . . Absolutely unforgettable." – Michael Cart On the run in a stolen car with a kidnapped baby in tow, Custis, Curl, and Boobie are three young people with deeply troubled pasts and bleak futures. As they struggle to find a new life for themselves, it becomes painfully clear that none of them will ever be able to leave the past behind. Yet for one, redemption is waiting in the unlikeliest of places. With the raw language of the street and lyrical, stream-of-consciousness prose, Adam Rapp hurtles the reader into a world of lost children, a world that is not for the faint of heart. Gripping, disturbing, and starkly illuminating, his hypnotic narration captures the voices of two damaged souls - a third speaks only through drawings - to tell a story of alienation, deprivation, and ultimately, the saving power of compassion.

A Farewell to Arms, Legs & Jockstraps

A Farewell to Arms, Legs & Jockstraps
Author: Diane K. Shah
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2020-04-28
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1684351189

“Diane Shah was a boots-on-the-ground female sports reporter in the Cro-Magnon 1970s and brings it all back in this hilarious, well-crafted book.” —Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe sports columnist and New York Times bestselling author Strike fast, strike hard—whether it’s scoring a homerun or front-page news, Diane K. Shah, former sports columnist, knows how to grab the best story. In her memoir A Farewell to Arms, Legs, and Jockstraps, follow Diane’s escapades, from interviews with a tipsy Mickey Mantle, to sneaking into off-limits Republican galas, dining with Frank Sinatra, flying a plane with Dennis Quaid, and countless other adventures where she wields her tape recorder and a tireless drive for more. From skirting KGB agents while covering the Cold War Olympics to hunting down the three mechanical sharks starring in Jaws, Diane’s experiences are filled with real heart and a tongue-in-cheek attitude. An insightful look into the difficulties of navigating a male-dominated profession, A Farewell to Arms, Legs, and Jockstraps offers rich retellings and behind-the-scenes details of stories of a trailblazing career and the prejudices facing female sportswriters during the sixties and seventies. “Impossibly elegant, and the most fun ever. The only thing better than reading Diane K. Shah’s memoir was, I suppose, living it.” —Sally Jenkins, columnist and feature writer, Washington Post “Diane’s memoir is just like her columns—smart, funny, enlightening—just like her. Until reading it, I never really knew all the challenges she dealt with. She broke ground but never acted like it. I was lucky to work with the first female sports columnist in the country.” —Ken Gurnick, LA Dodgers correspondent for MLB.com

Ball Peen Hammer

Ball Peen Hammer
Author: Adam Rapp
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 148
Release: 2009-09-29
Genre: Comics & Graphic Novels
ISBN: 1596433000

"The world is dying. Chaos bubbles out of the sewers of an anonymous, desolate city, ravaged by war and plague. There is little humanity to be found in the diseased, deranged mobs that roam the streets. Pulitzer-finalist Adam Rapp's first graphic novel is an unflinching meditation on art and human nature. Perceptive, disturbing, and ultimately heartbreaking, Ball peen hammer offers us an unforgettable tale of brief human connections, violently severed" -- cover flap.

Feed

Feed
Author: M. T. Anderson
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2010-05-11
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 0763651559

Identity crises, consumerism, and star-crossed teenage love in a futuristic society where people connect to the Internet via feeds implanted in their brains. Winner of the LA Times Book Prize. For Titus and his friends, it started out like any ordinary trip to the moon - a chance to party during spring break and play around with some stupid low-grav at the Ricochet Lounge. But that was before the crazy hacker caused all their feeds to malfunction, sending them to the hospital to lie around with nothing inside their heads for days. And it was before Titus met Violet, a beautiful, brainy teenage girl who knows something about what it’s like to live without the feed-and about resisting its omnipresent ability to categorize human thoughts and desires. Following in the footsteps of George Orwell, Anthony Burgess, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., M. T. Anderson has created a brave new world - and a hilarious new lingo - sure to appeal to anyone who appreciates smart satire, futuristic fiction laced with humor, or any story featuring skin lesions as a fashion statement.

Breaking Stalin's Nose

Breaking Stalin's Nose
Author: Eugene Yelchin
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 162
Release: 2011-09-27
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1429949953

A Newbery Honor Book. Sasha Zaichik has known the laws of the Soviet Young Pioneers since the age of six: The Young Pioneer is devoted to Comrade Stalin, the Communist Party, and Communism. A Young Pioneer is a reliable comrade and always acts according to conscience. A Young Pioneer has a right to criticize shortcomings. But now that it is finally time to join the Young Pioneers, the day Sasha has awaited for so long, everything seems to go awry. He breaks a classmate's glasses with a snowball. He accidentally damages a bust of Stalin in the school hallway. And worst of all, his father, the best Communist he knows, was arrested just last night. This moving story of a ten-year-old boy's world shattering is masterful in its simplicity, powerful in its message, and heartbreaking in its plausibility. One of Horn Book's Best Fiction Books of 2011

Going Bovine

Going Bovine
Author: Libba Bray
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Total Pages: 498
Release: 2009
Genre: Automobile travel
ISBN: 0385733976

Cameron Smith, a disaffected sixteen year-old who, after being diagnosed with Creutzfeld Jakob's (aka mad cow) disease, sets off on a road trip with a death-obsessed video gaming dwarf he meets in the hospital in an attempt to find a cure.

One Word for Kids

One Word for Kids
Author: Jon Gordon
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 54
Release: 2019-11-05
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1119430313

From the authors who created the One Word movement, impacting schools, businesses, and sports teams around the world, comes a charming fable that can be read and shared by everyone. If you could choose only one word to help you have your best year ever, what would it be? Love? Fun? Believe? Brave? It’s prob­ably different for everyone. How you find your word is just as important as the word itself. And once you know your word, what do you do with it? In One Word for Kids, bestselling author Jon Gordon—along with coauthors Dan Britton and Jimmy Page—asks these questions to children and adults of all ages, teaching an important life lesson in the process. This engaging, fully illustrated fable follows Stevie, a young boy falling asleep on the first day of school. His teacher gives the class an assignment: to find the one word that will help them have their best year ever. To discover their one word, they must look inside themselves, look up, and look out. At home, Stevie is upset be­cause he can’t find his word. After his dad offers some helpful advice, Stevie excitedly begins the quest for his word. His search helps him discover a lot about himself, what he loves, and what is important to him. An easy read with a powerful message, One Word for Kids appeals to readers of all ages and is an ideal entry point into discussing a valuable lesson in a fun and engaging way.