Deb­bie Ja­cob

?In many ways, this week's Top Ten List of Books for Read­ers Nine to 14 is the most im­por­tant read­ing list. (That's why there are 11 books on the list!) This is the age where many young read­ers drop off the radar screen.

Once young read­ers fall be­hind in their read­ing skills, it be­comes dif­fi­cult to throw them a life­line. Many of the books on this list can be con­sid­ered low lev­el/high in­ter­est. The read­ing lev­el is about age ten or 11, but the sto­ries will ap­peal to many stu­dents up to 14.

1. Sheep by Va­lerie Hobbs–This sto­ry about Jack, the sheep dog's ad­ven­tures to re­claim his pur­pose in life–herd­ing sheep–is an al­le­go­ry, or sto­ry that can be told on two lev­els. It is a fa­ble-like sto­ry about a dog, but it is al­so the sto­ry we all face about find­ing our place in life. Jack has to deal with love, loss, dis­ap­point­ment and abuse.

2. Mi­la­gros from the Sea by Meg Med­i­na–This is a mag­i­cal book about a girl who is aban­doned by her fa­ther, who runs off to be a pi­rate. Her moth­er puts her in a boat and sends her out to sea when their Caribbean is­land is in­vad­ed. This is an­oth­er book about find­ing one's pur­pose in life.

3. Di­ary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kin­ney–Chil­dren around eight can read this fun­ny book about a boy try­ing hard not to be a los­er. This book ap­peals to boys for both its con­tent and stick fig­ure draw­ings. Be­cause it's writ­ten as a di­ary, it can ap­peal to chil­dren at a high­er read­ing lev­el as well.

4. Gath­er­ing Blue by Lois Lowry–Most stu­dents who en­joy The Chrysal­lids by John Wyn­d­ham will en­joy this nov­el about prej­u­dice by an au­thor who re­al­ly ap­peals to this age group of ten to 14.

5. The Mirac­u­lous Jour­ney of Ed­ward Tu­lane by Kate DiCamil­lo–This is a beau­ti­ful sto­ry about love–my favourite book for the year. A tru­ly beau­ti­ful, heart-warm­ing sto­ry to be en­joyed by every­one from eight to 80.

6. The Is­land Fic­tion Se­ries–It's dif­fi­cult to sin­gle out one book from this se­ries that in­cludes The Chal­ice Project, Leg­end of the Swan Chil­dren, Es­cape from Silk Cot­ton For­est, Time Swim­mer, Night of the In­di­go, and Del­roy in the Marog King­dom. Each book re­flects the Caribbean set­ting that Trinida­di­an chil­dren need to see in their sto­ries.

The Chal­ice Project by Lisa Allen-Agos­ti­ni will ap­peal to chil­dren who like sci­ence as well as a good sto­ry. It is re­fresh­ing to have a lo­cal sto­ry that deals with so many in­ter­na­tion­al is­sues, such as the reper­cus­sions of ge­net­ic en­gi­neer­ing.

7. Leg­end of the Swan Chil­dren by Mau­reen Marks–Men­don­ca has beau­ti­ful, el­e­gant lan­guage rem­i­nis­cent of good mag­i­cal re­al­ism. The im­agery is spec­tac­u­lar and the sto­ry is very invit­ing. This is one of my favourite books in the se­ries be­cause of its lilt­ing lan­guage.

8. Es­cape from Silk Cot­ton For­est by Fran­cis Es­cayg evokes our rich Trinida­di­an folk­lore. This is a fast-paced, plot-ori­ent­ed book that pits man against na­ture, an age-old theme that nev­er los­es its ap­peal.

9. Time Swim­mer by Ger­ald Haus­man is a very en­gag­ing Tri­ni ver­sion of the Odyssey. The writ­ing is su­perb and each ad­ven­ture makes for a riv­et­ing read. It's a great lead-in to Homer's Odyssey.

10. Night of the In­di­go by Michael Hol­gate has more of a sci-fi ap­peal.

11. Del­roy in the Marog King­dom by Bil­ly Elm is more like a mod­ern folk­tale. It's a fun-filled ad­ven­ture.

And here are the Top Ten adult fic­tion books I dis­cov­ered for my li­brary this year:

1. The Guernsey Lit­er­ary and Pota­to Peel So­ci­ety by Mary Ann Shaf­fer–The hid­den pur­pose of the sto­ry is what makes this nov­el so great.

2. The Lace Read­er by Brunon­ia Bar­ry–An en­gag­ing mys­tery.

3. The Girl with the Drag­on Tat­too by Stieg Lars­son–The ti­tle says it all.

4. Mur­der on the Eif­fel Tow­er–the Vic­tor Legris se­ries–new­ly trans­lat­ed French mys­ter­ies.

5. Slum­dog Mil­lion­aire by Vikas Swarup–An en­ter­tain­ing read with a great struc­ture.

6. Twi­light se­ries by Stephe­nie Mey­er–Vam­pire se­ries al­ways hit big.

This was such a big hit with teenagers this year.

7. The Chatelet Ap­pren­tice: The first Nico­las Le Floch Mys­tery by Jean-Fran­cois Parot–An­oth­er new­ly trans­lat­ed French mys­tery se­ries.

8. The Hum­ming­bird's Daugh­ter by Luis Al­ber­to Ur­rea–A young woman with a spe­cial gift for "see­ing" finds her true gift in the Mex­i­can rev­o­lu­tion.

9. The Toss of a Lemon by Pad­ma Viswanathan–Sivaka­mi is ten when she is mar­ried. By the time she is 18, she is a wid­ow who de­fies tra­di­tion by mov­ing back in­to her hus­band's house.

10. The Book of Night Women by Mar­lon James–On a Kingston plan­ta­tion at the end of the 18th cen­tu­ry, a group of women known as The Night Women plot a re­volt.

�2 Next week: The best of non-fic­tion books