Never Die Alone By Donald Goines

This is a novel based on a true story that took place in New York City. It reveals the truth about a drug dealer's rise from the streets of poverty, to be known as King David. He became one of the King's of Cocaine power. Nothing ever stood in his way to gain fame. He would injure a senior citizen woman to rob her purse. King David would not care he he mixed battery acid with cocaine to gain revenge.

Then he King David made it big, and found others had not forgotten, and had no intention of forgiving. His enemies sought after him to cause him harm. They stabbed his body more than a few times, and left him bleeding on the street.

Paul Pawlowski found the body, and put King David in his car, and drove him to the Hospital. He had lost lots of blood, so he survived a couple of hours. King David left Paul his white cadillac, and a diary.

I believe noone on earth wants to bleed to death on a lonely street. This is a good book, with some lessons.






LRD 11/30/06

Edgewater Angels By: Sandro Meallet

This book reminds me a bit of the well known novel Huck Finn. This book is set in the ghetto's of Los Angeles, California . The plot twists throughout the story. The main character of this story is Sunny Toomer, who has lots os street wise. He (Sunny) is always walking on a narrow fence not knowing whether to d0 right or wrong. In Sunny's neighborhood a certain stare by someone, might be a silent challenge. If you ask someone if he or she, has a problem it might cost y0u your life in the ghetto, or projects. Sunny tries to survive by getting acquainted with a bunch of characters. He tries to be friends with his Mother, who has no husband. His Uncles are prone to violence, since they have either served time in jail,, or are out of jail on parole.

This is a unique story, but I think it could be true. It is very exciting after you read the first 75 pages. I feel that Sunny was very lonely, but needed that special love from a parent.

I recommend the book, so we can open our eyes, and maybe be friends to people like Sunny.

LRD 11/29/06

Everlost - by Neal Shusterman

Nick and Allie are involved in a car accident and they die. Their souls however do not get to where they are going. They end up in a place called everlost, a place halfway between life and death. When they first arrive Nick and Allie meet up with Lief, a boy who has been in everlost for a while now. Together they travel to a place where MaryHightower was the "leader" of many Greensouls who had come to everlost. They lived together in harmony doing the same thing over and over again. Allie doesn't want to do the same thing over and over for the rest of her afterlife so she goes in search of someone called The Haunter. The Haunter can teach people how to haunt the living world. He gives Allie, Nick, and Lief a test and only Allie passes. With Nick and Lief captured Allie goes back to Mary for help, but doesn't get any. She then goes out on her own to find Nick and Lief which leads her to encounter the McGill, the monster of everlost. She starts to teach him how to skinjack (take over a living persons body), but that gets her put with the rest of the souls he has collected when he finds out that it can't be taught. Nick gets free and with Allies help gets off the ship and goes to get Mary to help free the captive souls on board. If you like Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin then you'll like this book too.

T.B.

A Certain Slant of Light by Whitcomb

This one is for readers who enjoyed Sebold's Lovely Bones.

Two spirits trapped on earth for reasons they don't understand, meet in a high school classroom though they are not themselves teens. The discover how to take over bodies of teens emptied of their own spirits. The fall in love. While occupying these foreign bodies they must learn to play the roles of the spirits who formerly resided there. And memories of their own pasts surface, allowing them to come to terms with their tragic deaths. One teen is a drug runner, who lives with his abusive brother, his mother is dead and father in prison. The other is from a very strict home where she is not allowed to have a personality of her own. At the same time they are growing to care about their caretakers and the spirits whose bodies they possess and discovering what is holding them to earth. They dramatically change the lives of all those around them before they move on into the light and final rest. Absolutely wonderful reading.
jdw 11/22/06

Snow-Walker by Catherine Fisher

A Fantasy Novel based on Icelandic, Norse and Celtic Myth.

Evil witch Gudrun has ruled the realm for ages. Her time is at an end however. A group of courageous folks including Wulfgur the rightful Jarl and Kari, Gudrun's son have taken back the realm. Kari is a mirror image of his mother and has as much power as she but is only learning to use it. Gudrun had kept him imprisoned in a small dirty room all these years claiming him to be a monster. Gudrun promises revenge. She steals the soul of Wulfgur's beloved and takes it to the land of the snow-walkers across the ice bridge a land no human has ever returned from. Kari and the others set out to rescue the soul of Signi and release the realm from an icy dream sleep. They meet some incredible people along the way who help them reach their goal. There is the shapshifter/wolf and a skraeling woman, keeper of goats among others. They fall into traps set by Gudrun which they must overcome. Often it looks as if they will fail. This is a perfect story for readers of Garth Nix and Philip Pullman.

Sold By: Patricia McCormick

For me, this was a disturbing but real problem that happens often in the world. It has become very prevalent in lower income families. People sell their daughters for a high price because of need.

In this novel , the main character is Lakshmi, who is 13, from the mountains of Nepal. She has no clue the outcome of her life. She (Lakshmi) believes she is traveling far to become a rich ladies maid. But, instead after traveling for days, Lakshmi is sent to a brothel in Northern India.

Lakshmi encounters difficult circumstances with Mumtoz, who runs the place, and tells the young frightened girl she must work, and stay there until she pays off her family's debt. Mumtoz cheats Lakshmi her earnings , so she can never leave. The oother girls become her friends, and help Lakshmi to survive this way of life.

After months of having a life of prostitution, an American man visits Lakshmi, and does not want sex. He wants to help her get away from the place. He shows her pictures showing how he could get her out of this business.

Lakshmi's next big decision, will she risk everything for a chance to start a new life ? Read the book, and find out.

LRD 11/7/06

Deconstructing Dylan by Lesley Choyce

Dylan suspects there is something about his life that he hasn't been told. There are pictures of Kyle that look just like him. There are odd references made by his parents. There is a discrepency in when his mother told the press she was starting a family and when he was born of ten years. His parents, genetic research scientists have been very silent about their past research and jobs. Dylan has horrible nightmares he believes are trying to tell him something.
When he meets a girl who knows all the secrets of her own life, she helps him discover the truth about his. Its a lot for a kid to swallow. At 160 pages this is a short fast read.
jdw 11/07/06

Invisible by Pete Hautman

Next door neighbors Doug and Andy had been friends since they were small. They could open their bedroom windows and talk to each other long into the night. They remained friends even when Andy became popular and the odd reclusive Doug was bullied at school and spent all his spare time adding on to a model train set up started by his grandpa made all of match sticks.

They shared a fascination with fire with serious consequences. We learn the truth about the past and the present little by little. Doug's take on things doesn't mesh with the adults' around him. He is in therapy. He is supposed to be taking pills. Hautman wraps up his stories too quickly but this is a decent read. It is chillingly possible.
JDW11/7/06

Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez

This one is for fans of Douglas Addam's Hitchhiker and Spider Robinson's Callahan books. Charlaine Harris also writes wacky vampire stories which is just what this is.

The people of the desert town are accustomed to occurences of the supernatural variety. Those have been happening since Gil came to town and opened a diner 18-years ago then disappeared. Enter Earl and his new friend Duke. Seems Duke had become a werewolf unbeknownst to him and in an incident of rage attacked Earl who just happened to be a vampire. Being undead he just let Duke wind down then regenerated himself. After teaching Duke the ins and outs of being undead the two became friends of sort and began travelling together. They stopped one night for food at Gil's All Night Diner, now being run by Lorretta though it still needed work. The pair always travelled by nite - with a vampire driving they had to. Earl explains all the ins and outs of being a vampire to the curious Lorretta. In any case, shortly after their arrival there is a massive zombie attack which the duo thwart. After hearing Lorretta is in need of handyman help and believing they can solve the mystery of the zombie attack one of many in recent times they decide to stick around awhile. They battle increasingly bizzarre phenomena, consult Hector for advice on how to proceed. Earl falls in love with the ghost that guards the graveyard nearby. They don't know until the final, ultimate battle between good and evil, the battle to save the world that it is a rebellious teenage girl behind it all. Something the reader knows all along. Its a hoot of a novel. Its laugh outloud fun.
jdw 11/7/09

Invisible By: Pete Hautman

Main character is Doug Hanson who is constantly bullied. The girl at school is crazy, or inlove with, students call him a worm. Doug seems to have a hobby of building trains in his basement. His best friend Andy Morrow is a popular football star who could date any girl at school. Even though the teens talk about any subject together they are both quite different.

Doug becomes deeper into his own world, and looses his grip on realty. Mr. & Mrs. Hanson send Doug to a Psychiatrist, who then proceeds to place, him on medication. The pills give him a reaction , and make him sleepy.

This novel is a story that the reader experiences, rather than a read. When the novel is over,
and reads the idea of the book tends to linger in your mind . I felt Hautman had not finished, he kept the reader dangling.
LRD 11/6/06

Hell Phone by William Sleator

Nick is poor and his mother works two jobs just to pay bills and get food. Nick's girlfriend, Jen, is rich and she doesn't care that he is poor. She likes him and wants to be with him. Nick wants to get a cell phone so he can talk to Jen without using his house phone. He saves up enough money and buys a used cell phone for $20. It has no caller ID so when he starts getting calls from the previous owner, a woman named Lola, and a guy named Fleck, Nick has no idea what hell he's going to get himself into. Fleck gets Nick to release him from hell and tells him that his brother Rusty, wants to kill Lola to get an inheritance that is in a will. Rusty hangs out with Jen and she starts ignoreing Nick. One night when Fleck and Nick break into Rusty's house to get Jen away from him, Rusty is killed by Nick. What fate awaits Nick? You will have go to into hell and back to find out.

T. B.

The Boy Book by E. Lockhart

Kim, Cricket, Nora, and Ruby were the best of friends and popular during their sophomore year of high school. In eighth grade Kim and Ruby started a notebook entitled The Boy Book: A Study of Habits and Behaviors, Plus Techniques for Taming Them. Cricket and Nora added things to it as they moved into sophomore year. During sophomore year Ruby was dating Jackson Clark, and then Kim stole him away from Ruby. Then when Kim was away the weekend of the big dance and Jackson asked Ruby to the dance, and he kissed her. They were caught and then Kim, Cricket, and Nora hated her and treated her as a leper. So as the first few months of juinor year unfold, Ruby has to deal with being and outcast, with her only friends being Meghan and Noel. She starts to become friends with Nora again after pictures of her with out her top on pop up around school and Ruby defends Nora. She also has to deal with whether she likes Noel or Angelo (the son of friends of her parents). On top of that during November week she finds out that Kim is coming back from Tokyo, and is planning on taking a trip to Canoe Island that she and Nora are on. Ruby is also seeing a shrink named Dr. Z, because she's having panic attacks with everything that is going on in her life.

T. B.