Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Run, Boy, Run (Mildred L Batchelder Honor Book (Awards))

Run, Boy, Run (Mildred L Batchelder Honor Book (Awards))

by Uri Orlev

“'Srulik, there’s no time. I want you to remember what I’m going to tell you. You have to stay alive. You have to! Get someone to teach you how to act like a Christian, how to cross yourself and pray. . . . The most important thing, Srulik,' he said, talking fast, 'is to forget your name. Wipe it from your memory. . . . But even if you forget everything—even if you forget me and Mama—never forget that you’re a... (more)

Yellow Star

by Jennifer Rozines Roy

Yellow Star is a Marshall Cavendish publication.

The Fighter

by Jean-Jacques Greif

Fighting is a way of life for Moshe Wisniak. As a boy from a very poor neighborhood in Warsaw, he can’t run away when Polish kids attack the Jews, because his legs are weak. So he learns to use his fists, his head and other weapons to defend himself and his brothers. When the family moves to Paris in 1929, everyone finds work and life improves slowly. Moshe, now Maurice, is a leather worker and a young... (more)

Nothing

by Robin Friedman

"Sometimes trees can look healthy on the outside, but actually be dying inside. These trees fall unexpectedly during a storm." For high school senior Parker Rabinowitz, anything less than success is a failure. A dropped extracurricular, a C on a calc quiz, a non-Jewish shiksa girlfriend—one misstep, and his meticulously constructed life splinters and collapses. The countdown to HYP (Harvard, Yale, Princeton) has... (more)

Unraveling

by Michelle Baldini

THE SMART THING Is to Prepare for the Unexpected. So reads the fortune cookie fortune that Amanda receives at the beginning of her family’s vacation to Florida. Amanda knows all about preparing for the unexpected—her mother, whom she calls The Captain, is always hard on Amanda, and it’s just when Amanda lets her guard down that the very worst comes through. Looking for acceptance, Amanda turns her attention to... (more)

Birdland

by Tracy Mack

Amid the sparkle and hum of a New York City winter, Jed and his best friend, Flyer, are filming a documentary about their neighborhood. But what Jed is really in search of is his big brother, Zeke, an inspiring soul who loved jazzman Charlie "Bird" Parker, wrote electrifying poetry, and died too young. When Jed encounters a mysterious homeless girl he thinks holds the key to connecting him to Zeke, it could be the... (more)

Why I Let My Hair Grow Out

by Maryrose Wood

Being sent to your room is one thing. But being sent to another country? Morgan's boyfriend dumped her on the last day of school-it seemed the only thing to do was to hack off her hair and dye the stubble orange. Unfortunately, Morgan's parents freaked and decided a change of scenery would do her good. So they're sending her off on a bike tour of Ireland. But Morgan gets more than she bargained for on... (more)

The Book Thief

by Markus Zusak

It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . . Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters... (more)

Twilight Saga: Book 1

Twilight

by Stephenie Meyer

Deeply sensuous and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite. Isabella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Isabella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn.... (more)

Shanghai Shadows

by Lois Ruby

It's 1939, and the Shpann family has escaped their home in hopes of a better life in occupied China. Ilse, her brother, and their parents are shocked at the small size of their new lodgings, in which they practically live on top of each other and their neighbors; only then does Ilse start to realize that their life here as stateless refugees will be far more harsh than expected. Their family strains to make end... (more)

Waiting for EugeneSallie Lowenstein

Waiting for Eugene

by Sallie Claire Lowenstein

Grade 6-9–Sara Goldman, 12, never knows when her architect father, a Holocaust survivor, will retreat into the dark, frightening world of his childhood memories. She is fascinated by the stories of his time in hiding, and the many, possibly imaginary, characters who kept him company. Meanwhile, Sara nurtures a budding first romance with the boy next door, and her developing artistic skills help her father face his... (more)

Escaping into the Night

by D. Dina Friedman

Halina Rudowski is on the run. When the Polish ghetto where she lives is evacuated, she narrowly escapes, but her mother is not as lucky. Along with her friend Batya, Halina makes her way to a secret encampment in the woods where Jews survive by living underground. As the group struggles for food, handles infighting, and attempts to protect themselves from the advancing Germans, Halina must face the reality of... (more)

We Are on Our Own

by Miriam Katin

A stunning memoir of a mother and her daughter’s survival in WWII and their subsequent lifelong struggle with faith In this captivating and elegantly illustrated graphic memoir, Miriam Katin retells the story of her and her mother’s escape on foot from the Nazi invasion of Budapest. With her father off fighting for the Hungarian army and the German troops quickly approaching, Katin and her mother are... (more)

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

by John Boyne

Berlin 1942 When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance. ... (more)

The Thought of High Windows

by Lynne Kositsky

When trapped or frightened, Esther sees windows -- and flying out of them -- as her only salvation. Young, Jewish and on the run from the Nazis, Esther is one of a group of children who manage to flee Germany for Belgium and then France at the beginning of World War II. Despite her perilous situation, she frets over her frumpy looks, is ridiculed by the popular girls and loves a boy who -- at the best of times --... (more)

I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree: A Memoir of a Schindler's List Survivor

I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree: A Memoir of a Schindler's List Survivor

by Laura Hillman

"HANNELORE, YOUR PAPA IS DEAD." In the spring of 1942 Hannelore received a letter from Mama at her school in Berlin, Germany--Papa had been arrested and taken to a concentration camp. Six weeks later he was sent home; ashes in an urn. Soon another letter arrived. "The Gestapo has notified your brothers and me that we are to be deported to the East--whatever that means." Hannelore knew: labor camps, starvation,... (more)

The Enemy Has a Face

by Gloria D. Miklowitz

Netta and her family have relocated temporarily from Israel to Los Angeles, and when her seventeen-year-old brother mysteriously disappears, she becomes convinced that he has been abducted by Palestinian terrorists.

A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life

by Dana Reinhardt

Simone’s starting her junior year in high school. Her mom’s a lawyer for the ACLU, her dad’s a political cartoonist, so she’s grown up standing outside the organic food coop asking people to sign petitions for worthy causes. She’s got a terrific younger brother and amazing friends. And she’s got a secret crush on a really smart and funny guy–who spends all of his time with another girl. Then her birth mother... (more)

Thirteen and a Day: The Bar and Bat Mitzvah Across America

Thirteen and a Day: The Bar and Bat Mitzvah Across America

by Mark Oppenheimer

A striking look at the Jewish rite-and at American Jews in all their diversity Since its emergence here a century ago, the bar or bat mitzvah has become a distinctively American rite of passage, so much so that, in certain suburbs today, gentile families throw parties for their thirteen-year-olds, lest they feel left out. How did this come about? To answer that question, Mark Oppenheimer set out across America... (more)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Book 1

The Lightning Thief

by Rick Riordan

There is no such twelve-year-old boy as Perseus 'Percy' Jackson. The Greek gods are nothing more than old myths. They certainly never have children with mortals in the 21st century, nor is there any such place as Half Blood Hill, a summer camp for demigods on eastern Long Island. Percy never met a satyr or a daughter of Athena. They most emphatically did not take a quest together across the United States to reach... (more)

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Tags: young adult.