I hope you all had a nice break!  I enjoyed my time with my family.  I also got a lot of reading done!  I don’t know how it happened, but I read SIX books during break!  A couple of them were graphic novels, so they go fast for me, but still.  That is a lot of reading – and I loved it!

Here is what I read:

Rumble by Ellen Hopkins: This is one of her newest books.  I like her stories, even though she writes about really tough topics – this one is about a family whose youngest son committed suicide, due to bullying, and the older son is struggling with accepting his brother’s death.  Pretty good, but not one of my favorites of Hopkins.

Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman:  This was a really great book!  It is about a 15 year old boy who is diagnosed with schizophrenia.  The story is told so well, with amazing metaphors and analogies, and an honest and sympathetic look at mental illness.

Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash:  This is a memoir in graphic novel form.  The story takes place at summer camp the summer before Maggie’s senior year.  Camp starts out the same as always, finding old friends, getting into the routine, and them Maggie realizes she loves one of the female counselors.  The story is about her coming to terms with that realization and how she handles her emotions.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson:  A very interesting story about what people will do for those they love.  Jenna was in a terrible car accident, and she can’t remember more than a year of her life.  As she discovers more about what happened, she realizes her parents have committed the ultimate crime: loving Jenna so much they are willing to break the laws to save her.  Good story and interesting ideas to think about here – love, sacrifice, technology…

This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki: This is a graphic novel about a family’s summer at the beach.  They go every year, but the year the story takes place is different – Rose’s mom and dad fight, her mother is distant, and Rose realizes her friend Windy might be just young enough that is will soon start to strain their friendship.  A good story about family dynamics and growing up.

And last, but not least…Princesses Behaving Badly: Reals Stories from History – Without the Fairy-Tale Endings by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie:  This one was to feed my obsession with royals.  I especially love the Tudor period of Henry VIII, but this book has short stories about princesses from all over the world, and what their real lives were like.  Not like the Disney stories we usually see!  Interesting tales of royal life.

And there you have it!  All of these are in the library, available for checkout, so come by to get one!

Happy Reading!