My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger

The holiday break starts this week and many students (and teachers) are looking for books to keep them occupied. Being out of school provides a perfect time to catch up on reading--and watching football--HA!

My Most Excellent Year: a Novel of Love, Mary Poppins and Fenway Park by Steve Kluger is a great lighthearted read for the Christmas break. The characters and plot are not particularly deep, but they are people that you would like to spend your holidays with and it has a happy feel-good ending. Like I said, it is the perfect book to read over the holiday.

I first picked up the book because of the title; I really wanted to know how Mary Poppins and Fenway Park fit together. In a way that is very popular now, this book is told from the point of view of the three main characters: TC, Augie and Ale'. The three teens are given an assignment in their Junior English class to write about their "most Excellent year." All three of them write about their freshmen year is high school and thus the story is told in alternating views throughout their 9th grade year.

TC is perfect--he is the guy you would want for your best friend, boyfriend, brother, son... When he was 6 years old, his mother died of cancer and he "adopted" Augie as his "brother." In face, Augie and TC are so close that they call each other's parents Mom, Dad and Pop, they have beds and dressers in each other's rooms, and they share everything. TC and Pop share a love of the Red Sox, in fact, TC, like every member of his family, was named for a Red Sox player. Augie is even more of a stereotype than TC. He loves musical theatre, is a born performer and is the last one to admit that he is gay. His freshman year is filled with his search for love and his attempt accept himself even though everyone else already does. Alejandra moves to Boston as a freshmen and quickly becomes a love interest for TC. She is as strong willed as he is and works hard to resist him. Throw in a 6-year-old deaf kid who is obsessed with Mary Poppins and you have a great book that explores not only young love and friendship, but also what really makes a family.

The characters are kind of stereotypes, but they are very likable. This book isn't going to win a Nobel Prize or anything, but it is a fun book . And it made me happy when I read it. Sometimes we need to read "junk food" for the mind. And this book fits that bill.

Happy Holidays!

The Year My Sister Got Lucky by Aimee Friedman

It is cold outside which makes it perfect to sit in the warm house and read. Now is the time to get books to keep you busy over the holiday break from school.

The Year My Sister Got Lucky by Aimee Friedman is one of those novels that makes me wish I had a sister. Katie and Michaela are best friends. They live in the East Village in New York City and study dance together at Anna Povlova’s famous ballot school. Michaela is a very promising ballerina and the plan is for her to attend Julliard after graduating from high school this year. Katie is just starting high school and is excited about attending the high school for the performing arts with Michaela. However, all those plans go out the window when their parents announce that they are moving to upstate New York so Katie and Michaela’s mother can teach Russian Literature at Fennimore Cooper College in Fir Lake, New York.

Katie is stunned. She has always been a city girl and cannot imagine not living where there is a deli on every corner. She doesn’t like bugs, animals or anything even close to nature. And the dance school is nothing like she is used to. She knows that she will never fit in at Fir Lake. And things go from bad to worse when Michaela seems to love living in Fir Lake. Her life changes completely and her new life does not include Katie.

This is a good novel about sisters, friendship and what is really important in life. Have a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

Sweethearts by Sara Zarr

It is snowing today. I can sit in my office and watch the big fat snowflakes float to the ground. It is beautiful--and cold! It is a perfect day to sit inside, drink hot chocolate and read good books!

I just finished reading Sweethearts by Sara Zarr. In this book, Jennifer Harris is the girl who everyone makes fun of. In elementary school, the kids made fun of her for everything she did. They would tease her and then she would cry and then they would make fun of her for crying. The only solace she could find was in stealing and hiding food and then her classmates made fun of her for being fat. Her single mother waits tables to support herself and Jennifer and then goes to Nursing school at night in hopes of a better life. Since her mother is busy, Jennifer often goes to school with dirty hair or clothes. And, of course, the kids make fun of her.

Jennifer’s only friend is Cameron. She and Cam do everything together. But Cameron’s life is worse than Jennifer’s with an abusive father and a mother who cannot protect her children. Jennifer and Cameron rely on each other. Until one day in 5th grade, Cameron does not come to school. The other kids in class tell Jennifer that Cameron was killed and when her mother doesn’t deny it, Jennifer believes it.

In high school Jennifer’s life changes. Her mother marries a wonderful man and Jennifer changes to a small school. She changes her name to Jenna Vaughn and leaves her past behind her. She has many friends, a boyfriend and a supportive family--everything she always wanted. But one day, Cameron shows up on her door step and everything changes. Suddenly she is confronted with reconciling her past with her present. Is Jennifer Harris the same person as Jenna Vaughn?

Kiss Me Kill Me by Lauren Henderson

Kiss Me Kill Me by Lauren Henderson starts out like another Gossip Girl or Private novel. Scarlett attends a very posh girls’ school in London. She longs to be part of the popular group—the rich, polished girls who dress in all the latest fashions and date the best boys. But Scarlett is an athlete, a gymnast who spends most of her time training,and likes to wear sweats and doesn't think too much about her appearance.

Scarlett's parents died when she was only 5 and she lives with a guardian. However, one day after gymnastics practice, Scarlett is asked to attend a party with the “in-crowd.” Turning her back on her two best friends, Scarlett attends the party and finds herself kissing the boy of her dreams on the terrace.

This is where the book changes from the normal fancy prep school novel to something much more interesting. When Scarlett is kissing Dan, he suddenly gasps for air and suffocates in her arms. The popular girls accuse Scarlett of killing him and quickly her life changes. She changes school from the posh London girls school to an isolated highly academic school in the country. But all she can think of is what happened to Dan. Scarlett must learn to make a new life for herself and find out what happened to Dan.

This book has a good ending, but there is a sequel that I am anxious to read too.

Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty by Jody Elizabeth Gehrman

Confessions of the Triple Shot Betty by Jody Elizabeth Gehrman is a lighthearted story of friendship and romance. Geena plans to spend her summer working at the Triple Shot Betty coffee Shop with her two best friends: Amber and Hero. She imagines whipping up lattes during the day and sleepovers at night. Hero goes to an exclusive boarding school and is only in town for the summer, and Geena is excited that her two best friends will finally meet. However, things do not go as planned. Amber and Hero do not like each other and this puts Geena in the middle of an uncomfortable situation.

However, Amber and Hero put their differences aside when they work to set Geena up with a guy who is her rival for valedictorian. This part of the plot borrows itself directly from Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. In an interesting subplot, John the school’s golden boy decides he likes Hero who wants nothing to do with him. When John uses both Amber and Hero in his ploy to get what he wants, Amber, Hero and Geena concoct a creative plan to get back at John for all he has done.

Enjoy this story of three friends who have many different strengths and weaknesses, but come out on top and together in the end.

Fancy White Trash by Marjetta Geerling

If you are searching for a lighthearted book to read Fancy White Trash by Marjetta Geerling is the perfect choice. I have to confess that I unwind every day watching the DVR of my soap opera, and Abby Savage, the narrator of this novel, loves soap operas. In fact, her entire life is a soap opera.

Her older sister Shelby is 20 years old and already married and divorced with one child. Her other sister Kait is pregnant with Steve’s baby. To make things worse Steve dated Shelby before he dating Kait; however, it makes it really a soap opera when Steve marries Abby’s mom and she is also pregnant with Steve’s child. Babies aside, Abby's best friend Cody will not admit he is gay and all Abby wants is to find a guy to date who has not dated or slept with any of her sisters or her mother! So she forms a 5-step plan to find her One True Love. But when Cody’s brother Jackson returns home from a summer spent helping the poor in Central America, he does not fit the One True Love plan and that complicates things. To make matters more confusing, Jackson used to date Kait and Abby suspects that he, not Steve, might be the father of Kait’s unborn baby. All of this makes for a fun soap opera read!

Funny How Things Change by Melissa Wyatt

In Funny How Things Change by Melissa Wyatt, Remy Walker has just graduated from high school and now must make some major decisions about his life. His family has always lived on Walker Mountain in West Virginia. It is not an easy life, living in a trailer with unreliable plumbing and his father mining and selling coal by the pickup load. But Remy has never known any other life and unlike most of the people in his small town, he does not dream of living elsewhere. He has a job working as a mechanic at the filling station and he is content.

However, it is "funny how things change, Remy's girlfriend Lisa is going away to college in Pennsylvania and she wants Remy to go with her. He doesn’t plan to go to college, but they could share an apartment and he could find a job while she is at school. The idea of not being with her makes him sick. But so does the idea of leaving his home. He once went to live with his mother in Virginia Beach, but he didn’t like it, missing his mountain and way of life more than he thought was possible. Can he really follow Lisa?

To make things more complicated, a new girl has come to town. She is working on a government grant to paint murals on the water towers of small towns around West Virginia. Through Dana’s eyes, Remy sees the beauty of where he lives and struggles with making a decision.

When we get a certain age, we all must make decisions about our futures and whether we choose home or adventure? New or Old? Love or Family? This is a great novel that explores these struggles.