Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andres

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Greg is not very attractive. He is trying to get through high school with a minimum of attention by trying to touch base with kids in all of the various typical high school cliques. Earl is also an outsider. His father is not in the picture, his mother is an alcoholic who is addicted to the Internet, and his brothers have violent tendencies. So it is logical that they should share a hobby of creating movies.

They watch classic films and try to emulate the style of the directors. One day Greg's mother asks him to visit a girl he knew in middle school who had just been diagnosed with leukemia. Rachel's mother hopes that Greg might be able to lift her spirits.

This book may be one of the most realistic depictions of high school boys. The obscenities and potty humor are non-stop. But the reader admires Greg for his attempts at cheering up Rachel and sticking with her. Even Earl becomes invested in making life more bearable. Unfortunately, Greg's schoolwork follows a downward spiral along with Rachel's health and at some point he needs to pick himself up and face his own life.

I recommend this book to readers who have a creative hobby like film making. 

My rating for this book:

Boy 21 by Matthew Quick

Boy 21

Finley is, in many ways, a kind of Harry Potter. He lives in rather miserable conditions (his father works nights taking money in a tollbooth, his grandfather needs help because he has no legs and is still mourning the loss of his wife with the help of the bottle) in a miserable little town and all he can do is dream of leaving it and finding a better life. The difference with Harry is he does have a family who loves him and a girl friend that shares his love of basketball. He and Erin even train together during the summer to prepare for the season. Shortly before their senior year, Coach approaches Finley with a big request. A new boy is coming to the school from Los Angeles where he was a basketball star. Russ, who calls himself Boy 21, lost both of his parents and has suffered a break with reality. He believes that his parents are in outer space and will come soon to pick him up. Finley can understand this, since he pretty much stopped speaking after his own mother died (under mysterious circumstances). The bad news is that Russ plays the same position as Finley and even has the same number: 21.

Russ seems to be happy enough following Finley and Erin around, watching them train and practice, and seems to be comfortable with Finley's silence, even welcoming it. Coach has made sure the two boys have the same schedule when school starts so that they are always together and Finley is hurt that Coach makes him help a boy that ultimately will probably take his place on the court. But Russ doesn't show his abilities and seems to be holding back to let Finley keep his place. But something happens that shakes Finley so that he can't perform and he gratefully and gracefully lets Russ strut his stuff.

This was an interesting story. Even though I frequently suspend belief in many stories, I had a small problem believing that a senior basketball player was caught reading a covered copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone telling everyone it was a book by Ralph Ellison called Invisible Man. That one little scene felt a little forced to me but I had to smile.

Will Finley get his ticket out of town to Hogwart's? 

My rating for this book:      

   

   

Sparks: The Epic Completely True Blue, (Almost) Holy Quest of Debbie by S.J. Adams

Sparks

Debbie Woodlawn has kept a secret since sixth grade. She has a crush on her best friend, Lisa, and has to share this with her before Lisa makes out with a boy. She gets assistance from two kids, members of a self-formed Church of Blue. One of the things they do in this church is create a list of quests, such as seeing a person completely nude. Finding Lisa is a perfect quest.

The three of them dash around town trying to catch up with Debbie's backpack, get something to eat, find out where Lisa is going on her date, and all on $5.00. Overseeing this endeavor is the blue-painted Buddha on the dashboard.

It must be so hard to harbor a secret like this for so long. It does not help that Debbie lives in the Bible Belt and to be near her friend, joins a group called Active Christian Teens. Even a New Age mother doesn't see anything bothering her daughter. But Debbie must tell Lisa and find out if she has any chance at developing a relationship with her.

I recommend this book as a fun romp with the added bonus of a coming-of-sexuality story.
My rating for this book: 
 

The Raven Boys

One of the things that makes me really enjoy a book is when I find it is like no other book I have read. New setting, new characters, and new themes generally add up to a good read for me. In The Raven Boys we have psychics, rich private school boys, ghosts, a dead Welsh king, and mysterious lines around the Earth called "ley lines" which have an unusual amount of psychic energy. 

Blue Sargent is the daughter of a psychic and even though she is not herself psychic, she helps others by somehow magnifying and focusing psychic energy with her presence. Blue and her mother live in a house with other psychics and they make a living from reading tarot cards for clients. Blue also works in a diner and she makes friends with a group of students from the prestigious Aglionby Academy after one of them leaves a journal filled with entries about a dead Welsh king and ley lines. Could these be related to the corpse lines that her mother and her friends feel in the area?

I like Blue. She is smart, brave, and independent. She has an interesting relationship with her mother which can be seen in this conversation.

Way back before you were born, Calla and Persephone and I were messing around with things we probably shouldn't have been messing around with __. Drugs?  Rituals.  Are you messing around with drugs?  No. but maybe rituals.                                                                                               Drugs might be better.   I'm not interested in them. Their effects are proven - where's the fun in that?

I highly recommend this book to teens who enjoy a little fantasy and mysticism. This is the first of a series and I really hope the originality continues into the next book.

My rating for this book: 

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief

Few books are worth the time to reread. Even rarer are those books that are worth rereading and reblogging. This is one such book.


I originally bought this copy at a library book sale for my daughter who had never read it. When she handed it back to me I knew I had to read it again. It is such a gift! It is not just another Holocaust book; it is a book about people surviving, growing, existing, and loving in the worst possible circumstances.

It is one of those books that everyone should give a couple of hours of their lives to read.

My rating for this book: 

Extraordinary (2010)

Is it fair that one person has to pay a debt for an obligation made by an ancestor many generations before them? Nancy Werlin gives us a story about a girl from a very wealthy family who has to face this dilemma. Phoebe's mother is a descendant of a man who made a deal with a fairie queen in order to create a financial dynasty. It seems that Phoebe will have to repay his debt.

Mallory appears at Phoebe's school one day, looking quite lost and wearing bizarre clothes. Phoebe turns her back on her priveleged friends and befriends her. Little does Phoebe know that Mallory has an alterior motive.

"Yes, Your Majesty. Phoebe - the girl - we are best friends now. That is what humans call it: best friends. With time I will be able to make her do exactly as we wish. But Your Majesty! I have tired you. Would you rest now? I can come back."
"I am only a little tired. I am not so sick yet, my child. Very well. You may have the time you say you require. It will not, after all, be the longest time that a faerie has ever masqueraded as a human."
"Thank you, Your Majesty. This is just a delay. I won't fail you or our people, I won't. You may rely on me. In the end I will do exactly as I have promised."

It is an intriguing question about how long a family can enjoy the fruits of an arrangement before they have to settle a debt. In this case, over 200 years pass before the opportunity arises for the fairies to collect and Phoebe is the price. Is there no alternative?

I liked this book except for some aspects which seemed forced and necessary only to make the story work. For instance, Mallory's "mother" is a mentally disturbed woman whose true daughter (named Mallory) had died. This Mallory moves in with her, helps her keep up with her drugs and Skittles addiction, and no one worries too much about the situation. Did the school not notice that someone is taking the place of someone they thought had died? Oh, well. It is a fantasy and we shouldn't worry about such details.

My rating for this book: +++

The Grimm Legacy (2010)

Polly Shulman has given us a book with a very interesting premise. A library in New York City loans out items instead of books and has special collections including one with items from the fairy tales written by the Brothers Grimm. They hold magic and must be handled with respect and care since magic can be tricky.

Elizabeth is recommended for a job as a page at this library by her social studies teacher after writing a paper on the Grimm brothers and their fairy tales. She works hard and is eventually given the key to the special Grimm Collection. Unfortunately, someone is stealing items from this collection. Is it one of the other pages?

At one point in the book, Elizabeth and another page named Marc are shrunk down so they can sneak into a room. They get around by riding inside winged sandals.

He was gone for a while. I stroked my sandal's wing. While I waited, I took a minute to marvel at my position: six inches tall, riding a winged sandal through a storehouse of magical items. If anyone had told me a year ago I'd be in this position, I would have laughed and then edged away.

I really wish I liked this book more than I did. The last part of the book felt rushed and compressed like the author was running out of paper. In any case, it is a good read and fantasy readers should enjoy it.

My rating for this book: +++

The Magicians (2009)

I think Lev Grossman wrote this book for the adults who have read Harry Potter, Narnia, and other classic fantasies. Magic in those worlds was taken for granted and the question about where it comes from is not considered. The young people who find themselves in the Brakebills School take the training in stride but when they graduate they question what they can use their skills for. One of their instructors named Fogg asks them this question.

"Sometimes I wonder if man was really meant to discover magic," Fogg said expansively. "It doesn't really make sense. It's a little too perfect, don't you think? If there's a single lesson that life teaches us, it's that wishing doesn't make it so. Words and thoughts don't change anything. Language and reality are kept strictly apart - reality is tough, unyielding stuff, and it doesn't care what you think or feel or say about it. Or it shouldn't. You deal with it, and you get on with your life."

The central character, a mathemathically brilliant young man named Quentin, has always been fascinated by a series of books called Fillory and Further about two brothers and their two sisters who discover a hidden world called Fillory (sound familiar?). Throughout his time in Brakebills he hopes to be able to access Fillory which, he is convinced, is real and where he feels he will find a home. After their graduation Quentin and his friends embark on a vacation to find adventure in Fillory.

The reader will enjoy nods to several fantasy classics. The venture of these young people is difficult and painful at times but the reader is carried on to see if they succeed in finding Fillory and their place in this or any other world.

Fun quote: The thick plottens.

My rating for this book: +++

Little Bee (2008)

This short but powerful book by Chris Cleave is about two women, one middle-aged, one young; one white, one black; one educated, one self-educated; one English, one Nigerian; one free, the other not. The chapters alternate between the two of them as their stories converge, separate, and converge again.

It is a short enough book that giving facts about the plot would give up too much of it. Here is an excerpt from the book:

Three weeks and five thousand miles on a tea ship - maybe if you scratched me you would still find that my skin smells of it. When they put me in the immigration detention center, they gave me a brown blanket and a white plastic cup of tea. And when I tasted it, all I wanted to do was to get back into the boat and go home again, to my country. Tea is the taste of my land: it is bitter and warm, strong, and sharp with memory. It tastes of longing. It tastes of the distance between where you are and where you come from. Also it vanishes - the taste of it vanishes from your tongue while your lips are still hot from the cup. It desappears, like plantations stretching up into the mist. I have heard that your country drinks more tea than any other. How sad that must make you - like children who long for absent mothers. I am sorry.

Two cultures come together and try to help each other as they are able, not enough for either in the end. I highly recommend this book.

My rating for this book: ++++

Going Bovine (2009)

Libba Bray has certainly deserved the Printz Award for this book. It is a twist on Don Quixote where Cameron, a young man suffering from mad cow disease, takes his hospital roommate on an amazing adventure.

One of the places they visit is CESSNAB.

"What's CESSNAB?" I ask.
"It's this place." Daniel spreads his arms wide.
"It stands for Church of Everlasting Satisfaction and Snack 'N' Bowl."
"So it's a church" I say quickly.
"It's everything. Stores. School. Bowling alley. We've got everthing we need right here. Cool, huh?"

Sounds nice until we find out that you never bowl less than a perfect score, the only flavor of milkshake is vanilla, and everybody is happy, happy, happy. They also visit an Infinity Collider and end up in Daytona, Florida in time for spring break.

We follow Cameron and Gonzo on their desperate quest and meet many different characters like an angel named Dulcie and a talking lawn gnome named Balder.

I give this book as high a rating as I can and recommend it to everyone.

My rating for this book: +++++

The Last Summer of the Death Warriors (2010)

I thought for sure this book by Francisco X. Stork was going to be a tear jerker. Right off the bat we meet a young man with terminal cancer and another who has lost all of his family. D.Q. and Pancho are brought together by one of the monks who work in the small orphanage for older boys. Pancho arrives after his sister dies of undetermined causes. As all boys are expected to take on tasks, he is assigned the task of helping D.Q. who has terminal cancer and is pretty much confined to a wheel chair. It turns out that D.Q. helps Pancho as well.

D.Q. is writing a manifesto for "Death Warriors" and he shares it with Pancho.

1. Who is a Death Warrior?
Anyone can be a Death Warrior, not just someone who is terminally ill. We are all terminally ill. A Death Warrior accepts death and makes a commitment to live a certain way, whether it be for one year or thirty years.
.
.
.
4. What are the qualities of a Death Warrior?
A Death Warrior is grateful for every second of time given and is aware of how precious each second is. Every second not spent loving is wasted. The Death Warrior's enemy is time that is wasted by not loving.
5. Why should you become a Death Warrior?
So you can live and die with truth and courage, and because life is too painful when you're wasteful with the time given to you.

D.Q. is an amazing young man, indeed! One of the things Pancho has to do to help him is to protect him from his over-protective, well-meaning mother. Pancho performs his duties to D.Q. as he tries to find out what really happened to his sister.

I would recommend this book to readers of buddy stories. By the way, it was not a tear jerker.

My rating for this book: +++

Dead as a Doornail (2005)

Sookie Stackhouse's adventures with supernaturals continues in this book by Charlaine Harris. This time she meets her guardian fairy who saves her from a person who is trying to reduce the population of weres and shifters.

In the world I lived in, the world of human people, there were ties and debts and consequences and good deeds. That was what bound people to society; maybe that was what was what constituted society. And I tried to live in my little niche in it the best way I could.
Joining in the secret clans of the two-natured and the undead made my life in human society much more difficult and complicated.
And interesting.
And sometimes. . . fun.

Sookie is shot and her kitchen is torched but she is protected and saved by the supernaturals and she is embroiled in the new leadership of the weres. All through this book she is trying to understand her feelings for Bill, Eric, and Alcide. New men catch her eye, too, which makes things even more complicated.

Still a fun series.

My rating for this book: +++

When You Reach Me (2009)

Rebecca Stead's book received the 2010 Newbery Award and is quite different from winners of past years. Miranda is a 12-year old girl who lives in Manhattan with her single mother in the 70s. She has the intelligence and common sense that most latchkey kids get with the responsibility and freedom of getting around a big city on one's own. She is given a copy of Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, and she ponders the complications and contradictions of time travel. In the meantime she deals with the typical sixth grade stuff like stuffy friends, bullies, homeless guys, and not so typical stuff like finding notes referring to events that have not yet happened.

On the Friday after Thanksgiving there was no school, but Mom still had to go to work. I'd been trying hard not to think about them, but I spent a good chunk of that morning worrying about your notes. I held one in each hand and read them over and over. The part about writing a letter wasn't too scary. The scary parts were "I'm coming to save your friend's life" and "Oh, by the way, where do you keep your keys?" and "P.S. Don't ever tell anyone about any of this." Seeing my name written out on the second note was also pretty creepy, because I was still trying to pretend the notes weren't really meant for me. And also where you wrote "I won't be myself when I reach you." I didn't like that part at all.

But of course, we the readers are looking at all of the characters trying to figure who it was that came back in time and which kid was the one to come back. It was refreshing to read a book about a young city dweller that wasn't involved in drugs and gangs but maneuvered around city life with confidence.

My rating for this book: ++++

Angry Management (2009)

Chris Crutcher has brought together characters from his previous book (without aging them) and put them together in an anger management course led by a retired teacher/cowboy who gives us a brief introduction of each of them as a way of reminding us of their previous history. Kids from foster homes, abused kids, black/gay kids, obese kids, and all of them mad.

Amazingly, the ones best suited to help them are other damaged teens. They understand what it is like to live in situations that most people can't understand and while they can't solve the problems, they can listen.

"I WANT HER TO MAKE ME FEEL BAD!"

Montana grabs Tara and holds her tight.

Tara squirms a moment, then surrenders. How do you tell somebody that? How can she tell her mother that feeling bad feels right when everything in your world is wrong; that at first you need your foster parents to make things familiar, which in this case means f___d up. It makes such sense at a heart level, but even for a wordsmith like Montana West, it's impossible to articulate. It's so true, and it sounds so crazy.

The author is proud that his books have been challenged and removed from libraries because he puts in them things that many adults don't want to hear, or don't want their kids to hear. It is, of course, a shame, because what he has to say should be heard by every teen and every parent of a teen.

I highly recommend this book.

My rating for this book: +++++

The Elegance of the Hedgehog (2006)

This book by Muriel Barbery was translated from French. It takes place in an upscale apartment building with a consierge named Renee and a 12-year old girl named Paloma. Both of them prefer to let others think they are dimwitted, uninteresting women and luckily for them, all of the people around them are so involved in themselves that they fail to notice that they are both very literate and fascinating people.

Lisette lived just long enough to give birth to her child. The infant did what was expected of it; it died within three hours. From this tragedy, which to my parents seemed to be part of the natural order of things, so that they were no more - and no less - moved by it than if they had lost a goat, I derived two certainties: the strong live and the weak die, and their pleasure and suffering are proportionate to their position in the hierarchy. Lisette had been beautiful and poor, I was intelligent and indigent, but like her I was doomed to a similar punishment if I ever sought to make good use of my mind in defiance of my class. Finally, as I could not cease to be who I was, either, it became clear to me that my path would be one of secrecy: I had to keep silent about who I was, and never mix with that other world.
From being silent, I then became clandestine.

Paloma studies her classmates to see how they answer their teachers' questions and mimics them so that she avoids detection. At home she avoids conversations and seeks out any quiet place she can find to ponder things.
All of this scheming is foiled by a new occupant of the apartment on the fourth floor, a Japanese gentleman named Ozu who picks up on the subtle clues dropped by both these women and enjoys their intelligence, as well as it deserves to be enjoyed.
A wonderful, delicious read. I will keep this on my shelf because I am sure I will want to read it again.

My rating for this book: +++++

Al Capone Shines My Shoes (2009)

Gennifer Choldenko has added another chapter to life of 12-year old Moose, his autistic sister, Natalie, and his friends who live on the grounds of Alcatraz prison, the home for the worst criminals. I have to chuckle when I read the description of how these children, one just starting first grade, hop on a ferry to go to school in San Francisco without a parent to fuss over them. They play baseball on an area right under the cells and some inmates are allowed to work in the residences of the families. Considering most parents won't let their kids cross the street unattended, things sure have changed.

That question aside, Moose finds that favors you get from people like Al Capone can carry a very heavy obligation. In the first book, Al Capone Does My Shirts, Mr. Capone managed to obtain a coveted spot in a special school for Natalie. In this book, Moose finally meets the man face to face.

My father stops near the bars of a cell on the west side. Just one man in this cell, a big beefy guy with dark black hair, dark eyes, a round face, big lips, and the kind of smile that makes you like him without thinking twice about it. He's got shoe polish and a buffing rag on his bed along with a pair of shiny black guard's shoes.

The man stands up and sticks his pudgy hand through the bars. In the shadow of his left side a jagged line cuts across his face - a scar. "That your boy, boss?" he asks.

My father nods. "Moose, meet Al Capone."

I highly recommend this story for readers who enjoy intrigue and some historical fiction.

My rating for this book: +++ 1/2

Persistence of Memory (2008)

Vampires, shape shifters, and witches...oh, my!

This is the first book by Ameilia Atwater-Rhodes that I have read. It was fast, intense, and quite complicated. Erin has spent time in a psychiatric hospital and is taking a small pharmacy of pills to control hallucinations and panic attacks. Some of these dreams involve another girl named Shevaun. At least she thought they were dreams until one day she woke up in a strange place and was called Shevaun. Shevaun is a vampire and she also has dreams where she is a human girl named Erin.

She drew a deep breath. "I don't want to be tied up."
"I didn't think so. Now if you aren't Shevaun, why don't you let me know who you are?"
"I've been trying to--"
"So do it," he snapped. Then it was his turn to take one of those deep, calming breathes before he asked, "What's your name?"
She gave him that and more. "Erin Misrahe. I live in Massachusetts. I'm sixteen." She hoped that that might make him back off a little, since he was obviously older and they apparently had some kind of serious relationship.
"Do you often wander around in other people's brains...Erin?" he asked, hesitating only a little on the name.

So maybe she's not crazy after all. With the help of her shape shifting friends and Shevaun's witch friend, Adjila, Erin tries to get control of her life and maybe find a little normalcy. Or not.

I would recommend this book to teens who are fans of vampire books even if it's not really my cup of tea.

My rating for this book: ++

Catching Fire (2009)

This sequel to Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games gives us another gripping, amazing page turner. We left off with Katniss and Peeta both surviving the games, much to the Capitol's disgust and the thrill of all the districts. We start this book as the victors prepare for the annual tour around the districts, but not all thirteen! It seems that something is going on and that Katniss may have been the catalyst to get it started.

This year is the 75th anniversary of the games and there is a special twist this year. The contestants will be victors from previous years. There are only three victors in Kat's district: Peeta, their mentor, Haymitch, and herself. Haymitch has enjoyed a bit too much liquor over the years to survive these harsh games so it falls again on Peeta and Kat. On their Victory Tour, Kat gets hints about a possible groundswell of rebellion.

The night of my engagement, the night Peeta fell to his knees proclaimed his undying love for me in front of the cameras in the Capitol, was the night the uprising began. It was an ideal cover. Our Victory Tour interview with Caesar Flickerman was mandatory viewing. It gave the people of District 8 a reason to be out on the streets after dark, gathering either in the square or in various community centers around the city to watch. Ordinarily such activity would have been too suspicious. Instead everyone was in place by the appointed hour, eight o'clock, when the masks went on and all hell broke loose.

How will Kat protect Peeta, keep up the image that they were lovers, survive the games, and support the rebellion? Many things are going on at once in this book and Kat does not falter and continues to be an unlikely hero.

Many sequels start and end with a bang but the middle book(s) are just financial boons for the author, filler for the fans. This book is equally as exciting as the first book and expectations are very high for the third.

Science fiction and action readers will love this series. I highly recommend it.

My rating for this book: +++++

Purple Heart (2009)

I believe that most wars are started by men and that all children should be removed far from any war zones. In Patricia McCormick's book, Matt wakes up in a military hospital in Iraq with no memory of how he became injured but he knows there was a boy named Ali involved. While recovering from his TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) he slowly regains events but they don't add up.

He got out his notebook and turned to the page where he'd written a new version of what had happened, a version that included what he now knew.
1. taxi runs the checkpoint
2. Justin and I pursue the vehicle
3. we turn down a side road, past the bootleg store
4. we get out of the Humvee to give chase down an alley
5. we get separated
6. I start taking fire in the alley
7. I return fire
8. Justin picks off the shooter from an upstairs window
9. RPG hits wall, Justin drags me to safety.
He didn't write about what happened when he returned fire. He couldn't.

It is a slow and painful process recovering his memory. On one hand he needs to know and on the other hand he is afraid to know the truth.

It is interesting to note what the soldiers turn to for entertainment. They play Halo, watch Rambo movies, and joke about Chuck Norris, but it is a way to bolster their flagging bravery?

I highly recommend this book. It is a very fast read and the reader is riveted to find out the truth with Matt.

My rating for this book: +++++

Nineteen Minutes (2007)

Jodi Picoult doesn't tell the story of a high school shooting massacre from just one point of view -- we get it from the shooter's, the victims', the parents', law enforcement's, lawyer's and DA's. We don't just see the events of one day, we go back to the shooter's first day of kindergarten and follow him and his classmates to the fateful day and through the trial which followed. We get the whole story, dissected and laid out for us so we can feel everyone's emotions.

Chaos was a constellation of students, running out of the school and trampling the injured. A boy holding a handmade sign in an upstairs window that read HELP US. Two girls hugging each other and sobbing. Chaos was blood melting pink on the snow; it was the drip of parents that turned into a stream and then a raging river, screaming out the names of their missing children. Chaos was a TV camera in your face, not enought ambulances, not enough officers, and no plan for how to react when the world as you knew it went to pieces.


Gripping is a word that is frequently used to describe an exciting book. I wish I could think of a word even more dramatic to describe how this book captured my attention, sucked me in, and had me suffer along with all (yes, I mean all) of the characters. I can't help but look around my school and wonder about all the hidden, horrible things that are probably occurring now and how there may be someone who feels as desperate and hopeless as this shooter felt.

High school students and parents of high school students will find this book scarier than anything written by Stephen King.

My rating for this book: +++++