In the summer of 1962, a group of young friends discovers the joys of baseball and the magic of teamwork in the beloved coming-of-age film The Sandlot. The story centers around Scotty Smalls, a shy and awkward newcomer to the neighborhood who deeply hopes to make friends. He meets Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez, a charming leader of a group of local kids who gather to play baseball at the sandlot.
Writer of the Broadway musical Hadestown, Anaïs Mitchell, describes the process of writing the lyrics to a sung-through musical. The book has the lyrics of each song, as well as that song’s particular past and journey to its current version. Mitchell tells the story of the making of this musical, as well as the storytelling through this book.
This classic piece of literature by Shakespeare tells the tale of forbidden lovers, Romeo Montague, and Juliet Capulet from warring families. To begin, the families are not allowed to fight by order of the Prince. Later that night, Romeo and his friends break into a Capulet party. Romeo meets Juliet and they fall in love. However, all is not well because Juliet is promised to marry Paris. After a deadly battle between the two families, Romeo is banished. Juliet and Romeo make a plan with the Friar that ultimately ends in bloodshed.
Upon finding out that her twin sister Drew is graduating a year early, Devin makes a plan to have the “Best Summer Ever.” The first part of this plan is Devin, with a group of friends, going to a party with Drew’s friends. At the party, one of Drew’s friends does a seemingly innocent party trick with a Ouija board, which leads to the friend group being haunted by a very real demon. The friends then, in classic horror movie style, try to kill the demon before it kills them, all while trying to have a good last summer with Drew.
As the book writer for Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark, Berger writes about the creative process for writing a musical. Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark had a much more complicated beginning than most musicals. From rewrites to funding issues, to injuries, this musical’s origin story had its share of troubles.
Berliners, by Vesper Stamper, is essentially the story of twin brothers Rudi and Peter Moser-Fleischmann. Rudi, a photographer, and Peter, an aspiring actor, are living in post-WWII Berlin. Not only is this a coming-of-age story, it is an exploration of a period of time often overshadowed and forgotten. It asks questions that we ourselves may be too afraid to ask, and confronts the reader with messages and lessons through lyrical prose that can be just as relevant today as it was in the 1960s.
Once Upon A Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber is about a girl named Evangeline who is heartbroken over a boy that she loved. He ended up engaged to her step sister, and Evangeline was deeply hurt. She finds the church of the Prince of Hearts, a mystical fate related to all things love and heartbreak, and prays that the marriage does not go on. While there, she meets a mysterious boy who turned out to be the Prince of Hearts himself.
In the novel 1984 by George Orwell, the main character, Winston, lives in a totalitarian society where he silently rebels against the “Party Members”(the government). The novel takes place in the future and speculates what our society could become. Citizens in Oceania are constantly under surveillance and fear a fictional creation that the government threatens. Throughout the novel, Winston struggles in difficult situations and acts in different ways to overcome them.
Refugee by Alan Gratz is an exciting and emotional book that tells the stories of three young refugees from different times and places: Nazi Germany, 1990s Cuba and modern-day Syria. Josef, Isabel and Mahmoud as protagonists face tough challenges, like escaping danger and crossing dangerous waters to find safety and refuge. Gratz does a great job of mixing action with deep emotion, making the characters’ struggles feel real.
Mira is on her way home for the holidays, when her flight gets canceled due to a raging blizzard. Wanting to get home, she accepts an offer from an acquaintance, Harper, whom she met on the plane ride. In the car with Harper and Harper’s friends, Mira begins to feel like the other passengers are hiding secrets. Harper and Brecken seem to know each other. Brecken has an unsettling intensity and a tendency to break the law. Kayla is sleeping nearly the whole time, or is she? Then, there is Josh, the only passenger who is as paranoid as she is, but he’s ready to throw anyone under the bus.
