Reality Check by Peter Abrahams

I had just finished a bunch of girl books, so I knew I needed to read something different.  I had been wanting to read this book forever - and finally got it in paperback.  It was awesome.  I really think my students will like it.

Reality check is a suspenseful mystery about a missing girl.  Cody Laredo is a high school kid who is awesome at football but not as awesome in school, though he does pass his classes.  As summer approaches, he is excited to spend time with his super-smart, super-beautiful, and super-rich girlfriend, Clea Weston.  Clea lives in the biggest house in town.  She's taking calculus as a sophomore and her dad has big plans for her future. Needless to say, her dad isn't thrilled that she's dating Cody - an underachiever in his eyes.

Clea loves Cody though, but their summer plans are shot when Clea's dad sends her to spend the summer with her uncle in Hong Kong.   They keep in touch and all seems well when Clea returns until she drops even more news on Cody - her dad is sending her away to a boarding school in Vermont.  Cody decides to break up with her - not really because he wants to, but because he knows there's just no way a guy like him can keep her from that far away.

He is torn up one day, though, when he sees in the local paper that Clea has gone missing from her Vermont school.  After receiving a letter from Clea - his only clue and hope to try to find her - he sets off to try to do something about it.  From this point, Cody finds out more than he ever thought he would about the small town in which Clea has been living.  Cody might not be in school, but he's smart and he uses his wits to try to figure out where his girlfriend is.  The only question is - will he be too late?

This book was really fun to read.  Once I started it, I really wanted to keep on going.  Each chapter brought new information to light in the investigation, and I really liked reading the book from Cody's point of view.  He has no reason to trust anyone, just like the reader, so I felt like we were right there together trying to piece together the mystery.  Abrahams did a good job of planting seeds of suspicion.  Just like Clea said in her letter, it's hard to know who to trust.  The mystery keeps building until the final chapter, so that will keep readers interested and guessing.  There is some cursing in the book which I don't think will bother most readers - but just have to let you know.  Overall a good, fast-paced read. 

Forgive My Fins

I am a total fan of Tera Lynn Childs.  I didn't get into Forgive My Fins quite as fast as the Goddess books, but once I had some time to sit and read - this book was just too much fun.

That is what I love about Childs - her books are just plain fun.  Fun characters and fun mythical situations - it doesn't get better.  In this book (and series) Lily Sanderson is a high school student but also a mermaid.  No one else knows her secret.  She's patiently counting the days until she can ask out her long time love and crush, Brody.  Once she and Brody go out, they can of course fall in love and he can become her mermate and all will be well in her world.

But of course things don't go as planned - they never do, do they?  Her annoying (though good-looking) neighbor, Quince Fletcher, gets in the way.  He's always bothering Lily and getting the way.  He ends up taking a bit of an interest in her situation with Brody, though...which is weird.  His plan to get Lily and Brody some time together doesn't really work out as planned and from this point on in the book - the adventures begin - at high school and in the ocean kingdom of Thalassinia.

I enjoyed this book a lot.  I was just as annoyed with Lily sometimes as she was with Quince.  She is a stubborn character who, like Quince says, doesn't always "see" things the way she should.  A great read.  If you like Childs' other books, you'll definitely like this one. 

Catalyst

I love Laurie Halse Anderson - who doesn't!!  I haven't read all of her books, but I hope to get through the few I haven't read soon.  Catalyst, like her other books, was real and gripping.  It wasn't at all what I expected, but it was great.

It's about a senior in high school, Kate Malone.  Kate is one of the top students in her class, takes AP courses, and hopes to get into MIT (she really hopes she does because it's the only school to which she's applied...but no one knows that but her....).  Her dad's a preacher and she does not share his views, but takes care of him and her brother and their home.  She runs, runs, runs, too.  Especially when she can't sleep.

Kate's life consists of doing her duties everywhere:  home, school, work...but that pattern and organized life is completely turned upside down when one of her enemies at school, Teri Litch, ends up moving in with Kate and her family after Teri's family's house burns.  Needless to say, Kate doesn't want Teri and little Mikey living with them, but there's nothing she can do.  Teri made life awful for Kate when they were younger, and she doesn't seem interested in being any different this time around.  What happens because of the move in, though, is unexpected and crazy.

Kate was a great narrator.  I found her completely honest.  She is a great student, but there are many weaknesses in her that she admits to as well.  The book moved quickly for me, and though it didn't go the direction I expected it to, I was still pleased.  I wanted a little more resolution than I got.  I was satisfied with the ending, but wanted just a little more.  Like many of Anderson's other books, this one shows real inner struggle.  You feel for the characters and see life from a new point of view because of this book.  A good read.

Extraordinary

I loved Impossible by Nancy Werlin.  Extraordinary has many of the same qualities but wasn't quite as good overall.  Extraordinary is about a girl named Phoebe Rothschild who comes from a pretty well-to-do family.  In seventh grade, Phoebe, who is already a part of a powerful group of friends, sees a new girl, Mallory Tolliver.  Mallory is dressed strangely and doesn't seem to understand how to act in school, and Phoebe is drawn to her.  Phoebe decides then and there to ditch her pretty much mean friends to become friends with Mallory.  Phoebe wants to help Mallory.  That decision leads to a life long friendship between the two girls which takes them all the way through high school.

What Phoebe doesn't know about Mallory, though, is that Mallory is not of this world.  Breaking in between the regular chapters are conversations with the Faerie Queen.  Mallory is from this realm and has a task to complete in the human world.  She struggles between completing her task (which involves her best friend, Phoebe) and living a life full of love and friendship outside of the Faerie world.  Complicating this, Mallory's "brother," Ryland arrives to help speed the task up.

Phoebe gets caught in the normal life complications that all teenagers do:  parents, friends, love....But her situation is different because Mallory and Ryland need something great from Phoebe and she has no idea what it is.  Is she strong enough to do what they need her to do?  Can she overcome the great power that a magical being like Ryland holds over her?  Follow this story to see how these relationships develop in the human world and the consequences they have for the magical beings as well.

As I said, I liked this book ok.  It didn't have me as riveted as Impossible.  I felt like Impossible kept me wanting to turn pages until the very end, but in this book, I felt like the beginning dragged on a bit.  I was more interested toward the end of the book when the two worlds really came together.  The books has a great message about friendship and the power of good friends.  I definitely will recommend this book to students, but was a little disappointed it wasn't as good as Impossible.

Mockingjay

I finally finished Mockingjay.  It's about time.  I honestly don't want to (and shouldn't) say a whole lot - because I certainly don't want to spoil anything for people who haven't read the series or finished the last book yet.  What I will say is that I like it.  It was very different from the first two; in fact, I think each book in this series has it's own personality, style, and messages.  I liked that it was different.  I liked the ending.  I, of course, got choked up here and there because as with any good series, you get attached to people and you feel for them and with them as you read.  I think that I liked this series so much because of Katniss and Peeta.  They are great and memorable characters.  Also, Panem is so our world but so not our world all at the same time.  Collins isn't making a grand point of shoving ideas down your throat - the reader can make whatever connections he/she wants between Panem and our world today.  At the heart of this series is Katniss, a girl standing up for family and for what she believes in.  A girl trying to figure out her place and her role in a society in which everyone else is out for his/her own goals.  I really enjoyed the series and am sad it's over.  Next up, though, the conclusion to the Chaos Walking Trilolgy - Monsters of Men.  Pretty pumped to see how this other series following Todd and Viola wraps up.

Shiver

 I finally finished Shiver.  I've had it for a while and just got around to reading it this week. 

Shiver is about a girl named Grace who is in high school.  What makes Grace special, though, is that she had a "run in" with some wolves when she was eleven years old.  The scars are still there, and she never forgot it.  Neither did one particular wolf.  Grace has seen "her wolf" each winter and she is sad each summer when he is gone.

What Grace discovers now is that her wolf is actually a boy - a cute, loving, caring, artistic boy named Sam.  He's watched and been in love with her since the day he first saw her all those years ago and once they meet - theirs is definitely love at first sight.  But how do you go out with a werewolf?  What will happen?  Is Grace safe with him around.  How long do they have together until Sam changes? 

While the love story is amazing - the drama in the background is growing.  Jack Culpepper was a student at Grace's school and was murdered by the wolves.  Many mysteries surround Jack's death and the other wolves complicate things for Grace and Sam. 

The book was good.  It didn't knock my socks off, but I enjoyed it and I think I will like to read the next installment to see what happens with the characters.  I liked the ending - it wrapped up wonderfully but still left you with questions at the same time.  The love between Grace and Sam is so sweet, and Sam is a guy that I can see girls wanting to fall for badly.  I liked the two points of view given by the author.  A good read.  I think girls who liked the Twilight saga will like this series, too.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

I read this book in college and now just finished it for the second time.  I'll be teaching this book in AP Literature this year.

It was beautiful.  That's my first impression.  I remembered bits of the story as I read, but what I felt most when reading this time was how beautiful the language is in this book, especially Hurston's descriptions of nature and our inner selves, our souls, our world that no one can see.  For example:

She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her.  

There are years that ask questions and years that answer.  Janie had had no chance to know things, so she had to ask.  did marriage end the cosmic loneliness of the unmated?  Did marriage compel love like the sun the day?

These bits are beautiful.  Hurston very poetically describes the bad times, too:

So gradually, she pressed her teeth together and learned to hush.  The spirit of the marriage left the bedroom and took to living in the parlor.  It was there to shake hands whenever company came to visit, but it never went back inside the bedroom again.  

Janie stood where he left her...She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her.  Then she went inside there to see what it was.  It was her image of Jody tumbled down and shattered....she turned her back upon the image where it lay and looked further...

What makes this novel so unique, also, is the juxtaposition of the beautiful narration with the honest, true, voices of the people.  Every bit of dialogue is written as it sounds.  I felt I was right there on the porch, listening to the conversations, yet I also felt a guest inside Janie's heart because I knew all she experienced inside as well.

The main story here is that the book begins with Janie coming home.  She walks by all the towns people who once knew her as Janie Starks.   She's got her hair braid hanging down and she's wearing her overalls.  They whisper and gossip about what happened to her - but none of them really know.  Her showing back up like she just did is mysterious.  So Janie sits down with her old friend Phoeby and tells Phoeby what happened.

From there we go all the way back to Janie's childhood.  She grew up with her grandmother, got married, but not for love, and then ran off with another man, Joe Starks.  From there we watch Janie become a woman.  Sometimes she submits and keeps her thoughts to herself, other times she stands up.  The settings in Florida are vividly described by Hurston and really count as characters to me.

Overall I really enjoyed the book.  I've always been a huge fan of Richard Wright, so it will be interesting to read Native Son with my students and compare the styles and content of these two books by two prominent African-American writers.  It wasn't my favorite novel ever; I didn't hold it to my heart or anything when it was finished, but I was satisfied.