maybe by Brent Bunyon

Bunyon wrote a memoir called Burn Journals which is about his attempting suicide by burning himself up and surviving the horrific experience. His first fiction book for teens looks at the aftermath of a high speed car accident that killed the male driver and lone occupant of the car. It is told through the eyes of his younger brother Brian who experiences all the stages of grief even has he goes on living, school, dating, first love. He deals with the idea that he will soon be older than his older brother and that perhaps his troubled brother had tried to commit suicide.
JDW 10/31/06

Easy for you to Say By: Miriam Kaufman M.D.

This is an excellent resource for teens , their families, teacher's, peers, and health card providers. The author who is a Doctor also offers practical, and honest advice in many areas that are important to teens. For most teens today, the teenage years are challenging enough. But for teens with chronic illness, the challenge is overwhelming to the point of withdrawal, and becomming isolated from peers.

Dr. Kaufman talks about how to cope physically, and emotionally with the limits, and differences imposed by chronic illness. Lots of teens deal everyday with problems arising from cronic conditions or disabilities. Teens take strong medications, and may undergo frequent, or painful medical procedures. But what is embarassing to the teen, is their appearance is different to their peers. The book of course is non-fiction, written in clear accessible language. It is a must to read.

LRD 10/18/06

Push By: Sapphire

This is a novel that could be true in African American culture, or in any American families. I was a Sociology major in College, and did further studies on families. A novel like thiis would be a must reading for Sociological students.

Your main personality is Precious Jones, who is illiterate, and sixteen years old who has noo street smarts. Precious is raped by her own Father, and her Mother finds out about how, and who is the Father. The Mother beats her, and makes her life unbearable. The authorities dismisss the case, aas one more casuality of Harlem.

Then Precious becomes pregnant with a second child by her Father. Precious meets a highly radical teacher who encourages her witth her education. Precious learns to write, and writes about her life. Precious is able to make it on her own for the first time. At the end of the novel,there are many cases, of events that have happened to people. It is interesting because, individuls have a different way of talking. I enjoyed the book very much, and it was a bit grafic in describing different happenings. This book is for a mature teen.

LRD 10/16/06

The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin

Teenager Matthew, Callie who is twelve and much younger Emmie struggle to survive under the frightening, unpredictable care of their increasingly crazy mother. Mom demands absolute love and loyalty and the punishment can be terrifying if not brutal such as the time she drove on a free way against traffic until the kids pledged their love. She stalks former boy friends and other wise terrorizes many of the people who she knows but won't be manipulated by her.
So it is that three caring adults don't know how to help the kids without making things worse for every one. They are Matthew and Callie's father who could easily get custody of his kids but would have to leave Emmie behind. The kid's aunt, their mother's older sister who grew up being terrorized by her. Finally there is Murdoch the kids met after the witnessed him stopping a father from harming his son in a grocery store. Looking back two years after the events of this book took place, Matthew relates the years of abuse in a long letter to Emmie while he tries to come to terms with his horrifying knowledge that he was capable of ending his and his sisters' suffering in a very violent and final way.
jdw 10/16/06

Keeper of the Winds - Jenna Solitaire

Jenna lost both her parents when she was 5 years old, and lost her grandmother when she was 8. She's been living with her grandfather, and now he has passed away. A few days after the funeral she is cleaning the attic and finds a board with mysterious symbols on it. She asks her best friend Tom and his girlfriend Kristen to help decipher the symbols. She takes it to one of her professors and he acts very strange around it. Father Andrew introduces Jenna to Simon Monk who is here to help protect the keeper and the board of wind. At first Jenna doesn't accept her role as keeper of the board because she knows nothing about it, but when its taken and her friends are put in danger Jenna embraces her destiny. She is the keeper of the board of winds, and she must protect it with her life. The board is not good its evil and she is the only one who can control and hold back the board from unleashing its fury upon the world.

T. B. 10/10/06

Weird Hauntings: True tales of ghostly places - Joanne Austin

Those of you who are looking for a book that has true tales of places being haunted this the book. There are stories about haunted houses, roads and alleys that are haunted, historic places like New Orleans and Kennedy Space center, forests, graveyards, inns and hotels, dinners and saloons, schools that are haunted like Eastern Illinois University, and institutions like Alcatraz. I enjoyed this book and finished it in two days. I've heard about some of the stories that were told in here on a few TV programs that I watch that are about ghosts/hautings. So if you want a scare or are looking for a story to tell your friends on halloween look no further than Weird Hauntings: True Tales of Ghostly Places.


T. B. 10/10/06

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

This one's for readers who liked Marchette's Saving Francesca and Brashare's Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Ginny receives a package in the mail containing 13 envelopes and instructions to follow the instructions in each and never to open an envelope early. They are from her aunt, an artist and who is charming, whimsical, sometimes flaky but excited about living. This aunt has recently died of a brain tumor after a long absence from home. We follow Ginny from London to Rome, Paris, the Louvre, Netherlands, Denmark the train broke down on the way to Greece and they couldn't use the rest room. Her backpack was stolen in on Corfu. Following her aunts instructions, she gave a large sum of money to a starving actor she came to love. She discovered she had a new uncle. As we travel Europe with Ginny, reading her aunt's instructions with her, we learn who she is and through art left behind along with her travels, Ginny learns what her beloved aunt's dying was like and how much she lost.
jdw 10/04/06