Sister Wife by Shelley Hrdlitschka

In a place called Unity, a teenager named Celeste is having a difficult time maintaining her faith.  She and her family belong to “the Movement,” where members abide by a very strict moral code.  Despite the existence of modern conveniences like dishwashers, the people of Unity continue to do most of their work manually.  One of the most difficult things Celeste has to deal with is the fact that girls are the property of their fathers and then grow up to become the property of their husbands.  There is no such thing as free will or choice. Marriages in Unity are not monogamous, either…   That’s where the name “sister wife” comes in.  Men are married to many wives, and the women work together to raise all of their children and to maintain the household as it rapidly and steadily increases in size.  Women bear as many children as possible, without medical intervention, even though some have been known to die in childbirth.  This worries Celeste, since her own mother is pregnant with a seventh child and appears to be having medical complications.  For Celeste, the idea of an arranged marriage to a much older man — someone who is old enough to be her father — seems repugnant as well.  But she sees no way out of her fate.  When Celeste starts to experience lustful thoughts about a boy her own age and begins to show other “willful” behaviors, she brings shame upon her family and the community elders agree that she needs to be dealt with quickly so that she will not be a bad example to other girls in Unity.

This unflinching look at life in a strict, religious, polygamist community is not judgmental in any way, but it certainly provided me with enough information to see that it’s not the life for me…

Happy Reading!

Eric Luper is coming!

Not only will Eric Luper be at our Teen SRP Karaoke Kick-Off (this Thursday night @ 6pm), but he will even be singing again!  Don’t forget to sign up for this awesome night of pizza, singing, silliness, and prizes.   Oh!  And if you want a “little more Eric” before then, stop by his blog for a fun photo caption contest, which you can enter for a chance to get a free hard cover copy of his latest book, Bug Boy!

Happy Reading!

The Legend of Vinny Whiskers by Gregory Kemp

This book came about publication in a very interesting way — it was the top fiction winner of the Webook vote.  What does that mean?  It means that Gregory Kemp (the book’s author) is a member of the Webook community and that the readers on Webook thought his book was good enough that it deserved to be published.  As the people on Webook.com say, it’s kind of like American Idol for books and authors.  For a quick introduction to what they do, you can even check out this video: http://www.webook.com/landing/webook-videos.

Six-month-old kit (prairie dog) Boomerang Lookout is struggling to find his place in the world.  Being named after one of the infamous “Lost Six” could certainly make life difficult enough, but poor Boomer also has to deal with the repercussions of being a runt who may never live up to the expectations of being a “Lookout.”  A parallel story tells of the Wee and their struggle to return to their rightful home.  The Wee is a union of animals that had lived in harmony, sharing an underground settlement called “the tubes,” until leadership was passed down to a rat named Vinny Whiskers.  Vinny allowed an army of rats to take over the tubes, and the Wee have been trying to regain control of their home ever since.  Will the emergence of a prairie dog with a legendary name be the answer to their prayers, or will Boomer only bring them false hope?

Happy Reading!

The Death Collector by Justin Richards

What do robots, dinosaurs, and zombies have in common? Not much, usually. In this book, however, they actually go together quite well. The story begins when a man comes home for tea quite unexpectedly — 4 days after his funeral! A young pick-pocket, Eddie, sees the man being kidnapped and ends up being brought into the drama along with a museum assistant and a clergyman’s daughter. While the pace was a little slower than some of the other mysteries I’ve read, it certainly had just as many twists and turns! A really enjoyable, if macabre, book.

Happy Reading!

Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson

Kate Malone is the “good girl” who may think of a sarcastic response but settles for what people would expect the pastor’s daughter to say. She is the cross country runner and straight-A student who pushes herself to excel in everything she does. She is the girl who is crazy enough to apply to ONLY ONE COLLEGE! When neighbor, and school outcast, Teri Litch ends up living at Kate’s house (because her own house suffered major damage in a fire), Kate’s “nice girl” act is about to get out to the ultimate test… And when Kate finds out that she didn’t get into MIT, “Bad Kate” threatens to take over. I don’t know of too many authors who can manage to fit both heart-wrenching and hilarious into the same book, but Laurie Halse Anderson makes it look easy.

Happy Reading!

The Year We Disappeared: A Father-Daughter Memoir by Cylin Busby and John Busby

August 31, 1979, was the day that changed everything for the Busby family.  The kids were completely devestated when they found out that their father was too tired to bring them to the movies as promised.  While it wasn’t without reason — he was tired from waiting all day to testify in a trial after working the night shift as a police officer — kids don’t always get the big picture when they are feeling let down.

But, of course, this cancelled trip to the movies was not what turned this family on its head.  It’s more what happened when their dad was heading in to work that night.  A local criminal, Raymond Meyer, ambushed John and tried to kill him with a shotgun blast to the head.  Instead of dying, John managed to drive himself to a nearby house and get help.  Despite the fact that most of his jaw was blown off, John lived to tell the tale.  And despite the fact that John had a good idea of who had tried to kill him, the local police were too afraid to move forward with an honest investigation.

When it got too expensive to provide the Busby family with protection, the people of Falmouth raised money to help the family relocate to an undisclosed location.  This is an awe-inspiring story of how one family’s love and dedication to one another was enough to get them through one of the toughest, scariest, and most dangerous times anyone could imagine.

Happy Reading!

The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

As soon as I finished Dairy Queen, I wanted to read more about DJ.  I HAD to know how things went with the football season and with Brian!  Fortunately, Catherine Gilbert Murdock obliged by writing a sequel that filled in a whole bunch of details.  [UN-fortunately, I forgot to actually post the review until more than a year had passed since I finished the book and merely saved it in my drafts.)

In addition to DJ's experiences on the football field and her relationship with Brian, readers learn more about the money troubles on the Schwenk Farm, the bullying that Amber [DJ's best friend] puts up with because she is lesbian, and an injury that threatens to sideline DJ from both football and basketball (which she has been counting on for a college scholarship).  When something truly terrible happens, DJ starts to put her own life into perspective and to realize that everything she has gone through is really not as bad as she made it out to be.

Happy Reading!

Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson

I often end up listening to an audiobook because my previous audiobook is over, this new audiobook is checked in, and I haven’t yet gotten around to reading the “actual” book, even though I have wanted to.  Sometimes, though, I end up with an audiobook because I have been told that the reader did such an amazing job that it would be silly to read the book for myself.  This is a case of the latter.  Laurie Halse Anderson always does a great job capturing an authentic teen voice in her novels, and that “voice” was really amplified by the reader — Katherine Kellgren.  I knew, right from the start, that Ashley Hannigan was going to be an awesome character…  Especially when she said,

“Normal kids (like me) thought high school was cool for the first three days of ninth grade. Then it became a big yawn, the kind of yawn that showed the fillings in your teeth and the white stuff on your tongue you didn’t scrape off with your toothbrush. Sometimes I wondered why I bothered. Normal kids (me again), we weren’t going to college, no matter what anybody said. I was getting by.”

Despite the fact that Ashley proclaims herself as “normal,” there is one major thing that many people would consider extremely abnormal…  Ashley could care less about her senior prom.  Even though it seems to be the only thing many of her classmates have to look forward to, she really thinks the prom is a waste of time and money.  Everything changes, though, when the faculty advisor steals all of the prom money.  Ashley’s best friend and next-door neighbor, Natalia, is the head of the prom committee, so Ashley ends up getting rope-a-doped into trying to save the prom with next to no money.  Often hilarious (especially because of Ashley’s crazy family), this book will appeal to everyone from “normal kids” who don’t care about prom to prom-lovers on the fast track to the Ivy League.

Happy Reading!

Eragon by Christopher Paolini

For some time now, I have been teased mercilessly — by my husband, fellow librarians, and “my teens” — about the fact that I’d never read Eragon. I had no decent excuse, since I have read (and liked) a lot of fantasy…  I just didn’t really feel like reading it when it came out, and then never got back to it because there are always tons of amazing books coming out.  Well, with the fourth (and final) book in the series looming on the horizon, I figured it was “now or never.”  As soon as I started listening to the audiobook, though, I fell in love.  I hate to admit this, but I think one of my favorite [non-story-related] things about this audiobook is the fact that I don’t have to try and sound out any of the names!  True to the fantasy genre, the people and places all have very long and unusual names.  After plodding through some others and coming out just fine, I am sure I could have done it again, but it was nice not to have to.  Despite being [necessarily] slow in some parts, this story has plenty of action and is full of intriguing dragon lore. I’m glad everyone pushed me so hard to go back and read this book, because I’ve found that it’s a must-read for anyone who appreciates fantasy!

Happy Reading!

Hero by Perry Moore

Thom Creed has just a little more than your average teen angst. After all, life has got to be tough when you’re trying to hide your super power from your dad — who is a former/excommunicated superhero — who hates superheroes with powers. Then, of course, there is the fact that Thom is gay and his dad is extremely homophobic.  Although the description thus far may make it seem like this would be a super-heavy or depressing read, it’s actually quite hilarious.  One of the funniest passages — the one that had me laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe — actually has a couple of “f-bombs” in it, so I guess I can’t post it here…  But, take my word for it.  It’s hilarious!  Plenty of action, lots of mystery, and (of course) a whole lot of teen angst.  If I could have read this any faster, it would have been worth the risk of possibly burning through the pages with my super-laser-vision!

Happy Reading!