Allatoona Treasure Chest

How to Use the Georgia Peach Teen Book Nominee Blog for 2008-2009

The Georgia Peach Teen Book Award program was begun in 2004 to promote reading among teens. Teens may vote (at their school or public library) for each book they read on the current nominee list. This blog was designed to provide a forum for commenting about the books.

Students, teachers, parents, and coaches who have read a book may comment on it. All comments must be approved by the blog moderator before being published on the web. After a comment has been submitted, it may take up to 24 hours for the comment to be available on the blog. Comments that are not considered appropriate will not be published.

Comments should be substantial. You may talk about whether you liked or disliked the book, but please give some details to support your opinion. Was the book a genre (historical fiction, realistic, or fantasy) that you particularly like or dislike? Were the characters or plot unrealistic? How does this book compare with others by the same author? You may also comment on a previous comment. You may sign your comment with your first name only, or you may make up a name and an email address. You may include the name of your school. For your security, do not include any other information that could be used to identify you. No comment that belittles another commentator, uses inappropriate language, reveals personal information, or is off topic will be approved by the moderator.

To make a comment on a book, click on the comment link (under the book description beneath the red line below the post). You may compose your comment in the box and must enter a name and an email address. Again, the name and address may be fictional. When you finish writing, type in the letters to verify your comment (this helps prevent spam from appearing in the blog). Check back in a day or so and you will find your comment on the web!

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on  the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Native American is the school mascot. 

Absolutely Positively Not by David LaRochelle

Chronicles a teenage boy's humorous attempts to fit in at his Minnesota high school by becoming a macho, girl-loving, "Playboy" pinup-displaying heterosexual.

American Born Chinese by Gene Yang

Alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese Americans trying to participate in the popular culture.

Boot Camp by Todd Strasser

After ignoring several warnings to stop dating his teacher, Garrett is sent to Lake Harmony, a boot camp that uses unorthodox and brutal methods to train students to obey their parents.

The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart

Ruby Oliver, a moderately popular fifteen-year-old who has suddenly become a social pariah, begins seeing a psychiatrist and makes a list of all her past boyfriends in an attempt to understand where her life went wrong.

Copper Sun by Sharon Draper

Two fifteen-year-old girls--one a slave and the other an indentured servant--escape their Carolina plantation and try to make their way to Fort Moses, Florida, a Spanish colony that gives sanctuary to slaves.

Epic by Conor Kostick

On New Earth, a world based on a video role-playing game, fourteen-year-old Erik pursuades his friends to aid him in some unusual gambits in order to save Erik's father from exile and safeguard the futures of each of their families.

Gingerbread by Rachel Cohn

After being expelled from a fancy boarding school, Cyd Charisse's problems with her mother escalate after Cyd falls in love with a sensitive surfer and is subsequently sent from San Francisco to New York City to spend time with her biological father.

Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

Three teens who meet at

Reno

,

Nevada

's Aspen Springs mental hospital after each has attempted suicide connect with each other in a way they never have with their parents or anyone else in their lives.

Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt

When Lord Death comes to claim sixteen-year-old Keturah while she is lost in the King's Forest, she charms him with her story and is granted a twenty-four hour reprieve in which to seek her one true love.

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeiffer

Through journal entries sixteen-year-old Miranda describes her family's struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.

Notes From the Midnight Driver by Jordan Sonnenblick

After being assigned to perform community service at a nursing home, sixteen-year-old Alex befriends a cantankerous old man who has some lessons to impart about jazz guitar playing, love, and forgiveness.

Plain J.A.N.E.S. by Cecil Castellucci

After a bombing in the city, Jane's parents move to a suburb where she befriends three outcasts--all named Jane--and starts a group called People Loving Art in Neighborhoods, which tries to enrich their community with art but instead is viewed as a threat. 

Right Behind You by Gail Giles

After spending over four years in a mental institution for murdering a friend in Alaska, fourteen-year-old Kip begins a completely new life in Indiana with his father and stepmother under a different name, but has trouble fitting in and finds there are still problems to deal with from his childhood.

Rucker Park Setup by Paul Volponi

While playing in a crucial basketball game on the very court where his best friend was murdered, Mackey tries to come to terms with his own part in that murder and decide whether to maintain his silence or tell J.R.'s father and the police what really happened.

Side Effects by Amy Goldman Koss

Fourteen-year-old Isabella is a typical teenager. She is concerned with friends, school, and gaining weight until the fateful morning that she discovers the enlarged glands in her neck. With the subsequent diagnosis of stage-four Hodgkin's lymphoma, she enters the netherworld of cancer.

Sold by Patricia McCormick

A novel in vignettes, in which Lakshmi, a thirteen-year-old girl from Nepal, is sold into prostitution in India.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

A novel set against the three decades of Afghanistan's history shaped by Soviet occupation, civil war, and the Taliban, which tells the stories of two women, Mariam and Laila, who grow close despite their nineteen-year age difference and initial rivalry as they suffer at the hand of a common enemy: their abusive husband.

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

After finally getting noticed by someone other than school bullies and his ever-angry father, seventeen-year-old Tyler enjoys his tough new reputation and the attentions of a popular girl, but when life starts to go bad again, he must choose between transforming himself or giving in to his destructive thoughts.

Uglies by Scott Westerfield

Tally is faced with a difficult choice when her new friend Shay decides to risk life on the outside rather than submit to the forced operation that turns sixteen year old girls into gorgeous beauties, and realizes that there is a whole new side to the pretty world that she doesn't like.

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