Book Reviews

Rhymes With Witches by Lauren Myracle
Every high schooler wants to be accepted and respected as popular. Every high school girl wants to feel like they belong. So, when the most popular girls in town flag you down and tell you they want you to be one of them, what would you do? Lauren Myracle writes from the point of view of Jane, a girl in a broken family who has always been used to being an outcast. These popular girls lure her in and treat her like royalty, and so Jane starts to overlook their shallowness, and all of the weird things they make her do to stay in their precious group. Rhymes With Witches is a fictional story that illustrates the very real problems of growing up, friendship, and romance.

Deadline by Chris Crutcher
What would you do if, as a senior in high school, you found out that you might not live to see your graduation? Deadline by Chris Crutcher tells from the point of view of one such person.
Ben Wolf maps out a plan for the remainder of his life, and vows to tell no one of his condition. Things start to fall apart and he finds himself reassessing his intentions. Falling in love, finding a friend in the town drunk, and becoming a football hero were not part of his brilliant plan.
This book will make you laugh, cry, and give you a whole new prospective of untimely death.

Outside Beauty by Cynthia Kadohata
Cynthia Kadohata's Outside Beauty is a story about four inseparable sisters who get separated. Their flighty, single mother gets into a car accident and is forced to send her daughters to their individual birth fathers while she recovers.
Far apart and living with someone who sends the occasional Christmas card and visits once in a blue moon, these girls will do anything to get back together.
If you like easy reads, modern fiction, and are a fan of well-written and beautiful tales, this book is for you!

Blind Faith by Ellen Wittlinger
Liz's grandma, Bunny dies. Bunny always understood Liz even when Liz's own mom never tried to.
Liz's Mom isn't taking the death of Bunny well. She joins a spiritualist church that communes with the departed.
Down the street a woman and her two kids come to live with their grandmother. The woman is sick and needs her estranged mother's help raising her children after she dies.
Nathan and Liz become friends during this grieving process.
This was a really good book. I like Ellen Wittlinger. I chose this book because at that time I was worried about my own grandma dying and how I would handle it. I know when she does die that I will be okay.

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
Twilight is the beginning to arguably the best young adult series in the history of teen fiction. Stephanie Meyer writes about the most complex relationship: a human and a vampire. Their love for each other causes innumerable problems. In the end, though... will it be able to save them? Read it and find out!

The Final Journey by Gudrun Pausewang
This holocaust tale will bring tears to your eyes and chill you to the bone. We've heard Anne Frank's voice echo through her words from her small hideout in the Netherlands. But what about the people who didn't have a secret annex? What about the people who got herded onto the trains like cattle? Gudrun Pausewang provides us with the voice of a little girl on that horrible journey. The Final Journey.

The Absolutely True Story of Being a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Living on an Indian reservation his whole life has never been easy for Junior. He was born with a disability that makes it hard for him to speak, giving him a lisp and a stutter. He also has to wear some pretty funny looking glasses. He got beat up almost every day. When he decides to leave the reservation school to get a better education, things don't look up for him at home. Transferring to a better, richer, and most importantly, a whiter school leaves him with no respect, the loss of his one and only friend, and a whole bunch of guilt. But Junior knows that in the end, its always worth it to be on the way to having a better life. I finished this book in one night. Its impossible to put down! Sherman Alexie isn't just an author, he's an artist. His words are addictive.