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I always enjoy books by Richard Peck, but I am especially drawn to this one because a handful of library students are major characters and responsible for much of the story. Set in 1914 in rural Indiana, Peewee and her brother Jake run an automobile shop threatened to be shut down by the neighboring Kirby's, who plan to dominate the auto garage business when the paved road comes through. Following a tornado when many graves are disturbed, including that of the former librarian, and the library has it's windows destroyed, a neighboring town newspaper ridicules the torn town challenging them to reopen their library. The Board of Trustees immediately goes into action hiring 4 library students from Butler University, who also happen to be wealthy heiresses and drive fabulous cars. Jake meets Irene and Grace while working on a sabotaged car and is instantly smitten, as are they. Grace's father agrees to sponsor Jake in the big car race under the Stutz Motorcar name to please his daughter, but PeeWee is the one who finishes the race. Fast-paced and full of pranks and quick-thinking librarians, this story will appeal to teens who enjoy humorous stories or those that are based on historical events. Appropriate for teens in grades 6-10. 
Told from the viewpoint of Death, who remembers events by the color of the sky. A beautifully touching story describing the lives of Liesel and her family and friends in a small town outside of Munich during World War II. Liesel is sent to live with a foster family when she is nine. Her mother is alluded to having been a communist and her brother dies on a train on the way to their new foster family's house. The place where her brother is buried is where Liesel steals her first book, "The Gravedigger's Handbook", although she cannot yet read. Her foster mother is sharp-tongued and her foster father helps teach Liesel to read using the book she has stolen following her nightly nightmares. He also plays the accordian and it is through this connection that the family comes to hide a Jew in their basement for several years. She and her friends belong to Hitler Youth where they are trained to become the new Arian race. Her best friend Rudy becomes a 3-ribbon champion at the Hitler Youth games following the example of his idol, the 1936 Olympic champion, Jesse Owens, who competed in Berlin. When his father refuses to send Rudy to a special German school for boys, he is drafted into the army. When Liesel's father tries to give bread to the Jews being marched through the streets of their town, he is whipped and drafted into the army. Throughout, Liesel continues to steal books. What I think I most appreciated about this book was that it showed the other side of the Holocaust. While I have often heard of the horrors inflicted upon the Jews, I had not heard of the condition of the Germans also trying to survive the war with little food, air raids and the fear of what might happen to them if their support leaned the wrong way. This book is by the same Australian author who wrote "I am the Messenger" which won a 2006 Prinz Honor award.It is very long at 552 pages and every page is worth it. I highly recommend this book. Best suited for teens in grades 9 and up. Adults will like it too. 
Curry Buckle and Darwin Bownes are 10th graders who together have a pretty interesting act. Darwin can beat out a special rhythm on a drum that puts Curry into a trance-like state enabling him to predict future events. They work briefly at a school carnival when Swami Curryban Bucklananda answers questions for paying customers, but soon find that this can have consequences. For every good thing that happens, so does a bad. It's like the Monkey's Paw...a guy makes a wish on a monkey's paw for money, then his uncle gets chopped up in a machine and the guy inherits money. This book deals with the idea of someone being able to become the next Dalai Lama or reincarnated, and while there are philosophical issues, there is great humor, friendship, and a crime that needs to be solved. I loved the details, for instance, all the kids in Curry's family are named after spices. His sister Paprika plays a large role in the story as well, when she uses Curry's prediction of the number of Blubbergum balls in the Blubbermobile to win a new red convertible, and then ends up in an accident. Curry and Darwin attract the attention of the wrong people, however, and the story begins a series of twists and turns that will keep the reader guessing. This is recommended for teens in grades 8 and up. 
"Even on his deathbed, Grandaddy Silas curses Archie with one last impossible challenge. But Archie knows he will fail at this, too, like he has everything else, because there's no way he is a saint. Then the beautiful, mysterious Clare Simpson comes to town. She befriends Archie, and the two of them soon become sure that they are soul mates. Clare makes 14-year-old Archie feel confident and full of purpose for the first time in his life. And she convinces him that his grandaddy was right. He can be a saint. That is, if he does exactly what she says..." They set out from southern Appalachia to the Cloisters Museum in New York City on a spiritual quest where Archie both believes and is frightened. I really enjoyed this suspenseful and gripping novel that uses Christianity as the backdrop. It was hard to put down. I continually wondered what Clare's motives were...could she really be such a true believer or is there something else going on here that we don't know about. Recommended for teens in grades 8 and up. 
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