VVMBookBlog

The Garden of Eve by K.L. Going

This is a magical story! Anyone who believes in fairy tales or who would like to believe (at least sometimes) should read this book due out in October. Eve has lost her mother who used to really understand her. The two of them would tell stories. After the death of her mother, she moves with her father to a new place. Her father doesn’t understand her the way her mother was able to understand. Their new house is next to a dying apple orchard which her dad believes he can make bloom again. Town people believe the orchard is cursed which would explain why it has been dead for years. Coincidentally the first person she meets is Alex who has been dead for two weeks. How does she explain this to her father who never really believes her?

Zen and the Art of Faking It by Jordan Sonnenblick

San Lee is a new kid at school. He seems to always be the new kid at school because he moves often. This time San trys something different. Instead of trying hard to fit in with everyone else, he does the opposite. San Lee soon meets a girl (Woody), and she seems interested in him. What will happen when Woody finds out that San has been faking it, and the entire school thinks he’s a Zen master?

This book will be released in October. Sonnenblick is also the author of two fabulous books: Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie and Notes of the Midnight Driver. I think Notes of the Midnight Driver is still my favorite. All three are must reads.

Runaway by Wendelin Van Draanen

Holly is on the run. With both of her parents dead (her mom died of a drug overdose), she was in a foster home. After having the father, the foster home father, flush her head in a toilet filled with a cleaning chemical, Holly ran away. She thought living as a runaway (she likes to be called a gypsy instead of a runaway) would be better than being locked in the basement and having to pee in a bucket. While on the run she still writes in her journal from school, and this is how we learn about her story. Her gypsy adventure teaches her a bit about herself and some of the hardships of being homeless. If you liked Don’t You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dunphrey, you will like Runaway. Although the two books have different story lines, they have the same journal format.

Shock Point by April Henry

Cassie is a teenage girl who doesn’t like her stepfather. While her stepfather,Rick, and mother are gone, she stumbles over information that could be damaging to many teens and her stepfather’s career. She doesn’t know what to do with the information, so she takes it to a friend after she has photographed it. When she goes to get the pictures, she realizes Rick has found it.

When her mom thinks she has meth in her room, Cassie is sent to a “reform school.” This is no reform school. It is more of a prison. Two teens have died trying to escape. Although Cassie does make a friend, the supposed school is more than she can handle. She also can’t help but think of the information she found about Rick!

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yan

American Born Chinese is a highly acclaimed young adult graphic novel (A National Book Award finalist and ALA’s Printz Award winner). It is a story of someone who doesn’t fit in. Although I realize the point of the story was to show the ignorance of racial stereotypes, I had a difficult time with this novel. It is three separate stories that come together at the end of the novel. Although it’s a graphic novel, it is complicated and sophisticated.