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Good Reads for Guys |
24 Girls in 7 Days by Alex Bradley
Published 2005
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When the love of his life rejects his invitation to the senior prom, Jack Grammar's so-called best friends pose as Jack and run a personal ad in the online school newspaper soliciting a date. At first, the teen is not amused, but he agrees to go along with the plan because his friends have a list of girls eager to go out with him. In fact, it is hard to avoid the young ladies who descend on him without warning. More . . . |
Faerie Wars by Herbie Brennan
Published 2003
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Henry Atherton's family is in some disarray when his mother has an affair with his father's female secretary. Henry's escape is helping elderly Mr. Fogarty with chores. Meanwhile, in a parallel world, Pyrgus Malvae, son of the Purple Emperor, is being chased and climbs the fence outside a glue factory where he discovers an evil secret and also comes close to losing his life. More . . . |
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Published 1991
Find this book in our catalog. Ender Wiggin is a very bright young boy with a powerful skill. One of a group of children bred to be military geniuses and save Earth from an inevitable attack by aliens, known here as "buggers," Ender becomes unbeatable in war games and seems poised to lead Earth to triumph over the buggers. Meanwhile, his brother and sister plot to wrest power from Ender. |
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Published 1999
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An epistolary narrative cleverly places readers in the role of recipients of Charlies unfolding story of his freshman year in high school. From the beginning, Charlies identity as an outsider is credibly established. It was in the spring of the previous school year that his best friend committed suicide and now that his class has gone through a summer of change, the boy finds that he has drifted away from old friends. More . . . |
Artemis Fowl
by Eoin Colfer
Published 2001
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Twelve-year-old genius Artemis Fowl decides to reinvigorate his family fortunes by kidnapping a fairy and demanding its gold. Having obtained and decoded the Book, a tome containing all of the fairies' secrets, Artemis captures an elf named Holly Short and holds her captive at his family mansion in Ireland. However, he hasn't reckoned on the resources and cunning of the LEPrecon Unit, an elite branch ... More . . . |
Desert Blood 10pm/9c by Ronald Cree
Published 2005
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When Gus Gonzalez was 12, he was adopted by television star Nick Hernandez, age 26 and single. Now Gus is 14, Nick's cop character is wildly popular, and it seems that everyone in rural Palmdale, CA, and in the media feels free to cast aspersions on Nick and Gus's relationship. This novel is so littered with coincidences and mean and nasty people that it becomes difficult to care about any of the characters. More . . . |
Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher
Published 2001
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Up-T. J. Jones, the mixed-race, larger-than-life, heroic, first-person narrator of this novel, lays out the events of his senior year, with many digressions along the way. The central plot involves T. J.'s efforts to put together a swim team of misfits, as he tries to upset the balance of power at his central Washington high school, where jocks and the narrow-minded rule. More . . . |
Bucking the Sarge by Christopher Paul Curtis
Published 2004
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Luther's mother, "the Sarge," runs an empire of Flint, MI, slums and halfway houses, and has a loan-sharking business. At age 15, Luther manages one of her halfway houses, drives the residents around in a van with an illegal license, and readies the homes of evicted tenants for the Sarge's next desperate victims. In exchange, she puts his earnings in a college fund, threatens him into submission, and primes him to take over the business. All Luther wants to do is win the school science fair, think deep thoughts, find some action for the vintage ... More . . . |
Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney
Published 2005
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When 12-year-old Thomas, seventh son of a seventh son, is apprenticed to the local Spook, whose job is to fight evil spirits and witches, he expects a life of danger. However, the boy doesn't realize just how soon he'll face a powerful enemy alone, as Mother Malkin escapes her confinement while the Spook is away. Thomas is forced to use his wits, and the help of his enigmatic new friend, Alice, to fight the evil witch. More . . . |
Powder Monkey: The Adventures of Sam Witchall by Paul Dowswell
Published 2005
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This novel details the hardships of a sailor's life as seen through the eyes of a 13-year-old boy. It is 1800 in Norfolk, England, and Sam Witchall begs to go off to sea. Eventually his unwilling father secures him a post on a merchant ship but his fears come true when Sam is pressed into service aboard the HMS Miranda as a powder monkey, running gun powder from below deck to his cannon crew. His skill is soon tested in the heat of battle. More . . . |
Ranger's Apprentice: The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan
Published 2005
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Will hopes to become a knight; instead, he winds up as a Ranger's apprentice, joining the secretive corps that uses stealth, woodcraft, and courage to protect the kingdom. His aptitude and bravery gradually earn the respect of his gruff but good-hearted master. When the kingdom is attacked by evil magic forces, Will helps track down and defeat a couple of particularly nasty beasts. This closing episode sets the stage for a good-versus-evil war that will likely be at the heart of future volumes. More . . . |
Storky: How I Lost My Nickname and Won the Girl by Debra Garfinkle
Published 2005
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Mike Pomerantz is dubbed "Storky" due to his height/weight proportions and is sweating out typical adolescent ups and downs in his first year of high school. He also contends with his parents' divorce and a disinterested, mid-life crisis father. Then there's "The Girl," Gina, whom he has known for years and has fallen in love with. He actually began keeping a journal (this book) in the hopes that she would view him as the "sensitive" type and fall madly in love with him. Not surprisingly ... More . . . |
Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz
Published 2001
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Alex Rider's world is turned upside down when he discovers that his uncle and guardian has been murdered. The 14-year-old makes one discovery after another until he is sucked into his uncle's undercover world. The Special Operations Division of M16, his uncle's real employer, blackmails the teen into serving England. After two short weeks of training, Alex is equipped with several special toys like a Game Boy with unique cartridges that allow it to scan, fax, and emit smoke bombs. More . . . |
Heavy Metal and You by Christopher Krovatin
Published 2005
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Sam wears spiked bracelets, gets wasted with his friends, and has almost encyclopedic knowledge about heavy-metal music. But he's also incredibly intelligent and as knowledgeable about classic literature as he is about the music he loves. Sam attends an expensive all-boys prep school in New York City, and he and his buddies often cut classes to smoke or get an early start on the weekend. But all good things must end, and they do with a sudden crash when Sam begins to date Melissa, a "straightedge" who doesn't drink or ... More . . . |
Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar
Published 2005
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Scott Hudson is the quintessential freshman. He's small, he's lost, and seniors yoke him for spare change. His honors homework keeps him up all night and his gym teacher is trying to kill him. He joins the paper, runs for student council, and tries out for the play, just to be near a girl he likes. This all backfires. He turns out to be the least athletic sports reporter in school history, and freshman lackey to the sadists on stage crew. Meanwhile, his mother is pregnant. The plot is framed by Scott's journal of advice for the unborn baby. More . . . |
The Merchant of Death by D. J. MacHale
Published 2002
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Suburban jock Bobby Pendragon discovers parallel universes and gets hero training while helping to resolve a civil war. Shooting Bobby through an inter-dimensional "flume" from an abandoned South Bronx subway station to three-sunned Denduron, MacHale (creator of Nickelodeon's "Are You Afraid of the Dark" series) proceeds to build his tale from prefabricated elements. Wise mentors utter a few obscure warnings before being whisked away; an evil shape changer works behind the scenes to grab ultimate power; two beautiful, well-muscled young ... More . . . |
Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
Published 2004
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Matt, 15, only feels alive when he's aloft working as a cabin boy aboard the Aurora, a luxury airship that is part dirigible, part passenger cruise ship. When wealthy Kate and her chaperone come aboard, Matt soon discovers that she is determined to prove her grandfather's claims that he saw strange creatures flying in the sky in that area the year before. The man's diary describes them as huge, furry beasts with batlike wings and sharp claws. Soon after Kate arrives, pirates attack the ship and rob the wealthy passengers. A storm forces the damaged Aurora ... More . . . |
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Published 2005
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At first glance, Perseus Jackson seems like a loser (readers meet him at a boarding school for troubled youth), but he's really the son of Poseidon and a mortal woman. As he discovers his heritage, he also loses that mother and falls into mortal danger. The gods (still very active in the 21st-century world) are about to go to war over a lost thunderbolt, so Percy and sidekicks Grover (a young satyr) and Annabeth (daughter of Athena) set out to retrieve it. More . . . |
The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud
Published 2003
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Nathaniel has been apprenticed to Mr. Underwood for several years. At the age of 12, he has finally been Named and is on his way to becoming a real magician. Suddenly, London is in an uproar. The Amulet of Samarkand has been stolen from the powerful magician Simon Lovelace. Only Nathaniel knows what really happened because it was he who commanded the 5000-year-old djinni Bartimaeus to steal it for him. More . . . |
The Dreamwalker's Child by Steven Voake
Published 2006
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Sam Palmer, a lonely boy fascinated by insects, is hit by a car while riding his bike and transported to the parallel world of Aurobon. There he discovers a race of people who use insects as war machines and a plan to rid the Earth of humans using a deadly virus transmitted by mosquitoes. With the help of a girl named Skipper, one of the best pilots ever, Sam, the dreamwalker-s child, must fulfill his part in an ancient prophecy to restore order to the land. More . . . |
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