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!

The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez by Alan Lawrence Sitomer

Sonia wants to be the first in her family to graduate from high school and go to college. Her parents are illegal immigrants and did not have the opportunities she has, and Sonia know that in America, education equals opportunities. She has big plans for her future.

However, Sonia’s plans are disrupted by her life. Her father works three jobs to support his family. Her mother is pregnant with twins and is on bed rest and her drunk uncle has come to live with them. Sonia is forced to cook, clean and take care of her family. She often has to miss school to help out at home and things look bleak for the possibilities of graduating. The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez by Alan Lawrence Sitomer shows what Sonia must do to find her future while dealing with her family, avoiding her drunk uncle and falling in love.

A Kansas Year

A Kansas Year by Mike Blair is a beautiful book of pictures showing the beauty of one year in the state of Kansas. Blair goes through the year with incredible photographs that show Kansas at its best. January includes pictures of an ice storm and a couple of raccoons in their den. The author gets it right when he writes, "The reader should not be confused if one January entry is shirtsleeve warm, while the next is cold and snowy. The beauty of a Kansas year is found in its diversity, and that's why it's a compelling journey." Everyone who has ever lived in Kansas knows how true this statement is.

From the snow covered cattails to the Ninnescah on an August morning to a December sunset over the prairie. This is a breathtakingly beautiful book.

Sequels

I just finished the third book is a couple of series and enjoyed them both a lot!

Kiss in the Dark by Lauren Henderson is the third book in the "Kiss" series.

Having solved the mystery of Dan’s death, Scarlett thinks that life will finally settle down. She is happy with her best friend Taylor and her boyfriend Jase and is even dealing with her archenemy Plum now attending Wakefield School. Of course, things do not remain calm in Scarlett’s life. Jase’s father and grandmother and Scarlett’s aunt do not want Jase and Scarlett to see each other. Jase’s father reacts almost violently to their being together and Scarlett’s aunt hauls her home in the middle of a date. However, when Jase’s father is found dead, everything blows up and Scarlett again needs to investigate what really happened and how his death is connected to her past and the death of her parents years ago. Once again Henderson presents an interesting mystery to be solved and Scarlett is right in the middle of it.

Although the mystery of Jase's father's death is solved in this book, another mystery is brought up about Scarlett’s parents. This opens the door for another book in the series.

The other book I just finished was the final book in the "Hunger Games" series Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. Like the other two books--Hunger Games and Catching Fire--Mockingjay kept me on the edge of my seat; I couldn't stop reading because I had to know what would happen to Katniss.

The book begins after Katniss has been removed from the Quarter Quell by the rebels of District 13 who are leading the rebellion to over throw the Capitol. Peeta has been left behind and is taken captive by the Capitol. District 13 wants Katniss to become the Mockingjay a symbol of rebellion that will encourage the rebel troops to continue fighting for the good of the people. This throws Katniss right in the middle of the Civil War. In addition to trying to save her own life, she now feels responsible for the lives of the rebels. All the while, she hopes to save Peeta from certain torture at the hands of President Snow.

This book resolves all the open questions from the first two books. It is a good if not particularly happy ending to the series.

Blue Plate Special by Michelle D. Kwasney

Welcome back to school! The library is still a mess because we are supposed to move in a month at the end of September. However, we have lots of new books for you to enjoy!

“We all inherit someone else’s leftovers. They’re a part of your Blue Plate Special. A part of you,” observes Ariel, one of three teens, each from a different generation, who tell her stories in the novel Blue Plate Special by Michelle D. Kwasney. Each of the three teens is 15 or 16 when she tells her stories.

The first is Madeline in 1977 who struggles to find love and acceptance wherever she can. Her mother is a drunk and Madeline eats to find happiness, so she must deal with being overweight in addition to her family situation. It is only when she meets Tad at the local McDonald’s that Madeline starts to find acceptance.

Desiree writes in free verse in 1993. Her family life is also a struggle with a mother who refuses to see the world as it really is. She accuses Desiree of acting like a slut while she lives with her worthless boyfriend Larry. Desiree spends her time trying to avoid Larry and dreams of being with her boyfriend Jeremy. But Larry is impossible to avoid and Desiree’s life spirals out of control.

The last teen is Ariel in 2009. Ariel is being raised by a single mother also, but her mother is caring and Ariel feels that she can talk to her mother about almost anything. Anything that is except for her relationship with Shane. Shane is the new kid at school and he is good looking and cool, but he is also possessive and wants Ariel all to himself. She finds that she does not have time for her friends any more and that she spends all of her time trying to make Shane happy instead of doing what would make her happy. Ariel discovers that she must evaluate her relationship with Shane when her mother takes her to see the grandmother she had never met.

The lives of the three teens are told in separate stories until we see how it all fits together about halfway through the book. It is a really good read about love, loss and forgiveness.

The Secret Year by Jennifer R. Hubbard

Colt and Julia are from completely different worlds. Julia lives on Black Mountain in her fancy mansion with all the rich people in town while Colt lives down on the Flats with the not-so-privileged. In their school, the two groups of people do not mix. But somehow Julia and Colt fall for each other and they begin a secret relationship in The Secret Year by Jennifer R. Hubbard. At school, they act like they don't know each other, but then meet at night by the river where no one else sees them.

But one night Julia is killed in an automobile accident and now Colt doesn't know what to do. He is traumatized by her death, but he is unable to share his grief with anyone. His friends didn't really know Julia and do not feel her loss and they do not know that Colt even knew her so he cannot share his feelings with them. Julia's friends, who are mourning her death, will have nothing to do with Colt. And since their relationship was secret, no one would believe that rich Julia was friends with poor Colt.

Julia's brother discovers the relationship between Julia and Colt and he gives Colt a notebook where Julia wrote letters and poems to Colt. Reading this notebook causes Colt to relive the year with Julia as he works through his secret pain.

Front and Center by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

I really like DJ Schwenk. I enjoyed reading about her troubles when she decides to go out for football in the book Dairy Queen. I felt terrible for her, but still liked reading about her working with her injured brother in The Off Season. And I really liked the way Catherine Gilbert Murdock finished her story in Front and Center.

Football season is over and her brother is doing better so DJ has returned to school and is looking forward to basketball season. She has a new boyfriend Beaner who is fun to be around and accepts DJ for who she is unlike Brian her first boyfriend. However, it doesn't take long for DJ's life to get complicated. As good as she is at basketball, DJ's coach wants her to be more assertive on the court. He says that she has to learn to be more vocal. But DJ is painfully shy and telling other players what to do is painful for her. Additionally many Division I universities are recruiting her to play basketball for them, but she has to overcome her shyness and participate in the recruiting process. The idea of talking to coaches and playing in front of large crowds of people make her physically sick. To top it all off, as great as Beaner is, DJ finds herself thinking more and more about Brian.

It is fun to listen as DJ tells the problems of her life and watch her make the decision that will affect the rest of her life. Front and Center is a satisfying conclusion to a wonderful trilogy. If you read the first two books, you have to read the conclusion.

Merchant of Death by D.J. MacHale

The Merchant of Death by D.J. MacHale is the first in the Pendragon series. There are now 10 books in this series. I am the first to admit that I am not a huge fantasy reading, but I have a library aide this trimester who is and she is a great authority on most fantasy series. Emily generously agreed to write a book review for the first book in this series which has been very popular in the past couple of years.

Bobby Pendragon may look like a normal fourteen year old, but what he doesn’t know is that he is going to save the world. In The Merchant of Death by D.J. MacHale, Bobby’s Uncle Press shows up one and night and tells him that there are some people who need their help. What Bobby didn’t realize was that the people in need of help weren’t on Earth.

Press and Bobby travel across space and time, using flumes, to the medieval territory of Denduron, which is on the edge of a dangerous revolution. Only one small push is needed to send the territory into disaster. The evil Saint Dane is there to provide that push, and Bobby and his new friends are the only things standing in Saint Dane’s way. All the while Bobby can only think about how to get back home. But soon Bobby comes to realize that Denduron is only the beginning.

The Sweetheart of Prosper County

Somehow the month of March got away from me and it has been over a month since I have put anything new on my blog. Because of construction, the library has moved into a temporary space, so that is what I have been doing instead of reading. We are finally settling in and here are some pictures of our fantastic temporary space. The construction workers are really working on remodeling our new library and we are supposed to be in it sometime at the beginning of next school year. However, we are enjoying our new view and our new home, however temporary it is!

As we begin Spring, I start looking for books that have a summer feel to them. The Sweetheart of Prosper County by Jill S. Alexander is one of those books. The rooster on the front cover with the Country Fair blue ribbon makes me think of the many county fairs I have attended!

However, The Sweetheart of Prosper County is not just a lighthearted novel about the country fair, it is a novel about a family dealing with loss. Austin’s father died on Christmas Eve when she was only 6 years old, and even though, Austin is now a freshmen in high school, her mother is stilling wearing black T-shirts and refusing to celebrate Christmas or other holidays.

As her freshman year progresses, Austin grows increasingly tired of Dean Ottner the school bully making fun of her. It seems that she is his favorite target and she wants to shut him up once and for all. In order to do this, Austin decides to join the FFA at school and become a Sweetheart of Prosper County and ride in the Christmas Parade next year She thinks that Dean will not be able to make fun of the Sweetheart of Prosper County. So she asks her mother for a chicken for Christmas. so she can have an animal to enter at the County Fair. This is when a rooster named Charles Dickens enters her family, she becomes friends with Josh, a reticent cowboy, and tries to helps her mother deal with the grief from the loss of her father. If you are looking for a fun read, this is the perfect book for you.

The Tear Collector by Patrick Jones

I'll admit it, I haven't been reading too much lately. I guess that I have been spending too much time watching the Olympics! Anyway Krista, one of my wonderful library aides, has agreed to fill it with this fantastic book review!

Blood sucking, mysterious, and evil is what everyone perceives as a vampire, but Cassandra Gray does not fit that stereotype in The Tear Collector by Patrick Jones. Her family strives on human tears to fuel them for their days.

Whether it’s breaking up with boyfriends, turning friends against each other, or working at the local hospital, she’ll do whatever she can to get the tears to keep her grandmother going. But she’s getting tired of the lying and deceit especially when she meets Scott.

Meanwhile the next generation needs to be made and it’s Cassandra’s turn in line. She must mate with her seemingly perfect cousin, Alexei. But is he all he is cracked up to be?

Now she must choose between the newfound emotion and her family. Will she risk everything, including exile to be with Scott? Or will she continue to stay beside her family and court with the darling Alexei?

Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler

In Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler, Anna has lived next door to Frankie and Matt her entire life. They are best friends who do almost everything together. Everything is perfect, especially on her fifteenth birthday when Anna and Matt share a kiss. Suddenly they are sneaking time away from Frankie to be together. Matt feels that he should tell his sister about their relationship and he swears Anna to secrecy. But then the unthinkable happens; Matt dies in a horrible accident before he can tell Frankie and now Anna struggles with what to tell her best friend.

One year later, Frankie’s family invites Anna to go with them to California for a three week vacation on the beach. This is the vacation that Matt, Frankie and their parents take every year. Although Anna has never been to California, she has heard so many stories from Matt that she feels like she knows all about it. Frankie sees the vacation as a chance for a summer romance. In fact, she invents the challenge of the Twenty Boy Summer. She says that she and Anna are going to meet twenty boys while they are in California. Anna says that she will go along but really the only boy she wants is Matt back.

This is a heartbreaking novel about a family trying to deal with a tragic loss while Anna struggles with her right to feel the same grief.

ABC's of Kissing Boys by Tina Ferraro

In ABC’s of Kissing Boys by Tina Ferraro, Parker is a going to be a junior in high school and is looking forward to all the rewards that come with being an upperclassman. However, one week before school starts, everything falls apart. The soccer coach posts the list of players who will be playing on the varsity team this year and Parker’s name is not listed. She discovers that she is one of only two juniors who are on the JV team. To make matters worse, Parker’s popular best friends tell her that they will not be hanging out with her this fall because she needs to spend time “bonding” with her freshmen and sophomore teammates.

Feeling isolated, embarrassed and left out, Parker decides that making the varsity soccer team will fix all of her problems. So she works out a plan with her college age brother and his best friend the fantastically handsome Luke. "The Plan" involves Luke purchasing a kiss from Parker at the Sports Fair kissing booth. But Luke tells her that in order for the plan to work, the kiss must look real, so she needs to learn how to kiss.

Enter the good-looking freshman from across the street. Over the summer, Travis has grown several inches to over 6 feet tall and he has filled out so that he doesn’t look like a freshman and Parker learns that he is only 364 days younger than she is. Travis also worked at a camp this summer where he learned "lots" of kissing "techniques." Travis convinces her that her plan will only work if he gives her kissing lessons.

When she and Travis are caught together, Parker takes lots of teasing at school and this makes her resolve to make her plan work even stronger. The fact that Travis and Parker’s fathers are having a feud adds to the problems with the situation and gives the story a Romeo and Juliet feel. Of course, Parker learns what is really important but the romance that develops along the way is a fun read.

Two Parties, One Tux and a Very Short Film about the Grapes of Wrath By Steven Goldman

Two Parties, One Tux, One Very Short Film about the Grapes of Wrath by Steven Goldman is a hilarious novel about the end of Mitchell's Junior year in high school. Mitchell and David are best friends. They do everything together; they are even taking a film-making class where they create Claymation-type films. But everything changes when David informs Mitchell that he is guy. Suddenly Mitchell doubt the direction his life is headed.

Although Mitchell has always been a good student, he decides not to read The Grapes of Wrath (a book that I love, by the way) and instead of writing the three page papers assigned by his English teacher, he turns in one of his film projects. Although the film is very short, it contains violence and nudity and causes Mitch's life to spin out of control. As a result he finds himself being called into the head master's office with a threat of suspension, dating one of the hottest girls in school, and trying to figure out what to do about David.

Michell's narrative shows his dry wit through his observations of the high school social scene and how he resides at the bottom of the social ladder. You will laugh as everything that can go wrong does and how Mitch deals with his life in a very humorous manner.

Devil's Paintbox by Victoria McKernan

Aiden is fifteen years old and living with his younger sister Maddy in a dugout on a homestead in Kansas. Their parents and brothers and sisters have all died and a fire has burned up any possibility of a crop this year. They are barely surviving on grasshoppers, dirt and other things that they can catch. The outlook is bleak in The Devil's Paintbox by Victoria McKernan.

Hope for the future comes in the form of Jefferson J. Jackson who is recruiting men to be loggers in the Pacific Northwest. Jackson will pay for Maddy’s and Aiden’s journey on a Wagon Train to Seattle and then Aiden will work for two years as a logger to pay off the passage. Maddy and Aiden know that this is their only hope for survival, so they join the Wagon Train on the Oregon Trail.

The journey is not easy as they have problems with wolves, dangerous river crossings and small pox along the way. Their adventures are both exciting and horrifying. Aiden makes friends with an Indian along the way who wants to vaccinate the Indians for small pox—what the Indians call the Devil’s Paint—and Aiden gets mixed up in his dangerous scheme.

This is not a happily-ever-after book, but it does a good job showing the struggles faced while the pioneers crossed the United States looking for a better way of life. Living in Kansas, this book hits close to home as I think of my relatives who homesteaded in Kansas and tried to survive when things were tough. In fact, the old dugout where my great grandparents lived is still there in Rush County.

Crash into Me by Albert Borris

Crash into Me by Albert Borris is a very interesting novel. This is one of those books that I just couldn't put down, but had to read cover to cover. I had to find out what was going to happen at the end.

Owen wants to kill himself; in fact, he has tried to kill himself seven times. While spending time in a Psych Hospital, Owen meets Jin-Ae who also wants to commit suicide. Together they meet two other suicidal teens—Frank and Audrey. Together the four of the form, what they call, a suicide pact and a suicide pack. They decide to take a road trip where they will visit the graves of famous people who killed themselves. The trip will be a cross country journey starting in New Jersey and culminating with the four of them committing suicide in Death Valley, California. On this trip the four of them share secrets and learn many things about themselves. They discover truths about themselves and about life and love. Ultimately they each must decide whether life is worth living or if there is no turning back.

Kisses and Lies by Lauren Henderson AND Me, the Missing and the Dead by Jenny Valentine

For those of you who have read, Kiss Me Kill Me by Lauren Henderson, I just finished the sequel Kisses and Lies. In the first book, Scarlett gets her first kiss from Dan who dies as a result. As she deals with this death, she discovers that it was no accident, that someone murdered Dan and used her to do it. In Kisses and Lies, Scarlett uncovers the secrets surrounding Dan’s death and with the help of her friend Taylor, she works to discover who really killed Dan. This investigation takes her to Scotland to visit Dan’s family. Once again this novel is Gossip Girl meets Nancy Drew and it is a great mystery. Although the ending suggests that there will be another book in the series, the mystery of who killed Dan is solved by the end of this book.

Me, the Missing and the Dead by Jenny Valentine is a book I picked up because it was short and looked like a quick easy read. It was a quick easy read, but this is also a great book. Lucas Swain is 16 years old and one day he walks into a cab office to get a ride home and there he meets Violet Park. The kicker is that Violet Park is old and dead. He sees the urn holding her ashes on a shelf in the cab office. After some investigation, he discovers that someone had left it in a cab nearly 5 years ago. Lucas feels that it is his mission to discover who she was and where she belongs. To complicate things Lucas’ father disappeared 5 years ago and no one knows if he is dead or if he ran off, but there has been no sign of him for five years. The mystery of Violet Park leads Lucas to the truth about himself and his father. It is a great mystery the way the pieces all fit together

Witch and Wizard by James Patterson

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday break. I did, but I was ready to get back into the swing of things. The weather was too cold over the break to do much except eat, watch football and read. Of course, I did get to spend some time with my family which is always fun. I had a chance to read several books that have been sitting on my desk waiting for me to have some time. One of these was Witch & Wizard by James Patterson.

Before I go any further, I need to say that I love James Patterson. I have read every Alex Cross novel he has written and enjoy some of his other series too. I picked up Witch & Wizard as an ARC at the American Association of School Librarians National Conference in Charlotte earlier this year. In fact I spent part of the conference stalking him trying to get my picture taken with him. That didn't work, but here is a picture of him speaking at the conference--I did get a seat close to the front row, but that is as close as I got--too bad!

Witch & Wizard is different from most of the Patterson books I have read, but it is an interesting book. The book begins with the Allgood family standing in a large arena waiting to be executed. The New Order has taken over the government and the Allgoods are considered enemies of the state. After this brief flash, the reader is taken back to the beginning and what happened to get them in such a predicament. Like many books written now, this book has two narrators and the chapters alternate between them. Wisty and Whit Allgood are arrested for being a witch and a wizard. The problem is that neither of them knew that they had supernatural powers, but these powers seem to develop as they are put on trial and work on their escape. Wisty and Whit eventually join a group of young people who are working to overthrow the New Order.

Like all of Patterson's books, this is an easy read with short chapters and lots of action. It also sets things up for this to be a series of books. Whit and Wisty are interesting characters and it will be fun to find out what happens to them in the future.