Leave Myself Behind by Yates

This book caught me by surprise. Its part mystery and part first love romance. A teenage boy whose father recently died and his mother move from Chicago to a small eastern college town where mom will be teaching. The house they bought is about 100 years old and is a fixer upper.
Thats no problem since the two have rehabbed before. But, when they begin to find mason jars behind crumbling walls, each with some memoir from someone's past they begin to search for the truth about the house's former residents. Mom goes from curious to determined to obsessed with finding who put the jars there and why. Meanwhile, son continues working on the rehabbing . When a neighbor stops by to welcome him to the town and his new school, it isn't love at first sight but the boys are attracted to each other. Eventually this attraction gives way to all the wonderous confusing emotions of first true love. Neither the boys love nor the mother's search for truth are easy or easily accepted by the town. This is a great read. Highly recommended.
JDW 3/23/05

Sophie by: Guy Burt

The novel takes place completely in England, & seems to be typical English country side setting. The main characters are a brother, and sister. Sophie, is the older sister, and Mathew her brother. Sophie is very inteligent student at school, and generally in life too. She is also very creative, but raises her brother.

Their Mother lives in the house with the children, but is a recluse, and doesn't have any time for her children. She is an odd bird.

The Father of the household comes infrequently to the home. He never spends time with the family. In fact, the Father does not sleep much at the house.

To me the novel unravels, and takes place in the daily activities of Sophie, and Mathew, or Mattie as the sister caalls him. Mattie has a recurring dream of an appearance of a ghost with a face that haunts him at night in his bedroom. It is so real, that he screams, and Sophie comes to confort him, and sometimes lets him sleep in her bedroom.

This brother an sister both have a big curoisity. They live a few miles from an old quarry. They climb in, and explore the quarry many times. Then they find a new hang-out which is an abandoned barn that they fix-up, and make like their club house.

One day they discover two teenage boys Steven and Andy inside. Sophie tries to be 12 in front of their friends. She changes her appearance , clothing, and hair style. Her brother is 9.

For me I liked the book very much, because the reader sees the importance of how sibblings can be. The ending is very tragic, so read the book. It is worth it.
LRD

Truesight - David Stahler

Thirteen year old Jacob lives in a colony on a distant planet away from Earth. Everyone in his colony is born blind. They learn about their surroundings by touching, smelling, and listening to everything around them. They follow the philosophy of Truesight, which brings unity, purity, and freedom to the people of the colony. A few weeks before his 13th birthday Jacob gets this searing pain in his eyes during a class exercise. He thinks nothing of it as more than a headache. A few days later he begins to see shapes and colors of everything around him. A few days before his 13th birthday his best friend Egan gets him to go and see a delivery to the colony that night. Egan does not show up and he runs into Delaney. She want to get out of the colony and will do anything to achieve her goal. They are spotted and both run away. The next day Jacob is told that Delaney is dead. No one will say how it happened. On his birthday Jacob gets his sight and he keeps it a secret until the next to last day of school when he tells Egan. Egan then tells the listeners and Jacob is pulled out of school the next day and is taken to see the high councilor. A decision is made that the only way Jacob can remain in the colony is to have his sight removed and his memory of the past few weeks. The next day comes and he is in front of the whole colony, and is taken away to a building to correct his sight. He then learns from Delaney's father that she did not die, she ran away. He decides to run away also. It is the only way to save himself. This book was a page turner and it holds your attention to the end. Once you get to the end you ask your self what is next for Jacob. This is the first book in a trilogy, so we will have to wait until the other books come out to find out what happens.

Tom Burnham

Saving Francesca by Marchetta

One review describes this book as perfectly honest and perfectly real. Yes, exactly. Francesca worries about what others think of her and the kids she hangs with. She is so worried about this in fact that she doesn't realize what valuable friends they are. Sees that behind the obnoxious rude and crude image he displays, Thomas Mackee is a decent guy. Feels guilty when she laughs and is happy while her mother suffers from depression. Worries that the same thing might happen to her. Parties. She is deeply hurt when a boy who already has a girl takes her aside at a party where they were pashing while drunk. Has doubts about the new school she has transferred to. She is embarrassed by the trouncing the boys give the girls at a friendly basketball match up. And, she looks back at it all with a wry humor and tears. It's hard not to like Francesca and her story. I vote this best book of 2004

Diary of a Teenage Girl by Melody Carlson

The reader feels like ones life is being lived throughout the novel. Caitlin is the main female character throughout the book. We follow Caitlin's life through college, and she eventually meets the man of her life, Josh. Caitlin has known Josh since high school. We then have the opportunity to go through Caitlin's planning, and organizing her Wedding. One of her good friends Beanie takes the project upon herself to design Caitlin's Wedding dress. Beanie is a fashion major, and she creates a gorgeous gown for Caitlin.
Caitlin and Josh do not have very much money for the Wedding that they are planning, but because of their friends and family their Wedding is one of the best ever held in their area. Caitlin, the bride to be, is more concerned with following God's plan then having the perfect Wedding. Her future mother-in-law (Josh's mother) is always talking and taking Caitlin to search for her Wedding dress in expensive boutiques. So in the end the Wedding dress fashioned by Beanie is the most. The day of the Wedding at St. Mathew's Church the crowd was overwhelmed and surprised by Caitlin's dress. Her dress would be the talk of the town for months to come. The mother-in-law was left speechless.
This novel is well written, and depicts a typical college girl's thoughts on Weddings. The book also studies what goes on behind the scenes when planning a Wedding. I recommend this book to any female who is planning her great Event-Marriage.

LRD
2-21-05

How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff

How I Live Now is the story about fifteen year old Elizabeth, who is sent to England to live with her Aunt Penn and her cousins Edmond, Piper, Isaac, and Osbert. At first she doesn't like it and is not accustomed to the ways of English relatives. After a few weeks she begins to accept her new surroundings and family. Aunt Penn goes off to Oslo for a presentation, and then a few days later war breaks out in England. Elizabeth, Edmond, Piper, Isaac, and Osbert start taking care of themselves, and a few weeks after the war starts the Military comes and takes Piper and Elizabeth away. They go to live with Major McEvoy and his wife. After a few weeks the Major dies and the house where Piper and Elizabeth comes under enemy fire. Piper and Elizabeth have to survive on what the land has to offer. They find apples, blackberrys, and other things for food. Eventually they make their way back to their home and after days of getting the house livable again Elizabeth's dad calls and takes her back to New York. Elizabeth goes back to England six years later and finds that everyone has changed. Some for the better and some for the worse, especially Edmond. I found this book to be enjoyable from beginning to end. It shows how war can affect everyone and everything, even if you aren't on the battlefield fighting. It also shows the struggle to survive in times of war with limited amounts of food and water.

Tom Burnham

Eye Candy - R.L.Stine

Lindy Sampson is too gorgeous for her own good. Her beauty intimidates guys so they don't ask her out. Internet dating seems like the perfect solution and with an awesome cyber name like "Eye Candy" Lindy is getting lots of responses. Before Lindy knows it she is dating four guys at the same time! Everything seems to be going great until she starts getting creepy threats that warn: "Don't say no, Lindy. Keep going out with me. I'll mess you up if you ever say no." Now Lindy is forced to keep saying yes to dates with all four guys and hope she can recognize the killer among them before she becomes his next victim. Note: This story has a lot of exciting twists that make it a real page turner!!!

Orphea Proud Sharon Dennis Wyeth

Orphea's honest and gripping tale will be an inspiration to all those who champion individuality. One day, Orphea came home from school, and found all her personal belongings packed. Orphea had no clue what was going on. After a long drive that her brother took her to Virginia to leave her to live with her Aunts in the hills. Orphea's Aunts ran a country store.

Orphea's Mother Nadine died young, Orphea's brother Rupert was older, Apollo was Orphea's father who was a preacher, Lisa was Orphea's best friend. One day Orphea still wants to go to Queens,N.Y. to recite her poetry on stage.

This book is full of surprizes to the reader, which makes the book hard to put down.