booktalk Archives - Page 1285 of 1353

Aim
by Joyce Moyer Hostetter (Author)

Booktalk: As World War II threatens the United States in 1941, fourteen-year-old Junior Bledsoe fights his own battles at home. Junior struggles with school and with anger–at his father, his insufferable granddaddy, his neighbors, and himself–as he desperately tries to understand himself and find his own aim in life.

Snippet: On the school bus I stared out the window so Ann Fay would know to leave me alone. What was wrong with the old man anyway? Sometimes it felt like war wasn’t across the ocean. It was right there in my own house. And inside me too. I didn’t know which way to think or feel, and I didn’t know who to be angry with. Pop for leaving or Granddaddy for staying. Or Momma for being bighearted and taking him in.

Girl vs. Boy Band: The Right Track
by Harmony Jones (Author)

Booktalk: Talented but painfully shy eighth-grader Lark secretly writes feisty, heartfelt songs about her life-about school, crushes on boys, not getting along with her mom, and missing her dad who lives in Nashville. But that secret becomes harder to keep when Lark’s mother, a music record executive at her own label, announces that British boy band Abbey Road will be coming to live with them while they make their first album!

Sharing her L.A. house with three noisy, mischievous rising stars isn’t as glamorous as expected, especially when things aren’t going smoothly with the band members. When one of them plagiarizes one of Lark’s songs and passes it off as his own, will Lark gain the courage to step into the spotlight herself?

Snippet: They were just finishing up when she heard a loud thud, followed by a hoot of laughter outside her door.

“What was that?” her father asked.

“Our new houseguests,” said Lark, rolling her eyes. “Three teenaged boys from England. They were probably horsing around and accidentally knocked a painting off the wall, or maybe one of them got cheeky and broke another one’s nose.”

This casual report had her father looking stunned. “Did you just say ‘cheeky’?”

“Yeah. Sorry.”

“I don’t understand. Is this some sort of student exchange program for school?”

‘Nope. They’re a brand-new boy band Mama found in London. She just signed then to her label and now they’re living with us so she can keep a close watch on them and I guess save some money.”

“Oh, really?” Dad raised an eyebrow. “So my little girl is living in a house with three strange teenage males who need to have a close watch kept on them?”