8.31.2014

We Were the Liars by e. lockhart

I love a tale that spins out of a tiny slice of a life I could never imagine.  Set on an island in Martha's Vineyard, an island the Sinclair family owns, We Were the Liars, is such a story. It is told by one of the strong-chinned, blond, well-educated Sinclair grandchildren, Cadence.  She seems smart, witty, and trust-worthy at first, as if she is letting us in on the grandeur of the Sinclair family.  They are a family of money, manners, traditions, servants and cooks, and secrets.  They don't speak of the money they have, nor do they speak of the addictions, divorces, or other messy parts of their lives. Cadence's cousins, Johnny and Mirren, are close to her age, and they represent the generation that starts to question the rules of the game the family has played for so long.  The group of teenagers call themselves the Liars, setting up readers with curious questions about what their self-title might really mean.

Cadence falls in love with the boy who begins to visit to the island each summer as a friend of the family.  The boy is dark-skinned, smart, and principled; his name is Gat Patil.  Cadence and Gat steal moments and memories falling in love while scrambling for other moments of freedom and independence with the cousins, the other Liars.  As the drinking, intolerance, hatred, and fear sneak in like fog swirling around the Sinclair family, readers are left with a narrator, Cadence, who is back on the island after missing a summer, and there is a mysterious secret around her absence. Cadence tells the readers of her amnesia, leaving us to wonder what terrible tragedy she survived.  Since she seems to be revealing secrets of her family's darker-side, we never question the soap-opera-y presence of her amnesia...we fear the worst for her.  And when the cloak of secrecy is unveiled, it is shocking and twisting and wonderful story-telling at it's best.


8.24.2014

Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

I will be the first to tell you that I love love.  It is warm, feel-good joy, and there are few people who do love more intensely than teenagers.  Uffda, first love, high school love, breaking-up because of college love...it's all dramatic, huge-pay-off, bigger heartbreak kinds of love.  I remember it, and I see it in the halls of SAMS and SAVHS.  But I've rarely seen it written about so genuinely and painfully and enchantedly as in this book, Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stapehanie Perkins.


Readers will fall in love with Josh, the handsome and independent comic book artist that Isla has been crushing on since freshman year.  Readers will fall in love with New York City and Paris and Barcelona- the three back-drops of this romance story.  Readers will cringe when Isla and Josh steer more toward insecurity and away from love.  Readers will swallow this fun ride in a sitting or two.  It's a love story, no doubt. So be warned- it's ooey and gooey, but lovely.  Fans of Sarah Dessen and e. lockhart will swoon over this read.  This isn't a series book, however, Ms. Perkins wrote two other books and the main characters of those books stumble into Isla and Josh's story.  So, for the rules-following types of you out there, you might want to start with Anna and the French Kiss and Lola and the Boy. Be warned, though!  It's not for the cynical or the unbelieving. 

Feel the love and find the love here in my latest book blog title: Isla and the Happily Ever After.  Read all about it's author here.

Keep reading, all.

8.22.2014

War of the Whales by Joshua Horwitz

What you would do if you came across a 5,000 pound whale stranded on the beach?  How would you go about saving the big guy?  You'd need to find a marine biologist like Ken Balcomb to help you out. Mr. Balcomb is one of the protagonists of a new book- War of the Whales. It is a non-fiction tale about a mass stranding of whales in the Bahamas in 2000 that sparked a complicated, lengthy, and sensitive battle between researchers and conservationists and the United States Navy and ended up in the United States Supreme Court.

Scientist Balcomb partners up with conservation lawyer Joel Reynolds to uncover what role the U.S. Navy played in the tragic event that killed many whales. The whales were driven out of their underwater habitats by high-intensity sounds coming from a submarine surveillance system the Navy was testing out.  Readers learn how difficult and demanding it can be to be champions of marine wildlife, and they discover the great lengths the U.S. Navy goes to while keeping our national defense  in top shape.

The book is definitely a challenge book for middle-schoolers, but the right readers will rejoice in all details of marine wildlife biology, U.S. Navy tactics, and legal trials of our country's justice system.

In full disclosure, it was even a challenge book for me.  The Tall Guy had to help me get through some parts.  But the story will stick with me.  I'm struck by the tension we must face between taking care of ourselves and taking care of our planet.  We are all one, and what we do to each other (even the whales), we do onto ourselves...War of the Whales is a great reminder of this ever-present struggle.


8.10.2014

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Part paranormal romance, part mystery yet also part realistic fiction. I think SAMS 8th graders (and mature 7th graders) will really enjoy trying to put the pieces of Mara's life together along with Maya as she tries to do the same.  She's a regular girl who struggles to get along with her mom, resents her "perfect" older brother, and is terribly shook after an accident kills her best friends and other kids.  A move to Miami and a fancy private, prep high school is supposed to help her leave her demons behind.  But what secrets isn't Maya remembering?  Could they have anything to do with the present? Can handsome, loyal, fierce Noah help her make sense of it all?