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2020-21 HISD "Name That Book" High School Book List
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"The Name That Book contest, coordinated by the HISD Department of Library Services, serves to acquaint HISD students with classic literature as well as contemporary award-winning books, representing a variety of genres. The district-wide competition is held in the spring. 'It is wonderful to have a place at school to exchange ideas and discuss incredible books with other students. The books on the Name That Book list really provide something for everyone. They are thought-provoking and challenging, and I have fallen in love with some great books I probably wouldn’t have read if it hadn’t been for Name That Book. I have also made friends that I probably wouldn’t have made if not for Name That Book!' -senior student, High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, and a member of 2009 1st place high school team."
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500 Words Or Less
by Juleah Del Rosario
High school senior Nic, seventeen, tries to salvage her tattered reputation by helping her Ivy League-obsessed classmates with college admission essays and finds herself in the process
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American Royals
by Katharine McGee
An alternate-history tale reimagines America as a monarchy and follows the experiences of a princess who struggles with her feelings for an off-limits boy, while her handsome twin brother is pursued by two very different girls. By the best-selling author of the Thousandth Floor trilogy.
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Angel Thieves
by Kathi Appelt
The lives of four characters, including cemetery thief Cade Curtis, a runaway slave, and an illegally captured ocelot, flow together across time through their connections to the Houston bayou and an angel carved from Georgia marble
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Anger is a Gift
by Mark Oshiro
A young adult debut by the popular social media personality and critic reflects the racial and economic struggles of today's teens in the story of high school junior Moss, who in the face of a racist school administration decides to organize a protest that escalates into violence.
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Birthday
by Meredith Russo
Born in the same hospital on the same day, Eric and Morgan grow up together as best friends, through six years of birthdays they discover who they are meant to be, and if they are meant to be together
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Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree
by Adaobi Nwaubani
Based on interviews with young women who were kidnapped by Boko Haram, this poignant novel tells the timely story of one girl who was taken from her home in Nigeria and her harrowing fight for survival. Includes an afterword by award-winning journalist Viviana Mazza.
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Butterfly Yellow
by Thanhha Lai
A Vietnam War refugee in Texas partners with a city boy with rodeo dreams to track down the younger brother she was separated from six years before when he was evacuated by American troops during the waning days of the Vietnam War
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Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen
by Jose Antonio Vargas
The movement of people--what Americans call 'immigration' and the rest of the world calls 'migration'--is among the defining issues of our time. Technology and information crosses countries and continents at blistering speed. Corporations thrive on being multinational and polyglot. Yet the world's estimated 244 million total migrant population, particularly those deemed 'illegal' by countries and societies, are locked in a chaotic and circular debate about borders and documents, assimilation and identity. An issue about movement seems immovable: politically, culturally and personally. Dear America: Notes Of An Undocumented Citizen is an urgent, provocative and deeply personal account from Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who happens to be the most well-known undocumented immigrant in the United States. Born in the Philippines and brought to the U.S. illegally as a 12-year-old, Vargas hid in plain-sight for years, writing for some of the most prestigious news organizations in the country (The Washington Post, The New Yorker) while lying about where he came from and how he got here. After publicly admitting his undocumented status--risking his career and personal safety--Vargas has challenged the definition of what it means to be an American, and has advocated for the human rights of immigrants and migrants during the largest global movement of people in modern history. Both a letter to America and a window into Vargas's America, this book is a transformative argument about migration and citizenship, and an intimate, searing exploration on what it means to be home when the country you call your home doesn't consider you one of its own.
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Dear Evan Hansen : the novel
by Val Emmich
Evan goes from being a nobody to everyone's hero and a social media superstar after a chance encounter with Connor just before his suicide leads others to believe Evan was his only friend
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The Downstairs Girl
by Stacey Lee
When the advice column she secretly writes becomes wildly popular, a young lady’s maid uses her influence to question her society’s fixed ideas about race and gender. By the award-winning author of Outrun the Moon.
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Four Dead Queens
by Astrid Scholte
Keralie is the best pickpocket in all of the kingdoms of Quadara, but when she steals a "comm disk" and realizes a royal murder plot is afoot, she must learn who to trust and fast
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Girls With Sharp Sticks
by Suzanne Young
In the near future at a girls-only private high school isolated in the Colorado mountains, Mena and her classmates--under the watchful eyes of their Guardian, professors, and analyst--are trained to be beautiful and obedient for their sponsors and investors
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Heretics Anonymous
by Katie Henry
When nonbeliever Michael transfers to a Catholic school in eleventh grade, he quickly connects with a secret support group intent on exposing the school's hypocrisies one stunt at a time
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Heroine
by Mindy McGinnis
Determined to see her softball team through a historic tournament run despite severe injuries, Mickey Catalan is prescribed painkillers that initially help, before high pressure leads to an out-of-control addiction.
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How To Make Friends With the Dark
by Kathleen Glasgow
Tiger, sixteen, has been pushing away from her overprotective mother, but when her mother dies suddenly Tiger must learn to live when it feels she is surrounded by darkness
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Lovely War
by Julie Berry
When immortals Ares and Aphrodite are caught in a World War II-era tryst by the latter's jealous husband, she defends her actions by imparting the tale of four young humans who became connected during World War I.
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The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried
by Shaun David Hutchinson
Two estranged best friends, one the son of undertakers, are granted extra time to resolve their differences when one of them dies suddenly and then comes partially back to life, forcing the pair to figure out what is happening.
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Patron Saints of Nothing
by Randy Ribay
Setting aside his college ambitions when he learns that his cousin has been murdered as part of President Duterte's war on drugs, a high school senior travels to the Philippines to uncover the truth, and the part he may have played in it. By the author of After the Shot Drops.
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Seafire
by Natalie C Parker
Follows Caledonia Styx, captain of her own ship, the Mors Navis, and its all-female crew as they strive to defeat the powerful fleet of Aric Athair, the vicious warlord who has taken their homes and families
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The Seven Torments of Amy and Craig (A Love Story)
by Don Zolidis
A coming-of-age story set in 1994 Wisconsin, chronicling the on-again-off-again relationship of Amy and Craig, who come to understand each other better through multiple disastrous breakups.
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Shout: A Poetry Memoir
by Laurie Halse Anderson
A poetic memoir and urgent call-to-action by the award-winning author of Speak blends free-verse reflections with deeply personal stories from her life to rally today's young people to stand up and fight the abuses, censorship and hatred of today's world.
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Sky Without Stars
by Jessica Brody
This futuristic reimagining of Les Misérables recounts the tale of three teens from different backgrounds that all have a role to play in the like revolution on the French planet colony of Laterre
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Stepsister
by Jennifer Donnelly
A dark feminist reimagining of the Cinderella story by the award-winning author of A Northern Light follows the experiences of a misfit stepsister who, after mutilating herself in her unsuccessful pursuit of a royal marriage, seizes an opportunity to alter her destiny.
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They Both Die at the End
by Adam Silvera
In a near-future New York City where a service alerts people on the day they will die, teenagers Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio meet using the Last Friend app and are faced with the challenge of living a lifetime on their End Day.
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To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
The explosion of racial hate and violence in a small Alabama town is viewed by a little girl whose father defends a black man accused of rape. Reissue.
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Truly Devious
by Maureen Johnson
When Stevie Bell, an amateur detective, begins her first year at a famous private school in Vermont, she sets a plan to solve the cold case involving the kidnapping of the founder's wife and daughter shortly after the school opened.
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Two Can Keep a Secret
by Karen M. McManus
Forced to return to the picturesque town where her aunt went missing as a teen and a homecoming queen was murdered five years earlier, Ellery navigates an anonymous assailant's threats about the school's homecoming events while uncovering dark community secrets. By the best-selling author of One of Us Is Lying.
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We Are Lost and Found
by Helene Dunbar
Keeping his head low after his brother is kicked out of the house for being gay, a teen navigating the fears of the AIDS epidemic meets an understanding boy who encourages him to take risks to be his true self.
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With the Fire On High
by Elizabeth Acevedo
Navigating the challenges of finishing high school while caring for a daughter, talented cook Emoni Santiago struggles with a lack of time and money that complicate her dream of working in a professional kitchen. By the National Book Award-winning author of The Poet X.
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