Susan's Picks
River Falls Public Library


Fiction - YA Fiction - Picture Books - Videos - Websites


Top Fiction

  • Ladies of Missalonghi by Colleen McCullough
    The stetting, just before World War I in Australia, in a time where men may dominate but women rule.

  • Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Burns
    Told from the point of view of a 14-year-old Will Tweedy in turn of the century Georgia.  Will's store proprietor Grandpa Rucker, three weeks after becoming a widower, marries a woman half his age and a Yankee!  An exploration of love, death, coming of age and the bonds that tie families and generations.

  • Cider house rules by John Irving
    A coming of age story set during the 1940s of an astounding young orphan named Homer whose mentor, a truly compassionate doctor, proprietor of an orphanage and an abortionist, trains Homer to be his successor.  Homer falls in love and sets on his own search of self.

Top YA Fiction

  • True confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
    Charlotte Boyle is a young girl, who by a combination of unusual circumstances, becomes the only passenger and female on a transatlantic voyage in 1832.  High adventure, intrigue, treachery, and mutiny are but a few of the challenges Charlotte faces.

  • Holes by Louis Sachar
    A young boy, who by a set of circumstances some would attribute to a curse, others to bad luck, finds a new respect and sense of self at a correctional camp.  An exciting plot which cleverly intertwines the past and present.

  • The witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
    Kit was raised in a free-spirited fashion in Barbados, but when she is orphaned, she has a difficult time fitting into the strict Puritanical family of her uncle in the 1600s in Massachusetts.

  • The westing game by Ellen Raskin
    A very unusual group of heirs is brought together and must solve the mystery of a the death of an eccentric millionaire before they claim their inheritance.

  • The giver by Lois Lowry
    Futuristic, thought-provoking - a society where all is predetermined and void of emotion and love.  Jonas, at 12, receives his lifetime assignment of becoming the receiver of memories and begins to question the society in which he lives.

Top Picture Books


Top Videos


Top Websites

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