New Books for Teens

Here are three books we recommend in case you’re looking for good books to read for the “Summer Reading” you need to do for school.

How I Became a Ghost by Tim Tingle (Choctaw), Roadrunner Press, 2013

      Tim Tingle's new book is about a young boy and the Choctaw Trail of Tears; here’s how it starts:

            Maybe you have never read a book written by a ghost before. I am a ghost. I am not a ghost when this book begins, so you have to pay very close attention. I should tell you something else. I see things before they happen. You are probably thinking, “I wish I could see things before they happen.”

            Be careful what you wish for.

If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth (Onondaga), Scholastic, 2013 

      Lewis Blake lives on the Tuscarora Reservation and is starting junior high school and wants to make friends and he does, with George Haddonfield, an army

kid who shares his love for the Beatles.

Debbie Reese writes about it on her blog:

It is, however, a rare but honest look at culture and how people with vastly different upbringings and identities can clash. And dance. And laugh. Gansworth informs readers about cultural difference, but he doesn't beat anyone up as he does it.

Him Standing by Richard Wagamese (Ojibway), Orca, 2013

      One of Canada’s award-winning authors, Richard Wagamese‘s new book is an Orca Rapid Reads book and it is a quick, yet compelling story about what happens when Lucas Smoke, extraordinary woodcarver, is asked to carve a spirit mask by a mysterious man dressed all in black.