July Picks

1. Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B Cooney
   No one ever really paid close attention to the faces of the missing children on the milk cartons. But as Janie Johnson glanced at the face of the ordinary little girl with her hair in tight pigtails, wearing a dress with a narrow white collar—a three-year-old who had been kidnapped twelve years before from a shopping mall in New Jersey—she felt overcome with shock. It was her. How could it possibly be true? Janie can't believe that her loving parents kidnapped her, but as she begins to piece things together, nothing makes sense. Something is terribly wrong. Are Mr. and Mrs. Johnson really her parents? And if not, who is Janie Johnson, and what really happened?

2. Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson
   High school senior Tyler Miller used to be the guy who faded into the background. However, after he gets caught doing graffiti on the school, he stands out like a sore thumb. He attracts the attention of Bethany Milbury, who happens to be his father's boss's daughter, the sister of his biggest enemy, and Tyler's secret change. This sets off a string of events and changes that have Tyler questioning his place in school, in his family, and in the world.

3. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
   Willy Loman is an aging, failing salesman who Miller redefines the tragic hero through. Loman is a man whose dreams are at once insupportably vast and dangerously insubstantially. This play shows the extremes of humor and anguish, promise and loss, all between the four walls of an American living room.

4. Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements
   Bobby Phillips is an average fifteen-year-old boy. Until the morning he wakes up and can't see himself in the mirror. Bobby is just plain invisible - and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to Bobby's new condition. He has to figure out how to be seen again - before it's too late.

5. Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth
   Cyra Noavek and Akos Kereseth have grown up in enemy countries locked in a long-standing fight for dominance over their shared planet. When Akos and Cyra are caught in the middle of a raging rebellion, everything they’ve been led to believe about their world and themselves must be called into question. But fighting for what’s right might mean betraying their countries, their families, and each other.