This One

This has to be the Newbery this year.  I loved Towers Falling.  A 9-11 story, but more than a 9-11 story.  Set 15 years after 9-11 in a Brooklyn school where teachers are beginning to talk about the horror of 9-11 as history to middle school students.  But more than that, though because the characters are so real and so good and so engaging.  Recommended for the Newbery. Wow.  Wow. Wow.   There were so many cheesy traps that the author, Jewell Parker Rhodes could have been sucked into but she didn't at all and it was just so so good to read about characters who acted like real people.  I see she has written many more books!  I must read them now!!!!!!

Different Kinds of Struggles

Better than Perfect and Zane and the Hurricane and Sarny all had struggles. How can one put a value on struggles?
I know that we can't rank pain.
This book tells the story of "perfect" Juliet Newman who is from a "perfect" family that starts to fall apart.
Her mom ODs, her parents divorce, she is struggling with her "perfect" boyfriend" and her pending acceptance?  into Harvard.
There is no "perfect" life.  Facebook and Instagram and Twitter might make us think that others have perfect lives.
I knew a woman who was always complaining about other people have such perfect lives.
I would ask, many times, "How do you know their lives are perfect?  Their children are perfect?"  She would tell me that she sees it on Facebook.
There really isn't much to say to that.
I would sometimes (though not often because she was not a woman of good temper) that her Facebook page also displayed a perfect life.  That just didn't seem to sink in at all.
Juliet would be seen as a "perfect" girl and this ill-tempered acquaintance of mine would compare her to her own daughter, and wonder why her own child couldn't be more like Juliet, I am sure.  But this book just hits home the lesson that no one is perfect.

Rain Reign Winner!

When I read Rain Reign I was hoping and pretty sure that it would be recognized at the ALA Youth Media Awards.  And it was!  The book won the Schneider Family Book Award for Middle School.  Girls Like Us won the YA award.  And that was awesome, too.
It was a great year all around for the YMA.  There was no real 1954 disasters. I was especially overwhelmed and brought to tears when The Crossover won the Newbery.  Unreal.  Awesome.
I want to write more about that, but look how far behind I am on reading this year.  But I am going to turn it around!

Oh how I waited!

for the publication of Jala's Mask.  I knew about it for a long time because I know Rachel Ross, who is Rachel Grinti of Rachel and Mike Grinti!  I was actually the muse for this book!
Not really.
But I love Rachey and I get to work with her every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday!  And she is just an amazing person and so that is why I was a little bit worried when I found out that their new book was not a kids book or a teen book.  And that is why I was even more worried when I found out that Jala's Mask was fantasy.  And that is also why I was MOST terrified when I found out there was LOVE in it!  How in the heck was I going to enjoy this book?
Well, it was easy.  Quite easy.  I opened it, started reading and "What is that giant sucking sound?"  It was me, being sucked into Jala's Mask and loving every single minute of it.
I loved their first book, Claws.  But keep in mind, while that was fantasy, which isn't my thing, it was still a kids book.  And I loved, loved, loved it.  But I was so worried that I wouldn't understand Jala's Mask, but man....this book is just incredible.  The whole world that Rachel and Mike built here is one that seems as real as Bethel Park or Upper St. Clair.  But different, of course!  But real!  Like you could honestly find them on a map.

You Gotta Have Hop

this is a terrible, terrible song.  But Hope is a Ferris Wheel is a really, really good book.  This is Robin Herrera's first book.  I bet she just gets better and better.  I liked all of the characters in the book....well, not the dead-beat dads.  But we don't have much contact with them.
Star is ten she tells the story here.  She and her mom and her sister, Winter move from Oregon to a trailer park Northern California.
There's a lot of stuff going on here, but it is all blended together so well.  The book is so well written that it just flows like really life.  Winter and Star are the kind of sisters that make me wish I had a sister.  Very realistic, very good.

Sometimes I feel like shouting, "Glory! Glory! Glory!"

that has absoultey nothing to do with Glory O'Brien's History of the Future, but her name, Glory O'Brien, of course, reminded me of the song Were You There?  And the last verse which reads, "Sometimes I feel like shouting, "Glory!  Glory!  Glory!  Were you there when He rose up from the grave?"  This version is by Marion Williams.  It doesn't end that way, but man....what a rendition.  WOW.  WOW.  WOW.
Glory O'Brien's History of the Future is a pretty "wow" kind of book.  A.S. King really has written terrific books.  I haven't read them all, but I really hope to do so next year.  I think that next year I might take an author-focused approach and also finish up my "Reading Road Trip" deal where I am trying to read a book set in each of the nifty-fifty.
Where does Glory O'Brien's History of the Future take place?  In Pennsylvania!  I think most of her books do.  Aaaannnywayyyy....I am rambling.
This book is a must for the Amelia Bloomer Project.  It is a very odd book, but odd in a good way, as in original!  It reminded me a bit of Grasshopper Jungle because that also had a main character who was writing a history, not of the future, but of the last days of Earth.  I don't know if this is sci-fi like Grasshopper Jungle and Noggin, because modern science doesn't give Glory and her friend their super powers, they come from drinking the ground-up remains of a bat.  But natural science is still science, right? So maybe? It is like GJ and Noggin though because while it definitely is paranormal, it doesn't seem way out there, it is very realistic.  Is this a new trend in YA fiction?  Paranormal fiction that is more normal?  GOHOTF also reminded me of Sure Signs of Crazy which I read just about this time last year.  Glory and Sarah both had mothers who ended their own lives and both are concerned that they will do the same.
There are just some really great characters in here.  And a very great father.  This was just such an exceptional book, even though Glory is not a very likable character and I don't think she is meant to be. Well maybe she is just like a normal person.  No one is likable all of the time.  Well, I actually do know a lot of people who are likable all the time!  Not me!  But I do know a lot of people who are!
Anyway...great, great book!  A.S. King, great, great writer.

Good Looking People Don't Die

that's what Maggie's dad says in The Meaning of Maggie to make her laugh and ease her worry about him.  Her father has MS.  A portion of the proceeds from the sales of the book will go to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, which is pretty cool.  I have a very dear friend with MS and some other good friends with it as well, but I didn't know much about it.  I find it interesting, incredibly sad, but not surprising, given my Calvinist upbringing, that the disease has no cure and is twice as likely to impact women than men. Let's also not forget Sickle Cell.  Sigh.
I liked this book, but I didn't love it, I ended up giving it three stars because I don't know why...it just didn't seem to grab me all the way hold my interest as some book really do.  Still, I was reading it during a time when I was dealing with a major issue at work and I know that I was distracted.  Maggie is a perfectionist, straight As all the way, so I think that this would really appeal to kids and folks of the same nature.  Indeed, I found this on this terrific blog.  One part that really stuck with me was that Maggie chose MS as her science fair project (her parents keep her in the dark about her father's condition and so she seeks out information on her own).  She gets a B instead of an A, which kills her.  Her teacher explains that she didn't pick a problem she could solve, which is true, because MS has no cure yet.  I don't know why that stuck in my head.  I guess I had been thinking a lot about science and faith lately, things that are able to be "proven" and those that can't be proven with tangible evidence.  This is different, sure, but my mind drew the relationship because there is so much in life that can't be fixed and solved.  But the thing is, the way cool and amazing and completely true thing is, that ALL things will be solved in the fullness of time.  All pain will end, death will pass and we will live in glory of Heaven, with Jesus the Christ.  And well, that is just pretty remarkable and wow, just too wonderful for words.
I think I need to go back and change this to a four.  A book that makes someone like me think that much?! Well, that's a good book!

Because of this Website

Does the Dog Die, I was able to read Because of Winn-Dixie.  Well, reread it.  Because I remember reading it along time ago, but I really didn't want to reread it if Winn-Dixie died.  And while I was pretty sure, almost 99% certain that he didn't, I just wanted to make sure.  I have been struggling through The House of Small Shadows and it has been very depressing and I didn't need anymore depressing right then.
Does the Dog Die is about movies, which I didn't know when I looked at it quickly on my phone but just discovered now.  I just found this on goodreads, so that is another good resource for those of you, who like me, subscribe to the No More Dead Dogs way of life.
This is a great story.  Nowadays it might seem like every other book for kids is about a girl from the south, without a mother or a father or both, but Because of Winn-Dixie was early on, so you can't get mad at it for that.
What I loved most, not surprisingly, was the relationship between India Opal and her dad, whom she just calls, "The Preacher."  I loved that the church her father pastors was welcoming of all, even the stray dog, Winn-Dixie, named after the store.  I LOVED Glory Dump and Otis and Miss Franny Block.  All lovely characters and lovely people.  And they call came together, because of Winn-Dixie.

Half a Chance

is better than no chance at all.  That's not the phrase that is used in the book Half a Chance, but it is true.  The phrase in the book is, "Even half a chance beats none."
Anyway, that reminds me of the interview with an author that is on the end of of the audiobook of Bridge to Terabithia.  Katherine Paterson and her son David Paterson are interviewed and KP talks about how the reader really makes the book come alive.  Both KP and DP recall that many fans of the book have remembered the events in the story quite differently, made the story their own.  And they speculate that maybe that is why Bridge to Terabithia has had such staying power.  I was thinking about my dear friend Joanie when I heard the KP and the DP interview.  September will soon be upon us.  And September, to me, is the cruelest month.  This has nothing at all to do with Half a Chance.  Once I again, I just went completely off track. But since I am so far off track, I did include the Katherine Paterson and Lobster picture again!
So Half a Chance is by Cynthia Lord, author of Rules.  I gave five stars to Half a Chance, much better than what I gave to Rules, which was just three.  Rules was a Newbery Honor in 2007.  It seems odd to me that Rules would get an Honor and the excellent Road to Paris wouldn't get one.   While I have never read Hattie Big Sky, another book that got an Honor, instead of Road to Paris, I have to say that the Girl in a Sod House Guarantees Newbery Love Rule might have been at play here again.
Ahem.  
Sorry.  Half a Chance has nothing to do with sod houses, either!  This book is quite good and quite real and I wouldn't complain if it got an Honor this year, as long as Brown Girl Dreaming takes it all or at LEAST gets an Honor as well.

Problems

Ah, the problem of Laurie Halse Anderson.  I really want to like her writing!  I really do!  Everyone does!  Everyone loves Laurie Halse Anderson.  But Wintergirls was the first book I read by her and The Bitter Knife of Memory was the next. I disliked Wintergirls so much, it took me this long to even try another LHA book.  Wintergirls was the first book I ever blogged about and looking back, I can see that I was much meaner back then.  I am embarrassed to read how mean I was!  
Opps.  I wrote this a few days ago, not even realizing that I also have read Twisted.  I am embarrassed.  But I also think that proves my point that I need to either give LHA a rest or try something totally different from her. My dear friend Kara recommended that I try something from her Seeds of America series, saying that it is totally different and I might enjoy them. What was done really well was Anderson' look into the PTSD suffered by Hayley's father because of his experiences fighting in the Iraq War.   

Drew Me In...SPOILER

I have to say that I was put off by the title of My Soon-to-be-Sex Life.  Put off, but yet, drawn in!  So it must be a good title!
This is a not a book for those who are offended by swearing.  There is a lot of swearing.
It also isn't a book for someone who doesn't like to read about the possibility of teens having sex before marriage, as you can probably tell from the title.
But the thing is, this book isn't a bunch of smut.  Not at all.  There aren't any descriptive acts.  SPOILER COMING.  The main character, Charlie, is wanting to badly to lose her virginity, but she doesn't in the course of the book.
Judith Tewes does a really realistic job of looking into why some teens do end up having sex, and she does a really good, non-preachy job of it.  She doesn't condemn sex among teens, but she doesn't glorify it.
There is a lot, lot, lot to talk about here.  Family relationships, faith, what it means to be a Christian, Alzheimer's Disease, just a lot.
Also, it was very funny.  It moved quickly.  I do hope to read more from this author.

Fish Story

When I was a little girl, I won a goldfish as my elementary school Fun Day. This little dude lasted a really long time! I know I still had him in eighth grade. I know that is weird. But I am sure that he wasn't replaced, like the goldfish in The Fourteenth Goldfish. My parents hated that fish! They couldn't wait for him to die! I'm not sure why, because I did take care of him. I know that my cats enjoyed looking at him, too.

But that is neither here nor there.

The title of The Fourteenth Goldfish refers to the whole goldfish drama that Ellie went through, or didn't have to go through, rather, over goldfish. When Ellie was in preschool she had a rather progressive teacher and at the end of the year she gave all of the students a goldfish. The thing was, goldfish aren't supposed to live very long and their death would teach the children about the circle of life. Ellie's goldfish didn't teach her that though, because her fish never died. Her parents kept replacing it! Very clever.

The Fourteenth Goldfish is written by Jennifer L. Holm who also wrote, Turtle in Paradise, which I absolutely loved.   This book is kind of like the Intergalatic Bed and Breakfast series in that it is science fiction, but it good, meaty, growing-up stuff within its pages as well!  TFG is a growing up story, and a funny one.  Ellie's grandfather is a scientist who has found the Fountain of Youth, in the form of a jellyfish.  Instead of being a guy in his late 70s, he is now a young teen again.  Is that good, or is it bad?  There is a lot to be learned in this book, about growing up and moving on, about being more than you thought you could be.  It's about fathers and daughters and loss and the circle of life.  It's about science and art and the in between.  But it is hilarious and not preachy and not predictable.  I really, really loved this book and will find it very easy to recommend!  I was excited to get this on netgalley and look forward to its release! 

Wow

When I first downloaded the eARC from netgalley and read the first page of We Were Liars I thought immediately of We Were the Mulvaneys.  I've never read We Were the Mulvaneys, but I guess it was the title and the whole obsessed with being the picture-perfect family thing and being from New England, that whole deal.  Turns out though, the Mulvaneys were in Upstate New York.
I couldn't wait to read We Were Liars.  I have loved everything I've read by e. lockhart and expected great things.  Even with my high expectations, I couldn't have expected what was to come.  We Were Liars is going to be The Book to Beat in 2014.  Haunting.  Beautiful.  Heart-breaking.  All of those buzz words, they belong to this book.  Characters that are so, so real, you forget you are reading fiction.  Flawed characters, but ones you are still able to love, like family, like real people.  There is a warning at the start of the ARC from Beverly Horowitz, the Vice President and Publisher of Delacorte Press that urges readers to just read the book, not seek out what it is about before doing so.  And she says at the end that you will want to talk about the book once you read it, and oh, oh I do!  So please, please, get ahold of this book.  Fantastic.  What a way to start the new year.

Horror Story

Yeah, Because I am Furniture is a horror story, for real.  It is realistic horror.  And horror like this happens every day and that makes it even more horrific.  Anke's father is super abusive.  A true monster.  But there is more Anke.  I just love her.  She is fighter and real and just a true hero.  Powerful book.  Very. 

A Zebra Forest...

Adina Rishe Gewirtz is a brandy new author and Zebra Forest is her first fiction book.  I will most certainly be looking for her next one, as this one really stuck with me.  I bought it to listen to and I'm glad I have it, because I'll want to go back again.  Annie and Rew never live with their grandma, who is a good lady, but sometimes she isn't quite there.  Their mother took off and all Annie remembers is that she said she never really wanted kids.  Grandma has always told Rew and Annie that their dad was killed in a bar fight.  But one day there is a break at the prison just through the zebra-looking forest in their backyard and man shows up, and wouldn't you know, sometimes the dead aren't so dead after all.  Annie tells the story and she is a smart kid, a neat kid.  And so is Rew.  A story of love and family and forgiveness and yeah, just a really great story.

When I first heard..

my friend Julie describe Sure Signs of Crazy, I thought that there was no way I wanted to read it.  When she told me it was the story of a twelve-year-old girl whose mother had tried to drown her and her twin brother when they were little, killing her brother, I thought, nah.  Not in the mood for a downer.  But then she told me it wasn't a downer at all.  And she was right.  And wow, did I love this book.  Karen Harrington is a new author for me, but I will be sure to read more by her.  What a lovely, sad, happy hopeful story.  Sarah Nelson's mother did try to kill her.  Now her mom is in a mental hospital, prison situation and doesn't have much contact with her.  Her father is an alcoholic, but a good man.  Sarah writes two diaries, a fake one, incase anyone finds it, and a secret one, in which writes to Atticus Finch, wishes he was her dad.  They live in a rented home in Texas and move around a lot when folks find out that they are "that family."  What a great story.  I know it sounds like a downer, but it isn't.  It is lovely.  Please read this.  You will fly through it.

Who Knew?

About the Pagoda in Reading, PA?  Probably a lot of people, but I didn't.  And I am kinda embarrassed, but I will admit it anyway.  Next time I am in Reading, I am for sure going to check it out.  It will be out of respect to one of best books I've read in a long time, Please Ignore Vera Dietz.  It is written by A.S. King who wrote Ask the Passengers, which I also loved.  Right now I can't find the video I saw that King made about her books, but I have to say, it was pretty awesome and I will look for this author, always.
I listened to this book and while the reading was very good, I found the narrator's tone to be pretty snarky and I didn't get the sense that Vera is a snarky girl.  I absolutely loved the father-daughter relationship in this book.  Vera's dad is a great dad.  Vera's best friend and love of her life is dead and his death was under pretty awful circumstances and Vera knows information that can clear his reputation, but she isn't ready to give it up because she is still angry at him for dying and for dissing her before his death.  Great book, truly.  Very well done and great characters.

So that's an interesting title...

Maybe there is just something wrong with my mind and the way I think. Maybe no one else even thinks twice about the title of the book Shooting the Moon.
I just absolutely loved this book. I thought it was beautiful and wonderful and simple and complex and powerful. Frances O'Roark Dowell is a truly blessed author. She is excellent at character development and putting the reading right inside the character's head.
The last book that of her's that read was Ten Miles Past Normal, which I loved as well.
Shooting is told from the POV of Jamie a twelve year old girl who lives the on the US Army base of Ft. Hood in Killeen, TX. Her father is a Colonel and pretty much the top guy at Ft. Hood. Jamie and her brother TJ have always grown up loving their country and the army. Their family is tight and strong and pretty cool. The Colonel is a serious man who loves his family first, then the army, then football, as Jamie sees it.
TJ is set to go off to college in the fall but instead, he enlists in the army because his best friend is MIA in Vietnam. Jamie is thrilled. She can't wait to hear all about war and she wishes she could enlist as well. The Colonel and Jamie's mom aren't quite so excited and try to talk TJ out of it, but his mind is made up.
While TJ is in country, he sends letters home to his mom and dad and undeveloped film home to Jamie. Jamie learns to develop the film and learns a lot from what she sees and from getting to know the other young soldiers at Ft. Hood.
Man...man...this is just a really solid, good, good historical fiction book. I can't see anyone not loving the way this story is told and the questions and emotions that it will raise.