Dates for Book Discussion

*Meetings are held in B133 and B137.

Note: spaces are limited for the last discussions each semester; visit the Splash Page a week before sign-ups for information on how to reserve a spot!

Semester 1 Dates

Tues., Nov. 8 6:40 – 7:10 am

Tues., Nov. 152:40 – 3:10 pm

Tues., Nov. 226:40 – 7:10 am

Tues., Nov. 292:40 – 3:10 pm

Tues., Dec. 66:40 – 7:10 am

Tues., Dec. 132:40 – 3:10 pm

Tues., Dec. 206:40 – 7:10 am[sign-up]

Tues., Jan.10 6:40 – 7:10 pm[sign-up]

Tues., Jan. 102:40 – 3:10 am[sign-up]

Semester 2 Dates

Tues., Jan. 24 6:40 – 7:10 am

Tues., Jan 31 2:40 – 3:10 pm

Tues., Feb. 7 6:40 – 7:10 am

Tues., Feb. 14 2:40 – 3:10 pm

Tues., Feb. 286:40 – 7:10 am

Tues., Mar. 6 2:40 – 3:10 pm[sign up]

Tues., Mar. 136:40 – 7:10 am[sign up]

Tues., Mar. 13 2:40 – 3:10 pm[sign up]

Expectations for Book Discussions

  • You must complete the written assignment required by your teacher before attending the discussion.
  • You can earn credit for only one book each discussion.
  • Arrive on time—if you’re late, you will not be allowed to participate in the discussion and consequently will not receive credit.
  • Questions? Please see Mrs. Lynch or Mrs. Bockewitz in the English office (B100) . Or email: ,

Abraham Lincoln

Book Award

2011 - 2012

The Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award

The Abraham Lincoln Award is awarded annually to the author of the book voted as most outstanding by participating students in grades nine through twelve in Illinois. The NVHS list this year is a compilation of titles from this year and years past.

Past winners include:

2011 Suzanne Collins – Hunger Games

2010 Casandra Claire – City of Bones

2009 Ellen Hopkins -- Crank

2008 Stephanie Meyer -- Twilight

2007 Scott Westerfeld -- Uglies

2006 Jodie Picoult -- My Sister’s Keeper

2011 - 2012Nominees

AFTER - Amy Efaw

In complete denial that she is pregnant, straight-A student and star athlete Devon Davenport leaves her baby in the trash to die, and after the baby is discovered, Devon is accused of attempted murder

BEASTLY – Alex Flinn

A modern retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" from the point of view of the Beast, a vain Manhattan private school student who is turned into a monster and must find true love before he can return to his human form.

THE COMPOUND – S.A. Bodeen

After his parents, two sisters, and he have spent six years in a vast underground compound built by his wealthy father to protect them from a nuclear holocaust, fifteen-year-old Eli, whose twin brother and grandmother were left behind, discovers that his father has perpetrated a monstrous hoax on them all.

GHOSTS OF WAR – Ryan Smithson

Ryan Smithson joined the Army Reserve just after high school and 9/11. At age 19, he was deployed to Iraq. His year in combat changed his life. This is his powerful story.

GOING BOVINE – Libba Bray

Cameron Smith, a disaffected sixteen year-old who, after being diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob's (aka mad cow) disease, sets off on a road trip with a death-obsessed video gaming dwarf he meets in the hospital in an attempt to find a cure.

HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE – Dana Reinhardt Seventeen-year-old Harper Evans hopes to escape the effects of her father's divorce on her family and friendships by volunteering her summer to build a house in a small Tennessee town devastated by a tornado and she ends up gaining more than what she expects.

IF I STAY --Gayle Forman

The last normal moment that Mia, a talented cellist, can remember is being in the car with her family. Then she is standing outside her body beside their mangled Buick and her parents' corpses, watching herself and her little brother being tended by paramedics. Mia must choose whether to keep living or join her family in death.

LOVE IS THE HIGHER LAW – David Levithan

Three New York City teens, whose intertwining lives are reshaped by the catastrophic event of Septemeber 11, 2001, express their reactions to the bombing of the World Trade Center and its impact on their lives and the world in this story about loss and grief but also hope and redemption.

THE MAZE RUNNER – James Dashner

In part one of a three part dystopian triology, sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape the maze and discover he is more important than he thinks.

MEXICAN WHITE BOY – Matt de la Pena

Sixteen-year-old Danny searches for his identity amidst the confusion of being half-Mexican and half-white while spending a summer with his cousin and new friends on the baseball fields and back alleys of San Diego County, California.

REALITY CHECK—Peter Abrahams

After a knee injury destroys sixteen-year-old Cody's college hopes, he drops out of high school and gets a job in his small Montana town, but when his ex-girlfriend disappears from her Vermont boarding school, Cody travels cross-country to join the search.

SHIVER – Maggie Stiefvater

In all the years she has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house, Grace has been particularly drawn to an unusual yellow-eyed wolf who, in his turn, has been watching her with increasing intensity.

STORY OF A GIRL – Sara Zarr

In the three years since her father caught her in the back seat of a car with an older boy, sixteen-year-old Deanna's life at home and school has been a nightmare, but while dreaming of escaping with her brother and his family, she discovers the power of forgiveness.

WHY I FIGHT – J. Adams Oaks

After his house burns down, twelve-year-old Wyatt Reaves takes off with his uncle, and the two of them drive from town to town for six years, earning money mostly by fighting, until Wyatt finally confronts his parents one last time.

WISH YOU WERE DEAD – Todd Strasser

Madison, a senior at a suburban New York high school, tries to uncover who is responsible for the disappearance of her friends, popular students mentioned in the posts of an anonymous blogger, while she, herself, is being stalked online and in-person.

WORLD WAR Z: AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE ZOMBIE WAR – Max Brooks

An account of the decade-long conflict between humankind and hordes of the predatory undead is told from the perspective of dozens of survivors who describe in their own words the epic human battle for survival.