Shelf Life

I loved the book If I Have a Wicked Stepmother, Wheres My Prince? by Melissa Kantor. The character Lucy has to move to Long Island to live with her dad and his new wife and kids. Lucy hates it because her dad is always out of town away while she there in Long Island trying to adjust to her new school but then when she attracts the schools varsity basket ball star and finds two new friends, she then goes from the new girl to the Popular girl.

By Laura Gutierrez

Cover Image

(Read on the Kindle app on my iPhone)

A modern-day Catcher in the Rye? Probably not. By Wizner’s Shakespeare Shapiro is certainly a direct descendant of Salinger’s self-absorbed protagonist. Shakespeare is whiny, petulant, pessimistic, and laugh-out-loud funny. He is a senior in high school and nothing in his life is going right:
-He is burdened with an awful name.
-He worries endlessly, about everything.
-He counts among his closest friends only two people—Katie, an angry alcoholic in combat boots and Neil who is obsessed with bowel movements.
-His younger brother has a far richer social life than he does.
-His dad drinks like a fish.
The list goes on and on. But mostly he worries about his senior memoir, a year-long writing assignment about his favorite subject—himself.

Wizner unflinchingly takes on all of the most embarrassing moments in a boy’s life and makes them fodder for his protagonist’s twisted, self-deprecating sense of humor. Nothing is off-limits (and I do mean nothing). There are moments when the over-privileged Shakespeare’s woe-is-me attitude is grating but the humor in this book is more than worth it. A dose of reality, provided by a struggling classmate, helps wake him from his self-pitying stupor and redeem him for the reader.

Recommended for grades 10-12.

By Mr. Doyle

Andrés Segovia, named after the world-renowned classical guitarist, was a beautiful boy. But now he is an angry and sometimes violent man. His rage has landed him in jail and his lawyer has delivered him to the doorstep of therapist Grace Delgado. Like Andrés, Grace is haunted by her past. And, like Andrés, she can’t see how to put the ghosts behind her, to bury the dead.

At the age of 10 Andrés is suddenly orphaned. A well-meaning but terribly misguided older brother snatches Andrés and his sisters from the comfort of a loving foster family in El Paso and brings them across the Rio Grande to Juarez, Mexico. There the older brother, Mando, tries to keep the family together but life in a poor neighborhood in Juarez is brutal and soon the family is destroyed along with Andrés’s innocence and hope. Years later he comes to Grace Delgado with no real expectation of getting better.

Grace, a widow, meanwhile struggles with a strained relationship with her only son, Mister, and newly diagnosed cancer. In Andrés she sees the beautiful boy he once was and the fiercely intelligent man he is now. Even though she knows “people can be totaled, just like cars,” she refuses to give up on him. But even as she pushes Andrés to keep going she herself has given up and refuses treatment for her disease. Will their near-suicidal fatalism bring them both to bitter ends or will they find a way to push through the pain and fear that constrains them and find a way to survive?

Saenz, a National Book Award winner for poetry, writes in gorgeous, lyrical prose. He conveys pain and sadness, light and love as only a poet can. Like his young adult book, Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood, In Perfect Light is peopled with beautiful but damaged characters. He makes the reader love them which makes their experiences that much more painful. Though time shifts and changes in narrative voice make the story complex, and maybe confusing for weaker readers, this is a compelling, heart rending read.

Highly recommended for mature readers grades 10 and up.

By Mr. Doyle

Click to hear an excerpt.
California Young Reader Medal Finalist 2009-2010
Ender Wiggins, Katsa, Iggy Corso, Sammy Santos, Ray-Ray, Miles Halter, Katniss Everdeen, Clay Jenkins, Melinda Sordino… these are a few of my favorite characters from YA literature (can you name the books?). Arnold “Junior” Spirit now takes his place very near the front of that line. Sherman Alexie’s protagonist (and maybe his alter ego?) is a memorable, lovable guy. He is brave, honest, sensitive, self-effacing, and, sometimes, laugh-out-loud funny. This book is a must-read.

Arnold is a Spokane Indian living on a reservation (The Rez) in Washington State. He was born with hydrocephaly (”water on the brain”) which left him with a large head, hands, and feet, a skinny body, and poor eyesight. To say he and his tribe are poor is to vastly understate their situation. Poverty, violence, alcoholism, and worst of all, hopelessness surround Arnold. Even his loving father regularly disappears into an alcoholic haze. Death, as Arnold points out, is a large part of his world. He estimates that he has attended over 40 funerals in his short life. But though Arnold cries and grieves for his family and his tribe he refuses to give in to despair. He is determined to make a future for himself. At a teacher’s urging he transfers to an all-white school more than 20 miles from his home. He becomes a part-time Indian and, in the eyes of many of the members of his tribe, he becomes a traitor. He faces hatred and violence when he is home on the rez and racism and hostility when he is at school. But this is a hopeful and funny story. Arnold’s indomitable spirit helps him create a unique space for himself. He finds beauty and kindness in both of his worlds and helps create large amounts of both for others.

In his protagonist, Alexie has created a unique voice in YA literature. With poignancy, humor, and insight he guides the reader through the mostly undiscovered world of the reservation. Ellen Forney’s drawings perfectly complement the story and help bring Arnold to life for the reader. We can only hope that a sequel is in the works because one Arnold book is not enough.

Highly recommended for grades 7-12

By Mr. Doyle

Click to hear an excerpt
California Young Reader Medal Finalist 2009-2010
Iggy Corso is one of my favorite characters in YA lit. His story is so heartbreaking that many readers may be moved to tears. Iggy has had many, many obstacles to overcome in his short life: born addicted to crack, drug-addict parents, living in extreme poverty, etc. etc. But Iggy never wallows in self pity. Instead he genuinely wants to do good, to make a difference.

The book opens with Iggy being suspended from school pending an expulsion hearing. When he returns home there is no one to tell—his father is stoned and unconscious, his mother has disappeared, and the phone is dead so he can’t even call his social worker. In 5 days he will be expelled unless he can show he is worthy of another chance. So he vows to do something to change people’s opinions of him. He vows to make a contribution.

Iggy’s quest brings him to Mo’s door. Mo is the college drop-out who had been tutoring Iggy. Mo is from an affluent family but is rudderless, trying drugs and religions to find his way. Iggy acompanies Mo in his search for some pot, silently wondering if he will find his mom. Mo leads Iggy to a tenement drug den, resulting in a fateful meeting between Mo and Freddie, the vicious drug dealer.

Iggy is a truly good soul in a terrible situation. He is not perfect; he makes some bad decisions but he accepts the consequences. He will haunt readers long after the book has been closed. Reluctant readers should eat this up.

Highly recommended for grades 9-12

By Mr. Doyle

This is a reposting of a previous review. This title is a 2008-2009 California Young Reader Medal nominee.

McCormick’s book Cut, about the very controversial topic of self-mutilation, is one of the most popular titles is our library. In Sold she takes on another controversial topic– forced prostitution. Lakshmi is a 13-year-old village girl in Nepal. Her family is just barely scraping by, thanks to her gambling step-father. When a monsoon washes away their meager crops the family faces ruin and starvation.

At her step-father’s urging Lakshmi accepts a job working as a maid in the city. She hopes to be able to send money home to her mother, enough for food and maybe even a real roof for the house. She is transported by her new “auntie” who hands her off to an older man. Told to pretend she is his wife, she is transported over the Indian border and taken to Calcutta. She soon discovers that she has been sold into prostitution. At the brothel, Happiness House, she is beaten, starved and drugged until she submits.

This first-person narrative is told in spare, poetic language. The account of her subjugation is agonizing but never gratuitous. Lakshmi’s strength in the face of brutality and humiliation is impressive. How anyone, much less a 13-year-old girl, can endure what Lakshmi experiences is almost beyond imagining. Most heartbreaking of all is the author’s note telling readers that Lakshmi’s life is based on the real life experiences of thousands of Nepalese girls.

McCormick handles a sensitive topic better than almost any other writer could. The story is never sensationalistic and is one that demands telling.

By Mr. Doyle

WOW! I haven’t liked a book this much since Looking for Alaska and Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood. Asher’s book is a must-read. Clay Jenkins receives a box of cassette tapes in the mail shortly after the suicide of the girl he was falling in love with. On the tapes he hears the girl, Hannah, explain how 13 people led her to commit suicide. Clay spends the entire night wandering the city listening to the tapes and wondering what he did to contribute to the tradgedy.

Clay is such a sypathetic character and Hannah’s story is heartbreaking and utterly realistic (like Miles and Alaska in Looking for Alaska. This is one of those rare books that will appeal equally to boys and girls, teens and adults. Don’t miss it!

Mr. Doyle

PODCAST
Sonny (a.k.a. Shorty) and Alberto are best friends growing up on the mean streets of Medllin, Colombia. They do everything together, including running cigarettes for Galan. A spontaneous act of violence earns Alberto an introduction to “El Fantasma”, a soft-spoken, vicious crime lord. Alberto becomes a child hit man. El Fantasma gives him a gun, money, and drugs, all of which convey power and respect on the boy. As Alberto becomes more involved with the crime lord he and Sonny begin to drift apart. Sonny, deperate to maintain his friendship and eager to gain the power and respect that Alberto now has, begs Alberto to introduce him to the boss so he can become a killer too.

This short, action packed novel vividly describes the desperate poverty and unremitting violence of Medellin. All of which make this an obvious choice for reluctant readers.

By Mr. Doyle

A book review

Palmer is nine years old. He then falls in love with Dorothy. He finds out that Dorothy likes pigeons liked the same pigeon. Then he had a party and he invited some kids that he wanted to hang around for the longest time.

The conflict of the book is that Palmer does not want to become a real wringer like all of his other friends. The reason that he does not want to become a real wringer is because one day a pigeon came to his window. Palmer let the pigeon in and he fed him. The pigeon then left to Dorothy’s window. Palmer did not know that the pigeon had left to Dorothy’s house. Then one day that Palmer’s friends came to his house to pick him up to go to the park and they were going to go and show Palmer how to become a real wringer. They gave him a bird and he did not want to put the bird out of his misery. Then one day Dorothy came to palmer’s house and she saw the bird. Palmer didn’t want her to tell anyone about the bird because he would be embarrassed because his dad was the king of wringers.

What I think about the story is that Palmer did the right thing because you should not kill any animal that has not harmed you. The tone of the story is that the story is fiction because as we people now that you should not kill an animal unless you really need to. I really recommend this book to people because it’s a really good book and you will learn that you should not kill any animals.

By Jorge Zavala

Santiago is an eleven year older Mexican that migrated to the United States. He only understood a little bit of English. Santiago played soccer with a team, the Lobitos, from Los Angeles. Santiago is scouted from Lobitos to go try out for New Castle Soccer Team, in England.
Santiago is scouted at the age of twelve, but he can’t go because he doesn’t have any money. Also Santiago parents don’t want to let him go because he has to help the family. Afterwards Santiago has another problem blocking his trip because he doesn’t have a passport to go and come back incase he didn’t make it For New Castle Soccer Team.

Through out the book is intense able of what’s going on, and what will happen. The style is based on a true story. Then this book would be good to show what immigrants come to do in the U.S, which its to achieve their goals and overcome obstacles.

By Armando Davalos

In the novel surviving The Applewhites Jake Semple is a mean, spiked hair, with many earrings, always cursing always wearing black young kid. He’s been kicked out of every school he’s ever gone to until finally he’s ended up on the Applewhites’ farm. The Applewhites are neighbors of Jake’s grandfather and they are all very interesting people.

They are interesting because they all have unique talents, or are either developing their own talent. All except for a young girl by the name of E.D. she is very organized and always seems to rub Jake the wrong way. At the end it doesn’t matter because the whole family gets involved in the father’s musical production “The Sound of Music” staring Jake.Everyone puts their talents together in this production and because of E.D.s neatness it all comes out great for the whole world to enjoy.

I thought that that this was a great book because I show how a young ruthless boy changes over a matter of time into a respectful young man. I also liked it because it talks about how a family who put their heads together and accomplished so much more than they can imagine.

By Chris Jarero

Emako’s dream was becoming a singer. She has many struggles to overcome. Some of her struggles were to get out of Los Angeles; she didn’t like it there because so many problems to face daily. There were times she wished she could just get out there and start a new life. Emako was a girl the always got what she wants because she worked hard for it.
The number one thing she hated about where she lived were the people that got her brother in gangs. That’s why she always worries about when he will be home .Once he’s home all the drama begins for her. She has to be careful and is always watching over her back because people could shoot at her. In school she will participate in everything and also will help people out and be there when they need a friend. She has many friends because her attitude was friendly.

Sometimes when people join a gang they never think about their family member. All they care is just having fun and not caring about anything else or anybody. Life could change in a second! It’s also like a rollercoaster, we all have our ups and downs even though we think nothing like that will ever happen to us. We just have to get used to it people live and die every day so I don’t know why we get so scared when that happens. We have to express our feelings toward our family members because we never know when we live or die. I will recommend this book because it shows people be to value there live and there family member. It explains what happens when join a gang.

By Eder Ambriz

Being a teenaged parent is not a big deal, but, it is for Sam when it comes to give away his son for an adoption. Sam all of sudden decides to take care of his son Max on his own. Regardless of his parent’s explanation he is stuck to his final decision and little confused, he brought Max home.

Sam who is senior in a high school is now taking care of his son Max. Max was not his plan but, now is part of his life. Attending an alternative high school he is giving fatherhood his best shot. His love toward Max is not all questionable. Suddenly a situation comes when Sam realizes that he is not able to give Max the time and attention as he should be giving. This led him to make the most tough decision of his life. This decision will change the deal between him and his father.

Though it is a fictional story it reveals the truth of teenaged parent’s love toward their kids and how sometimes they have to make tough choice’s for the betterness. Full of sadness and confidence this book will make one feel the way Sam felt for himself and his son Max. This sadness and confidence will allow one to turn the pages until Max is eighteen year’s old.

By Baljit Bedi

The book is about Naomi, Owen, and there great grandmother.
That has been taking care of them for se4ven years. Ever since there mother left them with her. They all 3 live in a trailer.

Naomi is a very shy girl that when they make fun of her brother she doesn’t do anything because she is to shy to speck in front of others. Her little brother is a little deformed, because one leg is bigger than the other one and he carries tapes with him were ever they go. Everything seemed to be going great until there mom showed up.

But there was something wrong she only wanted to keep Naomi and not Owen and there grandmother wasn’t going let that happened

By Guadalupe Castaneda

PODCAST
McCormick’s book Cut, about the very controversial topic of self-mutilation, is one of the most popular titles is our library. In Sold she takes on another controversial topic– forced prostitution. Lakshmi is a 13-year-old village girl in Nepal. Her family is just barely scraping by, thanks to her gambling step-father. When a monsoon washes away their meager crops the family faces ruin and starvation.

At her step-father’s urging Lakshmi accepts a job working as a maid in the city. She hopes to be able to send money home to her mother, enough for food and maybe even a real roof for the house. She is transported by her new “auntie” who hands her off to an older man. Told to pretend she is his wife, she is transported over the Indian border and taken to Calcutta. She soon discovers that she has been sold into prostitution. At the brothel, Happiness House, she is beaten, starved and drugged until she submits.

This first-person narrative is told in spare, poetic language. The account of her subjugation is agonizing but never gratuitous. Lakshmi’s strength in the face of brutality and humiliation is impressive. How anyone, much less a 13-year-old girl, can endure what Lakshmi experiences is almost beyond imagining. Most heartbreaking of all is the author’s note telling readers that Lakshmi’s life is based on the real life experiences of thousands of Nepalese girls.

McCormick handles a sensitive topic better than almost any other writer could. The story is never sensationalistic and is one that demands telling.

By Mr. Doyle

PODCAST
Deanna is a 13 year-old eighth grader when her father finds her having sex in a car with a 17 year-old (her older brother’s best friend). The boy’s spin on the story and the lurid details invented by the school-gossip grapevine make Deanna the school slut. Even 3 years later she is dogged by that incident. Her formerly affectionate father can’t even bear to look at her. Her older brother has added to the family shame by getting his girlfriend pregnant. The brother, girlfriend, and baby all live in the basement. Add in the father’s underemployment and the rapidly aging, overworked mom and you have a fully dysfunctional family.

Deanna finds her home life unbearable and school is no better. She fantasizes about moving out with her brother and his family and the four of them setting up a home away from her father’s disapproving glare. To enact her “plan” she needs money- first and last months’ rent and a security deposit in the San Francisco Bay area requires a pile of cash. Jobs in Pacifica are scarce though so she ends up at a run down pizza parlor. To her horror her coworker is Tommy– the boy her father caught her with. Out of desperation to keep her dream of a new home alive she keeps the job. Daily facing the leering young man.

Deanna’s voice is authentic and her needs and fears feel very real. The author’s presentation of the tense, dysfunctional household and the decaying blue-collar town are very well done. Her growth and transformation are artfully rendered and very believable. There is no deus ex machina resolution to all of the protagonist’s problems. Deanna enters her junior year with many of the same problems to face but the author gives her hope and a new sense of herself. Who could ask for more?

(This title is on order)

By Mr. Doyle

A California Young Reader Medal nominee for 2006-2007 (Jr. High/Middle School category)

Naomi Soledad León Outlaw is a quiet, unassuming, mixed race-girl with a strange name. She lives with her great grandmother and her brother Owen in an Airstream trailer at Avocado Acres Trailer Park in Lemon Tree, California. Naomi and Owen have lived there for seven years, since their mother abandoned them. Owen is extremely intelligent but is physically deformed from birth defects. He also exhibits some obsessive compulsive tendencies but is otherwise a happy and well adjusted child.

Naomi is a list maker, in fact making list is at the top of her list of things she is good at. She is also good at carving, a skill she inherited from her nearly forgotten father, Santiago León of Oaxaca, México. Naomi leads a poor but comfortable life with her brother and Gram and a small, but close-knit community at the trailer park. She is painfully shy, to the point that she feels unable to defend her brother from the mocking of schoolyard bullies.

Naomi’s world is shaken to its foundation when her mother shows up unexpectedly. She has rechristened herself Skyla and has a new man in her life, the controlling Clive. Skyla claims to have turned her life around through counseling and quitting alcohol but Naomi suspects that this is a front. Skyla reveals that she intends to take Naomi with her to live in Las Vegas with Clive and his daughter. Gram and Naomi realize that Skyla and Clive only want Naomi to baby sit and to get welfare and they refuse to cooperate. Skyla threatens violence and legal action so Gram and her neighbors hookup Baby Beluga (the Airstream trailer) to a truck and head to Mexico to find Naomi’s father in hopes of enlisting him in a custody battle.

In Mexico Naomi feels like she has discovered a part of herself that has lain dormant since early childhood. She and Owen feel just as at home in Oaxaca as they do in Avocado Acres. But tension mounts as they race against time to find their father, with the specter of Skyla looming over them. Ultimately Naomi must find the lion within her—El León—to seize control of her own destiny.

Ryan does an excellent job depicting mood and setting, letting us see Oaxaca at Christmas through the eyes of a child. She vividly brings to life Las Posadas, el mercado, and the little known festival “La Noche de Los Rábanos” or Night of the Radishes. Naomi is every bit as inspiring as Esperanza and, like Esperanza Rising, the ending of this book is very uplifting.

Away Laughing on A fast Camel by Louise Rennison is a book about a British teenage girl named Georgia Nicolson. The book is all about Georgia’s life, it about how a typical teenager deals with problems in their life. It talks about Georgia’s crushes. The story starts out with Georgia’s official boyfriend, deciding to go off to Switzerland taking her heart with him. Georgia decides to display extreme glaciosity to all boys Until, she meets Masimo, the new Italian-American lead singer for the Stiff Dylans band. Immediately Georgia likes him and wants him to be her new boyfriend so the rest of the book talks about her funny ways to try to get Masimo to be hers. Georgia thinks she has her feelings sorted out until her ex-boyfriend Dave tells her he loves her and Georgia thinks that she still likes him. Oh what a crisis Georgia is in, if you want to read more about this funny teenage girl then you should go and read it.
By Perveen Mann

In The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan portrays the differences between the Chinese and the American cultures through mother-daughter relationships and their misunderstandings of one another. In a way Jing-mei Woo is the main character of the novel, who bridges America and China. Jing-mei Woo and her peers, the other daughters of an organization called the Joy Luck Club, have always identified themselves with Americans. However, they are beginning to regret having neglected their Chinese heritage. Their mothers wonder whether by giving their daughters American opportunities and self-sufficiency, they have alienated them from their Chinese heritage.
 
This novel is interesting and realistic in the sense that it shows what happens when two different cultures clash. It also shows the struggle and fight to keep one’s true identity.
 
By Jaspreet Mann

The book 8 Seconds by Jean Ferris tells the interesting story of a dedicated rodeo cowboy and his experiences. The cowboy, Russ, is a begginer cowboy in the beginning of the novel and attends “cowboy camp” over the summer. At cowboy camp, he is responsible for bettering his rodeo skills and impressing his family and his father most importantly. At the camp he becomes great friends with another cowboy and they have several late night talks about their problems. An undeclared relationship arouses over time and when it becomes public, Russ’ family is quite dissapointed. The novel creates much tension that intrigues the reader. 8 Seconds is a novel to be taken off the bookshelf.

By Marina Millan