Battle of the Books

KLO Grade 9 Titles2014-2015

The Recruit

• CHERUB agents are all seventeen and under and look like regular kids. But they're not.

• They are trained professionals who are sent out on missions to spy on terrorists and international drug dealers. For their safety, these agents DO NOT EXIST.

• James is the latest CHERUB recruit. After one hundred days, the grueling training period is over. But the adventure has just begun…

TAGS: mystery, adventure, espionage(First of 12)

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The House of the Scorpion

• Matteo Alacrán was not born; he was harvested.• His DNA came from El Patrón, lord of a country

called Opium – a strip of poppy fields lying between the United States and what was once called Mexico.

• He is a boy now, but most consider him a monster. As Matt struggles to understand his existence, he is threatened by El Patrón's power-hungry family.

• Escape is the only chance Matt has to survive. But escape does not guarantee freedom because Matt is marked by his difference in ways he doesn't even suspect.

TAGS: science fiction, cloningSequel: The Lord of Opium (2013)

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Cirque du Freak

• Darren Shan and his best friend, Steve, get tickets to the Cirque Du Freak, a wonderfully gothic freak show.

• In the midst of the excitement, true terror raises its head when Steve recognizes that one of the performers – Mr. Crepsley – is a vampire!

• Steve remains after the show finishes to confront the vampire – but his motives are surprising!

• As if by destiny, Darren is pulled to Mr. Crepsley and what follows is his horrifying descent into the dark and bloody world of vampires.

• This is Darren's story.

TAGS: fantasy, vampires, horror(First of 12)

1:10http://vimeo.com/34890123

The Compound

• Eli and his family have lived in the compound for six years. The world they knew is gone.

• Eli's father built the compound to keep them safe. Now they can't get out. He won't let them.

• As problems with their carefully planned existence threaten to destroy their sanctuary – and their sanity – Eli can't help but wonder if he'd rather take his chances outside.

TAGS: realistic fiction, psychopathsSequel: The Fallout (2013)

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Ship Breaker

• In a futuristic America's Gulf Coast region, grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts by crews of young people.

• Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make quota – and hopefully live to see another day.

• But when, by luck or by chance, he discovers an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, Nailer faces the most important decision of his life: Strip the ship for all it's worth or rescue its lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl who could lead him to a better life....

TAGS: dystopia, adventure, survivalCompanion: The Drowned Cities (2012)

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Touching Spirit Bear

• Within Cole Matthews lie anger, rage and hate. Cole has been stealing and fighting for years. This time he caught Alex Driscal in the, parking lot and smashed his head against the sidewalk. Now, Alex may have permanent brain damage and Cole is in the biggest trouble of his life.

• Cole is offered Circle Justice: a system based on Native American traditions that attempts to provide healing for the criminal offender, the victim and the community. With prison as his only alternative, Cole plays along.

• Cole receives a one-year banishment to a remote Alaskan island. There, he is mauled by a mysterious white bear of Native American legend. Hideously injured, Cole waits for his death.

• Rescuers arrive to save Cole's but it is the attack of the Spirit Bear that may save his soul.

TAGS: realistic fiction, adventure, Aboriginal peopleSequel: Ghost of Spirit Bear (2008)

2:52http://vimeo.com/37484792

Evil Genius

• Cadel Piggott has a genius IQ and a fascination with systems of all kinds. At seven, he was illegally hacking into computers. Now he's fourteen and studying for his World Domination degree, taking classes like embezzlement, misinformation, forgery, and infiltration at the institute founded by criminal mastermind Dr. Phineas Darkkon.

• Although Cadel may be advanced beyond his years, at heart he's a lonely kid. When he falls for the mysterious and brilliant Kay-Lee, he begins to question the moral implications of his studies for the first time.

• But is it too late to stop Dr. Darkkon from carrying out his evil plot?

TAGS: science fiction, mystery, adventure(First in trilogy)

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A Great and Terrible Beauty

• It's 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England.

• Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma's reception there is a chilly one.

• To make things worse, Gemma’s been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why?

• What is Gemma’s destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence's most powerful girls lead to?

TAGS: fantasy, supernatural, historical fiction(First in trilogy)

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The Hobbit

• Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit, lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to take part in an adventure from which he may never return.

• Bilbo, who only wanted to be left alone, is drawn by Gandolf and a band of homeless dwarves into a quest where he confronts evil orcs, savage wolves, and the great dragon, Smaug the Magnificent.

TAGS: fantasy, classic literature, magicSequel: Lord of the Rings (1954)

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We All Fall Down

• Today is September 10, 2001, and Will, a grade nine student, is spending the day at his father’s workplace tomorrow as part of a school assignment.

• All the students in his class will be going to work with their parents, but Will isn’t excited about it–he’d rather sleep in and do nothing with his friends. His father doesn’t even have an exciting job, he works for an international trading company on the eighty-fifth floor in the south building of the World Trade Center in Manhattan.

• Will’s teacher says, tomorrow “might be an experience that changes your entire life.” What will he discover during an event that affects the whole world?

TAGS: historical fiction, realistic fiction, dramaSequel: United We Stand (2009)

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Unwind

• The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors.

• Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound.

• However, together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.

TAGS: dystopia, adventure, survival, fantasy(First of 4)

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The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

• Frankie Landau-Banks at age 14: Debate Club. Her father’s “bunny rabbit.” A mildly geeky girl attending a highly competitive boarding school.

• Frankie Landau-Banks at age 15: A knockout figure. A sharp tongue. A chip on her shoulder. And a gorgeous new senior boyfriend: the supremely goofy, word-obsessed Matthew Livingston.

• Frankie Landau-Banks. No longer the kind of girl to take “no” for an answer. Especially when “no” means she’s excluded from her boyfriend’s all-male secret society. Not when her ex boyfriend shows up in the strangest of places. Not when she knows she’s smarter than any of them. When she knows Matthew’s lying to her. And when there are so many, many pranks to be done.

• Frankie Landau-Banks, at age 16: Possibly a criminal mastermind.

• This is the story of how she got that way. TAGS: realistic fiction, humor, boarding school

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