Zen and the Art of Faking It by Jordan Sonnenblick

Zen and the Art of Faking It by Jordan Sonnenblick is about San Lee, an 8th grader who recently moved to ""Nowheresville." He and his family have moved around a lot - mostly to run away from whatever state has a new warrant out on his dad. When his dad finally gets busted and thrown in jail, San and his mom end up on their own, poor and barely getting by. San decides to reinvent himself at his new school, and begins practicing Zen. After doing some research at the library, he has a decent handle on some of the basic principles. He sits on a rock and meditates, he spouts quotations from famous Zen Buddhists, he even begins making up his own philosophical ideas. One thing leads to another, and San ends up using his "Zen" principles to coach the B basketball team as they challenge the A team to a charity game. As San becomes more and more involved with people (including a special girl) at his school, he becomes afraid that his fake Zen routine will be exposed. Someone has been leaving strange notes in his locker, his new girl "friend's" step brother has it out for him, and his mom keeps trying to butt in by buying him new clothes (so not Zen) and wanting to meet his friends. This is a problem because San was adopted from China as a baby and his parents are caucasian. His mother's appearance would blow the whole idea that San's Zen ideas are based on his cultural background and upbringing.

I chose this book because I really liked Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie, but the same author. I liked Zen, too! Even though San's house of cards eventually fell all around him, I believe he came out of everything as a better person. He really started thinking like a Zen Buddhist by the end, and seemed to change as a character. I connected with San, and that is what tells me that this was a great book!

Witch Child by Celia Rees

Witch Child by Celia Rees is set in the 1600s, first in England and then in the new colonies in America. Mary, an orphaned teen, lives with her grandmother until they are accused of witchcraft. Mary watches as her grandmother is drowned during a "witch test". She sees her grandmother gesture to someone behind her, and Mary is immediately whisked away from the village and sent to America. Later, she realizes that is it her mother that set it all up, a witch, herself. On the voyage to America, Mary is taken in by Martha, a single woman, and Jonah and Tobias, a father and son who are interested in healing and plants. People being to suspect a witch on the ship when the weather takes a turn for the worse and the food supplies dwindle. Eventually they make it to America - Salem, Massachusetts - only to find the people they were hoping to meet had moved on, into the wilderness. Mary, Martha, Jonah and Tobias continue on with the rest of the group they arrived with, following two Native American men into the wild. Jaybird, the younger of the two leaders, becomes friends with Mary. When they finally find the settlement and their friends and relatives, more strange things begin happening in the village. Having no explanation for these occurrences, and, in the end, needing an easy way to cover up embarrassing situations, the townspeople begin accusing Mary and Martha of witchcraft.

This book is told through Mary's diary, until the end when Mary ends up abandoning her diary. The story is picked up by Martha, who does her best to finish Mary's story after she is gone. I ended up really liking this story. The beginning was long and a little bit boring. But, once the settlers got to America and the story started to unfold with the townspeople and their ideas about witchcraft, it was really interesting. I think Mary Newbury may have been a real girl growing up in the 1600s and accused of witchcraft. I'll have to do some research on that!

The Compound by S. A. Bodeen

The Compound by S. A. Bodeen is about the Yanakakis family. Rex, the father, is as rich as they come and terrified of a nuclear war between the U.S. and Middle East. When his twins, Eddy and Eli, were born, he secretly began working on an underground compound to house his family in case of an emergency. On Eddy and Eli's 9th birthday, the family was out camping near the compound when they got word of an attack. In their hurry to reach safety, they left Eddy and Gram (their mother, Clea's mother) on the outside. The rest of the family, Rex, Clea, Eli, Eli's older sister Lexie, and his younger sister Terese, spend years living in the compound, believing that the world above has been destroyed by nuclear war and that everyone they knew and loved had died. Their father's plan was to spend 15 years in the compound before the automatic locks would allow the hatch to open. Unfortunately, things start going wrong about 6 years into their isolation. The food supplies start dwindling, the livestock they had was accidentally poisoned, the hydroponics lamps started dying, and Eli started to suspect that his father was hiding something.

I absolutely loved this book. I read the first half the day I checked it out from the library, and woke up at 5:00am on a Saturday to finish it! I couldn't stop thinking about it all night long, and just HAD to find out what happened. There were some shocking ideas in this story with twists and turns I never suspected. Even the very end held a surprise!

Maus: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman

Maus: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman is a graphic novel about a Jewish man and women surviving in Poland during WWII. In this story, The Jewish people are represented by mice and the Germans by cats. The story starts out with Art Spiegelman (representing the author) interviewing his father about his experience during the war. The story goes back and forth from past to present - the past being told by Mr. Spiegelman and the present through the eyes of Artie, his son.

I really liked this book. It is the first 1/2 of the story. It ends just when Mr. Spiegelman and his wife are sent to Auschwitz after year of hiding from the Nazis. The second 1/2 of the story is a separate book called Maus : A Survivor's Tale Volume 2: And Here My Troubles Began. I haven't read this one yet, but I will. Graphic novels are not my favorite genre - I either forget to read the words or forget to look at the pictures, and then I'm lost! I found this book easier to understand. The story is funny and sad at the same time. I believe it is meant for a more mature audience, however, because of some violence.

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt is about Winnie Foster, a 10 year old girl living in the late 1800s, who feels smothered by her family. She sits on one side of her family's iron fence dreaming of running away to make a difference in the world, but is too scared to do it. One day Winnie ventures past the gate and into her family's wood. There, she meets Jesse Tuck. Surprised to see anyone, Jesse and his mom, Mae, and brother, Miles, panic and kidnap Winnie. They are afraid that she will share their secret - that there is a natural spring on the Foster's property that will allow the drinker to live forever. They take Winnie deep into the forest and tell her their story, hoping to make her understand why she can never tell anyone about the magic water. Little do they know that someone has been searching for the Tuck family for many years and actually overheard them tell their story to Winnie.

I love this book. I have read it many times and every time I find new details and ideas that I never noticed before. I have seen the movie, and while I also like the movie, it does not match up well enough with the book to suit my taste. This is a great book and one I would recommend to anyone!

Skellig by David Almond

Skellig by David Almond is a story about a boy named Michael. Michael's infant sister is born incredibly ill and the entire family changes as a result. They move to an old house and Michael begins to explore the property. He finds an old dilapidated shed in the back yard and, hiding inside, Michael meets Skellig, a strange old man on the brink of death. Michael also meets a neighbor, Mina, who is home schooled, and introduces Michael to an entirely different way of thinking and learning. Michael lets Mina in on the secret of Skellig and the two begin nursing him back to health with positive thinking and Chinese food. All the while, Michael's parents are in and out of the hospital with his baby sister. Eventually, the baby needs an operation and Michael and Mina decide to move Skellig to an abandoned house close to where they live. Everything comes together at the end with the outcome of the operation and the disappearance of Skellig.

This book was a quick read. The story was very sweet! I really felt for Michael - torn between his school pals and his new, yet strange, friend Mina. I could understand Michael and his family's sorrow over the sick child. I got truly involved with the characters, and that, to me, is what makes a book great.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer is about Bella, a girl who moves from sunny Phoenix to the rain capital of the world, Forks, Washington, to live with her dad because her mom is on the road with her baseball playing new husband. While in Forks, despite thinking she will hate living there, Bella meets Edward Cullen and immediately realizes there is something "different" about him. Eventually, she discovers that he and his entire family are actually vampires who dine on animals, rather than people. Bella and Edward fall in love. Edward works hard at keeping Bella safe (mostly from her own clumsy ways) and enters the fight of his life when James, a tracker vampire, sets his sights on her. James lures Bella away from the safety of Edward's family. It is up to the Cullens to find her and save her from whatever terrible fate James has in store for her.

Ok, so I've read this one before. It is definitely one of my favorite books of all time. When I read it again this time it was like I had gotten a surprise email from a long-lost friend and was reconnecting with someone I really missed. I know that sounds dorky... I love the fact that the heroine, Bella, is a normal, plain-looking, clumsy girl and NOT a supermodel. The relationship that develops between Bella and Edward is so innocent and sweet, despite the fact that Edward is a "monster". It's just a great book all around. AND, the movie comes out on DVD on Tuesday, March 21st! Yeah!