Slob, by Ellen Potter (2009)

My name is Owen Birnbaum, and I am probably fatter than you are.  This isn't my low self-esteem talking.  This is pure statistics.  I'm five foot two and I weigh 156 pounds.  That's 57 percent fatter than the national average for a twelve-year-old boy.

In addition, Owen is very intelligent.

They had my IQ tested in the second grade.  I won't tell you my score.  Actually, I can't tell you my score because I promised my mother I wouldn't do that anymore.  I used to tell everyone.

Owen faces humiliation and bullying at school every day, but things get out of hand when someone steals his beloved three Oreo cookies from his lunch box.  And he thinks it was Mason Riggs, one of the scariest kids at his school.

In his attempt to find the culprit, Owen has to come to terms with other losses in his life. 

Most of us would probably like Owen.  Most of us probably knew someone who was similar to Owen.  Slob is a great read to help teens learn how important it is to take time to not judge someone by the way he or she looks.  They're probably a really great person.

Rating:  8 out of 10 stars

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

How to Save a Life, by Sara Zarr (January 2012)

I am writing in response to your Love Grows post from Christmas Day.

I think I might have what you're looking for.

It should be available on March 1.  Or around March 1.

Six weeks ago Jill's mom announced she was going to participate in an open adoption.  It hasn't been quite one year since Jill's dad was killed in a car accident. 

I've tried convincing myself it has nothing to do with me.  It's Mom's right to do this.  Yet I can't help thinking, Am I not enough?  Mom and I have had our issues...It has occurred to me that she sees the baby as a do-over.  A chance to correct my failings and to finally have a child that's all hers.

Eighteen year old Mandy Madison Kalinowski is eight months pregnant.  She knows she can't ever return to her mom.  She met Jill's mom on an adoption website and agreed to the open adoption.  The only communication they had was through email.  Now that Mandy is in Denver, she's not sure what she should do.

Maybe I should tell her that I have doubts, too, that there are small moments when I remember July and feel sure what this baby is evidence of and want to keep it.  That it's the only evidence I have.  And that's why, in the end, even though there are those small moments, I want to protect it by keeping it far from me and where I've come from.

How to Save a Life eloquently describes how Mandy and Jill arrived at this very moment, which will affect how they deal with this life-changing situation.  I think it's a delicious read that teens should read with a parent to have some important conversations.

Rating:  9 out of 10 stars
*teenage pregnancy, language, issues of sexual abuse

Not available at NOLS...yet!

The Scorpio Races, by Maggie Stiefvater (October 2011)

It is the first day of November and so, today, someone will die.

Life on Thisby Island, population 4,000 is quiet, except in November.  The closer it gets to November, the more capaill uisce - water horses - the sea spits out. 

These are not ordinary horses.  Drape them with charms, hide them from the sea, but today, on the beach: Do not turn your back.

During the month of October, until the first of November, the island becomes a map of safe areas and unsafe areas. 

Puck Connolly understands too well what the capaill uisce ("copple ooshka") are capable of.  Her parents were killed at sea.  Puck lives with her older brother, Gabe, and younger brother, Finn.  Gabe works at the hotel to keep the family together, and Puck and Finn work odd jobs to earn some money.

Suddenly Gabe tells Puck that he's leaving the island.  To make him change his mind, Puck tells him she's going to enter in the annual Scorpio Races - races with the unpredictable capaill uisce.  Gabe finally admits that he'll stay on the island until after the races.  To enter the races, though, Puck needs to find a capall uisce.  Forced to make a choice, she decides to ride her beloved horse, Dove.

Sean Kendrick has worked in Malvern Yard since he was 10 years old.  He has a way with the capaill uisce, he understands their magic.  The capaill uisce can play tricks on the rider, coaxing him to trust and to join the beast in the sea.  Sean knows how to tie knots in the horse's mane, use threes in sevens, track iron counterclockwise on the horse's withers, and make circles in the sand and spit in the center.  Sean and his favorite capall uisce, Corr, have won the Scorpio Races four times.  But Corr belongs to Mr. Malvern, and more than anything, Sean wants to own Corr.

Mr. Malvern is a powerful man on Thisby.  He owns most everything on the island, including Puck's house.  Equally as cold, his son, Mutt, hates Sean and will do anything to hurt him.

Both Sean and Puck must win the races to save what they love the most.  But can they survive?

Even if you don't know anything about horses, The Scorpio Races is an exciting read, full of lovely imagery and strong characters.  And there's even some romance in unexpected places.

Rating:  10 out of 10 stars
*mild language, some crude British humor, mild violence

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

Cuss, by Kristine L. Franklin (2003)

The grape train pulled into Roslyn on a hot August day in 1925.  The air felt like the devil's breath.

Slava Petrovich is 12-years old.  A small coal mining town, Roslyn, Washington, is a melting pot of cultures and languages.  Cuss picks up languages quickly.

I told them if I knew enough cuss words in other languages, no kid would ever be able to pull a fast one in Old Country talk. 

Prohibition started five years ago and once a year the grape train comes to Roslyn.  Since people couldn't buy alcohol, many Roslyn families decided to make their own wine; California grape farmers were happy to supply the grapes.  Every year boys strategize how to steal some delicious grapes.

Boys drop out of school all of the time to work in the coal mines.  Life in Roslyn can be tough, and Cuss's family struggles to survive.  Cuss's two older brothers work in the mine, and it's only a matter of time before Cuss has to join them.  Even his seven-year old brother wants to quit school to start working.  More than anything, Cuss wants to stay in school.

     "You can't stay in school forever," she said.  "That's the fact of the matter."
     "I'm no miner," I said.
     "Put a pickax in your hands and you will be," she said.  "If Ma needs you to, you will right?"

On the day the grape train arrived, Cuss's older sister, Mary invited a gentleman to dinner.  Later that evening, Cuss's older brothers confronted Mary's gentleman caller.

"It's him," said Joey.  "I'm sure."

Suddenly Cuss's brothers, Matt and Joey, are mixed up in something big, and Cuss witnessed everything.  He knew rumors would swirl around his brothers, rumors about bootlegging and mobsters.

In the middle of the night, Joey and Matt leave Roslyn.

"There's talk, Cuss...I hear things," he said, "as in your brothers went to the sheriff, told him the whole thing, and he told 'em to get outta town for fear of the mobsters."

With Joey and Matt gone, money is tight.  After his younger brother gets sick, the family may even lose their house. 

Will Cuss be able to stay in school?  Could Cuss even get a job in the mines now that fuel oil has become more popular?  What will happen to the coal mining town of Roslyn?  Will everyone have to move back to the Old Country?

Cuss is an excellent read if you like realistic fiction, historical fiction, or fiction with strong characters.  It gives great glimpse into what life looked like in 1925 Roslyn. 

Rating:  10 out of 10 stars

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!
(Formerly titled The Grape Thief)

The Power of Six, by Pittacus Lore

Plot spoiler if you haven't read I Am Number Four!

My name is Marina, as of the Sea, but I wasn't called that until much later.  In the beginning I was known merely as Seven, one of the nine surviving Garde from the planet Lorien, the fate of which was, and still is, left in our hands.

Marina, John and the other seven Gardes were six years old when they arrived on Earth.  It took a year to travel from Lorien to Earth.  In order for the charm to work to protect themselves, the Garde separated.  Marina and her Cêpan eventually traveled to Spain, finding refuge in Santa Teresa convent.  Eleven years have passed.  When Marina turns 18 years old, she can either stay and join the sisters in the convent, or leave and find her way on her own.  Marina has five months.

For the past five years, Marina has been begging her Cêpan, Adelina, to leave Santa Teresa.  In September, Marina received her third scar, the third warning that another Garde has died.  The Mogadorians are hunting each member of the Garde, killing them in order.

Six members of the Garde are left now.  And the eyes of the Mogadorians are everywhere.

Marina's Cêpan has given up hope for Lorien.  Adelina is meant to help and assist in developing Marina's Legacies.  She feels the mission was doomed from the start; it would be impossible to defeat the Mogadorians and take back Lorien.

"It's all one big fairy tale, Marina."

Marina has been following news stories from Paradise, Ohio.  John and Henri Smith are accused of being terrorists, but Marina suspects that John could be a member of the Garde.  But how can Marina hope to find John when the whole world is looking for him, too?

Be safe and stay hidden, I think.  We'll find each other yet.

John and Sam are on the run.  They are considered a threat to national security and the FBI is offering a $100,000 for information about John, $250,000 if someone brings him in.  Six is with them as they hide in a hotel to recover from their injuries.  Their biggest priority is to find the others and train together.

Six shares with them that the Mogadorians have a cave in West Virginia. 

"No, I can't believe that this whole thing is real.  That you're real or that Six is real, or that a hostile race of aliens has scattered themselves across the planet and nobody seems to know it."

Each member of the Garde has an Inheritance, their Chest.  The moment they die, the Chest unlocks itself and everything inside it disintegrates.  It's one of the most important things that John, Six and Marina need to protect.  It's also one of the things that John and Six need to find.

Was there a second ship that left Lorien with 15 Chimaera, 3 Cêpans and a baby?  Can John and Sam find the missing chests?  Can Six find Marina in Spain?  Will they find others?  Will they find Sam's dad?  The Power of Six is an action-packed, exciting read!  I can't wait for the third book!

Rating:  10 out of 10 stars
* some language

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!

 

The Luck of the Buttons, by Anne Ylvisaker (2011)

Tugs Button darted past Zip's Hardware, stumbled over the lunch specials sign at Al and Irene's Luncheonette, and pushed through the door of Ward's Ben Franklin as if the devil himself were chasing her.

It isn't easy being a Button.  Family always comes first in this clumsy, luckless family. 

Tugs Ester Button lives in a small Iowa town called Goodhue.  In 1929, this town is so small it doesn't even have a local newspaper anymore.  No one is even surprised about this until a stranger comes to town.

"Harvey Moore, bringing progress to Iowa one town at a time." 

Tugs isn't too sure about Mr. Moore.  The longer he stays in Goodhue, the more suspicious Tugs becomes.

Twelve year old Tugs is an only child, but her family insists she always play with her 11-year old cousin, Ned.  This includes the most important event of the year: three-legged race at the Independence Day celebration. 

And popular Aggie Millhouse wants to be her friend.  Aggie wants to be Tugs's partner in the three-legged race.  She even invited Tugs to her birthday party.

"Are you sure you're invited?" whispered Mother Button as Tugs laced her boots.

Tugs's one place of comfort is in the public library, where she looks up words in the enormous dictionary on a small table on a high pedestal.  Miss Lucy, the librarian, is the most exotic person Tug has ever known.

"The Independence Day patriotic essays are due tomorrow," Miss Lucy said.  "How is yours coming?"

Tugs writes about President Hoover and progress.  As soon as she finishes her essay, she feels shy and drops it in the trash can, hoping Miss Lucy will fetch it from the can.

When Tugs sees an advertisement for the Independence Day Picnic Raffle, she realizes she really wants a brand new Brownie Camera.

"It's the best raffle prize ever, if you ask me."

Tugs's luck begins to change.  First, she and Aggie win the three-legged.  Then she wins the essay contest.  And finally she wins one of the cameras. 

Can you really change your luck?  Is it worthwhile to hope for something better?  Is Tugs a likeable person?  Can one 12-year old girl stop something terrible from happening to the people of Goodhue?  The Luck of the Buttons is a delightful read.  You cannot read this book and NOT cheer out loud for Tugs Button!  ☺

Rating:  10 out of 10 stars

This book is not at NOLS...yet!

The Dark and Hollow Places, by Carrie Ryan (2011)

The city used to be something once.  I've seen pictures of the way it gleamed - sun so bright off windows it could burn your eyes.

Winter.  Dark City, once known as New York City, is dying. 

Annah lives in Dark City, waiting for Elias' return.  He's been gone for three long years with the Recruiters.  Annah is a survivor in a dangerous place.  Annah is covered with physical and emotional scars.

It's haunted me.  Tormented me.  It's who I am:  the girl who left her sister behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth.

Catcher finds Annah in Dark City. 

"Because I promised Elias I'd find you," he finally says.

He has brought Gabry with him.

When Gabry and Catcher travelled to Dark City, they passed a horde, awakening thousands and thousands of Mudo.  Unconsecrated.  Plague rats.  Catcher and Gabry hurried to Dark City to save Annah from the horde.  Millions of plague rats are about to overtake the city.

Catcher is Immune, and the Recruiters need him for their survival.  Catcher can gather supplies and food for the inhabitants on Sanctuary.

"Remember this:  Catcher is what matters.  You're just ancillary to that end."

Annah finds the map room, what's left of the world.  Black push pins mean there's nothing; overrun by the dead. 

I stare at the wall, eyes traveling from pin to pin.  Almost all of them are black.  "That can't be right," I say.  The entire country - the entire world - is covered with black pins.

Annah is filled with questions.  What makes us alive?  What is the difference between the living and the Unconsecrated? 

"That's the question, isn't it?  What's life and what's existence?"

Carrie Ryan's third book in the Forest of Hands and Teeth series is equally as exciting as the others.  The relationships the characters have, the morals they follow will resonate with most young adults.  The imagery is, as always, absolutely delicious.  The scene where Annah is in the subway tunnels at the end of the book is gripping.

Rating:  10 out of 10 stars
*violence, religion

To check this book out at NOLS, click HERE!