BAIT by Alex Sanchez

Bait was about a boy named Diego who was suffering with a horrible secret. The secret was he was raped and abused when he was younger by his stepfather. This caused him to worry he'd be gay or even turn gay. Than one day a boy at school who was gay was staring at Diego, Diego told him to stop and he wouldn't so Diego punched him in the face. This is when he met his PO (Parole Officer) Mr. Vidas. As he began to open up with Mr. Vidas we found out that Diego had tried to tell his mom that this was happening but when he brought it up she slapped him across the face, she wouldn't listen to him. Diego started to feel more and more comfortable with Mr. Vidas but once this happened he felt like he was being taken away because Mr. Vidas decided against having him be on Parole. Diego felt betrayed and worried Mr. Vidas was the only male figure Diego had in his life and he wasn't about to lose that. So Diego requested to have probation so he could talk more to Mr. Vidas. Mr. Vidas had no idea Diego was cutting him self and soon found out. After this, all Diego's secrets began spilling out eventually leading to Mr. Vidas' secret also being found out. Mr. Vidas is gay. Diego immediately felt betrayed and decided he was going into the ocean to fight the shark that appeared in his dreams so often. After almost drowning Diego made it back to shore and decided to talk to Mr. Vidas about what he had learned. Mr. Vidas confirmed to him that he was in fact gay and told Diego that he'd never hurt him, and Diego soon trusted him again. Eventually Mr. Vidas sent up a meeting with Diego's mom & himself and Diego told her about the abuse. Soon after opening up their relationship got better, and Mr. V tried an activity asking Diego to imagine that he could say what he always wanted to say to his stepfather (Mac). After this activity Diego began to feel like a weight was lifted off his shoulders, everything from then on out got much better.

I learned a lot about the struggle people go through when their abused and how it can really effect their lives if they don't talk about it. Also i learned how much impact not having a father figure in someones life can be.

An excellent book really draws you in and you can feel the pain Diego is suffering. And how desperate he is for a male figure in his life.

Recommended for grades 9-12 and adults


KH in Greenville

EVERYTHING IS FINE by Ann Dee Ellis

Independent and stubborn, Mazzy lives in a quiet house where her mother refuses to get out of bed. Her father is miles away working for a T.V. channel - neglecting his young daughter and depressed wife. She feels she is losing everything - she has already lost too much - and continues to push away the people who love her most (her father, her BFF, her friendly neighbor) in the subconscious effort to find herself. Analyzing her world in her creative, quirky way, Mazzy tells her touching yet sometimes humorous story of discovering herself and searching for her family.

Covering such topics as grief, depression, loss, growing up, and the search for identity, this book made me more fully aware of the difficulties teens face. The whole story and the presentation of these problems were very believable and touching - I felt I was able to understand Mazzy's experiences and tribulations.

I felt pulled into a story mixed with the humor of a creative, unique teen and the difficult, bitter realities she bravely faced. The references to recognizable television shows and people, such as Oprah and Bill Gates, grabbed my attention and made me more able to relate to the main character, Mazzy. The characters were also well developed, likable, and innovative and were an essential part of the story. However, the book's ending seemed abrupt; the story was finished before I felt satisfied with how the characters' lives would play out.

Recommended for grades 9-12.

SA in Greenville

YOU DON'T KNOW ME by David Klass

John goes through his life thinking noone truly knows him. He calls everyone he knows by different names because he thinks that truly they don't know him. John never met his real father (which he calls the man who named him after a toilet) but the man his mother brought into his house, (the man who is not my father) beats him. John doesn't have many friends but when hanging out with Billy Breezer he gets the idea to ask out a girl he calls Glory Hallelujia to the basketball game. Glory says yes and they go to the game, then back to her house. She invites him in the basement and practically makes him take off his shoes and shirt once this happens her father tries to get into the basement which is locked. Her father starts freaking out and screaming, telling Glory she better be alone she yells at him to bust down the door you. He does just that he busts down the door forcing John to find an escape route, and quick. He eventually leaves but now he is hated by anyone he ever knew. Once John gets home he gets beaten, and when he goes back to school he gets suspended for calling his teacher Mrs. Moonface. One of the days John was suspended, a girl from school called Violent Hayes shows up at John's door she eventually asks him to the Semiformal and he ends up going. But when John gets home he gets beaten worse than he's ever been beaten before. He tries to fight back, and he stabs his father in the cheek but this doesn't faze him. His stepfather then punches him in the mouth breaking teeth and cutting his lip. Then they both collide causing them to land outside where his not father punches him in the nose breaking it but just when John thinks he's going to die, Mr. Steenwilly appears and breaks it up. John is now safe and this is were John's mother finds out what's really going on and John realizes his mother really knows him after all.

I learned that there's always help when your getting abused, Mr. Steenwilly suspected something was wrong from day one and he stuck with it, saving John's life. Abuse is a very serious issue and you can help keeping it from happening or help someone who is being abused get help.

I found this book to be very interesting and I liked the character Violent Hayes.

Recommended for grades 9-12.

KH in Greenville

WHEN SHE HOLLERS by Cynthia Voigt

Tish is hiding a secret, a secret that is running her life and making her ashamed. Tish is being raped by her stepfather (sometimes called her father). Tish's stepfather taunts her and her mother just blocks it out. Tish finally gets fed up and gets a survival knife, the only thing that makes her feel safe. She threatens her stepfather with the knife but he just laughs it off. Finally after battling with her stepfather she heads off to school where all the talk is about the girl named Miranda (they call her Randy) who committed suicide. Miranda was 6 months pregnant. After Tish and her friends talk about this she heads off to gym, with the survival knife still in her Docs. Her coach tells her she'll have to take off her Docs and she refuses, this means she'll have to give up her protection. She refuses which leads into the coach trying to take off Tish's shoes causing Tish to scream and freak out scaring her entire gym class. Also it sends her to the nurse & eventually to the office. This is where she gets told her stepfather is on his way to get her, she can't have this. She asks to go the the bathroom and runs, fighting off Chrissie & Kipper, and ending up in Chrissie's fathers office (he is a lawyer). She ends up telling him what he did to her and he tells her he'll testify and he'll protect her. Tish now goes home and must face her stepfather Tonnie, but she still has her protection, her knife.

There is always help & you don't need to face these types of things alone, all Tish needed was Chrissie's Dad's help.

I wouldn't really recommend this book. Tish had me really confused all throughout the book. I wasn't sure what was going on most of the time. Half the time it had me thinking that Tish was pregnant herself, plus the ending didn't really explain much, it had you wanting more.

Recommended for all teens.


KH in Greenville

LOCK AND KEY by Sarah Dessen

Her mother abandoned her. She hasn't seen her father since she was a small girl. She is stuck between her old world of lies and poverty and the new one of questions and unfamiliarity. She can't rely on trusting her old or new friends, her troubled mother, or her loving sister and brother-in-law. Not even charming, sweet Nate Cross who lives behind her elaborate new home. Her hand falls to her old house's, the yellow house's, battered key, which she has strung on its delicate chain as a necklace -her sole comfort in her life of building a new Ruby Cooper.

The book contained a wide range of topics including and focusing on friendship, relationships, abandonment, and discovering oneself as a teen. It familiarized me with these topics and enforced powerful messages throughout the book.

Although about three-quarters through it the book got more engrossing, this book was very slow going and didn't have many strong conflicts - I wasn't exactly sure where it was going until the last few chapters. In some places, the book's messages were a little confusing and unclear, although overall they were powerful and the most beautiful part of the book. All in all, it was an okay book.

Recommended for grades 11-12.


SA in Greenville

LITTLE WING by Joanne Horniman

Little Wing is about a teenage mother, Emily, who tries to find herself after having her child. Emily runs away from her family to her grandmother to try to find herself. While staying at her grandmother's she befriends a househusband and his son. Through spending time with them Emily gradually becomes happier and stable. She was afraid that she couldn't love her daughter but she gradually wants to see her and touch her. In the end she goes back to her, after finding her way back to her original self.

Sometimes to find yourself you need to get away from other people and have new experiences. But sometimes when you're trying to find yourself you might cause other people to be sad and unhappy. Also, every mother loves her child even though she may not know that, just like Emily.

Little Wing is very interesting and realistic. It shows you how a teenage mother copes with herself after having a child whom she thinks she cannot love. It's a good read that I am sure everyone will enjoy.

Recommended for all teens.


JN in Howland

RATS SAW GOD by Rob Thomas

This was a book about a boy named Steve York who cruises through his high school career smoking pot until his guidance counselor tells him the only way he'll graduate is if he writes a 100 page paper about anything he wants. This book takes you through his high school years. Steve writes about his life, his astronaut dad, the girl he loved (Dub), his sister Sarah, and his mom. Steve talks about his life when he was living in Houston with his astronaut dad, when he meets his best friend Doug and creating a group called GOD (Grace Order of Dadaists), and falling in love with Dub. Then he talks about what happens and how he lost Dub, and how he ended up in San Diego with his mom.

I gained a lot about how pot can affect your life. Steve wasted his years lighting up forcing him to do this assignment for school so he can graduate.

I would recommended this book, although it was confusing because he was writing about his life during both junior and senior year, and I got confused because this book would keep flipping in between both.

Recommended for grades 11-12.


KH in Greenville

THE LUCKIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD by Steven Levenkron

This book is about a young girl named Katie who is involved in figure skating while maintaining an A+ average in a private school. She faces troubles with her mother because not only does her mother expect more from her all the time, she also puts so much pressure on her because she wants her to do better when this isn't what Katie wants, it is what her mother Katherine wants. Katie has no friends and does not socialize with anybody at all. Her father is not involved in her life at all because he walked out on them. Katie finally had it when she started cutting herself because it felt good to release the pain she had. She finally got caught when it was getting worse and she finally blew up. She got herself help and started counseling and was finally able to tell her mother how she felt and how this wasn't her dream, it was her mother's, and she wants to go to public school and she wants to have a normal life. Getting caught cutting herself and getting the proper help she needed changed her life in such brilliant ways.

From this book I gained courage and I learned that holding in your feelings can lead you to very bad places. Not only did Katie have the courage to open up to the Counselor and say what she said to her mother she was able to stop cutting herself because she wanted to get help before she got emotionally sicker.

I believe that if you are seriously hurting yourself emotionally and physically it might feel like you're going to just destroy yourself and you're never going to get better but in all reality this book shows you that there are ways to come out from that hole that you're in to see in the sunshine. There are ways to come about your problems. And that it is going to be okay.

Recommended for all teens.


AH in Howland

SPLIT IN TWO: KEEPING IT TOGETHER WHEN YOUR PARENTS LIVE APART by Karen Buscemi

This book is all about how to help kids of any age deal with their parents getting or are divorced. The ideas the book gives the reader are very easy to do, and the child and parents will be able to do them together, even thought they live apart.

I gained helpful advice about how I would handle being organized, how I would be able to make both my homes feel like home, how to pack better when I go house to house and other helpful things.

I would recommended this book because it is very helpful to kids who have parents that are divorced.

Recommended for all teens.


SD in Howland

NOTES FROM THE DOG by Gary Paulson

At the start of summer, Finn declares to speak to only ten people until the start of school. He thinks it will be easy, until he meets Joanna, a college student and cancer patient with an electric personality and a proposition for him--to plant a garden in his own backyard for money!

Notes from the Dog helped me further understand the struggle a person has when fighting cancer, and how important it is for them to have support from friends and family.

The book is definitely intended for a younger age group, so as a high school senior I found it boring.

Recommended for Grades 6 - 10.



RVK in Esopus

LIKE A THORN by Clara Vidal

Melie's mother is sometimes nice, sometimes mean -- and always prone to erratic behavior that Melie does her best to deal with. As a little girl, she invents things to protect herself from her mother's mood swings. When she becomes a teenager, tip-toeing around her own house she becomes depressed. No one understands her, and since her mother is not able to change, she has to do it herself.

It was a nice book that shows you sometimes you have to take it on yourself to do what's best for you.

Recommended.
Musfera in Esopus

LIZARD PEOPLE by Charlie Price

Seventeen-year-old Ben Mander has a particularly OK life. His mother, who has schizophrenia, refuses to take her medication, and when under duress spins outrageous tales of lizard people. Ben's father, divorced from his mother and estranged from his current girlfriend, spends most of his days haunting sleazy bars and crashing in cheap motels. Ben struggles to work with his mother.

This was a good book that shows how sometimes, it's the kids who have to take care of their parents.

Recommended.
Musfera in Esopus

LAST EXIT TO NORMAL by Michael Harmon

Ben's life is confusing, his father announces he is gay and moves out to a farm in Montana. Now, Ben is trying to learn about country life, woo the town sweetie and get a hold on his home life.

Kids who deal with gay parents face a lot of discrimination that they don't deserve. Ben is just an average, messed up teen who has a few unique problems thrown in.

Recommended.
Meghan in Esopus

I'd recommend this book: it's a great book with a really good message. It's important to be proud of who you are and where you come from.

Recommended.
Musfera in Esopus

Ben, a troubled boy with two gay fathers, is moved to the country where he learns the value of hard work and respect.

This was a good, entertaining read that shows that sometimes the meanest people in the world have reasons for doing what they do.

Outstanding.
Joe in Esopus

HOW TO RAISE YOUR PARENTS: A TEEN GIRL'S SURVIVAL GUIDE by Sarah Burningham

Real teens tell stories about their lives and how to deal with parents. Parents only want you to be safe, and they were once your age. This book tells you how to address things with your parents.

Recommended.
Emily in Garrison.