MANIAC KILLER STRIKES AGAIN BY CARTOONIST RICHARD SALA

A wonderfully gruesome collection of cartoon stories including one in which members of the creeping cat society are being mysteriously killed, in another there are man eating plants, then there's the one in which a man's life is ruined when he falls in love with a girl he meets in a library. A mad scientist is tricked into using his fiance's blood to restore his father to life and her brain fluid to treat his own mysterious disease. AND ITS ALL DELICIOUSLY SILLY CARTOON FUN

Out of the Dust By: Karen Hessee

Billie Jo the main personality throughout the novel demonstrates enormous strength, courage throughout her ordeal. This book is written in free-verse poems, so the reader is able to understand the story. The story takes place during the depression in Oklahoma, when times were very hard to make ends meet.

Billie Jo grew up in the dust bowl, where farming was impossible, due to environment, and poor conditions of the soil. Farming was poor due to the dust that accumulated , andd no water available.

Billie Jo's Mother died when she was 14 years old in a freak accident that happened in the kitchen of their house. Billie Jo was often hired as a pianist, and made a few dollars.

After the death of her Mother Billie Jo decided to leave her home, and seek a better life in Arizona. She got on a box car on a train for three days. She did lots of thinking, and decided to return home. She now got along with her Father. Billie Jo's Dad, has a special lady friend Louise.

This book is very interesting, but true, and very clear about happenings in the Dust Bowl of the Great Depression. It deescribes trials, and problems in the 1920's, and 1930's in the United States. L.D. 5/16/05

My Abnormal Life - Lee McClain

How would you feel if you were taken from your home and put in a foster home because your mom can't take care of you? This is what happens to Rose. She is caught stealing food for her mom and sister. Social Services becomes involved when they see how Rose, her sister Dani (who has Downs Syndrome), and her mom are living. Social services puts Dani in a foster home with other developmentaly challenged children, and Rose is put in a home where the mother acts more like a teengager and wants Rose to become exactly like her daughter. Rose attends high school, joins the newspaper, makes a few friends, and even falls in love. Underneath all of this Rose is adament about getting her family back together. She gets Brian to drive her and Dani an hour into the city where there mother lives, and while they are in the grocery store Dani runs out in front of a car and Rose gets her foot run over. After this Rose's foster mother, Dani's foster mother and Social Services all sit down and decide that Rose, Dani, and their mom will be a family again one day, but it will take time.

Tom Burnham

Song of an Innocent Bystander by Bone

Ten years ago, John Wayne Grady held a group of people hostage in a Family Value Restaurant for 36 hours. Most survived their trauma, but the survivors were all hurt. They tried to live good lives. Some tried to do good, some gave in, some froze some did bad things. What happened behind those closed doors? Freda was there, she knew didn't she?

Prom By Laurie Halse Anderson

Is a funny novel, down-to-earth, and speaks to teens in a way that the teens can relate to their own experiences. This is a story about what happens when planning the prom in a high school called Caceres in Philadelphia. Ashley, one of the main characters, who cares less about a prom, is the individual who ends up getting the gala dance organized. On the other extreme, we see Natalia who heads the prom committee, and is excited about the event.

The next minute, we see the Math Teacher, Miss Crane , take the prom funds. This makes for intrique, because the prom committee wants the prom to be held.

We find that Ashley's family comes to the rescue in helping. Even Nat, who is on the prom committee gets his eccentric grandmother whose native tongue is Spanish helps with the dance. The Principal of the high school helps, and some fellow classmates too. The prom turns out as well as could be. It takes placce in the school gym that has been decorated so well noone could realy tell it is a gym. It seem more like a ballroom.

The novel is so true, and could happen to any of us at prom time.

Perfect World - Brian James

Perfect World is about a teenage girl named Lacie who lost her dad to suicide a few years ago, lives with her mom and younger brother, and Jenna, her best friend, is obsessed with sex. She doesn't fit in anywhere in the world. So when Jenna drags her along to be with two boys Lacie meets Benji, who has secrets he won't share with anyone including Avery. As Lacie and Benji's relationship grows they slowy reveal things to each other that they don't tell anyone else. They fall in love and this gives Lacie the courage to break away from Jenna and find a new best friend in a girl named Gretchen. Then Benji tells Lacie that he is moving to Portland to live with his dad. Once this happens Lacie realizes that in any world where she is loved for who she is it can be a perfect world. A very well written book. You can feel the pain and emotion of the characters through the words.

Tom Burnham

Shut the Door By: Amanda Marquit

This is a spellbounding novel written by a teenager who has a lot of potential. She captivates the reader from the begining of the novel to the end. It's a story about a family who seems so real to life in our modern world. It's a sad story, but true, how a stay home mother, and wife neglects her husband and two teenage daughters. The daughters seem to be trying to find themselves by living new kinds of lives. This of course is a dysfunctional family. The reader captures the inner world of crisis in this novel.

Lilliana and Vivian are the main characters in the book in my opinion. They are teenagers searching for their own identity in society. These two sisters have no support from their parents. Therefore, the teens take risks and disturbing transformations.

The mother, Beatrice is clueless about all her surroundings, and we see this throughout the book.
In fact, Beatrice seems to be going mad. Their father Harry no longer provides the closeness of a family unit that is needed,

The climax is when their father Harry is gone on a long business trip, and he reevaluates family roles and relationships. The choices made are earth shaking to the family. This novel reminds us of what happens when our support systems go and we become emotionally disconnected from the people we love the most.

I Can't Tell You - Hillary Frank

I Can't Tell You is about a guy named Jake who gets into a fight with his high school friend and now college roommate Sean over a girl. So after this fight Jake decides that talking leads to trouble and decides to stop taking and communicate by writing. Through napkins, placemats, receipts, dry-erase boards, post-it notes, calculators, e-mail, pudding, scotch tape, snow, and even toothpaste Jake finds new ways to express himself. There are also notes he never sends to his friend Xandra. Notes saying that he loves her and wants to be with her. After she starts seeing a guy Jake and Xandra pranked called one night, he burns the letters he wrote to her. That then leads to Xandra and Jake revealing their true fealings for each other, and it leads to a falling out between them. They are still friends, but not as close as they were since Xandra knows that Jake has feelings for her. Also, Xandra is dating some one else, which complicates things quite a bit. The last few pages of the book sum things up nicely. It is a quick read and was enjoyable to read.

Tom Burnham