Tiki: My Life in the Game and Beyond by Tiki Barber and Gil Reavil

The former running back for the New York Giants gives his story, from when he and his twin brother Ronde were raised by their single mother to his time in the NFL, and after that to when he joined the Today Show on NBC. I am not a big fan of sports but I still really enjoyed this book, and football fans will love it even more!
This is a fascinating autobiography, and we see things about the life of a famous football player that one never hears about on television. He tells the story of the relationship with his wife, and how he never got along very well with his coach, Tom Coughlin. It is too bad that he retired from the Giants the year before they won the Super Bowl, but this is still a great book.

Review by David Dunkerton

How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else by Michael Gates Gill

Michael had grown up in a wealthy family and was always able to go the best schools. His parents had good connections so he was always able to get a good job. He did not know or care that anyone else knew anything different. However, after he got older and was not cool anymore, he was fired from his marketing position, and he did not know what to do.
One day as he was sitting in a Starbucks coffee shop in New York City feeling depressed about his situation, a manager saw him and asked him if he wanted a job. He figured she was probably kidding, but he took her up on her offer, because he needed a job and this one had benefits.
He worked with people that he had never made any contact with before, learned new skills, and learned to appreciate life and friendship a lot more. Many of the people he worked with were much younger than he was, so teenagers would enjoy reading about other teenagers who had authority over an adult. This autobiography is an encouraging story that I would recommend to anyone!

Review by David Dunkerton

George's Secret Key to the Universe by Lucy & Stephen Hawking

George's Secret Key to the Universe is written at a younger reading level, but I think teens would still enjoy it because it has an interesting story and there are several fascinating and beautiful pictures and facts inserted. Stephen Hawking is a well-known genius and the authority on the theory of black holes, and just the fact that he had input in a children’s novel gives it some instant appeal!
George’s parents are very concerned about the environment, so they do not use much electricity in their home, they do not drive cars, and they only eat organic vegetables. George really wants a computer, but his parents refuse to get one for him because they believe technology is destroying the world.
George found out that his neighbor owned Cosmos, the most amazing computer in the world. This computer could transport you into outer space, and George learned a lot about the universe, including comets and our solar system. When someone else found out about Cosmos, though, things got dangerous!

Review by David Dunkerton

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

This story by Douglas Adams has existed in several media, including, radio, television, comic book, and film. The book version was first published in 1980, but the edition I read was printed in 1995. The random humor is quite funny in places, and it is an enjoyable read if one does not think about it too seriously. It begins with the Earth being disintegrated, and only Arthur Dent escapes with his friend Ford Prefect. Ford is a hitchhiker/editor of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy from a planet near Betelgeuse. The only other Earthling who was not blasted into tiny bits is Trillian (formerly Tricia McMillan) who had left Earth previously with Zaphrod Beeblebrox.
This book is a satire of just about everything one could think of, and I do not think the author intended to have a point. I think certain teens would enjoy it, and others would be turned off because it does not make any sense. I wonder, though, how many people would read it and admit that the Emperor is not wearing any clothes.

Review by David Dunkerton

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

When Orson Scott Card wrote this novel in 1985, he was ahead of his time. At a time when PCs were brand new and outrageously expensive (I know because my dad programmed them), and having the internet in one’s home was a foreign concept, in this story the characters are always carrying around their “desks”, which seem quite a bit like laptop computers, and communicating on the “nets” using pseudonyms.
Ender's Game is about an alternate future where aliens known as “buggers” have attacked Earth twice, and the unified world governments are recruiting genius children to train them to destroy the buggers. Andrew Wiggin, who is known by the nickname “Ender”, is the best of these, and this story covers his life from when he was taken to a space station at six years old to when he inadvertently destroyed the buggers when he was eleven years old, and where his life went from there.
I do not know if this book would appeal to all teenagers, but it is the perfect book for fans of Science Fiction!

Review by David Dunkerton

"Aliens from Neptune" by Morgan McClaine & Kirsten Wolff

"Aliens from Neptune Who Came to Earth & Kidnapped Dogs (but not pit bulls)"

by Morgan McClaine & Kirsten Wolff

(edited by David Dunkerton)

Scene 1:

A 10-year-old named Bob was out walking his dog, Andrew, on a bright summer day on Maple Street in Arizona in 1999. He was grounded and was supposed to come right back home, but that wasn't going to happen because aliens from Neptune in a flying saucer transported Bob and his dog up into their spaceship!

Scene 2:

The Neptunians had only been trying to capture the dog so they could eat him, but they accidentally transported Bob as well. Bob and Andrew found themselves in a room full of dogs on the spaceship, and they didn't know what to do. Papperozzie, the chief Neptunian, was in another room, and when he and the others saw Bob they started zapping him with potty rays (which would have turned him into a potty if he had been hit) from their antennae. Bob ran into another corridor of the flying saucer, leaving Andrew in the room with the other dogs.

Scene 3:

Back on Earth, Bob's mom and dad were mad that Bob hadn't come home, and his dad was about to call the police when he noticed a note on the kitchen table from Papperozzie. It read:

We will bring your child back under one condition.

You have to give us over 500 dogs for the return of the kid.

Bob's mom and dad didn't know what to do!

Scene 4:

Bob had been recaptured by the Neptunians, and Papperozzie told him he must pass 3 tests for them to release him and his dog:

1. Eat the horrible chocolate
2. Walk through the room full of bubbles
3. Listen to the dreaded music of Michael Jackson

All these things are deadly to Neptunians, but they didn't know they are harmless to humans (some may disagree about the Michael Jackson part). Bob passed all the tests and they released him and his dog off the ship back to Earth, and all was well.

But what about the other dogs...

Haunted Schools: True Ghost Stories by Allan Zullo

This book consists of nine short stories about ghosts that have made contact with young people in schools. The title and the introduction suggest that these stories are based on actual occurrences. I am personally skeptical about that, but teenagers would probably enjoy these stories even more wondering if something like that actually happened. They are about ghosts—that is, individuals who had died and appeared to certain people—but for the most part I did not find them scary or even very creepy; just interesting.
This is a fun book to read because it makes one think about things no one knows much about. This could possibly be a good book to recommend to young teens who feel uncomfortable about the concept of ghosts, because it suggests that even if ghosts did exist, they would not necessarily be bad. Regardless of the reader’s personal feelings about ghosts, I think this is an enjoyable book. The fact that there are several short stories instead of one continuous story may be positive for some and negative for others.

Review by David Dunkerton