Kiss My Book by Jamie Michaels

4/5 Stars

B&N:

RUBY CRANE IS a rising star. At 15, she sold her first book, got a movie deal, scored the hottest guy in school, and became the most popular student at Frasier High. Now, as a soon-to-be junior and published author, she's ready to make waves in New York's literary world. But every star falls back to earth one day. Ruby's accused of plagiarism - on national television. And the worst part is that the proof of her literary lies is indisputable.

Her friends won't return her phone calls. Her boyfriend's gone AWOL. The media vultures are flying low, and they want answers. So Ruby does what any self-respecting headline would do. She disappears. And that's when her story really begins.

My Review:

I love books about people who love books and write. This was a cute young adult book. It did mention sex briefly, and had some jokes of a sexual nature, but besides that it's "clean" for the classroom.

It had a neat legend of the town that drove the story along. The characters were cute and likeable. There were some parts that could have been developed more- like the man named Frank in the story. He was mentioned in the beginning and then again in the end...

Overall- a decent read.

Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles

4/5 Stars

B&N:

A fresh, urban twist on the classic tale of star-crossed lovers.

When Brittany Ellis walks into chemistry class on the first day of senior year, she has no clue that her carefully created “perfect” life is about to unravel before her eyes. She’s forced to be lab partners with Alex Fuentes, a gang member from the other side of town, and he is about to threaten everything she's worked so hard for—her flawless reputation, her relationship with her boyfriend, and the secret that her home life is anything but perfect. Alex is a bad boy and he knows it. So when he makes a bet with his friends to lure Brittany into his life, he thinks nothing of it. But soon Alex realizes Brittany is a real person with real problems, and suddenly the bet he made in arrogance turns into something much more. In a passionate story about looking beneath the surface, Simone Elkeles breaks through the stereotypes and barriers that threaten to keep Brittany and Alex apart.

My Review:

I read this book in a day. I've always liked the stories of two people who aren't the "normal" match-up getting together. The characters were passionate which made the story believable. I really liked the character of Alex. You were always rooting for him as the story progressed.

I would not put this into my 8th grade classroom library due to some sexual content. Although they do not go into specific details, it's still a bit much for some 8th graders. I think it would be a great book for mature 8th graders and definitely high school kids.

I'm from a small town (well it used to be smaller) and there's really no "real" gang activity, so that aspect of the story was interesting to read about. I have no idea if what the author wrote about is realistic, but it seemed to be.

The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf

5/5 Stars

B&N:

It happens quietly one August morning. As dawn's shimmering light drenches the humid Iowa air, two families awaken to find their little girls have gone missing in the night.

Seven-year-old Calli Clark is sweet, gentle, a dreamer who suffers from selective mutism brought on by tragedy that pulled her deep into silence as a toddler.

Calli's mother, Antonia, tried to be the best mother she could within the confines of marriage to a mostly absent, often angry husband. Now, though she denies that her husband could be involved in the possible abductions, she fears her decision to stay in her marriage has cost her more than her daughter's voice.

Petra Gregory is Calli's best friend, her soul mate and her voice. But neither Petra nor Calli has been heard from since their disappearance was discovered. Desperate to find his child, Martin Gregory is forced to confront a side of himself he did not know existed beneath his intellectual, professorial demeanor.

Now these families are tied by the question of what happened to their children. And the answer is trapped in the silence of unspoken family secrets.

My Review:


This was a very interesting book. I really enjoyed the way the author told the story from many different view points. It was easy to follow because of the chapter names (name of characters whose point of view you are reading about.) I also enjoyed how well the author wrote in flashback mode. It gave just the right information without over doing it. It also told us just enough to keep us guessing and wondering.

The story itself was very interesting. It really only goes through one day, but through the flashback mode it takes you over years and years. It's such an intriguing story. All the characters were believable and the back-story as well.

It took me around 6 hours total to read... unfortunately I started it at night and ended up staying up way too late reading it! I just had to find out who was the cause of what was happening. It has a really good twist at the end.

I've never read The Lovely Bones, but I would say people who liked that one, will enjoy this story.

Deadly Little Secrets by Laurie Faria Stolarz #1 Touch Series

4/5 Stars
B&N:

Some secrets shouldn't be kept...

Until three months ago, everything in sixteen-year-old Camelia's life had been fairly ordinary: decent grades, an okay relationship with her parents, and a pretty cool part-time job at the art studio downtown. But when a mysterious boy named Ben starts junior year at her high school, Camelia's life becomes anything but ordinary.

Rumored to be somehow responsible for his ex-girlfriend's accidental death, Ben is immediately ostracized by everyone on campus. Except for Camelia. She's reluctant to believe he's trouble, even when her friends try to convince her otherwise. Instead, she's inexplicably drawn to Ben.and to his touch. But soon, Camelia is receiving eerie phone calls and strange packages with threatening notes. Ben insists she is in danger, and that he can help-but can he be trusted? She knows he's hiding something... but he's not the only one with a secret.

My Review:

Good book. It's a pretty neat concept. One thing that annoyed me though is the main character's,Camelia, best friend... she just did not seem like a good best friend. She wasn't supportive and just downright rude at points. I didn't think the author did a good job with the characterization of Kimmie (the best friend.) If we, the readers, were supposed to believe that they were best friends, then Kimmie should have been softer.

I did like the connection between Camelia and Ben. I also liked the other male characters that were thrown in there. I'll be reading the 2nd book to the series soon.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

3/5 Stars

B&N:

The last normal moment that Mia, a talented cellist, can remember is being in the car with her family. Then she is standing outside her body beside their mangled Buick and her parents' corpses, watching herself and her little brother being tended by paramedics. As she ponders her state ("Am I dead?I actually have to ask myself this"), Mia is whisked away to a hospital, where, her body in a coma, she reflects on the past and tries to decide whether to fight to live. Via Mia's thoughts and flashbacks, Forman (Sisters in Sanity) expertly explores the teenager's life, her passion for classical music and her strong relationships with her family, friends and boyfriend, Adam. Mia's singular perspective (which will recall Alice Sebold's adult novel, The Lovely Bones) also allows for powerful portraits of her friends and family as they cope: "Please don't die. If you die, there's going to be one of those cheesy Princess Diana memorials at school," prays Mia's friend Kim. "I know you'd hate that kind of thing." Intensely moving, the novel will force readers to take stock of their lives and the people and things that make them worth living.

My Review

I really enjoyed reading this book. I had heard some "blah" reviews about it, but it was put on my desk at school, so I read it. And I'm glad I did. It was really interesting to see the accident and what happened after. The author did a phenomenal job with that part. Towards the end I was getting a little restless with wanting to know what was going to happen. But, overall it was a good read. I do recommend it.

I Know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan

2/5 Stars

B&N:

It was only an accident -- but it would change their lives forever. Last summer, four terrified friends made a desperate pact to conceal a shocking secret. But some secrets don't stay buried, and someone has learned the truth. Someone bent on revenge. This summer, the horror is only beginning....

My Review:

This was neat book to read only because I've seen the movie a few time and heard that the book is very very different. And it's true...it is different. So, it was kind of neat seeing all the differences and how the author wanted the story to go. It wasn't an amazing book, but for young adults, it was good. It wasn't too scary- but it had just the right amount of suspense and such. It also kept you guessing on who was the "killer" and such.

Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1) by Maggie Stiefvater

3/5 Stars

B&N:

For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf--her wolf--is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human . . . until the cold makes him shift back again.

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human--or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.


My Review:

I really should have done this right after I read it... it's been a month or so now.

This was rumored to be the "Next Twilight..." but for me... that is not how I see it- at all. I was forcing myself to get through this book. Yea- it was OK, but I think I had such high expectation for it that I was let down.

My students love it... maybe if I read it again, I'll like it more.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

5/5 Stars

B&N:
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival.

My Review: This book was great! I got it free from scholastic, as did a few other teachers, and I'm so happy I did. I was talking with another teacher and she mentioned how it reminded her of the short stories "The Lottery" and "The Most Dangerous Game." I fully agree.

It also reminded me of a really bad movie I saw about adults being dropped off on an island, and I believe it was a game show type thing and they had to kill each other... last one standing wins. Which is basically what this book is. It has a few twists and a few "Ahhh!" moments which makes you keep reading. It's a fast read because it just sucks you in.

***Catching Fire (2nd book) and Mockingjay (3rd/last book) I rate 5's as well! Amazing series.

Rage Stephen King

4/5 Stars

B&N: In Rage , a high-school student goes berserk in the classroom, killing the teacher and holding the class hostage.

My Review: I've never read any fiction by Stephen King. I've read his On Writing, which I really enjoyed. This story was given to me by one of my students. He told me he thought I'd like it. I did like it. Although I was frustrated at the end when 2 lines were edited out of a letter- King did this on purpose- but I wanted to know what they said! :)

Unwind by Neal Shusterman (Amazing book!!!!)

5/5 Stars

B&N Summary:

In a society where unwanted teens are salvaged for their body parts, three runaways fight the system that would "unwind" them

Connor's parents want to be rid of him because he's a troublemaker. Risa has no parents and is being unwound to cut orphanage costs. Lev's unwinding has been planned since his birth, as part of his family's strict religion. Brought together by chance, and kept together by desperation, these three unlikely companions make a harrowing cross-country journey, knowing their lives hang in the balance. If they can survive until their eighteenth birthday, they can't be harmed — but when every piece of them, from their hands to their hearts, are wanted by a world gone mad, eighteen seems far, far away.

In Unwind, Boston Globe/Horn Book Award winner Neal Shusterman challenges readers' ideas about life — not just where life begins, and where it ends, but what it truly means to be alive.


My Review:

Holy smokes this was so good. I didn't want it to end. It pulls you right in and I can see some amazing discussions coming from it.

I would LOVE to discuss this books with some of my students!!! So read it so we can talk about it!!!!

Amazing Grace by Megan Shull

2/5 Stars

B&N:Gorgeous teen superstar Grace Kincaid has it all- an electric smile, million-dollar endorsement deals, and blond cover-girl looks. But what happens when America's "It" girl doesn't want "It" anymore? With the paparazzi stalking her every move, Grace quietly slips out of a TEEN PEOPLE photo shoot, ducks the press, and call s her mom from the boiler room of the fabled USTA National Tennis Center. And right there, in her custom-made Nike warm-ups, tears streaming down her face, Grace says the three magic words that her mom told her she could say anytime, anytime this whole crazy life wasn't fun anymore. Three simple words-and her new life begins. For the hottest girl on the planet, life's about to change. Grace gets a make-under, a new identity, and a new life in a rugged little town on the edge of nowhere, population 813 (including one cute boy: one very cute boy).

My Review: Ehhh... I've read better. I picked this up to see if I wanted to put it into my class library, and it did seem interesting. I think it has the potential to be really good- but the author just misses the mark. It's a cute story and I read it in a day, but I just wanted more. It was too neat of an ending. There needed to be more of a conflict. I'll still put it in my class library for the kids who need a quick read.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

4/5 Stars

B&N:
Frankie Landau-Banks at age 14:
Debate Club.
Her father's "Bunny Rabbit."
A mildly geeky girl attending a highly competitive boarding school.

Frankie Landau-Banks at age 15:
A knockout figure.
A sharp tongue.
A chip on her shoulder.
And a gorgeous new senior boyfriend: the supremely goofy, word-obsessed Matthew Livingston.

Frankie Laundau-Banks.
No longer the kind of girl to take "no" for an answer.
Especially when "no" means she's excluded from her boyfriend's all-male secret society.
Not when her ex boyfriend shows up in the strangest of places.
Not when she knows she's smarter than any of them.
When she knows Matthew is lying to her.
And when there are so many, many pranks to be done.

Frankie Landau-Banks, at age 16:
Possibly a criminal mastermind.

This is the story of how she got that way.


My Review: I really enjoyed this book. I read it in one day and really didn't want to put it down. It kept me wanting to know more. Although, I must admit- there was one piece of the ending I wish was different- but that's just me. I'll also be putting this on in my class library.

Geek High by Piper Banks

3/5 Stars

B&N:
At this school, everyone's a geek. And Miranda Bloom still can't fit in...

Miranda is a math genius with divorced parents, an evil stepmother, and no boyfriend in sight. She can't even fit in with the other geeks at the Nottingham Independent School for high-IQ students, because they actually have useful talents. Miranda, on the other hand, is known as "The Human Calculator," which doesn't amount to much when people have, you know, their own calculators.

Then Miranda gets stuck planning the school's Snowflake Gala. And as she struggles to find a date and drum up some school spirit at Nottingham-aka "Geek High"-she finds that who you are means more than where you fit in.

My Review: This was again, a cute quick read. I'm a sucker for stories of geeks falling for guys etc... and this one was just that. It was a pretty typical teen book. There's another book after it hat picks up the day after this book ends...Geek Abroad. I'm starting that one tonight. Cute- mindless read. :)

Shattering Glass by Gail Giles

4/5 Stars

B&N:"Simon Glass was easy to hate....I guess, really we each hated him for a different reason, but we didn't realize it until the day we killed him."

Fat, clumsy Simon Glass is a nerd, a loser who occupies the lowest rung on the high school social ladder. Everyone picks on him — until Rob Haynes shows up. Rob, a transfer student with charisma to spare, immediately becomes the undisputed leader of the senior class. And he has plans for Simon.

Rob enlists the help of his crew — wealthy, intellectual Young, ladies' man Bob, and sweet, athletic Coop — in a mission: Turn sniveling Simon from total freak to would-be prom king.

But as Simon rises to the top of the social ranks, he shows a new confidence and a devious side that power-hungry Rob did not anticipate. And when Simon uncovers a dangerous secret, events darken. The result is disquieting, bone-chilling...and brutal.

My Review:

I really liked this book for some reason. I get really into my books and at first- it made me feel horrible. Some of the characters were just evil- BUT I needed to know how everything happened. The author does a really neat thing with at the beginning of each chapter, there's a short interview from different characters in the book about what happened. You get pieces of the ending- but never enough to put everything together. After I was done reading I went back and reread all the little interviews on every chapter. It was neat seeing how it all worked together.

One thing I didn't really like was how there were a few things not wrapped up as neatly as I'd like. I needed to know a bit more information about 2 of the characters and what happened to them "after."

Overall- worth the read due to the neat way the author chose to write the book.

Willow: It's Hard to Keep a Secret When it's Written All Over Your Body... by Julia Hoban

B&N:

Seven months after killing her parents in a car accident, 16-year-old Willow Randall has moved in with her married older brother's family in New York City, where she grapples with her overwhelming emotions, as well as her brother's silent anguish, by cutting herself with razors. When Guy, a fellow student, learns Willow's secret, they develop a tentative intimacy. The stark clarity of the present tense, third-person narration echoes the numbing effect that Willow achieves through cutting-"Of course any sharp edge could do in a pinch, and Willow has used them all: nail scissors, a steak knife, a man's razor.... But Willow is a purist." Despite explicit descriptions of Willow's wounds, the narrative steers clear of moralization-cutting is characterized as part of Willow's fractured sense of self, rather than part of a larger epidemic. Though Guy mainly serves as a means for Willow to rediscover human connection, and is never as fully realized as she is, his need to understand the girl whose favorite book is Tristes Tropiques but who carries razors in her backpack, is authentically tender. A credible depiction of a grieving girl's struggle toward self-forgiveness.

My Review:

I liked this book. I found myself needing to stay up so I could continue to read. I actually went through the entire next day, while I was supposed to be working, thinking about the book and how it was going to end. But now for the bad part....I think it would make someone not emotionally stable- or a cutter want to actually cut more...

Also... I didn't like the ending. And this is why...

****Spoilers!*****



There was like no consequence for Willow and cutting. Nothing "bad" happened to her. It didn't show anything bad happening to her (besides getting scars- which cutters don't really care about). Her brother who she lives with never finds out- and they actually start having a good relationship. She also gets the guy. The guy stays with her through her cutting- and only towards the last few pages of the book does she decide to stop...but it's not strong enough. It really doesn't show anything bad coming from her cutting.

Quad by Carrie Gordon Watson

4/5 Stars

B&N:
Everything led up to this moment—the point when the teasing, the cruelty, the pressure all became too much. And someone finally snapped.

Now six students, from six different cliques, are trapped in the student store while a shooter terrorizes their school. The shooter's identity is teased out through the students' flashbacks until the reader breathlessly reaches the final page. It's only there that he discovers the shocking answer to the question: Who is shooting out in the quad?

This gripping thriller by educator C. G. Watson is inspired by observations made in her own high school. Quad examines in heartrending detail how even the most casual cruelties can tear people apart.


My Review:

This is a book about a school shooting. It's pretty neat how the author takes you back and forth to the day of the shooting and then earlier in the week with events that lead up to it. You also get to hear from a bunch of different characters. I was trying to guess who did it the entire time. There are 3 people that seem to be obvious...it's interesting to see if it really is those 3 or someone totally unexpected.

Secret Santa by Sabrina James

3/5 Stars

B&N:

Noelle, a hopeless romantic, just knows that her gifts have to be from her senior crush! And geeky Froggy thinks the game is the perfect way to get super-popular Celia to fall for him...except she thinks his gifts are from Jake, the school's resident bad boy, and starts to crush on him!Romantic mishaps abound, but all is revealed the night of the Winter Dance, where there's more than one surprise waiting under the mistletoe!

My Review:

This was a cute read. It was another 8th grade "chick-lit" book that I read to see if I could put it in my classroom. The characters were cute, weren't very "deep," but over all it was an enjoyable read...I read it a few weeks ago- but I think I remember one character being wicked annoying...either way, not a bad read for kids.

Funny thing was a few days after I read this, I looked in the Scholastic book orders and there it was!