(re-posted with permission from the author)
Books are magic because they can break down barriers in amazing ways.
I'm fortunate to belong to a weekly book club that meets during lunch time at the junior high where I teach. Close to forty members strong (although not all come to every meeting) and with a mix of boys and girls.
Last Thursday was our final meeting for the school year. Bittersweet, in that half the club is going on to the high school next year. I will miss their insights, their passion for books, and their joyous spirits.
Kaci, our school librarian and my dear friend, began this club over four years ago. It has grown steadily and it has become not only a time and place to "talk books", but also a safe haven for young teens who need a break from social/academic pressures.
In Book Club, there are no brains, no jocks, no geeks, no princesses, no goths. In Book Club, we are all just...us.
Now, that's magic for you.
It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die.
Guy Montag was a fireman whose job it was to start fires... 
6. The top two writers will receive a prize.
On the heels of her acclaimed contemporary teen novel Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson surprises her fans with a riveting and well-researched historical fiction. Fever 1793 is based on an actual epidemic of yellow fever in Philadelphia that wiped out 5,000 people--or 10 percent of the city's population--in three months. At the close of the 18th century, Philadelphia was the bustling capital of the United States, with Washington and Jefferson in residence. During the hot mosquito-infested summer of 1793, the dreaded yellow fever spread like wildfire, killing people overnight. Like specters from the Middle Ages, gravediggers drew carts through the streets crying "Bring out your dead!" The rich fled to the country, abandoning the city to looters, forsaken corpses, and frightened survivors.