Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is a interesting book with a powerful message.  Teenagers need to hear Melinda's story, how one bad decision on one night can change your whole world. Hear her challenges in high school and how cruel people can be.  Melinda doesn't feel as if she has support of anyone she has no friends left.  This book takes you on Melinda's emotional journey where she is at rock bottom where she does not have the power in herself to speak.  It then takes you through her healing process.  It is then that she finally speaks.
Anderson wrote a great book that takes you to the place where Melinda is at.  You feel Melinda's pain and her depression.  It draws you in and I just wanted to keep reading.

This Moose belongs to Me By Oliver Jeffers is  a fun book about a young boy Wilfred who finds a moose.  Wilfred names the mouse Marcel and gives him the rules for being a good pet.  One day when in the woods Wilfred discovers that another lady thinks that she owns the moose and she call him Rodrigo.  Very upset Wilfred runs into the woods and becomes tangled in his string.  As it gets dark Wilfred is getting very nervous being in the woods alone.  Then suddenly Marcel finds him in the woods and rescues him.  It is then that Wilfred decides he really didn't own the moose anyway.
This would be a great book to read to younger children and discuss just because you find something that doesn't mean it belongs to you.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins in one of my favorite books.  The character that intrigued me the most is Katniss Everdeen.  She is a girl growing up in poorest districts of Panem.  When her sister Prim is selected as tribute in the 74th annual hunger games Katniss volunteers to take her place.  Katniss does not see herself as a hero, she is protecting her younger sister.  This is the beginning of her rise in popularity in her district.
The other time in the book that Katniss shows heroism is when another tribute Rue dies.  She shows her respect for Rue by decorating her body with flowers then giving a salute to district 11.  This is a very emotional point in the book.
The other tribute from district 12 is Peeta.  When Peeta is injured Katniss cares form him.  When taking care of Peeta her rough and tough personality begins to crumble as she shows to have feeling for him.
At the end of the book her and Peeta have finished the games and only one could win and she attempts suicide with Peeta.  It is then that they are both saved.
Katniss character is a strong and heroic girl on fire.  She is the heroine who doesn't see herself as a hero.  She puts her family and those who she loves before herself and is willing to fight any fight even to death to save them.

Extra Yarn is a book about a girl who finds a box of colorful Yarn.  She then starts knitting sweaters for everyone but she never runs out of yarn in her box.  She continues to knit colorful sweaters for everyone she knows when an archduke tried to buy her box of yarn from her but she would not sell it.  He then steals the box from her.  When the archduke opens the box it is empty.  He then throws the box away and it finds its way back to the little girl.  The illustrations by Jon Klassen started out black and white but as the girl knitted more sweaters the book became more colorful.

I would use this book to talk to students about being kind and giving to others.  I could then use the archduke as an example of how people who are unkind and are mean to others really don't win.

When You Reach Me is a book set in the 1970's about a young girl, Miranda and her mom.  They live in neighborhood in New York along with several friends and a crazy guy on the corner.  Throughout the book Miranda and Richard, her moms boyfriend, are continually helping her mom practice for an apperance on the game show The $20,000 Pyramid.  The other thing that happens throughout the book is she get notes and has no idea who they are from.  These notes have information that not just anyone would know.
Miranda is a girl going through her life like any other 12 year old girl.  She is trying to make friends, discover boys, go to school and read her favorite book about time travel.
As I read the book I was never really for sure what was going happen next. As Miranda navigated her daily life with the notes and and those around her I was entertained and wanting to find out what would happen next.  It wan't unitl the last pages when Miranda finally figures out who the notes were from that I knew how it would end.
I enjoyed reading When You Reach Me.  It was such a realistic story yet that edge of Fantasy that made me to want to keep turning the pages.  I am not going to tell about the ending so that others will get the same surprise that I did. 

The Whisper is a beautifully illustrated book about a little girl who loves to read.  Her teacher gives her a book to read but when she opens it the words are gone.  A whisper encourages her to create words she cannot see.  She then creates stories like The magical cloak using her imagination.  In each picture there are a fox and a rabbit that are hidden that children would like to look for.
This storybook would be a great way to encourage children to use their imaginations.  They could add to the stories she has started and even make up their own.  With younger children it could be done as a group activity with each child adding to the story.  They could even draw their own pictures of how the story continues or of their own story.  The Whisper is a wonderful book that encourages children to use the power of their own imaginations.