Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Love….love….loved this book!  Why? The main character, Willow Chance, is so endearing, so innocent and so special.

Willow has such a unique perspective.  She is obviously very intelligent, yet she has many obsessive tendencies.  She also has trouble fully understanding social situations.

When her class is given a standardized test, Willow finishes before all others in a very short time.  Her score is perfect! Her teacher believes she has cheated.  Willow is referred to a counselor- Dell Duke. Dell is pretty dysfunctional himself. He does pick up on Willow’s genius, however.

When a life changing event occurs, Willow becomes completely changed.  She can’t speak. She stops counting by 7s.  She can’t function normally at all.

Read this book! Willow’s recovery is endearing!  Her effect on others who respond to her plight is well worth the read.

To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

I really enjoyed Jenny Han’s other books: The Summer I Turned Pretty and It’s Not Summer without You.

To All the Boys I’ve Loved is a delightful read.

Lara Jean has the greatest respect for her older sister Margot.  When Margot leaves for college in Scotland, Lara Jean must assume some of the roles Margot played in the family.  Their father is a busy doctor.  Katherine (Kitty) is Lara Jean’s much younger sister. Their mother has died many years ago.

Before she died, her mother gave her a teal colored hatbox. Lara Jean has used this special possession to put all her secret keepsakes inside. She has written some letters to boys she has “loved” or been infatuated with since she was in middle school. When her prized hatbox goes missing, she is very disturbed.

Lara Jean enjoys writing.  She is quite reserved as a high school junior.  When some private letters which were in her hatbox are mailed, Lara Jean is overwhelmed by the attention that two of the male recipients share with her.  The letters reflect her feelings from seventh grade not her feelings now as a junior in high school!

Josh, Margot’s ex-boyfriend is one of the boys! Since Lara Jean would never do anything to hurt Margot, she wants to make sure Josh doesn’t become interested in her.  Peter, a very popular Lacrosse player, who has just broken up with his girlfriend of four years, is the other boy who received one of the letters.

Lara Jean decides to engage in a make believe relationship with Peter so that Josh won’t be interested in her.  Peter is very willing to entertain this fake relationship because he is anxious to make his ex-girlfriend Gen, jealous.

Neither Lara Jean nor Peter actually expects that they might actually end up really liking each other!

Read this excellent Jenny Han novel to find out just how complicated life can become for Lara Jean!

The Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson

I am only recommending this book to mature readers.

Children need parents to raise them.  Even eighteen-year-old Hayley Kincain needs her father Andy’s guidance and wisdom.  The only problem is that Andy is what is known as a “damaged” dad.

Andy has served two tours of duty in Iraq and two tours in Afghanistan.  His personal demons from these tours of duty have affected every area of his life.

Unable to hold down a steady job, Andy and Hayley have moved around a great deal. Finally, they have returned to the small town where Hayley was born so she can attend high school for the first time.

Hayley’s mom Rebecca died when she was very young.  Haley’s grandma raised Hayley after her mom died while Andy served in the war.  Since her grandmother’s death, Andy has tried to be her father.

The trouble with Hayley is that Andy has become an alcoholic.  He doesn’t sleep well, and depends upon Hayley to be the strength of the family.

When Andy’s second wife Trish comes to town, Hayley can’t forgive her for deserting them.

Will Hayley be able to overcome those major issues- fear of abandonment, a father who resists any help offered, a step-mother she can’t tolerate, and a high school schedule she finds restrictive? Will Finn, the boy she meets in high school be able to cope with Hayley’s many issues?

Read The Impossible Knife of Memory to find out.

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

I really enjoyed this well-written book.  However, I am only recommending this title to mature readers.

The narrator, Cadence Sinclair Eastman, has suffered a major trauma which affects her ability to remember clearly the events of her fifteenth summer.  The memory loss makes her an inconsistent narrator.  As a reader, one cannot truly guarantee that events occurred as Cadence recalls them.

Cadence’s extended family (her mother’s two sister and families) spends summers on their privately owned island off the coast of Massachusetts. Beechwood Island has four huge houses (one for each of the Sinclair daughters and one for their father & mother.) Cadence has spent each summer of her life at Beechwood.

Her two cousins Johnny and Mirren are her best friends.  The three have always been affectionately known as just “the cousins,” but the year they were eight, Gat Patil came to the island with Cadence’s Aunt Carrie.  After that the four were known as the liars.

Gat was different from the line of Sinclairs.  His skin bore the color of Indian dissent. Cadence’s granddad and grandma did not accept him.

Cadence’s affection for this boy who is different is evident, “Gat was my love, my first and only. How could I let him go?”

The trauma that occurs shatters the entire Sinclair line, but especially Cadence.

Read, We Were Liars to find out what could possibly have gone so wrong on such an idyllic summer island.

Broken by C.J. Lyons

Scarlet wants to be a normal high school student. Her health problems have prevented anything but a normal life. Finally, her dad and stepmother have given her a chance to attend a week of high school at Smithfield High School where her mother works as the nurse- Nurse Killiam.

Each chapter in this book records her struggle for each day of that week.

Scarlet is suffering from a terminal disease called Long QT which affects her ability to breathe and makes her heart race. “I am very aware that I ‘m taking my life in my hands by coming to school. Being normal might just kill me.”

Scarlet clearly has led such a sheltered life that she is unprepared for the taunting and bullying which immediately becomes apparent.

Scarlet doesn’t know whom to trust, but when Jordan, Celina and Nessa rise to her defense in the cafeteria, raising the ire of the jocks, Scarlet feels this might not have been the best idea.

Scarlet’s biology teacher, Ms. Blakely, assigns a project to track a medical family history and identify any possible genetic traits and then analyze them. A classmate, Anthony Carrera, asks to be Scarlet’s partner.

Anthony’s (Tony’s) interest in Scarlet’s disease might just save her life!

This story was compelling! The author C.J. Lyons is a former pediatric emergency room doctor so the medical explanations are spot on. As a reader, you are routing for Scarlet- hoping against hope that she can finally feel like a normal girl.

Push Girl by Chelsie Hill & Jessica Love

In real life, one of the authors of Push Girl is paralyzed from the waist down and appears on Sundance TV’s series Push Girls. I feel her real life story is reflected in this fictional account of Kara.

 

Kara is driving herself to Taco Bell after having an argument with Curt, her boyfriend of a year.  He’s been drinking at a party at Rob Chang’s house.  When Kara arrives at the party, Curt promises to pull himself away from his Water Polo teammates and speak privately with Kara about issues going on between her parents at home.  When Curt forgets about Kara, she confronts him and leaves on her own.

When Kara wakes up two weeks later in a hospital, she can’t believe what has become her fate!  Yes, she survived the horrific accident which left her Prius a jumbled ball of metal, but she can’t feel her legs!  Kara is a dancer.  She can’t imagine life without dancing!

Worst of all to Kara is that her boyfriend Curt is curiously absent.  He doesn’t text her, doesn’t come to the hospital, doesn’t answer her phone calls.  Her whole world is shattered and the person she thought she could depend upon, someone who would be there for her, isn’t anywhere to help.

How will she overcome this deep depression, learn to tolerate the various medications she has been put on to recover and find her way back to her senior year in high school? It might be quite surprising!

The story is so believable because of the input from Chelsie Hill whose real life experiences after a drunk driver nearly killed her, adds much depth to the character of Kara.

Students who appreciate stories about people overcoming terrible odds and choosing to lead their best lives will really enjoy this title.

 

Guitar Notes by Mary Amato

What happens when two very different high school students share the same music practice room on alternating days?  Tripp Broody claims the odd days while Lyla Marks uses the room on even days.

Could two more opposite personalities exist in the same space even on alternate days? Tripp is not doing well in school since his father’s sudden death.  His guitar is his whole world.  His mother tries to provide the structure he needs to get back on track by locking his guitar in a storage closet in their rug and carpet store.  She figures without his distraction of the guitar, Tripp will buckle down and get serious about school.  Not!  Instead, Tripp finds a way to borrow an old beat up guitar from his school and use the practice room.

Lyla is a straight A student and a promising cellist.  Her dad has her life closely guarded with concerts lined up and auditions for private schools.  Although his intentions are good, what Mr. Marks doesn’t realize is the anxiety and pressure Lyla feels all the time.

When Tripp leaves “trash” on the music stand in the practice room, Lyla writes him a short missive designed to correct him.  Thus, begins their “guitar notes,” and thus begins their unlikely friendship!

I thoroughly enjoyed this well written piece.

 

Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea

I loved the dedication in the front of this book: "For the third and fourth graders at Bethany Community School, who inspired me to write, and whose everyday mysteries and spontaneity gave me a story to tell." I liked it because I didn’t realize that the author had taught in Bethany, CT before moving to North Adams, MA.

Mr. Terupt , a new fifth grade teacher, makes quite an impression at Snow Hill School in Connecticut. At first Peter, the class prankster and troublemaker, thinks Mr. Terupt will be a pushover. He’s new after all! He figures it will be easy to rile him.

Alexia has been bullying other students and just being plain mean for the past several years. It has always worked to intimidate kids or lie to turn her enemies against each other. Will this strategy work for her this year?

Jessica is new to the school having moved from California. She is bright, sensitive, and perceptive. How will she make friends in this new school?

Luke is the brain in the class and rises to the challenge of the first math project “Dollar Words” that Mr. Terupt assigns. Danielle is very shy. She doesn’t know how to stand up for herself. Jeffrey hates school. He doesn’t reveal much about himself to anyone. Anna’s mother’s mistake early in her life has carried into Anna’s life. She is perceived as an outcast.

Each of these unique students enters a journal entry for each month of the school year with their perceptions and reflections on how their new teacher conducts himself. Despite their very different personalities and needs, Mr. Terupt seems to effectively deal with all of them.

This is a dear story! I absolutely loved it! I look forward to reading the sequel Mr. Terupt Falls.

You Have Seven Messages by Stewart Lewis

I am always amazed to read a book written by a man whose narrator is a fourteen year old girl.  I was delighted by Stewart Lewis’s new book where Moon, also known affectionately as Luna and Moon River, tells the tale of finding her deceased mother’s cell phone a year after her untimely death.

Amazingly her cell phone still contains the last seven voice messages her mother received before she was killed tragically by a taxi in Manhattan’s East Village.

Moon’s father is a well-known film director.  Her mother  had been a fashion model totally committed to Moon and her much younger brother Tile.  Imagine Moon’s shock when her father arrives at her summer camp and delivers the news, “Your mother is gone and she’s never coming back.”

 As Moon begins to piece together parts of her mother’ s private life from the messages she received shortly before her death, the image she has had of her beloved mom begins to waiver.  Will her world crumble as she learns more?  Read this realistic fiction novel to find out!

 

 

No Safety in Numbers by Dayna Lorentz

What could go wrong on an ordinary trip to the mall? There are always lots of stores, shopping, food courts, meeting friends, avoiding enemies, and trying to stay clear of your family when your friends are around, right?


No one would think of a bomb being planted at a mall, right? What if it was a different kind of bomb? What if it contained a biological weapon. . .something that could make everyone in the mall VERY ill. .  . . .maybe even kill people?

What if the Senator who is visiting the mall with her husband and daughter Lexi, makes the wrong decision in the early minutes of the "attack"?

Read this book to find out how four different students suffer through the ordeal.

Stolen by Lucy Christoper

From the very first sentence of Stolen  I was drawn into this intense novel about the kidnapping of  Gemma, the narrator of the story. 

                “You saw me before I saw you.  In the airport, that day in August, you had that look in your eyes, as though you wanted something from ,me, as though you wanted it for a long time.  No one had ever looked at me like that before, with that kind of intensity.  It unsettled me, surprised me, I guess.  Those blue, blue eyes, icy blue, looking back at me as if I could warm them up.  They’re pretty powerful, you know, those eyes, pretty beautiful, too.”

 When Gemma allows Ty to purchase her cup of coffee, she can’t anticipate that he is about to drug her and kidnap her.  Ty has planned this attack on her.  There are disguises for them both hidden in another part of the airport.  Security cameras at the airport will never be able to find how she has suddenly disappeared.

Where will he take her? What are his motives? Does he seek a ransom” No, his motives are much darker than wanting money from her parents.

Read this captivating account of Gemma’s ordeal.

Recommended for mature readers.  Some incidents of strong language in this novel.  Stolen  is a Printz Honor Book.

Reel Life Starring Us

Chelsea has always lived in the wealthy part of town that feeds into Rockwood Hills Middle School. Her father has had a prominent job in banking. Chelsea wants for nothing. Whatever the latest fashion for teens is she has. Clearly she is one of the most popular girls in the school. She and her clique of the other most popular kids in the school rule it. However, Chelsea has a secret this year that she feels she must keep from her friends at school or she will lose her social status. Since she has had mono for the first several weeks of school, when she returns, she is paired with Dina who has just moved into the district. 

Dina’s family decided to move closer to her grandparents who live in the area. Dina’s previous middle school was small and had an artsy flare. Dina developed a talent for creating videos.  Everyone at her previous school knew each other and cliques did not rule the school. She is in for a big shock when she is “chipped” the first day of classes. Students crush potato chips and dump them in unsuspecting kids backpacks.

In social studies class Dina and Chelsea are paired to create a video for the fiftieth celebration of the school. Will Chelsea be able to give this new girl a chance or will she be worried about what her friends think of Dina? Will Dina be able to trust Chelsea after one of Chelsea’s friends posts an unflattering video of Dina on Facebook?

Girls who are fans of chic lit will enjoy this title. Watch the video of the author, Lisa Greenwald. She could name a character in her next book after you!

Slob

I loved the protagonist of this easy to read novel--Owen Birnbaum. Despite being the fattest kid in his school, Owen is probably the brightest! His desire to capture images from a security camera that was in the deli his parents owned the night it was robbed and they both were murdered fuels his creative genius. By scavenging electronic parts from demolition sites around the city, Owen and his younger sister Caitlin have all kinds of parts and motors with which to tinker to hopefully create Nemesis.

With any luck, Nemesis will allow Owen to capture who the killer of his parents was on that fateful night two years ago.


But life isn't always easy for tweleve-year-old Owen. His adopted mom has him on a diet--only three Oreo cookies in his lunch each day. Someone is stealing his Oreos! Owen suspects that it is Mason Ragg--a quite disturbed boy who always has an aide with him in school.

Being the genius Owen is, he creates The Thief Catcher which will nab the thief in the act of stealing his cookies. When his cookies still are stolen, despite this new device, he has to resort to other tactics. When his sister suddenly insists on being called by a boy's name--Jeremy--Owen's life becomes even more twisted.

Will this boy genius be able to finally catch the Oreo thief? Will Mason Ragg be the culprit? Will Owen's Nemesis work? Will he and his sister finally learn who murdered their wonderful parents? Read Slob to find out.

Wish

Tommy Winterson has had a rough journey through his first eleven years. He was born with cystic fibrosis--a lung disorder which makes his breathing labored and causes his body to be stunted in growth. People who suffer from cystic fibrosis have a shortened life expectancy.

Tommy, his fifteen-year-old siter Beatrice (Bee for short), and his mother are flyng from their home in Warren, N.H. to California on a trip funded by a wish foundation called Blue Moon. Tommy's wish is to swim in a shark cage off the coast of San Francisco hoping to see a great white shark in the wild. Tommy knows everything about sharks.

When the weather and sea conditions are a washout for Tommy's dream, his sister Bee has another idea--to look up Ty Barry, the guy who has survived a shark attack which bumped him five feet into the air while he watched the seventeen-foot shark swirl beneath him.

Will Bee be able to find Ty? Will Ty be willing to pay attention to Tommy who clearly idolizes him?

This is a great book which should appeal to both boys and girls due to the strong character of Bee, Tommy's sister.

Close to Famous

Foster McFee has an incredible dream. She's enthralled with Food Network's chef Sonny Kroll. She'd like to have her own show on Food Network entitled "Cooking with Foster." Already an accomplished baker, Foster has managed to sell her famous cupcakes and muffins by first offering them for free to potential customers.

There are problems in Foster's life, however. Her mom's boyfriend Huck is a self-serving, Elvis impersonator who has turned abusive. Fleeing Memphis and Huck in the middle of the night with all their possessions stuffed into trash bags, Foster and her mom make it to a small town in West Virginia called Culpepper.

Culpepper has its own cast of characters as each small town does. Perhaps the most intriguing one is a former actress named Miss Charleena Hendley.

Will Foster be able to make friends in Culpepper? Will she find a suitable venue to sell her delicious baked good? Will Hank, the abusiver boyfriend of her mother's, find them? Will Foster be able to realize her dream of having her own Food Network show? Read Joan Bauer's new novel entitled Close to Famous to find out.

Secret Saturdays

Justin begins to worry about his best friend Sean when he catches Sean lying to him. Justin feels this is a breach of trust between best friends. He notices changes in Sean's behavior at school and at his apartment in Red Hook. Justin shares his worry about Sean with their friend Kyle as well as Vanessa.

Why does Sean suddenly leave mysteriously with his mother early on certain Saturday mornings? Where does he go with her? Why does he feel the need to lie about where he and his mother go on these "secret Saturdays"?

This wasn't one of my favorite books. I found the friends' concern for Sean to be genuine, but the lack of action in the book weighed the story down. I included this title in my blog because I do feel that there are some readers who would like to know what living in a housing project is like. They might also enjoy the friendship that these four share.

The Trouble with Half a Moon

Dellie has a lot to shoulder as a 7th grader. Her only brother Louis has recently died, leaving a gaping hole in the heart of her beloved family. Dellie feels responsible for his accidental death. Her parents' grieving, though normal, has left Dellie virtually a prisoner in her own home. In particular, Dellie's mother doesn't like Dellie to be outside. She harbors fears that she will lose Dellie just as she has lost Louis.

Dellie especially leans on her friend Kayla who resides in a unit on the floor above Dellie and her family. They share a special bond. When Kayla accuses Dellie of telling some of her personal secrets to classmates, their friendship sours. Dellie ends up spending time with a six year old boy named Corey whose mother is abusive. She becomes very protective of him and feeds him when he otherwise wouldn't have any food provided by his mother.

Michael, a boy in Dellie's 7th grade math class, has begun to show an interest in her. But how will she be able to see him if her mother is so protective?

Simply written and in short chapters, this is a quick read which satisfies.

How Lamar's Bad Prank Won a Bubba-Sized Trophy

Lamar Washington is thirteen years old and the King of the Strikers at Strikers Bowling Alley. His brother is 17 and known as Xavier the Savior of the local basketball team. Their mom died of cancer several years ago and their dad, though involved in their lives, works the night shift.

Lamar and his best friend Sergio are starting to be interested in girls. The trouble for Lamar is that he has always been a prankster so no girl takes him seriously!

The rivalry between Lamar and Xavier is paramount throughout the novel. Lamar's asthma is extreme and life theatening at times. To compete with Xaiver is near impossible for Lamar.

Billy Jenks, a hustler at the bowling alley, "befriends" Lamar so that he can use him to his avantage.

Will Lamar land the girl of his dreams or will she persist in thinking of him as a prankster? Will Billy manage to get Lamar in trouble? Will Xavier continue to bully Lamar? Read this novel by Crystal Allen to find out!
This video has a short piece about the book in the first minute or so of the video.

The Things a Brother Knows

Imagine that you have an older brother who you have always idolized. He shocks everyone when he decides to join the marines upon graduation from high school rather than attending any of the four ivy league colleges which have accepted him. He  maintains contact through letters and phone calls at first, but his communication falls off as his tour of duty progresses. Even when he has leaves, he decides not to come home. Then imagine his tour ends and he does come home, but he is not the same. He doesn't leave his room for three days. He sleeps around the clock. When he does emerge, he eats and then quickly seeks the sanctuary of his room. You know something terrible is wrong. You know that he needs help but your folks say things like, "Just give him time. He's been through a lot. It will take awhile for him to readjust."
You snoop in his room to find out what he is up to and you find maps printed out. He is planning a trip--that much is obvious. But where he is going is anyone's guess. This is the situation that Levi finds himself in when his brother Boaz returns from Iraq a changed person. Levi relies heavily on his best friends, Zim and Pearl.
This novel really affected me. I couldn't put it down. I kept wondering if Levi would be able to penetrate the protective barrier that Boaz had erected. Was there any hope that Levi would get back the brother he once idolized? Read The Things a Brother Knows by Dana Reinhardt. You won't be disappointed.

Bystander

I have always been curious of what leads a person to be a bystander in a bullying situation. I wondered if it was fear that motivated them, i.e. the fear that they might be the next victim of the bully. Is it feelings of inadequacy? So I was very interested to read James Preller's new novel entitled Bystander.The protagonist in this story is Eric. He has just moved into a new town on Long Island. He meets Griffin early on and realizes that he can't be trusted. Griffin is two-faced. He has the teachers thinking he is one type of kid when really he is the worst type of bully. Griffin's gang is formidable. No one challenges the way he treats others. His magnetic personality has many people fooled. Eric doesn't want to step into the middle of situations that he finds distasteful as he fears becoming Griffin's next victim. But isn't Eric's choice of nonconfrontation just the type of situation that fuels the worse in a bully? Read Bystander to find out what Eric decides to do.