Title : The Same Stuff as Stars
Author : Katherine Paterson
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Synopsis ; Angel Morgan needs help. Daddy is in jail, and Mama has abandoned her and her little brother, leaving them with their great-grandmother. Grandma is aged and poor, and doesn't make any attempt to care for the children-that's left up to Angel, even though she is not yet twelve. The only bright spot in Angel's existence is the Star Man, a mysterious stranger who appears on clear nights and teaches her all about the stars and planets and constellations. "We're made out of the same stuff as the stars," he tells her. Eventually, Grandma warms to the children and the three begin to cobble together a makeshift family. Then events in Angel's life take yet another downturn, and she must once again find a way to persevere. Katherine Paterson's keen sensitivity and penetrating sense of drama bring us a moving story of throwaway children, reminding us of the incredible resilience of childhood and the unquenchable spirit that, in spite of loss, struggles to new beginnings.
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Title : Only in London
Author : Hanan al-Shaykh
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Synopsis : Four strangers meet on a turbulent flight from Dubai to London: Amira, a canny Moroccan prostitute; Lamis, a 30-year old Iraqi divorcee; Nicholas, an English expert on Islamic art; and Samir, a Lebanese man who is delivering a monkey on a mission he doesn’t fully understand. Once safely on British soil, Lamis and Nicholas fall in love, Samir chases after blond British youths, and Amira reinvents herself as a princess, the better to lure clients at the best London hotels. Through the city and across cultural borders, Only in London wittily portrays the smells, sounds, and sights of London’s lively Arab neighorhoods, as well as the freedoms the city both offers and withholds from its immigrants.
Title : Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Author : Roald Dahl
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Synopsis : Willy Wonka's famous chocolate factory is opening at last!
But only five lucky children will be allowed inside. And the winners are: Augustus Gloop, an enormously fat boy whose hobby is eating; Veruca Salt, a spoiled-rotten brat whose parents are wrapped around her little finger; Violet Beauregarde, a dim-witted gum-chewer with the fastest jaws around; Mike Teavee, a toy pistol-toting gangster-in-training who is obsessed with television; and Charlie Bucket, Our Hero, a boy who is honest and kind, brave and true, and good and ready for the wildest time of his life!
Title : Matilda
Author : Roald Dahl
Rating :
Synopsis : “The Trunchbull” is no match for Matilda!
Matilda is a sweet, exceptional young girl, but her parents think she's just a nuisance. She expects school to be different but there she has to face Miss Trunchbull, a kid-hating terror of a headmistress. When Matilda is attacked by the Trunchbull she suddenly discovers she has a remarkable power with which to fight back. It'll take a superhuman genius to give Miss Trunchbull what she deserves and Matilda may be just the one to do it!
Title : Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life
Author : James Patterson
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Synopsis : Rafe Khatchadorian has enough problems at home without throwing his first year of middle school into the mix. Luckily, he's got an ace plan for the best year ever, if only he can pull it off: With his best friend Leonardo the Silent awarding him points, Rafe tries to break every rule in his school's oppressive Code of Conduct. Chewing gum in class–5,000 points! Running in the hallway–10,000 points! Pulling the fire alarm–50,000 points! But when Rafe's game starts to catch up with him, he'll have to decide if winning is all that matters, or if he's finally ready to face the rules, bullies, and truths he's been avoiding.
Blockbuster author James Patterson delivers a genuinely hilarious—and surprisingly poignant—story of a wildly imaginative, one-of-kind kid that you won't soon forget.
Title: The Kite Runner
Author: Khaled Hosseini
Rating:
Synopsis: The Kite Runner is the story of two boys growing up against the dramatic background of 1970s Afghanistan. Amir is the young son of an admired and wealthy Kabul businessman. Hassan, son of their poor servant Ali, is his companion.
The two boys are inseparable, playing together and working as a team, most notably in the annual kite-fighting competition in Kabul. Yet in an Afghanistan divided by ethnicity, the Hazara underclass to which Hassan belongs does not attend school or learn to read. Hassan lives in the mud hut at the bottom of Amir’s garden.
Yet despite his privileges, Amir above all seeks approval from his Baba (father), who despairs of his son’s inability to perform to his own standards. Amir cannot play football, has no stomach for a fight and is regularly carsick. He writes stories, a talent in which Baba has no interest. It is Hassan who seems to have the skills and courage Baba looks for in Amir.
In his determination to win the admiration of Baba, Amir finds ways to humiliate Hassan, who will do anything Amir asks. But he is unable to provoke him and thus assuage his own guilty feelings. Amir’s failure to protect his friend from a vicious attack by three local boys leads to an unspeakable tragedy. Driven by guilt, he commits an act of terrible betrayal, accusing Hassan of a fabricated crime and so forcing Ali and Hassan to leave Kabul.
Amir carries his guilt with him to America, where he and his father take refuge when the Russians invade Afghanistan. Baba and Amir lead a modest life in California, earning money by selling used goods at a flea market. Amir successfully pursues his dream of being a writer, and marries an Afghan girl he meets at the market. But just as Afghanistan remains wracked by conflict through the 1980s and 1990s, so he remains haunted by guilt.
It is the need for redemption that finally draws him back to Taliban-governed Afghanistan, after many years of safe life in California, in a final, hair-raising act of unqualified bravery and altruism.
Title: A Thousand Splendid Suns
Author: Khaled Hosseini
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Synopsis: A Thousand Splendid Suns is a 2007 novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. It is his second, following his bestselling 2003 debut, The Kite Runner. The book, which spans a period of over 50 years, from the 1960s to 2003, focuses on the tumultuous lives and relationship of Mariam and Laila, two Afghan women. Mariam, an illegitimate child, suffers from the stigma surrounding her birth and the abuse she faces throughout her marriage. Laila, born a generation later, is comparatively privileged during her youth until their lives intersect and she is also forced to accept a marriage proposal from Rasheed, Mariam's husband.
Hosseini has remarked that he regards the novel as a "mother-daughter story" in contrast to The Kite Runner, which he considered a "father-son story". It continues some of the themes used in his previous work, such as the familial aspects, but focuses more on female characters and their role in Afghan society.