"Toad Rage" by Morris Gleitzman

ISBN: 0-375-82762-5

Limpy is a cane toad, and he has one question he wants his family to answer: "Why do humans hate us?"

The cane toad is huge, ugly, and has caused havoc on the natural ecology of Australia...besides this, they are highly poisonous. Limpy, however, does not understand any of this, nor does he understand why humans have to squish toads on the roads! You see, the Australian cane toad likes to eat bugs…and they need flying bugs in order to get all of their essential nutrients. The problem is that the flying buys all hang out on the highway…which means that getting a well balanced diet often means a toad or two gets squished! Sometimes, humans actually seem to AIM THEIR CARS at the toads!

Limpy has a cousin named Goliath; Goliath is the biggest, strongest, handsomest cane toad in the area, but he’s definitely not the smartest.

One day, Limpy, Goliath, and Limpy’s sister Charm are on the highway. When a truck approaches, Goliath picks up a stick ‘cause he’s decided he’s going to stop the truck and beat the living daylights out of the murdering human! Unfortunately, Goliath ends up being squished! Well Limpy decides that enough is enough! So he begins a quest; he will find the human cities and bring peace between humankind and toadkind!

Will he be able to do it? What challenges will he face? To find out, read the book!

"The Softwire: Virus on Orbis 1" by PJ Haarsma

ISBN: 978-0-7636-2709-6

The seed ship "Renaissance" has been traveling through deep space for a very long time, so long that Johnny Turnbull and all the other children on the ship were actually born and raised on the ship. Their parents, you see, had entered into a contract to come and work on planet Orbis; in exchange for their virtual slave status, they would be rewarded with citizenship when their contracts expired.

Unfortunately there was a problem on the ship and all of the parents died. The contract had prevented them from bringing children to the planet, but they had decided to smuggle their frozen embryos on the ship. As soon as they died, the onboard computer decided to unfreeze the embryos! So the children have been raised by the computer, whom they named Mother; Mother teaches them everything they need to know…she prepares synthetic foods for them, she tells them about their parents, about earth, and about the planet they are going to.

*****

The planet Orbis is occupied by the Keepers and the people of the Trading Council, who thousands of years ago fought a war for control of the planet…and ended up with a truce that allowed the Keepers to rule the planet while the Trading Council controls its riches. In this war, the Keepers were allied to a race of warriors called Space Jumpers. These fearsome warriors could travel through space at will…but only if called by another Space Jumper. The Trading Council is so afraid of the Space Jumpers that as part of the peace agreement, the Space Jumpers are banished form Orbis.

*****

When the Renaissance and its ship full of children arrive, the aliens are upset. They expected full grown humans! They decide to separate the children and give them as slaves to the Trading Council to make up for the money they lost when the parents died on the Renaissance. But Johnny had a special gift. He could talk to Mother without being on a computer…he used his mind. When the aliens take the children and are getting ready to put an implant on them so they can communicate with them…one of the aliens stops Johnny from getting it. He wonders why…if he does not download the software he can't talk with the aliens. Then, through a translation box, one of the aliens tells him to download the software with his mind! And he does. Johhny is the first human softwire…and now the aliens all want him…until the computer that runs the entire planet starts to experience problems…and Johnny is blamed!

What will happen? Read the book to find out!

"Endymion Spring" by Matthew Skelton

(978-0-3857-3456-1)

This is a book that takes place in two different eras...one in the mid 1400's and the other in our modern times.

Blake is a young American living in England while his mother studies at Oxford. He lives with her and his little sister, Duck, often finding himself in libraries. One day, as he is walking by, running his hands along the books on the shelf, rapping them with his knuckles...one of the books hits him back! He looks at his hand and sees blood, and he sees a book laying on the floor; he picks it up and sees that it is a vary old book...but it is blank.

Why would there be a blank book in a library, one that doesn't even look like it belongs there for it is not even cataloged? As he is looking through the blank pages, words start to form...and he reads the name "Endymion Spring."

What does it mean? And why is it that only he can read the words on the paper? Did the book really jump out at him for a reason? Did it choose him?

Legends speak of a a book, a book simply referred to as the Last Book. This book contains all the knowledge of good and evil which tempted Adam and Eve in the garden. All of the past and everything to come in the future...it is all written in this book. "Endymion Spring" is the book that tells where to find the "Last Book." And the Person in Shadow is someone who wants that book more than anything else, and will do anything to get it. "Endymion Spring", you see, is literally a living book...it knows whom it can trust, and it knows the heart of the evil that wants the secret which it holds in its covers!

But who is Endymion Spring?

Endymion Spring is a boy living in 1452...an apprentice to Johannes Gutenberg. Johan Fust is a man who steals something very valuable, the contents are stored in a magnificent chest...but he cannot access the contents, not all of them. Only the blood of an innocent can reveal the contents...and Endymion Spring is the boy who can bring forth the words. But he cannot let Fust get the book stored within the chest, for Fust will use it for evil! So Endymion Spring takes the book with him and runs away...he must protect the book!

What, then, is the connection between Blake in the 21st century and Endymion Spring in the 15th century? Who is the Person in Shadow? Can Blake protect the book?

Read this book to find out!

"Touching Spirit Bear" by Ben Mikaelsen

(ISBN 978-0-3808-0560-0)

How many of you have ever come across someone who is perpetually angry? The kind of person who seems to hate everyone and everything around him...always striking out violently with little or no provocation? Hopefully, you've never come across someone like this, but odds are that you have.

Well this is the kind of person we find in Touching Spirit Bear. Cole Matthews, the main character, is an angry 15-year old, and one day he beats a fellow student so severely that the poor boy is taken to the hospital. While Cole is usually able to get away with light punishment, this time he is in really big trouble. Under threat of going to juvenile hall, he agrees to abide by the judges' ruling that he participate in a Native American ritual known as Circle Justice.

It is decided that what Cole needs is some time of self examination, safely away from other people but not locked away, so he is taken to a remote island off the coast of Alaska, hoping that he will be able to deal with his anger issues; that his experience on the island will lead him to change his destructive behavior.

Cole, however, only agreed to do this so he would not be put in jail, so as soon as he is left alone he burns down his shelter and tries to think of a way to escape from the island. As he wanders about he comes across a huge bear, and because he is so angry (as well as misinformed about bears!), he foolishly attempts to kill the bear; he is, after all, angry at everything!

What do you think happens? Well he grabs the bear by the neck and strangles it to death. Oh wait, that is not actually what happens...

No, the bear is not at all intimidated by Cole, and Cole discovers that it is one thing to beat up fellow students at school and quite another matter to take on a humongous bear with no weapons. Unsurprisingly (except, maybe, to Cole), the bear easily stops him and mauls him, almost killing him.

As he lies there near death, Cole realizes that he does not want to die. He wants to live. But is this desire to live motivated by selfishness or does his experience actually reshape him? Does this awareness of how precious life is make him a better person? The best way to find out is by reading this book! ;-)

"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" by John Boyne

(ISBN 978-0-385-75189-6)

"If you start to read this book, you will go on a journey with a nine-year old boy named Bruno. (Though this isn't a book for nine-year olds.) And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence. Fences like this exist all over the world. We hope you never have to encounter one." -from back cover of book

The nine year old in this book is named Bruno, and he's a young German boy who lives in Berlin with his mom, his dad, and his older sister. His father is a very important man who wears a uniform, and Bruno watches as soldiers come in and out of his house day and night and they salute his father.

His father’s boss is someone that everyone calls the Fury, and the Fury trusts his father so much that he gives him an important job; a job that requires the whole family to move to a place he hears called “Out With.” He assumes this is because the person who worked there before did such a bad job that it was “out with” him and in with his father. To Bruno it really makes no sense at all. What he does know is that now he must go to a new home far away, a place where he is lonely. In Berlin he had lots of friends, but here he is the only boy around, and furthermore, whereas in Berlin he would explore for hours, here he is not permitted to do so, and he does not understand why not.

One thing that Bruno notices is that from his bedroom window he can see people in the distance. They are on the other side of a fence, and curiously enough they are always wearing pajamas! Some of these people come to his house to work, and while Bruno has always been told he must treat his elders respectfully, here he watches as young soldiers speak very disrespectfully to the elderly people wearing pajamas; they call them names he doesn't understand and they even push them around and beat them!

Bruno is very confused, and one day he decides he's going to disobey his father and go exploring! He decides to walk towards the fence...and as he approaches it he notices a shape over by a secluded corner. The shape turns out to be a boy of his own age! He greets the boy, but the boy looks very sad, very hungry, and very pale. Bruno wants to ask him why he looks like this but he knows this would be very rude of him. After chatting with his new friend he finds out that they have the same birthday! "We're like twins!" says Bruno to Shmuel.

When Bruno asks Shmuel if he has any friends, Shmuel tells him he does, but that they fight alot.

"It's so unfair," said Bruno. " I don't see why I have to be stuck over here on this side of the fence where there's no one to talk to and no one to play with and you get to have dozens of friends and are probably playing for hours every day. I'll have to speak to Father about it." - from page 10-11

After finding out that Shmuel is from Poland, Bruno tells him that he thinks Germany is superior to Poland, at which point "Shmuel stared at him but didn't say anything, and Bruno felt a strong desire to change the subject because even as he had said the words, they didn't sound quite right to him and the last thing he wanted was for Shmuel to think that he was being unkind." - from page 11

After talking for a little longer, Shmuel tells him he doesn’t know why he’s in this place wearing pajamas, that he was brought here by mean soldiers, and that only he and his father are there; he doesn’t know what happened to his mother and sisters and has not seen them since they arrived...

Bruno continues to visit his friend as often as he can, sometimes bringing him food…and they want to play together but Shmuel can’t come to his side of the fence. Maybe Bruno can go to the other side? Bruno would like that because he’s jealous of Shmuel, after all, he gets to wear pajamas all day!

There is a scene in the book where Bruno asks his father who the people are...

"Father tilted his head to the left, looking a little confused by the question. 'Soldiers, Bruno,' he said. 'And secretaries. Staff workers. You've seen them all before, of course.'

'No, not them,' said Bruno. 'The people I see from my window. In the huts, in the distance. They're all dressed the same.'

'Ah, those people,' said Father, nodding his head and smiling slightly. 'Those people...well, they're not people at all Bruno.'

'...at least not as we understand the term...[t]hey're nothing to do with you...

'Yes, Father,' said Bruno, unsatisfied by the response.

He opened the door and Father called him back for a moment, standing up and raising an eyebrow as if he'd forgotten something. Bruno remembered the moment his father made the signal, and said the phrase and imitated him exactly.

He pushed his two feet together and shot his right arm into the air before clicking his two heels together and saying in as deep and clear a voice as possible- as much like Father's as he could manage- the words he said every time he left a soldier's presence.

'Heil Hitler,' he said, which he presumed, was another way of saying, 'Well, goodbye for now, have a pleasant afternoon." - from page 52-54

What happens next between Bruno and Shmuel? Will Bruno be able to go to the other side of the fence and play? Do you want to know?

Read the book!