Bird by Angela Johnson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a really cute book! It was interesting because it was told from the first person point of view from three different characters who ended up being connected in some way. The first chapter was Bird, then Ethan, then Jay, then Bird, Ethan, ... It was a cool way to tell a story. The story kind of revolves around Bird though. she is a 13 year old girl who runs away to find her step father who left her mother and her recently. She secretly lives in the shed out back of Ethans house who you find out is her stepfather, Cecil's, nephew. Ethan is also a little boy was really sick every since he was very young and finally had a heart transplant. Jay is the older brother of the little boy who died and gave his heart to Ethan. They live in the same town and each is going through some hard issue in life. It is a very sweet little coming of age story of real life problems and of friendship between these struggling kids. I really enjoyed it!

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The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The Thief is about just what the title says, A thief. He begins in jail and gets taken out of jail by the kings Magnus and swept up on a mysterious journey. All he knows is that he is needed for his theiving skills and will go free if he is successful. He meets Pol, the body guard, Sophos and Ambiadies, The apprentices, and The Magnus. They travel far across countries to find, what he doesnt figure out until later, Hamathies Gift, an ancient stone from the Gods that means who ever has it is the ruler. It is hidden in a secret and almost magical cave/temple of the Gods and Gen is supposed to go and steal it. From the Gods. This mission has been attempted many times before, but no one has ever made it back. Gen however is very skilled and for some reason has favor with the God Eungenidies, who he is named after, even though he is stealing from Him. Gen starts out hating all of his companions but by the end finds that he has grown close to almost all of them. His companions find out really who Gen is when they are captured and brought back a kingdom that Gen is very familier with. I didnt really enjoy this book very much. It was a little confusing and I when I finished the only thought left in my mind was "So what?". I didnt really see the point of it. I was surprised to feel this way too because I have heard so many LOVED these books, so maybe I just missed something...

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Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wow! What a great book! This was one of those warning-against-too-much-governent books. It was very interesting. It is about a boy named Luke who is a "Third Child" which is against the law. Population law strictly states that families can only have two children and Lukes family already had two boys before him. Luke loves his family and knows they love him, but is beginning to go crazy stuck in the house hiding all the time since the government took away the forest that was their backyard that he used to be safe in. Luke's only form of entertainment was watching the new neighbors out a slit in the side of his room until he spots someone that shouldn't be in the neighbors house; another third child. Luke risks everything to go investigate and gets swept up in a fight for freedom against the government.

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The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really like this book! It was about a homeless girl who had been homeless and alone ever since she could remember. The only name she knows for herself is Brat until the people in this new village find her sleeping in a dung heap (yes a heap of dung, gross...) for the warmth and start calling her beetle or dung beetle. At first the little bully boys of the village find her, but then the villages mid-wife comes across them and commends her for being smart enough to know that the dung heap would provide heat and says she can come and do little chores and things for her for food and shelter. She ends up helping more and more and becomes known as the Midwifes apprentice. She finds a sickly cat and makes friend with it, gives it cheese to eat and talks to it. Her only friend. The midwife is not exactly a kind individual. She makes friends with one of the bully boys by saving him when all his friends leave him and at another time helping him deliver his beloved cows calves (twins). They become almost secret friends. Beetle also starts learning more about midwifery and gets the oppurtunity to help someone birth a child. She begins thinking that maybe she is smart and of value. She gives herself a new name; Alyce. When she messes up another birth she feels like a failure and runs away. This is a great story about growing up and learning to be yourself, and learning to deal with mistakes. I thought it was a very sweet story!

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Kiss Me Kill Me by Lauren Henderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars Oh my goodness! I did not know this was a series! A mystery series non the less! I was quite angry at the end. But I really enjoyed the rest of the book! It is about a 16 year old girl named Scarlett Wakefield. She is a gymnast and not in the "cool" group at her very trendy and very expensive private high school. One day she gets invited to join the group and come to a party. Her decision to leave her real friends and make herself more like the "cool" kids in appearance and behavior (she tries very hard)... will change her life forever. Everything seems great when it looks like her biggest wish is about to come true; A kiss from Dan McAndrew, the hottest guy from the boys school next to theirs. Everything goes wrong though when Dan suddenly pulls away from the kiss. She thinks she has done something wrong and starts to get very embarrassed until she sees is face and his hands groping for his pants pocket. He is suffocating to death and dies in her arms. Scarlett is traumatized and everything with the ambulance the police and her gaurdian and friends is pretty much a blur. She is sent to a new school and sets out to solve the mystery of Dan's sudden death and to figure out herself and if she will ever be able to trust herself to kiss another boy again (without him dying that is...). Lauren Henderson's writing easily grabbed my interest and kept it the whole time. This was a very fun, dramatic mystery. There are some content warnings however. There is some language throughout the book, and talk about subjects that most guys probably wouldnt appreciate. 260 pages. View all my reviews >>

Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

My rating: 4 of 5 stars This was a very, very quick read. It was very cute, about a boy named Jack coming to terms with poetry, and, it seemed, at the same time learning about himself, his potential, and life in general through the assignments from his teacher, Mrs. Stretchberry. He was a very endearing little narrator and it was really interesting to have the story be told in poetry form and strictly from the one character. I very much enjoyed this cute book of Jacks poetry. 86 pages. Favorite Jack Poems: "Sometimes when you are trying not to think about something it keeps popping back into your head you can't help it you think about it and think about it and think about it until your brain feels like a squashed pea." "LOVE THAT DOG (Inspired by Walter Dean Myers) By Jack ......." The rest would be too much of a spoiler though... View all my reviews >>

Missing May by Cynthia Rylant

My rating: 4 of 5 stars This was such a great short book. A sad, but somehow happy story, cathartic. It was about a little girl who's parents had died as a baby and she was passed around from Aunt to Uncle, back and forth, never feeling completely welcome or loved until Aunt May and Uncle Ob came to visit. They decided right then and there to take her back to their humble trailer home in Virginia. For six years she lives with Aunt May and Uncle Ob before tragedy falls on their little family; Aunt May passed away leaving the two of them to try and figure out how to live with out her. This is about Summer and Ob's journey to find May in their lives again. Summers quirky friend, Cletus Underwood comes along and helps with his strange, but confident and happy ways. It is an unexpectedly feel good story about life, loss, moving on, family, acceptance, and love. It is 89 pages. View all my reviews >>

Getting Away with Murder by Chris Crowe

Wow, this book was incredible. I did not know that story. This was a very well written historical book. Emmet Till was a 13 year old black boy from Chicago who went to visit his cousins in Money, Mississippi. In not understanding the "Jim Crow" laws of the south, even though his Mother, Mamie Till Bradley warned him, he made a deathly mistake of talking to a white woman in a way that was just not done in those days and in that area. Mrs. Bryant, the woman he "molested"- in her words- decided to not tell her husband but the word got out among the community and when her husband got home he was outraged. He got his brother and went over to the home of Mose Wright, where Emmet was staying, and demanded to see him, kidnapped him, took him out to scare him and beat him, and killed him. After finding his body and identifying him, and his mother fighting for his body to be sent home to her, then came the accusations and the court procedings. As Chris Crowe says in the book, "Justice, racist style, was done". The men were let off scot-free from both kidnapping and murdering charges with a smile on their face. This case however enraged the nation black and white, especially after Millam and Bryant sold their story of how they tortured and kill the boy to a magazine. Emmet Till was a brave boy, raised by an amazingly strong woman, who knew who he was and stood for what he believed. He was childishly impulsive but was a child who should not have been killed. However his death made him the boy who started the civil rights movement and eventually gained freedom for black citizens of our country. A freedom that they should have had a long time before this. A freedom they were born with. This was a great book and a great story, one that should never, ever be forgotten. As a young adult book however, Im not sure how I would recommend it. I definatly think young adults should know this story, but I think that even though it is real life, it is a little graphic and disturbing. I think that it depends on the young adult, but I think that it would be a bit too much detail and imagery for some young people. Such an amazing story.

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Incantation by Alice Hoffman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was so great! I love historical fictions because they sometimes can teach you more than just studying a time period or event because they put you, personally, in that time. You can feel it all around you, depending on how well it is written and how accurate. Alice Hoffman wrote quite an amazing historical fiction. She just jumps right in with getting to know this medieval character instead of giving much background of the time. Estrella de Madrigal is a young girl about 15ish living in Spain with her grandparents and mother. Her best friend is Catalina. As Estrella begins to grow up she is forced into a realization of what the world can really be like. A family secret is revealed to Estrella and as Catalinas cousin, Andres, comes to stay with her and causes the hidden rift that had been forming under wraps between Catalina and Estrella to take shape. Catalina feels betrayed and in turn betrays her best friend by telling a secret that she wasnt even supposed to know. This causes a series of events that has life changing, life destroying consequences for the Madirgal family. It was so easy to get involved in this book and the characters and to learn a little of the terrible things going on at the time. It gives you a different perspective of the world.

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Front and Center by Catherine Gilbert Murdock


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
So this was the last of the Dairy Queen books as far as I know. I loved it too!! This one is still in D.J.'s Junior year of High School. It is called front and center because D.J. starts to get WAY more attention than she ever wanted in her life with Boys, School, Colleges, even her family. It stresses her out for most of the book. D.J. discovers that Beaner, who she thought was just a friend, wants to be more. And she discovers that her mind is not yet ready to be done thinking about Brian. Win, her high school basketball coach, and college coachs start to put on the pressure for DJ to become the assertive player she could be (and cant get herself to become until her friend Ashley's Suggestion). Both D.J. and Brian have learned a lot about themselves and their families through the course of the three books and it is all kind of accumulated in this last one. I absolutely Love D.J. and all of the characters and am pretty sad that it is done, but it was quite an uplifting, eye-opening, and fun coming of age story that is very easy to relate to! So fun! 254 Pages. 3/3 Dairy Queen Books.

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The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Off Season is the sequel to Dairy Queen and it is soo good! This one starts out about 3 days after Dairy Queen leaves off, after the big game DJ played. The off season is about part of D.J.'s Junior year in high school and her decision between playing basketball and football, going to college, dating Brian... Brian and D.J. start off the same as they left off, liking each other. Brian even takes her shopping in another city and buys her things and holds her hand and then on the way home they kiss for the first time, and D.J.'s narration/description of this kiss is quite hilarious! It ends up, however, that Brian acts pretty stupidly around his friends still when it comes to D.J. and then theres the incident with People Magazine and the turkey farmers. Also, in the middle of the football season that D.J. was so enjoying, she gets tackled and hurts her shoulder and is forced to decide between quitting football to save her arm for Basketball, or possibly not being able to play basketball which would be her only way into college- a basketball scholarship. The other HUGE event that piles stress on top of D.J.'s life, is during her brother Wins football game that the family was all gathered to watch, Win gets face masked illegally and breaks his neck! D.J. ends up being the one to be with Win and helping him through his misery. D.J. and her family also learn a lot more about Curtis, her little brother, and his academic abilities. This sequel was great and I cant wait to hear more from D.J. Schwenk! 277 pages. 2nd of 3 Dairy Queen books.

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Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Anne of Green Gables is such an amazing book. It is the one the most pleasant reads I have ever come across. It just fills you with Anne's contentment and enthusiasm with the world. This is such a sweet story about a little 11 or 12 year old orphan girl who is brought to Avonlea by mistake to be adpoted by the Cuthberts, Marrilla and Matthew. They meant to have a boy sent to adopt to help Matthew on the farm but Anne was sent by accident. Matthew is deeply afraid of women and girls alike, but takes an unexpected comfort and liking the Anne. Anne is quite dramatic, talkitive, and imaginative and finds joy in everything around her. If there something not joyful, she imagines that it is. Anne and Marilla and Matthew grow to love oneanthoer dearly. Anne becomes close with the other adults in town as well like Mrs. Rachel Lynde and Mrs. Barry and Miss Barry (The Barry's Aunt) and Mrs. Allen and so forth. Anne meets the little girl next door, Diana, and they take a vow of Bosom Friends Forever. They become the closest and dearest of friends. Anne becomes quite popular with the girls and boys at school. One of the first days at school Anne makes an enemy of Gilbert Blythe. He called her carrots because of her red red hair (which she was quite self concious about) and she becomes infuriated and smashes her tablet over Gilberts head. Anne is always making mistakes but makes the point that even though she is thoughtless often and makes mistakes, she never makes the same mistake twice. Each of the big mistakes, Flavoring the cake wrong, dying her hair, falling off the roof... teach her something thing new and Anne begins to grow up and channel her imaginations and enthusiam into a much more mature way of life. Her and about 6 of the kids she has grown up with go off to college (the rivalry with Gilbert still entact, although at this point it is just for show after rufusing Gilberts last plea for forgivness over the years). Anne learns a lot and comes back to her beloved Green Gables a much distinguished young lady to some more life discovering incidents. This is such a wonderful story of growing up and better yourself. Anne is not perfect, but she tries very hard in life and shows that that is the most important thing. I absoulutely loved this story and cant wait to read the other books. This book had 240 pages.

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The Secret Journal of Brett Colton by Kay Lynn Mangum


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was such a great book!! It dealt with so many issues in this young girl's life, Kathy Colton. Kathy is a 15 year old girl in a family that she cant stand. The thing she cant stand the most is when her family goes off on their nightly tangent of never ending stories of a long passed away brother, Brett. Kathy was two years old when Brett died and doesn't remember him at all and feels left out, unimportant, and annoyed when her family starts talking about him and all the amazing things he did. The only thing about Brett for Kathy is this weird connection she feels somewhere inside her when she looks at his pictures. She cant figure it out. Kathy starts High school and is forced to start tutoring the oh-so-popular-and-handsome Jason West. Jason is a lot like Brett in that Brett and Jason both are some of the youngest QB of the Central High football team. Jason has grown up hearing stories of Brett. Brett even has a plague and picture and trophy in the trophy case at school that Kathy is constantly drawn towards. As Kathy gets to know Jason better, he becomes less and less repulsive to her. Jason struggles with his "cool" image and with just being who he really is. Kathy finds out Jason is a Mormon, and he loves to integrate religious stories into their tutoring sessions as much as he can. On Kathy's sixteenth birthday she receives a very special, unexpected gift from someone she thought she would never, ever know - her big brother Brett. Brett had died of Leukemia 14 years earlier and had written this journal to Kathy so that somehow she could remember him. He had adored her. Brett had also had a Mormon friend who loved to share his religion with him. Throughout Brett's journal and as he gets closer to the impending death that awaits him, he starts to study the religion and read the Book of Mormon and to feel that it is true. He tells of dreams he has about Kathy when she is older and she begins to dream of him too. Brett, Jason, and Kelly (Brett's High school friend) help Kathy to find herself, her family, and God. Now that she understands and knows the person that Brett was and that she will see him again someday, she helps her family through the pain that they are still suffering with. She helps Jason also in being brave enough to stand up to his friends, and reunites Kelly with her family and with Brett by letting him and her family read the journal too. This is a very sweet and inspiring story of Family, love, Faith, and growing up. I absolutely loved it, it meant a lot to me! This book has 334 pages.

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The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin



This book was interesting. It was very sad and parts were hard to read. Overall, I liked it. Something I have a hard time with in stories is when they are written simply to elicit an emotion, sadness, fear, anger, and for no other apparent reason. I don't think that this book was entirely like that but at points throughout the book that is how I felt. I liked where it ended up and how it was written. It was very interesting and I think a good book to raise awareness about child abuse and to teach about fear, family, and rising to the occasion. The story was basically a letter, written two years after the abuse had been stopped, to the youngest child in the family, Emmy, from the oldest, Matthew. Matthew had lived with their insane mother and learned to deal with her since birth. Matthews father, Ben, was kicked out and was too afraid of the mother, Nikki, to fight for Matthew and Callie. Emmy was born of another father. Matthew spent his entire life up to 13 protecting his baby sisters, and being partner with Callie in protecting little Emmy. At 13, Matthew and Callie meet Murdoch. This event happens at the beginning of the story but is really the changing point in their lives. It takes Matthew and Callie a long time to find him and when they do, Nikki ruins their plans of meeting him, but Murdoch (and Ben and Aunt Bobbie)eventually helps them out of their terrible situation. This is very much a coming of age story for Matthew. He learns about himself, who he is, what he is capable of, and what he deserves. Matthew starts out writing down all of the things that happened to him and his sisters "at the hands of thier mother" so that Emmy can understand their family and understand the world better, but he ends up writing it just for himself, to sort things out in his head and make sense of all that he went through. This book has 260 pages.

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Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was such a great book. Catherine Murdock really captured the teenaged view of life and the serious issues dealt with at that time, and she was very humorous and entertaining at the same time. Dairy Queen is about a girl, D.J. Schwenk, who lives on a dairy farm in Red Bend, Wisconsin. D.J.'s family have a struggling relationship, with many, many things left unsaid. D.J.'s father gets hurt, her two older brothers have moved away and completely detatched themselves from the family and her little brother is busy with baseball and school, that most of the farm work is left up to her. When the rival highschool's stuck up, spoiled, quaterback, Brian Nelson, gets sent to the Schwenks farm to learn a little work ethic things begin to get interesting in D.J's life. They start off hating each other and being quite rude to one another. Through a series of events involving the farm, Smut the dog, Amber- D.J.'s best friend, Jimmy Ott- Brians coach and D.J.'s friend, and a whole lot of football and training, things change between Brian and D.J. Brian helps D.J. learn what it means to be in a relationship with someone, friend or family. She learns to communicate and helps her family learn as well. One of the other big conflicts in the book is that D.J. is so worried that she is "a cow", just following others orders just because, not living her life for herself and the things she wants to do. She learns to be herself when she takes a risk in trying out for the highschool football team as the only girl ever to play as far as she knows. This was such a sweet story of all kinds of relationships, Mother-Daughter, Father-Daughter, Brother-Sister, Friends, First loves... I think that this would be a very beneficial book for young adults to read. This book had 274 pages and has at least one sequel that I know about, called Off Season.

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The Book Thief by Markus Zusak


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I loved this book! I loved the way that Markus Zusak writes. I think that he is fresh and so descriptive and his reasons for writing this story made it all the more interesting. He grew up with his parents telling him stories like this and wanted to tell the mostly untold story of the German people. He is really good at characterization. It was very easy to get involved in and love the story and the characters. Leisel Meminger is the main character and the "book thief". The plot jumps around a bit throughout Liesels life but basically, Death, the narrator, sees Liesel steal her first book at her little brothers grave site. Leisel gets taken to a foster family in Molching Germany, where she meets her foster parents and her best friend Rudy. Leisel's real mother leaves and ends up dying. Leisel has no contact or details about her. Her Foster Mother is a rude and loud women. She calls Leisel a "Saumench" or something like that which means Pig in German. She yells and screams at pretty much anyone and everyone, but as Leisel gets to know her more she realizes that all the name calling is how she is showing her affection to her. Liesel seems to start to take after her in that too. Liesels Foster father is a sweet man who teaches Liesel to read and comforts her when she needs someone to hold her. He is a stronger man that he seems. He, in his quiet way, fights back against the things going on all around him, Nazism. They hide a Jew, Max Vandenburg, in thier basement who becomes another dear person in Leisels life. This book shows the struggle of a family who does not agree with treating others like most around them are. They don't like the "Furer" but are bound by his Tyranical rule and the frightening following by neighbors and friends even. Liesel and Rudy are forced to go to Hilter's Youth school and "Hiel Hilter" everywhere they go. Death sees Liesel a couple of more times until the end of the story when Molching is bombed and Leisel loses everything and everybody, including the book of her life she began writing. Death gives this book back when finally Leisel herself leaves this life years and years later.
This was such an amazing and eye opening book to the horrible things happening on both sides of the war.

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The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed this book. It took me a little bit to get used to the writing style because it felt a little more immature than I was used to. But once I got over that I was able to really get into the story and characters. It was a fun mix of ancient Greek mythology (which I love)and modern times and teenagers. Basically, Percy Jackson is a troubled young teen with dyslexia and AD/HD who has been kicked out of every school he has attended. Very strange things seem to happen around Percy (whose real name his teacher reveals is Perseus, also the rescuer of Princess Andromeda and the slayer of Medusa in Mythology). Percy starts to figure out through a series of rather frightening events that his best friend Grover and his teacher, whose real name Percy finds out is Chiron (Trainer of Hercules, I think), are not what they seem at all. Percy gets taken to a place called Half-Blood Camp for kids like himself- Demi-Gods. Soon after Percy arrives and begins to accept what he has known to be myth, there is trouble on Mt. Olympus. Percy and the rest of the camp find out that his real father is one of the "Big Three" Gods; Posieden, God of the Seas. His mother gets taken to the underworld as Percy tries to protect her from an angry minator, and Percy and two friends, Grover and Annabeth, set off on an adventure solving the mystery of Zues's Stolen lightning bolt, fighting monsters, meeting and challenging Gods, and rescueing Percy's Mother.This book has 375 pages and is the first of a series of 5 books.

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