Cambridge High School Library 2024

By: Fonda Lee Location: FIC LEE Genre: SciFi, dystopia, a bit of boxing and some romance A Sci-Fi Thrill Ride Set in the Action-Packed Sports Arena of the Future Rocky meets Gattaca ...? This book is, I kid you not, the most engrossing sci-fi book I have read in years. It has EVERYTHING - action, complex world building, characters that you feel completely invested in, and even a lovely element of romance.   In some ways it is just as much of a sports movie as it is a sci fi book, but I love how Lee makes the competitive conflict and makes it so, so much more.  Desperately hoping for a sequel...  Goodreads.com A rising star in the weightless combat sport of zeroboxing, Carr “the Raptor” Luka dreams of winning the championship title. Recognizing his talent, the Zero Gravity Fighting Association assigns Risha, an ambitious and beautiful Martian colonist, to be his brandhelm––a personal marketing strategist. It isn’t long before she’s made Carr into a popular cele...

By: Morgan Matson Location: FIC MAT Genre: Road trip- Self discovery 5000 ratings on Goodreads with an average of 4.06- that is huge!   Katrina said this book that inspired her to download about 50 albums before I was even finished reading it! This book is very clever and really well done because  there are pictures, drawings, receipts, maps and song mixes interspersed throughout the text, it makes the road trip so real. A friend of mine died in a car accident and an even closer friend was seriously injured, I get how a car accident can freak you out and make jumping in a car a very anxious experience.. and then to go on a road trip! Amy Curry has to get her Mom’s car to Connecticut from California. Her Mom sold the family house and has already moved there. Amy stayed to finish out her school year but that’s over and it’s time to move. Trouble is Amy can’t drive since she was in a car accident with her father three months ago. Her father didn’t make it...

By: Cory Jane and Scotty Stevenson Location: NF 920 JAN Genre: Rugby Yarns We have a brand spanking new display in the library for the Rugby World Cup. I name my displays and this one is called "A World in Union". I am a big rugby fan so all our All Blacks, especially our LEGENDS are showcased.  But we have also linked the  countries who will contest the RWC to authors and books from those nations- all in all it works really well. I just wonder how long it will be until my All Black balloons get popped! This book is about an All Black who is a real character- I follow him on Twitter and he is a funny guy, but he is also a man who has cleverly balanced life and professional sport. He has 4 kids and he sounds like an awesome Dad! Much respect Cory!! An All Blacks  jokester/prankster  is the World Cup-winning winger Cory ‘CJ’ Jane. A Commonwealth Games Sevens gold medallist and frontline All Black since 2008, Jane is one of the funniest men in New Zealand rugby....

By: S.E.Grove Location: FIC GRO Genre: M agical Cartography - Fantasy   A spectacular, not-to-be-missed paperback in the mold of the children’s classic  The Golden Compass . One Sentence can reveal the world most powerful secret: THE GLASS SENTENCE! Mapmakers, law abiding pirates and a wayward botanist!! Interesting combo. That would be like my son, my daughter and their great grandmother all on an adventure- I wonder which one is which! SHE HAD SEEN THE WORLD THROUGH MAPS. SHE HAD NO IDEA THEY COULD BE SO DANGEROUS Boston, 1891. Thirteen-year-old Sophia Tims lives with her uncle, cartologer Shadrack Elli, in a world torn to pieces by the Great Disruption of 1799—when all of the continents were mysteriously thrown into different time periods, from the prehistoric era to the fortieth century. Sophia’s parents are explorers. She has not seen them in years, since they went on an expedition and never returned. When Shadrack is kidnapped from their home, Sophia...

By: Evan Roskos Location: Fic Ros Genre: Youth Fiction- mental illness POV: Teenage male We have had a bad week in the Waikato as we have faced the trauma of the impact of youth depression, perhaps book like this can help! It is a book about depression but it's not that depressing!  For a year, I've been seeing an imaginary therapist. Her name is Dr. Bird. She is a large pigeon, human-size. She wears no clothes. Because she's a bird. Don’t you just love it when you open a book and it draws you in so completely that you’re loathe to close it for any reason?  Evan Roskos  has written such a book. The characters and pacing grab the reader and don’t let go.  “I hate myself but I love Walt Whitman, the kook. Always positive. I need to be more positive, so I wake myself up every morning with a song of myself.”    Sixteen-year-old  James Whitman shares a last name with his poetic inspiration Walt Whitman and enjoys Songs of Myself, hug...

By: Henre Tullet Location: Everywhere around the library Genre: Interactive Picture Book What a great book, it is one of those books that makes people look weird, they put there heads on their side  and they shake and they tilt their bodies. They look strange! This book is ruined already, the cover is damaged, I just did not get it processed in time and the students in the library have devoured it with fervor. The book demands to be touched. Press here, it invites, with the tantalizing image of a yellow dot. As the reader complies and then turns the page, he discovers the previously unknown power he wields over paper and ink: he has single-fingeredly changed the picture. One dot has turned into two. Press it again, and the dots keep responding, multiplying, flying across the pages, delighting any reader who has a mischievious sense of humor and playful suspension of belief. With a cheeky nod to increasingly ubiquitous touchscreens and interactive software, Tullet has created a...

By: Eve Silver Location: FIC SIL Genre: Sci Fi- Survivor- Aliens - Romance   Series: Game #1 and Game #2 and Game #3 RUSH is an intense, pulse-pounding thrill-ride with a strong heroine, cute boys, and scary monsters—you  need  to read this book! —Morgan Rhodes For readers of The Hunger Games and Divergent, Rush follows in a similar new tradition, with electric high-action scenes, a world in peril (this time, by the threat of aliens), and amorphous morality in a broken society,  —The Globe and Mail— So what’s the game now? This, or the life I used to know? The series follows the story of Miki Jones, a teenage girl who is pulled from her life after a terrible accident into some kind of game. Miki awakens in a strange place with several other teenagers and a sophisticated wristband that is glowing green. She is given very little information: she is about to go on a mission, and that her wristband shows her health so she must not let it turn red. Suddenly sh...

By: Rachel Caine Location: FIC CAI Genre: Historical Fantasy Series: The Great Library The cover!!! A book about history and libraries and books and fantasy!!! “The Book Thief with Fahrenheit 451 by way of Harry Potter.” Mrs Featonby!!!! Miss Bichan!!! The first purpose of a librarian is to preserve and defend our books. Sometimes, that means dying for them - or making someone else die for them. Tota est scientia.”  ―  Rachel Caine ,  Ink and Bone "I've never considered a dystopian mixed paranormal world that plays on the power and love of books, and definitely not one that sprinkles in a dash of history as well"- Rachel Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. In a world where the ancient Great Library of Alexandria was never destroyed, knowledge now rules the world: freely available, but strictly controlled. Owning private books is a crime. Jess Brightwell is the son of a black market smuggler, sent to the Library to compete for a position as a scholar... ...

By: James Frey and Nils Johnson-Shelton Location: FIC FRE Genre: Hmm controversial! Hunger Games revisited maybe- or maybe not! Series: Endgame # 1 Play. Survive. Solve. People of Earth. Endgame has begun . This book has caused a stir for all the wrong reasons! The author James Frey wrote   A Million Little Pieces   - a his life memoir except he was not totally truthful - he zupped it up a lot and he duped Oprah Winfrey about its legitimacy- bad move. He has been vilified! Now the name James Frey is tainted, so what did he do? He launched a book packaging company specializing in young adult fiction.   Book-packaging (or book producing) is a publishing activity in which a publishing company outsources the myriad tasks involved in putting together a book—writing, researching, editing, illustrating, and even printing—to an outside company called a book-packaging company. So Pitticus ...

By: Bear Grylls Location: FIC GRY Genre: Thriller Series: Will Jaeger #1 The Bourne Identity  meets Indiana Jones - a debut thriller to take your breath away. Hair-raising adventure, an extreme survival quest and a shocking mystery reaching back into the horrors of Nazi Germany. Can he do it- can Bear Grylls write a thriller fiction that works?  Fabrizio thinks so... "Not only is Bear Grylls a survival expert but he is also a very good author. This thriller kept me on the edge of my seat and I can't wait for the book..." Will Jaeger is haunted by the disappearance of his wife and son. Rescued by an old friend they must achieve the impossible and escape from a very well-protected African island. Returning to the UK Jaeger is tasked with leading an expedition into the Mountain of the Gods in the Amazon jungle to examine the secrets of a lost WWII warplane, one that harbours explosive secrets and terrifying forces are intent on keeping the warplane hidden for...

By: IRB Location: On a table near you Genre: Webb Ellis Trophy- lets keep it Display: Oh yeah- we are going to have a good one- it is going to be called  "A World in Union" - Books and Rugby! So excited, so anxious, so worried. I am off on another RATA trip, I will be in Aussie for the first game on Sept 18th, Africa for the Quarter Final, India for the Semi and home for when we defend our title on Oct 31st. The World Cup is in England at some of the most famous venues there are- Cardiff Arms Park ( that is on my bucket list that place), Twickenham, Wembly and the Olympic Stadium. There are 20 teams playing in 4 pools. Pool A is the pool of death. This book has all the information you need, all except who will win the darn thing. Who will be the hero, who will be the "beaver" who will choke, who will stand, who will fall.. it is all to come! GO BOYS!!!!!! Pool A Australia England Wales Fiji Uruguay Pool B South Africa Samoa Japan Scotland USA Po...

By: Leah Thomas Location: FIC  THO Genre:  Contemporary YA In a stunning literary debut, two boys on opposite ends of the world begin an unlikely friendship that will change their lives forever. Because You'll Never Meet Me is a story about two adolescent boys living in different parts of the world, yet going through equally troubling situations. Ollie is a 14-year old that has spent a majority of his life living in an isolated cabin in the middle of the woods with his mother. He is allergic to electricity--he has never been to a town or seen a crowd of people. He can't use a phone or even watch a movie. And still, somehow, he is experiencing the pain of first love. Moritz is a 16-year old full of sarcasm and pessimism living in Germany. He was unfortunate enough to be born with no eyes--instead, he sees the world with his ears, sort of like a bat. He also has a pacemaker helping him stay alive, making it impossible for the two teens to ever meet. But even with this impo...

By: Harriet Rowland Location: NF 920 ROW Genre: A real life New Zealand  Fault in Our Stars story "Funny, truthful and wise" Sir Peter Jackson Some books you hear about, people whisper them and as a librarian you hear the whispers. This book has been  the topic of whispering a lot, it is talked about, deeply recommended, and honored in our circles. I simply had to purchase it based on the intensity of the whispers alone. This book does not whisper- it shouts! ‘This way I will NEVER have to get a job, learn how to cook more than two-minute noodles or do anything mildly productive. I never have to grow up and I can forever be a kid! Though my ‘forever’ is shorter than most, I don’t mind. What I do mind is that I am going to have to leave everyone I love behind.’ Harriet Rowland — known as Hat — was 17 when she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare form of cancer that began in her knee. At the time she was a student at Queen Margaret College in We...

By: David Riley Location: NF 760 and 796 Genre: Sporting Icons These are great books that tells the stories of two of our greatest current sporting icons.  Steven Adams- wow, what a story. I started to read this book and just could not stop reading it, this guy, his family, and his caregiver called Blossom- what an amazing lady, just grabbed me. His story shows so clearly that it takes a village to raise a man- and his success is due not only to his hard work, his determination, his genetics and his talent- but also because a bunch of people believed in him and put that belief into action! This weekend, it is all on. SBW is playing number 12 for the All Blacks against the Wallabies. It will be his 25th match. I am not a huge fan of SBW but I am slowly being won over. I kind of thought he was a sportsman who only cared about himself, his glory, his honour, his achievements and being a Cantab I value loyalty and "doing it for the team"- the all for one and one for all th...

By: Catherine Doyle Location: FIC DOY Genre: Young Adult Romance "When it comes to revenge, love is a dangerous complication" “This life is so complex that we rarely get to be the people we are truly meant to be. Instead, we wear masks and put up walls to keep from dealing with the fear of rejection, the feeling of regret, the very idea that someone may not love us for who we are deep in our core, that they might not understand the things that drive us.”  Romance, family, obligation, Mafia, forbidden-love... is this a Romeo and Juliet retell.. well kind off! When it comes to revenge, love is a dangerous complication.With a fierce rivalry raging between two warring families, falling in love is the deadliest thing Sophie could do. An epic debut set outside modern-day Chicago. When five brothers move into the abandoned mansion in her neighbourhood, Sophie Gracewell's life changes forever. Irresistibly drawn to bad boy Nicoli, Sophie finds herself falling into a cr...

By: Helena Coggan Location: FIC COG Genre:  F antasy ,  dystopia--post-apocalyptic , or  para-supernatural? You chose! The author was 13 when she wrote her first draft of this book and it was published when she was 15! So to all you aspiring authors out there, Helena Coggan proves it can be done! My daughter would never read this book- it has an eyeball on the cover- if any of you are her students- ask her what she thinks of eyeballs:) Rose Elmsworth has a secret. For eighteen years, the world has been divided into the magically Gifted and the non-magical Ashkind, but Rose's identity is far more dangerous. At fifteen, she has earned herself a place alongside her father in the Department, a brutal law-enforcement organisation run by the Gifted to control the Ashkind. But now an old enemy is threatening to start a catastrophic war, and Rose faces a challenging test of her loyalties. How much does she really know about her father's past? How far is the Department wi...

The movie is here , think Fault in our Stars but less sappy, harder, real. We have the book of course as well, it is by Jesse Andrews. AS always the book is better than the movie, so come and reserve it and have a read! Mr Mannins has it at the moment! Greg Gaines is the last master of high school espionage, able to disappear at will into any social environment. He has only one friend, Earl, and together they spend their time making movies, their own incomprehensible versions of Coppola and Herzog cult classics. Until Greg’s mother forces him to rekindle his childhood friendship with Rachel. Rachel has been diagnosed with leukemia—-cue extreme adolescent awkwardness—-but a parental mandate has been issued and must be obeyed. When Rachel stops treatment, Greg and Earl decide the thing to do is to make a film for her, which turns into the Worst Film Ever Made and becomes a turning point in each of their lives. And all at once Greg must abandon invisibility and stand in the spotligh...

By: Andrew Smith Location: FIC SMI Genre: Fantasy, Sci Fi, War,Realistic Fiction- Genre busti n g  THE ALEX CROW by Andrew Smith is a bizarre young adult novel that skillfully weaves together multiple storylines into a strangely powerful statement about society, extinction, and life. "A masterpiece of a book" Michael Grant- author of GONE series Genius Heart-breaking Utterly insane "This is a tale of an adopted teen's bizarre summer camp experience (set in a dystopic American future, of course)  that balances shock with lightheartedness and goofiness with some serious pathos. I absolutely loved it " Will Andrew Smith tells the story of 15-year-old Ariel, a refugee from the Middle East who is the sole survivor of an attack on his small village. Now living with an adoptive family in Sunday, West Virginia, Ariel's story of his summer at a boys' camp for tech detox is juxtaposed against those of a schizophrenic bomber and the diaries of a fail...

By: Robin Benway Location: Fic Ben Genre: Young Adult Contemporary John Green or Sarah Dessen Fans- this one is for you The title screams a romance-dominated story, I would say it's anything but that. Sure, there is adorable romance... but  at it's core, Benway's story is  one about friendship, growing up, making your own path in life, and more importantly, family.  "Melanie" "Sometimes love isn't something you say, it's something you do." “Could you please stop dripping your sarcasm all over my car’s interior ?”     Oliver's absence split us wide open, dividing our neighborhood along a fault line strong enough to cause an earthquake. An earthquake would have been better. At least during an earthquake, you understand why you're shaking.  Emmy and Oliver were going to be best friends forever, or maybe even more, before their futures were ripped apart. But now Oliver is back, and he's not the skinny boy-next-door that us...