El Hombre Que Calculaba By: Malba Tahan

This novel in Spanish is about Beremiz Samin, the Calculist man, who calculated every aspect of his life when solving a problem. His personality was usually happy, and had an ability to the max, or gift in solving numbers. Beremiz had a method in counting camels. He counted the feet, and the ears, and added one. We might say, Beremiz was a genius.

Malba Tahan was from Bagdad. He traveled to many countries visiting royal palaces of king's , or Sultan's. Sometimes Beremiz had trouble with the solution of his problems he solved. But in the end, Beremiz had resolved the problem that none managed to figure out. For instance, Beremiz the solver, most difficult problem to figure out, was life, and love.

One big problem for Beremiz was how he would be married, and with who. He wanted to marry one of the Governor"s daughters of Iran. The only big problem was that Beremiz had to guess the color of eyes of five slaves of the governor. The eyes were bandaged . Three slaves had blue eyes, and constantly lied. Beremitz did a good job job, and was able to get a wife.

Este libro es interesante para gente que le gusta Historia, y Matematica. Al principio del libro es un poco lento, pero despues al rato, el libro es informativo. El libro es para alumnos de secundaria.

LRD - 11/11/08

Impossible - Nancy Werlin

When Lucy Scarborough is seven she finds old letters in her room. Little did she know that those letters were from her mother, and would one day ten years later help her solve a curse that has plagued the women in her family for generations. Flash forward ten years and Lucy is in high school and getting ready for prom in a few days. She finds out that her next door neighbor Zack will be living with them over the summer, and that her crazy mother is hanging around school and her house. On prom night Lucy's mother starts throwing glass and plastic bottles at the house and Gray drives off. Zack takes her to prom and she meets back up with Gray. As they leave Lucy is raped by the entity possessing Gray. In a few weeks Lucy realizes that she is pregnant and also receives her mother's diary. She reads it and discovers that the Scarborough women get pregnant and go crazy by their 18th birthday. The clues to beating this curse are found in the ballad "Scarborough Fair". Lucy has to make a shirt without any seams or needlework, find an acre of land between the salt water and the sea strand, and plow the acre with a goat horn and one grain of corn. Lucy, Zack, Leo and Soledad, her foster parents, figure out how to make the seamless shirt easily. As the weeks go by it seems like the second and third tasks won't get completed, and Lucy will go crazy after she's given birth.

Love conquers all is the theme that seems to resonate with Impossible. Lucy has Leo, Soledad, and Zack to help her out with the clues, while everyone else in the Scarborough line really didn't have anyone to help figure out the clues in the ballad. We turn to family when we are in our darkest hour, and it is their strength and support that helps us through everything. Even if we think we can handel the situation by ourselves there will always be that one person there who will help no matter what.

T.B. 11/11/08

Rogelia's House of Magic By Jaime Martinez Wood

This is a typical novel in Latin America. It happens so frequently in Hispanic household, where the grandma resides with the family. Many cases the grandmother still has beliefs of old fashion ideas, and remedies. For example many older folks believe in magic, and practice it. Some collect herbs & plants, & give them all to the Virgin of Guadalupe to see if their wishes come true. They also make wishes on tombs of their loved ones who have died.
Rogelia was the person who was a"curando" or spiritual leader, who taught the three girls one summer enough magic that they can handle. The three girls had different personalities, but were eager to learn magic. Xochitl was a quiet girl who stayed by herself. The death of her sister Graciela, affected her being that they were close friends. Fern on the other hand, was outgoing, & had a crush on Tristan, who was an American Indian, who worked in a store. Marina was a girl who took care of how she looked, & very loving with her family. She especially loved her Grand dad, who was her elder, & respected. The 3 teens could see auras on certain people. The auras were different colors depending on what person it was. This novel is a good read for middle school possibly for tenth graders, who enjoy magic, & what it all entails. The novel is worthwhile. LRD 11/09/08

Skinned - Robin Wasserman

Lia Khan was in a terrible accident, her car got hit head on by a semi truck. Her body was badly damaged and wasn't going to live. Her parents decide to keep her alive in an artificial body and her mind is scanned and inputted into where the brain would be. When she is ready to go home her parents welcome the new Lia with open arms, her sister Zo doesn't. When Lia goes back to school she finds out the her friends are now her sister's friends, and they start turning on Lia saying that she isn't the Lia the used to know. Even her boyfriend leaves her and she is alone. She finds a friend in a boy named Auden who wants to be like her, a human inside a machine. She also goes to this group that is all people who are now inside artificial bodies. Lia decides she doesn't want to be like them and "walks away" from who and what she really is. After a few months she meets up with other mech heads, and they try to teach what it means to be mech. They can jump off cliffs into water and not get hurt, the can get shot and not die, they can go into places undetected by the bio-sensors. One day Auden falls into the river and is badly hurt. When she visits him he tells her that he can't be put into a new body because of a predisposition for mental disorder and/or decay in his brain. She then realizes that she can't go on living as a human in a machine, she is a machine with human memories.

An interesting look at what it means to be human and what humans think of machines acting like humans. A question to ask yourself is would you want to keep on living in a body that won't grow old? If you do would you want to make the decision or have your family make it for you, or would you rather die and live in the memories of your family and friends.

T.B. 11/4/08

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

Once she was Kyla, 10-year-old beloved daughter of parents living on Daisy Lane. Then she was kidnapped by Ray. He named her Alice as he had the first and dressed her in pink and white lacy clothing kept her from eating much besides yogurt to keep her small, flat chested, under 100 lbs, his little girl. He used her as he wished and punished her as his mother had punished him. Once she had tried to escape but the parents on Daisy Lane didn't deserve to die and he promised they would if she disobeyed. Who would she go to anyway, who would believe her? The time came when the little girl became too tall, that was when she was fifteen as it had with the first Alice. Unlike the first Alice who was found floating face down near the place she was kidnapped, he promised to keep her. She must pick a pretty little girl to replace her however, a little girl to dress in pink and white lace, for him to use as he wished. He picked a park where children play for Alice to pick his next prey. He did not count on there being Jason, living dead boy, broken inside, drug user, pusher. Jason watched over his little sister, chosen prey. Jason was determined to love Alice and be loved by her and protect her and he did though the end did not come as readers will want it to come. This story is written from Kyla/Alice's view point. She reruns and reruns in her mind what her life has been like since Ray took her much as a grieving child reruns his/her loss when someone close passes. With each rerun the reader learns a little more about her brutal life. This is not an easy story to read both because of the repetitions and because of the subject matter. Perhaps something this horrific could be happening right now to a child who vanished from quiet street, some good home. This is a very short fast read for anyone willing to live through Kyla/Alice's experience. JDW 11/2/08

Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard

Everyone has secrets and some are more devastating than others. With those big, gut wrenching secrets, it's nice to have someone to confide in. The trouble comes, though, when someone starts threatening you with that deep, dark past.

Alison was best friends with Spencer, Aria, Hanna, and Emily. That is, of course, until the seventh grade when she suddenly disappeared. Now juniors in high school, the four remaining girls have grown apart and have started to live lives that they'd probably like to keep secret. Spencer realizes that she has a major crush on her snotty sister's boyfriend, Aria has fallen in love with a young English teacher, Hanna is stealing and dealing with image issues, and Emily might be falling in love with the new girl in town. As the girls struggle with these problems, all begin to receive messages from someone named A, referring to things they'd only shared with Alison. Could she have returned even though many believed her to be dead? If it wasn't Alison, then who could be contacting them? What would it mean if their secrets were revealed? Soon everything starts to unravel and the girls struggle to make sense of everything happening in their lives.

When I picked up this book, mainly to find out what all the hype was about, I expected to read a shallow, prep school, high society novel. It turns out, though, that this book has so much more to offer. Yes, these girls go to a ritzy school and shop at places like Tiffany's and yes, there's drinking and some sex, but this novel has so much more going on than just boyfriend stealing and backstabbing. Each character is developed and has her own complex story and struggles. I'll admit that it takes a little while to develop each character, but the wait is worth it. No one is more important than the other. At the same time, each story is different and, in a way, something the reader can relate to. That's not to say everyone is sleeping with their teacher, but I feel like these characters speak to complicated world some teens face. Then, besides the great struggles of each character, this novel has this amazing umbrella conflict of who A is and what does she want. On top of that, there's some "Jenna Thing" that haunts all four girls. The suspense and interesting story lines really makes this novel stand out.

So much about this book has me enthralled, but I think most of it comes from the fact that it didn't turn out like I expected. I like the characters and it has me intrigued to find out what happens. This novel is a great draw-in to a new series.
MMK

Gingerbread by Rachel Cohn

Cyd is a mad at the world, at her mother, at her "real" daddy skips school, out of control wild child. she claims to not really know why. She is daddy's special girl. Her younger sibs are cute and fun to watch, her mom not so bad. She throws herself at any guy she considers a hunk that is older than she and willing. There are teens like this, totally contrary. I find them unbearable not funny as the reviews say. Plus, even though the story is a quick read and probably something other disenfranchised teens could relate to - they would never accept my or any other adult's recommendation so this has to be discovered and passed around among themselves.
When Cyd makes everyone's life unbearable after she is grounded for skipping school, staying out too late, sneaking out of the house... she is shipped off to her biological father which is just what she wants. In her time there, she suddenly grows up, stops raging, reconciles with her mother, solves the problem with skipping school, decides on her future, decides not to hit on any more older guys, based on...not sure what. The wrap up is way to fast and shallow for the rest of the book. I will say this, Cyd got herself "in trouble" with her wild behavior while away at boarding school. She took care of the problem without help from mom or real dad, without their even knowing. Both the abortion and her lack of information about her biological dad seem to be keys to her behavior. Oh, throughout the book she relates to a ragdoll she calls gingerbread as if it is a living friend. I have seen this before in real life but the kid was emotionally disturbed and unable, not unwilling to relate to the non-imaginary world. jdw 10/29/08

The Day I Killed James by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Have you ever blamed yourself for something you had no control over? Or punished yourself even though you've already been forgiven? This novel explores the guilt we place upon ourselves and the struggle to forgive the one who means the most.

James was in love with his next door neighbor Theresa but she didn't feel the same way about him. When her boyfriend takes another girl to a party they had both been invited to, she uses James' affections to get back at her boyfriend. When her plan succeeds and her boyfriend returns to her, a heartbroken James rides his motorcycle off a cliff, killing himself. Theresa, however, blames herself for his death because he wouldn't have died if she hadn't been so careless with his heart. Unable to cope with his death, she runs away and tried to re-invent herself, but he still haunts over her. She changes her name, becoming Annie Stewart (her middle name and James' last name). Then, she meets a young girl who struggles with a neglectful mother and turns to Theresa for help. One night, when Theresa was elsewhere and unable to protect her, the girl accidentally killed her brother, thinking he was breaking into their home. Theresa then realizes she couldn't keep running from her troubles and returns home. The girl shows up on her doorstep a few days later with no place else to go and the two work together to forgive their toughest critic - themselves.

This book has a great message but failed in the execution. It starts off very fragmented between Theresa's journal entries and sections of events leading up to James' death, although, based on the journal entries, he's already dead. It wasn't hard to follow, it was hard to get invested. Once you made it past the first part and she reinvented herself, the story became more interesting. At some points, though, you just wanted to smack Theresa and tell her to get over it. I think that's part of the guilt, though. No one else understands how she feels, so everyone thinks she's just being irrational. The girl she meets is a great addition because she's the anchor and dose of reality that Theresa needs. She helps her heal and, in the end, the road to recovery is almost complete.

This novel has a really strong message about forgiveness and realizing that there are bigger things at work in the universe besides ourselves. The story grows in strength, but you have to struggle past the first half to realize the power behind the story.
MMK