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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