Young Adult novels in Large Print
The Giver/Lois Lowry
Jonas’s world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear of pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the community. When Jonas turns 12 he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now, it is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back as he discovers the truth about the society he lives in. [YA LOW]
Found/Margaret Peterson Haddix
Thirteen-year-old Jonah has always known that he was adopted, and he’s never thought it was any big deal. Then he and a new friend, Chip, who’s also adoped, begin receiving mysterious letters. The first one says, “You are one of the missing.” The second one says, “Beware! They’re coming back to get you.”
Jonah, Chip, and Jonah’s sister, Katherine, are plunged into a mystery that involves the FBI, a vast smuggling operation, an airplane that appeared out of nowhere — and people who seem to appear and disappear at will. The kids discover they are caught in a battle between two opposing forces that want very different things for Jonah and Chip’s lives. [YA HAD]
What the Moon Saw/Laura Resau
Clara Luna’s name means “clear moon” in Spanish. But lately, her head has felt anything but clear. One day a letter comes from Mexico, written in Spanish: Dear Clara, We invite you to our house for the summer. We will wait for you on the day of the full moon, in June, at the Oaxaca airport. Love, your grandparents.
Fourteen-year-old Clara has never met her father’s parents. She knows he snuck over the border from Mexico as a teenager, but beyond that, she knows almost nothing about his childhood. When she agrees to go, she’s stunned by her grandparents’ life: they live in simple shacks in the mountains of southern Mexico, where most people speak not only Spanish, but an indigenous language, Mixteco. [YA RES]
The Sacrifice/Kathleen Benner Duble
In the year 1692, life changes forever for ten-year-old Abigail Faulkner and her family. In Salem, Massachusetts, witches have been found and widespread fear and panic reign mere miles from Abigail’s home of Andover. When two girls are brought from Salem to identify witches in Andover, suspicion sweeps the town as well-respected members of the community are accused of witchcraft. It isn’t long before chaos consumes Andover, and the Faulkners find themselves in the center of it all when friend turns themselves in the center of it all when friend turns against friend, neighbor against neighbor, in a desperate fight for the truth. [YA DUB]
Gulf/Robert Westall
There was always something different about Andy. As a baby, he was a prolific dreamer with an unusual memory for detail. As a young child, his unique blend of curiosity, tenacity, and telepathy evolved into some unusual and unpredictable obsessions. Usually a happy-go-lucky boy, he periodically slipped into odd episodes, such as the time he saw a picture of a starving Ethiopian boy and fell into a trance. At 12, his behavior turns to the bizarre when Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait. Speaking Arabic, sporting a soldier’s haircut, and packing an air rifle, the boy literally takes on the identity of an Iraqi soldier. As the intensity of the Gulf War increases, he slips deeper and deeper into the person of Latif. [YA WES]
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Juvenile novels in Large Print
Shakespeare’s Secret/Elise Broach
Named after a character in a Shakespeare play, misfit sixth-grader Hero becomes interested in exploring this unusual connection because of a valuable diamond supposedly hidden in her new house, an intriguing neighbor, and the unexpected attention of the most popular boy in school. The clearly explained Much Ado About Nothing connections encourage young readers to explore Shakespeare. The historical references, provided by Hero’s Shakespearean scholar father, reinforce one of the book’s major themes: Reaction to an event is more important than the event. [J BRO]
Football Hero/Tim Green
Ty Lewis can’t believe it when Coach V recruits him for the football team. This is Ty’s big chance to prove how fast he is on the field, get a fresh start in a new school, and be like his older brother, Thane “Tiger” Lewis, who’s about to graduate from college—and is being courted by the NFL.
But Ty’s guardian, Uncle Gus, won’t let him play. Uncle Gus needs Ty to scrub floors and toilets for his cleaning business while he cooks up gambling schemes with the local mob boss, a man called “Lucy.”
When Lucy hears just how famous Ty’s older brother is, he becomes suddenly friendly. Are the questions Lucy is asking Ty really about fantasy football . . . or is the Mafia using Ty to get valuable insider info from his superstar brother? Desperately worried, Ty must come up with a plan to save Thane’s football career—and, ultimately, his life. [J GRE]
Way Down Deep/Ruth White
Although Ruby seemed to just appear out of thin air on the steps of the courthouse on the first day of summer in 1944, no one in Way Down Deep, West Virginia, ever worried too much about where the toddler came from. They figured that if Ruby’s people were dumb enough to lose something as valuable as a child, then that was their problem. So even though Ruby can’t help but wonder where she came from, she has led a joyful and carefree life in Way Down Deep, loved and watched over by Miss Arbutus – proprietor of The Roost, the local boardinghouse – the residents of The Roost, and the rest of the town. But when Ruby is twelve, a new family moves to Way Down Deep, and they inadvertently provide enough clues about Ruby’s past that she is able to find her own people. Ruby travels from Way Down Deep to the top of Yonder Mountain to learn who she really is – only to find that she is bound to Way Down Deep by something even stronger than family ties: love. [J WHI]
Crispin: At the Edge of the World/Avi
He was a nameless orphan, marked for death by his masters for an unknown crime. Discovering his name – Crispin- only intensified the mystery. Then Crispin met Bear, who helped him learn the secret of his full identity. And in Bear – the enormous, red-bearded juggler, sometime spy, and everyday philosopher – Crispin also found a new father and a new world.
Now Crispin and Bear have set off to live their lives as free men. But they don’t get far before their past catches up with them: Bear is being pursued by members of the secret brotherhood who believe he is an informer. When Bear is badly wounded, it is up to Crispin to make decisions about their future – where to go and whom to trust. [J AVI]
The Dark is Rising/Susan Cooper
When Will Stanton wakes up on the morning of his birthday, he discovers an unbelievable gift — he is immortal. Bemused and terrified, he finds he is the last of the Old Ones, magical men and women sworn to protect the world from the source of evil, the Dark.
At once Will is plunged into a quest to find six magical Signs to aid the powers of the Light. Six medallions – iron, bronze, wood, water, fire, and stone – created and hidden by the Old Ones centuries ago. But the Dark has sent out the Rider: evil, cloaked in black, mounted upon a midnight stallion, and on the hunt for this youngest Old One, Will. He must find the six great Signs before the Dark can rise, for an epic battle between good and evil approaches. [J COO]
Stealing Freedom/Elisa Carbone
The moment Ann Maria Weems was born, her freedom was stolen from her. Like her family and the other slaves on the farm, Ann works from sunup to sundown and obeys the orders of her master. Then one day, Ann’s family — the only joy she knows — is gone. Just 12 years old, Ann is overcome by grief, struggling to get through each day. And her only hope of stealing back her freedom and finding her family lies in a perilous journey: the Underground Railroad. (Ann Maria Weems was an actual slave who lived in the mid-1800s near the author’s home in Maryland.) [J CAR]
My Side of the Mountain/Jean Craighead George
A young boy relates his adventures during the year he spends living alone in the Catskill Mountains including his struggle for survival, his dependence on nature, his animal friends, and his ultimate realization that he needs human companionship. [J GEO]