I hail from Arkansas and until now, we’ve been known for the Clinton Presidential Library, the US’s only diamond mine (Crater of Diamonds State Park), and the headquarters of Wal-Mart. But this year we’ll be known for the Arkansas Teen Book Award, established by Arkansas Librarians. (Facebook page.) The reading list was announced in December, 2009 and this year’s winners will be announced in December, 2010.
Yesterday, we looked at opening lines from 100 top novels and categorized them to learn how to open a novel. Here, I’m taking the opening lines from the teen novels on the 2010 Arkansas Teen Book Award reading list and challenging you to identify the novel.
Identify These Teen Novels from Their Opening Lines, #1
OK, TRY to identify these without any help. They are all 2008 copyright books. Need help? See the tip below.
- Conner Broekhart was a remarkable boy, a fact that became evident very early in his idyllic childhood.
- The day I broke up with my boyfriend Evan was the day he wrote the song.
- We can hear someone screaming as soon as we get off the elevator.
- They’d stolen a march on the day.
- The best time to talk to ghosts is just before the sun comes up.
- When my father died, I thought the world would come to an end.
- December 14, 2007
To: Headmaster Richmond and the Board of Directors, Alabaster Preparatory Academy - Ten minutes after the last class of the day, Lucy got a text message from her best friend Sarah Hebert, “Need u,” it said.
- Pugg Brothers. . .Please report to the principal’s office.
- . . . Gino Michelini on KLS-FM, 92.3 on your FM dial!
- Decatur, Alabama
August 12, 1993
Kevin Gardner was not home, even though it was way past his eleven-o’clock curfew. - Long ago and far away in the land of ice and snow, there came a time when it seemed that winter would never end.
- Some people call me a child-witch,
but I’m just a girl who likes to watch
the hands of women
as they gather wild herbs and flowers
to heal the sick. - There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.
- When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold.
- “You won’t believe this, but it’s true. I wrote a story called ‘The Savage,’ about a savage kid that lived under the ruined chapel in Burgess Woods, and the kid came to life in the real world.”
- Mark Twain was born fully grown, with a cigar clamped between his teeth.
- Henry Smith’s father told him that if you build your house far enough away from Trouble, then Trouble will never find you.
- Maybe Mommers and I shouldn’t have been surprised; Dwight had told us it was a trailer even before we’d packed our bags.
- Imagine for a moment that it is early Saturday morning in the United States.
Interestingly, the list includes several graphic novels, but not as many as the grade 10-12 list (opening lines coming tomorrow), which is about a third graphic novels. Arkansas is currently having a big push in schools about encouraging kids to eat right and control their weight. So, both lists include books about eating.
Tip : The Reading List (pdf) can be found here. These are the opening lines for the Level 1, Grades 7-9 list. I didn’t scramble up the list, it just goes down the line. Tomorrow, we’ll do the same thing for the 10-12 grade list.
Tip No. 2: The links will take you to the Amazon page for each book.
Great stuff! But the link beside “Tip” to check the reading list goes to a broken link or “no longer available” message. This is that url: http://www.library.arkansas.gov/ATBAreadinglist2010.pdf .
I wasn’t sure how to report it so someone could fix!
Thanks – EJ