The Hunger Games- Suzanne Collins

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The Hunger Games had been on my reserve list at the library for several weeks before it finally came.  It was worth the wait.  I would not classify myself as being a lover of sci-fi or fantasy, but I really liked this book.  In this book 24 teens are forced to compete to the [...]

Ultimate YA Bookshelf

YALSA has come out with their “Ultimate YA Bookshelf” which has 50 books, 5 magazines, and 5 audiobooks.  The premise behind it and a link to the pdf can be found here.
Here are the 50 books-  I am interested in how many of them I’ve read- and whether most of them are specifically YA lit [...]

May Recap

May wasn’t my greatest month for reading.  But, I did get some good books read. So in case you missed it- here’s what I read:(Numbers correspond to their placement on my list of books read so far for the entire year.)
24. Being Nikki- Meg Cabot 
25. The Chocolate War- Robert Cormier 
26. Dead is the New Black- Marlene Perez
27. Jellicoe Road- [...]

Tears of A Tiger- Sharon Draper

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Written in 1994 Tears of A Tiger will still resonate with students now, 15 years later.  This story deals with the aftermath of a drunk driving accident that kills a high school student.  The relationships between friends, children and parents, teachers, and counselors are all discussed through transcripts of discussions, newspaper articles, diary entries, [...]

Jellicoe Road- Melina Marchetta

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This Printz winner took me a while to get into. I’d say I was a third, to half of the way into it before I really became intrigued, but then I didn’t put it down.  There are numerous interesting characters whom I loved, but at the same time had some difficulty keeping everything [...]

From the Library

Today I went to pick up The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party at the library and lo and beholdJellicoe Road was also waiting for me. I’m going to try to read them both relatively quickly because I have a feeling there are waiting [...]

Dead is the New Black- Marlene Perez

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I do not usually pick up books about vampires, but this one jumped out at me from the shelf in the library and I figured I’d give it a try. It is the first in a newer series, and is relatively light with some dark moments, and looks at a different type of [...]

The Chocolate War- Robert Cormier

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The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier is a story about a boy at an all boys Catholic high school who decides to rebel against a school tradition.  He also gets involved with a secret high school society.  The book addresses friendship, bullying, and teacher student relationships.  I enjoyed this book, and I think that [...]

Kit’s Wilderness- David Almond

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Kit’s Wilderness is a novel that is very realistic but includes fantastical elements.  Kit is a 13 year old boy whose family has recently moved back to the town in which is grandfather grew up.  Part of the story revolves around Kit’s grandfather’s declining health and mental state.  I identified with this aspect [...]

A Step From Heaven- An Na

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This book reminded me of Kira Kira, as they both tell stories of Asian immigrants in America.  I found this book a little hard to get into, perhaps because it doesn’t focus on one time in her life but rather goes from Kindergarten through beginning college.  The story follows a Korean girl from [...]