Book of the week Feb. 11, 2008
The New Rules of High School By Blake Nelson
Seventeen-year-old Max Caldwell has been the perfect high school student-on the honor rule, captain of the debate team, and soon to-be-editor of the school newspaper-but during his senior year, he begins questioning his approach to life and thing start to change.
This is a very different book. It is written from the perspective of a male student. Most books of this type seem to be written from the point of female students. It is book that can be enjoyed and appreciated by both sexes because it deals with many issues faced by high schools students.
There will a drink given for the first person that checks this book out.
Book of the week 01-21-08
When She Hollers by Cynthia Voight This is a great realistic fiction book for teens. It deals with incest and the problems it is causing for a sixteen year old girl. Tish is being molested by her stepfather. Her Mother pretends the problem does not exist. The pain of the situation consumes her. Everywhere she turns for help seems to fail. So why does Tish purchase a knife? She carries it in her boots to school. Tish has to wrangle with the problem of no weapons at school. Does she get caught? Read and find out what happens when the school finds it necessary to call her Mother and her Mother does not come. Who do they call next?
The ending is very surprising. The last moments of the book shows Tish returning to her home where the situation has not changed. Her stepfather is opening the door!!! What happens?
I liked this book. It paints a picture of a real life problem that many adolescents are facing every day.
Book of the week 01-07-08
The Bad Seed by William March
This is an old book but very interesting. It is scary and fascinating at the same time. I would consider this a book that is timeless in age. What happens to ordinary families into whose midst a child serial killer is born? This is the question at the center of The Bad Seed. A little girl by the name of Rhoda is born into the Penmark family. Psychologists and sociologists have studied the small amount of children who “Kill”. The say little girls are very rarely killers. So what goes on with Rhoda Penmark? She is labeled “nonempathic”. Now what does this term mean?
Rhoda Penmark does not win the penmanship contest at her school, what does she do? Whenever Rhoda does not get her way, what actions does she take?
Read this book and find out why this beautiful child is called a BAD SEED. It is an unusual thriller that will keep you turning the pages.
Book of the week 12-03-2007
Shock Point by April Henry
Without warning, Cassie is thrown in the van and shipped off to a boot camp called Peaceful Cove in Mexico. This is a camp for troubled teenagers. Cassie, however, is not a troubled teen. So why has she been sent to this terrible place? Cassie knows the real reason she has been sent here by her stepfather and Mother. Her stepfather, who is a psychiatrist, has convinced her Mother that Cassie is a trouble maker and needs this type of help. He did this because Cassie found out that he has been prescribing a drug to teens to help control their behavior. Several of the children have died as a consequence of this medicine. Her stepfather has covered up the deaths. When he finds out that Cassie is on to his secret, he begins to convince Cassie’s Mother that she is a troubled teen.
First he sends her to a psychiatric ward where treatment is strict and unfair. Next he sends her to a boot camp in Mexico called Peaceful Cove. This place turns out to be everything but peaceful. It is a boot camp where rules and punishments are a nightmare for the teenagers that find themselves there.
Escape seems impossible and hope seems beyond reach of Cassie. The only way out is to graduate from this place. Many students or inmates are dying. How can Cassie escape? Will she live to tell what is happening in this horrible place? If she escapes, will anyone believe her about what is happening at Peaceful Cove?
This is a very fast moving book with lots of suspense and mystery. It also displays problems that might exist in step family relations.
Book of the Week - Nov. 19, 2007
Skin by Ted Dekker
Five random people who never have met before in their lives find themselves all trapped in a deadly game. They are trapped in a town during a terrible storm and there is a killer on the loose. To makes things even worse the town keeps disappearing. When it reappears they know who the killer has gotten before the police even give out the information about the murder. They do not know who the killer is. To stay alive they must play his deadly game.
This is a book not for the faint hearted. It is scary and strange. You will not want to stay by yourself when you read this very unusual book.
Book of the Week - Nov. 12, 2007
RX - by Tracy Lyn
High school honors student Thyme Gilcrest uses her intelligence, popularity, and school activities to hide the fact that she is a drug dealer, supplying friends with illegally obtained prescription drugs. She starts out on this venture when she steals a bottle of Ritalin from a friend. She takes one of the pills and she thinks she is in control of everything. Desperate to keep this “high” she gets from the prescription she becomes drug dependent. To keep up her habit, she begins to sell stolen drugs to her friends.
This is a grim story of high-school peer pressure that ends up with drug abuse. It shows us parents that do not know what their children are doing. It gives us a real life scenario in realistic fiction.
This is a situation that could be happening in any high school. Read the book to find out what happens.
