I thought it would never end . . . so I just kept reading

Photo by Piotr Bizior www.bizior.com

Is it just me, or has it been May for three and a half months?  Just me?  Hunh.  Not that it was dull, as you can tell from my lack of posts.  May has proved to be April's slightly less annoying cousin.

These first two books are from my cousin's bookshelf.  Thanks, cuz!

FOREVER . . . by Judy Blume

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Better World Books

Katherine is a sensible girl.  She thinks things through carefully, weighing every decision.  Too bad love doesn't play fair.  When she meets Michael, she finds her heart often gets in the way.  Their relationship grows quickly and blooms into a first love and all the other firsts that come with that.

How did I miss this as a teenager?  Seriously.  I was a mess as a teenager.  Very confused about love and sex and relationships.  I'm not saying Blume has crafted a guidebook to teen relationships, but I am saying reading this would have made me feel a lot less like a freak.  I admire Katherine and Michael's abilities to talk about their fears and hopes, and, in the end, the differences in the paths their hearts take.

Super bonus:  I didn't even cry!


MY SISTER'S KEEPER by Jodi Picoult

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Anna has been in and out of the hospital so many times in her thirteen years that she's lost count.  She's not even sick.  Her sister Kate has leukemia, and Anna was born to be the perfect donor.  Now, she's fighting for medical emancipation from her parents so that she doesn't have to undergo any more surgeries to try to save her dying sister.  While she wonders if this makes her a monster, or worse, a murderer, she knows it is what she has to do.

So, yeah, I cried.  I was blindsided by the end of this novel (no, I haven't seen the movie either).  This was a page turner.  Anna's astute observations on birth and life and death were touching and truthful.  I was immediately intrigued by her discussion of why (not how) children are born.  It made me stop and consider why I wanted kids.  Am I honoring that relationship?  Sometimes.  I am reminded how precious my kids are, each in his and her own way, and that needs to be respected.

By the middle of May, we had successfully found a new home.  Awesomeness!  I celebrated by going to the library.  I am happy to be the world's largest dork!

SWIM THE FLY by Don Calame

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Matt and his two best friends have a summer tradition.  Each year, they set a goal that must be accomplished before the next school year ends.  This year's goal is to see a real-live naked girl.  How difficult can it be?  Except Matt and his buddies aren't exactly Cassanovas.  They aren't exactly athletic either, even though they've been on the swim team since third grade.  The summer gets even more complicated when Matt decides to swim the 100-meter fly to impress a girl.  Matt can't even do one lap of the butterfly, let alone four.  Having two seemingly unattainable goals should make for one long and desperate summer.  It's sink or swim time!

I read about this book on School Library Journal, in an article by Kelly Miller, a middle school teacher in Missouri, who noticed a that the girls in class read more than the boys.  Over summer break, she started researching books that would grab the boys' attentions.  Enter, SWIM THE FLY.  She watched as a reluctant reader stared blankly at the first page of the book, completely disinterested until he came across the words, "real-live naked girl," in the first paragraph.  This student and many others, flew through reading Calame's debut novel in her class.  Reading it myself, it is easy to see why.

Buy it from
Better World Books

Buy it from
Better World Books

Calame's SWIM THE FLY had me laughing so hard I snorted and had to wipe my eyes.  My husband thought I was having a seizure, but I couldn't help myself.  I haven't laughed this hard while reading a book since my last visit with John Green's AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES.  The voice in this novel is spot on, which means as adults (or parents) we may cringe a little, but it is honest and just hilarious to tune into these guys' conversations.  Matt and his buddies may be rough around the edges, but they have heart.  I can't wait to get my hands on his next book BEAT THE BAND.

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 Better World Books

I moved from this funny novel to reading this year's Printz Honor Award books.  Each year, the Young Adult Library Services Association awards the Michael L Printz Award.  I've already read (and loved) this year's winner, Paolo Bacigulpi's SHIP BREAKER, about a dystopian future in which humans are forced to eke out an existence scavenging from the wreckage of the flooded coasts of America.



Now, I'm working my way through the honor books.




STOLEN by Lucy Christopher

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Gemma was intrigued by the strange young man in the airport cafe.  She was flattered when he offered to buy her coffee.  She was flustered by the attention he gave her as they sat at a tiny table and talked while she sipped her coffee.  She was confused when the world started swimming around her and everything felt like a dream.  She was terrified when she woke up in a strange bed, in a rickety cabin, in the middle of a foreign desert.

There is no way to escape the desert.  Her captor, Ty, does not want to harm her, just to keep her forever.  In order to find an escape, Gemma tries to get along with Ty, learning about him and the strikingly beautiful landscape she's been thrust into.  But in securing her escape, she finds herself drawn to the man she hated.  Does she want to go home or has she found her true home with Ty?

This book is brilliant.  It is written in first person from Gemma's point-of-view, but it is clear from the first sentence that it is not written to "you" the reader, but another "you."  It is Gemma telling the story of her capture to her captor.  Chilling.  And it may seem crazy that Gemma starts to fall for this man who stole her away from her life, classic Stockholm Syndrome, but it feels a lot less crazy when you as the reader also slip into thinking Ty did save Gemma and they belong together.  I was horrified when I realized I didn't want them to part.  What kind of a sick monster am I?  Who wants a girl to fall for a kidnapper?  I need serious mental help!  In the end, I realize that is the brilliance that is Christopher's writing.


I equate reading this to watching Jonathan and Christopher Nolan's MEMENTO, a crazy, chilling movie in which a man with short-term memory loss struggles to put together the clues to a mystery about his identity.  The film is done in short clips, about as long as the main character's memory lasts.  By the end of the movie, I find I have some trouble getting my short-term memory to work properly.  It completely takes me in, just as STOLEN stole my mind.






NOTHING by Janne Teller

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Pierre Anthon knows that there is no meaning to life.  He realizes it the first day of school, promptly leaves his desk, and climbs the plum tree in front of his home.  He intends to stay there forever, intent of becoming nothing since life is nothing.  The kids in his class cannot abide this.  They create a mound of meaning, each giving up something important to them.  Their plan is to show Pierre Anthon this mound of meaning and convince him that life is not nothing, they are not nothing, the mound of meaning is not nothing.  But their plan doesn't work the way they hope and what happens in their struggle to prove there is a meaning to this life is anything but nothing.

Um, yeah, this book is also pretty awesome (in a very disturbing way).  It is being called a modern LORD OF THE FLIES, the kind of book where children set out to right a wrong and end up having to learn a terrible lesson about life and death.  The simplicity with which this story is told makes it hauntingly beautiful.  Maybe not a feel-good summer read, but definitely worth your time.

PLEASE IGNORE VERA DIETZ by A.S. King

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Vera is haunted by a thousand Charlies.  He was her best friend, until he wasn't, and then he died.  Now she has to deal with her grief and regret, while deciding whether or not she should clear his name. Her father is floundering since her used-to-be-a-stripper mother left him five years ago.   On top of that, she's working full-time as a pizza delivery technician while she finishes up high school.  So, yeah, she's got a little bit going on and would love it if the Universe could just go back to ignoring her, please.

Vera is a wonderful character that I really connected with and respected.  She works hard at being a good friend, daughter, student, and pizza delivery technician even though none of it seems to be paying off for her right now.  I loved her vulnerability and strength.  I also enjoyed the story's format.  Some chapters fill us in on her present life, while others are titled, "History," and give us insight into the events that led to the present.  The time shifts are seamless and work brilliantly so that the reader is part of Vera's journey.  It's easy to see why this is a Printz Honor book.

There is one more honor book this year, REVOLVER by Marcus Sedgwick.  My local library does not have a copy, so I'll be using Inter-Library Loan to get my hands on it for next month.