Extreme Sports: In search of the Utimate Thrill

Extreme sports by Joe Tomlinson

With incredible color photographs on almost every page, this book provides visual images of every extreme sport possible. Extreme sports are not just surfing, skateboarding and motor-cross anymore. According to this book, team sports are dying out in favor of individual sports which test the individual to the absolute level.

Divided into three categories of air, land and water sports, each sport has a description and photograph of participants. Some of the featured sports are: bungee jumping, hang gliding; high-wire tightrope walking over the Great Wall of China; sky flying; the Ironman contests in Hawaii; mountain-boarding; free-diving; and also the more well-known extreme sports of scuba diving and surfing. Forty-one extreme sports are listed in the table of contents.

Great browsing book; terrific photographs.

Heroes don't run by Harry Mazer

The first two books in this trilogy are “A Boy at War” and “A Boy No More.”

Adam Pelko has waited eagerly for his seventeenth birthday so he can enlist in the Marines in 1944. When his mother refuses to sign the necessary paperwork, he visits his grandfather on the East Coast and convinces him that it is the family thing to do: the grandfather had served in World War I, Adam’s father served until his death at Pearl Harbor and now it is Adam’s turn. Adam develops deep friendships while going through boot camp. Following training, he is sent with his unit to fight in Okinawa where he experiences the reality of harsh conditions, fierce battles and the loss of close comrades. Wounded, he survives and returns home a hero.

Clear and convincing portrayals of close family relationships and the camaraderie developed in boot camp and on the battlefield make this an interesting and meaningful book about the last days of the War in the Pacific.

The Rise and Fall of a 10th Grade Social Climber. Lauren Mechling and Laura Moser

Like ChickLit?
When Mimi Schulman goes to live with her dad in New York after her parents divorce, she tries to adjust to big city life again while attending an exclusive prep school. Looks are deceiving as the really popular crowd dress eccentrically and behave erratically also. Sam, a childhood friend, makes a bet with Mimi about whether she will be accepted to the “in group”, the Coolies. Mimi agrees to keep a diary and faithful records all the intrigues and secrets of her new friends while also becoming close to them.

When the diary gets posted to the Internet, Mimi suffers the shame and humiliation of having written those things but also real remorse for her actions. The teen experience is all here in this book: parties, clothes, language, and music presented with wit and humor.

Sequel “All Q, No A” is due out in June. Website at:
http://www.socialclimberbooks.com/index.html

Acceleration by Graham McNamee

A hot summer in Canada finds seventeen-year-old Duncan working in a boring job in the Lost and Found Toronto Transit Authority, deep below a subway line. Time really drags for him until he starts flipping through one of the lost items -- a leather journal with scary, startling descriptions: first of animal torture and abuse; then, arson of buildings; and finally the detailed plans of a serial killer stalking his prey. When the police aren’t interested in following up on trying to locate the killer, Duncan enlists the help of his two friends, Vinnie and Wayne in the manhunt.
Interwoven throughout this novel is the pain and grief felt by Duncan in not being able to save a drowning girl at the lake the previous year. The title, “Acceleration” refers the to the suspense speeding along in this novel and time running out to catch a killer.