One Whole and Perfect Day is a pleasant story about a wish that Lily has that her dysfunctional family have "one whole and perfect day." Her grandmother is planning a party hoping to reconcile her grandmother and her brother. Her brother has a new Chinese girlfriend that no one has met. Her mother has promised not to bring home any more elderly people for the weekend, yet is tempted to break her promise. This story's main flaw is the happy ending that is too perfect and too coincidental to be real.
What I think of this book is that it sounds really good. I have only read the first page, but i am intrieged to read more. it seems like a really good book for 7th and 8th graders. maybe not so much for 6th graders. This book won an award for excellence in young adult literature.So if you are looking for a book with an exciting twist, read this wonderful book.
By
Jessika Martin
Your best friend hates you. The guy you liked hates you. Your entire group of friends hates you. All because you did the right thing.
Welcome to life for Mena, whose year is starting off in the worst way possible. She's been kicked out of her church group and no one will talk to her—not even her own parents. No one except for Casey, her supersmart lab partner in science class, who's pretty funny for the most brilliant guy on earth. And when Ms. Shepherd begins the unit on evolution, school becomes more dramatic than Mena could ever imagine . . . and her own life is about to evolve in some amazing and unexpected ways.
Customer Review:
5.0 out of 5 stars All teen books should be this smart, May 9, 2008
Well-written, smart, and insightful! I'm not a teen but was captivated. The easy writing style makes it a fast read, and the issues of religion and finding one's identity are relevant to all ages. This is a must read.
When I read the first page of Evolution, Me, and Other Freaks of Nature, the first sentence had me hooked. I knew i wouldn’t be able to put the book down so it’s a good thing I had to get this review writen. Everything on the first page made questions form faster than I could say wow. Every word fit perfectly and I definitly want to finish it and see what really happened to get her hated.
By Cara Mathews
For fifteen-year-old Shell Talent, life has been hard since the death of her mam. Her dad has given up work and turned his back on reality, leaving Shell to care for her younger brother and sister. She's bored of church and regularly skips school. With her friends Bridie and Declan, She shares cigarettes and irreverent jokes. But when father Rose, a new young priest, arrives in her small Irish community, something mysteriously shifts. Mam's spirit seems to return to earth, a kindly ghost. Shell tries on an old pink satin dress hidden at the back of dads wardrobe to stange , distubing effect. Soon Shell finds herself the centre of an escalating scandal that rocks coolbar to its founations and has repercussions across the country. All her courage and strenght is needed to face the ordeal, in this magnificent and heartbreaking novel, inspired by a true story.
This is a review I wrote for the Carnegie Medal Award site. I believe the story is inspired by real events in Ireland in the 1980's. I will revise when I get a chance:
There is a very poetic and lilting feel to the writing in this beatifully written but very sad book. The setting is a small community in Ireland where everyone knows your business, has opinions on it, and although religion plays a strong part in the life of the town, a christian approach to helping each other is not always evident.
The focus is on a young teenage girl Shell, who certainly does not have her troubles to seek. Her mother is dead leaving her to cope with her younger brother and sister as well as a father who is certainly not playing his role of parent. She finds comfort in the arms of a teenage boy but the relationship leads to her being caught up in a horrible scandal.
There is a lot that is very sad about this book, but ultimately I thought that there was hope at the end, though maybe not what you could call a very happy ending.
Blurb
" A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnaimous. A revoultion is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another."
-from Chairman Mao's
Little Red Book
Customer Review
I was very impressed by the way Ying captured such a complex time in China's history through a little girl's point of view. Her loss of innocence is exemplified in the ways she boldly allows her head to be shaved. She had slowly given up the comforts that she was used to--meat, heat, radio, water, Mrs. Wang's shirt, her father--but was holding on fiercely to her hair, as if letting go of that meant that she was letting go of everything. I worried about this topic being too harsh for children, but Ying was able to add the silver lining in a young girl's world through her loves, like her family and her vision of the Golden Gate bridge.
My Review
As I read the first page I was captured by the first paragraph that was short but grabbing.There were a total of fifteen words that began the long story of life in China. I had not previously heard of this book, nor the author but I can tell that she is talented in capturing the mood of a point in time. - Carly Pate
Editiorial review
Miranda’s disbelief turns to fear in a split second when an asteroid knocks the moon closer to the earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun? As summer turns to Arctic winter, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove. In her journal, Miranda records the events of each desperate day, while she and her family struggle to hold on to their most priceless resource--hope.
Mysilfunki, amazon customer review
...his book CHANGED MY LIFE.
I have never read a book that impacted me so profoundly. I am an avid reader. I'm not a person who seeks out disaster novels or has apocalyptic leanings. I will read anything--from Star Trek to Shakespeare. Nothing moved me like "Life As We Knew It." I intended to take my time reading it chapter by chapter at night, but once I started, I simply had to know what was next. When I finished, I simply sat on my sofa freaked out. I couldn't help but stare at the moon for a week waiting for an asteroid or something to impact it. Literally, my eyes turned to the sky staring at the moon. At the grocery store, I seriously contemplated buying extra supplies and hiding them in the closet. Even now, months later, sometimes ideas pop up in my head inspired by the content of this little book. Our school library said she felt exactly the same way after reading this book.
The writing style is simple from a girl's point-of-view composed in a journal fashion. Pfeffer paints a honest, sincere voice that as a woman I easily identified with. Boys may prefer the companion novel based in NYC with Alex Morales as the main character. Pfeffer draws you in slowly...before you know it, the pages are turning just to see what trial the family is faced with next. While I think the companion novel has more gruesome events, the organization and voice of this story appeals to me more. Fast readers can finish this novel within a few hours; slower readers could complete it in a weekend.
Jaidin
Life As We Knew It is a a slow book in the beginning but really starts up in the end. If you like fiction that has a .1% chance of being real this is the book for you. This book is about a girl (16-17) who is in high school. On the news she hears that that a meteor is going to hit the moon one night, but when they see the massive meteor hit the moon it knocks the moon thousands of miles closer. This changes everything, the currents make tsunamis, volcanos are exploding and eartquakes are happening. Now companys cant function food cant grow so they only eat a very small me 1 MAYBE 2 times a day so they wont run out of food. this book is very rivting and hard to predict.
Review
“D’Orso magnificently chronicles the ups and downs and dramas and comedies on the road, on the basketball court and in the village of Fort Yukon. Eagle Blue is at once a riveting sports story and an incredible exploration of the collision of cultures on one of the planet's few remaining frontiers.”—Seattle Post Intelligencer
“[A] heartfelt homage to a proud, indigenous people who hope to soar with their Eagles, a fleeting escape from the lives often battered by more than the Artic winds.” [3 1/2 stars]—People Magazine (Critic’s Choice)
“D’Orso, a veteran journalist, spent a season with [the Fort Yukon Eagles], attending every practice and game, and came back from the cold with a fascinating book.”—Oregonian
“The best book on Alaska since Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild.”—Orlando Sentinel
Product Description
Eagle Blue follows the Fort Yukon Eagles, winners of six regional championships in a row, through the course of an entire 28-game season, from their first day of practice in late November to the Alaska State Championship Tournament in March. With insight, frankness, and compassion, Michael D’Orso climbs into the lives of these fourteen boys, their families, and their coach, shadowing them through an Arctic winter of fifty-below-zero temperatures and near-round-the-clock darkness as the Eagles criss-cross Alaska in pursuit of their—and their village’s—dream.
Nash's Impression after reading the first page of this YA novel -
THIS BOOK SOUND LIKE A GOOD BOOK IF I LIKED TO READ BUT I DON’T. IT IS ABOUT A GROUP OF BOY’S THAT START A BASKETBALL TEAM BUT THAT IS ALL I KNOW ABOUT THE BOOK. BUT IF I LIKED TO READ I THINK THAT I WOULD LIKE TO READ THIS BOOK IT IS RIGHT UP MY ALLY.
my new revised better- than- ever review:
No time to spellcheck, sorry
The book is better than i thought it was. in the first part of the book it is giving you the feeling of the town. telling you about the different people who live there. telling you bout how they get there mail and supplies. there is the peta group witch is a wild life organization there crazy. there is also the crazy kids that only go to school because of sports and the kid that storms out of the school building into 5 below wether without his cote and only a t-shert. also the kid that hides from every one.
When she's exiled to Los Angeles to spend two weeks with her dad- whom she knows mainly from a bunch of postcards- Katy figures she'll smile politely and then bury her head in a book. But Katy's dad is the Rat, the drummer for the infamous band Suck. Thrust into the city's punk rock scene, Katy finds it hard to be so nice, especially with the doom-and-gloom Lake, her father's idea of a chaperone, ordering her around. Katy could let it all out like everyone else- pound on the skins and cymbals, shout and scream onstage- but music is danger and Katy isn't that kind of girl. So what kind of girl is she?
Costumer Review:
Beige/Katy is dumped into the Punk rock scene with her father in L.A. and is a fish out of water. But she figures it out. That was the fun part. The really great stuff, though, is the characters and their relationships with each other. I fell in love with Rat, despite his weird hair and inability to dress himself. I liked Lake Suck in the end, which is a trick because at the beginning she is very unlikeable. Cecil is so good at this, making you love characters you think you must hate. She did the same thing in Queen of Cool.
My Review:
Beige so far (in the first three pages I read) to me sounds like a funny read. Katy is a stuck up father-hater who is about ready to die on the spot when she arrives in the LAX Airport and spots "The Rat". She's wishing bad things upon people and wondering why in the world she let her Mom leave her here. It leaves me wondering what will happen next to Katy and if she'll ever get along with her bum Dad.
By: Audrey DiGirolamo
Costumer Review:
Beige/Katy is dumped into the Punk rock scene with her father in L.A. and is a fish out of water. But she figures it out. That was the fun part. The really great stuff, though, is the characters and their relationships with each other. I fell in love with Rat, despite his weird hair and inability to dress himself. I liked Lake Suck in the end, which is a trick because at the beginning she is very unlikeable. Cecil is so good at this, making you love characters you think you must hate. She did the same thing in Queen of Cool.
My Review:
Beige so far (in the first three pages I read) to me sounds like a funny read. Katy is a stuck up father-hater who is about ready to die on the spot when she arrives in the LAX Airport and spots "The Rat". She's wishing bad things upon people and wondering why in the world she let her Mom leave her here. It leaves me wondering what will happen next to Katy and if she'll ever get along with her bum Dad.
By: Audrey DiGirolamo
Meet Bliss Cavendar, an indie-rock-loving misfit stuck in the tiny town of Bodeen,Texas. Her pageant-addicted mother expects her to compete for the coveted Miss Bluebonnet crown, but Bliss would rather feast on the roaches than be subjected to such rhinestone tyranny.
Bliss's escape? Roller derby.
When she discovers a league in the nearby Austin, Bliss embarks on an epic journey full of hilarious tattooed girls, delicious boys in bands, and few not-so-awesome realities even the most bad-assed derby chick has to learn.
Customer Review
While wandering through the young adult section of my local library, I came across DERBY GIRL. I had seen the book in the bookstore on other occasions but never bought it. I picked it up at the library and took it home with me. Not knowing what to expect, I started reading, and was instantly enthralled by the life of Bliss Cavender.
Blurb
" A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnaimous. A revoultion is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another."
-from Chairman Mao's
Little Red Book
Customer Review
I was very impressed by the way Ying captured such a complex time in China's history through a little girl's point of view. Her loss of innocence is exemplified in the ways she boldly allows her head to be shaved. She had slowly given up the comforts that she was used to--meat, heat, radio, water, Mrs. Wang's shirt, her father--but was holding on fiercely to her hair, as if letting go of that meant that she was letting go of everything. I worried about this topic being too harsh for children, but Ying was able to add the silver lining in a young girl's world through her loves, like her family and her vision of the Golden Gate bridge.
My Review
As I read the first page I was captured by the first paragraph that was short but grabbing.There were a total of fifteen words that began the long story of life in China. I had not previously heard of this book, nor the author but I can tell that she is talented in capturing the mood of a point in time. - Carly Pate
Meet Jen Dik Seong-or "Dixie" as she's known to her friends.She's living on the ragged edge of LA's Koreatown and her only outlet is the ancient martial art of Hapkido.In fact,she's on the verge of
wining a championship-until she falls for a fellow hapkido fan/california surfer boy Adam
5 out of 5 stars The best Minx book out there, November 26, 2008
By Tina Fields "BrujaHa" (Sebastopol, CA) - See all my reviews
This is the first Minx book I found, and it's the one that made me seek out more. Re-Gifters offers engaging, complex and quirky characters, a lot of subtle emotional content, a view into the Korean/Korean-American worldview, excellent drawings, and a twisty plotline that keeps you turning those pages. Viva Mike Carey & co! Many Minx books later, I still think it's the best one.
Thirteen Reasons Why
Jay Asher
Summary:
When Clay Jenson plays the casette tapes he received in a mysterious package, he's surprised to hear the voice of dead classmate Hannah Baker. He's one of 13 people who receive Hannah's story, which details the circumstances that led to her suicide. Clay spends the rest of the day and long into the night listening to Hannah's voice and going to the locations she wants him to visit. The text alternates, sometimes quickly, between Hannah's voice (italicized) and Clay's thoughts as he listens to her words, which illuminate betrayals and secrets that demonstrate the consequences of even small actions. Hannah, herself, is not free from guilt, her own inaction having played a part in an accidental auto death and a rape. The message about how we treat one another, although sometimes heavy, makes for compelling reading.
Review:
This book was amazing, and very thought provoking. It makes you understand, in a way, that people can affect each other so much without knowing it.
It is a book that will definitely make you look at the world around you in a different way, wondering how the things you do will affect other people, and making you feel more cautious. Over all, this book teaches that you can only do something once, and what you do with that one chance, can matter enough to save (or destroy) someone's life. A wonderful read, though heavy in places. Highly reccomended.
3 Reviews
5 star: (3)
4 star: (0)
3 star: (0)
2 star: (0)
1 star: (0)
5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (True Confessions of a Heartless Girl) keenly observed novel interweaves the lives of three generations of women overshadowed by secrets. While the narrative focuses on Odella, whose mother leaves the family (and the country) with a lover, then unexpectedly dies, the author also rotates through the perspectives of other characters. It falls to Odella's great-aunt Gloria as much as to Odella, the oldest of three sisters, to give readers a sense of Sally, Odella's guilt-ridden mother. Mistik Lake plays an important role: Sally alone survived a tragic accident on the lake as a teenager, and the small Canadian community, where both Gloria and Sally grew up, serves as the backdrop for the major revelations in the book. Readers may have trouble tracking all the ways various characters connect; the grandfather of Odella's first love, Jimmy, tells her, We are all related, one way or another, if you go far enough back, and it certainly seems to be the case given how the characters' histories intersect. But all of the characters seem distinct and real, thanks to the author's exceptional skill with details (Odella watches Jimmy's grandmother prepare breakfast: She begins to move around her kitchen—silently, like a ship with sails. I can see the ancestors in her face). Everyone suffers, but the momentum remains steady and, in the end, it is the author's ability to convey the characters' love for one another, as complicated as it often is, that floats to the top. Ages 14-up. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review by Joanna- When I read the page...., There was excellent details! you could really picture the Images in your mind as you read it. I'd recommend this book to girls ages 14 who'd like a depressing, yet sad story.
Bliss's escape? Roller derby.
When she discovers a league in the nearby Austin, Bliss embarks on an epic journey full of hilarious tattooed girls, delicious boys in bands, and few not-so-awesome realities even the most bad-assed derby chick has to learn.
Customer Review
While wandering through the young adult section of my local library, I came across DERBY GIRL. I had seen the book in the bookstore on other occasions but never bought it. I picked it up at the library and took it home with me. Not knowing what to expect, I started reading, and was instantly enthralled by the life of Bliss Cavender.
Blurb
" A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnaimous. A revoultion is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another."
-from Chairman Mao's
Little Red Book
Customer Review
I was very impressed by the way Ying captured such a complex time in China's history through a little girl's point of view. Her loss of innocence is exemplified in the ways she boldly allows her head to be shaved. She had slowly given up the comforts that she was used to--meat, heat, radio, water, Mrs. Wang's shirt, her father--but was holding on fiercely to her hair, as if letting go of that meant that she was letting go of everything. I worried about this topic being too harsh for children, but Ying was able to add the silver lining in a young girl's world through her loves, like her family and her vision of the Golden Gate bridge.
My Review
As I read the first page I was captured by the first paragraph that was short but grabbing.There were a total of fifteen words that began the long story of life in China. I had not previously heard of this book, nor the author but I can tell that she is talented in capturing the mood of a point in time. - Carly Pate
Meet Jen Dik Seong-or "Dixie" as she's known to her friends.She's living on the ragged edge of LA's Koreatown and her only outlet is the ancient martial art of Hapkido.In fact,she's on the verge of
wining a championship-until she falls for a fellow hapkido fan/california surfer boy Adam
5 out of 5 stars The best Minx book out there, November 26, 2008
By Tina Fields "BrujaHa" (Sebastopol, CA) - See all my reviews
This is the first Minx book I found, and it's the one that made me seek out more. Re-Gifters offers engaging, complex and quirky characters, a lot of subtle emotional content, a view into the Korean/Korean-American worldview, excellent drawings, and a twisty plotline that keeps you turning those pages. Viva Mike Carey & co! Many Minx books later, I still think it's the best one.
Thirteen Reasons Why
Jay Asher
Summary:
When Clay Jenson plays the casette tapes he received in a mysterious package, he's surprised to hear the voice of dead classmate Hannah Baker. He's one of 13 people who receive Hannah's story, which details the circumstances that led to her suicide. Clay spends the rest of the day and long into the night listening to Hannah's voice and going to the locations she wants him to visit. The text alternates, sometimes quickly, between Hannah's voice (italicized) and Clay's thoughts as he listens to her words, which illuminate betrayals and secrets that demonstrate the consequences of even small actions. Hannah, herself, is not free from guilt, her own inaction having played a part in an accidental auto death and a rape. The message about how we treat one another, although sometimes heavy, makes for compelling reading.
Review:
This book was amazing, and very thought provoking. It makes you understand, in a way, that people can affect each other so much without knowing it.
It is a book that will definitely make you look at the world around you in a different way, wondering how the things you do will affect other people, and making you feel more cautious. Over all, this book teaches that you can only do something once, and what you do with that one chance, can matter enough to save (or destroy) someone's life. A wonderful read, though heavy in places. Highly reccomended.
3 Reviews
5 star: (3)
4 star: (0)
3 star: (0)
2 star: (0)
1 star: (0)
5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (True Confessions of a Heartless Girl) keenly observed novel interweaves the lives of three generations of women overshadowed by secrets. While the narrative focuses on Odella, whose mother leaves the family (and the country) with a lover, then unexpectedly dies, the author also rotates through the perspectives of other characters. It falls to Odella's great-aunt Gloria as much as to Odella, the oldest of three sisters, to give readers a sense of Sally, Odella's guilt-ridden mother. Mistik Lake plays an important role: Sally alone survived a tragic accident on the lake as a teenager, and the small Canadian community, where both Gloria and Sally grew up, serves as the backdrop for the major revelations in the book. Readers may have trouble tracking all the ways various characters connect; the grandfather of Odella's first love, Jimmy, tells her, We are all related, one way or another, if you go far enough back, and it certainly seems to be the case given how the characters' histories intersect. But all of the characters seem distinct and real, thanks to the author's exceptional skill with details (Odella watches Jimmy's grandmother prepare breakfast: She begins to move around her kitchen—silently, like a ship with sails. I can see the ancestors in her face). Everyone suffers, but the momentum remains steady and, in the end, it is the author's ability to convey the characters' love for one another, as complicated as it often is, that floats to the top. Ages 14-up. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review by Joanna- When I read the page...., There was excellent details! you could really picture the Images in your mind as you read it. I'd recommend this book to girls ages 14 who'd like a depressing, yet sad story.
