Impossible by Nancy Werlin

I loved Impossible by Nancy Werlin! It is part fairy tale, part romance, part adventure--what's not to love?!

Lucy's mother is crazy. She went crazy after having Lucy at age 18. Lucy has lived with her foster parents and has a normal perfect life until her mother returns. Lucy's mother lives as a bag lady and follows Lucy around singing the Simon and Garfunkel song "Scarborough Fair." You know the song, "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme..." However, her mother has a slightly different twist on the lyrics to the song.

Since her mother has returned, Lucy knows that something is going to happen and it does. Lucy's prom night is a disaster complete with a rape, a death, and a pregnancy. And suddenly, Lucy is like her mother, going to have a baby at 18. But Lucy discovers that something is really strange. Not only did her mother have a daughter at 18, but her grandmother did and so did her great-grandmother and so did her great-great-grandmother, and after the baby was born, they all went crazy. With the help of the boy-next-door Zach, Lucy finds a letter from her mother and discovers that the women in her family are cursed and the song is the key to breaking the curse. Zach, her foster parents, and Lucy must work hard to complete the tasks and break the curse before the baby is born and Lucy slips into madness.

Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Girls, have you ever felt like you live in a male dominated society? Do you think that boys get more attention in class than you do? Do you feel like you always do what your boyfriend wants to do and he never does what you want to do? If you have these feelings, then The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart is the book for you.

Frankie Landau-Banks is a sophomore at Alabaster, an exclusive boarding school, and she dates one of the most popular senior boys at school. Frankie is smart, clever and very ambitious, but everyone underestimates her. Her boyfriend thinks she is "adorable" and her family calls her "Bunny Rabbit." But Frankie knows that she is worth more than just being "cute." Her father brags about the great friends that he made when he attended Alabaster and that he belonged to a males-only secret society. Frankie wants to have the experiences her father talks about and she wants to be more to her boyfriend than "arm candy." So Frankie uses her computer to infiltrate the Loyal Order of Basset Hounds and makes the members do what she wants. She comes up with some elaborate schemes and hopes that the male members of the society will see how ingenious, creative and superior she is. Of course, this is complicated even more when she learns that her boyfriend is the leader of the Basset Hounds.

This novel is filled with word play which adds to the humor and the fun of the book. But seriously, readers must consider what drives Frankie to make the decisions she makes and what all girls need to do to find equal footing with their male counterparts.

Let it Snow: Three Holiday Romances

I love Christmas stories. I love watching hokey Christmas movies on TV and I love reading Christmas stories! Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle is a fun collection of 3 interrelated Christmas stories.

As I have said before, I adore John Green. He could write a recipe and I would be dying to read it. So when I saw this book, I had to read it since it combined two of my favorite things: Christmas stories and John Green.

On a very snowy Christmas Eve in Virginia, a train gets stuck in a snow drift. Jubilee is traveling to her grandparents' in Florida, Jeb is trying to get home to his girlfriend and a group of cheerleaders are going to a competition. When the train gets stuck, Jubilee (called Julie) gets off the train and walks to a nearby Waffle House. Jeb and the cheerleaders follow shortly. In the first story, "Jubilee Express," Julie is upset about leaving her "perfect" boyfriend on Christmas, however, at the Waffle House, she meets Stuart who rescues her from cold and cheerleaders as they brave the snow to make it to his house for Christmas. In "A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle," Tobin undertakes an epic journey through the storm to the Waffle House where there are cheerleaders waiting to play Twister. Through a series of adventures, Tobin begins to see his best friend, The Duke, in a different light. Later that night, Tobin and Duke visit the nearby Starbucks where they meet up with Addie in the final story "Patron Saint of Pigs." Self-absorbed Addie who works at Starbucks needs some time to come to terms with the fact that she cheated on her boyfriend Jeb who then stood her up on Christmas Eve. Thus the stories come full circle back to Jeb and the train in one really nice book about romance, hope and Christmas!

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson

I loved Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson. It is one of those books that made me laugh and cry and despite the struggles of the Hattie had such a hopeful message at the end. I can see why it was a Newbery Honor Book last year. It deserves the honor!

During World War I, 16-year-old Hattie is an orphan who has been passed around from family member to family member never really finding a place to call home. In 1917 things are looking pretty bleak. Her best friend Charlie has gone off to France to fight in the war and her aunt wants her to get a job working at a local boarding house, but Hattie wants more. And things start looking up when she receives a letter from Uncle Chester in Montana. The letter includes Uncle Chester's will leaving Hattie his 320 acre claim near Vida, Montana. All Hattie has to do is move to Montana and prove up the claim by planting crops and building fencc.

This book tells of the hardships of homesteading and trying to make a living from a plot of land. These hardships ring true here in Kansas as farmers even today struggle against the environment to grow crops and make a life. But it easy to see comparisons between the treeless plains of Montana and the wonderful prairies on Kansas and how hard it must have been for the homesteaders here in our state.

But this book takes the story deeper. Not only is Hattie homesteading, she is also dealing with the struggles of the first World War. Many of Hattie's neighbors are German immigrants and I was surprised by the discrimination they faced since we were fighting the Germans in the war. The way people were treated was terrible. It is sad to think about that part of our past. And I am sure that some of that is going on today with the wars we are fighting the Middle East and the distrust of people of Middle Eastern dissent.

This is a wonderfully realistic book, not so much with a happy ending as a message that "next year will be better." Hattie definitely uncovers the meaning of family and home.

Night Road by A.M. Jenkins

Night Road by A.M. Jenkins is a different kind of vampire book. This book looks at the lives of vampires and how difficult it would be to live as one. Most of the books out now glamorize the vampire way of life, but Night Road explores how hard it would be to outlive everyone you care about and to have to rely on unsuspecting humans for food. It is really an interesting way of looking at vampire-life with a little bit of romance and danger to thrown in to the mix.

Cole has been a vampire for almost 200 years. He has seen many changes in the world and has learned how to deal with his circumstances by traveling around and avoiding relationships of any kind. When he is summoned to the Building in Manhattan, Cole knows something is going on. In the Building he meets Gordon, a new vampire who is just learning the way of life and how he is supposed to act. Cole is asked to take Gordon on the road and teach him how to live as a vampire. Gordon is a reluctant student who just wants his old life back. And Cole is forced to confront his many demons of the past as he teaches Gordon to avoid these same pitfalls. Of course, Gordon's refusals to give up his past life causes dangers for them all. But most of all, Gordon must succeed in learning how to manage his new lifestyle or it will be Cole's responsibility to destroy him.

This book is a fresh new look at the vampire way of life!

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

Science is amazing. It is absolutely incredible to think of the things we can do today that we couldn't do 100 year ago or 50 years ago... My Uncle Bus just celebrated his 90th birthday. He lives in St. Louis and his kids live in California and South Carolina and he visits them often. "After all," he says, "they are just a short airplane ride away." That is so different from his childhood when he grew up in Kansas and Oklahoma and never traveled very far from his home until he joined the army and they sent him to WWII. Uncle Bus talks about his pacemaker and his heart by-passes and the many things that the doctors can do now that they couldn't do before. And all that raises the question of how much should we do just because we can. Cloning, genetic engineering and other biological advances are possible, but does that make them ethical?

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson explores these questions. Jenna Fox has been in an accident and was in a coma for over a year. When she wakes up, her parents have moved her from Boston to California and she can't remember anything about her past. Slowly these memories come back, and Jenna learns some disturbing truths about herself. Jenna discovers that she can recite Thoreau and tell about obscure events in history and she can remember things that happened when she was only a year old, but she can't remember the accident and what happened to her friends Kara and Locke. After much exploration, Jenna finally understands the horror of what has happened and what she truly is. The excitement of the novel is what she decides to do about it.

This is a great novel about what makes us human and the extents parents will go to in order to save a child, but it is more than that. I don't want you to think this is a boring book that makes you think. It is an exciting adventure of self-discovery. The people Jenna meets and the choices she makes build to a thrilling climax. This book will make you think, but it is also an truly enjoyable story.

Paper Towns by John Green

I will start off by saying that I love John Green. His book Looking for Alaska was a Printz award winner for the best YA book of the year a couple of years ago. But I think that I liked An Abundance of Katherines even better because of how quirky it was. It was a Printz honor book. Green seems to remember what it was like to be young and even though his books have male narrators and main characters, they can be enjoyed by both male and female readers. Additionally his books have just the right mix of serious and humorous elements. They are a joy to read.

Paper Towns is John Green's latest novel and it is just as good as the other two. Quentin has lived next door to the fabulous Margo Roth Spiegelman almost his entire life. While they were good friends when they were younger, now that they are in high school, they exist in entirely different circles. Margo is part of the popular crowd while Quentin is a geek. However, Quentin is quite content with his station in life and has no desire to be part of the popular group. But he loves the exotic and chaotic Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar or at least across the street.

One month before his high school graduation and one week before prom, Q is shocked when he finds Margo outside his window in the middle of the night. She has planned an adventure and wants Q to go with her. The adventure involves righting the many wrongs of the world. The conservative Q has the time of his life and can't wait to tell his friends about it the next day at school. However, the next day, Margo doesn't show up to school and Q discovers that she has disappeared. Her parents say that she has run off AGAIN and since she is 18, they refuse to look for her. But Q thinks there the something strange going on and he sets out to find her. To help the search, Margo leaves strange clues for him to find and Q worries that maybe Margo has gone off somewhere to die. Through the search for Margo, Q discovers that he is searching not just for the person, but for who Margo really is. Add in Q's two best friends and Margo's friends and Green produces a story that you can't put down until the last page.

How to Be Bad by E. Lockhart

I know this sounds really nerdy, but I like the idea of authors talking about writing and working together. Although it isn't true, I think of the world of Young Adult Literature as being a small tight-knit community where the authors know each and discuss their upcoming books. I think this idea was fostered by Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, two very popular YA authors. I really enjoyed their collaboration and the book that resulted which is now out in a movie, by the way. I hope to get a chance to see it one of these days.

How to Be Bad by E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski and Lauren Myracle is another one of those great collaboratory efforts by very popular YA authors. E. Lockhart has written The Boy Book and The Boyfriend List as well as The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, a book that is getting lots of talk as the award season starts. Sarah Mlynowski has written Bras and Broomsticks and Frogs and French Kisses, neither of which I have read. Lauren Myracle has written TTYL and TTFN two interesting books that are written as instant messages between three girls. The three authors of How to Be Bad are well established in YA Chick Lit and this novel is a great example!

How to Be Bad is about three very different girls who develop a close friendship while on a road trip from Niceville, Florida to Miami. Vicks, Jesse and Mel all want the same thing to get out of Niceville for a while. Vicks' boyfriend Brady has left town to attend the University of Miami and she has only heard from him once in the two weeks since he has been gone. Jesse is dealing with her mother's recent diagnosis of breast cancer and she just wants to get away. So Jesse comes up with the idea to go see Brady in Miami. However, neither Jesse nor Vicks has any money, so when Mel offers to go along and pay for the gas, they jump at the idea. Wealthy Mel has just moved to town and she wants to fit in. So the three girls embark on an adventure that leads them through a hurricane, into a fight with an alligator, to Epcot Center and finally to Miami. Through their adventures, the girls learn many things about themselves and their friendship.

The three girls alternate chapters taking turns telling the story, so the reader gets to know all three girls and what they are feeling. It is a fun story, but also one that makes you appreciate the friendships in your life.

Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox

Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox is one of those books that I just couldn't put down. It was odd and different from anything I have read before and yet I had to find out what was going to happen. It is really an amazing book--weird and wonderful.

I first picked up Dreamhunter when the sequel Dreamquake was selected as a Prinz honor book last spring. I wanted to read it but decided that I need to read the first book in the series. It took me several months, but I finally got to the bottom of my "To Be Read" pile and there it was. And I am glad that I finally read it!

Dreamhunter is set in a world where only certain people can enter a mystical location known only as the "The Place." Only certain gifted people can entire "The Place"; others walk right over it. But the gifted people known as dreamhunters are transported to a place where they catch dreams that they later share with the others of the community. There are dream palaces where people go to sleep and share in the dreams of the deamhunter. People pay to share these dreams and good dreamhunters can become very wealthy.

Cousins Laura and Rose belong to the first family of dreamhunters. Laura's father discovered "The Place" many years before and Rose's mother is a very famous dreamer. When Laura discovers that she has inherited the gift from her father, she must deal with the fears of entering "The Place" alone. To add to Laura's reservations, her father disappears leaving strange clues for only her to find. Laura must follow these clues to discover what has happened to her father. But more than finding her father, Laura finds the government secrets of how these dreams can be used against the people. Now Laura must decide how much of what she knows to share with her family and her community and how to protect herself from the dangers that follow.

This is a fascinating story of the power of dreams and nightmares. I can't wait to read the next book!

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You

Someday This Pain Will be Useful to You by Peter Cameron. James Sveck is 18 years old and enrolled in Brown for the Fall term; however, New Yorker James does not want to attend college instead he wants to buy a house in the Midwest and read the Classics. He is a loner who doesn't really fit in. He is different and doesn't like other people especially people his own age and following a disastrous experience with a national student seminar in Washington D.C., he concludes that he is better off alone.

This book is a wonderful coming of age novel in which James struggles with his sexual preferences and what he wants from the future. At times it is difficult to like James as he tells his story, but still I hoped that he would discover his way and his place in the world.

Harmless by Dana Reinhardt

We all make mistakes and we all try to get out of them. The three girls in Harmless by Dana Reinhardt are just trying to get out of trouble by making up one little harmless story. However, it turns out not to be so harmless after all.

Emma, Anna and Mariah are freshmen in high school and best friends. One night they lie to their parents and attend a party with a bunch of senior guys from a neighboring high school. When they are caught in the lie, the three girls invent a story about being attacked by a man down by the river, so they don’t have to admit to attending the party. The girls give a generic description of the guy and hope that the situation will blow over. However, one small story becomes one huge thing when their parents insist that they go to the police. Then when a man who fits the description is arrested and everything really blows up. The girls learn that it would have been easier to tell the truth and take their punishment from the start because lies pile up and more than Emma, Anna and Mariah are hurt. This is a haunting story about what happens when you tell a lie that you think is “harmless.”

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gavrielle Zevin

With all the rain, this was a good week to sit inside and read. However, after five inches of rain on Friday, the weekend turned out being fairly nice out! So I didn't get as much read as I had thought I would since I had to go out and enjoy the nice weather--finally. But I did enjoy Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin. It was a nice light-hearted book and a good read.

In this novel, Naomi falls down the steps of her high school and finds herself in an ambulance with a stranger who claims he is her boyfriend. At the emergency room, she discovers that James is not her boyfriend, but someone she had just met, but she also discovers that she cannot remember the last four years of her life. Everything from the time she is twelve to the present has been erased from her memory. These events include her parents' divorce, her new sister, and her best friend Will. Throughout the course of the book, Naomi spends the school year discovering who she is and why she likes the things she likes. It is a fun book of self-discovery.

The Snows by Sharelle Byars Moranville

The Snows by Sharelle Byars Moranville in a different sort of book. This novel follows 4 generations of the Snow family when each is 16 years old. It also parallels some of the very important historical events of the US. But more than anything it shows the universal struggles that teens go through to reach adulthood whether they are living in the 1930s or the 2000s.

The story begins with Jim Snow as he tries to deal with his family and the difficulties of life during the 1930s. Jim's father has a successful barbershop in a small Iowa town, but he is not happy with his choices in life and decides to uproot his family and move during the Great Depression to an uncertain future in Colorado. While struggling with this move, Jim falls in love and tries to protect his little sister Cathy from all that is going on around them.

The second story is about Cathy who struggles with love during World War II. Cathy falls in love and has a secret romance with a young soldier heading off to war. However, Cathy has to cope with love lost and fear and shame when she is sent to a home for unwed mothers.

The third section is about Jim's daughter Jill who comes of age during the 1960s. Jill experiments with drugs and rebellion until her father sends her to live with her adopted older sister Mary Suzanne who teaches at Kent State University. While there, Jill gets a little too close to the dangers of the riots at Kent State in 1969.

The final section is about Jill's daughter Mona in 2006. Mona travels back to Iowa for her Great Aunt Cathy's funeral and becomes reacquainted with her extended family and discovers their secret past. The neat thing about this book is that Mona brings it all together and all the characters come together at the end of the story. It is interesting to see how the characters face some of the same problems at 16 years of age even though they face them years apart.

Taken by Edward Bloor

It is back to school time! Things are starting to settle down, so I thought that I had better get back to putting books on my blog. I didn't have as much time to read this summer as I thought I would, but I did read some fun books and some interesting books. One of them was Taken by Edward Bloor.

Taken is set in the year 2036 where the world has changed in many ways. One major change is that one of the main struggles for prominent families is to protect their children from being kidnapped and held for ransom. This is an everyday occurrence and the main character Charity has been trained in what to do if she is every taken. So she is prepared when she is held for ransom at the beginning of this book. She knows how crucial the first hours are and how important contact with her family is.

While Charity is held, she has time to reflect on her life so far and her family which consists of her father, a famous dermatologist, her step-mother, a famous TV personality, and Victoria, her cook/maid, and Albert, her butler. Victoria and Albert are the people who are responsible for Charity’s day to day raising since her parents are always busy and gone and Charity feels closer to them than she does to her parents.

This book has some interesting commentary about race and social issues in the future. However, the best part of the book is the surprise at the ending. You will not expect what happens.

Deadline

Okay, enough girl books! Its seems I have been reading a lot of a “girl” books lately, and I needed to branch out and read something different. So I decided that Chris Crutcher’s new book Deadline would be just the right change! I love Chris Crutcher! He visited our school three years ago and gave fantastic presentations! He knows how to relate to teenagers in both his speaking and his writing.

Deadline is about Ben Wolf who is told at the beginning of the book that he has about a year to live. Ben is a senior in high school and 18 years old and with the help of his doctor he decides not to pursue treatment that probably wouldn’t work anyway and he decides not to tell anyone about his condition. Ben wants to live his senior year to the fullest without everyone feeling sorry for him. So he sets out to make changes in his life. The first change is that he decides to go out for football. Ben weighs 123 pounds soaking wet, but he has always wanted to try football and this is the time in his life to do everything he always wanted to do. He also finally gets the courage to talk to Dallas Suzuki, the girl of his dreams. Ben discovers that hiding the truth from people he cares about is harder than he thought. This book hits hard Crutcher’s message of Life is short, live it to its fullest. Ben learns to tell people the truth and show them you care. Crutcher does a great job describing the action of the football games and he keeps the humor going in the book so it doesn’t feel too dark despite the subject.

Running Loose by Chris Crutcher is one of my all time favorite books. The main character Louie Banks goes through a series of struggles in this book when he refuses to purposely injure another player and is kicked off the football team. Louie finds comfort in running. Louie is one of the greatest characters in young adult literature. I was thrilled to learn that Louie returns in the book Deadline. He has returned to his hometown and is now the football coach at Trout High school in Trout, Idaho. He is also a father figure to Ben and his brother Cody. This is just another great part of this book.

Before I Die

In Before I Die by Jenny Downham, Tessa is 16 years old and was diagnosed with leukemia 4 years ago. The doctors have done what they can and now they have given Tessa only months to live. Tessa decides that “I want to live before I die.” She makes a list of things that she wants to do before she dies. This list includes having sex, falling in love, getting her parents back together, breaking the law, experimenting with drugs and finding fame. After all her best friend Zoey says it best when she states “that there are no consequences for someone like you.” This book is full of great characters from Zoey, who has her own problems while helping Tessa complete her list, to Adam, the shy awkward young man next door who is dealing with his father’s death and his mother’s grief, to Cal, Tessa’s younger brother, who wonders if he will still be a brother after Tess dies, to Tessa’s father, who gives up everything to care for his dying daughter, to her mother, who left the family right before Tessa was diagnosed. This is a sad book that also gives hope for life and the lessons learned while living.

Story of a Girl

Have you ever made a mistake that you regretted and wished that you could take back? Deanna Lambert in Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr definitely knows that feeling. When she was 13, her father caught her having sex in the back seat of a car with Tommy Webber who was 17 and a friend of her brother. Deanna certainly didn’t love Tommy and she wasn’t even sure that she liked him, but he was 17 and he knew the right things to say and do to convince an 8th grade girl to do things she knows she shouldn’t.

The book starts 3 years later. Now Deanna is a sophomore in high school and she has to live everyday with her big mistake. Of course, Tommy told everyone in school about what happened so for 3 years, Deanna has been the skanky 8th grader who had sex with a high school senior. She faces the rumors at school and she faces how much she has disappointed her father at home. No matter that she has never been on a date or kissed another boy since, Tommy’s story has turned her into the “school slut.” This is a heartbreaking story of how one event can define a person’s life, but more than that, this is a wonderful story about finding self-respect and forgiveness.

Story of a Girl is another short book with only 192 pages and fairly large print. It is an easy read that gives you lots to think about whether you have been the object of hurtful rumors or whether you have been part of the group that spreads hurtful rumors.. I can see why this book was a National Book Award finalist.

Safe

It's spring time and I have been looking for short books that can be read quickly so that I can enjoy the great spring weather--if the wind would just stop blowing! I guess I am in Kansas, so I should be used to the wind!

Safe by Susan Shaw only has 168 pages, so it is a short book, but has a really good story. I had trouble putting it down once I started it. With the death of her mother when she was three, Tracey has experienced loss. However, life with her father is happy and her best friend Caroline lives right down the street. But on the last day of school, Tracey is walking home and she is attacked and raped by a classmate’s older brother. Now her safe world has been crushed. The only place that she truly feels safe is in her own home playing the piano. She isolates herself from her friends so that she doesn’t have to ever leave her home. Her father is wonderful and her friends are very understanding as she works through this very difficult event in her life. This is a great book as Tracey struggles to find a way to feel safe within herself and her world. She must find a way to heal.

Tracking Trash

Tracking trash: flotsam, jetsam, and the science of ocean motion by Loree Griffin Burns is an interesting book. It talks about Curt Ebbesmeyer’s study of ocean motion by tracking trash that washes up on beaches. He got started in the unusual study when his mother asked him why there were so many sneakers washing up on the shores of the ocean around her hometown of Seattle. Curt discovers that a ocean tanker had lost 5 containers of Nike tennis shoes—that’s 33,000 pairs of shoes lost in the ocean. Since shoes float, Curt was able to track the path of the shoes by seeing where they ended up on shore. He did the same thing later with the path of plastic bath toys that were lost from a ship. He uses this information to explain ocean currents and motion.

Besides how fascinating the tracking of the trash was, the idea that so much stuff is lost off of ships transporting goods from Asia to North America is staggering. No wonder we have a problem with ocean pollution. There is one point where the book shows the trash that has washed up on the shores of uninhabited islands. This book really brings home how important it is to recycle and reuse what we can to protect our natural resources.

This is another very short book with lots of pictures, but it has a powerful message to all who read it. It is interesting and has great information for reports.

Kissing the Bee

It feels like rain again today. We had a nice spring rain yesterday and it feels like we might get some more today. I am definitely ready for warm and sunny. Of course, it won’t be too long before I am complaining about how it is too hot! Can’t make some people happy, I guess!

Kissing the Bee by Kathe Koja is a great spring time novel. It is short—121 pages in length—so it is a quick read. But it is also beautifully written. Dana, Avra and Emil are best friends; Avra and Emil are dating, but the problem is that Dana also loves Emil. This is a strange romantic triangle because the three of them do everything together from working on Emil and Avra’s prom dress and tux to going on dates to working on Dana’s final biology project about bees. The story is told from Dana’s point of view and she weaves the information about bees into the plot to create wonderful figurative language. Dana plans on attending college next year on a scholarship for science writing and Avra plans to leave their small town right after prom. She doesn’t plan on waiting until graduation, but just getting in the car and leaving with Emil. Emil keeps his plans to himself.

Dana also keeps her feelings about Emil to herself because Avra is her best friend. But one day Dana and Emil take a trip without Avra to a local apiary to see the bees and everything changes in their relationship. Dana has always considered Avra to be the queen bee in the hive and has always worked hard not to upset her. But now she is in love with her best friend’s boyfriend and there is no way to avoid the inevitable. This is a great story of young love and friendship and what each means to the other.

The Nature of Jade

In The Nature of Jade by Deb Caletti, Jade DaLuna struggles with her anxiety disorder, her dysfunctional family and her senior year filled with Advanced classes. Her dad wants things his way, her mother seems to be reliving high school by attending all dances and events and her younger brother would just like to read Nania books all day.

The only calming influence in her life is the webcam at the zoo where Jade can watch the elephants all night long if she wants. One night she spots a young man in red jacket with a toddler also watching the elephants. The red jacket returns each evening sometimes with the toddler, sometimes by himself. Jade becomes obsessed with meeting him. Is the baby his? How old is he? Is he married? Jade decides to volunteer with the elephants in the zoo hoping to meet the boy. Finally they meet and Sebastian is everything that Jade expected him to be and more. However, Sebastian has a secret that will cause problems for Jade and himself and their relationship. Jade must confront the reality that Sebastian has a past.

This is a very gentle romance. The story is told from Jade’s perspective as she analyzes the world. Her analysis usually compares humans to animals, more specifically the elephants she works with. There is a great cast of characters from Damian the elephant keeper to Delores the zoo ticket taker to Tess Sebastian’s grandmother to Oliver Jade’s 10-year-old brother. I really enjoyed reading this book. In fact, I couldn’t put it down on Saturday morning. It was a beautiful day and I wanted to plant some flowers around my yard, but all that had to wait until I had finished this fantastic book!

The Innocent's Story

The Innocent's Story by Nicky Singer is a different kind of book. It is a mix of supernatural ideas that create a story that is hard to put down. Once I got into the plot, I had to know what was going to happen.

Cassina is 13 years old. On the way home one day, she and her younger sister are blown up by a bomb in the train station. Cassina becomes a "para-spirit" that can move among the living and enter into living hosts finding a place to live in the brain of the person. She first enters into the brain of her father, but finds it too hard to deal with the pain he feels. She meets other para-spirits as she moves from host to host. One of the hosts she enters is the brain of the man who set the bomb and killed her. While staying in his brain she contemplates what would make someone kill innocent people. There are some inevitable comparisons with 9/11. But it is fascinating to read how Cassina learns about the world and what happens when she is confronted with the hatred of her murderer.

Spanking Shakespeare

I am not sure what to say about Spanking Shakespeare by Jake Wizner. It is really laugh-out-loud funny, irreverent and borders on obscene in parts. It’s not a book for everyone, but if you are looking for something to make you laugh and don’t mind reading about bowel movements, sex and other adolescent issues, this is a good book for you.

Shakespeare Shapiro is a senior at Hemingway High School where the major project for all seniors is to write a memoir. In his memoir, Shakespeare shares the funniest and most embarrassing moments in his life, from being born on Hitler's birthday ("Whenever I did anything wrong, my father would call me Adolf") to his father's blackmail techniques ("I'm about ten seconds away from telling you things [about our sex life] that will haunt you for the rest of your life," his father cheerfully threatens an 11-year-old Shakespeare). With his dysfunctional family and terrible luck, it is easy for the reader to feel sorry for Shakespeare even as he sinks into bouts of self-pity. However, Shakespeare meets Charlotte and realizes that his life is not so bad after all. Keep in mind that nothing is off limits to Wizner: he pokes fun of bodily functions, sex and religion in this book.

Gray smudges make it look like a teen really slaved over the writing and revising of this book. I even tried several times to unfold the corner that is part of the unusual appearance that makes this book different.

Like I said, this book is not for everyone, but if you enjoy off-color humor, you will enjoy Shakespeare Shapiro. The author Jake Wizner teaches 8th grade English and History, so it is easy to see where some of his humor comes from.

Golden

Rock Chalk Jayhawk! Today is a great day to be a Kansan as the KU Jayhawks won the National Championship last night. With the game going into the overtime, we all stayed up too late watching the ending, so everyone is dragging today. But it is still exciting! Go Jayhawks!

I love fairy tale books. Who knew? I sure didn’t know that I did, but I really enjoyed reading Beastly by Alex Flinn and I just finished Golden: A Retelling of “Repunzel” by Cameron Dokey. And I thought it was a fun read also.

In Golden, Rapunzel’s mother makes a deal with a sorceress that if she does not love the baby just as she appears, she would have to give the baby to the sorceress to raise. Rapunzel is born with no hair and with no hope of ever having any and her mother who is beautiful is horrified and thinks she is horrific looking so she gives her to the sorceress. However, the sorceress has an alternative reason for wanting Rapunzel as her own.

Rapunzel is raised by the sorceress and she has a very happy and content life until they are forced from their home and the sorceress tells Rapunzel that she had another daughter who has been cursed by an evil wizard and locked in a tower. She hopes that Rapunzel can figure out a way to break the curse and free her daughter. What happens is an interesting twist on an old fairy tale. And the fun twist at the end is how Rapunzel gets her long beautiful hair!

Dairy Queen

I know that you are not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but I loved the cow wearing a tiara on the front of this book. It is the reason I picked it up to read it in the first place. So many great books have terrible covers that they don't encourage readers to read them that I really love it when a publisher gets it right and has a great cover like this one.

And Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock lives up to its great cover. Life has been difficult for DJ Schwenk since her father injured his hip. At 15, DJ quits basketball so she can take over the milking on her family's dairy farm. So she is not feeling optimistic about a summer filled with milking, cleaning the barn, and baling clover until a family friend sends Brian Nelson to help out. Brian is the quarterback from a neighboring rival school and his coach thinks that working with DJ over the summer will get him into shape for football in the fall. Brian has looks and brains, but he is a slacker and this causes friction with DJ. However, training Brian for football is the best part of her summer. And everything seems to be looking up until DJ decides that she is tired of living life like a cow. She does everything expected of her. "I just did what my parents told me, and my coaches, and [my friend], and [my dog] even. . . . I was nothing but a cow on two legs." So DJ decides to break her "cow mentality" and do something no one expects: go out for her high school football team. This causes problems with her father who doesn't like anything out of the ordinary, her best friend, and Brian who plays for an opposing team.

Don't get me wrong Dairy Queen is about so much more than football. There are family issues, problems with friends, even a budding romance and of course, cows! This is a great novel for all and even if you have no interest in sports, you will enjoy DJ's story of her 15th summer.

I am looking forward to reading the sequel The Off Season that continues DJ and Brian's romance and tells what happens with her family.

Last Kiss

Last Kiss by Jon Ripslinger is a good mystery novel. Lisa Wells had it all--beauty, intelligence, wealth, athleticism, popularity and a promising future. But Billy O’Reilly knows how unhappy she really is, how lonely she really feels and how trapped she is by her ultra-controlling father. No one knows about the secret relationship Billy and Lisa have been having. He has been sneaking into her bedroom for the last several weeks. But the relationship has gone sour. Lisa is back to dating her “father-approved” boyfriend and making plans for college. However, Lisa begs Billy to come and see her one more time. But the next morning, Lisa is found dead and Billy is the prime suspect. What follows is a good mystery as Billy and his friend Windy turn into amateur detectives in order to clear his name and discover what really happened to Lisa.

Love, Meg

I have been terrible about not reading lately. I hadn’t read a book since Spring Break. Last week was the National Junior College Men’s Basketball tournament here in town and my house was filled with family. So between school all day, basketball all evening and playing cards all night, I didn’t get anything done. But it was a fun week. This week I am trying to get back on schedule.

I was tired this week, but it was great to have my family around. The book Love, Meg by C. Leigh Purtill is all about family. Meg is 15 years old and the only family she has ever known is her sister Lucie. Lucie is always looking for something better so she and Meg move around a lot usually once or twice a year. So Meg is used to finding new friends and then moving and having to start all over. The latest move has been to Hollywood where Lucie has a new boyfriend and maybe a decent job. Meg has just started Hollywood High School when she comes home one afternoon and meets Lucie’s brother Lonnie. Lonnie tells Meg of a family she didn’t know existed and turns her world upside down. Meg feels that Lucie has betrayed her by hiding her family from her and she moves to New York to find out what it is like to have a family.

Dragon's Keep

It is always hard to get back into the swing of things after Spring Break. And it is raining this morning so that doesn’t help. I went to Natchez, Mississippi for the week. Natchez sits on the Mississippi River and the weather was really nice. I was disappointed when I got back to Kansas and it was cold. I heard that it was nice several days last week. Maybe with the start of spring on Thursday, we will start to get some warm weather.

Natchez is a neat town that time seems to have forgotten. In 1850, there were more millionaires per capita in Natchez than anywhere else in the US. The town was surrounded by huge cotton plantations and the town was filled with huge antebellum mansions. Each spring these mansions are opened for public tours. They are fabulous. I am a Great Plains girl—born in Oklahoma and raised in Kansas. My ancestors came to the plains in covered wagons, so they didn’t bring much with them. However, the people who settled in Natchez had furniture shipped from Europe. And it is still sitting in these antebellum homes where the people still use some of it today. It is incredible—a real eye opening experience. I felt like I had walked back into the time of Gone with the Wind!

I thought that I would get some reading done over the break, but with traveling and touring, I didn’t get much read. I did finish Dragon’s Keep by Janet Lee Carey. The great magician Merlin prophesied that the 21st queen of Wilde Island would “redeem the name of Pendragon, end war with the wave of her hand, and restore the glory of Wilde Island.” Rosalind is born to be the 21st queen of Wilde Island. Her parents have high hopes for what she will accomplish. However, Rosalind is born with a dragon claw in place of the ring finger on her left hand. Most of her life is spent trying to hide this deformity and find a cure, so that she can marry. When she is 17, Rosalind’s father goes to war to help England and hopefully make a match with the King’s son. But Rosalind is captured by a dragon and her life is changed forever. How will she fulfill Merlin's prophesy?

As I have said before, I am not crazy about fantasy books, but this is a good book. I enjoyed reading the adventures with the dragons and Rosalind’s search to be free from the dragon’s curse.

The Appeal by John Grisham

I was excited to see that John Grisham was returning to writing books about lawyers and trials when I read The Appeal. I loved The Firm and The Client and A Time to Kill—all fantastic books about trials and lawyers set in Mississippi. I enjoyed some of his other books; Playing for Pizza was fun and Bleachers was good, but those books don’t compare to his legal thrillers.

The Appeal is about a trial in Bowmore, Mississippi where Krane Chemicals has dumped a lot of toxins in the soil and contaminated the ground water. The people of Bowmore have a higher cancer rate than anywhere in the US, in fact, it is 17 times higher. There are so many people who have cancer in the county that it has gained the nickname “Cancer County.” Jeanette Baker lost both her husband and son to cancer and she is suing Krane Chemical for their deaths. Wes and Mary Grace Payton have risked everything to represent her case because they believe that Krane Chemical should pay for what it has done. At the beginning of the book, the jury rules on the Baker case and then the entire book is about the appeal. And what the huge multi-billion dollar company will do to get out of paying for what it has done to the city of Bowmore.

Of course, like all of Grisham’s books, many of the legal and political practices make me angry! But I really enjoyed this book! And I am glad that Grisham has returned to what he does best!

Skin Hunger

Skin Hunger by Kathleen Duey is a fantasy novel with two different story lines. The first is about Sadima a poor farm girl whose mother dies giving birth to her and is raised by her brooding father and brother. Sadima discovers that she is able to communicate with animals when she meets Franklin a servant from the city. He encourages her to come to the city when she is old enough. After several years, Sadima heads to the city and discovers a new life living with Franklin and Somiss his master who are secretly working as magicians in a world where magic has become illegal. Somiss is cruel and selfish and Sadima tries to find a way to save both Franklin and herself.

In the other storyline, Hahp is a second child who has been given to the wizards to train in the magical ways. He is taken to the school where the students are forbidden to work together in anyway and they are kept dirty and hungry until they learn to conjure their own food. Many of the boys die of starvation. Hahp resents the wizards and his father for sending his there and vows his revenge.

The connection of the two stories is not revealed until near the end. And the ending leaves the book open for a sequel. In fact, it is the first book of a planned trilogy called A Resurrection of Magic. I can’t wait to read the next book. I hope that the author writes it quickly!

Girlfriend Project

If you are looking for a light-hearted, quick read The Girlfriend Project by Robin Friedman is just the book. It isn’t anything new, but it is a fun. Reed wants a girlfriend. He’s a senior in high school and has been afraid of girls since he asked one out as a freshman and she laughed in his face. However, now Reed has grown several inches, gotten contacts and doesn’t look like so much of a dork. With the help of his two best friends, Ronnie and Lonnie, Reed starts the girlfriend project in an attempt to learn about girls and find the perfect one for him.

If you like this book, then you will really like 24 Girls in Seven Days by Alex Bradley. It has a similar plot with the main character’s friends helping him find a date for prom using a dating site. However, I liked this one better. There’s more to the story and it is an entertaining guy’s eye view of dating.

Both of books are fun reads filled with humor and romance!

Stuck in the 70s

Today is the last day of the trimester before final exams. It is usually a busy day. However, if you need something to read during final exams. This is a fun read.

Stuck in the 70s by D.L. Garfinkle is a light-hearted book. Tyler wakes up in the middle of the night to find a gorgeous naked girl in his bathtub. Shay thinks this is a practical joke. One minute she is partying in 2006 and the next thing she knows there’s a dorky guy staring at her insisting that it is now 1978. Spoiled rich girl Shay wants nothing more than to get back to 2006 while Tyler wouldn’t mind if she would stay for a while. They strike a deal. Tyler will try to figure out a way to get her back to the future and Shay will help Tyler shed his science geek reputation and become part of the popular crowd. Soon Shay is turning Tyler’s life upside down with her modern ideas.

This book is told in alternating chapters by Shay and Tyler so the reader sees both sides of the story. It is a fun story of finding love and one’s true identity and what is really important in life. It is not a deep book, but a fun read.

Beastly by Alex Flinn

Beastly by Alex Flinn is the best revenge against that arrogant, good looking jerk that sits across from you in Math class. Kyle Kingsbury is very good looking. The problem is that he knows it. And he doesn’t mind letting everyone know that he is better than they are because of how he looks. However, Kyle messes with the wrong girl. Kendra is a witch—a real witch. Kyle decides that it would be funny to ask her to the school dance and then stand her up. He intends to humiliate her in front of the entire school. But Kendra gets her revenge by turning Kyle into a beast—a real beast. The curse can only be broken if Kyle can find a girl he can love who will fall in love with him. This is a great new take on the Beauty and the Beast story and a fun romance.

Tithe

We got another nice snow last night--probably 5 inches. It is really pretty out. I like the way the snow looks before it has been all tracked up and dirty. It is pretty as I look out the library windows and see snow on the top of the buildings and on the tree branches.

I am not a huge fan of fantasy books. I usually purchase them for the library because of good reviews and then never read them. However, many of the library’s patrons really like fantasy and every once in a while I will find a book that I really should read. Tithe: a modern faerie tale by Holly Black was one of these books. It has been very popular so I thought that I would grab it and see why everyone was reading it. And, like all the fantasy books I read which isn’t many, I enjoyed it.

Tithe is a strange, but a good read. Debauchery, despair, deceit, and grisly death-what more could you ask from a fairy tale? 16-year-old Kaye has always been considered a freak. Part of that is because she has spent most of her life in seedy bars with her mother’s struggling rock bands. But part of it is also because of her childhood memories of being friends with fairies. When Kaye meets Roiben, the wounded and incredibly good lucking elven knight, she is unprepared for what happens next. Her childhood friends return to tell her that Roiben serves the evil Unseelie Court and that Kaye has been designated as a tithe, a mortal sacrifice that binds the courts together. But what if Kaye isn’t really mortal? You will enjoy reading about Kaye who is a clever, courageous heroine with an appealingly wry voice, and Roiben who is a gloriously damaged and darkly noble tragic hero. This book is a fantastic example of urban fantasy. And, of course, there are a couple of sequels.

Right Behind You

Go Giants! I was glad to see them win the Super Bowl! I think that I am always rooting for the underdog! However, I am tired of the Patriots and want to see someone else win. Plus I really like the idea of Peyton winning last year and Eli winning this year. What a great story!

I watch a lot of the pre-game stuff. I can't believe that Paula Abdul has a new single out! She was popular when I was in high school, but hasn't done much except reality TV since. The song sounded too computerized--I wasn't sure that she was even singing! I wasn't too impressed with the commercials this year. I did like the one with the dog training the clydesdale. That was cute. Otherwise, none of the others really stuck out except maybe the baby investing online, but that was a little creepy! Oh well, I enjoyed the game.

I just finished reading Right Behind You by Gail Giles. The book reminded me a lot of Looking for J.J. which I read a couple of weeks ago. I am surprised to find two books about children killing children published so close together. I really like Right Behind You, maybe even more than I liked Looking for J.J. Looking for J.J. was more of a mystery to find out what happened. Right Behind You tells what happened from the beginning so there is no mystery involved there. But it is a great story of redemption and forgiveness.

At the beginning of the book, Kip is 9 years old when he douses a 7-year-old neighbor with gasoline and sets him on fire in a jealous rage. He is put in a psychiatric hospital for juvenile offenders where he spends the next 5 years of his life, trying to deal with what he has done. At the age of 14, he is released from the facility and encouraged to change his name and start a new life. So Kip becomes Wade and he moves to a small Indiana town to begin again. Things are good at his new school where he makes new friends, finds a girlfriend and joins the swim team, but Wade is filled with guilt and shame and struggles with keeping his past hidden—after all does he really deserve to be happy?

Feels Like Home

I was thinking about The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton the other day, so I was really surprised to find the book Feels Like Home by e.E. Charlton-Trujillo. In this book the main character Mickey loves the book The Outsiders. It was something she shared with her older brother Danny before he went away. Danny was 6 years older than Mickey, but he always took care of her. He made sure that she had a front-row seat at all his football games and he never left her alone. Danny was the town hero his senior year when he helped bring home the first State Football championship in decades. But then tragedy struck and Danny was blamed and he left town in shame.

Feels Like Home starts 6 years after the tragedy. Mickey is now 15-years-old and her father has died. Danny returns home for the funeral even though Mickey has not heard from him for 5 years. Mickey has not forgiven him for leaving and she does not want him to be part of her life now. She is struggling to get past the grief and to deal with her brother’s return. To add to her struggles, her best friend Christina, whose mother would like her not to be friends with a “gringa,” tells her that Ricky Martinez, the new football star in town, likes her. This book does a great job showing the small Texas town’s obsession with football and racial and social conflicts. Plus it is just a really good story about the complexities of being a family.

The Real Question

It is cold and windy here today. It is even snowing a little bit, not very much, but the wind makes it look worse than it is. It is kind of neat because the snow has piled up a couple of inches or so on the outside of the library windows. It is definitely a good day to stay inside and read! Plus it is Kansas Day. So Happy Birthday, Kansas!

I just finished reading The Real Question by Adrian Fogelin. Fisher Brown is a straight A student. He has studied hard and done everything expected of him since 6th grade. His father pushes him to succeed in school, to ace the SATs and to get into a great Ivy League university and to help Fish stay motivated, he puts index cards with questions on them around his room. One day when Fish finds the card that says, “What is the Real Questions?” Fisher wonders what is the real question for his life. The pressure seems to be too much and he slowly feels himself beginning to crack. So when his father leaves town, Fish decides to take a break. The careless and carefree Lonny asks Fisher to go with him to help roof a house for a former girlfriend and Fish sees it as the escape he needs. However, Fisher finds himself stranded several hundred miles from home and he must decide where his real future lies.

Hail Caesar

When I was in high school, I loved the book, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. I read it and her other books several times. The thing that I really liked about The Outsiders is that it was written by a 15-year-old. That book is still really popular today and I think part of the popularity is that it is written by a teenager. A couple of years ago when Eragon came out, I loved that it was written by 17-year-old Christopher Paolini. Books written by teens are always popular with other teens. So I was excited when I picked up Hail Caesar by Thu-Huong Ha. Ha was 15-years-old when she wrote this book.

Senior John Miller has it all. In fact, he is the king, the emperor which is why they call him Caesar. His friends and even his teachers call him Caesar. He rules the school. He can do whatever he wants and have whatever girl he wants. That is until a new girl comes to town and Eva is not impressed by him or his reputation. She forces Caesar to confront the type of person that he is and figure out what type of person he would like to become. Ha holds nothing back in her description of the parties and the meaningless sex and the language she uses when she writes.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

I am glad that Parent Teacher conferences are over for another trimester! I used to like conferences because I had a chance to meet my students’ parents. But now that I am in the library, I don’t have that many students. This trimester I have two student aides. I saw both their parents in the first 30 minutes of conferences, so that made for a lot of sitting. I did do a book fair during conferences and that helped me see a few more people. But I still had plenty of time to read.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is a great book. It is one of those rare books where I laughed while my heart was breaking. Alexie writes a heart-wrenchingly hilarious coming-of-age story about Arnold Spirit growing up on “the rez” in Washington State. Arnold is a goofy looking freshman with a good jump shot and a pressing desire to be something different from the other people on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Arnold sees how alcohol, poverty and lack of education has doomed the members of his tribe, so he knows that he must do something different. After he is kicked out of school for hitting a teacher in the face with a book, Arnold transfers to a small school off the reservation. On his first day, Arnold wonders what he is doing at “Reardon where the school mascot is the Indian making him the only other Indian in town.” The dominate mode of the novel is humor. Arnold wants to be a cartoonist, so it is filled with his cartoons to explain his view of the world. Even through all the tough times he faces, Arnold finds a way to see the good in the world and find hope for the future.

All-In

I have a friend who has a weekly Texas Hold'em Poker game. The 10 dollar buy in gets you a certain amount of chips and once you lose them you are done. I have never done very well. Always being one of the first to lose my chips, I usually spend the rest of the night talking with the other "losers" in the kitchen! I am a terrible liar, so everyone knows when I am bluffing. That makes for a lousy poker player.

The book All-In by Pete Hautman is about a teenager who is a fantastic poker player. In fact, he makes so much money playing poker that he leaves his home town to move to Las Vegas and play full-time. The descriptions of the tournaments are exciting. I never thought that reading about the action in a card game could be thrilling, but Hautman has a gift. Denn Doyle is 17 years old and he has won and lost a fortune playing poker. He gets on some one's bad side and they set him up to lose everything. Now Denn's only chance is a winner- take-all tournament; however, he has to come up with the $10,000 entry fee.

If I Have a Wicked Stepmother, Where's My Prince?

I finally had some time this weekend to work in my yard. I have had snow in my yard since the ice storm before Christmas. With a couple of nice days last week, most of the snow has melted, so I was able to get out there and do some raking. I had two great big cypress trees in my backyard and they are really messy. I needed to rake up all the junk they lost plus the broken limbs from the ice storm. I moved the big limbs out into the front yard so they could be picked up. The city says that it is working on picking them up, but it might be March before they get to my neighborhood, and I just am not patient enough to wait that long. So I found someone with a truck who would pick them up for me. It will be nice to have that done. I also packed all the leaves and stuff in garbage bags and set them out by the curb to be picked up with the trash today. I felt pretty good about my yard when I finished, so I didn't feel bad about spending several hours reading a book.

The book I read was If I Have a Wicked Stepmother, Where's My Prince? by Melissa Kantor. This book is nothing new, but if you like romantic fiction it is a good read. Lucy's father has remarried and moved her from California to New York, so she can live with her new stepmother and her two new stepsisters. Her father has some business to finish in California so Lucy is there alone. She feels invisible at her new school until she has a conversation about basketball with the "cutest guy in school." And suddenly Lucy's life is looking up. She sees that maybe she can have a prince since she has a wicked stepmother and two wicked stepsisters. However, Lucy starts to see that maybe the prince isn't so perfect after all. This book is witty, light and very entertaining and Lucy is a strong female character.

Absolutely Positively Not...Gay

I had to laugh at the book Absolutely Positively Not...Gay by David LaRochelle. The main character Steven is a closet square dancer. At school every year before Christmas, our students go to the gym and square dance. The gym is filled with students who really enjoy the activity. So it was funny to see Steven who doesn't want his friends to know that he likes to square dance. Steven has other problems too. He doesn't like sports, his best friend is a girl, and he just can't seem to find any enthusiasm for the Victoria Secret catalog, but he is "absolutely positively not gay!" This book treats the subject of sexuality in a humorous, but honest way. Steven tries to deny who he really is by dating as many girls as possible and reading a book that attempts to curb his "deviant behavior." This book is sometimes laugh out loud funny and sometimes it really makes you think about teens and the world we live in. We all can understand how Steven feels as he searches for someone to talk to--someone who shares his feelings. And everyone--gay or straight--can understand the need to be accepted.

Looking for J.J.

I like to watch sports of TV. I watched the KU basketball game last night. It was not a very good game, so I didn't have to pay close attention which was good because I was reading a really good book.

Looking for J.J. by Anne Cassidy is a good mystery novel. Six years ago 10 year old Jennifer Jones killed her best friend. She has now been released from prison and is trying to make a new life for herself. However, the tabloids will not leave Jennifer Jones alone. They want interviews and want to know why one child would kill another and want to see what kind of monster she is. J.J. has become Alice as she tries to put her past behind her. However, Alice is haunted by what happened when she was 10 years old and so is the reader. The story of the murder is told in flashbacks as the reader discovers what happened with J.J. and her friend and her family. If you like books that keep you guessing, this is a good one. And I really liked the ending because it seemed real. I don't like books that have those canned endings that tie everything up nicely and put it in a neat little box. Life is messy and I like books that reflect that. Looking for J.J. does that.

Twisted

Happy New Year! And Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

I am a few days behind. The Jayhawks won the Orange Bowl last Thursday night, so it is a good time to be from Kansas! Of course, I stayed up and watched the game and then I was tired the next day. I don't think that I was the only one though.

I am still trying to get back into the swing of school after the Christmas vacation. One of my New Year resolutions is to blog more often. We'll have to see how that goes; it doesn't look too promising. I don't know what happened to the vacation time. I thought that I would have lots of time to read, but somehow that didn't happen. I guess that there were too many friends and family members to see because I only read one book over the break.

The book was a really good one. Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson was a really good read! I loved Speak and also enjoyed Prom which are also by her, so I knew that I would enjoy it. I liked the twisted pencil on the front cover of the book which is what made me pick it up to begin with. (Yes, I judge books by their covers.) Anyway I don't know why, but I expected it to be a fun read like Prom instead of being thought-provoking like Speak. However, this book really made me think and it was a great combination of funny and sad. Tyler Miller was socially invisible before he spray-painted the school and became "dangerous." As he describes himself, "I was a zit on the butt of the student body." But the physical labor he does for his community service with the school custodians and his summer job working for a landscaper transform him from a wimpy junior to a strong, ripped senior. Suddenly the girl of his dreams sees him and his new muscles in a new light and his social life has hope. When naked pictures of Brittany are posted on the Internet, the police and the school come after Tyler. When there seems to be no justice for Tyler, he considers many possible escapes including running away and suicide. Although the book doesn't have a "happily-ever-after" ending, Tyler perseveres and shows strong moral integrity. This book is sad and funny and hopeful!