Left for Dead: : A Young Man's Search for Justice for the USS Indianapolis

Growing up on the Jersey shore, I was never all that terrified of sharks. Most of my friends had the attitude, swim and let swim; or rather swim away quietly and let the sharks keep circling around off the jetty. This all changed when the movie "Jaws" was released. Mass shark hysteria hit the beaches and no one was allowed to swim very far offshore. Now, every time I went into the ocean, all I could see was the shark's underwater view of us just waiting to attack!

Jaws also made an impression on an eleven-year-old boy named Hunter Scott. It was when he first heard about the World War II sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the subsequent shark attack on the survivors. Scott turned his curiosity of this event into a history fair project and researched in depth not only the details of the shark attack but also the US Navy court martial of the ship's captain.

Author Peter Nelson uses Hunter Scott's research to write this captivating story. Left for Dead relies on oral histories of the survivors to retell the shark attack and shark behavior in general. For example, it is not only blood that attracts sharks but any body fluid. The book also describes the events leading up to the attack and the reasons the survivors were not rescued sooner. Hunter Scott made it his mission to find out what actually happened in the South Pacific. Was it really the captain's fault that no help came?

Read more and see how an 11-year-old middle school boy can make a difference in the way history is written and in the lives of so many men and their families. Also a Challenging Choice this year.

Everlost by Neal Shusterman

If you were lucky enough to see Neal Shusterman at Crossroads last year, you will know that he certainly deserves the name Storyman. His latest book, Everlost, is yet another weave of stories with interesting characters in unique settings.

The book begins when Nick and Allie are both killed in a car accident. They meet as they collide on their way toward the "light" and are tossed into an alternate universe called Everlost. You can never stop moving in Everlost, lest you sink into the earth. You can't look for your home, although Allie is trying to find her family. She and Nick form a bond as they travel and look for answers to their plight. They encounter Mary Hightower, the leader of the lost children's souls at the World Trade Center. Mary seems to be their protector but the author plays with the idea of goodness itself. Then they meet the dreaded McGill, a monster who chimes children on his ship (certainly an interesting picture forms from Shusterman's description of life on the ship!)
This land-in-between proves to be unlike any place you can imagine and its bizarre inhabitants make Everlost a great read. It is also a Challenging Choice this year.