Dancing Through the Snow

Dancing Through the Snow

by Jean Little

At just three years old, Min was abandoned in a restroom with all of her hair chopped off by a woman claiming to not be her mother.  Since then, Min has been through four foster families, trying to find people who will accept her for who she is, not how she was dumped.

Over time, Min has learned to be closed off, never cry, and avoid the bully who has taunted her with evil names.  Because she's not outwardly emotional, her current foster mother has decided, just days before Christmas, that she no longer wants to care for Min.  As she's complaining to Min's caseworker, Dr. Jess Hart enters, overhears the conversation, confronts the foster mother, and "kidnaps" Min, deciding to foster her herself.

Now Min must learn to trust her new family and herself.  She must also confront her personal demons and work to break out of her shell.

Final thoughts: The writing is a little stilted and the relationship between Jess and Min seems to peacefully resolve very quickly.  But overall this is a decent read and should be good for foster kids and adopted chidren.

Rating: 3/5

Bleeding Violet

Bleeding Violet

by Dia Reeves

Hanna is bipolar and biracial: two things that have always caused people to look at her strangely.  However, when Hanna runs away to Portero, Texas to be with the mother she's never known, Hanna finally gets to see what "strange" really means.

Portero is a small town filled with hidden doors to other dimensions.  And sometimes the creatures from those dimensions come through.  Now Hanna must contend with a mother who does not want her, a guy who doesn't want to have to watch over her, and creatures that just want to destroy her.

Being insane is now the least of her worries.

Final thoughts: (and there are many)  I've read a number of reviews complimenting this book and, if you judge it by the cover, it could be really great.  The author has created an entire new mythos here with new creatures mixed with known and a background for the town that could be very interesting.  

Unfortunately, she's not very good at making it great.  The writing is poor.  I'm suspecting that the author was trying to write from Hanna's point of view of being a little insane, but it came out just being a mess.  There were many times when things happened that made no sense, no matter how many times I re-read the passage.  I strongly believe that the ONLY reason that Reeves created Hanna as a person with bipolar disorder was as a contrivance in order to make the reader understand why Hanna would step into the middle of this crazy town and then stay there.  If she's insane, wouldn't all the insanity around her seem normal?  

Also, most of these people aren't doing anything to help themselves.  Why would anyone stay in a town where a person could be walking with friends one minute and slip through a hidden dimensional door the next without ever being able to return.  I understand why the green shirts stay, because they can manage the monsters.  But why anyone else stays is never explained.  As a parent, if I were there, I would grab my child and move as far from that town as possible to avoid him being hurt.  Yet these people not only stay, but let their kids run around even with thousands of Missing Person posters littering the streets on light poles and walls.

And lastly, there is an element of violence and gore that is not to be believed here.  This is NOT a book for children or even young teens.  At one point, the mother murders a teenage boy while her daughter watches and giggles.  Later, the daughter wakes up naked in her bed next to the now heartless and armless boy, covered in blood, and the most she seems to feel is a little cranky, as her mother smiles about the "joke".

This is a book to MISS.  Avoid.  Stay away from.

Rating: 0/5 - it's not worth anything more than glancing at the pretty cover.

Absolutely Maybe

Absolutely Maybe

by Lisa Yee

Maybe (real name: Maybelline Mary Katherine Mary Ann Chestnut) is the daughter of a former beauty pageant winner who is now the owner of Chessy Chestnut's Charm School for Young Ladies.  And since Maybe can't be bothered with going on a diet or wearing anything but XL shirts and sweats, she hasn't really lived up to her mother's high standards.  Of course, there isn't a day that goes by that Chessy doesn't have a word or two (or 100) to say about Maybe's appearance.  Do you think it could be the weekly hair color changes done in the bathroom sink with packets of unsweetened Kool-Aid that makes her cranky?

It doesn't help that Chessy is about to marry for the seventh time or that the fiancee is a scumbag who tries to rape Maybe in the middle of the night.  What's worse is that Chessy is too drunk and jealous during the attack to do anything but accuse her own daughter of leading her fiancee on.

And that, as they say, is the straw that breaks Maybe's back.

She and her best friend, Ted, hitch a ride with Hollywood, an aspiring USC film student, as he makes his way from Kissimee, Florida to Hollywood, California.

Of course, Maybe has an ulterior motive for going.  After years of never knowing, she's on the hunt for her biological father.  But things don't go as planned and Maybe has to suffer through hunger, homelessness, and the feeling of being betrayed by her best friends as she searches to find out who she really is (even though she always thought she already knew that).

Final thoughts: Overall an easy read.  A few things fell in line a little too easily for me, like Ted's insta-job after only one flyer and one interview. The ending felt like it was cut off a few pages too early, or that Yee is going to write a sequel.  It was definitely feeling unfinished, though that may have been intentional, since life always feels unfinished.

Rating: 3/5

The Red Necklace : A Story of the French Revolution

The Red Necklace : 

A Story of the French Revolution

by Sally Gardner

Yann Margoza is a magician's assistant.  He also happens to be a Gypsy, and just happens to be able to throw his voice, read minds, and predict the future.

Unfortunately, one night, while giving a performance for an aristocrat and his guests, Yann sees a vision of blood and death.  The magician he works for also happens to make the mistake of recognizing one of the most dangerous men in France.  That recognition earns him his own death and forces Yann and his friend to go on the run.

That fateful night, Yann also meets Sido, the daughter of the aristocrat and a prisoner of her father's hatred of her.  Even years after they meet, Yann and Sido cannot forget each other or the love that was created after only speaking for a few minutes.

Now, the winds of change are turning in France and there is talk of revolution.  Yann must return from England to rescue Sido and his old friend from that most dangerous man, while also avoiding the guillotine.

Final thoughts:  The premise is interesting and there could have been something great here.  Unfortunately, the author's writing is stilted and strange.  It often felt like watching television while someone else controls the remote.  The point of view and location could change in an instant.  Also, it often felt like the author wrote as if the reader could see what she saw.  She wrote lines that seemed to come out of nowhere about nothing else that had been seen, and then she would skip writing descriptions completely, so the reader has to go back and re-read that one line hidden in a paragraph that explains the whole next chapter.

Rating: 2/5 - good premise, bad execution (pardon the pun)

Audrey, Wait!

Audrey, Wait!

by Robin Benway

Audrey is a music enthusiast.  She sits in her car and cranks the stereo up until the speakers literally disintegrate.  Her room is a giant homage to music and musicians with her wall-to-wall collage of all things music cut from magazines over the years.

It should be no surprise that Audrey's first real boyfriend was Evan, lead singer of the Do-Gooders.  Granted, the band was just ok and the music wasn't all that great, but he was a musician and she was his muse.

Unfortunately, her breaking up with him becomes his biggest inspiration because he writes "Audrey, Wait!", the newest hit to rock the Billboard charts.

Now she's not just recognized on the street, she's famous.  When she goes to concerts, she's brought to the VIP lounge and given complete backstage access.  She's being offered tons of free swag by companies wanting free advertisement from her as she's hounded by paparazzi and stalked by fans.

Her life is drastically different.  Luckily she's got very understanding parents, an amazing best friend, and a guy who seems to be getting more important every day.

But can she keep them all as she juggles them, fame, and school?

Final thoughts: This is another one of those cotton-candy books.  It's fun to read and doesn't make your brain work hard.  You can just relax and enjoy the ride.  If you're a music fan, you'll love all the references and discussions about what's good and what's bad, though you may want to argue a few of Audrey's preferences.

Rating: 5/5

Numbers

Numbers

by Rachel Ward

Jem has always been special.  Not that "Awww!  Isn't she CUTE!" special.  (She'd just as soon bite your hand if you tried to pinch her cheek.)  But rather in that she-can-see-your-date-of-death-special.

Literally.

One look in your eyes and Jem knows when you're going to die.

It's a burden she's had as long as she can remember.  The first time she understood what all the numbers meant was when she was six and her mother OD'd on 10102001.

Her foster mother, Karen, will go on 07142013.  Her teacher, Mr. McNulty will be torturing students for a good long time, dying 12252023.  But her new friend, Spider, is running out of time.  December 15, 2010 and he's gone for good.

Seeing all the numbers and knowing what they mean, makes Jem hard.  She doesn't like to get close to people.  Getting close means knowing too much and being unable to tell.  Because people don't want to know.  They may say they want to know, but they really don't.

All this is bad enough.  But when she and Spider skip school one day with some extra cash he got from a "job", things really get awful.  They travel around London, looking for something to do, when they stop by the London Eye.  And there, Jem notices that everyone around her has the same date of death.  12082010.  Today.

She and Spider escape just before the explosion that kills all those people and now they are "wanted for questioning".

Time is running out for her, and especially for Spider.  With just one week left for him, the cops chasing them, and no place that's safe, can Jem ever figure out how to stop the numbers from coming true?

Final thoughts:  It's set in England, so there's a little getting used to the language that needs to be done, but overall it's a solid book.  There are a few sections that drag along and the book description provided on the jacket is a little off.

Rating: 4/5

Say the Word

Say the Word

by Jeannine Garsee

Shawna Gallagher has always tried to be the perfect daughter, even when her life hasn't been so perfect.  She gets perfect grades, has perfect attendance, and obeys her father's rules perfectly.  She's also going to the right college (her father's), going into pre-med (to be a doctor, like her father), and dating the right boys (the ones her father approves).

But Shawna's entire world turns upside-down when the mother who left her for her lesbian partner when she was seven, dies of a sudden stroke.  Her mother, a free-spirited photographer who hated rules and forms, left no new will for her partner and her partner's two boys, so Shawna's dad gets everything after her death.

As Shawna tries to understand the consequences of these new circumstances, she also comes to understand her father's hold on her life.

Can she face the secrets she's been keeping?  Can she face the secrets that everyone else has been hiding from her?

Final thoughts: It feels like the author started with one idea and then ended with another.  While this is a decent read, the ending feels almost like the collage that Shawna's working on throughout the book; it's a lot of ideas pasted together, but not in a cohesive fashion.

Rating: 3/5

Twilight : The Graphic Novel Volume 1

Twilight : The Graphic Novel Volume 1

by Stephenie Meyer

Adapted and illustrated by Young Kim

By now, everyone knows the story of Twilight.  Girl meets boy.  Boy wants to kill girl.  Girl nearly gets run over by a van.  Boy wants to kiss girl and kill her at the same time.  Girl finds out boy's secret.  There's a scene in a meadow.  Boy only wants to kiss girl, but now afraid of killing her.

There's more, but this is as far as Volume 1 gets.

I'm going to break away from my normal synopsis format and give some straight talk.

On GoodReads.com, there is much praise and love for this graphic novel.  People are praising the art and loving the fact that the illustrations are closer to the original descriptions of the characters in the book than the movie versions.

Rabid fans with enjoy this without a question.

However, there really is much to be desired.

Young Kim has beautiful illustrations, but I found the book as a whole to be sorely lacking.  At some points, actual photographs are used and then colored over, instead of drawn from scratch.  There seems to be no rhyme nor reason for this.  It almost feels like laziness.  Like "I don't feel like drawing the mountains in by hand.  I'll just take this picture and scribble some lines over it.  That'll work!"

I understand the shifts from black and white (or, sometimes, sepia tones) to color.  It is meant to emphasize things.  But what could be the most beautiful image of the entire book, the one that's only half shown on the cover, isn't even in the book.

I am also less than impressed by the illustrations of the characters.  Facial expressions rarely change.  When Bella's face does emote, it's usually anger, though often in places that she wasn't angry in the novel.

Important scenes (IMHO) were deleted completely.  Some things seemed to be randomly added. 

Of course, my biggest pet peeve (as a former English teacher) is the onomatopoeia (words that are their sounds like buzz, ring, bap).  For some reason, Young Kim has decided to completely make up works like squlck, tok, puh, and crk (my spell check is going insane).

One more thought... part of my problem with this graphic novel is the fact that it is a bad cross between manga and the graphic novel format.  Certain cues that are used in manga are used here, but not all the time.  And the illustrations go back and forth between extremely detailed and barely outlined.  It gets confusing.

People will buy this and librarians will stock it.  However, I just don't see it lasting long as more than a passing fad in the vampire/supernatural culture that is currently dominating the YA industry.

Rating: 1/5

Because I Am Furniture

Because I Am Furniture

by Thalia Chaltas

Anke is nothing in her family.  She is often ignored by her father and her siblings.  She has no strength to speak out and be heard.

What Anke doesn't understand is that in this family, being ignored is actually a good thing.

Her father is an abuser.

He beats his son.  He rapes his oldest daughter.  He screams at his wife.  And they all let him do these things, because saying "No" only makes it worse.

Being ignored means that Anke is safe from him.

But now Anke has volleyball, where a player HAS to have strength and call for what is hers.  MY BALL!

And as Anke gains strength, she also gains the knowledge that may very well save her family.

But can she use that strength, that voice, when it counts the most?

Final thoughts: This is a novel in verse, which means it's basically a series of poems that tell the story.  It's powerful and thoughtful.  You feel that you truly understand Anke and the position that she's in.  An amazing book to help victims of abuse see that they are not alone and that they, too, can find their voices.

Rating: 5/5

Zeus : King of the Gods

Zeus : King of the Gods

by George O'Connor

Think you know all about Greek mythology?  Think you've seen all there is to see?

Well you ain't seen nothin' yet!

In this graphic novel version of the story of Zeus, readers get a taste of the Greek origin myth all the way through until Zeus takes over the kingdom of the Gods and sets up on Mount Olympus.

Here, readers can actually see what Greeks may have imagined when they came up with the idea of the three Hekatonchieres, which have 50 heads and 100 hands.  Words cannot adequately describe their appearance, but O'Connor makes them real.

The graphic novel is also accurate when describing the basics of the myths.  There are a few quotes and additions, but it all adds to the story.  

Like Greek mythology, but have problems with Bulfinch and Edith Hamilton?  Like graphic novels, but want something a little more epic?  This is the book for you.

It is also the first in a series of graphic novels on Greek mythology.  Athena comes out April 2010.

Final thoughts:  Amazing imagery and great story.  Doesn't go on forever and really gets you involved.

Rating:  5/5

Fat Cat

Fat Cat

by Robin Brande

Catherine has been battling the bulge for four years.  She's also been battling Matt for those four years, even if he hasn't realized it.

And this year, she's going to beat him... at the science fair.

Everyone in Fizer's Special Topics in Research Science class has to blindly pull a picture from a pile on the first day of class in September, and then develop an entire research project around it to be entered in the March science fair.  Get an A and you're guaranteed any college you want.  Win, and you go on to international competition.  Plus!  You get to beat the guy who embarrassed you and broke your heart four years before.

So when Cat picks a National Geographic illustration of early hominins from 1.8 million years ago (a.k.a. Homo erectus), she feels pretty defeated.

Until she comes up with the ultimate plan.  And the ultimate sacrifice.  She will live as close as she possibly can to the lives of those hominins.  That means no technology, no cars, no junk food, no make-up, and (gasp!) no hair products.

Over the next 207 days, she takes on a complete transformation.  All that walking and lack of junk food turns "Fat Cat" into "Hot Chick", and plenty of people are starting to notice... especially Matt.

Now that she's skinny and hot, will she also be able to confront her former-best-friend-now-worst-enemy and make him explain himself?  Or will she continue to feel like the fat girl she's trapped herself into thinking that she is?

Final thought:  Absolutely worth reading!  Perfect teen romance.  Cotton candy for the mind even with the very real messages it conveys.

Rating: 5/5

Triskellion

Triskellion

by Will Peterson

Forced to leave their New York home while their parents fight it out in divorce court, twins Adam and Rachel move to a small English village called Triskellion.

The village is so named because of the chalk circle that is a remnant of the Bronze Age, more than 3,000 years in the past.

That symbol is mysterious enough.  But things get more strange as the twins discover a strange group of "Green Men", artifacts that seem to be pushing themselves up from the ground, a knight's tomb covered in ancient runes, and secrets that no one in the village wants told.

When a boy named Gabriel begins showing up and disappearing all over town, the twins realize that they may be the key to a thousands of years old mystery.

Things are not only mystical and magical in Triskellion; they are downright deadly.  Can they solve the mystery before the townspeople stop them?

Final thoughts:  Takes a few chapters to get into, but it's well worth it.  It's like a roller coaster that starts slow but then gets faster and faster until it suddenly stops.

Rating: 5/5

Gone

Gone

by Lisa McMann

Just as Janie is finally getting past the trial and the constant hum of newscameras and reporters following her, another problem drops in her lap.

Her alcoholic mother goes on a binge after finding out that the man she loved, Janie's father, is in the hospital, dying from what can only be described as a "brain explosion".

And as Janie is coming to grips with meeting the father she never new, and his nightmares that drag her down into her dream catching state, she realizes that she has to make a choice.

Live as she has been, helping people, but causing her own body to fall apart (blindness and gnarled hands are never fun); or live a life of complete solitude, away from everyone, even Cabe.

Will she try to make her life work as she has been, or will she run away from the world to try and find relief from all of the dreams?

This is the final book of the Wake trilogy.

Final thoughts:  Not nearly as good as the first and second books.  Author says in an interview that she had to scrap the first draft and re-write the whole thing.  Maybe she should have done it again.

Rating: 2/5 (but worth a check out from the library if only to get some closure on the series)

Liar

Liar

by Justine Larbalestier

Micah is a liar.  She always has been and possibly always will be.  She lies so much that even she can't remember the truth at times.  She even lies to herself.

But now she's determined to tell the truth.  She wants you to know her whole story from start to finish, without the lies.  She needs to get the truth out.

Because the truth is that her secret boyfriend is dead and people think she might have had something to do with it.  No one believes her anymore, not even her parents, so no one really believes her when she says that she has no idea what happened to him.

Can she tell the truth now, when it's the most important time to do so?  Or has she told so many lies that she has no idea what the truth really is?  Can you discover her secret... and believe it?

Fade

Fade

by Lisa McMann

Sequel to Wake

Just as Janie is coming to terms with her ability, and even learning to enjoy helping people solve their dream problems, things turn upside-down.

Something is going on at her high school between some of the teachers and their students... And it's not tutoring.

After getting caught in one girl's nightmare of rape, Janie begins piecing the puzzle together.  By her side is her secret boyfriend, Cabel.  He's the only one who knows her secret.  And he may be the only one to fully understand the danger Janie is in.

It's not just the danger of the rapists that is haunting her.  Her own ability is beginning to have serious consequences.  If she doesn't come to grips with who and what she is, she may do something that has a tragic end.

Can Janie figure out everything in time and still make it to graduation in one piece?

Wake

Wake

by Lisa McMann

Dreams can be scary.  Dreams can be sad.  Dreams can show your deepest desires.  But, no matter what, your dreams are your own private thoughts.  Right?

Wrong.

Dream Catchers exist and they can see everything you see in your dreams.  They watch you.  They see what you see.  And they can even help you change your dreams.

Janie Hannagan finds this out the hard way by entering the dreams of a man when she was only 8 years old.  Soon, Janie becomes trapped in everyone's dreams.  She can't get out unless they wake up or she gets far enough away from them.  

Slumber parties are a nightmare.  And study hall becomes her personal hell.

Until Cabel comes along.... 

Can she ever learn to control this thing that takes her over whenever someone takes a catnap?  Or will she be forced to live in hiding in the backwoods just to keep herself sane?

Deep in the Heart of High School

Deep in the Heart of High School

by Veronica Goldbach

Three friends brought together by band camp, staying together because each has a unique problem that the others are willing to help resolve.

Fatima - slightly overweight girl from San Antonio, Texas.  Her father regularly has her help with his construction work and translating his Spanish to the customers.  She's in love with Carlos, who only talks to her to get her to do his homework for him.  Will she ever notice Alex as more than just a friend?

Olivia - always working to follow the rules and please her mom, she's taken on more than her fair share since her father died the year before.  She's also been crushing on Travis for years, but her tongue seems to completely stop working whenever he walks by.  Will she ever get up the nerve to talk to him?

Vanna - a messy divorce has forced her mom to drag her out of her rich life in Northern Texas to live in San Antonio.  Her now ex-boyfriend is dating her now ex-best friend and she's just struggling to find a guy to talk to.  Will she ever be comfortable with her new life?

Evermore

Evermore

by Alyson Noël

Ever had lived a perfectly normal life.  She was happy.  She had her mother, father, and bratty younger sister.  All was well.

.

But one evening while driving home, a deer jumps in front of them and her father steers to avoid it, crashing the car into a tree.  In one of those out-of-body experiences, Ever watches her family walk through a magical land and over a bridge to the other side, while she dawdles to look at the magic around her.

Suddenly, she's back... alive.  The only survivor.  And now things will never be the same.

It's not just that her family is dead... It's the fact that she can still see her dead sister, who talks to her.  She can see the auras of everyone around.  She can read their minds.  And when she touches someone, she can see their entire lives.

Life is now a hell on earth for her.  Until Damen comes along.

Damen, the most gorgeous guy ever.

Damen, the most mysterious guy ever.

And Damen, the only person who can turn off the world and shield Ever from the minds around her.

But Damen is a lot more than what meets the eye.  Can Ever find out his secret before it destroys her?

Ash

Ash

by Malinda Lo

In this GLBT version of the classic Cinderella fairy tale, Aisling (a.k.a. Ash) has lost her mother, and with her, the last magic that her family had.

Because magic is fading and that means that there are fewer greenwitches to cure the sick, fewer fairies, and fewer encounters with the fairy world.

However, there is no shortage of fairy tales.  And after Ash's father dies, leaving her the poor servant of her stepmother, all Ash has is her fairy tales.

Years later, she finds a path of magic, a fairy, and a huntress.  And now she must make a choice between honoring the bargain made, or following her heart.

King of the Screwups

King of the Screwups

by K. L. Going

Another party, another half-naked girl, another chewing out by his father.

Liam Geller is used to all of this.

He's been a screwup all is life, according to dear old dad.  He can't do anything right.  His grades are horrible. He's been kicked off the team.  He regularly gets drunk and parties all night long even though he knows it will disappoint his father.

However, this time, with this half-naked girl, on his father's desk, he's gone too far.

This time he gets kicked out.  The choice is go live with his father's parents, who live in Nevada and hate him completely, or his Uncle Pete, a gay glam-rocker who lives in a trailer park and hasn't spoken to the family in years.

So, Li goes to live with Pete, where he's determined to completely screwup this time, by being everything that he's not.  He's always been popular, but this time he'll screw that up by hanging out with the nerds. He's not a nerd, but he'll screw that up by studying and joining the AV club.  He's never been good at anything, but he'll screw that up by becoming great at something.

The only problem now is that he screws up screwing up!

Will his father ever approve of him?  Or will he screw up so much that he loses everything?

Also Known as Harper

Also Known as Harper

by Ann Haywood Leal

After her drunk father abandons her and her family, Harper Lee has little going for her.

Her baby sister was stillborn, which started her father drinking... and then leaving them.

Her mother can't afford the rent and they get evicted.

She, her mother, and her brother move into a hotel that just happens to be owned by her former landlady's sister.

Her former landlady sells everything they owned (that they couldn't take with them) in a yard sale (without warning).

Harper's mother needs to take any and every job she can get, so she makes Harper stay home from school to take care of her little brother.

Because she's home from school, she's missing the poetry contest that she's been dreaming about for a year, ever since her drunk father refused to sign the permission form the year before.

But at least she has her words and her notebook.  With them, she can make any bad situation seem less awful.

Fortune's Folly

Fortune's Folly

by Deva Fagan

Fortunata's father used to make the best shoes in all of Valenzia.  But after her mother died, the "magic" of his shoe-making went with her and now Fortunata and her father must leave the city to find a new way to make money.

Forced to learn how to lie for a living by telling fortunes, Fortunata is faced with an even bigger problem: the prophecy that she herself spoke.

Now she must help a prince find a sword, a witch, a golden slipper, and a princess or her father will die for her lies.

How can she possibly save a prince, a princess, her father, and herself in less than a month?!!

Shiver

Shiver

by Maggie Stiefvater

Nearly seven years ago, Grace was yanked off of her swing by starving wolves in the middle of winter.  As she lay bitten and about to be eaten, another wolf felt sorry for her and saved her life.

For years she watched "her" wolf in the forest.  She listened to him howl.  She dreamed of being able to run with him.

And now her dreams may be coming true....

When he was still young, Sam was bitten by wolves and each year he becomes more and more wolf and less and less human.  Each year he has less and less time in human form.

This year is his last.

This year is his last chance.

This year, he takes the chance and talks to her.

But can there really ever be anything between them when the world is getting colder and his body needs to change?

This is the book that people have been waiting for since they finished reading the last Twilight book.  Who needs vampires when you've got werewolves?

How to Say Goodbye in Robot

How to Say Goodbye in Robot

by Natalie Standiford

TO: BEATRICE

FROM: FUTURE BEATRICE

1120 AM. MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. BEATRICE OF THE FUTURE WILL THANK YOU.

So begins the strangest friendship at Canton High.

On Bea's first day at her new school, she meets Ghost Boy.  And that seems appropriate because her mother has called her a robot ever since Bea didn't cry the day that they found a gerbil, and later that day, found that same gerbil... dead.

What's the point of getting emotional over a gerbil that they knew for less than a day? 

Bea honestly doesn't see the fuss, but her mother is suddenly an emotional wreck.  Her father is disappearing from the house.  They've moved to a new town.  And Ghost Boy has come in to her life.

His mysterious message from "Future Beatrice" leads her to a strange midnight radio show, magic carpet rides, music, and secrets.

Jonah, aka "Ghost Boy", and his father have closet full of secrets just bursting at the hinges to get out.

But can Jonah handle the truth?  And can Bea handle the fallout?

If you've ever felt like you think on a different wavelength from everyone around you, this book will show you that you are definitely not alone in the world.

Claim to Fame

Claim to Fame

by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Child star Lindsay Scott disappeared from the Hollywood scene five years ago.  She's been living in a house with her father ever since, hiding from the world.

But now her father has died, she's been kidnapped, and everything she's depended on to keep her sane during the past five years has flipped upside-down.

Lindsay isn't ordinary and, as she soon discovers, she lives in a town filled with people and things just and un-ordinary as she.

Can Lindsay, her kidnappers, and her new-found friends find a way to keep her sane, find her mother, and get her to leave the safety of her own home without going crazy?