The Secret Journal of Brett Colton

"Kathy Colton can't stand her brother Brett.  Her family talks as if he were perfect!  All Kathy knows for sure is that Brett is dead.  He died of leukemia when he was seventeen and she was only two.  But when Kathy turns sixteen, she discovers her brother's hidden journal-a journal written especially for her-and learns about the brother she never know.  At the same time, Kathy is mortified by an assignment to tutor the popular high school quarterback Jason West, a football jock who, even worse, is a Mormon."
          I thought that this book was the perfect girl power book.  It talks a lot about the lessons learned about faith, acceptance, forgiveness, and understanding.  It made me cry...a lot...it still has a happy ending though
ANNA

Mr. Popper's Penguins

by Richard and Florence Atwater

HADYN:  Mr. Popper's was a very good story.  I liked it very much, because there's a husband, named Mr. Popper and he really like the Antarctic, so he asked for a penguin in the mail.  He got a penguin in a box.  He liked it and called it Captain Cook.  The zoo had a penguin that was a girl and they didn't want it, so they sent it to Mr. Popper, and since it was a girl, it laid lots of baby penguins, and they got tons and tons (maybe 10) penguins.  Captain Cook was the father and Greta was the mother and they had a whole lot of penguins and they were great performers so they put them at a stage but at first they were at the wrong auditorium that they had to pay or they had to go to a different theater.  You will like it if you read it.  

REGAN:  We read Mr. Popper's together, and I thought it was a really good book.  It started out as Mrs. Popper and Mr. Popper with their two children.  They got a penguin from Admiral Drake.  They named it Captain Cook.  The zoo gave them another penguin named Greta.  They had a nest in the refrigerator and they got 12 babies.  The penguins liked to walk up stairs and toboggan down.  They became a circus act and they even got sent to jail.  I thought it was a really good book.  That's why I think you should read it.

MARIA:  This was a great book to read.  Not too hard to follow so Hadyn could follow, but funny enough that Regan stayed interested.  It is a Newberry Honors book from 1939.  It's a good get kids ready to go to sleep book, which means I loved it :).

When You Reach Me

By Rebecca Stead

So I went to the National Book Festival a couple of weeks ago and heard a book talk by this author. Since I've been living in a cave the last year or so, I didn't know that she'd written the Newbery winner for this year -- this book. She was fantastic. I loved her talk, so I went straight to the library and checked it out. It was well worth a read. The main character is enjoyable. I liked how well-rounded all the characters are and how I came to like them all. The plot is intriguing, too. Recommended.

(This is when I had the epiphany that we'd named 3 of 4 children after characters in A Wrinkle In Time; if you read the book, you'll see why....)

Nancy Drew and the Bungalow Mystery (Book #3)

We started reading this book about a month ago, and we finished it last night. Nancy was on a boat in a storm and a girl saved them from crashing into a rock and her name was Laura.  Laura had a mystery for Nancy.  Two weeks later, Laura came to Nancy to tell her about her strange guardians.  My favorite part of the book was when Laura gave Nancy the aquamarine ring.  I think you should read this book because it's exciting.  Lisa just gave me a whole bunch of Nancy Drew books, so get ready for a whole bunch of Nancy Drew books on the Luke Ladies Book Nook!

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

I just finished this, again, I've read it many times. It's a young adult book about Sam Westing, master of disguise and game playing, who in his will called 16 heirs to play the "Westing Game" to discover who took his life and figure out the solution, becoming the heir to his money. it's an easy read, and fun. It's fun to try and figure it out. It was made into a movie but I haven't seen it, so I don't know how much it follows the book.

The Julia Probyn Series

Ann Bridge

This is a series of books written anonymously in the 1950s by a British diplomat's wife. She'd lived all over the world and writes stories set in those places. The collection I found was three books in one (they're out of print, I found this on abebooks.com for really cheap) called Julia Involved. These three were set in Morocco, Portugal, and Switzerland, respectively.

I liked her writing, and I liked the detail about the places and the events and the politics (a little, not too much!) of the time. It's fascinating how much has changed in 50 years. They're very readable: international intrigue with a little romance thrown in.

I've heard that her other books are great too (she wrote 20-30 of them) but they're all out of print and most of the others besides this series are very pricey. So if you find any Ann Bridge in used bookstores, pick it up and send it to me! :)

The Known World

by Edward P. Jones

I just finished this last night.  I'm trying to read some of the award-winning books from the library (Pulitzers, National Book Awards, Man Bookers, etc.) and I'm keeping a list so I can create my own library more high school student friendly.  With so many of my friends having high school students, I keep hearing how so many of the "great" books are awful, and that it is difficult to find the reading list books because the library's copies are always checked out. I decided to start my reading now and buy books that are more likely to end up on these reading lists AND that I feel are appropriate to read.  That said, I just finished this one, and found it very interesting.  It won the Pulitzer in 2004, and this is the author's 2nd novel.  (His 1st, Lost in the City, was a National Book Award finalist).

The book is set in the slavery era in Virginia, but is about an aspect of slavery I was not aware of.  Apparently, there were a number of free blacks that were slave owners in the south.  Usually it was second generation freed slaves, whose parents had themselves been slaves and been freed or purchased their freedom. I did not know this happened and imagine it would cause some difficulties in the families.  Anyway, it is written in a really cool way, telling a story, but weaving in what happens in the future to the different characters.  I really enjoyed it.  It supposedly paints a fairly realistic picture of slavery, which I appreciate.  Most interesting were the interactions between the black and white slave owners, as well as the black slave owners relationships (often strained) with their parents.

I thought it was a good book.  I added it to my "buy" list.