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.