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Alpha Dog by Jennifer Ziegler

Published October 10, 2007 RAC , Realistic Fiction Leave a Comment
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Genre:  Realistic Fiction

Age Level:  14 and up

# of pages:  321 p.

RAC Book:  Yes

Katie has a history of terrible birthdays and her 17th is no exception when her boyfriend dumps her the day before she is supposed to leave for a summer college program.  He has also been cheating on her with one of her good friends and all the rest of her friends side with the friend (who is more popular than her) in the breakup and won’t talk to Katie anymore.  Katie also has an overbearing mother who constantly reminds her of how special and accomplished she was at her age. 

When Katie reaches her summer apartment she is ready to try something new and get away from her life, but her roomate constantly has her boyfriend and his friends over who eat her food and bother her.  On a spur of the moment decision, Katie adopts a dog from the rescue league and immediately has trouble with little Seamus.  He quickly terrorizes her rooomate, the neighborhood kids, and even her landlady.  In dog training classes she learns she must become the alpha dog in order for Seamus to obey her.  Katie realizes this is true for the rest of her life as well.  She does what she is supposed to do and what everyone around her tells her to do and she needs to step up and become the alpha dog in her own life.

Alpha Dog is  a heartwarming story about a girl who comes to truly love her adopted dog.  Seamus also helps her grow up and take responsibility for her life and those around her.  Once she stands up for what she wants others respect her in a new way and she forms much longer lasting friendships and relationships than she had before.  Seamus is a little bit of a handful at first and exasperating to read about at times, but anyone who has ever had a new dog knows this can be true!  The shallowness in which her friends drop her for their more popular friend and then pick her up again when they learn she knows a famous band seems unbelievable, but I think some high school students can be that shallow.  Anyone who loves dogs or has ever had a time in their life when nothing has turned out quite right and they had to make some big changes will enjoy this book. 

 

 

Shelter by Beth Cooley

Published October 3, 2007 RAC , Realistic Fiction Leave a Comment
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Genre:  Realistic Fiction

Age Level:  12 and up

# of pages:  211

RAC Book:  Yes

Lucy, along with her mother and brother, Jimmy, is still recovering from the death of her father.  As her mother delves into their personal finances she realizes that things were not as her husband had led her to believe.  They had a lot of debt, no life insurance, and no way to pay their bills.  Her mother had always stayed at home and had no degree or work experience.  They soon had to move out of the house in favor of a duplex, which turned into a motel, which turned into a homeless shelter.

As Lucy adjusts to life in the homeless shelter and a new public school, she must also help her mother who is struggling in her new life.  Once Lucy stops mourning her old life, she begins to see that the other people she lives with have all endured hardships and are struggling hard to overcome them.  She meets teenage single mothers trying to earn their GEDs.  She meets women who had to fight to get their kids back.  She even meets a mail order bride who fled her abusive husband. 

Lucy decides to make the best of things and gets an after school job.  Her brother adjusts really well and enjoys playing with the other kids.  Her mom tries to take some classes, but does not do well at them and begins to wonder what she is going to do to pull her family out of this situation.  Lucy too begins to realize that her situation may not have been as temporary as she had hoped.

Shelter is a good story to help students understand what it would be like to live in a shelter.  The teenage protagonist is believable in her feelings and actions in this environment, which students will identify with.  As scary as things seem to be for this family, however, they never fully lose hope and neither do those around them.  This book helps us all to remember that there are so many ways to make a difference and help those around us because little things like donations and volunteering helped many of the characters in this book to get back on their feet.

Emily Goldberg Learns to Salsa by Micol Ostow

Published September 27, 2007 Multicultural Fiction , RAC , Realistic Fiction , Uncategorized 1 Comment
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Genre:  Realistic Fiction/Multicultural Fiction

Age Level:  14 and up

# of pages:  200

RAC Book:  Yes

Emily Goldberg has been called to Puerto Rico for her grandmother’s funeral.  She has never met her grandmother or anyone else on her mother’s side of the family.  Her mother came to the U.S. to go to college, became a professor, married Emily’s father, and never went home.  Once they get to the funeral, her mother has a difficult time dealing with her estrangment from her family and asks Emily if she will stay with her in Puerto Rico for the summer, while Emily’s dad and brother go home.  Even though she was supposed to go on a road trip with her friends, Emily can’t refuse her mother in this time of need and chooses to stay. 

She finds that not everyone in the family is happy to see them and she learns more about her mother’s estrangement from her family.  Family, knowledge, tradition, and communication are all themes in this story as a family tries to come together after the death of a matriarch.  Emily learns a lot about her heritage and the strength of her mother to fight for what she believes in.

Bad Girls by Alex McAulay

Published September 24, 2007 Realistic Fiction Leave a Comment

Genre:  Realistic fiction

Age Level:  16 and up

RAC book:  No

Anna is awakened one morning to find a man screaming in her face military style.  She worries for a second about a home invasion, but quickly realizes that her parents are sending her to a military style reform school for girls.  She is taken to the school on an island in the Bahamas.  Once there, Anna realizes that her life is going to change dramatically over the next three months.  There are rules and regulations for everything. 

 On her second day her group is sent out into the woods for an overnight campout.  Halfway to the meeting point, however, her leader is shot and the girls scatter into the woods amidst further shots.  Soon Anna finds herself lost in the woods with just a few other girls.  Do they have what it takes to survive?

This book was described as a cross between mean girls and lord of the flies and that is what is was.  The survival of the fittest is definitely a theme that runs throughout this book and none of the girls change as the circumstances worsen.  Anna is struggling with some personal demons she has been trying to forget for some time and in the end she must make a choice to stand and live or fall and die.  The writing is intense as the “bad girls” struggle through this crisis.  It is not a story with a perfectly happy ending, and some terrible things happen to them on their journey.  Despite the possible authenticity of some of the language used, it seemed overdone and unnecessary at times.  This story was an adventure story in which these girls must come to terms with who they are and what they are willing to do to survive.  Since these girls were sent to military camp and displayed less than desirable traits early on, many fail to become sympathetic characters and their mean traits tend to get more pronounced as the story goes on. 

Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr

Published September 20, 2007 RAC , Realistic Fiction Leave a Comment

Genre:  Realistic Fiction 

Age Level:  14 and Up

# of Pages: 192

RAC book:  Yes

Deanna Lambert was caught in the back seat of a boy’s car by her father when she was only thirteen.  She is embarassed and sorry for her behavior, but in her small town no one wants to let her forget it.  Of all the people who won’t forget that night, her father is the one with the best memory.  He won’t look at her the same way or trust her with anything.  Now Deanna is sixteen and still struggling with what happened three years earlier.  Her older brother is living in their basement with his teenage wife and baby, which causes more tension at home.  When Deanna decides to get a job to help out at home she realizes that her reputation has preceded her yet again and the only place she can find work is a run down pizza place where the infamous boy who tainted her reputation works.  She must decide how much she wants to make money in order to leave town. 

Story of  a Girl focuses on the idea of forgiveness.  How long should someone be punished for making a mistake?  How long should a person hold a grudge?  How long can a person stay mad for his or her life not turning out like it was supposed to?  No one has the ideal life in this book.  They have all made mistakes and must learn to take responsibility for those before they can move on and make a better life for themselves.

Exposure by Patricia Murdoch

Published September 19, 2007 Realistic Fiction 6 Comments

Genre:  Realistic Fiction

Reading Level:  Age 14 and up

# of pages: 102

RAC: No

The main character, Julie, faces a problem many girls face in junior high and high school and that is a mean girl.  Dana is Julie’s mean girl and goes out of her way to make Julie feel bad on a regular basis.  When Julie mentions it to her mom, her first reaction is to call the school or Dana’s parents.  As most girls know, this solution would only add to the problem.  Julie’s brother tries to make her feel better by telling her that the high school students make fun of Dana when she comes to their parties.  Of course, going to high school parties is something Dana is most proud of. 

Julie is given a unique opportunity when she finds some pictures of Dana taken of her at one of those senior parties.  Her best friend, Sammy, urges her to take the high road, but as Dana continues to lie and bully, Julie finds herself building the courage to give Dana what she feels she has coming.  Dana’s reaction to the betrayal is much worse than Julie could ever have predicted and Sammy gets upset that she lowered herself to Dana’s level.

The message of this story is that treating someone in a cruel manner because that’s how he or she treats people will not solve anything.  Dana was not able to handle not being in control and Julie found she couldn’t handle the role of bully.  While this is true, many young girls who are being bullied will have a hard time sympathizing with Dana’s character.  It’s much easier to tell someone to be the bigger person than it actually is to do it, especially when undergoing some truly cruel behavior.  Hopefully, this book will be comforting to those in Julie’s situation in that becoming the bully will not make you any happier than being the bullied.  No matter how you look at it, this is a tough issue with no easy answers.

 

 

What Happened to Cass McBride? by Gail Giles

Published September 12, 2007 RAC , Realistic Fiction Leave a Comment

Genre:  Realistic Fiction

Age Level:  14 and Up

# of Pages:  211

RAC Book: Yes

Kyle Kirby has planned to kidnap and bury Cass McBride alive.  He plans to do this because he believes she is responsible for the suicide of his brother, David.  Shortly before his suicide, David asked her out on a date and she declined and went on to write a note to her friend calling him some terrible names and questioning why he would think he was good enough to date her.  Of course David finds this note.  As David’s story begins to spill out we learn that David has had a very difficult life living with his mother and Kyle now feels guilty that he wasn’t able to save David.  Cass begins to realize a lot about herself while she is buried in the box as well and doesn’t like what she sees.

This is a powerful story about child abuse, high school hierarchies, parent/child relationships, guilt, revenge, and remorse.  Most readers will walk away from this book with a lot to think about regarding how they treat others and how they demand others treat them.  This book is very relevant to high school life and will continue to be so for many years.

You, Maybe by Rachel Vail

Published September 4, 2007 Realistic Fiction Leave a Comment

 

Genre:  Realistic Fiction

Age Level:  14 and up

# of Pages:  199

RAC Book:  No

Josie is a confident, independent girl who refuses to form attachments and has her own style.  She criticizes any girl who would want to be in a couple because she feels that makes girls vulnerable and compromises their true selves  That all changes when Carson Gold decides he wants her to be the next girl he dates.  There have been many before her and even though Josie has seen how destructive these relationships are she can’t help but get pulled in by the star of the football team who drives the beautiful car.  Of course, she ends up losing or hurting all of her friends and her parents as she tries to be the perfect girlfriend to Carson.

This book was trying to show how girls let themselves get pulled in by guys and try to change anything about themselves in order to make these guys happy.  Unfortunately, Josie never sees what’s happening to herself.  Even when Carson dumps her, no surprise there, she is begging and crying for him to take her back.  She never regains any dignity in the relationship and has to go wounded back to her friends, whom she has alienated for this guy.  Girls often do fall into this pattern, but this book offers no hope for them to ever beat the cycle, stand up for themselves, and take control of future relationships.  This book makes teen dating seem hopeless.

Vandal by Michael Simmons

Published August 28, 2007 RAC , Realistic Fiction 2 Comments

Genre:  Realistic Fiction

Age level:  14 and up

# of pages:  173

RAC Book: Yes

From the author of Finding Lubchenko comes this story about Will and his brother, Jason.  Jason has gotten into trouble repeatedly for most of his life.  Will, his parents, and his sister have tried a variety of ways to help Jason get his life straight, including family therapy, but nothing seems to work.  Will’s favorite hobby is to play guitar in a KISS cover band.  As the band grows in popularity, Will decides to offer his brother a job carrying equipment.  His parents have concerns and make Jason stay out of trouble for an entire month before they agree to it.  Unfortunately, Jason’s first night on the job yields a fight during a KISS Forever performance and much, much worse.  Jason appears truly sorry for everything he does, but continues to act without regard for people or property.  Will must evaluate his expectations for a future relationship with Will.  He must also decide if Will is maliciously hurting his family or if he really is unable to control his actions, each option is disturbing in its own way. 

 This novel does not have the clever persona telling the story that Finding Lubchenko does, which is a little disappointing.  Will seems to truly understand what it means to forgive even when it is difficult, but many readers will wonder how he can always support his brother as he continues to make poor decisions.  The fact that Jason seems unable to control himself is disturbing since everyone continues to cover for him and support him throughout the story.  It is difficult to see how he will ever be a responsible person with this safety net around him.  This book would be good for leading discussions on forgiveness and taking responsibility for ones own actions. 

Dead Connection by Charlie Price

Published August 27, 2007 Mystery , Realistic Fiction 2 Comments

Genre:  Mystery

Age Level:  14 and up

# of pages: 225

 

This story is told from many different perspectives.  First, there is Murray who can speak to dead people when he sits on their graves.  As a social outcast, he thinks of these people as his friends.  One day, though, he hears an unfamiliar voice that appears to be lost.  He begins to wonder if she was murdered and if so, how he can help her without ending up in the psych ward.  Other characters include Deputy Gates who is trying to solve the case of a missing high school girl, Mr. Janochek, the caretaker of the cemetary, and his daughter, Pearl, and Robert Barry Compton who was recently released from a mental facility and is trying to get on with his life.  Robert feels that he may have seen something in the past that he should tell someone, but his meds make it hard for him to remember.

The idea of talking to the dead is not new, but this story puts a new spin on it as Murray must go to the grave in order to see and hear the people buried there.  He is not psychic, but has a way of reaching beyond to talk to these people.  The characters in this story and well developed in a short amount of time so that you know who they are, what their motives are, and why they act the way they do throughout the story.  The mystery takes longer to solve than it first appears and will keep readers guessing right up until the end.

 

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