pub date: October 18, 2011
publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
pages: 341
appeals: adoption, teen pregnancy, realistic fiction
content: swearing, sex though not descriptive, abuse
thoughts:
I love me this book. Love, love, love! Passionately.
The characters in this novel are so real and flawed and believable and whole and awesome. I loved them all.
I loved Jill and Mandy. Their perceptions of the world and how they dealt with crap was so believable. Their struggles and how they dealt with horrible stuff and how they grew. Their insights into their world were so great. They're like real people to me now. I was really pleased with where they ended up, too. I usually find Sara Zarr's endings a little...unsettling, but this one was fantastic. It was actually happy. All the secondary characters were just as amazing. All the little details and peronality quirks were so tangable. Jill's father was dead, and he was a solid character in this book as if he was sitting in the leather chair in their family room.
I feel like I'm just blabbering and not saying anything (but I guess that is what I do when I review). It's an amazing story of growth and love and acceptance and moving on. It's beautifully written. Once I started it I didn't want to put it down. I was at work and all I was thinking about was lunch so I could read more, and after lunch I was counting down the hours till I could go home and read more. And then when I did go home and finish the book, I just hugged it to my chest because I was sad it was over. (not really, but you know what I mean)
This is a must read book. Please read! You are totally missing out if you don't pick it up.
summary:
Jill MacSweeney just wants everything to go back to normal. But ever since her dad died, she's been isolating herself from her boyfriend, her best friends--everyone who wants to support her. You can't lose one family member and simply replace him with a new one, and when her mom decides to adopt a baby, that's exactly what it feels like she's trying to do. And that's decidedly not normal. With her world crumbling around her, can Jill come to embrace a new member of the family?
Mandy Kalinowski knows what it's like to grow up unwanted--to be raised by a mother who never intended to have a child. So when Mandy becomes pregnant, she knows she wants a better life for her baby. But can giving up a child be as easy as it seems? And will she ever be able to find someone to care for her, too?
Critically acclaimed author and National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr delivers a heart-wrenching story, told from dual perspectives, about what it means to be a family and the many roads we can take to become one.
pub date: April 5, 2011
publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
pages: 368
format: audio
appeals: historical fiction, realistic fiction, family, art
content: clean
thoughts:
Schmidt has a gift of writing real, fully developed characters, including those on the edges of the story.
In the beginning of the novel, there are some really jerky people in Doug's life. His brother and the gym coach at his new school being two examples. Yet Schmidt has a way of showing why a character is the way they are, and with that new insight, no matter how jerky they are, it's hard to hate them. Which is AMAZING storytelling. The only character that I never really understood, especially at the end, was Doug's father. I didn't feel forgiveness towards him. But all the rest...POW! What GREAT characterization.
He is also amazing at playing my heart strings. One chapter I was so happy because things were FINALLY going well with Doug. But by the next chapter, something would happen that made me cry, literally cry. Twice I had tears running down my cheeks, I was so involved with Doug and his story, I had to keep listening long after I arrived home (I listened to it in my car and the narrator was wonderful).
I was very happy in the way the book ended--very hopeful. There was a while there where I was wondering if that would be possible. But it was. Yay!
The organization of the novel was also AMAZING. I loved how Auduban's artwork tied in so well with the story and the lessons Doug learns throughout the year of the novel. And since I listened to the book, it was rather nice how well Schmidt described the bird paintings because I didn't have the book to seem the birds myself.
So, if you haven't figured out how I feel about this book, let me tell you right out. I LOVED it. LOVED it.
And I'm not lying.
summary:
Midwesterner Gary D. Schmidt won Newbery Honor awards for Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boys and The Wednesday Wars, two coming-of-age novels about unlikely friends finding a bond. Okay For Now, his latest novel, explores another seemingly improbable alliance, this one between new outsider in town Doug Swieteck and Lil Spicer, the savvy spitfire daughter of his deli owner boss. With her challenging assistance, Doug discovers new sides of himself. Along the way, he also readjusts his relationship with his abusive father, his school peers, and his older brother, a newly returned war victim of Vietnam.
pub date: September 14, 2010
publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers
pages: 368
appeals: realistic fiction, contemporary, abuse, based on a true story
content: sexual abuse
thoughts:
I read this book almost two months ago now, and wish I'd written my review then instead of now. Since I waited so long, the details and specifics of the story are hazy and I don't have as much to write as I did at the beginning of May. Which sucks because I thought this was an amazing book.
Hush affected me for weeks after I finished. I talked about it to everyone because I was so horrified by what had happened to the protagonist's childhood friend and many other children in Borough Park. I appreciated the strength of the protag in writing this story and not hiding it or ignoring what was going on in her own community.
Hush wasn't written with beautiful descriptions or a fast-paced plot. Parts were too long and somewhat slow. At times the writing was child-like. But the story told was honest and heart-felt and scary. The story grabbed me and broke my heart. It is powerful. One that I think needs to be read.
summary:
Inside the closed community of Borough Park, where most Chassidim live, the rules of life are very clear, determined by an ancient script written thousands of years before down to the last detail and abuse has never been a part of it. But when thirteen-year-old Gittel learns of the abuse her best friend has suffered at the hands of her own family member, the adults in her community try to persuade Gittel, and themselves, that nothing happened. Forced to remain silent, Gittel begins to question everything she was raised to believe.
A richly detailed and nuanced book, one of both humor and depth, understanding and horror, this story explains a complex world that remains an echo of its past, and illuminates the conflict between yesterday's traditions and today's reality.
pub date: May 10, 2011
publisher: Little, Brown
pages: 368
source: ALA Midwinter 2011
appeal: realistic fiction, physical abuse, friendship, family,
content: swearing (including f-word), abuse, off the page sex
thoughts:
This was a tough book to read. A tough book to write a review about.
It took me a while to read because Alex and her relationship with Cole was disturbing and frustrating, as it was meant to be. So I didn't pick it up as often as I would have had it been a fantasy or a nice, happy book.
I thought Brown did a fantastic job of showing how the relationship between Alex and Cole developed. Alex is a smart girl, she knew that he was abusive and couldn't believe that she was still with him, but still stuck with him. Her reasoning was plausible, but frustrating for me to read about. I was upset at the people that were around her. Especially her father. Also frustrating. But very realistic and once again, plausible.
This is a really well-written. Sad, but if that is the kind of book you like to read, then this is for you.
summary:
When Alex falls for the charming new boy at school, Cole, a handsome, funny, sports star who adores her, she can't believe she's finally found her soul mate-someone who truly understands her and loves her for who she really is.
At first, Alex is blissfully happy. Sure, Cole seems a little jealous of her relationship with her best friends, Zack and Bethany, but what guy would want his girlfriend spending all of her time with another boy? But as the months pass, Alex can no longer ignore Cole's small put-downs, pinches, or increasingly violent threats. As Alex struggles to come to terms with the sweet boyfriend she fell in love with and the boyfriend whose "love" she no longer recognizes, she is forced to choose - between her "true love" and herself.
