This document provides summaries of several book options that are available for a book review day. It describes the titles, authors, number of copies available, and key details about each book including number of pages, chapters, and section lengths. Books include titles such as Trash, The Face on the Milk Carton, Last Shot, and The Westing Game.

1. Book Review Day
Which book should you
pick??
December 2012

2. White Day Titles
 Trash by Andy Mulligan
 Last Shot by John Feinstein
 Million-Dollar Throw by Mike Lupica
 The Boy Who Saved Baseball by John Ritter
 Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
 The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
 The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

3. The Face on the Milk Carton
By Caroline Cooney
5 Copies Available
 Total Pages = 184
 Total Chapters = 18
 Each Section = 6 chapters
or 62 pages
 No one ever really paid close attention to the faces of the missing children on the
milk cartons. But as Janie Johnson glanced at the face of the ordinary little girl
with her hair in tight pigtails, wearing a dress with a narrow white collar--a three-
year-old who had been kidnapped twelve years before from a shopping mall in
New Jersey--she felt overcome with shock. She recognized that little girl--it was
she. How could it possibly be true?
Janie can't believe that her loving parents kidnapped her, but as she begins to
piece things together, nothing makes sense. Something is terribly wrong. Are Mr.
and Mrs. Johnson really Janie's parents? And if not, who is Janie Johnson, and
what really happened

4. Trash
By Andy Mulligan
5 Copies Available
 In an unnamed Third World country, in the not-so-
distant future, three “dumpsite boys” make a
living picking through the mountains of garbage
on the outskirts of a large city.
One unlucky-lucky day, Raphael finds something
very special and very mysterious. So mysterious
that he decides to keep it, even when the city
police offer a handsome reward for its return.
That decision brings with it terrifying
consequences, and soon the dumpsite boys must
use all of their cunning and courage to stay
ahead of their pursuers. It’s up to Raphael, Total Pages = 222
Gardo, and Rat—boys who have no education, no Total Chapters = 33
parents, no homes, and no money—to solve the
mystery and right a terrible wrong. Each Section = 11
chapters or 74 pages

5. Last Shot
By John Feinstein
3 Copies Available
 Steven Thomas is one of two lucky winners of
the U.S. Basketball Writer’s Association’s Total Pages = 251
contest for aspiring journalists. His prize? A
trip to New Orleans and a coveted press pass Total Chapters = 19
for the Final Four. It’s a basketball junkie’s Each Section = 6
dream come true! chapters or 84 pages
But the games going on behind the scenes
between the coaches, the players, the
media, the money-men, and the fans turn out
to be even more fiercely competitive than
those on the court. Steven and his fellow
winner, Susan Carol Anderson, are nosing
around the Superdome and overhear what
sounds like a threat to throw the
championship game. Now they have just 48
hours to figure out who is blackmailing one
of MSU’s star players . . . and why.

6. Million-Dollar Throw
By Mike Lupica
5 Copies Available
 Total Pages = 224
 Total Chapters = 34
 Each Section = 11 chapters
or 75 pages
 What would you do with a million dollars, if you were 13? Nate Brodie is
nicknamed “Brady” not only for his arm, but also because he’s the biggest Tom
Brady fan. He’s even saved up to buy an autographed football. And when he does,
he wins the chance for something he’s never dreamed of—to throw a pass
through a target at a Patriots game for one million dollars.
Nate should be excited. But things have been tough lately. His dad lost his job
and his family is losing their home. It’s no secret that a million dollars would go a
long way. So all Nate feels is pressure, and just when he needs it most, his golden
arm begins to fail him. Even worse, his best friend Abby is going blind, slowly
losing her ability to do the one thing she loves most—paint. Yet Abby never
complains, and she is Nate’s inspiration. He knows she’ll be there when he
makes the throw of a lifetime.

7. The Boy Who Saved Baseball
By John Ritter
4 Copies Available
 Tom Gallagher is in a tight spot. The fate of the Dillontown team rests on the
outcome of one baseball game, winner take all. If Tom's team loses, they lose
their field too. But how can they possibly win? Just when everything seems
hopeless, a mysterious boy named Cruz de la Cruz rides into town and claims to
know the secret of hitting. Not to mention the secrets of Dante Del Gato,
Dillontown's greatest hitter ever. Since he walked away from the game years ago,
Del Gato hasn't spoken a word to anyone. But now he might be Tom's only hope
for saving his hometown. From the award-winning author of and comes this
imaginative tale of one boy's struggle to preserve the spirit of the game he loves.
Total Pages = 216
Total Chapters = 30
Each Section = 10
chapters or 72 pages

8. The Westing Game
By Ellen Raskin
Unlimited
 For over twenty-five years, Ellen Raskin's Newbery
Medal-winning has been an enduring favorite. It has
sold over one and a half million copies. This highly
inventive mystery involves sixteen people who are
invited to the reading of Samuel W. Westing's will.
They could become millionaires-it all depends on how
they play the tricky and dangerous Westing game, a
game involving blizzards, burglaries, and bombings!
Ellen Raskin has created a remarkable cast of
characters in a puzzle-knotted, word-twisting plot
filled with humor, intrigue, and suspense.
 Total Pages = 182
 Total Chapters = 30
 Each Section = 10 chapters or
61 pages

9. Al Capone Does My Shirts
By Gennifer Choldenko
Unlimited
 Today I moved to a twelve-acre rock
covered with cement, topped with bird
turd and surrounded by water. I'm not the
only kid who lives here. There's my sister,
Natalie, except she doesn't count. And
there are twenty-three other kids who live
on the island because their dads work as
guards or cook's or doctors or electricians
for the prison, like my dad does. Plus,
there are a ton of murderers, rapists, hit
men, con men, stickup men, embezzlers,
connivers, burglars, kidnappers and
maybe even an innocent man or two,
though I doubt it. The convicts we have
are the kind other prisons don't want. I
never knew prisons could be picky, but I Total Pages = 215
guess they can. You get to Alcatraz by
being the worst of the worst. Unless
Total Chapters = 40
you're me. I came here because my Each Section = 13
mother said I had to.
chapters or 72 pages

10. Blue Day Titles
 Nobody’s Princess by Esther Friesner
 Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
 Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John Grisham
 Travel Team by Mike Lupica
 Heat by Mike Lupica
 The Contender by Robert Lipsyte
 Cryptid Hunters by Roland Smith
 Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
 The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

11. Dead End in Norvelt
By Jack Gantos
5 Copies Available
 Melding the entirely true and the wildly
fictional, is a novel about an incredible two
months for a kid named Jack Gantos, whose
plans for vacation excitement are shot
down when he is "grounded for life" by his
feuding parents, and whose nose spews bad
blood at every little shock he gets. But
plenty of excitement (and shocks) are
coming Jack's way once his mom loans him
out to help a fiesty old neighbor with a most
unusual chore—typewriting obituaries filled
with stories about the people who founded
his utopian town. As one obituary leads to
Total Pages =341 another, Jack is launced on a strange
adventure involving molten wax, Eleanor
Total Chapters = 28 Roosevelt, twisted promises, a homemade
airplane, Girl Scout cookies, a man on a
Each Section = 9 chapters trike, a dancing plague, voices from the
or 114 pages past, Hells Angels . . . and possibly murder.

12. The Contender
By Robert Lipsyte
4 Copies Available
 This is a sports fiction novel that tells a story of Alfred Brooks, a seventeen-year-
old high school drop-out, living in Harlem, finding his way in the world and in
boxing. Alfred learns that getting to the top is not as important as how you get
there, and that before you can be a champion, you have to be a contender with
the will to get back on your feet after you have been knocked down
 Total Pages = 227
 Total Chapters = 20
 Each section = 7
chapters or 76 pages

13. Heat
By Mike Lupica
5 Copies Available
 Michael Arroyo has a pitching arm that throws serious
heat. But his firepower is nothing compared to the heat
Michael faces in his day-to-day life. Newly orphaned after
his father led the family’s escape from Cuba, Michael’s
only family is his seventeen-year old brother Carlos. If
Social Services hears of their situation, they will be
separated in the foster-care system—or worse, sent back
to Cuba.
Together, the boys carry on alone, dodging bills and
anyone who asks too many questions. But then someone
 Total Pages = 220 wonders how a twelve-year-old boy could possibly throw
with as much power as Michael Arroyo throws. With no way
 Total Chapters = 28
to prove his age, no birth certificate, and no parent to fight
 Each Section = 9 for his cause, Michael’s secret world is blown wide open,
chapters or 74 pages and he discovers that family can come from the most
unexpected sources.

14. Travel Team
By Mike Lupica
5 Copies Available
Total Pages = 274
Total Chapters = 39
Each Section = 13
chapters or 92 pages
 Twelve-year-old Danny Walker may be the smallest kid on the basketball
court -- but don't tell him that. Because no one plays with more heart or
court sense. But none of that matters when he is cut from his local travel
team, the very same team his father led to national prominence as a boy.
Danny's father, still smarting from his own troubles, knows Danny isn't the
only kid who was cut for the wrong reason, and together, this washed-up
former player and a bunch of never-say-die kids prove that the heart
simply cannot be measured.

15. Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer
By John Grisham
4 Copies Available
Total Pages = 263  In the small city of Strattenburg, there are
many lawyers, and though he's only
Total Chapters = 22
thirteen years old, Theo Boone thinks he's
Each Section = 7 one of them. Theo knows every judge,
chapters or 88 pages policeman, court clerk, and a lot about
the law. He dreams of a life in the
courtroom. But he finds himself in court
much sooner than expected. Because he
knows so much, maybe too much, he is
suddenly dragged into the middle of a
sensational murder trial. A cold-blooded
killer is about to go free, and only Theo
knows the truth. The stakes are high, but
Theo won't stop until justice is served.

16. Silent to the Bone
E. L. Konigsburg
4 Copies Available
 Connor is sure his best friend, Branwell, couldn't have hurt Branwell's
baby half sister, Nikki. But Nikki lies in a coma, and Branwell is in a
juvenile behavioral center, suspected of a horrible crime and unable to
utter the words to tell what really happened. Connor is the only one who
might be able to break through Branwell's wall of silence. But how can he
prove Branwell didn't commit the unspeakable act of which he's accused
when Branwell can't speak for himself?
Total Pages = 261
Total Chapters = 25
Each Section = 8
chapters or 87 pages

17. Nobody’s Princess
By Esther Friesner
3 Copies Available
 She is beautiful, she is a princess, and Aphrodite is her
favorite goddess, but something in Helen of Sparta just
itches for more out of life. Not one to count on the gods—
or her looks—to take care of her, Helen sets out to get
what she wants with steely determination and a sassy
attitude. That same attitude makes Helen a few enemies
—such as the self-proclaimed "son of Zeus" Theseus—but
it also intrigues, charms, and amuses those who become
her friends, from the famed huntress Atalanta to the
young priestess who is the Oracle of Delphi.
In Nobody's Princess, author Esther Friesner deftly Total Pages = 296
weaves together history and myth as she takes a new
look at the girl who will become Helen of Troy. The Total Chapters = 16
resulting story offers up adventure, humor, and a fresh Each Section = 5
and engaging heroine you cannot help but root for.
chapters or 99 pages

18. Cryptid Hunters
By Roland Smith
3 Copies Available
 After their parents are lost in an
accident, thirteen-year old twins Grace
and Marty are whisked away to live with
their Uncle Wolfe-an uncle that they
didn't even know they had. The
intimidating Uncle Wolfe is an
anthropologist who has dedicated his
life to finding cryptids, mysterious
creatures believed to be long extinct.
Through a series of perilous adventures,
the pair uncover long-buried secrets
about their own identities and that of
Total Pages = 348
their uncle. Now the twins must play a
high-stakes game, where the prize is a Total Chapters = 33
dinosaur egg, and the penalty, death.
Each Section = 11
chapters or 116 pages

19. Al Capone Does My Shirts
By Gennifer Choldenko
Unlimited
 Today I moved to a twelve-acre rock
covered with cement, topped with bird
turd and surrounded by water. I'm not the
only kid who lives here. There's my sister,
Natalie, except she doesn't count. And
there are twenty-three other kids who live
on the island because their dads work as
guards or cook's or doctors or electricians
for the prison, like my dad does. Plus,
there are a ton of murderers, rapists, hit
men, con men, stickup men, embezzlers,
connivers, burglars, kidnappers and
maybe even an innocent man or two,
though I doubt it. The convicts we have
are the kind other prisons don't want. I
never knew prisons could be picky, but I Total Pages = 215
guess they can. You get to Alcatraz by
being the worst of the worst. Unless
Total Chapters = 40
you're me. I came here because my Each Section = 13
mother said I had to.
chapters or 72 pages

20. The Westing Game
By Ellen Raskin
Unlimited
 For over twenty-five years, Ellen Raskin's Newbery
Medal-winning has been an enduring favorite. It has
sold over one and a half million copies. This highly
inventive mystery involves sixteen people who are
invited to the reading of Samuel W. Westing's will.
They could become millionaires-it all depends on how
they play the tricky and dangerous Westing game, a
game involving blizzards, burglaries, and bombings!
Ellen Raskin has created a remarkable cast of
characters in a puzzle-knotted, word-twisting plot
filled with humor, intrigue, and suspense.
 Total Pages = 182
 Total Chapters = 30
 Each Section = 10 chapters or
61 pages