Category Archives: Read This

Read This!: I WOKE UP DEAD AT THE MALL by Judy Sheehan

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I Woke Up Dead at the MallI Woke Up Dead at the Mall by Judy Sheehan

Summary: When you’re sixteen, you have your whole life ahead of you. Unless you’re Sarah. Not to give anything away, but . . . she’s dead. Murdered, in fact. Sarah’s murder is shocking because she couldn’t be any more average. No enemies. No risky behavior. She’s just the girl on the sidelines.  It looks like her afterlife, on the other hand, will be pretty exciting. Sarah has woken up dead at the Mall of America—where the universe sends teens who are murdered—and with the help of her death coach, she must learn to move on or she could meet a fate totally worse than death: becoming a mall walker.  As she tries to finish her unfinished business alongside her fellow dead teens, Sarah falls hard for a cute boy named Nick. And she discovers an uncanny ability to haunt the living. While she has no idea who killed her, or why, someone she loves is in grave danger. Sarah can’t lose focus or she’ll be doomed to relive her final moments again and again forever. But can she live with herself if she doesn’t make her death matter?

When Sarah wakes up dead, in an ugly bridesmaid dress, in an afterlife situated in the Mall of America, her story is just beginning. She soon meets the quirky cast of characters who populate this in-between place while they wait to be born into new lives: tough girl Lacey, optimistic Harry, sad, sweet, Alice, dim pretty-boy Declan, and swoony Nick. Watching over them all is a no-nonsense angel named Bertha. Sarah soon learns that she and all her new friends have all been murdered, and worse – her murderer is now after her grieving father. Her quest to save him will take her in and out of the mortal world as she confronts her own hidden powers and makes choices about the kind of person she wants to be. Not even death can take away Sarah’s wry sense of humor, and the mall is filled with delightful details – the zombie mall-walkers, the dead camping out in Crate and Barrel, the elevator to the mortal world. Who knew a story about death could be so funny and uplifting?

I WOKE UP DEAD AT THE MALL is out now.

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Read This!: MY SEVENTH-GRADE LIFE IN TIGHTS by Brooks Benjamin

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My Seventh-Grade Life in TightsMy Seventh-Grade Life in Tights by Brooks Benjamin

Summary: All Dillon wants is to be a real dancer. And if he wins a summer scholarship at Dance-Splosion, he’s on his way. The problem? His dad wants him to play football. And Dillon’s freestyle crew, the Dizzee Freekz, says that dance studios are for sellouts. His friends want Dillon to kill it at the audition—so he can turn around and tell the studio just how wrong their rules and creativity-strangling ways are. At first, Dillon’s willing to go along with his crew’s plan, even convincing one of the snobbiest girls at school to work with him on his technique. But as Dillon’s dancing improves, he wonders: what if studios aren’t the enemy? And what if he actually has a shot at winning the scholarship? 

DIZZEE FREEKZ 4-EVA!

Dillon Parker has the music in him – he loves being part of a dance crew with his friends Kassie and Carson (and videographer Austin), but he longs to learn some real technique, not just the “ninja freestyle” he invented using karate moves. Kassie and Carson, both veterans of years of dance lessons, insist that Dillon’s way is more creative, more true, but he’s not convinced. When an opportunity comes up to compete for a dance studio scholarship, Kassie wants Dillon to use it to take a stand against the creativity-stifling studios – but Dillon *really* wants those lessons. Torn between loyalty to his crew and his own desires, Dillon has to learn how to be true to himself. Dillon is a winning protagonist, willing to put up with ridicule if necessary to do what he loves, and his honest nature is refreshing. Benjamin populates his whole novel, actually, with fresh, realistic characters whom I’d love to hang out with, from good-guy football player DeMarcus to the strong-willed Kassie to the eternally sunny Carson – heck, even complicated sorta-mean-girl Sarah is winningly drawn. A delightful dance from start to finish.

MY SEVENTH-GRADE LIFE IN TIGHTS is out now.

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Read This!: THE LAST FIFTH GRADE OF EMERSON ELEMENTARY by Laura Shovan

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The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson ElementaryThe Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary

by Laura Shovan

 

 

Summary:

Eighteen kids,
one year of poems,
one school set to close.
Two yellow bulldozers
crouched outside,
ready to eat the building
in one greedy gulp.

But look out, bulldozers.
Ms. Hill’s fifth-grade class
has plans for you.
They’re going to speak up
and work together
to save their school.

You will fall in love with the kids of THE LAST FIFTH GRADE. Each one emerges as an individual, and the class dynamics becoming achingly clear as each poem brings new perspectives. You’ll pull for these kids to succeed in saving their school.  Shovan creates authentic voices for these kids individually and as a group, and each poem resonates within the whole.

THE LAST FIFTH GRADE OF EMERSON ELEMENTARY is out now.

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Read This!: DON’T GET CAUGHT by Kurt Dinan

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Don't Get CaughtDon’t Get Caught by Kurt Dinan

Summary: When Max receives a mysterious invite from the untraceable, epic prank-pulling Chaos Club, he has to ask: why him? After all, he’s Mr. 2.5 GPA, Mr. No Social Life. He’s Just Max. And his favorite heist movies have taught him this situation calls for Rule #4: Be suspicious. But it’s also his one shot to leave Just Max in the dust… Yeah, not so much. Max and four fellow students-who also received invites-are standing on the newly defaced water tower when campus security “catches” them. Definitely a setup. And this time, Max has had enough. It’s time for Rule #7: Always get payback.  Let the prank war begin.

Most of the time, when a book is touted as ____ meets ____, I am disappointed at the result. Usually the story only holds the vaguest of resemblances to the well-known movies or books it’s being compared to. In this case, however, the tagline of “Ocean’s Eleven meets The Breakfast Club” is dead-on. Dinan’s high school caper novel delivers all the intricate fun of Danny Ocean’s schemes and all the self-revelatory teenage relationships of the brain, the athlete, the basket case, the princess, and the criminal, with all the heart of both.

Max doesn’t intend to turn the school on its ear when he and four other random students are framed for painting a lewd message on the school’s water tower. But he and his new crew quickly determine that the Chaos Club – a long-standing and secretive group of pranksters – is behind it, and they use everything they’ve learned from a million heist movies to plot their revenge. Max wrestles with just who he wants to be – Just-Max, the guy who coasts along and stays out of trouble? Or Not-Max, the guy who shakes things up? Along the way, he has to reevaluate everything he knows about his friends, his family, and himself. All while pulling some pretty epic pranks.

DON’T GET CAUGHT is out now.

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Read This!: SOUTH OF SUNSHINE by Dana Elmendorf

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South of SunshineSouth of Sunshine by Dana Elmendorf

Summary: In Sunshine, Tennessee, the main event in town is Friday night football, the biggest party of the year is held in a field filled with pickup trucks, and church attendance is mandatory. For Kaycee Jean McCoy, life in Sunshine means dating guys she has no interest in, saying only “yes, ma’am” when the local bigots gossip at her mom’s cosmetics salon, and avoiding certain girls at all costs. Girls like Bren Dawson. Unlike Kaycee, Bren doesn’t really conceal who she is. But as the cool, worldly new girl, nobody at school seems to give her any trouble. Maybe there’s no harm if Kaycee gets closer to her too, as long as she can keep that part of her life a secret, especially from her family and her best friend. But the more serious things get with Bren, the harder it is to hide from everyone else. Kaycee knows Sunshine has a darker side for people like her, and she’s risking everything for the chance to truly be herself

Kaycee is such a likeable, relatable, realistic character. She wants to survive high school in a small Southern town, she wants to keep her friends and her place as a relatively popular senior…but when the new girl, Bren, starts flirting with her, she can no longer deny that what she wants more than anything is to finally, unashamedly, be herself. Elmendorf populates Sunshine, Tennessee with an intriguing variety of folks of all stripes – far beyond the usual stereotypes – from the eccentric newspaper editor who played a role in the Civil Rights Movement, to the homophobic jock out to sabotage anyone different from himself, to an array of characters willing to step out of their comfort zones to support Kaycee once her secret is out. My favorite character is Van, Kaycee’s best male friend, who despite his flamboyant style and lectures about being proud of who you are, gets by with his Johnny Depp obsession and secret boyfriends by carefully staying within the lines the small town creates for him. Kaycee’s determination to not only live her life out loud, but to make it easier for other gay teens to do so, shines through. Readers will be pulling not only for Kaycee to come through her struggles and find herself, but also for Kaycee and Bren’s sizzling romance.

SOUTH OF SUNSHINE is out now.

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