WOMS Cybrary & Howling Out Loud Blog

Summer Reading 8th

	The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth Speare The setting is the Colony of Connecticut in 1687 in a town Puritans who are very religious and strict. Sixteen-year-old Kit Tyler unexpectedly arrives at her aunt and uncle's doorstep and is not ready for this new world.  Unprepared for the religious intolerance and strict nature of the Puritan community, and always getting in trouble for how she dresses and her bold ideas, Kit is eventually accused as a witch--a crime that could be punished by death.
	The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien Bilbo Baggins is an upstanding member of a "little people." He's happiest sitting fat-and-happy in front of his fire with a pint of ale. Then one day Gandalf the Grey, a wizard, stops by and invites him on an adventure.  He doesn't want to go, but is quickly swept of on an adventure that will change his life forever. If you've seen the Lord of the Rings movies, this book tells you what happened before those movies!
	Sackett Louis L'Amour In Sackett, Tell Sackett discovers gold...and something else he does not expect. Unfortunately, the Bigelow brothers (angry for a crime Tell committed) are not far behind him, and a humdinger of a showdown ensues.
	The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain ...is about life in the Mississippi River towns where Mark Twain grew up. A serious tone runs under the surface comedy of the novel.  Filled with superstition, murder, revenge, and an examination of slavery, this is an excellent example of writing from a famous American author.
	Ever wonder how Nemo from the Disney movie got his name?  Wonder no more, read Verne's undersea adventure...one of the first sci-fi books ever written.  In it, Captain Nemo (get it?) travels beneath the sea and encounters many dangers and in the first-ever submarine, The Nautilus. It's an adventure unlike any on Earth's surface.
	Reviews based on reviews posted at Amazon.com

Romiette and Julio by Sharon Draper "...When Romiette Capelle, aka Afroqueen, and Julio Montague, aka Spanishlover, meet in an Internet chat room, neither of them has any idea they both go to the same Cincinnati high school. Afroqueen is from a prominent African American family; Spanishlover is Hispanic and the new kid in town. When Romiette and Julio meet in person, they know they are fated to be together..." (Booklist).
Learning the Game by Kevin Waltman "...Nate is looking forward to the start of the basketball season when he hopes to finally become a starter on his high-school team. One night in late summer, at the end of a pickup game, one of Nate's teammates suggests that they break into a local fraternity house. Despite his pangs of conscience, Nate goes along with the crime and helps carry the loot to a van. The basketball players are soon the prime suspects in the break-in, which becomes big news in Nate's small Indiana college town..." (Booklist).
Ironman by Chris Crutcher "When one of his frequent outbursts lands him in an anger management class, Bo interrupts his triathlon training to spend two mornings a week discussing personal issues with a group of emotionally wounded classmates..." (Horn Book).
Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce Daine can communicate with animals and has magical abilities which comes in handy when a war begins and she is apprenticed to a mage who teaches her everything she needs to know about the magical arts...just in time to use them.
Iceberg by Clive Cussler Cover. Dirk Pitt, an operative for NUMA, the National Underwater and Marine Agency, is called into action when a long-missing luxury yacht is found frozen in a million-ton mass of ice, its crew members incinerated at their posts, and its deadly top-secret cargo missing.