Table of Contents
Most Popular . . .
More . . .
Hotlists 2008
Crime Fiction - embedded
Seeing Stars
Lists of (mostly) hardcover books which received at least one starred review (indicating a work of unusual merit) from the following review sources: Booklist , Publisher's Weekly (PW), Kirkus and Library Journal (LJ).
The review journal assigns the star.
Out and About. . .
I'm playing around at Shelfari, LibraryThing, and Good Reads. I've set up links to my pages on these sites. And, yes, I have a hard time keeping up-to-date on these sites...
I've set up "shelves" from these sites on Overbooked - here
Overbooked is spacing out: Myspace: Overbooked and Crime Space - and, facing out: Facebook profile.
Stellar All Stars
The Fault Tree by Louise Ure
Judas Horse by April Smith
The Importance of Music to Girls by Lavinia Greenlaw
Bonk by Mary Roach
A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
Overbooked specializes in providing timely information about fiction (all genres) and readable nonfiction. Overbooked has been online since 1994. Overbooked is a work in progress . . .
Overbooked is the winner of the 2008 Louis Shores - Greenwood Publishing Award: to recognize excellence in book reviewing and other media for libraries. The award recipient is selected for significant achievement related to a reviewing process that helps librarians make selection decisions.
Starred Reviews
YA Stars 2000
June 18, 2008
YA Stars 2000 -
For Teens & Older Others (Young Adult Literature)
The list includes both fiction and nonfiction books. Titles are arranged alphabetically by author. Titles received starred reviews from Booklist, School Library Journal, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Horn Book. Books are suggested for ages 12 and older. Age designations are approximate, parental judgement should be used.
Annotations are fromAdvance, the Ingram
Book Magazine or use the
Library of Congress CIP description.
| Author | Title | Date | Notes | Stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Almond, David | Kit's Wilderness | 4/1/00 | Thirteen-year-old Kit goes to live with his grandfather in the decaying coal mining town of Stoneygate, England, and finds both the old man and the town haunted by ghosts of the past. | Booklist, PW, SLJ |
| Aronson, Marc | Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado | 4/1/00 | In this extraordinarily well researched and insightful biography, Aronson explores the amazing accomplishments and dismal failures of one of the most flamboyant figures of the Elizabethan age. Illustrated with archival prints. Maps, end notes and bibliography, timeline, index. | PW, Kirkus, SLJ |
| Bachrach, Susan D. | Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936 | PW | ||
| Bagdasarian, Adam | Forgotten Fire | 10/1/00 | Beautifully written, this novel of a young boy's journey to survive and to become the man his father wanted him to be will speak to adults and to younger readers as well. It is a story made all the more powerful because it is the true story of the author's great-uncle during the Armenian genocide of 1915. | Horn Book |
| Bartholomew, Lois Thompson | White Dove | 4/1/00 | Having escaped from the compound where she was imprisoned by the usurper of her dead father's throne, Tasha fights to survive while planning how to join those working to turn the kingdom into a democracy. | Kirkus |
| Brooks, Martha | Being With Henry | 4/1/00 | A teenage outcast, a grieving old man, and an untold story come together in unexpected ways in this moving novel about losing family--and finding it. | Kirkus |
| Bruchac, Joseph | Sacajawea: The Story of Bird Woman and the Lewis and Clark Expedition | 3/1/00 | The mysterious Shoshone girl known as Sacagawea first met Lewis and Clark in a small village on the Missouri when she was sixteen. Acting as translator, peacemaker, and guide for the explorers, she made their now-historic journey a reality. Here is her story, told in the alternating viewpoints of Sacagawea and William Clark. | SLJ |
| Clarke, Judith | Night Train | 6/1/00 | His family, peers, and teachers despair of eighteen-year-old Luke, who seems to have turned himself into a loser, failing at school, paralyzed with fear and indecision, losing touch with reality. | SLJ |
| Coman, Carolyn | Many Stones | 11/1/00 | When her sister is murdered while working as a volunteer at a school in South Africa, 16-year-old Berry sets out on a two-week trip to South Africa to attend a memorial service with her estranged father. While there, Berry's father arranges other activities that force them to look beyond their own grieving and bear witness to a country's tortured search for truth. | Kirkus, Booklist |
| Dessen, Sarah | Dreamland | 10/1/00 | After her older sister runs away, 16-year-old Caitlin decides she needs to make a major change in her own life and begins an abusive relationship with a boy who is mysterious, brilliant and dangerous. | SLJ, Booklist |
| Deuker, Carl | Night Hoops | 4/1/00 | While trying to prove that he is good enough to on his high school's varsity basketball team, Nick must also deal with his parents' divorce and erratic behavior of a troubled classmate who lives across the street. | SLJ |
| Ferris, Jean | Eight Seconds | 10/1/00 | After her older sister runs away, 16-year-old Caitlin decides she needs to make a major change in her own life and begins an abusive relationship with a boy who is mysterious, brilliant and dangerous. | SLJ Booklist |
| Fradin, Judith Bloom & Dennis | Ida B. Wells: Mother of the Civil Rights Movement | 1/1/00 | SLJ, Booklist | |
| Frank, E.R. | Life is Funny: A Novel | 4/1/00 | The lives of a number of young people of different races, economic backgrounds, and family situations living in Brooklyn, New York, become intertwined over a seven-year period. | Booklist, PW |
| Giblin, James (ed) | Century That Was: Reflections on the Last One Hundred Years | 5/1/00 | Collected in this volume are essays by well-known authors of children's books, reflecting on various aspects of life in 20th-century America, including politics, the environment, sports, fashion, and civil rights. Each essay is illustrated with archival and personal photos that illustrate the changes that have occurred. | PW |
| Giff, Patricia Riley | Nory Ryan's Song | 9/1/00 | Life on Ireland's Maidin Bay has been home to Nory Ryan's family for generations. Yet with an English lord bent upon forcing the Irish from their land and a potato blight attacking the crops, 12-year-old Nory must summon all of her courage to find food and help her family survive. | Booklist, Kirkus, SLJ |
| Heneghan, James | The Grave | 10/1/00 | Thirteen-year-old Tom, an unhappy foster child in 1974 Liverpool, falls into a massive open grave and is transported to Ireland in 1847, where he finds himself in the midst of the deadly potato famine. A family takes him in, and he experiences for the first time what it's like to have parents and siblings. | Booklist |
| Hirschfelder, Arlene B. | Photo Odyssey: Solomon Carvalho's Remarkable Western Adventure 1853-54 | 5/1/00 | SLJ | |
| Jones, Diana Wynne | Year of the Griffin | 10/1/00 | When Elda, the griffin daughter of the great Wizard Derk, arrives for schooling at the Wizards' University, she encounters new friends, pirates, assassins, worry, sabotage, bloodshed, and magic misused. | Booklist |
| Kerr, M.E. | What Became of Her | 5/1/00 | Rich and powerful Rosalind Slaymaster is used to getting what she wants--and she wants revenge. She has returned to her childhood home with her teenage niece Julie to live in their sprawling hilltop manor and gain control of the whole town. Yet Rosalind's plans do not include Julie's friends who have plans of their own. | PW |
| Konigsburg, E.L. | Silent to the Bone | 10/1/00 | When he is wrongly accused of gravely injuring his baby half-sister, 13-year-old Branwell loses his power of speech and only his friend Connor is able to reach him and uncover the truth about what really happened. | Booklist, PW, SLJ |
| Lester, Julius | Pharaoh's Daughter: A Novel of Ancient Egypt | 3/1/00 | Lester features a fictionalized account of a Biblical story in which an Egyptian princess rescues a Hebrew infant who becomes a prophet of his people while his sister finds her true self as a priestess to the Egyptian gods. | PW |
| Levin, Betty | Shadow-Catcher | 5/1/00 | Set in the 1890's, when Jonathan and his grandfather witness and photograph a puzzling, violent struggle, they don't suspect anything more than that an accident may have occurred. Soon the bizarre scene comes back to haunt them in the form of a stranger showing an uncommon interest in Grandpa's undeveloped pictures. | Booklist |
| Levine, Ellen | Darkness over Denmark: The Danish Resistance and the Rescue of the Jews | 5/1/00 | Booklist, Kirkus | |
| Lowry, Lois | Gathering Blue | 10/1/00 | Suddenly orphaned and physically disabled, Kira is mysteriously removed from her squalid village to live in the palatial Council Edifice, where she is expected to use her gifts as a weaver to do the bidding of the all-powerful Guardians. | Booklist, Kirkus, SLJ |
| Mahy, Margaret | 24 Hours | 10/1/00 | In the 24 hours since graduating from prep school, 17-year-old Ellis has his head shaved, is involved in a car chase to save a kidnapped baby, has discussions about abuse, prevents a suicide, falls in and out of love, and becomes a hero. | Horn Book |
| Marrin, Albert | Sitting Bull and His World | 4/1/00 | Illustrated with photos and drawings, this poignant books discusses the life of the Hunkpapa chief who is remembered for his defeat of General Custer at Little Big Horn. | Booklist, PW, SLJ |
| Matthews, Kezi | John Riley's Daughter | 5/1/00 | Suspected of having caused her retarded aunt to walk away from their home in a small southern town in 1973, 13-year-old Memphis must deal with her past and her future. In this powerful story told in the first person and set throughout the course of three sweltering July days, Memphis must come to terms with her life, attitudes, and options. | SLJ |
| McKinley, Robin | Spindel's End | 5/1/00 | The infant princess Briar Rose is cursed on her name day by Pernicia, an evil fairy, and then whisked away by a young fairy to be raised in a remote part of a magical country. But the curse was cast: Sometime in the future Rosie would prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into a poisoned sleep. | Booklist, PW |
| Myers, Walter Dean | 145th Street: Stories | 2/1/00 | Characters jump right off the page in these five powerful stories by a master who captures the heartbeat of one memorable block in Harlem. | PW |
| Newth, Mette | Transformation | 10/1/00 | On a journey to appease the Sea's Mother, Navarana saves the life of one of the Strangers who had come to Greenland to rescue the few Christians living there and together they find a way to end the suffering of Navarana's people. | Booklist |
| Paulsen, Gary | The Beet Fields: Memories of a Sixteenth Summer | 9/1/00 | The author recalls his experiences as a migrant laborer and carnival worker after he ran away from home at age 16. | Booklist |
| Peck, Richard | A Year Down Yonder | 10/1/00 | During the recession of 1937, fifteen-year-old Mary Alice is sent to live with her feisty, larger-than-life grandmother in rural Illinois for a year and comes to a better understanding her. | Booklist |
| Pennebaker, Ruth | Both Sides Now | 4/1/00 | Fifteen-year-old Liza tries to deal with the normal everyday crises of life in an Austin, Texas, high school, a process complicated by her mother's fight with breast cancer. | Horn Book, Kirkus, SLJ |
| Plum-Ucci, Carol | The Body of Christopher Creed | 5/1/00 | Torey Adams, a high school junior with a seemingly perfect life, struggles with doubts and questions surrounding the mysterious disappearance of the class outcast. His search for answers opens his eyes to the lies, pain, and need to blame when tragedy strikes, and his once-safe world comes crashing down around him. | SLJ |
| Pressler, Mirjam | Anne Frank: A Hidden Life | 4/1/00 | This insightful biography of Anne Frank gives readers a new understanding of the girl behind one of the best-loved books of all time. | PW |
| Pullman, Philip | The Amber Spyglass | 10/1/00 | In this third and final volume to his series, Pullman brings new characters to join those from the previous books in this conclusion to the cliff-hangers and mysteries of His Dark Materials, as the haunting power of Dr. Malone's amber spyglass is revealed. | Kirkus |
| Rennison, Louise | Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson | 5/1/00 | Rennison presents the humorous journal of a year in the life of Georgia Nicholson, a teenage British girl who tries to reduce the size of her nose, stop her mad cat from terrorizing the neighborhood animals, and win the love of handsome hunk Robbie. | Booklist |
| Rowling, J.K. | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | 7/1/00 | PW | |
| Spinelli, Jerry | Stargirl | 8/1/00 | In this story about the perils of popularity, the courage of nonconformity, and the thrill of first love, an eccentric student named Stargirl changes Mica High School forever. | PW,
Kirkus Kirkus |
| Staples, Suzanne Fisher | Shiva's Fire | 4/1/00 | In India, a talented dancer sacrifices friends and family for her art. | Booklist, PW, SLJ |
| Stolley, Richard B. | Life: Our Century in Pictures | 11/1/00 | Drawing from "LIFE" magazine and the greatest photo archives of our time, "Our Century in Pictures for Young People" chronicles the past 100 years, with more than 350 spellbinding images in color and black & white collected within these pages. The book spans the 20th century in nine epochs, and nine notable children's authors contribute an essay on each period. | PW |
| Sturtevant, Katherine | At the Sign of the Star | 10/1/00 | In 17th century London, 12-year-old Meg is the motherless daughter of a bookseller with a thriving business in Restoration-era London. Meg has little interest in cooking, needlework, or other homemaking skills, dreams of becoming a bookseller and someday inheriting her father's book store. But with her father's remarriage, Meg's dreams are thrown into confusion. | Booklist |
| Sweeney, Joyce | Players | 10/1/00 | Eighteen-year-old Corey sees a threat to his dream of winning the basketball championship when he discovers that the new player on his team is a girl-stealing, friend-framing, team-destroying force of evil. | Booklist |
| Trueman, Terry | Stuck in Neutral | 6/1/00 | Fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel, who suffers from severe cerebral palsy and cannot function, relates his perceptions of his life, family, and condition, especially as he believes his father is planning to kill him. In this powerful novel, readers can learn to look beyond the obvious and find a character whose spirit is rich beyond imagination. | Booklist |
| Turner, Ann Warren | Learning to Swim: A Memoir | 9/1/00 | A series of poems convey the feelings of a young girl whose sense of joy and security at the family's summer house is shattered when an older boy who lives nearby sexually abuses her. | Kirkus |
| Waugh, Sylvia | Space Race | 8/1/00 | Horn Book | |
| White, Ruth | Memories of Summer | 8/1/00 | In 1955, 13-year-old Lyric finds her whole life changing when her family moves from the hills of Virginia to a town in Michigan and her older sister, Summer, begins descending into mental illness. | Horn Book, Kirkus, SLJ |
| Yolen, Jane | Queen's Own Fool: A Novel of Mary Queen of Scots | 5/1/00 | Nicola Ambruzzi, a poor traveling player, is an unlikely person to end up "fool" and friend to Mary Queen of Scots. Yet as Mary is caught in the winds of fate--running from France to Scotland, confronted by rebellious lords and her unpredictable Scots--Nicola is there, buffeting and aiding the queen with her wit and wiles. | Kirkus |
More Overbooked Best Books Reading Lists:
Hotlists
African American Fiction | Christian Fiction
2008 Excel Files: (download - print, sort, etc.)
Crime Fiction | Fiction | African American Fiction | Christian Fiction | Nonfiction Notables
Stars
Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec Crime Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec
Speculative Fiction Romance Historical Nonfiction | YA
Hotlists
Hotlists: Fiction | Crime Fiction
Genre Hotlists: Christian Fiction | African American Fiction
Stars
Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec Crime Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec
Overbooked is a volunteer project undertaken by Ann Chambers Theis: Collection Management Administrator, Chesterfield County (VA) Public Library. 9501 Lori Rd. or P.O. Box 297, Chesterfield, VA, 23832. Phone: 804.748.1760.
Overbooked is not an official Chesterfield County Public Library service. Overbooked.org is a nonprofit web site hosted by CVCO - Central Virginia's Community Online. Overbooked.com is a nonprofit web site in experimental mode. Overbooked does not endorse any commercial providers (or their products and services) linked to from this web site.
Please join the conversation(s) at Overbookers - a rather quiet social space for the chronically overbooked.
Join the Overbooked List - A quiet list for readers to share recent reads, keep up to date with details about new books, discuss favorite authors/titles, etc.
Comments, suggestions, corrections: Ann Chambers Theis (AKA Ann/ACT):
ann_overbooked@earthlink.net
or
ann@overbooked.com
I really appreciate all the e-mail I receive from avid readers and writers and regret that I am not able to respond to all correspondents. Special thanks to those folks who regularly help keep me on track - you know who you are....