Discussion Starters

Son, by Lois Lowry.  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012, 393 pages. Age/interest level: 12-up. Lois Lowry’s The Giver, published in 1993, has become an iconic title ...

Our 50 Shades of Gray discussion this week demonstrates how our sin nature turns God's gifts into perversions.  But sex is still a gift, and ...

Doug Swietek finds a new life in his new town, despite his boorish father. Perfect for fans of The Wednesday Wars. Okay for Now, by ...

Let the Hunger Games begin! And may the odds be ever in your favor.... The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Scholastic, 2008. 374 pages. Reading ...

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George.  Harper Collins, 1972 (paperback reissue 2003).  208 pages Reading Level: Middle Grades, 10-12 Recommended for: Young adult, ...

Gary Paulsen's classic survival novel Hatchet offers a realistic--as opposed to romantic-- view of nature and what it takes to survive in the wild. Hatchet ...

One Crazy Summer is a good way to introduce middle-grade readers to the Black Power movement and the  civil rights revolution of the 1960s. One ...