Empty

I loved Susan Beth Pfeffer's Moon books and was on the lookout for more of that type - survival in the "new" world when things have gone wrong.  I came across Empty by Suzanne Weyn.  Empty tells the story of three kids in a small town and how they deal with life once the United States basically runs out of gasoline.  It alternates chapters that focus on the three characters:  Tom, Nikki, and Gwen.  Each kid is very different but they all end up in the same boat when the problems start getting bad.

Here's what I did like about the book:  it makes you think.  We are so very dependent on all kinds of products that involve oil.  The book does a good job of showing readers just how much would be affected by running out of oil and by continuing to make the choices that we are making in regards to oil use.

But I just didn't really care about these characters.  I felt like they were just there to say stuff about what kinds of choices we should have made to not be in this no-gas situation.  They were flat for me.  Plus, the book was just overly didactic, which I just didn't love.  I felt that w/ the moon books (Life As We Knew It, the dead and the gone, and This World We Live In), you learned about the consequences but you cared about the characters, too.  This book just seemed a little to overt in its message to make me care about it as a good work of fiction.  Also, some things were just "oh so perfect" for the people in this little town.  For example:

"Guess who we met on the way over here--Mr. Curtin!" Tom said.  "And listen to this:  His wife is an environmental engineer, and as soon as we have power again, she's going to start giving workshops to people in Sage Valley on alternative fuels and all sorts of stuff like solar and wind power.  She's written up a grant to try to make the town a model of energy self-sufficiency.  Is that cool, or what?" (p. 155)

See - it's just too perfect.  While the book will definitely make you think about what might happen if we really were to run out of oil - maybe the pessimist in me (and I'm usually not like this) thinks that the "happy-ish" ending just is too perfect.  I preferred the way the moon books ended or The Road's ending - if it's the end of the world - let's face it - it's probably not going to be that pretty.

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.

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.

Ship Breaker

Ship Breaker was great.  Along the lines of Hunger Games and other dystopian fiction we've seen out lately, it paints a picture of our country in the future after many years of destruction and shows what life is like.  In this case there are two kinds of people the very rich and the very poor.  The view of the poor is what you get to see at the beginning of Ship Breaker.

The story follows a young boy named Nailer.  Nailer works with a crew of "ship breakers."  Basically, everyone ran out of oil, the city of New Orleans was flooded time and time again, hurricanes come all the time now (the poles have melted), and all the boats and tankers of the previous age are laid to waste along the gulf shore.  Nailer's and other crews break the old oil ships down for their parts.  It's a rough life.  There's not much to eat and Nailer is beginning to worry about what he'll do once he becomes to big to be on "light" crew.  On top of all this, his father is a druggie and drunk who abuses Nailer and causes problems all the time.  It's business as usual until after a storm (a city killer) Nailer and his friend and coworker Pima discover a majestic clipper ship washed up on their shore.  Nailer's seen the beautiful, sleek ships in magazines and from a distance...he's dreamt about what life must be like for the rich people on those boats.  As he and Pima check out the damage they discover one survivor, a girl.  They have to decide between helping this girl or just stripping the ship of everything - including her life.  They could be rich...they could have a better life....but can they just leave her there?

The rest of the book follows their decisions and the consequence of those decisions.  The book was fast paced and didn't drag at all.  Once they discover the girl, it all races by.  It also paints a picture of what our world might look like if we don't take care of it.  As they travel inland at one point in the book to New Orleans and Orleans II, Nita asks about what happened.  Nailer responds,

"Stupid," Nailer muttered..."They were damn stupid." Tool shrugged.  "No one expected Category Six hurricanes.  They didn't have city killers then.  The climate changed.  The weather shifted.  They did not anticipate well." 

Nailer wondered at that idea.  That no one could have understood that they would be the target of monthly hurricanes pinballing up the Mississippi Alley, gunning for anything that didn't have sense to batten down, float, or go underground.

It's a creepy view of the gulf in the future.  In addition, though, this is a story about family and how you make it.  Nailer's dad is a bad man, but that doesn't mean that Nailer will become that way or has to.  Family and home are where you make them.  Nailer learns a lot about this as he fights for a friend's life.  A good read. 

Goddess Boot Camp

Beach Read #3 -  I loved Oh. My. Gods. so much when I read it recently, so I was pumped to see that the sequel had come out in paper back.  It was great.  Both of these books are quick, fast, and enjoyable reads.  I raced through them and had so much fun.

Phoebe just found out in the last book that she is a descendant of Nike and has actual powers.  The problem - she can't control them.  Most kids at her special school for descendants of the gods learn about their powers and how to control them at a very young age...and Phoebe is way behind.  She's making it snow inside her house, calling up massive amounts of pastries when she's hungry and causing problems for everyone because she can't get her powers under control.

The answer to this problem is Goddess Boot Camp which Phoebe's stepfather signs her up for.  While she's got other stuff on her mind (like spending time with boyfriend Griffin Blake and training with him for the marathon in the Pythian games) she knows she's got to get help or else.  Unfortunately...she knows she won't enjoy this camp so much when she shows up and sees that she's with all ten year olds. To make matters worse, the camp is run by her stepsister, Stella, and her boyfriends ex - Adara.  Great!  Phoebe trains, hangs out with friends, deals with love and issues from her past, solves a little mystery and tries to get ready for the test that the gods have set for her.

I loved the first book in this series, and the second one was just as good.  The characters were developed even more.  It's just such a fun concept...a fun super hero tale from a different point of view.  I hope that we get to see more adventures of Phoebe and her crew.  I definitely plan to check out Childs' new series about a mermaid girl princess called Forgive My Fins.  So fun...a lighter, girlier Percy Jackson. 

The Carrie Diaries

Beach Read #2 for me was The Carrie Diaries.  I had been looking forward to reading this for a long time.  While most young girls reading this book won't really know the series Sex and the City - but I did watch the show and was just excited to read about high school Carrie.

Carrie is starting her senior year of high school and her fashion is unique even then (I believe she begins the first day of school wearing white go-go boots).  The plan for all the girls in Carrie's crew (Lali, Maggie, and the Mouse) is to get boyfriends.  It's the same guys as always except for one - Sebastian Kydd.  He's back after supposedly being kicked out of private school.  He's mysterious, cute, and every one wants a piece of him.

I loved this book so much.  The four girls are each very different much like on the show, and it's cool.  Carrie is just a cool girl, but a normal girl, too.  She's not the hottest person in school or the most popular - she's not the lowest on the social ladder either.  She swims on the swim team and goes to parties.  She loves to dress in cool clothes, and she dreams big of becoming a writer.  Her writing doesn't come easily though.  She has to work on it and find her subjects and her voice....but once she does - it's on world.

This was a happy book about high school stuff:  love, friends, sex, parties, family, loss...the whole lot.  It was a great read. 

After Tupac and D Foster

This quick read started off my summer beach reading.  This book is about two girls (the narrator and her best friend Neeka) who live in Queens.  They've been friends forever and have their routine in their neighborhood.  Then one day a girl shows up and starts talking to them.  She's beautiful and cool.  She's different...almost like she's from another planet.  The girls get to know each other and it's like they've always been just them three.  This is a story about their friendship.

In the background of all this, too, is family drama - good and bad and of course, Tupac.  I liked the storyline involving Neeka's brother (who is really a sista).  He's in jail and dealing with that.  It was powerful to see the love of the family.  They were always there for him.

This book was pretty good.  It was a great story about friendship and family.  I liked it.

Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen

I borrowed this book from my Mom forever ago and finally got a chance to pick it up.  I've been wanting to read it forever and it totally lived up to my expectations.  I'm really interested to see the movie when it comes out probably next year.

Right now Jacob Jankowski is ninety, or ninety-three...something around there.  He's in a nursing home and trying to make it through each day of sitting around and eating the terrible mushy food.  But in the past Jacob is a young man about to finish veterinary school at Cornell.  Just before he sits for his final examinations - his world changes forever.  He won't be taking over his father's veterinary practice like he thought.  He finds himself alone and on the road.

Jacob hooks up with the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth and his life becomes an adventure he'd never imagined.  He finds work, actually gets to tend to the animals after a while, and meets a very beautiful woman.  He learns the ways of the circus, interacts with all of the crazy characters and workers, and he makes it.

But life in the circus isn't always easy.  Money isn't always there.  And it's really hard to work anywhere if you fall in love with your boss' wife....

In the book ninety or ninety-three year old Jacob thinks back about his time with the circus and the reader gets to experience a time and place like none other.  I felt like I was right there.  The descriptions of the circus and the people came to life.  You like Jacob from the beginning and you are on his side throughout as he navigates a life he never dreamed he would be living.

I would definitely recommend this book to everyone.  It's so fun and unique.  I used to watch Carnivale on HBO before they ended it and it brought wonderful memories of that show back to me.  A great read for all.

The Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco X. Stork

I loved Marcelo and the Real World by Stork, and Death Warriors is a close second.  His male characters are just wonderful dudes.  In this new book, a boy named Pancho is almost a senior in high school.  His father is killed in a freak work accident and then his sister (who is older but mentally slow) mysteriously dies in a hotel room. 

Pancho believes his sister was murdered.  He gets sent to a home for boys - basically an orphanage.  It's not bad, maybe nice actually.  Regardless of what "the system" is going to do with him, he knows what he will do with himself.  He is g oing to find the man who murdered his sister and kill him. 

He can't just sit alone and plan this all out, though, because from the moment he arrives at the home, he is matched up with a boy named D. Q.  D. Q.  is a young many who just found out that he has a really rare cancer disease.  The two boys hang out.  Pancho wouldn't say they're friends, but after time passes, the two become close.  Pancho helps D. Q. and takes him to treatments.

D. Q. is working on his Death Warrior Manifesto - his writings about "sucking the marrow" out of life and living his days to the fullest.  These ideas are completely the opposite of Pancho's - who doesn't even see life any more or care what happens to him if he carries out his plan.

The book follows the relationship of the two.  It's funny and honest.  D. Q. is a character that gets in your heart.  He just knows what people needs.  We all know people who seem to "see" more than others...people who are just tuned in.  D. Q. is one of those people. 

The story wasn't as suspenseful for me as Marcelo, but I liked it a lot.  A good read.  I will continue to look forward to more by Stork.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

I've been waiting for this book for so long, so I was totally thrilled when I picked up my signed copy at Malaprop's Tuesday.  I love the cover; I love John Green; and I love David Levithan.  I'd read great reviews and been terribly jealous of all the book bloggers and tweeple who got to read this one in advance.

I just finished and IT WAS FABULOUS!!  I absolutely loved it!

So it's two narrators...the Will Graysons alternate chapters throughout the entire book.  Will Grayson one is a sort of normal high school kid who had a sort of Group of Friends but doesn't really anymore since he stood up to everyone and wrote a letter to the school paper about how it was ok that his friend Tiny Cooper (who is anything but tiny, by the way) was gay and the best thing that happened to their school's crappy football team.  Oh yeah, and he signed his name to that letter.  So the Group of Friends kind of stopped being the Group of Friends after that.  Will has been friends with Tiny forever, which is hard sometimes because Tiny is a bit loud and dramatic...ok, well, extremely loud and dramatic and fabulous and he falls in love really easily....you get the picture. 

While Tiny is always in love with someone, Will isn't.  He just avoids relationships and really tries not to even say that much at all....that way he'll be good and won't have to deal with any drama.

Tiny's trying to get his original musical Tiny Dancer staged at school.  Tiny is huge and fabulous and on a mission when it comes to this play.

A few towns over, Will Grayson two wants to murder himself and everyone around him...well not really, but that's how he feels.  He's not so happy, this Will Grayson #2, that is unless he's online talking to Isaac, his new friend.  He makes it through school, allowing himself a little happiness toward the end of each day when he looks forward to the final bell. 

These two Will Graysons continue on their ways until one night (at a porn shop of all places) they run into each other...from that point - their worlds are connected.

As you read this book you'll see how the world's intertwine and you'll have just craploads of fun along the way.

Tiny Cooper is, as many other bloggers and reviewers have pointed out, the absolute most fabulous thing about this book.  I have no idea how Green and Levithan did the writing on this book...but Tiny is the beautiful, giant thread that holds it all together...and he's perfect in all the chapters.  As his BFF Will Grayson #1 says:

Tiny Cooper is not the world's gayest person, and he is not the world's largest person, but I believe he may be the world's largest person who is really, really gay, and also the world's gayest person who is really, really large.  Tiny has been my best friend since fifth grade...

and...

Tiny waltzes in wearing his jersey tucked into his chinos, even though football season is long over.  Every day, Tiny miraculously manages to wedge himself into the chair-desk beside mine in precalc, and every day, I am amazed he can do it...So Tiny squeezes into his chair, I am duly amazed, and then he turns to me and he whispers really loudly because he secretly wants other people to hear, "I'm in love." 

I've loved all of John Green's books (Alaska's my favorite).  I also really liked Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan, and I plan to read Boy Meets Boy soon.  These guys have really done something special here, and you absolutely must check out this book.  One, it's good, and Two, it's all about the love, and who doesn't love that!?!

Rosie and Skate by Beth Ann Bauman

Love, love, loved this book!!  I saw a review of it on Reading Rants which made me want to read it.  It totally lived up to my expectations.

Rosie and Skate are two sisters who live on the Jersey Shore.  They're locals and work at the shore during the summer while it's full of tourists.  Their dad is an alcoholic - a nice drunk - but still a drunk.  He can't stop drinking.  He doesn't hurt the girls or cause many problems, but he gets out of control one night driving and crashes and lands himself three months in jail.  Rosie and Skate are on their own because their mom is dead.

Their cousin, Angie, comes to live with them and help out, but once their father goes to jail, things are harder between the sisters.  Rosie is hopeful and visits her father and still somehow believes he will get better, while Skate refuses  to go at all.  Skate doesn't attend the support group meetings.  Instead, she spends time at work with her boss Nick, and also pining away after her boyfriend Perry who is gone to college at Rutgers.  She wants to see Perry so badly.  The two of them are great together, but the distance is a problem.

The book alternates between the narration of each sister.  It's cool to hear the story from two points of view.  The writing was real and easy to read.  I liked the characters and the story of each sister.  This was a fun read with some serious stuff mixed in.  I totally loved it!

Here's a link to the New York Times review of Rosie and Skate.

The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp

I've had this book on my shelf forever and finally picked it up.  I loved it!  It took me a little while to get used to the narrator, senior in high school, Sutter Keely, but once I did I was along for the ride with him on his adventures (and a wild ride-it definitely is!)

So, Sutter has a curvy, beautiful girlfriend, Cassidy.  He's a senior.  He is a party-man.  As long as he's got a whiskey and 7 up - he's golden.  Cassidy gets sick of his antics, though, and dumps him.  He's sort of stranded in a weird place.  He's single again, and his best friend Ricky finally got a girlfriend (Sutter made it happen, of course).  Sutter's kind of in a weird place.  He turns to his whiskey and drinks and drinks and ends up asleep in a strange yard.  He wakes to see a girl, Aimee, who says she knows him because she goes to his school.  Aimee is different from any one Sutter has ever hung out with, and he kinda likes her.  They hang out and Sutter sort of takes her under his wing.  But when there's Sutter Keely and whiskey...there's always going to be fun (and trouble, perhaps) ahead...

Like I said, this book was different.  Sutter is such a strong narrator.  I appreciate the voice that Tim Tharp created here.  I loved Sutter's vocabulary words such as, "spanktaculicious" and "fandangulous."  Sutter's a mess but you just can't help but love him.

I was a little weirded out by the amount of alcohol that Sutter drank.  The thing is, he's really the only who who drinks that much in the story.  His friends don't.  Ricky has cut back on partying.  Sutter's got his own little world....So while this book does center around and involve alcohol, I don't think it shows drinking in a positive light at all.  It's honest.  It was interesting because while I read, I was pulling for Sutter, but I also felt like I could understand the other people who told him maybe he shouldn't drink so much anymore.

I really liked this book.  Sutter is a unique character I've never met before, and it was nice to meet him.  He's a fun guy - no one can deny that.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

What happens when you die?  Well, for Sam Kingston, you wake up and get a chance to do it all over again - six more times.

Sam and her girls, Lindsey, Ally, and Elody, are on top of the world and the social landscape of their high school.  They rule the roost and are, well, a little bitchy.  Sometimes a lot...

In Before I Fall you get to follow Sam and her friends during their day - Cupid Day at school - the day when roses get delivered with notes to people.  The girls get tons of roses, of course.  They eat at their usual lunch table.  They giggle and discuss Sam's "big plans" that she has for the night with her boyfriend Rob.  They plan to attend a party that night at Kent McFuller's house.  They go, they have fun, they get into a little drama, and then they're on their way home.  It rains, they swerve, Sam hears something, and then....

Beep, Beep...she wakes up.  And it's still Feb. 12.  Sam is caught in some kind of strange time and relives this last day of her life over and over.  Each day she notices things, changes things, and realizes things.  She sees people differently.  She notices things she never even paid attention to before.  She appreciates the little things that she will miss when she's really gone.

This book was amazing.  While the chapters are long, it's so good because you get to notice the details right along with Sam.  This book reminds us of what really matters, and it reminds us to notice what's going on around us and not take things for granted.  I loved being on this journey with Sam.  I felt like everything unraveled and made sense to her and me one precious second at a time.

You will love this book - that's all there is to it.  It's got love, drama, kisses, bullies, high school, friends, questions, answers, excitement, terror, sadness, EVERYTHING.  Read and see what happens during these seven days....you won't regret it!

Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern

How is it that someone becomes a dork?  Do they choose to, just like Bizza and Char decided to turn punk?  Are they born that way?  What makes some people like punk music and Denny's and other people like costumes and Dungeons and Dragons?  And where do I fit into all of this?

These are the questions that sophomore Jessie is dealing with as her two "best" friends from life turn punk, steal her crushes, and use her for whatever they need.  She sees these two friends, Bizza and Char, change into "mall punk" versions of themselves weeks before school starts sophomore year.  At the same time, her once punk brother contemplates getting rid of his mohawk and going out with the homecoming queen.  Jessie is caught in the middle of all this and starts to look for more friends...but all she sees are dorks, nerds, and band geeks - but they're all really nice?  She's a smart, straight A students and a super math whiz.  Is she a dork already??  If she starts hanging out with the band nerds or even worse the Dungeons and Dragons kids, will she lose any hope of being normal or cool?  Does this even matter?  Read this amazingly funny book to follow Jessie on her friend search as she travels Into the Wild Nerd Yonder.

This is a book I've been waiting for forever!  I've read lots of books that have cool, smart, nerdy characters, but they've all sort of already made the journey that Jessie is working on.  This is a book that made me proud of my nerdiness...or dorkiness...I think I am actually probably more nerd than dork, but anyway - I love the way Halpern navigates the cliques in high school and where she takes Jessie on her journey.  A great read for nerds and an important one for people who think they're all cool but really are missing out on true coolness because they aren't nerds.  Fabulous read!!!

How to Say Goodbye in Robot - by Natalie Standiford

WOW!!!!! This book was amazing.  I saw that Reading Rants said this was probably her favorite of the year, and I can totally see why.  It's that good. 

The Lowdown:  

Beatrice has moved around a lot.  Her dad is a biology professor, and he's always looking for a new school, new grants, new programs.  Her senior year of high school, they pack up to move from Ithaca to Baltimore.  She's used to it and doesn't really have all that many emotions about moving.  She'll do school, graduate, and move on.  She's a robot girl...nothing there.  At her new school she meets the normal girls, chipper and perky, but robot girl feels a new connection with Jonah - ghost boy.  Neither Bea nor Jonah is the happiest person in the world, but together, they click.  They  tune in to a late night radio show called Night Lights, and their friendships begins.  No one really gets them,  but that's just the great part about it...they don't care.  What they've found is friendship at its best.  But all friendships and relationships go through rough times.  Jonah tunes out sometimes.  He finds out some crazy information about his dead brother, and Bea wants to help him through.  Read to find out how this unique relationship survives, grows, and changes through their senior year. 

What I Liked:

I LOVED every moment of this book and didn't want it to end!  The characters, Bea and Jonah, as well as all the supporting characters are amazing.  The story is unique and I was pulled in immediately.  I loved the radio show.  Uplifting and heartbreaking at the same time, these characters will stay with me for a long time.  I haven't felt this attached to anyone since Octavian Nothing.

Read This If...

You want a true, unique story about love and friendship.

You've ever given of yourself to a relationship.

You've ever been loved and hurt by someone.

You want to have your world rocked by this amazing book!!!!

Love is the Higer Law - by David Levithan

The Lowdown: 

I've never been to New York city, and I will certainly never know what it must have been like to be in NY on September 11, 2001.  But David Levithan's book Love is the Higher Law shows what the experience was like for three teens there when it happened.  This book shows glimpses into the lives of three teens on and after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on 9-11.  Claire was at school and went to get her little brother immediately after it happened.  Peter had actually skipped school that day to get the new Bob Dylan CD at Tower Records.  And Jasper actually slept through it all and didn't wake up until noon that day.  All three had very different experiences and reactions to the events.  Afterwards they have lots to deal with and think about.  As  time passes, the stories of these three intersect.  What mattered before doesn't matter now, and they rely on each other to make sense of the world as they knew it and the world as it is for them now. 

What I Liked: 

Mainly I just like that Levithan is tackling this subject.  In his afterword to the book he says that not as many books have been written about 9/11 as he would have thought.  As each year passes, the memory of the attack becomes more distant.  Today's freshmen in high school were around 6 when 9/11 happened.  This is a great book to show what it was like for teenagers experiencing the tragedy in their own backyards.  It's important to understand grief and feelings and how we are all affected by things like this.  The book shows how each kid deals with it differently and that no one way to view the tragedy or deal with it is right or wrong...they just are.  I liked that Levithan focused on the kids and their stories as opposed to the details of the day.  This book is really real and really important as we still continue to make sense of our country and its history.  The characters in the book come together to help one another.  Hopefully as they wonder, we can always do that in our world:

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we really came together, if we really found common humanity?  The hitch is that you can't find a common humanity just because you have a common enemy.  You have to find a common humanity because you believe that it's true.

I love this idea.  And even though it's been a while since 9/11, we are still living in a world that is forever changed because of it...war, fear, government power...Levithan's book helped me look forward and try to keep this positive idea in mind:  that people can be good and helpful and that maybe out of pain we can create a better world.

Read This If...

You'd like to experience life in NY.

You want to read about relationships.

You can handle taking another look at the attacks on 9/11.

You want to believe that "love is the higher law."

You want to read about friendships.

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork

Marcelo is 17 and getting ready to begin his senior year. Marcelo is different from others. He hears music during the everyday moments of his life, and he sees the world in a different way from some people. He is diagnosed as having Asperger's syndrome. He has attended a special school throughout his life and has worked in the stables at his school taking care of the horses during the summer.

Marcelo is very intelligent and his father thinks that it is time for Marcelo to stop working at his school and move out into the real world. He wants Marcelo to work in his law firm mail room for the summer so that Marcelo can see what the world is really like outside of his school. Marcelo's experience in the mailroom brings him into contact with a lovely young woman named Jasmine. Jasmine is a spunky young lady, and she shows Marcelo the ropes. During this summer at the law firm, we follow Marcelo at his job and experience the world as he experiences it. He is disturbed when he one day finds a picture of a girl whose face is destroyed on one side. He becomes determined to find out what happened to this girl and to help her if he can. His search will show him more of the real world that he even knows.

This book was GREAT. First, it's wonderful to read. I loved Marcelo's voice as a narrator. He was honest, and I knew he was reporting things to me in a truthful way. He worked out issues in his head and as the reader, you just got to follow along and see how he came to the conclusions that he came to. I felt like when I was reading Marcelo and seeing the world through his eyes, that I was seeing the world in a more pure way. He hasn't been tainted by hurt, and cruelty, and many of the sad things in the world, and I saw with fresh eyes when reading this book.

The characters in this book are all wonderfully written, too. I felt that they were all good people, even if the book showed a bad side of them. People in real life are complicated. You may trust someone and then they hurt you. It's hard to reconcile these feelings, but that's life. Life is full of contradictions, and Marcelo finds this out as he interacts with all the other characters in the book, good and bad.

I think this book is a must read for everyone, young adults and adults. It's a great story with a memorable character. We all can learn a lot from Marcelo.

Grade: A

Absolutely Maybe - by Lisa Yee

Absolutely Maybe was GREAT!  It is a road trip to Los Angeles and fun when you're there. 

Maybe is a young girl who has one heck of a mother.  Chessy, Maybe's mom, could have been Miss America.  She had all kinds of beauty queen titles in her past and runs a charm school in Florida where they live.  Maybe isn't one of the pageant girls, though, and wears jeans and extra large Hanes beefy tees instead of girlie clothes.  One thing that Maybe's mom also has had a lot of--husbands.  She's been married tons but not to Maybe's father.  When Chessy hurts maybe one to many times, Maybe decides she must go out on her own and find her father and herself.  Her friend Hollywood is headed to go to college at USC film school, so Maybe, Hollywood, and their crazy friend Ted hit the road and drive to LA.

Life in LA isn't that easy though.  After they tour around and see all the main attractions, Maybe and Ted realize they will need jobs if they are going to survive.  Ted strikes a great job (and starts wearing platform shoes...) but Maybe isn't so lucky.  This book tells about what these kids do in LA and how Maybe goes about trying to find her father.

This book was so funny.  The characters are all original personalities.  Maybe, Hollywood, Ted, Jess, and the rest, are all so real.  Each character is fully developed and all of their stories work well together.  What's more...this book involves a taco truck and lots in great info about tacos and taco trucks.  I absolutely loved Absolutely Maybe.

Grade: A

If I Stay - by Gayle Forman

Wow.  First, I have to say I really, really loved this book.  It's short (196 pages) but packed full of so much.  Ups and downs; funny parts, sweet parts, sad parts; goods and bads; friends and family--it's amazing.  

Mia is a 17 year old girl who is a cello genius.  She loves music and music runs in her family, although none of them are into classical music.  She has friends at school and a really talented boyfriend, Adam, who went to school with her but is away at college now.  He also tours with is band which is making it big right now.  Mia loves her family and has decisions to make:  stay with Adam, go to Julliard, etc...but no decision is bigger than the one she has to make unexpectedly one day when her family is in a devastating car accident.  A

After the accident, Mia find herself looking down at her own body watching from the outside.  As she gets flown off in a helicopter, she keeps watching and has to decided if she stays or not.  The book tells  the story of Mia and her decision.  Flashbacks and present action are woven artfully together.  In a short amount of time the reader gets to know so much about Mia, her family and friends, that you feel like you are sitting right there in the waiting room with them.  

This is a horrible situation, but somehow, the book was happy at times and funny.  I enjoyed Forman's writing style and the realistic way she portrayed family relationships and friendships. I highly recommend this book to teens and adults alike, I think you'll love it.

Grade: A