Hacking Harvard - Wasserman

Harvard is one of the most pristine Ivy League schools to get into. A whole bunch of people apply and only a few get into Harvard. Schwarz, who already goes to Harvard, and his friends Eric and Max plan one day to do the unthinkable, hack into the Harvard database and get a jock with a C average into Harvard. They do the plan in stages, the first being to pick the jock. They pick Clay Porter, who at first doesn't want to join, but when money becomes involved joins right away. The next step is to get a perfect SAT score. Clay goes and takes the SAT's, with a camera on him and Schwarz, Eric, and Max are outside the room giving him the answers. Then about a month later they attend a Harvard football game where they scope out the veteran admissions officer having an affair with a dean from Harvard. The next step is filling out the application which includes volunteer hours, grades, an exceptional artistic talent, and a personal statement. The application is submitted and now all they have to do is wait for the interview, which won't be till February. The interview comes around and Schwarz and company have it all set up with Clay fitted with a microphone and speaker. Things start to go awry when there is interference between Schwarz and Clay, but when things get cleared up they hear that Clay is doing fine on his own. Then comes the day where the admissions committe picks who's accepted/wait list/denyed into Harvard.

I could see this book turned into a movie. It would be interesting to see this played out on the big screen. I think it would be as enjoyable in the theater as it was reading the book.
T.B. 12/17/07

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Arnold, also known as junior is a Spokane Indian with medical issues, lots of smarts, a talent for shooting baskets, living on a reservation with a mediocre school, dreams of a better future.

In pursuing his dreams, Arnold chooses to attend white school 22 miles away. He is rejected both at home where other Indians call him white and at school where kids find all kinds of names to call him. The rejection includes losing his one best friend who he misses terribly. He sometimes has to walk the distance from school as his parents cannot always afford gas money and his father drinks. But, he finds support both from his dysfunctional family and from some of the kids at the white school. Along the way he experiences the deaths of several people important to him. Punches a white bully in the face and much to his surprise gains the kid's respect, Faces his former best friend in basketball, twice, as a member of the white school team, shares with readers the rampant alcohol abuse on reservations and how it hurts the Indians and keeps sight of his dreams against the odds. Another book, Tequila Worm by Canales looks at a Latina girl with dreams of a better future and the support of her family as she grows up and away from them, same theme, different cultures, wonderful stories.
jdw 12/10/07

Frannie in Pieces by Delia Ephron

Recently there have been several books published in which a teen could enter a piece of art created by someone of importance to them. By doing so they learn to embrace life in spite of their sadness and to live/look with heir hearts. Frannie's father dies unexpectedly and leaves all his possessions to her. He was an artist and divorced from her mother. Among his many junk art objects is a wooden box filled with 1000 handmade puzzle pieces. The box has Frannie's name on it. It becomes her summer goal to finish this puzzle and understand the message it contains. It is her mother's goal to have her be a camp counselor for the summer. At camp she is the art counselor and there are some genuinely funny moments as she describes the other counselors and relates to her very unique, not always charming campers. Frannie works long on the puzzle, sometimes finding herself wandering in the puzzle itself, learning where it is and finally meeting her dead father who helps her understand his life, death and divorce. Very Charming, sad/happy and perhaps Frannie has fallen in love - or not.
JDW 12/7/07

Beastly by Alex Flinn

This story is a modern day version of Beauty and the Beast. The main character is Kyle Kingsbury - the king of the school. He's popular, pretty and perfect - except for his personality. Kendra decides he needs a bit of an attitude adjustment after he asks her to the homecoming dance only to embarrass her by showing up with a beautiful girl. Kendra, a witch, casts a spell on Kyle, turning him into a beast. She showed him kindness, though, because that day he showed kindness to someone else by giving a plain girl a rose (granted he just gave her the rose because his date didn't want it, but kindness is kindness despite motivation). Instead of killing Kyle or permanently making him a beast, he has two years to find true love and to receive a kiss. Kyle's father, a TV personality, tries his hardest to find a cure for his son, but when everything fails, he buys him a mansion and leaves him there with the housekeeper Magda. Due to threats on Kyle's part, he soon receives a blind tutor named Will to live with him. In the months alone, Kyle develops an interest in books and a love of roses. He builds a greenhouse and comes to accept his lonely life as a beast. One night, though, a druggie breaks into his greenhouse and in order to save his own life, the man offers his daughter for his freedom. Kyle, seeing the opportunity to find love in the girl, takes him up on the offer. Soon Lindy comes to live with him. Coincidentally, Lindy was the plain girl he gave the rose to. As the story of Beauty and the Beast goes, they develop a friendship through their joint studies and love of roses which might turn into more. But of course there needs to be more conflict in which the Kyle lets her leave and he sees his chances of receiving true love's kiss slip away. Will they live happily ever after? What do you think?

I really liked the modern day twist on this classic story. The story did a great job setting up the importance of looks in the most casual and typical of settings. Homecoming was coming up and it opened up the debate of the fact that the only reason people were nominated was because of their looks. Kyle's dad, a TV personality, was the perfect fit for the role because he was in a position where without looks and image, nothing else matters. The novel really showed how the topic is so common today. I also liked how this novel treated Lindy's situation. If she came from a loving household, it'd be harder to accept her being "kidnapped" by the beast. In this story, though, there's a lot of emphasis on how she's better off with him. Here it's not just the beast's needs being met, but also hers. Kyle, as a beast, was a very like-able character. On a interesting note, the novel has sections where Kyle is chatting online to other people who have been transformed. It's just a neat like add-in, especially to see other stories like the Little Mermaid - whose ending bothered me a little bit, but I won't go into detail about that.

That's what I liked. One thing that I didn't find so believable was Kyle/Beast as only a teenager. Maybe I'm too used to the characters being older, but there were scenes where he seemed too old, too insightful to be just 16. It worked at the beginning, but as the story progressed and he was on his own it became less believable. It didn't detract too much from the story, it was just hard to keep in mind that he was still a teenager. That's really my only complaint. It was a really enjoyable story. It was nice to see the characters transform, both physically and emotionally. Fans of classic fairy tales should definitely pick this one up. Even if Beauty and the Beast isn't your favorite story, this one is worthwhile.
MMK

Postcards to Father Abraham by Lewis

16-year-old Meghan seems to have found her niche in life. She is a runner and a very good one.
Since life hasn't been exactly kind to her, finding a way to feel comfortable with herself was very important. Her banker father who just doesn't get it sends her off to a private school where her good grades and good running skills could lead to a college scholarship. She is a misfit, becomes friends with another misfit and gets tossed out. At the same time she discovered an injury to her leg that does not heal. This leads to a diagnosis of cancer and the removal of one leg. In trying to adapt to one more bad event in her life, she rights postcards to her hero Abraham Lincoln sharing her pain even as she wonders what his pain was like. There is a subplot about a favorite sibling, Killian who served in the Vietnam War, compared to the Civil War, and came home with post traumatic stress disorders. Unable to tolerate closed in places for long he wanders around all day long and sleeps outside at night. Meghan is very brave and resilient, however scared she is and we know she will be alright no matter what life hands her. This one could make you cry, its just so unfair.
jdw 12/07

Boy Toy by Barry Lyga

This book has gotten reviews that have been all over the spectrum from great to bad. There is a lot going on in this book, some of it is left unfinished and has been a distraction from the main story line for some readers. But, the main story moves very quickly and kept my attention. I never really paid much attention to the other smaller plots. Five year's ago, Josh was in an intimate relationship with a young teacher. When it was discovered, Josh's life basically went on hold and the teacher got a five year prison term. With her release, and his impending graduation from high school. Josh seems to want to move on finally. Things start when he accidentally crosses paths with Rachel, a girl he once was friends with until an ugly incident at her birthday party. Surprisingly, she had forgiven him long ago and wants to be friends again. Rachel seems too good to be true but I know that some people try to rescue every abused, stray animal that comes their way and people too. Josh takes a long time to commit and has many missteps along the way that include probably losing his friend Zik, the only friend for the past five years. He lets go of baseball where he was a star player in favor of a college math major. He decides on his future. We get an inside look at the damage done by the relationship and the beginnings of healing, this is the part that grabs and holds readers' attention till the end.

TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY by Jay Asher

This novel takes a suicide note to a whole different level. Instead of saying "Sorry, I just couldn't live anymore," this novel explains the events that led up to a young girl's final decision to kill herself.

In the days before Hannah Baker takes a fatal overdose of pills, she records her thirteen reasons for her decision on a series of tapes. Her reasons revolve around people who have entered her life and left a mark on her existences, most of them negative. Each person mentioned on the tapes will receive them, one person at a time. When your turn is finished, you pass them on to the next person mentioned. This novel follows one of the people she mentions, Clay Jensen, listening to the tape and wondering what he'd done to cause her to want to kill herself. Clay had a special connection with Hannah - he had a huge crush on her but was too afraid to make something of it. They had one meaningful experience where he thought things might have worked in his favor, only he learned from the tapes that Hannah was too far gone for such a thing to happen. The events leading up to their time together start from her first kiss and a rumor surrounding it and then "snowball" (as she says). There's one betrayal after another and moments in this poor girls life that really show the rotten card she was dealt. In the end, though, the knowledge of her horrible experience are meaningless because nothing can be done to change the past. The only good the comes from these tapes is knowing the affect "you" had on the girl and hopefully changing your ways.

This novel was extremely powerful. People don't think that a little rumor (It wasn't just a kiss. She let me feel her up.) will have that big of an affect on another person. Or to make a Who's Hot/Who's Not would have any pull in the actions of others. But if the rumor didn't happen, then the list wouldn't have come out and she wouldn't have lost her friend and the peeping Tom probably wouldn't have looked in her window and so on and so forth. The scary but true thing is that so many teens don't see the consequence of their actions. Something teeny tiny to them might mean the world to another person. One story completely broke my heart where someone did something as minor as taking away anonymous notes of encouragement meant for Hannah. But when the girl is fighting to make it through each day, those notes could make or break a her day. The events that Hannah went through were unbelievable, and they weren't entirely worst case scenario situations. She wasn't raped. She didn't have anyone in her life killed. She wasn't on drug. She was just a girl who drew the short straw in world of high school. To hear it all in her own words the days before to end couldn't be more impacting.

I also really liked how the novel followed Clay - the boy who loved her. If it had been any other person she mentioned, it wouldn't have been as impacting because none of the other people cared about her. More than likely, none of the others wondered what they could have done differently to keep her there on earth. More than likely, none of them even missed her. But Clay did and to see his reaction to her words, to see how they affected him, showed the true magnitude of her story.

This was a wonderful novel. The author did a spectacular job portraying the young girl's pain while still sending out strong messages. Words have consequences. Actions have reactions. And sometimes, when a person says "Leave me alone," they don't mean it at all. Don't wait until it's too late to tell someone how you feel or ask them if they want to talk. Sometimes all it takes is one person to care.
MMK

Jail Bait by Leslea Newman

For those who don't know jail bait is an under aged kid in a relationship with an adult. If the kid turns on the adult then the adult goes to jail. Andi is fat, lonely and has her own tormentor at school. She avoids the bus and walks home for school instead. She stops along the road each day and talks to and feeds a cow she calls Bessie. A guy in a beat up Volkswagen sees her there and eventually makes contact. A relationship developes. There are two buts. First he holds her hostage, to his wishes because he has stolen her mother's wedding ring and has promised to give it back on her 17th birthday. Second, at the outset he is careful of her and proceeds slowly but this changes and the relationship is all about his needs. Andi doesn't really care for this. He seems better than home or school to her though and a promise to run away to the south is enticing. Andi's move to maturity happens all at once in the last few pages of the book and seems too fast. A side story about the relationship between her brother and herself and her brother's problems fizzles out. Still, a young girl falling for an older man is a timeless story and its told mostly quite well.
jdw 11/21/07