Book Review 50: Bringing the Boy Home by N.A. Nelson

Finally I am done with the Mark Twain nominees. This was an interesting change from the other books. The main character is Tirio, who is from an unknown tribe in the Amazon called the Takunami tribe. This is pretty much all fiction, the author says she made most of it up, only the fact that there are actually unknown tribes and that there are rituals that could be similar, and of course the actual wildlife is true. When Tirio was 6 years old his mother put him in a coffin in a raft and sent him down the river. He was discovered by a woman named Sara who took him back to America with her and raised him. He was abandoned by his tribe because he had some kind of handicap on one of his legs. The whole book is about him and another boy named Luka, from the same tribe. We learn about Luka's life and family as part of the tribe waiting for the ritual to become a man. It is not until the oldest son of the family passes this ritual that any children in the family can know who their father is. Luka has an older sister and a domineering mother who is doing everything to make sure her son passes. Back in the states, Tirio has been "cured" in a way by an orthotic, and at the age of 12, almost 13 is beginning to feel he needs to go back to the Amazon and pass the ritual. Fortunately Sara is actually taking Tirio back there on a trip at just the right time.

There's kind of a twist about the relationship between Luka and Tirio, a little different than what I was thinking it would be. But a good twist. I really liked this book. I hope this makes the list, I would definitely recommend it to any kids at the store or at school.

So glad to be done with the list, even though the books were all good ones. Now, on to adult books. Currently reading a nonfiction called "How to Build a Dinosaur" by Jack Horner. After that I will jump into the Sookie Stackhouse series again, or possibly read the new Stephen King before that.

Twilight series thoughts

As I'm waiting on the last book on my Mark Twain list to either show up in the library, where I'm 2nd on the list, or else I ordered it into the store I work at, I went ahead and dove back into New Moon in preparation for the movie release next week. Of course, once you begin, well, once I begin, I can't put them down, and am now all the way through to Breaking Dawn. As I read New Moon, I also began listening to the Twilight movie soundtrack in my car again. The song Supermassive Black Hole reminded me of probably my 2nd favorite part of the movie, the vampire baseball scene. It begas as such a fun scene, just kind of no worries, good music, enjoy the craziness. I began thinking that I can't imagine any scene in the New Moon movie fitting quite the same feeling. Don't get me wrong, I have never in my life been as excited about seeing a movie as I am about seeing New Moon. I love the book, and the previews look like they've done a hundred times better than Twilight. I haven't bought the soundtrack yet, waiting until I see the movie. The songs on it are probably not my "normal" type of music, but once I can "see" the scene in the movie that they're from, I'll love them for bringing those feelings to my mind.

Also, I'm totally Team Edward, that is who Bella belongs with. But I don't understand how anyone can hate Jacob. He makes me smile. I just love him to death. In fact, I really couldn't wait as I was re-reading New Moon until Jacob began being a big part of Bella's life. And as for the actors playing Edward and Jacob, while I think Rob Pattinson is much cuter in the face, Taylor Lautner looks hot without his shirt!!! Can't wait for that.

So right now I'm on pins and needles just waiting for next week. There's a good possibility I may get to see New Moon on Tuesday night with my friend Kim and her mom, because her mom works for AMC and they have these special previews. Plus, I already have tickets for the midnight show a week from tonight. So by this time next week, I could be just about ready to see it for the 2nd time. I also have a friend I'll be going with the weekend of Thanksgiving because she doesn't want her friends to know because they'll make fun of her, but she wants to go. So I of course agreed. I'd really like to do my once a week showing of the movie again, but now sure I can afford it this year. So broke right now, not even funny. I'm just really looking forward to tax return time. Guessing due to money issues I may not attend the MASL conference, can't really afford it since I have to pay for it all myself. That's kind of sad since I'm reading for both Mark Twain and Truman lists, but what can I do? It doesn't seem like it's been a very good investment for my money seeing as how I'm still not a librarian and don't seem to be any closer to getting that type of job. Oh well.

Hopefully in the next week I'll be back giving my final review for the Mark Twain books.

Book Review 49: thank you, Lucky Stars by Beverly Donofrio

This was a pretty good book about girls and their friendships. I have to admit at first the whole, Lucky Stars, being capitalized and said constantly was kind of annoying. But I got used to it. I also at first had trouble because the girls were so young to me, 5th grade, and totally behaved that way. However, since the Mark Twain books are for 4th-6th graders, a book about 5th grade girls is about right. It starts at the beginning of the school year when Ally realizes her best friend Betsy has left her for a girl that they both used to hate. Betsy has gone on to be a part of the more mature girls, while Ally is still very imaginative and young. A new girl moves to the school named Tina, and she's weird. She keeps trying to be friends with Ally, and Ally at first doesn't want to be seen with her. But soon she learns what a good friend Tina can be. The big talent show is what Ally had always been so excited to perform in with Betsy. And it doesn't look at first like that's going to happen. But soon another chance comes up for Ally to start hanging with Betsy and the cool girls. Ally must decide if she'll keep Tina as a friend, or line up with the clique and become one of them.

The sadness and loneliness Ally feels is written so well, that I can feel it, and the book got me emotionally. So, all in all, a pretty good book.

Only one book left on the Mark Twain list for me to read. Unfortunately I am still on a waiting list at the Mid-Continent Public library for it. It is called Bringing Home the Boy by Nelson. So, while I had hoped to be completely done with the list by the middle of this week, it may be a few more days. So I picked up New Moon and decided to go ahead and get to reading the series again to get ready for the movie in 3 weeks.

Book Review 48: Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park

This was a major tear jerker. And to think the fact that it was a sports themed book made me not want to read it. And again, as I commented on another book from the Truman list I believe, some of the "accents" were a bit annoying. This is about a family from Brooklyn. The main character is Maggie, called Maggie-o by her dad after Joe DiMaggio. The family, and whole neighborhood are really big into baseball, specifically the Dodgers. This is right at the time of the Korean War. Maggie's dad is a fireman, or was until he was injured in a fire. So Maggie hangs out at the fire station a lot. She meets a new guy there named Jim. He teaches her how to keep score of the games, so she always can tell people what has happened and not forget. She gets really into it and starts keeping notebooks for the whole seasons. She begins to like the Giants because of Jim, especially Willie Mays. Even though she still is loyal to the Dodgers. Jim gets sent off to Korea. At first Maggie writes him all the time and he writes her back. He tells her about the boat ride over, and a young Korean boy who is the tent boy. He even sends her a picture of them. Then, all of a sudden, the letters stop. Maggie doesn't know what has happened. And no one tells her until after a while, it finally comes out that Jim was at a terrible battle and while not hurt, when he went to lay down and rest, he did, but then just stayed there, not moving, not talking. He came home the same way. Maggie comes up with a scheme to try to get him talking again by saving up her confirmation money and allowance long enough to take her whole family and Jim and his sister and her family to see the Dodgers play the Giants. but Jim and his sister don't show up the whole game.

Maggie's prayers for Jim, the teams, all of it is heartwrenching. How she feels when some of her prayers seem to work, but others don't is the way I know I feel all the time. Her feelings of helplessness and frustration I feel a lot, and so I was in tears through a lot of the last half of the book.

It's a great book. So glad I read it.

On to the 2nd to last book, Thank you, Lucky Stars by Beverly Donofrio. Only one more after that, but still waiting on it from the library.

Book Review 47: Stolen Children by Peg Kehret

Peg Kehret's books seem to always be on the Mark Twain list like every year, kind of like Mary Downing Hahn's books do. While they've not been my favorites in the past, and I alwasy feel they tend to have some similar trends in them, I decided this was a really good book. The main character is Amy, and she is babysitting for a girl named Kendra, who gets kidnapped, and the kidnappers decide they have to take Amy too because she sees them. The kidnappers intend to send a DVD every day for a week and then ask for ransom. Amy is a writer, (I'm enjoying all the books this year with kids who like to write in them), and so she uses what time she has to try to figure out how to put clues into the recordings so that hopefully when her family and friends see them they might figure it out and come help them. I really like how it gives all the ways Amy thinks to do this, as well as all her thoughts about making sure she keeps herself and Kendra safe as long as she can. I feel this could be helpful to kids that may end up in a similar situation. Another thing I really liked was how it showed people who had chances to really help, and didn't. In these cases, it was because they figured no one would believe them, or that someone else would do something because they were away from what was going on. But it really stood out because of a news story I heard last night about a girl who was raped right outside her high school while a bunch of people watched and took pictures on their phone, but no one did anything. Not to mention they went back to a woman who was murdered years ago and people just closed their windows and did nothing even hearing what was going on. The one person in the story who does something at the end, you really have respect for. And I liked this a lot.

Next on to my last sports book called Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park. I believe I've read one or two of this author's books and enjoyed them in the past. I only have 3 more books, although one I'm still waiting to get to re-check out from the library, and then I'll be done!

I want to do NaNoWriMo this year, but the more I read, the more I figure it is a waste of my time. I really don't know how to think of all the details and stuff these authors do, so I think that means I probably am not meant to be a writer. We'll see. I have an idea for a new novella, or I could go back and work on my one from 3 years ago.

Book Review 46: School Spirit by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel

This is also part of what I assume to be a newer series, this one called Suddenly Supernatural. My assumption is that the series will follow a 7th grader named Kat as she comes to realize she can see and talk to ghosts just like her mother. And her friend named Jac, who is a cellist, who doesn't play anymore. In this book Kat has just started seeing ghosts, but doesn't want to tell her mother because she's not sure she wants this "gift". She doesn't have many friends, has only in the past year moved to this town. A new girl named Jac moves in, and she and Kat become friends. Jac doesn't play the cello anymore because she froze up at a huge concert. Her mother moved her there because they have a teacher who is supposed to be good with helping kids in her situation.

I enjoy ghosts and the like, so maybe that's part of what I enjoyed. And I like the show The Ghost Whisperer, where all ghosts aren't bad. And this is kind of a kids' version of that in a way. I think kids would like what Kat goes through with the popular crowd finding out about her gift as well as other issues like homework for a 7th grade girl.

Next book I'll start tonight is Stolen Children by Peg Kehret.

Book Review 45: Safe at Home by Mike Lupica

This is one in a sports series called Mike Lupica's Comeback Kids. I read "The Big Field" by Mike Lupica for the Truman list just a short time ago. My main criticism of that was how technical the baseball talk was. In this one, it wasn't quite as technical, and maybe that's why it was a quicker read for me. A pretty good story, but kind of short. The main character is Nick, who is adopted. We learn about his past, how he came to be adopted, and how he came to love baseball and comic books. Nick is a really good catcher, getting ready for the JV season at his middle/junior high school. Before the season starts the catcher on the varsity team hurts his wrist and the coach comes and recruits Nick to fill in until his wrist injury heals. However, all of Nick's talent seems to disappear in his nervousness at being part of the varsity team. Not to mention that he's been slacking on his school work, and now his parents are starting to get on his case and possibly ban him from summer baseball. Of course there's the big game at the end, this time with the school's biggest rival, and Nick must do his best to help his team win. He also must come to term with feeling like he doesn't fit in with his adoptive parents.

Next book is in the Suddenly Supernatural series by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel called School Spirit.

Book Review 44: Margret and Flynn by Kathleen Duey

This is part of the Hoofbeats series, which I think we had one of as a possibility for last year's Mark Twain, but didn't make it. It takes place in 1875. The main character is of course Margret, and she and her sister Libby are orphans. They are living with Mrs. Frederickson, an elderly widow who lives in a sod house in Littleton, Colorado. Margret and her sister don't stay in one place long. As soon as Libby sees things changing for the worse, or else if she sees Margret getting too attached to the family, she'll pack them up and leave in the middle of the night with no word to the people they've been with. Margret likes this latest place though. She gets to take care of the horses, and Mrs. Frederickson is really nice. A tornado comes and all of a sudden there's an extra horse, a very fancy looking horse. Margret names it Flynn, and after riding it, falls in love, and even gets to meet some neighbors when she goes to share their milk with neighbors who have chickens for them to take.

The story is about Margret finally wanting to settle, not sure how to convince her sister, and also wanting to keep Flynn, who she knows must belong to someone else. It all culminates in a race, that Margret wants to win to get the money to buy Flynn.

This story goes back to the stereotypical girl loves horses, horses are wonderful creatures. Not a bad thing, but still kind of nothing out of the order.

Next up is another Mike Lupica book. I know from the one I read for the Truman list that he is a good writer, but also very technical in his "baseball speak". So we'll see how it goes!

Book Review 43: The Truth About Horses, Friends, & My Life as a Coward by Sarah P. Gibson

Long title on this book. Cute book. I was wondering why in the world there would be two "horse" stories on the list. Yeah, I know girls love horses and most dream of having their own pony as they grow up, I did. But what I loved about this book is that it didn't make horses out to be wonderful, perfect creatures. The mom decides to get a horse for her daughters, and it's name is Really. They soon figure out that is short for Really Mean. It bites. Then they get another horse, this one is perfect to ride in the ring. But the minute they take it out, it ends up running and knocking the girls off by running under trees. They finally get a really huge horse, which ends up as not the smartest of the bunch, but the gentlest. Our main character is Sophie, so not only is she dealing with this crazy bunch of horses, but she also has 2 friends she likes, but at first the 2 don't get along with each other. And, Sophie is afraid to do anything with the horses unless she has to, or her friend kind of wants her to do it, so she doesn't want to seem like a chicken.

The whole story is just so funny, I think it is a good choice for the next year's nominee list.

Next on the list is Margret and Flynn by Kathleen Duey, another horse story.

Book Review 42: Waggit's Tale by Peter Howe

As I said in my last blog, I'm not a huge fan of books from the animal point of view. But all in all, I overcame that and enjoyed this book.

At first, the dog, Waggit is left in the park by his owner, and is adopted by a "gang" of dogs, led by Tazar. He soon figures out that his owner isn't coming back, and settles in to a life in the "wild". I was a little unsure how I would like that, as the dogs living in the park think that life is better there than with an "upright" or human. After a long, hard winter, spring comes, and Waggit happens upon a woman who is eating lunch in the park every day, and she thinks he's cute so she always gives him food. One day he shows up and she's not there, and he gets caught by the "Ruzelas" or I would guess they are actually dog catchers. He goes to the pound, or the "great unknown". After a few days there, the woman comes and finds him and takes him home. It takes him a while to get used to it, and he feels a bit like he's betrayed his family in the park. But at the end he's able to get out and go let his family know that he's okay, that sometimes going to the "great unknown" isn't a bad thing.

I do know there is a sequel to this book because I've seen it at the store I work at, so I'll have to look into reading it some day when I've got some extra time.

The next book I started is one of the two horse books on the list. Again, the title sounded really dumb in my opinion, but it has been a pretty amusing book so far. It is called The Truth About Horses, Friends, and My Life as a Coward by Sarah Gibson.

Book Review 41: The Bronze Pen by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Another book about a little girl who wants to be a writer. I wonder if this was just a theme by the people on the committee, or if there were just a lot of books along this theme published at the same time. I enjoyed that aspect of it. I wish I had my own Bronze pen to help me write my stories, as well as to make what I write come true. I'd be totally writing about me and David Cook meeting and him falling in love with me. :-)

Anyway, I love the dog, Beowulf, and it's a pretty good story. The main character is Audrey, she's living in the 70's I guess because it talks about her best friend not wanting to pretend anymore because she's more into being a hippie. Other than that part of the story, I enjoy most of the story. I could see kids enjoying it. I'm not sure how I'll rate it though.

Next book I started is Waggit's Tale by Peter Howe. Another dog story, only this one is told from the dog's point of view, and they are actually talking dogs. I'm not actually a fan of this type of story, I didn't enjoy Watership Down, but I guess Bunnicula was a favorite series of mine, and it was talking dogs and cats, so I'll give it a chance.

Book Review 40: Mary Ingalls On Her Own by Elizabeth Kimmel Willard

Reading Little House on the Prairie books takes me back to younger days. Not as young as you might think though. I didn't read the books when I was a little girl. To me, the tv show is what I think of. In high school, I remember being home during the summer with my brother and watching the show on tv every morning. My brother and I loved Nellie and all the town folk. And we made fun of Pa's idiosyncracies and Laura's brothers that showed up towards the end of the series. It was just a part of my summers with my brother. I think that we probably watched when I was younger, middle school even, because for some reason I remember when we'd play with my Barbies, we'd drive them out in their cars in front of the tv and pretend they were at the drive-in movies, and I seem to remember watching Little House on the Prairie one time. Now, I tried reading the books after I'd discovered the show, but the books are always just so simple. When you were reading at the age of 3, like I was, they were just too babyish for me. I'd like to go back now, now that I can appreciate them for what they are and that I know more of the whole "history" of Laura Ingalls Wilder. But that will wait till when I have some extra time. Whenever that happens.

This book is about Mary when she goes off to the college for the blind in Iowa. It's short, and sweet, and of course different from the tv show. At the end it goes into what they know is real for the book, and other details about Mary's life. I'm guessing I need to read some more historical books on this as what I saw on the tv show I know is not all reality. For instance it doesn't talk about Mary ever getting married, yet on the show she did. I figured they did change a lot of the story on the show, but didn't know that they changed that much. Oh well. Live and learn. It just intrigues me to read more.

Next book I'm starting today is The Bronze Pen by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Not sure if I've read any books by this author, I'm familiar with them because we have them at the store I work at. Some of the titles sound familiar, but can't remember for sure if I read them.

Oh yeah, only 10 more books to go! Then November, National Novel Writing Month, not to mention re-reading New Moon and the rest of the Twilight series to get ready for the new movie!! After which I intend to go through and read the whole rest of the Sookie Stackhouse series.

Book Review 39: The Magic Half by Annie Barrows

Cute little book. Miri is the main character, and she is the middle child between twin boys and twin girls. And she has always felt a little bit left out. Sure, it's cool to be part of a family with two sets of twins, but when all the fawning is over the twins, and not you, that gets old fast. The twins also have built in friends, Miri doesn't, in fact, her family has just moved away from her best friend. The old house they move into may have a mystery, buried treasure. When Miri gets in trouble and gets sent to her room. She finds a lens stuck to the wall for no apparent reason. When she looks through it, all of a sudden she's been taken back in time to the 1930's and meets a girl named Molly. Well, Molly's life isn't a good one, she's been orphaned and left with her grandmother and mean aunt and cousins. Her grandmother loves her, but is not in good health, and her aunt and cousins want her grandmother's money. Her cousin Horst is a violent boy, and Miri decides she must somehow rescue Molly and take her back to her own time. Turns out Horst is a thief, and the stories of buried treasure are pretty much true. All this leads to an interesting adventure, and a happy ending, which I kind of wondered if that is what would happen.

Next book I started tonight is "Mary Ingalls On Her Own" by Elizabeth Kimmel Willard. Which is taking me back to some old childhood friends. Can't wait to blog about it, probably tomorrow night is my guess.

Book Review 38: The Leanin' Dog by K.A. Nuzum

Okay story, a girl who recently watched her mother freeze to death, and is now afraid to leave her house, has a dog come up to her cabin door one day. She lives with her father, I'm guessing up on a mountain or in a forest or something. I'm guessing this is supposed to be in the past, because she doesn't go to school because she can't walk there, and it sounds like they just live up in a cabin. So, the dog is limping, and not too sure about Dessa, but eventually she wins the dog over. There's a big deal with a bear, and the dad needing to hunt, and eventually Dessa is able to leave the cabin in order to try to save the dog. Ehh, interesting, but not great. Not much else to say.

Started the Magic Half by Annie Barrows today. It's okay so far.

Book Review 37: The Sherlock Files: The 100-Year-Old Secret by Tracy Barrett

Cute, short book. I love the main characters' names, Xena and Xander. I always thought if I ever had a boy, if he wasn't a "Junior" of his father, I'd want to name him Xander, of course I now like the name Cullen too. Both my names are from my favorite vampire series, Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Cullen from Twilight. Anyways, back to the book, Xena and Xander are direct descendents to the great Sherlock Holmes, and they have moved to London, where they meet some people who give them their ancestor's unsolved case book. And of course, they right away choose to solve one of those mysteries. It has to do with a painting that has been missing for 100 years, called "Girl in a Purple Hat".

It's a short, quick mystery, I think kids might like it. And again, as I said with Dodger and Me, it seems as if it will be a series, and you can get kids hooked into reading with series if they like the first one. I don't know that I believe this belongs as a nominee, but who knows what others will think.

For the next book I picked one of the dog books, Leanin' Dog by K.A. Nuzum, there are like 2 or 3 on the list, so we'll see how it goes.

Book Review 36: The Totally Made-up Civil War Diary of Amanda MacLeish by Claudia Mills

I really enjoyed this one. The main character is Amanda MacLeish, and her school does thematic units where all the classes are doing something about the theme, in this case it is the Civil War. There was a time when middle school teams were supposed to do this, and lately, we've gotten so far away from this that it saddens me that our students don't get to experience this as much any more. I think some elementary schools may still do this, but with all the emphasis on testing and meeting No Child Left Behind standards, it is sad that kids don't get as many of these kinds of experiences. Anyway, for Amanda's favorite class, English, each student is given a person from that time period and they must write diary entries for what that person sees and goes through during this time. Amanda loves this assignment as she loves to write, and from her diary entries, you can tell she loves it and is good at it. Her math class is more normal, fractions, and all that stuff, and Amanda is not good at math. The music class however is learning songs that have to do with the Civil War time period, so it is fun to hear what songs they're learning, along with what those songs have to do with history. I also love the 2 "trouble-maker" students in the book, Ricky and Lance. It especially amuses me because their behavior, reminds me of a similar behaving student I have this year, also named Ricky. The things these 2 boys did are so like what my more immature students do sometimes that it made the book realistic for me, and I'm sure would be for kids for the same reasons.

Now, the meaty part of the book is that Amanda's parents are fighting all the time, and her father moves out after a really tense Monopoly game. Amanda seems to be losing her best friend Beth to a girl that she does Irish dancing with. There is a black boy named James that Amanda looks to throughout all the Civil War and racism talk to see how he is reacting to everything, and what he thinks. James is also good in math, so Amanda ends up getting his help as well. Soon, Amanda learns what really happened with her parents, and learns that even the way she looked to James about the Civil War talk could be considered a little bit of racism in a way. While there isn't a "happy" ending for the parents, Amanda gets her friend and a couple new ones with James and Meghan, Beth's Irish dancing friend. So it is one I hope makes the list. I enjoyed it even just for Amanda's diary entries.

I'm now reading the Sherlock Holmes Files: The 100-year-old Secret by Tracy Barrett.

Book Review 35: Dodger and Me by Jordan Sonnenblick

The cover of this book is so not interesting to me. And the premise, and it didn't start out very good either. However, I had read a book by this author before that I did really enjoy, and as I got into this, it got better. The main character is Willie, his best friend moved a while back, he's horrible at baseball, but he loves baseball, and his mother is WAY overprotective. While walking home from a baseball game that he loses for his team, he cuts through the woods, which he isn't supposed to. He sees a McDonald's bag laying in a clearing and picks it up. When he does, out comes a giant blue chimp. Turns out the blue chimp is kinda like a genie, but not. So we get the normal story of be careful what you wish for. But a humorous one. In the end, I really got to where the blue chimp, Dodger, was making me laugh. So it was entertaining. And at the end, it kind of leaves you hanging, not knowing how the big last baseball game of the year actually turns out. But they also give an excerpt from a sequel to the book, and I like when the books on these lists do have sequels. At least that's what I've decided.

I think a really good book, that gets kids to read it, and then to go on to it's sequels, only leads to those same kids, who may not have read much before, really getting into reading. Soon they're in the library asking for more books like what they just finished, sometimes while they're waiting for the next book in the series that got them started to come out. In fact, I've seen this over and over in my classes the last few years. It's so great to see. While this isn't personally my cup of tea, I can see it fitting in the same slot as the book I didn't really care for last year that still made it to the list, The Big One-O by Dean Pitchford.

Got to this blog a bit late, almost done with the next book: The Totally Made-Up Civil War Diary of Amanda MacLeish by Claudia Mills, which I'm really enjoying.

Book Review 34: The Mysterious Case of the Allbright Academy by Diane Stanley

This was a pretty good book. Of course it's about a school that is very prestigious, and all the students are nice, smart, and very hardworking. Franny's younger sister Zoe, is actually the one the school wants, she's recruited by a famous politician, the first female secretary of state supposedly, in fact. But Zoe won't go without her older sister Franny and her twin brother J.D. Franny and J.D. must go for a weekend of tests to see if they qualify. When they don't, Zoe says she still won't go without them, so Martha Evergood, the secretary of state, pulls some strings to get them all in. At the testing, Franny meets Cal, a moody girl whose father travels a lot and is leaving her there for his job, Brooklyn, a cute boy who writes poetry, and Prescott, an annoying, know it all boy. She is happy to see they are all there when she goes for orientation. Franny wonders if she'll ever fit into a school where all the students there look so perfect, and the "cottages" which is what they call dorms, are all kept so neat, and everyone is talented in some way, be it art, writing, science, etc. But soon they are meeting with counselors who make suggestions about their look, and things seem to calm down, and just work. Zoe and Franny and their brother J.D. are all in different dorms. J.D. is in the "oddball" dorm, and doesn't seem to change as much as Zoe and Franny do. And when they go home for Thanksgiving, and the meeting with Franny's best friend from before goes kind of weird, things start to unravel. But, there's always the famous Allbright Academy brownies to make them feel better.

Good book, I rated it a 5 on the 5 point scale.

I went through the books I had left and rearranged what order I'd read them in by the due date to the library, because a bunch are due back on October 19th, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to renew them this time. So the next book is by an author I've read before, Jordan Sonnenblick, but its premise and cover do not look good at all. And so far, I've read about 2 chapters, and I'm still like ehhh.

Book Review 33: Hard Gold by Avi

This is in a series of children's books called I Witness. I looked on the Internet, and other than the book I read last year by Avi called Iron Thunder, I haven't seen what other books are part of this series, or if there are any other authors. But like Iron Thunder, this had lots of diagrams and maps showing scenes from those times. While Iron Thunder was during the Civil War, Hard Gold takes place during the gold rush as you might guess. The Pike's Peak gold rush in particular. The main character is named Early, his family is close to losing their farm due to mortgages being called in, and the fact that the railroad wants to run their track right through Early's family's farm. Early's uncle, who is actually only a few years older than him is named Jesse. He wants to go out west to get the money they need in the big gold rush, but Early's father says they can't go, they're needed to stay and help at the farm, and it costs money to go that they don't have. Well, one night, the bank is robbed, and the next day, Jesse is gone. Early decides to go out and look for Jesse without telling his parents. So, he sees a sign and signs up to help a family go. This family is a man who is a barber, his sickly wife, and his daughter Lizzy, who her father wants her to be more ladylike. Early and Lizzy hit it off, and we get to follow their trip through the Nebraska and Kansas territory to get to Pike's Peak. There are good times and sad times, as well as dangerous times as a Mr. Mawr is following along, trying to find Jesse and get the money from the bank robbery back as well.

I did like this story quite a bit. But I liked Iron Thunder really well as well, and it was not a finalist on the Mark Twain for this year, so who knows if my vote on this will go far either.

Next book I started last night is The Mysterious Case of the Allbright Academy by Diane Stanley, it is starting out pretty good.

Book Review 32: Greetings from Nowhere by Barbara O'Connor

This was a sweet, endearing book. The main characters lives all came together at a motel by chance. Aggie, an old lady who owns the motel, but is running out of money to pay for it, so puts it up for sell. Willow, a girl whose mother has just left her and her father, and her father decides to buy the motel to get a new start. Kirby, a young boy who is on his way to a special school for troubled boys with his mother, they get stranded when their car breaks down on the way to the school. And Loretta, a girl who receives a box full of trinkets from an "other" mother she never knew existed, visits the museum with her loving adopted parents as they visit places represented by charms on a bracelet out of the box. And of course, Ugly, Aggie's cat. They all work to be a family in a way, and it is really great to see them all fit together and kind of heal/help each other with what is needed at that moment in their lives. Great book.

Started last night was Hard Gold by Avi.