One School, One Cake

Posted on by scott

Can you identify this object?

Yes, it’s a cake. And if you look closely, you’ll realize that it’s a cake shaped like a copy of Uglies!

How did such a thing come to exist, you ask?

Well, early this year I got a call from a South Central High School in Indiana. They wanted to start a One School/One Book project, and they wanted to use Uglies as their guinea pig.

I said that was awesome (as I usually do to people who want to buy 500 copies of one of my books), and said I’d be willing to come for a visit as well.

So last Thursday Justine and I flew down to visit friends in Kentucky, then early on Friday morning crossed the river to Indiana.

Now it’s one thing to see what effect my books have on one person or a group of friends. But a whole school? That’s a different order of magnitude altogether.

The students had made Uglies games:

And art projects:

And even built hoverboards:

Okay, the hoverboards didn’t fly, but they were tricked-out in ways that made them feel more real than the hoverboards in Uglies. They had great personal touches, like band stickers and sports-team logos, and one Hello-Kitty color scheme. (Pink is the new hover, I guess.)

That’s how the whole day was: Cool stuff all over the walls, kids asking smart questions, all the results of a school-wide conversation about one book.

It’s a great idea, and no doubt took a lot of hard work. (And a grant from the Harrison County Community Foundation.) I hope that South Central keeps doing it in years to come, experimenting with all sort of books, and that other schools try out the idea as well.

It was really cool, and I feel honored to be chosen, and grateful to everyone who helped it come into being. (And thanks for Gwenda and Christopher for letting us crash.)

Plus, there was cake.

So here’s a question: If your school did a one-book project, what would you want everyone to read? And let’s focus on books other than mine, because obviously anyone reading this probably already likes me.

So what would be cool for a whole school to read? What book would most change the way everyone saw their high school?

I nominate Lois Lowry’s The Giver and S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders.

What about you guys?

119 thoughts on “One School, One Cake”

  2. Hmmmm, maybe the Maximum Ride Series,
    By: James Patterson. They’re neat books! Though, I don’t know if it’d change the way we see our high school…

  3. Okay, I am now officially jealous 🙂

    That looks like it was one hell of an amazing trip, and what an incredible experience it must be to soak in the visions you’ve inspired in others. When the autobiography is written, let’s hope it comes back to you as an emotional highlight.

    Anyway, on to the question: A one book project like this? Barry Hughart’s “Bridge Of Birds” would produce some wonderful things, I think. And I’d love to see what older kids would make of something like Gibson’s “Neuromancer”

  5. Paolini’s ‘Eragon’, Your ‘Midnighters’, Novik’s ‘His Magesties Dragon’, Klass’s ‘You Don’t Know Me’, And Reeve’s ‘Mortal Engines’ (

  7. My high school does an all school summer read book. But very few people actually read the books and we don’t do anything that cool with them.

    And I LOVE both of your suggestions. I read them both for middle school and absolutely loved them. But I guess I am obligated to love the Outsiders because it is based in my hometown. Still, that book is amazing, even if I am a little biased.

    Andrea

  8. Neat! I am soooo moving to Kentucky so I get to make Pretty cake (not that I can’t already but my dad said that 9:48 at night is not the time to go buy frosting)

    So a book, eh? And not your own? Hmm, I have an entire list…Ready?

    1.) Books by Cris Wooding (I.E. Poison, Storm Theif…)

    2.) Garth Nix’s novels

    3.) Stephine Myer’s Twilight & New Moon

    4.) NOT (underline ‘not’ about one hundred times) 1984 by George Orwell. That Big Brother stuff creeps me out! Not that Uglies helped my paranoid side at all 🙂

    So yeah. That is all I can think of now, but a few minutes later when I get anouther one, I’ll put it down (Just wait, Capt. C probably has a mile-long list!)

    Hope you had fun on your trip!
    -Topaz

  9. Hmm, offhand, I’ll go with Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak. I know some schools are already teaching it. It’s also been banned a lot, so you know that means it’s good. 😛

  10. ooh the giver…
    well, scott, i have personally initiated a little one-book project at my school…It being the rotating copies of the Uglies trilogy. We have a system (that I started!!) where I tell someone to read the books. They do. They then tell someone else, who tells someone else, who tells someone else….
    it’s especially catching on in the middle school where they all want to be bubbleheads *sigh* but really, almost a quarter of my grade has read them now. We’re aiming for 100% participation.

  11. That is pretty exciting. Congratulations.

    I would have many suggestions. For example: My Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, but it’s far more powerful if folks have read the entire trilogy in order: Ishmael, The Story of B, and My Ishmael.

  12. the outsiders and the giver are my two most FAVORITE books like in the world!!!

    A Wrinkle In Time would be awesome.
    But, I think Perks Of Being A WallFLower would probably be the best. Imagine, everyone would be feeling infinte!

  13. I hated The Outsiders…and all the other books of that genre we were forced to read. The Pigman, That Was Then This is Now…They just bothered me.
    But I usually hate anything I’m forced to read.
    I would want to read something in the sci-fi/fantasty genre, just because of all the cool activities they could do with it, like hoverboards. I would probably want to do something like Hawksong by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, or White Oleander. (I keep looking at my bookshelf and wanting to suggest your books). If they did White Oleander, they could do poetry projects.

  15. I do have a mile long list, but I’ll tone it down. (I mean, who wouldn’t have a mile-long list after reading 32 books over the summer?)
    1. Poison, Storm Thief — Chris Wooding (already mentioned, but they need to be said again)
    2. Backwater — Joan Bauer
    3. Abarat — Clive Barker
    4. Inkheart — Cornelia Funke
    5. The Catcher in the Rye — J.D. Salinger (because, obviously, we all want to be commies. And no one knows what I mean… yeah. They tried to ban this book saying it turned kids into communists…)
    6.I am the Wallpaper — Mark Peter Hughes
    7. Cirque du Freak — Darren Shan
    8. (yes, one mooore)DELTORA QUEST!!! ( no, umm…)
    8. (for real) What the Birds See — Sonya Hartnett

    Yeah. There are a million others, and I really think that Poison and Storm Thief would be good. I keep looking at my bookshelf, too, and I see Peeps and I’m like “And Peeps… wait, NO!” yeah.
    Hawksong would be good, too, as said above. And The Cry of the Icemark by Stuart Hill. I’ll stop now, because my list is too long. I’ll write about this idea in the school paper. It just might work, my school is small…

  16. Sabriel!!! I don’t really like the rest of the Abhorsen trilogy though, it ruins it. Somehow the whole plot of the second and third books makes defeating Kerrigor look like a picnic, and the characters aren’t nearly as interesting.

  17. Farinheit 451- Bradbury
    The Time Machine- H.G. Wells
    Alice Through the Looking-Glass- Carroll
    The Truth About Forever- Sarah Desson

    These are all on my list of books everyone should read at least once in their lives.

    Also: Poison Study- Maria Snyder and The Decoy Princess- Dawn Cook… they’re not deep, which is why there not on the top list, but I can reread them limitless times.

  18. I agree that a lot of these books are amazingly awesome(^) and it’s so hard to pin down one book that I’d want to share with everyone. I have so many! I love sharing (I never thought I’d say that). Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli was so awesome though, and having my entire school read it would be really cool. The Five People You Meet in Heaven would be okay too. Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen would be wonderful, but the guys probably wouldn’t connect to it as much. There’s too many AMAZING books. I can’t choose. So Yesterday would be neat too, although we weren’t supposed to pick one of yours…

    (I loved Twilight, New Moon, anything by Sarah Dessen but The Truth About Forever most of all and anything/everything by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. Sharing those with people would make MY life better anyway….)

  19. I think that The Book Thief and I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak are both really good books that make you think. I also really liked Hawksong and the Abhorsen trilogy.

  20. Cake and hoverboards. That’s a pretty awesome school!

    For books, I’d say the Shadow Children series by Margaret Petterson Haddix. The series is easy enough that everyone could read it, and the books are really intriguing – the whole plot of only being allowed 2 kids. Great discussion topic.

    Wow, I can’t get over how cool of an idea that is to have everyone read the same book!! I tried to get all my friends to read Uglies, but that’s pretty far from the whole school … It would be neat if my school was smart enough to do something like that.

  21. Hi Scott Westerfeld,
    I would like to let you know that the two trilogys called the Uglies and the Midnighters were truly inspiring. I am now even considering becoming an author myself. On this website: http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/?p=181#comments, you sound like a really great guy. Good luck! I will continue to recomend your books to my friends.

  23. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer!!!

    Not to say guys won’t liek it but the majority of the fna base for Twilight is female and I go to an all girls school. It would be an excellent book to have a school read because once you start you can’t stop (like another author we know) so no one would drop out.

  24. We did that at my high school. I don’t know if I remember all of the books we read, though. definitely ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE. And KAFFIR BOY, which was incredible and which I would definitely recommend for another one book, one school project. We also read the autobiography of a woman who’d gorwn up a sheep farmer in Australia and became the president of Smith. ROAD FROM COORAIN, I think it was called. And I can’t remember what the last book was. I think… Sophie’s World?

    I would also recommend Frankenstein. The Giver is a good one, though!

  25. And Shade’s Children would be a really good one(that’s another one by Garth Nix). I also like Amelia Atwater-Rhodes’ books, especially the vampire ones like Midnight Predator and In The Forests Of The Night.

  26. The Claidi Journals, by Tanith Lee

    The Dragonriders of Pern Trilogy by Anne McCaffery

    The Harper Hall trilgogy by Anne McCaffery

    Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. (I want a hoverboard!!!)

    Kim-la

  27. Twighlight & New Moon by stephanie meyer
    Freak the Mighty by rodman philbrick
    Speak by laurie halse anderson
    The Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelson
    The Book Theif by Markus Zusak

    all of these are amazing books. I would recomend them to almost anyone.

  28. My high school actually did that – the only year I actually read the book, though, was the year that they picked Fahrenheit 451, which I’d already read a few years earlier while at summer camp.

    Right now, I think I’d have to second Korbe’s nomination for The Book Theif – I read it last month and it’s currently hovering at being my favorite book of the year.

    That said, I’d also push Daniel Wallace’s Big Fish, entirely because of the great storytelling workshops that could be based around it.

  30. We read “The Giver” in seventh grade, I loved it. And then we got to see it on stage at a college, which was fun, it was my first school-related theatre experience. But it wouldn’t have made sense without having read the book, because it’s hard to depict seeing color for the first time if you can see in color…

  31. A book that’s not one of yours? Probably everything already mentioned and City of Masks by Mary Hoffman. But So Yesterday would be great for this.

  32. That’s awsome for a whole school being able to do that, and what creative kids!
    I would nominate Fahrenheit 451 and Animal Farm. Both books are not only powerful but also a delight to read.

  33. Out of your books, I think Peeps would be a good choice (other than Uglies.)

    For other books, probably “Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer. Although it seems like girls are the majority of the fanbase. So maybe “Maximum Ride” by James Patterson, because it brings up discussions about genetic experiments and such. That would probably be better for younger students though. For older students, “Brave New World” would work well.

  35. that is the coolest cake i have EVER seen! i want to do that at my school for your book. i love this book!! when i first saw the picture i said “thats from uglies, the chapter fight” and wow i had no idea and i was correct. will you answer my EMAIL scott? i want a reply please, im getting anxious……:)

  36. Scott thats amazing! ur books are so awesome and diff. i love them! and i agree with the giver and the outsiders! i love those books and i read them both in school haha

  37. Wow, great minds absolutely think alike. I would nominate The Giver and The Oustiders also. Last year, my 7th grade Pre-AP English class read The Outsiders and I thought it was so great, I gave it to a bunch of my friends for their birthdays. My story for The Giver: I read it in the 3rd grade but didn’t really get it. I re-read it in the 5th grade and loved it so much, I recommend it to anyone who reads anytypes of books. By the way, the cake is completely gorgeous.

  38. Wow. Almost all of you have read The Giver. I have not. And probably won’t (eek, don’t yell at me!).
    My newest ideas are
    Touching Spirit Bear — Ben Mikaelsen
    Hoot — Carl Hiaasen
    Especially Touching Spirit Bear, that book is REALLY good. And books about owls are always good for ornithology obsessed poeples (like me)(and Hoot is also good for pancake obsessed peoples, if you know what I mean).

  39. “twilight” and “new moon” by stephenie meyers rocks! also all of your book. many girls @ my school read most of your book and “twilight”/”new moon.”

  40. WOW! First, congrats Scott!

    Second, to everyone else :: Wow, you guys rock! So many of these books I would suggest too..Speak, Abarat, Wooding books…

    My choices:
    -Something Wicked This Way Comes by Bradbury ((or The Illustrated Man))

  42. That cake! It has to be my fantasy come true; my two addiction -books and food- as one. I want two of those. One to keep and one to eat. (Actually, while I’m at it, make it five with only one to keep).
    That is one cool school.
    Books I want for my school:
    Fearless by Francine Pascal (so people will accept us freaks better)
    Catch 22 by Joseph Heller (so everybody would be exciting, frustrating loons)
    Flowers In The Attic by VC Andrews (so everybody would be creepy, twisted loons)
    Harry Potter by JK Rowling
    Catcher In The Rye by JD Salinger
    and of course; Uglies by you (go Scott, go Scott)

  43. i would feel bad if i ate that cake! it is so nice and probably took a long time ot make! i would request ‘shattered sky’ by Neal Susterman. i love that book. buts its REALLY sci-fi.

  44. I’d say “Speak” and “Catalyst” by Laurie Halse Anderson should be required reading, moreso than some of the crap they make us read that doesn’t pertain to our lives today. But, in a purely fantasy-esqu book, I’d say “Inkheart” and “Inkspell” by Cornelia Funke, as they’re amazing.

  46. I would have to say anything by Ann Rinaldi. She is a great historian writer, which is fun to read. We did the one school one book thing this year, and read the Alchemist. Bleh! I was so jealous when my friend got to read the Uglies. Hm. Not fair! :o)!

  47. Congrats, Scott.

    the books I would choose would be:

    The Book Theif- Markus Zusak
    OR
    I Am The Messenger- Markus Zusak

    and of course… classics like Catcher In The Rye, War Of The Worlds, Fahrenheit 451, etc.

  48. ummmm… i would go with:

    valient and tithe by holly black

    the last night of the earth poems by charles bukowski

    the house of the scorpian by nancy farmer

    all great books that i have read and reread about a bazillion times

  49. Wow. Turns out The Catcher in the Rye is quite popular. Have any of you turned into communists from reading it? I doubt it. Neither did my class.
    Another book I would pick is Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes. That book’s good (I read it yesterday in two sittings). And also The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty. I read that today. I read far far too much for my own good.
    Also, East by Edith Pattou
    Faerie Wars — Nerbie Brennan
    Walk Two Moons — Sharon Creech
    The Sight — David Clement-Davies (donch just love that name?)

  51. Just found your blog – and so glad I did. I’ve loved your books and recommend them all the time to students. Thanks for taking time to blog. I love it!

  52. I’d pick Speak, or something weirder, like V for Vendetta. One book I’d choose is Death gets a timeout, which is great.
    In case anyone finds a book called ‘river Song’ Don’t read it, it sucks. Completely and utterly. Try reading Flowers for Algernon, Ishmeal, Of mice and men, 1984, or A brave new world instead

  53. Yeah. ‘Speak’ it really good. I am glad that we have to read ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ Its reall great, na dit teaches alot also. Gary Paulson is also a very amazing author. I know that if I ever got lost in the wilderness, I would survive(for awhile at least). So i also reccomend ‘The Hatchet’ and ‘The River.’

  54. Yes! the Giver!
    It’s such a simple book that everyone can read. And yet it has a multitude of themes that everybody try to figure out in life. That is the type of book that we should read in our English classes. It’s a book that everybody can’t help but express an opinion about.

  55. Happy Halloween to all Westerfeld fans!!!

    Right now I’m in a house that is just abotu to explode if there’s anymore Midnighters! We’ve got a polymath (Me!!!), mindcaster, flame-bringer and daylgihter (*other three shun*). Our acrobat couldn’t be here but she’ll have fun explaining what she is without a group of people to help make it make sense!

  57. Happy Halloween! I didn’t get to go to any parties this year because I got sick. That means I didn’t get to show off my peep/zombie costume. It was saddening and tragic…..

  58. What about Redwall by Brian Jacques? Cute on the surface, but exactly how that many different cultures all survive together makes for an interesting idea.

  60. I didn’t get stuck in a long midnight (yeah, I’m totally secretly a Midnighter), but I got some rude kids at my door. (I got stuck with candy-duty because my mom is sick. Oh well, I finished a book.)I said to one girl “Have a good Hallowees!” and she ran away after saying that she would. How rude. Had she ever heard the words “You, too.” spoken? I think not. A boy from my school showed up and scrutinized the candy wrappers. Anyway, Happy *belated* Halloween, all of ya who celebrate it!!

  61. one good book?
    i would agree with maximum ride
    or maybe the alex rider series for all those cool gadgets

  62. ok we HAD to read the giver and outsiders in seventh grade.
    yours is MUCH better.
    i actually was thinking of telling my teachers about it to use for future years.

  64. since I’m older and don’t know the new YA classics (except for Scott’s), I’d have to go old-school awesome and suggest Farenheit 451 and Ender’s Game. if non-science fiction is needed, The Outsiders and Catcher in the Rye are obvious good choices.

  66. Really? I stongly HATED Farenheit 451, i guess i just dont like Ray BRadbury very much (I didn’t like the Martian Chronicles either).

  67. Well, Outsiders and The Giver would be phenomonal, but I would have to suggest The da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, though that may cause contreversy, so perhaps Digital Fortress, also by Brown. For more of a girlish book, it would be the Mediator books by Meg Cabot, and for just good reading, The Young Wizards books by Diane Duane.

  70. I would say: Speak, and Feeling Sorry For Celia. Whats creepy is that I just read your post today, and I finished the Outsiders yesterday. And that book was amazing!

  71. A few people have said Speak and I think that Speak, Go Ask Alice and It Happened to Nancy are all books every teenager should read and therefore would be appropraite for this program. Coinidently I saw the movie Speak today and if you’ve read the book SEE IT!!!

  72. if i had to choose, i’d want the whole school to read pay it forward by Cathline Ryan Hyde, because the young boy my age is channging the world by one plan.

  74. that is one awsome cake!

    right..i would probably nominate The Giver. Actually, my whole school had to read The Giver. Of course, being my school, they wouldnt let us do anything fun with it.

  75. i love the cake!
    hmm, i would have to say any books by sarah dessen, especially just listen and the truth about forever. Also..sabriel by garth nix.
    i read the giver in grade 7, and the outsiders last year at school. we had an outsiders day where everyone dressed up as greasers and socs, which was awesome.

  76. If we could get past the censorship groups, Nailed by Patrick Jones and a new author from Spokane, Washington, Michael Harmon has a book out called Skate. Nancy Werlin’s The Rules of Survival. Infact, you could tie all of them together.

  77. the perks of being a wallflower by stephen chbosky. it might make people in a high school think twice about their friends and relationships, not to mention their parents.

  78. There are so many, but for high school I’d say…
    What Happened to Lani Garver? by Carol Plum-Ucci,
    how i live now, by Meg Rosoff
    The Beast, by Walter Dean Myers
    Catalyst, the “other” one by Laurie Halse Anderson (Speak) that doesn’t get talked about as much…and, finally,
    The Noughts and Crosses series!!! (I read all three of these in a weekend, couldn’t put them down)
    although these might have some controversial themes that schools wouldn’t like… *sigh*

  79. I would recommend Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden. It is the first of a seven-book series, but it really brings to light questions of human capacity for good and evil. My personal favorite was the third book because it was disturbing, everyone should at least read the first one.

  80. Yeah, Sarah Dessen books are good, (Truth About Forever, Just Listen, This Lullaby, Keeping the Moon) but you couldn’t really use them in school, too girly. The same goes for Twilight/New Moon, Meg Cabot(good books), the Bloody Jack series(at least the 1st one wasn’t too girly) and Pirates! are sort of in between, good books and not too girly(okay, just realized that Pirates! is a little girly), but boys still might not want to read them. How I Live Now would definitly not be allowed in schools, I’m surprised it’s not being banned all over.

    The Giver is okay, didn’t like it that much, I liked “Gathering Blue” much better, it’s sort of a sequel/prequel to Giver, I could never figure out which.
    Books that both boys and girls would like for schools:
    Airborn/Skybreaker, awesome futuristic books. Main character/POV a guy, which basically almost all nongirly books need.
    The Young Wizards series would be good, so would any of Madeleine L’Engle’s books(Wrinkle Through Time).
    And even though it’s not suppossed to be in here, “So Yesterday” is a book I think would make sense for a whole school to read, it’s easy to relate to, and set in the now, maybe Peeps too.

  81. well, I was looking through all the comments..(lots of comments there, scott, I wonder if I’ll ever be first..)
    and it seemed like all the books i’d recommend are taken..
    hm..my my, that cake looks good..what page is that exactly? couldn’t see closely…

  82. Well I just wanted to let you know me and me and almost everybody body else in my English class has read the uliges series. I was one of the first people to read the books and I heart them! i have also read peeps and I cant with till i find the second one!!! but just wondering do you think you will write another book in the ulgies series???? just wondering well if you cold e-mail me that wold be gret!!!

    Ma’Kaila Stewart

  83. I’m trying to get my school into all the Westerfeld books. My friends are eager to read them, but I don’t have them up here at boarding school in the cold, harsh Adirondacks. My librarian wants me to try to get Scott to visit…

  85. I would have to recomend Twilight and/or New Moon by Stephenie Meyer…all other books that I would have recomended I cannot recall the names of. That happens to me when I’m reading a new book(currently reading The Last Days).

  86. spiderman! spiderman! if king kong can’t catch him no one can!………………………..yes i know those aren’t the words, don’t blog me! but i would recommend mary Jane for middle school becuase it is short and awesome! It is about Mary James side of the story………….what were we talking about again???

  87. you mentioned the giver and the outsiders. well, i live in kentucky and i go to christian academy of louisville and we had to read the giver our 7’th grade year and i am not sure when but i had 2 read the outsiders also.
    if i had to nominate a book for our school i would (pick your book uglies but…..) other than tht i would pick…i dont think i could pick. i am a book fanatic. 4 me its a bok a day. lol
    oh, and by tthe way. u said to write a book. i am 12 years old right now and i have recently finished my book i wrote. i am working on getting it published right now. if you c it around later on, maybe you would like it. its about magic. the title is “freak- the world of magic”

  88. I vote for Philip Pullman’s Golden Compass trilogy.

    That or Midnighters, but you said we couldn’t use your books.

  89. i would like for my whole school to read your books but you said that wasnt a choice

    so i would chose Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

    it is a great book
    i didnt want it to end

    but it takes a frikin’ year to read

    its like 600 pages

    that might not be SO long but im a slow reader

  90. when i said your books i meant the uglies series

    im still reading peeps

    and after that im reading midnighters

  91. ok… so yeah this is definately late but i never really realized the thing down there for the comments so anyway
    comment 15 capt.c’s 32 books- dont want to brag or nothin but i read 45books over the summer

    reason for all the reading ? well i have an annoying twin sister you do the math

    for my fav. book besides scot westerfeld books would have to be FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC by VC Andrews its an old book actually the first one written by her, but it is very good although it does fall under the gotic horror category so if you have anti-gothic parents like mine ( i need freedom! ) dont tell them about it

  92. ok well just so you know i am a complete bibliophile. (i also cant spell but thats beside the point) i have bookshelves full of books ive read all over my room. i have one shelf that have my favorites on display. these are the ones i would suggest:
    1)twilight by stephenie meyers
    2)new moon- stephenie myers
    3)soon to be- Eclipse- stephenie meyers (i hasnt come out yet but when it does o god im pulling an all nighter to read it
    4)midnighters sreies
    5)uglies trilogy
    6)faerie wars- herbie brennan
    7)the purple emperor- herbie brennan
    8)ruler of the realm- herbie brennan
    9)my sister’s keeper- i have no idea sorry
    10) 13 blue envelopes- maureen johnson

    ABSOLUTLY NOTHING BY THE FOLLOWING AUTHORS OR THESE BOOKS:
    *note- this is not to offend them but, these are bad. really bad.
    *the sun also rises
    *the scarlet letter
    *any thing by hemmingway (bad experiecnces note the sun also rises)

  93. my class read The Giver, The Outsiders, annd now we’re reading Uglies!
    I guess my english teachers share the same taste in books as you!

  94. I read my sisiter keeper to!!!!
    it made me cry like crazy at the end and i usally dont cry from books
    by the way… its by Jodi Picoult

  95. I want that cake!!! I would want my school to read:
    Uglies, Pretties or Specials, Scott Westerfeld all the way!!!!!!

  96. The Book Thief or I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak. Both books definitely changed the way I saw the world. Not to mention make me cry.
    or…Twilight By Stephenie Meyer

  97. i called and like my library doesnt have that twilit book and im broke but i did get the cather and the rye but i havnt started it yet im reading a different book called the body od christofer creed you dont know me is also another good book i recommend it but ill have to tell you the author later because for the life of me i just cant remember

    a great and terrible beauty is also good but i really cant remember that author either im having remembering probs these days

    i do like the black and white (naughts and cosses) trilogy to by malorie blackman its really good but the last 2 books dont come out in america til july and august, but my mom ordered them from the uk for my bday yesterday! go me!

  98. ok soooo i tried the cather in the rye book but it was kinda borin( no offense to those who like it ) did it say that his broother was a prostitute on page 2? i thought prostituets were only girls like in the book Candy by kevin brooks

  100. I LOVE The Giver and The Outsiders! I also love Gathering Blue and The Messanger (both following The Giver). Hmmmmm…if I could get my whole school to read one book, it would probably be something based on a real-life experience of a teenager. Yeah, lame, I know, that I can’t think of a title because I’m going completely brain-missing right now, but something like that. It might help kids relate the book to their own lives, which would help them indulge further into the book, which would in turn lead to them loving the book.

  101. Faith and the Electric Dogs by Patrick Jennings. An easy read (probably 3rd grade reading level) but great jumping off point for discussion. I’ve read it to everyone from about 3rd grade up to 10th grade and never had any complaints.

    Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher. Some of the same themes as Faith, but MUCH more advanced material. Plus, great discussion on where/why it’s been challenged.

  102. so like alot of you guys listed “twilight” by stephanie meyer ( did i spell that right ) so i got the book and read it but NO ONE mentioned that i would never stop thinking about it… then i had 2 order new moon from the library but all 17 books are checked out so they said it would take about a month to get it so after like alot of begging i got my parents 2 agree to take me 2morrow but now it is all i can think about and i think i might frealin pull out my hair. ( so i read all 498 pages of twilight in 3 days i did not sleep at all )

    im am officially going crazy…

  104. Alright, so it might not change my school, but I love the book Heir Apparent from Vivian Vande Velde.

  105. House of Stairs by William Sleator
    Galax-Arena by Gillian Rubenstein
    Jake, Reinvented by Gordon Korman
    The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

    Stupid spell check! All of the author’s last names have a little squiggly red line underneath them!

  107. simple as snow gregory galloway

    candy kevin brooks ( beware- prostitute action and smiling of peoples throats)

    Slant of Light ???????

    a theif in the house of memory ??????

    gothic! ten original dark tales by ten dark authors

  108. Whoahhhhhh.

    Im from Carmel, which is right above Indianapolis, where that school is.

    Im jealous. :O

    You should come to our school. Uglies is like everybodies favorite book here. ^^

  109. and apart from Uglies for the school wide thing, Id say Maximum Ride- James Patterson.

    I know somebody already said that but its a great series.

  110. well, most of the stuff you’ve mentioned, but heres ones you havent said;

    the lightning thief, by Rick Riordan
    Airborn, Skybreaker, Sunwing by Kenneth Oppel
    Lionboy by zizu corder
    Most of Gary Kilworths Welkin Weasel books.
    Charlie Higson’s Young Bond series
    Jason’s Gold, Down the Yukon and Downriver by Will Hobbs
    Worlds Fair 1992 by Robert Silverberg
    I robot, and the Caves of Steel, by Isaac Asimov
    Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
    The Medici Seal, by someone
    The city of Ember, by Someone else
    The Kin by Peter Dickinson
    the Hornblower series by CS Forester
    Pendragon Series, by DJ Machale
    Cherub series, by Robert Muchamore
    Mistmantle Chronicles, by MI mcAlister
    Jeeves and Wooster (series) by PG Wodehouse

    and several others that you guys have mentioned, or are by Scott.

    as you can tell, i like to read a lot

    (sorry for the long post)

  119. defibitely Twilight by stephenie meyer. its the best book EVER! i read it in under a day its so good.

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