Gateway 15: Reality Check by Peter Abrahams

I'm beginning to feel like most of the Gateway nominees have male protagonists. Not sure, I'm going to look through them again to make sure, but right now I feel like all my stories I'm reading are about boys. I've got 10 more to get read this month, so I guess I'd better get going!!

Anyway, I've seen books by this author at my bookstore, but never read any. This one was okay. The main character is a high school junior, boy, who is a football player. His girlfriend is from a wealthy family. And at the end of sophomore year, her father finds her and Cody together, and then when he sees Clea's grade card, with a low grade for her, a B, he decides to send her away to boarding school. Cody decides to break up with Clea instead of trying to have a long distance relationship.

Well, early into the football season, Cody, who has already had scouts talk to him about college, gets an injury that puts him out for the rest of the school year football season. Soon Cody decides to quit school. About the time he makes this decision, there is a news story that Clea has gone missing. Cody goes to the town of her new boarding school to try to help in the search.

Of course once he gets there, at first he doesn't want to tell anyone who he is. He had received a letter from Clea right before he left, and it mentions that she doesn't know who to trust. So Cody is unsure who he should trust. He meets her classmates, including her new boyfriend, as well as teachers and the people who work at the stable where she keeps her horse. He also meets two different cops, and doesn't know which one is giving him the real truth. Cody gets really close to the answer, and then of course, gets himself in trouble as well.

A good mystery, not sure it is award winning material though.

Gateway 14: Muchacho by Louanne Johnson

I have to admit I was not looking forward to this book. It didn't sound good. Boy was I wrong. Maybe if I'd paid attention to who it was written by, the same woman who wrote the memoir that became the movie Dangerous Minds, I would have known better.

This book is told from a Mexican boy's point of view. His name is Eddie. He has a rough life. He's been sent to a special school because of his anger and fighting. He has lots of things in his life that work to try to keep him from finishing school. But Eddie is a secret reader. Eddie is a secret writer as well.

What I loved about this book, from the first page I was hooked. When he began talking about the teacher that kind of really inspired him throughout this book. And how she got kicked/chased out, and while he did nothing to stop it, or let her know at the time that she did reach him, throughout the book he references things she did or talked about with them.

And I love that this book is written just how I'm sure most students think. I can hear these same ideas coming from the things my students say. The why do we need to know this? I know it was written by a teacher/adult, but I also am sure she based it on those writings from her students and how she knew them from working with them. I do love how the kids says testing is ruining school even for the students who like it. Something I am wholly onboard with.

Other than a bit of language and risque themes, but still all realistic for high school kids, this is one of my highest recommendations for the Gateway list for next year. I loved, loved, loved, loved it!!! Might even have it as a staff rec at the bookstore at some point.

Matched by Ally Condie

This is another of the Penguin teen advance reader books I had to read. And I loved it! It's set in the future. Our main character is Cassia. We first meet Cassia on her way to her Match Banquet. In this future society, everyone is matched sometime during their 17th year. They get to wear a really fancy dress for the night instead of their normal basic clothes that are the same as everyone else. They get to have really fancy food, instead of the normal just what is needed food rations each person gets. At the banquet they call each girl, and then the screen shows the match live from all around the different boroughs. Only in Cassia's case, something that has never happened before, or at least not in a very long time happens. She is matched with her best friend, someone from the same borough, Xander (I just love that name!). When they're matched they're given a little data card to look through and learn about their match, since usually they don't know them. Cassia waits to check hers, but when she does, just for the fun of it, after Xander's face pops up, it goes blank. Then, another face appears, another boy she knows, Ky. Because she's played the card in the house computer, it's no secret. An Official shows up and collects the card and tells her it was a mistake. She now learns that Ky is an Aberration. He is not ever supposed to be matched.

This of course has intrigued and made Cassia wonder who she is really supposed to be matched with.

This futuristic world, or Utopia in a way you might say, is just incredible to read and think about. To save Society, they have gotten rid of all but 100 paintings, 100 poems, 100 books, etc. When you reach the age of 80, you will die. You live a very healthy, full life until then. But we get to experience Cassia's grandfather's final banquet. Every person carries a container with pills, 1 when they're really young, 2 when they get to be teens, and a 3rd, red pill when they become adults. WE find out later in the later part of the book what the red pill is for. We find just how far this Society will go to make sure their rules and ideas are followed.

This was a really good book. I don't know that they definitely left it open for a sequel. It could have one. Or it could just leave off the way it did. Either way would probably be fine. In fact, I sometimes think it is okay to just end instead of having to continue all stories. This is supposed to come out at the end of November, and I may put it as one of my staff recs at the bookstore at that time.

Herself by Leslie Carroll

This was my latest chick lit book. It took longer because of course I'm trying to get through the Gateway nominees pretty quickly. Other than I didn't necessarily connect with the main character Tessa Craig because of her age and job, I love what she did. When her politician boyfriend basically ends their relationship, she decides she can't work for him as his speech writer anymore, and she takes a trip to, wait for it, Ireland! The place I want to go so bad! And, she meets an Irish guy who is funny and a charmer, and falls instantly in love with her! Totally what I always daydream will happen if I ever visit Ireland. He follows her back to America where it all turns out pretty good.

All in all, I really, really enjoyed it because it was totally one of my daydreams written out in a book. This is the 3rd book I've read by this author, and I've enjoyed all of them.

Gateway 13: hold still by Nina LaCour

I know, I've been so busy it's been a way long time since I've blogged. And in that time I have 3 books to blog about. Here is number 1.

As you can see it was on the Gateway nominee list. And while it was a good book, all I can say is WOW! These books are sooooo depressing and sad! I know that teens seem to like these books, but it's kind of bringing me down to read these. Anyway, here's the review.

Our main character is Caitlin. Her best friend Ingrid has committed suicide, and as you would expect, it has really messed up Caitlin. She didn't know her friend had emotional issues, and had suffered from them forever. We are with Caitlin through summer, as she spends most of the time in her car. When she goes back to school the next year, she makes a new friend, but then loses the new friend when she decides to pull back into her shell. She gets a boyfriend too. She has trouble in her once favorite class, photography, because she and Ingrid had been the best students in the class before, and now her teacher is treating her differently. And then, Caitlin finds Ingrid's journal stashed way underneath her bed. And as she reads through it, she goes through all kinds of emotion, guilt, anger, sadness, and finally coming to terms with what Ingrid has done in the best way she can.

So of course, a good, uplifting ending, just a really sad book to try to get through.

Gateway 12: Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have by Allen Zadoff

This wasn't a bad story, don't get me wrong, it was just kind of predictable and eh. The main character is Andrew Zansky, who weighs over 300 pounds as a sophomore in high school. He met a girl the weekend before school started back up, and then she shows up at his school. She says she likes people for who they are, not for being popular, but then, her actions don't back up her words. So, Andrew goes out for the football team instead of doing model UN with his best friend as they'd planned all summer. All of a sudden he's popular, but the girl is also getting popular, and she's in love with the star QB, who Andrew is friends with and helping with school stuff.

We do have a bit of a twist in my opinion when we find out there was some planning and that Andrew joining the team was kind of a plan by the coach and others. And like many other books I've read, the parents are having problems and getting divorced. Yeah, yeah, I know, lots of kids deal with that, I'm the child of divorced parents myself. But it would be nice once in awhile to have some happy parents, even divorced and remarried they could be happy parents, like mine were.

So this won't be a very high recommendation from me for the Gateway nominees.

Gateway 11: The Morgue and Me by John C. Ford

This book was okay. The story was somewhat interesting. Obviously anyone who is interested in mysteries and detective stories will enjoy it. And I wanted to really like it for that reason alone. But all in all, it was kind of eh. I rated it lower because I didn't feel it was probably going to have that interesting of a story line for teenagers. I also don't like that the main characters, just graduated from high school, are drinking beer and going to a bar. Yeah, I know it's naive of me to think that teens don't drink. But I don't feel the blase way it was put out in this book is the best. So, it will be so far, the lowest of all the books I've rated for the Gateway possible nominees.

Gateway 10: Hate List by Jennifer Brown

This was a really good book. It really hit hard on the school shooting topic. It also focused in on the bullying issue. The main thing that I really liked about this book, is how it takes place from the point of view of the shooter's girlfriend. The person who actually started the "hate list". The story follows her, Valerie, through going back to school the year after it happens. We get flashbacks to each moment as it happened in May. But we also get to see how the other students are dealing with it. We see how her family, which was actually screwed up to begin with, and possibly part of the reason the hate list started, is completely finished by this. I think a good point is to think of how this shooter was thought of by his fellow students before all this happened. How people had no idea he was going to do it. And how the very day it happened, Valerie had been bullied by her biggest antagonizer. The ending is very touching. I also like that it looks at how the principal of the school tries to say that all the students have all changed and become like a family and that there is no more bullying or treating other students poorly. Which is wrong. I think schools often try to cover things, or at least I think I can totally see this happening. There are things that have happened in my district, that I wonder how they never made the news, when around the same time, you hear about the same type of issue happening in other districts on the news.

Anyway, I am going to hopefully have that as my next staff rec at the book store. I was also extremely interested to learn that the author is a good friend of a friend that I teach with. With some of the bullying issues going on at my school currently, it might be good to have her come in and speak to the kids. I wish I could read this book with my students, I think they could really learn from it. But I'm guessing a school shooting book would not be considered appropriate to read to 8th graders.

Gateway 9: Liar by Justine Larbalestier

All I can say about this book is WOW! It started out as what seemed to be a total realistic fiction type YA novel. Our main character Micah, is a liar, hence the title. She lied when she came to her new school, or just let a misconception spread without correcting it. And when that lie was found out and corrected, she changed it to something else. First she had a teacher call her a boy. Then when it was found out she was a girl, she told people she was born with parts for being a boy and a girl. Then she tells us that she was born covered with hair. The whole main part of the story is that a boy, Zach, has been found dead. It turns out that Micah was his girlfriend, on the side, anyway. He had a girlfriend at school that everyone knew about. We constantly learn about all the stuff she lies about, as she tells us lie after lie. And then, about halfway in, it turned into a fantasy book. Werewolves. And at the time you're wondering, is this another big lie, or is she actually telling the truth now? It's the truth, and the end of the book is very interesting. We never do find out for sure about what happens to her brother, at least I don't remember, so that is one question left open.

All in all it was a good read, kept me interested, etc. I think the kids will enjoy it.

Mini-Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella/Nook Review

This blog will serve as two reviews. Since I read Mini-Shopaholic while I was borrowing a Nook from the bookstore, I will review both at once.

Our main character Becky is back. This time she has a two year old daughter named Minnie, who seems to be a terror. She's gotten them kicked out of seeing Santa a couple times, and doesn't really help Becky with her shopaholic tendencies. In this book Becky decides she is going to throw her husband Luke a surprise birthday part for a reasonable price, and since her family and friends seem to assume she can't do it, she tries to do it on her own. She gets into the world of bartering, and of course that doesn't work out. And Luke thinks Minnie needs a super nanny to fix her. Which Becky of course doesn't think is necessary. They're living with Becky's parents due to some financial issues, as well as the houses they plan on buying keep falling through.

This book has the same funny issues with shopping that the others have, and some more stress as people getting older tend to deal with. I laughed out loud as normal with the shopaholic series, and so I will continue to wait and hope for more to be written as part of this series.

Nook review: Well, it was definitely fun to use. And I can see times it would be nice and convenient to have. But as I feel that having almost 300 books sitting in my house still NOT read, it is just not financially responsible to get one. I even considered asking for one for Christmas, but still, I would have to buy new books to put on it, so again, not financially responsible of me, unless I win Powerball! :-) But I definitely think it is a good piece of technology, and would recommend it to anyone who doesn't have a ton of books sitting around waiting to be read.

Gateway 8: North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley

This was a really good book. The main character is Terra. Both she and her brothers are named after map related things because her father was a mapmaker. A humiliated mapmaker as he bought into a fake map supposedly from ancient China. Her brothers are both old enough that they are away at college or out on their own, and Terra is in high school. Her mom is overweight, and her dad is hateful and cruel to her and her mother. And Terra has one other strike against her, a huge port wine stain birthmark on her face. She's learned how to cover it with makeup as she's gotten older, in fact, she has a very hot boyfriend. Terra's outlet is art. She creates collages that represent people and things in her life. When a guest speaker at school gives Terra a suggestion of a new laser surgery that is supposed to fix this type of birthmark, Terra decides to try once more to get rid of this defect. On the way back home from the first treatment, it is a snowy, icy day, and they have an accident. The other car involved includes a Chinese boy named Jacob, and his adopted mom. Jacob looks like a goth, but Terra sees he has a cleft lip scar. This is why Jacob was probably given up in China as normally boys are not adopted.

Jacob and Terra connect, as do Jacob's mom and Terra's mom. After a bad holiday experience with her brothers, Terra's oldest brother invites her and her mom to visit him in China where he works. Jacob and his mom choose to go along, as they keep trying to visit the orphanage he came from, but keep hitting brick walls. The trip is a growing experience for all involved. And in a good way, they all come back changed. But Terra must decide if she wants to give up the "perfect" boyfriend that she doesn't "deserve" with her looks for someone like Jacob, who she has instantly connected with, as he just seems to "get" her.

Awesome, awesome story. I look forward to reading more by this author.

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer

This was another of the Penguin YA advanced readers books I got back in August. Wasn't sure if I'd like it. The cover is a little freaky for my taste. I know, I know, don't judge a book by its cover, but be honest, it's hard not to just a little. Anyway, this is another new take on werewolves and love triangles. Once I got into it, I really wanted to keep reading and finish it. Our main character is Calla. She is the alpha wolf of her pack, the nightshades. Since she was a baby she has been promised to marry Renier, the alpha male of another pack, the Wolfbanes. The plan is to combine the two packs into one in order to create a new young pack. In this case, the werewolves are guardians for the Keepers. They protect sacred sites from the Searchers.

The book begins with Calla saving a hiker from a grizzly bear. Something she shouldn't do. She even changes from a wolf to human form to save his life by giving him her blood. Now you might think this is how to create a new werewolf, but it is actually only part of it. They also have some incantation they must recite at the same time, so no, the hiker isn't changed. However, he soon shows up at the private school, in Vail, where Calla and Ren go to school. Turns out, his name is Shay, and he is the nephew of a big wig in the Keepers. And his uncle asks the young wolves to keep an eye out for him. Shay of course remembers what happened to him with Calla. And is intrigued by her. He also knows there are mysterious things going on in this school/town, and sets out to find out what is going on.

Calla is also intrigued by Shay. But one thing we can't tell for sure from this book is if she loves both Shay and Ren. It seems that she cares for both. And while she does tell Shay she loves him, she doesn't say it to Ren, but from her reactions to Ren's advances, it would seem she is interested in some way.

The end is quite a cliffhanger. It seems, as always, that the Keepers aren't quite the good guys that Calla was brought up to believe. And not only does it leave off at a cliff hanger, leading me to believe there is a sequel, when I typed the name in on Goodreads.com, there were sequels already listed, more than one. The fact that there are already this many planned sequels, makes me feel like I should give up my writing aspirations. I have story ideas in my head, but not enough to even finish or flesh out the story for one book, let alone a series. I guess I figure there are so many good authors out there, why should I bother throwing my crap out to be judged and rejected? So, currently debating whether to go ahead and do NaNoWriMo and write my stories just for me, like Stephenie Meyer said she does, instead of thinking what will be an actual published book. Or, to not waste my time. Thinking I'll have so much going on this November with my new online teaching job, that it might be a good idea not to worry about it this year.

Anyway, the book was good, and I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel, which who knows how long till that comes out, because this is an advance readers copy of a book that doesn't come out till October.

Gateway 7: Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick

I think kids will enjoy this. And I do think it was an interesting look at the war from a young soldier's point of view. There are some obvious liberal, anti-war statements in the book. Which to me kind of make it so the book is not objective, giving kids a chance to make their own opinions. As I have not read any other books by this author, I wonder if her other books lean the same way. While I have wanted to read her other books, Sold, and Cut for sure, now I'm a bit turned off from just the little digs that were in this one. I will definitely check with friends I have who were over in the war to see if what was said is true.

Our main character is Matt. When we meet him he has just woken up in a military hospital in the Green Zone. The place where Saddam Hussein's palace was that has been taken over by the US military. Matt can't remember exactly what happened to lead up the time when he was injured by the explosion of an RPG. So we go with him as he heals, as he must tell the higher ups what happened, or as they tell him what happened. We get to be with him as he goes back to be with his unit. And what happens soon after he gets back is traumatic as well. I think a look into what life might be like inside this situation would be a good thing for teens to read.

The Icing on the Cake by Alison Kent

Yet another book I got through Shelf Awareness for free. This is supposedly a romance based on a real story through Match.com. As someone who has tried out Match.com, and knows it for what it is, something that still only works for the attractive people, just as in real life. I had to choke through those parts to get through. This is really just a very basic, simple, romance novel. The main characters are Michelle Snow and Todd Bracken. The other part I had an issue with was that after the first date they already were sad and depressed when the other was going out of town on a trip planned way before they even thought of each other. Insert gagging hand motion here.

Anyway, the main thing I did enjoy, was that Michelle's dream was to open a boutique cupcakery. I do love cupcakes. And at the beginning of each chapter it named one of the ideas, and told what it was made of. Here are some of the best sounding ones that make me want to rush out and buy a cupcake.

Ba-nilla: banana bottom with vanilla buttercream top

The "G" Man: gingerbread bottom with a lemon cream cheese buttercream top

Jackie-Oh!: chocolate bottom with almond buttercream top

Happy!: vanilla bottom with chocolate fudge top

Rediculous: red velvet bottom with vanilla cream cheese buttercream top

Whoopie Pie: chocolate bottom with whoopie cream filling & chocolate ganache top

Cookie MOMster: chocolate bottom with almond Oreo buttercream top

Campfire: graham cracker bottom with milk chocolate ganache & marshmallow top

Autumn Luv: spice bottom with almond buttercream top

Apple of My Pie: apple spice bottom with vanilla caramel buttercream top

Lemon Frost: lemon bottom with lemon buttercream top

Pumpkin Pie: pumpkin spice bottom with vanilla cream cheese buttercream top

Hungry yet? I'm wondering if this is a real bakery since this is supposed to be a reality based romance. It takes place in the DC area, which after visiting a couple years ago, I do think it is a neat area.

The 4400: Wet Work by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore

This book is the one I kept in my car for those times when I was somewhere that I needed to read something and didn't remember to bring a book. So I started it quite a while ago.

The 4400 was a show I liked on tv that was cancelled after only a few years. It started out with a great premise, but as many of those types of shows tend to do, it got bogged down into what I call the "mythology" of the show.

This was a good representation of what an episode of the show could have been about. An internation assassin known as "the Wraith" was one of the people taken, she disappeared in 1992. One of our main characters, Tom Baldwin, was actually part of finding her on one of his first cases. When she comes back with the rest of the 4400, she immediately disappears. She had actually planned on that last kill to end her career anyway and retreat into oblivion with her girlfriend. When she comes back, it seems someone from the future, which is where the 4400 have been sent back from, has chosen her to be an assassin for them, to kill other 4400 members who might be messing up the plans. She of course has her own kill list, the people who assigned her all the jobs in the past, who she knew would want her back so that she couldn't incriminate them in these illegal political assassins assigned by the CIA.

As I read the end of the book about the authors, it was very interesting to note that they are both Kansas City residents, or were at the time of the book. I found that cool!

Gateway 6: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

I'd seen this book at the store. No idea what it was about, but the cover is very interesting. Even with such an interesting cover, and really a title that doesn't give much clear idea to what it is about, I can't believe I never picked it up to read what it would be about. Because I really, really, REALLY enjoyed this book. In a way, it reminds me of how much I enjoyed Twilight. I had to know what was going to happen so bad, that I almost skimmed through parts of it, not stopping to read all the details because what happened was more important than savoring. I have a feeling I'll eventually purchase this title, and it will be one I read again and again. Although there is a sequel I'll need to read soon as well.

Shiver is the story of Grace and Sam. Grace was attacked and bitten by a pack of wolves when she was a small child. She can remember one of them in particular, it had these stunning, unforgettable yellow eyes. It was almost as if he saved her, because once she saw him, the other wolves soon disappeared leaving her alone.

Sam is a werewolf, with yellow eyes. He has always felt a connection to Grace. Even when in his wolf state, when he can't quite remember who she is, he feels the pull to go to her house and watch her. And in the summers, when he is human, he hopes to see her.

You see, these wolves become wolves when it gets cold. And as the years pass, the time that they get to be human gets shorter, and shorter, until eventually they never change back and stay wolves forever.

When Sam and Grace finally meet as humans, it is love, as they'd always felt. But Sam is afraid this is his last year, in fact he didn't become human until late fall when he actually felt he had to save Grace.

A boy Grace goes to school with is killed by wolves, then his body disappears. This boy's sister, Isabel, has seen him, and knows he is not dead, and he tells Isabel that Grace knows a cure. Why else could she have been bitten, but not have changed?

The end is very dramatic, and sad, and makes me so happy that there is a sequel, so I can see what happens next. I will probably make this a staff rec as well at the bookstore.

Gateway 5 - Lost by Jacqueline Davies

I was so sure I'd love this. I have really enjoyed all the historical fiction I've been reading from going through this award nominee selection process the past 2 years. And while this was mostly interesting, I'm not sure it will really pull in the high school age. I think it might actually be more a book my middle school kids would enjoy. Now, the main character is Essie, and I think she's like 16? Not completely sure. Anyway, she is a Jewish girl who works in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. We begin the book with a flashback to her younger sister being born, and their mother not wanting to have anything to do with her, due to being so upset over the loss of their father. This is set shortly before the big fire that occurred in this building. There is something weird going on with the younger sister. You can kind of figure it out pretty quick, I think. There is a new girl who is very mysterious, and Essie follows her to her apartment, and then soon they become friends. Turns out her friend has a past, and Essie slowly pieces it together. There is a romance going on between Essie and a boy who lives nearby, Jimmy.

Anyway, we get a lot of the story told with what might be considered stereotypical "Jewish" sounding speaking. So we only get a little of the culture that way. Essie has a younger brother who is kind of a delinquent as well, and so the big turning point of the story comes when he gets arrested, and Essie must figure out how to get him out of jail. Jimmy, who is a law student, goes to the police station to help, and along with the errand Essie runs to her new friend Harriet to ask for the money she needs.

Shortly after this, she goes back to work at the factory one more time, the day of the big fire. Knowing this was going to happen, I was kind of looking for it throughout the whole book and it kind of made me maybe speed through the book to get to that. Not because I'm morbid, but because that is a big historical moment, and I wanted to see what the author did to bring it in, and how the main character would fare and what it would mean afterwards. The cover of the book also does nothing for it in my opinion. I understand what it means, because Essie makes hats, the type that were fashionable back then, but still kind of a boring cover.

Good book, but not sure it is appropriate for Gateway level readers. So I won't be rating it one of the highest I read for the year.

The Pride of the Peacock by Victoria Holt

This isn't a new book. In fact, this is a book I've owned for a long time, and read over, and over, and over. I got it one time when my Aunt Nancy was watching me for the day, and we went over to her in-laws for some reason or another. Anyone who knew me as a kid, knows that I was always looking for something to read. I picked up this book off a table or bookshelf or something while my aunt was doing whatever it was we were there for. And I was sucked in immediately. When we went to leave, I think it was my aunt's grandmother in law told me I was welcome to take the book with me and keep it. So I did.

Not sure if this is when my fascination with peacocks began, but peacocks are a big part of the story. And opals. Opal is my birthstone, so of course I've liked it for a long time. But this book introduced me to black opals, and made me search to find them. The main character is Jessica Clavering, or Opal Jessica Clavering which is her full name, although she is never called by Opal. She lives with her family in England in the Dower House of her family's estate that her father lost long ago when gambling. No one will really talk much about the time before. One day Jessica notices what looks like an unmarked grave and finds that it has her name on it. But still, no one will tell her anything about this. Soon the new owner of the former family estate, Ben Henniker is back. And while Jessica is out at her place she likes to sit, his wheelchair comes racing down hill out of control. When Jessica goes to save him, they soon become friends. And she begins sneaking over to visit him. This is where she learns about opals. Ben made his fortune hunting opals in Australia. This may be where I also began my fascination with Australia as well.

I won't go on to spoil much more, just know that Jessica ends up going to Australia and getting to work with opals, and falling in love, all with a mysterious, magnificent opal that is thought to be cursed, called the Green Flash at Sunset, in the background of all the drama. I don't know if you can even find this book anymore. I've looked in the catalog at my bookstore, thinking that one day I'll need a new copy of this when I wear this one out, but haven't been able to find it. And I do love the cover of it that I have, so I wouldn't want one of the others I saw that is really dorky looking in my opinion. While this is probably considered a romance novel, it isn't a trashy one. There is no sex in it. It is quite a bit of a mystery at the end as well. But it is romance, and again, one reason I love it is because of how I also have the insecurities dealing with how no one could possibly like/love me just like Jessica does when we get into the last half of the book where she is with Joss in Australia.

Gateway 4: Because I Am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas

I had seen this book at the store and thought it looked interesting. And it was good. I can see that teens would enjoy it, even if I was left somewhat just okay with it. This is the story of Anke and her family. Her father is abusive to her older brother and sister, but doesn't really do much to her, in fact, as the title says, it's like he doesn't even see her. And while she knows what he does to her siblings, sees the bruises, hears him in her sister's room at night, she sometimes feels this means he loves them and not her. She decides to try out and makes the school volleyball team, she's so tall, she's a shoe-in. Her father tells her competition is not good, but doesn't ever actually forbid her, and as always, doesn't turn on her and hurt her in any way for it. No one in the family says anything to try to end this. Until the day that her father does turn on her.

The book is written in poems, reminiscent of the Ellen Hopkins stories, Crank, Glass, etc. So I can see it being a very popular book with kids.

Gateway Nominee 3: Fat Cat by Robin Brande

Oh my gosh, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVED this book! Our main character is Fat Cat, or Catherine Locke. Cat is very smart, she is in THE science class, the one that can get you to the National Science competition, as well as scholarships to college. The way this class starts out, is that you pick, without looking, a picture that the teacher, Mr. Fizer, has cut out of a National Geographic at some point in the past. And based on that picture, you must come up with an individual research project to do for the year, that you will then enter in the school science fair at the end of the year. Cat has worked with insects at a lab all summer, and is really hoping to get some kind of picture that can somehow tie in with this so she can build on her summer work. But no, she gets a picture of Homo erectus, early hominins from 1.8 million years ago. She sees the woman in the picture, lean, muscular, tan, and wants to be her. Cat is overweight, and has been for quite awhile. So this leads to her idea of living like these hominins and seeing what it does for her life and health. Such an awesome project this turns out to be! Of course she has to make some exceptions, she can't use technology, they didn't have it, but she will have to use the computer for homework sometimes, and can only ride or drive a car at night, or for safety issues such as distance. So, she walks to school and work. Her diet gets as close as it can, these prehistoric humans ate rotten meat, yuck. She soon learns that not only in this case, but she must make some other exception in order to not get sick. n

Now, Cat has an archenemy, Matt. They used to be best friends, until something happened at a science fair when they were 13. We don't know for sure what happened till later in the book, but it is easy to guess. As Cat does her project, she loses weight, and starts looking and feeling great. And the boys do notice. Even Matt.

As I've said in many other blogs, I really do get into books where I feel a personal bond or connection with the main character. And I do, so much of how she feels is how I've felt in the past, or sadly, how I feel these days. Such a great, great book. Loved it!!