Adrianne Finlay comes up with creative sci-fi twists in Cut Off, where teenagers have signed up to be on a virtual reality show, stranded on an island in a survival-of-the-fittest game. Skym cameras hover over to stream their every move 24/7. Of course, they have the ability to tap out, much like Discovery Channel’s Naked and Afraid series. Four finalists become the story’s focus, each with different inner reasons (or demons) for why they signed up for this game. But when Brandon is injured during an earthquake and taps, nothing happens. Is it not working because of the earthquake? After finding other contestants equally as shaken up by the earthquake, they quickly learn something is very, very wrong. This story begins with fantastic pace, adventure, and character-building. But about 2/3 of the way through, the sci-fi gets complicated. Readers will probably keep going just to see if the characters they’ve been rooting for survive. Thus this will be hit or miss with some readers. A good sales pitch will definitely get them reading, but they may. not finish, much like a contestant or two.

https://watch.screencastify.com/v/gJNdPZvcsXvsFcNjto1y

Fitz is a senior in high school and a wickly smart logophile who believes he needs to stay close to home for college because his mother is developing dementia. He embarks on a tour of colleges around the east coast with his older brother to appease his mother. Juniper is a senior in high school who can’t wait to get away from her family. They are is overly loving, expecting her to stay close and support elders and siblings. She embarks on a tour of colleges with her long-time boyfriend, trying to find a future where they will both be away and happy. Juniper notices Fitz paying absolutely no attention during a college tour she his excited about. Why is this kid even here? Fate brings them together along the road to their futures. There will be sparks. But reality sets in for each. Does reality include each other? Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka teamed in Time of Our Lives to give us two authentic teens with internal dilemmas representative of many college seniors. No cheese here, just clever timings of events and quirkiness of characters to leave readers feeling relatively happy with how life can turn out.

https://watch.screencastify.com/v/gJNdPZvcsXvsFcNjto1y

A lovingly handmade rocking chair is passed down through generations with each carving the word WELCOME, in a different language, into the headrest of the chair. The book was inspired by the Statue of Liberty’s :”Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” and some of Rosemary Wells’ own family history.

The story travels from Germany in the 1800s, to Brooklyn, NY, to Wisconsin, back to New York, and to New Jersey for a final stop in 2016. WELCOME is first carved in German, then Hebrew, English, Irish, Spanish, Haitian, and finally in Syrian. The families’ histories, who sat in this chair, is shared along the way.

The story of being a friend of a young middle school boy bullied by a class peer told in classic Patricia Polacco style.

“Thom. Not Tommy, not plain old Tom–Thom spelled with an H. Thom ignores the mean boy who was glowering at us.” Thom ( AKA — Sissy Boy) does not seem to suffer from self-esteem issues throughout this story from Polacco’s youth. Thom finally takes action when the bully breaks his glasses, which he so dearly needs, and his mother can not afford to replace. Thom finally shows the entire school his hidden wonderful talent as he preforms the Prince Siegfried selection from SWAN LAKE in classic white costume for the school talent show. Thom did not let the ‘catcalls and the laughter and jeering” stop him. Thom was in his zone. The audience soon became enthralled. “No one ever laughed again, and only name they knew him by was Thom. Not Tommy or Tom. T-h-o-m Thom.”

Years later, Thom was accepted to a New York ballet school. If you go on to read the Author’s Note, Thom “is now retired as the artistic director of the American School of Ballet.”

I am bad put not to shed a tear for this wonderful retelling of the victory over a bully.

Just as a penny drive can produce vast monetary rewards, young people are asked to help save the world’s oceans and in turn the human population on Earth. All of Earth’s water flows in the water cycle. “The water cycle is the constant movement of water between the ocean, the land and Earth’s atmosphere…”(6) All of Earth’s oceans are connected. The oceans are in danger from carbon dioxide, warming waters, acidification, pollution, plastic, and overfishing. No matter where you live on earth you can help the ocean (and the earth in doing so) by doing something to help alleviate one or more of these problems.

In addition to HELP SAVE THE GLOBAL OCEANS propaganda (of the positive kind), there are eight insets entitled “Ripples of Change” telling of actions that are already taking place. There are six pages of “Waves of Change” to help the reader choose a starting point for them to beginning helping our planet.

Points of view and vantage points make this book unique. The opening page consists of the poem – Days Like This. When you the turn of the page, the first line of the poem is printed on the bottom of the left hand page in black ink and again on the right hand page in brown ink. The first illustration (left side) is from inside a house looking outside, the opposite page’s illustration (right side) is from outside the same window looking in the same direction.

This re-picturing of the same scene from different vantage points continues throughout the book. Can the reader find the various objects from the left hand picture in the right hand picture? How have they changed? Are there some things missing from the first picture to the second picture? What is in the second picture that is not in the first picture?

On the very last page spread the reader discovers the left side of the book is from the point of view/vantage point of a little boy and the right side of the book is from the point of view/ vantage point of a squirrel.

I would have liked more information about this complexed man – William Morris and his works to truly find this book worthwhile. The text barely scratches the surface of who this man was and his life’s works. The illustrations by Melodie Stacey meticulously engage the eye, going from reality to past historical times to fantasy.

“The older William grew, and the more he saw, the more he wanted to honor beauty by making beautiful things.”

“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful…”

William Morris was a very artistic man of means, living during a time when factories were beginning to churn out mass produced household items. Morris wanted handmade one-of-a-kind items, not mass produced items.

William Morris was an idealist which most people cannot afford to be.