The document provides information about three book options - Tangerine, Hatchet, and Stargirl - for literature circles. Brief summaries of the plots and reviews from Amazon customers are given for each book. Students in the literature circles will tally scores, vote on their preferred book choice, and submit it to their teacher with an explanation for their selection.

1. Literature Circles Roll - 2012

2. Now that you are with your groups, you have the choice of the following books:

3. Tangerine by Edward Bloor

4. Summary: Paul Fisher is moving again. His father is a civil engineer by trade, so Paul's a little used to picking up and leaving for the next town. In this particular case, the family's moving to Florida to live in a gated community. Once there, each member will be able to start doing what they enjoy best. His brother, Erik, will continue to wow everyone with his football skills, his father will continue to worship those skills and spend all his time with his eldest, his mother will join the community's neighborhood association, and Paul will join his school's soccer team. Paul's a goalie by training, and despite his eye troubles (he has almost zero peripheral vision due to a mysterious accident in his youth) he's the best. Not like anyone notices, of course. The rest of the family is too caught up in what Paul has wryly dubbed the Erik Fisher Football Dream. The fact that Erik is a seriously disturbed individual seems to go entirely unseen by Paul's parents and it becomes clear that when his brother's activities go from threatening to criminal, Paul's the only one who can come out with the truth. Along the way he has to battle lightning storms, sinkholes, underground fires, flash frosts, and angry neighborhood associations.

5. Reviews from Amazon.com Customers I really enjoyed this book. Bloor does an amazing job sucking the reader into the story and keeping you interested with all the twists and turns in the book. Each character is unique and sometimes unpredictable, but I felt like I could connect with some of them and understand their feelings and motives. - Beth Yes. Love. Pure, absolute love. It's an amazing book. You read it, and you're just... amazed. I read it for the first time years ago. I was a little younger than the recommended age for this, but I loved every part of it. I loved every word, every moment something happened. - Biblibio - Bi

6. ... Option 2

7. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

8. Summary: Imagine being stranded in the wilderness alone and learning to survive. We all think about it at least once in our life, learning to hunt, getting shelter, and staying sane. In the book, Hatchet, Brian Robeson, age thirteen, is stranded in the Canadian wilderness, after his plane crashes, with only a hatchet and the clothes on his back. Brian was on that plane to his dad's house because of the Secret... This survival-fiction book tells how Brian undergoes a complete character change. When he first arrives he is relatively weak, but eventually Brian has keen, alert, senses, and he is a stronger person. In the book, Brian must deal with insane moose, and making a new friend; fire. Hunting and food gathering is a major part of the book, which makes it seem very realistic, but will Brian ever make it home alive?

9. Reviews from Amazon.com Customers: "This book should be on everyone's shelf. It is at the same level as Harry Potter, Anne Frank, and Redwall which all are great books. This is one of those books you want to have yourself instead of borrowing it from the library." - Claire "This book will keep you reading cover to cover, turning page after page, just wondering what will happen next to Brian. So do your self a favor and read this great book." - Charlie "It is a magnificent novel, perhaps the best one I have ever read in my entire life." - Kendra

10. ... Option 3

11. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

12. Summary: "She was homeschooling gone amok." "She was an alien." "Her parents were circus acrobats." These are only a few of the theories concocted to explain Stargirl Caraway, a new 10th grader at Arizona's Mica Area High School who wears pioneer dresses and kimonos to school, strums a ukulele in the cafeteria, laughs when there are no jokes, and dances when there is no music. The whole school, not exactly a "hotbed of nonconformity," is stunned by her, including our 16-year-old narrator Leo Borlock: "She was elusive. She was today. She was tomorrow. She was the faintest scent of a cactus flower, the flitting shadow of an elf owl." In time, incredulity gives way to out-and-out adoration as the student body finds itself helpless to resist Stargirl's wide-eyed charm, pure-spirited friendliness, and penchant for celebrating the achievements of others. In the ultimate high school symbol of acceptance, she is even recruited as a cheerleader. Popularity, of course, is a fragile and fleeting state, and bit by bit, Mica sours on their new idol. Why is Stargirl showing up at the funerals of strangers? Worse, why does she cheer for the opposing basketball teams? The growing hostility comes to a head when she is verbally flogged by resentful students on Leo's televised Hot Seat show in an episode that is too terrible to air. Will the school ever come to accept someone so different than them?

13. Reviews by Amazon.com Customers: "This is probably one of the best books I have read for an awful long time, and I read a lot of books! I am keeping my copy on my bookshelf for my children to read, to teach them to applaud individuality, not discourage." - Sallyann "I could only wish I was as brave and as overwhelmingly generous as the magical girl the book is named after." - Brett "I thought this book was a wonderful book, it made me cry, from sadness, from happiness, from love. Yet, when I put the book down after I read it, I felt an amazing sense of love, all the love I could have in my body was enhanced by this one book. I think the world would be better off if everyone was a bit like Stargirl." - Ashley

14. So, what will you choose?

15. How you will choose: Tally up your scores with your group. Vote on which book you would like to read with your group. Submit your choice to Ms. Roll on a half sheet of paper with an explanation of WHY you chose that one.