This Week's Featured Book-2/16-2/22

For this week's book, I chose Spelldown by Karon Luddy. I loved this book, and since I recently participated in my school spellng bee, this book was even better! Here's what it's about:
Thirteen-year-old Karlene Bridges is the best speller in her family, her hometown, and maybe even all of Shirley County, South Carolina. The trouble is, every time she makes it to the final round of a spelling bee, she chokes. But when Mrs. Harrison, the new Latin teacher, offers to coach her, Karlene's spelling jinx miraculously disappears. The year 1969 is turning out to be her best ever, especially since she develops a surprising crush on her best friend, Billy Ray. But as soon as Karlene aims to compete in the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D. C., her father's drinking begins to spell trouble. How is a girl supposed to hold her family together, savor her first kiss, and become the best speller in America before the end of eighth grade?

A great book for teens that will leave you hungry for more by this promising new author (this was her first novel)! See you next week!

This Week's Featured Book- 2/9-2/15

For this week's book, I picked Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen. Here's what it's about:

Halley has always been close to her mother, a therapist who publishes books about adolescent behavior. But the summer before her junior year of high school, Halley begins to drift farther and farther away from her mother. She and her best friend, Scarlett, start hanging out with Ginny Tabor ("a cheerleader with a wild streak a mile wide and a reputation among the football team for more than her cheers and famous midair splits"); Halley dumps her nerdy boyfriend Noah, (the son of her mother's best friend) and becomes involved with reckless Macon, a boy her parents have forbidden her to see. Then Scarlett discovers she is pregnant two months after her boyfriend Michael is killed in a motorcycle accident. Walking a line between childhood and adulthood, the two girls turn to each other instead of their families for support.

I loved this book, and on a sick day, I devoured this in a matter of hours! A great coming of age story for teens everywhere! See you next week!

This Week's Featured Book-2/2-2/8

For this week's book, I chose The Killing Sea by Richard Lewis. This is a great book about the 2004 tsunami that hit Asia from two different points of view. Here's a summary:
Sarah is an American teenager vacationing with her family in Indonesia. Ruslan is the teenaged son of an Indonesian mechanic, whose father has conveniently required that he learn English. When the 2004 tsunami hits, both are separated from their families: Ruslan's father has gone to another town for work, and Sarah and her brother Peter are separated from their parents when their father is injured and their mother killed attempting to escape the wave. For the first half of the book, the teens' stories are told separately in alternating chapters, as Ruslan travels through Aceh Province to find his father and Sarah searches for a doctor for feverish Peter. When Ruslan and Sarah meet, they agree to help each other, and grow to care deeply for one another despite their cultural differences.
A great book by an author who lived through the tsunami in 2004! See you next week!

This Week's Feautured Book- 1/25-2/2

This week's pick is Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata. This is a great book that received the Newberry Medal. Here's a synopsis:Glittering. That’s how Katie Takeshima’s sister, Lynn, makes everything seem. The sky is kira-kira because its color is deep but see-through at the same time. The sea is kira-kira for the same reason. And so are people’s eyes. When Katie and her family move from a Japanese community in Iowa to the Deep South of Georgia, it’s Lynn who explains to her why people stop them on the street to stare. And it’s Lynn who, with her special way of viewing the world, teaches Katie to look beyond tomorrow. But when Lynn becomes desperately ill, and the whole family begins to fall apart, it is up to Katie to find a way to remind them all that there is always something glittering—kira-kira—in the future. Luminous in its persistence of love and hope, Kira-Kira is Cynthia Kadohata’s stunning debut in middle-grade fiction.
A great read! Sorry about posting late! See you next week!

This Week's Featured Book-1/18-1/24

This Week's pick for the Featured book section is Sweethearts by Sara Zarr. It's a very touching story, telling of two outcasts turned best friends who find friendship in each other, sharing secrets and standing up for eachother. Here's a full summary:

As children, Jennifer Harris and Cameron Quick were both social outcasts. They were also one another's only friend. So when Cameron disappears without warning, Jennifer thinks she's lost the only person who will ever understand her. Now in high school, Jennifer has been transformed. Known as Jenna, she's popular, happy, and dating, everything "Jennifer" couldn't be---but she still can't shake the memory of her long-lost friend.

When Cameron suddenly reappears, they are both confronted with memories of their shared past and the drastically different paths their lives have taken.

From the National Book Award nominated author of Story of a Girl, Sweethearts is a story about the power of memory, the bond of friendship, and the quiet resilience of our childhood hearts.

A must read for teens! See you next week!

P.S. I'm still open for suggestions as to what to feature next, so if you have a favorite, drop me a line in your comments!

This Week's Featured Book: 1/12-1/17

This week's book pick is Hush by Donna Jo Napoli. I recently picked this up from the library, and I couldn't put it down! Here's what its about:

Melkorka is a princess, the first daughter of a magnificent kingdom in medieval Ireland -- but all of this is lost the day she is kidnapped and taken aboard a marauding slave ship. Thrown into a world that she has never known, alongside people that her former country's laws regarded as less than human, Melkorka is forced to learn quickly how to survive. Taking a vow of silence, however, she finds herself an object of fascination to her captors and masters, and soon realizes that any power, no matter how little, can make a difference.

Based on an ancient Icelandic saga, award-winning author Donna Jo Napoli has crafted a heartbreaking story of a young girl who must learn to forget all that she knows and carve out a place for herself in a new world -- all without speaking a word.

A great book for historical fiction lovers like me!

***Note: This book contains some violence, gore (especially blood) and inappropriate content for some readers. If you are sensitive to blood, I'd advise you to stay away from Hush.***

This Week's Featured Book-1/5-1/11

This Week's pick is Princess Academy by Shannon Hale. I thouroughly enjoyed this one, and it is a must-read for fantasy-romance lovers like me! Here's a summary of the Newberry Award-winning tale:
Cheerful and witty 14-year-old Miri loves her life on Mount Eskel, home to the quarries filled with the most precious linder stone in the land, though she longs to be big and strong enough to do quarry work like her sister and father. But Miri experiences big changes when the king announces that the prince will choose a potential wife from among the village's eligible girls-and that said girls must attend a new Princess Academy in preparation. Princess training is not all it's cracked up to be for spunky Miri in the isolated school overseen by cruel Tutor Olana. But through education-and the realization that she has the common mountain power to communicate wordlessly via magical "quarry-speech"-Miri and the girls eventually gain confidence and knowledge that helps transform their village.
A great read for girls of all ages! Stay tuned for next week's book!