This fast-paced action novel is set in a future where the world has been almost destroyed. Like the award-winning novel Freak the Mighty, this is Philbrick at his very best. It's the story of an epileptic teenager nicknamed Spaz, who begins the heroic fight to bring human intelligence back to the planet. In a world where most people are plugged into brain-drain entertainment systems, Spaz is the rare human being who can see life as it really is. When he meets an old man called Ryter, he begins to learn about Earth and its past. With Ryter as his companion, Spaz sets off an unlikely quest to save his dying sister -- and in the process, perhaps the world.

After an earthquake has destroyed much of the planet, an epileptic teenager nicknamed Spaz begins the heroic fight to bring human intelligence back to the Earth of a distant future.

Inspire teenagers to read quality literature and help them explore issues relevant to their lives. This outstanding book offers motivational, ready-to-use booktalks for more than 100 of the best new reads for teenagers, guaranteed to pique teen interest. With a focus on recently published fiction and nonfiction titles in a wide variety of genres and themes, these dynamic booktalks center around issues, problems, and challenges that young adults are facing.

Looks at 290 award-winning books for young adults, using 750 alphabetical entries on individual works, authors, characters, and settings to provide plot summaries, critical assessments, and biographical information.

In this new book, Noga Applebaum surveys science fiction novels published for children and young adults from 1980 to the present, exposing the anti-technological bias existing within a genre often associated with the celebration of technology. Applebaum argues that perceptions of technology as a corrupting force, particularly in relation to its use by young people, are a manifestation of the enduring allure of the myth of childhood innocence and result in young-adult fiction that endorses a technophobic agenda. This agenda is a form of resistance to the changing face of childhood and technology’s contribution to this change. Further, Applebaum contends that technophobic literature disempowers its young readers by implying that the technologies of the future are inherently dangerous, while it neglects to acknowledge children’s complex, yet pleasurable, interactions with technology today. The study looks at works by well-known authors including M.T. Anderson, Monica Hughes, Lois Lowry, Garth Nix, and Philip Reeve, and explores topics such as ecology, cloning, the impact of technology on narrative structure, and the adult-child hierarchy. While focusing on the popular genre of science fiction as a useful case study, Applebaum demonstrates that negative attitudes toward technology exist within children’s literature in general, making the book of considerable interest to scholars of both science fiction and children’s literature.

Provides lessons and activities to help librarians to teach writing through the process method and collaboration with classroom teachers.

Directed to both new and longtime readers of the Chronicles, suggests reading the stories as fairy tales and offers analysis which relates the Chronicles to the life and interests of C.S. Lewis.

Girl vs. the World is a fun, true-to-life series about navigating high school, first crushes, and the ups and downs of adolescence. Hazel's friends are super cool, but she feels like a fraud. She doesn't have her period yet and she's never been kissed, and she's not confident or pretty like her friends are, either! So what should she do about her crush on Leo, who's sweet and funny but in the year above? Maybe it's time to take matters into her own hands ... Refreshingly honest and deliciously heartwarming, this series is perfect for readers aged 10 to 13.

"[An] elegantly constructed web of stories about Russian-Jewish immigrants....Warm, true and original."—New York Times Book Review In twelve "pristine, entrancing" (Booklist) linked stories, Ellen Litman introduces an unforgettable cast of Russian-Jewish immigrants trying to assimilate in a new world. Tender and wryly funny, these stories trace Masha's and her fellow immigrants' struggles to find a place in a new society—lonely seniors, families grappling with unemployment and depression, and young adults searching for love.

This volume is based on a special issue of "Logos "that grew out of a meeting of an international group of book trade hands. It is the first broad-scale account and assessment of the commercial aspects of the U.S. book trade from publisher to library by way of book dealers and wholesalers. Two major phenomena, concentration into larger units and concern about the electronic future, are recurring themes in this collection. Concentration characterizes bookselling as much as publishing, and the electronic future preoccupies librarians even more than publishers. Chapters and contributors to "The Book in the United States Today "include: "A Religious Country Reflected in its Publishing Industry" by Werner Mark Linz; "Children's Books: 500 Million a Year" by Charles E. Gates; "U.S. School Publishing" by Cameron S. Moseley; "The Paperback Conquest of America" by Betty Ballantine; "Medical Publishing in the U.S." by Eric J. Newman; "The U.S. College Textbook" by Robert R. Worth; "The American University Library" by Hendrik Edelman; and "Between Academe and the Marketplace: University Presses Face the 21st Century" by Naomi B. Pascal. In the postscript, Gordon Graham discusses one of the defects of the U.S. book industry today, a shortage of collective memory. The common ground of the industry, he writes, is seen in securing legal rights and political advantage, not in any ideological attachment to the shared product, its history or its culture. "The Book in the United States Today "provides important information for publishers, librarians, authors, and book sellers.

The setting for the narrative initially is in the California State Prison at San Quentin, CA, but I have taken some liberties my description of the circumstances surrounding the incident. A Death Row inmate, Adam Sinclair, had been scheduled for execution, but when the executioner closed the switch to initiate the execution, Adam simply disappeared. The rest of the book details the investigation that followed, the explanation given by various entities, and the impact the disappearance had on the world of that time.