Outside In by LeUyen Pham

Outside In by LeUyen Pham

One day all the people outside . . . went inside.
What were they doing?
Why did they go inside?

This book explains in a simple manner the effects of covid-19 and quarantine to young children.  The words are simple -- highlighting  the ways people coped and felt.  The illustrations offer more depth to the words.  This is a great book to share with children who might be upset and confused as to the events of the past year.

Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar

Tamaya Dhilwaddi and Marshall Walsh have been walking to and from school together for years.  It's a long four-mile walk around  the woods to their house.  Then one day, Marshall decides to take a "short cut" through the woods to avoid a school bully and Tamaya follows him into the woods.  They soon get lost.  Then they bully finds them.  Then they escape only to find that something in the woods was a lot more dangerous than they thought.

This was a great story of courage, suspense, adventure, and mystery.  The issues of bullying, telling the truth, and doing the right thing are handled with great care.  I would recommend this book to any reader.

Will You Survive High School?

School has been in session for a couple of weeks now.  We've met out teachers.  We've figured out our schedules and classes.  We're settling into the school routine.  So I thought I would share some books for teens about high school.  Here are a few of my favorites . . . .

Vampire High by Douglas Rees
When his family moves from California to New Sodom, Massachusetts and Cody enters Vlad Dracul Magnet School, many things seem strange, from the dark-haired, pale-skinned, supernaturally strong students to Charon, the wolf who guides him around campus on the first day.

The Golden Day by Ursula Dubosarsky
Set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, follows the chilling stories of eleven school girls who struggle to identify a mysterious poet in the aftermath of a teacher's innocence-shattering disappearance.

Story Time by Edward Bloor
George and Kate are promised the best education but instead face obsessed administrators, endless tests, and evil spirits when they are transferred to Whittaker Magnet School.

Legacies: A Shadow Grail Novel by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill
After her family is killed, Spirit White is taken to Oakhurst Academy, a combination orphanage and school for those with magical powers, where she and her new friends investigate when students start mysteriously disappearing.

Quarantine by Lex Thomas
When a virus deadly to adults infects their high school, brothers David and Will and the other students soon break into gangs that fight each other for survival and the hope of escaping their quarantine.


More Teen Books About High School --
The Brimstone Journal by Ron Koertge
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
Evernight by Claudia Gray
Evil Librarian by Michelle Knudson
A Field Guide to High School: A Novel by Marissa Walsh
Freshman: A Novel by Michael Gerber
Game Changer by Margaret Peterson Haddix
How to Lead a Life of Crime by Kirsten Miller
New Boy by Julian Houston
Nothing: A Novel by Janne Teller
Period 8 by Chris Crutcher
Rikers High by Paul Volponi
Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie: A Novel by David Lubar
The Taking of Room 114: A Hostage Drama in Poems by Mel Glenn
Tales of the Madman Underground by John Barnes
Variant by Robison Wells


Check out these books on display at the Arnold Branch through September 18, 2015.