Thisbe has always wanted to be a writer.  She has filled journals with her prose, bits of stories, character names, short, character bios, all kinds of snippets. Finally she has started doing all of her writing online and has folders and folders on her desktop.

Her freshman year has not been going particularly well.  She and her closest friends are drifting apart, her parents (who BTW are writers themselves – but they don’t write FICTION) are on an extended holiday in England, which means Grandma Ed (for Edna) and her stinky dog are coming to stay. Thisbe finds she is happiest when she is alone with her words. So when her English teacher gives her an assignment about Audience (with a capital A) which is a group project, Thisbe is dismayed.  Until she learns that one of the options is to pair with a student from another school online.

Thisbe meets Iphis, who becomes her new BFF. And she learns a lot more than just about audience throughout the course of the story.  The most delightful thing about this coming of age book is Thisbe’s voice.  It is authentic; it is lyrical and often hilariously funny. Much of the book is written in journals, text speak, emails, and IMs. And since Iphis is into writing poetry, there is plenty for prose and poetry lovers alike.  Chick lit, sure.  But good.

And BTW, it is set in the PNW, an added bonus.

Emma Healy has never fit in with her family; they are all scholars and geniuses, her siblings are all 20 years older than her or more, and she is just ordinary.  In fact, she has cultivated being average in school. Her neighbor, Peter Finnegan, does not fit in at home either. His mother, who died giving birth to him, was raised in this small, college town in upstate New York and never left. Peter’s father, a local cop, doesn’t understand why Peter can’t wait to leave the town that was good enough for his parents. But Peter has spent his life planning to leave; he is a walking atlas. 

One night, Emma finds the birth and death certificates of Thomas Healy, her twin brother.  A twin! Who might have been like her – an ally in this crazy family! Emma heads off on a quest to learn about this brother who no one has ever even mentioned.  When she gets stranded, she calls Peter for help. And the two embark on a road trip that takes them on a journey of discovery, about history, about themselves, about family and each other. 

I really liked this one. Both characters were realistic; Emma and Peter were both stubborn and often aggravatingly self-centered.  Peter’s lack of self-confidence and naiveté was endearing. The author demonstrates just how easy it is to drift apart when you let grief or secrets divide you from those you love.

Quentin Jacobsen has adored his next door neighbor, Margo Roth Speigelman, for as long as he can remember. Even though they had a few adventures as children, Quentin knows the quirky, popular Margo is out of his league now.  Until one night when she climbs through his bedroom window at midnight to invite him on an all night rampage of revenge.  The next day at school, Quentin hopes everything will be different now. It is and it isn’t.  Margo has disappeared – again. She has left clues behind – again. But this time the clues seem to be directed directly at Quentin. And he is determined not to let her down.  

Margo is misunderstood by her parents and unwilling to conform to gain their love. I wanted to understand what made her tick, why she was compelled to run. Quentin’s friends supply excellent comic relief: Ben who refers to himself in the third person, refers to all girls as hunnybunnies, and will do anything to get a date for prom; and Radar, whose family collects black Santas.  But it is Quentin’s journey that is the most engaging and will draw readers in. I wanted him to be successful in his quest, and I couldn’t wait to see how he accomplished his goal.

I have been a fan of John Green since meeting him at WLMA a few years ago. This is by far my favorite to date.

First the bad news.  There are ugly diseases, from Ebola virus to bubonic plague, still lurking in many parts of the world.  The good news is that the hard work of “disease detectives” can keep most of us safe from microbial invasion most of the time.   But don’t expect to be reading lists of facts and studying graphs and charts in this book.  Rather, you’ll read of the race against death in the middle of winter that was the first Iditarod sled dog race.  Or the chilling tale of a Zaire school teacher whose night sweats and rash were the beginning of a horrifying death by Ebola virus. 

Whether this book is used for reference, health class instruction, as a guide to a career in science, or just to read, it has riviting stories.  But be warned, the descriptions of the diseases are graphic, and there is a text box that tells exactly how to prevent HIV infection.  Though young readers would love the Iditarod story, the HIV information, deatils of bubonic plague, Ebola virus, the black death, and other diseases are frightening.  But from the introduction, with homeless men turning blue on the streets of New York, to the chapter on bioterrorism, Outbreak is never dull.

This short biography tells the story of Stephenie Meyer, the shy Arizona housewife who wrote Twilight and became an international celebrity author in a matter of months.  Meyer’s life is a great example for kids.  Her parents read to their children.  She worked hard, got good grades in school, and earned a scholarship to Brigham Young University.  While there, she read lots and lots of books and earned a degree in English with an emphasis on literature.

From writing the books to making the movies, this biography gives Twilight  fans a look into the author’s life, thoughts, and ideas.  The most gratifying part of her whole experience, Meyer says, is that her books are helping so many young readers discover that reading is fun.

From the Xtreme Sports  series, this book is all about base jumping. The book discusses BASE jumping. BASE stands for the places where a person may jump (building, antenna, span or earth). The book then goes into detail about the four places to jump with accompanying pictures of each place. The book also discusses the history, gear, worldwide jumps and the discussion of whether it is a sport or a stunt. The book has nice photographs, easy to read text and a nice layout. The giant red headings are interesting. All in all a decent book.

From the Blastoff! Readers series, this book is from Learning About the Earth series and focuses on coral reefs. The book explains what coral reefs are, how they are built, the types of reefs and about them being alive. The book also has a glossary, learn more and index at the end. This book has bright, vibrant pictures. I really like these Blastoff! Readers books. I always feel they have high quality photos, nice thick pages and are written well. This is another good one.

Loxton is the editor of a children’s science magazine, The Skeptic. Although I’ve never heard of nor seen  this magazine, this book, Evolution, has caused me to want to search out this magazine and read more articles written by Loxton.  His writing style makes this book and this subject easy to understand.  Every adult whose gone through school is familiar with Charles Darwin and ‘the survival of the fittest’.  But Loxton not only explains how Darwin came up with this theory(or decided to borrow), but compares it side-by-side with everyday common, familiar creatures so that we can apply it to our lives.  With each turn of the page comes another clarifying bit of information, an answer to a question.  All schools should have this book in their library so that children can understand how things are always changing.

This story is almost pun-ishment to read. The characters are tempra painted punctuation marks:

Penny on the school safety patrol is a period, Elsie the cheerleader is an exclamation mark, and Quentin is a question mark.

Some schools have Spelling Bees, but this school has a punctuation bee/contest. The students who uses his own punctuation mark correctly the most times will be the winner.

Could be a fun book to share with a class using a document camera for an introduction or a review of end punctuation marks.

Multi-layered cut paper pictures help give examples of the various rules for making plural words, from singular words –

” One snake pushes a block.

Three snakes push three blocks.”  (‘s’ unlined)

Graphic examples of 8 plural forms:

singular noun plus the letter -s,

add -es when nouns end in -ch, -sh, -x, or -z…

vowel +y add -s,

consonant + y, change y to i and add -es,

words ending in -o,

words ending in -f or -fe,

rule breakers.