From the WEGO Stacks…Oldies but Goodies

Here are three great books published within the last five years that you might have missed because you were oh, I don’t know … too busy, too young or afraid of libraries?  All teasing aside here are three books you don’t want to miss.


Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer, published in 2006

Miranda enjoys keeping a diary and writing about school, friends, family and skating. Lately she’s been writing about the forecast predicting a meteor shower about to hit the earth. Life on earth changes forever when one of the meteors rains down on the moon shifting it off course from its normal orbit pattern. At first the changes on earth seem subtle but quickly move into a cataclysmic events changing climate, food supply, power shortages and causing life to shift into survival mode for Miranda and her family very quickly. Is life as Miranda knew it, gone for good?


The Book Thief by Markus Zusak also published in 2006

If death could narrate a novel, what would it say? Find out by reading Markus Zusak’s unique introduction from deaths point of view. This is a novel of cruelty, poverty, but most of all hope for Liesel Meminger living through war. As a young girl Liesel and her brother where given over to foster care by their mother to avoid the ravages of war. On the train to their new home sickness overcomes her brother and he dies on the train. Traumatized by the loss of her entire family Liesel’s foster father begins teaching her to read. Liesel soon finds comfort in books while the world around her is ravaged by war.


Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher published 2001

Although I read this book six years ago I can still remember the characters Chris Crutcher gave life to in Whale Talk. A bunch of high school misfits labeled by their peers as the loner, the fat kid, the dumb kid, you get the idea. This motley crew becomes the first ever high school swim team at Cutter High School. Leading the crew is T.J. Jones, an adopted mixed-race natural athlete with heart and a sarcastic sense of humor. No one especially the elitists “Good ol Boy” club expects them to succeed. Under T.J. the crew shapes up into a competitive team and achieves much more than was ever expected.