Every Day by David Levithan

 I am not sure what to say about Every Day by David Levithan.  It is weird!  But once I started it, I couldn't put it down.  I picked it up because I loved Dash and Lily's Book of Dares which he wrote with Rachel Cohn and Will Grayson, Will Grayson which he wrote with John Green, but this book was really different.

A. lives in a different body everyday.  Each morning he wakes up as a different person.  All the body's he inhabits are 16 and within a relatively short distance from each other, but he might be a girl one cay and a boy the next.  And he never inhabits the same body more than once.  He doesn't know why this happens, just that this is the way his life is and he has never questioned it.  However, one day he wakes up as Justin and when he meets Justin's girlfriend Rhianon, he falls in love.  Now A. cannot imagine being without her.  Because A. switches bodies every day, this is a very complicated relationship.  And a very strange one! 

Like I said, this book was impossible to to stop reading once I started.  It makes one think about who you really love:  is the person they are on the outside or the person they are on the inside?  Or a combination?  It is a fascinating story.

Ditched: A Love Story by Robin Mellom

Ditched: A Love Story by Robin Mellom is a fun high school romance novel.  I guess I am stuck reading Prom stories, but unlike Prom and Prejudice, the main character in this novel makes it to the Prom with the guy of her dreams.  However, the novel begins with Justina lying in a ditch in her blue iridescent prom dress with matching shoes and big blue rose corsage.  She has a nasty bump on her head, several stains on her dress and a tweedy bird tattoo.  She has not only been ditched by her date, but literally left in a ditch on Prom Night.  Justina makes her way to a nearby 7-Eleven where she meets a group of sympathetic women who want to hear her story.  The situations Justina gets herself into at her prom are both horible and hilarious.  If you are looking for a fun romance that doesn't take itself too seriously, this is the book for you.

This book reminds me of My Boyfriend's Dogs: the tales of Adam and Eve and Shirley by Dandi Daley Mackall.  The main character in this book also has a disasterous prom night and finds herself telling waiting out a thunderstorm in an all night diner dressed in her prom dress with her three dogs.  She tells the story of how she ended up with each of the dogs by telling the story of her romances with each of the dogs original owners.  If you enjoy Ditched, then you will definitely enjoy My Boyfriend's Dogs.

Elizabeth Eulberg

     
Last week I attended the Kansas Association of School Librarians Annual Conference and Elizabeth Eulberg (picture on right) was one of the featured speakers.  Of course, we all loved her when she told us that her mother was a school librarian and that books had a great impact on her life.  Before becoming a full-time writer, Eulberg worked as a publicist for Scholastic and worked with such authors as Stephenie Meyers, Suzanne Collins, and David Levithan. 

I had not heard of Eulberg before the conference, but I discovered that we had both of her books in our library.  I checked them out and read them quickly, so I would be ready to meet her.  Her books are light-hearted and fun.

 The Lonely Hearts Club is about Penny Lane whose parents are hardcore Beatles fans as you can tell by her name.  Penny is sick and tired of boys, so she vows not to date another boy until she graduates from high school next year.  She discovers that she is not the only girl in her school that is fed up with boys and soon the Lonely Hearts Club is born.  The girls pledge not to date and to spend every Saturday night with girlfriends instead of trying to impress boys.  The Club is very empowering for the girls involved which causes problems with the other students in school.  This is a great book for any girl who has had a friendship play second fiddle to a boy.  Penny and her friends learn that it is the friends you have in high school that last, not the boyfriends.

I enjoyed Prom and Prejudice even more than The Lonely Hearts Club.  Prom and Prejudice as you can tell is based on Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.  Lizzie Bennett attends an expensive boarding school on a music and academic scholarship.  Prom is a very big deal at her school where girls have dresses made by famous designers.  Because Lizzie is a scholarship student, she is bullied and picked on by the other students, but unlike the others, she has no interest in attending prom.  Lizzie does not like any of the boys at school until she meets her roommate Jane's new boyfriend.  Charles seems very nice and Lizzie is very happy for Jane until she meets Charles' friend Darcy.  Lizzie thinks that Darcy is a pompous jerk; however, she finds herself drawn to him.  Will Lizzie's pride and Darcy's prejudice keep them apart or will they find a way to attend the prom?

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Dash and Lily's Book of Dares is written in alternating chapters by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. The book begins with Dash, written by David Levithan, finding a red notebook hidden on a shelf between two of his favorite books in his favorite bookstore. The book sends him on a scavenger hunt around the store. Dash, a lover of the written word, enjoys the game and decides to add to it. Besides finding the clues around the store, he creates a dare for Lily the girl who left the notebook. Dash, whose mother thinks he is spending Christmas with his father and whose father thinks he is spending Christmas with this mother, has plenty of time to come up with fun dares for Lily.

Lily, whose chapters are written by Rachel Cohn, is sad because her parents have gone on a 25th anniversary trip and left her at home with only her older brother Langston with whom to spend Christmas. Langston has a new boyfriend, so he comes up with the idea of the book of dares to keep Lily occupied during the holidays. Lily has never had a real boyfriend and immediately becomes impressed by Dash. However, more than Dash, Lily discovers a lot about herself through how she deals with the various dares. She has been very sheltered by her extended family, so when Dash dares her to go to a club at 2:00 a.m. she cannot even imagine fallowing through, but she does and surprised even herself.

I liked Nick an Norah's Infinite Playlist which is also by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, but I liked Dash and Lily even better. I found Lily to be delightfully strange and a great character and while Dash was a bit arrogant and pretentious, I enjoyed reading about him too. I really like books with interesting characters and I enjoyed their adventures combined with the gently developing romance between the two.

Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

I love to travel. In fact, I have been to all but 3 of the 50 states and 4 of the 7 continents. And I really like a good road trip. There is not a better way to see the United States than to drive across it. It is amazing how vast, varied and beautiful our awesome country is.

Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson is a story of a road trip. When Amy's father is killed in a car accident, her life is turned upside down. Even though she has lived all her life in the same house in California, Amy's mother suddenly gets a job and moves to Connecticut. Her twin brother deals with the death through drugs and is sent to a treatment center in North Carolina. Amy finds herself finishing her school year up while living alone in California. When the school year is over, her mother has arranged for a Roger, a family friend, to drive with Amy from California to Connecticut. She has the trip all arranged with reservations at hotels along the way. However, Amy and Roger have other plans. They take an "epic detour" that takes them through Nevada on the loneliest highway, to Colorado to visit Roger's college, through Wichita, KS, to Louisville to visit Roger's girlfriend and end with a trip to Graceland to see the King. Of course, in Wichita, they eat at Nu way and enjoy Freddie's frozen custard.

It is fun to read about the details of their journey. However, this book is more than a road trip. It is part love story, but more than that, it is about Amy trying to deal with her father's death and Roger trying to come to grips with the end of a relationship. Both have to find a new beginning without someone they loved dearly.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Okay. I know. I have really been slacking lately. My last entry was in October which is really embarrassing. However, I am going to try to be better. I have read several good books lately so I should have several things to blog about.

I really enjoyed the book Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. Samantha Kingston is a mean girl. She is part of the In-Crowd and she never lets anyone forget it. She has her popular friends and her good looking boyfriend, so why would she need anything else. She ignores the "little people" at school and enjoys making fun of many of her classmates. She doesn't think that anything can ruin her "perfect" life. However, in the beginning of the book, Samantha and her friends are in a car wreck and she dies. Now she is forced to live the same day over and over again until she gets it right.

This book is like Groundhog Day meets Mean Girls which makes it a really fun read. Samantha is clueless at the beginning of the book. She doesn't see how awful her friends really are. She thinks that everyone thinks she is cool and wants to be her. As she is forced to relive the same day over and over, she is surprised to discover that she isn't as great as she thought she was. She sees her friends as they truly are and she starts to explore her relationship with her boyfriend. As Samantha becomes more introspective, so does the reader. This book makes the reader think about his/her life and what is really important in his/her life.

Party by Tom Leveen

Moving Day for the HHS Library is Monday, Nov. 1st! I'm excited to get into our new and improved home. I am ready for everything to have a permanent place; it is frustrating when every corner is filled with stuff just waiting to move. And it will be great to have the Reference section our of boxes and back on a shelf where we can find things--YEA!!!!!

Party by Tom Leveen is a really good book. It was one of those books that I pulled because I thought it might have some questionable content in it and I thought that I should know what it was before I put it on the shelf. However, I did not find too much to be worried about. It is a book about a party and there is drinking, sex and some talk of drug use but the way it is written puts all of it into perspective.

The book is about the last big party of the year! The 11 main characters are all going to be Seniors or just graduated and they are celebrating the end of another school year. We get the story of the party through the eyes of each of the characters. The plot progresses as we meet each character and see what happens at the party through their eyes. There is Beckett whose mother has died and is going to have to drop out of school to go to work; she feels that she is invisible and goes to the party just to see if anyone even knows she's alive. Morrigan has just broken up with her boyfriend and decides to meet someone new at the party. Josh is Morrigan's boyfriend and he is depressed over the break up. Anthony is the star football player who had a terrible year, but only a few people know why. Max and Brent are skateboarders. Azzize is a Turkish American who just wants to see what a high school party is like. Ryan goes just to hook up. And Ashley is the one person who kind of connects them all. The story hooks the reader as they find out about each character and the terrible thing that happens at the Party!