TRICKSTER

B Dahl

Dahl, Roald. Boy:Tales of Childhood. New York: Viking, [1988].

Note: "'I am only eight years old,' I told myself. 'No little boy of eight has ever murdered anyone. It's not possible.'"
So thought Roald Dahl in 1924 when his plan to get revenge on the mean and disgusting candy-store owner Mrs. Pratchett seemed to have worked all too well. Writing about this and other boyhood adventures, the author has recalled only those that stand out as spectacular. "Some are funny. Some are painful. Some are unpleasant. I suppose that is why I have always remembered them so vividly. All are true."

B GILBRETH

Gilbreth, Frank B and Gilbreth Carey, Ernestine. Cheaper By the Dozen. Hingham,

MA: Wheeler Pub, [1948].

Note: No growing pains have ever been more hilarious than those suffered loudly by the riotous Gilbreth clan. First, there are a dozen redhaired, freckle-faced kids to contend with. Then there's Dad, a famous efficiency expert, who believes a family can be run just like a factory. And there's Mother, his partner in everything except discipline.

Fic ALM

Almond, David. Skellig. New York: DellYearling, [2000].

Note: Unhappy about his baby sister's illness and the chaos of moving into a dilapidated old house, Michael retreats to the garage and finds a mysterious stranger who is something like a bird and something like an angel.

Fic BAUER

Bauer, Joan. Squashed. New York, N.Y: Delacorte Press, [1992].

Note: As a sixteen-year-old pursues her two goals--growing the biggest pumpkin

in Iowa and losing twenty pounds herself--she strengthens her relationship

with her father and meets a young man with interests similar to her own.

Fic CHABON

Chabon, Michael. Summerland. New York: Talk Miramax Books/Hyperion Books for Children, [2002].

Note: Ethan Feld, the worst baseball player in the history of the game, finds himself recruited by a 100-year-old scout to help a band of fairies triumph over an ancient enemy.

Fic Fer

Ferris, Jean. Once Upon a Marigold. San Diego: Harcourt, [2002].

Note: A young man with a mysterious past and a penchant for inventing things leaves the troll who raised him, meets an unhappy princess he has loved from afar, and discovers a plot against her and her father.

Fic GEE

Gee, Maurice. The Fat Man. New York: Aladdin, [1999].

Note: In 1933, Herbert Muskie returns to his rundown hometown of Loomis, New Zealand, and uses a combination of cunning and psychological threats to take control of the lives of twelve-year-old Colin Potter and his family as part of a plan to get even for the mistreatment he suffered as a schoolboy.

Fic GOU

Gould, Steven. Jumper. New York: Tom Dougherty, [1992].

Note: Blessed with the unusual ability to "jump"--to teleport himself to any place on Earth that he has been to before--Davy is determined to locate others like himself, but interference from the government could prevent him from doing so.

Fic KERR

Kerr, M. E. Him She Loves? 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row, [1984].

Note: When seventeen-year-old Henry Schiller fell in love with Valerie

Kissenwiser, he never suspected that their romance would become national

television's funniest comedy routine.

Fic KISLING

Kisling, Lee R. The Fools'War. New York: HarperCollins, [1992].

Note: A boy must try to save a kingdom when the king, preoccupied by unrequited

love, ignores the threat of war.

Fic Kor

Korman, Gordon. Son of the Mob. New York: Hyperion, [2002].

Note: Seventeen-year-old Vince's life is constantly complicated by the fact that he is the son of a powerful Mafia boss, a relationship that threatens to destroy his romance with the daughter of an FBI agent.

Fic LAWRENCE

Lawrence, Iain. The Smugglers. New York: Delacorte Press, [1999].

Note: In eighteenth-century England, after his father buys a schooner called the Dragon, sixteen-year-old John sets out to sail it from Kent to London and becomes involved in a dangerous smuggling scheme.

Fic LEE

Lee, Marie G. F is for Fabuloso. New York: Avon, [1999].

Note: Seventh-grader Jin-Ha finds her adjustment to America complicated by her mother's inability to learn English.

Fic NAY pbk.

Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Alice Alone. New York, NY: Atheneum Books for Young

Readers, [2001].

Note: Alice's first year in high school gets off to a difficult start when she and her boyfriend Patrick break up, but with the help of her father, older brother, and best friends, she gains a better sense of her own self-worth.

Fic MYE

Myers, Walter Dean. Darnell Rock Reporting. New York: DellYearling, [1996].

Note: Thirteen-year-old Darnell's twin sister and the other members of the Corner Crew have doubts about his work on the school newspaper, but the article he writes about a homeless man changes his attitude about school.

B GILBRETH

Gilbreth, Frank B and Gilbreth Carey, Ernestine. Cheaper by the dozen. Hingham,

MA: Wheeler Pub, [1948].

Fic OSA

Osa, Nancy. Cuba 15. New York, NY: Delacorte, [2003].

Note: Violet Paz, a Chicago high school student, reluctantly prepares for her upcoming "quince," a Spanish nickname for the celebration of an Hispanic girl's fifteenth birthday.

Fic PAULSEN

Paulsen, Gary. Harris and Me : a Summer Remembered. 1st ed. San Diego: Harcourt

Brace & Co, [1993].

Note: Sent to live with relatives on their farm because of his unhappy home

life, an eleven-year-old city boy meets his distant cousin Harris and is

given an introduction to a whole new world.

Fic SACHAR

Sachar, Louis. Holes. 1st ed. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, [1998].

Note: As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute to a

curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish

correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend,

a treasure, and a new sense of himself.

Fic Sni

Snickett, Lemony. Series of Unfortunate Events. New York: HarperCollins, [2002].

Note: “I'm sorry to say that this series is extremely unpleasant. It tells an unhappy tale about three very unlucky children. Even though they are charming and clever, the Baudelaire siblings lead lives filled with misery and woe. From the very first page of this book when the children are at the beach and receive terrible news, continuing on through the entire story, disaster lurks at their heels. One might say they are magnets for misfortune.”

Fic BAUERVOI

Bauer, Joan. Squashed. New York, N.Y: Delacorte Press, [1992].

Note: As a sixteen-year-old pursues her two goals--growing the biggest pumpkin in Iowa and losing twenty pounds herself--she strengthens her relationship with her father and meets a young man with interests similar to her own.

F KERR

Kerr, M. E. Him she loves? 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row, [1984].

Note: When seventeen-year-old Henry Schiller fell in love with Valerie Kissenwiser, he never suspected that their romance would become national television's funniest comedy routine.

Voigt, Cynthia. Bad Girls. New York, NY: Scholastic, [1996].

Note: "After meeting on the first day in Mrs. Chemsky's fifth-grade class,

Margalo and Mikey help each other in and out of trouble, as they try to

maintain a friendship while each asserts her independence."

________________________________________________________________________________

Other Titles Recommended but not available in the school library:

B BAR

Andronik, Catherine. Prince of Humbugs: A Life of P.T.Barnum. New York: Atheneum, [1994].

Note: A profile of entrepreneurial showman Phineas T. Barnum details his personal life, ambitious rise from poverty, and spectacular show business and circus career.

B TWA

Cox, Clinton. Mark Twain: America’s Humorist, Dreamer, Prophet. New York: Apple, [1999].

Note: Riverboat pilot, newspaper reporter, adventurer, satirist, and writer, Mark Twain was and is a towering figure in American literature. This definitive biography offers a fresh viewpoint on his colorful and controversial life, and includes archival photographs and extensive quotes from Twain's books.

Fic BUR

Burgess, Thornton. Adventures of Reddy Fox. New York: Dover, [1992].

Note: Timeless fable tells of an overconfident little fox who steals a plump pet hen and is hotly pursued by Farmer Brown’s boy and Bowser the Hound.

B DIC

Stanley, Diane. Charles Dickens: the Man Who Had Great Expectations. New York: Morrow, [1993].

Note: The authors of Bard of Avon present a beautifully illustrated examination of the life and times of distinguished English writer Charles Dickens, revealing the dramatic contrasts of the Victorian period and Dickens's own varied career. Fic NAY pbk.

Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Alice alone. New York, NY: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, [2001].

Fic OSA

Osa, Nancy. Cuba 15. New York, NY: Delacorte, [2003].

Fic BASS

Bass, L. C. Outlaws of Moonshadow Marsh: Sign of the Qin. New York: Hyperion Books for Children, [2004].

Note: In long-ago China, Prince Zong, the mortal young Starlord chosen to save humankind from destruction, joins the twin outlaws, White Streak and Black Whirlwind, to fight the Lord of the Dead and his demon hordes.

Fic GRA

Gray, Keith. Creepers. New York: Putnam, [1997].

Note: Jamie was the best Creeper at school. He could sneak through more yards than anyone else without being caught. He was fast and hardly made any noise. I was surprised when he wanted to Creep with me. I was pretty good, but with Jamie I felt like I could climb over any fence and never get caught.
Then we decided to do Derwent Drive--the longest Creep in the village. You had to move so fast, most of the way along you didn't have time to think. We were halfway down when it happened. I went Haywire. I just freaked out. I don't know why. I'd handled big dogs before, but this time I lost it. I can't believe I did that. I got away, but Jamie was Snared! The police came! What am I going to do now? And what's going to happen to Jamie?

Fic GRE

Green, Roger Lancelyn. Adventures of Robin Hood. [1994].

Note: Recounts the life and adventures of Robin Hood, who, with his band of followers, lived as an outlaw in Sherwood Forest dedicated to fighting tyranny.

Fic Low

Lowry, Lois. Attaboy, Sam! New York: DellYearling, [1993].

Note: Sam is able to help his sister Anastasia with the poem she is writing for their mother's birthday, but his own efforts to create a special perfume are disastrous.

Fic McC

McCants, William. Anything Can Happen in High School (and It Usually Does). Topeka, KS: Econo-Clad [1999].

Note: When T. J. Durant's girlfriend dumps him for the senior class president, he starts the Radical Wave, a club uniting all of the school's cliques, to woo her back, in a vivid depiction of contemporary high-school life in Southern California.

Fic SPINNER

Spinner, Stephanie. Quicksilver. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, [2005].

Note: Hermes, Prince of Thieves and son of Zeus, relates why the seasons change, the history of the Trojan War, his friendship with Pegasus, and many more adventures.

All annotations are excerpts from Amazon.com and Novelist.

More information on each title is available at either website.