Book Discussion Kits for Teens
How do I have a teen book discussion?
Frequently Asked Questions - Reader Services
Wednesday, 03 September 2008 10:07
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The Pioneer Library System makes holding a book discussion as easy as checking out a kit! All you have to do is gather the friends and open the book. We do all the rest for you!

PLS maintains Book Discussion Kits that have everything you need to have a successful group reading experience. Each kit contains 10-12 copies of the listed book, bookmarks, a manual containing discussion questions, reviews, articles about the book, and information about the author. Each kit can be checked out for 6 weeks.

So whether your interests are fiction or nonfiction or romance or mystery - Pioneer Library System has a kit that you and your friends will enjoy.

To reserve a kit for pick-up at your hometown library please call (405) 701-1847 or (405) 701-1839.  Please allow 3 working days for delivery.


 

book jacket for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian
by Sherman Alexie
Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

 

 

book jacket for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
Of all the contenders for the title of The Great American Novel, none has a better claim than The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. More than a century after its publication it remains a major work that can be enjoyed at many levels: as an incomparable adventure story and as a classic of American humor.

 

book jacket for Airborn
Airborn
by Kenneth Oppel
Matt, a young cabin boy aboard an airship, and Kate, a wealthy young girl traveling with her chaperone, team up to search for the existence of mysterious winged creatures reportedly living hundreds of feet above the Earth's surface.

 

 

book jacket for Al Capone Does My Shirts
Al Capone Does My Shirts
by Gennifer Choldenko
A twelve-year-old boy named Moose moves to Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards' families were housed there, and has to contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with his autistic sister.

 

 

book jacket for The Book Thief
The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak
Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.

 

 

book jacket for Born to Rock
Born to Rock
by Gordon Korman
High school senior Leo Caraway, a conservative Republican, learns that his biological father is a punk rock legend.

 

 

book jacket for The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
by John Boyne
Bored and lonely after his family moves from Berlin to a place called "Out-With" in 1942, Bruno, the son of a Nazi officer, befriends a boy in striped pajamas who lives behind a wire fence.

 

 

book jacket for Buddha Boy
Buddha Boy
by Kathe Koja
Justin spends time with Jinsen, the unusual and artistic new student whom the school bullies torment and call Buddha Boy, and ends up making choices that impact Jinsen, himself, and the entire school.

 

 

book jacket for The Call of the Wild
The Call of the Wild
by Jack London
Taken from a kindly owner, Buck is forced into the perilous life of a sled dog in the treacherous Yukon Territory during the Klondike gold rush.

 

 

book jacket for City of Bones
City of Bones
by Cassandra Clare     NEW 3/2010
Suddenly able to see demons and the Darkhunters who are dedicated to returning them to their own dimension, fifteen-year-old Clary Fray is drawn into this bizzare world when her mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a monster.

 

 

book jacket for Crash
Crash
by Jerry Spinelli
Seventh-grader John 'Crash' Coogan has always been comfortable with his tough, aggressive behavior, until his relationship with an unusual Quaker boy and his grandfather's stroke make him consider the meaning of friendship and the importance of family.

 

 

book jacket for Deadline
Deadline
by Chris Crutcher
Given the medical diagnosis of one year to live, high school senior Ben Wolf decides to fulfill his greatest fantasies, ponders his life's purpose and legacy, and converses through dreams with a spiritual guide known as "Hey-Soos."

 

 

book jacket for Dealing With Dragons
Dealing with Dragons
by Patricia Wrede
Bored with traditional palace life, a princess goes off to live with a group of dragons and soon becomes involved with fighting against some disreputable wizards who want to steal away the dragons' kingdom. Book One of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles.

 

 

book jacket for Define Normal
Define Normal
by Julie Anne Peters
When she agrees to meet with Jasmine as a peer counselor at their middle school, Antonia never dreams that this girl with the black lipstick and pierced eyebrow will end up helping her deal with the serious problems she faces at home and become a good friend.

 

 

book jacket for Down the Rabbit Hole
Down the Rabbit Hole: An Echo falls Mystery
by Peter Abrahams     NEW 3/2010
Like her idol Sherlock Holmes, eighth grader Ingrid Levin-Hill uses her intellect to solve a murder case in her home town of Echo Falls.

 

 

book jacket for The Duel: the parallel Lives of Alexander Hamilton & Aaron Burr
The Duel: The Parallel Lives of Alexander Hamilton & Aaron Burr
by Judith St. George     NEW 3/2010
Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr lives' were intertwined for some twenty-five years, with their resentments and misunderstandings culminating in a tragic duel.

 

 

book jacket for Esperanza Rising
Esperanza Rising
by Pam Munoz Ryan
Esperanza Ortega is a rich kid in Mexico where her father owns a large ranch. When her father is killed and a wicked uncle destroys the ranch by setting it on fire, Esperanza and her mother set out on a long journey to join the Mexican farm workers in southern California. Adapting to hard labor is difficult for Esperanza, but when her mother becomes ill and is hospitalized for months, Esperanza begins to accept her new life and learns to put the past behind her and focus on the present and the future.

 

 

book jacket for Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature
Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature
by Robin Brande
Following her conscience leads high school freshman Mena to clash with her parents and former friends from their conservative Christian church, but might result in better things when she stands up for a teacher who refuses to include "Intelligent Design" in lessons on evolution.

 

 

book jacket for Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury
Guy Montag was a fireman whose job it was to start fires. . . to burn books, along with the houses in which they were hidden. He had been a fireman for 10 years, and he had never questioned the pleasure of the midnight runs nor the joy of watching pages consumed by flames . . . never questioned anything until he met a 17-year-old girl who told him of a past when people were not afraid. Then Guy met a professor who told him of a future in which people could think, and Guy Montag suddenly realized what he had to do…

 

 

book jacket for First Part Last
First Part Last
by Angela Johnson
Bobby's carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his baby daughter, whom he adores. He soon discovers that doing the right thing isn't as easy as he thought.

 

 

book jacket for Flipped
Flipped
by Wendelin Van Draanen
In alternating chapters, two teenagers describe how their feelings about themselves, each other, and their families have changed over the years. Julia Baker devoutly believes in three things: the sanctity of trees (especially her beloved sycamore), the wholesomeness of the eggs she collects from her backyard flock of chickens, and that someday she will kiss Bryce Loski.

 

 

book jacket for The Glory Field
The Glory Field
by Walter Dean Myers
This is the story of one family. A family whose history saw its first ancestor captured, shackled, and brought to this country from Africa. A family who can still see remnants of the psychological shackles that hold some of its members slaves--even today. It is a story of pride, determination, struggle, and love. And of the piece of land that holds them together through it all. An ALA Best Book for Young Adults.

 

 

book jacket for Golden Compass
Golden Compass
by Philip Pullman
Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.

 

 

book jacket for Graceling
Graceling
by Kristin Cashore     NEW 3/2010
In a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace, the Grace of killing, and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king.

 

 

book jacket for A Great and Terrible Beauty
Great and Terrible Beauty
by Libba Bray
After the suspicious death of her mother in 1895, sixteen-year-old Gemma returns to England, after many years in India, to attend a finishing school where she becomes aware of her magical powers and ability to see into the spirit world.

 

 

book jacket for Half Moon Investigations
Half Moon Investigations
by Eoin Colfer     NEW 3/2010
Fletcher Moon is a very bright kid who gets his certification for detective work but he gets framed by a crime family so he really has to work to clear his name.

 

 

book jacket for Hawksong
Hawksong
by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Danica Shardae is an avian shapeshifter who has taken the form of a golden hawk. As heir to the avian throne, she'll do anything to stop the war that's been raging between her people and the serpiente for as long as she can remember. Including marry Zane Cobriana, the leader of the serpiente.

 

 

book jacket for Heat
Heat
by Mike Lupica
Pitching prodigy Michael Arroyo is on the run from social services after being banned from playing Little League baseball because rival coaches doubt he is only twelve years old and he has no parents to offer them proof.

 

 

book jacket for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams
Chronicles the off-beat and occasionally extraterrestrial journeys, notions, and acquaintances of galactic traveler Arthur Dent.

 

 

book jacket for Holes
Holes
by Louis Sachar
As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself.

 

 

book jacket for Homeless Bird
Homeless Bird
by Gloria Whelan
When thirteen-year-old Koly enters into an ill-fated arranged marriage, she must either suffer a destiny dictated by India's tradition or find the courage to oppose it.

 

 

book jacket for Hoot
Hoot
by Carl Hiaasen
The first time Roy saw Dana Matherson, he was running away from the school bus. Noting that the boy had no books, and wore no shoes, Roy's curiosity was aroused. He decided to follow him. As the chase proceeded, Roy was introduced to potty-trained alligators, a fake-fart champion, some burrowing owls, a renegade eco-avenger, and several extremely poisonous snakes. Hiaasen plunges readers right into the middle of an ecological mystery, made up of endangered miniature owls, the Mother Paula’s All-American Pancake House scheduled to be built over their burrows, and the owls’ unlikely allies – three middle school kids determined to beat the screwed up adult system.

 

 

book jacket for The House of the Scorpion
House of the Scorpion
by Nancy Farmer
In a future where humans despise clones, Matt enjoys special status as the young clone of El Patron, the 142-year-old leader of a corrupt drug empire nestled between Mexico and the United States.

 

 

book jacket for Hunger Games
Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins     NEW 3/2010
In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.

 

 

book jacket for Inkheart
Inkheart
by Cornelia Caroline Funke
Twelve-year-old Meggie learns that her father, who repairs and binds books for a living, can "read" fictional characters to life when one of those characters abducts them and tries to force him into service.

 

 

book jacket for Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life
Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life
by Wendy Mass
Just before his thirteenth birthday, Jeremy Fink receives a keyless locked box--set aside by his father before his death five years earlier--that purportedly contains the meaning of life.

 

 

book jacket for Leaving Protection

Leaving Protection
by Will Hobbs
Sixteen-year-old Robbie Daniels, happy to get a job aboard a boat fishing for king salmon off southeastern Alaska, finds himself in danger when he discovers that his mysterious captain is not only fishing, but searching the coastline for long-buried historic metal Russian plaques that lay claim to Alaska. Soon, a violent storm at sea and the captain's wrath has Robbie putting his courage and wits to the ultimate test.

 

 

book jacket for Lemonade Mouth
Lemonade Mouth
by Mark Peter Hughes
A disparate group of high school students thrown together in detention form a band to play at a school talent show and end up competing with a wildly popular rock band.

 

 

book jacket for Life As We Knew It
Life As We Knew It
by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Through journal entries sixteen-year-old Miranda describes her family's struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.

 

 

book jacket for Little Women
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott
Set in New England during the Civil War, it chronicles the lives and loves of Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth, four sisters who must rely on each other for strength in the face of tragedies both large and small, after their father leaves for battle.

 

 

book jacket for Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan     NEW 3/2010
High school student Nick O'Leary, member of a rock band, meets college-bound Norah Silverberg and asks her to be his girlfriend for five minutes in order to avoid his ex-sweetheart.

 

 

book jacket for Notes from the Midnight Driver
Notes from the Midnight Driver
by Jordan Sonnenblick
After being assigned to perform community service at a nursing home, sixteen-year-old Alex befriends a cantankerous old man who has some lessons to impart about jazz guitar playing, love, and forgiveness.

 

 

book jacket for Out of the Dust
Out of the Dust
by Karen Hesse
In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.

 

 

book jacket for Paper Towns
Paper Towns
by John Green     NEW 3/2010
One month before graduating from his Central Florida high school, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen basks in the predictable boringness of his life until the beautiful and exciting Margo Roth Spiegelman, Q's neighbor and classmate, takes him on a midnight adventure and then mysteriously disappears.

 

 

book jacket for Peak
Peak
by Rolan Smith     NEW 3/2010
A fourteen-year-old boy attempts to be the youngest person to reach the top of Mount Everest.

 

 

book jacket for A Raisin in the Sun
A Raisin in the Sun
by Lorraine Hansberry
The life of a struggling Black family in a cramped Chicago flat and how it was affected by the promise of a $10,000 life insurance check.

 

 

book jacket for Red Kayak
Red Kayak
by Priscilla Cummings
Living near the water on Maryland's Eastern Shore, thirteen-year-old Brady and his best friends J.T. and Digger become entangled in a tragedy which tests their friendship and their ideas about right and wrong.

 

 

book jacket for The Rules of Survival
The Rules of Survival
by Nancy Werlin
Seventeen-year-old Matthew recounts his attempts, starting at a young age, to free himself and his sisters from the grip of their emotionally and physically abusive mother.

 

 

book jacket for Rules of the Road
Rules of the Road
by Joan Bauer
When Madeline Gladstone, the elderly president of Gladstone Shoe Stores, hires Jenna to be her driver and hands over the keys to her enormous white Cadillac, Jenna begins a summer-long cross- country adventure. Flanked by retired shoe models and Harry Bender, the world's greatest shoe salesman, Jenna learns a lot more than just the rules of the road.

 

 

book jacket for Runaway
Runaway
by Wendelin Van Draanen
After running away from her fifth foster home, Holly, a twelve-year-old orphan, travels across the country, keeping a journal of her experiences and struggle to survive.

 

 

book jacket for Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief
Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief
by Wendelin Van Draanen     NEW 3/2010
Thirteen-year-old Sammy's penchant for speaking her mind gets her in trouble when she involves herself in the investigation of a robbery at the "seedy" hotel across the street from the seniors' building where she is living with her grandmother.

 

 

book jacket for Schooled
Schooled
by Gordon Korman
Capricorn (Cap for short) had lived every day of his life on Garland Farm growing fruits and vegetables. He was homeschooled by Rain, the only person he knew in the world. Life was simple for Cap. But when Rain falls out of a tree while picking plums and is hospital-ridden, he has to attend the local middle school and live with his new guidance counselor and her irritable daughter. While Cap knew a lot about Zen Buddhism, no amount formal education could ready him for the trials and tribulations of public middle school.

 

 

book jacket for The Schwa Was Here
The Schwa was Here
by Neal Shusterman
Antsy is fascinated by 'The Schwa Effect,' which is essentially the fact that no one ever sees Calvin Schwa. Even when he acts weird and dresses like a total freak, The Schwa is only barely noticed. The two boys form a partnership and get away with all kinds of mischief, from conducting experiments at school to confounding opponents on the basketball court. However, when even Antsy starts losing sight of him, The Schwa vows to do something that will make him so visible, no one will ever forget him.

 

 

book ajcket for The Secret Hour
The Secret Hour
by Scott Westerfield
Upon moving to Bixby, Okla., 15-year-old Jessica Day learns that she's one of a group of people who have special abilities that help them fight ancient creatures living in the hour from midnight to 1 a.m.--creatures that seem determined to destroy Jess. First book of The Midnighter's trilogy.

 

 

book jacket for Speak
Speak
by Laurie Halse Anderson
A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect of Melinda's freshman year in high school.

 

 

book jacket for The Souls of Black Folk
The Souls of Black Folk
by W.E.B. DuBois
This book's largely autobiographical chapters take the reader through the maze of African-American life after the Emancipation Proclamation: from poverty, sharecropping, illiteracy, and lynching, to the heights of humanity reached by the spiritual 'sorrow songs' that gave birth to gospel music and the blues.

 

 

book jacket for Stargirl
Stargirl
by Jerry Spinelli
Leo Borlock follows the unspoken rule at Mica Area High School: don't stand out. Then Stargirl arrives and changes everything for Leo and the entire school. But the delicate scales of popularity suddenly shift, and Stargirl is shunned for everything that makes her different. And somewhere along the line, Leo has fallen in love with her.

 

 

book jacket for Story of a Girl
Story of a Girl
by Sara Zarr
In the three years since her father caught her in the back seat of a car with an older boy, sixteen-year-old Deanna's life at home and school has been a nightmare, but while dreaming of escaping with her brother and his family, she discovers the power of forgiveness.

 

 

Book jacket for Tangerine
Tangerine
by Edward Bloor
Twelve-year-old Paul, who lives in the shadow of his football hero brother Erik, fights for the right to play soccer despite his near blindness and slowly begins to remember the incident that damaged his eyesight.

 

 

book jacket for Three Cups of Tea
Three Cups of Tea
by Greg Mortenson; adapted for young readers by Sarah Thomson     NEW 3/2010
One man's campaign to build schools in the most dangerous, remote, and anti-American reaches of Asia: in 1993 Greg Mortenson was an American mountain-climbing bum wandering emaciated and lost through Pakistan's Karakoram. After he was taken in and nursed back to health by the people of a Pakistani village, he promised to return one day and build them a school. From that rash, earnest promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of our time--Mortenson's one-man mission to counteract extremism by building schools, especially for girls, throughout the breeding ground of the Taliban. In a region where Americans are often feared and hated, he has survived kidnapping, fatwas issued by enraged mullahs, death threats, and wrenching separations from his wife and children. But his success speaks for itself--at last count, his Central Asia Institute had built fifty-five schools.

 

 

book jacket for Thirteen Reasons Why
Thirteen Reasons Why
by Jay Asher
When high school student Clay Jenkins receives a box in the mail containing thirteen cassette tapes recorded by his classmate Hannah, who committed suicide, he spends a bewildering and heartbreaking night crisscrossing their town, listening to Hannah's voice recounting the events leading up to her death.

 

 

book jacket for Touching Spirit Bear
Touching Spirit Bear
by Ben Mikaelsen
A survival story of a young man banished to a remote Alaskan island to learn to cope with his anger, rage, and hate. An altercation with the Spirit Bear of Native American legend leaves him clinging to life and learning lessons about accepting responsibility for his actions and the effects they have on his life and others.

 

 

book jacket for Truth About Forever
Truth about Forever
by Sarah Dessen
Macy has a surprising and very welcome summer that helps her pick up the pieces of her life and fit them back together after her father's death.

 

 

 

book jacket for Tulsa Burning
Tulsa Burning
by Anna Myers
In 1921, fifteen-year-old Noble Chase hates the sheriff of Wekiwa, Oklahoma, and is more than willing to cross him to help his best friend, a black man, who is injured during race riots in nearby Tulsa.

 

 

book jacket for Twilight
Twilight
by Stephenie Meyer
When seventeen-year-old Bella leaves Phoenix to live with her father in Forks, Washington, she meets an exquisitely handsome boy at school for whom she feels an overwhelming attraction and who she comes to realize is not wholly human.

 

 

book jacket for Uglies
Uglies
by Scott Westerfeld
Just before their sixteenth birthdays, when they will be transformed into beauties whose only job is to have a great time, Tally's best friend runs away and Tally must find her and turn her in, or never become pretty at all.

 

 

book jacket for Unwind
Unwind
by Neal Shusterman
In a future world where those between the ages of thirteen and eighteen can have their lives "unwound" and their body parts harvested for use by others, three teens go to extreme lengths to uphold their beliefs--and, perhaps, save their own lives.

 

 

book jacket for Wednesday Wars
Wednesday Wars
by Gary D .Schmidt
During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker's classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns much of value about the world he lives in.

 

 

 
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