Special Collections

Battle of the Books

Description: The Battle of the Books is a voluntary reading incentive program used by many school districts across the country. Bookshare updates our collection annually to include the books for the current school year. #teens #kids


Showing 51 through 75 of 175 results
 

Kidnapped

by Robert Louis Stevenson

When young David Balfour is orphaned, he discovers some surprising truths about his family. His meeting with his uncle Ebenezer turns out to have disastrous consequences leading to kidnap and imprisonment on board a ship bound for the Carolinas. The voyage is full of incident and, after violent conflict and a shipwreck, David finds himself in a daredevil chase across the Scottish Highlands in the company of the irrepressible warrior Alan Breck Stewart.

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

by Jules Verne

French Professor Aronnax and his servant join the Abraham Lincoln, an American frigate, on a mission to find and destroy a "sea-unicorn of colossal dimensions, armed not with a halberd, but with a real spur, as the armored frigates. " The undersea monster is thought to be responsible for the disappearance of over 200 ships. When they encounter the "gigantic cetacean" it disables the Abraham Lincoln and knocks Professor Aronnax, his servant, and the hot-tempered harpooner, Ned Land overboard. The three must cling to the beast or drown; soon they realize that it is really a man-made underwater vehicle.

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

My Antonia

by Willa Cather and Cynthia Brantley Johnson

ENDURING LITERATURE ILLUMINATEDBY PRACTICAL SCHOLARSHIPThe moving portrait of an orphan boy and immigrant girl who find hardship -- and love -- on the American prairie.EACH ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES: A concise introduction that gives readers important background information A chronology of the author's life and work A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations Detailed explanatory notes Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experienceEnriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world's finest books to their full potential.SERIES EDITED BY CYNTHIA BRANTLEY JOHNSON

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

Pride and Prejudice

by Jane Austen

Jane Austen's lively, humorous, and ultimately timeless tale of proper English society, unspoken intentions, and true love finally found.

EACH ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES:
A concise introduction that gives readers important background information
A chronology of the author's life and work
A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context
An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations
Detailed explanatory notes
Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work
Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction
A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience

Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world's finest books to their full potential. SERIES EDITED BY CYNTHIA BRANTLEY JOHNSON

[This text is listed as an example that meets Common Core Standards in English language arts in grades 11-12 at http://www.corestandards.org.]

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

A Tale of Two Cities

by Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities is Charles Dickens's great historical novel, set against the violent upheaval of the French Revolution. The most famous and perhaps the most popular of his works, it compresses an event of immense complexity to the scale of a family history, with a cast of characters that includes a bloodthirsty ogress and an antihero as believably flawed as any in modern fiction. Though the least typical of the author's novels, A Tale of Two Cities still underscores many of his enduring themes--imprisonment, injustice, and social anarchy, resurrection and the renunciation that fosters renewal.Over the years the Modern Library has become a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable, beautifully produced, hardbound editions of important works of literature and thought. Perfect for students, the Modern Library comprises over 170 titles by such oft-studied authors as Plato, Chaucer, Bronte, Dostoevsky, Faulkner, Joyce, Keats, Shakespeare and Chekhov. And coming soon, more Modern Library titles on the Random House Web Site.

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

Shattered

by Dick Francis

When jockey Martin Stukely dies after a fall at Cheltenham, he accidentally embroils his friend Gerard Logan in a perilous search for a stolen videotape. Logan is a glassblower on the verge of widespread acclaim. Long accustomed to the frightful dangers inherent in molten glass and in maintaining a glassmaking furnace at never less than 1800 degrees Fahrenheit, Logan is suddenly faced with terrifying threats to his business, his courage, and his life. Believing that the missing video holds the key to a priceless treasure, and wrongly convinced that Logan knows where to find it, criminal forces set out to press him for information he doesn't have. To survive, he realizes that he himself must sort out the truth. The final race to the tape throws more hazards in Logan's way than his dead jockey friend could ever have imagined. Glass shatters. Logan doesn't ...but it's a close-run thing.

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

Things We Couldn't Say

by Diet Eman and James Schaap

True story of Diet Eman, a young Dutch woman who, with her fiancé, risked her life to rescue Jews from Nazi-occupied Holland during World War II. Later edition subtitled "A dramatic account of Christian resistance in Holland during WWII

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

The Old Man and the Sea

by Ernest Hemingway

The last novel Ernest Hemingway saw published, The Old Man and the Sea has proved itself to be one of the enduring works of American fiction. It is the story of an old Cuban fisherman and his supreme ordeal: a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Using the simple, powerful language of a fable, Hemingway takes the timeless themes of courage in the face of defeat and personal triumph won from loss and transforms them into a magnificent twentieth-century classic.

Pulitzer Prize Winner

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

The Time Machine

by H. G. Wells

One of the greatest science fiction writers of all time paints a vivid and terrifying picture of humanity's possible future. An unnamed inventor tests his latest creation - a time machine. It works, pulling him far into the future, but while exploring this new world the time machine is stolen, forcing the Time Traveller to rely on help from the innocent, idyllic Eloi to recover it from the brutal, subterranean Morlocks. The book touches on socio-political issues such as classism and industrialization. It has been adapted for film twice. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

Killing Lincoln

by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

The anchor of The O'Reilly Factor recounts one of the most dramatic stories in American history - how one gunshot changed the country forever. In the spring of 1865, the bloody saga of America's Civil War finally comes to an end after a series of increasingly harrowing battles. President Abraham Lincoln's generous terms for Robert E. Lee's surrender are devised to fulfill Lincoln's dream of healing a divided nation, with the former Confederates allowed to reintegrate into American society. But one man and his band of murderous accomplices, perhaps reaching into the highest ranks of the U. S. government, are not appeased. In the midst of the patriotic celebrations in Washington D. C. , John Wilkes Booth - charismatic ladies' man and impenitent racist - murders Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre. A furious manhunt ensues and Booth immediately becomes the country's most wanted fugitive. Lafayette C. Baker, a smart but shifty New York detective and former Union spy, unravels the string of clues leading to Booth, while federal forces track his accomplices. The thrilling chase ends in a fiery shootout and a series of court-ordered executions - including that of the first woman ever executed by the U. S. government, Mary Surratt. Featuring some of history's most remarkable figures, vivid detail, and page-turning action, Killing Lincolnis history that reads like a thriller.

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

The Shack

by William P. Young

Mackenzie Allen Phillips's youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation, and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness.

Four years later, in this midst of his great sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change his life forever.

A New York Times Bestseller

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

Founding Brothers

by Joseph J. Ellis

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A landmark work of history explores how a group of greatly gifted but deeply flawed individuals—Hamilton, Burr, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Adams, and Madison—confronted the overwhelming challenges before them to set the course for our nation.&“A splendid book—humane, learned, written with flair and radiant with a calm intelligence and wit.&” —The New York Times Book ReviewThe United States was more a fragile hope than a reality in 1790. During the decade that followed, the Founding Fathers—re-examined here as Founding Brothers—combined the ideals of the Declaration of Independence with the content of the Constitution to create the practical workings of our government. Through an analysis of six fascinating episodes—Hamilton and Burr&’s deadly duel, Washington&’s precedent-setting Farewell Address, Adams&’ administration and political partnership with his wife, the debate about where to place the capital, Franklin&’s attempt to force Congress to confront the issue of slavery and Madison&’s attempts to block him, and Jefferson and Adams&’ famous correspondence—Founding Brothers brings to life the vital issues and personalities from the most important decade in our nation&’s history.

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

The Robe

by Lloyd C. Douglas

More than 6 million copies sold! The classic Christian novel of the crucifixion and one Roman soldier&’s transformation through faith.  At the height of his popularity, Lloyd C. Douglas was receiving an average of one hundred letters a week from fans. One of those fans, a department store clerk in Ohio named Hazel McCann, wrote to Douglas asking what he thought had happened to Christ&’s garments after the crucifixion. Douglas immediately began working on The Robe, sending each chapter to Hazel as he finished it. It is to her that Douglas dedicated this book. A Roman soldier wins Christ&’s robe as a gambling prize. He then sets forth on a quest to find the truth about the Nazarene—a quest that reaches to the very roots and heart of Christianity. Here is the fascinating story of this young Roman soldier, Marcellus, who was in charge at the crucifixion of Jesus. After he won Christ&’s robe in a game of dice on Calvary, he experienced a slow and overpowering change in his life. Through the pages of this great book, the reader sees how a pagan Roman was eventually converted to Christ. Set against the vividly drawn background of ancient Rome, this is a timeless story of adventure, faith, and romance, a tale of spiritual longing and ultimate redemption . . .

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

by Ernest J. Gaines

This is a novel in the guise of the tape recorded recollections of a black woman who has lived 110 years, who has been both a slave and a witness to the black militancy of the 1960’s.

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

The Big Sky

by A. B. Guthrie

A classic portrait of America's vast frontier that inspired the Western genre in fiction.

Originally published more than fifty years ago, The Big Sky is the first of A. B. Guthrie Jr. 's epic adventure novels set in the American West. Here he introduces Boone Caudill, Jim Deakins, and Dick Summers: traveling the Missouri River from St. Louis to the Rockies, these frontiersmen live as trappers, traders, guides, and explorers. The story centers on Caudill, a young Kentuckian driven by a raging hunger for life and a longing for the blue sky and brown earth of big, wild places. Caught up in the freedom and savagery of the wilderness, Caudill becomes an untamed mountain man, whom only the beautiful daughter of a Blackfoot chief dares to love.

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

Marley and Me

by John Grogan

John and Jenny were just beginning their life together. They were young and in love, with a perfect little house and not a care in the world. Then they brought home Marley, a wriggly yellow furball of a puppy. Life would never be the same. Marley quickly grew into a barreling, ninety-seven-pound streamroller of a Labrador retriever. He crashed through screen doors, gouged through drywall, and stole women's undergarments. Obedience school did no good -- Marley was expelled. And yet his heart was pure. Just as Marley joyfully refused any limits on his behavior, his love and loyalty were boundless, too. A dog like no other, Marley remained steadfast, a model of devotion, even when his family was at its wit's end. Unconditional love, they would learn, comes in many forms.

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

The Heavenly Man

by Brother Yun and Paul Hattaway

The simple fact that the Chinese church has grown into a force tens of millions strong today is a sign not only of God's existence but also of his matchless power

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

Anne Frank

by Anne Frank

A teenage Jewish girl's recorded thoughts and impressions while she and her family were being hidden in a safe house during the Nazi occupation of Holland.

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

Crime and Punishment

by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

ENDURING LITERATURE ILLUMINATED BY PRACTICAL SCHOLARSHIP Dostoyevsky's penetrating study of a man for whom the distinction between right and wrong disappears, and a riveting portrait of guilt and retribution. EACH ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES: A concise introduction that gives readers important background information A chronology of the author's life and work A timeline of significant events that provides the book's historical context An outline of key themes and plot points to help readers form their own interpretations Detailed explanatory notes Critical analysis, including contemporary and modern perspectives on the work Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader's experience Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world's finest books to their full potential. SERIES EDITED BY CYNTHIA BRANTLEY JOHNSON

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

This Present Darkness

by Frank Peretti

The small town of Ashton is the unexpected setting for an epic clash between good and evil as a Christian preacher and a news reporter unearth a plot to take over their small community, and eventually the world.

Unseen supernatural forces are at play, as armies of angels and demons wage battle, with groups of Christians and New Agers influencing what they cannot see by the power of prayer.

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

The Good Earth

by Pearl S. Buck

The Pulitzer Prize–winning, New York Times–bestselling novel about a peasant farmer and his family in early twentieth-century China.The Good Earth is Buck&’s classic story of Wang Lung, a Chinese peasant farmer, and his wife, O-lan, a former slave. With luck and hard work, the couple&’s fortunes improve over the years: They have sons, and save steadily until one day they can afford to buy property in the House of Wang—the very house in which O-lan used to work. But success brings with it a new set of problems. Wang soon finds himself the target of jealousy, and as good harvests come and go, so does the social order. Will Wang&’s family cherish the estate after he&’s gone? And can his material success, the bedrock of his life, guarantee anything about his soul? Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the William Dean Howells Award, The Good Earth was an Oprah&’s Book Club choice in 2004. A readers&’ favorite for generations, this powerful and beautifully written fable resonates with universal themes of hope and family unity. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. Buck including rare images from the author&’s estate.

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

Christy

by Catherine Marshall

In the year 1912, nineteen-year-old Christy Huddleston leaves home to teach school in the Smoky Mountains -- and comes to know and love the resilient people of the region, with their fierce pride, their dark superstitions, their terrible poverty, and their yearning for beauty and truth. But her faith will be severely challenged by trial and tragedy, by the needs and unique strengths of two remarkable young men, and by a heart torn between true love and unwavering devotion.

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

The Bean Trees

by Barbara Kingsolver

Clear-eyed and spirited, Taylor Greer grew up poor in rural Kentucky with the goals of avoiding pregnancy and getting away. But when she heads west with high hopes and a barely functional car, she meets the human condition head-on. By the time Taylor arrives in Tucson, Arizona, she has acquired a completely unexpected child, a three-year-old American Indian girl named Turtle, and must somehow come to terms with both motherhood and the necessity for putting down roots. Hers is a story about love and friendship, abandonment and belonging, and the discovery of surprising resources in apparently empty places. Available for the first time in mass-market, this edition of Barbara Kingsolver's bestselling novel, The Bean Trees, will be in stores everywhere in September. With two different but equally handsome covers, this book is a fine addition to your Kingsolver library.

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

Harriet Tubman

by Sarah H. Bradford

This memorable biography is about Harriet Tubman, a former slave who led a heroic struggle more bravely and more successfully than any other to liberate African-Americans from slavery.

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult

Shane

by Jack Schaefer

The Starrett family's life forever changes when a man named Shane rides out of the great glowing West and up to their farm in 1889. Young Bob Starrett is entranced by this stoic stranger who brings a new energy to his family. Shane stays on as a farmhand, but his past remains a mystery. Many folks in their small Wyoming valley are suspicious of Shane, and make it known that he is not welcome. But dangerous as Shane may seem, he is a staunch friend to the Starretts, and when a powerful neighboring rancher tries to drive them out of their homestead, Shane becomes entangled in the deadly feud. This classic Western, originally published in 1949, is a profoundly moving story of the influence of a singular character on one boy's life.

Date Added: 05/25/2017


Category: Young Adult


Showing 51 through 75 of 175 results