Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

Twelve year old Moose Flanagan has just moved to Alcatraz, the island prison that housed some of the country’s most notorious and worst prisoners including Al Capone. The year is 1935 and Moose’s father has taken a job as a prison guard and so that his sister Natalie can attend a special school close by in San Francisco. At that time there was not yet a medical diagnosis for her disability, autism, and Moose’s mother has been willing to try just about anything, including lying about Natalie’s age, in order to find a “cure”.

Moose isn’t sure about living on “a twelve-acre rock covered with cement, topped with bird turd and surrounded by water”. It’s hard enough to leave your friends and start a new school. But for Moose, it’s made much worse due to the fact that the warden’s daughter, Piper, is always hatching a scheme, from selling the opportunity to have your skivvies laundered by a famous prisoner, finding and selling prison baseballs, to meeting Al Capone’s mother. If Piper wasn’t bad enough, Moose has to watch Natalie after school and can’t play baseball with his classmate.

Is it possible that Alcatraz and it’s most infamous prisoner could finally be a step in the right direction for Moose and his family? See what happens when Al Capone Does My Shirts.

Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King

In this chillingly delicious book by ultimate horror writer, Stephen King, fans of gore and the moon cycle can get their werewolf fix. While vampires are fun to write about, werewolves get no credit! The story is separated into chapters that follow the months in the year, from January all the way to December. In almost every chapter, the full moon brings out the beast in the least likely suspect that lives in the small town of Tarker's Mills. At first, the killing seems like the work of a homicidal maniac, driven by the power of the full moon, but as the brutal murders escalate each month, the towns people become uncertain. The macabre way the victims were killed seems like it was done by something not quite human... As the story and the murders continue, the readers come to the rather shocking conclusion and learn that even the kindest man can succumb to the beast on the night of the full moon.

Kaylee's Review: The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Do you remember your first mystery book? and how it was so thrilling you stayed up until the next day reading it? now, imagine that, but a larger thrill, with suspence, and a twist of demented romance.
Dr. H. H. Holmes and architect Daniel Burnham were both very talented, well spoken, and handsome men. Both were drawn to the White City, in more ways than one. Burnham was the main overseer of the city, and overcame many challenges in this project from malaria to strikes to the marsh-lands. Through Burnham, the Ferris wheel was born, and the city was almost the envy of pairs. Dr. Holmes was a malignant serial killer who used the attraction of the great city, as well as his dark charms to seek out many young and attractive women, who are then brought to his torture palace complete with a life size oven of over 3,000 degrees, a dissection table, a gas chamber, as well as a few more grotesque stations. The most frightening aspect is that this was an actual event that occurred in Chicago, 1895.
"The Devil in the White City" holds this answer, as well as a few more unnerving thoughts and questions.
Rating: 5Q, 4P

Faded Denim: Color Me Trapped by: Melody Carlson

Have you ever felt lost, or trapped inside the world you live in? Like whatever you do or how you do it there's no means of escape? Faded Denim by Melody Carlson is a fictional story that can easily true, and relatable to teenage girls today. Melody Carlson has chosen to take on the hardship of a teenage girl named Emily who struggles to keep the perfect image her friends and family and society around her have created. Emily willing will give up everything she has to keep her body the same size it has been, even if that means fighting Anorexia. As Emily becomes more and more engulfed in a part of life that says "Image is Everything" she must fight herself, and the world in this long battle. Travel with Emily in this novel as she goes from the laughing stock of girls in her school, to having everything, and losing it all again... and wondering if she'll be able to find off Anorexia once and for all.

Beautifully written, with time and effort Melody Carlson stole my heart and made me look at the world we live in today. Many teenage girls in our society believe that image is everything, and will do anything to have what magazines define as beauty, and what models are suppose to look like. This book questions the true definition of beauty, and how people should define it. I suggest it to anyone who wants to see a different side of the beauty in life. :]

Rating:

4Q-Better than Most

3P-Some Teen Appeal

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E Pearson

Adoration noun the state of being adored

Adore verb to worship or honor as a deity or as divine

In a perfect world we would all have parents that adore us, worship our every thought, word, and deed; parents who would do whatever they could to make us happy and in tandem do whatever was humanly possible to save us from suffering, being hurt, and from all evil. But it isn’t a perfect world. Accidents happen and parents can’t always be there to intervene. How far a parent should go to save their child? Is there a limit to how much we should be adored and in turn adore another? What is it that really makes us human?

The audio CD includes a short interview with the author and gives insight into her inspiration for a novel.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Now a major motion picture, Neil Gaiman's Coraline is surely a book you won't easily forget. After discovering a mysterious door in her house, Coraline passes the threshold to a magical world which parallels her own. It includes parents who look much like her own except that they are a lot more fun and have curious buttons for eyes. In this world, anything is possible and she finds herself not wanting to return to her own home. However, things begin to take a sinister turn for the worse and Coraline soon discovers that escaping from, what is now a nightmare, will not be as easy as going through a door. Full of all the mystical and fantastic elements that make a Neil Gaiman book so incredibal, Coraline will not disappoint. I highly reccomend reading the book before you see the movie. Or, if you have already seen the movie, then read the book. You will love it!
P:4 Q:5

A Curse Dark As Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce

“Great courage breaks ill luck”. Charlotte Miller is the eldest daughter of the Shearing Millers. She has inherited her family’s woolen mill, following the death of her father. It has long been rumored that a curse surrounds the mill and while the mill has been passed from family to family through the generations no sons have been born or lived to take up the trade. From the minute she takes over, Charlotte and her sister Rosie endure their share of hardships. From freak accidents, to unknown debts, to fierce and bitter competition, Charlotte and the mill seem to be plagued with bad luck. Fortunately Charlotte has a strong head on her shoulders and will not go down without a fight. When bad turns to worse, a strange gentleman, Mr. Jack Spinner, appears to have the solution to each and every dilemma. But will the price of his help be more than Charlotte is willing to pay?

It is clear to see why this novel is the winner of the inaugural offering of the Morris Award, which is given to authors making their YA debut. A Curse Dark As Gold is a smart and inspiring yarn spun from the “Rumplestilskin” motif.

What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

Do you remember the first time you realized that the world was not what it seemed? The first time that the innocence of childhood disappeared as the smoke screen lifted revealing things you didn't understand about people you thought you knew? The first time the truth wasn’t what you saw with your eyes but what required you to use all your senses to comb through the details and determine what really happened? The first time you had decide whether telling the truth was worth hurting and losing someone you loved?

Evie was fifteen when her father returned from World War II. As life slowly gets back to normal her father Joe decides to take the family to Palm Beach for an overdue family vacation. While it first seems like a great way to ditch the first few weeks of school, Florida isn’t all sunshine and palm trees. The off-season and small hotel clientle allow for new friendships and relationships to blossom but not everyone is who they appear to be. Handsome Peter Coleridge catches Evie’s attention and the stars in her eyes blind her to what others clearly see. As the smoke screen of childhood begins to fade, for the first time she's aware that the world isn't black and white. Her parents have a few secrets of their own and the mindset of bigotry didn’t suddenly vanish with the triumph of victory over Hitler. A natural disaster is the final crack in Evie’s naivete. As Evie copes with the new world around her, you'll discover through Evie’s eyes What I Saw and How I Lied.

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

One mistake can change your life. Like a domino hitting the one beside it, sometimes there is no stopping the momentum triggered by one event. Before you know it, everything that was upright is now in a chaotic mess and the whole thing has crumbled. No matter how hard you try, sometimes you can't regain control. The worst part is that even if you aren’t to blame, if you’ve caused trouble before you are an easy target for blame the next time around.

Tyler Miller was busted for vandalizing school property and spent his summer vacation doing hard labor--through his community service assignment of helping the custodial staff fix the roof and working for a landscaping business. Not only has he learned many lessons but he's gained a buff body in the process. Tyler has always been a nerdy nobody. Most people have either ignored him or mercilessly bullied him. But now people are noticing him for the wrong reasons and he’s being labeled as a troublemaker. But Tyler’s hard physique is just a cover-up. He’s still the same insecure, confused teenager inside and now he’s full of anger; toward his father, who treats him like a criminal and at an unfair, unjust world that can’t seem to look beyond past deeds and see the honor in doing the right thing. How is it that just when it seems like you’re old enough to finally understand the world, it becomes a twisted mess?