2014 Book Fair Highlights
JOIN THE 3RD TRI CHALLENGE
The OMS library has a great opportunity for all students to earn a free book of their choice, just by reading 15 books from 2 Iowa Teen Award lists and talking with Mrs. ErkenBrack or Mrs. Rysdam about the books. See the lists below and get started today!
2014-2015 ITA Nomination List
The Raft by S.A. Bodeen. Robbie's last-minute flight to the Midway Atoll proves to be a nightmare when the plane goes down in shark-infested waters, but the real terror begins when the co-pilot Max pulls her onto the raft.
The Outcasts by John Flanagan. Hal, who does not fit into Skandian society, ends up in a brotherband, a group of boys learning the skills that they need to become warriors, with other outcasts, and they compete with other brotherbands in a series of challenges.
Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Getz. Based on the life of Jack Gruener, this book relates his story of survival from the Nazi occupation of Krakow, when he was eleven, through a succession of concentration camps, to the final liberation of Dachau.
Girl Stolen April Henry. When an impulsive carjacking turns into a kidnapping, Griffin, a high school dropout, finds himself more in sympathy with his wealthy, blind victim, sixteen-year-old Cheyenne, than his greedy father.
One For the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt After heartbreaking betrayal, Carley is sent to live with a foster family and struggles with opening herself to their love.
Ungifted by Gordan Korman When one of Donovan's thoughtless pranks accidentally destroys the school gym during the Big Game he knows he's in for it. But through a strange chain of events, his name gets put on the list for the local school for gifted students. Donovan knows he's not a genius, but he can't miss this chance to escape. Now, he has to figure out a way to stay at ASD and fit in with the kids there.
The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine. In 1958 Little Rock, Arkansas, painfully shy twelve-year-old Marlee sees her city and family divided over school integration, but her friendship with Liz, a new student, helps her find her voice and fight against racism.
True Legend by Mike Lupica. Fifteen-year-old Drew "True" Robinson loves being the best point-guard prospect in high school basketball, but learns the consequences of fame through a former player as well as through the man who expects to be his manager when True reaches the NBA.
I Pledge Allegiance by Chris Lynch. Enlisting as a group when one of them is drafted into the Vietnam War, best friends Morris, Rudi, Ivan, and Beck pledge their loyalty to one another before reporting to different branches of service.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. by Ransom Riggs. After a family tragedy, Jacob feels compelled to explore an abandoned orphanage on the island off
the coast of Wales, discovering disturbing facts about the children who were kept there.
The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan. Jason, Piper, and Leo, three students from a school for "bad kids," find themselves at Camp Half-Blood, where they learn that they are demigods and begin a quest to free Hera, who has been imprisoned by Mother Earth herself.
Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi. Aria and Perry, two teens from radically different societies--one highly advanced, the other primitive--hate being dependent on one another until they overcome their prejudices and fall in love, knowing they can't stay together.
Bomb: The Race to Buld-and Steal-the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin. Recounts the scientific discoveries that enabled atom splitting, the military intelligence operations that occurred in rival countries, and the work of brilliant scientists hidden at Los Alamos.
Curveball: The Year I Lost M Grip by Jordan Sonnenblick. Meet Peter Friedman, high school freshman. Talented photographer. Former baseball star. When a freakish injury ends his pitching career, Peter has some major things to figure out. Is there life after sports? Why has his grandfather suddenly given him thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment? And is it his imagination, or is the super-hot star of the girls' swim team flirting with him, right in front of the amazing new girl in his photography class?
Variant by Robinson Wells. After years in foster homes, seventeen-year-old Benson Fisher applies to New Mexico's Maxfield Academy in hopes of securing a brighter future, but instead he finds that the school is a prison and no one is what he or she seems
2013- 2014 Award Winners
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys. In 1941, fifteen-year-old Lina, her mother, and brother are pulled from their Lithuanian home by Soviet guards and sent to Siberia, where her father is sentenced to death in a prison camp while she fights for her life, vowing to honor her family and the thousands like hers by burying her story in a jar on Lithuanian soil. Based on the author's family, includes a historical note.
Bruiser by Neal Shusterman. Inexplicable events start to occur when sixteen-year-old twins Tennyson and Bronte befriend a troubled and misunderstood outcast, aptly nicknamed Bruiser, and his little brother, Cody.
Cinder by Marissa Meyer. As plague ravages the overcrowded Earth, observed by a ruthless lunar people, Cinder, a gifted mechanic and cyborg, becomes involved with handsome Prince Kai and must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect the world in this futuristic take on the Cinderella story.
Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare. When sixteen-year-old orphan Tessa Fell's older brother suddenly vanishes, her search for him leads her into Victorian-era London's dangerous supernatural underworld, and when she discovers that she herself is a Downworlder, she must learn to trust the demon-killing Shadowhunters if she ever wants to learn to control her powers and find her brother.
Crazy by Han Nolan. Fifteen-year-old loner Jason struggles to hide father's declining mental condition after his mother's death, but when his father disappears he must confide in the other members of a therapy group he has been forced to join at school.
Legend by Marie Lu. In a dark future, when North America has split into two warring nations, fifteen-year-olds Day, a famous criminal, and prodigy June, the brilliant soldier hired to capture him, discover that they have a common enemy.
Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans. Michael Vey, a fourteen-year old who has Tourette's syndrome and special electric powers, finds there are others like him, and must rely on his powers to save himself and the others from a diabolical group seeking to control them.
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson. Rory, of Boueuxlieu, Louisiana, is spending a year at a London boarding school when she witnesses a murder by a Jack the Ripper copycat and becomes involved with the very unusual investigation.
The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan. Brilliant Egyptologist Dr. Julius Kane accidentally unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes the doctor to oblivion and forces his two children to embark on a dangerous journey, bringing them closer to the truth about their family and its links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.
The Roar by Emma Clayton. In an overpopulated world where all signs of nature have been obliterated and a wall has been erected to keep out plague-ridden animals, twelve-year-old Mika refuses to believe that his twin sister was killed after being abducted, and continues to search for her in spite of the dangers he faces in doing so.
A Spy in the House by Y. S. Lee. Rescued from the gallows in 1850s London, young orphan and thief Mary Quinn is offered a place at Miss Scrimshaw's Academy for Girls where she is trained to be part of an all-female investigative unit called The Agency and, at age seventeen, she infiltrates a rich merchant's home in hopes of tracing his missing cargo ships.
This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel. When his twin brother falls ill in the family's chateau in the independent republic of Geneva in the eighteenth century, sixteen-year-old Victor Frankenstein embarks on a dangerous and uncertain quest to create the forbidden Elixir of Life described in an ancient text in the family's secret Biblioteka Obscura.
What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen.
Following her parents' bitter divorce as she and her father move from town to town, seventeen-year-old Mclean reinvents herself at each school she attends until she is no longer sure she knows who she is or where she belongs.
Wild Life by Cynthia DeFelice. When twelve-year-old Eric's parents are deployed to Iraq, he goes to live with grandparents he hardly knows in small-town North Dakota, but his grandfather's hostility and the threat of losing the dog he has rescued are too much and Eric runs away.
Wonder by R. J. Palacio. Ten-year-old Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme facial abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes from being home-schooled to entering fifth grade at a private middle school in Manhattan, which entails enduring the taunting and fear of his classmates as he struggles to be seen as just another student.
2014-2015 ITA Nomination List
The Raft by S.A. Bodeen. Robbie's last-minute flight to the Midway Atoll proves to be a nightmare when the plane goes down in shark-infested waters, but the real terror begins when the co-pilot Max pulls her onto the raft.
The Outcasts by John Flanagan. Hal, who does not fit into Skandian society, ends up in a brotherband, a group of boys learning the skills that they need to become warriors, with other outcasts, and they compete with other brotherbands in a series of challenges.
Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Getz. Based on the life of Jack Gruener, this book relates his story of survival from the Nazi occupation of Krakow, when he was eleven, through a succession of concentration camps, to the final liberation of Dachau.
Girl Stolen April Henry. When an impulsive carjacking turns into a kidnapping, Griffin, a high school dropout, finds himself more in sympathy with his wealthy, blind victim, sixteen-year-old Cheyenne, than his greedy father.
One For the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt After heartbreaking betrayal, Carley is sent to live with a foster family and struggles with opening herself to their love.
Ungifted by Gordan Korman When one of Donovan's thoughtless pranks accidentally destroys the school gym during the Big Game he knows he's in for it. But through a strange chain of events, his name gets put on the list for the local school for gifted students. Donovan knows he's not a genius, but he can't miss this chance to escape. Now, he has to figure out a way to stay at ASD and fit in with the kids there.
The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine. In 1958 Little Rock, Arkansas, painfully shy twelve-year-old Marlee sees her city and family divided over school integration, but her friendship with Liz, a new student, helps her find her voice and fight against racism.
True Legend by Mike Lupica. Fifteen-year-old Drew "True" Robinson loves being the best point-guard prospect in high school basketball, but learns the consequences of fame through a former player as well as through the man who expects to be his manager when True reaches the NBA.
I Pledge Allegiance by Chris Lynch. Enlisting as a group when one of them is drafted into the Vietnam War, best friends Morris, Rudi, Ivan, and Beck pledge their loyalty to one another before reporting to different branches of service.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. by Ransom Riggs. After a family tragedy, Jacob feels compelled to explore an abandoned orphanage on the island off
the coast of Wales, discovering disturbing facts about the children who were kept there.
The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan. Jason, Piper, and Leo, three students from a school for "bad kids," find themselves at Camp Half-Blood, where they learn that they are demigods and begin a quest to free Hera, who has been imprisoned by Mother Earth herself.
Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi. Aria and Perry, two teens from radically different societies--one highly advanced, the other primitive--hate being dependent on one another until they overcome their prejudices and fall in love, knowing they can't stay together.
Bomb: The Race to Buld-and Steal-the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin. Recounts the scientific discoveries that enabled atom splitting, the military intelligence operations that occurred in rival countries, and the work of brilliant scientists hidden at Los Alamos.
Curveball: The Year I Lost M Grip by Jordan Sonnenblick. Meet Peter Friedman, high school freshman. Talented photographer. Former baseball star. When a freakish injury ends his pitching career, Peter has some major things to figure out. Is there life after sports? Why has his grandfather suddenly given him thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment? And is it his imagination, or is the super-hot star of the girls' swim team flirting with him, right in front of the amazing new girl in his photography class?
Variant by Robinson Wells. After years in foster homes, seventeen-year-old Benson Fisher applies to New Mexico's Maxfield Academy in hopes of securing a brighter future, but instead he finds that the school is a prison and no one is what he or she seems
2013- 2014 Award Winners
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys. In 1941, fifteen-year-old Lina, her mother, and brother are pulled from their Lithuanian home by Soviet guards and sent to Siberia, where her father is sentenced to death in a prison camp while she fights for her life, vowing to honor her family and the thousands like hers by burying her story in a jar on Lithuanian soil. Based on the author's family, includes a historical note.
Bruiser by Neal Shusterman. Inexplicable events start to occur when sixteen-year-old twins Tennyson and Bronte befriend a troubled and misunderstood outcast, aptly nicknamed Bruiser, and his little brother, Cody.
Cinder by Marissa Meyer. As plague ravages the overcrowded Earth, observed by a ruthless lunar people, Cinder, a gifted mechanic and cyborg, becomes involved with handsome Prince Kai and must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect the world in this futuristic take on the Cinderella story.
Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare. When sixteen-year-old orphan Tessa Fell's older brother suddenly vanishes, her search for him leads her into Victorian-era London's dangerous supernatural underworld, and when she discovers that she herself is a Downworlder, she must learn to trust the demon-killing Shadowhunters if she ever wants to learn to control her powers and find her brother.
Crazy by Han Nolan. Fifteen-year-old loner Jason struggles to hide father's declining mental condition after his mother's death, but when his father disappears he must confide in the other members of a therapy group he has been forced to join at school.
Legend by Marie Lu. In a dark future, when North America has split into two warring nations, fifteen-year-olds Day, a famous criminal, and prodigy June, the brilliant soldier hired to capture him, discover that they have a common enemy.
Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans. Michael Vey, a fourteen-year old who has Tourette's syndrome and special electric powers, finds there are others like him, and must rely on his powers to save himself and the others from a diabolical group seeking to control them.
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson. Rory, of Boueuxlieu, Louisiana, is spending a year at a London boarding school when she witnesses a murder by a Jack the Ripper copycat and becomes involved with the very unusual investigation.
The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan. Brilliant Egyptologist Dr. Julius Kane accidentally unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes the doctor to oblivion and forces his two children to embark on a dangerous journey, bringing them closer to the truth about their family and its links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.
The Roar by Emma Clayton. In an overpopulated world where all signs of nature have been obliterated and a wall has been erected to keep out plague-ridden animals, twelve-year-old Mika refuses to believe that his twin sister was killed after being abducted, and continues to search for her in spite of the dangers he faces in doing so.
A Spy in the House by Y. S. Lee. Rescued from the gallows in 1850s London, young orphan and thief Mary Quinn is offered a place at Miss Scrimshaw's Academy for Girls where she is trained to be part of an all-female investigative unit called The Agency and, at age seventeen, she infiltrates a rich merchant's home in hopes of tracing his missing cargo ships.
This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel. When his twin brother falls ill in the family's chateau in the independent republic of Geneva in the eighteenth century, sixteen-year-old Victor Frankenstein embarks on a dangerous and uncertain quest to create the forbidden Elixir of Life described in an ancient text in the family's secret Biblioteka Obscura.
What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen.
Following her parents' bitter divorce as she and her father move from town to town, seventeen-year-old Mclean reinvents herself at each school she attends until she is no longer sure she knows who she is or where she belongs.
Wild Life by Cynthia DeFelice. When twelve-year-old Eric's parents are deployed to Iraq, he goes to live with grandparents he hardly knows in small-town North Dakota, but his grandfather's hostility and the threat of losing the dog he has rescued are too much and Eric runs away.
Wonder by R. J. Palacio. Ten-year-old Auggie Pullman, who was born with extreme facial abnormalities and was not expected to survive, goes from being home-schooled to entering fifth grade at a private middle school in Manhattan, which entails enduring the taunting and fear of his classmates as he struggles to be seen as just another student.