Empey's Book Corner

 (picture from Goodreads.com) 1.       1.        Bibliography Levithan, David. 2012. EVERY DAY. New York, NY: Random House INC.                ISBN978-0-375-97111-2 2.        Plot Summary Self named “A,” has no idea where they will be every day, let alone WHO they will be. Since before they can remember, A wakes up in a new body every morning. A goes about this existence until they meet Rhiannon, and fall in love. Desperate to find a way to stay with her, A begins a search for consistency and acceptance. A feels the emotions of the person they become. They get their history and are able to pretend to be that person most days without anyone realizing it. A has gone back to see if the people realize their bodies were taken over, and very few even notice because they hold onto vague memories of that day. So why has this happened to A?...

 (Picture from Goodreads.com) 1.      1.        Bibliography Acevedo, Elizabeth. 2018. THE POET X. New York, NY: Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0-06-266380-4 2.        Plot Summary Xiomara Batista is struggling to find her identity within the confines of her Harlem neighborhood and her mother’s rigid rules. Xiomara takes all her frustrations and pours them onto the pages of her notebook. This self-expression takes her through the turmoil of young teenage girl feeling crushes, rejection, instability, and finding your own voice. When she decides to start sharing her words at slam poetry her only concern is, will her mother find out? 3.        Critical Analysis Xiomara is a fifteen-year old who feels out of place as she is stifled by her Catholic mother’s rules and fear of sexuality. Her father is present but absent in her life and her twin brother are also not emotionally ...

  (Picture from Goodreads.com) 1.       1.        Bibliography Kiely, Brendan & Reynolds, Jason. 2015. ALL AMERICAN BOYS. New York, NY: Simon and               Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4814-6334-8 2.        Plot Summary When sixteen-year-old Rashad goes into the corner store for a bag of chips, he finds himself mistaken for a thief. Unable to resist the cop that is trying to arrest him, Rashad is on the sidewalk contemplating how he can even be resisting while he is being pounded into the concrete.   A witness, Quinn Collins, is a varsity basketball player and Rashad’s classmate. He was friends with the cop who assaults Rashad and finds himself in the middle of a family friend, and what is right.   Rashad is absent, again, as he recovers in the hospital. This police brutality stirs the students at the high school an...

  (Picture from Goodreads.com) 1.        1.        Bibliography   Anderson, Laurie Halse & Carroll, Emily. 2018. SPEAK. New York, NY: Farrar Straus Giroux.               ISBN978-0-7804-0059-7 2.        Plot Summary Melinda starts her freshman year at Merryweather High friendless, actually an outcast, because she busted an end-of-the summer party by calling the cops. The only thing is nobody thought to ask why. Now she is alone, friendless, and only has her art to help her cope with what happened that night.   A victim of rape, Melinda starts high school friendless. She also starts speaking less and less to the point she is hardly ever speaking at all. Her former friends constantly harass her, as does the boy who raped her. Her parents have no idea what is going on with her, teachers find her frustrating, and...

  (Picture from Goodreads.com) 1.        Bibliography Shakur, Tupac. 1999. THE ROSE THAT GREW FROM CONCRETE. New York, NY: MTV BOOKS.               ISBN: 0-671-02844-8 2.        Plot Summary This book is a collection of poems written by Tupac Shakur when he was 19. This collection contains more than 100 poems that tell of his life, feelings, and deepest thoughts. Shakur’s enigmatic life and candor made him a great recoding artist and his words flow across the page in passion.   Tupac was young, so many of his poems were about love, heartbreak, romance, women, friendship, and anger. These are emotions everyone feels, so connecting with Tupac’s poems are easy for young people (or anyone) to connect with.   Tupac never published these himself, instead left them with his manager who, with permission from his family, published them af...

  (Picture from Goodreads.com) 1.       1.          Bibliography   Brock, Rose. 2018. HOPE NATATION: YA AUTHORS SHARE PERSONAL MOMENTS OF               INSPIRTATION. New York, NY: Philomel Books. ISBN 978-1-5247-4167-9 2.        Plot Summary There are moments we all have where we struggle to understand the world and might even feel hopeless for ourselves or the future. Teens of today take on a lot of feelings and might find it difficult to carry on in our current society. Words of encouragement are powerful in dark times.   Bringing together some of the most influential young adult authors, this book is a collection of essays and original stories that offer moments of light in the darkness and show that hope is a decision we all can make.   Readers can enjoy excerpts from their favorite author’s, jump ar...

 (Picture from Goodreads.com) 1.        Bibliography Hinton, S.E. 1967. THE OUTSIDERS. New York, NY: Penguin Group.         ISBN 978-0-14-038572-4 2.        Plot Summary Ponyboy is a young man that thinks he has it all figured out. He sticks with his brothers Darry and Sodapop as well as his friends who would do anything for him. Their parents are dead and they are on their own. Darry looks out for them but can’t always be around. Ponyboy finds himself in the middle of a rival gang rumble (the Greasers VS the Socs) and things go too far. His friend Jonny stabs one of the Socs’ and he dies.   Thinking they don’t have another option, Ponyboy and Johnny escape town. On the run, Ponyboy and Johnny use help from their friends to hide. They disguise themselves and spend time talking and reading from GONE WITH THE WIND.   When a church goes up in flames, the boys run in to ...

  (Picture from Goodreads.com) 1.      1.        Bibliography   Myers, Walter Dean. 1999. MONSTER. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.               ISBN 978-0-06-440731-1 2.        Plot Summary   What do you do when you are on trial for… murder? This is the situation Steve Harmon finds himself in. An accomplice to a murder, he chooses to escape his reality by writing his court case and experience into a screen play. As an amateur filmmaker, Steve takes his reader into his world through script and journal entries. The final question remains, will Steve be found innocent, or guilty?   Steve didn’t pull the trigger; the blame for that belongs to James King. A botched robbery gone wrong, Steve was supposed to be the look out. Or was he? Questions remain as the trail unfolds from Steve’s words. Witnesses emerge, ...

   (Picture from Goodreads.com) 1.         1.        Bibliography Thomas, Angie. 2021. CONCRETE ROSE. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publisher.               ISBN 978-0-06-284671-6 2.        Plot Summary Maverick Carter is a young man who must take care of his family because his dad is in prison. Unfortunately, this means following in his father’s crimes of selling drugs for the King Lords. But, when Maverick’s girlfriend gets pregnant, and he finds out he already has another baby, he has to make a decision, to keep selling drugs, or go on the straight and narrow. After his son is abandoned by the mother, he has to juggle selling drugs, finishing school, and raising a son when the mom refused to take the baby back. When he gets ANOTHER girl pregnant, he gets scared and has to look to the people closest to him for help. He wants ...