A book is good company.

I heard the author speak at the TLA Conference a few years ago after I read Speak.  She’s a powerful author who communicates with Young Adults in an exceptional way.   I always know that her books are going to be page-turners and that students will like them.

Ashley Hannigan is not exactly against Prom, but it’s not her favorite event of the year.  She has enough to do to keep caught up with her work and her detentions and staying off  the assistant principal’s radar.  But, when all the money for Prom is stolen by the senior class sponsor, Ashley’s best friend Natalia becomes head of the Prom committee and needs Ashley’s help to pull it off.   Before you think this is all about Prom and nothing else, this book has quite a bit of depth.  Ashley learns about herself, her family, her friends, authority, and the elderly and becomes a better person because of it.

Read Prom.   Laurie Halse Anderson does not disappoint.

I haven’t read a series of books since I read Dee Henderson’s O’Malley books, but I’ll look for the next book in this series as soon as it is available.  WOW!!!  What a book!  This one captured me from the first page and left me wanting more.  My friend Dee read it and then donated it to the library.  Thanks, Dee!

The story is set in a future North America with the Capitol in the Rocky Mountains and the rest of the continent separtated into 12 Districts.  Katniss Everdeen is a hunter who hunts for food in an off-limits area of District 12 so that her family can survive.  Her father died in a coal mining accident several years ago which left Katniss, her mother, and her younger sister Prim to support themselves the best way they can.  Katniss hunts with her best friend Gale, and they help each other feed their families.  The drama begins when it’s time for the annual Hunger Games, a televised fight-to-the-death among 24 young people between the ages of 12 and 18 who are randomly chosen to represent their Districts.   When Prim’s name is drawn, Katniss volunteers to take her place.   Katniss and Peeta, the other “tribute” from District 12, are whisked away to the Capitol to prepare for the Games and to compete for their District’s honor.  Katniss and Peeta discover their strengths and weaknesses and discover much about each other during the Games.

I couldn’t put this book down.  The action moves at a rapid pace, and the descriptions of the dangers Katniss and Peeta encounter are riveting.  I’ll definitely read other books in this series, and I’ll probably look for other books by this author.

Marked is the first book in the House of Night series written by this mother/daughter duo from Oklahoma.  It’s a vampire (aka vampyre) book that is quite different, and much more mature, than Twilight.

Zoey Redbird is “marked” by a Tracker while she’s standing at her locker talking to her best friend Kayla.  The mark, a dark blue outline of a crescent moon, means that she has been chosen to become a vampyre and will go to the House of Night, a school where she’ll train to become a vampyre.   When she goes home and talks to her mom about it, her mom’s first reaction is to tell Zoey’s step-dad who calls the People of Faith to activate the prayer chain for her.  Zoey leaves home and goes to her grandmother who doesn’t judge her but helps her find her way to the House of Night.  Once there, she meets her mentor, her roommate, and a group of very stuck-up girls who call themselves the Dark Daughters.  Zoey discovers that she has unusual powers and abilities that set her apart from most of her classmates, and learning how to handle them keep her busy.

It took a while for me to get drawn into this book, but it did grab me.  There were many things that I really didn’t care for - especially the language, the rituals, and some of the situations.  I’m not sure that I’ll recommend this book to many kids, and I doubt that I read the other books in the series.  I’m glad that I read it so that I can talk about it with kids who do choose to read it.

#6 - An Angel’s Story by Max Lucado

A friend got a three book set of Max Lucado’s Christmas books, and she shared them with me and another friend.  I realized that I read this a few years ago with a different title - Cosmic Christmas.  It’s the back story, if you will, of the events surrounding Christ’s conception and birth.  It tells what was going on in Heaven between the angels and demons as the demons try to prevent God’s plan from coming to completion.  It was a great book that reminded me again about God’s power that surrounds us even when we can’t see it.

#7 - One Potato, Two Potato by Cynthia DeFelice; illustrated by Andrea U’Ren

This book won the Bluebonnet Award which was presented to the author and illustrator at the Texas Library Association Conference last week.  As a member of the Texas Association of School Librarians Executive Board, I was privileged to meet the author and illustrator at the Bluebonnet Luncheon and get my book signed by both of them.  It was pretty cool.

The book is based on a Chinese folktale that has an Irish twist.  Mr. and Mrs. O’Grady have one of everything - one potato each day, one chair, one hairpin, one blanket, and one coat, one candle - so they share all that they have.  One day when Mr. O’Grady is digging for their last potato, he finds instead a large pot.  He digs the pot up, throws in the one potato, and takes it into the house.  When he gets it there and shows it to Mrs. O’Grady, they find not one but two potatoes inside.  They begin experimenting and find that everything they put into the pot is duplicated.  The real fun begins when Mrs. O’Grady falls in.  The story ends with a wonderful message about having enough.  I can’t wait to share this book with Ethan!

I’ll admit that I hadn’t heard about this book until the movie came out, and I read it with very little prior knowledge of the story line.   It was good but not exactly the page-turner I expected.

Fifteen-year-old Michael gets sick and throws up outside Hanna’s apartment on his way home from school one day.  He meets Hanna who cleans him up and then walks him home. Michael is diagnosed with hepatitis the next day and spends months at home recuperating.  His mom expects him to thank his rescuer properly by taking her flowers as soon as he is healthy enough to return to her apartment.  Their affair begins then and lasts several months before she suddenly disappears.  Michael comes in contact with her years later in the courtroom where she is on trial and he is a law student.  Even though they never speak in person again, his life and hers are changed because of their relationship.

Michael is The Reader in the story.  He spends hours reading to Hanna at her request.  He reads everything from The Odyssey to War and Peace to Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing; prose, drama, and poetry.   It’s years later before he realizes why she was so insistent for him to read to her.

I’m glad I read the book, but I still haven’t seen the movie.  I probably will, but I’ll have to wait for it to come out on video.  This book is for adults…not recommended for students.

Max Lucado is just one of my favorite Christian authors…hands down.  His writing style is so conversational yet so deep that I come away from each of his books having learned much that I can apply to my life.  3:16 is no exception. Lucado takes the familiar John 3:16 verse and breaks it down into its parts and applies each section in a new and wonderful way.  He intertwines personal and inspirational stories to bring the verse to life and to add application.

I read this book as a study with two friends, and we included the companion study book to guide our discussion and to give us even more application.  We took several weeks to complete it, but the book itself could be read within a day or two.  The study book could be used individually as well.

I was thrilled to find that we already had the Newbery winner in the library when the award was announced.  I took it home and immediately started reading it.  What an interesting book.

It begins with the murder of a family.   The only survivor is the two-year old son who managed to get out of the house and wanders into a graveyard.  He is able to “see” the occupants of the graveyard, and he is adopted by the Mr. and Mrs. Owens, a couple who died years earlier and who never had children of their own.  The child doesn’t know his name, so he is given the name Nobody Owens, Bod for short.  The book tells the story of Bod’s adventures as an occupant of the graveyard and the lessons he learned from his guardian Silas as well as the other residents.  He learns to Fade and make himself virtually invisible, a skill that he is able to use to his great advantage.  He interacts with the “outside” world and even attends school for a short time.  He eventually solves the mystery of his family’s murder and is able to leave the graveyard.

The illustrations in the book are wonderful.  The black and white drawings help to make Bod and his world come alive (pun intended).

Great book…highly recommended.

Next is The Reader.  I just got it from a friend yesterday, and I don’t want to put it down!

Michael Kerrigan is a high school senior who works weekends and some nights writing obituaries for the local newspaper.  He’s also the captain of the track team and he’s looking forward to his last track season.  When he asked his friend Joey to get him a couple of joints, Michael had no idea what kind of choice he’d have to make, one that would affect both Michael and Joey.

 The title of the book comes from a conversation Michael had with Joey’s dad one night over a bowl of stew.  Joey’s dad recalled his last professional fight where he was knocked out for the first and last time.  He told Michael that “I never recovered as an athlete, you get me? I took one good punch, and it finished me.”  Those words echoed in Michael’s mind as he makes his decision.

This was a quick read and one that I’ll be sure to recommend to boys especially.  It’s a quick read that draws the reader in pretty quickly.  We got it in the library as one of our Junior Library Guild selections, and I’ll definitely look for more books by Rich Wallace.

Two books blogged in one day.  Must be a record!!

OK…so I’m a little late coming to the party, but I finally read Twilight.  It was good and I’m glad I read it, but I don’t know that I’ll read the others right away.  I’m simply not a series reader.  Paula tried to get me hooked on Stephanie Plum, but after two or three, I wasn’t interested in reading more.   Same thing happened with Sue Grafton’s alphabet mysteries.  The only exceptions have been Patricia Cornwell and John Grisham.  I’ll read everything they write.  I digress…back to Twilight…

This is the story of Bella and Edward - how they met, how they fell in love, and how they came to grips with the differences between them.  Sounds simple, huh?  Not exactly.  We meet Bella as she leaves sunny Phoenix where she has lived almost her whole life and moves to damp Forks, Washington to live with her dad, the Forks chief of police.   Bella and her had have had a long-distance relationship for several years, so living together for the first time requires a big adjustment for each of them.  The high school is considerably smaller than the school Bella attended in Phoenix, and most of the students have known each other forever so Bella is anxious about meeting them and fitting in.  She and Edward first see each other across the crowded cafeteria where he sits with his brother and sisters.  Bella and Edward become lab partners  in biology class, but Bella feels less than welcomed by Edward.  In fact, he acts as if he wishes she were not there at all.  Edward is unlike anyone Bella has ever met.  He is uncommonly handsome with his very pale skin and piercing eyes which seem to change from a warm topaz to a steely black.  He rescues Bella from certain death when she is hit by an out-of-control car in the school parking lot, but his rescue leaves Bella with more questions than ever about Edward.  Through more twists and turns than need to be included in this blog, Edward and Bella make startling discoveries about each other and determine that they should be together forever.

For those of you who are Twilight fans, I’m sure that this brief review will not meet your approval.  I understand the fanaticism that has accompanied the books and the movie.  Bella and Edward are wonderful characters who draw the reader into their story.  Stephanie Meyer can be attributed with renewing many young adults’ interest in reading, something that parents, teachers, and librarians always love to see.  I caught Meyer’s interview on Sunday Morning back in August where she discussed getting the idea for the book in a dream.   If you haven’t read Twilight yet, read it.

Last year, I set a goal for myself to read 40 books, and I planned to read more YA books than adult and professional books.  Looks like I missed both goals, doesn’t it?  I read some great books this year - Same Kind of Different as Me, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, and His Bright Light are three of my favorites.  It’s interesting that all three of them are non-fiction.  My favorite YA book has to be Maximum Ride.

So, it’s goal-setting time again.  I’m setting the same two goals that I had last year - read at least 40 books and read more YA books.  Also, I never made it through Pride and Prejudice, so I’m reading it this year for sure.   I’m also reading The Message this year.  I have a reading plan for it, and I’m sticking to it.

What are your goals?  What do you plan to read this year?  Let me know what you’re reading and maybe I’ll steal something from your reading list.

One more thing…Have you seen Shelfari?   It’s an online reading community that allows readers to share their reading shelves and discuss books.  It’s great fun.  Check it out, create your own shelf, and add me as your friend!