Malin Alegria.  Sofi Mendoza's Guide to Getting Lost in MEXICO

Comments:

• THIS IS A GREAT BOOK!!....I could really relate to it and I could understand what Sofi was going through and the feelings of rebellion but yet, the love that is underneath all the surface. The book talks about a teenage girl and high school student find it easier to relate to. Interesting scenerios and informative culture are being played into the plot making this a very interesting book. If it is recommened..it should be introduced to Exchange students because it gives the feeling of cultural shock which most of us , exchange students exprience. This book has depth and can influence a teenager in the way they view their parents. If other people read this...and had not travelled or been an exchange student before, they can also relate to the book by viewing it as a guide before entering other cultures. Cultural shock is a BIG thing and this book is great on making examples.LOL... Pretty much what I'm trying to say is " I LOVED IT". 4Q

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  •  4P.Gr 10-12.  EC, 17

Strasser, Todd. Mob Princess

• It was really well done and had a few good surprises in it to i can't wait to read part.2 ^.^ 5Q 5P, S, 15.

Jen Bryant. Pieces of Georgia

• I really liked it. it explained a lot about her life & it was well written Gr 7-9. 5Q 4P. Bailey, 16.

Margaret Buffie. Angels turn their backs

• When I read the book "Angels turn their backs" it made me think about how some people in the world are just like the main character in this book. The main character, Addy Jenkins, is too scared to go out of her apartment and has huge panic attacks when she does. She hears voices that no one else can hear and thinks she's gone crazy.
  After reading this book for two weeks, it made me feel as if I were Addy and I was too scared to go out of my room at night. Sometimes I'm afraid to go places without someone so I feel that I can relate to her. Usually I feel stupid when I'm too scared to go places alone.
  I really like this book, but I didn't really like Addy's father because at first he was really mean and then he got nice, then mean, then nice and back and fourth. If I had been the author I would have made him so it was obvious to the readers that he was mean.
  I would recommend this book to girls because the main character is a girl and the whole story is about her. People who like realistic fiction would like this kind of book. 3Q 3P. S, 11.

• This book is now in the top 5 books I have ever read. The plot is always keeping you at the edge of your seat, wondering "What will happen next?". The story is about 4 year old Bean, who escaped from a orphanage when he was only 1. Bean is adopted by a street 'family', and teaches them the things he knows. After learning about his life in the streets, he is picked up by a nun, who is recruting children for a battle school, which is preparing kids for the alien invasion that is coming.
  Bean is amasingly smart, and shoots through the school. The book is so well writen, that you feel that you are right beside Bean, hearing, seeing, feeling, and thinking anything that happens to him.
  If you like to read, this is a book for you; no specific interests required! 5Q 5P. CS, 13.

Katie Cobb. Happenings

• This book was so good that it made me miss my stop on the bus. I read more than half of it on the bus ride home, and got so absorbed in the action that I was completley oblivious to the outside world.  'Happpenings' was a well-drawn portrait of family life, and did an excellent job of character and plot development. The main charcater, Kelsey, was believeble in her actions and emotions, and the reader was drawn through the concequences of her chioces along with her.  One could see Kelsey's life spiraling out of control, which was echoed in the chioce of cover art (it isn't often that I actually like the cover of a book, so I feel compelled to comment about this book's wonderful cover).  The language was wonderful and descriptive, and the author's chioce of perspective was a good one. The action was all centered on Kelsey, and the reader had to guess what the other characters were doing, just as she did. I thought that 'Happenings' was a wonderful book, with a good message- consider the concequences of your choices. 4Q 4P. JW, 15.

Debbie Dreshler. The Summer Of Love

• Lily is just one of those characters that drives me crazy. She is whiny and always bickering with her younger sister, she likes this one guy (Steve), only to let his friend (Keith) pursue, mainipulate, and generally take avantage of her, and she is so absobed with what other people might think that she forgets to live her life. I don't mind when characters are like that at the beginning of a book, but then see the light and shape up, but Lily does no such thing. She just stays her old pathetic self and feels miserable that Steve is seeing someone else. Also, I thought that the green and black and white illustrations (this is a graphic novel) were very strange. The people look like aliens with their sea green hue. 2Q 3P. JI, 17.
• This was the very first Graphic Novel I have ever read. I loved looking at the pictures. It was so fun.
  Now, the story on the other hand, was, well, a little strange. The whole making out parts and lesbien scene was kinda weird and grossed me out. But I guess that DOES happen in the real world and lets me listen in on how these charecters feel about these sort of things. 3Q 2P. MH, 15.

Christine Fletcher. Tallulah Falls (2006.)

• I started it but couldn't finish it. I couldn't get into it. it didn't really explain much at the beginning & it was confusing. Bailey, 16. 2Q 3P. Gr 10-12+.

William R. Forstchen. We Look Like Men of War.

•  It was well written, and gave a lot of insight into the black contribution in the American Civil War. If you're interesting in history and/or historical fiction, it would be a great read for you; however, it doesn't seem like the kind of book you would just pick up off the shelf and read. Specialisation aside, it's a great book, and deserves at least a BBYA nomination.5Q  4P RD, 13

Terry Griggs. Invisible Ink (2006)

• The book was really creative & made your imagination work but it could be really random & made a lot of refercnces to the previous books in the series. Invisible Ink would have been better if I had read the first books before this one!! Make the list only if the complete series is available. Kayle, 16. 3Q3P Gr 7-11.

John Grisham. Testament

• The Testament by John Grisham is an action-packed well-described novel. Mr. Grisham tells of a rich old man who is going to die soon, but he has no idea in whom to give his eleven billion dollar estate to. His children and ex-wives beg for some cash but surprisingly, he leaves it to a mysterious heir. A female missionary in Brazil is the heir. A lawyer fresh out of rehab has to go find this secret heir. Will she say yes or no to the money?
  I beleive that the pages seem to turn themselves. I got absorbed into it. I felt as if I were really there, standing next to the characters, or as if I was in a movie theatre, watching a very absorbing movie. It kept me reading on the bus ride to school, during classes and far into the night.
  I would recommend this to advanced readers because the storyline is a bit confusing. If anyone loves long books such as a 533 page novel, they’d enjoy The Testament. It sounds very long, yet it goes by very quickly, because I read it in one and a half months. If you’d like to learn more about the author, you can go to www.jgrisham.com and you can go buy his books almost anywhere.
  I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.5Q 5P. E, 12.

Lorie Ann Grover. Loose Threads

• AMAZING BOOK. the story is so real, andhte characters could be anyone you know. I cried when i was reading it, it was so heart wrenching and incredibly written. the poem format was refresing to read. wonderful!!!!! 5Q 5P. CM, 15.

Shelley Hrdlitschka. Dancing Naked.

• It was amazing! I really liked the characters and could identify with them and the writing appealed to me. I can't say why I liked it so much, but I just did. It explored issues relevant to teens and offers you different perspectives. Totally engrossing, I read it in a day. 5Q 4P. C, 13.

Gretel Killeen. My life is a toilet

• I dont really know what to make of this book. I am torn between being endlessly annoyed by the incessant whining of Fleur and laughing at her pain. I know this must sound mean, but it is nice to know that there is someone out there who doesn't live in the third world (i.e. "think of the starving children in Africa") that has a life that is undeniably more depressing and embarassing than your own. 3Q 4P. JI, 17.

Gordon Korman. Everest- Book One, The Contest

• I thought the book was very interesting, funny, and exciting. There were several main characters, giving just about anyone someone to indentify with. You don't need to be interested in rock-climbing to enjoy it. This book isn't at a high reading level and I whipped through it in about 2 hours. I thought it was definitely worth the time. 4Q 4P. KB, 14.

Patricia Curtis Pfitsch. Riding the Flume

• The idea of her riding the flume is very cool, but it's sorta given away from the get go because of a) the title and all the hints that are given, ie like who has riden the flume before and survived, along with who hasn't. And isn't this the nice environmental story, oh, this really isn't the land of the logging company, meaning that you really can't log my sister's tree and everyone is happy again. I think that a better story line would be that, yes, by all means, save the tree, but can't there be something more? Can't there be an investigation into Old Robert's death, and exactly WHY his brother was so sure that the hermit was dead, even though he lived way up in the mountains and no one else saw the fre that saw the fire that destroyed his house and supposedly took his life? And another thing that I have problems with is the age. Francie is REALLy 15? I have a very hard time being okay with that. It seems to me that she's still nine, when her sister died. Oh no, I'm totally revisian that my subconsiousness REALLY didn't agree with the plot. One final thing, and that's that there is only one thing that is happening, and that's to save the sequoias. That's a good plot in itself, because personally, the fact that something that could grow that long and that bug amazes me, but as enthralling as it is, there does need to be something to back it up. Could we intertwine a bit of Charlie's love interests in here? Or how about Francie? Aren't there any guys in her mountain town? Now that I've made myself sound like a totally guy crazy girl, I'd just like to reinforce this point: Although the sequoias are an interesting plot by themselves, there needs to be just a little something to back it up, whether it be a murder investigation or a little romance or what. 3Q 3P. Below gr 7. CS, 14

Philip Pullman. The Tiger in the Well.

• This book was the perfect ending to the Sally Lockheart Trilogy. It was much more exciting than the others and after I read it, I knew that Philip Pullman was one of my favorite authors. In this particular book, the main character, Sally Lockheart, is faced with the knowledge that someone has the power to change her life in ways she could only imagine. Someone is plotting to take her child away from her and the law is on his side. Because of the time period during which the story takes place, her exploits seem even more couragous. You won't want to put the book down after the first couple of chapters because it draws you in. You might even find yourself staying up all night reading with a flashlight under the covers. The best part of the book would have to be the ending because after you read the whole story and you get to the end, life-changing decisions are made, one man's identity is revealed, and ultimately, Sally finds herself in a win or die situation.as she fights for her life and her daughter. There is another story in the background that I won't write about, but that gives this book a nice, thick plot with plenty to challenge the brain. So if a good semi-historical English mystery with a lot of suspense sounds good to you, I would suggest buying this book right away or checking it out of your local library if you want to save your money for the mall. 4Q 5P. J, 13.

Ranulfo.Nirvana's Children

• Nirvana's Children was an amazingly bizarre and twisted story. The main character, Napolean, has a mind that twist everything into something so strange and violent, that at times it was difficult to understand what was real and what was fiction. This story has amazing metaphors, descriptions and imagery. I would definately reccomend this book because on top of the fanastic writing style, Nirvana's Children has a story unlike any that I have ever read before. 4Q 4P. VM, 13.

Nancy Springer. Lionclaw - a tale of rowan hood

• This si a woderful new take on to robin hood stories. I thouroughly enjoyed it. 4Q 4P. CM, 15.

• It was pretty well layed out according to the story line.It has a few suprises. 3Q 3P., Gr 10-11. S, 17.

Wendelin Van Draanen. Flipped

• I thought this book was overall only okay. It looked like it would be a lot better, but I really thought this book had no flow to it. I liked the book, but it didn't really go anywhere, and I found no clear story line.3Q 4P. Gr 7-9. LW, 14.

• This was a great book. It really made me feel like I was back in 1904. It's a ghost story and a love story, and it's really creepy but beautiful. I couldn't put it down. 5Q 5P. (Gr 7-12+) ML, 14.